I won't scream! He sat at the window, totally awake now, totally aware that the police car he was seeing was as real as his left foot had once been. Scream, you fool, scream! He wanted to, but he could hear Annie's voice saying, Don't you dare scream. When he tried to scream his voice dried up and his mind was filled with pictures of the axe and the electric knife. He remembered the sounds: he remembered screaming then, but not to gain attention from anyone. He tried again to open his mouth - and failed; he tried to raise his hands - and failed. A faint, low sound broke out from between his lips, and his hands moved lightly on the sides of the 62 typewriter, but that was all he could do. Nothing which had happened in the past - except perhaps for the moment when he had realized that, although his left leg was moving, his foot stayed still - was as terrible as the hell of not being able to move. In real time it didn't last long - perhaps five seconds - but inside Paul Sheldon's head it seemed to go on for years. He could escape! All he had to do was break the window and scream: Help me! Help me! Save me from Annie! Save me from the Dragon Lady! But at the same time another voice was screaming: I'll be good, Annie! I won't scream! I promise! Don't cut off any more of me! He knew he was frightened of her, but he hadn't realized until now the extent of his fear. His mind told him that he was going to die anyway. As soon as he had finished the book she was going to kill him. So if he screamed, and it the policeman saw him, and if that made Annie kill him now, what was the difference? Perhaps two weeks of life. There's not much to lose, then, and a lot to win. So scream, Paul, scream! What's the matter with you? Are you already dead? The policeman got out of the car. He was young - about twenty-three years old - and was wearing very dark glasses, which completely hid his eyes and reflected the light like a mirror. He paused, just twenty metres away from Paul's window, and adjusted his jacket. Scream! Don't scream. Scream and you're dead. I'm not dead yet. I'M NOT DEAD YET! Scream, you coward! Paul forced his lips open, sucked air into his lungs and closed his eyes. He had no idea what was going to come out of his mouth. Was anything going to come out? 'DRAGON!' Paul screamed. 'DRAGON LADY!' Now his eyes opened wide. The policeman was looking towards the house. Paul could not sec his eyes, but he seemed to have heard something. Paul looked down at the table. Next to the typewriter was a heavy glass vase, which had been empty for weeks. He seized it and threw it at the window. The glass broke and fell on to the 63 ground outisde. Paul thought it was the best sound he had ever heard. It made his tongue free. 'I'm here! Help me! Watch out for the woman! She's crazy!' The policeman looked straight at Paul. His mouth dropped open. He reached into his pocket and brought out something which could only be a picture. He looked at it and then walked a few steps closer. Then he spoke the only four words Paul ever heard him say, the last four words anyone ever heard him say. After that he would make a few sounds, but no real words. 'Oh, God!' the policeman exclaimed. 'It's you!' Paul had been staring at the policeman, so he didn't see Annie until it was too late. She was still riding the lawnmower, so that she seemed to be half human, half something else. For a moment Paul's mind saw her as an actual dragon. Her face was pulled into an expression of extreme hatred and anger. In one hand she was carrying a wooden cross. The cross had marked the grave of one of the cows that had died while Annie was away in her Laughing Place. When the ground had become soft in the spring, Paul had watched Annie burying the rotten cows. It had taken her most of the day to dig the holes in the ground. Then she dragged the bodies out of the barn with her car and dropped them into the holes. After she had filled the holes in again she solemnly planted crosses on the piles of earth and said some prayers. Now she was riding towards the policeman with the sharp end of the cross pointing towards his back. 'Behind you! Look out!' Paul shouted. He knew that it was too late, but he shouted anyway. With a thin cry Annie stabbed the cross into the policeman's back. 'AG!' said the policeman, and took a few steps forward. He bent his back and reached both hands over his shoulder. He looked to Paul like a man who was trying to scratch his back. In the meantime Annie got off the lawnmower and stood watching the policeman. Now she rushed forward and pulled 64 the cross out of his back. He turned towards her, reaching for his gun, and she drove the cross into his stomach. 'OG!' said the policeman this time, and fell on to his knees, holding his stomach. Annie pulled the cross free again and drove it into the policeman's back, between his shoulders. The first two blows had perhaps not gone deep enough to kill him, but this time the wooden post went at least five centimetres into the kneeling policeman's back. He fell face down on to the ground. 'THERE!' Annie cried, standing over the man and pulling the cross out again. ' H OW DO YOU LIKE THAT, YOU DIRTY BIRD!' 'Annie, stop it!' Paul shouted. She looked at him. Her dark eyes shone like coins and she was grinning the grin of the madman who has stopped controlling himself at all. Then she looked down at the policeman again. 'THERE!' she cried, and stabbed the cross into his back again - and then into his neck, and then into his thigh and his hand and into his back again. She screamed ' T H E R E ! ' every time she brought the cross down. At last the cross broke. Annie threw the bloody and broken cross away as if it no longer interested her and walked away from the policeman's body. Paul was sure that she would come and kill him next. At least, if she did intend to hurt him, he hoped that she would kill him rather than cut any more pieces off his body. Then he saw the policeman move. He was still alive! The policeman raised his head off the ground. His glasses had fallen off and Paul could see his eyes. He was very young — young and hurt and frightened. He managed to get up on to his hands and knees, but then he fell forward. He got up again and began to crawl towards his car. He got about half of the way when he fell over. He struggled up again. Paul could see the bloody marks spreading on his uniform. Suddenly the sound of the lawnmower was louder. 55 'Look out!' Paul screamed. 'She's coming back!' The policeman turned his head with a look of alarm on his face. He reached for his gun. That's right! thought Paul, He got his gun out. 'SHOOT HER!' Paul screamed. But instead of shooting her the policeman's wounded hand dropped the gun. He reached out his hand for it. Annie pulled the wheel of the lawnmower-tractor around and ran over the reaching hand and arm. The young man in the policeman's uniform screamed in pain. Blood stained the grass. Annie pulled the lawnmower around again and her eyes fell for a moment on Paul. Paul was sure it was his turn next. First the policeman, then him. When the policeman saw the lawnmower coming for him again, he tried to crawl under the car. But he was too far away and he didn't even get close. Annie drove the tractor as fast as she could over his head. Paul turned away and was violently sick on the floor.