43591
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
At that moment the front door was slammed shut and a few seconds later a hysterical David came running into the dining room. He halted. The he blurted out for all to hear, "I saw Carolyn! I saw Carolyn!" There was a stunned silence in the big dining room. Elizabeth looked as if she might faint. Roger quickly got up and went over to David. His face was stern again. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked coldly. David looked at him with pleading eyes. "I did, Father. I saw Carolyn." Roger grasped him by the shoulder. "David how dare you pull one of your tricks at a time like this!" There was a high state of tension in the atmosphere. No one could really blame Roger for being annoyed at the display of bad taste on his son's part. Then to everyone's amazement Professor Stoked stepped for- ward to join the two. In a calm, reasoning voice he asked the boy, "Where did you see her, David?" "At the old swimming pool," the boy said, grateful for a sympathetic ear. Elizabeth rose dramatically from the table, her face the color of chalk. Without a word to anyone she left the assembled group and went across to the other side of the room to stare out the window. She behaved like some- one is shock. Now Todd was on his feet asking, "professor, you don't believe for a minute he really saw her, do you?" Stokes hesitated, then said, "It is something to be gone into in depth." Maggie came forward. "David is exhausted, hungry and injured. He shouldn't be questioned in this manner now. Let me take him out of here and look after him." The professor nodded. "You are right. All this can wait." Maggie took the boy firmly by the hand. "Come, David." He held back. "But, Father, I saw her. Please, believe me!" Roger, looking less stern, said, "Go with Maggie and get that wound on your head fixed and cleaned up. We can talk about it later." he waited until Maggie left the room with the boy and then he turned to the professor. "Well, Stokes?" The professor met his glance unflinchingly. "Yes, I think the boy was telling the truth!" "What?" Roger demanded. Todd said, "Explain yourself." "I intend to," the middle-aged man said, "if you will give me the opportunity." Julia said, "These good friends are startled, Eliot. And why shouldn't they be? They are not as well informed about this as you." Mollified by her placating words, he said, "That is so." And directing himself to Roger, he continued, I believe he did see Carolyn and I suggest we try to find her now." This amazing statement brought another wave of mur- muring among the others. Only Elizabeth remained out of the discussion, still standing by the window with a pale aloofness. Roger took charge of the situation and told the pro- fessor, "Eliot, I think it is shocking that you are willing to take seriously the hallucination of a very upset child! We're not going anywhere!" Stokes drew himself to full height. "Do you not think me responsible?" "Not in this," Roger said grimly. "I warn you, this must be taken seriously," Stokes told him. Roger raised his hand in a gesture of disgust. "My son is suffering from shock and sorrow. That's all there is to it. That and nothing more!" Todd, his handsome face stricken with grief, said, "Professor, Carolyn is dead." Professor Stokes said gravely, "She is dead and yet she is alive." Julia Hoffman came up to him. "Eliot, you're not making out very well. Try to remember you're not lecturing to students in the classroom." Elizabeth left the window and came angrily across the room to the professor. "Eliot, if I didn't know you to be a man of character and integrity, I'd ask you to leave this house now!" He looked hurt. "You also doubt me?" Despair shown in her lovely worn face. "Can I help it?" Stokes looked around at all the accusing faces, which showed anger and contempt for him. Only Julia Hoff- man continued to look calm and resigned. He said unhappily, "I'm merely trying to help." "You have a strange way of doing it,"Roger snapped. Stokes was silent for a moment as he seemed to take stock, then he announced, "There is a way of proving whether or not the boy was right." Todd demanded, "How?" There was a dramatic silence. Then the professor said quietly, "By opening Carolyn's grave." Roger groaned in disgust. "Oh, my God, Eliot!" "It is the only way," the professor maintained. Todd moved away a little and to no one in particular murmured, "There's something sick about all this!" Elizabeth confronted the professor with a dignified mien. "I'm sorry, but we're not going to discuss this any further tonight or at any future time!" Julia Hoffman went to the grief-stricken mother and quietly said, "Elizabeth, I think you should listen to what Eliot has to say." "It's madness!" Elizabeth protested. "Not so much as you think," Julia said, and she turned to Stokes. "You must tell them." Everyone's eyes were on him. He hesitated rather un- comfortably, seeming to feel he'd already been sub- jecyed to enough doubt and abuse. Then he said, "I doubt if they'll listen." "Try," the woman doctor urged him. Stokes said, "I believe Carolyn was destroyed by a vampire." Roger looked stunned. "A vampire?" His shock re- flected that of all the others in the room. "Yes," the professor said. "And tonight she walks as one of the living dead." Todd stared at him bitterly. "I think I've read about that subject in one of your magazine articles. Very sensa- tional! They featured it on the front cover. Some people will believe anything." "You'd be well advised to believe this," Professor Stokes warned them. "I seem to remember the title of the article," Todd went on, savagely making fun of him in his grief-stricken fury. "Wan't it 'Does one who dies the victim of a vampire return as a vampire?' A real spine chiller!" "Absolutely right, Todd," the older man said, ignoring the sarcasm. "It unfortunately is only too true that if one dies the victim of a vampire one returns as a vampire." Elizabeth stared at the professor with icy contempt for a moment, then turned and hurriedly left the dining room. Roger glared at the pompous man. "You have hurt my sister very deeply. I hope you realize that, Eliot." And he also left the room. Professor Stokes looked sad. "I'm sorry," he apolo- gized to the departing Roger. Todd seemed to have regained his temper. Now he came to the professor and told him, "I'm sorry I blew up just now." "It didn't matter," the professor said. "I think it did,"Todd said in a repentant tone. "I re- spect you enough to believe almost anything you say, Professor. But the things I've heard tonight." He shook his head. "You find it hard to accept them?" Todd's tone was tragic. "I don't know how you could expect any sane human being to believe them." And with bowed head and slumped shoulders, he turned to leave. Stokes called out, "if you're leaving the house, Todd, I must warn you to be careful." He paused and looked back. "To be what?" "Careful." "Careful?" Todd echoed, not understanding. "Of what?" "A danger that may reach out to you from the dark- ness," the professor said solemnly. The young man looked impatient with him. "I don't want fancy phrases. Give me facts." "All right, let it be facts," the professor agreed. "Be- cause of your particular relationship with Carolyn, you are the person she is most likely to seek out." "Ridiculous!" Todd exclaimed. "I've warned you," Professor Stokes said. Todd stared at him unhappily and then left the room, leaving Julia Hoffman and the professor alone. "I'm afraid you didn't manage that very well, Eliot," she told him. He regarded her helplessly. "I tried. They wouldn't listen." "You went about it in such a way that everything you said could be turned against you." "You might have helped more," Stokes accused her. Julia Hoffman answered frankly, "Yes, I might have. But I doubted it would change things much. And I might have harmed my personal credibility if I espoused your cause too strongly." "You are the only one with reason to think what I say is true." "I know it. And later I'll do my best to make them understand." Professor Stokes gazed at the door through which Todd had just made his exit. "In the meantime no one listens to me. That young man, Todd, is in serious danger. But he wouldn't accept my warning." Julia sighed. "Let us hope he'll reconsider and be wary." |
STOKES I must warn you to be careful. |
128 CONTD (3) (3) CONTD 128 Todd stares at him incredulously and then leaves. |
Personally, I think the scenes look darker in Tim Burton's DS film.