Woman by Richard Matheson

her
mind stormed.
     
         Ganine's reply staggered
her. "I have no clothes on," she said.
     
         Liz found herself moving
suddenly for the bedroom.
     
         Ganine stepped aside, looking
frightened. Liz froze in the bedroom doorway, looking at the bed.
     
         The sheets were rumpled, one
of them hanging off the mattress edge. Liz felt her stomach muscles jerking in,
a feeling of nausea suddenly overwhelming her. She twisted around to look at
Ganine; she knew that she was glaring. "How long
have you been here?" she asked, barely able to
speak.
     
         "Since early
afternoon," Ganine said. The calmness of her voice made Liz shudder with
rage. Ganine's answer had been quiet and completely non-apologetic, a simple
statement of fact. "I fell asleep."
     
         Liz struggled for control. "Get out of here," she said,
barely able to speak.
     
         "I can't," Ganine
replied. "I have to see your husband. He said he'd help me."
     
          "Help you?" Liz felt herself unable to react coherently. She only
knew that she wanted Ganine out of the apartment.
     
         "I'll leave after I see
him," Ganine said casually.
     
         " No, you'll leave right now," Liz told
her.
     
         "I can't," Ganine
replied.
     
          "Would
you like me to call the police?" Liz threatened,
trembling, feeling ill.
     
         Ganine looked alarmed.
"The police?" she
said.
     
         Liz fought for control.
"You're intruding in my home," she said in a low, shaken voice.
"Get out or, so help me God, I'll have you taken out."
     
         Ganine only stared at her,
her expression one of disbelief.
     
         "You hear me?" Liz raged.
     
         "Don't do this,"
Ganine told her pleadingly. "I can't—"
     
         "Get out of here!"
Liz shouted at her. "God damn you!Out!"
     
         Ganine flinched, started to
speak, then couldn't. Liz stepped aside as Ganine moved hurriedly into the
bedroom. Liz shuddered violently as she saw Ganine throw off the bathrobe. She
was naked underneath.
     
         Unable to control the
shaking of her body, Liz watchedas Ganine snatched up her dress from the floor
and pulled it over her head. She stepped into her shoes. Liz shuddered again as
she saw Ganine pick up her bra and panties—they were red—and her jacket and
start back towards the living room.
     
         Liz turned and stalked
across the living room to throw open the hall door. If I had a gun, she thought
as Ganine hurried towards her.
     
         At the doorway, Ganine
stopped and tried to speak. Liz wouldn't let her. "And
don't ever let me see you here again," she said,
teeth clenched, a murderous expression on her face.
     
         Ganine tried again to say
something but, again, Liz cut her off. "You hear me?!" she cried.
     
         Ganine's face was tight and
pale. Repressing a sob, she moved into the hall and Liz slammed the door behind
her, stood there, shaking. "Bitch," she muttered, then exploded. "Bitch!"
     
         She was turning back towards
the living room when the pain flared in her head. Gasping, she clutched at her
skull with both hands. It felt as though a white-hot knife had stabbed at her
brain.
     
          "Jesus
Christ," she muttered, her eyes gone wild with
dread. "It is her! It is!" Stumbling to a chair, she fell
down on it, whining in pain. Who was Ganine? What was
she? Liz felt weak and helpless, turning her head from side to side, a groan of
agony pulsing in her throat.
     
         She managed to reach the
bathroom cabinet and pull it open. Her hands were shaking so badly that her
pain pills scattered from their vial into the toilet. She managed to swallow
three of them, gulping them down without water, then, labouredly, her face
distorted by the pain, started back toward the living room.
     
         Afraid that she was going to
lose her balance and fall, she managed to work her way back to the living
room—she