The Day of Ascension
04 Jul 2019Today’s prompt: “Write about an arrival that caught you or your character completely unaware.”
All night long, your sleep had been disturbed. You were visited by the Ghost of Cthulhu Past, who showed you yourself as a young acolyte in the Esoteric Order of Dagon, ambitious and eager to impress. You joined with your friends in ceremonies to wake the snoozing, betentacled Old One.
The Ghost of Cthulhu Present showed you tonight’s meeting of the Order. They were cheery, celebrating a successful ritual, drinking champagne and laughing. Your nephew, Fred, suggested inviting you to see their triumph, and the group laughed and jeered. You’ve fallen out of favor at the Order in recent years after your failed coup. That wasn’t necessarily a dealbreaker; political infighting happens almost on a weekly basis at the Order, but you were pretty huffy afterwards and stopped coming to the summoning circles.
The Ghost of Cthulhu Yet to Come silently stared from a hooded robe and pointed a skeletal hand at a wasteland. In the distance, Cthulhu continued his rampage, razing city after city.
You awoke. How long have you been asleep? Was it one night? Was it days?
You threw open the window and called out to a boy on the street. “What’s today?”
“Eh?” the boy replied.
“What’s today, my fine fellow?” you asked once more.
“Today!” replied the boy. “Why, it’s the Day of the Ascension of Cthulhu, of course!”
“It’s the Day of the Ascension of Cthulhu!” you said to yourself. “I haven’t missed it. The spirits have done it all in one night.”
At that moment, Cthulhu rounded the corner, snatched the boy from the street with a greedy mouth-tentacle, and devoured him.
“Merry Ascension, Cthulhu, you wonderful old Old One!” you called out gleefully and opened your arms wide as the monstrous god turned to you. “I’ve been waiting for you!”