Zahn Und Klaue

Chapter Twelve: Compromise

Chapter Twelve: Compromise

"The monster has descended upon us. The time we live in is full of horrors; there is no one upon whose head its heavy fist has not fallen...Everything around us has been changed...The air around us is laden with tears suppressed, forgotten, and to come. The gravity of this hour cries aloud."

- Carl Jung

The next few months for Konrad became increasingly difficult as he attempted to find answers and salvation.

Acquiring the forbidden texts referenced by Coswell proved to be a serious undertaking in itself due to the amount of red tape he had to wade through, but with a little patience, his connections and careful payoffs, he was finally able to get his hands on the items.

The texts in question provided enormous insight into arcane worlds and dark hidden secrets.

He found illustrations and texts relating to all manner of horrors, including great Cthulhu and the door-faced monstrosity at the arena, but a lot of it was vague regarding this latter entity. Pages had been torn or wrecked beyond repair, making it near impossible to determine its exact nature and/or relation to Cthulhu. The few that remained, however, indicated that it was a living gateway of some sort, although its exact nature was frustratingly obscure. It's not even clear how the damned thing was summoned. As he read further, page by page, however, part of Konrad wondered if he had been better off not having acquired the books in the first place; every time he delved deeper into books such as the Necronomicon, he came away increasingly frightened. Every text and page was a horrible window that allowed him to peer into the void beyond, showing him things that made him shiver uneasily and stay up late at night, pondering some dreadful truth that he saw.

The more he read, the more threatened he felt until he finally had enough and got rid of the damn things. Despite having done so, however, the way in which the Baron looked at the world was forever changed.

* * *

"We can't go on like this."

Konrad tiredly poured himself a cup of coffee while seated on his bed as Jurgen angrily glared at him.

"Are you listening, Herr Baron?!" the butler asked.

"Ja, Jurgen. I am," Konrad replied.

"So what are you going to do?!" Jurgen demanded. "The number of incidents are continuing to increase and the servants are getting nervous."

"I know."

"Is that all you can say?!"

"Well what else can I do, Jurgen?!" Konrad snapped. "That little shit won't die! Christ how I tried, even to just get the goddamn thing to shut up!"

Every night, Spinal haunted the halls and tormented him, laughing all throughout the hours. After a week passed, Konrad snapped and took his frustration out on the skeleton, smashing it with his fists, beating it repeatedly with a wine bottle, yelling and screaming like a maniac for it to shut up but to no avail as it laughed in his face. Various attempts at destroying Spinal were a complete utter failure.

"Not even sulfuric acid can dissolve it," Konrad added bitterly.

"We also have to do something about Gupte's animal," the butler replied. "The last time it escaped it was a disaster."

The Baron winced at the mention of the most recent incident.

Two weeks ago, RIPTOR had somehow managed to escape from both its cell and his castle, thereby allowing it to roam free, resulting in a frantic five-hour pursuit across the countryside. Five personnel, six wolves and a slew of cattle and sheep had been killed before it was finally recaptured.