In an ordinary place where officers, deputies, detectives, and other various lawman work. Were paperwork is filed and reports are written. The sound of their captain echoes out through his open door.
“MERCER! GET IN HERE!” He was not happy.
Mercer had been expecting this. He had gone off after the Knight Kid. He had gone after the Knight kid on a hunch. That and he really wanted to know what the hell had happened. He had planned on talking to him after he woke from his coma but had been strongly advised against it unless he had concrete proof. Something about the kid having the best lawyers in the country. Detective Mercer tried to play ball for a while, but he couldn’t help himself, he started looking into the Knight kid. That’s when things got weird. The more he looked the more confusing it got. To the point, he needed to talk to the kid if he wanted any answers
Mercer made his way into his Captain’s office. When he stepped inside he could see the anger clearly on his face. “Close the door.” He said calmly.
Taking a deep breath Mercer closed the door.
“MERCER, WHAT THE HELL!” The door had barely closed when he started shouting. “You know. I was having a good day. Did you know that?”
Mercer stayed quiet. He had had plenty of the Captain’s rants aimed at him. He was pretty sure they all had.
“Of course you did. See I know you know cause whenever I’m having a good day. You see that and think how can I fuck the Captain’s day up?” He leaned forward over his desk. “Now, tell me why I got a call from Commissioner O’Neal asking why someone had gone to Nicholas Knight’s place. Asking questions about a case THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH HIM!?”
Mercer began, “Sir”
“Oh. No there’s more. You see I told him you had a good-no. Great reason why you did that. Now tell me. Am I a liar?”Captain Kylian’s voice turned cold and dangerous. “Tell me, Mercer. Am I a liar?”
Mercer gulped, “Yes.”
“Good. Now why don’t you lay it out for me, and why it was so damn important that you BROKE PROTOCOL TO GO BY YOURSELF! YOU DIDN’T BRING ANY BACKUP! Anything you got from him might not even be admissible in court! So this better be good.”
Detective Mercer was finally realizing how much he may have screwed up. So he laid it all out.
Mercer began, “One he had no reason to be in that building. No one he was visiting. He did not sign in, and no one buzzed him in. He’s not in any of the systems for that entire building.”
“Then how’d he get in?”
“He scanned in.”
“And who did he scan in as?”
Detective Mercer smiled. He knew the captain would think he stole someone’s card. “Himself. It shows his scan. His name and place of employment. Hero Inc. which doesn’t exist in the building, or really anywhere.”
“Ok, Mercer. You have my attention.”
#
I felt it. I know it’s real. I just need a little more time. Oh, the feeling. The energy moving through me. I was connected to the soul of the world. I saw everything that was and ever will be, bound by nothing. Yet, I was so small. Insignificant. An infinitesimally small part of it all. So much was hidden just beyond the veil. I was humbled. I was rapturous. Then it was taken from me.
From that day I dedicated my life, search through ancient tomes, and tombs, using every possible means at my disposal. Conducting rituals, ancient and new. Searching for the truth. Hunting for an ounce of the magic I once held. Then one day, a thread. The tiniest of all pulls. The faintest scent of your favorite dish from childhood, pulling on my soul. I grabbed it with every fiber of my being. Chasing it, grabbing small strand after strand. I was like a starving man devouring. It was never enough. Nothing like the feeling I once held.
My family are trying to stop me. Saying I’m being reckless with MY money. It’s mine I can do what I want with it. Why do they care? What good is it if I can’t use it to grab more threads? They tell me that my obsession isn’t healthy. They just don’t understand. How could they?
Yes, that is it. I must show them. These threads. They must know the joy. The power, even if it isn’t the world, I can show them a river. Then they’ll understand.
Today, I brought my son to show him. To make him understand.
I gave him a thread of power. For a moment I was sure he would understand. He was of my blood how could he not? I Could see it in the rapturous exaltation as he grasped the tiniest bit of power. Then he looked at me despite his obvious euphoria, I could see it in his eyes that he still didn’t understand. When he spoke of using the power to help people I knew he didn’t understand. What was the point of using such potential on little things? He should be aiming so much higher. No. He did not understand that this is so much more than that. I needed him o see but for that, I needed more.
After the demonstration. They were much more understanding of my obsession and today. I have followed a final clue to an island, a myth, hidden beyond the understanding. An island that only appeared on a full moon when the tide is just right, and one is carrying the power. One moment the ocean was empty the next, and the island.
I told them all there was enough power here to supply the world. I told them it would help everyone. Soon. Soon. They would all understand.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
#
From the Journal of Dr. Amartis. Recovered from his cabin by his surviving son. After his death during a failed ritual on the newly discovered Myth Island.
#
In an office a man, a doll, and a warp version of a man covered in tentacles, eyes, teeth, incomprehensible and unknowable. His body constantly shifting, and warping. Overlayed with what the man once was.
Nicki had not been having a good time lately especially after Detective Mercer came by to interrogate him. It was obvious what he was there for. Nicki had been intimidated by the entire thing as it was invasive and nerve-wracking. He had answered more questions than he would have liked before it occurred to him he should contact a lawyer. Nicki could afford it now. The Detective did not like that and tried to get him to talk more but he just repeated he would not answer any more questions without his lawyer present. Eventually, he left.
Nicki thinking he might need a lawyer went to his wallet and called the number on the back of his insurance card, which he was now sure wasn’t just insurance. They had told him everything was covered, so why not a lawyer? They had essentially said they would take care of it.
Over the last week though he could have sworn he was being followed when he went out of his apartment. Then Drystia had helpfully pointed out that he was indeed being followed. That oddly made it slightly better, still screwed up though. It was the first time Nicki was able to get a word out of her in days. She hadn’t been the same since the incident. Short, withdrawn, and distant. Her playful banter since had taken on a dark self-deprecating edge.
Now this thing came into his office after trying to warp his world. Just to wake or become an eldritch being; he wasn’t sure which. The Doctor had nearly killed his son, but he and the crew were able to stop him before it was too late But not before he unleashed a torrent of mana that flooded their world. Something that would have untold consequences for the rest of the planet. Probably wizards.
Nicki looked down on the former man, he looked between him and the folder on his desk with disgust. Even his file was warped and tainted. “What do I do with you?”
“Yes, you understand. It is here. I’ve done it. I have transcended.”
“No.”
“I have. I can feel it. All of it. The universe, it is all there.” The man said seeming to be caught in some kind of high.
That form must be messing with his brain. “No. You are at a crossroads, a weighing point where You go on to the next.”
The thing that was once Dr. Amartis stopped its undulating. “Then I failed? I am dead?” Its voice was strangely neutral. As a tentacle reached out toward Nicki.
Nicki flicked his hand as the ethereal appendage dissolved, “Failed…Kind of. Dead no.”
The Doctor didn’t even flinch though his tentacles did seem to become agitated. They began to attack Nicki in force. A little doll jumped forward with a smile cutting them to bits. The Doctor completely oblivious, “Then what?”
Nicki watched the entire thing, shaking his head. “I send you to your next world.”
“Then just send me to them. Where the unfathomable is all, and all is one. Where madness brings understanding, and time has no meaning.”
Nicki was about to say there wasn’t a place like that when suddenly he felt it touch his mind and he recoiled. He felt where he wanted to go. What it would mean. Those things were not meant for mortal minds. “You don’t want that.”
The Doctor smiled as he realized he could go there. “OH YES! I will go. Become what I’m meant to be.”
Shaking his head, Nicki Tried to explain, “I don’t think you understand. If I send you. You will always have been and always will be. A creature of multiple dimensions not conceivable by humans.
“You will be what is, will, and always has. A creature within, without, beyond, and under time itself. Part of the universe and not. An impossibility of a dream. And no these aren’t metaphors they just are.”
The things tentacles seemed to undulate in pleasure from my description while Drystia cut them down. Yet more grew and struck. She seems to be having fun.
Nicki continued. “If I send you. You will just have been a blip. A moment in time. You might not even be able to comprehend what you once were. A dream of a dream. It will be you and not, you will be nothing.”
The doctor smiled. His grin grew impossibly large, beyond his face, sharp and horrible.
#
Beyond the veil were things never seen never were and always was. Where the old ones sleep, and wake all at once. Quantumly entangled within a realm beyond its own singularity. Within an infinitesimal moment. Microscopic within its existence so small it should not have even been so much as a blip in such a being’s life.
For an Old One, a blip, a change, a strange change of something that cannot be, no matter how minuscule or insignificant, still draws its attention. To draw an eldritch being such as it is the death sentence of a universe, as it wakes up, and a universe blips out of existence just a simple dream to the creature. Already forgotten and fully remembered.
What could be so spectacular, so strange, so momentous that it caused it to wake? It had known and understood. For that insignificant instance, the Creature had known what it was like to be human, to feel emotions, and to understand such a tiny pitiful existence. A moment it would cherish, or at least it would if the moment didn't pass. Maybe it wouldn’t let it pass, holding the moment just to experience being insignificant.
It was deliciously odd. The creatures were so blind. Unable to see the truth so close yet so far from their beings. The twists of the worlds, the games of the gods. All There in plain sight. The memory flies, the warping fields scattered across the world eating their fill from the humans who roam oblivious to all the wonder.
So much beauty in the scents of sound. The cacophony of memories singing into the void. None of which the humans could even begin to contemplate. So small yet so simple.
Part of the being drifted through the memories, sifting them, warping them, searching, and living them infinitely, as it close its eyes once more. Dreaming of another universe.
#
A man and a doll sit in an office, their curiosity having gotten the better of them as they look at an eldritch file. It warped and moved, undulating as indecipherable text moved along its edges. Text that should be impossible to read yet yelled inside the minds of the two.
Nicki managed to close the file away. Tears of blood dripped down his face.
“Madness. Utter madness. Exactly what I thought.” He said falling back in his chair. I still need to file the damn thing. He didn’t want to even touch the vile paper.
“Do you even know what madness is?” Drystia said curtly.
Nicki looked over at Drystia, wishing he could explain when he remembered. It was something he did not want to do. To relive what happened. Though when he looked down at Drystia he could only think: She would understand. Except he was terrified that she might not. If she didn’t. Would she judge him? Blame him? He didn’t know what would happen. Maybe it would make things worse. He felt his heart race as he began, “I know madness. I’ve seen it a thousand times. I’ve fought it too. I’ve delved deep into it.”
Drystia turned her voice cutting, “And came out unscathed?”
“No.” He looked down at his fingers. “No. No, I did not. No one does.”
Drystia was quiet. He knew she was feeling bad for what she said but was still too terrified of what he would do. Maybe she’ll let it pass, and I won’t have to.
She spoke in a quiet, timid voice tinged with fear. “What happened?”
It was Nicki’s turn to show her his worst time.
* * *