originally published Subterranean Press, 2002
The Dandridge family, living in Anchor Bay, Cali in 1914, is dysfunctional with a capital "D". Mom has just passed on, but her quite-unhuman ghost still talks to her husband and daughter regularly. Son Avery is locked in the attic, and has turned into something that can't speak, and is apparently covered with or exuding slime. Dad Machen (cute...) is depressed and unhelpful, and daughter Meredith is rebellious, asks too many questions, and seems to balk at her duty...
It seems the Dandridge family home is built over a sea cavern, which is also some kind of portal, through which terrible things (Kiernan resists all Lovecraft-ian name-dropping, but it could be the Great Old Ones) may enter. They are held at bay by one person, who is (or possesses) "the key", which keeps the portal from opening (or fully opening). And it seems Meredith is that "key" (Avery, and the children's mom, possibly as well, met their terrible fate trying to be the "the key" instead of Meredith).
So after a fair amount of atmospheric build-up, and bizarre rituals led by Avery, Meredith accepts her fate and becomes a tentacled, spined whatsit living, presumably for eternity, in the cavern. And WWI (who's opening shots form the background of the story) at least doesn't turn into a conflagration that engulfs the world...
If all this sounds rather ambiguous, its because it is all rather ambiguous. This is a story long on atmosphere, flipping back and forth in time rather than following a linear narrative, and never fully explaining itself. It's also fairly effective. Kiernan handles the clammy atmosphere quite well, and the story leaves an impression.
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