Tuesday, July 31, 2012

September 25, 1984 - Miskatonic University, Arkham


71

Peter was right. The Necronomicon is a weird book. But it’s also fascinating. Some days I start reading in the morning, and when I look up I find that it’s sunset. There’s an entire world being described in this book, one I never thought could exist, beyond even the hidden world of the Fears.

Of course it would help if this damn book would just cooperate and let me read it like a regular book. There is something definitely supernatural about this thing. Some pages, you read them, blink, and the page has changed. Or a chapter will appear in the middle of the night, only to vanish by sunrise. And it seems to decide what language it will be written in each day at random. Even as I’m manipulating time to try and learn more languages as I go, I can’t keep up with all the changes. Especially since half the time the words aren’t even written in any human language I can identify.

So I’ve had to call in some help. Peter volunteered immediately. Such a good boy, so determined to please. Unfortunately, his eagerness can’t always be translated into productivity. Not his fault; there’s a lot of weird stuff in here that I doubt any living human has the knowledge needed to fully understand. And even with his dedication, he had to take a break from reading the book after a while. Kept complaining about “bad dreams.” I dunno, I haven’t experienced anything like that. Actually, ever since I started reading the Necronomicon, I’ve been experiencing quiet, nightmare free nights for the first time in ages.

To counter that, we’ve brought in two of Peter’s friends, so that someone can always be working with me while the others take a break from the book’s madness. One’s named Benjamin; he’s a bookish graduate student studying ancient languages, so he’s doing his best to translate stuff for us. Whenever he can, that is; there are days when it changes into something that none of us recognize, and the best we can do is wait for the next day and hope the chapter’s become a language we can work with. And that it’s still in the same place. Or still in the book.

The other friend is Sarah, the girl from the library. She hates me because she has a crush on Peter that only he cannot see. I’m trying to see if I can invite her along one night, but so far she’s rejected every hint I’ve dropped…. Anyways, she’s read the most eldritch lore from Orne Library out of anyone Peter knows, which makes her perfect for cross referencing information I find. And her eagerness to be working with someone on uncovering the Necronomicon outweighs whatever jealousy she holds against me, luckily enough.

Interesting thing about that cross referencing. It’s not as helpful as I’d hoped. I’m really not sure what’s going on with it, but it seems almost like the Necronomicon exists in a bubble. Within the Necronomicon, I read of a world of ancient sleeping gods, lost Cyclopean cities, worlds of impossible geographies, creatures beyond any imagining. But when I look at the other books of Orne Library, I find something else. I find the Fears. In the Necronomicon I read about Great Cthulhu, outside of the Necronomicon all I find is EAT. In the Necronomicon I find Azathoth, outside the Necronomicon I find the Archangel. Instead of Shub-Niggurath, I find the Wooden Girl. Instead of Yog-Sothoth, the Empty City. It’s almost as though someone cut out every reference to the creatures from the Necronomicon and inserted the Fears.

Need to do more research. I’m learning so much, but there’s still so much more to learn. At least I’ve got a near monopoly on these three’s time; it’s flu season in Miskatonic, so no one’s showing up to classes anyway.

What I have found isn’t comforting. If the Necronomicon is accurate, these old gods were practically the rulers of the universe. Grendel calling them “gods” wasn’t a misnomer: they’re powers were on the scale with gods. It would be an exaggeration to say that humans were insects compared to them. We were grains of dust in their eyes; so small they wouldn’t even notice our screams as they destroyed us with merely their presence.

And then something happened. Something that caused them to vanish from everything but the Necronomicon. And instead of them, we have the Fears. A new set of gods, which have taken a personal interest in tormenting humanity. Can’t say that’s much of an improvement. But at least none of the Fears seem to be planning on the destruction of our race at the moment.

Enough of this for now. Need to get back to studying. Need to figure out what happened to these old gods, and more importantly, how Grendel’s planning to bring them back.

I-330

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