Savage Night by Jim Thompson Read Free Book Online

Man. If they didn’t get you, he would.
    So…I felt drowsy.
    No mistakes. No letting down for even a second. No getting sick. And use them all, Mrs. Winroy directly, the others indirectly. They’d have to be on my side. They’d have to know that I couldn’t do what I had to do. The Man didn’t need to watch me. They would. They were all watching to see that I did it right, and…watching…always watching…and me…
    …They crowded the sidewalks of that dark narrow street, that narrow and lonely street. And they were going on about their business, laughing and talking and enjoying life; but still they were watching me. Watching me follow Jake and watching The Man follow me. I was sweating and all out of breath, because I’d been in the street a long time. And they kept getting in my way, getting between me and Jake, but they never got in The Man’s way. Me, ME, they had to screw up. And…I could taste the black damp in my mouth and I could hear the pillars cracking and crumbling and the lamp on my cap began to flicker and…I grabbed one of the bastards. I grabbed himher, and yanked and rolled and…
    I had her on the bed. She was under me, and I had the crutch across her throat, pinned down with my arms.
    I blinked, staring down at her, fighting to come out of the dream. I said, “Jesus, kid. You don’t want to ever—”
    I slid the crutch to one side and she started breathing again, but she still couldn’t talk. She was too scared. I looked into the great scared eyes— watching me —and it was all I could do to keep from slugging her.
    “Spill it,” I said. “Spit it out. What were you doing here?”
    “I—I—I—”
    I dug my hand into her side, and twisted. And she gasped.
    “Spill it.”
    “I—I—I w-was a-afraid for you. I—I w-was w-worried about… Carl! D-don’t—”
    She began to struggle, then, and I lay flat against her. I held her, twisting her, and she gasped and moaned. She tried to pull at my hand, and I twisted harder.
    “D-don’t!…I’ve n-never…C-carl, I’ve never…it’s n-not n-n-nice and Carl! Carl! Y-you’ve g-got to…I’ll have a b-baby, and—”
    …She’d stopped begging.
    There was nothing left to beg for.
    I looked down, my head against hers so that she couldn’t see that I was looking. I looked, and I closed my eyes quickly. But I couldn’t keep them closed.
    It was a baby’s foot. A tiny little foot and ankle. It started just above the knee joint—where the knee would have been if she had one—a tiny little ankle, not much bigger around than a thumb; a baby ankle and a baby foot.
    The toes were curling and uncurling, moving with the rhythm of her body…
    “C-Carl…Oh, C-Carl! ” she gasped.
    After a long time, what seemed like a long time, I heard her saying, “Don’t. Please don’t, Carl. It’s a-all right, so—so, please, Carl…Please don’t cry any more—”

5
    I was a long time getting to sleep, and thirty minutes after I did I woke up again. I woke up exhausted, but with the feeling that I’d been asleep for hours. You know? It went on like that all night.
    When I woke the last time it was nine-thirty, and sunlight was streaming into the room. It was shining right on my pillows, and my face felt hot and moist. I sat up quickly, hugging my stomach. The light, hitting into my eyes suddenly, had made me sick. I clenched my eyes against it, but the light wasn’t shut out. It seemed to be closed in, under the lids, and a thousand little images danced in its brilliance. Tiny white things, little figure-seven-shaped things: dancing and twisting and squirming.
    I sat on the edge of the bed, rocking and hugging myself. I could taste the blood in my mouth, salty and sour, and I thought of how it would look in the sunlight, how yellow and purplish, and…
    Somehow I got to the dresser and got the lenses and teeth into place. I staggered down the hall, kicked the bathroom door shut behind me, and went down on my knees in front of the toilet