The Secret in the Tomb

"The Secret in the Tomb" is a short story by American author Robert Bloch, a protege of H. P. Lovecraft. Bloch's first published Cthulhu Mythos story, it originally appeared in the May 1935 issue of Weird Tales. 
==Synopsis==
The last scion of a bloodline which have devoted themselves to the search for eternal life -- rumoured to be hidden in the mausoleum of the family's progenitor -- immerses himself in the evil lore of the Necronomicon, Book of Eibon, and Mysteries of the Worm, among others, in an effort to unlock the secret of the tomb.
When the narrator receives an unexpected psychic calling one day, he follows it to the tomb which had swallowed his predecessors without a trace. Upon entry, he discovers the family's first patriarch, buried many long years ago yet not dead. This creature has been feeding off its descendants one by one across the decades, in order to extend its own life.
Fortunately for the man, he is able to break the thing's hold over him and escapes the tomb, before having it razed to the ground and buried.
==Characters==
*Unnamed Narrator, last in a long line of practitioners of dark magic.
*Jeremy Strange, the undead progenitor of the family.
== Behind the Mythos ==
"The Secret in the Tomb" contains the first mentions of Ludvig Prinn and his Mysteries of the Worm, described here as a "pinnacle of literary madness".
==Publication History==
After its initial appearance in Weird Tales, "The Secret in the Tomb" was reprinted in Bloch's 1981 collection Mysteries of the Worm, and later appeared in The Second Cthulhu Mythos Megapack. It has been translated into French and German.
Category:Robert Bloch works
Category:Lovecraft Circle Works