𝓦𝐓 "Medusa's Coil" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop. It was first published in Weird Tales magazine in January 1939, two years after Lovecraft's death.
It was completed in 1930 but had been universally rejected for publication at that time, not due to its content (see below) but purely on quality of writing.
Unlikely to be reprinted[]
The story is a love triangle initially. Denis de Russy, the young heir of a plantation owner from Missouri, goes to finish his schooling in Europe, and returns with a new wife, Marceline Bedard. Frank Marsh, a local artist, who had used Marceline as an artist's model in Paris, meets her again in Missouri and falls in love with her.
Marceline claims to be the illegitimate descendant of nobility, as well as the high priestess of a cult of Tanit-Isis. It is suggested by Marceline that she is the avatar of this goddess.
At the climax of the story it is revealed that her serpentine black hair is some kind of eldritch creature able to move independently, and that Marceline was of mixed race, trying to "pass" in what was at the time a societal strata absolutely closed to non-whites.
Due to its casual, overt and relentless racism, this story is most unlikely to see reprint or adaptation by Chaosium.