Kid Kthulhu: The Awakening, Chapter 10: Business as Usual

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"Ewww." Cal was sitting at the dining room table, looking over an enormous old book Brother Elder had loaned him. The old book was huge, and positively reeked of age.

"What's 'ewww'?" asked Kris, just then coming back from putting the dishes in the dishwasher. "Say, before I start the dishwasher, you want some dessert?"

"No thanks. And what's 'ewww' is this entry about the Pharoah Nephren-Ka. Apparently, he wasn't the kind of guy you'd wanna meet in a dark alley. Or even a well-lit one."

"So how bad could he be?" Kris had dished out a small bowl of ice cream for herself.

"So bad that when he died, or was assassinated, more than likely, they erased every mention of him from all the stele, the pyramids, archives, everything. Made it like he never existed. And these were his friends, mind you."

Kris paused, tasting the chocolate ice cream. Chocolate was, after all, a food group (or at least, it ought to be, she thought); good thing it came in ice cream. "Yeah, that's…a little extreme. So what'd he do? On second thought, don't tell me while I'm eating."

"Good idea. I kinda wish I'd read this on an empty stomach."

There was a pause. Then Kris spoke up again. "So. What are we gonna do about Miss Hot and Naked?"

Now he looked up. "Who, Aidoann? I don't know what we can do. Brother Elder's trying to figure out who she works for, but he says he's positive there's no organization like the People out there, centered around Hastur. And she may not even have anything to do with Hastur…but I don't really believe that. Her looking for the Shining Trapezohedron, same as us, is just too coincidental. But I don't know what, really, to do about her."

"Do you suppose she's after the Trapezohedron for the same reason we are?"

"Well, probably. The spycam thing, that'd be useful." He sighed and closed the book. It really wasn't doing his appetite any good to read it, anyway. He hadn't been aware of all the perversions supposedly ordinary human beings could come up with, anyway. Of course, some of them had been anything but ordinary, and many hadn't been human. "But Brother Elder seems to think the biggest advantage is the ability to contact this King in Yellow. I don't know why they don't just say, 'the yellow king,' but nobody does. Anyway, from what I gather, he's a Power to be reckoned with, all by himself. Even the Outer Gods are said to respect him, even if he isn't exactly in their weight class."

"Coming from beings that can blow up a whole star system, I guess that's saying something. So, he could, like…send help? Or something?"

"Well, he could, but whether or not he would, that's debatable. From what I've been told, it's worse than the United Nations out there. And there's a lot of other Powers that aren't even mildly sympathetic to our cause here on Earth. We're a backwater planet.

"But about contacting him... If the Elder Things are upsetting the balance here, then, in theory, at least, we could call for support, without disturbing the balance." He paused. "Though I have to tell you, Kris…I have my misgivings about just handing that kind of power over to somebody like Brother Elder."

More bites of ice cream and a nod. "I was jus' thinkin' the same thing. But…Cal, it seems like you've already chosen sides here. No point in looking back."

A shake of the head. "There was never a side to choose, at least, I don't know of one, Kris. I don't know who Aidoann is working for, but, when all this hit the fan, the only game in town was either the People, or the Silent Eternal Ones." Another shrug. "I couldn't very well side with them."

For a long, long moment, Kris was silent, looking down at her half finished bowl of ice cream. "No. I guess not," she said.

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"No, mum, I tell you, I'm fine." This was about the tenth time Aidoann had had to reassure her mother that her very first mission for the Family hadn't resulted in her daughter being ravished by some deep-sea monster. "Maybe I woke up too soon, but…no, actually I doon't really believe that. And this was nae' a typical Deep One, either…he—I guess it was a 'he,' I rather got that impression—didna' really look like one. Both more and less human." She shrugged, even though her mother couldn't see the gesture over the phone. "Maybe he was so far removed from humanity that, that, you know…but really, I'm alright. But I didna' get the Omnis Oculis either. I'm sorry. What? No, of course not. The building burned to the ground; there was nothing to search through. And I couldna' very well just hang arroond there, anyway, not wi' the police and firemen... No. Is there any word of any other Family who might hae' been responsible for this? Any other agency, I mean? Ah, rot. Has the Oracle…? No? So we've no leads at all to go on?" She had been walking around in her apartment, doing small things while holding the phone between her shoulder and her ear. Now she sat down on the couch, blowing an unruly strand of her hair out of her face. "Well, perhaps there's no reason for me to remain here any longer. I do miss all of you, and home, so much. Though I have made a couple of friends here, a boy and a girl. No, they seem perfectly nice. Mother!" She sat bolt upright. "What a thing to say! Of course they have nae' tried to get me into a threesome! Why, I would nae' even do a twosome, let alone…oh. Yes. Very funny. Ha ha. Remind me to laugh someday." Aidoann grimaced, alone there in her apartment. Sometimes, her mother's sense of humor could be a little heavy-handed. And sometimes she wasn't sure if her mother was one hundred percent joking or not. There had been a couple of occasions, back in Dumbarton, where her mum had actually seemed to practically propel her daughter in the general direction of some young man. But, no, surely that was just her imagination. Surely. "No, they just seem like two perfectly ordinary, nice people. Oh, I doon't know about them being you know, a couple or anything, I mean, they probably are, you know how it is here, that sort of thing doesn't rreally seem to matter, and they do seem to do everything together. And of course, she's always over at his house, a rather nice house, at that, so I imagine they're…what? Oh. Uh, well, I, erm, happened to drive by his address… Well, I had to make sure where he lived. She's always there. So, yes, they're probably…now, Mum, doon't get started on tha' again. I'm not here for any of that, anyway. And besides. He's, what's the expression? Spoken for? Something like that. It'd be impolite. Anyway, he's not really my type anyhow. What?" Aidoann blushed. "Well, okay, so he's cute. Happy? Now might we please change the subject?"

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Cal got ready for bed that night. It had been a long day. He was showering in the bathroom to his bedroom, with Kris downstairs, cleaning up from dinner. She'd decided to stay over, and go over the old copy of the Necronomicon that Brother Elder had lent him herself. It was an imperfect copy, an English translation from a Dr. John Dee, from way back in the days of Queen Elizabeth the First. It wasn't complete, but perhaps it could furnish some information, and, as of right now, it was all either of them had. Brother Elder had mentioned that he had copies, in Latin, that were complete, but Cal didn't know that much Latin. Neither did Kris.

Thinking of her, he smiled, there, relaxing in the warm water stream. He was glad she was staying over. Not only did he enjoy her company, but…ever since Brother Elder had told him about the Silent Eternal Ones' brain-switching techniques, he…worried about her. The notion of his best friend being cored like an apple, turned into a "sleeper" agent for a colony of monsters…was incredibly upsetting.

Something shuddered. His eyes snapped open, looking around in alarm. Was this an earthquake? But no, the lights hadn't blinked, he hadn't actually felt any vibration that normally accompanied the shifting earth…just what had he felt, anyway?

Something…something didn't seem exactly right, somehow. For the barest of seconds, he looked at the water cascading over his hands…why should that seem so strange to him?

Hurriedly, he donned his sleep pants and robe and raced downstairs. Kris was sitting at the dining room table, already in her pajamas, reading steadily from the old Dee copy. "Kris! Did you feel anything?"

She looked up, surprised. "No. Should I have?" Then she noticed how upset he was. "Cal? What's wrong?"

"I, I don't know. I was upstairs, showering, and, and it felt like…a shudder, like, you know, a small earthquake. But, but…it wasn't. I mean…" He ran his hand through his hair, distractedly.

She got up and came over to him. "Cal, c'mon. It was probably just a truck going by out front or something. I didn't feel anything, but I was preoccupied, so that means nothing." She looked at him carefully. He seemed way too freaked out for any normal event. "Cal?"

"I'm sorry, Kris. I know what I must look like, running down here like this, but…it just seemed like…I don't know how to describe it. Something just happened, an' I don't know what."

She led him over to the couch. Sat him down and sat down beside him. He was really upset. Whatever could be wrong? "What do you think it was?"

"I've no idea."

"Think we need to call Brother Elder in on this?"

"On what? It's probably just my imagination, Kris." He barked a nervous laugh. "Only I sure must have one helluva vivid imagination."

She was silent for a minute. Then, "Well, as you say, it was probably just your imagination." She yawned. "You know, I am kinda tired. I was gonna try to read some more in that book, but…I'm just not feelin' it right now. Whaddaya say we turn in?"

She followed him upstairs, carrying the Dee copy under one arm. Her small stature made the book look all the more enormous by comparison. As he got ready for bed, she sat in the easy chair in his room, legs drawn up underneath her, and skimmed over some things. "Wow. It's like you said: some'a these old dudes were definitely Not Nice People. At all."

"Yeah," he said, from the bathroom where he was brushing his teeth, "and keep in mind, this is an incomplete copy, at that. Who knows what's in the complete versions?" He came out of the bathroom, in his sleep pants, throwing his robe over the foot of the bed. "Kris? How do you suppose people—if they were people, which I doubt—ever got so messed up in the first place?"

She was shaking her head. "No idea, Cal. At least, with the monsters, they have the excuse of being monsters. But humans who act like this? Cal, I honestly think that sometimes we out-monster the monsters."

"Really." Still she sat there, in the recliner, legs curled up under her, the enormous book open in her arms. He went over and sat on the edge of the bed, preparing to swing his feet under the covers. "Kris?"

"Hm?"

"Aren't you going to bed? I thought you were all tired out."

"Oh. Oh, yes. Yeah, I guess I…will." She hesitated (why was she doing that? Again, he felt like he was getting some kind of mixed signal or something), then put the Dee copy on the nightstand. "I'll, I'll get it tomorrow." She got up and made her way to the door. Rather slowly, it seemed it seemed to him. Was she that tired?

"Kris?"

"Hm?" Yawn.

"Uh, you do know you don't have to go all the way down to the guest room, right? I mean, if you're that tired…" He gestured towards the expanse of bed he wasn't currently occupying. "Wouldn't be the first time."

She smiled, and blushed just a little. That was strange; in all the years he'd known her, he'd never seen Kris actually blush. She looked kinda cute when she did that. "Thanks, Cal, but I'll be okay." And she drifted out the door. He shrugged and lay back in bed.

He had to admit, he was worried about her. All that talk Brother Elder had told him, about the Elder Things' brain-switching techniques, had become the stuff of his nightmares. The notion that Kris could be taken away from him….

But this house was protected, and protected in ways far superior to any mortal security system. The magical wards that Brother Oberon's people had woven into and around it guaranteed that no Silent Eternal One, no minion of Yog-Sothoth, or other harmful entity, could get inside without getting fried first. This house was better protected than the Pentagon.

So he lay back, and composed himself for sleep. Part of him actually kind of wished Kris had taken him up on his offer; sleeping with her was…cozy. Yeah, that was the word. It was cozy to sleep with her. He did his best to not think of her in that other way, but that was becoming…increasingly hard to do…the cute way she'd blushed earlier, her slim form beneath the pajamas, her always tousled hair…and he remembered how she'd looked wearing one of his tee shirts. It had been short enough to show a very attractive length of leg.

He grimaced. Maybe he should do with a little less "cozy." For the sake of their relationship.

And so he allowed sleep to come over him.

The thoughts that go through one's mind when one is on the verge of sleep are often chaotic, making little sense, and make even less sense the closer one gets to full sleep. So one seldom remembers them. But the last thought he had, that he remembered, and that made any sense, was: at least, as long as she's here, with me, in this house, she's safe. That thought gave him enormous comfort.

And it was just as well that, at least in his current stage of evolution, Calvin Michaels had no telepathic powers. For if he had, Kris's verge-of-sleep thoughts might have given him pause, mystified him mightily. And that might've forestalled a lot of pain, much later on.

For downstairs, in the guest room, sleeping all by herself in the big queen bed, Kris's last coherent thoughts before sleep were: No. No. No. You can't have him. You can't. You can't. He's mine. He's mine. He's mine, and I won't let you have him. I won't. I won't. I won't.

To be continued….