Ritual in the Dark

by Colin Wilson

Is Mr. Sorme there, please?

  Speaking.

  Oh, it didn’t sound like you! This is Caroline.

  He said uneasily: How are you, sweet?

  I got your telegram. When did you get in?

  About ten minutes ago. Where are you?

  At home. What’s been happening?

  I can’t tell you over the phone. I’ll tell you when I see you.

  When will that be?

  He had a sensation like sliding down a slope, unable to arrest the movement. He said cautiously:

  When will you be free?

  Not tomorrow? I’ve got a rehearsal. And we may have one on Wednesday. I’m not sure. I’m free Thursday. . . .

  I’ll . . . I’ll check in my diary. . . .

  Thursday’s a good day for me. I told mummy I was going to an all-night party, and it’s been cancelled. So I needn’t go home.

  Her voice went on as he stood there, staring at the coin-box, using the pretence of looking in a diary as an opportunity to think. Abruptly, he felt irritated with himself. He said:

  Yes. Thursday’s fine. Will you come over here?

  All right, darling. About seven?

  Good.

  She said suddenly:

  I’ll ring off. Mummy’s at the door.

  The line went dead.

  In his room, he drank the tea, standing by the mantelpiece. A curious elation stirred in him, an acceptance of complexity. He stared at his face in the mirror, saying aloud:

  What do you do now, you stupid old bastard?

  He grinned at himself, and twitched his nose like a rabbit.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Colin Wilson was born in Leicester in 1931. He left school at 16 and worked at various jobs while reading and writing in his spare time. His study The Outsider was published by Victor Gollancz in 1956 and became an overnight sensation in England and America, bringing widespread popular and critical attention to its 24 year old author; the book has never been out of print. He followed The Outsider with two further nonfiction works, Religion and the Rebel (1957) and The Age of Defeat (1959), which were not as well received, before turning to fiction in 1960 with Ritual in the Dark, a novel he had worked on since age 17.

  He continued to write prolifically in numerous genres, both fiction and nonfiction, including works on the occult, crime, and serial killers. His prolific output of fiction includes two subsequent novels featuring Gerard Sorme, the protagonist of Ritual in the Dark—Man Without a Shadow (1963) and The God of the Labyrinth (1970)—as well as novels in the vein of H. P. Lovecraft, including The Mind Parasites (1967) and The Philosopher’s Stone (1969).

  Wilson has published more than 150 books and resides with his wife Joy in Cornwall, where he has lived for more than fifty years.