The short story “Unseen – Unfeared,” written by Francis Stevens, is a piece telling about mysterious events that happened by the narrator, referred to as Blaisdell. They begin with the man having dinner in an Italian restaurant with his friend Mark Jenkins, a detective. The characters discuss the recent poisoning of Ralph Peeler, which Doc Holt, a chemist, was initially accused of. According to Jenkin’s professional opinion, the only reason why it happened was the superstitions of people, which should not be considered when examining such cases. They included the rumors of love potions sold by Holt, and Blaisdell’s mood becomes dark under the influence of this conversation.
He leaves the restaurant and walks back home while watching poor people in the street. His thoughts turn to the dirt and the lack of hygiene attributed to them, and the man perceives them in a negative light. These ideas contribute to the worsening of his state as the uneasiness grows into the feeling of being physically ill, and he blames the cheap wine for it. Subsequently, Blaisdell realizes that he starts to fear the potential dangers the passers-by can bring but decides to stay in the place to conquer it. He stops by a drug store and sees a banner above the next door promising some show for those who want to see what others have not, and decides to enter the museum as he thought it was an exhibition.
Before visiting the place, Blaisdell notices a man in the street who looks at him with an expression of cruelty and malice on his face. However, he does not pay much attention to this occasion, ascribing it to this person’s evil nature. The feeling disappears as Blaisdell walks into the door and finds himself in a sort of laboratory listening to a professor talking about photography and developing films. The latter claims that he managed to find a way to see what others cannot experience in the physical world by adding a white membrane to the papers of yellow and green. He shows some creepy, mysterious creatures stating they are a product of human imagination, and Blaisdell faints. When he wakes up, Doc Holt is already gone, and the man decides that he wants to commit suicide by poisoning with the help of potions that can be found in the place.
At this moment, the narrative turns to Mark Jenkins, who starts to understand the mistake he made while investigating the case of Ralph Peeler. He discovers that the cigar he previously gave to Blaisdell was poisoned, and it was the reason why Peeler was dead as he also smoked them. By realizing the circumstances of the matter and the danger he brought to his friend, Jenkins follows him and uses the information he received from the man who looked angrily at Blaisdell when he was entering Doc Holt’s house.
In this part, the name of this person is given for the first time as he is called Pietro Marini. Also, his motives when expressing negative feelings toward Blaisdell become clear to the reader as he did not mean to do so out of malice but worrying about how the young man looked when they met in the street. According to Marini, he had a sick appearance evoking concerns regarding the person’s alarming mental condition. Surprisingly, the circumstances of his visit to the place owned by Doc Holt become more mysterious as the chemist is reported to have committed suicide that afternoon. These facts are suspicious enough from Jenkin’s perspective, and he decides to figure out what happened to Blaisdell and help him out if he has enough time.
After arriving at the house, he finds the remnants of the cigar which he gave to his friend at dinner. Meanwhile, Blaisdell is still in the laboratory where the frightening show happened, trying to find some poisonous substance to leave this life with its horrors. He cannot cope with the idea of living among the monsters people create and see the only solution in committing suicide. When Jenkins walks toward him, he seems annoyed at his presence and interference in the plan but soon manages to escape the delusion. The two men discuss the events and decide that everything Blaisdell experienced was caused by the cigar.
In the end, finding comfort in the idea that it was only a dream, Jenkins and Blaisdell approach the exit when the latter realizes that he could not mistake the portrait of Doc Holt for the chemist who was already dead. The reason for this conclusion was the fact that he saw him in the hall, which was impossible when relying on the explanation given by Jenkins. Blaisdell shares this thought, and the characters return to the laboratory in order to destroy the white membrane so that no one can see the monsters again. As a result, they select doubt over certainty and prefer to look on the bright side rather than trying to find the evil in humanity.