Old Man Lovecraft's Story

Astoria, circa 1864

Samuel Lovecraft had been brought up on old sea tales his grandfather would churn out after every hardy sit-down family meal. His father certainly told enough tall tales of his own to keep Sam's imagination sharp, he also many quite a few stories to tell, being a professional scavenger and all.

When Sam was young he would often make up his own stories and tell them to father and Grandpoo, as he called him.

Bartholomew Lovecraft had lived an amazing life filled with outrageous adventures, "He has a great story for every hour of the day of a three day weekend," which was Bartholomew's son's favorite way of describing of his own father to those who didn't know him.

The wealth of personal experience was no doubt the result of his advanced age, after all the man had literally grown up with the country, being born in 1851. In 1810 his father had come to Oregon as a member of the Astor Expedition, sent by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, and would ultimately found Fort Astoria as its primary fur-trading post in the Northwest, this was also the first permanent U.S. settlement on the Pacific coast and an extremely important post for American exploration of the continent.

Situated near the mouth of the Columbia River, Astoria was named after the John Jacob Astor, the Lovecraft family would settle near the Port of Astoria; roughly two miles from the Megler Bridge which connected Washington across the river. The most senior Lovecraft had worked for the Pacific Fur Company for over 30 years, Sam's grandfather had come to the company less then a year before its ultimate demise, though the company had been in decline for many years prior to its liquidation.

The 290-ton trading ship named the Tonquin was blown up in Clayoquot Sound when its efforts to trade were turned into an attack by Tla-o-qui-aht in revenge for an insult by the ship's captain. The sole surviving crew member, after the rest were killed, set fire to the ship's magazine in order to destroy the ship.

Many natives were killed, and only one crew member survived to tell the tale. That brave crew member was Sam's grandfather, and his remembrances of that event were fuel for many a bedtime story. Nothing puts a child to sleep faster then a tale of high adventure at sea.

Recently, Sam has had an itch to try and scavenge the wreckage for possible items of worth, though he seriously doubted that he would find anything beyond a few personal items belonging to the doomed crew members.

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Sam was frantic as he swam to the surface in a desperate attempt to board his boat, the Marion Rose. The thing from the hull was hideous, tentacled and alien to anything he had ever seen in Clayoquot sound, if only he had taken his fathers and grandfathers warnings seriously. Sam thought all those stories were simply the vivid imagination of two former seamen, he had no notion that such hideous abominations could actually be trolling these waters. His regret was short live as a pulpy pinkish tentacle wrapped itself around the ankle of his right leg, pulling him down to certain death.

""Hey sailor men and sailor women, its another beautiful fall day here in Astoria. So get out of bed and jump in the ocean why don't cha."" Came the voice of Howie "Powwow" Parson, morning DJ for KMGF radio.

"Jesus, what a dream......God I hate that guy!" Sam said as he struggled his way out of the utter comfort of the soft warm bed, his wife Anne had already arisen.

Wiping the crusty sleep from the corner of his eyes Sam finally got up and headed to the kitchen; he was thinking bacon and eggs, but what he got was a single cup of coffee that his wife left out for him before going off to work her half-day shift at the cannery.

His son Ryan was already on his way to school, leaving him home alone, Sam had an obligation to attend a meeting at Bumblebee that morning, though he rather be diving, it was the perfect day for it.

Grandpa was up in his bedroom, where he spend much of his time, even at 117 years old he remained sharp and alert.

After finishing his allotted cup of coffee Sam was on his way, reluctantly.

Sam's nighttime visions were fortunately fleeting, no sooner had he begun to dream the sights and sounds of the dreary nightmare faded until Sam was finally awoken by the rays of the morning sun. Sam's first thought upon awaking was not the creepy dream-vision, but the rusty iron box sitting on the living room table.

Sam went straight for the box the second he was out of bed, bursting into the large, tastefully decorated room only to discovered that the box was gone, caught by surprise he turned toward the stairs. "Granddad!"

Within seconds Sam was at his grandfathers bedroom door, the impact of Sam's knuckles knocking on the heavy oak door caused it to open, creaking wide enough for him to gain access.

There he found the iron box sitting on a small table in front of his grandfathers bed, the box was open and empty with its contents in the hands of Sam's grandfather.

Old man Lovecraft was standing within the bright morning light that shined through the bedroom window, in his hands was what appeared to be an old film reel, he had it partially unwound and was examining the film using the sunlight to illuminate the frames and enable the old man to see what had been captured there.

"Phle'g-thon!"

The unsuspected pronunciation of this one word immediately caught Sam's interest, it sounded familiar to him, though he couldn't quite place where he had heard it before. Clearly, Sam's grandfather had something very important to tell him, the intensity of the mysterious word as it was spoken by old man Lovecraft had told Sam as much.

Now stepping fully into the room Sam would close the door behind him and wait for his grandfather to continue.

"Phle'g-thon is the god of change and transformation. It was supposed to have changed the world into what it is today, though not without opposition to these changes. The giant animal people, such as Spider, Ant, Fox, and Beaver, were the most vocal against Phle'g-thon's changes, and so as punishment it changed them into the normal animals we have today. Phle'g-thon was also said to have created the first people, made from dirt and an unknown ancient species of plant. The god was worshiped by the Nuu-chah-nulth, the Indigenous peoples of the pacific northwest coast of Canada. It was their belief and their retelling of the legend which fed and maintained the god, when the Nuu-chah-nulth were no-more the god was believed to have died, as its very existence depended upon their belief in it."

The retelling of the creatures history had taken its toll on old man Lovecraft, placing the film on the nightstand he walked over to his bed and laid down, completely exhausted. Sam stepped up to the stand and removed the reel of film, then as he turned to exit the room his grandfather grabbed Sam's right wrist.

"There is more....the part.....I pla.......y." Sam's grandfather was unable to get the words out, passing into unconsciousness before he could form a complete sentence.

Sam took the reel of film with him, as he walked out of the door Sam reached into the rusty iron box and removed the old camera, taking this second item with him Sam finally exited the room.

Some time later Sam could be seen sitting on the sand of Dark Point beach with the same film reel in his hands, studying it against the light of the sun.

Lily blinked when she caught a glimpse of blue that appeared above the water. She shook her head and squinted, looking again. But it was gone just as quickly as it had come. No. It wasn't possible. It was just her imagination. Sam and his stories. But still…

Lily jumped up so quickly that she bumped her shoes and they went tumbling into the ocean. She let out a groan and put her hands on her head as she watched them float off in the rough waters. "Damnit!" She sighed, but then remembered her purpose and spun on the rock to take off running. She ran across the rocks, stumbling a few times and scraping her hands and knees on the rough stone, but she continued running anyway.

Minutes later, Lily was at Sam's door. She rang the bell a few times, her gaze moving back toward the water as she paced in front of the door, waiting for an answer. When the door opened, she didn't even take a moment to see who had answered. She just spun. "I need to talk to the old man!"

Sam was home alone at the time, his wife Anne was busy at some Parent Association thing at his son's school, Jake had accompanied her. Sam was standing in the living room and was just about to take the first few steps up the staircase to the second floor when he heard the knocking and pounding. Placing the glass of Bourbon which he held in his hand upon the hard oak table near the stairs, Sam turned tail and walked toward the front door.

Sam opened the hinged barrier that separated the inner sanctum of the Lovecraft residence from the natural outer world to reveal a frantic and excited Lily Roman. She had made a request to see his gramps, Sam responded to her demands by opening the door wide and letting the trembling young woman inside.

"Sure, whats wrong Lil? Come on, Ill take you to see him, he should be up I heard him a few minutes ago pacing his bedroom."

Sam stepped aside to let Lily into the house, then after he closed the front door Sam took the head position and proceeded to ascend the stairs, with Lily following suit. The door to old man Lovecraft's bedroom was open and so the two visitors simply walked right in, the old man was no longer in pacing mode, but was instead sitting quietly on the edge of his bed.

"You have something to ask me young lady?"

Came the sudden surprise of speech from the oft talkative old sea dog.

When Sam asked what was wrong, Lily suddenly felt embarrassed for the reason she was there. She bit her lip, thankful when he let her in anyway and led her up to his grandfather's room. She'd met the old man a time or two, but had rarely actually spoken to him. She found herself somewhat in awe of how spry he still was at his age.

When he asked what she wanted, she glanced over at Sam with a blush, then turned back to the old man. Lily took a small step forward, wringing her hands. "I… I need to know… That sea monster… thing- Phle'g-athon? Er, whatever it's called…" She bit her lip, feeling completely ridiculous. Sam would probably lose all respect he had for her at the question. Hopefully he didn't tell the other parents. All she needed was for the parents to think their kids' teacher was a wacko.

"Have you seen it before?" Lily asked finally. "What does it look like?"

"Phleg'e-thon is an anencephalus monster of prodigious size. Phleg'e-thon is the god of change and transformation. Its form is pretty much humanoid, with the exception that its lower body ends in a great fin, you may think of it as the forefather of what are commonly known as Mermaids and Mermen."

Old man Lovecraft got up from the bed to stand near the window and to gaze at the churning waters of the ocean-A great storm was coming.

"He is Adaro from the mythology of the Solomon Islands, to the Assyrians it is known as Atargatis, Dagon in ancient Semitic mythology, Ea to the Babylonians and Glaucus, the mortal transformed into a merman in Greek mythology."

The old man turned to face Lily and Sam who was standing directly behind her.

"You see this is not fantasy nor myth, it is not legend or the feeble imaginings of an old seaman. Phle'g-athon is real. For this reason you must not let anyone else see that footage, should they also come to believe, to believe and set him free once again."

After saying this the old man sat back down on the edge of his bed and refused to say anything further.

Lily was about to ask more, but it was clear that the man had decided he was finished talking. She quietly thanked the man and turned to leave the room. The young woman headed back down the stairs and toward the door, but she stopped a few feet away and turned to Sam. She tugged at her bottom lip with a hand that was scraped up from falling on the rocks.

"I think he's right, Sam," Lily said. "You should… bury that film somewhere where no one will ever find it."

First, the strange dreams. Now this? Lily felt a bit like she was losing her mind. She sincerely hoped not. She wanted to tell Sam about what she'd seen, but she didn't want him to think she was crazy. She let out a sigh.

"I… should get going. It's going to be a long walk home shoeless," she said with a frown. "Thanks for letting me talk to your granddad."

A shadowed form stood to the left of the projection screen, its back apparently turned away from the spectators. Upon the screen the assembled and seated townspeople of Astoria witnessed the strange luminosity beneath the flat circular covering, the uncertainty of its classification would be answered now that the hundred year old film had been fully restored.

If Sam was there he would have seen that his first instincts were correct, the covering was comprised of some strange metallic alloy and not mineral or rock, as was suggested by his refusal to accept what he considered to be an outlandish thought.

Lily had no way of knowing about Sam's absence from the festival and the unveiling of the Marion Rose.

The veiled individual near the screen had turned to face the seated crowd, then it took several steps and was suddenly illuminated by the flickering of the grainy sepia toned film-The shadowed figure was Old man Lovecraft and not his grandson, he had dug up the iron box a few hours after it had been buried by Sam.

As if on cue, the old man suddenly turned to face the screen just as the creature made its brief appearance in the film. With that reveal the entire audience would literally jump out of their seats in a unified motion of fear and surprise.

The creature was far to fast however, and so they had only been exposed to a small portion of its immense form, this was sufficient enough to scare every single audience member, including the 117 year old sailor.

They were all believers now.

Sam didn't have to think long before coming up with an answer as to who had recovered the iron box and its contents from under the porch. Although he was certain that his grandfather now possessed the film footage, it never crossed his mind that his grandfather would be so foolish as to show it to anyone, seeing as he was so adamant about destroying the film.

Sam was sitting on the couch in the living room as he pondered the possibilities and reasons for his grandfathers actions. Searching the limits of his mind and drawing a blank he decided to go up to the old mans bedroom, perhaps there was some clue to be found there. Taking one final gulp of his Bourbon Sam arose from the couch and made his way into the other room and then up the stairs to the third floor.

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Lily was still sitting on the jagged rocks near the waters brim as she gazed out into the ocean. All signs of the large towing machines which had pulled the Marion Rose from the icy depths had been Bulldozed over, the sand returned to its smooth and unified condition.

It took the city council several days to complete this job and so the large groove caused by the Marion Rose and the heavy equipment remained an eye sore for all that time, something which many Astoria's complained about on a daily basis until the problem was solved.

Somehow the clean up effort had slipped Lily's mind and she had not noticed the newest groove in the sand, clearly her thoughts were elsewhere.

The groove was etched several feet into the sand, causing the displaced earth to pile up into two six foot high lines which went from the edge of the water all the way up to the edge of the woodlands.

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Sam was rummaging through his grandfathers personal possessions, examining first the dresser and then the closet near the bedroom door. It was within his grandfathers closet that Sam discovered a curious looking old cardboard box, Sam tore the lid from the box and then walked back across the room and dumped its contents onto his grandfathers bed.

Apparently old man Lovecraft had a large section of the disturbing film in his possession prior to the discovery of the remainder stashed aboard the Marion Rose.

Sam snatched up the clippings and held them to the window so that the sunlight could filter through the frames and enable him to see what had been captured on this particular splice of film. Sam reeled back in utter horror at what he had discovered. "Oh my God!"