_XXII_
THE DARK NEBULA
Years melted into the past, centuries, aeons. The light of theincandescent star, sank to a furious red.
It was later, that I saw the dark nebula--at first, an impalpablecloud, away to my right. It grew, steadily, to a clot of blackness inthe night. How long I watched, it is impossible to say; for time, as wecount it, was a thing of the past. It came closer, a shapelessmonstrosity of darkness--tremendous. It seemed to slip across the night,sleepily--a very hell-fog. Slowly, it slid nearer, and passed into thevoid, between me and the Central Suns. It was as though a curtain hadbeen drawn before my vision. A strange tremor of fear took me, and afresh sense of wonder.
The green twilight that had reigned for so many millions of years, hadnow given place to impenetrable gloom. Motionless, I peered about me. Acentury fled, and it seemed to me that I detected occasional dull glowsof red, passing me at intervals.
Earnestly, I gazed, and, presently, seemed to see circular masses, thatshowed muddily red, within the clouded blackness. They appeared to begrowing out of the nebulous murk. Awhile, and they became plainer to myaccustomed vision. I could see them, now, with a fair amount ofdistinctness--ruddy-tinged spheres, similar, in size, to the luminousglobes that I had seen, so long previously.
They floated past me, continually. Gradually, a peculiar uneasinessseized me. I became aware of a growing feeling of repugnance and dread.It was directed against those passing orbs, and seemed born of intuitiveknowledge, rather than of any real cause or reason.
Some of the passing globes were brighter than others; and, it was fromone of these, that a face looked, suddenly. A face, human in itsoutline; but so tortured with woe, that I stared, aghast. I had notthought there was such sorrow, as I saw there. I was conscious of anadded sense of pain, on perceiving that the eyes, which glared sowildly, were sightless. A while longer, I saw it; then it had passed on,into the surrounding gloom. After this, I saw others--all wearing thatlook of hopeless sorrow; and blind.
A long time went by, and I became aware that I was nearer to the orbs,than I had been. At this, I grew uneasy; though I was less in fear ofthose strange globules, than I had been, before seeing their sorrowfulinhabitants; for sympathy had tempered my fear.
Later, there was no doubt but that I was being carried closer to thered spheres, and, presently, I floated among them. In awhile, Iperceived one bearing down upon me. I was helpless to move from itspath. In a minute, it seemed, it was upon me, and I was submerged in adeep red mist. This cleared, and I stared, confusedly, across theimmense breadth of the Plain of Silence. It appeared just as I had firstseen it. I was moving forward, steadily, across its surface. Away ahead,shone the vast, blood-red ring [15] that lit the place. All around, wasspread the extraordinary desolation of stillness, that had so impressedme during my previous wanderings across its starkness.
Presently, I saw, rising up into the ruddy gloom, the distant peaks ofthe mighty amphitheatre of mountains, where, untold ages before, I hadbeen shown my first glimpse of the terrors that underlie many things;and where, vast and silent, watched by a thousand mute gods, stands thereplica of this house of mysteries--this house that I had seen swallowedup in that hell-fire, ere the earth had kissed the sun, and vanishedfor ever.
Though I could see the crests of the mountain-amphitheatre, yet it wasa great while before their lower portions became visible. Possibly, thiswas due to the strange, ruddy haze, that seemed to cling to the surfaceof the Plain. However, be this as it may, I saw them at last.
In a still further space of time, I had come so close to the mountains,that they appeared to overhang me. Presently, I saw the great rift, openbefore me, and I drifted into it; without volition on my part.
Later, I came out upon the breadth of the enormous arena. There, at anapparent distance of some five miles, stood the House, huge, monstrousand silent--lying in the very center of that stupendous amphitheatre. Sofar as I could see, it had not altered in any way; but looked as thoughit were only yesterday that I had seen it. Around, the grim, darkmountains frowned down upon me from their lofty silences.
Far to my right, away up among inaccessible peaks, loomed the enormousbulk of the great Beast-god. Higher, I saw the hideous form of the dreadgoddess, rising up through the red gloom, thousands of fathoms aboveme. To the left, I made out the monstrous Eyeless-Thing, grey andinscrutable. Further off, reclining on its lofty ledge, the lividGhoul-Shape showed--a splash of sinister color, among the darkmountains.
Slowly, I moved out across the great arena--floating. As I went, I madeout the dim forms of many of the other lurking Horrors that peopledthose supreme heights.
Gradually, I neared the House, and my thoughts flashed back across theabyss of years. I remembered the dread Specter of the Place. A shortwhile passed, and I saw that I was being wafted directly toward theenormous mass of that silent building.
About this time, I became aware, in an indifferent sort of way, of agrowing sense of numbness, that robbed me of the fear, which I shouldotherwise have felt, on approaching that awesome Pile. As it was, Iviewed it, calmly--much as a man views calamity through the haze of histobacco smoke.
In a little while, I had come so close to the House, as to be able todistinguish many of the details about it. The longer I looked, the morewas I confirmed in my long-ago impressions of its entire similitude tothis strange house. Save in its enormous size, I could findnothing unlike.
Suddenly, as I stared, a great feeling of amazement filled me. I hadcome opposite to that part, where the outer door, leading into thestudy, is situated. There, lying right across the threshold, lay a greatlength of coping stone, identical--save in size and color--with thepiece I had dislodged in my fight with the Pit-creatures.
I floated nearer, and my astonishment increased, as I noted that thedoor was broken partly from its hinges, precisely in the manner that mystudy door had been forced inward, by the assaults of the Swine-things.The sight started a train of thoughts, and I began to trace, dimly,that the attack on this house, might have a far deeper significance thanI had, hitherto, imagined. I remembered how, long ago, in the oldearth-days, I had half suspected that, in some unexplainable manner,this house, in which I live, was _en rapport_--to use a recognizedterm--with that other tremendous structure, away in the midst of thatincomparable Plain.
Now, however, it began to be borne upon me, that I had but vaguelyconceived what the realization of my suspicion meant. I began tounderstand, with a more than human clearness, that the attack I hadrepelled, was, in some extraordinary manner, connected with an attackupon that strange edifice.
With a curious inconsequence, my thoughts abruptly left the matter; todwell, wonderingly, upon the peculiar material, out of which the Housewas constructed. It was--as I have mentioned, earlier--of a deep, greencolor. Yet, now that I had come so close to it, I perceived that itfluctuated at times, though slightly--glowing and fading, much as do thefumes of phosphorus, when rubbed upon the hand, in the dark.
Presently, my attention was distracted from this, by coming to thegreat entrance. Here, for the first time, I was afraid; for, all in amoment, the huge doors swung back, and I drifted in between them,helplessly. Inside, all was blackness, impalpable. In an instant, I hadcrossed the threshold, and the great doors closed, silently, shutting mein that lightless place.
For a while, I seemed to hang, motionless; suspended amid the darkness.Then, I became conscious that I was moving again; where, I could nottell. Suddenly, far down beneath me, I seemed to hear a murmurous noiseof Swine-laughter. It sank away, and the succeeding silence appearedclogged with horror.
Then a door opened somewhere ahead; a white haze of light filteredthrough, and I floated slowly into a room, that seemed strangelyfamiliar. All at once, there came a bewildering, screaming noise, thatdeafened me. I saw a blurred vista of visions, flaming before my sight.My senses were dazed, through the space of an eternal moment. Then, mypower of seeing, came back to me. The dizzy, hazy feeling passed, and Isaw, clearl
y.
The House on the Borderland Page 23
