Welcome back to Reading the Weird, in which we get girl cooties all over weird fiction, cosmic horror, and Lovecraftiana—from its historical roots through its most recent branches.
This week, we continue with Chapter 6 of Shirley Jackson’s
The Haunting of Hill House, first published in 1959. Spoilers ahead.
“Her eyes hurt with tears against the screaming blackness of the path and the shuddering whiteness of the trees, and she thought, with a clear intelligent picture of the words in her mind, burning, Now I am really afraid.”
On the morning after she holds a spectral hand in the dark, Eleanor sits on the steps of the summerhouse, Luke sprawled lazily beside her.