TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story. It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain screwed; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the death scythe. She had never wronged me. She had never given me insult. For she was kind and beautiful in every way possible! But one thing stuck out over all else. One golden eye. Not like her other one. This one shined.It looked like it had some sort of magic or power to it.Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; I wanted to know more about it! --very gradually --I made up my mind to take the eye of the beautiful death scythe and dissect it my self. Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with what caution --with what foresight --with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to Marie than during the whole week before I took her eye.. And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of her door and opened it --oh so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly --very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the beautiful womans sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see her she lay upon his bed. Ha! would a madman have been so wise as this, And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously-oh, so cautiously --cautiously (for the hinges creaked) --I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the golden eye. And this I did for seven long nights --every night just at midnight --but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not Marie who vexed me, but her beautiful eye. And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to her, calling her by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how she has passed the night. So you see he would have been a very profound death scythe, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon her while she slept. Upon the eighth night I was more than usually cautious in opening the door. A watchs minute hand moves more quickly than did mine. Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers --of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph. To think that there I was, opening the door, little by little, and she not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts. I fairly chuckled at the idea; and perhaps she heard me; for she moved on the bed suddenly, as if startled. Now you may think that I drew back --but no. Her room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness, (for the shutters were close fastened, through fear of robbers,) and so I knew that she could not see the opening of the door, and I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily. I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening, and Marie sprang up in bed, crying out --Whos there? I kept quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear her lie down. She was still sitting up in the bed listening; --just as I have done, night after night, hearkening to the death watches in the wall. Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or of grief --oh, no! --It was the same groan people gave off every time before I dissected them. Cut them open and look at what they had behind their nice layer skin. I new that sound like the back of my stitched hand. When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing her lie down, I resolved to open a little --a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it --you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily --until, at length a simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the golden eye. It was open --wide, wide open --and I grew curious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness --all a golden shining eye that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the my Maries face or beautiful figure for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot. And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense? --now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well, too. It was the beating of the her heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage. But this beating was not courage. This was fear. But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eye. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant. The death scythes terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! --do you mark me well I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me --the sound would be heard by a neighbour! Maries hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. She shrieked once --once only. In an instant I dragged her out. My hand over her mouth muffling her screams. I couldnt help but snicker at how helpless she must feel. She tried to scream for a long time but nothing could be heard from her though. She screeched untill she passed out. And thats where I began and took her golden eye that shined. (Sorry that that sucked. I told you I had something big I wanted to share well This was it. I tried the best I could to re write it with out ruining it. Sorry.)~Stein
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 00:05:34 +0000
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