"The Changeling"

by Walter C. DeBill
originally published The Mlandoth Myth Cycle and Others, Lindisfarne Press, 2002

Matt Rourdan is sent by his employer, the mysterious Kazimerz Grodek, of The Observers, a group that studies paranormal events, to a rural farm where the Heinrich family is suffering a tragedy.  

Some time earlier, after some spooky events in the woods, their daughter Gretchen changed.  She became withdrawn, seemed unfamiliar with her own body, and began to live almost like an animal, even took to killing chickens and tearing up the house.

While Rourdan suspects psychological causes, he also remembers reading in Cthonic Revelations of a race of aliens, beings of pure mind, who could project themselves into, and take over the bodies, of other beings.  Some of the literature referred to these as "Dark Ghosts".    But that's not all.  Because there is a similar race of beings known as "Black Eddys".  It seems that the "Dark Ghosts" are (sort of) benign, whereas "Black Eddys" are cosmic scumbags.

Rourdan is sent back to interview the Heinrichs further.  He finds the situation has worsened considerably.  Gretchen is gone and the husband has been killed.  Also the Heinrich's mysterious cousins, Armand and Helen, and their aged aunt Jane, seem to have wandered off.  Cops are everywhere.

Rourdan decides to go nosing around Armand and Helen's house.  He is captured.  He finds himself tied up in a room, where Gretchen and another child are unconscious on the floor.  Like all good villains, Armand, Helen, and Jane explain their whole plan. It seems Jane is a Dark Ghost.  And the other kid is a clone of Gretchen they've been raising to house Dieghan, a fellow Dark Ghost buddy of hers.

But, things go horribly wrong. A Black Eddy gets into Gretchen2 (I think).  There's some shooting and death and cops and Gretchen1 is apparently okay, reunited with her mom, while Gretchen2, now housing a Black Eddy, runs wild into the woods.  Finally the Black Eddy moves on to a mountain lion.

This tale actually has some solidly gripping moments, especially towards the end.  Unfortunately, its marred by confusing narrative - I was left unclear about relationships, locations, and what, exactly, had happened.  DeBill's writing is good but unspectacular, style-wise, but he could use an editor.

It seems that DeBill's goal has been to create a kind of alternate Cthulhu Mythos, with similar entities, trappings, and concepts, yet with different faces.  The "Dark Ghosts" and "Black Eddys" are obviously very close to the concept of the Great Race, and yet are not the Great Race as we know them.  And yet, he makes reference to their origin as being the planet Yith.  This makes things less clear.  Not a bad story at all, but flawed.