It had been years since I left Arkham, and I truly thought I would never return, alas fate had a different plan for me, and I was shaking in sheer dread when I turned from the highway onto the exit ramp into the small college town.
First, introductions, of course. My name is Jonathon Phenning, and I was born in Arkham, Massachusetts, my father was a professor of archaeology, and my mother worked at a local coffee shop. I grew up slightly sheltered, Arkham is a small town after all, and my parents didn't allow television in the house. I spent most of my time reading or hanging out with my friends, although I left maybe a month after my girlfriend at the time, Beth committed suicide by slicing her wrists. The police would never let me know what she had written on the bathroom wall, which the rumors said she did. Her parents killed themselves as well just a few days or weeks after she did.
I wouldn't have come back, I hadn't planned on it at all, except for the fact that my best friend, Brian, had just been found dead in the woods behind my parents house. The way my father described it, he had been dissected. With a scalpel, my dad said.
The funeral was scheduled for that Friday, and I was going to stay a few days before and after with my folks.
I threw my empty cup of Shock coffee in my back seat as I pulled into Main St, amazed at how nothing had changed in the years I had been gone. I drove up Main Street, until it turned off onto Pleasent Street, and then onto Haskell Street.
I screeched to a halt outside number 3. It had burned to the ground, leaving nothing but its foundation. I quickly moved my car over to the side of the road, put it in park, and jumped out of the car.
3 Haskell Street had always been the "haunted house" of Arkham, rumor had it that the last owner had killed his wife and sacrificed his kid to Satan in the basement, kids would dare each other to spend the night alone in the house, and it had been abandoned and condemned since the Fifties, as far as I knew. It was such an enigma, such a dark spot on this otherwise pristine street, that it was disconcerting to see it gone.
I walked to the edge of the foundation, the basement walls were still intact, and there it was: A stone slab against one wall, stained crimson. I sat on the edge of the wall, and dropped down to the floor, and I heard a crunch. I moved my foot and saw that I had flattened a small plastic locket. The same kind Beth had worn. I had won it for her at some street fair in Boston. I picked it up and opened it, my mouth going wide. In it were two pictures on either side. One was of Beth, and the other was me, when I was eighteen.
I sank to my knees. Had she been here before she died? Or had some kid found this and just tossed it down here when they sickened of it?
Memories flooded me, bringing tears to my eyes. Beth. She had been my high school sweetheart, and my first love, and the one I had lost my virginity to. We had spent every waking hour with each other, and it pained me I didn't get to go to the graduation party with her and Brian. That was right before Beth started acting weird, jumping at shadows, and once, when she fell asleep in my arms had started talking in a low guttural voice in words I could not understand. To the best of my memory they were "Tak Sototh, Vindos Nul, Tak Sototh, Cthulu, Nul Vindos Tak Sototh." She would repeat those nonsense words until I would wake her.
I wiped tears from my eyes and looked up to see Beth standing over me, a ceiling above her head, rotting support beams behind her. The stone slab stood outlined in purple, writhing flames.
"My love." She said, but her voice sounded cold, flat.
"Beth?" I asked, my voice catching in my throat.
She smiled, putting her small, delicate hand on my shoulder. "I've missed you, I've been waiting for you." She helped me stand, and kissed me quickly on the lips.
"Beth is it really you?" I was in shock.
She laughed. "Of course it is, Jon."
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Tak Sototh, Vindos Nul, Tak Sototh, Cthulu, Nul Vindos Tak Sototh." She whispered into my ear, then gently bit my earlobe.