Hell on Earth
Death was instantaneous, although his arms and legs kicked out and thrashed around for quite a while. I could only be thankful that we didn’t have to hit him again.
I had just one instinct, and that was to flee. I felt sick, but I just couldn’t take my eyes off the body.
Shoggoth
The word just seemed to echo around the guards van, again and again.
Shoggoth … Shoggoth …
The corpse shuddered; a post mortem reaction, I thought – but then an aura seemed to rise up like smoke … but no; this was a void, a tear in the fabric of space and time.
SHOGGOTH
Something was breaking through, a shape in the depths of all that darkness, rising, like a sea creature heading for the surface.
The void suddenly expanded and Jack was swallowed up. When he started screaming I finally fled, crossing the yard as fast as I could, determined not to look back.
But of course, I did.
A creature stood in the doorway of the guards van, and there was nothing remotely human about it; a single arm with a crablike pincer at the end protruded from its stomach; huge legs; green scaly flesh that resembled seashells. The head was distorted and triangular, a long snout protruded; and below that, a crocodile-like maw was filled with murderous, razor-sharp fangs; this creature was a born slashing machine, and its only purpose was to kill.
SHOGGOTH …
How I remembered that word now, and Arty’s obsession with a mythical place.
People, he said, have found a gateway and gone through.
Now the bastard had opened that gateway and let something out, an aberration, a thing just waiting to kill.
“You stupid fuck, Arty!”
With a roar it lurched out of the carriage, jabbed its arm into the ground, and then, throwing its legs ahead of its body, it sprang forth like a one-legged man propelling himself forward on crutches; only faster, much faster, and the sight was more disturbing, and more inhuman than anything I have ever witnessed. With unbelievable speed it loped across the yard, searching out its prey. Death, I knew then, had come to the city.
Fighting my instinct to flee, I ran back to the carriage and climbed in. I was just in time to see the void shrink and disappear: wherever that thing had come from, it was now trapped in this world, and free. I could only hope that it was humanly possible to destroy it.
Before leaving I drove a kick into Arty’s corpse.
“A lot of people are going to die because of you,” I shouted, and wondered if that had been his intention all along. I fled into the night, just wanting to leave this diseased and rotten suburb behind. That creature was out there, and it was looking for a victim. For that night, I could only make sure that I wasn’t the first.
*
Six months have passed and there have been eleven slayings. Police are baffled, and the creature still hasn’t been found. Don’t ask me why, maybe it can blend into its surroundings.
I went back to Arty’s caravan a few weeks later and turned it over. There was plenty of stuff in there, including some old books that had all but fallen apart. But I could still read them, and they gave me a fair idea of what Arty had been trying to do.
The gateway to Shoggoth; if I hadn’t seen that thing with my own eyes I’d never have believed it. But it’s true; and to rid this world of that aberration I must open up the gateway again.
I’ve been experimenting with crack-cocaine; the first time I thought I was going to die, but I’m getting the measure of it now. You see, the time will come when I have to go beyond the point of being just ‘stoned’; with the use of hard drugs, I will have to take myself to the very boundaries of Shoggoth, and by definition, to the very edge of death.
But that’s fine, there have been eleven slayings and sometimes I need the drugs just to block out the screams. Just lately, they’ve been getting louder.
There’s an infestation of ants on my landing, some of them the size of rats. No one else seems to see them, but there’s something strange about the lady who lives down the corridor from me: something about her eyes.
Shoggoth, that’s it; it’s affecting people … but the drugs protect me, don’t they?
I’d hate them to take over. They won’t, of course, this is just a short-term thing … until I can get rid of that creature … I can quit any time after that … no trouble, I’m not like Arty … but people are acting very strangely now … maybe when Arty breached that other world he started altering this one … things have started growing out of peoples heads, why am I the only one who seems to notice? …I must open the breach soon or the world will change … but they look so funny …
… getting distracted, need the drugs to focus … time for my next shot, a few more and I should break through … soon …
… I can hear the ants outside my door … and screams, the creature is attacking again … somewhere in the night and I must block out the screams and drive out the ants and cure the people of the things growing out of their heads and the woman with the funny eyes and the voices coming out of my fingernails and I know I can give up the drugs when it’s over …
But I must get rid of the creature … I must send it back to Shoggoth and end this nightmare once and for all!
*
Okay, I started losing it there, and I’ll probably sound really shit-faced when I play this tape back.
Forget it, reality check time.
I’m ready to inject now. I’ve wound a bandage around my arm, I know how to inject myself; just bring up the vain, right?
Yeah!
I can see my face in a mirror and I look terrible, like I’ve aged about twenty years in the last six weeks; but this ends tonight, with this shot.
Okay, take your time.
There was another murder last night, that’s twelve victims all together.
So I can’t put this off any longer.
If I open the gateway I can pull through this, but if I don’t make it … well, there’s all of Arty’s paraphernalia and this account, so you’ll know what to do, right?
Just do me a favour, huh? Destroy all of Arty’s books; make sure no one ever reads them again; there’s been too many victims as it is.
Okay, I’m going to inject myself now, no point putting it off any longer; this has to end tonight.
I just hope I’m doing the right thing.