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The Haunter of the Dark Synopsis
The Haunter of the Dark is a shorter tale than previous works that we've analyzed, therefore the synopsis is shorter as well.
The tale beings in Providence, Rhode Island, there the main character, Blake, has rented a room on College Hill which overlooks much of the city. Blake is an occultist in the sense that he is well read, and researches the occult in order to get inspiration for his writing. He has published several short stories as well as done paintings and sculptures.
One day, while gazing out his room at the Providence skyline, he notices an old church steeple that has been darkened with age and disuse. He finds it an interesting dichotomoty against the clean, white surrounding buildings.
He continues to study the church facade from a distabce, and soon finds himself staring at the steeple for a lot of time each day. Obsessed with this old church, he sets forth to find it.
He heads to the area of the city where th church is, and its a largely Italian section. He asks the people but they feign ignorance. He eventually crosses a street that allows him to glimpse the church and heads towards it.
The church is old and dilapidated. Some of the boards have come apart and the surrounding fence is disused. In a moment of impulse, Blake steals into the church and enters the basement.
He sees some odd things (the cross is odd, some glass stained windows are off, a few texts like The Necronomicon and whatnot, etc) and then goes upstairs to the steeple that he saw from his room. Instead of finding a bell, he discovered a podium in the center of the room with seven chairs arrayed around it.
On the podium is a box made of odd materials. He approaches the box and opens it, and inside is a Shining Trapezohedron, a oddly shaped stone of unknown origian that glistens and calls to one's soul teh longer one stares at it.
For a while, Blake stares at the stone until he feels soemthing staring back. Frightnened, he closes the box and takes it. He sees a skeleton in the corner underneath dust with a journal and reads the journal and finds it is the remains of a jounralist who was investigating the church thiry years prior. Something happened to the investigator and he was never heard from again.
Blake leaves and sensing another presence and heads back home. He does some research on the Shining Trapezohedron and discovers that it was unearthed in Nephren-Ka's pyramid. Nephren-Ka is the Black Pharaoh, one who investigated the dark side of man and such and therefore scoured the stars and skies for information about the Old Ones and how to contact them. His name was purged from all Egyptian records until his pyramid was discovered and his remains exhumed along with the Shining Trapezohedron.
This object supposedly began a cult called the Starry Wisdom. This church was supposedly their headquarters long ago. There were mysterious noises and such seen long ago.
Blake realizes that he called out a presence when he stared at the Shining Trapezohedron too long, so he searches for a way to fight it. Apparently, exposing it to light will kill it, and it moves in total darkness. He knows that it is still there, in the upper reaches of the steeple of the church, lurking and waiting.
Then, there is a short blackout. Deaths and noises are reported in the Italian section of the city and he night ends with dozens of Italians with candles and lanterns around the old chruch praying against the forces of evil.
Blake begins to panic, and research more and more. Then, another storm hits and another black out occurs. Blake is staidng at his window and he knows that the Haunter of the Dark will come for him to claim him. Lightning keeps flashing, which keeps the Haunter at bay. Then the lightning stops momentarialy.
The Italians and priest that are gathered outside the old church in another vigil see the steeple explode in the darkness (in the candles and lanterns), with shards flying everywhere. Then, a shreech is heard and the local fraternity in College Hill hears a loud sound and a massive Lightning Bolt rends the sky.
The following day Blake is found at his window, dead from, apparently, electrical shock but the window is unharmed. His notebook is found with his scrawlings after the power went out.
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