So far, so good. I think the story's coming along nicely. When it comes to writing stories about Mysterion, I like to put H. P Lovecraft themes in it. Which is naturally inspired by the Coon Trilogy episodes. Also based on my own headcanons about Kenny's immortality. I know it's already past Christmas but I wanted to have the story take place around the holidays. Halloween and Christmas are my favorite holidays. Enough chitchat, here's the latest update. Enjoy!
My eyes shot open and I sprang up in my own bed. It took a long time to calm my beating heart and wait for my breathing to return to normal. I was safely back in my own bedroom. Once again, I've come back to life. I wasn't at that church anymore. The church of Starry Wisdom… Well at least I've managed to get some answers last night. But unfortunately the town was still in danger. What was I supposed to do? I couldn't worry about that now. Instead I got up from bed and looked around my messy room to find some clothes to throw on. I threw a plain-white shirt on and was putting on my regular orange-jeans and orange parka that I've wore since forever. It was Saturday so no school to worry about.
When I entered the kitchen, I found mom, dad and Kevin already sitting at the kitchen table. Thanks to mom's food-stamps, we were able to have more food in this house. Mom was already preparing the teakettle to make coffee when I sat down at the kitchen table. I exchanged good-mornings with dad who was busily reading the newspaper and Kevin who was eating leftover Chinese food he'd brought yesterday. Despite still living in poor conditions, I was glad to say that my family was doing better. Soon Karen came in to join us and began to make herself her favorite cereal.
I was helping myself to some cereal too when I heard dad look up from his newspaper and talk to my mom. "Looks like the Tree Lighting Ceremony will be today at 6:00pm later. We'll get to see the town's new Christmas tree."
"I want to see the Christmas tree! Are we going to go?" Karen asked hopefully.
"As long as you've finished your homework," mom told Karen. "It'll be nice to get out of the house for a while. Just be sure to dress warmly."
"Neat. I've got the day off. I could use a little fun," Kevin said lazily. Then he turned to me. "How about it, Ken?"
"Uh-huh," I mumbled. I wasn't in a very talkative mood. I couldn't stop thinking about what happened to me last night. An evil eldritch monster has invaded our town. What did this Nyarlathotep plan to do? I had to learn more about the Church of Starry Wisdom…
Later I headed over to Kyle's house where I met up with Cartman, Stan and Butters there. Kyle had something for me. As promised he'd been looking into the church and immediately recognized it as the Church of Starry Wisdom. According to the information Kyle has dug up, the Church of Starry Wisdom was a sinister cult that worshipped Nyarlathotep in his avatar as the Haunter of the Dark. The cult has been around for years, since the 1800s.
"Damn. Of all places, that cursed church had to show up here," I said bitterly.
"Well actually it's been at other places too," Kyle corrected me. "There's a Starry Wisdom Church in Providence, Rhode Island, Yorkshire, English, Chicago, Illinois, Arkham, Massachusetts, one in San Francisco, one in Canada, and one in Equatorial Guinea."
Not that this information wasn't helpful. At least now we knew what we were dealing with. "What about Nyarlathotep?" I asked. "Can you get any info on him?"
Kyle typed it in and a few minutes later, we all gathered around to read Kyle's laptop about the Lovecraftian being known as Nyarlathotep. "Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos," Cartman read out-loud. Nyarlathotep is an Outer God. The spawn of Azathoth. Unlike the other Outer Gods, spreading madness and chaos is more important and enjoyable than death and destruction to Nyarlathotep."
There was a tense silence after this as we all realized together what this meant for all of us. "Scary…," Butters spoke first. "Geez, I'd sure hate to run into this eldritch deity in a dark alley. But…but I don't understand. How did Nyarlathotep come here to South Park? Why is he even here?"
"Isn't it obvious, guys?" Stan said grimly. "Nyarlathotep likes to cause chaos for the pure sake of it. Do Lovecraftian creatures need an excuse?" Stan definitely had a point.
"Well what are we supposed to do about it?" Butters asked Stan. "And to think that this had to happen around Christmastime. I gotta tell ya. This whole situation is like one big unwanted Christmas present."
Butters was right. So far we've encountered Lovecraftian monsters like Cthulhu and Shub-Niggurath. But Nyarlathotep wasn't like the others. Nyarlathotep was intelligent and insanely powerful, a chaotic-being who'd been manipulating the human-race for millions of years. How the hell do you take on something like that? We were all feeling pretty discouraged. Not that we had much time to dwell on it. Cartman's cell-phone went off and he answered it to talk to his mom. Stan received a text from his mom while Kyle's own mom called up to him from downstairs.
"Guess we best be going, "Butters said cheerfully, sitting up and stretching his arms above him. "I'd promised my mom I'd be back in time for the Tree-Lighting Ceremony. See you fellas later!"
One by one, Stan, Cartman, Butters and I left Kyle's bedroom and went downstairs to head for the front-door. Before going our separate ways, I felt Stan reaching for my hand and he pulled me to him where I saw him studying me with concern. "Kenny, are you okay? What happened to you last night? You never texted me like you said you would."
I didn't want to mention dying last night. Stan wouldn't be able to remember it. All I could do was put on a smile for him. "Sorry about that. I ended up losing my phone," I said awkwardly, rubbing the back of my neck. The very spot where I was shot in the head… I'll see you at the Tree-Lighting Ceremony. We'll have fun, right?"
Stan returned my smile before hurrying back to his own house. I couldn't bring myself to tell Stan what went down in that church last night. No point on giving him something else to worry about. Instead I decided to head home where my family were probably getting ready to leave. For now we would try to enjoy ourselves at the Tree-Lighting Ceremony and not worry about Outer Gods…
The townspeople were already gathering around City Hall by the time my family and I arrived. The atmosphere was absolutely festive and everyone was in a good mood. Christmas lights and Christmas wreaths decorated the City Hall. But standing in the center was the large magnificent fir tree that was decked out in sparkling tinsel, colorful baubles, and a gold star at the top. We all couldn't wait to turn on the lights and see the Christmas tree in all its shining glory. While we were waiting in the growing crowd, I recognized other families arriving.
Stan arrived with his parents and big sister. Upon spotting me, Stan came over to greet me and my family. I reached out and slipped my hand into Stan's and grinned fondly at him. My earlier troubles melted away and all I wanted to do was spend time with my boyfriend. Soon Kyle and his family arrived on time and Kyle came over to join me and Stan. Not long afterwards, Cartman and Liane also showed up where Cartman went over and opened his arms to the red-headed Jew who willingly went into them. Butters arrived with his family and we stood around waiting for everyone else to arrive.
Craig and his family were late getting here but they were just in time. Looking through the crowd, Craig spotted his friends Clyde, Token and even saw that Jimmy was here already. There was only one person missing from their usual gang. Craig's eyes immediately zeroed in on the blond boy in the audience. Tweek's forest-green eyes met Craig's marble-blue ones… Drawn to each other at once, Craig and Tweek went to each other at the same time where they entered into a loving embrace. Now Craig and Tweek hurried for a better view of the Christmas tree while hand-in-hand.
Once the whole town was here, that's when Mayor Mary McDaniels finally stepped up to the podium to get everybody's attention. "Good afternoon everyone," she spoke into the mike. "Thank you all for coming. This year we've had our town Christmas tree donated to us by a very mysterious but generous man. Without further ado, let's light this Christmas tree up!"
The Christmas tree lit up like a beacon in the night. It was absolutely breath-taking and everyone stared in awe. Looks like they've really outdid themselves decorating the tree this year. And everyone could see it whenever they wanted in front of City Hall. But who was this mysterious man that the mayor mentioned? And that's when I first saw him. One look at him and I immediately knew he was definitely not from around here. Come to think of it, I felt alarm-bells go off the second I first laid eyes on him.
Standing with the mayor and politely shaking her hand was a very black man who was dressed in very regal clothes. He was so black in color that it made me wonder if he was of African-descent but he also seemed to have Egyptian features as well. It was kinda hard to pin down. One thing was for sure, I was getting bad vibes from him. Soon everyone else was fascinated by this newcomer as well. Even my friends found him something of interest.
"Who's he?" Butters asked curiously with his eyes on the black man. "He's certainly not from around here. Where do you suppose he comes from?"
"I'm not sure. But he must rich if he was able to buy our town a big tree," Token said, while he too watched the black man. "He's pretty impressive-looking. I think the mayor has a crush on him."
I didn't take my eyes off the man. I didn't trust him. Stan looked to me and noticed the way I was scowling at the black man with mistrust. "What is it?" Stan asked me.
"There's something off about that man," I whispered over my shoulder to Stan. "I find him suspicious." I continued to eye the black man warily. The mysterious stranger was already getting friendly with some of the townsfolk here. I wasn't the only one. Kyle and Cartman also found the man strange.
"I wonder who he is. The mayor didn't tell us his name," Kyle said thoughtfully. "If he's a celebrity, I'm not familiar with him."
"Yeah. He looks like the con-artist type," Cartman remarked. As Cartman stared at the black man, he felt that old familiar yearning to have some kind of a father-figure in his life. He couldn't explain it but Cartman knew a conniving manipulative bastard when he saw one. It takes one to know one…
Craig also looked over Tweek's shoulder to throw a skeptical frown over at the black man who was mingling in the crowd and chatting with some of the townspeople here. Despite his handsome black features, even Craig seemed to sense something was not quite right. Then Craig felt Tweek squeezing his hand and he looked sideways to notice that Tweek was also looking uneasily over at the black man.
"He's kinda creepy-looking," Tweek admitted with a shudder. "Ugh! I just got a chill! Let's go someplace else, Craig. I don't wanna be anywhere near that weirdo."
"Sure thing, babe," Craig agreed. "Let's walk through the neighborhood and see the Christmas lights." Craig allowed Tweek to guide him away from the crowd when a horrible feeling suddenly invaded Craig's mind. For one frightening moment, Craig's mind seemed to become dizzy, followed by a painful headache. It felt like some invisible force was attacking his brain. Craig felt like his sanity was being drained from him.
"Craig? Are you okay?" Tweek's concerned voice seemed to bring Creek back to his senses. Tweek noticed the pained grimace on Craig's face and reached out to touch his shoulder to comfort him.
"I'm fine," Craig said in his usual monotone tone. But when he peered over, Craig caught the black man looking right at him, wearing the most peculiar smirk. It was unnerving. Craig frowned suspiciously back at the man and now he really did want to get as far away from here.
Karen was getting her picture taken with her friends by the City Hall Christmas tree. Then she came running over to me and Kevin. "This is fun!" Karen said happily. "They're selling snow cones over there. Can we get one?"
"Sure, I've got some money left," Kevin said, taking out his wallet. "Do you want one, Ken?"
Kevin, Karen and I started to head over to the snack-cart to get a snow-cone but then the black man seemed to step into our path. Instinctively I gently pushed Karen behind me while I stared warily up at the black man. He was surprisingly taller than us. Dressed in an elegant black overcoat and carrying a fancy-looking gold cane, but despite all that, he seemed to give off a dark aura. The black man was looking directly at me and he wore a look of interest.
"Evening," he greeted us. His voice was rich, sophisticated, and I couldn't quite identify the accent. "You must be the McCormick kids. How are you enjoying the Tree Lighting Ceremony?" He was well-mannered and polite. Even Karen was staring up at him in awe. He certainly had a scary way on alluring you to him.
I didn't trust this man at all. "Very well, thank you," I said briskly to the man. I wasn't the least bit interested in carrying on a conversation with this stranger. "Have a lovely evening," I said politely.
We started to walk away but the man's cane thrust forward to stop me. Kevin turned around and scowled angrily at the black man but I gave him the "nod." Kevin understood my signal and hurriedly escorted Karen away to safety. Once they were out of sight, I finally straightened up and confronted the black man. "Who are you?" I demanded.
The black man's smirk widened. "I thought that was obvious by now," he said mysteriously. "I have many forms." The black man chuckled darkly at the horrified look on my face when I realized who he was. "South Park is a quaint little town," he went on to say. "I just had to come and join in the festivities. But I haven't forgotten about our conversation last night."
"I don't want talk to you," I said coldly. "I said all that I needed to yesterday." This eldritch bastard had some nerve showing up like this. This wasn't a good place to start a panic. I tried my best to keep calm while frowning at the black man before me. "You should get the hell out of here." Before leaving, I added for good measure. "If you ever come anywhere near my family again, I will kill you."
I thought that would be the end of it but I was sorely mistaken. I stopped when a powerful voice suddenly spoke clear as day in my mind. "I can still help you, Kenny." My entire body felt cold and I don't think it was from the cold weather. When I turned around, I saw the black man's eyes were still on me and he was grinning.
"It is called telepathy," his deep voice explained without moving his mouth. "I am speaking to your mind. You have potential, Kenny. Your eldritch-soul makes you unique. Why cling to your humanity? Why not choose to evolve? I can turn you into something special. I can help you finally understand who you are and what you are. How about it, Kenny? Have I got you curious enough?"
I clapped hands over my ears in a defiant attempt to shut that voice out but to no avail. "I see… If you wish to explore your eldritch origins, you know where to find me." But then he added with evil relish. "Your eldritch-soul will only continue to grow stronger. Even you will soon be driven mad by its intoxicating power." With that, the black man walked away. Leaving me to feel more haunted than ever.
