The Shoggoth Secret - Lovecraftian Erotica

The
Shoggoth Secret

Lovecraftian
Erotica

by:
Amy Morrel

Text copyright © 2014, Amy Morrel

All
Rights Reserved

The body had lain just outside of the opening of the cave for
several years. Despite its exposure and the abundance of wildlife in
the surrounding forest it was still unmolested, for the animals would
not approach the cave.

This year's spring thaw consisted of many warm days followed by
freezing nights. The repeated melting and freezing of the snow pack
had formed an icy patch beneath the corpse and a falling clump of ice
and snow had impacted on it at just the right angle to start it
sliding away from the cave mouth on the newly formed ice. Once it
reached the nearby slope, it hastened its slide down into the stream
at the bottom of small gully.

Once the body was exposed, it decayed rapidly as the furious rush
of the snow-melt swollen stream sloughed off chunks of flesh. One
hand, clenched in a true death grip, lost all of its flesh to the
raging waters. Shortly after the flesh was gone a large chunk of ice
wedged itself against the remaining bones of the hand. The grip
remained solid but the connection to the wrist was torn asunder. The
skeletal hand went tumbling down the stream, striking rock after rock
until the bones fell apart from one another.

Finally, the silver chain the hand clutched in death came loose
from the bones. The charm on the necklace was made of some buoyant
substance which kept the metal from sinking to the bottom of the
stream and being buried.

The choker bobbed downstream, but kept hanging up on snags, rocks,
and branches. By late spring it had drifted nearly a mile from where
it entered the water. When the last of the snow melt was gone the
level of the stream dropped, stranding the choker on a branch which
was above the normal water level. It sat there glistening in the sun
for some time while the pattern worked into both sides of the charm
reflected the light to and fro. The silver chain was tangled soundly
about the branch while the charm hung free, blowing in the breeze.

Jacob Harnon was playing hookey. He'd called in to work and told
them he was sick. He justified it to himself by claiming that if he
didn't get some downtime he
would
get
sick. His college classes and job ate up his entire life, so he
felt the need to get out and do something else, anything else, for a
day or two. Money being an issue, as it always was for him, he was
out in the woods, not quite hiking, just walking around and trying to
relax.

Hey,
he thought,
there's
a stream over there. Maybe I'll go soak my feet for a little while.
It's hot out for late spring in New Hampshire.

He wandered over to the stream and
kicked off his shoes and socks. A nearby boulder drew his attention
so he sat down on it and dangled his feet in the water. He pushed his
sunglasses on top of his head as he leaned back and looked at the
stream.

A shimmer of light on the water caught
his gaze. As he stared at it, a slight breeze cooled his forehead and
the shimmer began to dance, moving this way and that.

What the hell? It must be a reflection, but from what?

Searching for several minutes left him
as clueless as he was when he noticed it move. The shimmer was still
again now, the breeze gone. He rolled up his pant legs and slid into
the stream.

Fine, I'll find it this way. It better not be a damned beer can
though.

He waded out to the shimmer and began
to move his hand around it. When it disappeared, he checked his hand
and found the shimmer there. Now he knew what direction it was coming
from.

He waded slightly upstream and to the
far bank. A brief search revealed something silvery stuck in the
branches of a bush that hung low over the water. He reached in and
tugged at it. With a little effort, the branch gave way and he found
himself holding a silver colored necklace with an odd-looking
pendant.

The chain felt heavy enough to be real
silver, but the pendant was lightweight. It looked like it was made
of metal, but not one he knew. It was marked with a pattern, on both
sides, in an iridescent material that looked almost like a soap
bubble but proved substantially more solid when he nudged it with his
fingertip.

He shrugged and slipped the necklace
into his pocket.

I'll hang onto this, it might be worth something.

He returned to his boulder and let his
feet dry enough to put his shoes and socks back on. When he felt the
urge to walk upstream, maybe see if there was anything else up there,
he gave in since there was nothing better to do. With a good chunk of
the day still ahead of him, he immediately acted on the impulse. The
banks of the stream were mostly clear, if slippery, and he ended up
walking along them since the undergrowth farther away from the stream
was almost thick enough to be impassable.

Jenny,
he thought,
or
maybe Kathy.

He couldn't decide which of the two
he'd rather have with him out here right now. Not that it mattered,
neither one of them would even give him the time of day, never mind
wander out into the woods with him.

He knew that they only hung out with
the guys who had money to waste on them. He also knew what that made
them, but he'd never say it out loud since the guys that fawned all
over the two girls would beat him to a paste if they heard it.

He never considered the fact that his
brown hair was always wild, the cowlicks in it unwilling to submit to
comb, brush, or the occasional gels he tried to tame them with. Nor
did he consider the fact that, until recently, he'd been thin and
gangly from a late growth spurt. The manual labor job, which was the
only thing he'd been able to find, had built his muscles up to the
point where no-one would use the words thin, or scrawny, to describe
him any more.

Lost in his thoughts, he stumbled and
slipped into the stream.

“Shit,” he yelled, “and
the day was going so well.”

He pulled himself out of the stream.
Jacob was soaking wet all along his left side. For a moment he
considered heading back to his beat-up old junker of a car, but
something called to him from upstream. He could hear it in his head.

Not far now, come to me and everything will be better. All will
be right. Your dreams will come true.

He shut his eyes for a moment and tried
to figure out what he was hearing.

Did I hit my head when I fell?
he
thought.

He checked his skull, pressing his
fingers against the bone and discovering no sore spots, only wet
hair. When he opened his eyes again, his feet were carrying him
upstream.

He tried to turn around but his mind
was under assault. Visions of Jenny in the nude haunted him. She
beckoned him onward and demonstrated her flexibility, revealing
everything to him. He fought the visions and they were replaced by
Kathy, also totally nude. She held her arms open wide for him and
begged him to come to her.

Jacob was confused. All he saw were the
visions in his head. At the same time he could feel himself moving
past bushes and trees, brushing against their limbs. He struggled to
stop moving but the visions redoubled, now showing him Kathy and
Jenny together. They were enjoying one another and inviting him to
join in.

His legs stopped moving and his eyes
opened. The mouth of a cave loomed in front of him and the forest was
silent; there was no birdsong, no chittering of squirrels or
chipmunks, no sound at all except the gently burbling stream.

His mind was in a daze and his erection
was hard enough to leave him feeling lightheaded. Consumed by lust,
he was eminently vulnerable when he caught a glimpse of light in the
cave. The light revealed a flash of smooth, naked flesh. He thought
he saw a naked woman dart deeper into the tunnel, disappearing around
a turn. He stepped forward, unthinking, and moved towards the light.

Unnoticed behind him, the skeleton he'd
stepped on in his dazed journey slid the rest of the way into the
stream, falling apart into individual bones.

Jacob moved into the mouth of the cave. It was dark, but the sun
lit the passageway almost to the turn. There was light beyond it, he
could see that. The shadows from it bounced and the light slowly
dimmed. He hurried to the corner, hoping to catch another glimpse of
whoever it was he'd seen a moment earlier.

Once again Jacob saw a flash of creamy white skin, illuminated by
an orange-colored light. It quickly disappeared beyond another turn.
He hurried forward to catch it.

A long hallway stretched out in front of him. There was no sign of
whoever he was following but there was light. The hallway was
obviously constructed and not of natural origin. The initial cave
mouth was rough and dirt littered the floor. In this section the
walls were smooth, with carvings at chest-height along both sides of
the wall. The floor was spotless and the ceiling overhead was made of
what looked like translucent stone. The stone of the ceiling glowed
dimly, just enough to light the hallway.

Jacob wanted to hurry down the corridor but the carvings
distracted him. He walked down the corridor, watching the story told
by the carvings. The initial ones were crisp, but they were
indistinct blobs and he wondered if perhaps whoever created them
hadn't finished. The next series of carvings told him he was wrong.
The indistinct blob appeared yet again, but this time it was
approaching the rear of a monstrous looking creature.

The next carving showed the blob engulfing the creature. Over the
series of carvings leading down the hallway, the blob returned to its
normal size, then formed itself into the creature it had eaten. The
new creature, distinguished from the original only by half of the
head being a miniature of the blob, approached creature after
creature, using its disguise to engulf all of them.

In the last set of carvings, every creature that had been engulfed
stood side by side, all with half of their heads portrayed as the
original blob. Jacob looked up and realized that the hallway had come
to an end at the top of a long flight of stairs. Down bottom the
orange light he'd previously seen was bobbing and dancing down
another hallway.

He took the stairs at a run and was rewarded by a glimpse of long
hair that came down to a magnificent ass at the other end of the
corridor. The woman ducked around another corner after he'd only
gotten a brief glimpse. He gave chase and, when he turned the same
corner, nearly tumbled down another long flight of stairs.

The pursuit led him down five more flights of stairs and he found
himself panting and tired when he arrived at a short corridor that
ended in a massive door. There was no-one in the corridor and the
only light was what seeped down from the hallway above. He wondered
if the woman he'd been following had passed through the door without
him knowing. When his thoughts touched on the door he knew, as though
someone had inserted the idea whole into his mind, that he could
obtain everything he wanted and desired simply by opening it.

He walked down the corridor, his nose assaulted by the scents of
mold, mildew, and something similar to ammonia. The cool, damp air
left him shivering and he heard what sounded like a faint rain, as
though millions of drops of water were falling nearby.

The door looked like it hadn't been opened in ages, but the
carving set into it was still crisp and clear. It started on the wall
beside the door and, unbroken, worked its way across the door and
into the wall on the other side. The pattern looked familiar.

He walked back to the faint light and drew his recent find out of
his pocket. The pattern on the pendant matched the one on the door.
The pendant also gave off a faint luminescence. As he approached the
door again, the glow from the pendant increased until the hallway was
only dim as opposed to dark. When he reached the door, an answering
gleam rose in the midst of the carved pattern.

Jacob tentatively reached out with the necklace in his hand. He
pressed the pattern against the matching glow and heard a massive
cracking noise from the door. He jumped back as it shifted slightly.
In the dimness he saw where the door had opened, breaking the pattern
carved across it. A greenish light illuminated the opening.

The scent of ammonia grew stronger and Jacob's mind cleared in a
rush.

What the hell am I doing down here? I need to get out of this
place,
he thought.

He started back down the corridor to
the stairs, but before he placed his foot on the bottom one he heard
a voice. After a moment he realized that it wasn't a voice, it was
something speaking directly to his mind.