Cthulhu - Something in the Mud (short story) by Nikolai Bird
***
Olivia took hold of Jack’s hand. It was pitch black. Blustery rain lashed the windows.
“Candles!” demanded the Colonel. “Damned power is out.” There was an edge to his voice. What had Dunberry told him? Had the Reverend seen something? Memories came back to Jack. Memories of things he wished would forever remain in the dark.
Morgan fumbled his way over to Olivia who let go of Jack’s hand. In came Ashton again, this time carrying two candles and at once Jack knew something was very wrong indeed. Abel Dunberry stood very still, facing the windows. It was as though he was expecting something, and in his hand was a gun, held at his side.
“What is going on?” said Lady Farthington.
“He’s got a gun!” said Mr Hillman. His wife whimpered and hid behind the man.
Suddenly there was a scream. It came from outside, close to the house. It was loud and shrill, gurgling and inhuman. It made the very hairs on Jack’s neck stand up.
“What the devil was that?” said Mr Hillman.
“Colonel?” said Jack.
“Jack. You stay here. Watch the women. Reverend, come with me. Ashton, fetch Matilda.”
Matilda? Of course! Jack remembered the Colonel had a double barrelled shotgun lovingly called Matilda. Something was out there.
“What’s going on, sir?” Jack persisted.
The Colonel gave him a dark look. “They found me,” was all he said.
Jack nodded. This could only mean the enemy. Throughout the war and beyond, the Colonel and the Odd Jobs had fought them. Who were they? The Nameless Ones, the horrors beyond the thin veil of reality - the waking nightmares. Call them demons, witches, warlocks, anything because it makes no difference. No words can describe what is not real and yet able to drive you mad with a single glance.
With shotgun in hand, the Colonel led Dunberry, Ashton and Smith to the front door. Jack watched from the living room door as the Colonel hesitated, nodded to the others, then opened the door and charged the very darkness that lay beyond.
Jack rushed back to the bay windows.
“Jack. What is happening?” said Olivia.
“Yes,” said Morgan. “Is this some joke? If so, it’s not funny. The women are terrified!”
Before Jack could answer, there was another of the shrill screams, followed by shots. Now a man screamed out there and more shots were fired. The very ground shook which was followed by the sudden silence of the screaming man. Jack saw the panic on the faces of all those gathered in the dim candle light. A window smashed to splinters behind the curtain. The women screamed and cried.
“Get away from the window!” said Jack. “In fact get to the back of the house. Get to the kitchen now!”
Everyone rushed out. Jack had to help the shivering Lady Farthington. She was as pale as a ghost.
“Let me,” said Jennifer, the house keeper, and took the Lady’s arm.
There was more gun fire and Jack went back to the front door just as it burst open. Ashton, the valet, soaked and muddy, dragged in the Reverend Abel Dunberry by the arms. Behind them the Colonel snapped shut his shot gun and fired off two more shots at something Jack could not see before retreating back into the house and slamming the door shut behind him.
Jack helped Ashton. Dunberry was only semi-conscious and together they got him on the settee in the living room. The curtains flapped from the broken window, the wind now howling beyond.
“Move the settee,” said Jack, and they dragged it away from the window. Dunberry groaned.
“Where is the footman? Smith?” Jack then asked, realising the man had not returned with the others.
“Gone,” said the Colonel. “The thing got him.”
“What is it?”
The Colonel shook his head.
“Spawn,” croaked Dunberry. He grasped Jack’s arm and pulled him closer.
“What was that?”
“Mud Spawn of Cthulhu,” said Dunberry. And that was it. He had spoken the name of the enemy, a name Jack feared, a name well known to the Odd Jobs. Cthulhu.
“A spawn? How do we stop it? Can we kill it?”
“We hurt it, but our guns are not enough,” said the Colonel.
“Ritual,” whispered the Reverend. “Break the summoning. Listen man.”
“I’m listening,” said Jack. It was obvious that Dunberry was in great pain and would probably pass out soon.
“Manon Brodeur.”
“What?”
“Did he say Manon Brodeur?” asked the Colonel moving closer.
“I think so. A French woman?”
“Coven,” said Abel. “Found Colonel. Revenge. I suspected it. Must break summoning…” Abel closed his eyes and said no more. Jack checked the man’s pulse. He was alive but he needed medical attention.
“Coven?” said Jack.
The Colonel was silent, thinking. Suddenly there was a mighty crash from the roof and the entire house shook.
“It’s going to rip the house to pieces,” said the Colonel. “We need light. Damned generator!”
“Tell me about this coven, sir.”
“Back in the war. I sent men to fetch Manon Brodeur. Intelligence said she was the leader of a coven. The Germans gave us the location. There was trouble however. The woman was killed. I sent four men. A fifth joined them, shot the woman and then vanished. Never found out who he was, but the coven survived and it would seem that they have finally found me.”
“The Reverend seems to think the creature was summoned to this place, not sent.”
“Yes. He warned me that he suspected something was afoot. That is why I invited the fellow.”
“Is he what I think he is?”
“Yes,” said the Colonel. “Bellatorum Dei.”
Jack nodded. He knew of Bellatorum Dei from his time in the Odd Jobs – a secretive, cult like organisation made up of members of the CoE. It had always been denied, but rumour was that at its heart was royalty. The few encounters Jack had had with them had left him with a very different view of the Church. Not the friendly, forgiving Christians, Bellatorum Dei, but ruthless, calculating hunters of the Enemy.
“That would mean that the coven are here. Perhaps in this very house.”
“Exactly,” said the Colonel followed by another crash from the upper floors.
“Your staff.”
“Perhaps. Not Ashton,” said the Colonel nodding towards Ashton.
“The cook. The maid. What was her name? Jennifer…”
“Tailor.”
“Brodeur,” said Jack. The Colonel nodded.
They both went to the kitchen, Ashton close behind. People gathered round the large kitchen table. Curtains were drawn and only two small candles lit the room. The hound whimpered from beneath the table. Jennifer was in the far corner, near hidden by the shadows, watching Jack and the Colonel, waiting it seemed.
“Miss Tailor?” said Jack. She did not answer. “Parlez-moi de Manon Brodeur.”
Jennifer smiled. The shadows grew deeper. There was a light in her eyes, like a cat’s reflecting the candle light back at him.
“What have you done?” demanded the Colonel.
“She was my mother,” said Jennifer. She was murdered by that man. She pointed a finger at the Colonel. “And now he will die. You will all die.”
Mrs Hillman began to cry. Her husband turned on the Colonel. “No hear this, Sinclair. We’ve had quite enough. We are leaving this madhouse. We are leaving now!”
“Nobody is leaving,” said Jennifer.
“How dare you…” began Lady Farthington, but Jennifer cut her off with a hiss.
Olivia moved to be with her father.
Again the house shook and something fell from the upper floor, the kitchen outside door flew open and the candles went out. Lightning struck close by and in the white light was reflected the massive form of something outside the house. The shriek again, but this time so loud and so close. The form was that of black rubbery skin, rising high into the air. It was wet
“Close the door!” shouted the Colonel. Hillman and Morgan did so.
“What was that? What on God’s earth was that?” said Morgan.
“We are under attack by a creature. A creature summoned by this woman, Jennifer or is it Genevieve?” said the Colonel. There was no answer.
Ashton got a candle lit just as the kitchen’s inner door closed and by the sounds of it was locked from the other side. Jack realised that Jennifer was gone. In the darkness she had fled.
It was a substantial door, but the Colonel clicked shut the shotgun and blew a hole where the handle and locking mechanism were. Jack pulled the door open and rushed out, but it was too dark to see anything.
“A candle.” said Jack and Ashton handed him one.
“We must find the artefacts of summoning,” said the Colonel.
“Any idea where?”
“Probably not upstairs. I suspect that there is little left of that.” The house was still being attacked. Every strike shook it to its foundations. “The basement.”
“Where’s the door?”
The Colonel did not answer. Instead Ashton stepped in. “Outside, sir.”
Damn. Someone was going to have to go out there. That creature was out there. Perhaps Jennifer too.
“Well in that case, I will have to go out,” said Jack.
“Good man,” said the Colonel. “The door is on the south side. We can distract the thing from the main door. You go out the kitchen door.”
“Will do, sir.”