“Hey, there’s a door back there!” he said. Together we moved the boards to the side and found a door made from thick planks of dark wood. Short twigs protruded from the door at various spots, and all sported curled green leaves. At eye level on the door, someone had carved the word G’HODLOTH.
Caspar touched one of the leaves. “Living planks,” he said, awestruck. He turned the knob, but the door was locked. “Dr. Brandywine once told me to stay away from ‘the door made out of living planks.’ I didn’t know it was inside the building! I thought he was just being mystical – you know how he is.”
“Actually, no,” I said. “I’ve never talked with him.“
“Well, I think we both need to talk to him now.” So saying, he moved some boards back in front of the door. I helped him finish and then we began the climb up to the top level.
“I should mention, he keeps his place really cold,” Caspar said. “For health reasons, I think he said.”
“How’d you get to know Dr. Brandywine?” I asked.
“One night, I was having some really bad chest pains,” he said. “I figured, he’s a doctor, we’re in the same building – how’s he going to say ‘no’ to me? He made me some kind of herbal tea and soon, I was all better. Haven’t had any chest pains since then, and that was about five months ago.”
“He didn’t tell you to see a specialist or get X-rays, or anything like that?”
Caspar shook his head. “Nope! I’m all better!”
When we reached the doctor’s door, Caspar knocked and we waited. I noticed that the air seemed colder near the doctor’s apartment. When Dr. Brandywine opened the door, great plumes of white fog curled out into the hall.
“Hello again, Caspar,” the doctor said. “I see you’ve brought a friend.” He was a handsome, white-haired man who appeared to be in his late fifties or early sixties. “Come inside. We’re letting the cold out.”
We entered Dr. Brandywine’s apartment and he closed the door quickly behind us. With its many machines, computer screens, and racks of test tubes, the place looked more like a laboratory than living quarters. I put my hand near the vent of a nearby machine and found that it was blasting out cool air. The windows were all covered with curtains thick enough to be used as blankets. The temperature had to be around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. How, I wondered, could he survive in such an unlivable setting?
I had no idea what some of the other machines in the apartment could possibly do. One large device was particularly disturbing. It appeared to be composed of two metal chairs positioned back-to-back, with a black box, about five inches wide and four feet tall, positioned between them. A multitude of thin metal cables connected both chairs to the box. Each seat was fixed with leather straps to hold its occupant in place.
After Caspar introduced me and I mentioned that I was the doctor’s downstairs neighbor, I couldn’t help but bring up the topic of the temperature. “It’s so chilly in here. Are you conducting some sort of experiment?”
“I have a condition that makes it necessary to live in chilled surroundings,” Dr. Brandywine said. “Years ago, I contracted a rare fever during my travels. The highly aggressive virus in my system is weakened by the cold. At this low temperature, the fever can only raise my body temperature to a harmless 98.6, the same as everyone else.”
“So the cold balances out the fever?” I asked.
“Basically, yes. The chill also renders the fever noncontagious. My personal physician, Dr. Muñoz, prescribed this treatment many years ago. Because I must stay at this temperature, I can never leave my rooms. Thank goodness I have such a helpful landlady.” He smiled kindly at me. “And a friendly neighbor! I hope the noise from my machines hasn’t kept you awake.”
“No problem,” I said. “The sound is so soft, it doesn’t bother me at all.”
Dr. Brandywine picked up a pad from his desk and made a quick note, which he handed to me. “There’s my phone number. Please call if my machines ever make too much noise. I can always change their settings. Also, can I have your number? Mrs. Veng once mentioned that you’re studying video. Perhaps I can use your services someday in promoting my inventions to buyers and investors.”
He handed the pad and pen to me and I wrote down my number. “So you’re an inventor?” I asked. “What kind of things do you invent?”
“Innovations in the healthcare industry,” he replied. “The Internet makes it possible to communicate with the companies that work with me. Delivery companies and Mrs. Veng help me whenever necessary. And speaking of help, how can I assist you two young fellows?”
I told Dr. Brandy about the noises I had heard, and Caspar described the grotesque beast he had seen. We then told him about our trip to the basement and the door marked G’HODLOTH. “Why did you tell me to stay away from a door made of living planks?” Caspar asked him. “Why didn’t you say it was in the basement?”
“Why would I tell you the location of the door if you need to stay away from it?” the doctor said, a note of impatience in his voice. “Your curiosity would compel you to look at it. At any rate, I knew it was in this building but I didn’t know exactly where, since I never leave my room. Now that you know where it is, you must stay away from both the door and that thing you saw. You are both young people with bright futures ahead of you. They do not concern you.” He sighed wearily. “Perhaps in the future I will tell you more. Right now, I’m afraid I must get my rest. I tire quite easily.”
“Just one more question,” I asked. “The thing in the hallway … was that G’hodloth?”
Dr. Brandywine stared at me for a moment, perhaps unsure whether to answer or not. Finally, he said, “Yes. That’s its name. Various cults, human and otherwise, have prayed to it over the years. It was once worshipped by ghouls … fiends that ate the rotted flesh of those buried in this region. This building has always been the location of its place of worship. G’hodloth brings new life to those who befriend it.”
Caspar gave me a look … a look that said: See? He must be nuts.
Dr. Brandywine nodded at each of us and then shuffled, heavy-footed with fatigue, to his bedroom. With a weak smile, he pointed toward the front door, so we departed. Caspar and I decided to talk at a later time, once we’d mulled over what the next step should be.
- - -
The next evening, Caspar and I met in my room. By then, I’d had some time to think about everything that Dr. Brandywine had said. I found myself replaying one of his comments in my mind … I felt he had inadvertently revealed something important.
“Remember when Dr. Brandywine said that the door and that creature did not concern us?” I asked him. “Doesn’t that seem like an odd thing to say?”
Caspar nodded. “Yeah, who do they concern?”
Who indeed…. We both considered the matter for a few minutes. Finally Caspar had an idea. “We’re both young people with bright futures ahead of us. That’s what he said. That’s why the thing didn’t concern us. So who does it concern? Old people with no future?”
His observation gave me a disturbing idea. “Hey, whatever happened to that old guy with a limp who used to live a few rooms away from you?” I said. “His name was Lawrence, I think.”
Caspar shrugged. “I don’t know. He just moved out one day while I was at work. That’s what Mrs. Veng said.”
“What about that one lady…? I forget her name, but she had to be in her sixties,” I said.
“She probably weighed about two-hundred and fifty pounds. She was a telemarketer. I remember her telling me that. She had a room near yours.”
“Yeah, she was always hitting on me! She moved out while I was working.”
“I suppose that’s what Mrs. Veng said.” I named another four tenants, all seniors, and sure enough, they’d all moved out while Caspar was at work – or so he’d been led to believe by our landlady.
“So what do you think is happening?” I said. “Do you think Mrs. Veng just loads the place with folks who won’t be missed? Does this G’
hodloth concern them?”
A look of worry crossed Caspar’s face as he nodded. “I think we need to talk to the police.”
“Sure, but what evidence do we have? The fact that people on the south side of the building tend to disappear?” A thought came to mind. “I’m on the north side of the building, like Dr. Brandywine. Why doesn’t Mrs. Veng move you to our side of the building?”
“Those rooms are bigger – yours is twice the size of mine,” he said. “I can’t afford them. But I think she sees me as a long-term investment. I let Mrs. Veng know that I’m getting a pay hike next month, and she’s been talking about upgrading me to a bigger room. I’m profitable enough not to feed to their demon.”
“But does it eat them? One of us would have heard them screaming, right? Wouldn’t there be blood all over the place? Maybe tenants are being abducted … spirited away for some weird reason.”
“The problem is, we don’t know what’s going on around here while I’m at work and you’re in class.” Caspar picked up one of my video cameras from a shelf. “Can you get your hands on a couple cameras smaller than this? A lot smaller?”
“Sure,” I said. “I can sign them out from school. It’s summer, so the equipment isn’t being used very much. Why do you ask?”
“This place is always pretty dark. We could hide one and aim it at that living door. Then we can check it later.”
“That’s a great idea! There’s a ton of clutter in that room, so it would be easy to stash a little camera in there. Where do you think we should put the other one?”
“Right now, there are three old men living in the south end of the building,” Caspar said. “We need to figure out which one would be the most likely victim. Then we’ll conceal a camera close to his room and see if that creature starts lurking nearby. If it does, we can show him the video. We can show it to the police, too.”
We agreed that the plan would work, and so, set it in action. In the days that followed, I signed out two of the smallest battery-powered cameras available from the University. We decided that the tenant most likely to be the next target was Mr. Rose, a short, bald man of about seventy who worked as a busboy at a nearby buffet.
We hid one camera in the basement among the boxes, pointed at the living door. The other we hid in a heating vent across the hall from Mr. Rose’s door. The grid over the vent featured an ornamental pattern of arches, so the camera lens had a clear shot through one of the arches. We propped up the camera so that we’d see more than just the feet of anyone passing by or entering the room. I then set timers on the cameras so we could see what was going on while we were sleeping or out of the house. I could then come back later, pull the memory card from each camera, and review their contents – mostly via fast-forward – on my laptop.
For the first two days, the basement camera did not reveal any changes, and the one in the hallway showed only Mr. Rose entering and leaving his room.
But on the third day, both devices captured horrific images that I shall never forget.
- - -
It was late-morning Saturday when I began to watch the videos for the third day.
On the basement camera’s latest file, I watched as Mrs. Veng entered the basement. I then paused the video and called Caspar on his cell phone, asking if he could watch the rest with me. Fortunately, he was in his room at the moment, so he was able to join me a few minutes later.
“I was beginning to wonder if we’d ever see anything,” he said. “Play it, maybe now we’ll find out what’s happening around here.”
On my laptop’s screen, we watched as Mrs. Veng moved aside the clutter and boards so that she could get to the door. Reaching into a pocket, she withdrew a large key of green-tarnished copper and slid it into the lock. She turned the key and twisted the knob – instantly, a cluster of writhing vines weaved through the air from the realm beyond the living door.
Then the thing known as G’hodloth emerged.
From Caspar’s verbal description, I had developed a mental image of the creature. But, my mind had left out one vital aspect of the being I now saw. Even through a digital recording, it was clear that G’hodloth generated an aura of unrealness. It was like I was watching a cartoon brought to exuberant, freakish life. What I was seeing couldn’t possibly exist – and yet there it was, stepping into our world from out of a nightmare dimension.
Seeing Mrs. Veng filled the creature with wild glee. It reared up on four of its limbs and gave her an ebullient embrace. As it did so, I caught a glimpse of the creature’s mouth – a three-lipped, triangular orifice on the underside of its misshapen body. Mrs. Veng stroked the fur of the repulsive creature. Its gleaming red eyes gazed fawningly at her.
Mrs. Veng led the creature out of the basement. I then pulled that memory card and replaced it with the card from the other camera. I fast-forwarded through the file until I reached the point where the landlady walked up to Mr. Rose’s door, followed closely by G’hodloth.
I noticed that at some point, she had picked up a large black plastic trash bag. She knocked on the door and I could faintly hear the old man’s response. “Just a minute! I’ll be right there.”
Mrs. Veng moved aside so that when Mr. Rose greeted his visitor, there would be nothing between him and G’hodloth.
When the door opened, the creature sprang into the room and wrapped its limbs around Mr. Rose. He wheezed strenuously – clearly the creature’s embrace was so tight, the poor fellow was barely able to breathe, let alone scream. Caspar and I watched in horror as the old man’s body began to glow a bright shade of greenish-blue. The glow was so strong, it could be seen through his clothes. After a few minutes, the luminescence faded away – or perhaps, was drained away – and the creature released its victim.
All that remained of Mr. Rose was a shrunken, hardened husk, about a third of the size of the original body. His clothes had melded horribly with his ruined flesh. Mrs. Veng picked up this sickening remnant and slid it into the plastic trash bag. She then left the room with G’hodloth, locking the door behind her.
“We planned that all wrong,” Caspar said. “Mr. Rose is dead and we could have warned him. How are we going to explain that to the police?”
“We don’t have to explain anything. We’re not to blame. We had no way of knowing he was in immediate danger.”
As we were talking, my phone rang. I answered it and was surprised to hear the voice of Dr. Brandywine. He explained that he was having some trouble with a machine and needed another set of hands to finish the repairs. Would I come up and help for just a few minutes...?
I told the doctor I would be upstairs shortly. I then hung up and let Caspar know what was going on.
“He’s never needed your help before,” Caspar said. “Why is he calling you, instead of Mrs. Veng – or me, for that matter? He’s known me longer. This must be some kind of trap.”
“Should we forget about him and just go to the police?”
“Not yet. I’m curious about what he’s up to. He might tell you something the police would want to know. I’ll go up with you, but I’ll stay on the stairs close by. When you go inside, try to stay near the door so I can hear if you need help. Do you have any kind of weapon here?”
“I have a baseball bat under the bed, in case a burglar ever breaks in.”
Caspar went to get it. “It’s one of those aluminum bats. Sweet!”
We went upstairs and I proceeded to Dr. Brandywine’s quarters. A note taped to the door read COME IN. I entered and saw the doctor on the other side of the room, standing by one of his cooling machines. He didn’t move toward me. He appeared to be tinkering with the machine, even though it was running. “Close the door behind you, please. Mustn’t let the cold out,” he said. “Lock it, too, so we’re not interrupted. Then come over here and help me with this.”
I shut the door and fiddled with the lock’s knob, but didn’t turn it to the point where it engaged. Then I crossed to Dr. Brandywine’s side. As soon as I did, Mrs. Veng came
out of the nearby bedroom and stood between me and the apartment entrance. G’hodloth followed close behind her, its eyestalks waving curiously in my direction.
I looked back at Dr. Brandywine and saw that he was now pointing a handgun at me.
“The clever little film student!” Mrs. Veng said in an angry, derisive tone. “I found a camera outside of Mr. Rose’s room. It must be yours. I have it now, so no one will ever see any pictures it took. You will not be able to tell anyone what happened to Mr. Rose. G’hodloth will see to it! But first, some of the energy it absorbed from that old fool must be transferred to me. It’s time for my next treatment.”
So saying, Mrs. Veng moved toward the strange machine with two seats. She pointed to one of the chairs and G’hodloth moved its awkward bulk into position. After strapping the malformed thing into place, she took a seat herself and tightened the leather restraints around her body.
Still aiming the gun my way, Dr. Brandywine walked to the machine, lifted the lid of a control panel on top, and began pressing buttons.
Instantly, that glow I had seen in the video – that sickening greenish-blue glow – pulsed and swirled around the bizarre form of G’hodloth. That unearthly power began to seep through the cables, slowly enveloping Mrs. Veng.
“How many times do you think I’ve administered this treatment to Mrs. Veng?” Dr. Brandywine asked, smirking with gusto. “Twenty? Fifty? Two-hundred? Five-hundred? More…?”
Behind the doctor, I saw the door of the apartment slowly creep open. Apparently Caspar had grown impatient. I caught a glimpse of his eye as he peered into the room.
“The fever I had contracted causes unchecked cellular growth, which would ordinarily prove fatal,” the doctor said. “But, moderated by Dr. Muñoz’s treatment, it has manifested a most agreeable side effect: the aging process has stopped. I’ve been alive for more than century, and so has Mrs. Veng – though as you can see, I use a very different treatment to ensure her longevity.” He nodded toward the landlady, who was now almost completely covered by the glow. “What do you think of that?”
The Relic In The Egyptian Gallery & More Tales Of The Cthulhu Mythos Page 5
