I Am Legend

by Richard Matheson

For he was a man and he was alone and these things had no importance to him.

Why do they all look like Kathy to me? he thought, drawing out the second stake with shaking hands.

“The strength of the vampire is that no one will believe in him.”

The book was a hodgepodge of superstitions and soap-opera clichés, but that line was true; no one had believed in them, and how could they fight something they didn’t even believe in?

before science had caught up with the legend, the legend had swallowed science and everything.

Three o’clock. Plenty of time to— He jerked up the watch and held it against his ear, his heart suddenly jumping. The watch had stopped.

All without knowing what it was to love and be loved. That was a tragedy more terrible than becoming a vampire.

On the phonograph, music played, quiet and unhurried. Outside, the vampires waited.

How stupid and ineffective he felt for never having foreseen it! Especially after reading the phrase a hundred, a thousand times. But then he’d never really appreciated it. Such a short phrase it was, but meaning so much. Bacteria can mutate.