"The House in the Valley"

by August Derleth 

originally published Weird Tales, July 1953

Jefferson Bates just wanted to go get away from it all and everyone else and paint, so he's all kindsa happy when his agent finds him an ultra-isolated house in a remote country valley not to far from Arkham and Dunwich.

The house is a dump; creepy-looking with furniture piled up around the outside like a barricade.  Plus Jeff gets the weird feeling there's someone there.  Also no electricity, running water, but the phone works.  It also has a bad rep.  The former tenant, Seth Bishop, was a creepazoid recluse who murdered one of his neighbors after being accused of killing local livestock.

Nevertheless, Jeff moves in.  He soon meets one of his neighbors, a dumbass youth named Bud Perkins who likes to spy on him. And hints of dark doings having been done in the house.  

That night Jeff is awakened by weird sounds seeming to come from beneath the earth.  He soon finds some old books, including a notebook kept by Seth with notes from the various usual sources. He soon learns that late in life Seth went on a self-improvement kick, reading everything he could get his hands on, and even visiting the Miskatonic U library.  

The dreams get weirder, including a giant gaseous Cthulhu head enveloping the house.  Jeff discovers a hidden tunnel in the cellars, clearly man-made, that seems pretty extensive.  Intrigued, he buys some tools and digs further.  

Bud comes around complaining about having lost a sheep.  Jeff finds evidence that he's been making nocturnal treks which he has no memory of.  He also finds some remains of the sheep in the tunnels. 

Jeff soon sometimes thinks of himself as a different person altogether, and is concerned about this painter from the city living in his house.  He absorbs himself in a diary of Seth's that he finds.  He learns of contacts with Deep Ones and information about the Feds raid on Innsmouth.  The local sheriff comes to question him.  He dreams vividly of R'lyeh, Cthulhu, and the Deep Ones.  

Bud Perkins and other locals now patrol the area, armed, keeping an eye on the house and Jeff.  One night, Jeff is awakened by the sounds of screaming coming from the tunnels.  A mob of townsfolk and a deputy sheriff turn up at his door demanding to search the house.  It seems a local boy has disappeared.

Not long after Jeff is again hearing rumblings in the earth, hearing strange music and chanting.  He finds himself caught up in adoration of Cthulhu.  He runs from the house and kills Bud Perkins.  The locals come after him.  They set the house on fire.  As Jeff is taken away, he thinks he sees Cthulhu and Deep Ones writhing in the flames.  He believes it was the spirit of Seth Bishop, possessing him, which committed the murders.

This is an above average tale for Derleth, with its focus on mental deterioration and madness, though he still indulges in the Standard Derleth Lecture on the Cthulhu Mythos.  Much is implied rather than shown, and the vision of Cthulhu in Jeff's second dream (not the gaseous head vision) is very effective.  The small moment where Jeff begins to think completely from Seth(?)'s POV is genuinely chilling.