Escape: Casting the Runes

Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.

– Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I was ten years old when my close friend at the time cast the runes on me. He was wildly intelligent for his age. He loved occult books and while he didn’t read them cover to cover, he was certainly inspired by them. In one of his many books, he found some runic alphabet, and wrote a dire warning in them on a piece of paper. He gave me the paper.

“Whatever you do, don’t open it,” he said.

I opened the piece of paper. There I saw the strange runes to his delight. He told me that I was cursed. He told me that the Angel of Death would follow me home and kill me. I believed him. I was quite gullible.

My bike ride home was one of the scariest rides of my life. Every person I saw was potentially the Angel of Death in human form. I rode as fast I could, crying the entire way. When my I got home and told my parents that the Angel of Death was coming to claim me, they sat me down and let me know that I had been tricked.

I’m guessing my friend was grounded for his little prank. I don’t remember the details after the event. It was a long time ago. All I can remember was that raw fear. This fear is quite present in this old time radio episode whereby a man is hexed. Only in his case, the terrors are truly real.

Just a little epilogue. My old friend is now a very accomplished lawyer, having advised Congress in regards to online privacy. He still writes runic notes (now in legalese) and I’m guessing that the people who receive them experience the same kind of dread that I did. :)

Listen to the episode now (spoilers below):

You can download it here.

Why do I like this episode so much?

This episode has both an amazing protagonist and an equally awesome antagonist. They are both two stuffy old men having a very passive aggressive argument over a review. But when one guy brings a gun to a knife fight, it becomes much larger than wounded pride.

First, Karswell’s wounded ego started the affair. His work was meritorious as he was using it to kill people. Dunning was faced with his own incredulity. During the day, it almost seemed foolish, yet at night, the horrors were real.

The next thing I love is the actual threat of the curse. There’s very little hint of a physical presence. It exists as a hot humid wind through an open window or lone footsteps in a dark alley. The closest point to “reality” was when Dunning reaches behind him to feel the inside of a horrific mouth.

Then there were Karswell’s “gifts”. I absolutely love them. It’s one thing to cast a horrific curse on your enemy, but it’s another thing to taunt him while he’s going insane because of it. Karswell enjoys toying with his prey. I

Finally, what I really love about this story, is that Dunning does something that Karswell never expects … he asks for help. It’s this help that literally saves his life. Had Dunning tried to face the danger on his own, he would have been destroyed by it. Yet, he finds Harrington, who sounds like a timid little man, but he’s not in the least. He centers Dunning.

“Keep yourself together, man!”

I swear, I expected a big old slap at the end of that line. Harrington is Dunning’s strength and he doesn’t sugar coat anything. At one point, he’s like, “yeup, we gotta return those runes back or you are screwed, man.”

The final scene in the train is brilliant. It’s like a heist setup where just one a simple mistake is death. On the surface, it’s just one man handing a piece of paper to another man. Yet, it’s everything. It’s great writing performed by awesome actors.

Not surprising, this episodes is based off a short story written M.R. James. You can actually read it over here. Just keep an eye out for strange bits of paper from strangers.

Note, if you did enjoy this old time radio, check out my story The Turning of the Worm whereby a con man gets into a battle of wits with an ancient Lovecraftian god. It’s free to read. I hope you enjoy!