Dark Mirror
By Louis Joseph Vance
Fascination, too, was at work. Deep within her was a mad desire to go again that wild way she had so often gone, and once more be, and do, and see…
So it is, so it must be, with those to whom a drug has made itself a thing of Life and Death.
On ahead, like a bend in the river, waited that turning in her psychic life which she knew as the Dark Corner: while she lay passive in the grasp of that power which so obscurely had its rise in her yet was repugnant to her, being at once her Will and her Necessity. And as the Dark Corner drew momentarily near, the transfusion she termed the Change was effected by what may only be described as a convulsion of her very soul, after which came lassitude, a vast enervation in which all lingering traces of reluctance were obliterated.
Now she was no longer herself but another woman than the one she knew, a strange woman clothed in her flesh but in no other way akin to her Self of every day, having no thought, impulse or emotion with which that Self could sympathise, save such as may be considered common to all her sex. Yet, incomprehensibly, the consciousness of the old self-identity survived, and though (as she conceived it) dispossessed from its tenement, her Self continued by her body’s side, observant, critical, intrigued, something amused…
In this wise rounding the Dark Corner, she passed into that place which she had named the Street of Strange Faces. The enigma of this confusion of Self with non-self was forgotten in the rush of exotic sensation and emotion, excitement and lawless joy, which invariably accompanied definite and final commitment to the renewed pursuit of these transcendental adventures.
II. LEONORA
The strangest thing about the Street of Strange Faces was that neither it nor any of its Faces was extraordinary. She knew the Street, whose stones her feet had never trod, knew every inch of it, all its turns and windings, its doorways and byways and whither they led, its smells and sounds, its babel of tongues, its window lights that bit the shadows with such diversity of ardour.
Genre: Fiction And Literature | Thriller
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Louis Joseph Vance
Louis Joseph Vance (September 19, 1879 – December 16, 1933) was an American novelist, screenwriter and film producer. He created the popular character Michael Lanyard, a criminal-turned-detective known as The Lone Wolf.
Biography
Louis Joseph Vance was born September 19, 1879, in Washington, D. C., the only child of Wilson J. Vance, a Medal of Honor recipient, and Lillian Beall. He was educated at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. Vance was married to Anne Elizabeth Hodges on February 19, 1898. Their son, Wilson Beall Vance, was born in 1900.
He wrote short stories and verses after 1901 and then composed many popular novels. His character Michael Lanyard, known as The Lone Wolf, was featured in eight books and 24 films between 1914 and 1949 and also appeared in radio and television series.
Vance moved to Los Angeles to work with Universal Pictures on films based on his work, including The Trey o’ Hearts (1914) and a serial and film series (1914–1916) based on his Terence O’Rourke stories. In 1915, he founded Fiction Pictures, Inc., a motion picture production company whose films were distributed by Paramount Pictures. Its first release was The Spanish Jade (1915), with a screenplay by Vance based on his stage adaptation of a novel by Maurice Hewlett. Vance was president and general manager of the company; other principals were Wilfred Lucas (director-general), Gilbert Warrenton (cinematographer), and Bess Meredyth (scenario editor). Fiction Pictures operated in Glendale until a new studio in Hollywood was completed in April 1915. The studio was sold to Famous Players in June when Fiction Pictures went out of business.
Vance died alone in his New York City apartment on December 16, 1933, in a fire that resulted from his falling asleep with a lighted cigarette. His death was ruled accidental. A simple funeral took place December 20, 1933, at St. George’s Protestant Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, with honorary pallbearers including Marc Connelly, Will Irwin, and Samuel Merwin.[5] Vance’s widow received an estate of less than $10,000.
Louis Joseph Vance
