Study for The Witch House

"Study for The Witch House (2013)" is a short story by Caitlin R. Kiernan, part of their Dandridge Cycle. It first appeared in the September 2013 issue of Sirenia Digest (#92).
==Synopsis==
The story concerns the sale of a painting, called Study for "The Witch House," by the artist Albert Perrault. It depicts a "crooked, ramshackle house...clinging to the edge of a towering sea cliff," whose "gables and turrets seem...to claw at the sky." On the cliffs below the house, there's the suggestion of a "cave, half hidden in the violence of white-capped breakers and spray," with "something else, something not quite human, peering out."
The prospective buyer of the painting, Charlie O'Hara, argues about its authenticity with the gallery owner, and describes the history of the structure depicted: Located between Anchor Bay and Point Arenas, California, it was built in 1890 by Machen Dandridge, "supposedly some sort of wizard," who worshipped "obscure gods and goddesses of the ocean," like Poseidon, Dagon, Mother Hydra and Father Kraken. He died in 1917 or 1918, after being accused of having "murdered his family, sacrificed them one by one to his pantheon.” 
An article about the house appeared in the April 1957 issue of Argosy. In the 1960s, the house became a mecca for "hippies and occultist types," and a "cult...supposedly met there every Halloween." It was largely destroyed in a fire in 2003.
==Publication History==
The story was republished in Kiernan's collection Houses Under the Sea: Mythos Tales (Centipede Press, 2018).
Category:Caitlin R. Kiernan works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works
Category:The Dandridge Cycle