The Night Ocean

The Night Ocean by R. H. Barlow with H. P. Lovecraft is a short story first published in The Californian vol. 4, no. 3 (Winter 1936).
Possibly able to be considered a prose poem rather than a conventional short story, this very short tale is about a man who spends most of a year at a small coastal town. A series of deaths occurs, disappearances of swimmers including those strong and skilled enough for such deaths to be most unlikely. During a mighty storm the unnamed narrator see humanoid but inhuman figures emerging on the deserted beach. After the storm, when the beach has been cleansed by the waves, he finds a decaying human hand and realises that the sea creatures, ghosts, sea ghouls or whatever they may be- are indeed destroying swimmers.
With a progressive melancholy the narrator watches the seasons pass until on the night of a preternatural full moon he sees the strange figures emerge again and is unsure if they are dogs, humans or diseased fish- but they are inhuman.
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The night ocean.jpg
Category:H. P. Lovecraft works
Category:R. H. Barlow works
Category:Lovecraft Circle Works