The hounds of Tindalos

"The Hounds of Tindalos" by Frank Belknap Long is a short story published in the late 1920s and is part of the genre of weird fiction. This eerie narrative explores the boundaries of time and reality through the experiences of a protagonist who witnesses the horrific consequences of a friend's reckless experiment with a mind-altering drug. The story delves into themes of time travel, the nature of consciousness, and the existence of otherworldly beings that lurk beyond human perception. The tale begins with a character named Chalmers, who believes he can transcend time and access knowledge of the past and future through the use of an ancient drug. After his drug-fueled journey into time, he encounters terrifying entities known as the Hounds of Tindalos, who are said to exist outside the conventional dimensions understood by humankind. As he becomes engrossed in this horrifying experience, Chalmers loses touch with reality and physically deteriorates, ultimately succumbing to madness. His friend, who attempts to help him, grapples with the dreadful visions Chalmers describes—beings that threaten to invade the world through angles, symbolizing a primordial evil. In a climax filled with dread, Chalmers' fate unfolds in a haunting conclusion, leaving readers to ponder the thin veil between knowledge and horror, and what lurks beyond the limits of human understanding. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Frank Belknap Long Jr. was an American writer of horror fiction, fantasy, science fiction, poetry, gothic romance, comic books, and non-fiction. Though his writing career spanned seven decades, he is best known for his horror and science fiction short stories, including contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos alongside his friend, H. P. Lovecraft. During his life, Long received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the First Fandom Hall of Fame Award (1977).