Horror Aficionados discussion

Hey All....

great last lines from short horror fiction:

"And then some idiot turned on the lights" - "The October Game" - Ray Bradbury

No -- no -- there is no doubt about it -- He is not dead. Then -- then -- I suppose I must kill myself!" (or some equal translation of same) - "The Horla" by Guy De Maupassant

"For the rest of her life." - "For The Rest Of Her Life" by Cornell Woolrich

I'm familiar with the first two, Shawn, but not the last one. I'm admittedly not well versed with Woolrich's stories. I keep meaning to rectify that.

Here are a few of my faves.

1. The echoes of their strangled cry were indistinguishable; and when the last confused sounds died out together, the stillness of the room was so deep that you might have heard—the ticking of the old grandfather clock, and the long-drawn rhythmical "ah" of the sea, on a distant coast, thirty-eight years ago.

But Mortimer had escaped at last. Perhaps, after all, he had caught the midnight express.

It was a battered old book, bound in red buckram . . .

—from Alfred Noyes' "Midnight Express" (1935)

2. That was the last he saw of Mr. Rumbold. But a policeman patrolling Carrick Street noticed a man in a long black cape, who seemed, by the position of his arm, to be carrying something heavy. He called out to the man and ran after him; but though he did not seem to be moving very fast, the policeman could not overtake him.

—from L. P. Hartley’s "A Visitor from Down Under" (1948)

3. History has shown that discoveries cannot be unmade. Two months ago in Camden, New Jersey, a forty-three year old man was found turned to stone staring at a position on a chess board. In Salt Lake City, the Utah state champion suddenly went screaming mad. And, last week in Minneapolis, a woman studying chess suddenly gave birth to twins—although she was not pregnant at the time.

Myself, I'm giving up the game.

—from Victor Contoski’s "Von Goom’s Gambit" (1966)

4. It is inevitable that we read these sad histories as we do, as a catalogue of missed opportunities and broken communications. The present generation righteously decries the errors of its forefathers. But it is unlikely that any human effort would have changed the course of events. There would still have come about the reawakening of Dzhaimbu and the other worse gods, under whose charnel dominion we now suffer and despair.

—from Fred Chappell’s "Weird Tales" (1984)

5. He began to scream as Althol came to lead him away, but he could not awaken, could only follow.

—from Karl Edward Wagner’s "Sticks" (1974)

I actually wanted to include this line from "Old Loves" by Wagner, but it's not a *LAST* line:

"Webley had a breathtaking glimpse through the cut-out of LOVE, and then the blade touched his eye"

Shawn wrote:

I actually wanted to include this line from "Old Loves" by Wagner, but it's not a *LAST* line:

"Webley had a breathtaking glimpse through the cut-out of LOVE, and then the blade touched his eye"

I know I've read the story you mention, but can't really recall that line.

I've always thought that Wagner did a particularly good job with last lines; one instance that made an impression on me was the very last one from "Where the Summer Ends" (1980): "Mercer fired twice".

Yes - that's another favorite. It's the story I'm hoping to buy for PSEUDOPOD!

"Romance at short notice was her specialty."

The Open Window - Saki

Holly wrote:

"Romance at short notice was her specialty."

The Open Window - Saki

That's quite a coincidence, Holly! I was just re-reading this story over lunch yesterday. It's a great little gem with a memorable last line, but I feel compelled to admit that when I first read "The Open Window" as a youngster I didn't quite grasp the meaning of the word "romance" as used by Saki.

Some personal favorites:

"Quietly, muffled by the mattresses, someone under the bed began to laugh." - 'Occultation', Laird Barron

"Imogene beamed her sinister smile as she reached up and casually grasped the sun and turned it counterclockwise as if unscrewing a light bulb. A night without stars rolled over the world. In the darkness, Imogene laid a cool hand upon his brow and her nails only dug in a little. She said, "Shall we begin?" " - 'The Light is the Darkness', Laird Barron

"As he had suddenly realised that the car hadn’t halted nor even slowed before plunging down the incline back into the Ghost Train, Stone did not immediately notice that the figure had taken his hand." - 'The Companion', Ramsey Campbell

"He faltered as she turned towards him. It was the nun he had seen in the church, but now her mouth was smeared with crimson lipstick - except that as she advanced on him, he saw it wasn't lipstick at all. He heard the barricade in the corridor give way just as she pulled off her flesh-colored gloves by the nails. "You failed", she said." - 'The Hands', Ramsey Campbell

"After all, even if I managed to flee the beach, I could never escape the growth. I have understood enough to know that it would absorb me in time, when it becomes the world." - 'The Voice of the Beach', Ramsey Campbell

"Then I sank into the depths, and I heard the King in Yellow whispering to my soul:'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!' - 'In the Court of the Dragon', Robert W. Chambers

"Materializing out of the air was a confusion of bones, and rent clothing, a flurry of contemptuously flung garbage that clattered to the ground and lay there in an untidy heap, noisome and foreboding." - 'Window', Bob Leman

" 'Peekaboo', a voice behind him said." - 'Peekaboo', Bill Pronzini

"The soft black stars have already begun to fill the sky." - 'Teatro Grottesco', Thomas Ligotti

"But there is no one here who will listen to my most abject apologies, least of all the Showman, who may be waiting even now behind any door. . .And any room that I enter may become a sideshow tent where I must take my place on a rickety old bench on the verge of collapse. Even now the Showman stands before my eyes. His stiff red hair moves a little toward one shoulder, as if he is going to turn his gaze upon me, and moves back again; then his head moves a little toward the other shoulder in the never-ending game of horrible peek-a-boo. I can only sit and wait, knowing that one day he will turn full around, step down from his stage, and claim me for the abyss I have always feared. Perhaps then I will discover what it was I did - what any of us did - to deserve this fate." - 'Gas Station Carnivals', Thomas Ligotti

“There can be no belief where there is no doubt. There cannot be something where there is no nothing. This is far from secret knowledge, as if such knowledge could change anything. This is only how it seems, and seeming is everything." - 'The Mystics of Muelenberg", Thomas Ligotti

"Ammi is such a good old man - when the reservoir gang gets to work I must write the chief engineer to keep a sharp watch on him. I would hate to think of him as the grey, twisted, brittle monstrosity which persists more and more in troubling my sleep". - 'The Colour Out of Space', H.P. Lovecraft

"We shall swim out to that brooding reef in the sea and dive down through black abysses to Cyclopean and many-columned Y'ha-nthlei, and in the lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory forever." - 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth', H.P. Lovecraft

" 'It isn't fair, it isn't right', Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her." - 'The Lottery', Shirley Jackson

"And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all." - 'The Masque of the Red Death', Edgar Allan Poe.

"Footsteps. A little humming sound. The attic lock melted. The door opened. Mink peered inside, tall blue shadows behind her. 'Peek-a-boo,' said Mink."

- "Zero Hour" Ray Bradbury

—and though he knew he mustn't, he turned slowly. And looked.
- "Island of Fear" William Sambrot

The worst part about it was, he just couldn't believe it was really happening
- "The Children of Noah" Richard Matheson