The Corpse At The Foot Of My Bed

by Gordon Linzner

About the Author: Gordon Linzner is founder and former editor of Space and Time Magazine, and author of three published novels and dozens of short stories in F&SF, Twilight Zone, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, and numerous other magazines and anthologies, most recently Baker Street Irregulars II, Footprints in the Stars, Across the Universe, and Shadows Out of Time. He is a lifetime member of SFWA.

Excerpt

Waking up early for no reason is annoying enough. I didn’t need a stranger staring at me as well.

His face pressed against the sidelight window next to my balcony door, leering up from the foot of my bed. His features were distorted, but I managed to make out clear blue eyes and dirty blond hair. 

I grimaced. You’d expect more privacy in the top rear apartment of a four-story walk-up.

I glared at him.

He didn’t even blink.

I thought he might go away if I went back to sleep. Better yet, I hoped I was still asleep, dreaming him. I shut my eyes and rolled over.

My alarm clock disagreed.

I turned back to the window. “Still there?” I muttered, adding a few choice curses. Grateful that, for a change, I’d bothered slipping on pajama bottoms the night before, I finally climbed out of bed.

I grasped a heavy bookend in my right hand and reached for the door latch with my left. My fingers paused against the cool metal. The intruder still didn’t move. Now I saw why. His lips were pressed, distorted, against the glass, but the pane remained unfogged.

That wasn’t fair. He wasn’t my corpse. I hadn’t put him there. And now he was my responsibility.

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