Plot summary: Sheridan, a man cornered by gambling debts, kidnaps children to hand them over to an underground network in exchange for money. One day, in a shopping center, he comes across a lonely and frightened child looking for his “Popsy,” his grandfather. Pretending to help him, Sheridan tricks him and takes him in his van. However, during the journey, the child begins to behave strangely: he shows unusual strength, he has sharp teeth, and he claims that his grandfather can smell him, that he is very strong, and that he can fly. As they approach the drop-off point, Sheridan begins to suspect that the child is not what he seems. Finally, on a lonely road, a monstrous winged creature, Popsy, descends on the van, pounces on Sheridan, and brutally kills him. The child, safe and sound, drinks the blood of his captor under the watchful eye of his grandfather. The story ends by revealing that the child belongs to a family of vampire-like beings and that the real danger was the man who tried to hurt him, not the supernatural creature.
Warning
The following summary and analysis is only a semblance and one of the many possible readings of the text. It is not intended to replace the experience of reading the story.
Summary of Popsy by Stephen King.
Sheridan is a desperate and unscrupulous man, trapped in a circle of ever-deepening debt due to his addiction to gambling, especially cards. He has lost almost everything he had and, faced with the real threat of brutal reprisals from the thugs of a loan shark called Mr. Reggie, he is forced to work for a man known as “the Turk” or “Mr. Wizard.” This individual has proposed a solution to his debts: to kidnap children for him. Although at first, Sheridan felt a strong sense of guilt, with each new kidnapping, that feeling faded, replaced by cold efficiency.
The story begins when Sheridan, prowling around a shopping center in his van, notices a small child, about five or six years old, who has come out alone through the main door of the shopping center under a sign with red lights. Lost and on the verge of tears, the child desperately seeks his “Popsy,” the affectionate name he uses to refer to the person who cares for him, probably his grandfather. Seeing the perfect opportunity to do his “job,” Sheridan approaches with a friendly and reassuring attitude, pretending to help him look for his grandfather. The scene is tense, as a security guard is nearby, but he is distracted from talking to a mall employee. Sheridan uses the distraction to persuade the child and take him to his van.
With a mixture of skill and manipulation, Sheridan convinces the child that he has seen his Popsy near a McDonald’s on the other side of the parking lot. He drives him to the van, helps him in, and locks him in. During the journey, the boy behaves strangely as they drive along back roads towards the Turk’s house. Although he seems scared, he also shows moments of confidence and even challenges Sheridan, warning him that his Popsy will find him and then he will regret having kidnapped him.
Little by little, Sheridan begins to notice disturbing things. The child is physically stronger than he appears, and when he tries to restrain him with handcuffs, the boy fights with surprising ferocity, biting him with a force that causes deep wounds, and he almost manages to escape. Later, when the child pulls on the metal bar to which he is handcuffed, he twists it with unnatural ease. There is also something strange about his smell: a mixture of mud, sweat, and something corrosive and chemical, like a burnt battery.
Throughout the journey, the child continues to issue increasingly disturbing warnings: his Popsy can smell him, and his Popsy can fly. A nervous Sheridan tries to ignore him, but fear takes hold of him. Soon, they cross a lonely, marshy area. At that moment, something terrifying happens: a vast creature lands on the van. Through the windscreen, Sheridan sees a winged membrane covering everything. The child shouts excitedly upon recognizing his Popsy.
The creature on the roof of the vehicle is not human. When it attacks, it does so with supernatural violence and force. First, it rips off the syringe that Sheridan had prepared to sedate the child (along with two of his fingers), then it rips off the driver’s door and pulls Sheridan out of the vehicle with claws that dig into his shoulders. It is Popsy, a winged creature with green eyes that turn red, wearing a black cape lined with red silk and a blue tie, just as the boy had mentioned. He has an imposing and terrifying appearance, and his presence instills the certainty that he does not belong to this world.
Popsy speaks to Sheridan in a calm, deep voice, like an older man’s, but full of menace. He explains that they had gone to the shopping center because his grandson wanted Ninja Turtles action figures, and he reproaches him for not leaving them alone. Then, with a thick, sharp nail, he cuts his throat. As the blood flows, the child — his grandson — collects the liquid with his hands and drinks, quenching his thirst as if drinking from a fountain. In Sheridan’s last moments of consciousness, he observes this final scene: the child drinking from his neck as if it were fresh water and Popsy caressing his hair tenderly.
This denouement makes it clear that neither the child nor his Popsy are human. Everything that seemed strange — his strength, resilience, sharp teeth, smell, and warnings — finally fit into a sinister truth: the child is a vampire creature, and his grandfather, Popsy, is a monstrous, ancient, powerful, and protective being. Sheridan, who began as a predator, ends up as the prey. The story ends with a radical reversal of power, where the supposed perpetrator is brutally punished for his crimes, and the child is saved, embraced by the protective shadow of his terrible and loving Popsy.
Characters from Popsy by Stephen King.
Sheridan is the story’s protagonist, although not in the heroic sense of the term. He is a dark and contradictory character who moves between despair and amorality. His main character trait is his gambling addiction, a vice that has destroyed his life and led him to accept terrible jobs to survive. His psychological profile is carefully delineated: in appearance, he is not a monster but an ordinary man who has crossed the line of what is permitted many times, to the point of losing all moral reference. Although at times he experiences a superficial form of guilt — he remembers that in his first kidnappings, he could not sleep — he has already learned to silence the voice of his conscience. His attitude towards the child is that of a predator disguised as a protector, manipulative and efficient. He tries to justify his actions as the product of necessity, but his behavior reveals coldness and meticulous calculation. The reader accompanies Sheridan throughout the story from his perspective, allowing us to closely observe his fears, growing nervousness, and, finally, his horror when the situation completely escapes his control.
The child has no name in the story, but his presence is central. At first, he is presented as a vulnerable figure: a small child, about five or six years old, visibly distressed, alone in the shopping center, desperately searching for his grandfather, whom he calls “Popsy.” The fact that he affectionately and almost endearingly calls him “Popsy” helps to create the illusion that he is a typical and fragile victim. However, as the story progresses, his behavior shows unexpected nuances. Although he cries and seems terrified, there are moments when he appears lucid, firm, and even defiant. As the story progresses, his language becomes disturbing: he claims that his Popsy can smell him, that he can fly, and that he will come looking for him. He also demonstrates a surprising physical strength for his age and a fighting ability far exceeding that of a normal child. He bites with violence that deeply wounds Sheridan, twists a metal bar with his bare hands, and resists the kidnapping with fierce tenacity. All these indications suggest that he is not an ordinary human child but a creature of a different nature, belonging to a hidden world that is fully revealed at the end. The strength of this character lies in his double game: he presents himself as a lost and frightened child but ends up being part of a monstrous and supernatural family that acts with implacable justice against those who threaten him.
Popsy, the boy’s grandfather, appears at the end of the story, but his figure is present from the beginning, like a shadow cast over the story. Although the boy refers to him affectionately, suggesting a loving bond, his appearance is overwhelming. He is a mighty flying creature with claws and membranous wings, eyes that change color, and a presence that instills terror. His attitude towards Sheridan is implacable: he punishes him ruthlessly and destroys him physically and symbolically. However, with his grandson, he is tender, understanding, and protective. This contrast makes him a dual figure: on the one hand, a ruthless monster; on the other, a loving grandfather. His character represents an ancestral force that protects his own with violence if necessary. Although he is not given much development as a character, his symbolic impact is enormous, as he embodies a supernatural justice that imposes itself where human justice has failed.
Among the secondary characters are the security guard and the information center employee at the shopping mall. They have no names and do not actively participate in the plot, but their presence reinforces the realistic context of the story’s beginning. The guard, being distracted, does not intervene in time to prevent the kidnapping of the child, which increases the tension of the scene and highlights the vulnerability of the urban environment to predators like Sheridan. Both function more as part of the social decor than as real actors, but their role underlines the world’s indifference to what is happening.
Another important character, although he does not appear directly in the action, is Mr. Reggie, the loan shark to whom Sheridan owes money. Through the protagonist’s memories, he is revealed as a cold and threatening figure with enough power to use violence without feeling remorse. He puts Sheridan in touch with the Turk, another character who does not appear directly but whose shadow hangs over the story. The Turk — or Mr. Wizard — is the one who organizes the child trafficking ring.
Commentary and analysis of Popsy by Stephen King.
Popsy by Stephen King is a horror story with supernatural overtones and a moral fable about punishment and justice. Although brief, it is precisely constructed so that the reader travels a path that goes from the every day to the monstrous, from a realistic and recognizable world to a final irruption that goes beyond the boundaries of the known. This progression, from the possible to the impossible, is one of the keys to the story.
The story centers on Sheridan, a man on the verge of financial collapse due to his gambling addiction. To pay his debts, he begins to kidnap children and hand them over to a trafficking ring whose purpose remains unclear but clearly involves exploitation and suffering. Throughout the story, we are shown his routine, his way of acting, his way of calming his moral doubts, and his effort to convince himself that he is acting out of necessity. King allows us to see the world through his eyes without justifying him but will enable us to observe how he rationalizes his crime. At this point, a critical tension appears in the story: the horror does not come first from the fantastic but from the human. Sheridan is a character who reflects what can happen when someone justifies any action to survive or satisfy their impulses. The evil he represents is cold, calculated, and realistic, not striking or spectacular.
What is interesting is how King contrasts this human evil with a supernatural figure who appears at the end: Popsy, the boy’s grandfather, a creature who does not belong to the human world and embodies a very different form of power. Throughout the story, the child insists on talking to his Popsy and describes him as someone who can smell him, strong, and who can fly. At first, these phrases may seem like the ravings of a frightened child. However, the story gradually plants clues that alter that perception: the strength of the child, his sharp teeth, the way he fights, and the strange smell surrounding him. This prepares the reader for the final twist when Popsy appears: a creature with wings, claws, and enormous strength that punishes Sheridan brutally and definitively.
From a thematic point of view, Popsy works with role reversal. What appears to be a victim — the child — is revealed to be part of a powerful and dangerous family, and the one who seems to be in control — the kidnapper — ends up being destroyed. In that sense, the story can be read as a lesson about the consequences of actions, but with a fantastic approach. Punishment comes neither from the law nor from society but from something beyond something that imposes a savage justice. This idea has a significant symbolic weight: supernatural monsters punish human monsters as if the justice that cannot be done in the real world is done through the fantastic.
From a literary point of view, King uses various resources to build narrative tension. The story is told in the third person but focuses almost entirely on Sheridan’s mind. Thus, the reader can share his thoughts, doubts, strategies, and fears. Although we don’t sympathize with him, we understand his logic, which makes the ending even more shocking. King carefully doses the information: he shows us just enough to keep us in the realm of the possible but suggests just enough so that when the fantastic element appears, it is not entirely unexpected. This subtle transition from realism to supernatural horror is one of the most outstanding characteristics of his style.
The pace of the story is also essential. It starts slowly, with detailed descriptions of the setting and Sheridan’s behavior, but as it progresses, it becomes faster and more tense, reaching a violent and dizzying climax. The language is direct, without unnecessary embellishments, making the story easy to read. The dialogues, especially those between Sheridan and the child, are full of double meanings. While Sheridan believes he is manipulating the child, the reader begins to sense that it is the child who, with his words, is announcing something much more terrible.
One detail worth noting is the use of the name “Popsy.” In English, it is affectionate to call a grandfather or paternal figure. That familiar tone contrasts with the character’s true nature: he is not just any old, older man but a monstrous creature with inhuman abilities who moves at night. The effect of this contrast is powerful: what initially seemed to be a story about a lost child ends up being a story about an avenging creature, and that inversion is what gives the story its strength.
In short, Popsy can be read as a horror story and a warning. Not everything is as it seems. Victims may not be as defenseless as we think, and those who abuse others may face unexpected consequences. The fantastic here is not a simple adornment but the instrument of justice that finds no other way. King manages to construct a disturbing story through a simple structure and a direct style, where the real and the supernatural intersect to show that, sometimes, true terror is not the monstrous but the human. And that, sometimes, only the monstrous can end it.
