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feet under his chair, in preparation for an all-out leap toward Louisa. He was
filled with a mighty determination that he would at all costs not allow her to
escape
In the middle of all this, Abraham Kirkaldy cried out in a changed and
terrible voice: "Stop! I see " His words broke off at that point, his
utterance degenerating into a hoarse cry of sheer horror. But a moment later
his voice rang out clearly again: "Stop! A thing from hell is here among us!"
This declamation was followed by sounds from other members of the gathering,
groans and protests, and a howl that raised the hair on the back of my neck.
Next young Kirkaldy shouted that the visitant should "Go back to your grave!"
I heard Martin Armstrong cry out like a man caught in the grip of a
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Fred Saberhagen - Séance for a Vampire sudden and terrible new emotion,
raising a desperate shout that rose clearly above the other confused noises in
the room.
And I could distinguish the voice of Sherlock Holmes, masterful and incisive,
urging calm, urging those present to let the figure alone. But alas, none of
the others who heard him were paying much attention.
Armstrong, as he told me later, actually succeeded in reaching the visitant
and attempted to prevent her getting away, meanwhile shouting for lights. But
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with a strength beyond the human, and a determination that Armstrong found
inexplicable, the slender girl twisted and pulled herself free.
By this time, both of Louisa's parents were also clutching at the mysterious
intruder, struggling with a terrible earnestness to hold her, as if they would
by their own efforts cheat Death of his prize after all.
The girl's voice in the dark was heartrending. "Mother.
Father.
.."
Listening, I received the impression that the undead girl was striving in
agony to accomplish something. It was not a mere physical effort, but an
attempt to convey to her parents that there was something that must be done
before the recently undead, she herself in particular, could rest. Something
that Louisa's parents must do for her benefit.
"There is an ancient wrong which must be righted." And Louisa
increasingly I felt convinced that this was she as if under some great
compulsion, kept repeating a refrain of words to this effect:
"What was stolen must be returned..."
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Fred Saberhagen - Séance for a Vampire
Then suddenly the voice of the spectral figure broke off. And in another
moment, surrounded and beset by the very people who had most loved Louisa
Altamont during her breathing life, it abruptly turned and tore itself away.
The object of all tearful outcries and entreaties fled. I saw, in near
darkness and yet with a convincing clarity, how her departing form made a
ghostly, half-transparent image at the window-doors, white in the delicate
illumination which crept in round the edges of the dark drapes. None of the
three French doors opened, yet somehow, without so much as stirring one of
those heavy folds of cloth, she had in a moment gone past them and was outside
the house.
A moment later, the most easterly set of curtains was ripped aside, as Martin
Armstrong, floundering in darkness, in desperate pursuit of his beloved,
reached the French windows and found himself stopped there by latches and
solid glass.
I could hear Armstrong, still calling the name of his beloved in an agony of
hope, fumbling with the unfamiliar catch to get the window open, but failing
to do so.
For a moment longer, the form that he pursued was clearly visible just
outside, where light from other windows in the house cast a partial
illumination across the terrace.
Armstrong, frustrated, turned back from the window with a muttered oath. He
picked up one of the chairs from near the table, spun round again and swung it
hard, smashing the window open. A
second blow was necessary to widen the gap sufficiently; a moment later he had
plunged out through the gap thus created, with Louisa's father close on his
heels.
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Fred Saberhagen - Séance for a Vampire
Sherlock Holmes, now shouting loudly but uselessly in a great effort to
prevent some terrible mistake, and perhaps hoping to influence the girl by
some means other than main force, followed the other men out. There came an
additional crashing and shattering of glass.
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