By Henry Kuttner
Originally published
Strange Stories, February 1939
Michael Hayward is a writer. Actually he's a riff off H.P. Lovecraft himself. His friend Gene, a reporter and a mutual friend have come to visit him at his cottage near Santa Barbara. And man are the seagull's noisy.
Well the visit gets weird as Hayward is really agitated, and says he's being attacked. Things get weirder when Gene grabs what he thinks is a weird vine outside the window and it pulls itself away from him. It seems Hayward's place has been under siege by these things, which hang out and screetch like weird birds, and look like - well, I dunno, Kuttner describes them as obnoxious and gross beach ball monsters. He confesses he thinks he attracted these things via his use of a drug that allows him to vividly re-experience past lives, including pre-human lives, and that its the events that he experienced under the influence that allowed him to come up with his stories.
He also tells Bill and Gene its not safe to leave.
Well the beach balls lay siege to the house, freaking everyone out and eventually chomping down Bill before Hayward remembers an incantation that sends them back. Then he tosses the drug into the sea.
(which doesn't sound like such a great plan)
This is a lively and entertaining little tale but Kuttner doesn't quite get the tension of the men hiding in a house under siege by alien beasties. Also said beasties come off more comical than scary the way Kuttner describes them. Not bad though.
"Also said beasties come off more comical than scary the way Kuttner describes them."
ReplyDeleteAlso, and judging by the art by Chaosium and the Strange Stories page that you posted, Kuttner describe the mouth of said beasties as something similiar to... a human anus, of all things. When you think about it, the noisy screch that the rceatures emits changes drastically in your imagination.