The Tundra in the Amazon

This short story was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. Please leave feedback, and thanks for reading.

There are stories of a broken man who lives far from anyone, deep within his large property in Massachusetts. The locals said there was no use speaking to him, for he has been delusional ever since he returned from an expedition within the Amazon. He used to be a professor at Boston college for Biology, and was credited for the discovery of many rare species of birds. They said leading up to his expedition he had been haunted by vivid nightmares, and claimed something was calling to him. I had been suffering from similar dreams for over a year, they lead the way to sleepless nights, and sapped all motivation of completing my life's work. I was an english major, I had read all of the classics and was working on a novel that I believed would become a classic. These dreams had become debilitating and I needed to at least see if this man could shed some light on my situation.

It had rained the night before and the cold froze everything, leaving the fauna covered in ice and turning the land into a shining, alien landscape. I approached the old house in the woods, hoping to find answers. I knocked at the front door, but there was no reply, so I tried the handle. The door swung open and let out a screech that broke the silence of the frozen woods. Stepping into the quiet house I was immediately overcome with a sense of dread. Papers littered the floor, cobwebs hung in every corner, shattered glass popped from under my feet. There were various degrees covering the wall, and photos of birds hung like family portraits. I picked up one of the many papers that covered the floor and examined it. It was a suicide note, dating back seven years ago. I checked more of the papers on the floor and every single one was a suicide note, judging by the dates it appeared he had written one every day for the past fifteen years. I continued through the house looking for the man, and noticed sketchings hidden within the sea of suicide notes. The sketches portrayed a nightmarish beast, similar to the one I had seen in my dream. I checked every room until finally I came across the man’s study, this room's walls were covered in the sketches, blotting out the various awards and photos of his discoveries. A large leather chair sat in front of a desk covered in books, and more of those horrific sketches. A hearth sat in the side of the room but it appeared it had not been used in years. Upon further inspection I found the man sitting at his desk. His clothes were worn, and although he was only in his mid fifties, his unkempt hair had turned a snowy shade of white. He was looking out of the window that lay across the other side of his desk, and he was mumbling to himself. “I like when the rain freezes on the trees, everything looks so shiny.” he said. I was prepared not to gain anything from speaking with him, but I introduced myself anyways. “I’ve heard tales that before you went mad you suffered from terrible nightmares, I have been experiencing a similar ailment and I was hoping you could shed some light on my situation”. The man did not move, his gaze was still set on the trees outside, and I prepared myself to leave. But before I did the man spoke, and he did not finish speaking until the sun had set.

I was about forty years old when I began to have the dreams. They clouded my mind for over a year, before I began to decipher their meaning. I was sure that the source of these dreams was within the Amazon, and based off of nothing but a gut freeling I prepared my expedition. The dreams told me to find a place where no animals lived, and where it was so cold you could swear you were in a tundra, and not a jungle. I asked the locals for this place, and they all warned me against it, saying many men fueled by dreams travel to the unholy ground and never return. But with a little bribery they gave me a location. After two days of hiking eventually I knew I had reached the place. In the previous days of hiking the air was always filled with the chanting of monkeys, and the singing of birds. But there was no sign of life here, even the plants were brown and brittle. The air was freezing, and I had not prepared warm clothes for my trip. The rain from days prior was frozen to the plants and I felt as if I was no longer on earth. Regardless of the lack of living things there, I still felt the presence of something that did not belong. Eventually I found the cave. My instincts told me not to wander inside, but my curiosity had gotten the better of me. Preparing to enter the cave I grabbed the flashlight from my bag, unfortunately the cold had sapped the power from the batteries and it only gave off enough light to see a few feet in front of me. I descended into the cave and found the remains of the men who came before me. The first corpse I found was only a few feet into the cave. He was nothing but bones now, and his remains gave the impression that he had been crawling out of the cave. I should have fled after seeing the first body, but I could not shake the feeling that something was calling out to me. As I explored I found more bodies, some looked like they died while trying to escape, and others looked like they had killed themselves with nearby rocks, or guns that were no longer functioning. What I noticed about all of the corpses was that they carried scientific equipment, or journals filled with beautiful writings and observations. Wanting to know what drove such intellectuals to this fate I continued deeper within the cave. My flashlight died, but I noticed that deep within this graveyard something was glowing. I slowly approached it, and when I did enter the cavern I was filled with wonder. The high ceiling and walls were covered in sparkling minerals, and their shine was intensified by glowworms. On the floor was a thin layer of still water that reflected the ceiling to give the illusion that the stars themselves were within that pool.

However my wonder soon turned to horror when I stepped into the pool, for something was waiting for me in the dark corners of the cavern. Something unnatural hid within this cavern, and as my eyes adjusted to peer into the dark recesses of the cave, I wished I could unsee what I had seen. Lying within the pool a massive pinkish thing, resembling a giant human brain covered in eyes, slowly inched towards me, using long tendrils protruding from its sides to crawl. I wanted to run, but it’s many eyes met mine and I was paralyzed. I began to hear something, if one could even call it hearing, it felt as though another voice had appeared within my head that I could not control. The new voice in my head whispered to me in a tongue not known by men of this planet, and yet I knew what it was saying. I cannot translate exactly what I was being told, but I can remember the general message. I know that this ancient being is not the only one of it’s kind and it was placed here by an alien race. It created us and used us as tools to learn about earth. The whispers were filling my head with knowledge, similar to how a spider fills its prey with venom before consuming them. I was being filled with the wisdom of all the men who came here before me, it was amazing at first, until I began to learn more about the alien race that made us. They are inquisitive, and created us with the gift of curiosity to learn about our environment. I learned that there were thousands of planets inhabited by humans, some had marvelous civilizations, and others were just learning how to control fire. I began to realize that everything I knew about humanity was false. Our gift of curiosity that we pride ourselves with is nothing more than a tool to an uncaring race. Our feelings were engineered to keep us alive, and to reproduce. The whispers became maddening, and painful. I put my hands over my ears to try and stop it, but the whispers were in my head. I met the creature's gaze and saw nothing but an uncaring stare. The whispers grew louder, destroying my mind and raping my soul. The knowledge that the creature gave me was leaving my brain along with my years of studying and discovery. With the little amount of sense I had left, I tried to kill myself with a nearby rock, but the creature was gaining more control over my brain, and it slowed my hand enough that I could do nothing more than create a small gash on my head. When suicide failed I fled the cave, I don’t know how it didn’t stop me. There were multiple times where I stopped running and started to walk back into the cave against my own will, and I somehow won the battle over what was left of my brain. I was found several days later in hysterics by the locals, and a month later I was flown back to my home.

The man’s eyes met mine for the first time, they were bloodshot and crying out for help. “I’ve tried to kill myself every single day since I returned, but part of it is still inside of me, controlling me with it’s terrible whispers. It won’t let me do it, it’s not finished with me. Can you do it for me?” I stepped back, horrified by the request. I believed his story but I don’t know if I could bring myself to kill another man. But that is what I was engineered to believe. He pulled a revolver out of his drawer and handed it to me, hope filled his eyes when I grabbed it. His last words were “Don’t go to the place in the Amazon where no animals will wander, and where the land is so cold you will feel like you are in the tundra”. I left the old house mortified, and I hurried to my car because being under the stars made me feel uncomfortable. I know many readers will not believe this as truth, we were not engineered to believe it. But if you receive dreams of a monster calling you to a place in the Amazon where no animals will wander, and where the land is so cold you will feel like you are in the tundra, do your best to ignore them, for a monstrous creature awaits below the earth, holding the truth to humanity's existence.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading! The idea of this story has been at the back of my mind for a while now, and it feels good to finally write it down. Please tell me what you thought of it.

Reviews

[kicksotic]

Another story that feels wise beyond your years. The blending of a solid, assured voice and a unique narrative populated with interesting characters. And i was so happy to see dialogue! ;)

But there's definitely talent here. And whatever technical errors -- i.e., the man's story could have begun with quotation marks, like, "...," he said. "... and then just close quote at the very end; that way the reader is reminded the words are being said and it's not just prose -- will easily be remedied with continued writing and CONTINUED READING!!!!!

Seriously, read the work of the best writers and learn from them. Formatting, dialogue, punctuation, when to use full stops, when to use commas...it's all there already on the page with your favorite authors.

Keep writing.