Fans of Aickman and Ligotti are sure to enjoy this strange and unsettling novella from Timothy G. Huguenin. Sink into what award-winning author Nick Roberts (The Exorcist's House) calls "a gelatinous pit of abject horror"-and see if you can pull yourself out.

Julian finds a summer job cleaning a mansion belonging to Mr V, an eccentric recluse obsessed with arcane knowledge. The man's grotesque, swollen appearance, caused by an unknown condition that keeps him bedridden, initially disturbs Julian. And those creepy terra cotta statues lurking in the shadows don't help to ease his nerves. But the rich old man wants to pay him more than he ever imagined...

While Julian struggles to understand his new employer's discursive monologues, a dreadful ache grows inside his chest. Where has this feeling come from? How is it that a statue's blank stare can cloud his mind? And what bizarre and horrifying secrets will he discover when Mr V's esoteric philosophies become manifest?