Hell House

by Richard Matheson

Livid,

scaly flesh was crumbling from its bones, its rotted lips wreathed in a leering smile that showed discolored jagged teeth, all of them decayed. Only the slanting yellow eyes were alive, regarding her with demoniacal glee. A leaden bluish light enveloped its entire body, gases of putrefaction bubbling around it. A s...

faucet,

like the evanescent shimmer of sunlight across a cloud-darkened landscape.

fob

sheath;

ambivalent

impinge

repentant

“Any psychic worthy of the name invariably turns out to be a hysteric and/or somnambulist, a victim of divided consciousness. The parallel between the mediumistic trance and the somnambulistic fit is absolute. Personalities come and go, methods of expression are identical, as are psychological structures, the amnesia upon awakening, the artificial quality of the alternate personalities.

chasteness

irresolutely,

unrelentingly.

banister

tantamount,

sardonically.

unbidden.

cajoled

derisive

He began to laugh with wild sadistic pleasure.

blandishment.

bucked

slack

vacuous

abhorrent

falsetto.

A figure blocked her way: a gaunt man dressed in ragged, filthy clothes; bones showing through his skin; long hair shaggy; face malformed by sickness; tiny, glowing eyes buried in dark-rimmed sockets; mouth distended, filled with thick, discolored teeth. Florence stared at him. It was one of Belasco’s victims, she knew. He’d looked like this before he died.

jagged

gleeful

Fischer tried to hurry down the steps but had to stagger to a halt, clinging to the rail as pain drove spikes into his skull.

brood

reminiscent

askew

bafflement.

awe.

Jubilation

doggedly,

debacles

trivial

humbug

grueling

contusions

arctic

Then all was blackness, like a shroud enfolding him, as he descended into night.

leprous

revulsion,

acutely

agape,

protruding.

bloated