Stephen King, one of the greatest horror story writers, came up with another great piece. This short story is about a little college and in that little college contained a serial killer. The serial killer, unknown to everyone at this college, attacked his victims during the foggiest of nights, and left their bodies in different pieces. The story is told from the perspective of one of the students attending this college, who is quiet and keeps to himself mainly besides the ocasional conversation with his roommate. What makes this story great is that we get to feel and experience what the character is feeling through the descriptions and vivid imagery included in the text. What also makes this story great is the twist at the end.
During this short story you get small hints and pieces of foreshadowing of what the ending could be like. For example the several exchanges that our character has with his roommate, he shows very little interest in finding out more about what happened or ,when they thought they got the killer, who it was. Specifically after one of the dialogues and the roommate had left, our main character who was working on an essay since early in the day, responded with rereading his essay and ripping it to shreds after not knowing what he was trying to say. Why I find this important is because this hows a little mental disturbance especially from the reaction. Another hint he gives us is when Stephen King, from the perspective of the character says this, ” I walked until nearly midnight, until I was thoroughly mildewed, and I passed many shadows, heard many footfalls clicking dreamily off down the winding paths. Who is to say that one of those shadows was not the man or the thing that came to be known as Springfield Jack? Not I, for I passed many shadows but in the fog I saw no faces.” What I took from this quote is why is our main character walking outside in the middle of the night with a killer on the loose, especially in the fog where no one can see him or he can see no one else. The last bid of evidence ,before the ending is revealed, I found to be a big hint was when the character declines to go play 8-ball with his roommate, who was willing to spot him money to play, and says, ” For a long time after he was gone, I could only look out the window. And even after I had opened my book and started in, part of me was still out there, walking in the shadows where something dark was now in charge.” This part gave it away because it told everyone reading that he has a dark side and he could not concentrate because of how it ” took charge.”
In the end we do finally find out that the main character is probably the killer when his wife asks him what he does out so late, with her thinking he was with another women, and him thinking he was with another women but for a more horrifying reason. Stephen King did a good job giving us these hints and building up the story, and even being able to guess what was going to happen, the creativity of the ending and the reveal still made it shocking.
Arnav Gupta 