Saturday Night Dance

Hank and Tiffany now floated slightly below Lacy. In their outstretched hands they each held a staff with silver ends. These shafts appeared to be directing the milky produce from below toward a point just over the bloody lamb. Lacy was pointing her ring at this same spot.

Suddenly something began to happen over the lamb. It was not so much a light as a movement of the fabric of the light that slowly began to take form. It seemed to soak up all the milky substance and the crowd seemed to increased their orgiastic ravings and howls. Josh noticed several had either passed out or possibly died. As one person collapsed they were thrown aside and others took their place. Only a few were now left to form the outer circle.

"Ohhhhhh!" someone in the circle screamed. The lamb's body seemed to dissolve in the glow before their eyes. The diffuse light took on a strange glow as it enveloped the lamb and began to take a more definite form, a horrible stench fill the cavern.

"No, I can't do it," a woman screamed. She had seen too much. Her trance state failed her and she ran panic stricken from the scene. Before she escaped the cavern an arrow of light gushed out from the glow and in an instance engulfed the fleeing woman. She screamed as she imploded upon herself in a bloody mass and then dissolved into the light leaving nothing.

"Damn that must have hurt," Josh said aloud. This verbalization was just enough to allow him to regain a measure of control. Josh quickly moved away from the scene around a curve. The energy of the cavern immediately diminished and his rationality quickly returned. He knew he had to do something and do something quick.

Josh resisted the urge to flee for his life. He again rounded the corner but this time remained in control of his faculties.

He could hear the screams in the crowds. But only a few of these screams were of fright. The other screams and howls were created by the animalistic orgiastic lunacy that appeared to be fueling the process by sending the milky residue of hellish passion to assist the return of their master.

Josh looked down to see Lacy enveloped in the diffuse light. She looked as if she was on a fantastic high as she swayed back and forth. She held her hand with the ring high in the air and it glowed with an intense greenish light.

The cult members were impelled with a demonic sexual energy and if anything were more disgustingly involved with each other. This was not just some innocent New Age Wiccan type ritual. This was real. Josh could feel, smell, hear, and touch the tension in the air. Something was coming and it looked like Lacy's legend might just be true.

Josh was becoming a believer but it was extremely difficult to accept what he was seeing. He had always questioned the likelihood of metaphysical dimension to life. He had always searched for something beyond but had never found anything to support such a belief. However, now he was seeing something that was beyond anything he had imagined. It seemed that Cthulhu might really exist as an entity and if something were not done soon, he might find that the legend of Cthulhu was not only a true story but a true horror tale that might consume Josh's life. If this was true and not a hallucination then if Cthulhu complete his rebirth there would be nothing anyone could do about it.

The light was now solifying and forming into a spongy bluish-green gelatinous leathery material floating in the air. The most disturbing aspect was the short tentacles protruding out of the foggy corpulence and wiggling as if struggling for life. Even as Josh watched it was growing in size. This blasphemy of everything good in this world floated upwards and began to fill the ceiling with its mass. It was grotesque looking like an over-inflated multi-tentacled octopus or squid but not like either. Its skin pulsated with an inner glow bubbling making it appeared even more repulsive to Josh. Josh was now questioning his doubts about Hell. If there were such a place it would house creatures like this.

Lacy was now kneeling toward this massive apparition as she floated about 10 feet off the ground.

"Oh Master let us do you bidding!" she cried. She looked totally enraptured.

A hum arose in the hall. It sounded as if million of bees were swarming. The hum continued to increase in volume and form definite patterns. Suddenly a voice but not a voice slammed into Josh's mind and proclaimed, "I have awakened."

Josh did not like the sound of this. The world was fucked up enough. It certainly did not need something like this to make things worse.

"What the hell can I do? Lacy is as spaced as she can be. She in the air and I am up here. I have to do something." Josh pondered as he continued to watch the spectacle.

"I am that which is older than time," it resounded. "I am one of the ancient Ones. I am that which can not be but I am."

Josh covered his ears but it did not help. This voice inside his head was deafeningly sweet with a decayed flavor that stung Josh's brain. The participants were beginning to slow in their activities. Some were on their knees with head bowed. Many had simply passed out or died after expending all their energy, others continued to be crazed with pleasure. Josh was feeling rather sick to his stomach and there was deep ache inside his head. He was also feeling all the worse possible emotions from the absolute worst times of life. These emotions were being amplified to a degree that was beginning to paralyze him. Sadness beyond belief flowed through his mind along with the disgust of a millions of rotting human carcasses. He knew if he were to do something it had to be now.

The entity was now mostly formed. Some of its edges were still fuzzy as if they were somewhere else, maybe some other dimension or maybe they only existed in imagination not really made of a material. The glob of octopus like protoplasm covered the ceiling of the room creating a surrealistic demonic cathedral very unlike the Sistine Chapel, the sort of vision one might see on a really bad night during a particularly horrendous nightmare.

Josh took what strength he had and pulled himself back. What he saw was pure hell. Lacy continued to kneel about 20 feet above the altar suspended in mid-air. Hank and Tiffany were now standing about 10 feet below her but also with no visible means of support. As Josh surveyed the room he also noticed the audience had mostly calmed down and was now floating about 10 feet above the floor. Some were unconscious and those who were awake had insane ecstasy written in their expressions.

Josh remained in the shadows apparently unnoticed by all. He was spell-bound watching these events still not believing what he was seeing. Suddenly there was a hush in the room and things slowed to a halt.

"It is now time to return. I have come. Where are the masses of my followers? Where are they?" the entity boomed in a voice that stank of decay.

"We are all that are left," Hank answered.

"That will soon change. I have now returned."

Josh made his move. He had over large pile of various fireworks including bottle rockets, Roman candle, and other exploding type of units. Josh had brought alone a small can of gasoline and quickly poured it on the rather large pile of fireworks. These were sitting on the edge of a shelf on the rock. He ignited the fireworks that were soaked in gas and they as they began to explode he pushed them off the shelf into the crowds.

Josh shouted from above, "Go back to hell you son of bitch!"

Everything became chaos in the confusion created by the small explosions. Josh managed to run to within reach of Lacy.

"Lacy, you must wake up!" Josh shouted in the chaos. Lacy remain still.

Josh picked up the first thing he reached, a small staff. He threw it hitting Lacy in the side. It was enough of a blow to bring her back to her senses.

"What happened? Where am I?" Lacy cried.

"Use the ring," Josh shouted. "Use the ring."

As the explosions of the fireworks reverberated through the cavern the cult members were jolted out of their trance states. As they awakened they began to fall the 10 feet or so they had been floating in the air. This resulted in total confusion and terrified screaming and crying.

The chaos had changed the flow of energy and power. The thing that was Cthulhu began to dissolve with a horrible angry howl that was beyond this universe. The oozy material began to loose it form and a terrible scream filled the cavern. Hank, Tiffany, and Lacy fell from their suspension in the air. Josh was able to break Lacy's fall somewhat and he and Lacy fled the cavern of screams.

Josh and Lacy made to Josh's post above the panicked crowd. With one look back Josh watched as green gelatinous goo began to fall like rain. It smelled of sulfur and pure evil. He also caught a glimpse of a long tentacle falling from the ceiling. This tentacle did not dissolve but continued to keep it materialistic consistency. Everything else that had been Cthulhu was turning into a greenish fog. However, as Josh watched the tentacle engulfed several of the audience and they simply disappeared. Josh did not look back again. He and Lacy ran down the hall and escaped through the library. Josh's car was still parked outside and there was no one to stop them. The engine screamed and they jerked the car toward the main highway. Suddenly the ground began to quiver and as they reached the highway and raced away a huge explosion rocked the car but Josh kept driving. Looking back in the rear view mirror all he could see was a greenish haze that covered everything.

CNN as well as NBC and all the major networks covered the story. Some type of freakish natural gas explosion rocked the East Texas country side that rivaled the Texas City disaster in the 1940's. Everything was destroyed and all that was left was a huge crater almost a mile deep and mile wide that was even now filling with water from the nearby Grand Lake. In fact Grand Lake's overall water level had now fell several feet as its water emptied into the crater. It would take several days for the crater to completely fill and then it would take months for Grand Lake to return to its normal water level. Of course now Grand Lake total area had a significant increase in acres due to the explosion. No bodies were ever found but a number of people were reported missing from the community including the owners of the house, Hank and Tiffany Wilson.

Josh and Lacy had now returned to New Orleans where Josh was seeking employment. They each continued to suffer from nightly nightmares of horror beyond imagination but were able to comfort each other. Josh had a new appreciation of complexity of reality but was not sure he liked the new paradigm. The one thing that did trouble him in those dark hours of the night was that at least one tentacle of Cthulhu appeared to have survived and what if it survived the explosion. Was it like an ameba and could multiply itself into a new creature? Josh did not know if this was possible but what if it was? He also wondered when the next Cthulhu rebirth ceremony would begin. He knew there were others intent on bringing Cthulhu back to this world and one day they might succeed.