FFVIII characters Squall Leonheart, Quistis Trepe, Zell Dincht, Selphie Tilmitt, Irvine Kinneas, Rinoa (Caraway) Heartilly, Seifer Almasy, Xu (Yie) and Cid Kramer: property of Square.

The names and characters of Arkham, Miskatonic University, Miskatonic Valley, Celephais, Leng, Nyarlathotep, Hesper Payne, Richard Upton Pickman, Randolph Carter, Dr. Herbert West, Walter Gilman, King Kuranes, zoogs and lamp efts: property of Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s estate.

The name and character of “Cultes des Goules” and Comte d’Erlette as well as some dreamlands concepts: property of Chaosium Inc.

The following story is a cross over between the world and characters of 1920’s horror writer H.P. Lovecraft and the characters of Final Fantasy VIII. Concepts and characters were in particular inspired by the following of HP Lovecraft’s short stories:

“The dreams in the witch-house”

“The statement of Randolph Carter”

“Pickman’s model”

“The dream-quest of unknown Kadath”

“The silver key”

“Herbert West reanimator”

“The call of Cthulhu”







True Targets



by Fire Ceremony

Part 1

It was the end of the summer semester. A nervous tension lay over the campus of Miscatonic University. The university and faculty libraries were filled to capacity with students cramming for the finals. The hot and humid weather, unusually hot for mid June, added to the tension and created an atmosphere of oppressive reluctance.

I was in the middle of the last review of data necessary for the course in hyper-Euclidean geometry, the last obligatory course at the graduate studies of parapsychology. The inter disciplinary science of parapsychology was my chosen field of study and the sole reason I had traveled to the city of Arkham and Miscatonic University in the first place. During the year that had passed, my first as a graduate student, I had comitted myself intensely to the study of all paranormal phenomena known to science, from hauntings to sightings of alien beings. I had hounded Professor West for access not only to the library belonging to the faculty of Psychology and Parapsychology, but also to the small and closed collection of special source literature which the faculty had in possession. The volumes in this collection were easily the most interesting and accurate of the sources of paranormal activity I had found at the university. The ancient tomes not only described strange and disturbing fables of distant past and location, but also mysterious and inexplicable events taken place right here in Arkham city or surrounding towns and areas. These events recorded by hardy locals or professional preternaturalists I committed to memory with an interest bordering on the manic.

Having been forced to discontinue my private research due to the approaching final exams, I had decided to extend the studies over the summer, forfeiting travel for staying in Arkham. I expected to arrange field trips to neighbouring towns to witness the sites of reported paranormal activity by myself. I did not spare much thought to the horrors and bottomless fears the poor wretches whose stories I gloated at during late nights in the library had been forced to face and which by all probability had ended their days or sent them into irreversible madness. That I myself would soon face the same horrors and fears did not strike me as probable.

I was crossing Library Place early Tuesday morning on my way towards the graduate student dormitory, when I heard the sound of springy steps trying to catch up with me. I recognized them as belonging to my co student Irvine Kinneas. Judging from the smell of his breath, he was obviously on his way back to the dorms from a night’s drunken revelry at some pub or other downtown at either a pre exam celebration, exam celebration, post exam celebration, leaving for the summer celebration or simply a pre summer party. The moment before Kinneas caught up with me, I turned towards him and muttered his name. Kinneas stopped, panted alcoholic fumes down into my face and said, out of breath:

“Why damn you, Leonheart! How on earth did you know it was me?”

Then he laughed and slapped my back. I shook my head and walked on. Kinneas followed.

“Not on your way to the library to study now are you?” Kinneas said after a moment’s silence. Living in the room across the corridor from mine and belonging to the same small faculty as I did, Kinneas was well aware of my nightly schedule when not having to rise early for morning lectures. I shook my head.

“Back to the dorms?” he asked, more for conversation’s sake than anything else. I nodded, keeping my eyes on the ground as we walked towards the steepled four story brick building that was our home. “Wonderful! Me too! I’m so beat I could sleep for days!” Kinneas exclaimed in a semi drunken enthusiasm and did a little hop on the ground. We walked on in silence through the purple pre dawn stillness.

As we parted outside our respective rooms, Kinneas faltered.

“Where is Almasy keeping himself these days?” he asked, quiering about my room mate, whom he knew relatively well. “I haven’t seen him a long while, at least three days.” I turned my key in the lock and shrugged.

“I have no idea. I haven’t seen him for a few days, either. He’s not been in his room. I just assumed he was with Caraway or one of you people.” Kinneas shook his head.

“Not that I know of. But what do I know what goes on between him and blue dress anyway?” Kinneas smirked, alluding to Almasy’s close friendship with Rinoa Caraway, one of the female students at our faculty. “You don’t think he’s planning to ditch Professor Mapster’s course again?” Kinneas speculated. “Seifer’s bound to fail if he doesn’t start doing anything soon. Four dimensional geometry isn’t exactly easy.”

“I have no idea,” I commented. “I don’t get involved in any of Almasy’s dubious private affairs.” Kinneas grinned at my bad mood.

“What do you think we’ll get served at Thursday’s exam?” he asked, oblivious of or intentionally ignoring my lack of enthusiasm for the conversation. “I bet Prof. Mapster’s going give us a punishment of an exam which we’ll all fail. Except for one or two of us.” He grinned down at me in obvious mirth at his own wittiness.

“I hope not,” I replied. “I have some problems grasping the entire concepts myself.” Kinneas nodded.

“Haven’t we all? I certainly have. Well, good luck on the preparations and I’ll see you in “the tomb” tomorrow. Maybe we could help each other out with the geometry?” he suggested. I nodded non comittally and bade him good night.

Inside my room, I quickly undressed and went to bed, tired after a long night’s studies. The night was oppressively hot. Even with the window fully opened, the air in the room was warm and still. I tossed and turned in bed for half an hour, metered out by the quarterly chimes of the bell tower at the outskirts of campus, then fell into an uneasy sleep.

I awoke staring at the white curtains at the end of my bed. The faint light of the street lamp outside shone through the translucent fabric. The curtains moved slightly, but there was no movement of air in the room, the night was as windless and silent as earlier. Suddenly an intense fear washed over me. The curtains were moving because there were someone outside moving them! Transfixed with terror, I stared at the window. The curtains shook and were pushed out from the window frame. My heart was pounding in my ears. A faltering hand appeared in the middle of the window sill, then another. I had a glimpse of dark, rubbery skin and large bony knuckles. The sight of the hands broke the paralysis that immobilized me, I threw the sheet aside, rushed forward and began hitting the hands in the window sill. I was determined that whomever was in the middle of entering the room was not going to succeed. Searching for something to hit the intruder with, I scanned the nearby bedstands. Almasy’s large alarm clock, which I had stopped in his absence because of its loud ticking, made a decent weapon. I grabbed the metal object and pounded it on the hands in the window.

I heard a muffled scream and the noise of the would-be intruder as he fell down into the bushes three stories below. I peered down into the semi darkness and saw a shadow pick itself up from the ground and heard the sound of rustling vegetation as the intruder began moving. I turned and bolted for the door, rushed out into the hallway. Then down the stairs, taking three at a time and out onto the front steps. I scanned the emptiness of Library Place and the lawn and bushes bordering it. Empty and not even the branches of the trees were moving. I jumped down from the entrance steps onto the lawn in front of the dorm. I walked over to the bushes below my window to closer inspect the site where the creature had fallen down.

Broken branches and flattened bushes revealed the site of impact. I searched for more tangible signs of the creature, but the poor light of early dawn made it difficult to investigate. As I picked through the broken branches and foliage, a stench rose into the air. The creature had left traces of itself after all, tiny pools of greyish slime which smelled like a trip down the sewers.

“Pssst!” a noise came from above. I straightened my back and looked up. A blond head protruded from my open window.

“What the hell are you doing, Leonheart?” the voice of Zell Dincht, Kinneas’s room mate hissed through the quiet night.

“None of your business!” I hissed back, relieved to recognize the voice. Another head appeared.

“Get back in Leonheart or you’ll be thrown out by the matron for breaking the curfew.” Kinneas. Always eager to offer good advice.

“There is a lighter on my bedstand on your right, throw it down to me!” I hissed up at them.

“Say what?” Dincht asked. I repeated the message. Moments later Dincht reappared in the window and threw the lighter down. I caught and lit it and began picking through the leaves and branches in the hope of finding more traces of my nightly visitor.

The front door creaked and Kinneas and Dincht appeared on the front steps. I quickly gathered some leaves and scooped a sample of the grey slime onto them, then folded the leaves together in my hand and left the lawn.

“What you got there?” Dincht asked. I walked past him and Kinneas and back inside the hall. The door slammed open and my two costudents returned to the hall.

“Is the door locked?” I asked.

“What? Oh, “ Dincht said and returned to the front door to lock it. I proceeded to ascend the stairs.

“What the hell happened?” Kinneas asked.

“Someone tried to get into my room,” I replied. “From the window.” Kinneas exchanged glances with Dincht and snickered.

“A girl?” Kinneas asked. “Lucky you. She must have been quite desperate to risk life and limb climbing three stories to get at you. Do you know who it was?” I ignored the stupid question.

“Whoever it was fell down and left something in the branches below,” I said. “I’m going to take a closer look at it tomorrow.”

“Blood?” Kinneas ventured.

“Doesn’t look like it,” I said, “ but some kind of fluid at least.”

We reached our rooms on third floor.

“Well, good night, gentlemen,” I said and took hold of the door, preparing to close it.

“Wait a moment,” Kinneas said. “Are you sure you’re going back in there? What if whoever tried to get into your room comes back? You said so yourself you didn’t know who it was.” I grimaced at them.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You can sleep in our room tonight if you want to,” Dincht offered. I shook my head.

“It’s all right.”

“When are you going to look at the stuff you found,” Kinneas asked. “Can we come too?”

“Chemistry lab at 2 pm tomorrow,” I replied. “We can have a look then.” I knew there was no way I would manage to get rid of these two unless they were allowed to come along. Dincht and Kinneas filed into their own room.

“Well, see you then and good night. Don’t let the bed bugs bite,” Dincht snickered, taking hold of the door.

“Good night,” I replied and closed my door. I walked over to the open window and scanned the darkness below where the creature had fallen before closing the window. With the window shut, the room would become almost unbearably hot, but it would beat sleeping with it open by a long shot.