“Get out,” she hissed. Samuel felt the tears swelling in him. He knew if he said anything further his voice would crack and he would wail like a baby. Veronica's coldness had deeply hurt. He simply nodded and left. As he drove back to the Montreal Airport he openly wept in the taxi.
He ditched the vehicle before arriving at the airport and walked the rest of the way. Once there he purchased a ticket to Boston with his remaining cash. He knew from now on would be difficult, seeing that he no longer had Senor Sanchez-Vasquez's credit card. All he had left after the plane ticket was $600.00 and some small pocket change.
* * *
June 25th, '92
Boston, Mass.
9:05 pm
Samuel sat in the airport's lobby and read the newspaper – the classifieds. He needed to find a recording studio – preferably a small one. He knew a great deal about music but very little about recording. He sighed. He had no clue which studio to go to.
He closed his eyes and ran his finger randomly over the page and stopped. He opened his eyes. His finger pointed at the ad, 'Paupst Recording'.
10:00 pm: Samuel rang the doorbell. This time there was absolutely, positively someone home. There was some heavy-metal trash blaring within. They probably couldn't even hear the doorbell.
A young man eventually answered. Samuel held up the newspaper with the ad to the boy. “Is this Paupst Recording?” he asked.
The boy leaned against the door frame and said with beer tainted breath: “Ya, it is. But it's ten and I'm closed so... well, fuck off!” A second youth within the house and out of sight burst out laughing.
Samuel nearly lost it. He reached out and grabbed the blond boy's arm. He said through clenched teeth, “I think it would be in your best interest to make an exception tonight.” He then reached into his coat pocket and withdrew one-hundred dollar bills. “I've got $600.00 cash. All you have to do is filter out any background static and noise from a tape.”
Samuel followed the two youths into the basement studio. He was having second thoughts seeing that the two were drunk.
He argued with himself. What could they actually do? He wouldn't leave them alone with the tape. Everything would be fine, he eventually convinced himself. After all, what choice did he have?
Hours went by. Long hours for Samuel. He sat and listened to a deafening ghetto blaster choke out more of their heavy-metal filth.
Rick – the second youth - had nothing to do with the studio, drank the remaining beer and eventually passed out by the time Tim Paupst was quite sober.
Samuel's stomach began to growl. It was 2:30 in the morning now and he hadn't eaten since he left Montreal nearly twelve hours ago. It was Rick, when he came to, that convinced Samuel to go with him to the corner store for something to eat.
Samuel agreed, much against his better judgment. A hungry man does not always think straight.
Rick was quiet now. He seemed to be in the worst stage of intoxication – the sick stage. He still hadn't recovered his balance yet and his face was pale. On more than one occasion did Samuel help Rick back up to his feet. It made the trip to the twenty-four hour Seven-Eleven an extremely long one.
When they did eventually return, Samuel heard the filtrated and complete music of Lorne S. Gibbons.
Rick was drunkenly fumbling with his keys for the front door when Samuel knocked it clean off its hinges. The two ran to the basement studio.
Samuel's worst fears were soon realized! Tim Paupst had finished the tape's filtration and had played it! He knew what would happen next. He knew exactly what would happen next!
In the studio's centre was the purple glowing Gate-sphere. And from the sphere Nadia stepped out!
Nyarlathotep was free!
To come so far and to be stopped by something so simple as a boy's curiosity!
Samuel panicked. He had no idea what to do!
The Nadia/Nyarlathotep Symbiot turned her attention on Rick. Focused on disrupting the boy's physical body – to consume his life-essence!
Samuel tried desperately to bring forth the alien-facet of his multimind; to try to save Rick from certain doom. But his alien-facet sensed the presence of a greater and dangerous being! It cowered down deep within the multimind.
Too late! Rick's mass scattered into thin air and he was consumed by Nyarlathotep.
Tim charged the woman and punched her in the face, to very little effect. Samuel sensed Nadia searching... searching for the filtered tape! She began systematically crushing and destroying the studio's recording equipment. Samuel had only one option left, a horribly desperate one. Tim struggled physically with Nadia. Samuel knew he wouldn't last long, but long enough...
With lightning swift reflexes he grabbed the filtered tape and ghetto blaster and charged at the Gateway! He felt the Nadia-Symbiot's telekinetic claws brush his shoulder as he plunged into the through the Gateway just as it snapped shut!!
* * *
He found himself drifting in an abyssal emptiness. No light. No stars. No nothing. The Prison-Universe. Endlessness. Mediumless.
He could feel no gravity – for gravity emanates from mass. His body was the only mass present here. But no! He could very faintly sense another weak source of gravity! He knew that there had to be other bodies here, in this other universe. But how long would it take for these gravity masses to eventually attract, to find one-another? But wasn't that irrelevant? Time did not 'flow' like in his home universe, did it? It existed in isolated 'clumps'. Yes! He could wait indefinitely. He could wait forever!
...he hovered, or floated... could one hover or float in a mediumless medium? And wasn't that a contradiction in itself?
...how much time passed? A year? Two years? Decades?! Seconds? Minutes? He had no idea. Time was meaningless here. He had felt many of the other symbiot-species psychically brush against his psyche – against the numeral ids of his multimind. But his symbiot had protected itself. This was its host. This was its way out of the Prison-Universe. It would not allow itself to be ousted! It had put up impenetrable barriers; buried itself deep with a protective cyst.
Dark and silent forces and presences passed by. Incorporeal, metaphysical. But all as real as himself and much more dangerous.
Samuel sensed something out of the ordinary – if one could use the word 'ordinary' here. He sensed gravity. That ever so slight tug of another physical mass. He was nearing it, wherever it may be.
The tugging became stronger and much more intense until something touched his hand! Something soft and warm and very real and physical touched his hand. It closed around his hand and held it. It was alive – human!
He carefully lowered his mental barriers and reach out telepathically – for the sound of one's voice obscurely travels through this Nothingness.
Marie Gibbons. Or the Marie-symbiot, for she too was a dual creature, fused with an alien entity; the same as Samuel... the same as Lorne!
Lorne opened the ghetto blaster's tape deck and placed the final copy of the music into it. He played the tape…
There seemed to be a stirring in the Nothingness; focusing. Then the neon-blue veined purple Gateway tore into existence!
Lorne gripped his wife Marie's hand tighter and headed for the light!
* * *
June 27th, '92
Stonehenge, Wiltshire
England. 2:10 am
A pitch black sphere exploded soundlessly from the centre of Stonehenge and expanded to the outermost stones, exactly encompassing the stones, forming a giant 97 foot dome of shadowy texture.
Within this 'pocket' universe between the universes a purple gateway snapped into existence. Two humanoid figures stepped out. Marie Gibbons and the Lorne-Symbiot, Mr. Samuel.
Lorne held his wife's hand and the ghetto blaster in his other hand. The haunting music screamed within the 97 foot black sphere.
He knew that neither he nor his wife, Marie, could leave this 'pocket' universe until it collapsed onto itself, for both of them were symbiot creatures now. They
would have to wait it out. But none of that mattered now.
Marie passionately grabbed Lorne by the lapels of his overcoat and crushed his head into her breast. "Oh God! Lorne! Oh, God! Thank you!" she wept. "Oh God, Oh, God, Oh God..." He pulled her into his arms; embraced her. She felt so good! He looked up at her, tears staining her cheeks. "It's okay," he choked out through tears. "We're together now!" She hugged him passionately again.
Lorne pulled his wife away from their embrace and cupped her face in his hands. He stared into her dark brown eyes and watched the tears of joy gather there.... then her gaze shifted. Her focus slowly moved to something behind him. The horror in her eyes couldn't be missed.
He slowly, painfully turned around. There was a thin mist throughout the black sphere of the 'pocket' universe. It drifted and danced among the great stones and altar of Stonehenge. Marie and Lorne watched in silent horror. It twisted and wove in and out of the giant stones like a sentient serpent.
Although Lorne knew otherwise, he had hoped against hope this wouldn't have happened. He knew opening the Gateway would summon Nyarlathotep; the Otto-Symbiot! And he knew that Otto was by far more powerful than the Nadia-Symbiot ever was.
The serpentine mist slowly condensed, shifted into a heavy fog and then, rapidly, into a man-silhouette; into the rejuvenated Otto! Nyarlathotep was far from pleased. The alien-symbiot species in both Lorne and his wife, Marie, sensed the danger and both threw up mental defences – but the Marie-symbiot was too slow. It was still immature. The Otto-Symbiot instantly perceived this and lashed out at her! Hammering at her molecular form – attempting to scatter her atoms; to absorb her!
Lorne could not believe his eyes. Marie stood there frozen, screaming, all the while her form shifting and shimmering! Otto was trying to destroy her!
An anger welled up within. A mindless burst of rage! The Filipino's lips peeled back and an inarticulate sound exploded! A sound that momentarily drowned out the wailing music from beyond. Lorne's mind was not thinking nor rationalizing; it was just reacting! The other facets of his multimind, all being male shared the male instinct of protection of women - sharply focused by Lorne's love of his wife - merged into one hateful force! All four facets focused their minds into that of their alien-symbiot!
A massive telekinetic assault launched towards Otto/Nyarlathotep. It wedged and tore through Otto's mental barriers and smashed him off his feet. His gray flesh slapped against a sandstone block. Otto sprang to his feet, his emerald eyes blazing from beneath enraged gray brows! Lorne's assault hadn't broken Otto's grip upon Marie in the least!
Lorne staggered back. He had put everything he had – everything they had – into the psychic attack! He was left exhausted. And what had he accomplished? Next to nothing! Otto was on his feet and Marie's silhouette still shimmered! All he had done was to make the Otto/Nyarlathotep Symbiot angry.
But in the Otto-Symbiot's rage his mental shields dropped momentarily. Enough for Lorne to get an ever so minute glimpse within. But enough to know. Nyarlathotep had communed with Yog-Sothoth through the Threshold. It had learned where the Great Old Ones would break through. It was on Its way to meet the Lurker at the Threshold!
Lorne's concentration on the Otto-Symbiot's thoughts was broken by his wife's horrified scream. He turned his attention back onto her only to see her body disintegrate and scatter into the winds! Otto had destroyed his beloved wife, Marie!!
The Gateway shut! The purple Gate-sphere instantly extinguished itself and the walls of the 'pocket' universe collapsed!
Nyarlathotep awaited hungrily and greedily for Marie's life force... but there was nothing to be seen! For the symbiot cannot die, but will naturally reincarnate within the nearest physical vacant body. Lorne realized that Marie's body had been molecularly disassembled after the Gateway had closed! She had not been damned to the Prison-universe! She was somewhere – somewhen – in the world. But Lorne knew it would be like finding a needle in a haystack!
The Otto-Symbiot turned on Lorne! He hadn't time to think about Marie's location and how he may find her. He had much more important things to consider, like escape! He hugged the ghetto blaster to his chest.
He felt the swelling of the Otto-Symbiot's telekinetic powers. He had precious little time to react. He knew there was only one way out. Only one option left to him. Teleportation!
He had never attempted it before. He didn't know whether or not his alien-facet was mature enough to accomplish this task... but it was now or never. Lorne closed his eyes and concentrated...
As Nyarlathotep's psychic powers spewed out of its seething mind Lorne's Filipino body dissolved into a thick fog, spread out into a faint mist and vanished into thin air!
Chapter XII: The Confrontation
The edge of his mind hurtled through the cosmos. His multimind expanding across the entire universe! Encompassing all!
Where was he? He was everywhere. His psyche permeated everything. He was all.
His body - his physical incarnation of the mind - the Filipino's body, had been disintegrated and transformed. Transformed into pure psychic energy! His mind had absorbed it.
Lorne had realized the truth: He had believed throughout all of his existences that the mind existed within the physical body – within the brain – but he was mistaken. It was the body which existed within the mind! The body was only one of the mind's many appendages – its only fleshly appendage!
Like the turtle retracting itself within its shell, so too Lorne's body within his mind. His psyche had broken down his physical form – along with his clothes, the ghetto blaster, and the tape – into pure energy and stowed it within itself!
Since there no longer existed a physical form, then where was he? Where was Lorne's mind? But even as he questioned himself, the answer became apparent.
His psyche was everywhere. He was now a Universal-Consciousness. He existed at any given points in space and in every point. He was no longer physical. He was metaphysical! He now existed in a state of pure thought. The Symbiot-species' natural state of existence.
This Universal-Consciousness had only to remote view a point in space and concentrate. To focus its psyche to that point – to exit the state of Universal-Consciousness. Like a turtle emerging from its shell. To leave the Oneness and focus the psychic energy it had absorbed from its physical form and reform its mind's fleshly appendage. To enter back into the world of the corporal. To become physical.
This was how teleportation was accomplished. The mind existed throughout all the universe – itself being metaphysical. The body – only in a single point of space. The mind would 'pick-up' the body into its eternalness and place it in another point. Since thought is instantaneous it would appear to be teleportation; for all intent and purposes, would be teleportation.
Lorne still did not understand all. He had converted and absorbed his physical body into psychic energy, but not just that. He had also transformed and consumed non-organic mass – inanimate objects: the ghetto blaster, the tape, the Filipino's clothes...
He began to think: Could one actually transmute mass into energy; into psychic energy? Could this be a form of... fuel? Of replenishment?
He broke his train of thought. Although no longer subject to the laws of physics, time was still of an essence. He had no time to waste. He must choose a location of return. He must exit this state of Universal-Consciousness.
Lorne began remote viewing the universe. Galaxies and Nebulae spiraled and rolled past! Stars and planets rushed by at mind-breaking speeds – for he was not restricted to physical speeds or limitations! And eventually the blue planet, his home: Earth. But where on Earth?
Through metaphysical eyes he viewed the blue globe. He saw all of its billions of lives teaming across the surface! Tiny golden points of lights, each and every one! Beautiful! He had never imagined the planet carried and supported so much of it. In some areas the concentration of lights became so dense a sort of Auroras Borealis hovered and shimmered above. He simply hovered in his i
ncorporeal state, watching. The myriad golden lights flowed and ebbed! They danced the dance of life. And in the waxing and waning of the golden ocean of life, Lorne noticed some lights flickering and going out... deaths. He witnessed new lights spark up and add to the glowing ocean! New-borns! It was mesmerizing...
The Symbiot Page 13