#macabre fiction

[allnightsong2]

The Dark Hunts

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4:23 p.m., Thursday the 27th of October.

Lynn, Massachusetts

They're on the bus with me now. It's not even full twilight yet, but they come out and move amongst the unknowing. I'm not prepared for this right now. I'm going to have to get off at Western and Summer and make a run for it. It's seven blocks up to Sacred Heart. Will they be willing to go into full hunt with so many witnesses still about? They're brazen true enough, but they know I'm marked with the Elder Sign.

I won't be a quick kill. Tonight or any night. And with the Sign inked on every limb and on my torso too they won't even get a decent meal out of me. Fuck them. All I have left is the ability to aggravate and I intend to employ that ability to its fullest.

.

1:18 a.m. Friday the 28th of October

The Combat Zone

The Lustdealers think to seal me in but I am invisible to them now. The sidewalks are crowded with uncaring hedonists. Disco throbs into the street's atmosphere from the strip clubs. Drug fueled patrons fuck their rented lovers in alleyways. I have no interests in the pleasures of the flesh and a poor translation of the De Vermis Mysteeriis and also the Libre Ivonis in my satchel.

I left my copy of the Cthäat Aquadingen with Lumley in Dunwich. He doesn't realize what it is because he's fixated on the false wisdom of Castaneda. He's had the same access as I to the stacks of the university library at Miskatonic. Why he chooses instead that cheap paperback fraudulent neo-shamanism is beyond me. He was with Whately and I in Innsmouth when we saw the Black Man.

I have the Mizrahi dagger. It can't save my life but it just might save my soul.

.

5:29 a.m. 28th of October

Dorchester, Massachusetts

I am hiding on the grounds of St Peter's. I need to get to Jamaica Hills but I've seen byakhee. I think there may be one on the rooftop of the housing authority across the street. I need to get this recording into the mail. Muriel, I pray to all the feeble saints that you're hearing this. They've already taken Woodhull and Ashcroft. Once they have me they'll certainly come looking for you.

I have seen the glowing red eye of that darkest star. It knows me now. Once they take me and DeSantos It will only be a matter of time until they seek you out as well. My darling, my love for you is true but I warned you about me. I told you that I wanted the truth of the ancient knowledges. Your linguistic skills would have been better focused on deciphering Hittite tablets and Toltec inscriptions.

I look up at the steeple. That finger pointing up towards an upstart god who can not contest with Elder Gods and Great Old Ones. I feel the truth circling around me. Jesus Christ himself cannot save me. Were he to have his second coming now it would not end well.

Curious note. They don't respect the hallowed grounds of cemeteries but seem hesitant to enter into churches. Is there something in the symbology within them that is drawn from a more ancient source?

.

3:11 p.m. 28th of October

Lawrence, Massachusetts

I am in O'Neill Park across from the public library. I wanted to take the bus to Arkham but They were there, stalking about the surrounding neighborhood. My only hope is to reach the professor in Portsmouth. He's read more of the Necronimicon than any sane man has managed. If there's any sort of hope for me, he will be the one to know.

I have to be aware of the sewers at all times. I've no doubt that ghouls infest them. Nyarlotothep commands them. Of that I'm certain. Just as he commands the cultists who no doubt know my photograph and lurk about every bus and train station. I know too that the old sewers were never properly filled in and darker secrets may rise through them to the light. For me danger lies in every direction.

.

4:44 a.m. 29th of October

Haverhill, Massachusetts

I'm in the Linwood cemetery near the crematorium. My time is running out. The Haverhill police are boughten. I overheard a radio in a patrol car. They know my name and description. The Merrimack River joins the sea not far east of my location. I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't half breeds here. No sane person would mate with a Deep One, but who in this world is truly sane? DuFresne's folkowers are everywhere. He read too deeply of the Pnakotic Manuscripts and his bastard sons spread their message across all of New England.

But then are we ourselves not mad? We saw Shub Niggurath ourselves in the woods near Tunkhannock. We didn't believe. We thought we were so wise and smart. We are in the age of science for fuck's sake. It's 1977! How can such things be?

.

5:12 p.m. 29th October.

North of Stratham

So close. So damn close! I had to take to back roads. The police are boughten, and this old Ford pickup truck was stolen. I'm not proud of that, but I had no choice. Just past Stratham Hill Park it has broken down. On Portsmouth Avenue even! As if to taunt me! There are houses near but I'd never make it to one. I see byakhee in the treetops and I'm certain nightgaunts stalk the wood.

No good can come of my situation, but I've known that I was doomed since that night in Tunkhannock. I don't know which will take me, or which would be the worse. Nyarlotothep might at least be quick. Shub Niggurath will not be. Especially if she lets her young have at me. My soul is damned in ways no priest ever dared imagine.

Muriel, you were the only one I truly loved. That is my greatest pain. That I can't get this recording to you. I have no way to warn you to flee; that all our incantations were flawed and therefor worthless. Ah, worse than worthless. We showed ourselves to those one should never desire to be seen by. When they are done with me they will come for you. I tried calling Wexley, hoping he might know where you were and how to warn you, but they've gotten him already as well.

They know just where I am. Horrible shadows are circling the car. Winged shapes swoop low. I'm going to stop recording. Write your name upon this tape and hide the recorder. In the glove box. I pray they don't have the intelligence to look there.

I love you Muriel. I'm sorry I didn't do better for us. You were my only good thing on this accursed earth.

Good bye.

[soleilcoucoupe]

"It's very hard to rebuild anything when you haven't yet severed the serpent's head."

Giorgio de Maria trans. Ramon Glazov, The Twenty Days of Turin

[noelcollection]

Edgar Allan Poe's works shed light on the darker side of life. Death, guilt, and revenge were common themes among his stories and poems. His life was marked by tragedies, such as the loss of his parents at a young age, the death of his young wife, and the failure to support himself through writing. He died mysteriously at the age of forty.

Images from: Tales of Edgar Allan Poe...with wood engravings by Fritz Eichenberg. New York: Random House, 1944.

[allnightsong2]

Lilitu's Daughter

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His uncle, meager fool that he was; a man stripped of all joy in life by church and crown, warned him that his soul was hellbound. As though the cost of following God's supposed gospels was worthy of dedication and devotion. His brother had been faithful. He had followed command of earl and bishop to embark on crusade. The king and crown princes, the earl and lord and bishop too, all had returned unscathed but unsuccessful, while his brother had died of illness aboard a ship before he ever saw a single infidel. The priest said it was God's will.

That was a thing he'd noticed about God's will. It never extracted too great a cost from the nobles and the wealthy. The church itself was richer than any kingdom, yet somehow the suffering poor must await death to find some relief or any kind of heaven.

He had his paradise and it was here and he entered its gates each night. If everything was God's will, then was this not the same? He knew they would say it was not, but only because he needed no church nor priest's blessing to find his heaven. If it was sin, then sinner he happily was, because his reward, his passion and pleasure and paradise, lay between Mirabella's thighs and only God his very self would ever stop his visiting there.

.

"Pieter, you can't continue!" His cousin said as they gathered hay on a crisp fall morning. Frost still lay under the hedgerows, a sign to hasten their gathering. "The tax collectors have seen you emerging from the valley wood!"

"Who believes them, Aster? They are known thieves!" He said as he cast bundles of fragrant hay into the cart they worked alongside. "They are owed dark deeds anyhow! They cast false accusations on the widow Katarina! We all know they did! And what did we do when the witchfinders came? Stood by and watched an innocent woman burn!"

"Only God can judge innocence or guilt!" His cousin said and looked around in alarm.

"Truly? Then how did the witchfinders judge her as worthy of the stake?" He said and spit against the light wind. His face felt no moisture and he grinned at this sign from fate. "If only God can pass judgement then why is there a royal court with high magistrates? What they really mean is that we lowly peasants are to suffer meekly with no word of protest ever! Accept punishment no matter how unjust and undeserved it may be!"

"Cousin, you consort with a witch! What? Why did you strike me?"

"Because you're being a dolt, cousin!" Pieter said and made as if to slap again but didn't. "The Heliaveille have been healers and nature wise for near as long as this village has stood! They were respected and valued for generations until this Reformation nonsense inflicted this arrogant and ignorant bishop upon us!"

You can't keep criticizing the holy ones, cousin! We are bound to the earl and if our lord accepts the words the church delivers, so must we!" Aster said and glanced around the misty meadow again. As though some spying beast might have crept near. "If you wish to risk being locked out of heaven please don't include me in your blasphemy!"

"Oh now you're as that? Any truth that challenges the lies of righteous hypicrites is blasphemy?" Pieter said and drove the tines of his hayfork into the ground. "Is it not convenient how the gospel changes to suit whatever designs are current? The true blasphemers are those who say God speaks to them!"

"Cousin! Please!"

"If God disapproves of what I do, then how can I do it? God is all knowing and all powerful? How can someone like I defy THAT?" Pieter said and tugged at his beard in frustration. His cousin had a good heart but feared drawing any attention, either good or bad. "Aster, there are scores of ways that God could stop me. Simplest would be to inflict me with unmanly softness. Or do you say now, as the prelate has proclaimed, that the devil can defy God to lead us into fleshly corruption?"

"I don't understand religion, Pieter..."

"If God cannot control the devil, then what hope have we? Any of us?"

"You're making excuses as to why you will continue to see her."

"I make no excuses for that. I need none." Pieter said and took hold of his hayfork again. "I go to her freely. Because I choose to. And until God tells me directly otherwise I'll see no wrong in it."

[allnightsong2]

Thorns In The Moonlight

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She was very much aware that things would not end well. From the very start. She wasn't practiced in the art of seduction but she was learned in the language of desire. The archbishop had looked at her with such naked longing that she had grown sinfully aroused right there in the cathedral. The hot slick flood from within as he administered the sacrament to her. His fingers brushing her lips, her tongue. His eyes upon hers.

All was lost in that instant.

The man should have known better. He most definitely should have known better. He must certainly have known she was devout from necessity. Everyone knew she was the most forbidden of fruit; the daughter of a witch tried, condemned and burnt at the stake. But an infant then, raised by the abbess, but still tainted she was.

Even as none knew her darkest of secrets. At but six years of age some instinct led her to the ancient oak beyond the salted fields that had been her mother's. There she found the strange stone; covered in moss and almost undetectable to a casual glance. She was eight when she finally divined how to move it. Beneath it was a chest wrapped in oilcloth. In that chest were all of her mother's notes on herblore. The knowledge that had helped so many but led her mother to her pyre.

She studied these with even more fervor than she applied to studying scripture. This too was God's word. These plants gifts to benefit men if they only accepted this fact and didn't fear it became such things were 'women's work'. Men had the convenient ability to lay their sin upon Satan or women, whichever served the purpose better.

She was not her mother. She would not be fooled by the feigned kindness of men and false forgiveness of their angry god. If God was a man, then He too must have come from woman. The true source of life, the Mother Goddess. She took her mother's knowledge and learned it better. She discerned which root or leaf or berry affected men moreso than women. It was simple to play upon men's pride and fear and insecurity.

Their rule and law and religion always resorted to violence. Sword and cock. That was the sum of most men and she never forgot that.

.

There was more than just myth in the woods. At fifteen she pretended to be seduced by a satyr she discovered who was already bewitched and frustrated by dryads. She took frostbane to ensure she didn't become pregnant and learned all about desire and delight. It was more than mere sex. By drinking deeply and often from its essence she gained knowledge of the deepest wood and darkest night.

It was power. To pleasure with one's mouth so well that it begged for her ministrations and moaned in surrender when she took it in. She knew she could do the same to any man. The Goddesa guided her unfailingly. She was a daughter true to her Mother and not men. Her acts honored the truth.

Men held no true power. They were nothing if not for women and she would teach that lesson to them.

.

She drove men mad and they never saw her real face. They saw what they wished to see because a stiff cock blinded the eyes. She took their seed to the Green Altar and gave it to messengers in the moonlight. These men became obsessed. Enthralled. But to whom and what they did not know. All they knew was need and a continuous desire that none could satisfy.

Her best lovers came from midnight shadows. Insatiable and indefatigable and she never questioned their provenance. The Mother only gave her what she needed. If the seed of these lovers were hotter and sweeter than any man's, it was no matter. Her Goddess was her guide and that's all she needed to know.

.

The archbishop was the first man she felt pure desire for. Handsome and regal, a stately countenance and noble bearing. A hawks nose separating piercing green eyes; full sensuous lips and a lustrous silver beard lining a strong jaw, he was fatherly but with a wicked intelligence in his gaze. She felt his desire at his first glance. He was reputed to be stern, well learned, and appropriately chaste as amy man of God should be.

After that mass he had asked for her to be the handmaiden at the priory. Because she was, more than any other in the village, in need of God's blessing by virtue of her lineage, she was thus assigned. And scarce had she entered his chambers before he made his attempt. She, however, did the unthinkable. She took control.

"Show me." She said and knelt like a penitent. "Let me see what I would taste and drink from."

"Oh by the sweetness you are bold." The man said but removed his robes swiftly. "You want this, yes?"

She did. He was lean and posessed of a wiry musculature. His manly chest was finely furred in silver and his manhood was thick and long and proudly erect. His bollocks had already drawn up, full and firm and ready. He stepped forward and guided himself to her parted lips and it began.

He was an exceptional lover. He did not hurry. He sought out her pleasure and drove her to gasping release over and over. He did what none had before done. He worshiped at her altar with lips and tongue even as it ran with his seed. He gazed into her eyes as he entered her. He moaned out her name as he flooded her with his copious essence.

She used no herb or balm on either of them and yet it was as glorious as any fuck any lover of shadow or glade had provided her. Afterwards he kissed her, gently stroking her cheek and calling her a blessing. He said she was beautiful, that all women were beautiful but yet she was even more so. In his eyes she saw gratitude and appreciation and affection and she knew she had made a mistake.

.

"This one will not be yours! No! By the name of my mother Giselle I call to the Goddess and forbid you touch him!"

"Child, you cannot change the course now." Diouranis the Dark said as he folded his wings and presented his engorged member. It rose in a deep purple curve from between furry haunches as cloven hooves shifted impatiently. "You were promised revenge. You were not promised a choice of who should deserve such revenge."

"I used no spell for this one!" She protested as the night air chilled her bare skin and made her nipples as hard as river pebbles. "No lore nor any knowledge led him to my bed!"

"Silly child! You yourself are the spell." Ganymaras the Night Hound growled as it's prodigious member emerged from its sheath. "Your cunny is the curse itself. You wanted payment made for your mother, you swore all men culpable. All you mark we take. That is the deal."

"No! You don't command me! I command you!" She said as Asmoedian Nightwind joined the others, already erect and reeking with the musk of lust. "You are all male! You are not sacred of the Mother! You do not demand of me!"

"Sacred?" Asmoedian laughed harshly. "There are none sacred here! Neither you nor us! And your Goddess? You think Lilith to be sacred? Foolish child! There is neither sacred or profane! Neither is there holy or unholy! There is only night and day! And you gave yourself to the night! Unlike your mother, who refuted and denied us, you welcomed us in. In all ways. Repeatedly."

"You will not touch him! No! Not him! I forbid it!"

"We made a deal." Diouranis said as he stroked his rigid member. "We keep our deals. Assiduously. You might say religiously. Now lie back and spread yourself. My need is great."

"No! No! Wait! Where is the Hound?"

"Off to keep our end of the deal." Asmoedian hissed as his great cock bobbed before him. "Now take this and fulfill your part."

"We are the only lovers you'll ever keep." Diouranis said and far too late for it to matter she finally saw clearly what she had done.

[allnightsong2]

Once Lovers (Snippet)

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Your ghost follows me. Yes I feel you and it's not fair. You chose that path. I begged you not to go down that road, but you never listened to me about anything. You said you loved me but you ignored my fears and my pain and that's why I don't cry anymore. I don't have the time or the inclination to shed tears that hold no meaning in them anyway.

I wonder if you ever visit your brother. His trial is coming up. He's headed to prison because that's what happens. I know why he stole your body from the morgue, but even he knows that there's no point in telling the truth. Of course he won't receive a proper trial because he won't face a jury of his peers. Where can they find twelve people whose sister has summoned the actual devil into this world?

. I think you will try to force me to join you. Because it isn't what you thought it would be, is it? Lucas showed you the proof but it wasn't proof to you, was it? Because it wasn't what you wanted, and it didn't fit your vision of yourself as a dark queen holding midnight court before fawning demons and the very princes of hell. You heard the screaming of the tormented, you saw the tattered phantasms drawn momentarily from their bondage, and all you saw was weakness. The foolish, the careless, the weak.

I loved you. Loved. I can't love you now and won't love you if we meet again. I was the one to be a fool. My heart blinded my eyes and drowned out my common sense. I thought your overconfidence was just a deliberate show of bravado. I thought your obsession with Nietzsche was only done to tweak the noses of Rose and Mirko. I thought you understood that the German was a mad troll who parroted, with little change, Machiavelli.

If I had seen how selfish you actually were, I would never have brought you the Celaeno Fragments. I would not have shown you the Samnite ritual stone. Will. That's what you said was the key. To possess superior will. To know yourself well enough was to clearly see your own superiority. Again, I thought you were being sardonic and sly, mocking the first year philosophy students who think they finally understand what no other ever has.

How did you do it? Forego common sense and deny reality as though doing so would actually negate it? How does one delude one's self to the point that you believe you can outwit an ageless evil? For ten thousand years and probably more people have tried to best it and claim power. All have failed, and you really thought you had something new? I know the atrocities, the foul cruelty with which you inflicted suffering. You hid it from me, but without my heart blocking my mind, I know. I know what you have done, but what, of all those things, do you believe was not done, and done to a more extreme level, in the past? Bathory, de Raiss, Carruthers, Cheng. Your efforts pale in comparison to their acts.

I admit that I was naive. I admit that my cock was the key to my subservience. I was addicted, yes. To your ministrations. To your caress and your skill. Well, and to be vulgar, but accurate, your pussy. Yes, your cunt was the altar on which copious amounts of my seed were offered up. You fucked fiercely and relentlessly. See how I get hard even now, just from the mention? Here now. I will expose it for your contemplation. See it? See how it throbs? But you can't touch it. It is warm, the skin soft as velvet. But you can't feel it. You feel nothing now. That's your reward. You feel nothing and will never feel anything again. Except envy.

Philli is dead, as I'm sure you know. The police shot him down, just as he hoped they would. He couldn't commit suicide. We know which gate that opens. I know it didn't matter. I know he was taken. You can't go as far as he did and return to grace. My own acts were done in ignorance and pale compare to his but I know salvation will never be allowed for me.

I feel you circling. You want my cock now, don't you? You might even truly want it now, and not simply to keep your hold over me. Wouldn't this feel good inside you? So hard, sliding in slowly, opening you, filling you. Thrusting in, slick with your juices, until the cream coats my shaft and your muscles contract. Your nipples as hard as marbles, the sweat running over your breasts. You see this but you will never feel any of it again. So smart. So clever. So commanding. But you liked fucking too. You came every time. This cock pumped my offering deep inside of you and you liked that. And gave it all up. Watch now what you can't have. Watch. Watch as I cum. See it? See it?

Ah. I hope it was good for you too. Now, let me clean up. There. Now, if you'll come with me, no pun or innuendo intended, it's time for my last walk. Your masters are so predictable. They are busy with Magdalena and Roderick and so I can do this. Where are we going, you wonder? You'll see. Yes you will. I won't ask you to forgive me for the petty act of self pleasure. I think you'll forget about that shortly anyway.

It's a drear night. So appropriate. Ah. Close now. So I'll tell you. Because you can't do anything about this. Two things, my former love. Firstly, I have done far more research than you ever did. All your efforts were focused on one goal. Myself, I knew that nothing that we were learning could be taken at face value. All you ever sought was power. While I spent as much time investigating protection and all the ways that things could go badly.

More importantly, you should know this. Now that we are at the gates. Yes. Exactly as you think. So know this. You were only the second best fuck of my life Your mother was the best. Yes. When you and I first met, she took me to her bed. Saying she could teach me how to properly please and service you. The lessons did not end though. Until the day you descended she and I fucked. I ended our trysts the day you died became I didn't want you to know until now. I loved you, yes, but not as much as you loved yourself. That was obvious. So I salved that pain in your mother's bed. You fucked me like you wanted to prove that you were the best and I couldn't do better. She fucked like together she and I could become a perfection in flesh.

You'll excuse me. I feel your rage. That is my last gift to yiu. To make you feel something one last time. Yes, you cannot follow me. Nor your masters either. This ground is consecrated. It is a meager place to slend eternity, but I will choose to be a shade lingering in this old cemetery before I will ever join you in your hell. If you look you will see the noose that awaits me. A friend that you never bothered to notice did me that favor. Couldn'td have you and yours anticipating my escape now, could I. I now choose mine as you chose yours, and so it ends.

Farewell. If you can.

[allnightsong2]

West Wind

"This is just stupid! If we were in the middle of nowhere, okay sure, I could understand having no service!" Liam stomped his foot like a petulant child. "But the fucking interstate is right over there! It can't be more than a mile away!"

She tried to decipher his reasoning. Yes the interstate was only a short distance away to the south, but they were in the Texas panhandle where even the grain elevators were derelict. She couldn't remember the last time they had passed a house that was clearly occupied. Did he think the asphalt of a federally maintained highway was some kind of impromptu cell tower?

"Isn't there some law or program that says they have to provide cell phone service to even rural areas?"

She didn't answer. She could point out that they'd still be on the interstate if he hadn't doggedly insisted on blindly following the GPS. He was getting on her nerves. Badly. That pouty little boy act of his was charming for exactly zero seconds. She glanced into the darkness. A dusty smelling breeze swirled in through the half open windows. It was getting chilly but you couldn't roll up power windows without power.

"I can't believe the car won't start. It really won't start?"

"No Liam. It won't start." If he asked her that one more time...

"You shouldn't have stopped."

"What?"

"Well, if it wasn't going to start again you shouldn't have stopped it."

"It stopped itself!" She snapped and gripped the steering wheel more tightly. "Why would you say that I stopped the car? Does this look like where I'd purposely stop? In the middle of the fucking road? Really?"

"But, well, yeah but..."

"The fucking car stalled! Goddamn it!" She tried to dial back her anger because it was going to be a long enough night already. "See, when it stalls then there's no power steering either and...fuck it. Never mind."

"Try OnStar again."

"There's no power. "

"Just try it. Try it!"

"There's no power! The battery is dead!" She snarled and repeatedly jammed her finger against the blue button. "NOTHING! Dead dead dead! There's no power to send out a signal!"

"This is ridiculous!" Liam said and his voice made her cringe. "We're surrounded by power!"

"What?"

"Yeah! Look, all that renewable energy! Those wind, uhm, thingies."

"Turbines?"

"Whatever. Can't like just one of those power like half a city?"

"Gee. Maybe we could push the car over to one and see if we could get a jump start from it."

"Would that work?"

She opened the door and stepped out into the night. She understood now why Caitlin loathed Liam. Her sister had warned her that she should be ready to be mother, babysitter and girlfriend all in one. Even now it was a sour truth to swallow. Cat being right yet again.

"My phone is down to eleven percent! It's plugged in! And it's still losing juice!"

Oh good God. He had to be trolling her. He couldn't be this obtuse and ignorant. No. No he couldn't. She would have noticed before now. Sure he could be a bit childish, and most of what he held out opinions upon tended to be regurgitated Reddit posts. Ugh. Just admitting that to herself made her wince.

"Jez? Uh, Jez?"

She had a feeling this trip was not going to go well. Or rather, it wasn't going to get any better even when they got moving again. The thought of spending a week in New Orleans with Liam was no longer exciting. Or even desirable.

"Jez? Jez?" She heard him open his door and get out. The thought of him joining her made her irritation swell larger. "Jez?"

"What?"

"Those wind, uh, those wind, uhm..."

"Turbines?"

"Yeah. Uh. Are there more of them then there were before?"

"Oh my fucking god! Don't be ridiculous! What, you think they're mating and making baby turbines?"

"Then I think they're getting closer."

"Jesus fucking Christ Liam!" She snarled and spun to face him. "Have you lost...your..."

Impossible.

No no.

Nope.

Each wind turbine was topped with a red aircraft warning light. All of the lights blinked in unison. During the course of turning she saw them blink twice. And the distance between lights had diminished. Not possible. No. It had to be an illusion. There was no horizon to guage distance or use as a reference point. Likewise the overcast sky masked the stars that could have given her eyes a framework to go by. She focused on just two lights. Blink. Darkness. Blink. Darkness. No. No no no.

"Jez, what's going on?"

Blink. Darkness. Blink. Oh God. Oh fuck. No mistake. The lights were growing closer together. And larger. Optical illusion. It had to be. Giant machines anchored into the ground did not move about of their own volition. The wind gusted over her. Oh lord. Was there a hint of oil and hot metal riding on it now? It had to be her imagination. Had to be.

"Jez what is happening here?"

She turned a very slow circle and wished she hadn't. Her last ridiculous hope, that these turbines were being pushed by the wind or migrating (Wind turbines were ubiquitous and yet she'd never seen one being erected. How did they get where they were?) was dashed. They were converging. On them.

"Oh shit. Jez, you hear that?

She did. A faint metallic groan and rumble. A rhythmic thump. Like footsteps. Was the ground beginning to vibrate? Her rational mind cast aside any notion that these massive machines would surely get in each other's way. Machines didn't walk but these did. Why should any other ordinary rule apply?

"Should we run?"

"To where? They're coming from every direction." They were lost, in the middle of nowhere, and whatever these things were, she was fairly certain they wouldn't let them just run past. "There must be hundreds. I don't think we could run fast enough or far enough."

"What do we do? What should we do?"

"I don't know." She said and then opened the car door and slid back into the driver's seat. "Guess I'll sit here."

"You think we'll be safe in the car?" Liam asked as he joined her inside the car. "You think we're safe in here?"

"No. I don't think so." She said and closed her eyes. "But I guess we'll find out."

[allnightsong2]

Tonight

I don't know what to tell you. They're upstairs, they're downstairs. Listen to me! Listen! We can't panic now, we can't! No, I don't know what to do yet, let me think let me think!

Alright. The wards at the entryway were broached first, then those for the door to the roof. Nothing has come up the eastern stairwell yet, and I don't think they'll come down them. They cannot use the west stairs, so they may be using the elevator. Damnit. We should have cut the power! Who would complain? Mrs.Kravchenko on second? Ziniewicz upstairs? Only one else around tonight is O'Reilly and he's surely passed out drunk. Too late too late. Stay focused. Have to stay focused, think clearly and quickly.

The doors and windows are sealed, yes? We had enough white heather, yes? You placed a sheela na gig on each windowsill as well? Okay. So the weakest points are covered. There are enough staurograms, elder signs and chi ro on the door to keep it strong. I worry most about the ceiling. The Pnakotic passages are not easy to properly inscribe on a level...

Hush! Shh shh shhh! You hear? The elevator! The elevator! I heard the bell! God god god! They must be in the hall! What? No! No! I am NOT going to look through the peephole! Are you mad? Are...look. Damn. Look. Shadow. In the hall. Look at the floor. Oh God. Oh God. It's them. It is. Oh. Oh no. Listen. Listen! They're sniffing! They're sniffing! Around the door around the door! There's more than one! There's more than one. They really...they really are here for us. I wonder how many there are in total? What? Next door? 509? You're certain? No, there's still at least two at the door. I don't know what they're doing. I don't...what? Oh of course. Keeping us from leaving.

We can't escape now. We should have killed ourselves before sundown. Death is no way out, not now. They won't let us die, won't let our souls escape. We either hold our ground or...you know as well as I what we promised. What's that? Oh. Of course there's nothing outside the window. No. I mean there is NOTHING outside the window. Yes the city is gone. Well, it's there but not in a there we can reach from here. I told you we couldn't run, not once it was dark. Yes I did! I did so! What did you think "if we stay here it's going to have to hold", what did you think that meant? Don't accuse me of obfuscation! I never...the wall.

Look at the wall.

What is happening to it? It can't...it can't...it can't be getting closer. That's impossible! That...oh fucking hell! Watch out! The bookcase it...it...the wall IS moving! The wall is moving! Are you alright? Did it hit you?What! What? Oh! Oh yes! Yes no no no. Okay. It's okay! The other wall is okay! Get my sack, the one with the powdered bone and dried nasturtium! It's in the armoire, on the bottom. Hurry! Hurry! Oh God. Yes here!

Hold the book hold the book hold the book! I think I know I think I know! Just the one, the right one the right one! What? No, why do you think I went in person to Miskatonic? Couldn't risk a mistake in transcription. What? No, if...if the Caleano Fragments were that easy to copy they wouldn't exactly be rare now would they? Alright. Fulminated mercury, gold, meteoric iron. Powdered blood of a...where is it? Oh yes. Alright. Watch the wall. What? Why? In case it begins to move faster or buckle! Have you gone completely dense? Aah! Keep that damn candle back! This mercury will explode!

Okay. As so. Now this. Yes. Exactly. And now here. And here. And...what's that? Oh my God. You're right. They're in the apartment above us! Oh good God yes! I hear the claws I hear the claws! Don't...don't! Do not rush me! Do not! We have exactly zero mistakes we'll be allowed at this point! If I go faster we'll just be dead faster. Or rather we'll be wishing we were dead.

My fault? Mine? Are you mad? Are you completely and irrevocably insane? You're going to go there now? I found the book, but YOU found the idol and we BOTH researched the rituals so don't you even...bastard! There's no time for this! Do not interrupt me again and YES I hear them tearing up the floorboards upstairs!

Okay. Okay okay okay. Sea salt...gotta get this get this just so and...yes okay. Good this is good. There yes! See! See! I've stopped the wall! I've stopped the wall! Now...what? Now? Now we need to reinfirce this protective circle before... no it's not ready, I mean it's ready but it's not ready! I don't think it's strong enough and I'd rather not discover that I'm right about that. Get inside just get in there. The chalk! Where's the chalk? What? It was...it was on the bookcase? Why...nevermind! Get over here and help me lift this. Oh this is heavy. Lift lift! I can't see it I don't see it! It must be under the books. Flip...over that way just get it out of the way! Damn it damn it damn it! Look faster! Look faster...look....oh. Oh. Yes that was the door. No, there's no point in trying. Too late to close the circle. Too late.

They are here.

And we are done.