# Creep Me Out With Your Closing Line.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 14, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850 "2005-05-14T18:54:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/1 "2005-05-14T18:54:28Z")
There is a short story I read years back, in (IIRC) an Alfred Hitchcock story collection. It closes with the most nastily haunting line I know: > [@](#): > > A scrap of flesh falls from my rotting face, as I turn from the window, my eyes blinded by tears. > > She was mine. She was mine… Want to guess the name of the story? And/or share your own? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/2 "2005-05-14T23:00:12Z")
Damnit, that’s awfully familiar, but I can’t place it. Robert Bloch or Richard Matheson, by any chance? Here’s a closer I like: > [@](#): > > He opened his eye to the cave’s dim grey light, enough to show half a man’s worth of old bones. Okay, that’s one of mine, so it’s not really fair. If I can nail your quote, I’ll find one to present. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/3 "2005-05-14T23:16:20Z")
And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all. ---
**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/4 "2005-05-14T23:20:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Now and then, when the darkness has fallen and the night is still, hard in hand Blue-Eyes and the Turkey creep up near the home in which they once were so happy, and with beating hearts they watch and listen; sometimes a blinding flash comes through the window, and they know it is the light from the new mother’s glass eyes, or they hear a strange muffled noise, and they know it is the sound of her wooden tail as she drags it along the floor. _The New Mother_, Lucy Lane Clifford ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/5 "2005-05-14T23:26:14Z")
Above the din of a cacophonous society, the lone voice of a beaten and dying little girl cries out to an angry God, “Where is my mother?” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/6 "2005-05-14T23:33:56Z")
“He loved Big Brother.” What, too easy? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/7 "2005-05-14T23:36:50Z")
“From the burning world beyond the studio came the wind whisper of the plague of locusts.” ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/8 "2005-05-15T01:42:10Z")
“…as he entered the living room he beheld his missing tie, knotted below the black and unspeakably swollen face of his wife.” [that’s from memory and may not be an exact quote] ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/9 "2005-05-15T02:03:33Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Want to guess the name of the story? And/or share your own? You Bush-loving bastard, I was SURE it was Maurice Level’s “The Last Kiss.” But THAT was… "She fell writhing on the floor. Already her face was nothing but a red rag. “Then he straightened himself, stumbled over her, felt about the wall to find the switch, and put out the light. And round them, as in them, was a great Darkness…” But my favorite has always been: “And Babe screams at night and has grown very thin.” ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/10 "2005-05-15T02:22:42Z")
I actually don’t know the author for mine, but I remember the name of the story. It was in a collection that also held the Dunsany story “The Gebbelins”, and another creepy one that ended: > [@](#): > > It is clear that Herr Kurmatz will die a happy man, holding in each hand the hand of a loyal friend, and with the satisfaction of having been proven right. That one is called “The Humanist Jew”. How about - > [@](#): > > I know, because I’ve tried. And tried. And tried. And - > [@](#): > > And, even though he knew he mustn’t, he turned, slowly. And looked. Both from the same collection. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/11 "2005-05-15T02:37:56Z")
Everyone knows the first line from this book…who knows the last? "_It was the ‘Rachael’ who, in her long and melancholy search for her children, found another orphan."_ ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/12 "2005-05-15T02:43:49Z")
Going for the classics, are we **Reeder**? 😃 First American edition published November 14, 1851 by Harper & Brothers, New York. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/13 "2005-05-15T02:54:33Z")
“Darling.” The final line in King’s _Pet Semetary_. Damn creepy stuff, that! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/14 "2005-05-15T04:22:52Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > “It was the ‘Rachael’ who, in her long and melancholy search for her children, found another orphan.” > [@silenus](#): > > Going for the classics, are we **Reeder**? 😃 > > First American edition published November 14, 1851 by Harper & Brothers, New York. Gonna guess Charles Dickens’ _A Tale of Two Cities_. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/15 "2005-05-15T04:43:07Z")
> [@Spatial Rift 47](#): > > Gonna guess Charles Dickens’ _A Tale of Two Cities_. Nope. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/16 "2005-05-15T04:45:54Z")
Hmm … _Oliver Twist_? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/17 "2005-05-15T04:50:31Z")
_In pace requiescat!_ ---
**Author:** ![Liz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/liz/32/17737_2.png) [@Liz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liz)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/18 "2005-05-15T04:57:46Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > Everyone knows the first line from this book…who knows the last? > "_It was the ‘Rachael’ who, in her long and melancholy search for her children, found another orphan."_ Moby Dick, isn’t it? One of my favourites: “He whispered, “Do you love?”; and, somewhere far across the empty lake, a loon screamed.” - Stephen King, The Raft ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/19 "2005-05-15T05:07:19Z")
“I can still see!” ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/20 "2005-05-15T14:09:33Z")
" ‘A bowl of Biskies makes a growing boy.’ They were the last words he ever read." [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850.md?page=2)