The Other Side of Midnight (38 page)

She fainted.

She was lying on a sharp spike of stone and the discomfort of it brought her back to consciousness. Her cheek was warm and sticky, and it was a minute before Catherine realized that it was her blood. She remembered the wings and the claws that had attacked her in the dark and she began to shiver.

There were bats in the cave.

She tried to recall what she knew about bats. She had read somewhere that they were flying rats and that they congregated by the thousands. The only other information she could conjure up from her memory was that there were vampire bats, and she quickly dropped that thought. Reluctantly Catherine sat up, the palms of her hands stinging from being scraped on the sharp stones.

You can’t just sit here,
she told herself.
You’ve got to get up and do something.
Painfully she dragged herself to her feet. She had lost a shoe somehow and her dress was torn, but Larry would buy her a new one tomorrow. She pictured the two of them going into a little shop in the village, laughing and happy and buying a white summer dress for her, but somehow the dress became a shroud and her mind began to fill with panic again. She must keep thinking about tomorrow, not the nightmare she was engulfed in now. She must keep walking. But which way? She was turned around. If she walked the wrong way, she would be going deeper into the cave, and yet she knew she could not stay here. Catherine tried to estimate how much time had elapsed since they had entered the cave. It must have been an hour, possibly two. There was no way of knowing how long she had been unconscious. Surely they would be looking for Larry and her. But what if no one missed them? There was no check on who
went in or out of the caves. She could be down here forever.

She took off her other shoe and began to walk, taking slow, careful steps, holding her burning hands out to avoid bumping into the rough sides of the tunnel.
The longest journey begins with but a single step,
Catherine told herself.
The Chinese said that and look how smart they are. They invented firecrackers and chop suey, and they were too clever to get caught in some dark hole in the ground where no one could find them. If I keep walking, I’m going to bump into Larry or some tourists and we’ll go back to the hotel and have a drink and laugh about all this. All I have to do is keep walking.

She stopped suddenly. In the distance she could hear the whirring sound again, moving toward her like some ghostly, phantom express train, and her body began to tremble uncontrollably, and she began to scream. An instant later, they were on her, hundreds of them, swarming over her, beating at her with their cold, clammy wings and smothering her with their furry rodent bodies in a nightmare of unspeakable horror.

The last thing she remembered before losing consciousness was calling Larry’s name.

She was lying on the cold, damp floor of the cave. Her eyes were closed, but her mind had suddenly awakened, and she thought,
Larry wants to kill me.
It was as though her subconscious had put the idea there intact. In a series of kaleidoscopic flashes she heard Larry saying,
I’m in love with someone else…I want a divorce…
and Larry moving toward her through the cloud on the mountaintop, his hands reaching for her…She remembered looking down the steep mountain and saying,
It will take a long time to get down,
and Larry saying,
No, it won’t…
and Larry saying,
We don’t need a guide…I think we took the wrong turn. Wait here…I’ll be back in ten seconds…
And then the terrifying blackness.

Larry had never intended to return for her. The reconciliation, the honeymoon…it was all pretense, part of a plan to murder her. All the time she had been smugly thanking God for giving her a second chance, Larry was plotting to kill her. And he had succeeded, for Catherine knew she would never get out of here. She was buried alive in a black tomb of horror. The bats had gone, but she could feel and smell the filthy slime they had left all over her face and body, and she knew that they would be back for her. She did not know if she could keep her sanity through another attack. The thought of them made her begin to tremble again, and she forced herself to take slow, deep breaths.

And then Catherine heard it again and knew she could not stand it another time. It started as a low humming, and then a louder wave of sound, moving toward her. There was a sudden, anguished scream, and it rang out into the darkness over and over, and the other sound kept coming louder and louder, and out of the black tunnel a light appeared, and she heard voices calling out and hands began to reach for her and lift her and she wanted to warn them about the bats, but she was unable to stop screaming.

She lay still and rigid so that the bats could not find her, and she listened for the whirr of their wings, her eyes tightly shut.

A man’s voice said, “It is a miracle that we found her.”

“Is she going to be all right?”

It was Larry’s voice.

Terror suddenly flooded through Catherine again. It was as though her body were filled with screaming nerves that warned her to flee. Her killer had come for her. She moaned, “No…” and opened her eyes. She was in her bed in the bungalow. Larry stood at the foot of the bed, and next to him was a man she had never seen before. Larry moved toward her. “Catherine…”

She flinched as he started toward her. “Don’t touch me!” Her voice was weak and hoarse.

“Catherine!” Larry’s face was filled with distress.

“Get him away from me,” Catherine begged.

“She is still in shock,” the stranger said. “Perhaps it would be better if you waited in the other room.”

Larry studied Catherine a moment, his face expressionless. “Of course. I want whatever is best for her.” He turned and walked out.

The stranger came closer. He was a short, fat man with a pleasant face and a nice smile. He spoke English with a heavy accent. “I am Doctor Kazomides. You have had a most unpleasant time, Mrs. Douglas, but I
assure you you are going to be fine. A mild concussion and a severe shock, but in a few days you will be good as new.” He sighed. “They should close those damned caves. This is the third accident this year.”

Catherine started to shake her head, then stopped, as it began to throb violently. “It was no accident,” she said thickly. “He tried to kill me.”

He looked down at her. “Who tried to kill you?”

Her mouth was dry and her tongue was thick. It was difficult to get the words out. “M—my husband.”

“No,” he said.

He did not believe her. Catherine swallowed and tried again. “He 1—left me in the cave to die.”

He shook his head. “It was an accident. I am going to give you a sedative and when you wake up, you will feel much better.”

A surge of fear flowed through her. “No!” she pleaded. “Don’t you understand? I’ll never wake up. Take me out of here. Please!”

The doctor was smiling reassuringly. “I told you you are going to be fine, Mrs. Douglas. All you need is a nice, long sleep.” He reached into a black medical bag and began searching for a hypodermic.

Catherine tried to sit up, but a searing pain shot through her head and she was instantly bathed in perspiration. She fell back on the bed, her head pounding unbearably.

“You must not try to move yet,” Dr. Kazomides warned. “You have been through a terrible ordeal.” He took out the hypodermic, filled the needle from a vial of amber fluid and turned to her. “Turn over, please. When you waken, you will feel like a new person.”

“I won’t waken,” Catherine whispered. “He’ll murder me while I’m asleep.”

There was a look of concern on the doctor’s face. He walked over to her. “Please turn over, Mrs. Douglas.”

She stared at him, her eyes stubborn.

Gently he turned Catherine on her side, pulled up her nightgown and she felt a sharp sting in her hip. “There you are.”

She rolled on her back and whispered. “You’ve just killed me.” Her eyes filled with helpless tears.

“Mrs. Douglas,” the doctor said, quietly, “do you know how we found you?”

She started to shake her head, then remembered the pain. His voice was gentle. “Your husband led us to you.”

She stared at him, not comprehending what he was saying.

“He took the wrong turn and got lost in the cave,” he explained. “When he could not find you, he became frantic. He summoned the police and we immediately organized a search party.”

She looked at him, still not understanding. “Larry…sent for help?”

“He was in a terrible state. He blamed himself for what happened.”

She lay there trying to take it in, trying to adjust to this new information. If Larry had tried to kill her, he would not have organized a search party to find her, he would not have been frantic about her safety. She was filled with a terrible confusion. The doctor was watching her sympathetically.

“You will sleep now,” he told her. “I will come back to see you in the morning.”

She had believed that the man she loved was a murderer. She knew she had to tell Larry and ask his forgiveness, but her head was getting heavy and her eyes kept closing.
I’ll tell him later,
she thought,
when I wake up. He’ll understand and he’ll forgive me. And everything will be wonderful again, just the way it was…

She was awakened by a sudden, sharp cracking sound, and her eyes flew open, her pulse racing. A torrent of rain was savagely drumming against the bedroom
window, and a flash of lightning lit everything in a pale blue light that made the room look like an overexposed photograph. The wind was clawing at the house, trying to scream its way in and the rain beating on the roof and windows sounded like a thousand tiny drums. Every few seconds there was an ominous roll of thunder followed by a flash of lightning.

It was the sound of thunder that had awakened Catherine. She dragged herself up to a sitting position and looked at the small bedside clock. She was groggy from the sedative that the doctor had given her, and she had to squint to make out the figures on the dial. It was three
A.M.
She was alone. Larry must be in the other room keeping vigil, worried about her. She had to see him, to apologize. Carefully Catherine swung her feet off the edge of the bed and tried to stand up. A wave of dizziness swept over her. She started to fall and held herself against the bednost until it passed. She walked unsteadily to the door, her muscles feeling stiff and unused, and the pounding in her head a painful, aching throb. She stood there a moment, clinging to the door knob for support, then opened the door and stepped into the living room.

Larry was not there. There was a light on in the kitchen, and she stumbled toward it. Larry was standing in the kitchen, his back to her, and she called out, “Larry!” but her voice was washed away by the loud clap of thunder. Before she could call again, a woman moved into view. Larry said, “It’s dangerous for you to—” The screaming wind carried the rest of his words away.

“—had to come. I had to make sure you—”

“—see us together. No one will ever—”

“—I told you I’d take care of—”

“—went wrong. There’s nothing they can—”

“—now, while she’s asleep.”

Catherine stood there paralyzed, unable to move. It was like listening to stroboscopic sounds, quick pulsating phrases of words. The rest of the sentences were
lost in the howling wind and crack of thunder.

“—we have to move quickly before she—”

All the old terrors returned, shuddering through her body, engulfing her in a nameless, sickening panic. Her nightmare had been real. He was trying to kill her. She had to get out of here before they found her, before they murdered her. Slowly, her whole body trembling, she started backing away. She brushed against a lamp, and it started to fall, but she caught it before it could hit the floor. The pounding of her heart was so loud that she was afraid they would be able to hear it over the sound of the thunder and the rain. She reached the front door and opened it and the wind almost tore it out of her hands.

Catherine stepped outside into the night and quickly closed the door behind her. She was instantly drenched by the cold, driving rain, and for the first time she became aware that she was wearing nothing but a thin nightgown. It did not matter. All that mattered was that she escape. Through the torrents of rain she could see the lights of the hotel lobby in the distance. She could go there and ask for help. But would they believe her? She remembered the doctor’s face when she had told him Larry was trying to kill her. No, they would think she was hysterical, they would turn her over to Larry. She must get away from this place. She headed for the steep rocky path that led down to the village.

The torrential storm had turned the path into a muddy, slippery mire that sucked at her bare feet and slowed her down so that she had the feeling that she was running in a nightmare, vainly trying to escape in slow motion while her pursuers raced after her. She kept slipping and falling to the ground and her feet were bleeding from the sharp stones on the path, but she was not even aware of it. She was in a state of shock, moving like an automaton, falling when a gust of wind hurled her down and picking herself up and moving down the path toward the village again, unaware
of where she was running. She was no longer conscious of the rain.

The path suddenly opened out onto a dark, deserted street on the edge of the village. She kept stumbling ahead like a hunted animal, mindlessly putting one foot in front of the other, terrified by the awful sounds that rent the night and the flashes of lightning that turned the sky into an inferno.

She reached the lake and stood there staring at it, the wind whipping the thin nightgown around her body. The calm water had turned into a seething, churning ocean driven by demonic winds that built up high waves that brutally smashed against one another.

Catherine stood there, trying to remember what she was doing here. And suddenly it came to her. She was on her way to meet Bill Fraser. He was waiting for her at his beautiful mansion so they could be married. Across the water Catherine caught a glimpse of a yellow light through the driving rain. Bill was there, waiting. But how was she going to get to him? She looked down and below her she saw the rowboats tied to their moorings, spinning around in the turbulent water, straining to break free.

She knew then what she had to do. She scrambled down to a boat and jumped in. Fighting to keep her balance she untied the rope holding it to the dock. Instantly the boat leaped away from the dock, soaring in its sudden freedom. Catherine was knocked off her feet. She pulled herself onto a seat and picked up the oars, trying to remember how Larry had used them. But there was no Larry. It must have been Bill. Yes, she could remember Bill rowing with her. They were going to meet his mother and father. Now she tried to use the oars, but the giant waves kept pitching the boat from side to side and spinning it around, and the oars were pulled out of her hands and sucked into the water. She sat there watching them disappear from sight. The boat was hurtling toward the center of the
lake. Catherine’s teeth began to chatter from the cold, and she began to shiver in an uncontrollable spasm. She felt something lap at her feet and she looked down and saw that the boat was filling with water. She started to cry, because her wedding dress was going to get wet. Bill Fraser had bought it for her and now he was going to be angry with her.

She wore a wedding gown because she and Bill were in a church and the minister who looked like Bill’s father said
if anyone objects to this marriage speak up now or…
and then a woman’s voice said,
now, while she’s asleep,
and the lights went out and Catherine was back in the cave and Larry was holding her down and the woman was throwing water on her, drowning her. She looked around for the yellow light in Bill’s house, but it was gone. He did not want to marry her any more, and now she had no one.

The shore was very far away now, hidden somewhere beyond the beating, driving rain, and Catherine was alone in the stormy night, with the screaming, banshee wind of the
meltemi
in her ears. The boat began to rock treacherously as the huge waves smashed against it. But Catherine was no longer afraid. Her body was slowly filling with a delicious warmth, and the rain felt like soft velvet on her skin. She clasped her hands in front of her like a small child and began to recite the prayer that she had learned as a little girl.

“Now I lay me down to sleep…I pray the Lord my soul to keep…If I should die before I wake…I pray the Lord my soul to take.” And she was filled with a wonderful happiness because she knew at last that everything was all right. She was on her way home.

At that moment a large wave caught the stern of the boat, and it slowly began to overturn in the black bottomless lake.