'The Small Assassin'

As a corollary to my short short story yesterday, I’d like to mention Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Small Assassin’, which was first published in 1946 and first collected in Dark Carnival, and subsequently in The October Country, The Small Assassin, among others.

Bradbury was adept at putting a neat twist on the reality with which we’re normally comfortable… In this case, it’s about the couple David and Alice Leiber and their new baby.

Alice seems to be suffering from the delusion that her baby is trying to kill her… Gradually, the reader comes to realise that she might, against all reason, be right…

A chilling tale.