Horror Stories from Horrified - Volume One (2)

?What do ye mean??
?Well, after all the cr ap that?s happened this past year.?
?What cr ap??
Jimmy sounded incr edulous. ?What do ye mean, w hat cr ap? The vir us!?
?What vir us??
?Jesus, Lachie, how much w hisky have ye dow ned tonight? The vir us!?
Lachie didn?t ar gue. This was mer ely one mor e incident of w eir dness dur ing a
night that?d contained nothing but w eir dness. Now he wanted it to end. He wanted
to go home, sleep and wake up tomor r ow in the normal w or ld again.
?Right,? he said, ?w e?ve tr ied this fir st-footing lar k. It didn?t quite w or k, since so
many folk w er e away. But w e did toast the New Year w ith a couple of neighbour s,
even if one of them was a r ude auld har py and the other was a cr azy bampot. So
shall w e call it a night and head back??
Jimmy objected. ?Ther e?s still one mor e house, Lachie.?
?Aye, but it?s another w hite settler one. They w on?t be in. Like the other s
w er en?t.?
?It?d be good to check, though. Just so w e can say w e tr ied to fir st-foot the whole
br ae.? Jimmy pointed dow n the r emaining section of the r oad, w hich was solidly
dar k. He could have been pointing into a hole.
Lachie sighed. They pr essed on.
As they near ed the bottom of the br ae, a smudge of light appear ed. It gr adually
expanded into an aur a that r evealed the r oadside par t of a one-stor ey house, built
amid the mar r am gr ass that was the last vegetation befor e the r ocks and sand of
the beach. The light emanated fr om a lamp mounted above a ver anda. Halfway
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