No Doors, No Windows

YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF!

The only trouble is, fear comes in so many different shapes and sizes these days. It comes as rejection by a beautiful woman. It comes in the brutalization of your love by an amoral man. It comes with the threat of impending nuclear holocaust; with the slithering shadows in the city streets; with the ripoff artists who lie in wait behind every television commercial.

Fear is the erratic behavior of all the nut cases and whackos walking the streets—they look just like you and me and your lover and your mother—and all they need is a wrong word and there they go to the top of an apartment building with a sniperscope'd rifle. Fear is all around you. You have nothing to fear but fear itself, right? Sure. The only trouble is, the minute you get all the rational fears taken care of, all battened down and secure, here comes something new.

Like what? Well, like the special fears generated in these 16 incredible stories. Fear described as it's never been described before, by the startling imagination of Harlan Ellison, master fantasist, tour-guide through the land of dreadful visions, unerring observer of human folly and supernatural diabolism. Or, quoting the Louisville Courier-Journal & Times, Ellison's "stories are kaleidoscopic in their range, breathtaking in their beauty, hideous in their deformity, insulting in their arrogance and unarguable in the accuracy of their insight."

AND HERE ARE 16 NEW TERRORS TO SCARE THE BEJEEZUS OUT OF YOU!

Cover Art by Leo & Diane Dillon

Ebook

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First E-Reads publication: 2009 www.ereads.com
Harlan Ellison website: www.harlanellison.com

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopy, recording, Internet posting, electronic bulletin board—or any other information storage and retrieval system, or by any other method, means or process of embodying and/or transmitting information, text or the spoken word now known or hereafter devised without permission in writing from The Kilimanjaro Corporation, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a critical article or review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper, or electronically transmitted on radio, television or in a recognized on-line journal. For information address Author's agent: Richard Curtis Associates, Inc., 171 East 74^th Street, New York, New York 10021, USA. All persons, places and organizations in this book-except those clearly in the public domain-are fictitious and any resemblance that may seem to exist to actual persons, places or organizations living, dead or defunct is purely coincidental. These are works of fiction.

SKU: ERBAEN0073

Copyright © 1975 by Harlan Ellison. Copyright © 1983 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation. Renewed, 2003 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

NO DOORS, NO WINDOWS is an Edgeworks Abbey ® Offering in association with ereads.com. Published by arrangement with the Author and The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

Harlan Ellison and Edgeworks Abbey are registered trademarks of The Kilimanjaro Corporation.
This edition is copyright © 2008 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation. All rights reserved.

Front Cover Illustration by Leo & Diane Dillon. Copyright © 1966 by Leo & Diane Dillon. Renewed, © 1994 by Leo & Diane Dillon.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

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Introduction: "Blood/Thoughts," copyright (in various forms) © 1968, 1969, 1973 and 1975 by Harlan Ellison. Copyright © 1983 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation. Renewed, 1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"The Whimper of Whipped Dogs," copyright © 1973 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 2001 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"Eddie, You're My Friend," copyright © 1975 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 2003 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"Status Quo at Troyden's," copyright © 1958 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1986 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"Nedra at f.5.6" (under the title "The Hungry One"), copyright © 1956 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1988 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation. Revised version, copyright © 1975 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 2003 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"Opposites Attract" (under the title "Mad Bomber"), copyright © 1957 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1985 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"Toe the Line," copyright © 1957 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1985 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"Down in the Dark" (as by "Ellis Hart"), copyright © 1967 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1995 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"Pride in the Profession," copyright © 1966 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1994 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"The Children's Hour" (as by "Wallace Edmondson"), copyright © 1958 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1986 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"White Trash Don't Exist" (under the title "Murder Bait"), copyright © 1956 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1984 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"Thicker Than Blood," copyright © 1957 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1985 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"Two Inches in Tomorrow's Column" (as by "Ellis Hart"), copyright © 1965 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1993 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"Promises of Laughter," copyright © 1969 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1997 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"Ormond Always Pays His Bills," copyright © 1957 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1985 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"The Man on the Juice Wagon" (as by "Cordwainer Bird"), copyright © 1963 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1991 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

"Tired Old Man," copyright © 1975 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 2003 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.

FOR YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP,
FOR FORCING OPEN DOORS AND
BUSTING OUT WINDOWS
THIS ONE, WITH LOVE, FOR
 
JOE L. and CHARLOTTE HENSLEY
 

"I feel it's tremendously satisfying to use the cinematic art to achieve something of a mass emotion; if you've [written] a picture correctly, in terms of its emotional impact, the Japanese audience should scream at the same time as the Indian audience."

Alfred Hitchcock