 That knife! What are you going to do with that knife? Well, nothing, kitty. Nothing at all. I'm just going to cut you open and see if you've got a heart. See, I don't believe you have. And I just want to prove how a body can walk around without one. Mickey! Midnight. The witching hour when that night is darkest. Our fear's the strongest. And our strength and its lowest ebb. Midnight. When the graves gape open and death strikes. How? You learn the answer in just a minute in. The 13th floor. At now, murder at midnight. Tales of mystery and terror by radius masters of the macabre. Our story by Winifred Wolf is the 13th floor. Hotel corridors scare me late at night. They're too long and too creepy. I'm always afraid the walls like big, flat plaster hands are going to close in on me. I wish somebody was around. Any... No, no, no, not anybody. Anybody might be Nicky. And his hands aren't made out of plaster. They're bone and they're blood. And they want to choke the breath out of me. I just got to get down this corridor and close the door behind me. To lock it and hide under the covers. Till I turn on the radio and I hear that switch. I was pulled in a little room. And Mickey's dead full of hot sparks and his big hands hanging like buddy. Then I won't have to be afraid anymore. It's what happened tonight. Just now. It's making me inside of me all curdled and sour and sick. Even if I live a million more days, I won't forget how I came into that lobby. Just like always. I walked over to the desk. Hi, Joe. What's a good word? Yeah. Got a rent statement from the hotel. No letters. Oh. Uh, certainly it's hot out, isn't it? Sort of muggy and sticky. Think it's going to rain? Maybe. You don't like me very much, do you? No, not very much. Well, excuse me. I'm quite busy, Miss Holmes. You're a fresh little punk. I ought to tell the manager. It's a fine way to treat guests who pay their bills. Don't I always pay my rent on time? Sure. Why not? $5,000 last, uh, while if you take care of it. Oh, you. Hey, wait a second. Hold that elevator. Wait, Miss Holmes. I said hold the elevator a second. What's the idea almost slamming it in my face? Sorry, Miss Holmes. Yeah, yeah, I'll bet you are. Oh. That's a tell, but... Good evening. Good evening. Sure it's hot out, wouldn't you say? I was saying to Joe, muggy and sticky. Yeah. Um, I was, uh... just did an awful good movie at the Franklin. Tomorrow night I have a lawn attorney. You like lawn attorney? Very much. Yeah, me too. A lot of women don't cause they're jealous of the way she looks. Me, though, I got blonde hair myself. I was, uh, planning to see her tomorrow night. Do you plan to...? Sorry, Miss Owen. I have an appointment tomorrow evening. You run the elevator, you fresh punk. That's what you're hired for. Oh, by the way. Me? No, Tommy. Uh, yes, sir. Will you let me in with your passkey? I forgot mine. Yeah, sure thing, Mr. Talbot. I got out, I was glad to get out. You have floor. Yeah, thanks for nothing. That's when it began, right then. The light from the elevator looked like a lot of lemonade, only being poured the wrong way up instead of down. Hey, I remember thinking that. I need to remember it now. I looked at my watch for two minutes to midnight. I started down the hall. I'm feeling something's wrong. Don't get to get the jitters for nothing. Everything looked the same, nothing was any different. My room was at the end of the hall. I took my key out and shoved it in the lock. Nothing. I kept twisting it and pushing. Yeah, it sticked with my knee. I looked up and realized what was wrong. The number on the door was 1307, not 1407. It was on the wrong floor. That was it, that rotten little shit. I'll fix him. I was ready to bet he'd done it on purpose. Then... Give Nicky a kiss, baby. Aren't you glad to see me? Nicky, Nicky. Come on in. I've been waiting for you a long time. I said come in, I'm getting a draft. Nicky, look at the floor. My arm is hurting. Sorry, baby. Maybe I don't know my own strength, huh? What do you want? How'd you get in here? One thing at a time. Don't rush me. What'd you lock the door for? I don't like interruptions. You never used to either when you were alone with me. Remember, Kitty? I don't remember nothing. Yeah, I know. You got a memory like a faucet. You turn it off and on, off and on. Wonderful. Take me, for instance. I've got the kind of a memory you can't turn off. It keeps running all the time. The longer it runs, the hotter it gets. It's so hot now, Kitty, it'll scar you. Look, Nicky. I am looking. You're still a nice looking number, you know? I always did like the way your waist curves in. I'll wipe your neck. You didn't come here to tell me how I look. You'll toss your hair over your shoulder like it gets in your way. Go ahead, Kitty. Toss your hair back for Nicky. What are you trying to do? Dangle me on a string? Yeah, you're still a good looking number. I don't look so hot though, do I? You think maybe I lost a little weight? Nicky, please. My face looks kind of pasty. That's because you don't get much chance for fresh air sweating what's left of time away in a death cell. If I scream, the police will come and get you if you come near me. You won't scream. Come one step closer now. You won't scream because there's not that much sound left in you. It's all frozen and sticking in your throat like an ice cube. You're afraid. You're afraid of me. Try screaming, Kitty. I... You see? What did I tell you? Nicky, I can help you. I can hide you here so they won't find you. Then I can help you get away, Nicky. Anywhere you want, I promise. I asked you before to kiss me. You still haven't, you know? No, don't come near me, please. You used to like it. You never used to wait for me to ask you. Nicky, don't. Sometimes you used to come over to me without me asking. Well, what's the matter? Do I look as bad as all that? Oh, you're afraid I'll get you pretty dressed dirty? You've got to give me a chance. I can explain. I know I'm not clean. You know, I crawled for half a mile in the mud until I couldn't hear the dogs chasing me anymore. If I'd known you were going to act like this, I would have said... You've got to give me a break. I would have said warden, call me a taxi. A nice, clean taxi so I can go see my girl, Kitty, on. A cheap little squealer who sold me down a river for five Gs. Five thousand lousy bucks. Take your hands off me. I like to hold your face like this. Such a little face. Such big eyes. Big, green eyes. Like a small tiger. Kitty, kitty. Like a cat. And a sly, sneaky cat with long, blonde hair. Don't you remember how I used to kiss you like this? Let me look. Like this? Just like this? Let me. Let me. You act like you're doing that. Don't you remember how it used to be with us, Nicky? Feel my hair the way it used to. Going, you like to do it. You said it was soft like silk. Feel my hair, Nicky. You're not mad at me, are you? I said I was sorry. I went crazy. I didn't know what I was doing. I help you now, Nicky. You'll ruin your fingers through my hair, Nicky. You little lousy little tramp. Don't make me laugh. You're crying, huh? Cat, crying crocodile appears. Are you crying because you're sorry for me? You're sorry because sooner or later the cops will catch up with me and drag me back and I'll burn to a crisp in a chair, huh? Or are you crying because you know what I'm going to do to you? Remember how it used to be with us, Nicky? I know when I broke out they'd find me, but I wanted to say good-bye to you first. I wanted to kiss you. See if it still did the same things to me. I'll tell you something, Kitty. Leave me cold. That knife. What are you going to do with that knife? I'm going to cut you open and see if you've got a heart. I don't believe you have. I just want to prove how come a body can walk around without a heart. Just arms and legs stuck together with nothing to make them run. They'll get you through this the first time. What are they going to do? Electrocute me first then take me out and hang me? What's the difference? I'll tell you, Nicky, how it was. Just let me tell you. After you held up that jewelry store and the old aim was killed, when they put up the 5,000 bucks I went crazy. I'm a sneaky. I must have been clear out of my head. I've been sorry ever since, but I figured the cops would get you for it anyway. And that I'd be left with nothing. I didn't have a sense. So you didn't wait. You turned me in yourself. But I didn't know what I was doing. I know what I'm doing. I'm going to kill you, Kitty, on. It won't help any. It'll help me. Say something for me. The only prayer is saying it should be good for a laugh. No, Lord, please. Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, like a cat. No. Kitty, yes. I'm going to kill you. You are. Following me slow like that, he didn't notice when I backed up to the table, picked up the vase. And after I hit him, he didn't know it then, either. Just went down looking surprised. I knew he wouldn't be out long. So I bent over and took the key out of his pocket. He moved and made a funny little noise through his lips. And I stopped breathing altogether. But I had the key. I was free. The hall was empty. No one was wrong. I started to run down the narrow little corridor of the 13th floor. I pressed the elevator button. And I waited. Hell, that was the only way I could get it. It seemed like hours instead of seconds. Finally, I heard it coming. I felt like I was standing on hot clothes. My insides wouldn't stand still. The hand of the clock above the elevator climbed slowly from five to six and to seven. Could have gone crazy just standing there in seven, eight, to eleven, to twelve. And my heart exploded. My legs were soft, sticky pieces of dough hardly able to hold my body up. The elevator had stopped at twelve. And then went on to the porch. Then I remembered that it wasn't going to stop. It couldn't stop. Because in this building, there wasn't a man from the death house and the girl who betrayed him playing cat and mouse on a floor that doesn't exist. The hand of the elevator indicator could not stop at thirteen. But the hands of the watch on Kitty's wrist have stopped at twelve. Already four. Murder. Admit. And now back to murder at midnight and the thirteenth floor. Thirteenth floor. Yeah, that's where I was. A floor that didn't exist. So how could I get out? How could I get away? What was I gonna do? I didn't understand. I didn't understand anything. Pretty good little slugger, baby. Nick. You took so much trouble to unlock the door you should have taken a little time to lock it again after you. Don't come after me with that knife. Please, don't. I don't want to die. You think I did? Why don't you give me another chance, Nick? What chance did you give me? I didn't think you had that in you. Why doesn't somebody come, huh? Maybe it's because there isn't anybody besides us. Closy, huh? Ah. Try it again. Go ahead. Try it on again. Maybe you'll have better luck. He was leaning against the door halfway down the hall just leaning there and watching me because he knew he had me cornered. And I wasn't cornered. I turned and I ran the other way around the corner and down another hall. I didn't know if I really heard him running after me or if it was just the pounding in my head making a noise. I got to the end of the hall and I stopped out of breath and looked behind. He wasn't there. No sign of him. I stopped in my breath so even that didn't make any sound. Then I listened. I listened to nothing at all because it was so quiet. It was so awful quiet I could hear it. The wall I leaned against was big and flat and gray and the corners jetted out into the hall like dead fingers. I looked to the right side of me down the corridor. I didn't think he wasn't there. So I turned my head. I looked up the hall, almost hoping on the way I'd see him get it over with instead of this weight. And I wasn't there either. I tried to squeeze myself, my shoulder blades into the wall so I could hide but it was hard and cold. It wouldn't move. Mickey, where are you? For the lovers I haven't seen something so unknow where you are. Don't just keep standing here. I can't take my stomach sick. So am I. Just make some noise. I found myself back at the elevator again. I know he was around somewhere. Around one of those corners that were jutting out like dead fingers, waiting. The elevator was coming up again. The hand was up to 11. I had to stop. I pressed the button through all my weight against it. And again it did. The big floor was sliding open and I was saying... Going up or down, Kitty Owen. I'll take you wherever you want to go. Oh, not again. I can't stand. I'll go for a ride. What did you ring me? I heard you ring. Come on. Get in. Just a two of us. We'll go for a ride. Only just one of us will come back. I said get in. All the time he was talking, I was backing away. I was backing away. And then all of a sudden I saw at a door with a bright red sign that said, Stairway down. My last chance, I almost leaped to it. I opened the door and I flew down the stairs. It wasn't easy with high heels, it looked like music. Sweet, hot music from a clarinet because I knew they were taking me down. Faster, faster. I fell a couple of times. I caught myself by playing to the panacea. I was... I was out on the street again. Now I was really safe. There were always a lot of people. I didn't see any people. Just a big policeman with a red face. Boy, he sure looked good to me. Hey, wait a minute. Now, now, now. Take it easy, Miss. Don't get excited. Hey, look, Nicky, car stairs. He's in that hotel. He's after me. Car stairs? Yeah. Sure, and who you're wanting to kid, it can't be. Look, he's out, I tell ya. Saw me once to kill me. But Nicky, car stairs is in the death cell. Don't you read the papers? They all have you reported. What kind of a cop are you anyway? What kind of a woman are you without a heart? Just arms and legs stuck together with nothing to make them go. You're not a policeman, Nicky. You're still Nicky. You didn't look like Nicky a second ago. I don't understand. I don't understand. What's the get-up? How do I look? Nicky, please, no, not anymore. I told you we were playing cops and robbers, and this time I'm the cop. And I'm still gonna kill you, kitty-on. I had to run again. My last stronghold. My last hope, the hotel lobby. If there was no one there, I'd just give up. I was through. So I ran around the corner. I thought the war had ended all over again, because there was confetti coming out of all the windows. So much of it. Fallen sidewalks would begin to look like it had been snowing for a long time. I ran over them like a carpet. I ran with my eyes down, and I could see the headlines. Nicky cost tears in death house prison. I ran into the lobby to find people, to tell them where he was. There was no one there either. Only Joe at the desk. Joe? Oh, merly the night, Miss Owen. Not quite midnight. Look, Joe. I know you don't like me, but you gotta help me. Reading the papers about Nicky cost tears, breaking out? Yeah. That's what I'm trying to do. $5,000 should last you a little while, if you take care of it. Hey, Joe, he's here. He's in the hotel. He's chasing me. That's a lot of money. $5,000. What's to kill me? You gotta help me. Sweet dreams, Miss Owen. He's here. Can't you understand? He's on the 13th floor. There's no 13th floor in this building. Sweet dreams, Miss Owen. I know there wasn't any use to arguing, and he wouldn't believe me, even if he did, he wouldn't help you because he didn't like me. Going out. No one would believe me. There was only one thing left for me to do, lock myself in my room on the 14th floor. Stay there until they caught Nicky. I leaned against the back of the car, crouched in a corner. My eyes closed because I was so tired. I was so tired. I kept thinking of a bed, a big white bed, and white sheets to crawl between. And a door that was locked. Sorry to have to bother you about that pass key, Tommy. I just forgot to pick mine up at the desk. It's like a glass of cold water. I've been thrown on top of me. I open my eyes. I tell the guy who was in the car again. No. But again, still. And he was talking about the pass key the way he had to. Oh. Because when I looked at my watch, it was still a minute. A minute to hit my... Then I suddenly knew I was so weak, was it a relief I wanted to cry? Yeah. I heard him say it. Sometimes you can see your whole life pass by in just a second. That lifetime I lived in the elevator. All in my head was sandwiched in between a couple of floors. It never really happened. It was just that I had been dreading for months coming back some night, finding Nicky there waiting for me. My mind had invented a 13th floor. When it never was there at all. And the cop and the newspapers that said Nicky was out. All part of it. That crazy half drain. Of course he wasn't out. I tell myself it was all part of it. I never got out of the elevator. I was there all the time. All the time. Your floor, Miss Owen. 14? Sure, 14. Ain't that your floor? You're sure this time, aren't you? What are you talking about this time? I mean, never mind. What do you know, Owen? That was on the first door. I was on the right floor this time. I was feeling better already. What a fool I've been. Started to walk down the hall. I had a feeling Talbot and the boy in the elevator was watching me. I wish they shut the door and go on. Say, Mr. Talbot. Yes. Did you read about Nicky Carstass? No, what? He escaped. Got out of the death house. Is that so? He's on the loose. Good night, Miss Owen. Hotel court is scammy. They're too long and too creepy. I'm always afraid the walls like big flat plaster hens are gonna close in. Now I know it was more than just dreading it for weeks. Made me imagine. Nicky was out after me. I must have known it all along. I had a feeling I wasn't safe. The door hide under the covers till I hear they found him. Took him back. Till I hear he's dead, I won't have to be afraid anymore. Give Nicky a kiss, spammy. Aren't you glad to see me? The 14th floor this time. A floor that does exist. But the hands of the watch on Kitty's wrist still stand at 12 for... Murder! Be with us again when the door mark exit only opens and the clocks strike 12 for... Murder! Part of Kitty was played by Anne Shepherd and Paul Mann was Nicky. With music by Charles Paul, Murder at Midnight was directed by Anton M. Leader.