The story Nemesis is featured in the short story collection [[Not A Speck Of Light (Book)]]. The book begins with this sentence: "Poe died of rabies, didn’t he? Died raving, at any rate." (Not A Speck Of Light, p. ) I instantly thought of the character Poe from [[The Glorification of Custer Poe]] and Chick Poe from the [[Antiquity]] tale [[Bitten By Himself]]. I think we can definitely call Chick Poe rabid, but I later realized this is probably just a reference to famous author [Edgar Allan Poe's death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Edgar_Allan_Poe). The story takes place in 2013. There's some mentions of the Northern Territories, Settlers Bay and Palmer, so we can place the events of the story mostly in [[Alaska]]. One of the story's main characters is named Larry. Other stories like [[Jōren Falls]] and [[Ardor]] also feature characters named Larry, but I don't think they're related. Larry lost one of his eyes and throughout the story tells different versions of how this came to be. His mother Gladys says he lost his left eye due to cancer when he was young, which is what happened to [[Laird Barron]] himself. The story briefly mentions a character named Reverend Custer. I'm not sure if or how they're related, but we do know a person named Custer Poe from the story The Glorification of Custer Poe. He's definitely no reverend, but the single sentence description we get of Reverend Custer sure sounds like Custer Poe: "The grizzled elder delighted in his slobbering and snarling role. He was a hell of a fellow, our right reverend." (Not A Speck Of Light, p. ) In this story, there's not a pet dog but a pet goldfish that got its name from Greek Mythology: Hercules. There's mention of an apocalyptic event known as The Whimper. Seeing as the title of the story is Nemesis, this might be the extinction event [caused by Planet X and its star Nemesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(hypothetical_star)). This phenomenon is also described in the story [[Girls Without Their Faces On]]. #Story #Speck