I was browsing through my old threads, and I came across this post of mine in a thread discussing the short film Terminus. In it, I discuss a short horror story that I read many years ago, and I’m wondering if my fellow SDMBers can help me remember what this story was and who wrote it. My post said:
I think the monkey creature had been inflicted on him as some kind of voodoo-style curse, and the reason it was now coming after the main character was that the guy had cursed HIM so he could finally die and pass the curse on to somebody else.
A googling for terms I hoped would find it, like “literal monkey on back short story horror” and the like, turned up this comment on a blog post about the cover for an issue of Captain America Reborn, where the guy (in comment 7) says:
This sounds vaguely familiar to what I remember, but I haven’t been able to turn up anything by either Gaiman or Martin. Still, searching from a cell phone browser isn’t the best way to find stuff, so I’m hoping somebody out there can help me or, better yet, has read this story and remembers it.
OK, I found a copy of that story, and that’s not it. Freaky little story, definitely, but not the one I remember – this was something controlling him, like a supernatural curse – it wasn’t a real monkey, it was some horrible monkey-like creature that took over his muscles, more or less, by digging its thumbs into his back and merging with his nerves.
Also, I think it took place in Arizona … well, SOME kind of “old American west” setting, because the guy threw himself into a canyon to kill himself and I think it had horseback riders, not cars.
ETA: But thank you for trying to help, Pazu. I appreciate the effort!
Damn, I have a book with this story in it, but am in the process of moving, so all my library is packed. The name of the book is something to the effect of “Monsters You’ve Never Heard of,” and I’m pretty sure the creature in the story is a wendigo (though I could be conflating that with another story in the same book.)
I remember something like this, but the monkey was invisible to… somebody and only seen by somebody else. Can’t remember if he saw it and nobody else did, or the other way round.
I really doubt it’s the same story because the setting is wrong, but just in case…
Robert Rankin’s novel A Dog Called Demolition features the human race with malign invisible creatures who sit on the shoulders of all humans, controlling the thoughts of their human hosts by massaging their skulls. The central character’s aline host is killed and he’s suddenly able to see them all.
I think I read a story like this but it wasn’t the Burr Woman. And I don’t know if it was a monkey but it was…something. A guy knows another dude who’s all hunch backed when he sees him for some reason and then there’s this creepy ass thing in him–he finds out post death. I had it in a collection of short stories. I don’t know if I still have the book. I think it might have been Robert Bloch.
Chris, thanks, I think that’s it, too. I was googling for it and the Mannikin came up and it sounded familiar but I didn’t find any plot synopsis. I wish I still had that story collection–it was a very good story!
This story has haunted me for years and I felt like I was the only one to have ever read much less trying to find it again. Thank you so much for starting this thread!
