'How long has this been going on?'
'As long as I can remember.'
'A year? Two years?'
'No, no. Much longer than that.'
'Five Years? Ten?'
'At least thirty. Maybe longer.'
'You've been having the same bad dream every night for at least thirty years?'
'That's right.'
'Surely not every night.'
'Yes. There's never a reprieve.'
'What's this dream about?'
'I don't know.'
'Don't hold back.'
'I'm not.'
'You want to tell me.'
'Yes.'
'That's why you're here. So tell me.'
'I want to. But I just don't know what the dream is.'
'How can you have had it every night for thirty years or more and not know what it's about?'
'I wake up screaming. I always know a dream woke me. But I'm never able to remember it.'
'Then how do you know it's always the same dream?'
'I just know.'
'That's not good enough.'
'Good enough for what?'
'Good enough to convince me that it's always the same dream. If you're so sure it's just one recurring nightmare, then you must have better reasons than that for thinking so.'
'If I tell you ...'
'Yes?'
'You'll think I'm crazy.'
'I never use the word 'crazy.''
'You don't?'
'No.'
'Well... every time the dream wakes me, I feel as if there's something crawling on me.'
'What is it?'
'I don't know. I can never remember. But I feel as if something's trying to crawl in my nose and in my mouth. Something disgusting. It's trying to get into me. It pushes at the corners of my eyes, trying to make me open my eyes. I feel it moving under my clothes. It's in my hair. It's everywhere. Crawling, creeping...'
In Nicholas Rudge's office, everyone was watching the tape recorder.
Frye's voice was still gravelly, but there was raw terror in it now.
Hilary almost could see the big man's fear-twisted face--the shock-wide eyes, the pale skin, the cold sweat along his hairline.
The tape continued:
'Is it just one thing crawling on you?'
'I don't know.'
'Or is it many things?'
'I don't know.'
'What does it feel like?'
'Just ... awful... sickening.'
'Why does this thing want to get inside you?'
'I don't know.'
'And you say you always feel like this after a dream.'
'Yeah. For a minute or two.'
'Is there anything else that you feel in addition to this crawling sensation?'
