"The Parasite" is a short story and nice quick read. The protagonist is Austin Gilroy, a physiologist, who is a realist and believes that the paranormal is nonsense. That is until he meets a mysterious woman who mesmerizes people; he is not only hypnotized by this woman, but he slowly becomes completely obsessed with her. Gilroy says: "This woman, by her own explanation, can dominate my nervous organism. She can project herself into my body and take command of it. She has a parasite soul; yes, she is a parasite, a monstrous parasite. She creeps into my frame as the hermit crab does into the whelk's shell. I am powerless What can I do?"