The Adventures of Andrew Doran: Box Set

by Matthew Davenport

  Nancy's face paled, but she made no conscious reaction.

  "They're after your father and they want him to take them there. As an American," Leo coughed loudly, "and a Frenchie, we don't want them to go on this expedition at all. Since we can't stop an entire army, we're trying to find your father first and offer him the best protection that we can provide."

  Nancy laughed at me then. "What kind of protection could you possibly provide?"

  I ignored her and smiled curtly. "Whether the Nazis find your father or not, they will go on their trip and they will find what your father did. Except they will do so with nefarious plans and try to bring it back here and use it in their war effort." I leaned back in my chair. "Instead of allowing that to happen, Leo and I also want your father for another reason. We need him to take us to those horrible mountains so that we can destroy the lost city before the Nazis can loot it."

  Nancy's earlier comment on protection must have been forgotten, because she suddenly came to a realization. "Wait. Do you actually believe my father's story of the mountains?" She sounded slightly hopeful.

  Leo nodded to her and answered. "We do."

  I did my best not to laugh then, but it was very humorous to me. Nancy Dyer found it a daunting idea that I would believe the ramblings of her father. If she only knew of the things that I believed in.

  Leo wasn't in the mood for any more revealing, and we had more or less reached the end of our information anyway.

  Aside from the news about the journal.

  "No more lies." Leo said it sternly, but with calm. "You know where we stand and what we want to do. Why did you break into your father's office?"

  Her lips were tight while Nancy looked between Leo and myself as she wrestled with whether or not she should trust us.

  In the end, she chose to trust.

  "I was just a little girl when my father came back from Antarctica," she started quietly. "At first, he didn't talk about it, or much of anything for that matter. I think he just wanted to forget that it had happened at all. When he wasn't drinking at home, he would spend all of his time here, at his office and still drinking. He wasn't someone who normally preferred the bottle. He was just in a lot of pain.

  "When he wasn't in his office, he would be at our cabin. When he went there it would be for months at a time. Mother and I had no idea what had happened to him, but we could see that he'd changed. We found out when the rest of the world did. When that second expedition was announced, father found his next mission: he had to stop it."

  I nodded and remembered when I first had read the warning from Dr. Dyer. He had only sent it to the head of the new expedition, but upon being ignored by the expedition head, and then each of his funding sources, Dr. Dyer then publicly presented his story in hopes of being taken seriously. There were very few of us who did.

  Nancy continued.

  "My mother was mortified. She took immediate action to separate him from our lives. I didn't blame her, but I had looked into my father's eyes. He wasn't crazy, only scared. I believed him. She moved me us to Washington D.C. and we left my father here, in Arkham. The only part of him that I could smuggle with me was a copy of his recounting of events. It was months before mother caught me reading it and took it away from me, but it didn't matter anymore. I had memorized every detail that my father had written down." Nancy twisted in her bonds. "The rest of my childhood was average and mostly fatherless. I heard less and less from him as time went by. I wanted to move to Miskatonic University to be closer to him, but my application kept getting rejected. I didn't know why, but I feel like he was trying to protect me from something."

  Leo snickered, obviously thinking of all of the locked doors in the University. I shot him a quick glare and he stopped.

  Nancy didn't even seem to notice and continued. "I wound up at the University of Chicago, where I am currently majoring in geology. As a woman, it's already difficult being taken seriously at University, but my gender means nothing when people hear my name." She frowned. "I keep to myself mostly, at least until last week. I live in off-campus housing, alone." Anger flashed across Nancy's face. "Last week, I came home and my room had been torn apart. I had saved all of my father's letters that my mother hadn't found, and I had photographs and a collection of books that my father had published papers in. All of them had been either taken or tossed. It was obvious that they were looking for my father or something about him. I packed a few things and rushed to Utah to find my father. He wasn't there, so I changed direction and headed straight to his home in Arkham."

  I had seen Dyer's house, as well. It had been worse than the cabin. "I began to panic when I saw what they'd done to his home. That was when I came to his office. I wouldn't have had to break in if the door hadn't been covered in those heavy locks." Nancy turned her eyes to me and they were suddenly filled with anger. "If you're the Dean, how can an employee of yours disappear for months without you taking action?"

  I opened my mouth to reply, but of course, Leo beat me to it.

  "He is not good at his job."

  I raised my eyebrow at Leo, but I didn't deny his point. "Unlike other Universities, the role of Dean at Miskatonic consists more of protecting the school instead of one of management." It was an intense understatement, but it was enough. "It keeps me very busy."

  Nancy twisted in the chair again. "Now that we've got the pleasantries out of the way, how about untying me?"

  Seemingly from nowhere, Olivia said, "Don't do it. She can't be trusted."

  An idea came to me in that moment. Nancy had studied all of her father's work and had memorized the story that her father told. "Do you think that you could translate your father's journal if we had it?"

  "Translate?" Nancy asked. "What language is it in?"

  I shook my head. "Not a language; it's in code."

  Nancy looked confused. "I don't know. I would have to see it." She was frowning. "I was unaware of any interest in codes that my father might have had."

  "Useless." Olivia scoffed.

  I continued to ignore my imaginary companion. "Nancy, we are trying to find your father to provide him with protection and save the world from what it was that he found. The Nazis will use him and then kill him when he is no longer useful. How about we help each other in the search for Professor Dyer?" I was pushing the envelope with my plea, but if she didn't understand how desperately we needed her help and the help of her father, than all was lost.

  Nancy lowered her head in contemplation. My impatience grew, and I began to wonder if Olivia's warnings had been something that I should heed.

  "Full disclosure." Nancy finally responded.

  "What?" I asked.

  "I will help you, but not without an agreement of full disclosure from both sides. Any questions you have of me, I will answer. Any questions that I have for either of you, you will also answer. Agree to that and you will have my support."

  The young lady had no idea what kind of knowledge I had, but I could guess where the questions would lead.

  I studied her closely.

  She could take it. Nancy Dyer wouldn't balk at the answers I gave to her questions because she knew how to read people. She had seen the truth in her father's eyes. He wasn't crazy, only scared. When I answered her questions, she would see the truth in my eyes as well, and she would not run.

  I answered carefully. "I know some very dark things. Some of them could threaten your very life just by knowing them."

  "That is not your decision to make. If I ask a question, I want an answer, or I walk. Right here, and right now, I tell you that no matter how dangerous to me your answer might be, I demand you give them to me." Nancy didn't say it with any sort of anger or malice. Instead, her voice was filled with the calm assurance of closing a deal.

  Olivia was suddenly next to my ear. I could feel her breath on my neck as she said, "Tell her, Andrew. Tell her about what happened in the sewers to that poor model of Mr. Pickman's. Tell her that her father's psyche was most likely shatter
ed on his expedition and that he might have begun a metamorphosis. Tell her that he might, very likely be something less...no, something more...than human. Go on, Andrew. Show her what lies beyond the curtain. Tell her. She wants to know."

  I didn't say it, but she heard me think, "Only if she asks."

  "Agreed," was what I said.

  Nancy smiled and I thought I heard a sigh come from Leo.

  I walked around to the back of the chair and began untying her bonds. Once free, Nancy began rubbing her wrists where the ropes had been.

  "Where do we start?" She asked and looked expectantly at me.

  I looked to Leo and he pulled out the worn journal of William Dyer.

  "You do have it!" Nancy exclaimed.

  Leo tossed the worn tome to its respective heir.

  I nodded to her after she caught it and looked up to me, as if holding some holy relic. "Now start translating it."

  Leo looked to me, and slowly Nancy's eyes pulled from the tome and followed Leo's. "And where will you be?" Leo asked me.

  I smiled. "I'll be taking a nap."

  Chapter 3: The Dream Lands

  I had meant it when I told Leo and Nancy that I was going to take a nap, but I had also severely understated it. In all reality, I was going to use my nap to search for William Dyer.

  I left them in the library and made my way back to the office as quickly as I could. Once I arrived, I closed the door and locked it behind him. I walked over to the bar and grabbed another bottle of brandy. The previous Dean's collection of brandy was impressive and with Leo and me around, I was doubly impressed by how long it had lasted. I didn't waste any time with a glass and instead took long pulls from the bottle. This needed to be a deep nap.

  I took another pull and closed my eyes, enjoying the smooth burn in the back of my throat. As the last lingering taste of the brandy disappeared from my throat, I opened my eyes and said, "Come out, come out, wherever you are."

  There was an audible rustle at my desk and, for the first time since I entered the room, noticed that my chair was spun away from me, facing the window behind the desk. With a slow rotation, the chair spun and faced forward, revealing my consistent hallucination, Olivia.

  Her dark hair was tied back in a bun and she was wearing a button-up top with the sleeves rolled up. She looked ready for an excavation in Egypt. A smirk was on her face, as if she knew exactly what I was about to ask of her.

  She probably did.

  "You called?" she teased.

  I ignored her and took another pull from the brandy bottle. I replaced the glass stopper as the burn subsided in my throat. I was starting to feel the pleasant effects of the elixir.

  "Yes, I called you." I finally answered her. "I'm going to the Dreamlands. Want to come?"

  The Dreamlands were a place that I had only visited rarely, and less so as I've gotten older. The Dreamlands are a parallel plane of existence that lies close to ours in an interdimensional sense. It's a place where the laws of our reality hold no sway. It is so called the Dreamlands by our reality because of the easiest means through which humans can enter that reality. Inside every dream that humans have is a secret path to the Dreamlands.

  The appeal of the Dreamlands is obvious to those who go there. You can stay and never age, earning yourself an immortality in that reality while in our reality your shell of a body dies. Of course, once your body does die in our reality, you become stuck in the Dreamlands with no conventional means of leaving. For some, that's ideal. Nothing appeals more to some than an immortality in a magical realm. Unfortunately, that immortality is only related to aging. Your conscious avatar could still be attacked or have an accident. Injuries and death are still possible, but some see that as a still preferable world.

  Sleep isn't the only means to enter the Dreamlands, but it is the easiest that any normal person can access. Those who know how to look can find the doorway between worlds with ease, but most need help. That's why I called out to Olivia. The landscapes in the Dreamlands are forever changing with the wills of the people who live there. Some are forever constant, but you never know for certain where you'll end up or what circumstances you might be thrown into. Fortunately for me, I'm probably the only person in existence who doesn't have to enter the Dreamlands alone.

  Olivia wouldn't just succeed as a guide, but also as my defense. She's a being of power, specifically mine, but she understood my magic in a way that I only understand it subconsciously. With beasts, monsters, nightmare creatures, and missing or dead people from all over history roaming the landscape of the Dreamlands, Olivia's power would help to keep me safe. Most importantly, she'd be an equal match if we ran into a Child of Dreams.

  When people leave our world to live in the Dreamlands, they sometimes fall in love, or lust, and children are born of those unions. These children may look like us, but they are often born with gifts as unique as the world to which they were born. Olivia would be a contender for that.

  I hope.

  Of course, that's if Olivia agreed to come with me.

  "Why this sudden interest in my help? You've ignored all of my other advice." She raised an eyebrow.

  "It isn't sudden interest," I replied, slightly annoyed. "All of my...animosity toward you has nothing to do with you specifically, so much as what you represent. You're a symptom of my going insane and sometimes that makes me grumpy." I crossed over to my desk and stood across from Olivia. "My attitude doesn't blind me to your value. In this reality, you and I are one person, but I'm willing to bet that in the Dreamlands we'll be separate entities. As much as I would prefer to bring our trigger-happy Frenchman with me, it isn't possible." I sigh. "So, I'm asking you if you want to actually provide physical help to me in this search for Dyer."

  It was obvious that she was excited by the idea, but Olivia has never been one to just answer without toying with me. She frowned at me, pretending to toss the idea around and weigh the pros and cons.

  I know how bored she gets being trapped in my head with only minimal interaction with the world. I was offering her a day off of her leash.

  A smile spread across her face. "You're such a charmer. I would love to go."

  Olivia stood from my chair and then waved at it dramatically, as if presenting it like a stage magician. I stepped around her and sat down. "Is there anything that I need to do?" My words came out slower as the brandy mixed with my earlier libations.

  Olivia shook her head. "Just fall asleep. Once you're dreaming, I will find you and lead you to the Dreamlands."

  I nodded. It seemed simple enough. All that I had to do was fall asleep.

  I folded my arms and laid my head across them on the desk. It was nap time.

  It didn't take long before I opened my eyes on an all-too-familiar beach. The sand was colorless and the skies were dark. It was a beach covered with hills. The water had pushed the sands into heaping mounds and I couldn't see anything of the scenery beyond the tallest dunes.

  This wasn't just the beach of my nightmares, it was the beach of my future.

  That's what I've been told, anyway.

  The first time that I'd seen the beach, it had been with my consciousness projected to the actual moment. In that first vision I had simply appeared and the first thing that I noticed was the...

  I looked down at my feet, and there they were. Slimy, amorphous masses climbing from the brackish water. They covered the beach, creatures of every different type of shape or size but unlike anything that any human eye had ever fallen on before. These things were fluid beasts, flowing from the ocean, but temporarily taking different forms as they continued further onto the beach.

  ...and toward the real nightmare.

  At the crest of the hill, where the creatures congregated, stood a man.

  It was me.

  It was prophesied that I would turn on humanity and that I would become the Bringer of Cthulhu. In that previous visit to this premonition, I fought the evil version of myself. I like to call him Dark-Doran as it helps me
keep him straight in my head.

  I ran at Dark-Doran, just as I had that first time. I skipped over the slimy creatures as they reached out to grab me. As they reached forward to greet him. As I got closer and closer, running and slipping in the beach sand, Dark-Doran took no notice of my approach. My doppelganger flipped open that dreaded book, the Necronomicon, and began chanting the words from the forbidden text. He was calling to Cthulhu.

  That book had been destroyed. I knew that in the back of my mind. If it was the book that I thought it was, it had been destroyed by me when I had gone toe to toe with the Traum Kult. Somehow, this evil version of myself still had the book and I had to stop him.

  I was moving at a good speed as I went up the hill, but it didn't matter. I was only ten feet from Dark-Doran when I slammed into an invisible barrier.

  I fell back, but was on my feet again quicker than I could follow. I slapped my hands and fists against the barrier and screamed to get his attention, but I was nonexistent to him.

  As my voice began to tire, a hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around.

  I came around and let a fist fly at my new attacker, but I only hit the air. Surprise filled me. Whoever I had swung at was faster than I could punch. My surprise only continue to grow when I saw who had grabbed me.

  It was Olivia. She had never been part of this vision before. How did she find me? Was she part of this evil thing that had happened to me?

  Suddenly, my mind was flooded with awareness. Dreams have a habit of making you forget about reality. That is, until reality forces its way back in, the way Olivia had to my dream.

  Out of courtesy, or simply her own confusion, Olivia gives me a minute to catch my bearings and recall everything. Finally, when my mind had finally caught up with the situation, Olivia nodded toward the sea.

  “The path to the Dream Lands is this way.” She took my hand, which struck me as very odd. It was a gentle thing, and she and I had always been at odds. It was as though she feared changing my mind about letting her off of her leash. Holding my hand, she led me over and past the squirming monstrosities that crawled from the brackish water. It wasn’t until we were almost to the vile liquid that I realized she didn’t intend to stop at the end of the shore.