Main Story: Chapter Seven : Of The Chosen
This chapter and the next end one of the plot arcs of the story.
The Deep Ones Project
By David Reichen
Chapter Seven: Of the Chosen
Whatsoever I've feared has come to life
Whatsoever I've fought off, became my life
Just when every day seemed to greet me with a smile
Sunspots have faded and I'm do'n time
Cause I fell on black days
{Fell on Black Days, by Soundgardern, from Superunkown}
We make our way to Jefferies Neck, a peninsula that is on the coast of Massachusetts. It juts out of the mainland across from the southern end of Plum Island. Lief pulls over and changes out of his ninja suit and puts on some normal clothes. He mentions something about not wanting to spook the natives. We then continue driving along the road to just before we get to a military facility. Instead of pulling up to the gate that is there, he turns right and we go along the road that circles around Jefferies Neck.
After a moment, we get to another checkpoint. This whole area seems to be converted into some sort of huge military base. I wonder what happened to my parents, if they got here and found this place. We pull up to a barrier that's placed across the road and a group of guards come to our car.
"Sorry guys," one of the guards says, brandishing a machine gun at us as the others surround the car we are in, "this is a restricted area by order of the CDC. Only authorized personnel are allowed here. You will have to leave."
Lief hands the guard something and says, "this should be enough authorization or do you need to call up the Wilmarth Foundation too."
Whatever Lief handed the guard must have been enough, the guard's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their eye sockets. He returns to Lief what was given him and motions the other guards to step aside. They lift the barrier barring our way and we continue down the road to a nearby town.
"Here we are," says Lief, as we pull into the parking lot of the Gillman House.
"What? This is Innsmouth? That's not what the town's sign said," I say, trying to clarify what he meant.
"With as bad of a reputation that this town has, do you really think that they would be calling it by its real name. This whole place was declared a quarantined area by the CDC to keep an unspecified but potentially deadly disease from spreading. Only those tainted with you know what or those authorized to be here are allowed through the gates, no exceptions. Even a few presidents where kindly ask to go away when they tried to get in."
We enter the lobby and approach the counter clerk. The man looks weird, his skin seems loose around the neck and his finger are mishapened. We get to the counter and he asks, "Are you wanting a room or are you here to visit someone?"
Lief answers, "we will be checking in for now, if you have two rooms for us?"
"I only have one room left so you will have to bunk up with each other for the night. The room isn't much but it is cozy. The clans are gathering for Hallow's Eve. You, sir, don't look like you are one of the brethren but your companion looks like one of us."
"We'll take the room then and your right about me, I'm Central European but he is from around this area, which is why we are here. We are trying to find out what happened to my ward's parents. They disappeared about six months ago and I know that they were heading here when they left us. Their names are Marsha Waite and Elliot Gillman, would you happen to know if they arrived here or not. His name is Kevin Gillman."
"Marsha Waite and Elliot Gillman!" the clerk shouts, in surprise. " Kevin Gillman, your parents did make it here but they left in a hurry just after they got here and haven't been seen of since."
"They did get here after all," Lief says. "I checked with the security department for this base but they said that there was no record of them getting here. I guess I will have to check back with them and find out why there is a difference between what you just told me and what they said.
"What the heck happened here and where did they go to?"
"When we noticed that they were gone, right after the celebration we had that night, we searched but could not find them anywhere. They were not in their room and it was empty of what little they brought with them. When we asked the military to check their scans, to see if there was any trace of them leaving, they said that nothing unusual happened. They even let us look at the scans with them so I know they were not trying to pull something on us. They let us also check their database for any record of their entry into town and that turned up a blank too for some strange reason. You might want to look into that too. It's as if they never were here but that can't be true since I and other saw them here. They got here on May Eve and checked in. Here is the record of them checking in," says the clerk, emphatically pointing out the entree in the hotel's registry.
Kevin bends down, closer to where the clerk is pointing and confirms that it is his parents' signatures, "those are either my parents' signature or very good forgeries."
Lief says, "OK. They at least got here. What happened after they checked in?"
"As I said," continues the clerk, "it was May Eve, so I invited them to come to our spring celebration that night. They have it at the Esoteric Order of Dagon and they accepted. I invited them because I realized that their families were from here. They were reluctant at first but when I told them that this was one of the high points of the social calendar for us folks and that they would be missed if they did not come, they told me that they would come."
"So they went to this celebration of yours?"
"Yes, they did come to the celebration but left in a hurry during it and were not seen afterwards."
"What about this celebration that you are talking about would cause them to leave?" I wonder out loud. "Did anything threatening happen to them during it?"
"Now why would a Normal, such as yourself, be interested in what goes on during such things. We have had enough of your kinds nosing around into our private affairs. I am grateful that you brought Kevin to us but don't be poking around in things that you should not be into," the clerk says, stiffly, while reaching down below the counter for something.
I reach over to him with my left hand, grab him by the collar of his shirt, drag him across the counter's top, before he can reach whatever he was grouping for and say in a soft voice, "you would not be trying to threaten me with violence now would you be?"
I pause for a bit and continue, "hasn't it occurred to you that the fact that I was allowed to accompany our dear Kevin here into town signify that I might not be as Normal as you think I am? Have you seen anything like this before? It's from Nubia, which was the Upper Kingdom of Egypt at the time that it was made, but I got it when I visited China."
I bring out the medallion that I wear around my neck for him to look at.
The clerk freaks out and says, "MONKS OF MADNESS! Oh, no, you are one of the messengers. We are all DOOMED!"
I release the wretch, he wobbles a bit, steadies himself and I say, "Please, that's Monks of the Messenger. OK? The madness part is just an unfortunate side effect of communing too long with the god we serve.
"As I asked, before you had your hissy fit, what happened at this celebration of your's that would make them want to leave?"
"No one threatened them, " the clerk says meekly. "They became upset during the Rites of Revelation and ran away from us, screaming at the top of their lungs. We let them leave, of their own accord, since it was obvious that they were not properly prepared for it."
"Could you describe this Rites of Revelation to me? It's not one that I am familiar with."
"It is when we reveal our true form to our Lord, Dagon, and reaffirm our hope in being judged worthy to join him.
We invited your parents, Kevin, to participate in this rite with us and they joined in. Things proceeded normally but I guess it ended up being too much for them to take in at one time. They fled into the night and have not been seen since."
"I assume that you just disrobe or something, which should not have been that disturbing for them. They are medical doctors. Why would they have reacted so?"
"It is more than just our clothes that we remove."
"What else would you be taking off?"
"I will show you how the Rites of Revelation goes," the clerk says, stepping out from behind the counter so that we can get a clear view of him.
"There is a shadow that hangs over everyone that lives here. We are under a curse that was brought upon us a million years ago. This is the price each of us pays for what others have done to us.
"This is what the Rites of Revelation is about:
On this night, I, of the chosen, reveal my true form and stand before you, our Lord, Dagon.
I pray that one day, I will be worthy of you and be allowed to join you in your loving embrace."
He takes of his cloths, right in front of us. He then does something that I hope never to see again as long as I live. He uses the nails of his thumbs to gauge his forehead, from the top of his exposed scalp to the tip of his bent nose. He grabs the exposed flaps of what I had thought of as skin and peels that way in order to reveal what he really looks like. His body is a mixture, an awful and horrible combination of no coherent organization, a creature of Man, Frog and Fish. This may be why my parents fled in terror that night.
"OH My God!" I scream. "You're all a bunch of freaks!"
"So are you," the clerk retorts.
"NO!!!!"
"I guess you have not been paying attention, boy, to what I am trying to convey to you. Have you heard the voices in your dreams, calling out to you? Have you not felt the compulsion to go to the sea?"
"I don't believe this. This can't be."
"But it is! I can tell that it is close to the start of the Changing Time for you," the clerk finishes triumphantly, pointing at my hands.
I now notice that I have been rubbing my hands, ever since he started his demonstration of that rite of his. It is surely just a nervous reaction. I bring my hands closer to my eyes so that I can get a better look at them, try to find out why they itch so much. It must be a rash that I picked up somewhere, but there are no outward signs of what is causing it. It must be my imagination but I could swear that the skin between my hands feels like it is being pulled apart somehow.
There is a threshold, a limit, that once crossed, the mind's higher functions cease, leaving the animal that we are to fend for itself. I flee from them, running into the gathering darkness, heedless of my fate.
"Damn! I'll go and get him. Here is my card. If you could, get a few of the Order together and help me look for him. Don't confront him though, he is afraid enough of you now and there is no telling what he might do. Call that number if you find him."
I hand the clerk a card with numbers on it and run off after Kevin, leaving the clerk to arrange a search party to help me look for Kevin. I hope he does not do anything drastic.
How would I know that this could be my fate.
{Fell on Black Days, by Soundgarden, from Superunknow}
The Deep Ones Project
By David Reichen
Chapter Seven: Of the Chosen
Whatsoever I've feared has come to life
Whatsoever I've fought off, became my life
Just when every day seemed to greet me with a smile
Sunspots have faded and I'm do'n time
Cause I fell on black days
{Fell on Black Days, by Soundgardern, from Superunkown}
We make our way to Jefferies Neck, a peninsula that is on the coast of Massachusetts. It juts out of the mainland across from the southern end of Plum Island. Lief pulls over and changes out of his ninja suit and puts on some normal clothes. He mentions something about not wanting to spook the natives. We then continue driving along the road to just before we get to a military facility. Instead of pulling up to the gate that is there, he turns right and we go along the road that circles around Jefferies Neck.
After a moment, we get to another checkpoint. This whole area seems to be converted into some sort of huge military base. I wonder what happened to my parents, if they got here and found this place. We pull up to a barrier that's placed across the road and a group of guards come to our car.
"Sorry guys," one of the guards says, brandishing a machine gun at us as the others surround the car we are in, "this is a restricted area by order of the CDC. Only authorized personnel are allowed here. You will have to leave."
Lief hands the guard something and says, "this should be enough authorization or do you need to call up the Wilmarth Foundation too."
Whatever Lief handed the guard must have been enough, the guard's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their eye sockets. He returns to Lief what was given him and motions the other guards to step aside. They lift the barrier barring our way and we continue down the road to a nearby town.
"Here we are," says Lief, as we pull into the parking lot of the Gillman House.
"What? This is Innsmouth? That's not what the town's sign said," I say, trying to clarify what he meant.
"With as bad of a reputation that this town has, do you really think that they would be calling it by its real name. This whole place was declared a quarantined area by the CDC to keep an unspecified but potentially deadly disease from spreading. Only those tainted with you know what or those authorized to be here are allowed through the gates, no exceptions. Even a few presidents where kindly ask to go away when they tried to get in."
We enter the lobby and approach the counter clerk. The man looks weird, his skin seems loose around the neck and his finger are mishapened. We get to the counter and he asks, "Are you wanting a room or are you here to visit someone?"
Lief answers, "we will be checking in for now, if you have two rooms for us?"
"I only have one room left so you will have to bunk up with each other for the night. The room isn't much but it is cozy. The clans are gathering for Hallow's Eve. You, sir, don't look like you are one of the brethren but your companion looks like one of us."
"We'll take the room then and your right about me, I'm Central European but he is from around this area, which is why we are here. We are trying to find out what happened to my ward's parents. They disappeared about six months ago and I know that they were heading here when they left us. Their names are Marsha Waite and Elliot Gillman, would you happen to know if they arrived here or not. His name is Kevin Gillman."
"Marsha Waite and Elliot Gillman!" the clerk shouts, in surprise. " Kevin Gillman, your parents did make it here but they left in a hurry just after they got here and haven't been seen of since."
"They did get here after all," Lief says. "I checked with the security department for this base but they said that there was no record of them getting here. I guess I will have to check back with them and find out why there is a difference between what you just told me and what they said.
"What the heck happened here and where did they go to?"
"When we noticed that they were gone, right after the celebration we had that night, we searched but could not find them anywhere. They were not in their room and it was empty of what little they brought with them. When we asked the military to check their scans, to see if there was any trace of them leaving, they said that nothing unusual happened. They even let us look at the scans with them so I know they were not trying to pull something on us. They let us also check their database for any record of their entry into town and that turned up a blank too for some strange reason. You might want to look into that too. It's as if they never were here but that can't be true since I and other saw them here. They got here on May Eve and checked in. Here is the record of them checking in," says the clerk, emphatically pointing out the entree in the hotel's registry.
Kevin bends down, closer to where the clerk is pointing and confirms that it is his parents' signatures, "those are either my parents' signature or very good forgeries."
Lief says, "OK. They at least got here. What happened after they checked in?"
"As I said," continues the clerk, "it was May Eve, so I invited them to come to our spring celebration that night. They have it at the Esoteric Order of Dagon and they accepted. I invited them because I realized that their families were from here. They were reluctant at first but when I told them that this was one of the high points of the social calendar for us folks and that they would be missed if they did not come, they told me that they would come."
"So they went to this celebration of yours?"
"Yes, they did come to the celebration but left in a hurry during it and were not seen afterwards."
"What about this celebration that you are talking about would cause them to leave?" I wonder out loud. "Did anything threatening happen to them during it?"
"Now why would a Normal, such as yourself, be interested in what goes on during such things. We have had enough of your kinds nosing around into our private affairs. I am grateful that you brought Kevin to us but don't be poking around in things that you should not be into," the clerk says, stiffly, while reaching down below the counter for something.
I reach over to him with my left hand, grab him by the collar of his shirt, drag him across the counter's top, before he can reach whatever he was grouping for and say in a soft voice, "you would not be trying to threaten me with violence now would you be?"
I pause for a bit and continue, "hasn't it occurred to you that the fact that I was allowed to accompany our dear Kevin here into town signify that I might not be as Normal as you think I am? Have you seen anything like this before? It's from Nubia, which was the Upper Kingdom of Egypt at the time that it was made, but I got it when I visited China."
I bring out the medallion that I wear around my neck for him to look at.
The clerk freaks out and says, "MONKS OF MADNESS! Oh, no, you are one of the messengers. We are all DOOMED!"
I release the wretch, he wobbles a bit, steadies himself and I say, "Please, that's Monks of the Messenger. OK? The madness part is just an unfortunate side effect of communing too long with the god we serve.
"As I asked, before you had your hissy fit, what happened at this celebration of your's that would make them want to leave?"
"No one threatened them, " the clerk says meekly. "They became upset during the Rites of Revelation and ran away from us, screaming at the top of their lungs. We let them leave, of their own accord, since it was obvious that they were not properly prepared for it."
"Could you describe this Rites of Revelation to me? It's not one that I am familiar with."
"It is when we reveal our true form to our Lord, Dagon, and reaffirm our hope in being judged worthy to join him.
We invited your parents, Kevin, to participate in this rite with us and they joined in. Things proceeded normally but I guess it ended up being too much for them to take in at one time. They fled into the night and have not been seen since."
"I assume that you just disrobe or something, which should not have been that disturbing for them. They are medical doctors. Why would they have reacted so?"
"It is more than just our clothes that we remove."
"What else would you be taking off?"
"I will show you how the Rites of Revelation goes," the clerk says, stepping out from behind the counter so that we can get a clear view of him.
"There is a shadow that hangs over everyone that lives here. We are under a curse that was brought upon us a million years ago. This is the price each of us pays for what others have done to us.
"This is what the Rites of Revelation is about:
On this night, I, of the chosen, reveal my true form and stand before you, our Lord, Dagon.
I pray that one day, I will be worthy of you and be allowed to join you in your loving embrace."
He takes of his cloths, right in front of us. He then does something that I hope never to see again as long as I live. He uses the nails of his thumbs to gauge his forehead, from the top of his exposed scalp to the tip of his bent nose. He grabs the exposed flaps of what I had thought of as skin and peels that way in order to reveal what he really looks like. His body is a mixture, an awful and horrible combination of no coherent organization, a creature of Man, Frog and Fish. This may be why my parents fled in terror that night.
"OH My God!" I scream. "You're all a bunch of freaks!"
"So are you," the clerk retorts.
"NO!!!!"
"I guess you have not been paying attention, boy, to what I am trying to convey to you. Have you heard the voices in your dreams, calling out to you? Have you not felt the compulsion to go to the sea?"
"I don't believe this. This can't be."
"But it is! I can tell that it is close to the start of the Changing Time for you," the clerk finishes triumphantly, pointing at my hands.
I now notice that I have been rubbing my hands, ever since he started his demonstration of that rite of his. It is surely just a nervous reaction. I bring my hands closer to my eyes so that I can get a better look at them, try to find out why they itch so much. It must be a rash that I picked up somewhere, but there are no outward signs of what is causing it. It must be my imagination but I could swear that the skin between my hands feels like it is being pulled apart somehow.
There is a threshold, a limit, that once crossed, the mind's higher functions cease, leaving the animal that we are to fend for itself. I flee from them, running into the gathering darkness, heedless of my fate.
"Damn! I'll go and get him. Here is my card. If you could, get a few of the Order together and help me look for him. Don't confront him though, he is afraid enough of you now and there is no telling what he might do. Call that number if you find him."
I hand the clerk a card with numbers on it and run off after Kevin, leaving the clerk to arrange a search party to help me look for Kevin. I hope he does not do anything drastic.
How would I know that this could be my fate.
{Fell on Black Days, by Soundgarden, from Superunknow}
posted by Unknown at 8:45 PM
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