by Aratare, X.
“Don’t,” Gabriel said simply. His voice was low and filled with anger.
“Don’t? You need help, Gabriel,” Johnson said, his bull-like voice strangely soft.
“Not from the man who kidnapped my friends, I don’t,” Gabriel spat out. “And I don’t need help. I’m just—”
“Transitioning,” Johnson interrupted, somehow knowing the word that the Mer used to describe changing from human to Mer. Maybe Miskatonic did have secret information. There was a mixture of amazement and something else in Johnson’s tone as he said it, too.
Gabriel hesitated a moment before speaking again. There was a trill of fear low in his belly, but the feeling was merely a remnant of old concerns. He knew he could tell the truth now because Johnson was either going to die or go mad that night, and then it wouldn’t matter what he knew. Besides, Johnson already seemed to know all about his secrets. He wasn’t revealing anything to the former soldier that he hadn’t already guessed.
“Yes, I’m transitioning into a Mer and I don’t have much time left on land,” Gabriel said finally.
“You haven’t told Grace,” Johnson said, a statement not a question.
“I’m going to,” Gabriel said. “And at the exact same time, I’m going to tell her that you got close to her just so you could find that out about me. That you used her. You’re not fit to kiss the ground she walks on, Johnson, and you might as well have spit on her.”
There was a flicker of some emotion—guilt, maybe—that flowed over Johnson’s face, but it was gone so quickly that Gabriel wondered if he had imagined it altogether.
“You were not the only reason I approached Grace,” Johnson said. “But I did know that whatever was between us would end after …” He let the sentence hang.
After what? After he uses me as bait for Cth-it? After he kills me because I’m Mer and he thinks I’m the enemy?
“Yeah, Johnson, it’s so over with my grandmother,” Gabriel said, anger deepening his voice.
All of this is over. You just don’t know it yet.
“It’s just the beginning,” Johnson parried.
“I want to see Casillus and my friends,” Gabriel demanded, ignoring Johnson’s provocative words.
He tried to step around Johnson and enter the temple. But Johnson quickly blocked him and laid a heavy hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. When Gabriel tried to throw it off, Johnson merely tightened his hold.
“Not yet,” Johnson said. “We need to speak. Just the two of us for a time. Before I let you get near him.”
For a moment, Gabriel didn’t know who Johnson was talking about. Who was ‘him’? Did he mean the statue? But Cthulhu was an it not a him. And then he realized that Johnson meant Casillus.
“What do you think is going to happen when I’m near Casillus? The one you had your men run down and drug?” Gabriel snarled.
“He—the Mers did this to you. They changed your body, but you grew up among us, among humans, Gabriel. You have to remember that humanity,” Johnson said with all seriousness.
“Who says I don’t?” Gabriel sputtered. The insult implicit in the comment that the human aspects of him were the only good aspects had him adding, “And by the way, from what I’ve seen the Mer are a damn sight better than humanity on its best day!”
“The Mers are deceitful that way. Everything about them seems to indicate goodness. Even their appearance. After all, the Mers are beautiful. So very beautiful. That beauty can make you feel and do things you wouldn’t otherwise,” Johnson said, his gray eyes bleak, and Gabriel felt Johnson’s thumb slide along the exposed skin at the edge of his wet collar. “They’re so beautiful, and that beauty is dangerous.”
And suddenly, Gabriel realized something that had always been there, under the surface, in his interactions with Johnson the whole time. Something which had unnerved him, but which he had never been able to name though it was obvious now. There had always been an undercurrent of attraction in the older man’s interactions with him. Johnson found him beautiful. Not Mers in general, but Gabriel specifically. Gabriel made Johnson feel and do things that he allegedly wouldn’t have absent Gabriel’s Mer nature. Unnerved and disgusted, Gabriel reached up and grasped Johnson’s wrist, trying to wrench the ex-military man’s hand off of him. But it was like trying to move concrete.
“Let go, Johnson! I want to go see my friends,” Gabriel hissed, his throat tight.
“You have to make the Mer Call Cthulhu,” Johnson said instead of responding to Gabriel’s request. Gabriel could hear the capital “C” of Call in his voice.
He thinks Casillus can Call it, Gabriel realized.
Gabriel reached again for his bond with the Mer. He felt Casillus’ consciousness. The Mer was still sluggish and dazed from the drug, but he was coming out of it. Gabriel could feel the Mer’s head throbbing and a raw feeling around his wrists and ankles from where they were bound by zip ties.
For a moment, Gabriel saw Casillus lying on his side in a near fetal position, long hair spread out like a fan on the temple’s floor, beautiful face creased by pain. Gabriel started and inadvertently lost the connection when he realized he wasn’t seeing through the Mer’s eyes or just imagining Casillus like that. He had been seeing through Corey’s eyes as well. His gift was increasing in power. He tried to reach out again to his best friend, but all he felt was a wash of fear mixed with frustration and nothing more.
“Casillus can’t Call it,” Gabriel found himself saying. He almost said “Cthulhu” instead of “it”. The syllables wanted to form on his lips, but he knew that the monstrous creature would take that as an invitation to come to shore, especially if he said it here on the temple’s steps.
“He’s a Mer,” Johnson said. His gray eyes stared unblinkingly at Gabriel. His thumb again lightly traced the exposed skin between Gabriel’s shoulder and neck once more.
“You’ve got this all wrong, Johnson,” Gabriel said. He tugged at that hand again. He wanted it off of him.
Johnson leaned in. He was so large that Gabriel felt like he was being crushed by the looming spectre of Johnson’s shadow. The ex-military man’s voice, though, retained a softness, an almost gentleness, that freaked Gabriel out more than if he had been shouting. “What have I gotten wrong, Gabriel?”
“You think the Mers are your enemy. They aren’t,” Gabriel said. “Cth—It isn’t anyone’s friend, Johnson.”
“But it comes when the Mers Call,” Johnson pointed out.
“Not when all Mers Call,” Gabriel explained. His mouth went dry. He had to tell Johnson that he could Call Cthulhu, but now he couldn’t form the words. The eagerness in Johnson, the suppressed desire, frightened him.
Johnson moved in even closer. “When you Call?”
Gabriel realized that he had been slowly retreating from Johnson ever since the man had leaned in, but he had run out of room. He felt the edge of the step beneath his heel. He would tumble down the stairs if he wasn’t careful.
“Johnson, if it makes landfall all of the Eastern Seaboard will go mad or die. That includes you,” Gabriel stressed.
“I’m well aware of the risks,” Johnson said, drawing himself up. “Do you think I haven’t prepared for them?”
“You can’t prepare!” Gabriel thought of the monstrous being out there in the water. No one could prepare for Cthulhu.
“On the contrary, there are many things one can do and I have done them. Cthulhu’s influence cannot affect us, but we can affect it,” Johnson’s voice was almost triumphant.
“It’s already affecting you,” Gabriel countered. He tried to push away his discomfort with Johnson, tried to remember that Johnson, like Henry, was sick and couldn’t help himself, that Johnson likely had been a good man before all of this. Johnson went still at his words. He didn’t even seem to blink. “It is already in your head, Johnson. The fact that you’ve done all of this? Kidnapped your own students, brought armed men here, deceived my grandmother, all that you’ve done is because of its influence.”
Gabriel tri
ed to put all of his conviction into his voice. He reached out and touched Johnson voluntarily for the first time. The former military man watched Gabriel’s hand as it grasped one of his large biceps and gripped it hard.
“The only way to stop this is to let us take the statue away from here,” Gabriel continued. “It will break the hold it has over you before you become like Henry. Then you can talk to Casillus and me about the Mers and—and it. You’ll see that—”
“Why will you not say its name, Gabriel? Why will you not say Cthulhu?” Johnson asked, ignoring everything he had just said and zeroing in on exactly what Gabriel didn’t want to explain.
“Because it’s not a good idea. It’s watching this place because of the statue and—”
“I have spoken its name countless times, and nothing has happened even though I wished it would,” Johnson’s voice was a deep rumble. “Are you not saying its name because you worship it?”
“No!” Gabriel nearly shouted. “No, no, definitely not.”
He felt Cthulhu’s amusement grow at his words. It was, of course, listening quite closely to their conversation. Gabriel felt sweat prickle his upper lip.
“Then why not say Cthulhu?” Johnson pressed.
“It’s just not a good idea,” Gabriel responded as he removed his hand from Johnson’s bicep.
Johnson watched his hand retreat. Suddenly the ex-soldier snatched at it, grabbing Gabriel’s hand in both of his larger ones. His hands were calloused and as strong as they appeared. His eyes were like burning coals in his face. “Gabriel, tell me why you won’t say Cthulhu’s name?”
“I want to see Casillus and my friends first,” Gabriel’s voice had taken on a rather shrill tone. He had never considered himself a weakling, but Johnson was preternaturally strong, stronger than even the muscle bound man should be.
“No, Gabriel.” Johnson slowly pulled Gabriel’s hand to his chest and held it there almost like how a lover might. “Tell me. Tell me now and I’ll take you to them.”
Gabriel licked his suddenly very dry lips. He had to tell Johnson. It was all part of the plan. Yet he didn’t want to. It felt like rewarding the former military man. It felt like Johnson was winning if he said anything.
Johnson spoke again, “Can you Call Cthulhu, Gabriel?”
The words were like stones dropped into a still pond.
Finally, Gabriel breathed out, “Yes, I can.”
7
CALL
“I knew it!” Johnson dropped Gabriel’s hand and slapped both of his together with a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes. He grasped Gabriel’s chin. “I knew you were special from the moment we met!”
Gabriel didn’t think his ability to Call Cthulhu was special. It was more like a curse. Johnson, though, was enthused, which made the whole thing even more disturbing. The ex-military man released Gabriel’s chin and started pacing in front of the temple doors with short, sharp strides.
“It’s all falling into place! This is meant, Gabriel!” Johnson continued.
“What’s falling into place?” Gabriel asked.
He craned his head to see around Johnson and into the temple. He needed to get to Casillus and his friends, but every time he made a move towards the temple’s doors the ex-military man countered it. Gabriel tried to sidestep him and get inside, but again Johnson was in his way. The former soldier man stopped his pacing and spun around to face him. He once again was in Gabriel’s personal space and Gabriel had no way to escape.
“You are the culmination of all I’ve been looking for since Kane,” Johnson said. There was a mixture of triumph and anger in his voice. His next words explained the anger. “They called me crazy! They looked at me like—like I was the enemy! Men and women I had served with for twenty years!” Johnson clenched his hands into fists so hard that they shook. “Sometimes I thought they were right! But then we found the temple and then—then I found you.”
Gabriel ignored the strangely possessive tone and words. He tried to empathize with the man as he said, “You aren’t crazy, Johnson. Cth—It exists. You were right. You know something that few people do—thankfully.” Gabriel breathed the last. “Isn’t that enough? To know? Can’t you just let it go now?”
“Let it go? How could I ignore the danger that Cthulhu poses to all of humanity?” Johnson asked. “How could you?”
Gabriel didn’t have an answer to that. Did he wish Cthulhu neutralized? The madness and horror that it could cause were undeniable, and those few who had unfortunately already come into its sphere had, like Henry, paid a terrible price. So why did Gabriel hesitate to answer Johnson’s question with anything other than “I can’t”? It was the “could” that tripped him up, he realized. Cthulhu wasn’t attacking humanity right then and there. It had no intention to from all he had seen, at least not in the way Johnson envisioned it, anyways. It was dangerous and terrible, but so were many other things. Should they be condemned to death simply for being?
“It needs to just be left alone, Johnson,” Gabriel said, a thread of desperation in his voice. “I’ve seen it. I’ve—I’ve talked to it. You have no idea—no idea—what it’s like.”
“But I do know, Gabriel” Johnson disagreed. “I’ve seen what it has done. I want to stop it from doing those things to anyone else.”
“It’s monstrous, but it’s intelligent,” Gabriel said, his mouth going dry. “It’s wholly other.”
“I know,” Johnson said, his gray eyes glittering in the mix of lights coming from the stones and the spotlights. “That’s why Cthulhu has to be destroyed. That’s the whole crux of the matter.”
“No! You aren’t hearing me. For all its difference and dangerousness, it’s intelligent and … unique. Humanity is safe from it so long as humanity stays away,” Gabriel said.
“Humanity seeks dominion over this entire planet. How long before humans and Cthulhu meet? Five years? Ten? Technology will bridge the gap between us and the deepest depths of the ocean and then what?” Johnson shook his head.
“We’ll deal with it then! If that time ever comes! I don’t think Cthulhu exists completely on this plane,” Gabriel said. He stopped for a moment, realizing that this was not something he had considered before, but he was pretty sure of now. “What I mean is that humankind could explore every inch of the seas and never find it.”
But they could find the Mer …
Johnson was touching him again. His hands framed Gabriel’s face and Gabriel froze. It felt like Johnson was about to kiss him. Once more he felt the edge of the stairs under his heels. But even if he had been able to back away, he wouldn’t. He had to get inside the temple where Casillus and his friends were and he wouldn’t let Johnson’s unconscious lust stop him from doing that.
“Oh, Gabriel, you have such an innocent heart,” Johnson tutted. “Cthulhu must be destroyed now.”
“It can’t be! And you still don’t understand!” Gabriel yelled as he wrenched away from Johnson’s ever questing hands. “I fear you never will until … until it’s too late.”
He managed to step around the ex-military man and headed towards the temple’s interior.
“I don’t blame you for not having faith,” Johnson said, causing Gabriel to look back at him almost against his will. There was something in the former military man’s voice that was so forlorn. “Cthulhu would do whatever it had to in order to convince you to keep me from it--”
“I’m not keeping you from it,” Gabriel said with a weak laugh.
“You’ll Call it then?” Johnson grabbed him by the shoulders again, nearly shaking him. “You’ll do it?”
Gabriel felt despair well up inside of him. Johnson looked like he was on fire. His eyes blazed with the possibility of meeting Cthulhu on a battlefield and leaving victorious. But that wasn’t what was going to happen. He could faintly hear Cthulhu laughing now in the rumbling of the waves.
“Let my friends go,” Gabriel said, his voice hoarse.
“If I do that then you won’t Call it,” Johnson
said.
“That would be far better for you.” Gabriel felt his stomach bubble sourly. If he did what Johnson wanted, he would be condemning him and whoever followed him to a terrible end. “Don’t you see? It wants you to think you have a chance, but you don’t. It wants me to Call it. It wants you to die, Johnson.”
“I can destroy it, Gabriel.” Johnson’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe you realize that. You’re its Caller, after all. You worship—”
“No!” Gabriel shouted, shaking off Johnson’s hands successfully for the second time that night. “No, I don’t worship it. I’m trying to save your life!”
“I don’t need saving,” Johnson responded.
Gabriel realized then as he stared into that craggy, determined, zealous face that there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t save Johnson anymore than he could save Henry. The burn of madness was running through them both. Cthulhu’s madness. He had to save who he could. Johnson was already lost.
“Then the only thing I can do is make sure you don’t kill anyone else in the process,” Gabriel replied. Johnson did not flinch. He looked completely unmoved. Gabriel’s voice then hardened as he added, “I want to see my friends. Now.”
“Not until you promise to Call Cthulhu,” Johnson said.
“I promise. But not here,” Gabriel said.
“Then where?”
“There.” Gabriel turned towards the ocean and pointed. The surface was silvered by moonlight now. It was a calm night with waves only a foot or two in height. It looked incredibly beautiful, and Gabriel longed to be under those waves instead of on the sandy top step of the temple.
“On the water?” Johnson asked.
“It’s the only way to ensure that more people don’t die,” Gabriel said. “Don’t your protections work out there?”
“They work anywhere.” Johnson tilted his chin up proudly.
“So we need a boat,” Gabriel said.
“I can get a boat,” Johnson answered gruffly, as though Gabriel were challenging him.
“Good. I thought you could. Now I’m going to see my friends.”