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(shí)分，佩琪和她的男友湯米驅(qū)車(chē)行駛在一支高速路的延伸段上，周?chē)鷽](méi)有其他車(chē)。忽然天降暴雨，湯米放慢車(chē)速，像是爬行般的向前駛?cè)?。期間經(jīng)過(guò)一間可怕的荒宅，柵欄和樹(shù)上糊滿了“禁止入內(nèi)”的標(biāo)志。在駛過(guò)這間屋子一英里，車(chē)子突然失控，滑出路面，佩琪尖叫著，車(chē)子摔進(jìn)溝，撞上一塊大石頭，巨大的慣性，讓佩琪撞到門(mén)上，最后撞到一棵山核桃樹(shù)，佩琪的頭又撞上玻璃，好在整個(gè)車(chē)子總算停了下來(lái)。一股鉆心的疼痛貫穿著佩琪的肩膀和手臂。

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(zhuǎn)向她問(wèn)：“你感覺(jué)還好么？你都在流血了！”“手臂和肩膀，感覺(jué)很糟?！迸彗髅銖?qiáng)喘氣說(shuō)道。湯米仔細(xì)查看她的右臂，我想你的手臂骨折了，說(shuō)著從自己的襯衫上扯下一條布，將它綁在她頭上的傷口上。他看著佩琪的傷勢(shì)，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(gè)人都沒(méi)有帶手機(jī)?！拔覀儎倓偨?jīng)過(guò)的那幢房子，肯定有電話可以用。”湯米說(shuō)。佩琪聽(tīng)到不禁睜大眼睛，盡管身有傷痛，那是一想起那座陰森恐怖的棄宅，還是心有余悸?！霸谶@兒別走...會(huì)有車(chē)經(jīng)過(guò)?！?/div>

“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(shuō)不定要等上好幾個(gè)小時(shí)才會(huì)有車(chē)經(jīng)過(guò)，而你失血太多了。“說(shuō)著他又從襯衣上扯下一段，輕輕地綁在她頭上的傷口上面，接著從后備箱拿出幾條毯子蓋在佩琪的身上，“我去去就回”，他說(shuō)著消失在風(fēng)雨中，順便帶上了表面已經(jīng)凹坑不平的車(chē)門(mén)。

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(shí)里某種東西讓她感到惶恐不安。她整個(gè)身體躺了下來(lái)，她把頭躺在座位上，把毯子將整個(gè)身體包括頭遮蓋起來(lái)。感覺(jué)到安心一點(diǎn)以后，受傷之后的疲累襲來(lái)，她很快就睡著了。

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么將她吵醒，是透過(guò)毛毯的光線？還是外面有人在咒罵？她睜大眼睛，伸長(zhǎng)耳朵，除了輕輕的雨聲，沒(méi)有其他聲響和光線。如果湯米找到救援隊(duì)，肯定會(huì)有各種聲響、燈光還有人聲嘈雜。但是她只聽(tīng)到雨中颯颯的風(fēng)聲，和偶爾發(fā)出的巨大聲響，她想應(yīng)該是山核桃枝干相互摩擦的聲音，本來(lái)這些聲音應(yīng)該是讓人安心的，但是現(xiàn)在看來(lái)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(huì)她甚至有意識(shí)地摒住呼吸，仿佛是聽(tīng)從她內(nèi)心深處的指揮，要她一動(dòng)不動(dòng)，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?yàn)榭謶侄粍?dòng)不動(dòng)了多長(zhǎng)時(shí)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里的翻江倒海。這樣對(duì)她的傷勢(shì)一點(diǎn)好處都沒(méi)有，剛才肯定發(fā)生了什么可怕的事情，她無(wú)力的想到?？謶值那榫w讓她的傷勢(shì)雪上加霜，她嘲笑自己真是個(gè)傻瓜，那些只不過(guò)是頭痛引起的胡思亂想。多少給自己一點(diǎn)安慰后，她又睡去，迷迷糊糊聽(tīng)到了之前沒(méi)有聽(tīng)到過(guò)的聲響，輕輕的噠-噠聲，像是有什么東西在拍打著車(chē)頂，噠-噠， 雨聲吧，噠-噠，然后又是寂靜。有時(shí)候她甚至不明就里地醒來(lái)專(zhuān)門(mén)聽(tīng)這個(gè)聲音，噠-噠，雨繼續(xù)下，噠-噠。是不是哪棵樹(shù)的樹(shù)枝脫節(jié)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(guò)了多久，突然她被從車(chē)窗照入的一道亮光驚醒，是一群男人們的聲音，仿佛在議論什么可怕的事情。車(chē)門(mén)被撬開(kāi)了，有人爬了進(jìn)來(lái)，她抬起頭看到一位年輕的警官，“小姐，你沒(méi)事吧？”警官問(wèn)到，然后轉(zhuǎn)過(guò)頭呼叫支援。佩琪告訴了他整個(gè)事情的始末，央求他去找湯米。警官?zèng)]有正面回答她，而是叫來(lái)了醫(yī)護(hù)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(yī)護(hù)人員將她傾斜著小心翼翼的抬出了車(chē)子，她回頭看了下車(chē)子，發(fā)現(xiàn)山核桃樹(shù)上掛著一個(gè)奇怪的東西，警車(chē)停在路邊，車(chē)燈發(fā)出亮光，一瞬間她不太理解自己看到了什么，大腦一片空白。然后她又聽(tīng)到了噠-噠的聲音，那是這個(gè)掛在樹(shù)上的人的腳摩擦車(chē)頂?shù)穆曇?，她驚恐大聲尖叫起來(lái)一聲接著一聲，其中一個(gè)警官擋住了她的視線，醫(yī)護(hù)人員手忙腳亂給她注射安定。她終于確定她看到了什么。湯米血肉模糊的尸體被掛在樹(shù)上，下面就是他們的車(chē)子，他的胸前正中心被訂上了“禁止入內(nèi)”的牌子。

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