The G.A. Henty Megapack
The Girl Detectives Megapack
The Penny Parker Megapack
The Pinocchio Megapack
The Rover Boys Megapack
The Tom Corbett, Space Cadet Megapack
The Tom Swift Megapack
AUTHOR MEGAPACKS
The Achmed Abdullah Megapack
The Edward Bellamy Megapack
The B.M. Bower Megapack
The E.F. Benson Megapack
The Second E.F. Benson Megapack
The Algernon Blackwood Megapack
The Second Algernon Blackwood Megapack
The Max Brand Megapack
The First Reginald Bretnor Megapack
The Fredric Brown Megapack
The Wilkie Collins Megapack
The Ray Cummings Megapack
The Guy de Maupassant Megapack
The Philip K. Dick Megapack
The Erckmann-Chatrian Megapack
The Jacques Futrelle Megapack
The Randall Garrett Megapack
The Second Randall Garrett Megapack
The Anna Katharine Green Megapack
The Zane Grey Megapack
The Edmond Hamilton Megapack
The Dashiell Hammett Megapack
The C.J. Henderson Megapack
The M.R. James Megapack
The Selma Lagerlof Megapack
The Murray Leinster Megapack***
The Second Murray Leinster Megapack***
The Arthur Machen Megapack**
The George Barr McCutcheon Megapack
The Talbot Mundy Megapack
The Andre Norton Megapack
The H. Beam Piper Megapack
The Mack Reynolds Megapack
The Rafael Sabatini Megapack
The Saki Megapack
The Darrell Schweitzer Megapack
The Robert Sheckley Megapack
* Not available in the United States
** Not available in the European Union
*** Out of print.
OTHER COLLECTIONS YOU MAY ENJOY
The Great Book of Wonder, by Lord Dunsany (it should have been called “The Lord Dunsany Megapack”)
The Wildside Book of Fantasy
The Wildside Book of Science Fiction
Yondering: The First Borgo Press Book of Science Fiction Stories
To the Stars—And Beyond! The Second Borgo Press Book of Science Fiction Stories
Once Upon a Future: The Third Borgo Press Book of Science Fiction Stories
Whodunit?—The First Borgo Press Book of Crime and Mystery Stories
More Whodunits—The Second Borgo Press Book of Crime and Mystery Stories
X is for Xmas: Christmas Mysteries
BOY BLUE, by Steve Rasnic Tem
Alice worked the cigarette vigorously with quick, nervous puffs. The floors and walls seemed to whimper.
“You know, it’s okay if you’re not sure you love me anymore.”
She stirred, focused her enormous blue eyes on him, scowled. “Don’t you have any respect for yourself?”
He looked past her. “Maybe…I don’t know anymore. I do know…I’d do anything for you.”
“Oh, Morgan, you make me feel guilty all the time!”
His heart wasn’t in the argument, but he reacted because he knew she wanted him to defend himself. He pulled out something from one of the many pop psychology books he had read; it was the only way he knew to program himself to argue. “I can’t make you feel guilty.”
He knew immediately he had made a mistake.
“That’s right, Morgan; you can’t make me feel.”
He could just stare at her now, the nimbus of yellow hair crowning the puffy, sleep-starved face, and listen for the noises. The noises were more persistent when they argued: the scrapings, tappings, wood creakings so like whimpers. He was getting another migraine.
She examined him slowly. “I’m sorry I said that. We did it again, didn’t we?”
“Yeah. We get weird every time we go to a party. Pretty nasty business tonight.”
The noises were getting louder. Alice looked around the walls, and stared at the cellar door. “I want you to go down there.”
“You know…it’s probably just a field mouse, or a gopher.”
He looked at the door. He had been avoiding it. He needed to know what was going on—if it was a mouse, perhaps a trapped cat, some small animal living in the crawl spaces. But he hadn’t checked it out.
“Morgan…please.”
His headache was getting worse. But he’d do anything for her.
Morgan stood silently on the first landing, wiping the sweat up off his forehead and into the thick black hair. Then he started down the long flight of steps. Like many other old handmade houses in this mountainous part of Virginia, this one had been built into the side of a hill. No ground had been leveled, and the floors were left staggered up and down the hill. The living room was six inches above the bedroom, the kitchen a good two feet below that. Alice insisted it was dangerous.
As he descended the steps, Morgan grabbed a flashlight off a slanting shelf attached to the railing, and played the light over the chaotic substructure of the house, where joints and floor braces came into each
