The Thing on the Door-step

The narrator describes a shared love of shadows and marvels in Arkham, a town of sagging roofs and crumbling balustrades beside the darkly muttering Miskatonic. Young Derby’s collected nightmare lyrics cause a sensation in his eighteenth year under the title Azathoth and Other Horrors, as his unusual genius develops. Derby’s health improves, but over-careful parents foster childish dependence, so that he never travels alone, makes independent decisions, or assumes responsibilities.

Derby’s rising voice abruptly stops with an almost mechanical click, while the narrator remembers earlier occasions when confidences had suddenly ceased. The narrator recalls having half imagined that an obscure telepathic wave of Asenath’s mental force intervened to keep Derby silent during earlier interruptions. A caller wears an overcoat with rolled sleeves still covering the hands, a low hat and a concealing muffler, and presents a closely written paper on a long pencil.