When the large man with the cudgel said that last line, \u201cOr maybe you won\u2019t be nowhere at all,\u201d something snapped in Roger\u2019s head.\u00a0 He launched himself at his tormentor and knocked him to the ground.\u00a0 Wrenching the weapon from the fallen man he proceeded to pummel him to head and body until the victim was curled up in a fetal posture trying to protect his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot so funny now, is it, Jethro Bodine.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t want your head splattered over this ground you better start telling me how I can get the hell out of this Twilight Zone episode.\u201d\u00a0 With the attack suspended, the man on the ground looked up in terror and said, \u201cMistah, you\u2019ve got me mixed up with someone else.\u00a0 My name ain\u2019t Jethro.\u00a0 I\u2019m Josiah Whateley.\u00a0 Your troubles are caused by the Great Old Ones and their control of the door to the abyss.\u201d\u00a0 With this Josiah squinted and tried to look knowing.\u00a0 So, Roger started wailing on him again saying, \u201cYeah well whatever your name is you better start thinking of a way out of here before I run out of new places to hit you on the head.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wounded wizard begged mercy and promised to help Roger find his escape route.\u00a0 With Whateley hobbling along, holding the side of his head with his left hand, Roger followed closely along as they descended the mount.\u00a0 All around them the woods were alive with batrachian trills and croaks and the howls of unspecified creatures.\u00a0 But Roger paid no heed.\u00a0 He just nudged Josiah in the back with the club if the pace slowed too much.<\/p>\n
When they reached the foot of the hillside Roger asked which way was the road and Whateley said, \u201cIt\u2019s not a road.\u00a0 There\u2019s a cave that runs through Round Mountain.\u00a0 Nobody who went in evah came back out.\u00a0 But the story runs that it leads to the Great Old Ones\u2019 doors.\u00a0 If you go theah, you might find a way home.\u00a0 But I won\u2019t come with yah.\u00a0 You can kill me but all I\u2019ll do is show you the entrance to the cave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roger looked with confusion and nervousness at the clearly frightened man and said, \u201cShow me the way, now!\u201d\u00a0 After about a half hour of walking in the bog they came to a crack in the hill that exhaled a faint phosphorescent green mist.\u00a0 Whateley pointed to the crack but would not approach the opening.\u00a0 As Roger sized up the tight opening Whateley ran off at surprising speed and was gone before Roger could respond.<\/p>\n
The mist coming from the opening was sickly sweet and made Roger light-headed.\u00a0 He feared that it might be toxic or at least an asphyxiant and was paralyzed by indecision.\u00a0 But when the noises around him began to grow louder and more menacing, he took a deep breath and entered the cave.\u00a0 For the first fifty feet it was barely wide enough for him to slip his body sideways through the crack.\u00a0 But then it began to widen until he could barely touch both walls with his arms extended straight out.\u00a0 The phosphorescence was almost useless to see by so he crawled along a foot at a time.\u00a0 But then he laughed nervously and remembered he had his flashlight in his pocket.\u00a0 So, with a nervous smile on his face, he switched on the light and headed into the lair of the Great Old Ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When the large man with the cudgel said that last line, \u201cOr maybe you won\u2019t be nowhere at all,\u201d something snapped in Roger\u2019s head.\u00a0 He<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1289,1263,4],"tags":[3341,200,354,1290],"class_list":["post-37974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction-by-me","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-sff","tag-dunwich","tag-fantasy","tag-horror","tag-my-fiction"],"yoast_head":"\n