The Haunter of the Dark

The Haunter of the Dark is a horror short story by American H. P. Lovecraft published in the December 1936 edition of Weird Tales. It is part of the Cthulhu Mythos and it was the last work that Lovecraft wrote in his lifetime.

In Providence there is a large abandoned church that catches the attention of Robert Blake, a young writer interested in the occult and horror. Robert observes this church from his lodging in the east of the city and begins to investigate the church. He discovers that there is a macabre story connected to the church and a cult called the Church of Starry Wisdom, by which the local people believe that the church is possessed by a primitive evil.

Blake decides to enter the church and begins to explore the interior. There he discovers the skeleton of a reporter who disappeared years before and a hinged metal box with an ancient artifact inside with which he can summon a terrible being from the depths of time and space.

Blake's discovery inadvertently invokes the evil being and Blake leaves the church knowing that he has caused some damage. What will happen to the city after the release of this evil being? "I see it-- coming here-- hell-wind-- titan-blur-- black wings-- Yog-Sothoth save me-- the three-lobed burning eye..."

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was legally published within the United States (or the United Nations Headquarters in New York subject to Section 7 of the United States Headquarters Agreement) before 1964, and copyright was not renewed.