Spooky stuff

[Panache]

cloves,

You are opening up a very terrible can of worms here.

Brian, a very close friend of mine from High School in Santa cruz got his Ph.D. in folklore at UC Berkeley. One of the things his dissertation was on was the internet and the establishment of what he called a "Global Knowledge" pool. His first post graduate position took him to Yale where he was working on compiling stories relating to certain Aztec legends. He did a lot of online research and communicated with Professors of Folklore, Sociology,and Anthropology. He in fact stumbled onto some pretty terrible knowledge. He was trying to cross-reference some techniques used in the Aztec sacrifices and found very similar references around the globe and history as far back as ancient Ur. He couldn't quite understand why these gruesome practices and remarkably similar methods of dispatching the sacrifices as well as fairly close prayers/spells that accompanied them were so close to identical. This wasn't the worst.

When he expanded his search parameters to include modern events he found that these same methods appeared in the police reports and Newspaper articles from modern times. These records were all in regards to murders and serial killers! I still remember how really distressed he seemed in his emails when he was writing to me about this. How could these eldritch rituals span time and territory and how could they relate to the deranged impulses of diseased minds of our modern world. He worked on this for almost 10 months before he found a common factor. It chilled him.

The stars.

Brian found an astronomy program that would allow him to see any the patterns of the stars as viewed from anywhere on the Earth at any time.
He got the idea from an Egyptian carving that showed a sacrifice being performed at night. There were several stars and what appeared to be Venus low on the horizon. Since he knew the location from the hieroglyphic translations, he was able to use this program to determine the exact time illustrated. He then used the program to look for similar occurrances where these same stars would appear in the sky and give locations and dates. It was remarkable! A large number of the recent crimes and work of serial killers matched with these patterns in the stars.

His emails became less and less frequent. My inquiries as to his health and welfare would go unanswered for months.

I had pretty much given up on him until about a year after my last communication with him I got this high priority email at my work. It was from Brian who had been apparently travelling in the East for some time. He mentioned "Leng" which I am unfamilar with. He had come to a terrible conclusion. Overstretching all these cultures and times it appeared there was some secret cult. This cult moved from culture to culture, from century to century pursuing an agenda with single minded purpose. I didn't understand a lot of it. He mentioned the "cumulative effects of the release of the cosmic power of the blood" which sounded like gibberish when I read it. Now I'm not so sure. Anyway the upshot was that this strange religious conspiracy was trying to bring about the return of some terrible elder gods to our world. The sacrifices were carefully planned and executed, each moving some grand spell closer and closer to it's final invocation that would come about "when the stars were right".

In truth he sounded crazy. The last part of it was the craziest. He claimed that this conspiracy had become aware of his research. He felt that he was somehow marked, and he didn't have a lot of time left. There was a huge attachment enclosed. It was Friday Night and I wanted to get home to my wife so I didn't open it. I didn't have a clue how to respond to Brian. I resolved to talk to my wife and get back to him Monday.

On Sunday I got a call from a mutual high school friend of Brian and myself. Brian was dead. He had been walking down the street when some rough looking fellow bumped into him. He apparently walked about 3 more steps and collapsed. The coroner said it was a heart attack. The fellow who had bumped into him had vanished from the scene.

When I returned to work my boss seemed really odd, in retrospect I would say he seemed fearful. He called me into his office and I was written up for improper use of the system's email and transferring files that were larger than policy demanded. He told me that he had personally deleted the offending file and all emails both to and from the sender. He looked at me straight in the eye and said "James, please drop this". I was too dazed to do anything but nod my head. It was just easier to put Brian out of mind.

But sometimes, late at night I look up and out my window and wonder.

If the stars are right?
















Hope you liked the story cloves! Pleasant Dreams...

Cheers

Panache