I do not own anything relating to the Teen Titans.
Opening the Closet Door a Crack – Chapter 6
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The T-Jet traveled quickly across the country. Moving from one coast to another generally took several hours. However, the Titan's aircraft, between the Justice League's technology and Cyborg's mechanical abilities, was able to make the trip in roughly an hour and a half. Of course, traveling at sub-orbital levels tended to help. By the time the Titans approached Arkham, Massachusetts, it was mid-afternoon.
It would have helped the atmospheric mood of the adventure if it was raining, torrential rain with lightning and thunderclaps. However, life (and the fates) do not always cooperate with the moods. Consequently, it was a hot, late August afternoon in Arkham when the titans landed in a large field at Miskatonic University. Since classes were not yet in session, the T-Jet did not attract a tremendous amount of attention. After parking, the titans made their way to Clark Ashton Smith Hall, the administrative building for the university. The five heroes, walking up the steps to the front door, entered the building.
Approaching the receptionist, Robin said, "Excuse me, would it be possible to see Dr. Warren?" Dr. Harley Warren was the president of the university. The Boy Wonder anticipated that if they were to examine the university's copy of the Necronomicon, they would need his permission.
The receptionist looked up, eyes widening. "Uhhh,…." It was apparent that the presence of the five titans was a bit of a shock to her. Considering that their usual home base was on the west coast, to say the least the five titans were certainly out of place.
"The president, Dr. Warren?" Robin repeated in a kindly voice.
"Uhhhh….let me check if he's occupied." With that, the secretary got up from her desk and moved to a door across the hall. Opening it, she entered quickly. After a very brief moment, she returned. "Dr. Warren will see you." And she opened the door to let in the five teens.
The titans entered the office of Dr. Harley Warren. It was a plush room, warm paneling on the walls, a number of plaques signifying various awards and achievements. The desk was large and not particularly neat. Papers were strewn everywhere, in various piles, sometimes up to a foot deep.
As for Dr. Warren himself, he was a comparatively small man, only about five and a half feet. A shock of red, unkempt hair covered his head, as if he had been running his hands through it. A sharp, protruding nose, his eyes were quite alive and merry. A bright smile was across his countenance. Coming around his desk, he approached the heroes, "What a pleasure it is to meet you all. I've been an admirer for quite some time. I assume that you are here regarding Dr. Carter."
Four of the five titans were stunned by this statement. Only Robin seemed unaffected. Beast Boy burst out, "Dude! He's as good as you are!"
Chuckling, Dr. Warren replied, "Not quite, Beast Boy. I would not begin to compare to Robin in deductive ability. However, one doesn't get to my position without a bit of smarts. You're based in Jump City; Dr. Carter was here a few weeks ago. He's from JCU. Ergo, you're looking for him."
The four other titans looked even more nonplussed. Robin had a large smile on his face. "What a pleasure it is to meet you. It's rare that I get to speak with someone with whom I can converse on an equal level. At least one who is not trying to take over the world or some such craziness."
Dr. Warren laughed aloud. "No, I promise you. I'm not prone to megalomania. I have enough difficulties dealing with the students, faculty and regents. Good Lord, why anyone would WANT the world is beyond me." Robin laughed in response. He was already enjoying the company of Dr. Warren and was looking forward to their discussion.
"If we may be seated?"
"Please."
The titans took various seats around the room, Robin and Starfire in the chairs in front of the desk, Beast Boy and Raven on a sofa against the wall. Cyborg stood. He knew his weight would be too much for most unreinforced furniture.
"Now, since you are looking for Dr. Carter, how can I help you?"
"We need to examine one of your library's rare books." At that, the smile fell away from Dr. Warren's face. A look of somber resignation appeared on it.
"I should have known. After all, Carter wanted to see it as well. Naturally, in order to find him, you're retracing his footsteps. Damn, damn, damn."
Now Robin was startled. Of all the responses he had anticipated, this was not one of them. "Is there some problem with looking at the book, or with Dr. Carter's request?"
"I hate that damn book."
"Me too," piped up Raven from the back wall.
Dr. Warren looked pointedly at Raven. "Yes, from everything I've heard about you, I suppose you would. But not for the same reasons I have." Raven's eyebrows rose up at that response.
"You see, while I may not have the visceral impressions that you have, I see the results." Dr. Warren continued sadly. "You probably would not believe the protections and safeguards I've had to install around that book, as well as the other eldritch books in our collection. We have the finest collection of occult books in the western hemisphere, possibly in the world. Still, there are times I wish they would all go away."
The titans looked at one another in confusion. Then back to Dr. Warren.
"Let me put it this way," continued Dr. Warren. "Up until two years ago, there were roughly two suicides and three cases of insanity per year among the student population. We only have a total of 2000 students on campus."
"Whoa," responded Cyborg, "statistically, that's WAY above the norm."
"Yes, because inevitably, during senior week or during pledge week or just on a drunken dare, some student would sneak into the rare book section of the library and try to read the Necronomicon."
"Doctor," interrupted Robin. "I didn't mention the book I was interested in."
Dr. Warren looked at the Boy Wonder with contempt. "Please do NOT treat me like an idiot. I am very well aware of our reputation, Dr. Carter's interests, Dr. Carter's actions here at the university and the recent find made by Jump City University." Robin, for once, looked abashed.
"I'm sorry. I'm not used to dealing with people so aware of the situations we usually deal with."
"Regardless, I know you're interested in the mad Arab Alhazred's Necronomicon. After all, Carter asked to see it as well. Apparently, the copy in Jump City University is missing a page."
"Excuse me, doctor," interjected Raven, "can we go back to the statement you made regarding suicides and insanity."
Dr. Warren looked at Raven with approval. At last, here was someone with a proper appreciation of the dangers regarding forbidden works. "There are three sets of people who read the Necronomicon. The first are those who are, comparatively, unaffected. They seem to have sufficient will to resist the concepts within and are able to deal with the matter in an academic manner. I'll be quite candid, they are very few and far between. Even then, they do not read the whole work, only select portions. I'm not sure ANYONE has read the entire work since Alhazred wrote it."
"And the other two?" asked Robin.
The president of the university let out a great sigh. "Well, one tends to go mad, quickly. We find them cackling, babbling or simply drooling mindlessly in the library. There's a local sanitarium nearby where they are cared for. They can live anywhere from a month to twenty years afterwards. Only two have ever regained their sanity. Both stayed in seclusion for several years afterwards before killing themselves."
Seeing the look of horror on the titans' faces, Dr. Warren continued. "The last type generally killed themselves quickly. The most common was by leaping off the roof. It's five floors down. Most seemed to jump headfirst to ensure a quick death. A few seemed to have some type of weapon, gun usually, and used it in the library room. Remarkably, one actually choked himself to death by trying to eat another book."
Dr. Warren rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Before I instituted these safety measures, the librarian's first task every morning was to walk the perimeter of the library looking for corpses. His second was to look through the rare book section looking for corpses. Generally, we went through a librarian a year. Once, oh, roughly fourteen years ago, one student actually went into the history section before she killed herself. It was another student who found her. She left the school shortly afterwards claiming she started hearing noises, voices." In an undertone, he continued, "wish I knew what happened to her."
"Anyway, I was finally able to get sufficient funding to put in a sealed, airtight room with a number of safety features. That's cut down tremendously on the accidents."
"Airtight? Doctor, I am not sure what you mean by that." Asked Starfire.
"Many of these books are extremely old and valuable. We needed a climate controlled environment for them in order to preserve them in their current condition and prevent additional deterioration. While doing so, I managed to institute a number of safety features including an airlock. It's cut down the number of incidents."
"But not ended them?" queried Robin.
Dr. Warren sighed, "No, not entirely. At least we're not finding a body every few months. I suppose it's pointless to ask if it's really necessary for you to do this."
"I'm sorry doctor, if we are to find Dr. Carter, we need as much information as possible." Robin replied.
"Very well, however, I'm going to limit your examination to only those pages that Carter himself examined this last time, pages 359 and 360. You will, of course, sign the normal waivers." Robin's eyebrows rose at this.
"Waivers?"
The president looked at Robin with surprise, "Certainly. You don't think I'm going to put the university at risk, do you? All legitimate examiners of our rare books, especially THAT one, have to sign a waiver that they do this freely and of their own will, that in the event of madness or death within a period of 14 days after the examination, the university is not responsible."
"Dude, that's cold," interrupted Beast Boy.
"Beast Boy, we're already paying a fortune for the unauthorized viewings of our works. As it is, we very seldom let anyone examine our collection who isn't on the faculty."
"Then why did you let Dr. Carter view it?" asked Raven.
"Well, I've known him for years, his reputation in the field is tremendous. This isn't the first time he's looked at the Necronomicon, either. In this case, it was more of a quick checking of his facts before continuing."
"I assume he also signed the waiver," continued Robin. Dr. Warren nodded. "Well, in that case, we'll sign it, all except Cyborg. He won't be going anywhere near it." Warren looked questioningly at the Boy Wonder. "He's already had an, uh, incident, with the Necronomicon and I'm not taking any more chances with him."
"In that case, he can stay outside the rare book room with me." With that, Dr. Warren reached into a desk drawer and extracted a form. Pushing it across the desk, he continued. "Only those individuals who sign that will be allowed in the room."
The titans, minus Cyborg, signed. Dr. Warren sighed. "I truly wish you weren't going to examine this. While it seems that you already have some experience with the Necronomicon, I wonder if you are really aware of the dangers involved."
"I am," replied Raven.
"Me too!" piped up Beast Boy.
"Friend Doctor, I am not certain even you are aware of the full danger in that book." Starfire said. Dr. Warren looked surprised at that.
"As you can see, Dr. Warren, I believe we are quite aware of the dangers." Finished Robin.
Under her breath, Raven muttered, "Not all of us."
With that, the president led the titans out of his office and they made their way over to the library. It was a short walk as the university was not large. Well, the university was not large, however, the library itself was. A full five stories tall, made of granite and marble with stone pillars in the front. Similar to the cathedrals of Europe, gargoyles peered over the roof, staring down unblinkingly from their lofty summit. Climbing the thirteen steps to the massive bronze door, the six of them walked in. Approaching the front desk, Dr. Warren spoke to the receptionist at the desk.
"Joan, would you have Danforth paged?"
"You wished to see me?" said a quiet voice from off to the side. Startled, the president turned around and chuckled.
"Danforth, I know you are supposed to be quiet in a library, but I do believe you carry it to extremes at time. I never hear you approach. Titans, this is Mr. Danforth, our librarian." A small wizened man stood before them, a touch stooped with a shock of unruly grey hair. A long hooked nose extended from his face, he wore no glasses, surprising for a librarian.
"A pleasure." The titans all exchanged a greeting with him.
"Danforth, we need to visit the room." At that, the librarian let out a deep breath.
"Again, so soon?"
"Fraid so, the Titans are trying to track down Carter." Turning to the titans, Dr. Warren continued, "This is part of our security measures. I have the only key to the airlock, but only Danforth has a key to the room. That keeps most of the idle curiosity seekers out."
"Pity it doesn't keep the engineering students out," mentioned Danforth.
The party made its way up to the fifth floor. At the end of the fifth floor corridor was a door with the sign "Restricted. Authorized Personnel Only." Danforth took out a key and unlocked the door. He then entered the room, followed by Dr. Warren and the titans.
The room was quite large, with fully four-fifths behind a glass wall. Inside the glass partition were a number of bookcases, several tables and a number of pedestals with books laying on them. Off to the side was a smallish mini-room with a door to the glass enclosure and a door into the remainder of the room, the airlock. This too was made largely of glass, although there was a considerable amount of machinery (air pump) on top. Essentially, this was to replace as much of the outside air with the encased air, thereby reducing the amount of pollutants. It wasn't terribly efficient, but this was the most a small school could afford.
Dr. Warren walked over to the airlock and unlocked the door. Opening it, he motioned the titans into the small compartment. All, save Cyborg, went inside. Closing the door behind them, the president moved over to the control panel to begin the process.
"This should only take a moment or so, it's basically designed to remove a reasonable amount of the pollutants in the air. Most of these books are extremely fragile and delicate. The four remaining titans stood their patiently while the procedure finished. Once the green light appeared on the control panel, Dr. Warren spoke into a microphone, "Robin, it's ok now. You can enter the room."
Robin opened the door to the rare book repository. Raven immediately fell to her knees, one hand on the floor, one covering her mouth, hunched over.
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For the initiated, Harley Warren was Randolph Carter's companion in the story "The Statement of Randolph Carter". Danforth also appears in a Lovecraft story (without a first name that I can find, so I left it out), if you track down his appearance, you'll know where we go after Innsmouth.
I recognize that not much beyond exposition occurred in this chapter. Basically, it's a transitional chapter to get everyone fully aware of the nature of the Necronomicon. Next chapter, I promise, there will be a bit more action.
My continuing thanks to my readers and my special thanks, as always, to my reviewers. Onward,
Lulu Sushi – My intent it to make sure EVERYONE has a role to play in this story. In fact, everyone has a key position in the story which will affect the storyline even beyond their current one. Glad you are enjoying it.
The Force is Strong With This One – Is Robin being less than honest? Time will tell. He's always held his cards close to his chest. As for Cyborg, I realize that any computer can be wiped. However, I NEED him to still be affected, so I fudged it a bit. You know, I just thought it would be funny for Raven to have the code, never occurred to me she would just teleport in. Blind spot. And in Chapter 7, the missing page mystery is answered.
Hawkgirl90 – Glad to set your mind at ease. Believe it or not, this may be the 'goriest' chapter in the entire story, and I leave the gore entirely to your imagination.
Crimson Black – Sigh, I know, took me far longer to get to Arkham than I said. I refuse from now on to claim we're going somewhere until we actually leave. By the by, the relationships will become more focused in the next chapter. And there will be a 'pure' relationship chapter later in the story, much later.
Novus Ordo Seclorum – Once again, as always, I am appreciative of your kind remarks. I actually spend several hours each day plotting before writing. (My commute is 1 hour each way, nothing else to do). Given that you are not as familiar with Lovecraft as some others, I hope you enjoyed this little retrospective on the effects of the Necronomicon. It actually reflects the three basic responses that the characters in Lovecraft have to the book.
An Avid Reader – As you are obviously aware, horror can be fun. All I'm doing is stealing from the master and putting the titans in it. Since you are a fan, I'm sure you have an idea or two where this will eventually go.
Until next time my friends.