"Subbasement?" " I pushed ground." " So did I." "Well, why didn't it open?" "Looks like some sort of a club." "Never knew there was one in the building." "This elevator has no push buttons." "And there's no way out." "Someone's bound to come down here soon." "Why not make the best of it?" " Good idea." "Let's do that." " Why not?" "Might as well, I suppose." " Thank you." " Strange situation." "Almost like a dream." "Dreams are much more frightening than this." "At least mine are." "Really?" "In what way?" "Strange." "Mysterious." "Unworldly." "Almost unbelievable." "Oh?" "But so real." "One feels sometimes that it's actually happening." "Why don't you tell us about it?" "All right, I will." "Well?" "You found her." "Where?" "Where?" "That's where she lives." "I didn't like the town at all." "Something strange about it." "And nobody knew I hired you?" "Nobody saw you come here?" "I'm good at my job." "Everything confidential." "Thanks." "Any time." "Thank you." "You're a stranger in town, aren't you?" "Yes." "It's getting dark." "You'd better get inside somewhere." "I'd like a menu, please." "I'm sorry, sir but we're closing." "But it's dinnertime." "You can't close before 7:00 at night." "It's getting dark." "We always close before dark." "They come out in the dark." "Who?" " Who's there?" " It's your brother." "Harold." "Come in." "Quickly!" "So you've found me at last." "Took me a long time." "What do you want?" "I've come to see you." "After all, you are my sister." "Why have you buried yourself in a place like this?" "Why is everyone so afraid of the dark here?" " Because of them." " "Them"?" "There have been 17 cases so far." "Bodies found with every drop of blood drained out of them." "Now, tell me why you wanted to find me so badly." "Father died four weeks ago." "I've been looking for you ever since." "You're his heir, you know." "You always were his favorite." "He left you everything." "For as long as you live." "No!" "No!" "Good evening." "The Table d'hôte is rather nice, sir..." "Juice, soup, roast, sweet, coffee." "Sounds fine." "Ah." "Tomato juice." "Ah, yes, it, um, tastes rather... strange." "It is our usual, sir." "Oh." "And now, how would you like your roast clots?" "Well done?" "Medium?" "Rare?" "Roast what?" "Clots." "Blood clots." "No!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "Much better than the frozen stuff." "Quite a nice bouquet." " A good year!" " Very fresh." "I'll have a glass too, please." "A recurrent dream." "More." "Oh, much more." "It's hard to explain." "It's with me all the time." "Do you have a sister?" "No." "No." "It's just a dream." "We all have something like it." "And you..." "What's your dream?" "Why not his first?" "My what?" "Dream." "Vision." "Phobia." "Obsession." "Fear." "Whatever you want to call it." "My dream is a very peculiar one." "Very peculiar indeed." "But so real." "So real." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Well, Wilson, as they say, congratulations are in order." "I'm going to get married." "At your age?" "I've spent a lot of time amassing a fortune, acquiring a lovely house, filling it full of beautiful things." "Now I need somebody to look after them." "And me, of course." " Who's the lucky girl?" " Oh, nobody you would know." "The daughter of a chum of mine... sir George Melsh." "Little Eleanor?" "Well, she's not little now." "She's grown up." " Very charming, really." " But why on earth should she marry you?" "Well, I think of myself as somewhat of a catch, really." "Very easy to get on with, actually." "Eleanor." "Eleanor!" "You've moved the furniture." "Yes, I thought it would look better if I..." "But you've moved the furniture!" " I go for a magazine and it isn't there." " You must admit it looks nicer." "But you've moved the furniture!" "I'll never be able to find anything!" "If it bothers you that much..." "Well, of course..." "Of course it bothers me." "There's a place for everything, and everything in its place." "That's how businesses run, that's how societies run, and that is how a home should be run." "Yes, Arthur." "Morning, my dear." "Sleep well?" "What's this?" "They're mine." "Yours?" "What are they doing in my drawer?" "I moved your things to your side of the bed." "But my underpants have always been in the second drawer, on the left, buttons on top." "How can one live in chaos?" "Come with me." "I want to show you something." "Come on." "No, no, this way." "This way." "Now, Eleanor, this is my workshop." "I love making things." "It relaxes me." "But I couldn't make anything... unless I kept all my things neatly filed away." "Nails... size, length." "Screws..." "size, kind, thread, diameter." "I know where everything is." "I just have to put out my hand, and I find it." "And that, Eleanor, is the value of neatness." "Yes, Arthur." "Why did you marry him, Eleanor?" "Father had no money." "I had no ability, no profession." "What else was I to do?" "Besides, he's quite nice, really." " Except..." " Except for what?" "Well, there's nothing I seem to be able to do for him... except keep his house tidy." "Oh, darling, darling." "Don't go into the kitchen." "Come and sit over here." "I'll do the cooking tonight." "It's high time I illustrated to you what a splendid cook I am." "Now, just sit down there, make yourself perfectly comfortable." "I did a lot of cooking when I lived alone." "Developed into quite a chef, actually." "Oh." "Spaghetti Pomodoro?" "Tomatoes." "Al dente, of course." "Tomatoes." "No tomatoes." "Ah." "Puree." "Tomato puree." "Tomato puree..." "No tomato puree." ""Spaghetti sauce"." "All right..." "Eleanor." "Eleanor!" "No tomatoes." "No tomato puree." "No spaghetti sauce." " Nothing!" " I must have forgotten." "But there's no excuse to forget!" "Come over here!" "Come on." "My dear, inside the doors of these cupboards is a list of all the items in the cupboard." "Against each item are three marks." "Every time you use one of the items, you erase one of the marks." "This is the eraser right here, so you can never have an empty space." "But... two marks, tomato puree." "No tomato puree." "Three marks, spaghetti sauce!" "No spaghetti sauce!" "You haven't even bothered!" "Eleanor?" "Eleanor?" "Eleanor?" "Good morning, darling." " Did you do all this?" " Last night." "How splendid." "How absolutely splendid!" "All correct!" "Darling." "What a smashing breakfast." "Absolutely marvellous." "I could do with this." "I've a very hard day ahead of me." "True, I'll be back at 6:00 as usual." "He'll be back at 6:00." "Eleanor!" "I wanted to hang a picture." "I came down for the nail." "You've messed up my whole house." "Can't you do anything neatly?" "Can't you?" "Can't you do anything neatly?" "Can't you do anything neatly?" "Can't you?" "Can't you do anything neatly?" "Can't you do anything neatly?" "There, Arthur." "You said I couldn't be neat." "But I was." "I tidied up everything after I finished." "All neat and tidy." "Everything in its place and a place for everything." "And are you neat and tidy?" "Not more than anybody else." " And yet..." " Yet what?" "It's all so real." "I know the feeling." "I've had it often with..." "What?" "I'll tell you." "I have before me a magic basket blessed by the gods of the temple." "I open it." "Akbar!" "I give you my blessing!" "May the gods protect you from all danger." "Pray for the soul of the one within." "The gods be praised for this mystic miracle." "And now for demonstration of supernatural power of human body to withstand pain through the power of mind." " It is a trick." " No pain." "Mystic power of yoga." "Excuse me, please." "Excuse me." "The real one is in his sleeve." "No gods." "No supernatural powers." "No yoga." "Just tricks." "Huh?" "As a fellow magician," "I can assure you of that." "Oh, it's hot in here." "And that doesn't seem to do any good." "Darling, why don't we just pack up and go home?" "Ah, we wanted to see the land of ancient mystery." "Well, we've seen it." "There isn't a mystery in sight." "There isn't even a new trick for our act." "Let's give it another day or two." "How much?" "How much do you want for the trick?" "Name your price." "There is no trick." "The magic is in the rope." "Okay, then, sell me the rope." "I cannot." "It was my mother's, and her mother's, and her mother's." "I'll give you... 40,000 rupees." "It is not for sale, not at any price." "Of course it's a trick." "It has to be." "But I examined the basket, the rope, and I couldn't see how it was rigged." "And she wouldn't sell it?" "If I couldn't figure out how it worked, no one else would be able to." "It could be a sensation." "We've got to get it." "Uh, the trick you showed me yesterday..." " No trick." " Of course." "Uh, the magic you showed me..." "I told my wife about it and she wondered if you couldn't show it to her." "No, you know, my wife is ill and we wondered if you couldn't come to our hotel room." "I'll pay you 200 rupees just to show it to her." "Thank you." "Just a moment." "Come in." "This is my wife, Inez." "I am sorry you are ill." "Thank you." "We'll put her in the trunk later." "Let's see what the trick is first." "She said the secret is in the rope." "But it isn't hollow." "There's no wire in it." "Nothing!" "Look!" "Keep playing!" "Keep playing!" "It holds me!" "I can climb it!" "And now, just as it will be in our act..." "Inez!" "Inez!" "Where are you?" "I have before me... a magic basket blessed by the gods of the temple." "I'll open it." "Akbar?" "I give you my blessing." "May the gods protect you from all danger." "You look as though you've seen a ghost." "There are no such things as ghosts, except in magicians' illusions." "Well, I have a similar vision." " Do you?" " Similar fear." "Similar, but not quite." "It begins in a graveyard," "in a grave..." "A freshly dug grave." "My grave." "Buried alive." "How did it happen?" "I remember now." "I remember." "It's a surefire plan, Alex." "Now, this will cut down my pulse and heartbeat..." "My entire metabolism..." "So that even the best doctor will think that I'm dead." "Now, these are pills I'd be taking if I had a heart condition, so it'll look as though I've had an attack." "There'll be no trouble getting a death certificate." "You must make absolutely sure that I'm buried not more than 24 hours... after I... die." "Then all you have to do is wait until night, dig me up... and I'll hide at your place while you collect the insurance money." "And we're off and away." "You know, it would have made a really great story." "But I'd have been lucky to get £50 for it." "There's no money in horror." "And once you've collected the insurance money, friend Alex," "I shan't need you anymore." "The perfect plan." "Perfect." "The perfect plan, except for one thing." "I'll never learn it." "I will never pass the anatomy course." "Trouble is, we can only work in the dissection room for the short periods we're assigned to it." "If only we had a body of our own." "What?" "We could work on it when we wanted to." "Mr. Maitland." "Mr. Maitland?" "Damn it!" "Sorry if I gave you a fright." "You got the money?" "After we get the body." " What do you want his body for?" " We're ghouls." "Air giving out." "Hurry, Alex." "Hurry!" "Watch where you're throwing it, will you!" "Throw it that way!" "Sorry." "Did you hear a cough?" " No." " No." "Should be just about waking up now." "I wonder how long it'll take before he realizes his friend Alex isn't coming." "Alex!" "Hurry!" "Oi!" "You can give me the money now." "He's all yours." "Sorry about the head." "A preposterous story." "But it seemed so real." " Almost as if..." " You were going to do it?" "But why that one?" "Why that particular nightmare?" "Why are you interested in his nightmare?" "It's yours that you're really concerned with, isn't it?" "Mine begins on an island." "A tropical island." "The island of Haiti." "Hey." "Hey!" "Well, don't you remember me?" "Bob." "Bob Dixon!" " What are you doing here?" " I had some business in Port-Au-Prince." "I heard your name mentioned in a bar." " How's the work going?" " Not bad, I think." "Self-portrait." "But, like all my work, it'll be scorned, considered worthless." "What do you mean, worthless?" "I saw one sold only a few weeks ago for £5,000." "5,000?" "Sold by whom?" "Arthur Gaskill, in his gallery." "He sold it on behalf of Lawrence Diltant." " But why such a price?" " Your pictures!" "They've been highly praised by no less an art critic than Fenton Breedley." "Fenton Breedley?" "F..." "Fenton..." "Hello?" " What do you wish?" " To buy voodoo." "Why?" "To get revenge on those who wronged me." " What do you do?" " I'm an artist." "Put the hand you paint with into pot." " No." " You want voodoo?" "You must do it." "Now what?" "Will I get a little doll to stick pins into?" "You are artist." "You don't need doll." "Now go." "This will get me to London and then you'll get it all back and lots more." "Thanks." "Glad your old studio was available?" "Yes." " Nice to see you back." " Thank you." "Thank you." "Oh, I bought the safe exactly as you said in your letter." " And here's the combination." " Thank you." "Oh, I brought you some milk and bread, in case you wanted a cup of tea." "Yes, yes." "Thank you." " You cheated me." " You cheated yourself." "If you had any faith in your work, you wouldn't have listened to what Fenton said about your paintings or what Arthur said about their saleability." "You wouldn't have sold them to me at the price you did." " You were all in it together." " That's the way of the world." "You buy cheap, you sell dear." "And pay a critic to tell lies so you can do it." "No." "You cheated me." "All three of you." "And I'm going to have revenge." "Fenton Breedley, art critic, you saw my pictures and you lied about them to the public." "Now, Mr. Art critic, you will never see another picture again." "I tell you, she doesn't mean a thing to me." "How long have you been seeing her?" "Look, darling, it doesn't mean I don't love you." "You're my wife." "But we're living in the 20th century now." "You'll never see another woman again!" "Arthur Gaskill, art dealer, you lied to me." "You told me that my pictures were worthless and that you couldn't handle them." "You won't handle anything again." "No, no, no." "That's not the way." "You're doing it all wrong." "Look." "I don't know why we employ you." "Now watch." "Like that." "See?" "Just use your intelligence." "I'll show you once more." "See?" "No!" "No!" "No!" "Now, Mr. Diltant, you... can wait until tomorrow." "Mr. Moore is here to see you." "He doesn't have an appointment." "Tell him to come in." "Then you can go." "Read about them then?" "Now it's your turn." "You have two minutes... to live." "Don't move." "Just want to show you something." "It's only a pen." "A red felt pen." "Taxi!" "Taxi!" "That's your story." "Well, we all have our cross to bear, haven't we?" "But it seemed so real, almost as if it happened." " Happened?" " Or could." "You think that our fears could be a sort of warning?" "A warning of what may happen?" "Nonsense." "Where are we?" "That's how it is and how it always will be." "Night after night, we have to retell... the evil things we did when we were alive." "Night after night for all eternity."