All characters are 18 years of age or older. A mysterious monolith has appeared on the campus of Old Miskatonic University. What secrets does it hold? What horrors might it unleash? Just have to wait and see.
*****
The alarm went off and I opened my eyes. I stood up and walked to the window. I let the bright sunlight fall on my body and felt the rush of energy fill me. I got dressed and headed off to the university. I parked in the staff lot and that's when I saw the news vans and I was afraid someone else had been murdered. I raced over and that's when I saw the crowd around the stone obelisk. It had to weigh tons and there it was in the middle of the student commons. Where the hell had it come from? A hand clapped me on the shoulder and I looked over at a smiling Chancellor.
"Amazing isn't it," he said grinning from ear to ear. "It appeared just before dawn. The CCT cameras showed the whole thing. One second the area is clear and the next this monolith is standing there."
"Why are you smiling sir?" I asked.
"Don't be so serious son; this is publicity that will last for months. The geology department is still trying to figure out where it was quarried from. The mathematics department is working on how much it weighs. The engineering department is baffled on how it was moved so quickly and so quietly. I need you to take a look at the markings on it. You are going to head the research on it. If you can handle it I will sign off on your doctorate. What do you say son?"
"Consider it done," I said and he patted my shoulder.
"I knew I could count on you. Find some time between your classes to take rubbings and see what you can figure out. Best of luck and keep me in the loop."
I stared at the monolithic sculpture and had to admit it was gorgeous. It appeared to have been carved using some sort of laser. Much of its surface was polished to a mirror bright finish. The material appeared to some kind of fossil laden rock. All of the fossils seemed to be marine life. I called a buddy of mine in the biology department and asked him if he had seen what the press would soon dub the Miskatonic Monolith. He didn't have any classes today and was on his way. Campus security roped off the object and stood watch. I pulled myself away from the monolith and headed off to class. I collected the take home tests from the day before and asked each of my classes if they had any ideas of how the monolith had been moved into place. Speculations ran from helicopter to aliens. I hadn't seen the security footage yet but I was stumped. I launched into the beginning of the next chapter and let them go without homework.
The rest of the day went smoothly. Just after lunch the Chancellor's secretary delivered a DVD of the security footage from the night before. Written on the disk was a time stamp. I took the time to view the footage and stared in disbelief at the timing required to pull off this stunt. Two seconds, that was all the time the culprit had between the motions of two of the cameras. Two of the four cameras covering that area were fixed while the other two panned the area in six second intervals. The cameras weren't synced so there was that elusive two second gap when the area wasn't being covered. How the hell did they pull it off? A multi ton obelisk of marine stone moved silently and so quickly was just beyond belief. Yet there was the video footage as proof. If they were engineering students that pulled this off they deserved a freaking award.
I went to lunch and ran into Carol. She appeared in a good mood. When I asked she told me she was part of the team investigating the monolith. I told her I was going to help decipher the characters etched into its surface. She smiled and told me her part was tracking the stellar references involved in the shafts cut into the object. They appeared to allow the viewing of stellar bodies at certain times of the year. It really was a brilliant construction. It was definitely going to take time to decipher it and that thrilled her to no end.
"How are you doing," Carol asked with a poorly disguised expression of disappointment on her lovely features.
"Ask me Carol," I replied as soothingly as I could manage.
"Are you dating someone now," she asked and tensed awaiting the worst case scenario.
"No, but I am intimate with someone else," I said laying my hand over hers.
"So it's just sex then," she said and I nodded. "Oh thank goodness, if it's just a fuck buddy I am relieved."
"You are," I said confused. "I thought you'd be crushed."
"Nah," she said smiling. "I understand any woman wanting to be with you." She leaned in close now. "You are an amazing lover. I'd be insane to think you'd be monogamous. You've been working on your doctorate for so long. I guess I just opened the flood gates so to speak. I feel kind of proud actually. I was your first after goodness knows how long."
"Nine months," I said and she giggled in delight. "Are you busy tonight? I'd like to come by if that's okay. I picked up some new things from the mall. Besides, I owe you a blowjob."
"Since you put it that way," I said smiling. "How could I possibly say no?"
Carol finished her lunch beaming like a kid just before Christmas. She left with a bounce in her step and whatever guilt I felt about fucking Felicia fell away. I refilled my soda and headed back to the classroom. I was looking forward to another round of love play with Carol. The afternoon classes went well and passed off some of the tests I collected to my teaching assistant for her to look over. After my last class of the day I called the Widow Squire. She agreed to meet with me in an hour. I had just hung up when a small crowd of my students met me in the hall outside my classroom.
"Mr. Donahue," one of them greeted me. "We want to know if we can volunteer."
"Volunteer," I said and they all nodded. "Oh you mean taking rubbings off the monolith."
"Yes sir," another said smiling from ear to ear. "We'd love to be a part of deciphering the characters."
"Hey Donahue," a voice called out.
"Hey Ian, what's up?" I called out to one of my friends in the engineering department.
"We are setting up a 3D scan of the obelisk," he said. "How about I send you a copy when we finish and you can use that to help decipher this bitch?"
"That would be amazing," I said. "Can you send one to Carol in Astrophysics? They are looking at star alignments on this thing."
"For you anything," he replied. "Why don't you guys lend me a hand setting up the scanner?"
The crowd followed Ian like he was the Pied Piper. I headed out and drove to the Widow Squire's place. As I drove I thought out the questions I would ask her. It was a long drive to the outskirts of the city. I had plenty of time to collect my thoughts. The house was located near the top of a hill that was perched next to the ocean. The house next to it appeared to be under some kind of renovation. I pulled up into her driveway and saw all the wind chimes that hung everywhere. I wondered what it must sound like during a wind storm. The sound of that many competing noises must be maddening. The door opened and the Widow stepped out and I was shocked at how young she was. I had expected a woman in her seventies but she was closer to my mom's age.