CENTIPEDE FAMILIAR

CENTIPEDE FAMILIAR
“I wasn’t talking about your grandmother Selig, but about that abominable centipede.”

“My grandmother used to say that thrice seven hours after death, the spirit of the deceased sorceress appears in the form of one of those wretched animals and revisits its home, at which time it will become extremely dangerous. It is now exactly 21 hours since the spinster Sturmfeder died.”

"He poked one nicotine yellowed finger at the street.

Three gaunt men were carrying Miss Sturmfeder’s coffin toward the house."

"It was as if an antique battering-ram was smashing the furniture, breaking open the armoires--the shattered glass falling in shrill cascades.

“It’s the coffin!” roared Bilsen, and he began applauding wildly."

“The centipede!”

“It’s coming from inside this house!”

“A centipede...that means a thousand times the weight of a foot on the steps,” Selig thought out loud. “Who knows if the stairs will survive?”

Jean Ray, The Centipede 

Read Scott's blog-post about this story here.