Chapter Twelve: The Call of Cthulhu

 

Chapter Twelve: The Call of Cthulhu

            As nauseating as it was for Si to admit, the Malfoys really knew how to throw quite the extravagant party, even if it did have their morbid sense of haute couture with everyone dressed in black. More like haunt couture, Si thought to herself. It was only by the grace of luck (and her knowledge of Malfoys) that she came to the shindig in her own black, mid-cut dress.

            “Excuse me, young lady?” one of the gentlemen in attendance approached her.

            She turned in his direction and received the shock of her life when she found herself standing face-to-face with the famed author himself, H.P. Lovecraft. His appearance was just as dignified (if not a little melancholic) as in his old photographs with his pursed lips and long chin.

            “Do you happen to know what the time is?” he asked her.

            Si could hardly believe he was even there – in Louisiana of all places. “I-It, uh…i-it’s almost eight o’clock…I-I think,” she stammered.

            “Oh, yes, I see now,” Lovecraft said, looking past Si at a nearby grandfather clock that, sure enough, chimed eight times only a minute after Si verified it. “Thank you so much, my dear.” He was just about to walk away before he gazed questionably on Si. “Aren’t you a little young to be here? Are you here with your parents?”

            Si hesitated to respond. Her youthful appearance once again ensnared her in an awkward predicament that she had to be creative in getting out of. “I’m a friend of the Malfoy family,” she told Lovecraft. “I’m friends with Draco, Lucius and Narcissa’s son.”

            “Ah, yes,” Lovecraft remarked. “I met him earlier today. A rather troubled boy.”

            “You have no idea,” Si muttered under her breath.

            “I beg your pardon?” Lovecraft inquired.

            Si was spared in having to repeat her comment when Lucius Malfoy beckoned from a short distance away, “Mr. Lovecraft! If you would be so kind to join us in the dining hall. We’d love to introduce you to some other special guests we’ve invited.”

            “Uh, y-yes,” Lovecraft acknowledged the invitation. “I’m on my way.” He returned his attention on Si and said, “Enjoy your evening, young lady.”

            “You, too, Mr. Lovecraft.” Si kept her attention on the author as he joined with Lucius Malfoy, who escorted him out of the ballroom and into the dining hall.

            It was then Si reached into her purse and retrieved a necklace. Of course, it wasn’t just any ordinary necklace – it contained a gem powered by a perception filter. She utilized its properties to follow Lovecraft and Malfoy into the dining hall. The atmosphere there was a stark contrast to the lively festivities in the ballroom. The room was dimly lit; everything was coated in black – from the walls to the furniture. Had it not been for the light of the moon shining through the windows and a few lit candelabras, the entire area would’ve seemed like an empty void of blackness.

            Si, however, was more perturbed by the room’s occupants.

            Vilgax was there, and so were the Death Eaters, including Bellatrix Lestrange.

            There were also a group of white, featureless men in Victorian garb led by a middle-aged, pale-skinned human male who was dressed in the same apparel.

            None of them perceived Si being there, thanks to the perception filter.

            Lovecraft sat at the long dining table, looking paler than usual, obviously put off from the disturbing characters – particularly Vilgax. “What is all of this?” he questioned Lucius of the circumstance.

            Lucius, who sat at the end of the table, was soon accompanied by Narcissa and a very uneasy Draco. Once they were there, he finally came clean: “There is a reason you were chosen as our guest of honor, Mr. Lovecraft. You’ve been selected to be the vessel for Cthulhu.”

            Lovecraft wasn’t sure what to think of this. Initially, he believed Lucius to be joking, but it was hard to accept that as a possibility when there was an eight-foot-tall squid man in the room.

            “Are you mad?!” he questioned the Malfoy patriarch. “Cthulhu is nothing else but a creation of my own twisted imagination!”

            “Oh, he is much more than that, Mr. Lovecraft.”

            A high, cold voice spoke from the shadows. Si heard it directly behind her, sending a heavy chill down her spine. When she turned her head to the right, she saw a tall figure slither past her, close enough to nearly bump her shoulder. Its features were waxy and reptilian with bone-white skin and a skeletally thin body. Its chalk-white face resembled a skull with snake-like slits for nostrils. It had no hair or lips, but it did have large hands with unnaturally long fingers like spider’s legs and fingernails that were long, sharp, and pale blue. It was donned in a black hooded cloak and several sets of elegant black robes but no shoes.

            Si recognized the tall, dark figure. And, because she recognized him, she was stricken with terror.

            Voldemort.

            The Dark Lord himself stepped into the dining hall with someone else Si recognized – Billy Hargrove, Max’s brother, who appeared to be entranced at the moment he accompanied Voldemort.

            Lovecraft was more mortified by Voldemort’s haunting appearance than the other otherworldly figures in the room. He instinctively got up from the table and rushed for the exit, only for it to be blocked by two more of the white, featureless men in Victorian garb. They forced Lovecraft to sit back down at the long table.

            “Whisper Men,” Voldemort said of the featureless individuals. “Beautiful gifts from the Great Intelligence.” He gestured to the middle-aged, pale-skinned human man that accompanied the so-called Whisper Men.

            “They live to serve, Lord Voldemort,” the Great Intelligence proclaimed.

            Voldemort took his place at the other end of the long table and chided Lovecraft, “You are being a poor houseguest…but no more so than our other guest here with us.”

            No one, including Si, was certain as to whom Voldemort was referring to.

            “My lord?” Lucius questioned.

            All of the sudden, Si’s body went rigid. It felt like a giant invisible hand had grabbed her, pinning her arms down to her sides. The only part of herself she could move were her eyes, and they were looking straight at Voldemort, who waved his wand in her direction. “You didn’t think we wouldn’t notice you were with us, dear girl?” the Dark Lord hissed.

            Si’s eyes widened in horror as she realized Voldemort’s magic had canceled out her perception filter. Her petrified form was lifted off her feet and brought floating over the long table for everyone to observe.

            Lovecraft, recognizing Si from their previous encounter, demanded of Voldemort, “Let her go! She’s just a child!”

            “She only appears to be a child, Mr. Lovecraft,” Voldemort said. “But her youthful façade deceives even your imaginative Muggle mind. This girl is the champion of the multiverse – the Gladiator of Gallifrey!”

            “And an associate of the Doctor’s,” the Great Intelligence added.

            “She’s also the one who escaped from my realm,” Billy spoke up. His voice sounded much different to Si, as if he wasn’t speaking as the teen she defended Lucas from back in the Hawkins bingo hall. The way he said “My realm” made her assume that something was controlling him – an entity that could have only been another member of Voldemort’s sinister clique…or Cthulhu itself.

            “We will deal with the Gladiator thoroughly, once we have delivered Lovecraft to Cthulhu,” Voldemort declared.

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            Alicia’s face and body might’ve hurt, but her resolve could not have been stronger. She trekked deeper into the catacombs beneath Malfoy Manor, following along a series of dark tunnels that were lit by several oil lanterns. The further she went, the hotter it got. The sweltering sensation she felt could only mean she was somewhere close to the center of the Earth.

            As she journeyed through one of the longest of burrows, she discovered the corpse of an African-American male. She gasped the second she found it. The man’s eyes were missing, leaving only hollow sockets from where smoke seeped out. His skin was like a prune, dried to his bones, and his lips had dissolved into nothing.

            Alicia could only assume this to be the remains of Henry Dobbins, the man Harris had told her about – the one that attempted to escape Lucius Malfoy, only to be recaptured and have his very essence fed to Cthulhu.

            In the end, he was left with no one. Had Alicia not ventured down there herself, no one would have even known of his demise.

            “You poor man,” she mourned for Dobbins. “You did nothing to deserve this.”

            Fortunately, Henry’s death was not in vain. His corpse served as a checkpoint to Alicia, letting her know how much closer she was to Cthulhu’s underground dwelling. She moved further ahead and began to sweat more profusely. After nearly half an hour, she emerged within a massive cavern.

            At the center of the cavern, beyond mountain-sized stalagmites, bobbled the colossal squid-like head of Cthulhu.

            His black soulless eyes fixated on Alicia as she entered.

            “That energy,” he said, his booming voice echoing throughout the cavern. “I sensed it from the moment you arrived. You are not human like those before.”

            “No, I’m not,” Alicia remarked, uncertain if Cthulhu could even hear her from so far beneath his level.

            “And yet you appear as the ones that the other humans treat the lesser,” Cthulhu observed. “With an essence of such imaginable power, why do you hide it behind the face of an inferior?”

            Alicia scowled. “An inferior?! Is that the term you’ve learned from your time here with the Malfoys? With all the morons associated with this godforsaken period? Has all that hate festered within the Great Old One himself?”

            “It is no matter of mine how humans treat each other,” Cthulhu clarified. “Their collective essence is intoxicating to me.”

            “Except for the Malfoys,” Alicia surmised. “I guess your owners are off limits.”

            “They do not own me!” Cthulhu bellowed, his anger slightly quaking the foundation of the massive cavern. Alicia was momentarily knocked off her feet from it. “I own them…and the others!”

            “What others?” Alicia asked.

            “My disciples. The ones who will grant me with the human vessel I require. But now, having sensed your essence, I have reconsidered their option in favor of my own. And I chose you!”

            Alicia scoffed. “Not gonna happen!”

            She turned away from the Great Old One in an attempt at fleeing for the exit, until she was caught in a paralyzing trance. Her entire body started to glow in a golden hue, as if she were regenerating. For a moment, she believed that she was, as the injuries she sustained from the abuse of Bubba Joe and his posse had healed entirely. However, this was merely Cthulhu influencing her regenerative energy – her Time Lord essence – in order to ultimately take possession of her body.

            But, influencing her regenerative energy was as far as he was able to get, as the Great Old One had great difficulty possessing Alicia. “Your essence,” he struggled to say. “It is more powerful than I imagined! Its power is greater than my own!”

            “You darn right it is!” Alicia yelled, her body glowing brighter than the sun.

            Infuriated, the Great Old One flew into a tirade that once again shook the cavern. But the quaking went much further than Cthulhu’s underground dwelling – the entire foundation of Malfoy Manor was caught up in the violent earthquake.

            Alicia was released in the midst of it all, immediately making her escape thereafter.

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            In response to the sudden earthquake, the walls of the Malfoys’ dining hall cracked, alarming its occupants. Panicked, Voldemort lost his hold over Si, allowing her body to drop and smack onto the long table. She made use of the distraction, rolling off the table and going for the exit. Along the way, she grabbed Lovecraft and took him out of the room with her.

            Although Bellatrix and Vilgax started to pursue, Voldemort restricted them. “Leave them,” he instructed. “The Great Old One is already furious…though I cannot fathom as to why.” He then encouraged his fellow disciples, “Regroup to the realm we designated for his eminence’s reign to begin.”

            “I will not flee!” Vilgax disobeyed. “I’m going after Lovecraft! I will not displease my god! He will have his vessel!”

            “Lovecraft is a foolish endeavor, my friend,” Voldemort warned. “But you do as you please. The rest of us will make haste.” He and the other disciples began to disperse, but not before the Dark Lord barred the Malfoys from coming with them. “You have failed, Lucius…so you and your family can crumble with the rest of your estate.”

            Ashamed, Lucius begged of Voldemort, “My lord! Please reconsider!”

            His pleas fell on deaf ears. Voldemort and the other disciples of Cthulhu left the Malfoys with no other choice than to run away, still confined to the reality Voldemort had damned them to.

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            On her way out of the manor, Alicia noticed all of the Malfoys’ guests and helpers running out as well. She bumped into a teenaged blonde and a man who she recognized as H.P. Lovecraft. The latter seemed to have recognized Alicia himself, as he identified her, “You’re the negro woman those men brought in earlier! What happened to your injuries?”

            His inquiry confused Alicia and prompted her to touch her face. In the ensuing chaos, she hadn’t even realized that her face no longer ached; neither did the rest of her body. Her struggle with Cthulhu benefited in her favor.

            “You just had to go and tick him off, didn’t you?!” the teenaged blonde scolded her.

            Alicia frowned on the girl. “And you are?”

            “I’m what you’ll be in a few regenerations,” the girl told her. “We call ourselves ‘Si’ in this one.”

            “Are we suffering from a midlife crisis by this time?” Alicia gazed up and down at Si. “I mean, this is by far the youngest we’ve ever gone!”

            “Oh, forget you!” Si barked. “Let’s just get outta here!”

            “I don’t understand a thing that is happening here!” Lovecraft cried.

            “Basically, Mr. Lovecraft, your imagination’s about to be unleashed,” Alicia said.

            Si and Alicia proceeded to make a mental contact with Maureen, requesting that their predecessor – who they were both keenly aware of being in 1929 – brought her TARDIS to their location to get away from the manor. Maureen arrived accordingly, but before her successors entered the ship with Lovecraft…

            “Wait!” They heard Lucius Malfoy’s desperate call, turning to see the Malfoy patriarch rush to them with his wife and son. “Take us with you!”

            “You fool!” Lovecraft cursed, slugging Lucius across the face. Si held him back before the angry author could have done something he would regret. “You deserve to crumble with the rest of your house!”

            Nursing his jaw and wiping away the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, Lucius found whatever humility he had in him to admit, “You’re right, Mr. Lovecraft. I do deserve it…but my family doesn’t.” He then pleaded to Si and Alicia, “Take them with you. Please.”

            Si and Alicia considered Malfoy’s fatherly appeal.

            They looked on Draco, who was as visibly terrified as his father and mother.

            “Alright,” Si finally said. “We’ll take all of you.”

            “Only for Draco’s sake,” Alicia added.

            Draco was surprised by their consideration of him, putting him above his own parents. The Malfoys were nonetheless grateful to be allowed to escape in Maureen’s TARDIS – and at just the right time.

            Cthulhu busted through the earth, rendering Malfoy Manor to ruins.

            The Great Old One howled to the heavens, his fury heard throughout the cosmos.