If I had dreamed the marks-- But no! There they were, unmistakable and damning, just where the breath struggles up.

I put my own thumbs on these two dark spots to see if--when what was it?
A lightning stroke or a call of fate which one must answer while sense remains?
I felt my head pulled around by some unseen force from behind, and met staring into mine through the glass of the window a pair of burning eyes.

Or was it fantasy?
For in another moment they were gone, nor was I in the condition just then to dissociate the real from the unreal.

But the possibility of a person having seen me in this position before the dead was enough to startle me to my feet, and though in another instant I became convinced that I had been the victim of hallucination, I nevertheless made haste to cross to the window and take a look through its dismal panes.

A gale of blinding snow was sweeping past, making all things indistinguishable, but the absence of balcony outside was reassuring and I stepped hastily back, asking myself for the first time what I should do and where I should now go to ensure myself from being called as a witness to the awful occurrence which had just taken place in this house.