The Rapture Screams, part 1

Extracts from the Diary of James Elliott

Monday 3rd November 2008

Yesterday was rather nerve wracking. I really was not at all sure what we should be trying to do, and in consequence did nothing. It is rather ironic that my first ’field’ assignment for MI13 was after they had been disbanded.

I was enormously relieved when the news arrived that Lionel was once again truly dead and could be reburied. The four conspirators in Sophie’s ritual murder are dead. Having been here for the entire murderous duration, it seemed more sensible to remain and wait for the police investigation. Doing a runner would inevitably attract suspicion.

I was more surprised that I should have been when it was Forbush, Mr. Green and lackies who turned up rather than the police. It seems that Forbush had had known a lot in advance about Lionel’s scheme, and had arranged the mist and the telephone failure. He had cleared off to a safe distance while leaving us in the firing line. If I still worked for the bastard I would be resigning.

Nevertheless it seems that Forbush et al. will be providing clean up and police distraction services. Still Lionel’s plan remains incomplete. She is avenged, and the Outer God holding her has been identified as Yog-Sothoth. There remains rescuing her soul and dispatching it to the dreamlands. According to Lucinda, Lionel believed this could be achieved with two spells. The first is the ‘Evocation of the Damned’ which can summon a shade held by a named Outer God. The second can consign the shade to the Dreamlands and we know it only as ‘Toby’s Spell’. We know of no source for this spell, other than Toby Higginbotham.

So we need to see Toby. Although MI13 is no more, Forbush still has enough influence to arrange access.

Thursday 6 th November

We had a 10:00 appointment to see Toby. Thomas Grady, Freddie, Belinda and I all attend. We were met by Adam Walters. Adam is currently a patient, but as he also normally works in the hospital is helping with other patients. Adam also comes along to the audience with Toby. The visit is by a video link with only Belinda on camera. She has taken this role before and Toby is likely to be agitated by a familiar face.

It was clear that Toby was privy to Lionel’s plans. He claims that he knows the spell but that it is not written down anywhere. He wants us to arrange a reduction in his sedation so that he can dream. If we do then he is willing to teach the spell if he is met in the Dreamlands. He says to go to the Temple of the Outer Gods in Rinar and ask for Gnosos.

He is asked the name of the spell, which he refused to reply. Personally I think that there are likely to be other sources for the spells, but he is clearly unwilling to help. He wants his release; who would not in his place?

Before leaving we are able to inspect the logs for Toby’s visits to determine when Lionel visited him. This may allow us to find the relevant entries in Lionel’s journal.

Adam also has interesting bit of intelligence. He thinks that St. John Cartwright-Fiennes knows ‘Evocation of the Damned’.

7^th-23^rd November

Freddie and Thomas returned to Scotland to research further. Emily and Belinda went off to Avebury, found St. John and confirmed that he does indeed know the spell. I wonder where he learnt it? It certainly wasn’t MI13 training. St. John was unwilling to be involved in the actual casting; his other half, Jules, would not stand for that. He was quite willing to teach the spell if paid for his time. Emily, Belinda, St. John and I also went to Cliffside where the spell teaching is to be done.

Lionel’s journal indicates that Toby claims to have researched the spell himself. He offered to teach Lionel the spell in return for regime relaxation. Lionel was very reluctant to agree to this. Lionel was also worried about the potential of backlash from Yog-Sothoth, who is unlikely to be pleased with his property being taken by mere mortals.

I performed a detailed analysis of Lionel’s hard-drive, including searching for deleted material, but failed to find anything of interest. This is unsurprising; people of Lionel’s generation are much more likely to use pen and paper, rather than a keyboard for their innermost thoughts.

Both Emily and Freddie learnt the ‘Evocation of the Damned’ in a week. Then Freddie had St. John teach him ‘Command Ghost’. At the end of this, St. John went off home with £3,000 and the demeanour of someone who has just won the lottery.

Meanwhile Belinda had been dreaming. She went to Rinar to find out about Toby’s Dreamlands persona. Apparently he was the High Priest at the temple of Outer Gods. He was trying to revive the worship of an ancient pantheon of gods. These gods have yellow irises to their eyes. One in particular that he was interested in was Haazhektheh, who is a goddess of dream. It is possible that she has the ability to break down the barrier between dream and reality.

The consensus is that we have get the spell from Toby. I phoned Forbush to discuss this. He is completely non-committal. He will neither encourage nor oppose. He is of the opinion that Toby is ‘a man of his word’. I feel it is important to get assurances from Toby about what he will do if released.

I discussed this with the others. I feel that we need negotiate with Toby to get him to agree not to abuse his freedom. I phoned Forbush again to arrange another meeting with Toby, but Forbush refuses, claiming that his influence is limited. We tried contacting Adam to see if he would be able to contact Toby but he cannot. We would still be able to release Toby. It seems that Toby’s regime was prescribed by “Dr. M. Forbush”. I would not be difficult to get regime reviewed by someone who is actually a doctor and it will also certainly be relaxed. This is reversible, but that is probably true of any relaxation. Once Toby can dream again, he will be probably have access to magics to move to the Dreamlands permanently. The others favour doing this.

I am worried that my colleagues are empathising too much with Lucinda, Sophie & Toby and failing to see the bigger picture. I appreciate how appalling the situation is for all of them. Nevertheless there are only three of them, a tiny number in comparison with the millions that could be affected by horrors from the Dreamlands appearing in the real world.

Toby’s incarceration is not vaguely humane, but Forbush arranged it because he thought it was necessary. Forbush is imperious, ruthless, and autocratic but he is not actually cruel. He claims to bear Higginbotham no ill will. Forbush genuinely believes that Higginbotham’s confinement is the lesser evil. Lionel seems to agree. As they are both far better qualified than I am, I do not feel competent to dispute their assessments.

It is not clear that Lucinda or Sophie can be helped. Belinda has experience of rescuing damned children, but they were teenagers rescued within a couple of days of their abduction. Sophie is a nine year-old who has been with Yog Sothoth for eighteen years.

I have no idea what state her soul will be in after all of that time, but it could be unrecognisable. She might be a devoted Yog Sothoth cultist and highly capable sorceress. I fear that Lucinda have cause to regret meeting her. Given the extremely dubious advantages, and massive risks of trying to acquire this spell, it is not an endeavour that I want anything to do with.

At Belinda and Freddie’s prompting, Adam approached a consultant to challenge Toby’s drug regime. With days it was relaxed. They are now off in the Dreamlands in the hope that Toby will teach them the spell that they believe they need.