"The Stocking" is a short story by British author Ramsey Campbell which is connected to the greater Cthulhu Mythos. It was first published in the anthology Tandem Horror 2 in 1968 by Tandem, and has also been translated into German.
Synopsis[]
The flirtatious relationship between office workers Tom and Shiela, who appear to be mutually attracted to each other, takes a dark turn when Tom traps Shiela in an abandoned building for which she has long harboured a deep-seated fear.
Mythos Connections[]
Despite containing no direct references to the works of H. P. Lovecraft or the greater Cthulhu Mythos, "The Stocking" is tied to the Cthulhu Mythos by the short story "The Franklyn Paragraphs", which features a fictionalised version of Ramsey Campbell as its narrator. In the story, when Campbell sends author Errol Undercliffe a manuscript of "The Stocking", he replies that he did not like it, labelling it as "elaborately pointless".
Publication History[]
- Tandem Horror 2 (1968)
- Demons by Daylight (1973, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1990, 2017)
- 100 Menacing Little Murder Stories (1998)
- Dämonen bei Tag (1998)
- Ramsey Campbell: Masters of the Weird Tale (2020)