SOURCE: "The New Horla" (Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 2000) by Robert Sheckley

DESCRIPTION: "The sphere took one more brush against the wall, dislodging Edwin's high school graduation ceretificate, and then it split in two, its halves fluttering to the floor. Something came out of it. Something small and smoky that grew in size and then solidified for a moment into a small body and staring face -- staring at me -- and then this thing, whatever it was, faded and became invisible..." ("The New Horla" by Robert Sheckley)

NOTES: An injured man trapped in a ski lodge without electricity sees a strange ball come through the window then split in half. from this ball comes a mist that forms into an ugly creature that immediately becomes invisible. When the thing reforms the man kills it. Only afterward does he realize that the creature was tending his wounds and saved his life.

HISTORY: Sheckley builds his story on Guy de Maupassant's "The Horla". He uses our knowledge of that story to make us think the worst about the alien, then flips the idea on us. Sheckley also explores a little of de Maupassant's theme on madness, though the narrator's thoughts on madness are more shallow. He doesn't want to be insane, not because of the horror of it, but because it will ruin his social life.