The Lurker at the Threshold : A Horror Mystery by Brandon Berntson (books under 200 pages .txt) 📗

carried away by the serum.  I assumed everything was your doing.  I knew you’d think I was dead—Millie, too, so I didn’t expect you to come looking for me.  I climbed up as fast as I could.  The water and serum were rising, the floors and walls collapsing.  I thought you and Millie hadn’t made it out.  But I saw you both running up and out ahead of me just as I was coming up the stairs.  I didn’t have the strength to call out, out of breath, the concussion.  I got lost in another passage before finding another way up and outside.  By the time I made it into town and to the hospital, you and Millie had already left.  I was at the hospital for a while.  I didn’t remember a whole lot during my recovery.  And by the time I was released, I just wanted to get back to work.  I had a feeling our paths would cross again soon enough.  I didn’t expect it to be so soon was all.  And we had issues here with the serum, with Lot Twenty-six.  There were . . . creatures.  Still are.  Addy and I, and many of the townsfolk, have been busy trying to eradicate them ever since.”

“Millie is going to be very happy to know you’re alive.”

“I’m glad.”  He turned to Capshaw.  “So, what did you drive all the way out here for?”

“That’s what we’ve come to talk to you about, Henry,” Capshaw said.  “We need your help.  The Mad Arab is wreaking havoc on the city.  Gates are opening and closing.  Yog-Sothoth.  The Necronomicon.”

Armitage frowned.  “The Mad Arab?  Good heavens!  Are you quite serious?”

Macky took a deep breath.  “I’m afraid the whole thing is my fault.”

“You’re fault?” Armitage said.

Macky nodded.  “I’ll try to give you the shortened version.”

Chapter 11

They were sitting around one of the large oak tables.  The lantern light shed a soft amber glow. Capshaw and Macky briefed Armitage on everything that had happened since coming into contact with The Necronomicon.

“You seem to attract the darker things in life, don’t you, Dev?” Armitage asked, one eyebrow raise.

“It’s a gift,” Macky said.  “I’m a monster magnet for mayhem.  Through no fault of my own.  Except this one.  And Dagon.  But that Arkham business was completely Millie’s fault.”

Armitage nodded, but not at what Macky was saying.  “The dark things in life have motives to kill and destroy.  The regions around Innsport and Arkham are buried in myths and legends, dating back several hundred years.  You have a special talent for recognizing them.”

“I appreciate you wording it in a way to make me feel good about it,” Macky said.

“Henry,” Capshaw said.  “Miss Millie’s apartment has turned into a shrine of some kind, a landscape you’d see in a fantasy novel.  It’s really quite beautiful is the thing, but Macky and I believe it could be dangerous.  Goes against everything we’ve seen so far.  Millie is there now.  We haven’t much time.  But I knew you’d know something about it.”

“Describe it to me,” Armitage said.

“It’s sort of . . . prismatic, I guess,” Capshaw said, thinking.  “There’s a large lake to the north, deep woods.  To the south is a celestial city, pillars of white marble.  It’s breathtaking, to be quite honest, but it . . . also doesn’t feel right.”

Armitage got up, went to a shelf, and pulled down several volumes.  He put them on the table, rifled through one, and stopped at a page, reading it carefully.

“Yes,” the doctor said.  “The kingdom of Sarnath in the land of Mnar.  Beauty.  Kingdoms.  And Millie.  It makes perfect sense.”

“What does that mean?” Macky asked.

“Sarnath was a kingdom from several millennia ago.  Beautiful, which I think is why Yog-Sothoth, or Abdul Alhazred, or even The Necronomicon, displayed it to her.  Something she couldn’t resist because it gave no semblance to evil.  She wouldn’t turn and run away.  My guess is, it gave her a promise.  That she would be its queen.”

“That sounds like Millie,” Macky said.

“Sarnath is beautiful.  But . . .”

“But?” Macky asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Much of the Lovecraftian Mythos is rooted in dreamscapes and fantasy, it’s true.  Aside from the cosmic horrors and madness, there are things of great beauty.  Even benevolence.  We can focus on Millie as a starting point, considering the history of Sarnath and its fall.”

“Fall?” Macky asked, looking alarmed.

Armitage nodded.  “Yes.  I’m afraid so.  People of the Moon, they were called, the tribe that lived in the woods to the north.  They would have been able to hide for years, which they did.  The king of Sarnath wanted to eradicate them.  He succeeded to an extent.  But there were survivors.  And they weren’t pleased.  Nor should they be.  The King of Sarnath stole their idol, took it back to Sarnath, and erected it in the middle of the city.  Those who were left—the People of the Moon—waited in silence for many years.  On a certain full moon, they ransacked the city, killing everyone there, and took back their idol.”

“This story is going to play itself out, isn’t it?” Macky asked. “That’s what these gates are.  They’re part of the Mythos.”

“It sounds like it.  It’s no different than your hound in the city,” Armitage said.  “Same thing.  If Millie has been captivated by the land of Sarnath, then she is, I’m sorry to say, to fall under the knife of the tribe.  Sarnath’s past is playing itself out in Millie’s portal, her dimension, even her dreamscape.”

“But this is no dreamscape,” Macky said.  “It’s real!  The entire apartment was . . .”

“I understand, Dev,” Armitage said, nodding.  “Regardless, the power of Yog-Sothoth is more than the three of us can handle.  He might be using Abdul Alhazred for his own purposes.”

Macky looked down and rubbed his temples.

“Our first rule of business