I sat still in my quiet room…insanity. What was insanity? Was I visiting something I should not have to begin with? I sat and thought about the tentacles, the words, the visions, and I still claimed sanity. It said I would not have it…yet.
The thing had a hold on me. Cthulhu. I have seen the other side, and yet, it has not driven me mad. I write of things that could frighten you, make you mad – is this my defense? I cannot show you what I was shown; because it would warp your senses, perhaps make you mad. I cannot do that to friends, or readers. And yet, if I was not mad, then it could not have been real.
I have seen the things in dreams that would drive a person, well mad. It has not done this to me, because I accepted these things long ago. My mind is stronger than it thinks, in that respect. Or is it? I thought about how weak I have been in the past, and yet, these were emotional weaknesses. Perhaps my mind was safeguarded in some way because of the frequent nightmares I have experienced most of my life.
I continued my studies most of the day, until night settled. I was drained, and I decided to go outside to smoke. I blew a plume into the air and eyed the suspicious garage door, seeing only shadows growing all along the building.
I thought about discontinuing my work altogether. The air felt tense, filled with a scent I had only known once before. I grew sweaty, though the air was cool, a mellow, breeze relaxing breeze clearing my head. Yes, I think it was time to move on to other areas of study; maybe my mind was getting the better of me, all this thought of things most likely fiction.
Most like it had all been dreams. That was it, all dreams. I have been up early, to bed late. When was I really getting my sleep? I smiled to myself, and decided to talk to my professor the next day. He was a reasonable man – he would probably pull me off the whole project and let the others finish it. I was not alone in this study, as there were nine others. We were not to compare notes, even in passing, as it was a study on the different ways people perceived the same information.
Yes, I would speak to him…
I dropped my cigarette into the receptacle, and was about to return inside when I saw something familiar move in the deepening shadow on the other side of the parking lot. My faint smile faded as fear struck me.
The spider-like legs, several of them reaching from a crack above a garage door.
I stayed my place, as I knew this could not be happening again. My mind was tempting me – everything else had been only dreams. It could not be real! Nonetheless, more of the spindly, jointed legs appeared, as they had before – when I had been dreaming, of course.
I boldly approached the long, squat building for a closer look. I came to within about ten feet of that particular garage door and watched, fascinated that the thing could squeeze through such thin cracks. The legs stretched out and shivered before drawing the rest of it out. I could now make out a body of sorts, an opaque membrane that pulsed as if breathing.
A distant echo caught my attention, and when I glanced to the left I saw the opening to the cavern. Something screeched from deep within, and more of the spider-like things appeared, crawling all around the cavern’s edges like ants; and they were abruptly flowing across the ground, a wave of the grotesque atrocities. I wanted to run, but as I turned, the things appeared from under garage doors, cars, and down the sides of the building. There was nowhere to run.
I saw Cthulhu at the cave’s entrance, its huge tentacles waving around a head with no face – only that round mouth lined with the jagged teeth. “You will be insane,” it said, the mouth dripping with a thick, clear drool. I felt the first of the spider legs touching my own.
I tried to run, but they overran my body, biting into my skin. I tripped and fell onto my back, smacking my head on the asphalt hard enough to nearly knock me unconscious. My vision cleared slightly as I felt a twitching set of the thin legs latch onto my head and face, and I looked up to see pincers covered with tiny prongs open and close repeatedly. I felt the horrid sensation over my entire body, crawling, squeezing, a thousand needles piercing. The skin on my face pinched and pulled – I screamed as I was dragged closer to the mouth of the cavern, and the aberrant things within that I had never seen, yet knew were there. The inexplicable that no man was ever meant to see, lest he risk madness.
You will, I promise, you will…
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