[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction
March 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
[Sidenote: Langston had technicolor delusions; inanimate objects came
alive in his hands; THEY were persecuting him, out to get him ... what a
relief it was to know he wasn't going insane!]
When I saw the blood dripping from the tap in the bathtub, I knew that
someone had a telenosis beam on me, and I breathed a very audible sigh
of relief.
During the past few days, I had begun to wonder if I was really cracking
up.
When you start seeing visions of a bearded gent with a halo, or having
vague but wonderful dreams about some sort of perfect world, feeling
intense loyalties to undefined ideals, and experiencing sudden impulses,
sometimes cruel and sometimes kind--you know that something's wrong.
At least I do.
If he--whoever he was--had just kept up the slow, subtle pace he'd
maintained for the past two or three days, he would have had me in a
little while. For whatever he wanted.
But now, he'd overplayed his hand. I knew, at least, what was going on.
Who was doing it, or why, I still didn't know--nor whether I could stand
it, even knowing.
* * * * *
The thick, bright red blood dripping steadily from the water tap in the
bath tub wasn't so bad.
I stood before the mirror, with my softly humming razor in my hand, and
I watched the blood ooze from the tap, quiver as it grew heavy and
pregnant, then pull itself free and fall with a dull _plonk_ to the
enamel as another drop began to form.
That wasn't so bad. But my sigh of relief became a gurgle of almost
hysterical apprehension as I braced myself for what might come, with the
telenizer knowing that I was aware.
There was something I could do--should do--but my mind refused to focus.
It bogged down in a muck of unreasoning terror and could only scream
_Why? Why? Why?_
The drops of blood from the water tap increased both in size and
rapidity, as I watched. Heavy, red, marble-sized tears followed one
another from the tap, _plonk, plonk, plonk_, splashing in the tub and on
the floor. Faster and faster, and then the drip became a flow, a gush,
as though the vein of some giant creature had been slashed.
The tub filled rapidly, and blood flowed like a crimson waterfall over
the edge and across the floor toward me.