Intro: This story is my first new project in over 3 years! I hope you enjoy it. the story follows the man Edward Joseph a Canadian museum worker, who works at the OMUH in Toronto, a fictional museum. The phone rang on an early Thursday morning. I was half asleep when I picked it up to find it was the museum curator calling me, telling me to hurry to the museum for a new find. So I steadily got out of my be, looking terrible as I always do in the morning and changed into my brown suit and blue jeans I wear for work, I then proceeded to quickly get to the Ontario Museum of Unnatural History. "I've been waiting an hour for you Edward!", the curator yelled at me as I came through the large glass doors. I quickly apologized and explained that it wasn't exactly the best time to call me to come to work. "Well, let me tell you what I asked you to come here for Edward", he then went on about the OMUH archaeologists discovering an amazing new artifact that they found in countryside of England. "And you want me to go and check it's authenticity like always?", he nodded. "You leave for London, England tomorrow", he said reassuringly, I simply gasped. "Why am I going to England? Don't they send the artifacts usually?", he simply laughed, his large belly shaking with him. "Well Edward, according to the head of the project, Miss Annabel Davis, requests that you come there personally since the artifact is too fragile to transport at the moment", he gave me a big grin and a pat the back as he walked past me. "Hope you enjoy London Edward!", he said as he walked out the doors. I simply stood there in awe. I was going to London. I got up at 7:00 to get a drive down to the airport the next day. I didn't have much in my bags except for some clothes and books, but it was still quite heavy. The taxi pulled to a rolling stop I thanked and payed the mustached driver as I got out with my black bags. A wind blew on my face, blowing what little I had of my brown hair around. I walked into the Toronto Airport, and took my seat after getting checked and giving the lady my ticket. I waited an hour until it was time for me to go, so I grabbed my bags and headed over to the plane. Many people had taken their seats by the time I got there and I quickly grabbed my seat, luckily I had nobody sitting next to me, but I did need to deal with a young child kicking my seat. I asked the kid to stop, he simply stuck his tongue out at me, so I consulted his mother. "Mam may you ask your child to stop kicking my seat?", she stared at me for a moment blankly after she woke up. To be honest didn't really look like she cared, she then told her child to stop and went back to sleeping. Sadly the child kept kicking my seat all the way to London.
When I got off the plane at the London Airport my back was sore from all the kicks I had to endure from that child. I walked slowly off to get my luggage, whilst stretching out to ease my back pain. My luggage seemed to fare a lot better than I did. I went grab it when I felt a slight tap on my shoulder, a chill ran down my spine as I quickly picked up my luggage and turned around. It was a short man with a handlebar mustache, he wore a brown suit with a silver pocket watch peeking out of the suit's pocket. "Are you Mr. Edward Joseph?", the short man asked. I slightly nodded my head in response to the odd question. "Good, good, good. My name is Myles Stevens and I am Annabel Davis' assistant, I've come to pick you up and bring you to the hotel where you will be meeting her", he then proceeded to escort me to the car. I threw my luggage into it's trunk as instructed by Myles and grabbed the passenger seat while he drove. "So what exactly is this artifact, may I ask?" "It's a surprise my friend. You will see", this confused me slightly, but I asked no more questions. For the next 10 minutes or so the car has a awkward silence, then Myles told me that we were here. I got out of the car and looked at the hotel that stood in front of me, it was a large building that resembled a large apartment building. Not very impressive compared to most hotels I've seen. Myles handed me my luggage, I thanked him quickly then turned my eyes towards the doors. Inside wasn't that much more impressive, seemed kinda run down, with paint peeling off the walls and some of the lights wouldn't even work. We walked up to the front desk clerk. She was amazingly grumpy, a wide frown covering her face. "Welcome to London River Hotel, how may I help?", she asked. "Were here with Miss Annabel Davis", Myles responded. She gave him a door number and we walked up to the second floor to room 213. Myles knocked on the door, you could hear somebody walking over to open it. A woman who I assumed to be Miss Annabel opened it. She had short brown hair and was wearing a white t-shirt and some brown slacks. "Ah Myles, you're back! And you I assume are Edward Joseph?", I shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Miss Annabel Davis" "Call me Ann", she said happily, "Me and Myles are going to grab a bite to eat, would you like to come to discuss the artifact with me?", I told her I would be happy to. We walked into the room and I put my luggage down in the room and Ann grabbed her coat. We then proceeded to head out for dinner.
It was cold out that evening when we were walking to the restaurant. The streets were busy that night in London people everywhere, it reminded me of Toronto a bit. We eventually arrived at the restaurant. It was a small brick building hidden away in the corner of a street, it had the name Agelo's Pizza Parlor above the doors. When we walked in I was hit with an amazing smell of cheese and pepperoni, it smelt almost heavenly. We were approached by a waitress with a few menus in her hand. "Feel free to sit at any free table and we will take your order in a moment", she said happily. Ann and Myles started towards a table and I followed. We then took our seats on the red leather chairs. A few moments later the waitress took our orders, we all ordered and then I broke the silence between us. "So Ann what exactly is the artifact that I came here to see, if you'll tell me now?", she laughed a bit and smiled at me. "Well Edward it's a pot", I then laughed for a moment and looked at her like she was joking. "A pot? I was sent here for a pot? What's so special about a pot?!", some other people in the restaurant looked at me, I apologized for yelling. "This is no normal pot Edward. It's in almost perfect condition even though carbon dating puts it at over 500 years old", that grabbed my attention. No pot should be able to last for 500 years unscathed. "Where did you find this pot?", this time Myles answered. "We found it in a cave out in the country". "Can we happen to see this pot?", Ann nodded. "Okay, let's go then", Ann motioned for me to stop. She then explained that we still need to eat our food, so I sat down and waited for our pizzas. Once we finished our pizzas and paid, Ann got us a taxi and we drove off to the excavation site. It was farther from London than expected and after an hour of driving in the countryside we made it. We all got out and Myles paid the taxi driver. Ann said that the site was just over the hill, but when we got over the hill we were horrified at what we saw. The site was in flames and some workers were frantically trying to put out the flames, we quickly ran to the site. "What happened!", Ann yelled. One of the workers ran up to us, he looked exhausted. "Some men in black robes came and took the pot then tried to burn the site", the man said tiredly. But that wasn't it he handed Ann a paper. "What's this?", she looked at it then read it. She seemed terrified when she was done, I asked her to hand it to me. It read the following. We will release he who waits in his prison. And he will soon rule again, for he is the lord of nightmares and tonight he will rule again.
Flames still burned in the background and workers still ran around trying to put the flames out. But all we could think about was the letter, what did it mean. I quickly realized that even though the letter was confusing, whatever this group wanted to do was happening tonight and it involved the pot and whatever they were doing wasn't good. "Where did they go?", I asked the man who gave Ann the letter. He catched his breath a bit and pointed west towards the forest. "Ann we need to follow those men a get back the p-", Myles interrupted me. "Sir I must say that to take action against these men would be a terrible idea. We must let the law handle them". "If we just let them escape, who knows what terrible things they will do? We must stop them before they can hurt anybody else", Ann looked like she was trying to decide at who to go with, while Myles simply blew the argument off. "I think we should get the men", Ann said finally. Myles seemed quite angry at her choice and left calling a taxi and leaving. I asked Ann what his problem was. She told me he can sometimes get quite angry if nobody does what he asks. "So how do you plan to catch up with these men Edward? We have no idea where they are except that they went West", I thought to myself for a second. "Well these men were on horses. Those horses should've left tracks, we may be able to follow those", I then called over one of the men who was working on putting out the fire. "Do you still have some provisions?", I asked. "Yes we do, but not much, most of it burned in fire", I could smell smoke still, but the fire was almost out. "Grab us what you can and after you've put out the fire head home for the night", he didn't seemed to impressed by the demand. "I'm sorry but we only can take orders from Miss. Annabel", Ann quickly looked at him and told him it was fine, he nodded in response and headed off to grab us some provisions. We helped put out the fire whilst waiting, then when he returned we headed out into the forest.
The instance we stepped in the forest I felt a sense of gloom as the tall trees with their long branches hanged over over us, making the dark night, darker. There was no sounds to be heard, all was silent as if it was hiding away from an evil waiting to snatch it up. Ann seemed undisturbed by this and actually seemed quite determined rather than afraid. We followed the tracks for what seemed to be hours, but was only mere minutes. "Ann do you even know where were going?", I asked angrily. "All we need to do is follow these tracks Edward and we're bound to find them soon enough", at that instant we heard a branch crack. We stopped in our tracks. "Who's there?", there was no response to Ann's question. "I don't like this Ann we should turn back". "No, we can't. It was probably just an animal", then I felt steel against the back of my neck. "Stop where you are", I heard a voice say from behind me. I heeded his words cautiously. "Now turn around both of you", we turned around and before we could do or say anything we were knocked out cold. I don't know what occurred after that as you would expect from a man knocked out cold, I was able to get a quick glance at the man before we were knocked out. He resembled that of what was described to us at the camp, men in black robes. Eventually I came too, before Ann did and here I was tied up to a tree looking at a man in a black robe. He held a silver knife with an odd engraving on it and an engraving on the hilt that resembled an eye. "Wh-who are you?", I asked as I struggled to free myself. He simply snickerd in response as he slowly put his blade into leather holster. "I think the question you should be asking is who are we", he told me. "The truth is that we are the Cult of Nightmares, worshipers of Kraz'Cadoma, the Nightmare Lord", I was confused for a moment at what he said, when Ann woke up. She was terrified, screaming in terror. I calmed her down and explained what I could understand to her. "So what are you going to do to us, may I ask?", Ann questioned without hesitance. He looked at her for a moment then let out a small laugh. "Well I was told by our leader to kill anybody who came to investigate, so I would think I will kill you", he then reached for his knife in the holster. What were we going to do? I thought quickly of any way we could escape from our deaths, then I came up with an idea. He inched towards us with his silver knife out, when I kicked him in the groin. He reeled in pain and dropped the knife, I quickly grabbed it with my feet as he feel to the ground moaning. I brought it over to my hands tied to the tree and quickly worked on cutting the rope the best I could. I cut myself free in a few minutes, when the cult member started to get up. "You! Where is my knife?", he yelled as I got up and stabbed his leg, sending him to the ground as I gave him a swift punch to the face. I quickly untied Ann, who was terrified at everything that just happened and we ran as far away as we could.
We ran as quickly as we could from where we were taken. Terror still ran through our minds but for now we knew we were safe from harm. We sat down on the back of a tree to catch our breath and rest our aching bones. It was then that I realized that I had no idea where we were, we were lost in these putrid woods. "Do you know how to get back to where we were Ann?", she looked around. "I don't", she sad quietly with a hint of worry. "Well the best we can do is try to find the tracks again" "But what about those men?", to be honest I had no idea what to do about those men who said they were in a cult. I simply assured her that we'd be fine and that seemed to be enough. We then roamed the forest for about an hour, we had no luck in finding a way out or even finding those tracks. When all hope seemed lost then, we heard the sound of horses. "Get down!", I quickly said. We jumped down into a shrub nearby and hid. Then the horses passed. About 5 men jumped down to the ground, all we could see was the robes they wore and the knives they held on their sides. "Are you sure they came through here?", we could here a voice say. "Yes sir I followed their tracks, I want those fools dead for what they did to my leg", I gasped a little, it was the man I stabbed in the leg. "Wait did you hear that?", there was silence for a few moments. Then the shrub we were hiding under was cut away with a knife and we were pulled out. We were met with the 5 hooded men, one of them had his his robe drenched in blood and tear in the fabric where I stabbed him. "Let us bring them to the temple for the ritual", the one who was called master said. "But sir look what they di-", before he could finish anything he was stabbed. He fell to the ground dead. "Get on the horse and put a blindfold on them", the 3 other men in the group nodded, we where fitted blindfolds and tied up. We where then thrown onto a horse, now I knew we were dead. To be continued!
I couldn't tell you how long we were on that horseback or where we were going, but I did know that I didn't want to be part of any ritual. It wasn't until a little after I thought that, that we were taken off the horse and carried somewhere. The air where we were was rustic and old, smelling of stone and decay. We were then thrown to the ground and had our blindfolds removed, we were in a cave with a bunch of cultists. "Welcome to the Temple of Nightmares, an old temple that was lost many years ago and was hidden underground. Until you found it in your spelunking adventures Ann", the leader said. Ann was baffled. "How do you know my name?!" "I'm surprised you don't recognize me", we were confused. We couldn't see his face that well, but we knew him? He then removed his hood and I was shocked. It was Myles. "Myles?! You're the leader!", I said. He simply smirked at me, "But how? What is this?" "Well Edward, I've been this cult's leader ever since my father passed away, it's quite the family business wouldn't you say? Now let us begin the ritual shall we?, he then walked up to a stone altar and picked up the stolen pot. "The pot?", Ann said inquisitively, "You stole the pot?". "Yes, it's very important. When you found it here and took it back to the surface, you really helped us with the summoning of our master, who was lost many years ago when sealed in this pot by powerful magic. Quite lucky too saying you shouldn't have been here", he then went back to preparing whatever ritual they kept speaking of. I looked at Ann and whispered to her. "What did he mean by you not supposed to be here?", she seemed worried, like she did often in these situations. "I sometimes go on expeditions in areas I shouldn't be to see if I can find anything near the dig, me and Myles found this cave and that pot, it was such a great find I couldn't leave it there so me and Myles lied to everyone about where we found it. It seems I caused more trouble for everyone than if I just left it there", she seemed ashamed of herself and almost started crying. "The preparations are complete! Let the ritual begin", the cultists and Myles began to chant in an unknown and eerie language. The pot was shaking with their chanting. "All he requires now is a sacrifice and the lord of nightmares will be free!", Myles took out his knife and walked towards us while chanting with the other cultists. "Do not fear death, embrace it, for death is only the beginning of the end", he brought his knife high into the air, then it went flying to the side out of his hand, killing a cultist instead. "I guess that will do", they began chanting again, but in different words it seemed. "What are we going to do?" I whispered to Ann, when I asked that I noticed her hands were free from the ropes that held them. "Don't worry I have a plan", she pulled out a knife from her pocket and got up. "Myles!", he turned around, looked at her and stopped talking, "This ends now!", with those words she threw the knife hitting Myles right in the torso. He fell to the ground with a big thump. The cultists looked up and stopped chanting. "We better run". "Get them, they killed the master!", Ann quickly helped me up and we ran as fast as we could, trying to find the exit. "Follow the footprints in the dust", I reminded Ann. We followed the footprints we could make up, with a roaring crowd behind us. "I see light!", Ann helped me up as we climbed out of the cave. "What do we do? We can't outrun the horses?", Ann went up to the top of the cave entrance and pushed down a large boulder that was near the ledge, blocking of the entrance right before they got out. She trapped them in that cave for the rest of their lives. 10 days later... I made it back to Canada earlier that week. The OMUH curator was a little angry I couldn't bring back the pot, even after I explained what happened, he just let out a jolly laugh. Life returned to normal after a while, but I will never forget what happened on that one eldritch night... The End. Thanks to everyone who was supportive and really enjoyed this story! I worked really hard to make as good as I could for a short horror/mystery story. If you have any questions about the story ask in the comments or if you enjoyed it feel free to like it.
Wow that is so great! could u give me a pointer (or 326) on mine? I just started but: https://empireminecraft.com/threads/what-do-u-think-of-targets-9.67648/#post-1232276 I wrote this a few years back so I needed to edit heavily but what do u think? oh yeah and I am now totally following u and this story!
Sorry it took me a bit to respond, sometimes alerts don't show up. I think it's ok to be honest, but I find that there was no build up and it was rushed.
