1. PROLOGUE: PROVIDENCE, WINTER 1934

“Cautious investigators will hesitate to challenge the common belief that Robert Blake was killed by lightning, or by some profound nervous shock derived from an electrical discharge. It is true that the window he faced was unbroken, but Nature has shown herself capable of many freakish performances. The expression on his face may easily have arisen from some obscure muscular source unrelated to anything he saw, while the entries in his diary are clearly the result of a fantastic imagination aroused by certain local superstitions and by certain old matters he had uncovered. As for the anomalous conditions at the deserted church on Federal Hill, the victim was a writer and painter wholly devoted to the field of myth, dream, terror, and superstition, and avid in his quest for scenes and effects of a bizarre, spectral sort.
Between these two schools of opinion the reader must judge for himself. The papers have given the tangible details from a skeptical angle, leaving for others the drawing of the picture as Robert Blake saw it – or thought he saw it. Now, studying the diary closely, let us summarize the dark chain of events from the expressed point of view of their chief actor. Providence, Winter, 1934.”
[The Haunter of the Dark by H.P. Lovecraft]


2. FEDERAL HILL

Lost in my art, by my passions I’m consumed
Shut away from the world outside
My home this lonely attic room

Outside my window, the great unknown
The streets etched with mystery and dreams unfulfilled
Sunset approaches and I train my eyes on that spectral unreachable plane
Called Federal Hill

For months the typewriter ribbon weaves
Nameless nightmares of horror and dread
My canvas holds the fresh dry paint
Of images both hellish and deep blood red

Over the rooftops and towers stands the steeple awash in deep black
Against the flaming orange sky
An obsession it’s drawing me in, the dark church whispers calling my name
On to Federal Hill

Gripped by a restless spirit, I stare out the window and through the looking glass
The forbidding church stirs my inner thoughts
From dawn to dusk, so the hours pass

Over the rooftops and towers stands the steeple awash in deep black
Against the flaming orange sky
An obsession it’s drawing me in, the dark church whispers calling my name
On to Federal Hill

Now the muse has left me and I long to be inspired
The secrets of the church upon the hill have sparked the fire
I resolve to climb the city streets to see the things unseen
And travel on this journey into the smoke wreathed world of dream

Over the rooftops and towers stands the steeple awash in deep black
Against the flaming orange sky
An obsession it’s drawing me in, the dark church whispers calling my name
On to Federal Hill


3. THE CALLING

Drifting crowds of strange dark face
Like windswept grains of sand
These shuffling feet, so out of place
In an undiscovered land
Out of time, the old facades
The buildings defy age
Shutting out the sun from view
Dark shadows have their way

Something unseen calls me...
(Something unseen)
Something unseen draws me on

The distant view I spied for months
No landmarks can I find
Like in a dream, but stranger still
Were they figments of my mind?

I ask a merchant about the church
Of Gothic stone, and tall dark spire
He makes the cross and turns away
My query draws his ire

In search of the great unknown
Obsession is calling me on, calling me on
Can illusion and dream be real?
The answer is calling me, calling me on

From harried walk, I stop apace
And check my watch for time
Two hours since the journey’s start
The dark steeple I can’t find

Through a maze of alleyways
And streets of cobblestone
A test of my endurance
To find the church of stone

In search of the great unknown
Obsession is calling me on, calling me on
Can illusion and dream be real?
The answer is calling me, calling me on

Something unseen calls me...
(Something unseen)
Something unseen

At last I see the tower
Here in this windswept open square
The vision become real
No more an illusion
I found the church
God heard my prayer!

In search of the great unknown
Obsession is calling me on, calling me on
When fiction becomes the truth
The answer is calling me, calling me on

In search of the great unknown
This yearning is calling me on
Yes, it’s calling me on
Can illusion and dream be real?
The answer is calling me, calling me on


4. THE CHURCH

[Chapter I: Dark Whispers]

Standing in its shadow, the old temple shows its age
Desolation and decay hang like a pall about the place

The vacant Gothic structure, by padlocked rusty gate confined
A touch of the dimly sinister, which I cannot define

Dark whispers, tales of superstition
From some unknown, vast gulf of night
What monstrous evil dwelt within and left its mark, shuttered from the light?
Legends are evoked, fear of something locked away behind the darkest door
Some things are better left to rest in peace, alone in the blackness forevermore

The square is oddly quiet, the church yard overgrown
A few people in the distance, I approach a constable
He speaks of priestly warnings, foul things of days gone past
And a cult that summoned evil, in dark days that didn’t last

Dark whispers, tales of superstition
From some unknown, vast gulf of night
What monstrous evil dwelt within and left its mark, shuttered from the light?

Legends are evoked, fear of something locked away behind the darkest door
Some things are better left to rest in peace, alone in the blackness forevermore

The dark sect took root within the church’s Gothic walls
Sometimes town folk would go missing, a mystery still unsolved
It took a valiant priest to exorcise the beast
Drive out the heretics, but some still believe the evil lies in wait...

Now I’m edging nearer to the church’s iron gate
Missing bars provide me entrance to the temple and my fate
My trespass is revealed by those who make the cross
They slowly back away, as if they know the cost
Amidst the rot and tangles I search for entryway
Doors locked, I walk the path around the stone blockade
A cellar window, passage to within the church’s walls
I struggle with my fear, but still I hear the call...

[Chapter II: Entry]

Into the dark, I let myself down to the concrete floor
Within the vast cellar of dense shadows, my courage I enforce
A black archway to the right leads to the upper floor
I climb the worn stone steps, the darkness I deplore

Strange as any imagining
As if my weird tales came to life
Strange feelings, eyes upon me
A malignant presence I can’t describe

I fumble without light, a blind man feeling with his hands
Stopped by a closed door in dark as black as night
Pushed open to a corridor, dimly lit my eyes do glance
The massive hall revealed, through stained glass rays of light

Strange as any imagining
As if my weird tales came to life
Strange feelings, eyes upon me
A malignant presence I can’t describe

Cobwebs dress the pews, the altar holds the dust of time
The cross of an unknown faith, adorned in filth and grime
Into a vestry room are shelves of mildewed, rotting books
Black, forbidden volumes of legend or unknown

Strange as any imagining
As if my weird tales came to life
Strange feelings, eyes upon me
A malignant presence I can’t describe

This place was once the seat of evil older than mankind
The manuscripts they prove it
The local rumors had not lied

Characters and symbols on the printed page
Occult, and long forgotten from the darkest age
I see the Book of Dzyan, the Necronomicon
Books of blackest magic, darkest echelon

Within a ruined desk I find a small black book
A record book of entries in ancient cryptograph

I recognize the symbols from days of study past
The small book I take with me, the code I must unmask

Am I the one to conquer the town’s pervasive fear
That left the church deserted for over sixty years?
Am I the only one to tread these hallowed halls
Since the start of rumor and dark cultists’ fall?

[Chapter III: The Ascent]

Through the dust and silken webs I trudge on
I will not be deterred to the front entrance
A door reveals stairs
It begins with just one step and leads to my ascent

Spiral motion, pull me up
Anticipation, push me on

Upward still proceeding, in winding, twisting steps
The windows show a city in miniature
Church tower lies above
I await with bated breath
It all seems so unreal

Spiral motion, pull me up
Anticipation, push me on

Just a few more steps
To end this epic quest
Just a few more steps
Just a few more steps

[Chapter IV: The Shining Trapezohedron]

At last I reach the summit – the tower has no chime
I see a stone pillar center lined
A strange box atop, from outside time and space
Within a shining crystal, black as hate

Entranced as if by magic, shining crystal holds my gaze
I see worlds of great stone towers, alien terrain

Around the pillar a rough circle, seven Gothic chairs
And cryptic carvings alien
Hieroglyphs of unknown origin
The peculiar rock, the power to transcend

Titan mountains, worlds of wonder, clouded by a haze
Stirring in vague blackness, struggling, hard to look away

[Chapter V: Spectres]

My eyes are pulled away, a skeleton in tattered suit of grey
A steeple as a tomb
How did he meet this doom?

He wears a reporter’s badge
Notebook of black, clutched in bone white hand

The past his pages illustrate
Mystery of the church’s darkest fate
Professor Enoch Bowen buys the church
Back from Egypt, so starts the curse

1848, ten have disappeared,
Stories of blood sacrifice are whispered on the air

Spectres from the past reduced to dust and ash
Within the church’s walls, unholy rites recalled
Message from the past, the conspiracy is vast
Within the crystal stone, into the great unknown

The priest warns of devil worship
And a box from Egypt’s ruins
It calls something from the darkness
And is banished by the light

Some claim the crystal shows them heaven
And the Haunter of the Dark tells secrets in some way
They call the Haunter forth from void of blackness
Only light can send it back from whence it came

1857, they call it up by crystal gaze
The cult of Starry Wisdom growing day by day

Some claim the crystal shows them heaven
And the Haunter of the Dark tells secrets in some way
They call the Haunter forth from void of blackness
Only light can send it back from whence it came

Spectres from the past reduced to dust and ash
Within the church’s walls, unholy rites recalled
Message from the past, the conspiracy is vast
Within the crystal stone, into the great unknown

Too many years of mystery disappearance
Opinion of the public finally sways
The time is right for justice, retribution
All that’s left are ghosts from those dark days

The crystal pulls me in again, entranced by far off worlds
Panic breaks the spell
Strange connection, somehow our beings are entwined
I feel it there behind me, the Haunter of the Dark

I slam the lid down on the shining crystal stone
I hear movement from above, I know I’m not alone
A monster in the steeple, I fear for my life
I run from the church and into the night
Back to the sane central streets of my home
Away from this nightmare, nevermore to Federal Hill


5. THE STRANGER THINGS I'VE LEARNED

Silence, without exception
Not one soul would I tell
Of the disastrous expedition to the church on Federal Hill
I lose myself in research at the library downtown
Through years of old newspaper files
For me the printed page recounts

Lost in daydreams of hide and seek
It’s looking through the crystal, staring back at me (staring back at me)
Lost in nightmares and elegies
Something claims my soul and I cannot break free (and I cannot break free)

Obsession with this cryptogram
I found within the leather volume
Amidst the dust and mildew
In the cobwebbed vestry room

The cipher I discover is not a simple one
A code in language strange, uncommon
A puzzle from beyond
In June I solve the quandary
Research in matters magic black
The text is in dark Aklo
A language ancient and abstract

I fear these things uncovered from behind the walls of sleep
I never thought ignorance was bliss, but now I’m in too deep

I see the birds of spring
Avoid the gaunt lone church’s spire
Whispers on the wind
The darkness closing in

Every evening, the old impulse
To gaze westward returns
The terror grows as the hours pass
From the stranger things I’ve learned

Lost in daydreams of hide and seek
It’s looking through the crystal, staring back at me (staring back at me)
Lost in nightmares and elegies
Something claims my soul and I cannot break free (I cannot break free)

Lost in daydreams (lost in daydreams) of hide and seek (hide and seek)
It’s looking through the crystal (crystal), staring back at me (staring back at me)
(I cannot break free)
Lost in nightmares (lost in nightmares) and elegies (and elegies)
Something claims my soul and I cannot break free (I cannot break free)
(I cannot break free!)

Every evening, the old impulse
To gaze westward returns
The terror grows as the hours pass
From the stranger things I’ve learned...


6. HAUNTER OF THE DARK

Discovery of the darkest kind
Outside our world of space and time
Down the rabbit hole I go
Things human minds should never know

Eyes now wide open
To see things unseen
Hide in the shadows
Try not to scream

Reference to a monster
The Haunter of the Dark
Gaze in shining crystal
Summons creature forth
The creature holds all knowledge
Demands blood sacrifice
From black gulf of chaos
The crystal stone invites

Eyes now wide open
Dark things of dream
No place to hide
From this evil fiend
Summoned, I called it
By a twist of fate
There in the church
For me it lies in wait

It lives among the shadows
In the dark of night
The Haunter seeks its refuge
From the rays of light
I fear the evening twilight
The sky awash in black
The Haunter stalks me like its prey
Ready to attack

From my attic window in fear I count the hours
I watch the orange sun set on the church’s spire
The street lights ablaze around my building guard
May they give protection from unholy fire...

The Shining Trapezohedron
A crystal window on all time and space
Created on dark Yuggoth
Long before the Old Ones came

Brought to earth many aeons ago
Passed through the centuries from tribe to tribe
Serpent men of Valusia to the humans of Lemuria
Crossing strange lands and stranger seas

The Shining Trapezohedron
A crystal window on all time and space
Created on dark Yuggoth
Long before the Old Ones came

Lost with Atlantis, then retrieved from the sea
Possessed by a Pharaoh, this evil seed
Asleep in the ruins, its temple confined
Then dug from the sand to again curse mankind

I read it in the papers
Fear grows on Federal Hill
The local superstitions
Intensify in build

Rumor, ghostly sounds
From the church unseen
Banish the spirits
That haunt townfolk’s dreams
They say something watches
At entry of church
It waits for night’s cover
To venture forth

It lives among the shadows
In the dark of night
The Haunter seeks its refuge
From the rays of light
I fear the evening twilight
The sky awash in black
The Haunter stalks me like its prey
Ready to attack

From my attic window, in fear I count the hours
I watch the orange sun set on the church’s spire
The street lights ablaze around my building guard
May they give protection from unholy fire...

I feel remorse – my actions set this thing free
Must capture the crystal and hide, where no man can see
Can I find the courage to banish the beast?
A morbid longing, to the crystal stone’s deceit


7. FEAR

The morning paper brings me dread
I can’t believe the things I read
Power outage on Federal Hill
Strange things afoot, my heart is still

Fear, spreading, growing strong
Panic, thriving, corresponds

Seduced by the great unknown
Some things should be left alone
I’m paralyzed by this fear of the dark
Black magic brings my doom
Curiosity consumed
I’m powerless against this fear of the dark

Thunder struck, took out the lights
Left the city in cloak of night
Creature came down from the tower
Streetlights shut down for an hour

Fear, spreading, growing strong
Panic, thriving, corresponds

Seduced by the great unknown
Some things should be left alone
I’m paralyzed by this fear of the dark
Black magic brings my doom
Curiosity consumed
I’m powerless against this fear of the dark

Set my fate when I set it free
It will never stop, now it comes for me
Face my fear, complete the task
One ray of light will send it back

In the dark hour, downpour of rain
Crowd with candles form a blockade
Around the church, together they pray
This guard of light keeps creature at bay
Shattering glass, back up to the tower
The Haunter retreats, lights return with the power
In darkness, the steeple again its domain
The Haunter it waits, to be free again

Still the worst was yet to come
Details reported in The Bulletin
Intrigued by the rumors, they explored the church
But nothing suspicious in their long search
The reports the same as what I’d seen
But proclaimed as hoax of charlatanry
Two things unwritten that cut to the bone
The body is missing, as is the stone

Something scratching at my brain,
The lurking horror in the spire
It shows me things insidious
From unknown realms of fire
Dire consequence, power lost
In a frantic state, I’m in too deep
Mounting tide of terrible dreams
Nervous apprehension, afraid to sleep

Fear, spreading, growing strong
Panic, thriving, corresponds

Seduced by the great unknown
Some things should be left alone
I’m paralyzed by this fear of the dark
Black magic brings my doom
Curiosity consumed
I’m powerless against this fear of the dark

Set my fate when I set it free
It will never stop, now it comes for me
Face my fear, complete the task
One ray of light will send it back

Fear, spreading, growing strong
Panic, thriving, corresponds


8. ALL THAT WE SEE

I hear it whisper, feel it tugging at my will
This connection that’s between us, getting stronger still
In bed I lie awake afraid to close my eyes
I tell myself it’s alright to believe the lies
I know that it is waiting, waiting in my dreams

Through strange worlds walking in my sleep
Visions vague and incomplete
Nightmare phantoms and cold sweat screams
Is all that we see or seem but a dream?

I awake in fright, sleep walking through the night
It draws me closer still, yet I struggle and I fight
I bind my arms and legs to the bed in which I lay
To keep myself from wandering or being led astray

Through strange worlds walking in my sleep
Visions vague and incomplete
Nightmare phantoms and cold sweat screams
Is all that we see or seem but a dream?

Haunted by this thing, it takes me to the brink
Of mental nervous break, how much can I take?
I make myself a prison of this attic room
I see the knighted moon outside my private tomb

Strange as any imagining
As if my weird tales came to life
Strange feelings, eyes upon me
A malignant presence I can’t describe

Strange as any imagining
As if my weird tales came to life
Strange feelings, eyes upon me
A malignant presence I can’t describe

My body not my own, dangling like a puppet on a string
Control lost to a monster, this wicked nightmare king
It brings me to the church in hazy mist of slumber deep
Prodding at my mind to find the secrets that I keep

I find the strength to run
I scurry down the spiral stairs
Away from church and steeple
And away from its dark lair
I awake on my own floor
With the rising morning sun
Bruised and beaten, my mind is numb

Pulling up memory, pushing back time
Remember my hopes before the decline
Live in the past, closing the door
Wish for bright days like they were before

Pulling up memory, pushing back time
Remember my hopes before the decline
Can’t hide in the past, the wolf’s at the door
No more bright days like they were before...


9. 2:12 AM

Midnight, August 8th, rain on the roof
Harbinger of the great storm to come
I feel it, I know it when I see the lightning strikes
I fear my time is short
This unholy connection growing stronger
I see what it sees, it knows where I am
...The lights must not go…

Thunder fills the sky tonight
City loses sleep
One AM a frantic call,
Lines are down complete
Pitch black outside my window
Lightning flashes city streets

2:12 AM the lights go out
Citywide is power lost
I see the things the Haunter sees
Townfolk below do counterplot
With candle, flashlights, crucifix
They hold the thing at bay
Rising wind blows out the flames
Sounds from the steeple stray

They say their prayers,
Defy the wind as they relight the flames
They call the priest to invoke the Almighty’s name

Lights out, hope lost, the darkness is rising
Frenzy, despair, the darkness is rising
Fear paralyzing, the darkness rising

2:35 sound swells in the black tower
Foul smell of evil emanates from the church
A loud splinter of wood and a crash in the church yard
High windows agape, it’s attempting to escape

Lights out, hope lost, the darkness is rising
Frenzy, despair, fear paralyzing
Possessed, God help me, the darkness is rising
Free will the cost, no use in fighting
Fear paralyzing, the darkness rising

Half numb, with awe I watch
My mind is not my own
Through eyes of a monster
Watching those below

Lights out, hope lost, the darkness is rising
Frenzy, despair, fear paralyzing
Possessed, God help me, the darkness is rising
Free will the cost, no use in fighting
Fear paralyzing, the darkness rising

Wind howls like the flapping of wings
Fire extinguished, all lost in blackest night
Chaos ensues, the crowd trembles in fright
Left in a world without the light
I sense it coming for me from the east
There is no escape from the beast
Like a formless cloud of smoke
The Haunter does approach...

Trapped within dark worlds of wonder, clouded in a haze
Entranced by blackest magic, Haunter has me in its gaze
Connection of the darkest order, controlled in every way
Stirring my subconscious, struggling, hard to look away

I write my final thoughts, like some frantic eulogy
I lose train of thought, I lose myself, like in a dream
Losing hold on reality, I slip into the fray
Must document the story’s end
The Haunter makes its way

False memory, I see things I never knew before
Other worlds, other dark galaxies, visions seen nevermore

The long, winging flight through the void
Cannot cross into the white light
Caught in the Shining Crystal
Thoughts forever lost in time

I’m Robert Harrison Blake
I am on this planet
Sense of distance gone
Far is near, near is far
Roderick Usher, am I going mad?
I am it and it is I must get out, unify the forces
It knows where I am

Sense transfigured, I see the tower in the dark
I see it coming for me
Hell-wind, titan blur, black wings, Yog-Sothoth, save me
From the three-lobed burning eye

Lights out, hope lost, the darkness is rising
Frenzy, despair, fear paralyzing
Possessed, God help me, the darkness is rising
Free will the cost, no use in fighting

A flash of lightning, all is lost, the Haunter in mid-flight
Electric surges through its form and surges through my mind
Light sends it back to its own world, trapped in darkness, blind
Terror filled, insanity, rigid body left behind


10. EPILOGUE: PROVIDENCE, SUMMER 1935

Providence, Summer, 1935. The next day’s papers mentioned the great lightning flash which followed the Federal Hill occurrence was most marked over College Hill, though no trace of its striking could afterward be found. A youth in the Tau Omega fraternity house thought he saw a grotesque and hideous mass of smoke in the air just as the preliminary flash burst. These points were discussed very carefully because of their probable connection with the death of Robert Blake.
Students in the Psi Delta house, whose upper rear windows looked into Blake’s study, noticed the blurred white face at the westward window on the morning of the 9th, and wondered what was wrong with the expression. When they saw the same face in the same position that evening, they rang the bell of the darkened flat, and finally had a policeman force the door.
The rigid body sat bolt upright at the desk by the window, with glassy, bulging eyes, and the marks of stark, convulsive fright on the twisted features. The coroner’s physician made an examination, and despite the unbroken window reported electrical shock as the cause of death. The hideous expression he deeming it a not improbable result of the profound shock as experienced by a person of such abnormal imagination. He deduced these latter qualities from the books, paintings, and manuscripts found in the apartment, and from the blindly scrawled entries in the diary on the desk.
These are the entries – or all that can be made of them:
Lights still out... must be five minutes now. Everything depends on lightning. Some influence seems beating through it. Rain and thunder and wind deafen. The thing is taking hold of my mind...”
[The Haunter of the Dark by H.P. Lovecraft]