The world we live in is not as it seems. I, James White, write this document so that others may be made aware of what I have experienced and know of the dangers that lurk beneath our limited perception of "reality". Whether you believe me or not, dear reader, is up to you. I only ask that you read what I write with an open mind since I write, not for my own gain, but to warn you of what I can only describe as "pure evil".

I had never heard of the "Cult of Cthulhu" before I began university in the late summer of 2012. I was only eighteen years old, an atheist, and dogmatically pursued scientific understanding and knowledge. At that time, I was not in the least bit interested in weird cults and other religious movements, which I simply dismissed as primitive superstition. Had I but known what I would encounter, I would have burnt the science textbook, prayed to God for the strength not to crumble into insanity and got as far away from that university as I could!

The strange happenings started less than two months into my first term. I had been put into student accommodation and shared a corridor with four other boys and two girls. I had got to know my flatmates very well until all of a sudden, one of the boys by the name of Jonathan Mears disappeared. This wasn't looked upon as weird at first since Jonathan was the quiet type anyway and often spent long hours alone in his room. The suspicions arose however, when he hadn't shown his face for three days. His absence was brought up one evening as we sat in a communal area.

"He's probably just been very busy lately," my best friend, Jacob Shields, said. "You know Jonathan. When he sets his mind on something, he doesn't stop until he's achieved whatever he's trying to do."

"Isn't it a bit strange though?" Annie Roberts, a lovely blonde girl from the room directly across the corridor asked. "I mean, he's in our corridor and we haven't seen him for ages. Not even in the kitchen or lecture halls."

"It isn't like him to miss a lecture," I agreed. Jacob merely waved these concerns away.

"If we haven't seen him by tomorrow evening, we'll go to the reception and see what's happening," he said cheerfully.

But Jonathan didn't show up the following day and, as planned, my entire corridor went to the reception desk to ask if anything had happened to him. The receptionist, an elderly lady, checked through the files on a computer before looking up at us.

"I'm afraid he has left the university," she informed us. "He dropped out four days ago."

"Well there you go!" Jacob exclaimed. "Nothing to worry about!"

But there was something to worry about. Even though I now had every reason to think that Jonathan was fine, I couldn't shake that feeling of foreboding. He had seemed happy in university and was consistently getting high marks so I resolved to check things out for myself.

I waited until 3:00 the following morning, and in the darkness, I tiptoed along the corridor to Jonathan's room. Using a paperclip, I carefully picked the lock on his door and let myself in. I closed the door behind me and switched on the light. The sight that greeted me came as a huge shock. Clothes still lay on the floor, the bed was made, books were still on the shelves and a laptop was still humming gently on the cluttered desk. In short, it looked as though Jonathan was simply out of the room. If he had gone home, why did he leave all his things behind? And if he hadn't, where was he and why did the university records state that he had? Deeply concerned, I left the room and returned to my own. I lay awake in the darkness pondering the thoughts in my head and finally decided that I needed to find out what had happened and that I would do so alone...