Chapter 4

*authors note.

I know it's been awhile but I hit writers block awhile ago and when I came off it I had already began working on another project. Anyway, here it is; the long overdue chapter 4!

Ulrich held his head in his hands and shivered in fear. Voices, dark and guttural overlapped all around him. He looked up and saw faces of unimaginable horrors forming in the ceiling, laughing at him. He picked up a pen and began to write in his journal, his grip was strained and the words came out sloppy and barely legible.

Now, at my end i can finally see. What i am, what ive always been. I delved to deeply in the darkness and have paid for my crimes. I now walk in the shadows between worlds, frightend to even look in the mirror. It's my fault, itsallmyfault!!!!

I'm sorry Mom, dad, Ulrich. I know i don't deserve it but i hope that somehow, some day, you will be able to forgive me.

He closed the book and rose shakily to his feet. He picked up the journal and stumbled across the room to his bed, muttering to himself. He bent down and removed a secret floor board under the bed that housed various objects; a pack of cigarettes, a skin mag, forty two cents in loose change, and a metal lockbox. He dropped the journal in the hole and took out the metal box. He slid the floor board back into place and walked back over to his desk. He plopped down in his chair and twisted the combination lock on the metal box.

28…6…42…12

The box clicked open and Ulrich reached inside. He pulled out a small .38 caliber revolver. The voices all around him cackled in delight, urging him to do it. He glanced up at the mirror and saw his pain stricken expression. Ulrich tried to scream but it was only now he realized he had no control over his body because it wasn't his. The pale, ghostly reflection of Jack stared back at him.

"I'm sorry little brother." Jack breathed.

He put the barrel of the pistol in his mouth and pulled the hammer back. There was a roar of approval, followed by an explosion, and then... darkness.

Ulrich woke up screaming his head off. He looked around the dim hotel room drenched in a cold sweat despite the spring heat. Yumi rose from under the foot of the bed clutching a large medical text book she had apparently dropped on the hardwood floor, a look of immense sorrow frozen on her face.

"Ulrich I'm SO sorry, I didn-

"What time is it?" Ulrich asked quickly fumbling for his watch.

"About ten. I was going to wake you in another hour or so."

"I gotta go now!" Ulrich said.

He jumped out of bed and pulled on a shirt and jeans at random from his bag. He grabbed his phone and the journal and headed out the door without another word. He took the elevator down to the lobby and bolted out the front door in hurry. He hailed a taxi and shoved some money into the drivers hand, not bothering to count it.

„Washington Street" Ulrich said quickly.

The driver shrugged and drove off. Twenty minutes later Ulrich arrived in front of the apartment complex his Unlce lived in. It was a tall, three story brick building with barred windows and an old rusted intercom next to the front door. Ulrich pressed the button for apartment 2A and waited for a response. A moment later, a tired voice muttered, "Hello?"

"Uncle Phillip? It's me, Ulrich."

The voice sighed.

"Come back later Ulrich, I was asleep-

"It's about Jack, Phil. I came to talk about Jack!"

There was a silence followed by a buzzing sound as the door swung open. Ulrich ran up to the second floor and knocked on his uncle's door. There was a sound of several locks and security chains clicking as the door was opened by a tired man in his late forties. His hair was black and starting to grey at the tips and he had dark bags under his eyes. Ulrichs uncle phil looked like he hadn't slept in days.

„Yeah, i figured." Phil muttered letting Ulrich into his small apartment.

The room smelled vaguely of cigarettes, coffee and cheap whiskey. Ulrichs uncle walked into the kitchen and came back out with a cup of coffee.

"What do you want to know Ulrich? Everything that's been said was said in the police report." He lit a cigarette and exhaled smoke just above Ulrich's left shoulder.

"Don't give me that Phil." Ulrich said. "You know Jack would never have just killed himself for any reason like that. He was fine before he came here. What did he talk to you about?"

Phil sipped his coffee silently. Ulrich sighed. He was getting nowhere slowly.

"I found this in his room." Ulrich said dropping the journal on the kitchen table.

Phil looked at the journal blankly and set his coffee down on the table.

"Where did you get that?" He asked quietly.

"His bedroom after they found him." Ulrich repeated. "There are large sections of it torn out; the last entry was the day he came home, the one before that was the day he left. Everything in between is gone."

Ulrich slid the journal over to his uncle who opened it to the final entry and began to read. His face paled as he pushed the journal away.

"Phil, something drove him to kill himself. I want to find out what. Jack came to see you during his stay didn't he? What did you guy's talk about?"

Phil sighed and snuffed his cigarette out in his coffee cup.

"It was a week after your grandfather died. Remember that wooden chest he left your brother?"

Ulrich nodded.

"Inside he found some kind of weird piece of jewelry. A necklace made of some strange metal similar to white gold but much lighter. There was a scrap of paper with it with the name Innsmouth written on it. Innsmouth is a city, somewhere on the Coast of Essex County north of Arkham. It's a fishing port, one of the many in the area. It used to be a very large city back in the early 1800's until the price of fish fell and the town's economy with it. Then, to make things worse, in 1846, the town's population was cut down by more than half when an unknown disease swept through it. They aren't overly fond of outsiders and many people in the surrounding areas stay away from Innsmouth. There's a large gold refinery there run by one Jacob Marsh, a sort of recluse, rarely seen even by the inhabitants of the decayed city."

Phil sighed.

"That's all I know at any rate. I think Jack went up there to see if we had any distant family floating around. He came back… changed. I don't know what he found out but it wasn't good. He stayed with me for a few days. He was all jumpy, scared of his own shadow. Talking in gibberish and muttering to himself. I woke up one morning to find he had gone. The next day was the day your mom called me in tears. If you're looking for answers, Innsmouth's the place. But let me warn you now Ulrich, you know how you're brother was, a horror movie freak, he didn't scare easy. Something bad must have happened to rattle his cage. Promise me you'll be careful?"

"I will. Thanks Phil." Ulrich said.

He left his uncles library in a daze, the word Innsmouth burned into his skull and wouldn't leave his mind. He took a taxi to the Library and left Yumi a text saying he'd be back later. He logged onto a computer and began searching for Innsmouth on MapQuest but to no avail. He tried Google. Nothing. Ask Jeeves. Nothing. It was as though Innsmouth didn't exist.

Okay. He thought heading over to the Atlas section. We'll do this the hard way.

The next several hours ticked away slowly, he had clearly underestimated the selection of atlases the library housed. He went through all the newer ones, still unable to find the fabled city on any modern map. The sun was going down outside and the librarian warned him they'd be closing in the next hour or so. Ulrich thanked her and went back to searching. His eye's fell upon a large leather tome in the corner of the top shelf and felt a strange tingle on the back of his neck. He felt like he'd seen the book somewhere before. He reached forward and placed his finger tips on the spine and gasped as the color of his sleeve changed from dark green to black. He felt himself grow a few inches taller and felt his hair recede into his skull. He lost control of his body as the hand that used to be his reached forward and plucked the book off the shelf. He opened it and began flipping through pages until he found a map of Essex County. He bit off the cap of a red pen and drew a circle around an area North West of Rowley Massachusetts. He walked over to the small table he had stacked his books on and circled the same area on his map.

Innsmouth? He wrote above the circle. The hand writing didn't belong to Ulrich. This was sloppy, barely legible cursive. Ulrich wrote in standard.

"Excuse me, sir?" a voice called.

Ulrich looked up. He saw the same librarian he'd seen only moments ago standing at the foot of the stairs that led down to the main level.

"We're closing now." She said.

"Oh, okay." It wasn't Ulrich's voice. It was Jacks. He closed the book he'd been looking at and slid it back onto the shelf. As the book came into contact with the back of the shelf, there was another flash and Ulrich turned around to see the librarian staring at him expectantly.

"Did you hear me? We're closing."

"Oh…right, sorry." He muttered.

He grabbed his jacket and headed down the stairs. When he reached the bottom, the librarian called back to him.

"Sir? Your map?" She called.

She hurried down the stairs and handed him a folded map.

"Did-did I ask for this?" Ulrich asked feeling uneasy.

"Yes, when you first walked in. Remember?"

No.

"Yes, yes of course. Thanks."

He took the map and headed out the doors of the library, pausing to inspect the map he'd apparently requested. His heart skipped several beats and his blood turn to ice as he saw a small area of the map had been circled and words written in his brother's hand had been written in red ink.

Innsmouth?