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The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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  Speaker 1: work in the public domain, The tell Tale Heart dot
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  Speaker 1: Edgar Allan Poe. True nervous, very very dreadfully nervous. I
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  Speaker 1: had been in ann But why will you say that
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  Speaker 1: I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed,
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  Speaker 1: not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute.
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  Speaker 1: I heard all things in heaven and in the earth.
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  Speaker 1: I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad?
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  Speaker 1: Hearken and observe, how healthily, how calmly? I can tell
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  Speaker 1: you the whole story. It is impossible to say how
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  Speaker 1: first the idea entered my brain, But once conceived, it
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  Speaker 1: haunted me day and night. Object there was none passion,
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  Speaker 1: there was none. I loved the old man. He had
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  Speaker 1: never wronged me, he had never given me insult for
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  Speaker 1: his gold. I had no desire. I think it was
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  Speaker 1: his eye. Yes, it was this. He had the eye
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  Speaker 1: of a vulture, a pale blue eye with a film
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  Speaker 1: over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold,
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  Speaker 1: and so by degrees, very gradually I made up my
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  Speaker 1: mind to take the life of the old man, and
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  Speaker 1: thus rid myself of the eye. Forever. Now this is
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  Speaker 1: the point you fancy me mad madmen know nothing. But
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  Speaker 1: you should have seen me. You should have seen how
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  Speaker 1: wisely I proceeded, With what caution, with what foresight, with
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  Speaker 1: what dissimulation I went to work. I was never kinder
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  Speaker 1: to the old man than during the whole week before
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  Speaker 1: I killed him. And every night, about midnight I turned
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  Speaker 1: the latch of his door and opened it oh so gently.
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  Speaker 1: And then when I had made an opening sufficient for
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  Speaker 1: my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed
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  Speaker 1: closed that no light shone out. And then I thrust
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  Speaker 1: in my head. Oh you would have laughed to see
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  Speaker 1: how cunningly I thrust it in. I moved it slowly,
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  Speaker 1: very very slowly, so that I might not disturb the
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  Speaker 1: old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place
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  Speaker 1: my whole head within the opening, so far that I
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  Speaker 1: could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha
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  Speaker 1: would a madman have been so wise as this? And
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  Speaker 1: then when my head was well in the room, I
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  Speaker 1: undid the lantern cautiously, Oh so cautiously, cautiously, for the
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  Speaker 1: hinges creaked. I undid it just so much that a
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  Speaker 1: single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this
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  Speaker 1: I did for seven long nights, every night, just at midnight.
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  Speaker 1: But I found the eye always closed, and so it
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  Speaker 1: was impossible to do the work. For it was not
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  Speaker 1: the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye.
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  Speaker 1: And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly
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  Speaker 1: into the chamber and spoke courageously to him, calling him
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  Speaker 1: by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he
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  Speaker 1: has passed the night. So you see, he would have
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  Speaker 1: been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that
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  Speaker 1: every night, just at twelve I looked in upon him
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  Speaker 1: while he slept. Upon the eighth night, I was more
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  Speaker 1: than usually cautious in opening the door a watch as
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  Speaker 1: minute hand moves more quickly than did mine. Never before
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  Speaker 1: that night had I felt the extent of my own powers,
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  Speaker 1: of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of
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  Speaker 1: triumph to think that there I was, opening the door,
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  Speaker 1: little by little, and he not even to dream of
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  Speaker 1: my secret deeds or thoughts. I fairly chuckled at the idea,
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  Speaker 1: and perhaps he heard me, for he moved on the
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  Speaker 1: bed suddenly, as if startled. Now you may think that
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  Speaker 1: I drew back, but no, his room was as black
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  Speaker 1: as pitch with the thick darkness, for the shutters were close,
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  Speaker 1: fastened through fear of robbers, and so I knew that
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  Speaker 1: he could not see the opening of the door, and
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  Speaker 1: I kept pushing it unsteadily, steadily. I had my head
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  Speaker 1: in and was about to open the lantern when my
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  Speaker 1: thumb slipped upon the tin fastening, and the old man
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  Speaker 1: sprang up in bed, crying out, Who's there. I kept
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  Speaker 1: quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour, I
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  Speaker 1: did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I
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  Speaker 1: did not hear him lie down. He was still sitting
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  Speaker 1: up in the bed, listening, just as I have done
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  Speaker 1: night after night, hearkening to the death watches in the wall.
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  Speaker 1: Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it
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  Speaker 1: was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a
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  Speaker 1: groan of pain or of grief, Oh No, it was
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  Speaker 1: the low, stifled sound that arises from the bottom of
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  Speaker 1: the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound
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  Speaker 1: well many a night, just at midnight, when all the
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  Speaker 1: world slept. It has welled up from my own bosom,
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  Speaker 1: deepening with its dreadful echo. The terrors that distracted me.
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  Speaker 1: I say, I knew it well. I knew what the
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  Speaker 1: old man felt, and pitied him. Although I chuckled at heart.
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  Speaker 1: I knew that he had been lying awake ever since
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  Speaker 1: the first slight noise when he had turned in the bed.
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  Speaker 1: His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He
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  Speaker 1: had been trying to fancy them causeless, but could not.
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  Speaker 1: He had been saying to himself, it is nothing but
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  Speaker 1: the wind and the chimney. It is only a mouse
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  Speaker 1: crossing the floor, or it is merely a cricket which
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  Speaker 1: has made a single chirp. Yes, he had been trying
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  Speaker 1: to comfort himself with these suppositions, but he had found
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  Speaker 1: all in vain, all in vain, because death, in approaching him,
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  Speaker 1: had stalked with his black shadow before him and enveloped
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  Speaker 1: the victim. And it was the mournful influence of the
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  Speaker 1: unperceived shadow that caused him to feel although he neither
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  Speaker 1: saw nor heard to feel the presence of my head
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  Speaker 1: within the room. When I had waited a long time,
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  Speaker 1: very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to
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  Speaker 1: open a little, a very very little crevice in the lantern.
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  Speaker 1: So I opened it. You cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily,
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  Speaker 1: until at length a simple dim ray, like the thread
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  Speaker 1: of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell
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  Speaker 1: full upon the vulture eye. It was open, wide, wide open,
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  Speaker 1: and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I
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  Speaker 1: saw it with perfect distinctness, all a dull blue, with
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  Speaker 1: a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow
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  Speaker 1: in my bones. But I could see nothing else of
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  Speaker 1: the old man's face or person, for I had directed
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  Speaker 1: the ray, as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot.
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  Speaker 1: And have I not told you that what you mistake
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  Speaker 1: for madness is but over acuteness of the sense. Now
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  Speaker 1: I say, there came to my ears a low, dull,
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  Speaker 1: quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton.
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  Speaker 1: I knew that sound well too. It was the beating
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  Speaker 1: of the old man's heart. It increased my fury as
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  Speaker 1: the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.
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  Speaker 1: But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed.
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  Speaker 1: I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I
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  Speaker 1: could maintain the ray upon the eye. Meantime, the hellish
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  Speaker 1: tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker,
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  Speaker 1: and louder and louder every instant. The old man's terror
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  Speaker 1: must have been extreme. It grew louder, I say, louder
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  Speaker 1: every moment. Do you mark me well? I have told
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  Speaker 1: you that I am nervous, So I am, And now
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  Speaker 1: at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful
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  Speaker 1: silence of that old house, so strange a noise as
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  Speaker 1: this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet for some minutes
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  Speaker 1: longer I refrained and stood still, But the beating grew
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  Speaker 1: louder louder. I thought the heart must burst. And now
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  Speaker 1: a new anxiety seized me. The sound would be heard
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  Speaker 1: by a neighbor. The old man's hour had come. With
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  Speaker 1: a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped
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  Speaker 1: into the room. He shrieked once once, only in an instant.
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  Speaker 1: I dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy
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  Speaker 1: bed over him. I then smiled gaily to find the
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  Speaker 1: deed so far done. But for many minutes the heart
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  Speaker 1: beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did not
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  Speaker 1: vex me. It would not be heard through the wall.
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  Speaker 1: At length it ceased. The old man was dead. I
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  Speaker 1: removed the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone,
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  Speaker 1: stone dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and
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  Speaker 1: held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation. He
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  Speaker 1: was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more.
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  Speaker 1: If still you think me mad, you will think so
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  Speaker 1: no longer. When I described the wise precautions I took
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  Speaker 1: for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and
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  Speaker 1: I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all, I
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  Speaker 1: dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head, and the arms,
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  Speaker 1: and the legs. I then took up three planks from
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  Speaker 1: the flooring of the chamber and deposited all between the scantlings.
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  Speaker 1: I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that
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  Speaker 1: no human eye, not even his, could have detected anything wrong.
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  Speaker 1: There was nothing to wash out, no stain of any kind,
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  Speaker 1: no blood spot whatever. I had been too wary for that.
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  Speaker 1: A tub had caught all. Ha ha. When I had
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  Speaker 1: made an end of these labors, it was four o'clock,
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  Speaker 1: still dark as midnight. As the bell sounded the hour,
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  Speaker 1: there came a knocking at the street door. I went
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  Speaker 1: down to open it with a light heart, for what
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  Speaker 1: had I now to fear? There entered three men who
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  Speaker 1: introduced themselves with perfect suavity as officers of the police.
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  Speaker 1: A shriek had been heard by a neighbor during the night,
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  Speaker 1: suspicion of foul play had been aroused, information had been
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  Speaker 1: lodged at the police office, and they the officers, had
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  Speaker 1: been deputed to search the premises. I smiled, for what
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  Speaker 1: had I to fear? I bade the gentleman welcome. The shriek,
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  Speaker 1: I said, was my own in a dream. The old
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  Speaker 1: man I mentioned, was absent in the country. I took
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  Speaker 1: my visitors all over the house. I bade them search,
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  Speaker 1: search well. I led them at length to his chamber.
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  Speaker 1: I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed. In the enthusiasm
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  Speaker 1: of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room and
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  Speaker 1: desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself,
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  Speaker 1: in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my
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  Speaker 1: own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the
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  Speaker 1: corpse of the victim. The officers were satisfied my manner
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  Speaker 1: had convinced them. I was singularly at ease. They sat,
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  Speaker 1: and while I answered cheerily, they chatted of familiar things.
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  Speaker 1: But ere long I felt myself getting pale and wished
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  Speaker 1: them gone. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing
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  Speaker 1: in my ears, But still they sat, and still chatted.
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  Speaker 1: The ringing became more distinct. It continued and became more distinct.
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  Speaker 1: I talked more free to get rid of the feeling,
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  Speaker 1: but it continued and gained definiteness, until at length I
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  Speaker 1: found that the noise was not within my ears, no doubt.
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  Speaker 1: I now grew very pale, But I talked more fluently
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  Speaker 1: and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased, And
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  Speaker 1: what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound,
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  Speaker 1: much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped
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  Speaker 1: in cotton. I gasped for breath, and yet the officers
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  Speaker 1: heard it not. I talked more quickly, more vehemently, but
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  Speaker 1: the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles
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  Speaker 1: in a high key and with violent gesticulations. But the
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  Speaker 1: noise steadily increased. Why would they not be gone? I
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  Speaker 1: paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as
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  Speaker 1: if excited to fury by the observations. Of the men.
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  Speaker 1: But the noise steadily increased. O God, what could I do?
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  Speaker 1: I foamed, I raved, I swore, I swung the chair
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  Speaker 1: upon which I had been sitting and grated it upon
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  Speaker 1: the boards. But the noise arose over all and continually increased.
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  Speaker 1: It grew louder louder louder. And still the men chatted
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  Speaker 1: pleasantly and smiled. Was it possible they heard, not, Almighty God, No, no,
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  Speaker 1: they heard. They suspected, they knew. They were making a
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  Speaker 1: mockery of my horror. This I thought, and this I think.
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  Speaker 1: But anything was better than this agony, anything was more
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  Speaker 1: tolerable than this derision. I could bear those hypocritical smiles.
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  Speaker 1: No longer I felt that I must scream or die.
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  Speaker 1: And now again hark louder, louder, louder, louder, villains, I shrieked,
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  Speaker 1: dissemble no more, I admit the deed, tear up the planks.
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  Speaker 1: Here here it is the beating of his hideo, his
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  Speaker 1: hard