by Tom Morris
my relief was short lived for the portal still swirled in the middle of the room and from it there came an insane and hideous wailing. As I watched, paralysed with fear the surface of the curtain bulged and a face straight from nightmare pressed through it, unsymmetrical gelatinous eyes ringing a gaping fang-filled maw from which a tentacle, slimed with putrid ichors protruded, groped blindly through the air and then with deadly accuracy grasped Derek by the neck. He screamed in fear and as the monstrous apparition sought to drag him back into that accursed doorway he waved his hand towards the whiteboard.
"Wipe them off", he screamed, wipe out the equations."
As quickly as my trembling legs would allow, I grabbed a cloth from below the board and feverishly scrubbed at the inscriptions. As I rubbed the portal began to shrink. A hideous gurgling came from the apparition and the sound of frantic scrabbling as of many chitenous feet. As I erased the last of the figures the thing withdrew and the portal disappeared. I rushed to Derek who had collapsed to the floor. His eyes were wide with shock, his lips blue and a thin trickle of blood spilled from his nose. Frantically I tried to revive him but despite attempting what little I knew of first aid I was unable to evoke any sign of life. In all haste I phoned the emergency services and called for an ambulance, urging them to respond with the utmost speed. It was as I replaced the receiver that the shock and horror of what I had experienced overcame me and I felt my mind slipping into hysteria. It was not that however that pushed me over the edge. Determined that there should be no further attempts to delve into what were obviously matters for which we were not yet ready, I determined to destroy the instrument of our misfortune and snatching up that accursed book made ready to throw it on the fire in the adjoining room. It was then that the terrible awfulness of events became clear and my sanity failed, for as I picked up the book I saw the face on the cover and it was no longer the loathsome visage that had previously been lined out there but was now undeniably the face, convulsed with stark terror and dread of my friend Derek. I hurled the book on the fire, but as the flames licked about it, instead of burning, it simply shimmered and disappeared, back to what ever realm of forbidden wickedness and malignancy it had emerged.
I write this account now because I do not believe that I have much time left and it is essential that there be a warning of the most unbelievable dangers of attempting to delve into the dark secrets of forbidden knowledge. I am held here in a mental institute where they think they are treating me for a nervous breakdown. They think I was unhinged by witnessing the death of my close friend from what was judged to be a massive heart attack. What fools they are. I know what my fate will be. More and more as I sit here, locked in my room, I hear the sniffing and scratching as the things probe for a way in. I have started to see the phantom shimmer as they try to make an opening. Soon they will break through and take me. So read my story and for God's sake take heed!
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