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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmout there. Whatever was out there had been sent to punish an old man for his pride and vanity.Footsteps moved slowly up the hail toward the living room.“Louis?” he tried to call again, but only a faint croak actually emerged because now he could smell thething which had come into his house here at the end of the night. It was a dirty, low smell—the smell ofpoisoned tidal flats.Jud could make out bulking shapes in the gloom—Norma’s armoire, the Welsh dresser, the highboy—but no details. He tried to get to his feet on legs that had gone to water, his mind screaming that heneeded more time, that he was too old to face this again without more time; Timmy Baterman had beenbad enough, and Jud had been young then.The swing door opened and let in shadows. One of the shadows was more substantial than the others.Dear God, that stink.Shuffling steps in the darkness.“Gage?” Jud gained his feet at last. From one corner of his eye he saw the neat roll of cigarette ash in theJim Beam ashtray. “Gage, is that y—”A hideous mewling sound now arose, and for a moment all of Jud’s bones turned to white ice. It was notLouis’s son returned from the grave but some hideous monster.No. It was neither.It was Church, crouched in the hail doorway, making that sound. The cat’s eyes flared like dirty lamps.Then his eyes moved in the other direction and fixed on the thing which had come in with the cat.Jud began to back up, trying to catch at his thoughts, trying to hold on to his reason in the face of thatsmell. Oh, it was cold in here—the thing had brought its chill with it.Jud rocked unsteadily on his feet—it was the cat, twining around his legs, making him totter. It waspurring. Jud kicked at it, driving it away. It bared its teeth at him and hissed.Think! Oh, think, you stupid old man, it mayn’t be too late, even yet it mayn’t be too late . . . it’s backbut it can he killed again. . . if you can only do it. . . if you can only think. .He backed away toward the kitchen, and he suddenly remembered the utensil drawer beside the sink.There was a meat cleaver in that drawer.file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (306 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:50 PM