It was only a few months before I took this case that I had met a most remarkable man. Oh, it wasn't his appearance that made an impression on me, but rather his peculiar habits. His name is Seth Augustine. Of his past, I knew very little save that he spent his earliest childhood being raised by monks in some obscure monastery in the heart of Europe. I also knew that he had spent his formative years under the tutelage of the bishops and cardinals of the Vatican State. He had learned about the Christian faith as well as how to protect it, at least that's what he told me.
I guess it must be said that men are either born or bred but in Augustine's case, he was definitely groomed for something that ordinary men could not possibly fathom. When fathers would teach their sons on how to play baseball or ride a bike, the monks and priests who were his caretakers would make him study arcane tomes in the vast vaults of the Vatican. Augustine read tomes of ancient lore as well as the lost books that the theocrats deemed too blasphemous to be revealed to the public such as the apocryphical lost gospels of Thomas and Judith. Having a working knowledge of Latin by age nine, Augustine had already read unfathomable tomes such as the Black Book of the Skull and De Vermiis Mysteriis. By twelve years of age, the bishops even allowed him to indulge in a few pages of the dreaded Necronomicon, an ancient work written by a mad Arab who claimed to have heard the voices of demons in the desert winds that foretold the imminent destruction of mankind. What permitted these men of faith to allow an innocent child to be exposed to the cosmic horrors that the rest of mankind itself wasn't ready to face is baffling. My only conclusion is that they were preparing this boy in the advent of a holy war with horrid, unnamable Gods.
Nevertheless, on my first impression upon meeting Seth Augustine, I was surprised by his tact and patience. Though only of average height, Augustine's bottle green eyes and intense charisma made quite an impression on me that this was no ordinary man. He first came to my office many months ago due to the fact that he was inquiring about the newspaper advertisement I had put up looking for a boarder to stay my mother's house. You see, despite the fact that I had fond memories of that house, I found it too ancient and too large for my tastes and I had therefore moved to an apartment overlooking the city square. I needed someone to rent it and to keep it in shape. Augustine replied that it was just the type of dwelling he was looking for. That baffled me because by this time many old houses in Arkham were being torn down in favor of bungalows and apartment blocks. What made it even more peculiar was that he mentioned that he would be the sole boarder of the house and he would gladly pay the rent of the other, unused rooms that I had originally intended for use by other boarders.
It seemed to me that Augustine was a dilettante of some kind. He seemed to have access to ready amounts of money even though he did not seem to hold a job anywhere in the city. Although I had some misgivings, I accepted his offer and he moved into my mother's house not long after. As the next few months passed, I had heard of no complaints by the neighbors nor had I heard from Augustine other than his occasional trips to the city center to purchase old antiques or to replenish his food supply.
It was then that I decided to pay him a little visit. I wanted to see what had he done with my mother's house. As I parked my car and entered the foyer I was surprised as to how immaculately clean the mansion was, considering that it was in disrepair when I rented it out to him. A number of ancient stained glass windows had been restored to their former glory and was casting myriad shafts of light across the cavernous hallway of the main entrance. As I met him at the door and he led me through the manor, it seemed that he had given the ancient dwelling a whole new breadth of life. Even the library, where my father's prized possession of antique books had been left to rot by neglect years before, was now in the process of being carefully restored to its former glory. It even seemed that Augustine had added to the collection by donating his own prized gathering of strange, antique tomes.
"You are a very strange person Augustine." I told him.
"Why so?" he replied incredulously.
"Look at you, you seem no more older than me, yet you indulge in restoring these old books when you could just set up a computer and be able to access what you need on the Internet."
"I'm afraid I don't know how to access the Internet. Much less operate a computer I'm afraid." Augustine shrugged.
I was shocked. "Strange, you are the first man I met who isn't old yet has no working knowledge of computers."
"That is not all my friend. I cannot even drive a car."
"Can't drive a car? Now you must be joking. Everyone in America knows how to drive a car."
"I'm afraid not. If I need to get around, I either take a bus, train or cab; or leave myself at the mercy of charitable people." Augustine smiled.
Augustine went on to explain that he had no occupation either. It seems that he was being financed by a wealthy organization headquartered in Europe somewhere. I began to wonder if he was a criminal of some kind, forced into exile out here. But a quick check on the FBI's Internet website produced negative results so I had decided to leave it for now. But as the months passed, we both gradually began a friendship after which I learned more about this strange man and his purpose of staying in Arkham.
It seemed that Augustine had an unnatural interest in the occult and the supernatural. He was also convinced that the town of Arkham was one of the centers of supernatural activity in the world and he had been tasked by the Church to observe it. I could barely believe this story as I listened to it but it did seem to make sense due to the fact that he regularly received packages by post from the Vatican State and much of his money came from a bank with ties to that institution.
But as I finally had a chance to speak with him about who and what he was, it seemed that there was even more to him that I did not quite comprehend. It was during a lazy afternoon, a few weeks before I undertook the Corbitt case, did I finally understand what he really was about. On that day, I had finished the paperwork and decided to pay him a visit after he had invited me for coffee numerous times, only to be spurned for a number of miscellaneous reasons until my curiosity finally overcame my reluctance.
"So you would consider yourself a religious man?" I asked after the coffee was served in the cavernous office of my mother's mansion. The shafts of light coming from the arched gothic windows illuminated the wooden paneling of the room.
"To a certain degree, yes I am." Augustine answered.
"Would you consider yourself a true believer, a true Christian then?"
"A true believer, yes. A true Christian on the other hand, no."
I was surprised. "You're not a Christian? But what of your sponsors? Is it not the Catholic Church in Rome?"
"Oh, they are one of my sponsors. But I must tell you that the Church wasn't the only instrument in my upbringing."
"Oh really? What else then?"
"If I were to say that although I spent my formative years under the tutelage of the Bishops in the Vatican but then I must also add that I had spent a number of years with an obscure council of Rabbis near the Dead Sea."
"Rabbis? Amazing."
"Yes, under them, I had learned about the Torah and the nature of the Kabbalah. Afterwards I journeyed to the Middle East where I stayed in an Islamic school where I also learned the Koran and made my Haj, my pilgrimage to Mecca."
"So you studied Judaism and Islam as well? Remarkable."
"And just a few years ago, I shaved my head and became a monk in the Wat Krang temple in Thailand. So I had studied Buddhism as well."
"My, my. It seems you have had extensive experiences in the world's religions."
Augustine's bottle-green eyes stared at me. "Mr. Marlowe, do you believe that there is a higher power?"
"I can't really say I have given it much thought. The few things that keeps my mind occupied are paying the bills, seeing my girlfriend and having a good time."
"So you live totally in the material world? You have never stopped and wonder why as to why you are here? Or we are you going?"
"Can't say I have Augustine. I may have stopped and thought about it for awhile, but I just probably swept it out once a more pressing thought came into my little head." I smiled.
Augustine sighed and leaned back into the massive leather chair. "I understand. Most people in the world don't stray as far as people like myself in terms of spirituality."
"So Augustine, based on your extensive knowledge of spirituality and religion, where do you think mankind is headed to?"
It was then I noticed a spark in his eyes, as if out of many people that he had encountered, I had asked the question that he had trained his whole life to answer. "Let me tell you Marlowe, there are things out there that had best not be explained. We live on an island surrounded by an ocean of myth and supposition. We create rules we call science in order to give our lives and our sanity a sense of order, but you must ask yourself this: is what you perceive truly reality?"
"Oh come now Augustine, I am a firm believer of science. If you can't touch it, if you can't see it, if you can't sense it; then it's not worth believing in."
"Ghosts, witches, demons. These mythical creatures are just that to you? Myths?"
"Yeah, when you see one horror movie that splatter's somebody's brains all over the scene, you've seen them all."
"I don't watch movies, nor do I bother with television."
"Don't watch TV? God, you are truly amazing."
"Marlowe, what if I was to tell you that there is another world that exists, parallel to yours, a world in which there are cosmic forces at work, looking to one day supplant humanity and reveal what a dark and satanic place the world would become."
"I'd say that you were out of your mind."
"Our time is near Marlowe. There are worse things out there than just witches, ghosts and demons."
"Oh, what could be worse?"
"The Old Ones, when they return, our world will be plunged into madness, chaos and death."
"The Old Ones? What are they, some sort of ancient gods?"
"They are worshipped as gods by some cults and primitive societies but their evil is malignant. They are ancient creatures of immense power over time and space. They are loathsome to behold and I fear that if we do not put a stop to their existence, it will be the death of us all."
"Excuse me Augustine, but I find this conversation to be bordering on insanity."
But Augustine would not be swayed. "Arkham is one of the lay points of this other world Marlowe, it is where things and events would begin before the end of our time. It is fortunate that most of mankind uses science as a way of explaining things, for if man was to use other methods of answering his questions; the world would be a blasphemous place indeed. If I may, I would like to offer you my services just in case you do encounter something that your common sense or science cannot explain. After all, it is my task in life."
Well, it seemed that his words became prophetic. I needed his help now.