Good Evening, most awesome and beautiful people! Tonight, while I’m too exhausted to work on other projects that require greater focus and energy, I thought I’d share a horror story I wrote for the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival last year. It has some very subtle points that would be much more obvious if I had the words to elaborate. However, this is an example of Lovecraftian micro-fiction: a complete horror story in 500 words or less. This one is exactly 499 words. To quote Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, “Unpleasant Dreams.” 😈😉
🖤💋
- Dhyani
@missy @Rambo
From: Bannon, Michael
To: Atkins, Charles
Subject: Lost In Translation
Professor Atkins -
I consulted with Professor Brown in Egyptology regarding the scroll, and I’m worried about her. She isn’t answering her cell, and her aide says she’s gone. Both said to call you, but I got your voicemail. Here’s a copy of our chat:
MB: Hi, Doctor Brown. Thanks for helping me with this hieratic scroll from the temple outside Amarna. It could make my career here at Miskatonic U, but I’m stumped. Did you get my package?
JB: Call me Jennifer, please; titles are for egotists. Yes, someone just opened it for me.
MB: Great! BTW, I like your profile picture; you’re gorgeous!
JB: ;) I wish I could see it. Thanks for printing your transliteration in Braille for me.
MB: How are you chatting with me anyway?
JB: The computer reads your words aloud, and I have a Braille keyboard.
MB: Oh! So, what does it say?
JB: Patience...what’s this? I found what feels like a rubbing of a bas-relief.
MB: Oh, yes, I included a rubbing of the altar chamber wall where we found the scroll.
JB: Smart... Curious! There’s a big symbol that feels familiar, but it’s unlike any Egyptian glyph I’ve ever encountered. Working on the hieratic now...
MB: Sweet!
JB: Okay. I think I “see” the problem. You’re mistaking the character for “ma’èt” for the one for “ma’at.”
MB: D’oh, I feel stupid.
JB: No reason to, Mike. It’s a VERY ancient dialect. I’m still curious about that glyph on the relief; I’m giving it a second “look”...HEY...WHAT THE...?
MB: What is it?
JB: Oh, nothing...just for moment I thought I saw something, but that’s impossible; I’ve been blind for years. I’m checking the hieratic against the rubbing of the hieroglyphics to see if they’re related...
MB: I’m obviously going to have to share credit with you now!
JB: Thanks! :D Sure enough, with my corrections, the top hieroglyphics match the hieratic; they’re just FAR older. I can barely understand them. I’m going to feel that strange glyph once more to memorize it, then I’ll do the rest... THERE IT IS AGAIN - a flash of brilliant color, static electricity, and a sense of weightlessness... Ugh, I think I’m getting a migraine.
MB: Yikes!
JB: Listen to this: “Unchained by this ritual, The Eternal One can grant the devotee visions or...journeys...to and of any place, any time.” This is INCREDIBLE! IT’S TRUE!! I CAN SEE AGAIN!! I see spheres of iridescent color flowing together and breaking apart as if from a great distance!
MB: Flowing...spheres? Jennifer, WAIT!!! “The Eternal One,” Isn’t that like “Tawil at’Umr,” in Arabic?
JB: Yes…that’s right...I think I found the name of the being itself...OMG!! Call Professor Atkins NOW!! Here’s the last of it: “To summon The Eternal One, simply trace your hand thrice across his sigil. BE FORWARNED: IF YOU ARE NOT DEVOTED TO YOG-SOTHOTH, DO NOT TOUCH!
