The Abominations Of Nephren-Ka & Three More Tales Of The Cthulhu Mythos

by McLaughlin, Mark

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  Later that night, Masters fried some chicken and made himself a salad. He wondered if Toadface would give him any trouble. Would the flabby freak suddenly show up at his office?

  Masters worried about visiting the coffeehouse again. He’d never seen Toadface before, but perhaps the weirdo would start hanging out there, ready to make trouble.

  He decided the best thing to do would be to start visiting a new coffeehouse for a little while. Surely another place would be able to make him a sugar-free caramel mocha latte. How hard could it be?

  Later, with bedtime drawing near, he made sure all the doors and windows of his rented house were locked. After all, anybody who knew his name could look up his address in the phone book. As he double-checked the last window, which happened to be in the kitchen, he looked out to admire the ocean.

  He was relatively new to Innsmouth. He’d moved to the city for the job a year ago, and he rather liked this quaint seaport community. His new place was on a hill with a nice view of the Atlantic from the rooms on the east side.

  As he looked down at the rolling waters, he noticed a couple walking on the moonlit beach. The fact that they were down there at eleven-thirty didn’t surprise him. People always seemed to be walking down there, no matter what the hour.

  Did Toadface ever walk the beach? As he thought about it, it occurred to him that he’d noticed other funny-looking folks around town. Some of them even had that same bulgy-eyed, puffy face – though most were not as extreme as Toadface’s. Maybe it was some sort of disease or hereditary condition.

  He went to bed and drifted off to sleep. He dreamed about following a cat through the mall – for some reason it was very important for him to catch that cat. Then the cat was gone, and he found himself speeding through murky ocean depths, teeming with purple and black eels.

  He ended up in the corner of an underwater coffeehouse, where instead of mugs filled with java, the bulbous-eyed clerks gave their customers large shells filled with squirming chunks of freshly minced sea-worms. And really, the business wasn’t set in a house – it was in a cave, lit by ropy growths of luminous seaweed festooned upon the walls.

  Everyone there was humanoid, and that was the most normal adjective anyone could apply to them. They were all naked, and covered with a variety of aquatic adornments – warts, gills, fleshy fringes, even tentacles. Some had hair, but most were bald, and a few heads were topped with finlike crests.

  From out of a side corridor drifted Toadface, grinning hugely. He too was naked, revealing flapping gills in his armpits. The space between his legs held a bizarre cluster of pulsing, elongated lumps.

  “Okay,” Masters said. “I’m ready to wake up. I’m willing myself to wake up right now. Right now. Right now. So how come I’m not waking up?” His words sounded impossibly clear – but then, this was a dream, wasn’t it?

  Toadface laughed. “You’ll never wake up. Your soul is down in Innsmouth’s most prestigious suburb. Lucky you!” The creature’s mouth didn’t move as he talked. The words seemed to be sounding in Master’s mind.

  “What are you telling me?” Masters said.

  “I’m telling you that this is no dream.” Toadface drifted closer. “The body loosens its grip on the soul during sleep. It was quite easy for me to draw your soul down to our lovely little grotto. It is a special talent of mine.” His bulging eyes grew even wider with insane glee. “And you shall remain forever in this sunken realm, where the Silent Ones rest in eternal slumber.”

  “Hell, no!” Masters said. “I’m not staying down here! I’ll just go back into my body.”

  “Not likely!” Toadface cried. “Your body is dead now. It has no soul. You are a ghost, a phantom, a spectre! I shall go and eat that delightful high-protein body of yours. I’ve decided to try out your diet.” The creature winked at him. “How do you like this little adventure? Much more exciting than any movie. Of course, you made up that whole movie excuse, didn’t you?” He waggled his fingers at Masters. “Time to go – dinner time!” Cackling uproariously, he turned and drifted down another corridor.

  “Wait!” Masters shouted. Suddenly an eel swam near him, and he raised his hand to shield his face. He screamed with shock when he saw that his hand was composed of shimmering blue motes. He looked down – his body was now a man-shaped cluster of tiny lights.

  He suddenly realized that Toadface was getting away. He flung himself forward through the water, and found that he could move quite fast. He zipped down the corridor and saw the flabby weirdo a short distance ahead of him. He followed him out onto the ocean floor. “Get your fat toad-ass back here!” he cried. “You think you can just drag me to this underwater freak show, laugh in my face, tell me you’re going to eat my body, and then just leave me stranded at the bottom of the sea? Is that the deal, Toadface?”

  The bug-eyed man stared back over his plump shoulder. “Don’t call me that! Go away! I don’t want you following me!”

  “Oh, that’s rich!” Masters said. “So now I’m bothering you? You sure didn’t think this thing through!” He surged forward and leaped onto Toadface. But as soon as he touched the freak’s skin, a curious sensation rippled through him. It felt like a sort of cold tingle – and it seemed to convey a message. It was like jiggling the handle of a locked restroom door: the message clearly indicated that the space in question was OCCUPIED.

  “Give it up!” Toadface crowed. “I’m awake, so you can’t get into me!” He flapped his arms and swam away.

  “Oh, is that the deal?” Master said, right behind him. “So I can get into somebody who’s sleeping, right? You really are stupid, Toadface – you told me too much!”

  “Maybe I did – but I’m still going to eat your body! And it’s dead, so even if you follow me to it, you can’t get back in!”

  “Then I’ll haunt you forever, you ugly bastard!” He continued to pursue Toadface, past slime-covered rocks and huge, pinkish-gray stone pillars etched with images of fish-headed people with tentacles for arms.

  “Hey, what is this place?” Masters said.

  Toadface didn’t say anything, but he turned his head to shoot a frantic glance to the left. Masters followed his gaze, and saw that the freak had looked toward a ruined building made from pillars and cracked slabs of that pinkish-gray stone. It looked like some sort of temple from an old gladiator movie. Except the temples in those movies weren’t covered with carvings of fish-people.

  Then he remembered Toadface’s words from that bizarre underwater coffeehouse: this sunken realm where the Silent Ones rest in eternal slumber.

  He turned to the left and rushed toward the temple.

  “Where are you going?” Toadface screamed. “Get away from there!”

  “Not a chance!” Masters said. He entered the seaweed-shrouded maw that was the temple’s entrance. He rushed through the curving halls of a strange stone maze, and was surprised to find that he could tell where he was going, even though he had to be in utter darkness. Apparently this new form of his didn’t need light to see. It seemed to sense the contours of the world around him.

  And he was able to sense something else: some being was indeed sleeping in this deep-sea maze. If what Toadface had said was correct, he could slip into a sleeping body. There might be someone or something else in that body, but so what? He wouldn’t bother waking it up.

  Toadface had said these Silent Ones were slumbering for eternity. Maybe he’d be able to borrow one of their bodies. It would be like driving a car with the owner sleeping in the backseat.

  Suddenly he heard Toadface, not too far behind him. “You don’t know what you’re doing! Get out of here now! I’ll find you a different body, I promise!”

  Masters laughed. “Oh, yeah – like I’m going to make a deal with you!” He rounded a corner and suddenly found himself within a large chamber with a high vaulted ceiling. In the center of the chamber stood an enormous altar, upon which rested –

  Hell, what were those things? There were three
of them, each about eighty feet long, with flat-topped, snakelike heads, fishy faces, blubbery lips, lacy gills, bloated bodies, sinewy tentacles for arms, and legs like those of a giant iguana on super-steroids.

  Masters felt dizzy with an emotion that was hard to place. Exhilaration? Horror? A little of both? He used to think his old human body was too fat and unattractive. Now he was about to climb into something definitely worse – and yet infinitely better, because it was clearly powerful and quite alive. He could feel the life-force pulsing forth from it, like heatwaves from a glorious summer sun.

  He looked over the selection of bodies, picked the biggest one, and slipped in with a tingle of delight.

  Almost instantly he could sense the presence of another soul – the body’s true inhabitant. But that soul was asleep, and as he studied that strange, cold entity, gently prodding it, he realized that it was lost in dreams, embedded in some sort of cosmic coma, far deeper than any ocean.

  “Get out of there!” Toadface shouted. “That is the hallowed body of G’hlaballa – you are perpetrating an unforgivable blasphemy!”

  Masters willed the tentacles of his new body to move – he pictured them rising from the slab, swirling and flexing.

  And they did. Some force or spell was compelling the body’s true soul to sleep, but apparently that power only held sway over the soul – not the body. The driver was indeed asleep in the backseat. But the motor was still running.

  He wrapped one of the tentacles tightly around Toadface.

  “No! Stop!” the flabby pest squealed. “What are you going to do?”

  Masters rose off of the slab. He battered at the wall with his free tentacle, pounding until he’d created a hole large enough to serve as an exit. He stepped out of the temple and began to walk across the ocean floor.

  He walked aimlessly, carrying Toadface like a child toting a filthy old doll. He lost track of time as he admired the beautiful plants and interesting creatures of this strange realm. He felt remarkably at peace now that he had such a strong body. There was nothing in the world that could hurt him.

  Eventually he found himself near the shore. He could discern the full moon through the water. He surfaced and saw that he was near an empty stretch of beach.

  He looked at Toadface. The soggy, ugly thing wasn’t moving. The little man still had a heartbeat, though, so he was simply unconscious. Perhaps Masters had been squeezing too tightly.

  He thought about what to do with Toadface. The vicious freak had some kind of strange power over souls, and knew how to separate them from the flesh.

  Masters could easily kill Toadface, but he didn’t want that rotten bastard’s soul to part from its corpse and start following him around like a rabid puppy.

  He looked around and saw, in the distance, the lights of Innsmouth. He knew of a location on the outskirts of the city where he’d find the answer to his problem. He began walking.

  Thirty minutes later, he stood at the edge of a warehouse construction site. He stuck Toadface’s body into the thick, wet concrete of the building’s foundation. He pushed the flabby form down deep, until it could go no further.

  And there he left it – body and soul.

  Suddenly he felt extremely hungry.

  From where he stood, he could see both Innsmouth and the open sea. Both contained plenty of protein. But what sort of meat did he want?

  Finally he began to trek back toward the sea. He didn’t want to bother with little bites. That would only frustrate him. He needed real food and plenty of it. He felt utterly starved. Ravenous.

  Hungry enough to eat a whale.

  The Abominations Of Nephren-Ka

  By Mark McLaughlin & Michael Sheehan, Jr.

  “Of the Shining Trapezohedron he speaks often, calling it a window on all time and space, and tracing its history from the days it was fashioned on dark Yuggoth, before ever the Old Ones brought it to earth. It was treasured and placed in its curious box by the crinoid things of Antarctica, salvaged from their ruins by the serpent-men of Valusia, and peered at aeons later in Lemuria by the first human beings. It crossed strange lands and stranger seas, and sank with Atlantis before a Minoan fisher meshed it in his net and sold it to swarthy merchants from nighted Khem. The Pharaoh Nephren-Ka built around it a temple with a windowless crypt, and did that which caused his name to be stricken from all monuments and records. Then it slept in the ruins of that evil fane which the priests and the new Pharaoh destroyed, till the delver’s spade once more brought it forth to curse mankind.”

  – from “The Haunter of the Dark” by H.P. Lovecraft

  Millennia ago, when the deities of Egypt were feared and revered in equal measure, there lived a wise-woman named Pash. She was tall and graceful, with flowing gray hair and enchanting green eyes. It was said she had been given the gift of prophecy by Horus, who lovingly granted her insights into the future, as well as the ways of the gods.

  Pash lived in a simple hut outside of the City of Horus and once, in the marketplace, she proclaimed that her child would one day protect the people from the darkness between the stars. This grand statement confused the people of the city, for the wise-woman had no children. She had no man in her life and was old beyond the years of childbearing.

  Pash went on to say that someday, her son would battle dark forces of great power. “He will perish in the fight,” she said, “but before he does, he will cry out three times for his father, God of the Sun, asking Him to bring forth the undying fire of salvation.”

  “The fire of salvation!” cried one of the many merchants, a seller of dried herbs. “How can fire bring anyone salvation? And when will we see this miraculous child, old woman?”

  Pash did not acknowledge the merchant’s words. Instead, she turned her face to the sun and opened her arms wide. A loving smile crossed her lips as she burst into flame.

  The people of the marketplace cried out in horror as she collapsed to the ground like a tree that had been struck by lightning. Her body burned and burned until all that remained was a smoking husk. When at last the smoke faded away, her seared carcass broke open and a child, a baby boy with golden skin and hair, crawled forth.

  The dark-haired people of the city had never seen such a child before, but they knew that Pash was favored by the god Horus. So the boy was taken to the temple of the Brotherhood of Horus, a cult of priests revered by many cities along the Nile. The good priests often consulted with Pash, and so they happily accepted her astounding child into their society. They named the child Mnekh, after a beloved member of the Brotherhood who had passed away many years earlier.

  The boy was raised by the Brotherhood and because of his great intelligence and considerable skills in the arcane arts, he eventually became the High Priest of the cult. He was a kind leader and the cult grew in size and influence under his guidance.

  One evening, an elderly traveler garbed in bloody tatters came to the temple and asked to speak to their leader. The man was injured, so the priests tended to his wounds and gave him a clean robe to wear. They then led him to a table bearing fresh fruit and cuts of roasted meat. There Mnekh greeted him and invited him to dine.

  The old man took his seat. “I truly appreciate your hospitality,” he said. “My name is Tsoth. Your kindness and generosity gladden my heart. Until recently, I had thought my life would be filled with torment and despair. For you see, I have come from the City of Night, where hope does not exist.”

  “I have never heard of the City of Night,” Mnekh said. “And yet you say you came from there … and you are on foot. So it cannot be too far away. How can this be?”

  “The City of Night is obscured from the eyes of good souls who might draw near,” the old man said. “It is the creation of its insane ruler, the Black Pharaoh Nephren-Ka, a sorcerer of incredible power. He claims he is the ruler of all men, but in fact, he only holds dominion over that which is malignant and corrupt.”

  “But where is this city,” Mnekh asked, “and how can it be hidden? What does o
ne see, if one is not wicked?”

  “The city can be found on the banks of the Nile, downstream from the City of Horus,” Tsoth said. “It took two days for me to walk here. To the good-hearted, the land seems wreathed in constant mist, and the ground appears as a wasteland of broken tombs mired in black slime.”

  “I have seen that place,” said Mnekh. “A poisonous expanse of steaming rot.”

  “The actual city is a vision of dark beauty,” said the old man, adding another cut of roasted lamb to his plate. “The buildings are crafted from black stone and trimmed with gold. The skies above the city are always dark and filled with stars that glow like the eyes of savage beasts.”

  “So tell me, how were you able to see the city?”

  “I practice some magic … my powers are not as great as yours, I am sure,” Tsoth said. “Despite my limited abilities, I have crafted a talisman that allows me to see through illusions. It grants me a few other small powers as well.” He gestured toward a bright blue stone on a silver chain, hanging around his throat. “I went to the City of Night hoping to gain more powers. I am fortunate that I was able to escape with my life.”

  Mnekh nodded. “Truly it was the will of Horus that you should find your way here. I have many more questions for you, but the hour is late and you need rest. I will make sure that a room is prepared for you, and in the morning, you can tell me more about the City of Night.”

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  The next day, Mnekh spent the day talking with Tsoth, discovering more about the City of Night.

  During his travels in the evil city, Tsoth talked with many of the sorcerers who lived there, and through these discussions found out that the source of Nephren-Ka’s power was a strange shining crystal known as the Eye of Yuggoth. The old man learned that Yuggoth was one of many strange realms in the night sky where dwelled dark gods and their horrid minions. The misshapen monstrosities of Yuggoth had made the crystal as a means of viewing strange lands, as well as other time periods.