Nightmare At 20,000 Feet

by Richard Matheson

"Jules!"

  "I want to have a foul breath that stinks of dead earth and crypts and sweet coffins."

  The teacher shuddered. Her hands twitched on her green blotter. She couldn't believe her ears. She looked at the children. They were gaping. Some of them were giggling. But not the girls.

  "I want to be all cold and have rotten flesh with stolen blood in the veins."

  "That will… hrrumph!"

  The teacher cleared her throat mightily.

  "That will be all Jules," she said.

  Jules talked louder and desperately.

  "I want to sink my terrible white teeth in my victims' necks. I want them to…"

  "Jules! Go to your seat this instant!"

  "I want them to slide like razors in the flesh and into the veins," read Jules ferociously

  The teacher jolted to her feet. Children were shivering. None of them were giggling.

  "Then I want to draw my teeth out and let the blood flow easy in my mouth and run hot in my throat and…"

  The teacher grabbed his arm. Jules tore away and ran to a corner. Barricaded behind a stool he yelled:

  "And drip off my tongue and run out my lips down my victims' throats! I want to drink girls' blood!"

  The teacher lunged for him. She dragged him out of the corner. He clawed at her and screamed all the way to the door and the principal's office.

  "That is my ambition! That is my ambition! That is my ambition?"

  It was grim.

  Jules was locked in his room. The teacher and the principal sat with Jules's parents. They were talking in sepulchral voices.

  They were recounting the scene.

  All along the block parents were discussing it. Most of them didn't believe it at first. They thought their children made it up.

  Then they thought what horrible children they'd raised if the children could make up such things.

  So they believed it.

  After that everyone watched Jules like a hawk. People avoided his touch and look. Parents pulled their children off the street when he approached. Everyone whispered tales of him.

  There were more absence notes.

  Jules told his mother he wasn't going to school anymore. Nothing would change his mind. He never went again.

  When a truant officer came to the apartment Jules would run over the roofs until he was far away from there.

  A year wasted by

  Jules wandered the streets searching for something; he didn't know what. He looked in alleys. He looked in garbage cans. He looked in lots. He looked on the east side and the west side and in the middle.

  He couldn't find what he wanted.

  He rarely slept. He never spoke. He stared down all the time. He forgot his special words.

  Then.

  One day in the park, Jules strolled through the zoo.

  An electric shock passed through him when he saw the vampire bat.

  His eyes grew wide and his discoloured teeth shone dully in a wide smile.

  From that day on, Jules went daily to the zoo and looked at the bat. He spoke to it and called it the Count. He felt in his heart it was really a man who had changed.

  A rebirth of culture struck him.

  He stole another book from the library. It told all about wild life.

  He found the page on the vampire bat. He tore it out and threw the book away.

  He learned the selection by heart.

  He knew how the bat made its wound. How it lapped up the blood like a kitten drinking cream. How it walked on folded wing stalks and hind legs like a black furry spider. Why it took no nourishment but blood.

  Month after month Jules stared at the bat and talked to it. It became the one comfort in his life. The one symbol of dreams come true.

  One day Jules noticed that the bottom of the wire covering

  the cage had come loose.

  He looked around, his black eyes shifting. He didn't see anyone looking. It was a cloudy day. Not many people were there. Jules tugged at the wire. It moved a little. Then he saw a man come out of the monkey house. So he pulled back his hand and strolled away whistling a song he had just made up.

  Late at night, when he was supposed to be asleep he would walk barefoot past his parents' room. He would hear his father and mother snoring. He would hurry out, put on his shoes and run to the zoo.

  Every time the watchman was not around, Jules would tug at the wiring.

  He kept on pulling it loose.

  When he was finished and had to run home, he pushed the wire in again. Then no one could tell.

  All day Jules would stand in front of the cage and look at the Count and chuckle and tell him he'd soon be free again.

  He told the Count all the things he knew. He told the Count he was going to practice climbing down walls head first.

  He told the Count not to worry. He'd soon be out. Then, together, they could go all around and drink girls' blood.

  One night Jules pulled the wire out and crawled under it into the cage.

  It was very dark.

  He crept on his knees to the little wooden house. He listened to see if he could hear the Count squeaking.

  He stuck his arm in the black doorway. He kept whispering.

  He jumped when he felt a needle jab in his finger.

  With a look of great pleasure on his thin face, Jules drew the fluttering hairy bat to him.

  He climbed down from the cage with it and ran out of the zoo; out of the park. He ran down the silent streets.

  It was getting late in the morning. Light touched the dark skies with gray. He couldn't go home. He had to have a place.

  He went down an alley and climbed over a fence. He held tight to the bat. It lapped at the dribble of blood from his finger.

  He went across a yard and into a little deserted shack.

  It was dark inside and damp. It was full of rubble and tin cans and soggy cardboard and excrement.

  Jules made sure there was no way the bat could escape.

  Then he pulled the door tight and put a stick through the metal loop.

  He felt his heart beating hard and his limbs trembling. He let go of the bat. It flew to a dark corner and hung on the wood.

  Jules feverishly tore off his shirt. His lips shook. He smiled a crazy smile.

  He reached down into his pants pocket and took out a little pen knife he had stolen from his mother.

  He opened it and ran a finger over the blade. It sliced through the flesh.

  With shaking fingers he jabbed at his throat. He hacked. The blood ran through his fingers.

  "Count! Count!" he cried in frenzied joy. "Drink my red blood! Drink me! Drink me!"

  He stumbled over the tin cans and slipped and felt for the bat. It sprang from the wood and soared across the shack and fastened itself on the other side.

  Tears ran down Jules's cheeks.

  He gritted his teeth. The blood ran across his shoulders and across his thin hairless chest.

  His body shook in fever. He staggered back toward the other side. He tripped and felt his side torn open on the sharp edge of a tin can.

  His hands went out. They clutched the bat. He placed it against his throat. He sank on his back on the cool wet earth. He sighed.

  He started to moan and clutch at his chest. His stomach heaved. The black bat on his neck silently lapped his blood.

  Jules felt his life seeping away.

  He thought of all the years past. The waiting. His parents. School. Dracula. Dreams. For this. This sudden glory.

  Jules's eyes flickered open.

  The inside of the reeking shack swam about him.

  It was hard to breathe. He opened his mouth to gasp in the air. He sucked it in. It was foul. It made him cough. His skinny body lurched on the cold ground.

  Mists crept away in his brain.

  One by one like drawn veils.

  Suddenly his mind was filled with terrible clarity.

  He felt the aching pain in his side.

  He knew he was lying
half naked on garbage and letting a flying bat drink his blood.

  With a strangled cry, he reached up and tore away the furry throbbing bat. He flung it away from him. It came back, fanning his face with its vibrating wings.

  Jules staggered to his feet.

  He felt for the door. He could hardly see. He tried to stop his throat from bleeding so.

  He managed to get the door open.

  Then, lurching into the dark yard, he fell on his face in the long grass blades.

  He tried to call out for help.

  But no sounds save a bubbling mockery of words came from his lips.

  He heard the fluttering wings.

  Then, suddenly they were gone.

  Strong fingers lifted him gently. Through dying eyes Jules saw the tall dark man whose eyes shone like rubies.

  "My son," the man said.

  4 – THROUGH CHANNELS

  Click

  Swish swish swish

  All set, Sergeant?

  Set.

  Okay. This recording made on January fifteenth, nineteen fifty-four, twenty-third precinct police… '

  Swish

  … in the presence of Detective James Taylor and, uh, Sergeant Louis Ferazzio.

  Swish swish

  Name, please.

  Huh?

  What's your name, son?

  My name?

  Come on, son, we're trying to help you.

  Swish

  L-Leo.

  Last name.

  I d-don't… Leo.

  What's your last name, son?

  Vo… Vo…

  All right, son. Take it easy.

  V-Vogel.

  Leo Vogel. That it?

  Yeah.

  Address?

  T-twenny two thirty, avena J.

  Age?

  I'm… almost… Where's… my ma?

  Swish swish

  Turn it off a minute, Sergeant.

  Right.

  Click

  Click

  Swish

  All right, son. Okay now?

  Y-yeah. But where…?

  You're how old?

  Fi-fifteen.

  Now, uh, where were you last night from six o'clock till you went home?

  I was… at… at the show. Ma give… give me the dough.

  How come you didn't stay home to watch television with your parents?

  'Cause. Because…

  Yes?

  The Le-Lenottis was comin' over to watch it with them.

  They came often?

  N-no. It was the first time they'd… ever come.

  Uh-huh. So your mother sent you to the movies.

  Y-yeah.

  Sergeant, give the kid some of that coffee. And see if you can him find a blanket.

  Right away, chief

  Now, uh, son. What time did you get out of the movies?

  Time? I… don't know what time.

  About nine-thirty, would you say?

  I guess. I don't know… w-what time. All I…

  Yes?

  Nothin'.

  Well, you saw the show only once, didn't you?

  Swish

  Huh?

  You saw it only once. You didn't see any picture twice, did you?

  No. No, I only seen it once.

  Okay. That would make it, uh…

  Swish

  … roughly about nine-thirty, then, that you got out of the movies. You went home right away?

  Yeah… I mean no.

  Where did you stop?

  I had a Coke at the… at the drugstore.

  I see. Then you went home.

  Ye-

  Swish.

  … yeah, then I went home.

  The house was dark?

  Yeah. But… they never used no lights when they watched TV.

  Uh-huh. You went in?

  Y-yeah.

  Take a sip of that coffee, son, before it gets cold. Take it easy, take it easy. Don't choke on it. There. Okay?

  Yeah.

  All right then. Now… oh, good. Put it over his shoulders, Sergeant. There we go. Better?

  Mmmm

  Okay. Let's get on with it. And believe me, son, this is no more fun for us than it is for you. We saw it too.

  I want mama. I want her. Please, can I…

  Oh. What did I… well, shut it off, Sergeant. Here kid. You don't have a handkerchief, do you? Here. Did you shut it off, Sergeant?

  Oh. Right away.

  Swish click

  Click

  When you went in, was there anything… peculiar?

  What?

  You told us last night you smelled something.

  Yeah. It… it… There was a funny smell.

  Anything you know?

  Huh?

  Did it smell like anything you ever smelled before?

  No. It wasn't much. Not in the… hall.

  All right. So you went into the living room.

  No. No. I went… Ma. Can I…

  Swish swish

  Come on, son, snap out of it. We know you've had a bad time. But we're trying to help.

  Swish swish swish

  You, uh, didn't go in the living room. Didn't you think you should mention that smell?

  I… h-heard the set on and…

  Set?

  The TV set. I thought-I figured they were still watchin'.

  And?

  And ma didn't like me to… b-bust in on them. So I went up to my room so's I wouldn't… you know.

  Bother them.

  Y-yeah.

  Okay. How long were you up there?

  I was… I don't know how long. Maybe an hour.

  And?

  There… wasn't no sound downstairs.

  Nothing at all?

  No. There wasn't nothing at all.

  Didn't that make you suspicious?

  Yeah. Well, I figured… they'd… laugh at somethin' or talk loud or…

  Dead quiet.

  Yeah. Dead quiet.

  Did you go down then?

  L-later I went. I was goin' to bed. I figured I…

  You wanted to say goodnight.

  Yeah. I…

  Swish

  You went down and opened the living room door?

  Yeah, I… yeah.

  What did you see?

  I… I… Oh, can't ya… I want my ma. Lemme alone. I want her!

  Kid! Hold him, Sergeant. Take it easy!

  Swish swish

  I'm sorry, kid. Did it hurt? I had to calm you. I know…how you feel, Leo. We saw it too. We feel sick and… awful too.

  Swish

  Just a few more questions and we'll take you to your aunt's. Now first. The television set. Was it on?

  Yeah. It was on.

  And you… smelled something?

  Yeah. Like in the hall. Only worse. Only lots worse.

  That smell.

  That smell. Dead. A dead stink. Like a pile o' dead… dead… I don't know. Garbage. Piles of it.

  No one was talking?

  No, there was no thin'. 'Cept the TV.

  What was on it?

  I already told ya.

  I know, I know. Tell us again. For the record.

  It was… like I said…just them letters. Great big letters.

  What were they?

  F… uh… F-E-E-D.

  F-E-E-D?

  Y-yeah. Big crooked-like letters.

  You'd seen them before?

  Yeah. I told ya. They was on our set all the time… Not all the time. Plenty though.

  Your parents never wondered about it?

  No. They said… they figured it was a sort of commercial. You know.

  But the things you saw.

  I don't know. Ma said… it was for kids. Some, I mean.

  What-did you see?

  Swish swish swish

  Sort of… mouths. Big ones. Wide. Open, all open. They wasn't p-people.

  Swish

  What did it look like? I mean, couldn't you tell what it was? />
  No. I mean… they was like… bugs, maybe, or maybe… w-worms. Big ones. All mouths. Wide open.

  All right.

  Swish

  You, uh, said the letters flashed on, then off and you saw the… mouths, and then the letters again?

  Yeah. Like that.

  This happen every night?

  Yeah.

  Same time?

  No. Different times.

  Between programs?

  No. Anytime.

  Was it always on the same channel?

  No. All different ones. No matter which one we had… we seen them.

  And…

  I wanna go. Can't I… Ma! Where is she? I want her. I want her.

  Swish click

  Click

  A few more questions, Leo, and that's it. Now, you said your parents never had the set checked.

  No, I told you. They thought it was-

  All right.

  Swish

  You went in the living room. You said something about slipping, didn't you?

  Yeah. On that stuff.

  What stuff?

  I don't know. Greasy stuff. Like hot grease. It stunk awful.

  And then you… you found…

  Swish

  I found them. Ma. And Pa. And the Lenottis. They was… Ohhh, I wanna…

  Leo! What about the set, Leo? What about it?

  Huh, what?

  The picture on the set. You said something about it.

  I, yeah… I…

  It was the letters, wasn't it, Leo?

  Yeah, yeah. Them letters. Them big crooked letters. They was up there. On the set. I seen them. And… and…

  What?

  One of the E's. It kinda… faded. It went away. And… and…

  What, Leo?

  The other letters. They come together. So… so there was only three.

  And it was a word.

  Swish swish swish

  Take him to his aunt, Sergeant.

  And the tube went black…

  All right, Leo. The sergeant'll take you ho-to your aunt's.