"Zenna Henderson - Hush!" - читать интересную книгу автора (Henderson Zenna)

тАЬLet go!тАЭ Mrs. WarrenтАЩs voice grated between her tightly clenched teeth. тАЬLet me go, you тАУ you тАУтАЭ Her hands
flashed out and the crack of her palm against JuneтАЩs cheek was echoed by a choonk inside the house. June was
staggered by the blow, but she clung to the coat until Mrs. Warren pushed her sprawling down the front steps and
fumbled at the knob, crying, тАЬDubby! Dubby!тАЭ
June, scrambling up the steps on hands and knees, caught a glimpse of a hovering something that lifted and
swayed like a waiting cobra. It was slapped aside by the violent opening of the door as Mrs. Warren stumbled into the
house, her cries suddenly stilling on her slack lips as she saw her crumpled son by the couch.
She gasped and whispered, тАЬDubby!тАЭ She lifted him into her arms. His head rolled loosely against her shoulder.
Her protesting, тАЬNo, no, no!тАЭ merged into half-articulate screams as she hugged him to her.
And from behind the front door there was a choonk and a slither.
June lunged forward and grabbed the reaching thing that was homing in on Mrs. WarrenтАЩs hysterical grief. Her
hands closed around it convulsively, her whole weight dragging backward, but it had a strength she couldnтАЩt match.
Desperately then, her fists clenched, her eyes tight shut, she screamed and screamed and screamed.
The snout looped almost lazily around her straining throat, but she fought her way almost to the front door before
the thing held her, feet on the floor, body at an impossible angle, and stilled her frantic screams, quieted her straining
lungs and sipped the last of her heartbeats, and let her drop.
Mrs. Warren stared incredulously at JuneтАЩs crumpled body and the horrible creature that blinked its lights and
shifted its antennae questingly. With a muffled gasp, she sagged, knees and waist and neck, and fell soundlessly to
the floor.
The refrigerator in the kitchen cleared its throat and the Eater turned from June with a choonk and slid away,
crossing to the kitchen.
The Eater retracted its snout and slid back from the silent refrigerator. It lay quietly, its ears shifting from quarter to
quarter.
The thermostat in the dining room clicked and the hot air furnace began to hum. The Eater slid to the wall under
the register that was set just below the ceiling. Its snout extended and lifted and narrowed until the end of it slipped
through one of the register openings. The furnace hum choked off abruptly and the snout flipped back into sight.
Then there was quiet, deep and unbroken until the Eater tilted its ears and slid up to Mrs. Warren.
In such silence, even a pulse was noise.
There was a sound like a straw in the bottom of a soda glass.
A stillness was broken by the shrilling of a siren on the main highway four blocks away.
A choonk and a slither and the metallic bump of runners down the three front steps.
And a quiet, quiet house on a quiet side street.
Hush.