"Sorcerer's Moon" (1959)

Charles Beaumont was a regular contributor to Rod Serling's Twilight Zone TV show, writing or collaborating on some two dozen episodes across the show's five-year history before he died of a strange brain disease in 1967 at the age of 38. This very short story shows how Beaumont absorbed his influences, with a take on M.R. James's classic story "Casting the Runes," in which curses are thrown by getting someone to take a slip of paper with mysterious writing on it. The only way to evade the curse then is by getting the original donor to accept the slip of paper back again. The further premise in this story is that only two immortals remain on the planet and both want to take out the other. "Casting the Runes" is widely considered James's best story. I need to read it again because it struck me as gimmicky, a type of Mr. Mxyzptlk story from the Superman comics. You might call it a rats-foiled-again story because it always tends to go one way. Beaumont leans into the concept further by using a process server to stick the curse, so the story is pretty simple and basic. But I like the mix of elements—the elaborate curse mechanism, the murderous immortal warlocks, and the distinctly modern process server. Beaumont is skillful at creating a mood out of them that is both menacing and humorous. The twist is so basic it is practically stupid, but this is another story saved by its own brevity, nimble about getting in and out of the point and being done with it. All in a day's work downtown, seems to be the idea. The gleaming modern world of 1959 turns out to be too complex even for warlocks with terrible powers. Beaumont was a great student of Serling—he could hit that stentorian tone that Serling used as bludgeon and even ape it with a lighter hand. I end up of two minds on this story. On the one hand, with Ray Russell's high praise in his introduction to the story in the Playboy anthology ringing in my ears, I'm impressed with how surely and swiftly it is brought off. On the other hand, it hits like a bad pun, like the little guy in the bowler hat finally tricked once again in some improbable way into saying "Kltpzyxm." But, well, if Mr. Mxysptlk can be fooled, I suppose the last two remaining immortals on Earth can be too. Just seems like it would be harder than this.

The Playboy Book of Horror and the Supernatural, ed. Ray Russell (out of print)
Story not available online.