Heartwarming / The Shunned House

• The protagonist and his uncle, Elihu Whipple, explore an abandoned house linked to a series of mysterious deaths over time. A yellow fungus transforms Whipple into a rotting monster which takes on, in rapid succession, the forms of all the house's former inhabitants. Just before it dissolves completely, however, the monster appears to struggle with itself and then assumes Whipple's kindly appearance one last time. "I like to think," says the protagonist, "that he existed at that moment, and that he tried to bid me farewell."

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