Short Stories 366:277 — “Casting the Runes,” in the style of M.R. James
[image error]In a refrain I’m sure I’ll often repeat this month, I don’t often do horror as a reader (and even less often as a writer). There are two sides to this: the first is the simple reality of horror getting stuck in my subconscious and leading to terrible dreams, and given I don’t sleep well enough as it is, I don’t need to add to the problem; the second is I like stories that have ultimately triumphant moments, and so many horror stories end with the “dun-dun-dun” effect of even a minor triumph of survival on behalf of the (remaining) characters being negated by showing the big evil isn’t defeated after all. It never feels satisfying to me as a reader.
“Casting the Runes,” the first audio performance in The Conception of Terror, on the other hand, is exactly the sort of horror story I enjoy reading, and while it can’t be without cost, the ultimate destination of this story had me darkly satisfied. The set-up is simple: Jo Harrington is asked to anonymously peer review a paper on alchemy by Anton Karswell, and it’s basically trash, so she says as much knowing the rejection will be smoothed out and the wording adjusted, and thinks nothing else of it. Until Anton Karswell shows up at her place of work, politely offers her a signed copy of his book on witchcraft, and she starts to see warnings and portents of her imminent death.
What follows is a cat-and-mouse between Jo, Anton, and Jo’s husband, Edward as Jo fights for her life against forces she didn’t even believe existed a day earlier. As an audio performance, both Anna Maxwell Martin and Tom Burke do a great job of inhabiting their characters of Jo and Edward, and though I felt Karswell came across more whiny and petulant than powerful in Reece Shearsmith’s performance, I think that was purposeful, as he is at his core just a bully with a dangerously big stick. Also, this is horror, so of course there are costs and things aren’t tied up with a ribbon with a happy-ever-after, but as I said before, “Casting the Runes” is darkly satisfying, and by the end of the story I found myself chuckling and nodding and the doggo was regarding me like maybe I was unhinged. So, job well done.
