"The Dark Brotherhood"

by August Derleth

originally published The Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces, Arkham House, 1966

Arthur Phillips is a bookish recluse who lives with his mom and aunts in Providence, RI.  He doesn't do much with his life and likes to take rambling walks through the city and surroundings, late at night.   He meets a girl named Rose Dexter who's as weird as he is, and the two take up late-night walks together.

One night they meet an odd man, dressed in a somewhat shabby, 19th century style, who wants to see "the cemetery where Poe once walked."  He seems to be interested in Poe, and in Providence, and calls himself Mr. Allan.  It is only after they've parted that Rose points out that Mr. Allan bears a striking resemblance to Mssr. Poe.

A couple nights later, as Arthur is on his way out for another stroll, he meets Mr. Allan again (Arthur has the feeling this is no accident).  Mr. Allan engages him in conversation about astronomy (Arthur writes an astronomy column for the local paper) and asks him if believes in life on other planets (Arthur does).  Mr. Allan asks if he and his brothers can come visit Arthur next Monday, whence they will offer proof of life on other planets.  Arthur, who apparently doesn't mind letting cranks into his house, agrees.  Mr. Allan takes his leave, but Arthur follows him home in secret.

He sees Mr. Allan enter the house, but no lights come on.  From his hiding place, a short time later, he sees Mr. Allan again come from the same direction as before, and enter the house.  How did Allan slip out of the house while he was watching? Puzzled, he leaves - only to encounter Mr. Allan out on the streets yet again! Even more oddly, Allan says nothing and take no notice of him.

Thing get weirder the next night.  It seems that she, too, encountered Mr. Allan on her night walk.  He walked her home, in fact. Arthur realizes that Rose must have been walking with her Mr. Allan at the same time as he was walking with his Mr. Allan.  Huh?

Well, some solution is offered next Monday, when seven identical Mr. Allans show up at Arthur's door, and gather in a circle with him, in order to "produce certain impressions of extra-terrestrial life."

What they end up showing him is a kind of hologram of the Great Race farting around with some glowing cubes.  This freaks Arthur out no end.  

The next day, Arthur heads over to the Allans' house.  Since no one answers the door, he lets himself in.  The house is empty and appears unoccupied, but he finds a cube or rectangular, transparent box, glowing with purple light, and another "hologram" of a Great Racer (Yithian?) floating over it.  Naturally, he flees.

Then, naturally, he goes to the library (where else?) to research ... I dunno ... "holograms of cone-shaped aliens floating over guys who look like Edgar Allan Poe"?  Anyway, said research is fruitless.  Arthur meets Mr. Allan (or one of the Mr. Allans, I suppose) in the street again, and said Mr. Allan confirm that he was shown life on a distant, dying planet.  Arthur immediately decides that his holographic vision was telepathically sent by the Seven Allans.  

Arthur calls Rose, asking if she has seen Mr. Allan (which Mr. Allan, one wonders).  She confirms that she has, and that she has been invited to the Allans' house to "watch an experiment".  Arthur tells her not to go, which offends the thorns out of Rose.  

Arthur makes his way to the house, where he finds the Allans in a trance, and Rose in the process of being duplicated in the glass case, ala "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".  He shoots the cases, shattering them, then hauls a hysterical Rose out, while the Allans' machinery explodes, causing the house to catch fire and burn to the ground.

Arthur is charged with arson by the police, though not murder, since the remains they find are not human.  He begins to wonder if the Rose he rescued was the real Rose, or the duplicate.  He goes to see her. 

A newspaper report tells us that Rose Dexter was attacked by Arthur Phillips near the cemetery.  She fought him off and killed him.

Okay - this is one of the most frustrating stories - no, make that the most frustrating, in the "posthumous collaboration" canon.  Partly because its probably the most nonsensical, but also because its the most unique, and because the first portion is actually pretty damned interesting.

I have a distinct memory of first coming across this tale, early in my Lovecraft-lust - say 8th-9th grade, in an anthology I found at the local library.  I read the first half, then, for whatever reason, did not finish it, despite finding that first half tantalizing.

It wasn't till a couple years later that I read the complete story.  I remembered finding the second half disappointing, but all these years later, didn't recall exactly why.  Guess I should have left well-enough alone.

Now, coming back to it 30+ years later, my reaction is largely the same.  I genuinely like the first half of this story, which is well-written, amusing, and genuinely odd.  Any story that has seven clones of Edgar Allan Poe chanting in a living room while conjuring up visions of the Great Race of Yith deserves some kind of award for sheer surrealism, if nothing else!

Unfortunately, the second half completely falls apart.  Not one thing Arthur, Rose, or the various Mr. Allans does makes even the slightest bit of sense.  Exactly what the intentions of the Mr. Allans have is entirely unclear, and I'm not sure Arthur really needs to be too worried about the evil plans of a bunch of aliens so frightfully stupid that they'd turn themselves into clones of Edgar Allan Poe and then waltz around Providence.  

The first half, and, I confess, the slight knife-twist of the ending give this story a certain resonance.  I suspect I'll always have a fondness for it.  But I must remember never to read the second half.