We fear discovery when we should fear what there is to discover. Lovecraft and his successors show a world where human civilisation is only a thin veneer over black seas of ignorance. A world where men exalted for their reason uncover logic-defying truths. A world where the marginalised discover uncaring horror on the fringes of a society that rejects them. A world where the bonds between us unravel. But what of those who wear their own averageness like a veneer? Neither drawn toward the horror by academic curiosity nor driven their by society, but unmoored by a mundane secret. A Spanish priest struggling with base desires plots to save a native child from brutal sacrifice. A veteran hiding the extent of his mental wounds discovers the true war on terror is very different. A delinquent's secret passion for stamp collecting draws him into a dark bargain. And nine more tales of overtly normal people coming adrift in an incomprehensible universe.