Nightmare Pherret
"I turned to Nona. She was laughing, holding her arms out to me. And with a sudden blaze of understanding I knew, I knew, I knew. The last test. The last final. I had passed and I was free!
I turned back to the doorway and of course it was nothing but an empty stone closet with dead leaves on the floor.
I went to Nona. I went to my life.
Her arms reached around my neck and I pulled her against me. That was when she began to change, to ripple and run like wax. The great dark eyes became small and beady. The hair coarsened, went brown. The nose shortened, the nostrils dilated. Her body lumped and hunched against me.
I was being embraced by a rat.
‘Do you love?’ it squealed. ‘Do you love, do you love?’
Her lipless mouth stretched upward for mine.
I didn’t scream. There were no screams left. I doubt if I will ever scream again."
story (c) Stephen King
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keres