This is a true story. Although twenty years have passed since that night,
I can still remember everything about it very clearly. During those twenty
years I have told the story to only one other person. I still feel uncomfortable
about telling it. I was there, after all, and I have had twenty years to
think about it.
It was December and a bitterly cold east wind was blowing. Snow was beginning
to fall from a heavy grey sky. It was becoming dark and I realized that I
had lost my way. There were no signs of human life around me.
The snow fell heavily. It became very cold, and night was falling fast.
I had been out all day and I had eaten nothing since breakfast. My wife must
have been worried at the hotel in the village.
I thought that I would find shelter somewhere. All the time the snow was
falling and the night was becoming darker. Every few steps I stopped and
shouted, but the only sound in that wild, lonely place was the wind. I had
read stories about travelers who were lost in the snow. They walked until
they were too tired to walk anymore. Then, they lay down in the snow, and
fell asleep, and never woke up again.
'That mustn't happen to me!' I said to myself. 'I can't let it happen! I
mustn't die, when I have so much to live for. I shouted louder, and then
listened for an answer. Above the sad complaining sounds of the wind I thought
I heard a cry. I shouted again and again I imagined I heard an answer. Then
out of darkness appeared a little circle of light. It came nearer; it became
brighter. I ran towards it. It was man old man with a lantern. He didn't
look at all glad to see me. He lifted his lantern and stared into my face.
He told me the nearest village was twenty miles away. I asked him to let
me come along with him to his house. He wasn't very happy about it. He said
he wasn't sure that his master would let me in.
His master wasn't very happy indeed to have as a guest. In fact he mentioned
that his house wasn't a hotel, but finally agreed to have me until morning.
the following morning I was glad to see that it had stopped snowing. The
master urged me to hurry in order to catch the coach.
The old man accompanied me to the old coach road and told me to follow the
road about three miles to the signpost. He warned me however that the road
was quite narrow and that the wall near the signpost had not been mended
since the accident. The night coach had went off the road. He told me that
all the people on the coach were killed. The accident happened twenty years
ago.
The reason for his master's bad mood became apparent at that moment. The
old man told me that his master's only son had been one of the passengers.
I parted with the old man, giving him a silver coin for his trouble, and went
along the road telling myself that I was safe.
As I was walking along the road I saw what appeared to be lights of a coach.
This was strange since the old man had told me that nobody had used the road
since that terrible accident. I thought I had walked past the signpost. The
coach was approaching at full speed. I shouted to the coach driver but he
didn't stop. It seems that he hadn't seen me. When it finally stopped. I
moved towards it. Nobody helped me in. I had to open the door myself and
I thought that the coach was empty. I was mistaken. Inside there were three
travelers. None of them moved or looked at me.
I tried to engage the passenger opposite me in talk. I couldn't see his
face and he didn't answer me. The strange, damp smell in the coach made me
fell sick. I asked the other passengers whether I could open the window but
there was no answer again.
I turned to the third passenger and realized that the smell was due to the
state of decay of the coach. I said in a loud voice that I thought the coach
company was using this old coach that seemed to be falling apart temporarily
until they would repair the usual one. I would never forget that look on
that passenger's face. His eyes burned with a wild, unnatural light, and
his face was greenish white, like a dead man. Then I saw his bloodless lips
were pulled back from his huge white teeth. Then I looked at the other two
passengers and I saw the faces of dead men. All three passengers were dead.
The terrible smell was the smell of death coming from their clothes, their
hair, their bodies.
I gave a scream of horror. I had to get out of that terrible place. I threw
myself at the door and tried desperately to open it. Then I suddenly saw
the signpost, the broken wall, then the valley fifty feet below us. The coach
shook like a ship at sea. There were screams of men and horses. There was
a tearing crash, a moment of terrible pain, then darkness.
A very long time later I woke from a deep sleep. I found my wife sitting
by the bed. She told me that I had fallen because the wall was broken at
the edge of the road. There was a lot of deep snow at the bottom and apparently
that was what saved my life. Some farmers saw me and carried me to the nearest
shelter.
I was young and healthy and soon out of danger. But while I lay in my bed
I thought of the accident. Perhaps you can guess exactly where I fell that
night. It was the very place were twenty years before the coach had the accident.
I never told my wife the story, the doctor told me that it was just a dream.
I didn't argue; it did not really matter if he believed me or not. But I
knew then, and I know now, twenty years ago, I was a passenger in a Ghost
coach.
Task
Directions
:
Re-arrange
the paragraphs that are in a jumbled order. Then send to your instructor
an e-mail message with the correct number of the paragraphs only. Include
in the subject area of the e-mail the words "Horror, task1."
THE HOLE
1) The starting gun was fired,
and six bodies threw themselves into the water. There was a perfect start
in lane six - that must be Alice.
2) I was sitting on a wooden seat at the local indoor swimming pool, and
I was not enjoying myself. The air was hot and wet, the seats were hard and
the noise was terrible - shouts from the swimmers, the officials and the
public were making my head ache.
3) The woman in lane two seemed to be having problems. What was wrong? The
water around her was turning red. I pushed through the crowd to the side
of the pool, kicked off my shoes and jumped in.
4) Six competitors were standing at the end of the pool, ready to start
the first women's event. From where I sat it wasn't easy to recognize Alice.
I knew she was wearing a red swimming suit, but there were three swimmers
in red. My program said that she was in lane two.
5) I swam under the water to the second lane and pulled the woman to the
edge, where someone lifted her out. It wasn't Alice.
6) Suddenly a hole appeared at the bottom of the pool and it sucked in all
the remaining people in the water. The audience was perplexed.
7) I thought I had succeeded in saving a life but the rest of the women
in the water had disappeared. When our attention shifted to the woman that
I had dragged out of the water, we saw that she was covered in blood had
had no breath.
8) I had to watch a swimming competition organized by Chicago business,
to collect money for sick people. A number of companies had sent teams. My
old school friend Alice was in Herman Airplanes team, and she had asked me
to come and watch her swim.
9) A strange sound was heard, a terrible sound and everyone started running
in opposite directions.