马格努斯056 - 档案号#0100710-B - 特雷弗·赫伯特

讲述其“吸血鬼猎人”生涯后期经历的后续叙述。

马格努斯档案馆再次讲述某个曼彻斯特流浪汉的故事，他立志保卫街市的安全，命运引领他遭遇了一系列不幸的经历…

（Art By golden-dreamers-waltz）
档案员 - 乔纳森·西姆斯；马丁·布莱克伍德 - 亚历山大·J·纽瓦尔
作者：乔纳森·西姆斯
导演：亚历山大·J·纽瓦尔
编辑: 亚历山大·J·纽瓦尔，迈克·勒博
翻译/字幕：赞福德Zaphod（贝克的小号）


2楼附文字版

This post has been edited by 贝克的小号: 2022-11-26, 00:47

[CLICK]
[按钮声]
ARCHIVIST
档案员
Continued statement of Trevor Hebert,
regarding the latter years of his career as a vampire hunter.
特雷弗·赫伯特的后续叙述，讲述其吸血鬼猎人生涯的后期经历。

Original statement given July 10th, 2010.
原叙述时间：2010年7月10日。

Audio recording by Jonathan Sims,
head archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.
语音录入：乔纳森·西姆斯，伦敦马格努斯研究院档案馆长。

Note: several pages are missing from the file around the time that
he apparently did not die of lung cancer in the institute.
注：部分记录他并没有在研究院内因肺癌发作身亡的相关文件已丢失。

Statement resumes.
叙述继续。

ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT)
档案员（叙述）
She died in the end.
最后她死了。

Sad old thing but she didn’t deserve that.
可怜的老家伙，但她不该遭这个罪。
Always wondered what would have happened if I’d gotten there a bit sooner.
我总是在想，如果我早到一会儿的话事情会是怎样。

Trouble is, once they’ve really got their teeth into you
you’re as good as dead even if they don’t drain you.
问题是，只要被那帮畜生咬住，就算没被吸干，也是凶多吉少。
Gushing on the floor or bloating a vampire’s belly
是躺在地板上血如井喷，还是用血填饱吸血鬼的肚子，
doesn’t make much difference to the poor fool bleeding out.
对于失血过多的可怜虫来说没什么区别。

I often wondered if I was mad, you know.
当时我经常琢磨，自己是不是疯了，你明白我意思吗。
I mean, no one else seems to have seen these
things, and I found plenty across my life.
因为，除我之外没人见过这些畜生，可我这辈子却见过不少。
Perhaps I just got the smell of them.
或许我是寻上了它们的味道。

Like, no one else ever really got away
毕竟，除我之外被它们盯上的人没一个逃掉的
and my early escape from Sylvia MacDonald
gave me a sense that could pick them out.
而早年间从西尔维亚·麦克唐纳手下逃脱的经历给了我一种能够追踪它们的感官。

There’s a sharpness to them.
它们自有一种锐利感。
They’re hunters.
它们是猎手。
But over the years I’ve become a hunter as well
and maybe predators recognize each other.
但这些年来，我也成了猎手，或许掠食者之间自有一种感应。
All I know is, these days I can almost smell the blood coming off them.
我只知道，如今我几乎可以轻易闻到它们身上散发的血腥味。

That’s not to say I can’t be wrong though. I can be very wrong indeed.
倒不是说我不会出错。我有时也会犯下大错。

I found Alard Dupont in the summer of 1982
and murdered him shortly afterwards.
我在1982年夏天遇到了阿拉德·杜邦，不久之后，我杀害了他。
I used the word murder here, where I have not before,
这是我第一次用到杀害这个字眼，
because he was the only one I’ve killed I know to have been human.
被我杀掉的东西中，他是个特例，因为我能确定他是人类。

In most ways I regret his death, but there is a certain comfort to it.
对于他的死，我颇为后悔，但其中也有些许慰藉。
If I was just a serial killer with a hallucination
如果我是个有幻觉症的连环杀手
I don’t see why my mind wouldn’t have made Dupont vampire as well.
我想，我的脑子没理由不把阿拉德·杜邦也臆想成吸血鬼的一员。

The fact that I was able to kill normal people
reassures me that the creatures I hunt are real.
杀掉一个正常人类，反而让我确信，我猎杀的那些东西是真实存在的。
Do you understand?
你能明白我的意思吗？

That’s not to say that the death of Alard Dupont wasn’t
the result of several extremely bad decisions on my part.
不过我不否认，阿拉德·杜邦的死确实是我的一系列重大错误决策导致的。
In the early 80s, I was deep in the grip of my twin addictions.
80年代早期，我深陷在两种瘾症中。
As I mentioned, after a while the hunt became an addiction of its own.
正如我说过的，一段时间后，猎杀本身也成了一种嗜好。
Of the two I have always found heroin the easier one to quit.
两者之中，海洛因反而是比较好戒掉的那一个。

Heroin is calm.
海洛因是平静的。
It’s a small chunk of peace in a world that’s full of nothing but hard edges.
在这个尖锐的世界中，它是一片平静的内飞地。
It’s hard to put that down permanently, but the hunt…
虽说很难永远将其放下，但若说起猎杀…

The hunt is a purpose.
猎杀是一种意义。
It’s not just a way to get through the day,
it’s a reason for there to be a day at all.
猎杀不止是一种度日的方式，猎杀本身就是存在的意义。

I tried to give it up for a while after Dupont but
it burned in me far deeper than any hitch I got when I was clocking.
杜邦事件之后，我试过放弃猎杀，可那种灼烧感，是其它瘾症无法比拟的。

Back in ‘82 though those addictions were running pretty much unchecked.
82年那会儿，我一直沉沦在这些瘾症之中。
It had been several years since I’d last found a vampire
当时我已经有好几年没遇到过吸血鬼了，
and every waking moment I wasn’t high
was spent in keen lookout for anything suspicious.
每天睁开双眼，只要没嗨，我就会热切地寻找可疑对象。

I was in bad shape physically.
当时我的身体很差。
I’d acquired an infection from injecting between my toes,
脚趾注射导致我身患感染，
which would eventually hospitalized me and lead to
my losing two of them, though I luckily kept the foot.
我不得不入院治疗，最终失去了两根脚趾，万幸保住了的脚。
At that point though it just slowed me to a limp
and caused me a reasonable amount of pain.
我成了个跛子，终日承受着巨大的痛苦。

Perhaps if I’d been faster, able to keep up with
Dupont more easily, I would have realized my mistake.
或许，如果我的动作能快一点，跟上杜邦的话，也就会意识到自己的错误。
Perhaps if my mind hadn’t been so fogged
with brown I might have beaten it out,
或许，如果我的脑子没有那么混沌的话，就能压下这样的想法，
or perhaps if I hadn’t been so dead eager to
kill another vampire any of these might have saved him.
又或许，如果我没有那么渴望再猎杀一只吸血鬼的话…任何理由都有可能让他不死。
Maybe even if he’d had a name that didn’t make me think of Dracula.
也或许，如果他的名字没有让我想起德古拉的话。

But none of those things were the case, so dwelling on them is pointless.
但这些理由都没能成立，不停复盘没有任何意义。

I don’t know if Dupont was technically a mute or not.
我不知道杜邦究竟是不是哑巴。
I’ve had no real experience with the condition and
he didn’t seem to have any problems with his hearing.
我没跟哑巴打过交道，而他的听力似乎没有问题。

Either way I never saw him speak, which by now I’m sure you know
is what I would consider a significant warning sign for vampirism.
总之，我没看到他开口讲话，你应该也知道，我认为这是吸血鬼的重要标志。

A friend of mine I shared a shelter with some weeks before,
and who shared a similar weakness for narcotics,
有个跟我住在同一庇护所的哥们，他也是个瘾君子，几周前他告诉我，
had mentioned how amazing it was that his dealer was always able
to know exactly what he was after without either of them saying a word.
他的上家非常神奇，就算两人一言不发，对方也能知道他想要什么货。

In retrospect I should have realized that it didn’t exactly match the vampires
I’d met before, who’d never displayed any sort of mind-reading,
现在想想，我本该意识到，这跟我见过的吸血鬼不一样，它们不会读心术，
but I was aching for a kill.
但当时我心痒难搔，只想着猎杀。

The kid who told me this was a weird one.
把这事告诉我的那个孩子是个怪人。
Must have been about nineteen years old,
told everyone his name was Stanley Kubrick.
他当时大概十九岁，总告诉大伙他叫斯坦利·库布里克。
He was always making references to his film career,
他总是提起他的电影事业，
and I was never able to figure out if it was actually his
real name that he happened to share with the director,
我一直没闹明白，他到底是真和这个导演同名，
or if it was just some weird joke he was really committed to.
还是说他只是非常非常喜欢这个古怪的玩笑而已。

What struck me about him more than that,
though, were the scars on his neck.
不过，他这个人让我印象最深的一点，是脖子上的伤疤。

I later discovered they were from a dog attack when he was younger,
后来我才知道，那是他小时候被狗咬的，
but at the time I was convinced they were connected to Dupont
但当时我满心确定，这一定和杜邦有关
so I found where Alard Dupont made his handovers
at Piccadilly Gardens and I started to watch.
于是我摸清了阿拉德·杜邦在皮卡迪利公园的交易地点，开始监视他。

He was surprisingly brazen about it – sat there on a park bench
for hours smoking or reading some magazine or other.
他真是一点不避人耳目，在公园长椅上一坐几个小时，不是抽烟就是读杂志之类的。
I’ve never seen a vampire read a magazine before,
此前我从没见过吸血鬼读杂志，
but I had seen them pantomime watching television
or reading a book to better blend in,
但我见过它们为了混入人群，沉默无声假装看电视、读书的滑稽模样，
so it didn’t raise any suspicions for me.
所以我并没感到怀疑。

Then came the moment that fully convinced me I had to kill Dupont.
后来发生了一件事，让我确认，我必须杀掉杜邦。

As he sat there on the bench two policemen
walked past me heading towards him.
他坐在长椅上，有两个警官经过我身边，向他的方向走去。
They took no notice of me, nobody notices a tramp.
他们没注意到我，没人会多看流浪汉一眼。

But as they walked up the path towards the figure on the bench
one of the police nudged his partner and gestured towards him.
他们离杜邦越来越近，其中一个警官轻轻推了推队友，向杜邦那边打了个手势。

They clearly considered him suspicious and began to walk over.
显然，他们觉得他很可疑，于是便朝他走去。

As they got close though Dupont looked up and made eye contact with them.
但他们走近时，杜邦抬起头，和他们对上了眼神。

They stopped just for a moment and he nodded gently.
警官们短暂驻足，接着杜邦轻轻点了点头。
The policeman looked at each other, turned, and walked away.
两个警官交换了一个眼神，然后转身走了。

That was all I needed to be sure of what he was.
看到这儿，我已经确定他是什么东西了。

The idea I have come to since,
当时我已经打定了主意，
that the two police officers were simply on the take and hadn’t
immediately recognized him, didn’t occur to me until much later.
很久之后我才想到或许那两个警官吃了他的回扣，只不过一开始没认出他来。

It was an overcast day and it seems to me that Dupont
was keeping in the shadows just as I thought he would.
那天是阴天，不出我所料，杜邦似乎刻意呆在阴影中。
I kept watching as he made a few more transactions.
他又做了几笔交易，我一直监视着他。

I was craving a hit of my own by that point.
到这时，我的内心已经产生出一种无法遏制的渴望。
There was a much more intense rush I was chasing just then
and it pushed all thoughts of junk to the back of my mind.
这种刺激太过强烈，甚至把毒品的念头都驱赶无踪了。

Eventually evening fell and I watched Dupont rise from
his bench and make his way down to the town center,
最后暮色降临，我看着杜邦站起身，向镇中心走去，
keeping downwind of him and sticking to the shadows.
我一直站在他的下风方向，并躲在阴影中。
Obviously the darkness would be no impediment to him spotting me
当然，黑暗丝毫不能阻碍他发现我
but I’d learned that, inconspicuous as a homeless man might be,
it’s still always best to be seen by as few witnesses as possible.
但我知道，就算流浪汉再不起眼，也要尽量避人耳目。

I figured he was heading towards a nightclub or
dance, a favorite haunt of the vampires
我猜他大概要去夜店或者舞厅，吸血鬼最喜欢这类地方，
since the loud music makes their lack of speech that much easier to hide.
吵闹的音乐声方便它们隐藏自己不能说话的特征。
I was right in as far as he headed towards the Hacienda,
one of the loudest clubs in Manchester.
果不其然，他朝大庄园夜店的方向前进，那里的吵闹程度在曼彻斯特是数一数二的。
It wasn’t as notorious then as it would later become,
in fact I think it had only recently opened when all this happened.
那家俱乐部的名声还没有后来那么差，我记得当时那里好像刚开张不久。
But even at its worst it would probably have drawn the line
at allowing me entrance given the state I was in.
但就算是再堕落的夜店，应该也不会让我这样的人进去。

So I watched Dupont head inside, adopting my camouflage
of softly asking passersby for change and waited.
所以我只能目送杜邦进去，等在外面时，我向路人讨要零钱，作为伪装。

It was about two hours later that he emerged,
another man following close behind him.
大概过了两个小时，他出来了，后面紧跟着一个男的。
I didn’t recognize them, I mean there’s no reason I should have,
but Dupont’s new friend was almost as big as he was.
我不认识杜邦的新朋友，当然了不认识也很正常，但他的体型竟跟杜邦差不多大。

Vampires tend to go for the smaller victims,
吸血鬼一般都会挑瘦小的猎物下手，
those less able to defend themselves, should the
initial surprise of their attack not be enough.
万一最初的意外袭击失手，自保能力差的猎物会比较好搞定。
This one really looked like he could take care of himself.
这家伙看起来却是有两把刷子的模样。
Still, as far as I was concerned he had no idea
what was about to happen to him.
不过在我看来，他根本不知道自己将会面临什么样的命运。
And as Dupont led him down a nearby alley, I hurried after them.
杜邦把他带进附近的一条小巷，我也连忙跟了进去。

I was quiet as I limped through the rubbish that covered
the alleyway and I silently drew my trusty hammer.
我跛着脚安静地穿过小巷里的垃圾堆，然后悄无声息地拿出我趁手的锤子。
After a minute they turned in to a doorway and took out a key.
过了一分钟吧，他们停在一扇门前，拿出钥匙。
The door opened and they both stepped inside.
接着他们打开门，一起走了进去。

I had a sudden alarm at the thought of getting
locked out and being unable to reach him.
我心里一惊，生怕被锁在外面，没法下手。
Forgetting stealth, I grabbed the door and flung it open.
我不再悄声行动，一把抓住门，用力推开。
They turned to face me.
他们转过身看着我。

I charged him with a cry, slamming the hammer into Dupont’s
shoulder and knocking him to the ground with a sickening crack.
我怒吼着冲上去，锤向杜邦的肩膀，伴随着可怕的咔嚓一声，他被锤翻在地。

I will never forget the moment I heard Alard Dupont scream.
我永远忘不了阿拉德·杜邦尖叫的瞬间。

There was such a piercing sound and something I’d never expected.
那声音尖锐刺骨，而且完全出乎我的意料。
In a moment everything I’d built up in my head over the past couple of
days shattered and I felt a sudden panic at what I’d done. What I was doing.
我过去几天积攒的信念瞬间破碎，我突然对自己的所作所为害怕起来。

His friend screamed as well and started to run back out the door.
他的朋友也惊叫一声，夺门而逃。
I don’t know if he got a good look at me.
我不知道他有没有看清我的长相。
Given the police never came around to question me I guess not.
警察没找过我，我估计他大概没看清吧。

Dupont was still screaming, that horrid sound overriding all other thoughts.
杜邦依然在尖叫，那可怕的声音盖过了我的所有思绪。
Blood was streaming from his face where it had
hit the ground and I didn’t know what to do.
他摔倒时磕伤了脸，伤口正淙淙地流着血，我没了主意。
I had to get out of there, but that noise was too much.
我得离开，但他的叫声太吵了。

I couldn’t focus, couldn’t do anything, so I hit him again.
我没法集中精神，什么都做不了，于是我又锤了他一次。
Hard. In the head.
我重重地敲击他的脑袋。
And then he was quiet, and everything was horribly still.
然后他不出声了，房间里安静得可怕。

He just lay there.
他就那么躺在地上。

I have never felt anything like the shame and disgust I felt at that moment.
那一刻心底涌出的愧疚和厌恶是我从没体会过的。

I tried to burn his body more out of habit than anything else, but it
didn’t really take and I fled out into the street before the police arrived.
出于习惯，我试着把他的尸体点燃，但根本点不着，于是我在警察赶到之前逃跑了。

After that I spent over a decade in a very serious spiral.
接下来十多年我过得浑浑噩噩。
I don’t remember much of it, except that I spent most of it so high
我不记得这些年是怎么过的，只记得大部分时间都在飞，
that looking back I’m genuinely astounded I never OD’d.
回想起来，我都惊讶自己怎么没有死于摄入过量。
I only snapped out of it in ‘96 when a chance encounter
with a creature that called itself Hannah Edwards
96年，我偶遇一个自称汉娜·爱德华兹的生物，这次契机让我重振旗鼓
led to my saving a young woman from becoming its dinner.
我从它嘴里救下了一个年轻女子。

I won’t bother with details.
具体细节我懒得说了。
It was very similar to my hunt for Jane Lewis
except that the victim made it out alive this time.
猎杀过程跟简·刘易斯那次很像，唯一的区别是受害人活了下来。

I wonder why it is that I only ever seemed
to find them just before they attack.
我总是在想，为什么我每次都是在它们下手的前夕找到它们。
It can’t be that they spent every night feeding,
the world would be a bloodbath.
它们不可能每天都进食，那样的话整个世界非血流成河不可。

Maybe they just blend in better when they’re
not on the hunt and I don’t spot them.
也许它们不猎食的时候，伪装得比较好，所以我看不出来。
Or maybe they hibernate.
又或许，它们会冬眠。
It’s not a question I think I’ll ever be able to answer,
这个问题的答案或许我永远都无法知晓，
but it does mean that there is always an urgency to the hunts that
has for the most part stopped me doing much investigation into them.
但这确实意味着每次狩猎都十分紧迫，总是让我无暇仔细调查。

Hannah was my fifth confirmed vampire and the last one,
汉娜是我杀掉的第五个，也是最后一个确凿无疑的吸血鬼，
assuming I don’t find another before the cancer takes me.
除非我在死于癌症之前又遇到一个吸血鬼。

I really considered myself retired, resting after a life
spent defending the world from the darkness.
我觉得我算是退休了，为了让世界免受黑暗侵扰，我已经付出了一辈子。
Because that’s what I thought it was, you know.
因为我真是这么想的，你明白吧。
Vampires were what lurked in the dark.
吸血鬼是潜藏在黑暗中的东西。
The only thing that lurked in the dark.
唯一潜藏在黑暗中的东西。

Last year though, just before my diagnosis,
I met something that made me rethink this.
然而，去年确诊之前，我遇到了某种让我对这一观点产生动摇的东西。

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you
that winter is a hard time to be homeless.
冬天对于流浪汉来说是最难过的，这事不用说你也知道吧。
Doesn’t matter how many times you’ve done it, when that first
cold wind blows through you it’s like some awful death coming to you.
不管活了多少年头，第一阵冷风吹过的时候，总是让人有死神将至的感觉。

The last one was really bad.
去年冬天额外难捱。
A bunch of the shelters I normally hit up had closed up shop
and those that were left tended to fill up fast.
我常去的几家收容所都关门了，没关门的地方也往往早就挤满了。

I do pretty okay given I’m a well-known face and all that but I still felt
the pressure to scrape enough cash together to secure my spot early.
我也算小有名头，一般还吃的开，可还是得攒够钱才能尽早找个位置，因此压力不小。
Even then there’d be a couple of times
a week that I still ended up in the cold.
而那短时间我每周总有几天得在冷风中过夜。

My old bones don’t do so well at that these days,
我这把老骨头不比当年了，
so I was keeping quite a close eye on the comings and
goings around the night shelters of Manchester,
所以我一直留意着曼彻斯特上上下下各处收容所的人员进出，
and after a few weeks I started to notice something strange.
几周之后，我发现了一件不对劲的事。

Several times at a couple of different shelters I watched
one of the sleepers get up in the middle of the night,
我在好几个收容所都看到半夜有人起床，
gather their possessions, and walk out into the freezing streets of the city.
这些人收拾好自己的东西，然后便走向冰冷刺骨的大街。
To see it happen once would have been strange
but to see it happen several times was surreal.
如果只看到一次，也许只会觉得奇怪而已，但一而再再而三，让我感觉简直魔幻。
I was sober at the time so I couldn’t even pass it off as a trick of the mind.
当时我什么都没嗑，头脑十分清醒，所以甚至不能将其归结为思维混乱。

Even stranger, every time it happened, within 10 minutes
a woman would walk in and take their place.
更奇怪的是，每次有人走出去后，不出10分钟就有个女的走进来躺在他们的床铺上。
It was the same one every time.
每次都是同一个女的。
She must have been about 40, and slender,
though her clothes bulged a bit in odd places.
她40岁上下，体型瘦削，衣服在奇怪的部位鼓着包。
Her face was lined from what I could recognize
as a hard life and a thin layer of grime matted her hair.
她的头发上裹着一层薄薄的污垢，看她的面相，应该过了不少苦日子。

She looked pretty normal for the place,
她看起来正是会在这种地方出现的人，
and I could even write off the distant, neutral expression
她的脸上面无表情，但我觉得这并非不可理解，
as the sort of trauma all too common among my people.
像我们这样的人，往往背负着巨大的心理伤痕。
That’s why I didn’t pay her any mind the
first time it happened, or the second.
因此头两次目睹怪事时，我并没把她放在心上。

When I noticed it happening a third time I finally started
to pay attention, though I didn’t approach her immediately.
等到第三次时，我终于开始注意到她，但我并没立马与她接触。

I did ask about her the following morning but
even the staff didn’t seem to know anything.
第二天上午我向人问起她，可就连工作人员都一无所知。
I decided to keep a lookout and if she turned up again I would confront her.
我决定开始守望，如果她再出现，我就和她正面对峙。

Well, she did.
嗯，她确实又出现了。

It was late January when it happened, about 2:00 in the morning.
那是一月下旬，凌晨2点左右。
Just when the night was at its coldest.
正是一夜最冷的时候。
I saw one of my fellow sleepers get slowly out of bed.
我看到有个人睡到一半，缓缓站起身。
His name was Craig, I think.
他好像是叫克雷格吧，大概。
I didn’t know him well, he was a seasonal drifter
and we’d only occasionally crossed paths.
我跟他不是很熟，他也是个流浪汉，我们只是偶尔能遇上几面。

Well, he walked out without a sound gathering up
his belongings quietly and leaving an empty bed.
嗯，他悄无声息地收拾东西，起身下床，走出收容所。

I waited wide awake, hand on my knife, breathing steady.
我呼吸平稳、手握匕首，无比清醒地等待着。
Sure enough, a few minutes later, in she walks,
果不其然，几分钟后她走了进来，
no backpack or gear of any sort, and sat on Craig’s bed.
既没有背包，也没有任何家伙什儿，接着她坐在克雷格床上。

I stood up and walked towards her.
我站起身，朝她走去。
As soon as she saw me her posture changed and she became defensive,
一看到我，她立刻就变成了防御姿态，
although the expression on her face and never changed from that blankness.
但她脸上的表情根本没变，依然是一片空白。

I started to introduce myself and ask how come she was
taking over Craig’s bed when she locked eyes with me,
我先做了自我介绍，然后问她为什么要占克雷格的床，这时我们对上了目光，
and the weirdest sensation began to flow through me. I wanted to leave.
我突然有了一种非常奇怪的感觉。我想离开。
It wasn’t like with a vampire where I would feel like I’d been spoken to,
与吸血鬼那种隔空传话的感觉不同，
this was just a sudden awareness of my own desire.
这是一种突然自主产生的愿望。

I’ve been sober for three years at that point
but I felt like I desperately wanted to get high,
我已经三年没复吸了，但那时我非常想来一口，
and I knew that the best place to get some was out in the night.
而我知道，想飞就要走到外面的夜色中去。

Looking back I think it might have been my own mind rationalizing
the way I felt my will being tugged out of the room,
回想起来，或许是我的思维在为自己的被驱逐出屋的意志找理由，
but it was still very powerful.
但那股力量还是非常强大。
If I hadn’t had a lifetime’s experience identifying and fighting off
the effect of the vampire’s gaze I probably would have done it too.
如果我没有毕生甄别和对抗吸血鬼凝视的经验，搞不好真的会着了道。
But I did, so I stood my ground.
但我凭此坚守住了阵地。

There was a long pause as that woman gazed levelly at me.
那个女人上下打量了我很久。

Then she broke into a run through the door and out. I followed.
然后她突然穿过门跑了出去。而我立刻跟上。
Didn’t matter to me whether she was a vampire or not,
there was something wrong and I wanted to find out what was going on.
她是不是吸血鬼无所谓，这件事不对头，我想追查到底。

I chased her out into the road.
我一路追着她，来到外面路上。
It was cold and still and if anyone saw us they didn’t make a sound.
外面又冷又静，不知道有没有人看到我们。

She ran strangely, more like a spasm, smooth steps,
and her arms shifted in weird ways as she moved.
她用抽搐一般的奇怪姿势跑动，脚下步伐平滑，手臂却诡异地晃动着。
I’m not as spry as I once was and my lungs were
obviously shot but I managed to keep pace with her.
我早不如年轻时强壮，肺也千疮百孔，但我还是咬住了她的节奏。

I could feel it in my blood.
我的血液里有种东西在燃烧。
It was a hunt and I always felt stronger on a hunt.
这是一场猎杀，每逢猎杀，我都感到格外强壮。

Finally I got close enough to grab her by the arm.
最后，我追上了她，一把抓住她的胳膊。
My fingers locked around her elbow, and then they sort of sunk inside.
我的手指扣住她的手肘，然后我感觉手指好像陷了进去。
They didn’t go through the skin or anything
我并非戳穿了她的皮肤之类，
but it sort of shifted beneath my fingers like
when you squeeze an uncooked sausage.
而是有某种东西在我的抓握之下变形，感觉就像用手揉捏生香肠。

I could feel movement from inside the arm itself.
我能感到她的手臂里面有东西在动。
It wasn’t a vampire but it definitely wasn’t human.
它不是吸血鬼，但它绝对也不是人类。

With this other arm it took a wide sweeping swing at me,
but I was prepared and ducked below the flailing punch.
它用另一只手狠狠挥向我，但我早有准备，俯身躲过了它的攻击。

I got my knife to try and threaten the thing,
maybe get it to answer some questions,
我抓起匕首，准备以此作为威胁，看能不能让那东西开口回答我的问题，
but I misjudged the draw and ended up slashing it slightly across its stomach.
但我算错了距离，在它胃部轻轻划了一下。
It wasn’t a deep cut or a long one but apparently it was enough.
伤口不深也不长，但显然已经足够。

A whole body began to shudder as tiny shapes
began to stream out of the wound.
它的身体开始颤抖，无数细小的东西从伤口中倾泻而出。

Spiders.
是蜘蛛。

Thousands and thousands of spiders.
成千上万的蜘蛛。

She opened her mouth at last, as if to scream and more poured out.
她张开嘴巴，好像要尖叫的样子，却只吐出更多蜘蛛。
Tens of thousands of skittering legs and evil little eyes.
数万只抽动的细腿，和泛着邪恶光芒的小眼睛。
I screamed and started to back up as the dark shapes
pooled around her feet and spread out in a twitching circle.
我大叫一声，连忙后退，漆黑的小东西在她的脚下聚成了一个颤抖着向外扩张的圈。

For a second I was worried they were coming for me but then they
just scurried off into the shadows and crevices of nearby buildings,
一瞬间我还担心它们会袭击我，但它们四散逃开，遁入阴影和建筑的缝隙之中，
until the street was empty of everything except this woman.
最后街上又空了，只剩下那个女的。

She was still standing upright, but from the open mouth,
I could see that her body was completely hollow,
她依然站着，但从她张开的嘴里不难看出她的身体已经被掏空，
save for a few cobwebs that I could just make out under the streetlights.
只有借着路灯，才依稀看到她体内仅有几张蜘蛛网。

I ran the hell away and that’s the last creature I encountered.
我夺路而逃，而那就是我遇到的最后一个非人生物。

That’s my whole story. You’re welcome to it.
这就是我的故事。不用谢。

When I thought it was just vampires about,
I might have given you people as miss as a bunch of kooks.
最初我以为这世上只有吸血鬼而已，这对你们来说或许和其他疯子的故事一样无用。
But if there’s other stuff around out there…
maybe you know more about it than me.
但如果这世上还有别的东西…或许你们知道的比我更多。

And maybe you could use a bit more information on vampires.
而且，这些有关吸血鬼的情报，或许你们能用得上。

It’s a shame I’m on the way out.
可惜啊，我就要退场了。

I will miss the hunt.
我会想念猎杀的感觉。

ARCHIVIST
档案员
Statement ends.
叙述结束。

Well, this is certainly a surprise.
嗯，这确实是意想不到的结果。
Martin informed me that Mr. Herbert
passed away after making his initial statement,
当初马丁告诉我，赫伯特先生做完最初的叙述就去世了，
so it is rather a shock to find this misfiled addition
to his original, even if it is partially incomplete.
虽然这次的文件也不完整，但发现他的叙述还有后续，依然让我感到有些吃惊。

What’s more, actually checking the hospital
and death records for both London and Manchester,
不止于此，查遍了伦敦和曼彻斯特所有的医院记录、死亡记录后，
I can’t find any record of Mr. Herbert’s death.
我没能找到与赫伯特先生的名字。
Then again, I could find no record of him alive,
either, after the date of the statement.
不过，我也找不到能证明他在叙述日期之后依然活着的记录。

The idea that he could survive six years with untreated
late-stage lung cancer is implausible, to say the least,
若说他扛着晚期肺癌，在没有任何治疗的情况下又活了六年，简直不可思议，
and yet Alard Dupont’s death appears to
match the statement in most of the particulars.
然而阿拉德·杜邦死亡记录中的诸多细节都与叙述吻合。
He had a half dozen convictions against him for various drug charges
or violent misdemeanors, but nothing exceptional.
他身上背着好几条与毒品和暴力相关的案底，但没有特别严重的事。

I can’t find any indication of muteness,
but aside from that, everything checks out.
我没找到任何提到他有失语症的记录，除此之外，一切都对的上。

As for the spider person, the only proof of its existence seems to be
that I am far too unlucky for it to simply be an old tramp hallucination.
至于那个蜘蛛人存在的唯一证据，大概就是我的坏运气了吧，这一切不可能只是某个老流浪汉的幻觉。

I need to have some words with Martin.
我得和马丁谈谈。

End recording.
录音结束。

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ARCHIVIST
档案员
Sit down.
坐下。

MARTIN
马丁
What is–?
怎么…

ARCHIVIST
Sit. Why did you lie to me about Trevor?
坐下。你为什么对特雷弗的事撒谎？

MARTIN
What?
什么？

ARCHIVIST
Why did you tell me he was dead?
你为什么跟我说他死了。

MARTIN
Sorry, who’s… who’s Trev–
抱歉，是…是谁啊，这个特雷…

ARCHIVIST
Trevor Herbert. The tramp? The vampire hunter. You told me he died.
流浪汉特雷弗·赫伯特？就是那个吸血鬼猎人。你跟我说他死了。

MARTIN
But I mean he… did. Didn’t he?
他确实…死了啊。难道不是吗？

ARCHIVIST
Apparently not.
显然不是。

MARTIN
Oh! Sorry.
噢！对不起。

ARCHIVIST
Sorry?
对不起？

MARTIN
I mean, I–I didn’t ever actually meet him.
嗯，我、我其实并没有跟他见过面。
I just heard some of the other researchers mentioning it.
我只是听其他研究员提到过这件事而已。

ARCHIVIST
What?
什么？

MARTIN
Yeah, well, I could’ve sworn they said he died.
嗯，是的，我发誓他们说过他死了。
I mean… maybe they just said he looks like death or something –
嗯…没准他们说的是，他看起来好像死了之类的…
I really thought they said he was dead.
我真的以为他们说他死了。

ARCHIVIST
So that’s it. Just a misunderstanding.
仅此而已呗。只是个误会是吧。

MARTIN
Yes. You seem to be taking this kind of personal–
是的。你好像很生气…

ARCHIVIST
Because you keep lying to me, Martin!
因为你一直在骗我，马丁！

MARTIN
About what?!
我骗你什么了？！

ARCHIVIST
I don’t know. But you are.
我不知道。但我知道你就是在说谎。

MARTIN
Where did you get that? Have you been going through the bin?
这东西你哪来的？你翻垃圾桶来着？

ARCHIVIST
It was in the old document room, just next to where you used to sleep.
这东西放在旧文档室里，就在你的床铺旁边。
Your handwriting.
这可是你的笔迹。
“If the others find out I’ve been lying” – lying about what, Martin?
“如果其他人发现我在撒谎”你到底撒了什么谎，马丁？

MARTIN
Look, just forget about it, okay? Please.
听我说，别提这事了，行吗？求你了。

ARCHIVIST
I can’t forget it.
不提不行。
Everyone in this place has so many goddamn secrets
and I can’t trust a word you say.
这地方每个人都他妈的有一堆秘密，你们说的话一个字都不能信。
Not about this and not about Trevor –
这事不能信，特雷弗的事也是一——

MARTIN
John, just–
约翰，你…

ARCHIVIST
Martin!
马丁！

MARTIN
Okay! Okay! Okay. Just… just… promise you won’t… fire me.
好吧！好吧！好吧。不过…不过…你能保证…不开除我吗。

ARCHIVIST
Fire you – fine.
开除——好吧。

MARTIN
I lied on my CV.
我在简介里撒了谎。

ARCHIVIST
…what.
…啥。

MARTIN
I don’t have a master’s in parapsychology. I don’t even have a degree.
我没有超心理学的硕士学位。我什么学位都没有。

I was 17, my mum, she had – she had some problems
and I ended up dropping out of school trying to support us.
那年我17岁，我妈…她遇到了一些问题，我只能辍学养家。
I tried everything but nowhere was hiring, so I just kind of started
to lie on my application, sending them out to just about anywhere.
我四处碰壁，最后我开始在简历里编瞎话，逮哪投哪。

For some reason my lie about parapsychology got me
an interview with Elias and – and then a job here.
我谎称自己学过超心理学，然后阴差阳错见到了伊莱亚斯，最、最后拿到了这份工作。
But most of my employment details are made up. I’m only 29.
但我的大部分工作细节都是编的。我今年才29。

ARCHIVIST
Right, I–I… uh… I believe you.
好吧，我、我…呃…我相信你。

MARTIN
…why are you smiling?
…你笑什么？

ARCHIVIST
Yes, um, I jus… I won’t mention it to Elias. Just between us.
是的，嗯，我只…我不会和伊莱亚斯提这事的。你知我知。

MARTIN
So you don’t mind?
所以，你不在意？

ARCHIVIST
To be quite honest, Martin, I’m really rather relieved.
说实话，马丁，我觉得松了口气。

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