I read part of an Alfred Hitchcock a long time ago. It was about a guy who would see movement out of the corner of his eye, but when he looked, there was nothing there. It turned out he was seeing creatures - their name started with "P". What is the name of this story?
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2A "long long time ago" was what, 80 years ago? Could you narrow it down to a decade or two> By an "Alfred Hitchcock story" I guess you mean it was in one of those paperback anthologies published under his name, with titles like "Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories That Scared Even Me"? Please tell us everything you remdember about the story and never mind spoiler alerts.– user14111Feb 13, 2021 at 19:37
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Any chance you ever found the mame of this story? I’ve had no luck finding it myself. I originally read it in the mid eighties, but it was quite old at the time. If I remember correctly, he was in a small cabin, and actually seeing the creature led to his demise via hatchet…– user16190Apr 18, 2022 at 17:11
1 Answer
A story matching that description can be found in the anthology, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents: My Favorites in Suspense” (1959, Random House).
The story is called “They bite”, by Anthony Boucher (originally published 1943).
Set in the desert of California, “They Bite”’s Carkers lurk around the town of Oasis, hidden, hungry, snatching what they can. Boucher builds a legend up around them with a few cultural references and a few dangerously imprecise descripives: “something moved, something little and thin and brown as the earth. Too large for a rabbit, much too small for a man”, and, “something like a man and something like a lizard, and something like the things that flit across the corner of the eye”, and,“something very dry and thin and brown, only when you look around it isn’t there. Ever see it?”, and, “you glimpse lean, dry things out of the corner of your eye… take the Carkers and the things you don’t quite see and you put ’em together. And they bite.”
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Please edit this answer to explain why it matches the question. See Guidelines for good story-ID answers?.– bobbleDec 4, 2022 at 3:30
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I polished the answer a bit, hope you don’t mind. If you found the text, nice going! Can you additionally summarize the content of the story to help someone reading your answer why you feel it might be the text? Thank you 👍 Dec 4, 2022 at 8:25
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The publication history of that story can be found at the ISFDB, and the text of the story is available in the Internet Archive scans of Unknown Worlds, August 1943 and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 1952. Dec 4, 2022 at 11:30