Main Story: Chapter Two - The Foretelling

Gee, it's been a very productive couple of days.

Here is the next chapter:

The Deep Ones Project
By David John Reichen

Chapter Two - The Foretelling

After laying to rest my parents spirits' in their watery abyss, we return home. I ask my companion into the study so that we can talk together in reasonable comfort and privacy and ask, "So, exactly what do I call you anyway?"

"Hey You, works for me," he replies.

I chuckle at his response, knowing fully well that he was just making a joke and continue my questioning, "No. I mean what is your name? None of the news reports that I know of actually calls you by any sort of name."

"That's because I only give it out on a need to know basis."

"And of course," I interrupt, "I don't need to know."

"I think you do by now," he says and then takes out an ID badge. The badge looks impressive: a government type seal, big letters along the top spelling out National Security Agency with the guys pictures and name below it, Chancy, Lief."You can call me Lief."

"Ouch. It's no wonder you don't go around bragging about your name."

"My parents have a very sick humor."

"And do you really work for the crypto spooks?"

"Yes, I do work with the Agency, not for them. I'm an independent agent. My speciality is in ancient scripts from the Alemanic region of Europe."

"So how did you end up working with mom and dad anyway. Their field was biology not ciphers or am I missing something?"

"You would be surprised how similar the code of life is to other types of codes."


After a while, the conversation draws to a close and I make my way upstairs to bed. "I'm so tired that I could sleep forever," I comment, as I ascend the stairs.

Just then, a high, squeaky voice calls out the following refrain, which makes the hairs on the back of my neck stiffen:

" That is not dead, which can eternal lie.
In strange eons, even death itself may die.

Cthulhu sumbers in his palace beneath the sea.
Dreaming of the monent he shall be free! "

I turn around so quickly that I almost fall down the stairs. I could have sworn that I was alone but sure enough, there is Lief, standing at the foot of the stairs, cackling in mirth. "Thanks a lot, man! I'll probably have a nightmare now," I gruff.

"You're welcome. If you do, I am here if you need me," he replies, stepping into the Living Room, where he will be sleeping on the sofa, leaving me to wonder what he exactly meant by that.


I lay down on my bed, close my eyes and drift into the land of sleep:

A cocoon lies on a table, a surgical platform maybe. Barely noticeable within it is a hominoid shape. Tubes snake in and around the body moving liquids of unknown origin into and out of the reclined figure.

The chest moves up and down, as if it is breathing, but there cannot possibly be any breathable air in such an
environment; however, breath it does. Some thick a viscous fluid moves through the nose and flaps arrayed at the neck and abdomen.

The beat of a sluggish heart can be heard in the background. Its pace quickens. An area where the head is becomes transparent. A face is reveled, a face very familiar to the dreamer yet subtly different. His own!

The viewpoint changes abruptly. The dreamer is now looking out through the pod into the room. He desperately claws his way out of the confined space and sits up. He coughs violently, clearing the mucousy substance that he has been breathing for an unknown amount of time.

He begins to wake but not instantly. During the transition, he has one final vision to take with him into the waking world.

He sees the girl of his finest dreams. As she beckons, the colors change, unnoticed details become apparent, she looks similar to his own dream image.


I wake up screaming in terror of what I had just dreamed. I have the feeling that I have experienced this type of dream many times before. This time it is different, much more realer. What frightens me the most is that this time, unlike all of the other times, I REMEMBER!

Scary monsters and super peeps
The more you dream, the less you sleep.
Life as you know it has gone away
Unbound, unwound, who's here to stay.
{Nobody's Real, by Powerman 5000, from Tonight the Stars Revolt}