I have never dreamed of anything so large. Perfect black, sharp edged. Towering over the plain, sending pulsations through the land and air. I can hear a low hum coming from it, a chant even. I am drawn to it. I am terrified. It throbs once more and fills my body with vibrations attuning it with its rhythm. It feels like it is acknowledging my presence. It is here. I can not deny it. I can only go forth. Like a beacon it called me and I will answer its call.
Okay, I’m gonna tell you about the first time I met him and I don’t really care if you believe me or not. I was about ten years old and I woke up in the middle of the night. I had severe asthma back then and I often was awakened by my own heavy coughing, but this time something was different. I couldn’t sit up in my bed and I couldn’t cough either. I could only move my eyes, nothing else. I felt somebody’s presence like a physical thing in the semi-darkness. That was when I noticed a figure out of the corner of my eyes sitting in the far corner of my room. I tried to focus my view and I can still remember how that strained my eyes since I could not turn my head. There sat a man with dark violet skin smoking a cigar. He had a thick black moustache, a black suit, a black tie and black hair that was gelled back. He was quietly grinning at me and I instantly thought that there was something inherently wrong with his mouth. I felt like screaming, calling for my parents, but I couldn’t. I started to sweat intensely and tears began to blur my vision. He suddenly bent over to me, which should have been impossible, since he was sitting at the other end of the room. His face was nearly touching mine and his breath was burning my skin the way an ice-cold breeze does. I think I must have passed out soon after that, but before I did, I heard him whisper: “You are mine, my child.”
“… Have you ever seen this other world, lurking below the surface of everything? To see it for the first time is an awakening, the nasty kind. Imagine the sea being drained and the seabed becoming visible, littered with dead faded-pink creatures. Imagine the earth cracking open and the evil face below appearing. It is the world of rot and vermin. It is lurking below the surface of everything. And it always exists even when you’re not thinking about it, even when you’re happy. And once you have seen it, it will never let you go. You have awakened, and you can’t fall asleep again. It sometimes happens when you look at things for too long. You stare a hole into the surface, oh yes. It happened to me. And now the sea is being drained and the seabed becomes visible. All the time. And it is littered with dead faded-pink creatures. Festering faded-pink creatures. And the surface is cracking up and the evil face appears. And it looks at you from everywhere. It looks at you too and it is always there. Even when you’re sleeping. Even when you’re drugged. Do you know what it’s called? It is the world of rot and vermin. Because it is all rot and vermin. You’re going to see it too, staring at me like that. Staring a fucking hole into the surface. Oh, yes, you’ll see everything… all the time. The rotting… The rotting corpses, the evil face. It is there, even when you’re not thinking about it, and it is smiling, oh yes…”
My boat is slowly floating down a fog-covered river lit from underneath by somehow menacingly glowing outlandish fish as I’m carried off to demise, like a reverse Moses. A fragrant taste of lavender lingers in my mouth since I woke up this afternoon and made me think of you. I doubt the wooden carcass of my boat will ever be found, yet I leave you this, scrawled in the eerie half-light of this not yet dawned day, whilst I wait for those two stone giants to loom on the horizon. The wardens that mark the beginning of the malodorous descent and hence the finality of my decision to return to this subterranean anti-sanctum. I am truly scared.
Tales from the abyss 