Pit and the Pendulum Page #3

What do they have to do with | my sister?

She had never been brought here.

She was too sensitive, | too aware.

Aware of what?

The malignant atmosphere | of this castle.

It destroyed her.

My sister was a strong and | willful woman...

...not subject to the influence | of atmospheres.

You have been here only | a matter of hours, Mr. Barnard.

You cannot know what it is | to live here...

...month upon month, | year after year...

...breathing this infernal air...

...absorbing the miasma | of barbarity...

...which permeates | these walls...

...particularly this chamber.

But it did not bother her | at first either.

Our life was good...

...rich with the shared | pleasures of our love.

Each morning I would bring | her breakfast.

In the afternoons, she usually sat | for me while I attempted all in vain...

...to capture her beauty on canvas.

I did that portrait which you saw | on her room before...

...but it is all inadequate to what I | called the loveliness of her.

We dined, sometimes alone, | enjoying intimate conversation...

...sometimes with the doctor.

And every night | Elisabeth would play for me.

Life was simple, quiet, | richly pleasurable...

...and then the darkness | began to fall.

More and more entering her room | in the mornings...

...I would find her awake and discover | that she had not slept all the night.

I tried to find out why, | but she had no explanation.

Her appetite began to fade.

She began to lose weight | and color.

I tried to make her eat...

...but something kept her from it.

I would come upon her wandering | in the corridors at night.

I tried to find out | what was wrong...

...but she never had an answer...

...except to say that... | that something was oppressing her.

Oh God, help me for my blindness.

I should have known...

Then one day she disappeared.

Frantic, I searched the castle | for her.

And then I knew.

The castle and its awful history | had obsessed her.

These very instruments of torture...

...which were my birthright | and my curse...

...now tormented her as well...

...infecting her with a kind of | haunted fascination.

And watched her drawn to one | and then another...

...as if the aura of pain | and suffering which surrounded them...

...was luring her to sickness...

...and to death.

Immediately I made my plans | to leave the castle with her.

We would travel for a while, | restore her spirits...

...and then make our home elsewhere.

Then on the very eve of | our departure...

...we heard her scream from below...

...the most hideous blood-chilling | scream...

...I have ever heard | in my life.

Just before she died, | she whispered a name.

Sebastian.

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