The Beast House
Richard Laymon
Dear Mr. Hardy,
I am writing to you because I have just read your book, Horror at Black River Falls, which I know was a best seller and must have made you a fortune. As the book is supposed to be a true story, I am wondering whether or not you might want to write a story I know of. It is also a true story. It is even more horrible than what you wrote in your other book. Let me tell you, it makes my hair stand up just thinking about it, and I don’t scare so easy.
It is about a haunted house in the town where I live, except the house isn’t literally haunted if you mean ghosts. It is haunted by some kind of thing that’s slaughtered maybe fifteen or more people over the passed hundred years. I mean slaughtered. It makes mincemeat out of them.
I think it would make a terrific book for you to write.
If this sounds interesting to you, please let me know right away as I’ll find someone else otherwise. I happen to think this is right up your alley. You can call it Horror at Malcasa Point, which is where I live and where the house is that the monster lives in, which is known as Beast House. Maybe you have heard of it.
Here is where I come in. Last Summer, I got my hands on this really ancient diary that was written in 1903 by Lilly Thorn. I work at my parents’ motel, and found the diary under mysterious circumstances in one of the rooms I was cleaning. Nobody knows I have it. (Except now you know. You must promise to keep this a secret, as I would be in deep sh trouble if words of it got to certain people. I mean seriously. We are talking here about my life.)
Anyhow, this diary I found is hot stuff. Lilly Thorn, the woman that wrote it, was the very first person ever to live in Beast House, and she goes into all kinds of details about where the monster came from, and what it’s like, and everything. I mean everything. If you can believe this, she even had sexual intercourse with it. I don’t mean once, but constantly like she was obsessed. It’s steamy stuff, as you can see from the xerox of the page I’ll attach. The diary also goes into the first murders and let me tell you, this sure is not the way they tell it on the tour!
So if you are interested in another best seller, I think you should let me know and maybe we can split the take.
Sincerely,
Janice Crogan
The Welcome Inn
Malcasa Point, CA 95405
P.S.: This thing here makes your ghost in Black River Falls look like a sissy.
From Diary I Found
He moved behind me. His claws pierced my back, forcing me to my knees. I felt the slippery warmth of his flesh press down on me, and I knew with certainty what he was about. The thought of it appalled me to the heart, and yet I was somehow thrilled by the touch of him, and strangely eager.
He mounted me from behind, a manner unusual for humans as it is customary among many lower animals. At the first touch of his organ, fear wrenched my vitals, not for the safety of my flesh but for my everlasting soul. And yet I allowed him to continue. I know, now, that no power of mine could have prevented him from having his will with me. I made no attempt to resist, however. On the contrary, I welcomed his entry. I hungered for it as if I somehow presaged its magnificence.
Oh Lord, how he plundered me! How his claws tore my flesh! How his teeth bore into me! How his prodigious organ battered my tender womb. How brutal he was in his savagery, how gentle his heart.
I knew, as we lay spent on the earthen cellar floor,
P.S.: See what I mean?
GORMAN HARDY
PO Box 253
Cambridge, Mass. 03138
June 3, 1979
Miss Janice Crogan
The Welcome Inn
Malcasa Point, CA 95405
Dear Janice,
I must begin by offering an apology for the lengthy delay in answering. Unfortunately, my publisher was rather slow in forwarding your letter of March 31.
Since the publication of Horror at Black River Falls, I have been bombarded by fan letters, not a few of which offered ideas to inspire another blockbuster. Most such suggestions, of course, were utter tripe. Yours, however, did arouse my curiosity.
Unfortunately, my preliminary research has turned up very little about “Beast House.” I was able to determine, through various traveler’s guides of California, only that such a place does exist in the town of Malcasa Point, that several murders allegedly took place there, and that guided tours of the house are available. While this information is rather paltry, it does substantiate several of the claims made in your letter.
I found myself most intrigued by the photocopy you enclosed of the diary page. If the diary proves to be authentic and if it contains sufficient material along the lines you suggest, it might very well provide a launching pad for a study of “Beast House.”
Naturally, I must read the diary in its entirety before making any commitment. Enclosed find my check in the amount of twenty dollars to cover copying and mailing expenses.
Very truly
Gorman Hardy
June 11, 1979
Gorman Hardy
PO Box 253
Cambridge, Mass. 03138
Dear Mr. Hardy,
Enclosed is your check for twenty dollars. I am really glad you are interested and I am sure your not trying to pull something, but no way am I going to send you the whole diary because where does that leave me? Maybe I am paranoid, but I need to have an agreement about my split before you can see any more diary. I think fifty-fifty would be fair, as its all my idea and you can’t do anything without the diary.
Sincerely,
Janice Crogan
GORMAN HARDY
PO Box 253
Cambridge, Mass. 03138
June 16, 1979
Miss Janice Crogan
The Welcome Inn
Malcasa Point, CA 95405
Dear Janice,
Naturally, I am disappointed by your response concerning the diary. I do, however, understand your reluctance to place trust in a total stranger. As a professional writer for nearly twenty years, I have frequently been “stabbed in the back,” not only by strangers but by those I deemed friends. One can never be too cautious.
While I do not feel that the situation, at this time, warrants an agreement of any kind, I want to assure you that I remain interested in pursuing the project.
During the last weekend in August, I will be addressing a convention of the National Library Association in San Francisco. If you are agreeable to the arrangement, I will visit Malcasa Point following the convention, prepared to discuss terms with you, read the diary, and embark on such research as will be necessary to get the project under way.
Very truly,
Gorman Hardy
CHAPTER ONE
“What you need,” Nora said, “is a good fucking.”
“I see.”
“Look around you, take your pick. You’re the bestlooking gal here.”
Tyler didn’t look. Instead, she took a sip of her Baileys.