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Blood Disease
- GenresShort Stories
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About the author
Patrick McGrath
88 books570 followersPatrick McGrath was born in London and grew up near Broadmoor Hospital where his father was Medical Superintendent. He was educated at Stonyhurst College. He is a British novelist whose work has been categorized as gothic fiction. He is married to actress Maria Aitken and lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 3, 2023
2.5⭐
William Clack-Herman, popularly known as Congo Bill, an anthropologist returns to England with a caged small black-and-white Colobus monkey. He is severely debilitated, haggard and thin from having contracted malaria from his recent trip to Africa. He is greeted by his wife Virginia and son Frank whom he gives the monkey to. On the way home, they stop for the night at the Blue Bat Inn. Shortly after Congo Bill and company arrive, a rich man named Ronald Dexter and his valet Clutch stop there too. Ronald is an elegant looking man whereas his valet gives the impression he is some kind of prehistoric man. The valet is extremely superstitious who is in the habit of running a small silver crucifix along the seams of Ronald's garments when preparing them for him to wear tucking the crucifix into an inside pocket. Ronald goes along with this since he has long given up on interfering with Clutch's bizarre superstitious rituals. Meanwhile, the son Frank has discovered that the monkey has died in the cage and wraps him up in a makeshift shroud with sheets.
Later that night sitting in the inn's bar Clutch observes the innkeeper and his patrons appear all to be fat, pale, sallow people, with a yellowish tinge to their pallor. With a sense of horror Clutch realizes what is wrong with the people at the bar, they all have pernicious anemia.
Virginia and Dexter turn out to be old acquaintances, and it becomes very obvious at dinner that night that they are sexually attracted to each to other. The fragile nervous system of the debilitated Congo Bill becomes uncomfortable with all the noise in the bar, so Virginia brings him upstairs to bed while giving Dexter a knowing glance as she leaves the bar. The son Frank takes the wrapped dead monkey which he has stuffed down his shirt and tries to sneak out for a burial ceremony but is intercepted by a red haired eleven-year-old girl who wears a black orthopedic boot. Her name is Meg Pander, and she is the landlord's daughter. He wants to bury the monkey outdoors, but she tells him the cellar would be better and to meet her in her room at midnight. While the infirm Bill sleeps deliriously having nightmares about being back in the Congo, Virginia lets Ronald into her room. This is observed by two flabby breathless men from the bar with waxy skin and big, soft faces who were hiding in the shadows. Dexter and Virginia are abducted and taken to the inn’s basement to have their throats slit by the inn owner and their blood drunk by him and the villagers. Frank who is already there with Meg to bury his monkey sees what is happening. When he sees the bloodletting of Dexter and then when they bring in his mother, he is horrified and tries to stop it. This story has so many elements that led nowhere and can be just seen as a simple horror or crime story about murderously waylaying travelers with the villagers driven crazy with bloodlust by their condition of pernicious anemia and trying to curtail it by drinking healthy blood to improve their health.
William Clack-Herman, popularly known as Congo Bill, an anthropologist returns to England with a caged small black-and-white Colobus monkey. He is severely debilitated, haggard and thin from having contracted malaria from his recent trip to Africa. He is greeted by his wife Virginia and son Frank whom he gives the monkey to. On the way home, they stop for the night at the Blue Bat Inn. Shortly after Congo Bill and company arrive, a rich man named Ronald Dexter and his valet Clutch stop there too. Ronald is an elegant looking man whereas his valet gives the impression he is some kind of prehistoric man. The valet is extremely superstitious who is in the habit of running a small silver crucifix along the seams of Ronald's garments when preparing them for him to wear tucking the crucifix into an inside pocket. Ronald goes along with this since he has long given up on interfering with Clutch's bizarre superstitious rituals. Meanwhile, the son Frank has discovered that the monkey has died in the cage and wraps him up in a makeshift shroud with sheets.
Later that night sitting in the inn's bar Clutch observes the innkeeper and his patrons appear all to be fat, pale, sallow people, with a yellowish tinge to their pallor. With a sense of horror Clutch realizes what is wrong with the people at the bar, they all have pernicious anemia.
Virginia and Dexter turn out to be old acquaintances, and it becomes very obvious at dinner that night that they are sexually attracted to each to other. The fragile nervous system of the debilitated Congo Bill becomes uncomfortable with all the noise in the bar, so Virginia brings him upstairs to bed while giving Dexter a knowing glance as she leaves the bar. The son Frank takes the wrapped dead monkey which he has stuffed down his shirt and tries to sneak out for a burial ceremony but is intercepted by a red haired eleven-year-old girl who wears a black orthopedic boot. Her name is Meg Pander, and she is the landlord's daughter. He wants to bury the monkey outdoors, but she tells him the cellar would be better and to meet her in her room at midnight. While the infirm Bill sleeps deliriously having nightmares about being back in the Congo, Virginia lets Ronald into her room. This is observed by two flabby breathless men from the bar with waxy skin and big, soft faces who were hiding in the shadows. Dexter and Virginia are abducted and taken to the inn’s basement to have their throats slit by the inn owner and their blood drunk by him and the villagers. Frank who is already there with Meg to bury his monkey sees what is happening. When he sees the bloodletting of Dexter and then when they bring in his mother, he is horrified and tries to stop it. This story has so many elements that led nowhere and can be just seen as a simple horror or crime story about murderously waylaying travelers with the villagers driven crazy with bloodlust by their condition of pernicious anemia and trying to curtail it by drinking healthy blood to improve their health.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews