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Topic : Re: How to creep the reader out with what seems like a normal person? The person in question, though this is yet unknown, is not actually a person. Instead, they are some form of eldritch being - selfpublishingguru.com

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I don't think any of the other answers has covered that this is really a point of view question. Your eldritch character doesn't need to look different, act different, have funny traits or even speak in a different typeface. In fact, it's perhaps better if there's nothing identifiably odd about him at all. Just make your point of view character inexplicably creeped out by him. Your reader will follow along.

As far as how you depict this, you have a wide range of options. If it rises to a conscious level for your POV character you can put it in an internal monologue:

"I don't like him," Marjorie thought to herself. "I don't know why, but I just don't like him."

or describe your POV character's reactions

It was hard not to be charmed by his wide blue eyes and sunny smile, but Marjorie felt a little cold shiver down her spine every time he looked her direction.

Or, if you want to ease it in at a subconscious level, you can color the descriptions

He was beautiful, but was there a certain emptiness behind his eyes?

Or be yet more subtle still

His eyes were the exact blue of a desolate, lonely sky.

The key is to remember that the point of view informs the descriptions. This eldritch character is very good at fitting in. So there isn't anything really about him that's a solid clue. Your POV character is just sensing something off through raw intuition --and that translates to the reader. You can tweak it to be as subtle or as blatant as you want.


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