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| The young couple just got married, starting a new life together... |
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| For three months - they had been married in April - they lived in a special kind of bliss. |
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Alicia passes the days on that hostile house trying not to
think about anything till her husband arrived each evening. |
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It is not strange that she grew thin. She had a light attack of influenza
that dragged on insidiously for days and days. |
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| Jordan's doctor examined her with minute attention, prescribing calm and absolute rest. |
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| Jordan kept her as the doctor said, trying to have her back as soon as possible. |
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| When she awakened the following day, Alicia was worse. |
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The doctors returned, but to no avail.
They saw before them a diminishing life, a life bleeding away day by day,
hour by hour, absolutely without their knowing why. |
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Suddenly Alicia began to have hallucinations, vague images,
at first seeming to float in the air, then descending to floor level. |
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The lights were lighted all day long in her bedroom, and there was complete silence.
Hours went by without the slightest sound. |
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| Finally, Alicia died. |
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The servant, when she came in afterward to strip the now empty bed,
stared wonderingly for a moment at the pillow. |
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| Servant: "Sir!" |
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| Servant: "There are stains on the pillow that look like blood." |
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Jordan approached rapidly and bent over the pillow.
Truly, on the case, on both sides of the hollow left by Alicia's head,
were two small dark spots.
"Hold it up to the light," Jordan told her. |
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| The servant raised the pillow but immediately dropped it and stood staring at it. |
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| Jordan: "What is it?" |
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| "It's very heavy," the servant whispered, still trembling |
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| They carried it out of the room, and over the table... |
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| ...he ripped open the case and the ticking with a slash. |
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The top feathers floated away,
the servant opened her mouth widely giving a scream of horror. |
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In the bottom of the pillow case, among the feathers,
slowly moving its hairy legs, was a monstrous animal,
a living, viscous ball. It was so swollen one could barely make out its mouth. |
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Night after night, since Alicia had taken to her bed,
this abomination had stealthily applied its mouth to the girl's temples,
sucking her blood. |
"These parasites of feathered creatures, diminutive in their habitual environment, reach enormous proportions under certain conditions. Human blood seems particularly favorable to them, and it is not rare to encounter them in feather pillows."
