… and awoke to total chaos. Wind was howling in my ears. My hair and face was wet. I opened my eyes. I was covered with glass shards. The room was dark as if it were in the middle of the night. The window was broken and a storm was sending showers of cold rain in gusts through the window and across the room.

Irvine was suddenly in front of me.

“Did you get anything?” he yelled at me over the noise of the wind.

“Yes!” I replied. “I received a pattern to banish Payne’s monster. A high frequency wide range pattern. Perfect for what we need to do!” I could not describe how good it was to see Irvine again. It didn’t matter a storm was raging and we had a monster on our hands. I was out of the dream world and would be able stay with my friends for a while longer.

Zell entered the room. Beind him the door banged on its hinges in the air pressure from the broken window.

“Where were you?” Zell yelled. “We waited and waited and you never turned wet nor cold. We had to move you when the storm began!” A lightning illuminated the room with the intensity of the flash of a welder’s arc.

“We couldn’t wake you!” Irvine yelled, his hair flying in the wind blasting in from the broken window. “I think the opium drops were too strong!”

“Nevermind!” I yelled back. “I got the pattern, let’s make some bullets to hit Payne’s thing with before it gets here!”

“It’s here already!” Zell yelled. “The storm started an hour ago straight out of the blue. I just got word from Nida that an enormous monster has been spotted in the outskirts of town!”

“Where?” I asked.

“By Miscatonic River, on the other side. But the monster’s huge and moves fast. We have to hurry up!”

“What is it?” Irvine asked.

“I don’t know. Nida just said it was huge, huge, larger than a circus tent.”

“Where are the others?” I asked.

“Outside in front of the emergency center. They’re preparing patterns and light for the monster.”

“Let’s start inscribing the bullets!” I yelled. “Zell can run to the others with a copy of the pattern so they can use it too.”

“Good idea!” Irvine yelled. “Let me find my rounds and something to carve with..”

I hastily drew the pattern of the fiery eyed pentagram on a sheet of damp paper Zell handed me. I instructed him with some details about its frequency and range to make sure no changes were made in it. The pattern contained some anomalies and unusual sub patterns which could easily be mistaken as faulty rendition. But I sensed that it was these superficial contradictions which gave the pattern its potency and that they must not be changed by anyone copying the pattern. When I had finished the instructions, Zell ran off to share it with the others outside.

Then Irvine and I went to the task of using a pen knife and a screw driver to scratch the pattern into his rifle bullets. We had made twelve when Zell came running back to the room.

“Time to go, guys!” he yelled. “The monster is closing in on the town center. Quistis says you guys are to climb the bell tower to shoot at the monster from there, in the direction of the river. The rest of us will use the pattern to drive the monster towards you. I gotta run, we have some distance to drive.”

“Got it!” Irvine yelled. “Come on Squall, let’s go. We can make more bullets at the belltower.” Irvine took his rifle bag and I grabbed the rest of the gear and out we went to fetch Irvine’s car.

During the drive through Arkham, we saw that shops had closed up because of the storm and there were no people to be seen on the streets. The wind pushed and pulled on the car despite Irvine’s smooth and fast handling. The wipers went full speed, nevertheless it was difficult to see through the amount of water hitting the windshield.

“This is something,” Irvine said as he navigated the car past a tree which had fallen into the road. “We’d better stop Payne and this monster before the storm flattens the entire city.” I nodded. Irvine made a quick glance at me.

“What in all hells are you doing mate? You’re bleeding.”

“Preparations,” I muttered. “If things go as I expect, this will be most useful and necessary.” Irvine shot me a “you’re insane” glance but said nothing and turned back to concentrate on bringing us as close to the bell tower as possible.

While climbing the bell tower, faint high pitched shrieks could be heard between the volleys of thunder from outside.

“What the hell is that?” Irvine muttered and set his jaw.

“Sounds like a bloody fury!” I replied. “We’re bound to get a better view from the roof!” Not wasting more breath trying to yell over the noise of the thunder and the wind, we continued. At the top of the bell tower was the clock gears and bells.

“Mind your ears,” Irvine said. “It might start ringing any minute. We don’t want to be inside here when that happens.” He slung the rifle bag over his right shoulder and put his hands over his ears. I did the same.

We hurried past the gears. At the top of the tower was a hatch that allowed access to the bell tower roof. It was from here mechanics slid down on ropes to adjust the hands on the clock’s face when that was needed. I slid the bolt aside, opened the trapdoor and looked out. The roof was broad and slanting gently enough to be safe to stand on. I climbed out, put the bag down and reached for the rifle bag Irvine handed me. Then Irvine climbed through the trapdoor. We both crawled to the roof’s edge. The wind was too strong to be standing upright on the roof. Irvine took the rifle bag and laid down on his belly. Then he opened the bag and began loading the rifle with one of the clips we had prepared. I peered out into the darkness. The high pitched shrieking could be heard together with another distant sound. That of crumbling wooden structures and falling trees.

Across rooftops slick with rain, an unnerving sight appeared. Trees and material was thrown up into the air while the hight pitched wail continued. The cloud of material tumbling into the air moved in an horizontal direction, it was the monster walking through town.

“It’s coming closer!” Irvine yelled. The high pitched sound was now clearly audible, even with the near continuous thunder clashes and constant howl of the wind. I nodded.

“We’d better prepare!” I yelled. “We don’t know which street they’ll come along!” Irvine nodded.

“I’m ready! Just pass me the clips when I ask for them. If the pattern’s as strong as it looks, it should do the job of finishing the monster off. If not, we have done our best. Then we’ll just have to improvise! How many have we got?”

“Twelve!” I yelled. “Make more?” Irvine shook his head.

“No time! Too dark here as well. Better make every shot count! Too bad we’ve just got one rifle.”

“I’m not a shot!” I yelled back. “I’ll leave it to you!” Through the rain and darkness Irvine grinned and gave me the thumbs up. We waited in silence.

I scanned the skyline. The moving mayhem was coming closer.

“Looks like the others are succeeding in driving the monster close!” Irvine commented.

“There it is!” I yelled, spotting movement two streets away over the rooftops. Something huge and black and amorphous looking was visible over the rooftop against the night sky. It was the back of something.

“God, what a stench!” Irvine yelled and wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Could kill a man at twenty paces!” The wind carried the smell of rotten eggs and putrid acidic hot springs. When the wind blew towards us the stench was overpowering, making us gag. The wailing was now almost as loud as the thunder clashes and making it difficult to hear each other even at yelling volume.

“It’ll be visible in the cross street!” I pointed and looked at Irvine to see if he spotted the intersection two cross streets down from us, visible through another intersection.

“Stand by with clips!” Irvine yelled. “I’m ready to go, I’ll shoot as soon as it appears!” I nodded and grabbed a clip from the open bag and held it under my jacket to protect it from the rain. Irvine opened his bag, took the rifle out and put it beneath his long coat. We waited while the shrieks of the monster filled the air and the sodium flashes of lightning turned the night white then black in rapid sequence.

Suddenly, a lumbering nightmarish form appeared in the cross street thirty yards below and in front of us. The monster had no head or legs, it was simply a huge blotch of an amorphous shifting grey mass. From the center ropy tentacles were shot out and usurped back into the main body for locomotion. The central mass was more than twenty yards across and more than four stories in height. In direct line of sight, the stench coming from it was choking. Irvine brought the rifle out from his coat, took aim and fired three shots in rapid succession, his thumb working the rifle bolt with fluid grace. The empty shells flew out of the chamber in a tight arc as he emptied the clip. The noise of the monster nearly drowned out the sound of the shots. I held out the next clip for Irvine. Irvine took it and aimed again.

This time he fired two shots before yelling:

“Is it working?” Each time the shots hit the monster, it stopped in its lumbering tracks

and moved spasmodically as if it weren’t sure what to do. It was apparent the inscribed bullets affected the monster, but it wasn’t working as we expected. Even though they hit the monster, they did not banish it.

“Try more!” I yelled. Irvine reloaded and fired two more shots. The monster disappeared out of view as it lumbered behind the street corner across the intersection. Irvine looked at me.

“Just one more clip, it has to work!” he yelled. “Or this monster will flatten the town!” The monster had already rampaged several houses on its way. It didn’t seem as if it would leave voluntarily before the town was destroyed. In addition to summoning the thing from whatever hell it came from, Hesper Payne must have put it under a bind spell, which meant it wouldn’t leave unless the command it had been given in the bind spell had been carried out or it was killed.

“The monster looks like it can feel them, but they only stop it for a minute,” I yelled. seems like it’s only shrugging them off.”

“Non earthly material!” Irvine replied. “It doesn’t have flesh like we do. The monster probably has to be hit with several patterns at the same time for the pattern to take effect. Takes some time you know!” I nodded.

“It looks as if the others are directing the monster to this street,” I shouted. “I’m gonna try something when they get close enough. Hold the fire till then!” Irvine nodded.

The monster reappeared behind a house which turned to rubble as the monster shifted its bulk across it. Clouds of dust rose from the building it had demolished as it slid out onto the street. A small crowd of people could be seen following but keeping their distance from the mindless monster.

Slowly and under a loud cacophony of high pitched noise and thunder clashes, the monster lumbered its way up the street towards the bell tower. I signaled Irvine to get ready to fire again. The monster moved within ten yards of the bell tower. A yell could be heard through the storm, a magically amplified voice.

“Get out of there guys!” It was Dean Kramer. “The monster is heading straight at you. Evacuate now!” I looked at Irvine.

“You go!” I yelled. “I will jump down on the monster with the rounds and hold them to give the pattern time to reach maximum frequeny before the monster can eject them from it’s body. It’s our last hope.”

“I’m emptying this clip and then I’m gone!” Irvine yelled. “You take the last clip! Remember there’s only two rounds in it!”

“That will do!” I shouted.

“You sure you want to do this?” I nodded. Irvine nodded back and turned towards the street below us. He emptied the clip into the approaching monster. As the rounds hit it, they flared up with a bright yellow light and the monster shook. Then he put the last clip inside the rifle and handed it to me.

I rose to my knees and Irvine gave me a quick hug.

“Godspeed my friend! See you afterwards!” Then he crawled towards the hatch and

disappeared into it. I waited until the shaking and lumbering body of the monster seemed to be directly beneath the bell tower. I took aim, I had to land on top of it, landing next to it would be useless. I clutched the rifle with the patterned rounds inside and rose to my feet.

The Black Man was there, standing tall in the shearing wind and rain.

“Not leaving so soon are you?” he asked mockingly.

“You knew!” I yelled through the rain. “You knew the bullets wouldn’t work, they would be ejected by the monster! You tricked me. You said I would get to banish it, bastard!” The Black Man wagged his index finger at me.

“Now, now, flattery will get you nowhere.” His voice was clearly audible through the wind even if he didn’t raise it. His teeth shone white in the moving darkness that was his face.

“Stand back!” I yelled “I’m going to take the monster out with or without your help!”

“I don’t think so,” he replied. He waves his right hand and the rifle and the clip inside it disintegrated. The rifle dismantled in my hands and rifle parts, screws and rounds clattered down onto the slanting roof and rolled over the edge into the darkness beyond.

I looked at the small and completely useless metal spring still sitting in my hand and quickly dropped it. Then I stretched out my left hand to the Black Man, palm facing him, to let him take in the pentagram pattern I had cut into it.

“Last call is still mine!” I yelled and I lunged forward to pull him with me as I jumped from the tower. The Black Man twisted like a fish in my hands and gave a deafening shriek of rage even louder and more high pitched than the monster below, but I held onto him with all my strength as we fell through the storm. Landing on the monster felt like landing on a giant stinking cushion, it was soft but profoundly disgusting. I heard a loud ripping noise, saw a flash of bright light and then everything went black.

When I woke up, the dark clouds of the preternatural storm had broken apart, revealing the same serene blue which had dominated the month behind it. Rubble and glass shards from the rampaged buildings were still strewn across the street. Above me Dean Kramer came into view.

“Welcome back, Squall,” he said, smiling down at me. “How do you feel?” I sniffed.

“Stinky, “ I whispered. My body felt like it had been through a particularly rough binge. I didn’t want to move in case I had to throw up. The world had an uncomfortable spin I thought I recognized from the concussion a few days back. I seemed to be covered with slime from the monster and it stunk. “Is it over?” I asked. Dean Kramer nodded.

“We’re just waiting for the ambulance to arrive. The monster blew up and you were on top of it. I think you’re having concussion again. You seem to be ok otherwise.”

“Irvine?” I asked. Irvine came into view.

“Here. Made it out of the tower no problem. Good job, chap. We got rid of the monster.”

“The others?”

“They’re all fine, tired but fine.”

“The Black Man?” I asked. Kramer frowned.

“So that was him. He disappeared too. Right after the monster blew up, another monster appeared from inside the first, a black nightmare with a long tentacle sticking out of its face, giving us all a good scare. But it flew into the sky and never came back. A law of his kind, he was banished in one form and had no other choice but to take his leave. Then we found you. You must have landed right on top of the thing.”

“Ok,” I whispered and closed my eyes. I couldn’t believe it. We had won. The monster was gone and the Black Man was gone, for now. My friends had all survived the ordeal. I was happy and relieved and very tired.

A piping noise I recognized reached my ears. I opened my eyes. In the air above us, five lamp efts danced their graceful circling patterns on the mild breeze. They shone their bright eyes while taking in the small crowd and played their colored flank lights in rhythm with their happy song. People laughed and pointed at the dancing lamp efts, which were obviously enjoying the attention. One of the lamp efts circled me while it fluted something that sounded like “Car-etr, car-etr.”

“Friends of yours?” Dean Kramer asked. I nodded.

“From the dreamlands. They’re mistaking me for my uncle.”

“Not unlikely,” Kramer smiled. “Lamp efts are loyal companions with good memory. They remember anyone who responds with happiness to them and treats them well. Dr. Carter must have kept some on his travels.” I smiled. Despite the concussion, I felt better than I had in a long time. I knew everything would be all right since I wasn’t alone any more.

Dean Kramer stood and looked at the small crowd facing us.

“Ok everyone,” he said. “It’s been a long day, but we have done good work. Let’s go home and rest up. Then it’s time for a big party!”