"I was not aware that humans still preformed communication through the use of primitive animals."
"Normally we don't."
"C-Can I eat it?"
Henri looked back at Mimi peaking out of box, trying her best to look at the dead bird while avoiding looking anywhere near Celeste. All three of them were gathered around the body of a pigeon that had just slammed face first into the glass door connecting Henri's apartment with its balcony. There was a fairly hefty looking scroll attached to its legs, Henri almost couldn't believe the poor bird would have been able to actually fly with it had it not just left a slight crack in the glass. Pulling off the scroll, Henri found it was sealed with a wax emblem of the Department of Liminal Affairs and opened it up to read aloud.
To [CLASSIFIED].
This is an ancient document which officially does not exist in a secret vault 5 miles under the US Library of Congress and that I also totally have all of the required clearances to use. It is being delivered by one of the US government's most secret, reliable, secure, and foolproof methods of classified communications.
Henri looked at the dead bird on his balcony again and had his doubts. Said doubts were further increased after Mimi dragged herself close enough to pick it up and throw it into one of her mouths, loudly devouring it with wet, messy crunches.
This scroll is the most detailed account of any sort of eldritch summoning ritual we have, obtained back in 1927 after a classified raid on a Massachusetts fishing village. With it, you might be able to form a pact with Subject E, giving it an anchor in our reality and thus ideally mitigating or limiting the aura it gives off.
Good luck, Agent [CLASSIFIED]
Even without a name, Henri could tell it was from Agent Broth. Picking up the scroll, he immediately could feel the utter strangeness of it. It felt extremely dense in terms of mass yet when he threw it in the air, it moved as if its weight closed to nothing. The parchment felt like thin stone when Henri ran his thumb over it, yet it looked exactly like ancient, cracked parchment.
Cracking open the wax seal, Henri immediately recoiled at the sight of the message inside. The original words if he could even call them that were alien runes that changed and melted into new symbols every time Henri looked at them. Under them was a "translation" of those symbols into what must have been Sumerian or Sanskrit. Next to that was a combination of Greek and Latin that was just as incomprehensible. And finally, in there was a rough English translation that was stuffed into whatever margin or empty space was left.
Henri twisted and turned the scroll every which way to try and read the cramped writing as Celeste looked on over his shoulder from a distance. It was the steps to some kind of ritual as Broth said and while Henri knew that occult rituals were probably strange, he was at a complete loss now that he was trying to decipher one himself.
"The circle is to be drawn of the 'blood of a pure maiden, clean and unsullied'. How am I supposed to get that without murdering someone?" Henri looked at Celeste who appeared to be just as confused as he was, "Not to mention the rest of this stuff. "A warrior's heart, consumed by anger and rage"? A "vial of defiled holy water, tainted by truth"? I don't even want to know how I'm going to find the "fecal matter of a three horned goat, fed the flesh of an unworthy holy man" or the "flayed hide of an untamed beast, mythical and rare". Also, when it says to get "13 eyes of a fish drawn from the deepest abyss", does it matter the type of fish?"
Celeste looked up at the ceiling, the floor and at Henri in deep contemplation, "Truthfully, I am unsure about any of the things mentioned. I have never bore witness nor was privy to the dictates given to beings outside the Waking Dream. I suppose that it is possible the Old Ones spoke whatever they wished, and their mortal followers would be inclined to believe them."
"So, whoever is reading this scroll could either summon a being of phenomenal power from beyond time and space itself. Or be on the but end of a cosmic practical joke. That's reassuring." Henri stared at the scroll again as if he'd suddenly be able to comprehend more of it after complaining about it, "There's still the problem that even if I could somehow get these things, this would almost certainly get me put on a list, probably several."
Henri rubbed the bridge between his eyes, trying to just look at the damn scroll was giving him a headache now and he wasn't really paying that much attention to it to begin with, "Okay Celeste, I have an idea. From what I know of Lovecraftian lore, beings like the Old Ones operate on a separate plane of existence from mortals and rarely pay attention to what we do right?"
"Yes." Celeste replied quizzically, "In the Waking Dream, the presences of such miniscule and insignificant beings is rarely acknowledged."
Thanks for the compliment, Henri thought to himself, "Okay, what if we… used some substitutes? If mortals are as insignificant as you say to the Old Ones, would they even really be able to tell the exact details?"
"An interesting theory. However, there is a variable you have not considered at all Henri.", Celeste closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"What is that?" Henri asked.
"I am the one you are trying to deceive with the substitute ritual items." Celeste looked less than amused.
There was an awkward silence as Henri's mind tried to come up with a solution or a comeback but was completely blank. Unnaturally so like there was nothing in his head at all—wait. He looked up at Celeste whose eyes were closed yet focused. Henri realized he could feel Celeste poking around in his head, brushing his own thoughts aside as she tried to read his mind. With a squint of his eyes, Henri conjured up the mental image of a 55-gallon oil drum of fish sauce and just as he hoped, Celeste visible recoiled and the tingling sensation in his head disappeared.
"I mean… wouldn't these things work on consent?" Henri grinned, quite chuffed with his ability to forcefully exorcise and eldritch being out of his head, "I imagine in the Waking Dream you would probably only meet a mortal if you wanted to, I doubt that any ritual would have the power to forcefully tear you out."
"This is true." Celeste centered herself with a deep breath through several of her mouths, "The nature of the ritual could also simply be a means of gaining the interest and attention of the Old Ones. Perhaps that aspect of the ritual no longer requires as much effort given that I am already here and quite interested in you."
Henri turned away back into the scroll to hide his blush. Any guy would take a compliment like that to heart, even from a shoggoth girl that drove people insane with her mere presence. Okay maybe it was just Henri, but it was still touching in a way.
"Okay, lets see what we can find to try and mimic the ritual components. I really don't want to have to go shopping again so let's try to keep it to things in the apartment." Henri's eyes were alight with a creative spark that darted around to every shelf, cabinet and draw in sight.
The solutions and replacements Henri came up with therefore were just as… "creative". Henri felt a small twang of pity for whoever tried to do this ritual by the letter before him, going through all the trouble of finding the absurd components only for him to creatively interpret the scroll. It almost felt like blasphemy if it wasn't for the fact it was a blasphemous ritual to begin with.
The "Blood of a Virgin, pure and unsullied" was replaced with a mix equal parts unopened marinara sauce and Purell hand sanitizer. The marinara was the closest thing to blood Henri had without drawing his own and it was unopened so technically it was virginal (in his own mind at least, Celeste questioned his logic). The hand sanitizer was to cover the purity part, it was practically in the name.
"Head of a Blinded Sage, Wise beyond Comprehension" was turned into a head of lettuce with a bit of cloth wrapped around the upper part where the "eyes" would be and then wrapped in a mix of papers ripped out of a dictionary, an old math textbook and a pocket edition of the King James' Bible given to him years ago by a college campus preacher. Collectively they were probably the smartest sounding thing Henri had in his apartment; the ripped Bible pages also probably gave him some additional heresy points.
For the "Heart of a Warrior, consumed by Anger and Rage", Henri sacrificed the chicken breast he was going to cook for dinner. It looked vaguely like a heart if you squinted hard enough (or just closed your eyes and pretended like Celeste). After studding the surface of it with colorful push pins and thumbtacks, it also looked pretty angry. Henri stabbed a kitchen knife into it, just to really sell the look.
It was Celeste who actually offered an idea for "Defiled Holy Water, Tainted by Truth". Henri was going to just soak what was left of the King James' pocket bible in a bowl of water, but Celeste pointed out that if holy water was supposed to purify things, then maybe using the same dish soap Henri used to "purify" her of the fish sauce would be suitable. "It even says it removes 99.9% of germs with lemony freshness!" Celeste excitedly pointed out; Henri finally got a taste of what this must have felt like to Celeste as he dropped his face into his hand.
He flat out refused to even make a serious effort when it came to the "Feces of a Three-Horned Goat, fed the flesh of a Holy Man". Not caring at all about how inaccurate it was, Henri dumped various brown spices, leftover brown-ish paint and a handful of potted plant soil into a bowl with ground beef and mixed it up. Henri was unsure how to feel when it came out resembling fecal matter to a degree.
A repressed teenage memory was dug up for the "Flesh of an Untamed Beast", an old leather bomber jacket that was a size and a half too small for Henri now. Just looking at it brought up cringe-worthy memories of a high school Henri trying too hard to look cool to realize how stupid he actually looked in the jacket. He was almost too glad to sacrifice the jacket as a poor man's substitute of monster hide, despite Celeste's repeated questions as to why he would use such a "treasured memorial of youth".
By the time Henri got to the "13 Eyes of a Fish pulled from the Abyss", he was pretty thoroughly done with trying to think of creative alternatives, deciding that 13 old glass marbles should work perfectly fine. They were sitting in a box deep in his closet so technically they were from the abyss too.
"I know I have previously stated that I am unfamiliar with the rituals the Old Ones gave to mortals." Celeste looked at the pile of random junk pretending to be sinister and occult, "But I can infer that this is very, very distant from the original edict of the Old Ones."
Henri didn't respond, instead gazing upon what could only be described as a demented kindergarten art project from hell. The scroll had a helpful diagram of how the ritual circle should be drawn and where each of the items should be placed for maximum "hyper-geometric harmonics", what ever that meant. Part of Henri wondered if he should have actually used at least a drop of his own blood in the ritual, it seemed like something he should have put in.
"Well, I think we should just try it with this… circle first. See what happens." Opening up the scroll, Henri ran headfirst into a linguistic wall and promptly failed completely at the verbal component of the ritual. There was a mysterious gust of wind and one of his lights went out suddenly though so he must have done something right.
He struggled at mouthing the dead languages but found it easier and easier as time went on. His mouth was contorting into strange shapes as his eyes were glued firmly only on the word or symbol he was reading, completely cutting out the rest of the world. Henri felt his thought separate, realizing that he wasn't commanding his body to do anything but that his body was moving on its own, ignoring any of his orders to stop.
His conscious looked back down at the scroll, seeing it was no scroll at all but the still-living flesh of a creature whose tendrils wrapped around his hands, burrowing into his flesh as Henri's mouth moved on to the eldritch runes. His consciousness couldn't even hear the words his body was saying but some how he recognized one word out of the incoherent verbal static. He had no idea how he knew the meaning of this word given that he couldn't even see it on the living scroll's shifting symbols, but he knew it with absolute certainty: he was saying Celeste's true name.
The lights blew out and Mimi yelped loudly enough that it pulled Henri out of his trance. He dropped the now mundane ancient scroll, feeling the invisible holes in the back of his hand it left behind. The ritual circle was completely gone without a trace and in its place was Celeste, laying down flat on the floor where it was.
"Holy shit—Celeste! Celeste, are you okay?" Henri rushed to her side, trying to shake her awake as his hands pushed into her gelatinous body.
He felt a tugging on his hands from within and something in his deepest lizard brain made him pull his hands away. Celeste's orb-eyes were the first to open, followed by the normal eyes all over her body that all stared at Henri and finally her "human" eyes.
Her body melted and writhed in unnatural ways, reshaping itself to take on a fuller and more seductive form that Henri swore he had seen in porn before. Whatever clothes that Celeste was wearing melted off, revealing an almost-human body underneath that seemed to quiver in anticipation.
Lineage. Mortal. Seed. Immortal. Breed. Consummate. Essence. Child. Honor. Breeding. Henri could feel Celeste repeating single words, beamed straight into his head not as a warning, but as a demand, no, a command. No, not even that, it was an obsession. Henri might not have been able to feel fear in this situation, but he could sense the danger he was in.
He grabbed a letter opening knife on the coffee table and tried to dive over the couch for safety, only to feel a tar-like tentacle instantly wrap around his leg and bring him back to the ground, hard. Dazed and blurry-eyed, Henri felt like he was slowly being consumed by the oncoming tide, like he was sitting on a beach whose waves only ever came further and further up, dissolving his clothing as it went.
Out of desperation to try and snap Celeste back, Henri slashed at her throat with the letter opener causing a rush of black ooze filled with eyeballs to cover his chest and expand over it as well. Mortal. Pathetic. Pity. Worthy. Granting. Breeding.
Well shit. Henri though, he could tell that trying to hurt her wasn't going to go anywhere and he frantically tried to push away, plunging his hands into what were Celeste's on-coming breast only to pull them out as symbiote-like nets followed him. Mimi was too busy being even more of a terrified tiny box than usual to be of any help as Henri struggled against a faceless Celeste with only her burning eyes visible. He could feel the overwhelming cold, empty emotions flooding his mind as they were transmitted from Celeste, pushing them back only by force of will. Yet in this void-like state, Henri could feel something else, a small, distant warmth that called to him in loving whispers barely peaking over the crashing waves of obsession.
Looking at his ooze-covered hands, one still clutching the letter opener, Henri decided to let go and do the first thing that came to his mind as Celeste had almost swallowed him up to his nipples. Gripping the pointed knife as hard as he could, he drove the tip through his other hand until blood streamed out, the pain searing through Henri as intensely as Celeste's thoughts.
"An offer of mine, for an offer of thine!" Words ran out of Henri's mouth before he could even process them, realizing that it was a final line of the scroll he somehow remembered, "My essence, my body, my soul. I damn these all for truth beyond truth and power beyond power. By my blood, THIS. PACT. SHALL. BE. SEALED."
Henri thrusted his bloody hand against the side of Celeste's formless face and almost immediately she stopped, a ribbon of red flowing inside of her cheek. The buzzing thoughts, the overwhelming commands and the mental assault on Henri's mind withdrew as quickly as Celeste did, the shoggoth girl forming into a puddle that was now hiding under the couch. Now the only thing in the two human eyes that looked back at Henri as he held his wounded hand was shame and embarrassment.
"I-I am… so, so s-sorry…" Celeste whimpered.
"I'm not going to pretend that almost getting raped by an interdimensional being is 'nothing to beat yourself up over', but what the hell just happened? Henri extended his still bleeding hand towards Celeste as if beckoning the puddle of slime out with his blood.
Celeste jumped at it immediately and Henri winced as he could feel her reconstructing the wound. Yet it simultaneously felt like she was drawing out his blood. Was she drinking from his veins? There was a certain motion to her movements that almost looked like she was deriving pleasure from it.
"Celeste!" Henri firmly shook his hand to get her attention.
"Ah! S-Sorry!" The slime exploded against the bottom of the couch. It was a long, silent minute before Celeste started moving again.
Henri, Celeste telepathically whispered into the man's head, When I was still in the Waking Dream, my role was that of a wet nurse, a shepherd of infants and… the bearer of young. My entire existence was entirely dedicated to my duty to the Old Ones… and I was very dutiful.
"Huh… I guess that explains where the obsession with breeding comes from." Henri picked up on Celeste's insinuation.
I was banished from the Dream because I had developed… "deviant desires". I was once granted a taste of a mortal's essence and it awoke an intense thirst for more. The few drops I was granted in my duties as a wet nurse was not enough to sate me and I let it consume me.
Henri could feel the aura of shame radiating from under the couch as he rubbed the wound that had just healed and ran a hand along the place where Mimi tried to bite them off.
There is a perfect, harmonious order within the Waking Dream, and I had become defective. I was brought before the judgement of the elders and even then, I could not give up my wants. So, they exiled me without ritual and without communion, ensuring wherever I awoke, I would always be out of reach of my desires.
"That sounds exceptionally ironic and cruel." Henri commented, put his hand under the couch to try and beckon the puddle of Celeste out.
It is. They knew I developed such an addiction that surely, I would waste away in this reality, cut off from the harmony of the Dream. I thought I could contain, restrain myself. But when Agent Broth and his lackies threw a man into my containment, I devoured him whole as he screamed and begged for help, sating my starvation.
Everything began to click in Henri's mind, why she was so relieved when he first met her. He was the first person who didn't feel the effects of her eternal punishment, perhaps the only person who could. Yet the idea that she wanted to devour him gnawed at the back of his mind so intensely, Celeste could sense it as well.
I promise you I don't mean to consume you! Celeste quickly tried to reassure Henri. I thought I could halt my cravings, sate myself with the radiation of your planet's star. But the ritual… I'm so sorry… it released all of my inhibition and—
Henri had heard enough. He got up and kicked the couch aside with his foot and grabbed the still wet letter opener, "Celeste. Is your hunger endless or does it have a maximum limit?"
I… I am unsure. Celeste admitted as she was exposed. What happened next shocked even her fathomless mind.
Henri stabbed his hand again with the letter opener, growling in pain, twisting, and turning the knife before finally pulling it out in a burst of red that splatted on top of Celeste. Blood flowed out like a river as he thrusted it forward to Celeste, "Then have my blood in communion until you have your fill. I will tell you if I cannot give you anymore."
What if I drain you completely? Celeste worried as the blood dripped down on to her.
"I trust that you won't." Henri stated with absolute resolve.
He watched as Celeste's tentacles reached out and lead his blood down into her inky body. She slowly grew out of her puddle, her tentacles becoming hands pressed tightly together to pool it in their palms so that the mouth that formed soon after could drink deeply from it. She had formed her human eyes yet kept them closed, as if trying to hide tears with only a question on her blood-stained lips, "Why Henri?"
Henri simply smiled back. How could he say that her simply saying his name was gratifying enough? How much more vivid his life became since she came into it? How refreshing it was to be seen as a person instead of a machine, no matter how cosmically insignificant. He couldn't. So, he lied.
"Well, since I'm technically your master having summoned you through a ritual and all that, I got to look out for you, right?" Henri smiled and chuckled as Celeste seemed to accept that answer.
"Hey… If you're giving out free blood, could I have a drink?" Mimi poked her head out of her lid and scooted towards the two.
"Wait, you aren't scared of coming near Celeste?" Henri questioned.
"I mean… I still am but she looks more, docile?" Mimi moved closer, clearly entranced by warm, exposed, pulsating blood.
Henri and Celeste looked at each other and had the same exact thought. The ritual might have actually worked, maybe her aura no longer affected people! Henri clenched both his fists in celebration, sending blood right up into Celeste's face.
"This is amazing! You might actually be able to go outside!" Henri excitedly cheered.
"Then you'll have to show me around sometime." Celeste smiled back.
"Well, we should go test it first—" Henri turned and tried to move, only to collapse on to the floor. He had lost a lot of blood it seemed, "I might need you to heal my hand. And get me some water. Also, Mimi please stop licking my wound like you're a puppy."
Mimi looked up, her long tongue still out and dripping. Her tongue felt warm and like electric static as it ran across and into the hole in Henri's hand, "Sawwy. Iph juph bween ah lwong thame fince iho tphasted hoomanth."
"Dammit Mimi, I would bonk you, but I can't move. Celeste, could you be a dear and get her off of me. And also, a bottle of water? I think we might need to reschedule going outside at this rate."
Celeste quietly giggled at the sight of Henri trying to assert dominance as master of the household over Mimi while flailing on the floor like a worm. Part of her finally felt at ease.
"Sure thing… just let me get one more sip~" Celeste cooed to Mimi's annoyance and Henri's worry.
A/N: Soooo… this turned out to be a much longer chapter than I originally thought. I've been busy so didn't really have a chance to work on it much until now. Hopefully this chapter isn't too amateur and the next chapter will be less intensive on my end _"
Thank you to everyone who commented, favorited, and followed this story! Support is the greatest motivator for writers.
PS: Don't worry about Henri at the end. He'll be fine by the next chapter.