originally published Lovecraft's Monsters, 2014
Josh and Rachel grow up in a house in upstate New York, with their parents and their retired grandfather. An uncle, Jim, disappeared some years ago, mysteriously.
Grandpa is eccentric and mysterious. He lives in the upper part of the house and keeps certain portions of it off-limits to Rachel and Josh. He keeps a locked freezer in the basement.
Over the years, Rachel and Josh speculate about his secrets. When Rachel is in college, they come across some audio recordings of Grandpa talking to their Uncle Jim. He relates a story of his time spent working in the oil fields in the Saudi desert after WWII. He and another worker stumbled upon the Nameless City, and the mummified things there. Their photographs of the place did not turn out, and Grandpa was affected by something he came into contact with in the City, which left him in a coma for some time, and imparted knowledge and understanding to him.
But he did manage to smuggle out an egg.
Josh and Rachel go off to college. Grandpa has a stroke. At Christmastime, Josh fails to show. A police search of his apartment turns up evidence that he had become a pot dealer. Rachel thinks something else may have happened to him. She returns to the family home and finds the freezer open. Something reptilian is inside. Rachel falls unconscious, then finds herself in the body of the thing from Irem. She lurches into the house to her grandfather.
John Langan is a young(ish) American horror story author of whom I know nothing but might like to know more. This particular tale has a lot going for it: a strong, consistent and realistic tone (which makes the Cthulooey parts all the more convincing and disturbing), first-rate characterization, and it manages to work a distinct and updated take on the whole Lovecraft trope of Families With Dark Secrets.
On the downside, I thought the tale lost it a bit with the ending. A great build-up leading to a disappointing payoff. Still this is not a bad tale at all.
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