《Drink 》作者：- Mark W. Tiedemann 【EPUB】

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Mark W Tiedemann - DrinkDRINK Mark W. Tiedemann quotDrinkquot was purchased by Gardner Dozois and appeared in the July 1994 issue of Asimovs with an illustration by Jonathan and Lisa Hunt. A relatively new writer Mark W.Tiedemann has made a handful of sales to Asimovs as well as to markets such as Universe and Tomorrow and we have more stories by him in inventory. Aprofessional photographer he lives in St. Louis where he is at work on several novels. Here he takes us deep into the past for an unflinching and frightening look at what it means to be compelled to drink… whether or not you are thirsty. Madrin awokesuffocating. His right arm was pinned beneath him. In his mind he saw the beast above him lowering its wet mouth to rip out his throat. Madrin swung his leftarm out and kicked to get away. His head struck something solid. The beast vanished and Madrin opened his eyes. Darkness enveloped him. He tried to fill hislungs to scream and tasted wool. Twisting he freed his arm and scraped the blanket from his face. He jumped up throwing the blanket and pressed his back against the stone wall. A taper burned on a wooden shelf across the small room. In its wan yellow light the blanket looked black the cloak of the beast. Madrins panicked breaths almost drowned thesound of blood in his ears. Flashes of his dream kicked his heart: the beast wrestled him to the earth still unslakedafter having taken everyone else and covered him with its mouth whispering quotDrink… drink… drink… I thirst…quot The dream changed details from time to timebut never its essence. Madrin wished—sometimes prayed when he thought it might accomplishsomething for him—that he could change the dream completely. He felt dreams ought to be more malleable than reality which he could never change. His parents were still dead their bodiesdrained to quench a thirst that would have taken him too if Brother Renard had not intervened. The beast could not hurt him anymore. Maybe. So BrotherRenard had promised. But other things Renard had said had turned out to be lies or at leastnot the truth his words had implied. The wall was cool.