Mimic: Beneath the Skin, Something Inhuman Waits

For years he walked the same street, passed the same faces, and kept to himself. He paid his rent, bought his groceries, and never spoke to anyone—especially women. In a city where oddities are ignored, he blended in so well that no one thought to look closer.

Then one morning, behind a locked door, something tears open the illusion. What appears at first to be a solitary, eccentric tenant becomes something far older and far more calculated. The narrator, now a museum assistant trained in the study of camouflage and mimicry, is forced to confront the possibility that humanity may not be the only master of disguise. Nature has always found ways for the weak to hide among the strong. But what happens when the disguise is meant for us?

“Mimic” is a chilling urban tale that turns crowded streets into hunting grounds and familiar faces into questions. The horror is not loud or chaotic. It is quiet, patient, and evolutionary. By the time the truth is revealed, the city looks different—and the sky does too.

Donald A. Wollheim (1914–1990) was not only a fiction writer but one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century science fiction publishing. He helped found the Futurians in the 1930s, edited groundbreaking anthologies, and later established DAW Books, the first major publishing house devoted exclusively to science fiction and fantasy. As a writer, Wollheim contributed stories to magazines such as Astonishing Stories and Cosmic Stories, often blending speculative biology with unsettling twists. “Mimic,” originally published in 1942 in Astonishing Stories, reflects his deep interest in evolutionary science and the quiet threats that might move unnoticed through modern life.