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"She Sleeps in the Depths" is a short story by British author William Meikle.
Synopsis[]
Two people who are tormented by a song which constantly plays in their heads discover each other whilst looking for an answer to their condition. Travelling to the islands off the north-west coast of Scotland, they feel that the source of the singing is coming from the waters around the base of the monolithic Old Man of Hoy. As they disturb an ancient statuette sunken beneath the waves something ancient and terrible begins to awaken, but when they restore the idol to its place the creature calms and returns to its slumber.
In the aftermath the two decide that the only thing they can do to ease the burden of the song is to put as much distance as they can between themselves and it’s origin, and plan a trip to New Zealand.
Characters[]
- Fallon, a young man searching desperately for a solution to his unusual problem.
- Val Leyton, a woman who shares Fallon's condition.
Publication History[]
"She Sleeps in the Depths" was first published in the anthology DarkFuse #1 by DarkFuse in 2014. It was also included in the collections of Meikle's own works Into the Black: Tales of Lovecraftian Terror in 2019 and Into the Mist in 2020.
Behind the Mythos[]
Despite containing no explicit references to either the works of H. P. Lovecraft or the greater Cthulhu Mythos, Meikle's inclusion of the story in his collection Into the Black: Tales of Lovecraftian Terror shows his belief that it follows in the spirit of such works. Additionally, the premise of the creature the protagonists encounter, that of an ancient creature kept sleeping beneath the waves, is very much in the same vein as the Derlethian vision of the Cthulhu Mythos.