Dead of Night

"Dead of Night" is a Cthulhu Mythos short story by Lin Carter, featuring his occult investigator character Anton Zarnak. It was first published in 1988 in the magazine Crypt of Cthulhu.
==Synopsis==
A wealthy young woman named Teresa de Rivera consults Anton Zarnak, an occult detective based on River Street, New York. She asks Zarnak to help her uncle, Don Sebastian, formerly a strong and healthy man, who has become weak and prematurely aged by a debilitating fear of the dark.
Seven years before, Don Sebastian had opened up the tomb of a Mutsune shaman in a burial mound and found several artifacts, including a pectoral pendant made of obsidian. Following this incident, he started to avoid the darkness, sold all his lands and moved with Teresa to New York, where he keeps the lights on all night in his room (which is filled with lamps and flashlights), and fears every shadow and dark corner.
Consulting excerpts from the Book of Iod, Zarnak confirms his suspicions that the monster that Don Sebastian fears is in fact Zushakon, a subterranean creature that manifests only in darkness and is kept at bay by light.
On the next day, Zarnak visits the de Riveras, introduced by Teresa as an antiquarian interested in Don Sebastian's collection of relics. When shown the obsidian pendant, Zarnak recognizes the image of Zushakon and privately recalls that artifacts depicting the Great Old Ones can be used to summon these same beings. He copies down the symbols depicted in the pendant, and returns home to study them, finding them to be letters of the Aklo language. From the translation, he learns that the pendant was supposed to be kept in perpetual darkness, and that Zushakon will consume anyone who dares expose it to light.
Zarnak tries to call the de Riveras to warn them of the danger, but the house is temporarily out of reach. The radio announces that sudden electrical storms threaten to cause blackouts in certain parts of the city.
Zarnak takes a taxi and arrives there to find a desperate Don Sebastian filing his room with candles. A sudden icy wind blows out all the candles, and the presence of Zushakon is felt inside the room. Zarnak tries to keep the creature at bay with a five-pointed star-stone and utters an incantation to Cthugha to light the room with fire. When the power returns and the room is illuminated again, Zushakon retreats and vanishes. However, Zarnak and Teresa realize that Sebastian has died of fright.
==Characters==
*Dr. Anton Zarnak, an occult investigator.
*Ram Singh, Zarnak's loyal servant.
* Don Sebastian de Rivera, a wealthy man, formerly a rancher, with an interest in archaeological relics.
*Dona Teresa de Rivera, Don Sebastian's niece who seeks out Zarnak's help for her uncle.
*Carmelita, a maid who works for the de Riveras.
*Zushakon, a creature of darkness.
Category:Expanded Mythos Works
Category:Lin Carter works