by Shaun Meeks
For the rest of the day, while waiting for seven to approach, I read more of the book I had, figuring that the more stories and information I had when showing up, the better. I must have already read twenty to thirty books on The Anna and The Great Nothing, so I figured that would be something to bring to the table. I knew that The Anna was an ancient text, written by an unknown person, rumors had it that it was an old deity that had long fled to another realm. From what I had read, the book tells of the old Gods that create our world and how we came to being. It speaks of The Great Nothing and The Only Light, what Catholic might call Hell and Heaven, but how much of this can people really know. I had tried for years to locate an actual copy of The Anna, and had found nothing to prove it exists, so to me, most of this was the stuff of fantasy.
I know differently now. There is so much in this world that people simply take at face value, never looking to what lives just under the surface. For years I had been gathering old books containing what I thought were myths, and now know are the truths that so many are afraid to face. Meeting with the Harold and Janet that night, I was introduced to the rest of the members of their group, thirty-two in all and was taken into the library. Everyone there was a teacher at Yale as well, and they all seemed so quiet and somber as we went into the basement, a place that was dark and smelled of old forgotten books. From there, Harold walked to a bookshelf, covered in leather bound volumes that proved to be fake as he pushed the entire shelve and it opened like a door. The smell that came from the darkness of the opening was like nothing I had ever smelt before, like copper, dirt and sour meat that was on the verge of going rancid. I stepped into the darkness, following Harold in the lead, and was taken to a room that has changed everything that my world was and is.
The car is almost here now, and my curiosity at who it can be grows. I wonder why I was the one chosen to stay behind to meet with the guest while the others left the grounds for their holiday plans. My guess is that they all know I am the only one in the group that would have no plans since I have no family, no spouse or kids and no real friends left to speak of outside the walls of the school. They are my only family now, and what we do after classes is all that matters to me now.
The first night was the beginning of my true life, seeing what lay deep in the bowels of the school, hidden from all, the true secret society that was on these grounds. Years before the school was built, the caverns below it were made to house the original society members and our lord. I found later that the school had been built in order to keep the secret hidden from the world, hiding it in plain sight and forming the Skull and Bones Society as a distraction from what was really there.
I stepped into the main hall, far below the surface and my first thoughts were that I had stepped through a gateway into Hell. A fire was burning in a fireplace that was the height of an elephant and twice as wide, lighting up the room that was filled with old books, walls covered in ornate carvings and a man standing at a table where something which I thought at first to be a Thanksgiving feast was before him. I walked further into the room, the rest of the staff filing in behind me, my eyes stuck on the table. The closer I walked to it, the more I was able to see that it was not a Thanksgiving feast; some huge turkey roasted to a golden brown as I first believed, but the remains of a naked woman sprawled out, her stomach and chest lay open and hollow, her skin was not roasted but greying as rot set into the dead flesh. I stopped, took a step back and looked at the man that stood over the eviscerated body and gasped, seeing that as I had mistaken the body on the table, I had also mistook the thing that stood above it as a man.
What stood there was something far more than that, though he appeared human-like in his seven foot tall frame, smiling at all that were gathered in the room around him. I saw a thin white scar running down the center of his face and his flesh that was exposed seemed to be scored with symbols and ancient text that I could not decipher.
“Who is this?” He asked, pointing an inhumanly long finger at me, the nail of it caked with dirt and what appeared to be blood.
“We have a new member, a believer in the Great Nothing. We bring him here to ask if he is worthy or if he is to be food for you, my Lord.”
The man stepped around the table and walked towards me, looking me up and down, and never in my life had I been so afraid. I wanted to run from this vision of Hell, to get away from the smell of flesh decomposing, from the insanity as the man walked up to me and touched my face. I could smell the death in his hands as his cold, hard skin caressed my face, closing my eyes as he did and I had flash images in my mind of all I had read of The Anna and things I had once believed were just fantasies. I had been a fool and now, face to face with something that had crossed over from a reality I could never have dreamt, I was would die. I could hear my own breath and feel my own heart as I pictured being held down by the others who had brought me here, stripped naked and becoming a feast for their Lord as the woman who now lie on the table had. I had been so desperate to be part of something, like all those pledges had years before when I was one of the leaders of the Skull and Bones, that I had never question what I was getting into.
“He shall be one.” He spoke to the crowd and they cheered. My eyes popped open and he leaned close to my face. “We will show you things that will make your nightmares seem like harmless fairytales.”
You may ask if they did, and I can only say that it depends on the way you look at things. Things that had once seemed scary to me are now dull and mundane. I have been with our Lord for over thirty years now, seen new hopefuls try and join our ranks only to become food for him. I have seen doors open to worlds and creatures try to cross over, Gods or demons, I still am not sure as none were able to do what our Lord had done.
As I step out of the main doors of the building my class is in, I embrace the cold snow cutting across my face as I know that every sensation is to be cherished and welcomed. The car is stopping and I see that it is black Town car with deeply tinted windows. I have been asked to stay here to welcome the guest for our Lord and though I still wonder why it was me and not one of the elder members, I also know never to question the demands of our Lord.
I am watching as the driver steps out and moves to open the rear passenger door, fighting the strong wind that is slamming him, the snow that is swirling around him trying to blind him. Once the door is opened, a tall, hulking figure steps out, someone that reminds me of our Lord and moves towards me, the driver returning to his vehicle.
“I hope the ride went well?” I say and hold my hand out to greet him. “My name is…”
“I don’t care what your name is,” the stranger tells me and I see a strong resemblance to my Lord; the scar, the symbols etched into the flesh of his face. “I am starving and was promised a meal when I arrived. I see my brother remembers my taste in aged meat.”
Before the words could truly register, I feel his hands on me, tight and strong. I see that the scar is not a scar at all, but lips of a hidden mouth that is now opening wide, laced with teeth that are jagged and numerous. As they come towards me now, I wonder where I will end up, if there Great Nothing, the Only Light or simple this creatures gut will be my eternity.
What a stupid final thought.
The Tennessee Top Hat
Teddy walked into the diner, the air thick with hot grease and cigarette smoke as he scanned the room quickly, seeing the same old faces that were normally there. The thing with small towns is, there isn’t a whole lot of room for change, and people tend to stick to the plan no matter how mundane it is. Even Teddy walking in to Hal’s Diner at ten minutes to noon was part of the regular routine. He had been doing it every day for the last seven years, the day after his thirteenth birthday when his mom and dad thought he was man enough to go to town alone and spend a few bucks he had earned on anything he wanted. Teddy decided to spend that money at Hal’s on a grilled cheese sandwich, extra dark, with fries and a cherry coke on the side. He knew it wasn’t steak and wine like some fancy people i
n the city would be all happy to have, but it was just one of those little things that put a smile on his face.
Though there were no smiles to be had at the moment, as he sat himself down in the same booth he did every time he came to Hal’s. He had woken up in the morning as the sun was rising to the sounds of screams like he had never heard before. He had ran down to the pig pens, thinking another damn coyote had gotten in there, or some mad dog, like what had happened a few months back. He though he was going to see some of the piglets laid out half eaten or a trial of blood leading from the pens to the woods.
Only instead of finding some dead pigs, he found his mom and dad laid out, their bodies spread across the dew covered grass, chunks of them mashed into the wheel well of the old tractor he had driven most days. He had looked around in a frantic state, unsure what had could have done it, bile burning the back of his throat as the smell of their insides met his nose. He felt as though he was going to burst out in tears, scanning the small farm for whatever wild animal had done this, but not wanting to see it either. He knew he should run back to the house, grab his daddy’s shotgun and then come back out, but something wouldn’t let his legs move.
Then he met what had killed his parents and it wasn’t anything like he had expected.
Hours later, as he sat in the booth, he didn’t want to think about his mom and dad so he picked up a spoon and looked at himself in it, making sure his mullet was all in place still. He felt pride about few things in this world, seeing as his family had so little, but his hair was different. He had never seen anyone with such an awesome hair cut before, nor did he think he ever would. When he was ten, his mom had taken him to the barber shop, deciding to forgo the same old bowl cut she gave him every three months and let him pick what he wanted from one of the books they left sitting out. He scanned the book, looking at hairstyles that he felt would make him look like a fag and told the barber that he wanted to look just like his hero, Billy Ray Cyrus. The barber smiled at him, glad that the kid had wanted a good ole boy kind of haircut instead of something some faggoty ass Nancy Boy would want to have. When the guy had finished, Teddy looked in the mirror and was the happiest he had ever been in his life, walking down the street with a little more pep in his step than normal. He loved the way people nodded and smiled at him, they seemed to give him an all new respect with the mullet of mullets.
He kept that haircut, trimming and primping it daily to look its best. Sure he walked around with pig shit stained jeans and a dirty wife beater that always seemed to have traces of mustard and other meals on him, but his hair meant more to him than any of that. His hair was the only thing that made him happy. Living with his drunken daddy and his mom that spent more time crying than paying attention to her kid, his hair was the one thing he could control and count on.
He didn’t really want to think about that, sitting down in his favorite seat in the diner he love to go to, usually ordering the exact same thing each time. He loved the simple things in life and there was nothing simpler than Hal’s grilled cheese, fries and a big old cherry coke. Things had changed though since he had risen from bed and heard the screams from the field. Finding his mom and dad dead like that, ripped apart and spread out as though something had exploded from them was enough to do that, but his change was greater than the madness that should have followed. His change had come when he was face to face with the creature, no, the ancient God that had killed his parents and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He had listened to the other one speak, filling him full of fear and awe, never having seen something like it ever before, as it told him how he needed Teddy’s help. He told the boy how he was bound for greatness if he helped, though it would be a tough road and Teddy smiled. For the first time in his life, he was told he could be something, that he would help and be powerful. Years of being beaten by his dad had made him feel as though he was as low as a dog, then in walks this creature, its body stained with his families blood, with power beyond anything he knew, and it was asking for his help.
The world had changed for Teddy, and he knew it. He felt he had to embrace that change.
“What can I get you today, Teddy?”
Teddy looked up from the table and saw the waitress, Larissa, standing there with her pad and pen and a stupid smirk on her face. She always asked him what she could get with that stupid look because she knew that he was a beast of nature. He looked at her for a moment, not trying to mask the look of disgust at her fat body that she was squeezing into a dirty white dress she had obviously outgrown four or five years ago. Her hair was greasy and no doubt reeked from the pack and a half of cigarettes she smoked every day. She was no doubt jealous of his perfect hair.
“Chili supreme.” He told her, his voice quiet, trying to hide his distain. He saw the confusion cross her face as she stared down at her pad. “Something wrong?”
“No, but…I’m just so use to you ordering the grilled cheese, fries and cherry.”
“A man can’t change his mind time to time?”
“Well yeah, it’s just not all that common. You know what I mean, right?”
Teddy looked up at her, giving her a half smile, revealing teeth that were not on very good terms with a toothbrush. “I git yer meaning, but times like this, Lar, you need to change things up some.”
Despite the seriousness of his tone, Larissa chuckled, putting her hands on her hips and giving him a sideways look. “What do you mean, ‘times like this’? You been hanging around old Pastor Charlie? He going on bout revelations and all that hoopla again?”
Teddy leaned back in the booth, looking up at the old waitress and shook his head. She noticed the darkness in his face, looking like her brother use to when he was smoking the meth and wondered what all this was about; not liking that the kid was giving her a mild case of the creepin’ willies.
“This morning I woke up and saw that everything is coming to an end, and I didn’t need that dumb old pastor to tell me about it none either. That stupid old fool is too busy drinking the churches supply of wine to know what is really goin’ down. No, Lar, I had a better source, right here.” Teddy tapped his head.
“Your brain?”
“No, my mullet. It told me that today, everything ends.”
Larissa paused a moment, looking deep into Teddy’s very stern and serious face and was unable to hold it back. She burst out in a belly shaking laugh, like she did when she watched re-runs of Hee Haw or Rosanne, dropping her order pad to the floor that was never as clean as it should be. She knew that Teddy was a weird kid, what growing up on that farm with his dad that was two beers short of a six pack and with a family that had a strange history that people always whispered about when one of the family members was around.
“So, you’re telling me your hair told you that the world will end today? Really Teddy, you’re too much.”
“You think it’s strange? You never read the bible? Samson was a powerful man cause of his hair, kinda like Superman until that bitch done cut it off. I know some Indian guys over on the reserve; they say that if a man in their tribe cuts his hair, he is no longer a man. Makes sense that my hair has the same kind of power. I take better care of it that I do anything else in my life.”
Larissa bent down and picked her fallen pad up, still laughing a bit and told Teddy she’d be back with his order. Teddy watched her as she disappeared into the kitchen and knew that she had no idea as to what was going on, what he was talking about. It was no wonder though. She hadn’t been in the field when the thing had spoken to him, slithered across the grass with its veiny, pulsating body that he could only partial see as it didn’t fully live in this dimension. He would have never been able to wrap his head around the concept that something could be so large that it lived in more than one dimension, but that was before everything had changed.
He remembered standing in the field, surrounded by the squealing pigs and the already rotting bodies of the only family he knew, watching as the creature moved across the grass, a multitude of t
entacle like appendages pushing towards him. Teddy listened as it spoke in a voice that was not audible though his ears, but seemed to be inside his head, a soft, wet whisper telling him about how it would make him powerful, strong and give his life meaning. It told Teddy about how so many humans live such boring and mundane lives, doing nothing and squandering the gift they had. It said that in Teddy there was a greatness that it could harness, help him be a human god that all would envy and fall to their knees before. Teddy liked the idea, never being much in the way of respected or fear, not having many friends. He listened intently to the creature, picturing what it would be like to be more than he was.
How could he say no?
Looking around at the other people in Hal’s Diner, Teddy wondered if any of them knew what was sitting with them as they ate their eggs, bacon and cobbler. They sat in the room with a boy that was more than human as they sat in boring conversation, drinking bad coffee, having no idea that the boy they all knew and made fun of when he wasn’t around, was not the same person at all. He saw people giving him sideways looks, maybe looking at the stained cloths he was wearing, or the his bad teeth. Maybe some of them were just looking at him jealous of his amazing hair.
Maybe they can see what I am?
Teddy heard the voice in his head and knew that nobody else could because none of them were looking over at his table or were freaking out. He was sure if any of them had been able to see the monster from the field, that they would be running for the door, trying to get away from it and Teddy.
“If they could see ya, they’d be losin’ their shit.” He whispered.
What’s wrong with that? Maybe we should let them freak out a bit. Show them what you are now.
“What? How do we do that?”
Let me show you. All you have to do is stand up.
Teddy looked around tentatively, and then slowly rose from the table he was sitting at. Nobody in the room looked at him as he stood, or noticed as his mullet began to shift and change. Teddy couldn’t see it with his own eyes, but he could feel it throughout his whole body. The creature that had been in the field, that had melded into his mullet, was now becoming something more like its true self. He could feel it shifting on his head, changing from the hair it had disguised itself as to it blackish, green skinned monster that he had seen near his parent’s dead body.