I didn't stop running until I had burst into my room, locked the door behind me and placed a chair under the handle. Then I immediately vomited into the bin before collapsing onto my bed in floods of tears. I couldn't quite believe what I had seen that evening; it was too terrible to comprehend. But worse was to come.
Although I so desperately wanted to sleep, I forced myself not to. Instead I sat shivering with fear in the corner of the room, expecting Jacob and Annie to attempt to enter the room any second. I had to get out of here, I had to go to the police, I had to do something. And I had to stay awake. I had to...
And then I was no longer in my room. In contrast, I was standing amidst vast structures of black stone. On each stone was etched hieroglyphics of the kind I had never before seen and they were all covered in a sticky green goo. These stones seemed to go on for miles, their geometry extremely strange and disturbing. I must be dreaming, I told myself, this can't be real. Yet even in this knowledge, the sheer terror of the place engulfed me. I began to walk slowly around the structures, being careful not to touch the slime on their surface and desperately trying to wake up. And then I saw it, the monster of the notebook and the diabolical ritual. But this time, it wasn't a picture or statue but an enormous living monstrosity. I was rooted to the ground in fear as I stared at its huge form that seemed to tower for miles above me, its green, scaly skin, its thick leathery wings and its octopus-like tentacles, and from out of the air I heard the disembodied chant, "Cthulhu Fhtagn! Cthulhu Fhtagn!" I was still unable to run and the tentacles of the monster began to rap themselves around me, all the while that demonic chant getting louder and louder until it felt like my head was being crushed. I was raised off the ground and brought up to the monster's head. It looked at me with one of its evil red eyes the fear became too much. I began to scream hysterically, writhing around in the grip of the beast. And then I awoke, breathing heavily and sweating profusely. I was lying on the floor and just remained there for a while, staring into the darkness and reminiscing on the terrors of the dream and the ritual I had seen, and remembering that chant: "Cthulhu Fhtagn!" What did it all mean?
The following day, I did not attend lectures and only left the room once to grab some food. As fate would have it, during this brief moment out of solitude, I met the person I didn't want to see ever again, Jacob. I avoided his gaze as he looked at me enquiringly.
"We missed you in lectures today," he said curiously. I didn't answer. I was sure he had seen me last night. "Where were you?" Jacob asked. Again, I was silent. He laid a hand on my shoulder. "Is something wrong, James?" It was then that I looked into his eyes but instead of the evil I had expected to see, all I could make out was concern.
"No," I muttered in reply.
"Something is wrong," Jacob disagreed. "What's up?" Either he's a very good actor, or he's entirely genuine, I thought to myself. And if was being genuine, that must mean that either he didn't remember the ritual I had seen him participating in or that I had only been dreaming. I prayed it was the latter.
"I'm ok," I said, giving him the benefit of the doubt. "I'm just feeling a little unwell, that's all."
"Well look after yourself," he replied without a trace of ingenuity. I quickly made myself a ham sandwich and once again locked myself into my room. The thoughts that raced around inside my head were endless as I casually bit into the sandwich. Almost immediately, I spat the contents out of my mouth, screamed and vomited onto the floor. What was inside the sandwich was not the ham I had put in but a vile mixture of the green goo I had seen in my "dream" and human blood. The room started spinning around me, turning into a dark green, and images of the tentacled creature I had seen so much of lately started appearing in every corner. I covered my ears and screamed uncontrollably.
And then Jacob and Annie were in front of me. I had no idea where they had come from for I had locked the door. But I was anywhere but the comfort of my room. Instead, I was in some sort of other realm, my room rapidly beginning to fade.
"You shouldn't have got involved in this," Jacob whispered menacingly.
"Now you must pay." Annie cooed.
"In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming." they said in unison. And then I saw no more.