CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Annie had fallen on the main pile of burning paper; her body had stopped it burning. Paul crawled towards his wheelchair. He had strained his back, there were blisters¹ all over his right hand, his head ached and his stomach rolled with the sick-sweet smell of burned flesh. But he was free. The Dragon Lady was dead and he was free. He was halfway² to his wheelchair when Annie opened her eyes. Paul watched, unbelieving, while she got slowly to her knees. Perhaps she could not be killed! Her eyes were staring and horrible. A huge wound, pink-red, showed through her hair on the left side of her head. Blood poured down her face. 'Durd!' Annie cried through her throatful of paper. She began to crawl towards him. Paul turned away from her and started to crawl for the door. 82 He could hear her behind him. He started across the broken glass and then he felt her hand close around the stump³ of his left ankle. He screamed. 'Dirt!' Annie cried. Paul looked round to see whether she had spat⁴ out the paper, but she hadn't, and her face was starting to turn purple. It was easy for him to pull his leg out of her grasp because there was no foot for her to hold on to. But she reached out again and seized him higher up the leg. Some broken glass stabbed into his elbow as he continued trying to crawl away. 'AW . . . GAW! OOO OW!' He turned again and now her face was nearly black. He reached for the doorframe and pulled hard on it to try to escape, but her hand closed on his thigh⁵. 'No!' he cried in fear and desperation. He felt her hands run like spiders up his back and reach his neck. He felt the weight of her body on his legs, pinning him to the floor. She moved further up his body, trapping him. It was difficult for him to breathe. 'GAW! OOO . . . BIRT! DIRT!' The Dragon Lady, on top of him. She seemed dark and immense. The air was driven out of her lungs as she fell on to him, and her hands dug deep into his neck. He screamed: 'Die! Can't you die? Can't you ever die?' Suddenly her hands went loose and she lay heavily on top of him. He pulled himself out from underneath⁶ her body and crawled into the hall. Annie lay silent and face down in blood and spilled champagne⁷ and pieces of green glass. Was she dead? She must be dead. Paul did not believe she was dead. He shut the door and reached up to turn the key in the lock. He lay down, in pain and exhaustion⁸, on the floor. He stayed there, only half conscious, for an unknown period of time. He only moved eventually when he heard a scratching sound. At first he thought it was the rats in the cellar. Then Annie's thick 83 bloodstained fingers crept under the door and tried to seize the end of his shirt. Paul screamed and punched at the fingers with his fist. The fingers did not disappear back under the door, but at least they lay still. Paul crawled further down the hall, towards the bathroom. He was in terrible pain now, from his legs, his back and his burned hand. As soon as he was inside he found the packets of Novril and swallowed three tablets. He sat with his back against the door and slept. When he woke up it was dark. He listened carefully for any noises outside in the corridor. The more he listened the more he seemed to hear slight noises. This is crazy, he told himself. She's dead . . . But what was that? Was that a light footstep in the hall? . . . and she is in a locked room. She could have escaped through the window. Paul, she's DEAD! Paul had a problem. He needed to check on something. He wanted to make sure that the typescript was safe . . . the real typescript. What Annie had seen and tried to save was just a pile of blank pages and old, uncorrected pages which he had collected. He had put the title-page on the top so that Annie would believe it was the book; but the real typescript was in his room, under the bed. He wanted it safe, he wanted people to read it. He knew it was the best book he had written. That was the problem. Did he have the courage to go back into the room to get the typescript? Suppose Annie was still alive! He crawled slowly down the hall towards his room. In the shadows he imagined Annie everywhere: waiting for him in the sitting-room⁹ or further down the corridor. The boards on the floor made a noise behind him and he turned round. Nothing . . . this time. Outside a car door shut and he heard a man's voice say, 'God! Look at this, will you?' 'In here!' he screamed. 'In here! I'm in here!' It was the two policemen from the day before. When they i 84 managed to understand what Paul was saying they looked in his room. Paul stayed in the corridor. They came out again and the detective said, 'There's no one there. There's a hell of a mess - blood and wine and stuff - and the window's broken, but there's no woman in there.' Paul was still screaming when he fainted. They told him later that they found her in the barn. She was dead, but she was grasping the axe¹⁰ tightly in her hands and was on her way back towards the house.

1 blisters   

n.水疱( blister的名词复数 )；水肿；气泡

参考例句：

• My new shoes have made blisters on my heels. 我的新鞋把我的脚跟磨起泡了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His new shoes raised blisters on his feet. 他的新鞋把他的脚磨起了水疱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

3 stump   

n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走

参考例句：

• He went on the stump in his home state.他到故乡所在的州去发表演说。
• He used the stump as a table.他把树桩用作桌子。

4 spat   

n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声

参考例句：

• Her parents always have spats.她的父母经常有些小的口角。
• There is only a spat between the brother and sister.那只是兄妹间的小吵小闹。

5 thigh   

n.大腿；股骨

参考例句：

• He is suffering from a strained thigh muscle.他的大腿肌肉拉伤了，疼得很。
• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。

6 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

7 champagne   

n.香槟酒；微黄色

参考例句：

• There were two glasses of champagne on the tray.托盘里有两杯香槟酒。
• They sat there swilling champagne.他们坐在那里大喝香槟酒。

8 exhaustion   

n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述

参考例句：

• She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
• His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。

9 sitting-room   

n.（BrE）客厅，起居室

参考例句：

• The sitting-room is clean.起居室很清洁。
• Each villa has a separate sitting-room.每栋别墅都有一间独立的起居室。

10 axe   

n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减

参考例句：

• Be careful with that sharp axe.那把斧子很锋利，你要当心。
• The edge of this axe has turned.这把斧子卷了刃了。