The Cry In The Night

What is to be done in the night? That darkest of times, when evil can move unseen and good is hard pressed to find a footing, perishing with the slightest effort. It is in the night that the Eldritch things come out. It is in the night that the witches perform their dark rituals. It is in the night that druids dance about their fungal altars, calling the names of Elder gods long forgotten and dead.

To those who are uneducated as to what foul things lurk in the darkness the night is nothing to be thought, a time for celebrations and peace. But for those who know the truth of what horrors are out there, to me and the others who have shared in similar misfortunes to my own the night becomes a time of fear as the darkness closes in.

I remember the night well, I had been sitting in my study when I heard an unsettling and most unnatural sound. A sort of sobbing cry somewhere originating from somewhere in the darkness outside. I grabbed my coat and my torch and went to search out the source. At first I found nothing, and the draining minutes ticked by, but the occasional resounding of the cry kept me moving. Soon I was cold from the air and damp from my own perspiration as I searched in fearful anticipation of that seemingly non-existent source.

How much now I wish that I had never found out what evil machinations were out there, for they have caused the belief that I have lost my sanity. I finally discovered that eldritch source of my current state. It was standing at the top of my driveway, it was a woman in her night gown. I could not make out her features at first, for she held her hands to her face in such a manner that hid them from sight. She kept screaming and sobbing in a piteous manner, so that in order to be heard I had to step closer, when finally I believed myself to be in earshot I spoke.

"What is wrong? What are you afraid of?" I asked.

Still screaming she moved one hand and pointed past me. I turned around ever so slowly. But when I looked there was nothing. Then I realized by god, there was nothing. There was no light, there was no sky, and there was no earth. Before me there was nothing but pure darkness, no sensation except for a strange pulse that seemed to come from everywhere, as if I had my ear to the chest of some alien being to listen to it's heart beat.

I turned back to cry out, to beg the woman to make it stop. But my voice caught in my throat, the creature stood inches in front of me, her screaming had ceased, and I felt as if she was staring into my very soul. She towered above me, and she grew taller still. Her face was as pale as death, her veins bulged through her translucent skin, blood rolled down her cheeks from her eyes, and down her chin from her mouth.

 

Then her jaw widened, seemingly unhinged as it stretched farther than humanly possible. She let out an ungodly wail that curdled my blood and brought tears to my eyes. No living creature could be the cause or source of such a voice. It sounded as if five different voices all cried out in unison. Her jaw kept widening and she thrashed her head about as if possessed by some foul demon. Soon the skin of her face began to peel away and as it did so it revealed to me the unspeakable horror beneath. As her teeth fell away to the ground and she pulled the last of her scalp away from her new formed head she was complete. The unspeakable thing now towered above me.

I woke the next morning on the floor of my study. A slash stretched across the front of my coat, from shoulder to side. It seemed that my blood had crusted over the edges of it. I tried to sit up but when I made to move a pain so blinding spread across my body that it became all I could do to not pass out. So I laid there for what seemed like aeons, until the police arrived and took me away. I have been told that I am here for murder. Though no one will tell me who I have supposedly murdered, all they will do is call me a monster.

I told them of what I remembered and they began to look at me like I was crazy, but it's true. They can't see her, if they would just look then they would see her. Her hideously gaunt face pressed against the windows as she peers in at me. Now she even visits me in my padded cell. She won't let me be. I want her to go away. I just want her to go away!

Reviews

[Lovecraft]

Loved it! Very Lovecraftian. As you might notice my username is Lovecraft and my profile picture is of Cthulhu of sunken R'lyeh. So no complaints here, lol.