“I warned him,” said Willem as he hopped the hip-height stone wall and drew his revolver. The blood moon was almost at its zenith. “I just hope it’s not too late.”

Staying on his heels, I drew the pocket watch from my waistcoat, two minutes to midnight. “We’ve two minutes, are we close?” I said.

“The grove is just ahead!”

Rapidly approaching was the solitary grove amidst the open field. The moon illuminated our path. I drew my own revolver and cocked the hammer back. As quietly as haste permits, we snaked our way between trees towards the glow of flames.

Four small bonfires illuminated the bare patch at the grove’s center. Upon a stone altar was a woman, tied in place and gagged. Between sobs, she tried to plead with her captors. Six men in dark black robes formed a ring around her. One of them held their hands up high. The glint of a dagger shone in one hand.

Willem and I crept as close as we could, taking cover behind trees. The occultist’s chant grew louder, echoing through the night. Walking up to the sacrificial altar, I heard the hammer of Willem’s revolver pull back. “Alastair!” he shouted. The occultists turned quickly. Shots rang out.

Charging in, I levelled my pistol at the nearest black robe and fired. The man dropped. His friend pulled a knife, but my bullet struck his chest. Willem shot over my shoulder and the apparent leader dropped to a knee, clutching his thigh. When he tried to rise, I put a bullet in his shoulder. With the rest of the occultists bleeding out or having fled, Willem moved in.

We stood over Alastair, his hood back and his face exposed by the firelight. The woman on the altar looked unconscious. I checked her pulse and found her to be still breathing. “I warned you that betraying the university would be your ruin,” said Willem. “It sickens me to witness your heresy first hand.”

Alastair groaned but smiled, “Evolution without courage is weakness. For us to transcend this pitiful plain and take our rightful place in the cosmos, we will need a guide. You fear what is unknown, I boldly search the dark corners of the world for the good of all.”

“Some forbidden knowledge is so for good reason,” replied Willem, shaking the brass casings from his revolver and began loading new bullets.

“Coward!” Alastair grabbed the edge of the altar and pulled himself up in the blink of an eye and plunged the knife hilt-deep into the young woman’s belly. My pistol raised, seconds late, and clicked impotently. Willem hurriedly snapped the cylinder in place and shot his adversary in the chest. Alastair fell onto his back, looking up at the night sky with a smile. Walking over, Willem leveled his pistol and put a hole in the occultist’s skull.

It was over, our endeavor failed. I looked in disgust at the woman on the altar, the knife handle protruding from her stomach. I thought the firelight was playing tricks with my eyes. The knife seemed to be retracting from the woman, being removed by an invisible force.

“Professor!” I shouted. Both of us watched as the knife rose until it slid out of the woman and fell off to the side. My skin crawled as her stomach bulged. Red fingers slid out from inside of the knife wound and ripped the body open wider.

Arms emerged before the head did. What looked like a flayed man pulled itself up and out of the dead woman. The creature looked like it had red muscles, but no skin at all. Fangs lined its oblong mouth and six black eyes watched us. On its back, what I thought were wings were in fact tentacles, feeling around the creature blindly.

The beast’s distorted mouth opened and an ear-piercing screech made us drop to our knees, covering our ears. I began to pray frantically, but as I pleaded to God, the creature ran off into the night. I looked to Willem only to find his ashen face staring blankly ahead. “We’re out of time, all of us,” he muttered, over and over again. “We’re out of time.”