
Awakening in total darkness, a nameless man feels his way to a steel door that opens on a command from an unseen voice. He flees into a moon‑lit courtyard, scales a towering fence, and is thrust into a night‑marish forest where a lone girl, clutching a broadsword, waits on a log. The disembodied director demands he kill her to earn his freedom, while the man struggles between his own fear and a desperate urge to protect the trembling child.
The scene quickly shifts from brutal survival to a bizarre production set, as a producer watches through a flickering screen, treating the man's ordeal like a live television drama. Dark humor and uncanny commentary on the entertainment industry rise as the protagonist is forced to act out impossible choices for the amusement of unseen spectators. Listeners are drawn into a tense, surreal clash of morality and media spectacle, wondering whether the show will ever let anyone truly escape.
Language
en
Duration
~29 minutes (28K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
New York, NY: Royal Publications, Inc., 1957.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2023-09-04
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1927–2002
Known for sharp irony and clever twist endings, this prolific American writer moved easily between mystery fiction, science fiction, and television. His stories reached millions through magazines, Alfred Hitchcock adaptations, and long-running TV dramas.
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