The Shadow over Inzmouth by H.P. Lovecraft.

Red by Mike Bennett.

Chapter 1.

During the winter of 1927 to 28 officials of the federal government made a strange and secret investigation of certain conditions in the ancient Massachusetts seaport of Insmuth. The public first learned of it in February

when a vast series of raids and arrests occurred, followed by the deliberate burning and dynamiting under suitable precautions of an enormous number of

crumbling, worm-eaten and supposedly empty houses along the abandoned waterfront. Unenquiring souls let this occurrence pass as one of the major

clashes in a spasmodic war on liquor. Keener news followers, however, wondered at the prodigious number of arrests, the abnormally large

force of men used in making them, and the secrecy surrounding the disposal of the prisoners.

No trials or even definite charges were reported,

nor were any of the captives seen thereafter in the regular jails of the nation.

There were vague statements about disease and concentration camps and later about dispersal

in various naval and military prisons, but nothing positive ever developed.

Insmuth itself was left almost depopulated, and it is even now only beginning to show signs of a sluggishly revived existence.

Complaints from many liberal organizations were met with long confidential discussions and representatives were taken on trips to certain camps and prisons.

As a result, these societies became surprisingly passive and reticent.

Newspaper men were harder to manage, but seemed largely to cooperate with the government in the end.

Only one paper, a tabloid, always discounted because of its wild policy, mentioned the deep diving

submarine that discharged torpedoes downward in the marine abyss just beyond Devil Reef. That item, gathered by chance in a haunt of sailors, seemed indeed rather far-fetched, since the low black reef lies a full mile and a half out from Insmuth

harbour.

People around the country and in the nearby towns muttered a great deal among themselves but said very little to the outer world.

They had talked about dying and half deserted Insmoth for nearly a century, and nothing

new could be wilder or more hideous than what they had whispered

...