MUSIC:

HAUNTING WIND EFFECT ... TOLL OF OMINOUS BELL ... THEN BEHIND--

VOICE:

(ECHO, SEPULCHRAL) Stay - Tuned - for - Terror!

MUSIC:

CHANGES TO CREEPY ORGAN ... "SWAN LAKE" ... THEN OUT

ANNOUNCER:

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, stay tuned for terror. Stay tuned for thrills and excitement. Listen to Craig Dennis in "Lizzie Borden Took an Axe ..." written by Robert Bloch for Weird Tales Magazine and adapted by the author especially for this program. You'll hear it now if you--

VOICE:

(ECHO, SEPULCHRAL) Stay - Tuned - for - Terror!

MUSIC:

ORGAN ... "SWAN LAKE" ... FILLS A MINUTE-AND-A-HALF LONG PAUSE ... THEN OUT

ANNOUNCER:

And now here is Craig Dennis in "Lizzie Borden Took an Axe ..."

MUSIC:

BRIEF INTRODUCTION ... THEN IN BG--

SOUND:

BUSY NEWSROOM BACKGROUND ... PHONE RINGS TWICE ... RECEIVER UP ... ANITA'S VOICE ON FILTER

JIM:

(INTO PHONE) Morning Bulletin. Jim Daley speaking.

ANITA:

(QUIETLY DISTRESSED) Jim! Jim, help me.

JIM:

Anita? What's the matter?

ANITA:

I - I can't tell you, Jim, but - but it's happened. Oh, come out at once! You - you must help me!

MUSIC:

ACCENT

JIM:

(NARRATES) That's how it started -- on a hot morning in July with Anita's fear-filled voice pleading with me over the telephone. I left the office, got out the car, --

SOUND:

AUTO ENGINE, BRIEFLY IN BG ... THEN FADES OUT WITH MUSIC--

JIM:

(NARRATES) --and raced down the long lonely road leading to that house in the hills. I didn't know what I might find when I reached that house. ( MUSIC: EERIE, IN AGREEMENT WITH FOLLOWING--) Anything could happen there with Anita locked up all alone with her crazy guardian. The thought of my fiancée alone with that madman almost terrified me -- for old Gideon Godfrey was insane. That's what I was afraid of. Anita told me that her uncle was hexing her, putting the curse of the evil eye on her. Nonsense, of course. Anita was too intelligent to believe such superstitions. But living there all alone under the power of that demented man, her sanity was going, too. I could see it. Lately she had told me about something black -- something black that came into her bedroom at night. It was a sort of trailing mist, but it had a face, and a voice. Both were horrible. It seemed to whisper to her when she was asleep, and then she would fight off the inky tentacles that clutched her body and wake up screaming. She called it an incubus; a night demon. She said Gideon Godfrey sent it to her.

MUSIC:

GENTLY FADES OUT WITH SOUND--

SOUND:

AUTO ENGINE ... FADES IN, THEN SLOWS TO A STOP BEHIND--

JIM:

(NARRATES) Yes, I had good reason to be afraid -- a cunning maniac and a frightened girl alone together in a lonely house. And now that phone call.

SOUND:

ENGINE OUT ... CAR DOOR OPENS AND SHUTS

JIM:

(NARRATES) When I pulled up before the house, I jumped out and made for the door.

SOUND:

JIM'S STEPS TO DOOR

JIM:

(NARRATES) I didn't knock, but walked right in.

SOUND:

DOOR OPENS ... JIM'S SLOW STEPS TO ANITA BEHIND--

JIM:

(NARRATES) Anita stood in the parlor at the far side of the room, waiting. She said nothing, just held out her arms. I moved across the room to embrace her, but as I walked I stumbled over something.

SOUND:

JIM'S STEPS STUMBLE

JIM:

(NARRATES) I looked down -- and saw what I had stumbled over. The body of Gideon Godfrey lay on the floor, the head split open and crushed to a bloody pulp.

MUSIC:

ACCENT!

ANITA:

(SHUDDERS) Jim-- Jim, help me. You must help me, darling.

JIM:

Of course I'll help you, but what happened?

ANITA:

Well, it - it was hot this morning. I was out in the barn. I - I felt tired. I dozed off in the hayloft. Then all at once I woke up and came into the house. I found my uncle lying here.

JIM:

Wasn't there any noise? Nobody around?

ANITA:

Not a soul.

JIM:

Somebody killed him with an axe. But - where is the axe?

ANITA:

The axe? I - I don't know. It should be by the body if someone killed him.

JIM:

Well, just a minute.

ANITA:

Jim! Jim, where are you going?

JIM:

I'm going to call the police.

ANITA:

Oh, no, Jim. Don't you see? If you call them, they'll think - I did it.

JIM:

(REALIZES, SLOWLY) Yes, that's right. It's a pretty flimsy story, isn't it, Anita? (MORE BRISK) If we only had a weapon! Fingerprints, or footprints, or clues. (BEAT) You're sure you were out in the barn when this happened?

ANITA:

Oh, yes.

JIM:

Can't you remember more than that?

ANITA:

No, it - it's all so confused. I had one of my dreams. You know, the black thing came. I seem to remember I went out there for fishing sinkers.

JIM:

Fishing sinkers? In the barn? (BEAT) Listen to me. You're not Anita Loomis. You're Lizzie Borden.

MUSIC:

ACCENT! ... THEN BEHIND NARRATION--

JIM:

(NARRATES) Yes. She was like Lizzie Borden. I told her the story then: the story of Lizzie Borden. It was like the old jingle that began running through my brain--

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.

They had accused Lizzie Borden of murdering her parents one hot summer day after she came in from sleeping in the hay barn. They said she took an axe to them. It was a famous case and now Anita was shuddering in my arms.

ANITA:

Oh, Jim-- Jim, don't tell me stories like that. Are you trying to compare me to that woman? Are you hinting that I took an axe to my uncle?

JIM:

I'm not hinting anything. Just pointing out how similar your case is to Lizzie Borden's.

ANITA:

(SLOW, INTENSE) Maybe that's the explanation of her case, too. Maybe she was possessed of a demon. Maybe the black spirit of murder descended upon her when she slept. Told her to wake up and take an axe and - kill.

JIM:

Take it easy. Take it easy now, Anita. Stop it. There are no such things. You're - you're just upset. We've got to think this thing out now. Eventually we must call the police. We can't get around that. But right now the thing to do is try and find that axe.

MUSIC:

ACCENT! ... THEN BEHIND NARRATION--

JIM:

(NARRATES) We started to search for the murder weapon then. We covered every room. There was no axe. Finally I sent Anita to look upstairs while I went over the parlor again. There was nothing. My head began to swim. It was hot; quiet. There was only silence and - that body on the floor with its ghastly grin. And then, all at once, I saw it.

MUSIC:

ACCENT! ... THEN BEHIND NARRATION--

JIM:

(NARRATES) It was like a cloud; a black cloud. But it wasn't a cloud. It was a face. A face covered by a mask of wavering smoke. A mask that leered and pressed closer. I couldn't move! Then I heard something swish. I turned.

MUSIC:

OUT

ANITA:

(BLOODCURDLING SCREAM)

JIM:

(NARRATES) It was Anita. As I grasped her wrists she screamed and fainted.

ANITA:

(GASPS, SHUDDERS)

SOUND:

ANITA FALLS TO FLOOR

JIM:

(NARRATES) The black cloud over her face disappeared; oozed into air. As she fell I pried something loose from her rigid hands. It was - a blood-stained axe.

MUSIC:

ACCENT! ... THEN BEHIND NARRATION--

JIM:

(NARRATES) I put her down on the sofa and went into the other room. I carried the axe with me. No sense in taking chances. I trusted Anita, but not that thing. Not that black thing that swirled up like smoke to take possession of a living brain and make it lust to kill. In the other room I phoned the police and sat down to wait. What could we tell them? The truth? They wouldn't believe it! Wouldn't believe that an incubus could enter a human body and make it attempt a murder. But I knew how it must have entered into her; made her kill Gideon Godfrey. (SLOWLY) I felt the cool axe blade in my hand as I leaned back. The verse kept going in my head. "Lizzie Borden took an axe ..."

MUSIC:

OUT WITH--

SOUND:

CRASH! OF LOUD THUNDERCLAP

JIM:

(NARRATES) What was that?! I woke with a start. At first I thought the police had arrived. Then I realized it was thunder. A heat storm was breaking. I blinked and got up from the chair. Then I realized that something was missing. The axe was gone from my hands. (REALIZES) Anita! She must have awakened while I slept, come in here, and stolen the axe again. Yes! What a fool I was to sleep. The demon -- it had come back to her, entered into her. I faced the door; saw the trail of blood. It was true! I ran into the other room.

SOUND:

THUNDERCLAP!

JIM:

(NARRATES) Then I gasped with relief -- for Anita was still lying on the couch. I looked at the trail of blood on the floor. For the first time I noticed that it seemed to lead away from her, not towards her. What did it mean? It meant she wasn't possessed of the demon now while she slept. Maybe-- Maybe the demon came to me when I dozed off. I was trying to remember. Where was the axe? Where could it be now?

SOUND:

THUNDERCLAP!

JIM:

(NARRATES, SLOWLY, WITH DREAD) Then I knew. Knew everything. Knew that the demon had entered me while I slept. Knew what I had done. Because I saw that axe now -- crystal clear. That axe -- buried to the hilt in the top of Anita's head.

MUSIC:

CURTAIN

ANNOUNCER:

You have just heard Craig Dennis in "Lizzie Borden Took an Axe ..." adapted for radio by Robert Bloch from his story in Weird Tales Magazine. The original music on this program was conceived and played by Rommelle Fay. In just a moment we'll tell you about the next story in--

VOICE:

(ECHO, SEPULCHRAL) Stay - Tuned - for - Terror!

ANNOUNCER:

In the meantime--

MUSIC:

ORGAN ... "SWAN LAKE" ... FILLS A MINUTE-LONG PAUSE ...