Page 24 of An Invocation of Monsters

A small part of me was screaming to be cautious, but I was a long-time urban explorer. I couldn’t resist the call of the wilds around me.

Where the patio should have been, I instead walked up a set of crumbling stairs that were primitive shale slabs, leaving dark, wet footprints behind.

And where the Lodge had been, a large stone circle was set in the ground. The arches surrounded it, draped with lacy stone that almost looked like petrified spiderwebs. Foxfire orbs drifted through them aimlessly, but nothing else moved.

The grass was tall and pitch-black, and I wouldn’t have walked through it barefoot for love or money. But nestled in it, close to the stone path, were beams of rotten wood. I knelt down, touching the edge of one such beam.

The initials GM was carved in the wood. It looked like it was a thousand years old, the edges of the carving worn smooth.

My breath caught, and I stood up again slowly.

I was sure these were the ruins of the Lodge. And somehow, my mother had left her mark on them. I was sure that she was the one who had done it.

It took me several minutes to convince myself to move further into the ruins. The stone circle was carved with symbols that made my eyes sting when I looked at them too closely, and I had to look up at the swirling vortex of the sky and blink tears away.

But worst of all were the dark stains splashed across its surface. I was sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that those stains were blood.

I had to get back to the lake. I was not dead, damn it.

I was fully alive, more than a little terrified, and absolutely questioning my sanity.

The woods were still silent as I turned back down the path I’d come, carefully descending the shale steps to the pebbled beach, but as I looked up from watching my step, I froze.

The lake, which had been placid when I left, was now rippling. The luminescent film of green and violet swirled like a whirlpool, and then… stopped.

I realized that it wasn’t just the strange algae glowing. There was something beneath it, pulsing with colors, rising to the surface.

The massive form broke through, sending a glowing tide of water spilling back into the lake. My heart slammed against my ribcage, ice coursing through me as the shape continued to rise.

I wondered if my mind was finally fracturing. The creature from the lake’s depths was only vaguely humanoid—a muscular torso, the thick arms and tree-trunk thighs of a man. The heavy cock swinging between his legs was just the cherry on top.

But his skin was sleek and as dark as a moonless night, limned with gleaming, embedded lights. They flashed in a series of pulsing colors that were as mesmerizing as Toth’s wings: bright yellows, pale pinks, glimmers of a deep, bloody crimson.

And then there was his face.

I dimly realized I was shaking where I stood, caught like a deer by those eyes—narrowed and gleaming dark blue, over a fall of gently writhing tentacles that covered the lower half of his face.

He took a step forward, the ground rumbling when his foot landed. Then another.

This monster was at least twelve feet tall, able to crush me like a twig.

But my fear overruled my sense of self-preservation. My feet absolutely refused to move, remaining planted firmly in the path of the monster.

I exhaled a low whimper as he left the water, revealing large, dark claws on his feet.

It was only when he was towering over me, his tentacles drifting outward to encircle me, that my terrified body caught up with my brain and tried to obey the command to run.

But it was far too late. I managed exactly one step before a tentacle, warm and slick, caught my wrist. Another laced around my waist, and my upper arm was encircled, the appendage squeezing lightly.

Suckers popped against my skin as the monster reeled me in.

I wasn’t a screamer. Never had been, probably wouldn’t ever be.

But at that moment, I wanted to let out the most primal, animalistic shrieks of terror from the depths of my soul.

It wouldn’t matter, though. This was not Earth. Not as I knew it.

There was no one to hear me scream.

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