III
Still, it was well prepared for the visit of Mr. Allan and his brothers on the night of Monday. They reached the quarter past ten, my mother had just climbed into bed. Expected, a maximum of three people. Seven. And as similar as peas in a pod, so it was not able to distinguish among them with whom Mr. Allan had walked twice on the night streets of Providence, but I figured it was the speaker of the group
They walked into the room, and Mr. Allan immediately set out to put the chairs in a semicircle. He helped his brothers, while he muttered something about the "nature of the experiment." In fact, I was still too shocked and uneasy with the appearance of the seven men identical, so astonishingly like Edgar Allan Poe, to give me true account of what was said. I could also see the light of my Welsbach gas lamp, the seven were of a pale complexion, waxy, not to the point of doubting that they were of flesh and bone like me, but to think that everyone was suffering a tipo de enfermedad, anemia quizá, o que algún mal hereditario había dejado sus rostros carentes de color. Sus ojos eran muy negros y parecían mirar fijamente, aunque sin ver. Pero no se trataba de un defecto de percepción; era como si viesen gracias a un extrasentido invisible para mí. La sensación que experimenté no era predominantemente de miedo, sino de abrumadora curiosidad mezclada con una cada vez mayor intuición de algo extremadamente desconocido no sólo para mi experiencia, sino para mi propia existencia.
Pocas cosas reseñables habían sucedido hasta el momento entre nosotros. Pero en cuanto el semicírculo se completó, y mis visitantes se sat, who ruled the roost pointed to a chair located inside the semicircle and the men sat face.
- Want to take a seat here, Mr. Phillips? He asked.
I did as suggested and I found that I had become the center of attention. More than the object, the focus of their attention: the seven men did not seem looking at me, but looking through me.
"Our intention, Mr Phillips said the one who ruled the roost, who took the gentleman to whom I was found in the Benefit Street, is produced in you some impressions of extraterrestrial life. All you have to do is relax and be receptive.
"I'm ready" I said.
I thought they were going to ask me to soften the light intensity, an issue that is an integral part of these sessions, but did not. They waited a while in silence, a silence broken only by the ticking clock in the hall and the murmur of the city away, and then began what I can only describe as a song, a low hum, not unpleasant, almost lulling, that increased in volume and was interrupted by sounds even imagined words I could not see any. The song they sang, and how they sang, was indescribable, strange, in a minor key, the intervals of the tones did not look like any music system that could Serme familiar ground, although I seemed more Oriental than Western.
I had little time to notice the music, it soon struck me a sense of deep malaise. The faces of the seven men took diffuse and were merged into a blurry face. I had the intolerable feeling that swept me over thousands of years of time. I concluded that some form of hypnosis was responsible for my state, but I did not, the experience that I was submitting was brand new and not unpleasant, but it was a discordant note, as some evil lurking behind the relaxing feelings that build up and dragged me. Gradually, the lamp, the walls and men before him were blotted and vanished. I realized I was still in my house on Angell Street, but at the same time I sensed it had somehow been moved elsewhere, and began to manifest a sense of alarm at the ignorance of my surroundings, and of repulsion and alienation. It was as if she feared the loss of consciousness in a strange place without means to return to the earth, for what they witnessed was an alien scene, the proportions of grandeur and majesty incomprehensible to me.
vast panorama of space whirled before me in a twilight zone, and in the center saw a collection of giant cubes, spread in a turbulent cove violet radiation. Among other figures they moved huge, changing, rugged cones whose height reached ten feet tall and rested on its base consists of a semi-elastic material, scales and packages. From its apex out four flexible, cylindrical, each at least one foot wide, and a similar substance, but more like the meat in the cone. These were the bodies of the members alleged that the crowning. As I observed, had the capacity to contract and expand sometimes up to a similar extent during the height of the cone to which were attached. Two of these members had very sharp claws on the end, while a third had a peak of four appendices red trumpet-shaped, and the fourth ended in a yellow globe two feet in diameter, among whom there were three huge eyes , a dark opal, which, given its position in the elastic member, could turn in any direction. It was a scene I made a great fascination, but at the same time I felt the terrible repellency, given the sheer strangeness and the aura of fearsome discoveries that flowed from it. With clarity and distinction, I could see the figures move, seemed to serve the large cubes, I could see their strange heads were crowned by four large gray stems with appendages like flowers and, at the bottom, winding boasted eight tentacles and resilient, the green alga, constantly agitated in a serpentine motion. These tentacles are contracted and dilated, lengthened and shortened, whipped from side to side as if they had a life independent of that which encouraged the cones, which seemed more lazy. The scene was bathed in a pale red glow, like a dying sun that, having lost his planet, have now occupied the place of the creek violet radiation.
I caused an indescribable impact, it was as if I had been permitted to look into another world, a world vastly more than our own, different from ours by different antipodal values \u200b\u200band ways of life, and away from us in time and space, and while looking to this vast world, I realized, as if this knowledge was introduced to me by a psychic system, which included a race destined to die, a race that had to flee their planet or die. Spontaneously, I sensed the threat of an evil, and with a quick and violent effort, threw the spell of the song that I had taken, externalize the excitement of fear I had, broke into a cry of protest and stood up as the chair sitting miserably fell back
the scene immediately ran to my eyes and the room faded back into focus. In front of me sat my visitors, seven knights like Poe, impassive and silent. sounds that were emitted and the strange humming noise words and tone had ceased. I calmed down and my pulse became slower.
"What I have seen, Mr. Phillips, was a scene of another distant star," said Mr. Allan, "very far away in space. In fact, belong to another universe. Are you convinced?
- Enough! I shouted.
could not tell if my visitors are amused or despise me, do not have any expression, including its spokesman, who merely bowed his head slightly and say
"We're going, then, with your permission.
And silently, one after another, paraded through the door into the street Angell.
That experience had left me a very unpleasant impression. Had no evidence of having seen something from another planet, but he could testify that he had been a prisoner of an extraordinary hallucination, undoubtedly influenced by hypnosis.
But what was its purpose? I thought as he ordered the room. I could not claim any strong reason to show what they had witnessed. Was unable to deny that my visitors were shown to possess extraordinary powers. But to what end? I had to admit I was confused, so the risk of no less than seven men identical, as the amazing experience he had just lived. Quintuplets, was possible, yes, but someone had heard of seven twins? Nor were common in multiple births of children identical. And yet there were seven men more or less the same age and identical in appearance, whose existence could not be any explanation.
not have any palpable meaning the scene before witnessed during the demonstration. Somehow he understood that the major hubs were living, sentient beings for whom violet radiation was like life: I realized that the creatures of the cones were served in some way, but nothing was found to prove it. The whole vision was meaningless: it was one of those scenes could have been created by a highly organized imagination, and telepathically directed to a subject that lends itself to it, for example, myself. It was ridiculous and show the existence of extraterrestrial life, the only thing demonstrated was that I had been the victim of a hallucination induced. But once again it was a vicious circle. As a hallucination, had no reason to be. And yet, that night I did not get around an insistent concern that gripped me for a long time until I could sleep.
IV
strange thing is that my discomfort was increasing as the morning wore on. Despite being accustomed to human curiosities, to frequent and incredible characters and the strange things that was on my night walks by Providence, the circumstances surrounding Mr Allan and his brothers, all so like Poe, were so extraordinary that could take them off of mind.
Instinctively, I quit my job that evening and went to the house of the dead on the banks of the Seekonk, ready to face my companion at night. But the house when I got it, had the appearance of being completely deserted, ragged curtains hung by the window sills and around, all was ashes of neglect.
However, I knocked and waited. There was no response. I called again. There seemed to be no one inside the house. Drawn by curiosity, I tried to open the door. And it opened just touching. Still I hesitated, and looked around. There was nobody in sight, at least two of the houses in the neighborhood were empty. And if I were watching, I did not notice. I opened the door and entered the house. I stood for a moment with my back against the door, to get used to the twilight which filled the rooms. Then I walked cautiously through the small hallway to the next room, a lounge full of upholstered furniture at least twenty years earlier. No sign of humans, although there were indications that not long ago someone had walked in there and had left visible traces in the dust of the ground without mats. I crossed the room and into a small room. The also crossed, and found myself in a kitchen. Like the rest of the rooms had little signs of having been used, since there was no food, and the table looked like it was not used in years. But here too there was a large number of traces showing that the house was inhabited. And the staircase also showed heavy use.
But it was in the back of the house where they discovered what caused me more anxiety. This part of the building was a large room, although it was evident that formerly had been three, because the walls were left without plastering the holes in the walls that had separately. I saw this in the corner of my eye, because what was in the middle of the room attracted my attention. Violet light bathed the room a soft glow emanating from a long block species introduced into a glass, surrounded with a second block, similar and off, machinery of a kind never seen before, except in my dreams .
I went cautiously into the room, alert if someone interrupted my intrusion. No one and nothing moved. I moved closer to the glass case turned purple. There was something in it, although I did not realize this, for me noticed she was on a life-size reproduction of Edgar Allan Poe, enlightened, like everything else, by the same light violet. Could not determine its origin, except that it was enveloped in a glass-like substance forming the container. But when I finally realized what he was up playing Poe, I almost cried with fear, it was a miniature, an exact reproduction of one of these rugged cones had only seen Monday night in the hallucination which had been induced in my house on Angell Street. And the sinuous movement of the tentacles of his head or what I thought was his head indisputably evident that he was alive!
I left quickly with a glance at the other container to make sure it was empty and unoccupied, although many metal tubes connected by another that was parallel to it, I quickly went as quietly as possible, since was convinced that the brothers of the night sleeping above and in my confusion on this inexplicable revelation that placed my hallucination of the night before in other places, would not meet anyone. I left the house quietly, but I thought I saw the shadow of one of those faces are so similar to that of Poe in one of the upper windows. I ran along the streets that bound to the Seekonk Providence River, ran for many blocks before starting to walk more slowly, it began to attract attention in my crazy race.
As he walked, trying to sort my chaotic thoughts. Could give no explanation for what he had seen, but I knew intuitively that I had encountered a threatening danger too dark and repellent, and perhaps too vast to comprehend. I looked for a meaning but I could not find any, never had a very scientific preparation, other than chemistry and astronomy, so I was not prepared to understand the use of machines as large as those seen in the house around the block on violet where the cone was rough in warm and encouraging life-bearing radiation. In fact he could not assimilate even the same machine, because there was only a remote resemblance to something that might have seen before, like the dynamo of a power plant. Machines were all connected in some way the two blocks, and glass containers, if the material was glass, "one occupied, the other empty and dark, also linked by tubes.
But he had seen enough to convince me that the fraternal clan dark walking through the streets Providence overnight with dress and appearance of Edgar Allan Poe walked on grounds different from mine, theirs were not simple curiosity about the characters at night, colleagues of the night walkers. Perhaps the darkness was their most natural state, as sunlight was to most people, but their motives were sinister, could not doubt. However, I could not imagine what would happen next.
finally directed my steps towards the library, with the vague hope of stumbling upon something that would give me a key to get to understand what he had seen. But nothing. As much as I looked I did not find any key, no clue, but I read carefully all conceivable reference, including Poe's stay in Providence, within my reach on the shelves, and later left the library, as bewildered as when they had arrived.
Perhaps it was inevitable to meet again with Mr. Allan again that night. There was no way of knowing if my visit to his house had been observed, although he thought he saw an observer in the upstairs window at the time of my flight, when I was a bit embarrassed. But this suspicion of mine could not have any basis, because when I met with Mr Allan later, and greeted him on the street Benefit, there was nothing in his attitude or his words that leave notice his possible knowledge of my intrusion. Now, I already knew his ability to keep your face impervious to any expression: humor, disgust, even anger or irritation were alien to his face, which never left the mask introspective characterized Poe.
"I hope you've recovered from our experiment, Mr. Phillips said, after exchanging the usual phrases.
-Totally, "I answered, though it was not true. Add something about a sudden framework, which had precipitated the end of the experiment.
"It's one of the outside world what he saw, Mr. Phillips," continued Mr. Allan. Are many. One hundred thousand at least. Life is not the exclusive property of the Earth. Nor life as human beings. Life takes many forms on other planets and stars, shapes that would appear strange to humans, as human life is foreign to these other forms of life.
For once, Mr Allan was shown singularly communicative, and I had little to say. It was clear, he believed me or not that what he saw was a hallucination, even before the discovery I had made at my companion, he unreservedly believed in what he said. He spoke of many worlds, as if all of them are relatives. At one point he spoke almost reverently of certain forms of life, particularly those who had an amazing ability to adapt to take the life forms on other planets in his relentless pursuit of the necessary conditions for their existence.
"The star that I saw-him-inrerrumpí was dying.
"Yes," she said simply.
- Have you seen?
"I've seen, Mr. Phillips.
I listened with relief. Since it was impossible for any man's life could see from outer space, what I had experienced was nothing more than the transmission of a hallucination of Mr. Allan and his brothers. Telepathic communication, certainly helped by a kind of hypnosis that he had not experienced before. Still could not shake the unsettling feeling of danger that surrounded my companion at night, or the malaise that had overtaken me, because that explanation was quick to accept me was extremely naive.
As I, I presented my apologies to Mr. Allan and me marché. I went quickly and directly to the University with the hope of finding a Rose Dexter, but he was gone, if they were there. I went to the pay phone and called the building home. Rose answered, and I confess I felt an instant sense of relief.
- Have you seen Mr. Allan tonight? I asked.
"Yes" he replied. But only briefly. His way to the library.
"I've seen him.
"He asked me to come to his house one night to see an experiment," he continued.
"Do not go," I said immediately. There was a long silence on the other side of the phone.
- Why not? "Unfortunately I did not realize the tone of cruelty in his voice.
-would be preferable if you were not, "I said as firmly as I could.
- Do not you think, Mr. Phillips, who am I to decide? "I hastened to assure him that I was not one to judge his actions and only suggested he could be dangerous to go.
- Why?
"I can not tell you over the phone," I said, convinced that sounded silly, and that while it was true that he could not put into words all the terrible suspicion that had begun to appear in my mind, they were so fantastic, so strange, nobody would believe them.
"I'll think," said ruptured case.
-try to explain when I see "I promised.
I said good night and hung with an intransigence that did not bode well and that left me deeply concerned.
0 comments:
Post a Comment