Edgar allan poe's Original Works/Amru Compilation
On a cloudy day at the end of the year, I rode my horse on a vibrant and beautiful country road. When night fell, I found myself near Arthur Building. I don't know why, but I felt heavy from the moment I saw it. I stopped my horse by the dark and quiet lake next to Arthur's building. Looking down at the lake, I saw the dark old house and the reflection of dead trees around it. Although I can't say what it is, there is something in the reflection that injects fear into my heart.
I looked up at this old stone house. The wall didn't collapse at all, but many stones looked loose. The old house looks a bit shabby and messy.
I came to visit my childhood friend Roderick Arthur. I haven't seen him for years and know very little about him. But he wrote me a letter asking me to go. He is physically and mentally weak, and he really wants to meet my best and oldest friend. I can't refuse this request, but now, something in the room scares me.
The room where Usher saw me was almost dark, but I could see that he had changed a lot since we last met many years ago. It seems that he is very ill and has a wild look in his eyes. He seems a little neurotic, sometimes excited, then quiet. Arthur told me that he has a terminal disease that runs in the family.
To make matters worse, he is afraid of everything. The light will hurt his eyes, and even the slightest sound will make him panic.
He felt depressed and afraid of this house, and always felt that it controlled his mind in some way. Fear became an indispensable part of his life.
The most important thing is that he is afraid of death. He said that his sister Madeleine was going to die, and he was the only one left in the family. I'm really afraid that he will die alone after her sister leaves. Madeleine looked dead several times, but it was only a temporary coma. Her last sleep is coming.
Madeleine lived with us in this house until her death, and I only met her once. That time, I saw her pacing slowly from one end of the room to the other, but I never talked to her.
We were reading together before Usher informed me of his sister's death. This is a wonderful book compiled by the lost sect, which tells a custom called "taking care of the dead".
When Arthur told me that he wouldn't bury Madeleine right away, I immediately thought of this book. Maybe, according to his crazy idea, he wants to take care of the dead himself! But he gave two reasons for this decision. The first place to bury her is far from here; Moreover, her condition is unusual, so it is estimated that the doctor will want to ask some questions before burial. So Arthur and I moved her body to a small room on the ground floor of our ancestral home. This room is made of stone and has a heavy iron gate. Arthur is in charge of the key. We put her there, and she was lying on the cold slate in a long white dress.
After that, my friend became more strange. His fear can be revealed in his actions and words from time to time. Sometimes he will sit for hours without eyes. I'm starting to worry, too. This old house scares me.
After about a week, it rained heavily one night, and the cold wind roared and made a terrible sound. Whenever the cold wind stops, I can hear some sounds. I don't know what it is, but I'm scared.
Arthur came to my room on this stormy night.
"You have never seen it, have you?" He asked me, went to the window and looked out. Then he opened the window again, and the cold wind blew into the room at once. He stared at the night outside like a madman, as if he saw something I couldn't see.
"Close the window," I said. "It's too cold. This is a book that none of us have read. Let me read it to you. Let's spend this horrible night together. "
The book I found is not interesting, but it is the only one I have here. I read that the usher said that a man was splitting a door with an axe, which made the wood break. Suddenly, I stopped, because somewhere in my ancestral home, I seemed to hear the same sound, as if the wood had been split. I secretly told myself that this was caused by the wind. This story makes me a little nervous.
Then I read it out loud. In this story, the man found a huge beast by breaking the door. He attacked the beast, and the beast howled miserably. I suddenly stopped again, because I heard a voice similar to a story again. This time it was a long strange cry, like the howl of a wounded beast. Let me see my friend. He seems to be falling asleep. Is the voice I heard true?
I started reading again. In the story, a heavy iron gate collapsed. Just as I read this sentence, I heard the same voice from somewhere downstairs.
I jumped up immediately. Arthur is still sitting in the chair, but he turns around slowly. He didn't look at me and began to talk to himself:
"Didn't you hear? No, I heard you! I've heard it before. For a long time, a long time, a long time ... always. I've been listening for days. But I can't give awards. We locked her up when she was alive! I heard her voice many days ago, but I dare not say! Just like the story just now, those voices are all from her. Oh, where should I hide? She will ask me why I left her there. She is here now. Didn't I hear her footsteps upstairs? Didn't I hear her huge heartbeat? "
Suddenly, he jumped up from his chair and shouted, "I tell you, she is standing at the door!" " "
The usher shouted, pointing to the door of my room. Hardly had he finished when the door slowly opened. I thought it must be the wind, but I immediately saw a man standing at the door. It's Madeleine Arthur! Her white skirt was covered with blood. She must have hurt herself when she escaped from the locked room downstairs.
She stood at the door for a while, then rushed into the room. At last she jumped on her brother and died. The two of them fell to the ground together, and Arthur died. He was scared to death.
I rushed into the rainstorm from the house and suddenly found a strange light shaking at my feet. I turned around to see where it came from, because the house was always dark. I saw a red full moon passing through the clouds and illuminating the sky low. It illuminates a gap in the front wall of the house. When I first came here, the gap was very small, but now it has widened. I looked at it and it became wider and wider. The wind blew harder and harder, and the whole face of the full moon was exposed. The walls of the house collapsed, and then there was the roar of hundreds of millions of tons of water, and the deep and dark lake secretly swallowed Usher House.