held dominion over the stygian blackness of the night but a moment before. Having been
suddenly awoken from her slumber, Elizabeth staggered over to the tall wooden door, her frame
thin, her eyes unfocused, and her hair - as black as the night surrounding her - utterly dishevelled.
Trying to at least pretend her mind was in proper working order, she shoved open the great door
that served as a barrier between her and the outside world, and regarded the man in front of her,
the source of the night’s unwanted interruption.
He looked just as dishevelled as she, though significantly more alert. He carried a purse,
the inside of which contained many letters, addressed to a variety of people. Not bothering to
hide her irritation, Elizabeth asked him what he was doing at such a late hour. Couldn’t he wait
until morning to deliver letters?
“I’m afraid I can’t, Ma’am. Sorry ‘bout that,” he said, rummaging around in his purse and
extracting the correct letter, “but I was told it was of the utmost urgency.”
“Well...alright,” said Elizabeth, tiredly taking the one addressed to her.
The man smiled.
“Very good, Ma’am. I shall now ‘ave to take ma leave. ‘Got many more urgent letters to
deliver, and it is soon to rain.”
At that he departed, all the while leaving dear Elizabeth to ponder
over the contents of her letter. Her curiosity piqued, and with her ability to go back to sleep
having left with the man, she decided to sit on a couch in her living room. With tea beside her,
and the lamp next to her as her only source of light - save the occasional flashes of lightning
through the window from the thunderstorm outside - she picked up the yellow paper of the letter
and began to read its contents.
It was, of course, addressed to her, but she was surprised to find its sender was her
brother Thoth. She hadn’t seen him for nigh on five years - hadn’t had any contact with him at all
in fact - ever since he left for that one archaeological site he had refused to give her the name of.
He had said something about not wanting to be followed; evidently it worked, for no one had.
Given how much time had passed since anyone had last seen him, she had simply assumed him dead.
Now, more curious about the letter’s content than ever, she carefully peeled back the cover
from the surface to which it was glued, and with trembling fingers and a pounding heart, gingerly
unfolded the paper, and began to read:
Dearest Elizabeth,
I would first like to apologize for leaving so abruptly, and for not writing to you before this.
It has been a difficult time for me, and undoubtedly for you as well. So many years have passed.
You might’ve thought me dead before receiving this letter of mine. Rest assured, I yet live, but only
just. You see, dear sister, I did not send this letter in order to catch up, so much as warn you. I
must confess, I would not have written at all were it not for the urgency of the situation at
hand. Although I am not at liberty to disclose to you the location of which the following events took
place, I do have the privilege of disclosing the details of my experience.
The event in question occurred deep underground, in some ancient ruins. I was exploring a cave
system you see - though again I cannot say why - when I stumbled and fell down a hole. Though
it was quite the fall, I only got minor scratches, which was certainly lucky due to the sharp
stalagmites present mere inches away from me. Less so was the fact that I didn’t have my rope
with me, nor my radio. I was trapped down there. Now, common sense would dictate that I simply
wait there for the expedition team to come and find me, but two things prevented me from doing
this. For one, I was exploring a rather hidden spot that my team were unlikely to find. Exploring a
hidden spot that’s hard to find, while also forgetting my radio. Looking back, I’ve just now realized
how stupid I was being. What an amateurish blunder.
In any event, the second thing preventing me from staying still was my curiosity. The hole I
fell down led to a long cave, one with a crimson glow at the end of it; that alone might not have
been enough to persuade me to seek it out - it could easily have been magma after all - but I also
felt this irresistible pull, as if it there was some sort of presence drawing me toward it. Walking to
the end of the hall - for that is what the cave had transitioned into - I came upon a most
peculiar sight. In the cavern that was now open before me, I gawked up at two most queer looking
towers of obsidian, standing across from each other atop a set of charcoal coloured stairs; and
hovering between them was a great orb of crimson and fire, that can only truly be described as an
eye.
It was then that, to my horror, the eye focused on me, and as it stared into my
very soul, I found I could not move - such was the terrifying presence of that eldritch thing. Its mere
existence pulled everything toward it, so dense and hungry as to be a black hole. Reality itself seemed
to vibrate with uncertainty, as the fabric that held the universe together was being warped and
blurred, objects that should be separate blending into each other. All the while the eye simply
watched, its pupil darker than the deepest seas, darker than the vacuum of space, darker even than
the most twisted and disgusting things that have come out of the depths of the human mind.
There’s a saying, if you’d recall, that if you stare into the void, the void stares back. This
eye was so much greater than the void, its presence so much more overpowering. It was unnerving,
and yet I could not stop staring; there was nothing hidden from this eye; it saw all and it knew all.
I could see reality itself reflected in that eye, time unravelling and reassembling as if it was some
primordial plaything. I knew then that I was helpless - completely powerless. I felt sure I would die
on the spot.
I woke up hours later, or so I’m told, right outside the entrance of our camp. I have been
confined to my bed for weeks, due to both mental and physical trauma. I can no longer see, as
evidently the event burned out my eyes. I have been having my dear friend Charlie scribe for me. I do
not remember much of what happened that day, but fragments come to me in dreams and
nightmares, and my friends have been able to record things I say in my sleep.
This is all to say, dear sister, that I am coming home. I’m sorry for leaving so abruptly, and
I’m sorry that I have never sent anything before now, but please know that I love you. I will explain
everything to you when I get home, answer all your questions, I promise you.
I should be home in about two weeks. Take care.
With guilt and love,
Thoth.
There were tears splattered on the pages. Elizabeth wiped her eyes and stared at the letter.
Reaching for her untouched tea, she found it to be cold. Like the monster she was, she drank it
anyway. Continuing to stare in disbelief, she carefully tucked it back into its envelope, and
hugged it to her chest. As she processed the information presented to her, she began to accept it,
until finally she was settled. Her heart beat strongly as she breathed a sigh of relief. It only took
an encounter with an incomprehensibly powerful entity beyond the restraint of reality
to encourage him to return, but there it was.
Her brother was alive;
and he was coming home.
Word Count: 1370
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