Read Online Hell House by Richard Matheson - Free Book Online

at onset of unexpected physical phenomena. Absence of cabinet a probable factor. Handing subject tube of uranium-salt solution."
    Edith watched the red light flicking around the tabletop. She saw Lionel's dark hand pick up the tube. The coldness beneath the table was making her legs and ankles ache. Still, she felt a little better, the unruffled tone of Lionel's voice having had a quieting effect on het. She watched as he pressed the tube into Florence's hands.
    Florence sat up quickly, opening her eyes.
    Barrett frowned in disappointment. "Subject out of trance." He switched off the tape recorder and struck a match. Florence averted her face while he relit the candles.
    Fischer stood and moved around the table to a pitcher of water. As he poured some into a glass, the lip of the pitcher rattled on the glass edge. Barrett glanced at him. Fischer handed the glass to Florence, who drank its contents in a single swallow. "There." She smiled at Fischer. "Thank you." She set the glass down, shivering. "What happened?"
    When Barrett told her, she stared at him in confusion. "I don't understand. I'm not a physical medium."
    "You were just now. The embryo of one, at any rate."
    Florence looked disturbed. "That doesn't make sense. Why should I suddenly become a physical medium after all these years?"
    "I have no idea."
    Florence gazed at him. Finally she nodded with reluctance. "Yes; this house." She looked around. At last she sighed. "God's will, not mine," she said. "If my part in the cleansing is to alter my mediumship, so be it. All that matters is the end." She didn't look at Fischer as she spoke. The weight's been lifted from his shoulders to be put on mine, she thought.
    "We can work together now if you're amenable," said Barrett.
    "Yes, of course."
    "I'll telephone Deutsch's man and have him see to the construction of a cabinet tomorrow morning." Barrett wasn't convinced that what had happened indicated a physical mediumship in Florence extensive enough for his needs. There was certainly no immediate harm in seeing if she had the capability, however. If she did it would be more expeditious to work with her than be forced to wait for Deutsch's permission to bring up one of his own people.
    Seeing her expression still reflect uneasy doubt, he asked, "You really want this?"
    " Yes, yes ." Her smile was disconcerted. "It's just that… well, it's difficult for me to understand. All these years, a mental medium." She shook her head. "Now this." She made a sound of wry amusement. "The Lord moves in mysterious ways indeed."
    "So does this house," said Fischer.
    Florence looked at him in surprise. "You think the house had something to do with me-?"
    "Just watch your step," he cut her off. "The Lord may not have too much influence in Hell House."

12/21 – 9:49 P.M.
    Science is more than a body of facts. It is, first and foremost, a method of investigation, and there is no acceptable reason why parapsychological phenomena should not be investigated by this method, for, as much as physics and chemistry, parapsychology is a science of the natural.
    This, then, is the intellectual barrier through which man must inevitably break. No longer can parapsychology be classified as a philosophical concept. It is a biological reality, and science cannot permanently avoid this fact. Already it has wasted too much time skirting the borders of this irrefutable realm. Now it must enter, to study and learn. Morselli expressed it thus: "The time has come to break with this exaggerated, negative attitude, this constant casting of the shadow of doubt with its smile of sarcasm."
    It is a sorry condemnation of our times that those words were published sixty years ago-because the negative attitude of which Morselli wrote still persists. Indeed-
    "Lionel?"
    Barrett looked up from his manuscript.
    "Can I help?"
    "No, I'll be finished in a few moments." He looked at her propped against a bank of pillows. She was wearing blue ski pajamas, and with her short hair