Enoch is a Psychological Horror short story written by Robert Bloch. The story follows Seth, a mentally ill hermit living alone in the swamp outside a rural town. A social outcast and orphan, Seth hides a secret: that a small, invisible creature named Enoch lives atop his head and commands him to kill people who enter the swamp. The two have settled into a routine of sorts when its disrupted when one of their victims is discovered by the police, with Seth the prime suspect...
This story provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: Seth is obviously insane, but he's a gentle, friendly man whenever he's not carrying out Enoch's orders and has no ill will for anyone. He doesn't even want to kill people, but Enoch will feed on him instead if he doesn't.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear what Enoch actually is. It's quite possible he's just a hallucination, but there's no plausible explanation for Cassidy's death other than that Enoch killed him. Seth claims his mother summoned him to be a Guardian Entity for her son, but Enoch is more of a Bad Boss than anything else, and proves quick to abandon him for Cassidy. Though it's possible he was trying to kill the people trying to imprison Seth.
- Anti-Villain: Seth murders people to feed Enoch, but he doesn't want to. He only carries out Enoch's will because Enoch will feed on him instead and find another host.
- Asshole Victim: Cassidy tries to ensure Seth gets a harsh sentence despite Seth clearly being too insane to be in control of himself, and is quite smug about manipulating him. It's hard to feel too sorry for him when Enoch eats his way into his skull.
- Ax-Crazy: Seth. He's clearly insane, although he doesn't want to kill people, only doing it to protect himself from Enoch. Unless of course Enoch is just a hallucination.
- Bad Boss: Enoch threatens to eat Seth should he not kill for him, and makes good on this threat with Cassidy.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Enoch, the Eldritch Abomination forcing Seth to kill, and Edwin Cassidy, the corrupt district attorney trying to ensure he gets a harsh sentence.
- Blatant Lies: Seth would like you to know he isn't crazy, really!
- Downer Ending: Enoch murders Cassidy and returns to Seth, and the two escape the county jail to continue their killing spree.
- Eldritch Abomination: Enoch is invisible to everyone except his current and former hosts, and has a clairvoyant knowledge of everything going on in the swamp and surrounding town. The one time he's seen, he's described as being a "silver streak" with no real form.
- Faux Affably Evil: Enoch acts quite paternalistic towards Seth, but quickly resorts to threats when he doesn't get his way.
- Jerkass: Cassidy is quite the oily Smug Snake.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's ambiguous if anything supernatural is actually happening in the story or not. Enoch murdering Cassidy seems to confirm he's real, but even that is told through Seth's unreliable and clearly delusional perspective.
- Off with His Head!: Seth decapitates his victims with a hatchet for Enoch to take their heads and eat them.
- Persecuting Prosecutor: Cassidy manipulates the clearly mentally ill murderer Seth into appearing sane to give him a harsher sentence, specifically by asking Seth to loan him his presumably hallucinatory master Enoch during Seth's trial. Unfortunately for Cassidy, Enoch is very real and takes him up on the offer, demanding Cassidy now kill people he can feed on. And when Cassidy refuses, Enoch decides to snack on him instead.
- Reluctant Psycho: Seth genuinely doesn't want to kill anyone, but he has to or else Enoch will kill him instead.
- Serial Killer: Seth kills many people to sate Enoch's hunger.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: The story is told through Seth's perspective, and he's clearly insane. It's ambiguous how much of anything that happens is real or not, and even if Enoch is real, Seth is quite obviously delusional regardless.
- Unreliable Narrator: Seth is an insane Serial Killer who is quite delusional, and it's unclear what if anything that happens is real.
