萬聖節鬼話：“禁止入內”可不是開玩笑哦

Peggy and her boyfriend Tommy were driving down a lonely stretch of highway at dusk when a thunderstorm came crashing down on them. Tommy slowed the car and they crept their way past a formidable abandoned house. Plastered all over the fences and trees were No Trespassing signs. A mile past the house, the car hydroplaned. Peggy screamed as the car slid off the road, plunging down into a gully. The car slammed into a large boulder, throwing Peggy violently into the door, before it came to a rest under a pecan tree. Her head banged against the window, and a stabbing pain shot through her shoulder and arm.
黃昏時分，佩琪和她的男友湯米驅車行駛在一支高速路的延伸段上，周圍沒有其他車。忽然天降暴雨，湯米放慢車速，像是爬行般的向前駛去。期間經過一間可怕的荒宅，柵欄和樹上糊滿了“禁止入內”的標誌。在駛過這間屋子一英里，車子突然失控，滑出路面，佩琪尖叫着，車子摔進溝，撞上一塊大石頭，巨大的慣性，讓佩琪撞到門上，最後撞到一棵山核桃樹，佩琪的頭又撞上玻璃，好在整個車子總算停了下來。一股鑽心的疼痛貫穿着佩琪的肩膀和手臂。

Tommy turned to her. “Are you all right? You’re bleeding!” “Arm, shoulder. Feel bad,” Peggy managed to gasp. Tommy glanced cautiously at her right arm. “I think your arm is broken,” he said, and he tore a strip off his shirt and pressed it to the cut on her head. “I’m going to call for help,” he said when it became obvious that the bleeding was not going to stop right away. But neither of them had their cell phones. “That house we just passed will have a phone I can use.” Tommy said. Peggy’s eyes popped wide open at this statement. Despite her pain, she remembered the creepy abandoned house. “Stay here. A . . . car . . . will come,”
湯米轉向她問：“你感覺還好麼？你都在流血了！”“手臂和肩膀，感覺很糟。”佩琪勉強喘氣說道。湯米仔細查看她的右臂，我想你的手臂骨折了，說着從自己的襯衫上扯下一條布，將它綁在她頭上的傷口上。他看着佩琪的傷勢，很明顯流血不可能馬上停止，“我要去找人幫忙。”然而他們兩個人都沒有帶手機。“我們剛剛經過的那幢房子，肯定有電話可以用。”湯米說。佩琪聽到不禁睜大眼睛，儘管身有傷痛，那是一想起那座陰森恐怖的棄宅，還是心有餘悸。“在這兒別走...會有車經過。”

“I can’t stay, Peggy,” Tommy said, “It could take hours for another car to come, and you‘re losing too much blood.” He tore another strip of his shirt and placed it gently on the cut on her head. Then he went out and retrieved a couple of blankets from the trunk to cover her with. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He raced out into the storm, shutting the dented car door behind him.
“佩琪，我不能等，說不定要等上好幾個小時纔會有車經過，而你失血太多了。“說着他又從襯衣上扯下一段，輕輕地綁在她頭上的傷口上面，接着從後備箱拿出幾條毯子蓋在佩琪的身上，“我去去就回”，他說着消失在風雨中，順便帶上了表面已經凹坑不平的車門。

Peggy drifted in a kind of daze. Something at the back of her mind was making her uneasy. She slid down on to the floor and put her head on the seat, completely covering herself with the blankets, head and all. Feeling safer, she allowed the weariness caused by the wounds to take over and fell asleep.
佩琪漸漸陷入恍惚。潛意識裏某種東西讓她感到惶恐不安。她整個身體躺了下來，她把頭躺在座位上，把毯子將整個身體包括頭遮蓋起來。感覺到安心一點以後，受傷之後的疲累襲來，她很快就睡着了。

Peggy wasn’t sure what woke her. Had a beam of light shown briefly through the blanket? Did she hear someone curse outside? She strained eyes and ears, but heard nothing save the soft thudding of the rain, and no light shown through the blanket now. If Tommy had arrived with the rescue squad, there surely would be noise and light and many voices. But she heard nothing save the swish of the rain and an occasional thumping noise which she put down to the rubbing of the branches of the pecan tree in the wind. The sound should have been comforting, but it was not. Goosebumps crawled across her arms – even the broken one -- and she almost ceased breathing for some time as some deep part of her inner mind instructed her to freeze and not make a sound.
佩琪也不確定到底是什麼將她吵醒，是透過毛毯的光線？還是外面有人在咒罵？她睜大眼睛，伸長耳朵，除了輕輕的雨聲，沒有其他聲響和光線。如果湯米找到救援隊，肯定會有各種聲響、燈光還有人聲嘈雜。但是她只聽到雨中颯颯的風聲，和偶爾發出的巨大聲響，她想應該是山核桃枝幹相互摩擦的聲音，本來這些聲音應該是讓人安心的，但是現在看來不是這樣。雞皮疙瘩在她的手臂上蔓延，甚至是那條受傷的手臂。有一會她甚至有意識地摒住呼吸，彷彿是聽從她內心深處的指揮，要她一動不動，不做聲響。

She did not know how long fear kept her immobile. But suddenly the raw terror ceased, replaced by cold shivers of apprehension and a sick coil in her stomach that had nothing to do with her injuries. Something terrible had happened, she thought wearily, fear adding yet more fatigue to her already wounded body. Then she scolded herself for a ninny. It was just her sore head making her imagine things. Somewhat comforted by this thought, she dozed again, only vaguely aware of a new sound that had not been there before; a soft thud-thud sound as of something gently tapping the roof. Thud-thud. Pattering of the rain. Thud-thud. Silence. Sometimes she would almost waken and listen to it in a puzzled manner. Thud-thud. Patter of rain. Thud-thud. Had a branch dislodged from the tree?
她不知道自己因爲恐懼而一動不動了多長時間。突然這種原生性的恐懼停止了，取而代之的是不安引起的冷顫以及胃裏的翻江倒海。這樣對她的傷勢一點好處都沒有，剛纔肯定發生了什麼可怕的事情，她無力的想到。恐懼的情緒讓她的傷勢雪上加霜，她嘲笑自己真是個傻瓜，那些只不過是頭痛引起的胡思亂想。多少給自己一點安慰後，她又睡去，迷迷糊糊聽到了之前沒有聽到過的聲響，輕輕的噠-噠聲，像是有什麼東西在拍打着車頂，噠-噠， 雨聲吧，噠-噠，然後又是寂靜。有時候她甚至不明就裏地醒來專門聽這個聲音，噠-噠，雨繼續下，噠-噠。是不是哪棵樹的樹枝脫節了？

Peggy wasn’t sure how long she’d been unconscious when she was awakened by a bright light blazing through the window of the car and the sound of male voices exclaiming in horror. A door was wrenched open, and someone crawled inside. She lifted her head and looked up at a young state policeman. “Miss, are you all right?” he asked and then turned over his shoulder to call for help. Peggy told the officers her story and begged them to look for Tommy. They deftly avoided answering her and instead called the paramedics.
佩琪不知道過了多久，突然她被從車窗照入的一道亮光驚醒，是一羣男人們的聲音，彷彿在議論什麼可怕的事情。車門被撬開了，有人爬了進來，她擡起頭看到一位年輕的警官，“小姐，你沒事吧？”警官問到，然後轉過頭呼叫支援。佩琪告訴了他整個事情的始末，央求他去找湯米。警官沒有正面回答她，而是叫來了醫護人員。

As the paramedics carried her carefully up the slope of the incline, Peggy looked back at the car—and saw a grotesque figure hanging from a branch of the pecan tree. For a moment, her brain couldn’t decipher what she was seeing in the bright lights of the police car parked at the side of the road. Then she heard a thud-thud sound as the foot of the figure scraped the top of the totaled car, and she started screaming over and over in horror. One of the police officers hastened to block her view and a paramedic fumbled for some valium to give her as her mind finally registered what she had seen. Tommy’s mangled, dead body was hanging from the pecan tree just above the car, and nailed to the center of his chest was a No Trespassing sign.
醫護人員將她傾斜着小心翼翼的擡出了車子，她回頭看了下車子，發現山核桃樹上掛着一個奇怪的東西，警車停在路邊，車燈發出亮光，一瞬間她不太理解自己看到了什麼，大腦一片空白。然後她又聽到了噠-噠的聲音，那是這個掛在樹上的人的腳摩擦車頂的聲音，她驚恐大聲尖叫起來一聲接着一聲，其中一個警官擋住了她的視線，醫護人員手忙腳亂給她注射安定。她終於確定她看到了什麼。湯米血肉模糊的屍體被掛在樹上，下面就是他們的車子，他的胸前正中心被訂上了“禁止入內”的牌子。