by Aratare, X.
Let me tell him, Gabriel. Let me explain. It might be easier, Casillus suggested.
All right, Gabriel agreed. He was still having trouble looking at Corey’s beloved face without tearing up, so he was glad not to have to talk.
Tell him that I need only put my fingers on one of his temples for our minds to touch. Ask for his permission to do so, Casillus requested.
“Casillus wants to talk to you, Corey. He’s going to touch your temple and then you two will be telepathically linked,” Gabriel said, clearing his suddenly tight throat.
Corey bobbed his head in agreement as he said, “O-okay.”
Casillus gently pressed two fingers against Corey’s left temple. His best friend’s brown eyes widened as if he had touched a live wire and then they slid half closed. Gabriel watched as Corey’s pupils moved back and forth like they did in REM sleep. Gabriel heard nothing of what Casillus was saying to Corey, so when the Mer removed his fingers from his best friend’s temple he was eager to hear Corey’s reactions.
Corey’s big brown eyes were filled with tears, but he was smiling, too. He clasped Gabriel’s shoulder. “Oh, Gabe, it’s going to be so great where you’re going! The city is just—just beautiful and you have a ton of family waiting for you. They’re so anxious to meet you and embrace you!” Corey’s eyes overflowed with tears. “And Casillus says that he’ll make sure you can come near shore for us to talk. But he hopes that there might even be a way to do it long-distance, too!”
Gabriel glanced up at Casillus. I really hope you’re right about my being a Caller enabling me to speak to Corey from Emralis.
Casillus nodded. I believe it, Gabriel. If you can reach Cthulhu in the vastness then reaching for Corey on land should be completely within your power.
“What does my being able to reach Cthulhu have to do with talking to Corey?” Gabriel asked out loud so that Corey could be a part of this conversation.
Surprisingly, it was Corey who answered rather than the Mer, “Imagine that the rest of the Mers’ telepathic powers are like kids talking over coffee cans and string while you are speaking over fiber optic cable! You’re supercharged, Gabe!”
“How do you know that?”
“Casillus told me. He showed me. I understand now.” Corey touched his bearded chin. He looked both thoughtful and worried. “I’m just glad that Johnson doesn’t know about you being a Caller and stuff.”
“The less Johnson knows about anything the better. He’s obsessed with the Mer and -- and me,” Gabriel said and the skin between his shoulder blades twitched.
Corey’s gaze met his. “He’s actually really obsessed with Cthulhu.”
“What does he want with it?” Gabriel asked.
“Didn’t you hear what he said?” Corey asked, his eyebrows rising in surprise.
“He said a lot of things, but I sense I missed something big,” Gabriel responded slowly. The twitching increased.
“He did say it right before you went all weird on us in the temple so maybe you did miss it,” Corey said.
“What did he say?” Gabriel prompted.
“He wants to kill Cthulhu,” Corey explained. “The only way to do that is to get Cthulhu on land and, from what Casillus just told me, the only way to get Cthulhu on land is if you called it there.”
2
THE PLAN
“What do you mean Johnson wants to kill Cthulhu? With what? Nuclear weapons?” Gabriel let out a harsh, semi-hysterical laugh. Cthulhu was miles high. It was huge, like a mountain walking, or rather lumbering. Gabriel could feel how very alien it was from the very scarce experiences he’d had with it. Ancient. Powerful. So vastly different from humanity and the Mers that it was truly unfathomable. “To be honest, I don’t even know that nuclear weapons could kill Cthulhu.”
Gabriel, you should probably not use its name, Casillus warned, and Gabriel saw that the Mer was looking out at the ocean in alarm suddenly as if he feared Cthulhu would suddenly appear. Reading his thoughts, Casillus said, That is my fear, Gabriel. It COULD appear. It is said that Callers can summon Cthulhu, even without intending to, simply by thinking about it too long.
Oh—oh, man, okay, no using that name then, and I’ll try not to even think about it, like at all, Gabriel agreed, his chest tightening with unease. Thankfully, the sea remained placid and nothing with tentacles rose from the depths. Yet there was this sense that something was waiting out there. Something amazing.
“I can’t believe you missed Johnson’s big speech about Cthulhu and evil and duty. But he was talking just before you took off towards the back of the temple and you were pretty out of it then.” Corey tapped his wet bearded chin. “You must have really been freaked out to -- to do that. Not that I blame you. The temple was creepy and awful and I wanted out of there, too.”
“I didn’t take off for the back of the temple because I was freaked out, Corey,” Gabriel said. When his best friend just looked at him with a disbelieving light in his eyes, Gabriel amended, “Okay, okay, so yes, I freaked out, but not just because that temple makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I opened the inner sanctum, because I was seeing the past.”
“Seeing the past?” Corey’s eyebrows rose up into his red, curly mane.
“Oh, yeah. I saw everything that happened at the settlement like a movie, except far more real than any movie I’ve ever been to.” Gabriel swallowed deeply before telling Corey and Casillus everything that he had experienced in the visions in the temple. He ended with, “I could smell the blood and the salt of the sea. I could hear the Mers’ screams reverberating in my head.” He shook his head, as if doing so could help shake out those images. “So you see, I didn’t actually hear anything you or Greta or Johnson were saying for the most part when we were in the temple.”
Corey’s face looked as pale as milk. “Holy cow, Gabe! That’s awful! The story alone was terrible, but to see it? To experience it? I can’t even imagine!”
“It’s still with me like I was really there,” Gabriel said. “And that’s why I—I nearly called it.”
Casillus’ hands tightened on him in sympathy.
“Called Cthulhu?” Corey goggled.
“I thought I could save the Mers, Corey. I thought I could stop the slaughter. I forgot that what I was seeing was just the past. The past can’t be changed,” Gabriel said and let out a shuddering breath. “Somewhere in my subconscious I must have known how to call to it. That’s the only explanation I have for how I knew how to open the inner sanctum and touch the statue.”
“Wait a minute! All you have to do is touch the statue to call Cthulhu to land?” Corey asked.
“According to Casillus, I don’t even need to do that much, but touching that statue definitely would have brought it here,” Gabriel explained. A cold sweat dotted his upper lip again. “God, Corey, everyone would have died! You and Greta and Johnson … everyone. Only Casillus’ voice pulled me out of the fog of the vision at the last minute and stopped me.”
“Whoa, I can’t believe all that was happening and I didn’t know!” Corey actually looked ashamed, as if he had let Gabriel down in some way.
“I didn’t want you to know, Corey. I was hanging on by my fingernails to appear normal. Johnson was already giving me the creeps. I figured if he saw me do anything else weird he’d -- he’d -- I don’t exactly know what he would have done, but I didn’t want to find out,” Gabriel admitted. “Though I pretty much failed at that in the end. Speaking of which, what exactly was Johnson’s big speech about it? He clearly couldn’t have just said he wants to kill a mythical sea monster without some kind of explanation.”
“I thought he was joking while he was saying it, even though he was completely sober and serious,” Corey admitted. “I mean, I didn’t believe anything like Cthulhu could be real. Aliens, sure. Mermen, sure. But that? No, it’s almost too terrible to believe.”
It is terrible, the Mer said.
Gabriel touched Casillus’ arms to steady the Mer. They were still w
rapped protectively around his chest, helping him feel safe as he floated, and he knew that his touch made Casillus feel protected as well. Gratefulness flowed over their bond.
“So Greta was finishing up her presentation,” Corey continued. “She had just explained that the guy—you know, the one who ended up a pile of bones in the temple—who wrote the inscription in the first place, well, his whole purpose was to warn people to stay away from the settlement and even, to stay away from the sea itself. Johnson then started on his speech.”
“He wanted people to stay away from the ocean? Trust me, can’t be done,” Gabriel laughed.
You belong to the sea. Casillus tightened his hold on Gabriel.
“Totally, and Johnson thought it was stupid, too, but for another reason. He thought abandoning the sea to Cthulhu was like surrendering on the battlefield. Johnson had this really hard look on his face while he was saying it.” Corey shook his head. “So I pointed out that Cthulhu wasn’t real. But then Johnson said that if such a being existed, it would be everyone’s duty to try to destroy it. That humanity could never be safe if it was still out there.”
Casillus stirred behind Gabriel. He could feel the Mer’s anxiety and a touch of anger.
Johnson does not know what he is dealing with. Cthulhu is beyond his comprehension and beyond his—or any human’s—ability to destroy, the Mer said. All such a mad quest will do is cause innocents to suffer. Cthulhu will have no mercy on him or anyone around him if he continues on.
What do you mean? Gabriel asked.
If Cthulhu were to make landfall not just Ocean Side would be in danger, Gabriel, Casillus explained. All of the Eastern seaboard would likely be destroyed. Some people would go mad right away and attack their families, friends, neighbors, strangers. Others would simply drop dead. None would be safe from its terrible spiritual effects. Even if people did survive such a landing, many wombs would be barren. The land would be, too, as if the soil had been sown with salt, and the sea would give up no fish.
Whoa—that’s—God—we can’t let that happen! Gabriel gasped.
No, Gabriel, we cannot. Johnson must be stopped. He must not be allowed to continue on with this foolish, dangerous quest, the Mer said firmly.
Gabriel then summarized for Corey all Casillus had said. Corey shook his head and responded, “Johnson is not going to give up though, Gabe. You heard what Greta said about him hanging out in the temple all the time with the statue, right?”
“Yeah, he’s obsessed,” Gabriel agreed. He rubbed a hand over his mouth. “He’ll find a way to get Cthulhu to come even if he never finds out about me. I just know it. I feel it. So long as that statue --”
The statue! Casillus’ thoughts were suddenly very active and his mouth actually opened as if to speak. Gabriel, that is it!
“What is it, Casillus?” Gabriel asked.
Removing the statue from the temple and interring it in another location will stop Cthulhu’s attention from being drawn to the settlement! Casillus eagerly explained.
Just moving the statue will make it forget about Johnson and humanity and everything? Gabriel asked incredulously.
Cthulhu is not like us. Johnson’s obsession with it will soon be forgotten. Humanity has never interested it for long, Casillus said. Without the statue, even Johnson’s white-hot obsession will not draw its gaze.
“So simply moving the statue will protect everyone from it?” Gabriel repeated out loud.
“Move the statue from the temple, you mean?” Corey asked.
Casillus nodded and said, It is simplest. For now it should simply be moved out of human reach. But eventually, it should be relocated to Cthulhu’s other temple in the Tonga Trench in the Pacific Ocean. The temple is at the very bottom. That is where the statue can rest where no human will ever be exposed to it again.
Gabriel hoped that was true, but he knew how ingenious humans were, and how dedicated to discovery they were as well. Not to mention the fact that some of them had a penchant for getting into trouble. But Casillus was right that moving the statue to the Tonga Trench would, at least, make it harder for humanity to bring this doom upon itself.
“So our mission, if we choose to accept it,” Corey mimicked the Mission Impossible opening, “is to get the statue out of the temple without Johnson knowing, or if he figures it out, stopping us.”
“That’s about the long and short of it,” Gabriel said. “But, Corey, you don’t have to be in on this. It’s going to be dangerous.”
“Are you kidding? I am so in on this! Like you could keep me out of it!” Corey stood up straighter and put his hands on his hips. The bottom of his beard was still trailing in the water so he looked more comical than stern. Gabriel bit back a laugh.
“Are you going to say that ‘Danger’ is your middle name or something like that? Or maybe ‘Danger’ is one of your many personas along with Cupid?” Gabriel teased.
Corey scratched his beard and his forehead furrowed as if he was really thinking about how to answer that. “Gabe, I would do this just for you, but it’s not just for you. It’s also for Grandma G and everybody else on the East coast! Anything I can do to help, I’ll do.”
Corey is very brave, Gabriel. I know you are teasing him, but I think he would like to hear your true thoughts on his offer, Casillus said.
Gabriel touched Corey’s shoulder, and taking Casillus’ advice, said, “Actually, I don’t know if we could do it without you. Knowing you’re in this with us makes everything much better.”
Corey beamed. “We’re the dynamic duo!” He paused and then gestured to Casillus. “The totally awesome trio, I mean!”
“So how do we get the statue out of the temple?” Gabriel asked. “Clearly we can’t go steal it now. I’m pretty sure that Johnson would notice us carrying it out of there.”
And you are in no shape to be out of the water even if it were safe for you to touch it, Casillus said.
So I can’t touch it at all, Casillus?
No, I fear that by doing so you would summon it accidentally. Corey and I should carry it without your assistance, Casillus said.
“Sorry, Corey, Casillus just said that I can’t touch the statue, not even with my fingertips, or we’ll have Cthu—it here,” Gabriel said.
Corey cocked his head to the side. “You know, I think I can almost hear you guys when you talk together.”
That is your gift, my love. You are bridging the gap among the three of us. With time, you will be able to bring many non-Mer into our circle of minds, Casillus said. He looked so proud that Gabriel nearly fidgeted under his gaze.
“According to Casillus, eventually you’ll be able to hear us clearly,” Gabriel said.
“That would be super cool!” Corey crowed, but then he turned serious. “Okay, here’s the plan. I leave you and Casillus to hang out in the water for now.” His best friend gave him a stern look. “I can see you’re feeling better, but not good. There’s still a tint of blue to your lips. So you need to stay here.”
“I have the urge to salute you,” Gabriel said.
“If it keeps you in the water, I’m all for it!” Corey grinned.
As am I. We really need to get you swimming, Gabriel, Casillus said gently.
Gabriel felt that familiar mixture of excitement and dread at the thought of swimming. But he knew that he had to. There really was no choice. They couldn’t stay in the shallows and Casillus couldn’t hold him forever.
I will hold you as long and as often as you like, but I hope that it will only be because you wish to be held by me, not because you are afraid, Casillus said.
I want that, too.
“I’ll get dried off and head back to the settlement,” Corey continued. “While I’m there, I’ll poke around. Find out what Johnson’s plans are and when he’s leaving the settlement tonight.”
Gabriel started. “He’s not coming over to the cottage for dinner, is he?”
“Oh, no, Grandma G has a City Council meeting tonight so we’re good,” Cor
ey said.
“Thank God,” Gabriel said, nodding. “I really don’t think I could handle sitting with him tonight making small talk.”
I do not think that Johnson could do it either considering how he acted at the settlement, Casillus pointed out.
Gabriel nodded. “But that means he might not leave the settlement at all.”
“He’s not going to spend the whole night there, is he? I mean that would be … crazy,” Corey muttered. He shook himself. “He’ll have to leave sometime and when he does, we go in, grab the statue and hustle it out into the sea.”
Corey made it sound incredibly easy, but Gabriel highly doubted it would be.
“You’ll have to wear dark colors tonight, Corey, if you’re going to be inconspicuous. Notice I didn’t say black, because I’m positive you don’t own anything black,” Gabriel pointed out teasingly.
“So neon yellow is out, right?” Corey tapped his chin. “I think I have something that will work.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Gabriel cracked a smile.
“I will prove that I can dress subtly!” Corey proclaimed as he lifted one finger dramatically in the air.
“Again, time will show me the truth,” Gabriel laughed, but then he sobered. “Corey, before you head out.” His chest felt tight again, and Casillus stroked his back. “I’m going to need your help with something else.”
“What, Gabe? Name it and I’ll do it,” Corey said stoutly.
Gabriel flashed him a pained smile. While Corey would mourn Gabriel’s leaving out of personal sadness, he would really hurt for Grace. His best friend couldn’t bear to see another person in pain. Gabriel had seen Corey impacted by other people’s pain many times, and Gabriel knew that Corey was as close to Grace as any flesh and blood grandson could be.
“I need to tell Grandma about all of this,” Gabriel said softly.
