The Dark Other by Stanley G. Weinbaum (new ebook reader .txt) 📕

just haven’t the strength. I haven’t the courage. I can’t do it!”

“Never mind, Honey,” the Doctor muttered, regarding her with an expression of concern. “You’re probably well out of the mess. I know damn well you haven’t told me everything about this affair⁠—notably, how you acquired that ugly mark on your arm that’s so carefully powdered over. So, all in all, I guess you’re well out of it.”

“I suppose I am.” Her voice was still weary. Suddenly the glare of headlights drew her attention to the window; a car was stopping before her home. “There’s Mother,” she said. “I’ll go on back now, Dr. Carl, and thanks for entertaining a lonesome and depressed lady.”

She rose with a casual glance through the window, then halted in frozen astonishment and a trace of terror.

“Oh!” she gasped. The car was the modest coupe of Nicholas Devine.

She peered through the window; the Doctor rose and stared over her shoulder. “I told him to come,” she whispered. “I told him to come when he was able. He heard me, he or⁠—the other.”

A figure alighted from the vehicle. Even in the dusk she could perceive the exhaustion, the weariness in its movements. She pressed her face to the pane, surveying the form with fascinated intentness. It turned, supporting itself against the car and gazing steadily at her own door. With the movement the radiance of a streetlight illuminated its features.

“It’s Nick!” she cried with such eagerness that the Doctor was startled. “It’s my Nick!”

XXII Doctor and Devil

Pat rushed to the door, out upon the porch, and down to the street. Dr. Horker followed her to the entrance and stood watching her as she darted toward the dejected figure beside the car.

“Nick!” she cried. “I’m here, Honey. You heard me, didn’t you?”

She flung herself into his arms; he held her eagerly, pressing a hasty, tender kiss on her lips.

“You heard me!” she murmured.

“Yes.” His voice was husky, strained. “What is it, Pat? Tell me quickly⁠—God knows how much time we have!”

“It’s Dr. Carl. He’ll help us, Nick.”

“Help us! No one can help us, dear. No one!”

“He’ll try. It can’t do any harm, Honey. Come in with me. Now!”

“It’s useless, I tell you!”

“But come,” she pleaded. “Come anyway!”

“Pat, I tell you this battle has to be fought out by me alone. I’m the only one who can do anything at all and,” he lowered his voice, “Pat, I’m losing!”

“Nick!”

“That’s why I came tonight. I was too cowardly to make our last meeting⁠—Monday evening in the park⁠—a definite farewell. I wanted to, but I weakened. So tonight, Pat, it’s a final goodbye, and you thank Heaven for it!”

“Oh, Nick dear!”

“It was touch and go whether I came at all tonight. It was a struggle, Pat; he is as strong as I am now. Or stronger.”

The girl gazed searchingly into his worn, weary face. He looked miserably ill, she thought; he seemed as exhausted as one who had been engaged in a physical battle.

“Nick,” she said insistently, “I don’t care what you say, you’re coming in with me. Only for a little while.”

She tugged at his hand, dragging him reluctantly after her. He followed her to the porch where the open door still framed the great figure of the Doctor.

“You know Dr. Carl,” she said.

“Come inside,” growled Horker. Pat noticed the gruffness of his voice, his lack of any cordiality, but she said nothing as she pulled her reluctant companion through the door and into the library.

The Doctor drew up another chair, and Pat, more accustomed to his devices, observed that he placed it in such position that the lamp cast a stream of radiance on Nick’s face. She sank into her own chair and waited silently for developments.

“Well,” said Horker, turning his shrewd old eyes on Nick’s countenance, “let’s get down to cases. Pat’s told me what she knows; we can take that much for granted. Is there anything more you might want to tell?”

“No, sir,” responded the youth wearily. “I’ve told Pat all I know.”

“Humph! Maybe I can ask some leading questions, then. Will you answer them?”

“Of course, any that I can.”

“All right. Now,” the Doctor’s voice took on a cool professional edge, “you’ve had these⁠—uh⁠—attacks as long as you can remember. Is that right?”

“Yes.”

“But they’ve been more severe of late?”

“Much worse, sir!”

“Since when?”

“Since⁠—about as long as I’ve known Pat. Four or five weeks.”

“M⁠—m,” droned the Doctor. “You’ve no idea of the cause for this increase in the malignancy of the attacks?”

“No sir,” said Nick, after a barely perceptible hesitation.

“You don’t think the cause could be in any way connected with, let us say, the emotional disturbances attending your acquaintance with Pat here?”

“No, sir,” said the youth flatly.

“All right,” said Horker. “Let that angle go for the present. Are there any after effects from these spells?”

“Yes. There’s always a splitting headache.” He closed his eyes. “I have one of them now.”

“Localized?”

“Sir?”

“Is the pain in any particular region? Forehead, temples, eyes, or so forth?”

“No. Just a nasty headache.”

“But no other aftereffects?”

“I can’t think of any others. Except, perhaps, a feeling of exhaustion after I’ve gone through what I’ve just finished.” He closed his eyes as if to shut out the recollection.

“Well,” mused the Doctor, “we’ll forget the physical symptoms. What happens to your individuality, your own consciousness, while you’re suffering an attack?”

“Nothing happens to it,” said Nick with a suppressed shudder. “I watch and hear, but what he does is beyond my control. It’s terrifying⁠—horrible!” he burst out suddenly.

“Doubtless,” responded Horker smoothly. “What about the other? Does that one stand by while you’re in the saddle?”

“I don’t know,” muttered Nick dully. “Of course he does!” he added abruptly. “I can feel his presence at all times⁠—even now. He’s always lurking, waiting to spring forth, as soon as I relax!”

“Humph!” ejaculated the Doctor. “How do you manage to sleep?”

“By waiting for exhaustion,” said Nick wearily. “By waiting until I can stay awake no longer.”

“And can you bring this other personality into dominance? Can you change controls, so to