The Horror from the Pool Ch. 04

The names, characters, places and events in this story are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. All characters are over the age of 18. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

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"The most merciful thing in the world is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." H.P. Lovecraft

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Listen to me and I will tell you of the old days -- those days long gone, never to return, when jeweled cities still stood by the sparkling seas and the world was in harmony. Yes, I was there. When multitudes lived in the cities of stone where now only lizards bask and the screech-owl cries. I will tell you how horror and chaos came.

But despite their bodies being sated from their lovemaking, their sleep was disturbed and during the night both women tossed and turned and muttered in their sleep. Both had nightmares but as soon as they awoke, their dreams faded away like smoke before a strong breeze. Ardys dreamt that she was in some kind of passageway; a long, dark tunnel that led endlessly on. As she moved down the tunnel; drawn-out, impossibly thin green arms grew from the walls and grasped at her, trying to snatch her and keep her with them down in the dark forever. She tried to run, to break free, to reach the end of this horrible tunnel, but the more she tried to run, more and more of these snake-like arms reached out trying to snare her. One ripped at her robe, another at her tunic, and the feel of those arms on her bare skin was just disgusting. She awoke, panting and sweating but after a few minutes of staring into the darkness, her heart-rate slowed and soon the dream, apart from a few fragments, had vanished from her mind.

Gwen also slept badly. Her dream was less well-formed but she imagined her beloved mistress to be in great danger. Something about a giant green boa-constrictor crushing her in its folds and not letting her go.

Neither woman spoke to the other about their night-terrors. Worries can be temporarily forgotten but they resurface the next day.

Gwen woke early and, wrapping a shawl around herself, she slipped downstairs to relieve herself, wash and prepare breakfast. She had really enjoyed herself with her mistress last night and wished they could be intimate more often. But Ardys was married to Wulmar, a good man she truly loved, and Gwen herself lived with a slave foreman, Guni, a man who had fathered her last two children. But it was so pleasant to lie with a woman who understood her needs. The men had no issues with their love for each other as they were secure in their woman's love for themselves.

In the kitchen she prepared a breakfast of dried fruit, bread, cheese and fresh milk for them both and took them up to the bedchamber. The guards Wulmar had sent with them were still snoring and Gwen noticed a couple of empty wineskins in a corner. She shook them awake and reminded them that Ardys would need them later in the morning.

When she reached the chamber, she set down the food and after they had eaten, she helped her mistress wash and dress. Fetching out a travel cloak, she fastened it with a silver brooch, and then knelt to slip a pair of sandals onto Ardys's feet.

"Do you really need me to come, mistress?" she asked submissively as she planted a kiss on her mistress's foot.

"Are you really that scared, Gwen? It's only Viridis. You know her -- you used to play with her when she was a girl."

"When she was a baby, yes, mistress. But please don't make me come."

"I won't force you, Gwen. You stay here, then, I'll be safe with the guards to protect me."

"Thank you, mistress." With that, Gwen covered her owner's feet with kisses of gratitude.

Taking the three bodyguards with her, Ardys walked through Tingis's colonnades admiring the richly dressed women and men in their fine silks and embroidered robes, many of whom were attended by slaves. They passed intricately carved marble statues of gods and heroes and fountains depicting sea-creatures spraying cooling water into the air. The air was filled with scents of spices from near and far as well as aromatic perfumes. Traders enticed customers to their shops or stalls and everywhere was hustle and bustle.

She was sorry when they reached the towering walls pierced by the Dolphin Gate leading to the harbor area beyond the walls. The City Guards stood aside and bowed as she passed, escorted by her bodyguards.

Beyond Tingis's walls, the street led downhill and the further from the walls they went, the rougher and dirtier the street and buildings came. It was a polyglot crowd and within a few hundred yards she heard a dozen languages spoken. The people, likewise, were mixed and she wondered from which part of Dreamlands they had come from. Despite the day's heat, some were heavily robed and masked and she wondered if all of them were completely human beneath. However, the people took one look at the three big Goth warriors escorting her and stepped out of their way. Meanwhile, a clamor of child beggars swarmed around them, imploring them with hands outstretched for a few coins. Further away, down towards the docks, she could hear a large crowd gathering for the Festival of Tiamat and the uplift of their voices as they chanted to their ancient goddess.

Closer to hand, the buildings leaned and tottered against each other and despite their decay and near ruin in some cases, people leaned and called out to each other from the windows. However, it was those upper rooms which were firmly shuttered, guarding unwholesome secrets, which she did not like. On the lower floors was daubed graffiti, some of it obscene, but there were hideous symbols that made her shudder inside even though she did not understand their meaning.

Hrolf stopped one of the child beggars and offered several copper coins if he would direct them to the Street of Echiura where Viridis's warehouse could be found. The lad trembled but his need for money won out. In his dialect he told them, "It's a bad place, sire. I'll take you but won't wait."

The street lad took them down some stinking alleys so that even the Goths were lost, past a strangely deserted square with a dead tree in the center, hurried past the shunned chapel where a cracked gong rings at times of the day and night which follows no system of measuring time known to mankind, until they arrived at what had once been a warehouse. As they walked, the crowd of child beggars fell away until they were alone apart from a few furtive figures lurking in shadowy doorways or peering with hostile eyes out of narrow alleys and passages. By now, the lad was visibly shaking and his eyes were staring into the shadows as if he expected something terrible to emerge from the darkness.

"The witch is in here. Give me my money, please," the lad implored.

Hrolf paid him off and immediately the young man fled uphill as if all the bats of the abyss were after him. The Goth rapped on the wooden door of the warehouse and then pounded it with the hilt of his seax when there was no answer.

Finally, an iron-bound hatch in the door creaked open a few inches and a shrouded face appeared from the gloom within and peered at them. They could make little of the face except for a sharply pointed nose and chin.

"I have come to see Viridis," Ardys said, stepping forward.

"She is expecting you," the voice said. It was an old voice, very old, and Ardys was unsure whether it belonged to a man or woman. However, the door remained firmly closed.

"I am her mother and I have come a long way to see her," said Ardys. "Tell her I am here."

"I will but her studies are at an important state."

With that, the very old person closed the hatch in their face and left them standing in the narrow street outside.

"If she's not back in a few minutes, we'll smash the door down," Hrolf said with a hard grin, fingering his battle ax. Direct action was what he understood best. However, after several minutes, the heavy warehouse door swung open.

"The mother only. Nobody else," the crone intoned.

Hrolf looked at her for confirmation. Ardys nodded and stepped through the door.

"We'll wait outside. But if you don't come out soon, we'll burst this door down and come looking for you," he growled, hefting his ax.

The crone shut and barred the door then led Ardys up an ill-lit, narrow, splintered wooden staircase to the upper floor then along a dark, narrow landing.

"Do not touch anything and when Viridis says to leave then you must go. That is essential," the hag told her. The geriatric knocked on the door ahead, a complex knock like a secret sign, and then swung it open.

The room was vast, taking in the whole upper floor of the warehouse. But it was so dark. All the windows had been boarded up and covered with heavy drapes. The only light came from a few candles mounted on a plinth so Ardys stood by the door waiting for her eyes to adjust to the semi-darkness. She took a few faltering steps forward and heard the old woman close the door behind her and lock it from the other side.

In the center of the room was a large vat of water. In the darkness, the water looked black and greasy. Even as she watched, something seemed to break the surface before diving below leaving only viscous ripples behind. On the other side stood the plinth, a focus in the dim candlelight, and a figure dressed all in black stood by it. The figure was veiled and its arms were raised in supplication.

"Viridis? Is that you?" Ardys called out.

"You came." It was Viridis's voice but there was no warmth in her tone.

"It wasn't easy to find you," Ardys said. With that, she started walking around the vat towards her daughter. As she approached, she thought she heard something -- or some things -- coiling and roiling within the depths. Closer to the vat, there was a foul effluvium of rotting fish or other, far worse, sea-creatures.

"Stay where you are, mother," Viridis said harshly. She made a gesture and spoke a couple of unpleasant sounds and, stunned, Ardys stood still. "The timings are very nearly ready."

Turning back to a scroll laid out on the podium, Viridis started speaking in a language Ardys had never heard before, a very guttural speech with utterly inhuman sounds that distorted the young woman's lips. Ardys tried to step forward to stop her daughter but it was as if all her muscles were paralyzed and she stood, immobile and helpless by the vat.

Then it was as if the world exploded. From the huge vessel erupted a mass of grotesque snake-like appendages. Dozens, scores of grey-green suckerless tentacles boiled up and out into the dark room. Even a vat as large as the one in the room could never have held that amount of tentacles. And still they came and came. Some were larger and thicker than others but all blindly probed and sensed the air.

Ardys tried to scream but nothing would come, her throat was locked and all she could manage was a strangled cry. As if that slight noise had lured them, several of the tentacles stretched themselves towards Ardys while a greater number reached out to the still chanting Viridis.

One of the tentacles touched Ardys's bare arm and this finally freed her vocal cords. She opened her mouth and managed a scream before another thick tentacle pushed into her mouth, stifling her cries. Other tendrils curled themselves around her arms while others wrapped themselves around her legs holding her immobile.

At the first touch of the horrible, slimy tendrils, Ardys's long-suppressed memory cleared and she suddenly remembered with shocking intensity what had happened that afternoon at the pool in the foothills. She recalled how those tentacle-like extremities had penetrated her -- and how they had impregnated her -- and so this monster was the father of Viridis.

Twisting her head away, trying to spit out the tentacle pushing deeper and deeper over her tongue and into her mouth, she wanted to cry out a warning to Viridis. But it was too late. She watched as Viridis shrugged off her loose black robe and veil to stand naked before the monster's tentacles. Her daughter stood with her arms upraised, lifting her breasts and with her legs apart welcoming the tentacles' caresses.

Even in the dim half-light, Ardys saw that her daughter's skin was still tainted by her chlorosis but now it was far greener than before. No, now it appeared as if her skin was covered in algae. Also, her daughter's long arms and legs were painfully thin and emaciated and, in the semi-darkness, looked almost like fingered, tentacle-like appendages themselves rather than limbs belonging to any sane human. Her breasts hung like decayed jellyfish and looking between her legs, she thought that Viridis's coarse pubic thatch looked more like seaweed than hair. Unclothed, there was no way that her daughter could pass as fully human any more.

However, Ardys was drawn back to her own plight. The tendrils searched and pulled off her own robe and tunic, tossing them onto the floor. Others ripped off the wisp of her loincloth leaving her, like her daughter, completely naked. Still others searched her body, running their vile purplish tips over her skin, caressing her with a cool, wet warmth that made her want to scream in an agony of sick revulsion. But she could not make a sound due to that tendril stuffing her mouth and trying to push down her throat.

Strong, merciless tentacle-like extremities lifted her up into the air, now holding her directly over the vat of water from which they emanated. She felt, rather than saw, that her daughter was held next to her. Purple-tipped tentacles reared up and latched onto her nipples, sucking them into twin cones of pleasure and pain while others rubbed themselves against her breasts and belly. Then, despite every effort in her body, her legs were pulled apart and kept separated by the monster's strength. Other tendrils, slimy, cool and disgusting against her skin, as if these palps were nothing more than a thin layer of rind covering some rotten fruit, pushed into her lower body, filling once again her vagina, anus and even her urethra. She tried to scream out against this outrage but there was nothing she could do to stop it.

The tendrils pushed deeper and deeper into her body, up into her womb itself as well as her bowel and bladder causing her to wet herself. She just managed to turn her head sufficiently to see that her daughter was suffering the same terrible fate. However, unlike herself, her daughter's pallid jade face wore an expression of utmost rapture.

And so the tendrils started to pump in and out, in and out of all Ardys's orifices. And again, her eyes widened as her own body betrayed her, responding with desire at the monster's invasion of her most intimate spaces. Hating herself, she wept with disgust but also carnal lust at the sensations pushing through her body in waves. Her back and neck bowed impossibly as the monster's pheromone laden feelers pulsed in and out. It seemed her own daughter was also deep in the throes of sexual lust as grey-green tendrils penetrated her also.

Her mind was lost to these feelings of horror and lustfulness and unable to take in anything except her predicament. Until finally, long after she could take no more, she felt the tendrils' tips spasm inside her and the floodgates opened as they disgorged pint after pint of a sticky sap-like substance deep within her -- down her throat, up her colon, into her bladder but worst of all up into her womb. And these tendrils kept on pouring torrents of its strange seed into her body.

Ardys managed to glance over at her daughter who was still in unalloyed ecstasy and saw pints of the monster's cum also leaking out of her. Ardys struggled against the monster's coils but even as she did so she felt the foul creature touch her temples with still another of its tentacle-like feelers causing her to blackout. Even as she plunged into grateful forgetfulness, she wondered what strange fruit would emerge from her womb this time?

And what far, far stranger fruit would emerge from Viridis's?

THE END...?