Latest / Occult & Supernatural Audiobooks: Forbidden Rituals, Esoteric Texts & Paranormal Tales / 🟡 Short Ghost and Horror Collection 015 (Full Audiobook) | Various (Part 2 of 2)

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🟡 Short Ghost and Horror Collection 015 (Full Audiobook) | Various (Part 2 of 2) · Occult & Supernatural Audiobooks: Forbidden Rituals, Esoteric Texts & Paranormal Tales

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Till it was quite dark. Then he slunk home and
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: went to bed to save the expense of a light.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: But in those lonely twilight hours he began to have
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: strange waking dreams. He was not always alone, for often
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: when he sat on the stump of a tree, where
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the narrow path turns down the gorge, he was sure
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: that a woman came up noiselessly over the rough stones,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: as if her feet were bare, and she stood under
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: a clump of chestnut trees only half-dozen yards down the path,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and beckoned to him without speaking. Though she was in
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the shadow, he knew that her lips were red, and
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: that when they parted a little and smiled at him,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: she showed two small sharp teeth. He knew this at
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: first rather than saw it, and he knew that it
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: was Christina, and that she was dead. Yet he was
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: not afraid. He only wondered whether it was a dream,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: for he thought that if he had been awake, he
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: should have been frightened. Besides, the dead woman had red lips,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: and that could only happen in a dream. Whenever he
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: went near the gorge after sunset, she was already there
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: waiting for him, or else she very soon appeared, and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: he began to be sure that she came a little
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: nearer to him every day. At first he had only
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: been sure of her blood-red mouth, but now each feature
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: grew distinct, and the pale face looked at him with
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: deep and hungry eyes. It was the eyes that grew dim.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Little by little he came to know that some day
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the dream would not end when he turned away to
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: go home, but would lead him down the gorge out
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: of which the vision rose. She was nearer now when
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: she beckoned to him. Her cheeks were not livid like
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: those of the dead, but pale with starvation, with the
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: furious and unappeased physical hunger of her eyes that devoured him.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: They feasted on his soul and cast a spell over him,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and at last they were close to his own and
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: held them. He could not tell whether her breath was
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: as hot as fire or as cold as ice. He
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: could not tell whether her red lips burned his or
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: froze them, or whether her five fingers on his wrists
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: seared scorching scars or bit his flesh like frost. He
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: could not tell whether he was awake or asleep, whether
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: she was alive or dead, but he knew that she
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: loved him, she alone of all creatures, earthly or unearthly,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: and her spell had power over him. When the moon
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: rose high that night, the shadow of that thing was
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: not alone down there upon the mound. Angelo awoke in
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: the cool dawn, drenched with dew and chilled through flesh
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: and blood and bone. He opened his eyes to the
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: faint gray light and saw the stars still shining overhead.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: He was very weak, and his heart was beating so
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: slowly that he was almost like a man fainting. Slowly
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: he turned his head on the mound as on a pillow,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: but the other face was not there. Fear seized him suddenly,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a fear unspeakable and unknown. He sprang to his feet
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: and fled up the gorge, and he never looked behind
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: him until he reached the door of the house on
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: the outskirts of the village. Drearily he went to his
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: work that day, and wearily the hours dragged themselves after
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the sun, till at last he touched the sea and sank,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and the great sharp hills above Maritea turned purple against
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: the dove-colored eastern sky. Angelo shouldered his heavy hoe and
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: left the field. He felt less tired now than in
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the morning when he had begun to work, but he
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: promised himself that he would go home without lingering by
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the gorge and eat the best supper he could get
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: himself and sleep all night in his bed like a
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Christian man. Not again would he be tempted down the
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: narrow way by a shadow with red lips and icy breath.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Not again would he dream that dream of terror and delight.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: He was near the village now, It was half an
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: hour since the sun had set, and the cracked church
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: bell sent little discordant echoes across the rocks and ravines
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: to tell all good people that the day was done.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Angelo stood still a moment where the path forked, where
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: it led toward the village on the left and down
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: to the gorge on the right, where a clump of
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: chestnut trees overhung the narrow way. He stood still a minute,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: lifting his battered hat from his head and gazing at
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: the fast-fading sea westward, and his lips moved as he
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: silently repeated the familiar evening prayer. His lips moved, but
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the words that followed them in his brain lost their
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: meaning and turned into others, and ended in a name
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: that he spoke aloud. CHRISTINA With the name, the tension
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: of his will relaxed suddenly. Reality went out, and the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: dream took him again and bore him on swiftly and surely,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: like a man walking in his sleep. DOWN down by
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the steep path in the gathering darkness. And as she
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: glided beside him, Christina whispered strange, sweet things in his ear,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: which somehow, if he had been awake, he knew that
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: he could not quite have understood, but now they were
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: the most wonderful words he had ever heard in his life.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: And she kissed him also, but not upon his mouth.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: He felt her sharp kisses upon his white throat, and
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: he knew that her lips were red. So the wild
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: dream sped on through twilight and darkness and moonrise, and
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: all the glory of the summer's night. But in the
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: chilly dawn he lay as one half-dead upon the mound
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: down there, recalling and not recalling, drained of his blood,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: yet strangely longing to give those red lips more. Then
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: came the fear, the awful nameless panic, the mortal horror
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: that guards the confines of the world we see not,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: neither know of as we know of other things. but
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: which we feel when its icy chill freezes our bones
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and stirs our hair with the touch of a ghostly hand.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Once more Angelo sprang from the mound and fled up
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: the gorge in the breaking day, but his step was
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: less sure this time, and he panted for breath as
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: he ran, and when he came to the bright spring
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: of water that rises halfway up the hillside, he dropped
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: upon his knees and hands and plunged his whole face
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: in and drank as he had never drunk before, for
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: it was the thirst of the wounded man who has
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: lain bleeding all night long up on the battlefield. She
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: had him fast now, and he could not escape her,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: but would come to her every evening at dusk until
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: she had drained him of his last drop of blood.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: It was in vain that when the day was done,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: he tried to take another turning and to go home
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: by a path that did not lead near the gorge.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: It was in vain that he made promises to himself
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: each morning at dawn, when he climbed the lonely way
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: up from the shore to the village. It was all
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: in vain, for when the sun sank burning into the sea,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: and the coolness of the evening stole out as from
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: a hiding-place to delight the weary world, his feet turned
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: toward the old way, and she was waiting for him
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: in the shadow under the chestnut trees. And then all
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: happened as before, and she fell to kissing his white
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: throat even as she flitted lightly down the way, winding
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: one arm about him. And as his blood failed, she
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: grew more hungry and more thirsty every day. And every
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: day when he awoke in the early dawn, it was
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: harder to rouse himself to the effort of climbing the
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: steep path to the village. And when he went to
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: his work, his feet dragged painfully, and there was hardly
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: strength in his arms to wield the heavy hoe. He
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: scarcely spoke to anyone now. But the people said he
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: was consuming himself for love of the girl he was
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: to have married when he lost his inheritance. and they
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: laughed heartily at the thought, for this is not a
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: very romantic country. At this time, Antonio, the man who
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: stays here to look after the tower, returned from a
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: visit to his people, who live near Salerno. He had
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: been away all the time since before Alerio's death, and
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: knew nothing of what had happened. He has told me
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: that he came back late in the afternoon, and shut
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: himself up in the tower to eat and sleep, for
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: he was very tired. It was past midnight when he awoke.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: and when he looked out, the waning moon was rising
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: over the shoulder of the hill. He looked out toward
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the mound, and he saw something, and he did not
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: sleep again that night. When he went out again in
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: the morning, it was broad daylight, and there was nothing
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: to be seen on the mound but loose stones and
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: driven sand. Yet he did not go very near it.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: He went straight up the path to the village, and
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: directly to the house of the old priest. I have
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: seen an evil thing this night, he said. I have
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: seen how the dead drink the blood of the living,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: and the blood is the life. Tell me what you
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: have seen, said the priest in reply. Antonio told him
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: everything he had seen. You must bring your book and
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: your holy water tonight, he added. I will be here
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: before sunset to go down with you, and if it
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: pleases your reverence to sup with me while we wait,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: I will make ready. I will come, the priest answered.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: for I have read in old books of these strange
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: beings which are neither quick nor dead, and which lie
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: ever fresh in their graves, stealing out in the dusk
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: to taste life and blood. Antonio cannot read, but he
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: was glad to see that the priest understood the business, for,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: of course, the books must have instructed him as to
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: the best means of quieting the half-living thing forever. So
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Antonio went away to his work, which consists largely in
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: sitting on the shady side of the tower, WHEN HE
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: IS NOT PERCHED UPON A ROCK WITH A FISHING LINE
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: CATCHING NOTHING. BUT ON THAT DAY HE WENT TWICE TO
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: LOOK AT THE MOUND IN THE BRIGHT SUNLIGHT, AND HE
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: SEARCHED ROUND AND ROUND FOR SOME HOLE THROUGH WHICH THE
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: BEING MIGHT GET IN AND OUT, BUT HE FOUND NONE.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: WHEN THE SUN BEGAN TO SINK AND THE AIR WAS
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: COOLER IN THE SHADOWS, HE WENT UP TO FETCH THE
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: OLD PRIEST. carrying a little wicker basket with him, and
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: in this they placed a bottle of holy water, and
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: the basin, and sprinkler, and the stole which the priest
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: would need, and they came down and waited in the
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: door of the tower till it should be dark. But
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: while the light still lingered very grey and faint, they
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: saw something moving just there, two figures, a man's that walked,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: and a woman's that flitted beside him, and while her
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: head lay on his shoulder she kissed his throat. The
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: priest has told me that, too, and that his teeth
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: chattered and he grasped Antonio's arm. The vision passed and
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: disappeared into the shadow. Then Antonio got the leather flask
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: of strong liquor, which he kept for great occasions, and
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: poured such a draught as made the old man feel
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: almost young again, and he got the lantern, and his
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: pick and shovel, and gave the priest his stole to
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: put on, and the holy water to carry, and they
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: went out together toward the spot where the work was
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: to be done. Antonio says that in spite of the
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: rum his own knees shook together, and the priest stumbled
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: over his latin. For when they were yet a few
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: yards from the mound, the flickering light of the lantern
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: fell upon Angelo's white face, unconscious as if in sleep,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: and on his upturned throat, over which a very thin
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: red line of blood trickled down into his collar, AND
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: THE FLICKERING LIGHT OF THE LANTERN PLAYED UPON ANOTHER FACE
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: THAT LOOKED UP FROM THE FEAST, UPON TWO DEEP, DEAD
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: EYES THAT SAW IN SPITE OF DEATH, UPON PARTED LIPS
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: REDDER THAN LIFE ITSELF, UPON TWO GLEAMING TEETH ON WHICH
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: GLISTENED A ROSY DROP. THEN THE PRIEST, GOOD OLD MAN,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: SHUT HIS EYES TIGHT AND SHOWERED HOLY WATER BEFORE HIM,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: AND HIS CRACKED VOICE ROSE ALMOST TO A SCREAM, AND
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: THEN ANTONIO who is no coward after all, raised his
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: pick in one hand and the lantern in the other,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: as he sprang forward, not knowing what the end should be,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: and then he swears that he heard a woman's cry,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: and the thing was gone, and Angelo lay alone on
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the mound unconscious, with the red line on his throat
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: and the beads of deathly sweat on his gold forehead.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: They lifted him, half dead as he was, and laid
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: him on the ground close by. Then Antonio went to work,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and the priest helped him, though he was old and
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: could not do much, and they dug deep, and at
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: last Antonio, standing in the grave, stooped down with his
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: lantern to see what he might see. His hair used
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: to be dark brown, with grizzled streaks about the temples,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: and less than a month from that day he was
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: as gray as a badger. He was a miner when
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: he was young, and most of these fellows have seen
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: ugly sights now and then, when accidents have happened, but
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: he had never seen what he saw that night, that
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: thing which is neither alive nor dead, that thing that
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: will abide neither above ground nor in the grave. Antonio
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: had brought something with him which the priest had not noticed.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: He had made it that afternoon, a sharp stake shaped
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: from a piece of tough old driftwood. He had it
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: with him now, and he had his heavy pick, and
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: he had taken the lantern down into the grave. I
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: don't think any power on earth could make him speak
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: of what happened then, and the old priest was too
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: frightened to look in. He says he heard Antonio breathing
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: like a wild beast, and moving as if he were
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: fighting with something almost as strong as himself, and he
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: heard an evil sound also, with blows, as of something
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: violently driven through flesh and bone, and then the most
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: awful sound of all, a woman's shriek, the unearthly scream
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: of a woman neither dead nor alive, but buried deep
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: for many days. And he, the poor old priest, could
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: only rock himself as he knelt there in the sand,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: crying aloud his prayers and exorcisms to drown those dreadful sounds. Then, suddenly,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: a small iron-bound chest was thrown up and rolled over
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: against the old man's knee, and in a moment more
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Antonio was beside him, his face as white as tallow
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: in the flickering light of the lantern, shoveling the sand
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: and pebbles into the grave with furious haste, and looking
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: over the edge till the pit was half full, and
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: the priest had said that there was much fresh blood
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: on Antonio's hands and on his clothes. I had come
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: to the end of my story. Holger finished his wine
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: and leaned back in his chair. So Angelo got his
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: own again, he said. Did he marry the prim and
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: plump young person to whom he had been betrothed? No,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: he had been badly frightened. He went to South America
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: and has not been heard of since. And that poor
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: thing's body, Is there still, I suppose, said Holger. Is
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: it quite dead yet, I wonder. I wonder too, but
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: whether it is dead or alive, I should hardly care
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: to see it, even in broad daylight. Antonio is as
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: grey as a badger, and he has never been quite
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the same man since that night. End of For the
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Blood is the Life by F. Marion Crawford