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The only way that I was going to discover the truth would be to go into the room that lay beyond the door. I said a quick prayer asking God to help me discover the truth behind what I found in the basement. Asking Him to show me the way to fulfill His will, I implored His protection from those who sought to harm me. I opened the door, expecting to step into a room straight out of a Lovecraft story, full of rotting tomes and a huge altar with a hideous statue behind it.
My jaw literally hit the floor when I saw what lay beyond the door. No ancient grimoires of long hidden knowledge lurked in the room. I could not see a gigantic statue of Cthulhu standing behind a bloodstained altar, a dagger, wet and sticky, laying atop it. The room was not lit by torches sustained by the magic power of the Old Ones.
Instead, I looked at a large desk at the other end of the carpeted room. There was a cushioned chair, comfortable and inviting, sitting in front of it. Sitting atop the desk was a personal computer with a mouse, a laser printer, and two boxes of what appeared to be floppy disks.
I rubbed my eyes for a minute to make sure that I had not imagined everything in the room. I thought that maybe it was a trick of the light. But the room looked the same. I glanced at the white walls and saw a beautiful painting of a mountain landscape hanging to the right side of the desk.
Feeling lightheaded from my surprise, I fell into the chair trying to gather my thoughts. I could no longer believe that Jackson had set this room up. If he had been behind the letter, then he would have set up this room to be a temple to the Great Old Ones. As it stood now, the supposed temple turned out to be nothing more than an office. My addled mind concluded that Aunt Heather must have been out of her mind when she wrote the letter.
I thanked God that He had given me a chance to eventually return to Madison and leave Black River behind. However, I decided that it couldn't hurt to examine the two boxes of floppy disks, and see what files might be stored on the computer's hard disk.
Before searching through the disks, I examined the computer more closely. I was impressed to see that it was a Pentium, one of the best computers on the market. The laser printer was also one of the newest and most advanced models. The computer came with what I assumed to be a color monitor, and naturally had a hard disk. I assumed it was a 3-4 gigabyte hard drive since that was what I had in my own Pentium back in Madison.
I believed any important data would be on the hard disk, so I decided to see what it contained first. I switched on the computer, and the monitor flickered to life. My eyes were greeted with a Windows program which offered me a number of unique choices. I saw such familiar programs as WordPerfect, WordStar, and Lotus along with a variety of games. However, one particular icon drew my attention to it like a magnet. Only the letters GOO identified it. I wondered what those letters meant besides being a sound made by a baby. Moving the cursor over to the mysterious window, I hit the button on the mouse twice.
The screen flashed, and the hard disk began to whirl as it retrieved files from memory. I almost laughed when I saw that the letters had been an abbreviation for the Great Old Ones. My joviality disappeared when I noticed the forty subdirectories ranging from one bearing the name Necronomicon to one called "The History of the Great Old Ones." I considered accessing the Necronomicon directory, but I changed my mind when I saw one called The Black Tome of Alsophocus.
I thought about accessing "The History of the Great Old Ones" first, but I decided against it since this would, in all likelihood, only be introductory material. I had read enough Lovecraft to know that the Great Old Ones were a race of alien creatures that once ruled the universe before they were forced into hiding when the stars moved out of position. Great Cthulhu took shelter in the sunken city of R'lyeh under the Pacific Ocean. Yog-Sothoth ventured to realms outside this dimension. The names of the documented Old Ones were legion, and I could not begin to list them here. The Great Old Ones only had to hide for a certain time, for there would come a day when the stars would return to the right position. At that point, the Great Old Ones would return to claim their universe and world. They would sweep humanity away in the process.
I started to access the directory for The Black Tome of Alsophocus when I stopped because the utter irrationality of this whole situation crashed down on top of me. I, a supposedly rational person, sat in front of a computer about to read a "supposed" tome of arcane knowledge.
Let me make one thing clear, at that time I did not, even for a minute, believe that the directories were anything else than a joke.
Yet, I wondered why the directories even existed. My best guess was my uncle, who always admired the work of H.P. Lovecraft, had decided to venture into creative writing on his own. I assumed he must have planned to publish several volumes of "arcane lore" like copies of the Necronomicon, which had been peddled in the occult section of bookstores. From what I saw of the computer files, he must have progressed quite far on his project.
My poor Aunt Heather appeared to have been so deranged that she thought my uncle worshipped the Great Old Ones. I briefly wished my uncle could have completed his project as a tribute to H.P. Lovecraft. I would have been proud to see his name on a novel that could have brought the legacy of Lovecraft to a new generation. I considered finishing my uncle's project as a final tribute to the man who had just surprised me from beyond his grave.
Before I could begin such a project, I wanted to check out my aunt's reference to the Faceless One that she said existed in the Black Tome. My desire originated more out of curiosity than taking what she had said in the letter seriously. I accessed the directory for the Black Tome, and was confronted by a screen that offered me the options of either reading the book from the beginning or searching for a particular section. I decided to search for the part that talked about the Faceless One. When the program asked for the key words I typed in "Faceless One" and waited while the computer began to search through the text for my request.
The search took a long time, and I was disappointed to see only two paragraphs appear on the screen. I read through them, and then later wrote them down on paper I retrieved from upstairs. I still have those two cursed paragraphs in my possession as I sit here writing my tale into the same computer. The Black Tome of Alsophocus said that:
These passages fascinated me because they begged for a continuation. I decided I would examine the rest of the files to see if my uncle had further developed his ideas on Byagoona and his Secret Parable. The search for more information on Byagoona also might help to explain some of the references made by my aunt in her letter.
After having found the computer and all the files about the Great Old Ones, I realized that Jackson had just been following his instructions. I had been wrong to criticize his integrity. It was impossible to dismiss the fact that he reacted with disappointment when I accepted the conditions of the will. Yet, he was only human. The possibility of getting his hands on a large amount of money would appeal to anyone. He might have been disappointed at the loss of an opportunity, but I no longer believed he would have been willing to break the law. A part of me wanted to call him and apologize for my suspicion, but I decided it was better to wait since explaining my reasons would have made it worse. I thought that at some point in the future I would apologize once I had enough evidence to prove my aunt's insanity when she made out the will.
Over the next week, I put the financial affairs my aunt and uncle left behind in order. The will was probated with no problems, and, since that was my last business with Mr. Jackson, I paid his bill. I also threw in a five thousand dollar bonus as my way of apologizing for doubting his word. For the first time, there were also other people living in the mansion, since I hired a full-time staff to help keep the house in good condition. It really wasn't necessary to hire anyone since the house never showed any signs of wear, but I felt more comfortable with other people around me. Besides, having people around to cook and clean enabled me to devote a lot of time to examining my uncle's computer files.
I spent most of my time on weekends examining the churches in Black River to decide which one I would feel most comfortable at. I decided on the Bethel Temple of Black River, which was part of the Assemblies of God Ministry. I believed it was important not to let my faith and zeal for carrying out the Lord's work wane during my first weeks in my new home. The Bible I brought with me from Madison provided a constant source of strength to me during my first hectic week.
Unfortunately, the furious pace of the first week prevented me from doing any work with my uncle's creations other than perusing the boxes of disks. I assumed, after I looked at their labels, that they served as backups for the material on the hard disk. I decided not to tell any of the servants about the room in the basement since I wanted to avoid unnecessary questions. The last thing I needed was a servant with an overactive imagination to go off and say that I worshipped the devil. Of course, at that point in time, I still believed my uncle's work was nothing more than an immense body of fiction.
Finally, things calmed down in the second week, and I began to examine the material on the hard disk in earnest. The first step of my search focused on an examination of the databases concerning the history of the Great Old Ones. It turned out to be basic description of the lore surrounding these beings created by H.P. Lovecraft in his tales. I was pleased to see that my uncle ignored August Derleth's addition of the Elder Gods to the Cthulhu Mythos. The whole idea of a heartless race of beings who made our race seem insignificant could not be maintained if the Elder Gods constantly saved humanity.
One thing that surprised me was the presence of databases that represented most of the mythical tomes created by the writers of the Cthulhu Mythos to serve as sources of arcane knowledge. Among the database names were The Black Tome of Alsophocus, the infamous Necronomicon, the Book of Eibon, De Vermis Mysteriis, The Revelations of Glaaki, The R'lyeh Text, The Eltdown Shards, The Ponape Scriptures, and the Book of Dzyan to name only a few. It amazed me that there were so many entries on the hard disk.
However, I concluded most of them were just bits and pieces of writing that my uncle had done for each. It seemed foolish to be worried about the number of books. My uncle obviously worked on a number of projects at the same time.
I hoped that he had made some reference to Byagoona the Faceless One in the other databases. The search for the information concerning the Secret Parable would only take a couple of more weeks, or so I believed at the time.
Time has a way of passing me by when I got involved with a project that captivates my imagination. And so it was with me as a matter of weeks turned into three months of intensive searching through the databases my uncle left behind. During that time, I rarely appeared around the mansion during the day or night. The servants began to wonder where I disappeared during the day, but I told them I was working on the completion of a series of novels that my uncle left unfinished at the time of his death. Accepting this explanation without question, they were quite satisfied with my eccentricities as long as I paid them on time.
The only time I emerged from the mansion into the outside world was to attend church. And I needed the reassurance of God and His word. As time passed over those three months, I began to turn to the Bible more and more to provide me with some degree of comfort and to help me cope with what I discovered in the databases. I found no further references to Byagoona or the book that it wrote, but I uncovered some things that made me nervous. It turned out the databases which I thought were just small entries turned out to be entire books. This was true for all the books listed in the directory. I counted at least seventy-five books, and after examination most of them turned out to be longer than one hundred pages each.
This did not bother me for the first two books, but after I looked at twenty I began to grow suspicious. I saw that the Necronomicon was over a thousand pages long. It seemed impossible to me that my uncle could have produced almost one thousand pages of a fictional version of the Necronomicon, and still had enough time to produce seventy-four other books. He would have to work his whole life to produce such a staggering amount of written material. I could not believe that my uncle managed to do this in such a short amount of time. This kind of production takes a devotion from a writer that engulfs most of their time. I remembered with crystal clarity that my uncle spent most of his time in the upper regions of the mansion while I lived there.
It was impossible for me to find a realistic explanation for the amount of work that I found in this directory. I realized while I compared several of the different books to each other that they were written in different styles. I believed that my uncle was a good writer, but seventy-five different styles seemed to be something that would challenge the ability of most fiction writers.
At that moment, I considered the possibility that those files were genuine translations of ancient tomes filled with forbidden knowledge. However, I dismissed the idea as being foolish for not only was it impossible in terms of science, but also a Christian, such as myself, could not accept the existence of creatures that could be considered gods because of their vast power.
I pondered for many hours how my uncle had gathered all these files. There was one that I accepted as the most reasonable. I came to believe that my uncle used the modem in the Pentium to get in contact with a large group of writers who decided to produce this Cthulhu Mythos material as an homage to H.P. Lovecraft. It was the only logical explanation for the seventy-five different styles that I discovered.
I confirmed my theory over the next two weeks as I examined the rest of the files in the database. I discovered that they contained detailed information concerning the writers of the books, the Great Old Ones, their worshipers, and the various alien races that once inhabited the earth. Most of the information had clearly been developed from seeds found in Lovecraft's stories. It seemed to me that the group of writers, who I call the Disciples of Cthulhu, gathered this information to serve as a core guide for its various members to use in their projects.
Yet, it seemed strange that none of the other databases contained any references to the Faceless One. I came to believe that Byagoona had been developed exclusively by my uncle based on the brief mention of the name by Robert Bloch. I decided I would attempt to use the modem to tap into the network whose existence I suspected.
My uncle's development of Byagoona explained why my aunt described him as being obsessed by the creature. It was my uncle's natural desire to further develop his conception of this creature. I could also guess why my aunt had begun to lose her grip on her sanity. She always firmly believed in the supernatural, and this combined with what I believed to be a developing senility in her last years to create a condition where she could believe in Byagoona. She probably took the vast amount of information in the computer as an indication that the Great Old Ones existed. I felt sorry for her because she died believing in creatures that seemed to call into question the very existence of God.
Forgive this digression, but I have to discuss the evolution of an idea that occurred to me two years ago while I studied Revelations. In order to understand the full implications of this idea, I must first describe Lovecraft's naturalistic view of the universe. I knew for many years that he never believed in God. According to Lovecraft, the human race was at the mercy of a universe which contained forces, such as the Great Old Ones, that dwarfed us in power. It was impossible for humanity to achieve any understanding of the vast powers of the cosmos. The creation of religions and gods, including Christianity, was humanity's attempt to create a security blanket that would give us a position of importance in the grand scheme of the universe. The existence of the Great Old Ones, along with the history of the Earth as it was put forth in Lovecraft's tales, served as bitter reminders of humanity's insignificant role in the universe. The fact that the Great Old Ones would return to destroy humanity, from Lovecraft's point of view, showed that there was no benevolent God controlling the cosmos.
I accepted Lovecraft's idea that there was no God as a teenager. That changed when I gave my life over to God after my friend's suicide. The Lord helped me heal my pain, and gave me the power to build a successful life for myself in Madison. I knew God existed, and He was constantly with me. The Holy Spirit always dwelt within me and guided me to do God's will.
Yet, I was fascinated by the striking similarity between the banishment of the Great Old Ones and the imprisonment of Satan as described in Revelations. I had been studying Revelations since it was the topic of a sermon series by the Bethel Temple pastor. The similarity of Satan's thousand year imprisonment to the Great Old Ones' exile amazed me. One might argue that Satan was imprisoned by the archangels, while the Great Old Ones had to hide because the stars moved into the wrong position. The difference in circumstances seemed like a valid argument against my interpretation, but I could not avoid the similarity because both were imprisoned for a certain amount of time after which they would be freed.
I did not think that the relationship between Satan and the Great Old Ones could be accidental. I realized that I may have discovered a previously unseen aspect of Lovecraft's genius in that he took some of the passages from the Bible, such as the imprisonment of Satan, and used them for his own purposes. I also thought that Satan served as an inspiration for Lovecraft's creation of the Great Old Ones. I found something amusing in the idea that an atheist would use the Christian religion as a foundation for his creations. Any evidence to support this idea required me to do a great deal of research into Lovecraft's background. Yet, it was doubtful that I was going to have time to carry out my research in the near future because of my involvement with my uncle's legacy.
As soon as I completed my examination of the background files on the Great Old Ones, I accessed the modem directory for the first time. There was a number listed beside the name Abdul Alhazred, which I assumed would be the contact for the group that I sought. I dialed the number, and managed to get connected after five rings.
"Cthulhu fthagn" appeared on the screen.
I typed the exact words on the basis that this was probably a greeting exchanged by members of the group.
This was the response that I received from the user at the other end of the line: "Greetings, Alsophocus. It has been a long time since we heard from you. Where have you been? Our work has fallen behind because of your absence."
I hesitated before I replied. It seemed strange they would use code names, but I explained it away by saying that it marked another eccentricity of what must surely be a very strange group. However, their use of code names might indicate that they considered themselves to be an exclusive organization. I did not believe that they would be willing to share information with someone new, who had, for all intents and purposes, stepped into another person's role. I decided it would be better for my search if I acted as if I was my uncle. My examination of his files told me more than enough to be able to answer any questions they might use to test me. Besides, on the slight chance that this group believed in the existence of the Great Old Ones then I did not want to put myself in any danger. If anyone was crazy enough to worship the Great Old Ones, they must be insane enough to commit murder to protect their secrets.
"I have been sick," I wrote in response. "I had several severe heart attacks. My extended hospitalization made it impossible for me to get in touch with you until now. How is your work progressing?"
"The work of the others is finished. We have everything translated. We've been waiting word on the Secret Parable from you, Alsophocus. Have you found it?"
It struck me as peculiar that he would ask if I found the book yet. However, I attributed it to the eccentricity of the group.
"I haven't found it yet," I replied. "I hoped that you would have discovered something." My purpose in adding that last part was sparked by the hope that some of the others might have developed their own idea on Byagoona.
"Why do you ask such a question? We sent you all our information about Byagoona in that box of disks. Are you sure you're all right, Alsophocus?"
I realized that I made a mistake in asking if they learned anything about it. The last thing I wanted to do was arouse suspicion with the way Abdul Alhazred sounded on the other end of the modem. I promised myself that I was going to examine the disks after I had gotten through with this discussion.
"I'm sorry," I wrote. "My sickness affected my mind to some degree. I have had a lot of trouble remembering things. I forgot that you sent the disks." I knew that my excuse was flimsy at best, but it was the best I could do since Alhazred was waiting.
"That's too bad. However, now it is imperative that you find the Secret Parable. The signs have begun to appear. The seals are being broken. Soon the stars will be right. It will soon be time. We must be ready. The Secret Parable has to be found so we may know how to greet Byagoona when he returns at the appointed time."
The relief I felt when he accepted my explanation turned into mystification and fear. I understood the reference to the stars becoming right since it originated in the circle of lore developed by Lovecraft about the Cthulhu Mythos. However, Alhazred's mention of the seals being broken mystified me. I thought for a moment that he might be talking about the Elder Signs, which were the creations of August Derleth. Yet, I had found no mention of the Elder Sign or the Elder Gods in the files I examined. The only other seals I could think of were those spoken of in Revelations that were broken by the angels and ushered in the Apocalypse. However, I had not time to give the matter more consideration because I came to a terrifying realization.
It was obvious to me that this group believed in the existence of the Great Old Ones. Alhazred's writing showed that this was far more than a group of writers compiling a tribute to H.P. Lovecraft. I had no choice but to conclude that I was dealing with a group of lunatics who had no firm grip on reality.
It was tempting to immediately cut off contact with Alhazred. I wish to God that I would have now, but two things stopped me. The first was that if they had any reason to suspect I was an impostor, my life could be in grave danger. Furthermore, a more important justification existed for me to continue contact. I believed a possibility existed that the Disciples of Cthulhu, as I called them, could have some connection with my aunt and uncle's deaths. They were also members of a cult that worshipped false gods, and I felt I had a responsibility as a Christian and as a human being to stop them.
After giving rapid consideration to my options, I decided to pursue Alhazred's hint about retrieving the Secret Parable so I could obtain more information.
"Do you have people ready to get the Parable if it lies in some remote area?" I asked.
"We've had people ready for months," Alhazred wrote. "We've been waiting on word from you to take action. I hoped that we'd have more time to carry everything out, but that's impossible now. Your sickness has cost us dearly. The sixth seal has been broken. It is time for the Old Ones to be freed of their chains. There is much to be done. Find the Parable, Alsophocus. It is critical to our plans. Contact me when you've found it.
"I'm sorry I can't talk with you longer. There's so much to be done. Farewell. Thank Cthulhu you are back with us."
Before I had a chance to write anything, Alhazred severed the connection at his end, leaving me to ponder his strange reference to the sixth seal being broken. No doubt existed in my mind that it came from Revelations.
But how could it be tied in with a group that worshipped the Great Old Ones? Alhazred also mentioned that the Old Ones would soon be free from their chains. That was drawn from John's description of Satan's thousand year imprisonment in Revelations. I asked myself if there was a logical explanation for these allusions to the Bible.
There was a possibility that it was simply a coincidence, but the similarity was too close to be explained away in such a fashion. A far more logical explanation existed. The Disciples of Cthulhu had also seen the resemblance of the imprisonment of Satan and the Great Old Ones. I believed there was a distinct possibility that they used the relationship to recruit members for their organization from Satanic cults. After all, it would have been difficult to recruit people who believed in the Great Old Ones because not many of them exist. By saying they were the same thing as Satan, it would be simple enough to tap into the resource of the souls, misguided as they were, who succumbed to the Prince of Darkness.
At that moment, I believed God sent me to Black River to help combat the evil of the Disciples of Cthulhu. He had led me to discover the existence of this cult so that I could be instrumental in bringing about its destruction. I had asked God to show me the reason that he brought me back to Black River, and He finally revealed His purpose to me. Thanking the Lord with a prayer, I asked Him to allow me to be His instrument in the elimination of this evil. I also asked God to help the members of the group see the true path, and hoped He would help them repent once they discovered the error of their ways.
The first thing I needed to do was to develop a plan to dismantle the Disciples of Cthulhu. There were a number of problems that prevented me from taking any immediate action. My main problem was that I did not know the identities of any of the cult members. I envisioned how foolish I would look walking into the police station saying that a computerized Satanic cult existed. And then, when they asked who they were, I would tell them that the only one I knew of was named Abdul Alhazred. The police would laugh or lock me up for reading too many Lovecraft stories. Another challenge was the fact that I had no concrete evidence of the existence of the cult. Nothing could be proven from the computer files since they might have been from computer games or databases for horror novels. I needed to get evidence that this group posed a threat, and I had to discover the real names of some of its members. The only way to do that would be contacting Alhazred again, and I would have to have the information on the Secret Parable in order to do that.
Thus, I began my examination of the disks, which I made the mistake of ignoring when I first began my search. The initial search took three days, and during that time I separated out the disks I thought would be most helpful to me. I found a total of a hundred disks in the two boxes. Of those, seventy-five were useless since the information on them had already been transferred to the hard drive. As I inspected the last twenty-five, I realized I would have to make a closer examination of the others since most of them appeared to contain some material relevant to Byagoona.
It would have been foolish for me to simply begin to search through those remaining disks at random. I had to develop a research plan to organize my efforts. Searching among the dark recesses of my memory, I recalled then that The Black Tome of Alsophocus referred to Byagoona as an avatar of Azathoth. Believing this was a logical starting point, I chose to examine the disks for information on Azathoth and its minions.
I found no references to Byagoona in checking the information concerning Azathoth, but I did uncover several interesting facts. Lovecraft never developed Azathoth to any great extent. He had defined the creature as a mindless, nuclear chaos surrounded by strange beasts that made hideous piping noises. Azathoth was supposed to exist somewhere in space, although Lovecraft never gave a definite location. The references to Azathoth on the floppy disks gave me a substantial addition to this vague information.
The cult claimed that Azathoth was the beginning and end of the universe. It was the master of time. It was present, simultaneously, at the dawn of time and the end of the universe. The avatars of Azathoth could traverse time, but their ability to do so was limited. The trip could only be one way, either into the past or into the future. I discovered a passage from the Necronomicon stating that Azathoth's minions could not enter the world when the stars were wrong lest they be destroyed.
I felt I had discovered something important when I read the information concerning Azathoth. Even though there were no direct references to Byagoona, I now possessed enough information to fabricate a story for the Disciples.
The Black Tome stated that Byagoona was an avatar of Azathoth. It was easy to come up with the idea that Azathoth would transport Byagoona through the time stream to the age when the stars would just be becoming right. The Black Tome also said that the Secret Parable was of the past and the future. I decided to tell the Disciples that it would appear out of thin air when the stars were right. All I needed to do was create a location where the Secret Parable would appear. Off the top of my head, I decided to tell Alhazred the Parable would appear in Chad, right in the middle of the Sahara Desert. I believed this would keep the Disciples occupied while I attempted to gain more information about them so I could contact the proper authorities.
I thanked God for giving me the brilliant ideas concerning Byagoona. My enthusiasm ran high about contacting Alhazred, but I decided to wait another two weeks before attempting to use the modem. I felt that if I contacted him now, three days after I last communicated with him, it would be too suspicious. I needed to make my deception as believable as possible. Alhazred would be far more inclined to believe my story if it appeared I spent at least two weeks doing exhaustive research.
I wish now I had not waited two weeks to contact him for it was during that time I began to realize the true horror of this cursed universe. I had allowed myself to lose track of world events during my sojourn in Black River. It seemed like a good idea to spend the next two weeks catching up on the events on the outside world.
I finally started to watch CNN again, as well as looking through all of my back issues of Time to see what I missed in the past three months. I was shocked and disturbed by what I saw and heard. Outbreaks of civil war ripped apart the republics that once made up the Soviet Union. The countries of Eastern Europe threatened to go to war in a desperate attempt to salvage their economies by taking over their neighbors. I could not begin to describe the number of slaughters that erupted in Africa. And, of course, a raging war now engulfed the Middle East.
In addition to the wars, there had been a dramatic increase in the number of AIDS cases worldwide. And, much to my surprise, for I believed that the disease had been wiped out, a new strain of smallpox had appeared in Asia.
Yet, the international problems only marked the beginning of the horrors I was to face. According to the news, there had been a dramatic increase in the number of murders and violent crimes across the country. Racial tensions not only exploded in Los Angeles, but also erupted in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and most other major cities in the United States. The reporters did not have exact statistics, but they also believed there had been a tremendous jump in domestic violence.
It seemed to me after reading and seeing all of these reports that insanity held the world in its terrible grasp. It was as if the Apocalypse described in Revelations now rushed upon humanity like a tsunami. There was strife between brothers, plagues, hatred, and every other evil imaginable running loose in the world. I wondered if Satan now rode free across the nations, having finally been freed from his chains to work his hideous evil. I prayed that Christ would come again soon to redeem those who had been saved.
I prayed a great deal that my friends and family would be protected from the darkness that swept over the planet. My prayers were, in part, sparked by the events that I saw and read in the news. Yet, I knew other things, more terrifying by far, that the rest of the people never noticed until it was too late.
I heard several reports by noted astronomers that they had noted the birth of almost fifty new stars in the heavens over the past four months. They said this was an unprecedented event in the annals of science, and these events presented them with a great opportunity to study the birth cycle of stars for the first time. None of them thought that there was anything suspicious about this appearance, but instead looked upon it as a scientific opportunity. I only wish I could have believed that, but the connection to what Abdul Alhazred said in our conversation and the stories of H.P. Lovecraft dominated my mind. At long last, the stars were returning to their right positions. The Great Old Ones would soon return.
Anyone who reads this will find it strange that I now believed in fictional creatures only because a lot of new stars appeared in the skies. I would have just dismissed it as just another motivation to spark the Disciples of Cthulhu to continue their madness if only other things had not dispelled my idea of simple coincidence.
Over the course of three weeks, several severe earthquakes shook the southern Pacific Ocean. The Earthquake Center in California gave the exact coordinates of the quake's epicenter, and every fiber of my being shuddered in terror. I went to H.P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu," and looked at the article that he used to give the location of the earthquake in the story. The latitude and longitude were the same. I could not help but believe that Great Cthulhu stirred in his tomb in R'lyeh.
Reports filtered in from the coast of Massachusetts that a number of ships had disappeared over a two week period. These started a week after the earthquakes. The Coast Guard attributed these disappearances to an unusual string of severe thunderstorms. Yet, the location which many of the ships reported before they disappeared was too close to the site of Lovecraft's Innsmouth. I suspected that the Deep Ones now actively prepared the way for the return of Cthulhu.
I also noticed a dramatic increase in the number of Satanic cults committing ritual murders. Under normal circumstances, I would have believed this was because there was more evil in the world. However, no altars to the devil were found at most of the murder sites. Instead, people discovered the victims mangled within a circular area. A number of evangelists and experts on Satanic cults speculated that the members had changed their modus operandi. However, I believed in a far more sinister explanation. These cults had turned to the worship the Great Old Ones and away from Satan.
I realize that you, my reader, must think that I had gone insane to believe in the existence of the Great Old Ones since I had always tried to find other explanations. And, indeed, I wanted to find other explanations, but too much evidence now existed to confirm the reality of the Great Old Ones. I would not have believed in them from either the files I found on the computer or from my conversation with Abdul Alhazred. However, the growth of evil in the world, the discovery of the new stars, the earthquakes in the south Pacific, the disappearances off the coast of Massachusetts, and the increase in ritualistic murders forced me to accept the reality of their existence.
I say to this day that I would still have doubts if all the events could be explained with the use of human reason. Such a feat was impossible, because the human race could neither control earthquakes nor did any of us have the ability to create new stars.
At the end of three weeks, I was a nervous wreck. Most of my time was spent praying to God to help me, but even that could no longer provide comfort for my troubled soul. My cries to Heaven represented nothing more than a sham for I had lost my faith in God with my acceptance of the Old Ones' existence. I always believed there was a logic to Lovecraft's idea that God could not exist in conjunction with the Great Old Ones. After all, some of the Great Old Ones, such as Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth, seemed powerful enough to be God themselves. And, if we were God's chosen people, how could creatures exist which were powerful enough to wipe us out of existence with almost no effort? Thus, when I saw and read all the evidence that pointed to the existence of the Great Old Ones, it shattered my faith beyond repair.
And with my loss of faith, I lost my desire to have any further contact with Abdul Alhazred and the Disciples of Cthulhu. As I stated before, I had wanted to make up a location for the Secret Parable and use that as a key to find out more information about the cult's members and activities. I justified this by saying that I knew it was God's will. Once I lost my faith, the divine inspiration that caused me to want to find information on the cult also evaporated. If I were right and the Great Old Ones were real and about to be freed from their imprisonment, then it would make no difference if I helped in the arrest of the cult.
In a desperate attempt to regain my faith, I turned to the Trinity Broadcasting Network. I hoped I could find some words to comfort me or see some miracles to again bring the Holy Spirit back to me. Instead, I saw a program that destroyed any shred of hope I held onto, and led me to confront the horrifying reality of the cosmos.
It was like a grand joke when the first program I saw on TBN was about the Apocalypse and how Satan was at work in the world. I laughed at first since I believed Satan was nothing more than a creation of religious men designed to cover the existence of the Great Old Ones. It was far better to create a benevolent God who ruled the universe and was opposed by the lesser power of Satan than to face the truth.
The truth was that no benevolent force existed in the universe. Rather, an indifferent universe surrounded us. In it dwelt beings who saw humanity as nothing more than an infestation in a place that was once their home.
My laughter came to a halt when the evangelist began to talk about the presence of Satan in modern technology. I was silent while he described how the number of the beast, 666, could be found in many product codes. The speaker described how there were two super computers in Belgium named after Satan -- the Beast I and II. The Beasts served as storehouses of information on every living human being. They also contained detailed records of all electronic transactions. All of this would not have brought me to the edge of insanity, if the evangelist would not have said that in the past Satan had been a recognizable evil. Now, due to the miracles of technology, the devil became an unidentifiable being, a faceless one, attempting to corrupt all of humanity.
I almost fainted when I heard the devil referred to as the Faceless One. All the pieces of the puzzle of Byagoona that I had stored in my mind since I returned to Black Water came together. Byagoona did not have a physical body like the Great Old Ones. Instead, the Faceless One would manifest itself as an electronic signal or computer program of some sort sent through time by Azathoth. That was the only possible explanation to the reference I found in the Black Tome to Byagoona existing in the past and present. As for Byagoona's Secret Parable, I believed that it was the creature itself. In other words, Byagoona the Faceless One was the Secret Parable. After I heard the evangelist describe the Beasts in Belgium, I knew Byagoona would manifest itself in those machines.
Some might call me insane for believing such a ludicrous idea. Some might say I was letting my imagination run wild, and I had just gotten paranoid after reading so much about the Great Old Ones. If I am insane, then I wish someone could prove it to me. No one would hope that was true more than myself.
But if I am a lunatic who has written nothing more than delusions, then explain why all contact has been lost with Western Europe. The last reports we received in the United States from them indicated a computer virus had been let loose from Belgium and now ran rampant all over the continent. The virus wipes out all information stored in the computers, and wreaks havoc with all electronics. And since the technology failed, the countries of Western Europe degenerated into chaos.
If only I could still believe that it was a computer virus.
I know that the Secret Parable of Byagoona has at long last been revealed to the world.
I challenge anyone to prove Byagoona is a figment of my imagination. Prove to me the loss of contact with Eastern Europe is the work of a virus. Explain why the countries of Western Europe are now covered with a thick cloud of black smoke so we can't know what's happened to the people. Find a rational solution to the reports of a new island rising in the South Pacific.
My tale is done. It won't be long before Byagoona crosses over to North America. I know there is little use in praying. I doubt there is anyone or anything to hear our pathetic whispers to a nonexistent God. There is no hope. The universe belongs to them again. The stars have returned to their right position. And the human race and I wait for the oblivion of death.
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Created: August 14, 2001; Updated: August 9, 2004