James looked at the old house in the distance, chimney crumbling, doors and windows boarded shut. He had been wanting to get into that house for years, finally old man Mac Gregor died now he would finally get his chance.
James was a grossly overweight man with oily skin and a bad personality. He had been supporting himself by collecting antiques from abandoned houses and selling them online. When he had first started he would outright steal them but as he made a little money at it he started paying people to clean out their old properties. He had managed to do ok by himself, mainly by paying far less then what the stuff was worth. He dealt mainly with the elderly in the business but had faced more than one angry child after having ripped off their parents.
Mac Gregor had always been a hateful man and had made it no doubt that no trespassing meant no trespassing. More than one youth had heard the old man’s shot gun ring for being anywhere on the property around that old house. As soon as James had collected enough money he had made the old man an offer, the most reasonable he had ever made. Mac Gregor told him if he ever caught him around that house he would shoot him. “You had rather die than be in that house,” Mac Gregor had told him.
James smiled; we’ll see who’d rather die he thought to himself. Stupid old man should have taken what was offered when he had the chance, now I’ll clean the place out and he’ll not get a dime.
James walked over to his old pick up and climbed in, an action that always left him catching his breath for a minute. He started driving away from the house “ Just gotta wait for dark, don’t need no nosey damn neighbors calling the law,” he said out loud to himself “won’t be long for old man sun goes down.”
The old tattered pickups’ lights cut off just before it turned off the paved road onto the dirt path. James had brought a young kid named Tommy with him; he liked Tommy as much as he liked anyone. He was a greedy young man who had a good eye and a knack for knowing where to look. It didn’t hurt that he only weighed bout a buck twenty five soaking wet, and could get into places that James could no longer hope to. He paid the younger man more then he would most people plus he would let him keep little worthless trinkets that he liked.
“So ya think we gonna get some good shit in here tonight James?” the younger man asked as they climbed out the truck.
“I hope we gotta make a couple of trips out here Tommy boy.”
The two of them walked around the outside of the house to see if there was an easy access, everything was sealed tight. It was a monstrous old house built before the Civil War with wrap around porches on the ground and second floors. There were out buildings in the back that had been being used for storage right up to the present day but the house its self didn’t appear to have been entered for quite some time.
Rumor had it that the only reason the Yanks had left the house standing instead of torching it like all the others in the area was because the mac Gregors’ had been sympathetic to them. James really didn’t much care about that. It did cross his mind to wonder why the place had stayed boarded up, never in his life could he remember a time that it hadn’t been nor could he remember anyone else ever saying anything about it being opened.
Well it’ll be opened tonight he thought to himself. When he and Tommy had reached the truck James told him “Well tommy grab that crowbar and a bag, guess we’ll go in thru the back door good as any I reckon.”
They went around to the back door with their tools and started to remove the wooden planks nailed across them. They had the door exposed a little past the handle when James decided that it was enough for him to get thru. The two thieves tried the handle and where surprised to find the door unlocked.
They entered into a hallway leading to the main entrance to the house, as Tommy turned on his flashlight James felt his heart skip a beat. “Oh my lord James you done hit the jackpot.” Tommy said.
James was still speechless, the little he could see from where he stood looked as if the people had just woke up one morning left and never came back. There was a thick layer of dust on everything but furniture was still in place, pictures hung on the wall, lamps and knick-knacks still sat on the tables.
“You do good helping me here might be a little extra in it for ya.” James told Tommy.
The pair moved down the hall into the main entrance area. Victorian furnishings sat around the room, everything was covered in a layer of dust but otherwise appeared to be undisturbed. They moved into the adjoining rooms and found them in much the same state. In what appeared to be a study the found ledgers on the desk, an ink well that had long since dried out, a fountain pen lying on the desk top ready to take notes and shelves of books on two of the walls. Beside leather reading chair was a small table with an ashtray, pipe, and a tobacco jar complete with tobacco and a box of matches.
The two explored the other rooms downstairs without yet pocketing anything. As they made their way back into the main entrance James looked toward the stair case “Why don’t ya check dem stairs there boy, see if they feel safe.” He said to Tommy.
Tommy eased his way up the stairs, he was sure they were safe but he knew how James was about climbing anything. When he had made it to the top he yelled back down to James to come up.
The second floor excited James, after what he had found down stairs he knew the really good stuff would be up here. They went through each bedroom collecting jewelry as they went. The two divided up and searched each room, the women’s rooms provided the best take but Tommy had got lucky in one of the men’s rooms, he found a small stash of coins hid behind a headboard in a small bag. He pocketed this prize thinking he could get it past James without notice.
The two thieves met at the head of the stairs. “I think we got the upstairs covered,” James said “let’s go back down and you can start collecting the small stuff while I figure what of the big stuff needs to go first.” The two made their way down stairs and went to work. James went thru each room moving furniture into groups in each room, while he was doing that Tommy went thru and collected small items in sacks. The two had been working about a half hour when Tommy went up to James, “Hey man you might want to come over here, this place has a basement.”
“What you mean? Like a root cellar or something?”
“Don’t think so, looks to be furnished.” Tommy replied.
The two went to a hidden door behind the stairs, “How’d you find this?” James asked.
“Saw the hinges,” Tommy replied.
They followed a narrow staircase down into two what appeared to be another study, this one had a glass jar sitting on the desk filled with a dark liquid, as James started looking over the furnishings Tommy investigated the jar. “Oh, this is sick man,” he said out loud.
James went over to see what he was talking about, in the jar there was something preserved something that had a face almost human in appearance. James moved the jar around to reposition its contents; the thing looked almost fetal in its nature. Its eyes appeared too big for the head, there was something where the nose should have been but it was more just slits without any protruding structure, and the mouth was no more than a round whole filled with numerous sharp daggers like teeth.
James shook the jar a little more and below the shoulders appeared tentacles. “This should bring great money,” he said still studying the specimen.
“Hey James check out these books,” Tommy said from the other side of the desk.
James went over and started reading the spines of some of the books, a number of them were in foreign languages, the few he could read where definitely unusual. The Book of the Dead, Spells and Bindings, A Book of Shadows and open on display a very old book called The Necronomicon.
“That’s Devil worshiping stuff ain’t it?” Tommy asked
“Just old superstion,” James replied “but it’s old so it should bring a pretty penny.”
That’s when they heard the noise, a scratching sound from behind one of the book cases.
“You hear that?” Tommy asked a note of concern in his voice.
“Just a rat,” James replied.
“Sounded mighty big to be a rat.”
“Don’t be chickening out on me,” James said.
“I ain’t,” Tommy protested “just saying it sounded big.”
James had found a type of ledger in the desk, he flipped thru to the last page, it was dated 1929. He read down the page, “Hey Tommy says here that they were leaving cause of something that started living here.
Apparently they were dealing with some Mexican says here someone named Cthulhu, anyhow according to this he sent em something maybe one of them heli monsters I seen on Animal Planet. Whatever it was seems it ran the whole bunch off, looks as if they left everything.”
Another noise came from behind the bookcase, this time it sounded like a human groan, almost feminine in nature.
“What was that?” Tommy had a touch of fear in his voice again.
“That almost sounded like a women,” James replied “There must be a room behind that bookcase let’s see if we can move it.”
Tommy was reluctant to move; James grabbed the edge of the bookcase and put his considerable weight into moving it. The case started to move ever so slowly just enough for James to see behind it a little.
“Look there’s an opening back here!” He no sooner got the words out his mouth then another moan came from somewhere in the cavernous hole behind the case.
“Oh man that has to be a woman, quick give me a hand!” He realized that his words had fallen on an empty room when he heard Tommy's footsteps run across the floor above. “Damn,” he said out loud ‘little chicken shit done run off on me.’ he thought to himself. ‘Well I’ll deal with that later’
He managed to get the bookcase far enough away from the wall to put his shoulder in the gap and use more of his massive body to widen the opening. When he had managed to get it open enough to slide into he yelled into the hole letting whoever was there know he was going to them then sat down to catch his breath.
The voice from the opening began a crying, sobbing sound. James wondered what old man Mc Gergor had been up to, the thought brought a smirk to his face. Maybe she would be very grateful to her rescuer, and then of course it might not matter.
James grabbed a flashlight and wiggled behind the bookcase. The cavity opened up into a tunnel carved into stone leading down into the ground. It did occur to James that he had never seen that much stone in this area before, only the red clay they had all grown up with. The walls dripped from condensation, as James moved deeper in he found the tunnel turned and in the bend a small room was carved into the stone. He shined his light into the room and found three skeletons lying in a pile wearing Victorian period clothes. James walked over to take a closer look, he looked down into the toothy grin of one of the skulls, he noticed that it had a hole in the forehead about two inches wide, on further investigation he found the other two had the same wound. James had his first moment of hesitation, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
Just as the thought crossed his mind moaning from the back of the tunnel became stronger as if on cue.
“Are you ok,” he shouted into the darkness that lay before him.
The only response from the blackness that lay ahead was a more passionate sobbing.
“Alright I am coming,’ he answered into the unknown that lay ahead.
James made his way down the corridor his light illuminating only a few feet of the path that lie ahead, it was as if the darkness absorbed the light the deeper he went. It damper the deeper he went and he started to notice a mildew smell and a mold like taste to the air.
‘I must be far from the house by now,’ he thought to himself, he felt like he had walked miles.
The sobbing had become fainter in volume but he could tell that he was getting closer to its source. The tunnel ended at the mouth of a cavernous room that seemed to swallow the feeble light James carried. He moved into the room cautiously almost feeling his way with his feet. That was when he felt something brush up against his ankle, he jumped and cried out loud into the darkness but it was too late whatever it was had encircled his ankle and had a firm hold on him. He tried to pull away but lost his balance and fell face first on the ground.
James cursed old man Mc Gregor; he must have known something about this and never a word about it. James was sure this would be where he met his end but he decided he wouldn’t go down without a fight. He rolled over on his back to face his assailant.
It looked as if at one time it had been human but was now a monstrosity that would have looked more at home in the depths of the sea. Most of its head appeared to be that of a human female complete with hair, then just below where the nose would have been thin tentacles hung down covering the neck. The torso was that of a human female complete with breast but the arms and from the waist down was large tentacles; one of the legs had James around the ankle.
James kicked out at the beast with his free leg; she only pulled him in closer still making the moaning, sobbing sound. James felt his other leg being restrained and forced to the ground. He flailed with his arms till they too were pinned to the floor.
James remembered the remains he had seen earlier, he knew that he would soon find out how the holes in the skulls came about; of course he would never have the chance to share the knowledge. The tentacles under the face of the beast parted and a trunk like appendage reached out toward his face. James determined to fight till the bitter end would turn his head whenever the trunk came near him. This went on for what seemed like an eternity till he was no longer physically able to move his head.
He felt the trunk as it touched the center of his forehead; the initial pain was almost unbearable. He could feel the bone give way, and then he felt something inside his head moving around in his skull. That was followed by a sucking sensation; he could feel the contents of his skull being pulled out. It was painful when it began but James had all but lost the sensation of feeling after the third time.
