Things of the Moon

I have known Thomas Corthan for over 40 years. Last week, I watched him as he died at the age of ninety-one. To the outside world he was a respected scientist and astronomer and to his close friends an old fashion gentleman. I knew him as an intelligent scholar, whose curiosity was insatiable and yet, there was something of his nature which I along with many others was drawn to. It seemed he has a secret which he was trying to keep but at the same time desperate to tell. The papers will tell of a brilliant man who made great contributions to society, but I was with him on the night of his death, and the story which I now relate raises questions of his sanity, and perhaps mine.
It was a peaceful night with a white moon when I drove up the Maple lined avenue towards Thomas' house in Providence, Rhode Island. I had known for months of his failing health, and was not surprised, although greatly saddened when his maid called to tell me that the doctor said he would not make it through the night. The maid had told me he ask me to come to his home in person, on his final night of his life. Looking up at the pale moon above, I remembered times long ago, when he was not so old, he would called in the middle of nights when the moon was full, and beg me to come and stay with him. I do not know what caused his fear of the moon, but it was a well known fact that he would not do any scientific research on the lifeless heavenly body. Now after hearing his chilling story, I do not know if the moon is so lifeless.
I reached his house slightly after 8 pm. The butler answered the door, and showed me to Thomas' room. He was laying in the small bed, with many blankets piled upon him. He had lost a great amount of weight since I had last saw him, and now he looked like a ghost white skeleton. Although of his physical appearance, his eyes showed the same friendly welcome that I have always known.
At first, we talked of small things, and memory, and of hobbies, and politics. Then, around 10 o'clock, his mood changed, and he spoke in a lower voice. As I have stated before, I have always known that my friend Thomas Corthan has a secret which he wouldn't tell. Tonight, he confided in me alone, and told me of that which happened to him, or the thinks happened to him, long ago, in 1937.
"My friend,"he began," you have ask me many times why I hate the moon. I know that in my heart of hearts, I should not tell you, or anyone, but I must. I can not be at peace unless I tell someone the things I saw. I need someone to share this dark knowledge with me. I know I am being selfish, but I can go on no longer without someone knowing.
"It was the year 1937. I was a young student at Brown University, and had the respect of Professor Mothler, and the rancor of Professor Ballous. Frederick Ballous considered me a young upstart, with strange new ideas that could only be found in science fiction magazines. Mothler on the other hand, was intrigued by my speculations of the moon.
"That was my dream, to stand on the moon. To see it's craters without the aid of a telescope. To put my footprints down on the Sea of Tranquility. That was what I wanted more than anything, but I could devise no way of getting there. Ballous, the old fashion one, considered a trip to the moon juvenile, but I knew better. Still, I was tormented by the knowledge that it was there in my sights, but always just out of reach. It was madding. Then, the dreams came.
"It was always the same. I was out amongst the stars, in tranquil Outer Space. I could see the lovely blue stars, and the purplish haze of the Milky Way. In the distance I could see the outer planets, and then, my view shifted. I moved towards the Sun, and then at the bottom of my vision, I saw the Earth and the Moon, going endlessly along their flight paths. Then, a girl, with space black eyes and silver hair appeared, half faded in among the starry backdrop. 'Help us! Help us!' she would say. 'Come to us' she would cry. I wanted to come, but I didn't know how. She remained in my vision, while I zoomed in on the Moon, down, down, until I could see the surface and the tiny details. I moved closer until I was looking down into a great black abyss. A huge crater, and I felt myself falling downward into the crater, and then the dream would be over, and I would be awake in my bed.
"At first, I thought it to be my over active mind at work. I decided to take a break from my lunar studies, but every night, the same dream, over and over. I can still recalled it vividly in my mind. At last, I looked through my telescope, and searched for the giant crater, and after many weeks, I found it! How we could have missed it I don't know, but to this day, no one has came upon it.
"I decided not to tell my professors. I told myself that it would be a very novice thing to tell everyone of this new lunar landmark before I had all my data ready, but in truth I felt something was wrong with the whole thing. Instead, I asked for a leave from school. When ask where I would go, I replied 'Egypt.' Why I said this, I do not know. I do not know what I was going to say, but as soon as I opened my mouth, the words fell out. Ballous, who was glad at the prospect of having rid of me for maybe three weeks, gave me permission to travel to, of all places, Egypt!
"My trip was uneventful. I left the United States from Narragansett Bay, on the Sea Nymph, and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. We passed through the strait of Gibraltar, the narrow channel of water that separates Spain from Morocco, into the Mediterranean Sea. Not a night went by that I did not dream of the moon, but now the dreams were different. I knew now why I had said Egypt. Somehow, I could get to the Moon from there. I didn't know how I could do it, or where in the country to go, but this was where the moon woman had led me. The closer we came to that ancient land, the happier I became. I did not know why.
"It was like being in a dream state, I was barely aware of being on the ship. It was as if another force had taken over. The only thing that I felt was an urge to go forward, towards the place where I could go to the Moon. I'm sure that if anyone had known of my state of mind, they would have thought of me as crazy, but I took no passing interested the coming and going of the others aboard the Sea Nymph.
"That was my state of mind as I reached the port of Alexandria. In the city, I got a room at the tourist hotel and spend the night. The next morning, I went to a supply shop and bought equipment for the journey ahead. I purchased a canteen, a long rope, an electric torch, a map of the country, blankets, food supplies, and a machete, then I went out and purchased a camel for my travel. In the mind numbing fog I seemed wrapped in, I made my way out of the city. In which direction, I do not know. Two days I traveled across the burning desert, and for two nights I slept under the cool cloudless sky. One the third night, I knew I was close. I saw the moon coming up over the horizon, but this was not the white moon white hung above Providence every night. This moon was a pale, sickish, green color. It was close to the uninterrupted horizon, so it was huge and hateful looking. Yes, it looked like a evil green eye hanging above the desert. The strange awareness had mostly left me, and I began to feel frightened alone out in this desert, far from my safe home, under the blanket of night.
"I rode across the wind swept desert, feeling the gate way to the moon close by. Suddenly, I brought my camel to a halt. My gaze was drawn towards a normal looking sand dune, just to the left of me, that looked to be about 12 feet high. I dismounted and drew my shovel, then walked around to the other side of the dune, and began to dig. After only a few moments, my shovel struck something. I reached down into the sand, which buried my arm up to my elbow. My hand felt something very cold and slippery, ice.
"Ice? In the desert? I wondered at how it was possible. I still was unsure of what laid under the sand, but then the sound cut all of my thoughts short. It was a low howling sound, from far away, but every moment it grew in strength. It was getting close, and I stood completely still, frozen with fear as much as the ice was frozen underneath the sand. I sighed and dropped to the ground when I realized that the sound I had heard was the wind. My fear returned, and I ran towards the blanket that was rolled up on the back of my camel.
"The wind hit me with amazing force, and I felt myself lifted up from the ground. Millions of tiny specs of sand hit my face and hands, burning like the tiniest daggers. The wind carried me towards the sand dune I had just started to explore, and I hit with bone jarring force. For several seconds, I was helplessly pinned against the dune, then the sandstorm blew past me, and out into other parts of the desert. I laid in pain on the ground, waiting for the strength to return to me.
"Perhaps it is here that I can say I was dreaming. Perhaps in the sandstorm I hit my head, and didn't wake until the caravan found me. I wish it was so, but I do not believe it. I picked myself up off the desert floor and looked around for my camel. I saw his dim out line running over the dunes in some unknown direction, along with all of my supples, except for the shovel and the knife, which I had on my person and not on the camel when the storm hit. Then I turned around, to behold, not the sand dune which has stood only moments ago, but instead an ancient stone shrine.
"The shrine was a pyramid shape, carved of and yellowish stone, and stood about nine feet high. There were no visible symbols or artworks decorating the outside of the ruin, and the only entrance was the one I had found, sealed with ice. At each corner of the pyramid there stood a column that look to have once held torches. I shivered at the one evidence of a civilization out amongst the lonely lifeless dunes. With a grim curiosity and a growing fear, I lifted my shovel to the ice barrier and then swung at the obstruction.
The ice was very thin, and cracked easily. To my surprise, no arctic air came rushing out. I had thought that perhaps inside the structure was below freezing, and everyday the cascade of water would start to melt and then refreeze, but now the only think that greeting me at the entrance to the tomb was a musty scent, much like that of a long shut up attic. I indeed felt more like a grandson going through his grandfathers attic than like a grave robber taking the gold watch from a corpse. So, without any moral hesitation, but perhaps the hesitation born out of fear, I entered the shrine.
"Inside the shrine was nothing breathtaking nor spectacular. Instead I was in a single chamber with out any noticeable features. It was a bare chamber except for the dust on the floor, not even an altar of any kind could be found in the room. I felt along the walls searching for some hidden compartment, and then upon searching the floor I found a faint black crack running through the center of the floor. I swept away the dust and follow the line's path across to the floor. The crack made a perfect square right in the center of the chamber, but there was no visible hinge or handle to open the trap door, nor did it swing downward, instead it seemed that this was a stone cut to make a tight fit over this aperture, apparently this underground passage had been sealed up.
"I removed my knife and wedged into the crack, then I pulled up on the slab. For a moment, I feared that my knife would break, but then I heard the sound of stone grinding against stone, and then the aperture was no longer blocked. A deep green vapor rose up from below, and the smell of things old and dead reached my nose. I peered down into the unfathomable blackness, and in the distances below I could make out a faint green light. I felt myself drifting away again from my self, and I watched in horror as against my wishes I stood up and descended down the steep set of stairs, into the blackness beyond. I couldn't see anything in the pierce less blackness, but deeper and deeper I went against my will. Then I saw below me the glowing green slime that coated the walls. Down still further I went, the horrible green abyss all around me. I wanted to scream! Instead of going up towards the heavens, I was going down! I was going in the wrong direction! I was going down into the pits of hell!"
Now it is here that I tried to interject my friends tale. Before I had listened without questioning or saying a word, but my friend had became quite flustered and if there was ever a moment to doubt his sanity more it was now. I forced him to stop, and then called for the servant to being us some more tea. After the tea, Thomas had calmed down, and he continued his dark tale.
"At last those horrible stairs ended. As I stood at the bottom my control to my body returned. I was in at the bottom of the tiny chamber, and there was a huge hole that looked like a natural cave opening rather than a door in front of me. Beyond that opening was a large cavern with many towers and ruins which I could see, casting evil shadows in the green twilight. An underground city. With my control returned my courage, and I stepped through the gaping hole in the wall and made a small leap down to the cavern floor three feet below.
"A forgotten city for sure, and no sound at all. Only the eerie echoing of my foot fall on the rocks between my feet. Far above my head I could see the ceiling of the cavern, and in the fog shrouded distance, the shadowed black walls. As I walked down the broken streets of the dead city, I wondered who could have built this place, and when. In the dim light the houses only looked like black humps rising out of the land surface. The road lead to the heart of the city, to a high tower the must have touched the roof, and there were no doors into the structure, instead, the was a square about two and a half feet wide and one foot high at the base of the tower where there was no wall. After crawling through, I found myself to be in a oval chamber, 20 feet in diameter, with natural looking white light filtering through from an unknown source.
"The light fell upon the single object in the room, a pool with lipid blue water. A stone rim wrapped around it, about a foot high. I approached the edge and looked down in watery depths, but I could not see the bottom. Then I noticed the carvings cut into the rim: crude pictures of the moon! I cried out with excitement, all fear having left me. I knew I was close to my goal! Without another thought, I dove into the pool.
"Below the placid surface it seemed the light that light could not penetrate. The sound of moving water rushed past my ears, my eyes only able to make out grayish blue waters above me, and deep black below me. I swam further downward, while thoughts of hidden under water tunnels filled my brain. Complete darkness surrounding me, then blinding light! I stopped frozen with fear, and saw at the floor of the pool many points of light that formed the shape of a star. I watched with awe, and it seemed that the lights were moving. Then I realized that the points of light were in fact stationary, but the whole pool was moving, with me in it, but in which direction I did not know. It seemed to be turning, but if that was true then the water would be running out into the cavern in a flood. Almost out of air, I swam back up towards the faint light.
"I reached the surface of the water, and to my horror I found myself falling! I fell into another pool of water, but this one was much colder than the other, there were large chunks of ice floating in it. I was completely confused, and that primal urge to life filled me as I felt my breath giving out. I broke the surface of the pool, and climbed out onto the rim. It was extremely cold, but my vision was still filled with water, and it took me a few moments to adjust to my surroundings.
"The first thing I felt was the sleek ices under my knees. I opened my eyes and things began to come into focus. I was amazed, and frightened at the same time, then with a chilling certainty I knew that I was on the moon. I was in a cavern with bland grey rock walls, and huge ice stalactites reaching from floor to ceiling. The floor was completely coated with ice, and I saw bones, that look very human sticking up from some parts of the floor. The rock ceiling was covered with snow dust and there defying gravity right in the middle of the ceiling was the pool., water hanging placidly in the sky. Directly below the pool was another, this one circular in shape and smaller in size.
"It was beautiful and terrifying at the same time. The stalactites looked like a forested of crystal trees, and the rotting bones of the floor cast a shadow of death all around. There were many passages leading off into the darkness, most of them looked more like natural openings that carved doors. Through one exit, a strange kind of light poured into the ice chamber. The air was rancid, and contained little oxygen, instead a greenish gas floated like smoke in some places, and the smell of acid was heavy.
"I rose to my feet, and began to pace the slick chamber. I was cold and wet, and the water from the second pool seemed more like slime. I decided to explore further, despite the slightly below freezing air. I went through the exit with the light coming through it, and then gasped in amazement. I was in a huge crater, covered with ice, looked up into space beyond. The skyline was filled with stars, many more than you could ever see on Earth. However, every few minutes a purple flash streaked across the sky. Sometimes it stayed long enough for me to see that it looked like a dome over the crater. Now I know that I was in a artificial environment, and the the streaks of purple were some kind of containment field. Perhaps I was standing in the very crater the space probes photographs not long ago, but I get away from my tale.
"The lunar crater could be no more than twelve miles in diameter. I was tempted to across it, but instead only explored a small area of it. After finding no trace as to who could have built this place, I returned to the main cavern. Again, my attention was drawn to the water hanging over head. It was as I contemplated this mystery that I first heard the sounds. The sounds that I will never forget, they wake me in my sleep, I hear them whenever the moon is full. They are awful sounds never intended to be heard by the ears of man. Not a shriek or a snarl or anything that could have been called animal, sometimes it was a deep hollow sound when other times it was a sound going lower and lower in frequency until it could not be described as a sound. Human ears were never designed to ear it, it is the thing that makes the dogs growl and whine at night. It is a thing of the moon, never meant to be on the Earth.
"I was frozen with fear, and crazed by the random sounds of the moon. I would have left then, had not the rock wall slid open in front of me. Again, the trance walk took me over and I found myself walking down a sloped ice tunnel which let down to a set of stone stairs. The stairs lead to a blackened chamber, which was warmer and had no ice. At the end of this black cavern was a strange door, which slid open as I approached with a swirling sound. I enter a room with many devices too alien to be described. Those many looked like clear jewels, in regular and irregular geometric shapes. The door would not open again for me, and so I waited for something to happen.
"After a few moments a blinding white light filled the room, and I felt as though I was being torn from my body. Then it was over, and a door on the other side of the room slid open. At first, I thought I was in the same place as before, but then I saw the subtle differences in the dark caves. The stench here was overbearing, but I still pressed on. I saw a turn ahead of me, and I started to round it. Halfway around the bend, I saw the end of the black tunnel, the blue-white lunar light coming straight at me. The intense light caused me to pause for a moment, that that may have saved my life.
"I saw something, on the far side of the tunnel move. It was just a spot of deep black against the slightly lighter darkness. I didn't move at all. A blue light flashed on and off for a second in the corner of the top of the tunnel. It was light a neon sign, going on and off randomly, from blue to purple to green then black to blue. The creature was half in the harsh light, something of a spherical shape, with a long neck, dog legs and wings. I could not see it eyes, just the outline. I started to back away. It slithered forward, slowly, and those awful sounds reached my ears again, then those alien thoughts entered my mind.
'-- help us --'
"I could do nothing. I was terrified.
'-- you must help us -- you will help us -- you will help your fathers return -- you have not abandoned your fathers -- you remember us-- you will help us --
"I screamed."
'-- HELP US! HELP US! HELP US!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU WILL NOT BETRAY US AS THOSE BEFORE YOU DID. LEAVE US HERE TO DIE! YOU WILL HELP US RETURN TO OUR WORLD!!!!!!!!'
"I started to run back the way I had come. In the light coming through the exit I saw tentacles shoot out, hundreds of them, black and thorny, to take me. I jump backed into the sliding door, and it closed behind me.. Then I heard them, all of them crying out at once:"
' -- HELP US! DO NOT LEAVE US HERE! TAKE US WITH YOU -- '
"Thousands of them, millions maybe.... I felt the light suck me up. The other door. I crossed the cavern and back up the stairs. I hear something behind me as I ran up the ice tunnel, I turned and looked, and the image was burned into my mind. I see it all the time , a faint ghost image of the things of the moon. They were faster than me, gaining ground, three of them. As their dog legs ran across the ice, a strange smoke rose up. I was back in the main chamber, running towards the moon pool, with only one thing in mind, I wanted to get away from those things. I reached the stone rim, and jumped upward into the floating pool, the things of the moon right behind me.
"It was like swimming back through normal water. I turned my head back again to see if the things at followed me. Indeed, they jumped into the pool, and then with a hiss they dissolved into thousands of purple bubbles. The star lights appeared, the room turned, I swam back through the harmless purple bubbles, and emerged back in the underground cavern on Earth.
"My leg was hurt, and the rest is daze of images I do not remember clearly. Images like those in a foggy almost forgotten dream. I remember laying in the heat of the desert, and seeing the black outline of camels rising up over the dune. The merchant caravan took care of me and returned me to the city. They said they found me laying in the desert, and told me how foolish I was to travel in remote parts of the desert. The merchants said that I must have been caught in last night's sandstorm. They said nothing of a shrine or of the evil looking moon that night. To them, I was another tourist who didn't know how to survive in the desert. A week later, I returned to my hometown, Providence. I have told no one of this, except now you, because I could not bear the weight of my knowledge alone at my death."
We past the rest of the night away talking of our memory. We spoke no more of his wild tale, and he passed away at dawn.
I have since thought of my friend and the story he told me. I would like to believe it is not true, but because of his complete rationality both before and after the tale, it is hard to believe he was insane. I think about the things of the moon, who called themselves our fathers, and seemed to be trapped. The way they dissolved in the water, the passage way back to Earth. I have then since wondered what may have occurred in times of long ago, when Earth was once a volcanic wasteland with little oxygen, and no rain, long ago in the mists of time.

A story dedicated to the master of horror, H.P. Lovecraft.