Notebook Found in a Deserted House

"Notebook Found in a Deserted House" is a short Cthulhu Mythos story by the late American author and H. P. Lovecraft protégé, Robert Bloch.
==Synopsis==
As might be gleaned from the title, the story is presented in the format of an account recovered from an abandoned residence, this one located deep within a forest surrounded by dark legends.
After orphaned Willie goes to stay with his aunt and uncle on their remote farm, strange events deep in the woods begin to haunt him. When his adoptive parents, along with all of their cattle, disappear over the course of a few nights, he tries to walk to the nearest town but encounters a man claiming to be a cousin come for a visit. Willie is suspicious however, and attempts to escape with the mailman on his buggy, but the two are ambushed by a "Shoggoth" and the mailman presumably killed. 
Running off into the forest, Willie stumbles across a sacrificial altar and witnesses a cult murdering his aunt and uncle, and he flees, eventually finding himself back at the deserted homestead.
The story concludes with the boy writing down his account, and the cultists bursting in through the front door.
==Characters==
*Willie, a 12-year-old boy who has lost his parents.
*"Cousin Osborne", a man masquerading as family, in actuality a cultist of Shub-Niggurath.
*Cap Pritchett, the local mailman.
*Aunt Lucy, Willie's adoptive mother.
*Uncle Fred, Willie's adoptive father.
==Publication History==
"Notebook Found in a Deserted House" was first published in the May 1951 edition of pulp magazine Weird Tales. It has since been reprinted many times, and has been translated into French and Finnish.
==Trivia==
*The story features the first appearance of the creatures which would later become known as the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, but are here referred to as Shoggoths, despite possessing little resemblance to Lovecraft's creations other than a degree of amorphousness.
*"Cousin Osborne" claims to have come from both Arkham and Kingsport, one of the mistakes he makes which rouses Willie's suspicions.
*Despite being told in the form of a discovered written account, "Notebook Found in a Deserted House" could be considered an early example of the "found-footage" genre of horror.
Category:Robert Bloch works
Category:Lovecraft Circle Works