The Adventures of Andrew Doran: Box Set

by Matthew Davenport

  I awoke with little memory of the return trip to my body. The only thing that I remembered was the sudden drop before my eyes fluttered open.

  Unlike normal sleep, I wasn’t feeling any more rested than I had been before I took my trek into the Dream Lands. I had been concerned that the beastly Night Gaunt would have fought my commands and stolen me away into wherever it is that Night Gaunts nest. The chance of me never returning to the waking world was greater than I cared to admit, even to myself.

  The elation I felt from being back in my body and in my office lasted only until I opened my eyes. It took me a moment to realize what I was looking at. My eyes took in the obvious forms of Leo and the new girl, Nancy Dyer, but then it realized that they were kneeling in front of my desk with their hands behind their heads. Directly behind them were two larger men, with equally large pistols, in the basic clothing you would see on anyone in the school. They were hiding among the students. There was one more man guarding the door. He carried no gun.

  I instantly moved to jump up from my seat when a strong hand clasped my shoulder and forced me back down.

  “Relax, Doctor. You’re not going anywhere.”

  I glanced to my right at the man who had spoken and still held my shoulder. He was dressed as the others, but wore a button vest. He held his pistol in the other hand, not aimed at anywhere in particular.

  I spun my head to my left and realized that Mr. Vest didn’t need to aim his pistol anywhere, because the largest of the four men, stretching the limits of his Miskatonic University sweater, held another pistol, incredibly small in his immense hands, near my temple.

  To say the least, I was intimidated...

  ...but I sure as Hell wasn’t going to let them see that.

  “Get that damned gun out of my face!” I shouted at Mr. Mountain on my left. He didn’t move, and that left me with only Plan B.

  I sighed heavily. “More Yig worshipers. Really? I would have thought that the Nazis had a higher standard of cultists lying about.” I nodded toward Leo. “I miss the days of Cthulhu Cultists. Boy! Did they know how to throw a punch. Am I right, Leo?”

  At first his eyes looked totally bewildered as my message was temporarily lost in translation, but he quickly caught on and laughed. “And they carried bigger guns,” he added.

  I noticed out of the corner of my eye as Mr. Vest looked from me to Leo and then back to me. I could tell he was surprised that I saw through his disguise, but I wanted to make him stew as his curiosity fought with his dignity. The longer he waited, the better.

  When I finally felt that enough time had passed to where it was almost becoming awkward instead of intimidating to be sitting in that silence, I nodded toward Mr. Mountain’s gunhand.

  “Your scales are showing.” The cuff of his sweater came almost up to his palm, but it didn’t cover enough. The guard’s wrist had light green scales blending into the skin of his palm. I had noticed it when I first took in Mr. Mountain’s insanely large form.

  Mr. Mountain looked down to where I had nodded and I didn’t wait. I slapped the gun up, hitting the base of his scaled hand and ducking down. The gun fired, as I expected it to, and I kicked back with my chair. The chair in the Dean’s office was on casters, and I rolled back and bounced into the wall. As I did, I lifted my head and saw that the bullet from Mr. Mountain’s misfire had cut into the shoulder of Mr. Vest.

  Mr. Vest had plenty to deal with in regards to his leaking arm, so I leapt to my feet and punched the still surprised Mr. Mountain in the jaw. I thought my hand broke as I did it and Mr. Mountain looked more annoyed than actually hurt, so I punched him again. That time his eyes filled with rage and he swung his gun arm toward me.

  I grabbed a letter opener from the desk and jabbed out and toward his scale-covered wrist. The blade sliced into the scaled skin and he dropped the gun. I scooped it up before it hit the floor. Standing, I took aim at Mr. Vest.

  The other three guards hadn’t moved during any of my altercation, and they hadn’t needed to. My plan hadn’t been escape, only to sting. With one Follower of Yig on the door and one with a pistol to the head of each of my companions, I had very few options aside from surrender.

  I still needed just a little more time.

  “Drop the gun and sit down,” barked the Yig worshiper guarding Nancy. “Or we will kill your people.”

  I didn’t move. He knew we were at a stalemate, so I called him out on it. “You won’t do that, and we all know it.” I watched as the guard glanced down at his charge and knew I was right. “You already know who she is, and you are going to need her if you can’t find Dyer.”

  Nancy’s guard aimed his pistol at Leo’s head. “We do not need the Frenchman.”

  I nodded but I didn’t lower my gun. “If he dies, I’ll kill you all before another bullet can leave the gun.” The coldness in my voice had the desired effect and they didn’t shoot Leo, but they also didn’t move.

  Nancy’s guard, Mr. Chatter, with his gun still aimed at Leo, decided to keep talking. “At best you could get one of us before we gunned you down.”

  Laughing, I lifted my gun away from them slowly before dropping the gun.

  The gun started to drop before stopping and floating into place pressed lightly against Mr. Mountain’s forehead. “Do you have any idea where you are?”

  Mr. Chatter took on a look of confusion, and for the first time since he had started talking, Mr. Chatter was speechless.

  I crossed my arms over my chest. Holding the gun in place with my magic was more of a parlor trick than anything. Moving objects was one of the easier spells, but holding them in place for any length of time could be tiring. I hid it from my face as I spoke.

  “This isn’t the Dean’s office in some random private university. This is Miskatonic University. It’s the largest collection of volatile and arcane magics from all over the world!” I barked another laugh. “You are standing in a city that has been referred to as a hub for every vile creature that has roamed this planet!”

  Mr. Chatter asked, “What does any of that even mean?” He shot a confused glance at his nearest companion.

  “It means,” I smiled, “that my local Wendigo is the most dedicated secretary in the business!”

  Something vaguely human-shaped fell from the ceiling and onto Mr. Chatter. A fount of blood shot from the fast moving mass of Wendigo and Mr. Chatter. His companions only stared, terrified by the sight before them.

  The Wendigo has been a creature mostly spoken about by the American Indians. They were part of folklore among many different groups for generations. The Indians knew that excessive cannibalism would transform a person. They would become stronger and take on the ability to shape shift. The Wendigo form varied based on the environment, but generally they became gray-skinned with bright red eyes and sharp claws and teeth. The strength of the Wendigo, absorbed and multiplied by the people it consumed, was only matched by its speed. They were fast, strong, and able to hide in plain sight as normal people. They were the perfect hunters of man.

  Standing from the mess of gore on the floor, a gray-skinned and very sharp-toothed and clawed Carol Berg stretched her neck. Her eyes were filled with the red of her natural form.

  “Thank you for noticing my dedication, sir.” She frowned at me, and I found myself wanting to shrink away. “I will, of course, still need you to sign the renovation agreements for Pellman Hall.” I nodded, because it was either that or shake in terror. Thank goodness she was on our side.

  Carol’s hand flashed out and returned in another spray of blood as she took out the throat of the guard standing behind Leo. “For now, Doctor, I suggest that we table the renovation agreements.” She lifted her head and sniffed the air. “More are coming. Weapon-up, soldier, you must leave.”

  In a puddle of his own bodily fluids, the guard at the door finally snapped out of his terror long enough to look out the door. Before I could see the look of relief on his face at the sight of the Yig Cavalry, Carol Berg had already remove
d his head.

  Mr. Vest had begun pleading with me to shoot him before my blood-soaked secretary made it to him. I grabbed the floating gun from the air and slammed the butt of it into his nose and watched him crumple on the floor.

  His companion, Mr. Mountain, took the moment to yank the letter opener from his wrist and leap at me. Unfortunately for him, mountains lack speed, and I put him down with a bullet.

  I grabbed Mr. Vest’s gun from the floor and tossed both pistols to Leo, who proceeded to check them before passing one to Nancy. I heard him mumble, “You are with us now,” as I stepped toward the bookshelf.

  Rearing back, I kicked the bottom shelf of the ceiling high bookshelf. The shelf of fake tomes at chest level slid in and then up, revealing a secret compartment where I kept my cavalry sword and .38 revolver.

  I quickly strapped on my holster and scabbard, sliding the weapons into their sheaths.

  Turning back to my companions, I noticed Nancy staring at my rune-covered pistol.

  “What is it?” I asked, suddenly wondering what about my gun had put that wide-eyed look on her face.

  “Is that...” she hesitated with doubt. “Is that the Equalizer?”

  I raised an eyebrow as Leo asked, “The what?”

  Noise in the hall stopped Nancy from answering as I ushered us all toward the window. I glanced at Leo, “Where’s the book?”

  Leo turned his gaze back to Nancy who pulled the small journal from a back pocket. Leo yanked it from her grip faster than she could pull it away and tossed it to me.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  Nancy began waving her newly acquired pistol around while she spoke. “You’ll trust me with a gun but not the book?”

  I looked at her while Leo climbed out of the window. “Do you have no idea where you are?” I waved my own hands around then. “Do I have to give that whole speech again? This entire University was built on the foundation that books are more dangerous than guns. This whole situation is over that book. So, yes! I trust you with a gun more than I trust you with a book that contains the half-mad firsthand account of an alien culture that the entire Third Reich is after!” I sighed as Yig Worshipers began coming into the room and meeting Carol. “At least with the gun all that you can do is kill me.” I waved at the window. “Sometime today, please.”

  Nancy frowned at me and another Yig screamed. The mixture of snake-like hiss and terrified death-screams made him sound like a tea kettle at boil.

  Nancy peeked out the window to gauge the distance. It was only about a ten foot drop. She slid over the sill and dropped.

  I tossed a quick glance over my shoulder to see how Carol was faring and regretted it immediately. That gory vision would haunt my nightmares for a very long time. I left her to her carnage playground and jumped out of the window to land beside Leo and Nancy as they brushed themselves off.

  Leo’s truck keys are in his hand from seemingly nowhere. “Where are we headed?”

  I nodded toward his hand before looking at the window we just fell from. “Your truck, obviously, and quickly, I would assume.”

  We took off at a jog, with Leo in the lead.

  “Where will we take the truck?” Leo asked with a hint of his usual annoyance in his voice.

  “I think that I know where Dr. Dyer is, I’ll direct you.”

  Nancy grabbed my arm then and yanked me around. Leo halted to see why we had stopped moving. “Where’s my father?”

  I frowned at her. “I told you, I’ll direct Leo to take us there.”

  “How did you find him?” Leo interrupted Nancy’s death stare.

  “I haven’t yet, and I hadn’t planned on the Germans using more of those damnable Yig. Now if we could please continue to the truck...” I moved to run, but was stopped again by Nancy’s hand on my arm.

  “I asked you where my father was. Tell me.” I noticed her grip tightening on the pistol and wondered exactly how half-cocked this girl really was.

  I hesitated just a little too long and Nancy slapped me across the face.

  I rubbed my cheek. “Your father’s in the Blasted Heath!” I hissed through gritted teeth. I half hoped that the Yig would have heard, not to give them a sporting chance with Dyer’s location, but to have them rate my hissed reply on a scale of one to “Yig.”

  A sudden crash and a howl of pain, sounding unfortunately similar to what I assumed Carol Berg might make, echoed down from the window and across to us.

  Nancy began to ask me what the Blasted Heath was, but it was my turn to be demanding. “Not now. Get. To. The. Truck.” I said before turning our previous jog into a sprint that followed closely on the heels of the Frenchman.

  In just a few minutes, we crossed the campus and were in the cab of Leo’s clunker of a truck.

  I didn’t tell Leo how to get to the Blasted Heath. We needed to make certain that we weren’t leading the Nazis snake-lackeys directly to William Dyer’s location. I left Leo to weave between the different roads throughout Arkham. I only directed him to head generally northwest. Anything more specific could wait. I explained that to Nancy in the hopes of calming her down.

  As far as she knew, we were really close to finally reuniting her with her father. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the reunion might not be what she hoped it to be.

  I was also concerned about exactly how much Timothy had told the Germans. Those Yig worshipers had been in my school for weeks. I recognized two of them from the halls. They had obviously been tasked with keeping an eye on me, but what triggered them to act when they did? Was it the presence of Nancy Dyer on school grounds, or was it the fact that Timothy had finally given them the information that they required?

  The answer meant a world of difference. If it was Nancy’s sudden appearance, than they must have known who she was. I was willing to blame Brandon Smythe for that slip up.

  If, instead, the Nazis had learned as much as I had from Timothy, than the Yig worshipers that we had been waylaid by would be only a part of a larger force. The rest would be awaiting our arrival in the Blasted Heath.

  As if that wasn’t enough, the Blasted Heath was something to fear as well.

  Glancing over my shoulder for what felt like the thousandth time, I directed Leo to take the next left, explaining that we needed to head out of town to the northwest.

  Then I steeled myself, and turned as best I could in the tight cab to face Nancy who sat tightly between Leo and myself.

  “Nancy, the Blasted Heath isn’t just a place to hide,” I began.

  She looked up at me with a sharp look that implied that she didn’t need protecting. This wasn’t going to be easy to explain, so I jumped right in.

  Or tried to, anyway. As I opened my mouth, Leo interrupted.

  “How did you discover that Dr. Dyer was in this ‘Blasted Heath’?”

  I took a deep breath and recounted my journey through the Dream Lands, being extra careful not to mention Olivia. From the look on Leo’s face as he drove, I figured he understood that Olivia had been with me. Nancy, for her credit, didn’t question my walking through a parallel reality. At least, she didn’t question it out loud.

  I ended the recounting with Timothy, the many-tentacled thing wrapped in rags, and added, for Leo’s sake, “That was when I was able to leave behind all of my problems and found out where Nancy’s father was hiding.” I put emphasis on ‘leave behind,’ and watched as Leo’s eyes registered a moment of surprise, then confusion, and finally confused acceptance.

  He didn’t press the issue, and I was certain that a bottle of bourbon and a moment to breathe would get me telling him exactly how I had betrayed my insanity and left her to rot in the Dream Lands.

  “With your father hiding in the Blasted Heath,” I said to Nancy, “he might not be of any use to us or the Nazis.”

  A moment of fear crossed her eyes as she asked, “What does that mean?”

  “The Blasted Heath isn’t a great place to hide because of the deep woods and hills. It’s a great pl
ace to hide because something lives there. Something...alien. It lives deep in the ground and its presence has been wreaking havoc on the fabric between our reality and what I like to refer to as the void.”

  “The void?” She asked.

  I thought I saw Leo roll his eyes as I took a deep breath and began to explain.

  “The void is what I call the reality that shares the same space as ours, only on a different plane of existence. The void is accessible to those with special gifts, or those who have seen the path to the void before. It’s right here, next to us, and only kept separate by a thin barrier between the two realities that I call the veil, for simplification.

  “The monsters that your father saw, and the monsters that people dream of or that roam our world are all creatures from beyond that veil. When the veil lifts, these beasts can escape and they don’t always follow the rules of our reality. The creature that exists in the Blasted Heath, for example. From what I’ve gleaned from the stories, the creature is a being of energy, and appears as an indescribable color. Its decades-long presence in the Blasted Heath hasn’t lifted the veil, but has thinned it. Things leak through the Blasted Heath and claw at people’s minds.”

  Nancy looked more confused than shocked. “So, there are monsters in the Blasted Heath? What does that have to do with my father?”

  I shook my head. “No, the monsters are still in the veil, but they can cast their minds out into the Heath, and the only thing those minds can touch are other minds. Like ours. Like your fathers.”

  Leo grunted and I knew that he had caught on to what I was trying to say.

  “For the most part, the place is completely safe. All of these monster minds reaching out of the Blasted Heath create an aura that humans can sense. We avoid the place at all costs and most people don’t even know why.” I sighed. “But the Blasted Heath’s aura can’t stop people who are specifically trying to get inside it. Your father knew what it was, or he would never have tried to hide there. The aura would protect him from prying eyes, and how thin the veil is would protect him from any sort of magical detection. In that regard he was completely safe.”