They called it the Great bloop. A follow-up to an earlier discovered, “Big Bloop”. It came from a place in the ocean farthest from any landmass. 47°9’S, 126°43’W. The bottom of the Pacific ocean. It was detected by sonar buoys in Alaska. This caused a huge stir up in the scientific community. How could something be so loud? There was practically a fleet of scientific and naval vessels investigating the area. I was on one of those vessels. We found that there was extreme seismic activity far below the surface on the ocean floor. The geologists rushed to the scene. They determined it to be a newly discovered geothermal hotspot. This theory was proven wrong after it persisted with no volcanic eruptions due to pressure. Then they confirmed something even more alien. A previously undiscovered tectonic plate. It had practically been dormant for the last billion years but was incredibly active starting 3 billion years ago. This confirmed discovery sent shock waves through the scientific community. They called it the ‘Easter Plate’ due to its closeness to easter island. The public was notified after we were certain that it wouldn’t be a problem. Conspiracy theorists everywhere went nuts. Everything from secret alien bases to the lost continent of mu was hurled at us. We all separately received letters of recognition for our hard work discovering this anomaly and letters from conspirators thanking us or accusing us of various affronts on humanity. But I received one that stood apart from the rest. It was very short. It looked like all the rest but there was no return address. Written anonymously. I opened it. Gave me a damn papercut. I pulled the letter out. The person wrote the letter in fine cursive. It said: “He was right.” Then said one thing below that. “Call of Cthulhu”. I’d never heard of such a thing. I Google it. Apparently it was some short story written in the early 1900s by a guy named H.P.Lovecraft. He wrote tons of horror and the Wikipedia said he got all of his stories from the vivid nightmares he had each night. So it was a reading recommendation. I went to a local Barnes and Noble and picked up a copy of “tales of great horror” filled with his short stories for 8 dollars. Call of Cthulhu was the first story in it. For those who haven’t read it, it follows this guy who is following up on the research of his late uncle on a thing called “Cthulhu Cult”. He ends up following lead after lead to discover an undocumented island called R’lyeh. It had recently risen up from the sea floor on the coordinates of… 47°9’S, 126°43’W… H.P. had never left new england. He got those exact coordinates from a nightmare. In the story, the protagonist unravels a conspiracy of this cult to waken their God that inhabits this risen island, asleep in a temple so it will grant them infinite power, wealth, and extreme longevity to the point where they’re practically immortal. But most importantly, they’d survive the cataclysm this god would bring. This god was called cthulhu. He welcomed people into his cult with a nightmare he’d telepathically transmit to select individuals. Once awoken, cthulhu would proceed to wipe out all life on earth except that which he chose. The cult was going to awaken him but they were intercepted by a transport ship. The cult attacked the ship but the sailors beat them back. The cult fought to the end where they all died, sooner than surrender. The captain found a map to the island and, since they were ahead of schedule, they decided to be heroes and investigate. They inadvertently let it out and the protagonist has a meltdown. The end. That’s the story. I found it to be interesting and continued to read his works. But then I was reminded of that note. “He was right”. Those coordinates for the island… 47°9’S, 126°43’W. Those were the coordinates of the new plate… That realization hit me like a train. I did research on this cthulhu and everything written about it. Lovecraft said he went from 8 meters tall to miles high. The big bang was an accident in his dimension. So when life developed, it was viewed as an infection and cthulhu was to purge that infection. He arrived on earth after many campaigns on other worlds. He arrived about 3 billion years ago when life first developed. He decided to sleep until earth’s life developed to its peak, so he could strike it down all at once. This was a frightening analogy, but it was only a story, right? The sound came again. Great Bloop 2. But the analyzers were scared this time. They listened to the new pulse. But this time, there was something… biological in the signal. It was carried with the same power as the tectonic shifts. They were terrified and called on the marine biologists this time. They were just as puzzled and frightened. No animal ever discovered could make a noise that loud. The largest marine animal is the blue whale. It can only be heard 3 to 4 miles away. This was heard over 3000 miles away. Sonar experts teamed up with the marine biologists and filtered out the tectonic shifts. They determined that this thing would have to be, at the very least, half the size of the Eiffel tower. This noise was 10 percent of the full noise. It rocked the scientific world to its core. What could this thing be? One month later, the noise was repeated. But the biological part was 20 percent of the noise, it had increased 10 percent in the month over the tectonic shifts. Then another month, and it was 30. That’s when we realized, this thing was just going to increase. The night after the 30 percent was reported, I had a dream. A terrible nightmare more like. I was in an ancient city with architecture I’d never seen. Some of the buildings did things that the laws of physics deemed impossible like 90 degree angles, ungodly heights, and other impossible things. The entire scene was covered in this… acidic green slime that smelled like a mass grave left to rot near the equator. The walls of the buildings had strange inscriptions on them that looked like no language I’d ever seen. When I looked at them too long, my eyes burned and I got a headache. Then there was a rumbling, it started soft like a vibrating in the land. But it got louder, and louder as I approached the center of this impossible city. As it got louder, I began to make out the words. It sounded like “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn” said over and over again in the lowest tone imaginable. It filled my mind and it was all I could think about. I saw a huge stone complex surrounded by other people like me. Some were smiling. Some were frightened. Some were angry. And a few were completely indifferent. I walked up behind and entered the small crowd. We all stared at this massive stone door slab. It was covered in the strange inscriptions. All of a sudden the inscriptions turned black and blood gushed from every letter down to the ground, bathing us. 2 women and a man opened their mouths to drink it. A few others seemed to be choking back vomit. The chant became louder and louder until I covered my bleeding ears and I couldn’t hear a thought, just that. Then the world turned black and I was alone. 2 enormous red orbs appeared in the sky. Then I heard a roar I will never forget. It chilled my spine, it hurt my head, and I could feel every vibration to my very core. Then I woke up. That day I received letter in the mail from a Gregory Sherman. The letter shook me to my core.
“Dear Mr. Carter,
You’ve had the dreams haven’t you. I saw you last night. You entered the crowd after the rest of us. You saw the city. You felt the blood. If you want to understand, I recommend you come to this address, next Friday night. 609 S Rudolph Boulevard. I suggest you be there. For the good of yourself, and all you hold dear.”
I wanted answers and this man seemed to have them. I made plans to go. The GPS took me to an abandoned neighborhood in a shady part of the outskirts. The address itself was a two-story house that looked like late 1800’s architecture. I gathered my courage and went up to the house. I opened the door. I was shocked to see it filled with people in black robes. I was scared I’d stumbled on a satanic ritual. As the door creaked on its hinges, everyone in the room turned to me. The room said “hello” in unison and continued mulling about. A man in a suit and tie walked up to me. “You must be Mr. Carter. Randolph Carter?” he asked.
“Yes?” I replied with a tad bit of uncertainty.
He extended his hand for me to shake. He had a symbol burned onto his hand. I shook it. “If you didn’t guess, I’m Gregory Sherman. I head our… organization… here in this part of North America. If you look around the room, you’ll see people of all ethnicities, nationalities, and backgrounds.” He shut the door behind me. “We all are joined together by a single purpose, and a single entity. We were all chosen by the great god to lead our enslaved “brethren” upon his victory and departure. In the months before his waking, we’ve seen a larger increase in members than the nightmares of ’62 and the faith day of ’99. Fitting I suppose.”
“But what is all this about?”
He laughed. “The end of our world Mr. Carter. And the beginning of the next. You’ve had the dreams of Cthulhu. He has reached out to you to Herald in his return and to lead the slave race he will leave behind. We hold our meetings in these abandoned places because our faith is… frowned and discredited by most. They will perish or bow. The Satanists get the nicer abandoned homes, so we get the decent homes. I am a wealthier man, thus I could afford this little party. Last year, it was in Afghanistan, headed by salliid.” He pointed to a central Asian looking man talking with a pretty blonde girl. “plenty of places to use. But messier than we’d prefer. But about you.” He clapped my shoulder. “Would you like to join our little organization? You’ve had the dreams, you’ve heard the warnings. If you don’t want to, you’re welcome to walk away right now. Or… you may stay. Be welcome with open arms. Survive the cataclysm. Learn the secrets of the universe and beyond… all of these are open to you. So, stay for this little meeting, then make your decision. Just remember: Limitless power and wealth. Practical Immortality. Survival.”
So I stayed. They all seemed like fairly decent people but they were all so different in nationalities and cultural differences, they all spoke in a tongue called “R’hlyehian” when they couldn’t understand each other’s national languages. I picked up on it fairly quickly, partially because of its simplicity, partially because I’d heard it in my sleep so much. I met a cute Japanese girl. I don’t think I need to tell you that I stayed. I adopted the worship of that god. The dreams persisted but something about the words in the dreams just felt so welcoming, and I began to understand the writing on the buildings, and I understood why they could do such incredible things. We did something that makes me laugh now but in retrospect, would have been horrifying to outsiders. We approach the time, last month the noise was 90 percent. The world is afraid, but I am not. I am waiting with anticipation. That 100 mark is when we will use the yacht, a wealthy benefactor has generously provided and we sail to end the world as we know it. I am learned of the truth. I have seen the dreams. And I see the future as it should be and I… I will gladly awaken my unearthly master from his eternal slumber! I will help purify our world of its rot! I will lead a clean race into the future as a god-king! For I am a high priest of Cthulhu… And nothing will stop me from creating our destiny…