From the (Spaces Between) Stars

Two-thirty a.m. is a time when town is quiet, save only for the quick footfalls of a stray wanderer, swiftly heading for home. The investigators have just rounded off a successful evening of cards and are bidding their host a good morning.

Suddenly, the peace is broken by an ear-piercing roar as a crepuscular shape hurtles through the sky leaving a phosphorescent haze trailing behind it. The object’s path of descent sends it hurtling into the clouded depths of the town’s lake. Residents stagger from their houses and before long a crowd has gathered at the lake’s edge. Onlookers can discern a nebulous, viridian glow spreading beneath the surface of the water; it pulses regularly like the rhythmic pounding of a giant heartbeat.

The following morning, the meteor (the most accepted explanation) has become the focus of all conversations. One man speculates that perhaps H.G.Wells’ Martians were not purely the work of fiction. Another speaks of a terrible discovery made by the town fishermen. The lake’s aquatic denizens are dead. The corpses drift across the surface of the water yet bear no mark of injury. If tested, the lake now registers radioactivity.

Possibilities

1 Many of the townsfolk have made frenzied calls to the authorities, eliciting an unexpected response; that evening a full military task force mobilises on the edge of town. The lake and surrounding area is cordoned off, the guards equipped with firearms. The military begin a systematic evacuation of the town; complaints are ignored. The inhabitants are warned not to speak to anyone about their memory of the preceding night. All photographs pertaining to the object (even those of the glowing lake or dead fish) are confiscated. A full news blackout of the event has been imposed upon news stations. The military has threatened to revoke their licences if any details of the event are transmitted.

Depending upon who they approach, the investigators receive contradictory information. The object could be described as any of the following: a simple meteorite, an advertisement balloon, a parachutist or a foreign explosive device (or any other equally implausible explanation).

Just what are the military hiding? How does it involve the “meteorite”?

2 The lake now houses an invader, a being that feeds upon life itself, a Colour Out of Space.

The Colour, like so many of its race, has crossed the cosmos in search of a world capable of sustaining its near-insatiable appetite. After countless years of wandering it finally discovered the Earth. In order to avoid the sun’s impeding rays, the creature made its descent under the cover of darkness. It now resides on the lake’s bed, hidden from the sun’s rays by a murky, liquid shroud.

The creature hunts by night. Since the lake has now been drained of food it will leave the water’s protection and seek sustenance beyond. While quite content to feed on the abundant undergrowth, it will attack any humans who approach it or try to harm it. The Colour spends the daylight hours drilling into the lake’s bed forming a narrow tunnel, when this is complete it will create the embryonic spheres in which to house its young.

3 At some point in humanity’s recent history the Earth became home to a small group of the parasitic Shan (aka The Insects from Shaggai). The Shan race had already colonised many worlds, both throughout and beyond our solar system. Their next target was to be the Earth. They were instead trapped upon it, unable to teleport away due to a mysterious element in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The “meteor” is a Shan scout-vessel. The Shan have deduced that their teleportation-temples will not function and have sent a spacecraft (powered by the pilot’s psychokinetic capability).

The pilot has two objectives: firstly, it must reclaim one of the indestructible teleportation-temples that lies abandoned and forgotten at the base of the lake; secondly, it must assess the Earth’s potential for invasion. The first night will be spent loading the pyramid aboard its vessel, subsequent nights will find the creature leaving the lake and assessing humanity’s strength.

If the creature believes that the Earth would be a suitable target for invasion it will activate a beacon. That night, the sky will be filled with the falling "meteors", that blaze one-by-one into the lake’s irradiated waters.

© Hadley Connor

The Book of Sand

Very little is known about this volume, but what is known has been reconstructed from fragmentary notes left behind by Dr Anthony Walker (Curator of Sanskrit Manuscripts at the British Museum). Dr Walker vanished from his London home, with the book, a month after his return from India. He had bought the book from an illiterate untouchable for a handful of rupees and a Bible, on the outskirts of Bikaner at the edge of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan.

The book is of octavo size, thick, and bound in cloth. The book has been heavily handled, and the cover and pages are worn and stained. On the spine are the words ‘Holy Writ’ and, underneath, ‘Bombay’. The book is unusually heavy.

The pages are laid out in double columns, as in a Bible, with a tightly printed but typographically crude text ordered by verses. The pages are numbered in the upper corners and out of sequence. The language is unfamiliar.

The Book of Sand is so titled because its pages, like sand grains, are infinite. It is impossible to find the first or last page, for example. Similarly, it is impossible to try to find the same page twice (even with a bookmark) despite the, albeit arbitrary, page numbering.

Possibilities

1 The Book of Sand contains the cursed soul of a sorcerer; the more you read, the more of your personality is absorbed by the book. Worse, the more you read, the more addictive it becomes, until your soul and mind are trapped within the book. When this happens, the sorcerer takes control of your body - providing The Book of Sand remains nearby.

The sorcerer is depraved and immediately plunges into an orgy of sensual pleasure. Eventually, the host dies and the sorcerer is trapped once more in the book.

Several months after Dr Walker’s disappearance he is discovered dead, with the book lying nearby.

2 The book was taken from the Great Library of Celaeno by a philosopher-yogin from a Tibetan monastery at Chamdo, at the head of the Mekong River. From there it was taken to the Cave of Scorpions at the Potala in Lhasa, where it remained for 200 years until it was looted by a Sepoy in the 1903-1904 Younghusband expedition to Tibet. From him, it was stolen by an Indian fakir who, driven mad by the book, eventually sold it to Dr Walker.

The book contains references assembled by the Great Race of Yith concerning the Great Old Ones. Unfortunately, the information can only be accessed by Yithian mental command, otherwise only random pages are accessed. The pages are, of course, still valuable – once you can read Yithian.

The Great Race want the book back. In an attempt to retrieve it, one of the Great Race possessed Dr Walker and is now constructing a time machine to return the book to its owners.

3 The book is one of Nyarlathotep’s avatars. Most of the time it is inert, simply a book - albeit one with peculiar properties. The knowledge it contains is terrible indeed: Nyarlathotep’s perception of reality. Translating it is a perilous course. Descriptions of many of Nyarlathotep’s 1,000 avatars are included in the text.

Occasionally, Nyarlathotep occupies his avatar. The book lurches madly, savagely biting the fingers of anyone holding it, and erupting in a mass of wildly flailing tentacles. The thing then leaps into the air and vanishes, leaving behind only a few torn pages.

This was the fate of Dr Walker - he was unfortunate enough to be holding the book when Nyarlathotep appeared, and was dragged with the Outer God when it vanished. The book, meanwhile, turns up later . . .

Inspired by The Book of Sand, by Jorge Luis Borges.

© Charles Ross

The Desecration

Two weeks ago Mr Andrew O’Vel died of a heart-attack. He was buried soon after in his town’s churchyard. Twelve days later Mr O’Vel’s relatives issued orders for the body to be exhumed and transported to their private cemetery. However, during transit an accident caused Mr O’Vel’s coffin to break open. To the driver’s horror the corpse was missing its head!

The resulting investigation reveals that Mr O’Vel’s grave was not the only one to have been desecrated. A total of thirty-seven decapitated bodies have been uncovered, all having been buried during the last two years. The undertaker claims that the bodies were intact when they were placed within their caskets, and this is confirmed by the parish minister.

Police believe that the heads were severed after their burial, but can offer no motive for the brutal and inhumane acts.

Possibilities

1 For the last two years the churchyard has regularly received unwelcome nocturnal visitors. On each occasion the four intruders - equipped with spades, knives and chains - have unearthed a coffin, dragged it free of its resting place and cleft the head free of the unresisting corpse.

Those responsible believe that their work will eventually benefit mankind. They are scientists who - having mastered the reanimation of the body (with the help of the notes of Dr Herbert West) - now seek to reanimate the brain. Their foul experiments are conducted in a small laboratory located in the basement of their accommodation.

2 From an early age no-one understood James Miller, but this was only natural since he didn’t understand himself. At the age of seven he was placed into a rehabilitation institution. He remained there for twenty-two years, taking no interest in the world around him.

Then, three years ago, he received his first visitor – a tall, lean, black-skinned man. The two talked for many hours and the stranger finally left upon the insistence of the asylum’s senior director, but not before promising James that he would return.

James in the meantime, began to show an unprecedented change in his attitude. The following week at exactly the same time, the black man again visited. This continued for many months during which time James’ condition showed obvious signs of improvement. Finally he was considered fit to rejoin society and discharged. The evening before James was due to leave, the Black man visited one final time. The staff were surprised that he only stayed for five minutes; just long enough, he claimed, to offer a “parting gift”.

The following day James went to live in a small town and examined his gift - a fine parchment scroll. The scroll contained instructions for a ritual which allows the caster to “transcend his mortal form”. In order for the spell to be successful the caster must have ingested a total of forty human brains.

Over the last two years, James has dug up thirty-seven corpses, removed the head and - in the comfort of his own home - digested the brain. He only needs to consume three more brains before the metamorphosis occurs. If he succeeds a Hunting Horror bursts from the now-useless human shell; only then will James Miller become a true servant of Nyarlathotep.

3 The police are mistaken; the bodies had already been beheaded prior to their burial. Reverend Matthew Thompson is responsible. Almost two years ago he received a visit from a group of Mi-Go who requested his aid to help obtain dead human brain-tissue for experimental surgery. He refused.

The Mi-Go retaliated by connecting him to a machine that planted false experiences into his mind - experiences that he believed had really occurred. Consequently, the reverend now remembers receiving a divine visitation telling him to aid the Mi-Go. The Mi-Go have retained their control by implanting the experience of further visitations whenever his resolve weakened.

The reverend was unnerved by the recent discovery, and subsequent investigation, of the decollated corpses. He pleaded with the Mi-Go to cease their relentless demands, at least until the current investigation was closed. They refused. The reverend is now suspicious and has begun to doubt the nature of his “visitations”. The Mi-Go are aware that they can no longer rely on him and the next beheaded corpse may be wearing a clergyman’s habit.

© Hadley Connor

The Hungry Woods

A small community housing project has recently been completed on the edge of a large wood just outside of town. The project’s aim is to create a safe, pleasant environment for parents and young children. Families move in at the start of summer. Once the school holidays arrive the children begin exploring the wood, climbing trees and going wild out of sight of their parents.

A few weeks into the holidays Annie McElroy notices that food is missing from the cupboards and fridge. At first, she thinks it is her husband, snacking during the night. She doesn’t mention it to him but drops it into casual conversation with the neighbours. It seems everyone has been victim of the mysterious food thief – and nobody has admitted to it.

Possibilities

1 Children are stealing the food. Whilst playing in the heart of the wood they encountered a place where the barrier between the Dreamlands and the Waking World is very thin. The Dreamlands point of contact is the Enchanted Wood, where the Zoogs live. These sweet-looking creatures have befriended the children, who are bring food to the creatures. The children will never tell the grown-ups about their new, special friends, The Zoogs are doing their best to entice the children into the Dreamlands proper, and it is only a matter of time before they succeed.

2 The community’s adult males have been subjected to the dream-sendings of a dead witch. She has been persuading them to bring food to her grave in the woods. The food rots rapidly into the ground and nourishes her body, strengthening it and putting flesh back upon the bones. The men have been obeying her instructions in their sleep and have no memories of their actions.

3 Early in the housing project’s construction a body was found in the woods. The body, that of a homeless man judging by the clothes, was badly mangled and parts looked as if they had burst open. To avoid bad publicity the site foreman had the body buried in one house’s foundations and bribed the workers to keep quiet.

The body belonged to a man who had fallen into a narrow hole in the woods and found himself in an underground labyrinth. There he encountered the Great Old One Eihort who offered him the usual choice: death or become host for Eihort’s brood. The man chose the latter and died when the brood erupted from his body.

The Brood have lived in the wood since then, but some have migrated into the houses, hiding in cracks and the shadows of cupboards. It is the brood that has been eating the food.

© Robin Low