January 14 - "Prey"

“Prey”
by Richard Matheson
I Am Legend (1995)

* * * (Good) Supernatural

Amelia found the perfect birthday gift for her boyfriend, a skeletal, wooden doll of an ancient hunter, its spirit bound to doll by a single golden chain. Or so the story went. After a couple of disastrous phone calls, Amelia decides to run a bath, and absentmindedly places the doll precariously on the edge of her coffee table. The doll topples from the table, the chain slips loose, the hunter’s spirit unbound.

While parts of the story (the concept and eventual ending) were fairly predictable, the story still managed to maintain a level of suspense that gave it its punch and power. Not the world’s greatest fan of stories involving inanimate objects come to life, the creepiness factor of such tales does give me the reaction I seek when experiencing works of the supernatural or horror: fear. I do know if I were ever given a skeletal wooden doll, complete with 8-inch pointed spear, I’d chuck that thing out the nearest window. Into a wood chipper. And bury the pieces. Deep. This pirate don’t truck with no demon dolls. But I will read about them, and enjoy it.