Ch.121Ch.8 – And Then There Was Nothing (6)

The door opened, and people moved along, each discussing the last auction. Everyone glanced at Aurora, but she paid no attention. Shortly after, those who had won auction items were guided to a separate room. Emma Scully remained seated, and I sat beside her.

“You’ve got a wealthy helper, I see? Well, they say the children of earth are better at calculations than the children of heaven. It’s a shame it didn’t end up in my hands. Still, I’m glad it went to someone ‘friendly.'”

I asked her why. Emma leaned in slightly and looked around the room.

“Don’t look back. Just know that a man with a fine mustache is glaring at us. He has two accomplices—one holding a newspaper in the back corridor and another near the exit. The bulge in his pocket suggests he’s carrying a large pistol.”

The Arkham Auction House has armed security guards with shotguns. Even so, there’s no need to provoke the watchers.

Besides, the auction house is still noisy. Room 3 has finished, but auctions continue in other rooms. Given the situation, they won’t do anything reckless. I didn’t look back.

Emma put her arm around my shoulder and leaned her head against mine. From behind, we might have looked like an affectionate couple. But the story she told me in her languid, soft voice was anything but.

“That sculpture was taken from Yig’s temple. Yig is a simple yet extreme god. When he thinks he’s been helped, he gives unwanted rewards, and when he feels wronged, he pursues relentlessly for revenge.

Once, Yig worship spread across the American continent, but devotees tired of his extreme nature abandoned him. Yig became enraged and cast various curses upon this land. War. Plague. Famine.

But none of these were enough to quell his anger, and eventually, he sank an entire continent. People often say Antarctica is a continent while the Arctic is not, but did you know it wasn’t always that way, long ago?”

Emma’s smile was filled with bitterness.

“The forgotten continent… even the gods wouldn’t know how many lands and empires have sunk that way. If there were gods who cared for us benevolently, that is. But now, those sunken lands are rising again. Do you know why?”

I had no idea. Aurora still hadn’t arrived. Emma looked around again.

“R’lyeh is rising. The time is near. The sinking of Innsmouth was just a sign. One land sinks, so naturally one rises… The highest peak of R’lyeh emerged long ago, and the priests are secretly conducting rituals.

All the good and evil people of the world are gathering at R’lyeh’s peak solely for survival, but how long can they hold back the unfathomable malice?”

R’lyeh? Isn’t that where Cthulhu sleeps?

It was difficult to follow Emma’s sudden leap. And I still wondered what connection that stone ornament had with R’lyeh. Emma didn’t answer my first question, but she did answer the second.

“That ornament curses its owner. It means being relentlessly pursued by Yig’s servants. Yig wants his property back. In other words, if you possess the intact stone ornament, wouldn’t you face Yig’s wrath directly?”

Logically yes, but who would do such a crazy thing?

“You’re naive. Travel anywhere, city or countryside, in the most helpless and vulnerable state you can imagine. You’ll see incomprehensible kindness and unfathomable malice as they truly are. What we’re fighting now is malice. I told you, Yig sank an entire continent. Conversely, that means he could raise one, doesn’t it?”

Emma fell silent as footsteps approached.

It was a janitor. The insensitive man swept the floor with his broom, treating us not as people but as inconvenient obstacles.

He left through the front door, and through the open gap, we could hear auction sounds from another room. Only after all traces of presence had disappeared did Emma continue.

“Whoever collects that ornament is full of malice. With Yig’s statue, they’ll desecrate him by worshipping other gods before it. I’m involved not because I like Yig. I’m here for the poor, ignorant souls who don’t know this is happening, and because only I can resolve this.”

Emma gently rested her head against the side of mine.

“But I never expected the second piece to appear at auction, and for your helper to buy it. So you have one task. Convince that woman. Hand the item over to me and forget about this. That’s how you can protect your beautiful girlfriend.”

I couldn’t agree. Aurora bought the item with her money. And knowing Aurora’s personality, if told about a curse, she would fight rather than flee.

“You want to know how to fight back? Are you in your right mind?”

Emma reproached me.

“Just because you’re not an ordinary being doesn’t mean the innocent soul beside you isn’t. She may be brave and strong, but she’s purely human. And for humans, there are realms they should never see. No human can stand against an irresistible disaster. Run away. Take her and leave. This is my responsibility.”

The front door opened, and people returned. I jumped to my feet. Aurora appeared, holding a security case in one hand. She held her chin high like a triumphant general.

“Can you hold this for me?”

The case was surprisingly light. Though it had looked like a heavy stone, I could barely feel any weight beyond the case itself. Aurora looked down at Emma.

“How strange. I thought federal agents caught thieves. Trying to openly steal ‘someone else’s’ property seems too obvious, doesn’t it, Agent Catherine Scully?”

Emma smiled gently.

“Ownership can change at any time. Like what’s in that case. Thanks for the money, but I need to take this item.”

Aurora’s face hardened.

“You know how much I paid, right?”

“Isn’t it cheap compared to the price of your life?”

“Ah. What are you going to do? Have the Security Bureau arrest me? Wow, you’re a complete robber.”

I was thinking about taking both women out when I noticed something odd. It was quiet. Too quiet. The auction sounds we’d been hearing had stopped. As if someone had suddenly turned down the speaker volume. I waved my hand between the two women.

“Oh shit.”

Aurora’s eyes flashed. She looked behind us. The man with the newspaper, the man with the gun in his pocket, and the mustached man were walking toward us. The mustached man held a black cane. Emma also stood up, pushing her chair back.

“You seem young, but you have a lot of money?”

The man’s face wore that same smile, as if cut out and pasted from a magazine. Aurora answered kindly:

“You’re young too, you bastard.”

The men let out hollow laughs. Emma tugged slightly at my collar. Judging by Aurora’s slight flinch, she must have sent her the same signal.

The mustached man struck his cane on the floor a couple of times.

“I admit it. I don’t have money right now. But give me three days, and I’ll pay back what you paid plus interest. So hand over that case.”

“Oh, really? Then invest that money in me. Give me three days, and I think half the Massachusetts east coast will be mine.”

“Indeed. You’re amusing, aren’t you?”

The mustache man snickered. But his eyes never left us.

“Look. I’m trying to help you. That object curses its owner. Avoid the curse and get more money. Isn’t that good?”

“I think I’m already cursed.”

Aurora didn’t hesitate. But I noticed her slightly bending her knees.

“Just talking to someone as filthy-looking as you is disgusting.”

“Oh…”

The mustached man’s cane pointed at us as if it were a gun. His other hand was drawing circles in the air.

“Duck!”

Aurora quickly turned around. Emma and I did the same. Fortunately, the janitor hadn’t closed the front door, and we quickly ran out. Emma swiftly closed the door, then gently placed her right hand on it while reciting something.

“Are you making a confession to the door?”

But Aurora also saw the bluish flame emanating from Emma’s hand. Soon the flame covered the entire door. Emma turned around.

“It won’t hold long. Hurry!”

We ran toward the open corridor. I drew my revolver. But outside the corridor door was—

“Damn.”

A garden. A garden surrounded by high walls topped with iron bars. There wasn’t even a door leading outside.

“Block the garden door!”

Aurora ran to the outside of the fence. She put her fingers in her mouth and whistled sharply. Then, after scanning the garden perimeter, she flung open a storage box and pulled out a shovel and pickaxe. Emma and I closed the garden door. Fortunately, the garden door had a pipe-shaped handle, so we could insert the pickaxe handle like a bar.

“I called the kids. Just a little longer… What is that!”

There was a popping sound, and the door Emma had sealed burst open. People poured through the broken door. There were people who had been conducting auctions in other rooms, and the janitor too, but the mustached man and his two henchmen were nowhere to be seen.

Something was wrong with them. Their eyes weren’t human eyes, but slit vertically like snake eyes. Their tongues protruded from their mouths, flicking, and their gait was slithery.

“Do I have to see this madness here too?”

Aurora gripped the shovel handle firmly, ready to split heads with the blade if anyone came close. But then—

“How nice to see three mice in one place.”

The voice came from outside the fence. It was the mustached man and three others. The mustached man threw his cane into the garden.

The cane writhed on its own. Its body swelled and scales appeared. The gold trim on the handle became a decoration around its neck, and the thick handle transformed into a snake’s head. Flicking its tongue and spreading its thick scales, it resembled a cobra.

Hiss-aah!

When it opened its mouth, venom dripped from needle-like fangs. Plants withered and smoked where the venom touched. I aimed my gun, but the cobra lowered its posture, howling like a beast.

Bang! Bang!

The entranced people pounded on the door in unison.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang

The pickaxe handle wedged in the door crack began to bend.

Creak-crack

The wooden door splintered under the pressure. The mustached man kicked the iron bars with his shoe.

Hissss-aah!

The snake leaped. Aurora swung the shovel violently, sending the snake flying. The direct hit sent the snake tumbling into a rose bush.

Kiyaah! Kiyaah!

Aurora threw the shovel away. The blade was rapidly melting, emitting smoke.

“What on earth is that…”

Crash!

The door finally burst open. People with arms outstretched poured through. Emma Scully raised her left hand and drew it downward.

“Stand back.”

Aaaaargh! Kyaaaak!

People suddenly collapsed to the ground. As if struck by invisible whips, they clutched their bodies and wailed. Their pupils remained vertically slit like snakes, and snake-like howls came from their mouths.

When the entranced people tried to stand again, she swept her hand from right to left.

“Stand back, children of vipers! Know that such as you could be fashioned from dried worms by the roadside! Realize that even insects burst in birds’ beaks are more valuable than you! Shadow that cannot exist alone, foolish darkness parasitic on light, realize your ignorance!”

Emma raised her hand high. The golden snake turned red-hot. There was a burning smell from her wrist, but Emma continued her incantation despite gritting her teeth.

“Therefore, you sick ones, those misled by the serpent of darkness, behold the bronze serpent on the pillar. Those who see the serpent shall live, and those who do not shall be buried in its coils. Awaken!”

Sizzle! Her wrist trembled. A nauseating smell of burning flesh filled the air. The golden snake was now so bright it was frightening to look at directly. People cried, screamed, and clawed at the air as if trying to tear out their eyes.

“Save me! Save me! The snake bit me! A snake!”

People crawled on the ground, shouting.

“Light… see the… see the light!”

Emma’s body swayed. Aurora and I supported her.

“See the… cough! Light… see the light! Ugh, cough!”

A blood clot the size of a fist shot from Emma’s mouth. Aurora tried to pull her down, but Emma shook her head.

“You’ll die, you idiot!”

“Must… must save…”

“You’re going to die!”

Emma stubbornly refused to move.

Vrooooom!

Suddenly, headlights flashed from across the garden. A huge truck was driving straight toward us. Aurora cursed.

“Stupid bastards, so damn slow! Ram it!”

The truck didn’t slow down. With a roar, it crashed straight through the fence. After pushing through quite a distance, the truck stopped, and Aurora and I pushed Emma onto the back. Aurora climbed in next, and as I was about to get on—

Swish!

The snake rose from the rose bush toward me. I instinctively swung the case, hitting the snake and sending it flying. But in doing so, I lost the case.

Bang!

As soon as the gunshot rang out, Aurora grabbed my collar and threw me into the truck bed. She pounded the floor hard.

“Go! Now!”

The truck roared away. The mustached man’s henchmen hesitated as if trying to climb onto the truck, but soon gave up and retreated. The truck sped through the streets of Arkham. Aurora quickly got up and checked Emma’s condition.

“I don’t want to deal with a corpse, so stay down! I’m calling a doctor!”

She repeatedly slapped Emma’s cheeks, pulled back her eyelids, and slightly lifted her head. Aurora examined Emma’s arm.

“My God…”

The arm that had been burning moments ago was healing, though still oozing. As if time were reversing, the wound healed and the discharge subsided.

“The case…”

But Emma’s eyes were unfocused.

“The case… must find…”

“It was an empty case, you fool!”

Aurora shouted.

“You think I’d carry something so valuable? I sent it to my lawyer!”

“Cough, cough!”

Emma coughed up blood again. Aurora wiped the blood with the hem of her dress.

“Protect, must protect…”

“Protect your own life!”

“No… protect… protect…”

Emma’s left hand gripped Aurora’s arm.

Her right hand was pointing at me.

Emma’s head tilted back.

Aurora quickly supported her head.

“She’s fainted. That’s probably for the best.”

Aurora sighed with relief.