It’s Monday! What Am I Reading?

Cover for “Psycho“

Image found on Amazon.com

Title: Psycho

Author: Robert Bloch

Page Number: 30 of 175

Synopsis:

This novel features a young woman, Mary Crane, on the run after stealing $40,000 from the office where she worked as a secretary. Mary stops to rest at the Bates motel, where she encounters Norman Bates and his hostile Mother. There is something off about the duo, could it just be the fact that her suspicious are heightened by the stolen money, or is there something seriously sinister afoot.

Favorite Quotes (So Far):

So she was patient. But not until she learned that no amount of further persuasion- verbal or physical- would sway him

-Robert Bloch

She couldn’t afford to pull a bluff, stage a scene and walk out on him like some young girl of twenty.

-Robert Bloch

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Short Story:

They’re Watching

Linna rounds the corner and stops dead in her tracks. At the end of the hallway, the missing scientist stood watching her. The woman, Clara it must be, was dressed in a stereotypical white lab coat, her gray hair kept back by glasses and a loose braid. She doesn’t move an inch and neither does the assassin standing across from her.

Linna’s hand tenses by her side as she narrows her dark eyes. The two women stand there, frozen scrutinizing  each other. Clara raises a brow, posture becoming more lax. “You’re here to kill me?” Linna nods, taken aback by the woman’s blunt question. “Well, I’m Clara and I’ve been waitin on you-” Clara begins as she goes for her pocket. Without hesitation, Linna draws her gun and shoots the woman.

The bullet hits her somewhere between her chest and stomach area. Dark blood that looks more off black in the moonlight, spreads from the area fast. By the time Clara stumbles back to the wall of the other hallway, her coat front is covered. Linna loads the chamber again before she moves to loom over the woman. A small frown covers her face, Clara was trying to say something.

“What?” She takes a step closer and crouches a little.

“My pocket, it’s in there.” Before Clara can reach for it Linna shoves her hands in. Retrieving the contents, a pack of cigarettes and a memory chip. “I was trying to give it to you. I just wanted a cigarette,” the woman huffs out holding her shaky hand up.

Linna sighs and pulls one of the white sticks from the pack and tosses it down to her. Clara thanks her with a nod and her green eyes move to her other pocket. Raiding that one next Linna finds a pen, a pencil, and a lighter. She leans over the scientist, lighting the woman’s cigarette before putting everything else in her pocket.

Clara lowers her cigarette and examines her. “This isn’t your first kill,” she states and Linna nods examining the chip. “How many have you killed?”

Linna spares a glance at the woman. “Forty-eight.”

“Includin’ me,” Linna nods. “Do yourself a favor, don’t let it get to fifty.” The scientists sucks in a wet breath.

Linna scrunches her nose as the cigarette smoke wafts up to her. “Why?” A stray guard rounds the corner and Linna shoots him easily.

The woman’s hand holding the cigarette tremors. “Because, at the fiftieth things change. The guilt falls more heavily on you, everyone else can sense it, can sense you’re not human.”

Linna scoffs. “That’s mental.”

“Everyone watches you, your victims even watch you in death,” the woman insists. “I’ve killed fifty, stopped at fifty-four. It takes a toll on you, it does.”

Linna puts the chip in her pocket and stares down at the woman. “This is my job.” 

“Retire,” Clara demands before falling into another coughing fit. The woman roughly sucks on the cigarette and coughs some more. Her hand drops and she slumps against the wall, smoke rising from her mouth. Linna crushes the cigarette with the heel of her boot before backing away with a start. The scientist’s eyes had fallen open, she was watching Linna. 

Word Count: 694