Chapter 58 The third Lord of the Worth

Therefore, Jesus came to the tomb with groaning and sorrow in his heart.The tomb is a hole, and a stone blocks the opening of the hole.Jesus said, "Take the stone away." Martha said, "Yes, he must be smelly by this time. He has been dead for four days." Jesus prayed for a while, then raised his voice and cried out, "Lazarus, come out!" And the dead man came out with a shroud wrapped around his hands and feet, and a handkerchief wrapped around his face. Jesus said to them, "Untie him and let him go." --"Gospel of John" She said hysterically, "I just thought of this, why didn't I think of it before? Why didn't you think of it?"

"Thought what?" he asked. "There are still two wishes." She replied hastily, "We only made one wish." "Is one not enough?" he asked sharply. "Not enough," she cried ecstatically, "we can make one more wish. Get down on your knees, and may our son be born again." — W. W. Jacobs ("The Monkey's Paw") fifty eight Jud woke up with a sudden movement, and he almost fell out of his chair.He didn't know how long he slept, maybe 15 minutes, maybe 3 hours, he looked at his watch, it was already 5:5 in the morning.He felt as if everything in the room had been displaced.As he fell asleep sitting up, he felt some pain in his back.

Oh, you stupid old man, look what you've done! But Jud knew very well, he was clear in his mind, it wasn't his business, he didn't sleep by himself when he was on alert, he was hypnotized. It frightened him, but there was something else that frightened him even more. What woke him up?He felt as if there was a voice, some kind of... Chad held his breath, listening to his heart beat like paper. The sound came again—not the same sound that had woken him up, but something.It was the sound of the hinges when the door was gently pushed open. Chad knew every sound in the house—the sound of a crack in a floorboard, a broken step, a rattle in the wind, like last night.He knew the sound too, the sound of the heavy front door that connected his porch to the front living room.This door has just been opened.As these thoughts deepened, Chad remembered the sound that woke him up just now. It turned out to be the opening sound of the screen door connecting the porch to the front sidewalk.

"Is that Louis?" Chad called hopelessly.It's not Louis on the outside.Whatever was on the outside, it was sent to punish the old man for his pride and vanity. Footsteps came slowly up the living room stairs and up the living room. "Louis?" Chad wanted to call again, but it was just a grunt in the back of his throat, because he could smell the thing coming into his house at the end of the night now, and it was a foul smell... …a fishy smell from the tides on the beach. Chad could make out the outlines of things in the house in the dim light, but not the individual parts.He tried to stand up, but his legs were limp, and his mind screamed that he needed more time.Dim was bad enough, and Chad was young.

The door was opened, and many shadows came in.One shadow was more like a real thing than the others. God, that stink. There was the sound of shuffling footsteps in the darkness. "Gage?" Jud stood up finally, and out of the corner of his eye he saw the ashes on the ashtray.Chad said again, "Gage, is that you?" A horrible baby whimper sounded, and for a moment Chad's bones froze.It wasn't Louis' son who had come back to life, but some kind of horrible monster. No, neither. It was Church the kitten, crouching in the hall door, and it was the purring.The cat's eyes glowed like dusty lamps.Then Chad's eyes turned the other way, to the thing that had come in with the kitten.

Chad started backing away, trying to collect his thoughts, trying to stay sane in the face of the stench, oh, it's getting cold in the house too... that thing brought the cold in. Jud swayed as he stood, the cat scrambling under his feet, making him stagger.The cat was purring, and Jud kicked it to drive it away.The cat bared its teeth at him and hissed. think about it!Oh, figure it out, you stupid old man, maybe it's not too late, maybe it's not too late...it's back and you can kill it again...if you can do that...if you can think ... Chad backed away to the kitchen, and suddenly he remembered the tool drawer under the sink, where there was a meat-cutting knife.

Chad's skinny legs hit the kitchen doorjamb and he pushed it open. The thing was still a blur, but Chad could hear it breathing, and he could see a white hand swinging back and forth, its There was something in it, but he couldn't make out what it was, and the door bounced back after he was inside, giving Chad a chance to turn around and run to the tool drawer at last.He flung open the drawer and saw the wooden handle of the tangent knife.He seized the knife and turned to face the door again, and he even took a step or two forward, regaining some of his courage. Remember, this is not a baby, and when you find out what it is, it might scream or something, it might cry.But you can't be fooled.Old man, you've been fooled enough, this is your last chance.

The door popped open again, but the cat entered first, and Jud's eyes looked at the cat for a moment, then up again. The kitchen faced east, and the first rays of dawn came in through the window, vaguely opalescent, not bright but enough, enough. Gage came in in his burial clothes, moss-covered shoulders and lapels, and moss on his white shirt.His wispy blond hair was covered in dirt.One of his eyes was rolled up to the ceiling, and the other was fixed on Chad. Gage was grinning at Chad. "Hi, Chad," Gage said in a baby voice that was perfectly intelligible, "I'm here to hell you stinking old bastard, you played with me once, didn't expect Sooner or later I'll come back to play with you, right?"

Chad held up the knife and said, "Come on, show your ass, I don't care what you are, let's see who plays whom." "Norma's dead, and no one's going to mourn you anymore," Gage said. "What a slut she was. Chad, she fucked every single one of your friends. She just loved them." Do that. She's burning in hell with her arthritis and all. Chad, I see her there, I see her there." The thing took two steps toward Chad, the shoe leaving some mud marks on the old linoleum.It held up one hand as if to shake Chad's hand, and hid the other behind its back.

"Listen, Chad," he whispered, but then his mouth opened to show his baby teeth, and though his lips didn't move, Norma's voice came out: "I'm laughing at you! We all Laughing at you! We laughed so—" "Shut up!" shouted Jud, the knife trembling in his hand. "We just fucked in our bed, I did it with Heck, I did it with George, I did it with all of them. I know the whores you got, but you never knew you married a whore , Chad, we were dying of laughter! We were making love and laughing out loud--" "Shut up!" Chad screamed.He sprang at the little thing, but at that moment the cat shot out of the shadows under the cutting board where it was crouching, hissing, its ears pricked up, Jud stepped, tripped him, and the knife flew out of Jud's hand, spun around on the rug, hit the floor, and slid under the refrigerator.

Chad realizes he's been fooled again, and his only consolation is that it's the last time.The cat lay on his lap, mouth open, eyes staring, hissing like a teakettle; It extended its right hand from behind, and Chad could see that what he had been holding was a scalpel from Louis' black bag. "Oh, my God." Chad struggled, raised his right hand to block it, and his mind went blank; he felt as if the knife appeared on both sides of his palm at the same time, and it seemed that there were shadows of knives everywhere, and then there was a warm feeling. Something dripped on his face, and Jud figured it out. "I want to play you, old man!" The thing in Gage laughed, and the poisonous stench breathed into Jud's face, and it went on: "I want to play you! I want to Play as you want!" "I—think—play whatever I want!" Scalpel chops down. The scalpel cut down again. Cut it down again and again.