The Shadow over Insmoth by H.P. Lovecraft.

Red by Mike Bennett.

Chapter 4.

I can hardly describe the mood in which I was left by this harrowing episode, an episode at once

mad and pitiful, grotesque and terrifying. The grocery boy had prepared me for it, yet the reality left me

nonetheless bewildered and disturbed. Pure, though the story was, old Zadok's insane earnestness and horror had communicated to me a mounting

unrest which joined with my earliest sense of loathing for the town and its blight of intangible shadow. Later I might sift the

tale and extract some nucleus of historic allegory. Just now I wish to put it out of my head. The hour had grown

perilously late. My watch, said 715, and the Arkham Bus left Town Square at 8, so I tried to give my thoughts as neutral and practical a cast as possible,

meanwhile walking rapidly through the deserted streets of gaping roofs and leaning houses towards the hotel where I had

checked my valise and would find my bus. Though the golden light of late afternoon gave the

ancient roofs and decrepit chimneys an air of

mystic loveliness and peace. I could not help glancing over my shoulder now and then.

I would surely be very glad to get out of melodorous and fear shadowed

Ensmith and wished there were some other vehicle than the bus driven by that sinister

looking fellow sergeant. Yet I did not hurry too precipitately, for there

were architectural details worth viewing at every silent corner, and I could easily, I calculated,

cover the necessary distance in a half hour.

Studying the Grocery Youth's map and seeking a route I had not traversed before,

I chose Marsh Street instead of State for my approach to

Town Square. Near the corner of Fall Street I began to see scattered groups of

furtive whisperers, and when I finally reached the square I saw that almost all the

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