The Rats in the Walls

The Rats in the Walls is a story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. Narrated by the scion of the de la Poer family, who has moved from Massachusetts to his ancestral estate in England, known as Exham Priory, which had fallen into ruins. After moving in, on several occasions, the protagonist and his cats, specifically his favorite cat, hear the eponymous rats scurrying behind the walls. Upon investigating further, he finds that his family had maintained an underground city for centuries; and that previous generations of his family fed on human flesh.