{"code":"monsters","title":"Horror Monsters","collection_type":"theme","subroute":"monsters","header_1":"Horrible Monsters","header_2":"Fangs, claws, vanishing victims and terrible rumours.","description":"Horror Fantasy - Fangs, Claws, vanishing victims and terrible rumours. Robert E. Howard, Guy de Maupassant, H. G. Wells and more.","has_text":true,"quote":{"quote":"“This thing is a mystery beyond my lore; but never, in all the practice of my art, has any shadow come to me unbidden.” * The Double Shadow","code":"the-double-shadow"},"image":true,"image_alt":"A pencil sketch of a cloaked person with two shadows heading of left and right.","image_filter":"contrast(8.5)","image_title":"The Double Shadow - Sketch","image_code":"the-double-shadow","stories":[{"story":"the-double-shadow","description":"In *The Double Shadow*, Clark Ashton Smith unrepentantly commits to his gothic tone. In this story, A master and apprentice of the occult acquire a tablet with inscriptions that not even the master in all his infamous wisdom can decipher. Emboldened by the mystery, the master endeavours to reveal the ancient secrets within whatever it may unleash."},{"story":"the-terror-of-blue-john-gap","description":"Arthur Conan Doyle would appreciate you reading one of his non-Holmes stories, in which he took greater pride. And you will appreciate it too, as it is expertly written. Dr. James Hardcastle hears rumour that something lurking within an opening to an old mine is responsible for sheep going missing on moonless nights. He can’t help himself from investigating within the tunnel. A thrilling adventure awaits him."},{"story":"the-colour-out-of-space","description":"While there hasn’t been any acknowledgement from anyone formally involved, elements of hit T.V. show Stranger Things are heavily influenced by *The Colour Out of Space*. In this story which is one of Lovecraft’s longer horrors, a meteorite crashes into a small, country town in a burst of light. Scientists come to the town to take samples of the rock, and soon discover peculiar qualities including an indescribable emitted light and a perpetual heat."},{"story":"the-sea-raiders","description":"In H. G. Wells’ dramatic tale *The Sea Raiders*, nothing can explain the decline of fish, disappearance of boats, and several dead whales washing onshore the English town of Sidmouth. That is, not until the retired Filon spots dozens of small animals on the shore during one of his walks."},{"story":"the-gorgon","description":"A strange, old man appears and offers an enthusiast of the horrible and deadly the chance to gaze upon the head of Medusa herself."},{"story":"the-hound","description":"The protagonists of horror stories are often sinners of a kind, with the horrible antagonistic representing some kind of primitive karma. *The Hound* is a prime example of this theme, following two graverobbers chased by a panting and growling monstrosity after messing with the wrong grave. It is a straightforward idea, but is fantastically executed by the fantastical Lovecraft."},{"story":"skulls-in-the-stars","description":""},{"story":"dagon","description":"A WWII POW escapes a German ship and grounds himself ashore a murky, uncharted island. The slithering abomination that he finds there spawned a number of monsters in literature less than only Cthulhu himself."},{"story":"the-horla","description":"A man writes in his diary of an affliction that keeps him in a permanent panic. He begins to worry it is an unseen, living entity trying to control him. The entity, knows as *The Horla*, becomes more and more real each day."},{"story":"the-outsider"}]}