<\/p>\n\n
Araban\u0131n yan\u0131nda durdular, Griswell delirmi\u015f gibi u\u011fursuz eve bakt\u0131. Tozlu pencerelerin olmas\u0131 gereken yerler bo\u015f ve k\u0131r\u0131kt\u0131 ama bu ona hi\u00e7 g\u00f6rkemli gelmedi. Korkun\u00e7 g\u00f6zlerin, g\u00f6lgeli camlardan ona b\u00fcy\u00fck bir a\u00e7l\u0131kla kenetlendi\u011fini d\u00fc\u015f\u00fcn\u00fcyordu. Buckner sorusunu tekrar etti.<\/p>\n
“Evet. Dikkatli ol. Koltukta bir y\u0131lan var, ya da vard\u0131.”<\/p>\n
“\u015eu anda yok,” diyerek homurdand\u0131 Buckner, at\u0131n\u0131 ba\u011flad\u0131 ve eyerindeki \u00e7antadan el fenerini \u00e7\u0131kard\u0131.<\/p>\n
“Pekala, bir g\u00f6z atal\u0131m.”<\/p>\n
K\u0131r\u0131k basamaklara do\u011fru sakin bir \u015fekilde, sanki bir arkada\u015f\u0131na u\u011fruyormu\u015f edas\u0131yla y\u00fcr\u00fcd\u00fc. Griswell dibinden bir an olsun ayr\u0131lmadan y\u00fcr\u00fcyor ve kalbi k\u00fct k\u00fct at\u0131yordu. Hafif r\u00fczgarla birlikte, \u00e7\u00fcr\u00fcyen ve k\u00fcflenen bitkilerin kokusu da esti, Griswell bu \u00f6fkeli kara ormanda do\u011fan as\u0131rl\u0131k \u00e7iftlik evlerinde saklanm\u0131\u015f, unutulup yitmi\u015f esaretin, kanl\u0131 gururun ve anla\u015f\u0131lmaz entrikalar\u0131n mide bulant\u0131s\u0131yla bayg\u0131nl\u0131k ge\u00e7irecek gibi oldu. G\u00fcney’i sakinli\u011fin h\u00fck\u00fcm s\u00fcrd\u00fc\u011f\u00fc g\u00fcne\u015fi kucaklayan pamuk tarlalar\u0131nda s\u00f6ylenen siyahi halk ezgileriyle, g\u00fcne\u015fli, baharat ve \u00e7i\u00e7eksi yumu\u015fak esintilerle y\u0131kanan uyu\u015fuk bir yer olarak hayal etmi\u015fti. Fakat \u015fimdi beklenmedik ba\u015fka bir y\u00f6n\u00fcn\u00fc ke\u015ffetmi\u015fti, korkutucu, karanl\u0131k taraf\u0131ndan ele ge\u00e7irilmi\u015f bir y\u00f6n, ve bu ke\u015fif onu geri p\u00fcsk\u00fcrtt\u00fc. Me\u015fe kap\u0131 tam da evvelki gibi sark\u0131yordu. Buckner’\u0131n kap\u0131 e\u015fi\u011finden tuttu\u011fu \u0131\u015f\u0131k demeti i\u00e7erinin karanl\u0131\u011f\u0131yla yo\u011funla\u015ft\u0131. I\u015f\u0131k koridorun karanl\u0131\u011f\u0131n\u0131 b\u0131\u00e7ak gibi yard\u0131 ve merdivenleri ayd\u0131nlatt\u0131, Griswell nefesini tuttu yumruklar\u0131n\u0131 s\u0131k\u0131yordu. Ama \u015feytani hi\u00e7 bir varl\u0131kla kar\u015f\u0131la\u015fmad\u0131lar. Buckner bir elinde feneri di\u011fer elinde silah\u0131yla kedi gibi i\u00e7eri sokuldu. Merdivenin kar\u015f\u0131s\u0131ndaki odaya fenerini sallarken Griswell \u00e7\u0131\u011fl\u0131k atmaya ba\u015flam\u0131\u015ft\u0131 g\u00f6rd\u00fc\u011f\u00fc \u015fey kar\u015f\u0131s\u0131nda neredeyse bay\u0131lmak \u00fczereydi. Branner’\u0131n kap\u0131yla Griswell’in aras\u0131nda yatt\u0131\u011f\u0131 yerden battaniyeye kadar zemin kanla kapl\u0131yd\u0131. Ve Griswell’in battaniyesi \u00fczerinde deh\u015fet verici bir sakin vard\u0131. John Branner orada y\u00fcz \u00fcst\u00fc yat\u0131yordu ve yar\u0131k kafas\u0131 da ac\u0131mas\u0131z bir netlikte ayd\u0131nlan\u0131yordu. Uzanan eli hala baltan\u0131n sap\u0131n\u0131 tutuyordu ve tam da Griswell’in ba\u015f\u0131n\u0131 koyup uyudu\u011fu yerde battaniyenin hemen alt\u0131na yerle\u015ftirilen b\u0131\u00e7ak da orada duruyordu. Griswell birdenbire k\u00f6t\u00fcl\u00fc\u011f\u00fcn girdab\u0131na kap\u0131ld\u0131. Sendeledi\u011finin ya da Buckner’\u0131n onu yakalad\u0131\u011f\u0131n\u0131n fark\u0131nda de\u011fildi. Tekrar g\u00f6r\u00fcp duymaya ba\u015flad\u0131\u011f\u0131nda feci \u015fekilde midesi buland\u0131, kafas\u0131n\u0131 \u015f\u00f6minenin raf\u0131na dayay\u0131p sefil bir \u015fekilde \u00f6\u011f\u00fcrmeye ba\u015flad\u0131. Buckner g\u00f6z k\u0131rpmas\u0131 i\u00e7in \u0131\u015f\u0131\u011f\u0131 tamamen g\u00f6zlerine tuttu. Buckner’\u0131n sesi k\u00f6r eden \u0131\u015f\u0131\u011f\u0131n arkas\u0131ndan gelliyordu, adam\u0131 g\u00f6remiyordu.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\t
<\/p>\n\n
They halted beside the car, and Griswell stared morbidly at the grim house. Its dusty panes were empty and blank; but they did not seem blind to him. It seemed to him that ghastly eyes were fixed hungrily on him through those darkened panes. Buckner repeated his question.<\/p>\n
“Yes. Be careful. There’s a snake on the seat-or there was.”<\/p>\n
“Not there now,” grunted Buckner, tying his horse and pulling an electric torch out of the saddle-bag.<\/p>\n
“Well, let’s have a look.”<\/p>\n
He strode up the broken brick walk as matter-of-factly as if he were paying a social call on friends. Griswell followed close at his heels, his heart pounding suffocatingly. A scent of decay and moldering vegetation blew on the faint wind, and Griswell grew faint with nausea, that rose from a frantic abhorrence of these black woods, these ancient plantation houses that hid forgotten secrets of slavery and bloody pride and mysterious intrigues. He had thought of the South as a sunny, lazy land washed by soft breezes laden with spice and warm blossoms, where life ran tranquilly to the rhythm of black folk singing in sunbathed cottonfields. But now he had discovered another, unsuspected side-a dark, brooding, fear-haunted side, and the discovery repelled him. The oaken door sagged as it had before. The blackness of the interior was intensified by the beam of Buckner’s light playing on the sill. That beam sliced through the darkness of the hallway and roved up the stair, and Griswell held his breath, clenching his fists. But no shape of lunacy leered down at them. Buckner went in, walking light as a cat, torch in one hand, gun in the other. As he swung his light into the room across from the stairway, Griswell cried out-and cried out again, almost fainting with the intolerable sickness at what he saw. A trail of blood drops led across the floor, crossing the blankets Branner had occupied, which lay between the door and those in which Griswell had lain. And Griswell’s blankets had a terrible occupant. John Branner lay there, face down, his cleft head revealed in merciless clarity in the steady light. His outstretched hand still gripped the haft of a hatchet, and the blade was imbedded deep in the blanket and the floor beneath, just where Griswell’s head had lain when he slept there. A momentary rush of blackness engulfed Griswell. He was not aware that he staggered, or that Buckner caught him. When he could see and hear again, he was violently sick and hung his head against the mantel, retching miserably. Buckner turned the light full on him, making him blink. Buckner’s voice came from behind the blinding radiance, the man himself unseen.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Griswell ve \u015ferif k\u0131r\u0131k me\u015fe kap\u0131s\u0131ndan i\u00e7eri girerler…","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,140],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/herkafadanses.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1660"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/herkafadanses.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/herkafadanses.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herkafadanses.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herkafadanses.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/herkafadanses.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herkafadanses.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/herkafadanses.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herkafadanses.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herkafadanses.com\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}