I don’t like people. I just don’t. It’s why I always tried to live a quiet life. I have my cat Winchester and a few casual friends. It’s all I ever wanted. All I really needed. My life has always been simple. It was always Me vs The World and I go by a philosophy of ‘If I don’t bother them, they won’t bother me’. It’s worked out for me pretty well so far, and up until recently, I never saw any reason to stop a good thing from continuing.

​

I work at a quiet little vinyl record store in a mall a few blocks away from where I live as the only full time employee. Most people dismiss me as just another witchy goth girl who never grew out of her phase, and that’s fine. They’re not wrong and I’m not bothered by that. I know a thing or two about wicca and I dabble in the occult as a hobby. Might as well call a spade a spade, right?

​

The day the moving van showed up, I thought little of it. New tenants come and go in my building all the time. That’s just sort of part of the reality of living in the Starkmann Building. The rent is cheap, but the old ghost stories tend to scare people off. People put too much stock in that sort of thing. Me? I kinda like it. I think it adds some personality to the old building. But then again, I’m into that sort of thing.

​

It was easy to pick out the new arrivals amongst the movers. I know most of the long term residents of this building, so newcomers stick out like a sore thumb. The first was a tall woman with a narrow face and intense green eyes. She wore a light green jacket with what looked to be some sort of military insignia on it although it didn’t do much to hide the fact that she had a fantastic physique underneath it. There was a certain power and confidence in her movements that was hard to ignore. She had short, poofy brown hair that framed her face perfectly. She usually carried a cigarette in her mouth, but I never saw her light it.

​

The second was a shorter brunette. Her hair was cropped just above her ears. She didn’t seem to talk much, letting her friend do most of the talking for it. It was subtle, but I noticed it. Like her friend, she wore a green jacket with the same military insignia. Air force, I think. Hard to say. Either way, it didn’t take a genius to figure out how they probably knew each other. They didn’t look similar enough to be siblings and didn’t seem quite close enough to be lovers. I guess it really wasn’t my business, but can you really blame me for being curious?

​

Honestly, I was mainly wondering whether or not the tall one was taken… She kinda seemed like my type. I like a more muscular physique and she had a rugged beauty to her. I hadn’t decided whether or not I was going to make a move or not yet. Like I said, I don’t really like people… But hey, I’m still human. Can you really blame me for wanting to get to know the cute soldier girl a little better?

​

I’m not much of a casanova on the best of days and carelessly throwing myself into a vulnerable state with a stranger was not my idea of a good time. So I figured I’d try and take things slow. Find out exactly who I was dealing with, before making any moves. For all I knew, she could’ve been straight as an arrow. I doubted it… But it was possible.

​

So, a couple of days after my new neighbors had taken up residence in the apartment down the hall from mine, I introduced myself. I’d baked some cookies (everybody likes cookies) and gone to knock on the door.

​

Just my luck, the tall one answered.

​

My gift of freshly baked cookies was very well received. I got invited in to chat and get to know my new neighbors a little better. The tall one was named Cordelia, although she went by ‘Rory’. Her housemate, (who as expected, didn’t talk much) was named Sandra. Never Sandy. Always Sandra.

​

I spent most of my inaugural visit to Rory and Sandra’s apartment sitting in their living room, chatting with Rory. Sandra had come out briefly to say hello, but she hadn’t stayed long. I got the impression that she was sick, since she seemed a little out of it, and seemed to retreat back to her bedroom fairly quickly. Rory didn’t say much about it.

“It’s nothing personal. She’s just catching up on some sleep.” Was the only comment she made.

​

Regardless, I was more than happy for the chance to sit and eat cookies with my cute new neighbor. She told me that she and Sandra had moved from Vancouver. Sandra was originally a Toronto girl, so they’d come back here to be closer to her family. Rory never mentioned her own family… I never asked, since I know these issues can be… Complicated.

​

“Sandra and I have sorta been watching each other's asses since basic training.” Rory had said, “She’s good people. She’s quiet, but she knows her shit. Wouldn’t want to fly with anyone else.”

“Are you still part of the air force?” I’d asked.

“Nah. We did our time. Maybe I could’ve stayed, but Sandra wanted out and I wasn’t going to let her go alone.”

“So you got out for her?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. Rory just sort of shrugged.

​

“Yes and no.” She said, “Like I said, I could’ve stayed. But it’s not like there’s nothing else I could be doing. Honestly, I just like flying and I’m good at it. So there’s jobs for me out there. I’ve already got a few prospects lined up. Lotta jobs out there for someone who knows how to fly a plane.”

“Oh, I imagine there are.” I said, “You and Sandra gonna fly airliners together?”

Rory chuckled.

“Hey, maybe.” She said, and I caught a look in her eyes that was almost hopeful. For a moment, I wondered if she got lost in a little fantasy, but she came right back to me.

​

I’ve seen enough gay girls to know it when I see it. She and Sandra might not have been a couple, but Rory would’ve happily changed that if given the chance. I don’t know if she realized it or not, but she was smitten. I wasn’t put off by that or anything… Call me selfish, but I saw it as something of a good sign. My cute neighbor liked girls.

​

I could work with that.

​

I saw Rory a few times over the next couple of weeks. Sometimes just in passing. Sometimes, we’d stop to talk. Sometimes I’d just find an excuse to stop by and say hello. Either I ‘accidentally’ made too much food or something like that.

​

Alright… Fine. I know that’s a lame excuse. But I don’t have to justify myself to anyone. Obviously, my efforts to get closer to Rory worked… About a month after she’d moved in, she stopped by my apartment with her own little excuse to visit. A bottle of malibu rum.

​

“Just wanted to say thanks for all you’ve done for us.” She’d said, “It’s made settling in a lot easier!”

“No problem at all!” I assured her as I let her in, “Can I get you something? A drink? Do you want pop or beer?”

​

She’d hesitated for a moment before deciding to accept my invitation.

“Beer would be nice.” She said, just as Winchester slinked over to sniff her and rub against her legs.

I got her a beer and came back to find her kneeling down and giving Winchester all the affection he wanted and then some.

“He’s a friendly little guy, huh?” She asked, “What’s his name?”

“Winchester.” I said, “After the boys from Supernatural…”

“You watched that too, huh,” She asked, chuckling.

“I liked it. But I’ve also got a thing for stuff like that.” I replied, offering her the beer.

“Yeah, I kinda noticed.” She said. For the first time, she looked around my modest apartment. It was a one bedroom with just enough space to keep Winchester and I comfortable.

​

“So you’re like, into the occult and everything then, huh?” She asked. I noticed her drawing closer to the altar I kept just outside my living room.

“It’s a hobby.” I said, “I’ve been a practicing Wiccan for about five years now. But I like reading about some of the deeper stuff. Old Gods, ancient myths. Stuff like that. It’s interesting. It kinda recontextualizes who we are as people, when you understand the roots of some of our oldest beliefs.”

“Howso?” She asked, looking over at me.

​

“Well, did you know that God as we know him actually comes from Canaanite mythology, and was originally not the main God of his pantheon? He was consolidated with the main God, El sometime around the 9th century BCE. In essence, most modern religion worships a Caananite God. Really, if things had gone even slightly different could just as easily be worshipping Baal right about now.”

“Really?” She asked, sounding legitimately interested. “I never knew that.”

“Not a lot of people do. As I said, it’s a fascinating topic.”

“You ever heard of a God or entity called Kahmarth?”

“Kahmarth?” I asked, looking back at her and raising an eyebrow, “The name doesn’t sound familiar, why? Where’d you hear it?”

​

Rory paused for a moment as if she was debating whether or not to tell me. She stared thoughtfully down at my altar before she spoke.

“Sandra’s journal?” She finally said, looking over at me, before taking a long swig of her beer. “I’m sorry… I… I probably shouldn’t be telling you this. I shouldn’t even have been looking through her journal it’s just… I was worried.”

​

“Worried about what?” I asked.

“I mean, you’ve noticed the state she’s in, right?” Rory asked, “Barely talks to anyone. She stays in her room all the time. She says she’s trying to sleep but I’ve seen her. She’s just been staring out the window. It’s been like this ever since…”

​

Again, she trailed off. I waited patiently for her to decide whether or not to continue.

​

“I’m sorry… I shouldn’t be dragging you into this…” She said softly, “I guess you’re just easy to talk to…”

“You might be the first person whos ever said that to me.” I replied, “I’m not really much of a people person.”

She laughed but there was no humor in it.

​

“Could’ve fooled me.” She said, “Honestly, I think your visits are half the reason Sandra’s been doing as well as she has. I know she doesn’t come out to talk much but I can tell that she does like you. And I’ve been sorta pushing her to talk to you more… Sorry. Not my place to say anything about that… I’m talking too much.”

“It’s fine.” I said, leaning against my wall, “If you don’t mind me prying… What exactly happened to Sandra?”

​

“To be honest, I don’t know.” Rory said, “Some of the details of it are probably classified. But she’s told me… Well… I don’t really know what she’s told me… All I know is that about six months ago, we had a training exercise. Nothing really out of the ordinary. It was routine. We’d done it a thousand times before. Our squadron went out. I was actually supposed to fly with them, but my bird was grounded for repairs. So they flew without me. The squadron was only supposed to be out for about an hour. But apparently, after twenty minutes, they lost contact with them. Sandra and the others were only flying dark for about five minutes but when they reestablished comms, they could only reach Sandra and she wasn’t talking. She came back to base alone and spent the next several hours getting debriefed. I don’t know what she told them, but the official story that came out was that our squadron had hit some sort of freak thunderstorm and gone down.”

​

“You don’t believe that?” I asked.

“I don’t know what to believe.” Rory said, “What I know for certain is that four planes flew out and one came back. They found the wreckage of one of the missing planes about ten klicks west of where they lost comms, but the other two are still missing. They recovered the black box and I know they went through the cockpit recordings on Sandra’s plane… But I don’t know what they found.”

​

“What did Sandra have to say about it?” I asked.

“Not a hell of a lot. Official diagnosis was just PTSD and… Look, I’m not questioning that. She told me that after the comms went down, she could still hear the others in our squadron… And when they went down… She heard everything. Those were our friends and she… She listened to them die… I think that’d fuck anyone up. But I don’t think that’s the only thing that happened out there. My gut tells me there’s more to it than that, and I don’t know if it’s all in my head or not. Every night, she just sorta sits by the window and stares out… It’s almost like she’s watching for something. Sometimes I can even see her scribbling things down in her journal… It’s why I snuck a peek… That’s where I found that name. Kahmarth…” She paused, before taking another swig of her beer.

​

“Look, I know I shouldn’t have looked, but… I was just hoping I could figure out what was on her mind, and figure out a way to help her. I don’t know… It’s been six months though and she’s not getting any better. If anything she just seems to be getting worse. She’s been going to therapy and everything. I just want her to be okay again!”

“These sorts of things might never fully heal.” I pointed out, “Even if it was just a freak weather incident, what she must’ve heard could stay with her for life.”

​

“I know.” Rory sighed, “I just…” She trailed off, as if unsure how to finish that sentence.

“I’m sorry.” She finally said, “I’m sorta just dumping all of this on you out of nowhere… I just sorta came here to say thanks. You’ve been good to us.”

“Hey, no harm, no foul.” I assured her. She polished off her beer and set the bottle down.

​

“Thanks… Hope this doesn’t put you off stopping by again. I think seeing someone other than me is good for Sandra. She could use some more friends.”

“Hey, I like having neighbors I can actually talk to.” I said, “The old guy who used to live there was a dick.”

Rory chuckled.

​

“Well, glad to be an upgrade.” She said, “Hey… You wanna grab a drink sometime?”

The moment she asked that I felt a little surge in my chest.

“The three of us.” Rory clarified.

Surge gone. Well… Not entirely gone.

​

“Sandra hasn’t really been out much lately, and honestly, I’m getting cabin fever being cooped up inside all the time. Besides, you look like you might know where to get a good strong drink.”

“As a matter of fact, I do.” I replied, “I’ve got work most of this week, but I’m free Sunday night.”

“Sunday night works for me.” Rory replied, “It’s a date.”

Ha ha. Oh, I wished…

​

I had work after Rory left, but my mind was on her the entire time. Not in the ‘Oh my God, she’s so dreamy’ kind of way. I’m not a fucking twelve year old.

​

It was obvious to me that she was worried about Sandra… And while it was more than likely that her recent odd behavior could be chalked up to her recent trauma, it struck me as a little odd that she’d mention the word ‘Kahmarth’ in her journals. Maybe it was a typo or some sort of nonsense word. Really, it could’ve been anything. I’d never asked what context it had been used in, but Rory had been convinced it was a name… And she’d only ever asked about it when she’d noticed my altar as if she thought there was some occult connection to it. Maybe it really was nothing, and maybe I only wanted to look into it to either impress Rory, or set her mind at ease, but my curiosity was piqued.

​

When I was done with work, I took the bus a little further downtown. There’s a bookstore I like to frequent, ‘Beyond the Veil’. They sold all sorts of little things an inquiring mind might be interested in. Healing crystals, tarot cards, incense, candles, your usual occult shop finds. But I particularly liked them for their selection of books. Most occult stores don’t carry the really interesting reads. But Beyond the Veil was the exception. The owner, Balthazar had even ordered a few things in for me before. He’s probably the only person in the GTA who can get his hands on an unedited version of the Grimoire of Primrose Kennard.

​

I figured that if there was one man who’d know where to find any information about Kahmarth, it was him.

​

Balthazar was sitting behind the counter when I came in, his nose deep in a book. He was in his late thirties, with a Johnny Depp mustache, shoulder length black hair, and a wine red button down shirt, underneath a black vest. He wore a battered black fedora. Really, he looked exactly the way a man running an occult shop would be expected to look, and I always suspected that he was doing it intentionally, like he was putting on an act.

​

“Lillie Sterling, long time no see.” He chimed as he saw me walk through the door.

“I’ve been busy.” I replied plainly.

“Too busy to say hello? Oh Lillie… Don’t break my heart.” He said, “You here to browse, or you looking for something special?”

“Looking for something special.” I said, “I don’t suppose you’ve ever heard the name Kahmarth before, have you?”

“Kahmarth…” He repeated, pausing to think it over, “Rings a bell…”

​

He got up from his seat and gestured for me to follow him toward the tall bookshelves near the back of the store.

“I’m certain I’ve heard that name used in reference to the Midnight Gospel…” He said, “Pretty sure I’ve got a copy in stock… It’s a rare one. But it’s interesting.”

“Midnight Gospel?” I asked.

“Sort of a Grimoire on Demonology. Although a specific kind of Demonology. More in line with the Malvian school of thought than the traditional Christian school of thought.”

​

“There’s a difference?” I asked.

“There’s a massive difference. The Christian theory states that there’s only one Devil and that all Demons exist to serve him. The Malvian theory is that there’s two very distinct and very different entities that people identify as Satan. The more powerful Ur-Satan, often identified as the Ancient God Shaal, and the Re-Satan, usually identified as a High God known as The Lugal. The Midnight Gospel goes into demons and Low Gods associated with the Lugal.”

“So Kahmarth is one of those demons?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“I don’t remember… But…”

He paused in front of one of the shelves and searched through them, before plucking the book off and offering it to me. The cover was pure black, with plain white text on the front.

​

The Midnight Gospel

Claire Ludenberg

​

“That’ll be it.” He said, before tipping me a knowing smile, “That all you were looking for?”

I thumbed through the book, checking the table of contents. There were countless names listed there. Some I recognized, others I didn’t.

‘Kahmarth.’ was halfway down the table of contents. This was exactly what I was looking for.

“That’ll be it…” I replied quietly.

​

I started reading the book the moment I got to the bus stop and on the ride home. According to the text, Kahmarth was a name attributed to a sky deity, mentioned in some early Sumerian tablets. Eventually, it seems like it got consolidated with Anu, the more commonly known Sumerian Sky God, although the way Kahmarth was described didn’t seem in any way consistent with Anu…Apparently, Kahmarth wasn’t a God in the sense that people worshipped it. It was never technically worshipped. It was something that people had wanted to ward off. A beast from the sky that fed upon the land, and required offerings to keep it sated… And up until they’d devised a means of warding it off, they’d been required to make these yearly offerings, lest it opt to consume them.

​

Why was Sandra mentioning this in her journals?

​

As the bus brought me closer to home, I knew that I had to bring this to Rory. Because now, I wasn’t entirely convinced that what happened to Sandra and her squadron was really just a freak weather accident. And if I was right… I might know how to help her.

​

Rory didn’t answer my texts, so as soon as I got home, I tried knocking on her door. She wasn’t the one who answered. When the door opened, it was Sandra on the other side, waiting for me.

​

“Oh…” She’d said quietly, “Hi Lillie… Rory’s at the gym right now. But she’ll probably be back in a couple of hours.”

“That’s fine. I can wait,” I said, “You mind if I come in, actually… I kinda had something I wanted to talk to you about.”

​

She looked a little confused, but she didn’t say no. She slowly opened the door to let me inside.

“What did you want to talk about?” She asked once the door was closed behind me.

I sighed, knowing I was probably going to out Rory, but I figured that this was probably the only way to help.

​

“Rory told me a little bit about what happened with your squadron.” I said, making a point to choose my words carefully. I noticed Sandra tensing up a little anyways.

“Oh…” Her voice was hollow.

“She… Okay, well… I know a little bit about the occult. Monsters, demons, old Gods… Stuff like that. Something she said to me got me thinking about this old God I’d read about one. Kahmarth…”

​

Sandra remained stock still as she stood by the door. She didn’t even look at me. For the longest time, she didn’t even speak and when she finally did, she sounded nothing less than exhausted.

“I thought she might’ve read my journal…”

“I’m sorry…” I said. I couldn’t lie to her. I didn’t really have it in me, “She said she was worried about you and…”

“It’s fine… I don’t care if she reads it.” Sandra said, “I didn’t think she’d understand it anyways… I don’t think anyone could understand it…”

​

“What did you see out there that day?” I asked quietly.

Sandra finally looked at me.

“I really don’t think I could describe it to you.” She said, her tone almost matter of fact, “It didn’t really have a shape… It just… Was… At first, we saw the lightning. There were no storms in the area, but we saw it. And before we could adjust our route, the comms were dead, along with a lot of our equipment… I could see something in the clouds, and the lightning was flashing… I remember I looked up and I could see stars… I felt this… This pressure in my skull, like it was about to pop. I could hear the other screaming. I saw Parsons go down first. I think it was his wreckage they found… But the other two… For some reason they just kept flying up. And when I looked, I could see other planes… So many other planes… I don’t…”

​

She trailed off, before closing her eyes.

“I don’t remember the rest, very clearly… I know I heard the others talking. Reese was crying at one point. He was begging… Shaw tried to eject but I don’t think it worked and me? I just kept flying, thinking that at any minute, I was going to die…”

“But you didn’t,” I said softly.

​

“You say that like it’s a good thing.” She said, “I got lucky, that day… Or, maybe I got unlucky. I don’t really know…”

“You’re still seeing it, aren’t you?” I asked. She hesitated for a moment before she nodded.

“It’s worse in the evening… But I can see it behind the clouds. I can see the lights. Or sometimes, I’ll see an airplane. It’s always there though. Sometimes I feel the pressure in my head. Usually at night. I was hoping the move would help. It did for a few days, but it’s already back again…”

​

She sighed.

“I don’t really know why it hasn’t killed me yet. Maybe it’s smart enough to torture me, who knows. Maybe it’s waiting for me to do it myself.”

“You haven’t told Rory about any of this?” I asked.

“She’d think I was crazy… Or she’d just worry after me even more…” Sandra said, “She’s a good friend… You really should just ask her out… I don’t think she’d say no.”

​

I paused, and for the first time since I’d known her, I actually heard Sandra laugh. It was quiet, but it was nice.

“I’m not blind, you know.” She said, “You tend to stop by a little too often for a friendly neighbor…”

“I… Guess I could be less obvious…” I admitted.

“I don’t mind… I think it’s cute.” She said, “Honestly, I’m glad you’re here. She’ll need someone to keep her company when I’m gone. I don’t know how much more of this I can take. If I had the nerves I’d just get it over with already but… Well… I don’t. Not yet…

​

I felt a pit form in my stomach.

​

“You’re going to kill yourself?” I asked quietly.

She hesitated for a moment, before giving me a slow nod.

“I’m tired… I don’t want to live like this anymore… I don’t want to have to put Rory through this, anymore. I’ve been trying to learn everything I can about this thing and all I’ve turned up was a name and a vague description. I don’t know how to stop it… And I don’t want to play its stupid game anymore…”

​

“You can’t do that!” I argued, “Do you have any idea what that’ll do to Rory!”

“I do, actually.” She said, “Like I said, I’m glad you’re here. She’ll need someone to get her through it… Honestly, after a few weeks, I think she’ll understand that this was for the best. She won’t have to worry about me anymore. I’ll be setting her free.”

“She only worries after you like that because she’s in fucking love with you, dipshit!”

​

Sandra paused, looking up at me with big wide eyes.

“She’s… What?”

“Yeah, I’m not blind either! I’ve seen the way she looks at you, the way she talks about you when you’re not around. Did you seriously have no idea?”

She was quiet for a moment, her cheeks flushing redder and redder.

​

Oh my God, she seriously had no idea… She closed her eyes, before laughing again. This time she sounded ready to cry.

​

“I can’t keep doing this to her…” Sandra said, “Even if she does love me, I’m gone anyways… Either that thing kills me, or I kill myself. The only thing I can do for her is just rip the band aid off as soon as possible…”

“Or you can fight this stupid thing.” I said, “If people figured out how to do it aeons ago, then we can figure it out! It can’t be that difficult!”

​

“How?” Sandra asked, “The only thing I found was that the early Sumerians used some sort of light ritual and I haven’t been able to find anything on how they’ve done it! Trust me, I’ve looked online! I’ve gone through forum after forum and I’ve turned up nothing!”

“Then maybe you weren’t looking in the right places…” I replied, before fumbling through my pocket for the Midnight Gospel.

​

I set the book on the table and opened it.

“What’s that?” Sandra asked.

“It’s called the Midnight Gospel. I’ve got a friend in town who deals in rare books. Obscure grimoires and stuff like that. When I mentioned Kahmarth, he directed me to this. It’s where I got my information.”

​

Sandra hesitated for a moment before slowly drawing closer.

“The Midnight Gospel…” She repeated, “You’ve got a copy?”

“You’ve heard of it?” I asked.

“Someone on one of the forums mentioned it, but I wasn’t able to find anything online… You actually found a copy?”

“Like I said, you gotta look in the right places.” I replied as I opened the book to the chapter on Kahmarth.

​

“I was reading this on the bus. Supposedly, the early Sumerians were able to keep this thing at bay with something called a Blessed Torch.”

“That much, I had read.” Sandra said, “But unless it tells us how to make one, we’re a little screwed…”

“It doesn’t, but it does mention someone who did…”

I tapped my finger over a passage and let her read.

​

'In 1836, Kahmarth was allegedly drawn to a town in Norway. After ten years of tribute, a man by the name of Edvin Bolstad devised a means by which to keep Kahmarth at bay. He mounted a Blessed Torch atop his home, that remains shining to this day.'

​

“So if we find Edvin Bolstad's house…” Sandra murmured.

“We might just find our Blessed Torch. So… You wanna google a house in Norway, or do you wanna kill yourself?”

For a moment, I saw an unfamiliar fire in Sandra's eyes and it was almost like I was looking at a completely different person.

“I think you know what I want.” She replied.

​

There’s not a lot of information out there on the town of Salca, Norway. As far as Sandra and I could tell, it’s a quiet little fishing village with exactly one unique feature. The Bolstad House.

​

From the pictures we saw, it was a fairly large mansion that seemed out of place in such a little town, with massive towers that added to its grandiose scale. And in one of those towers, just so happened to be a small lighthouse. It didn’t take that much digging to find some pictures of the inside. Apparently, someone had written an article about the house a few years back and taken some pictures. They’d even taken some of the interior of the lighthouse. I don’t know what the article said since it was all in Norwegian, but we only really needed the pictures.

​

The lighthouse looked fairly unassuming, with green tinted windows and a pretty standard oil lantern inside. A closer inspection of the lanturn revealed some symbols carved into it.

“Give me a night, and I can probably figure out what these are…” I said to Sandra, “They look similar to some Malvian markings I saw in one of my grimoires.”

“Works for me.” Sandra said, “Do you think we could use an electric light? Or do you think it has to be oil?”

​

“I don’t really see why it wouldn’t work with an electric light.” I said, “It’d be a little lower upkeep that way too.”

“I’ll figure something out, then.” She said, before looking at me. She was actually smiling. “Thank you… For helping me with this…” She said.

“My pleasure,” I replied.

​

I hadn’t realized just how close she was up until then, and I don’t think she did either. As soon as she did, she flushed bright red, and I’m pretty sure that I did too.

​

I left Sandra a little while later to head back to my apartment, and as I left, I noticed Rory in the living room, still in her workout clothes. We didn’t really say much to each other aside from some quick hellos, but she had a cocky (kinda cute) grin on her face.

“Glad to see you two finally getting to know each other a little better.” She’d said to me, “I don’t know what you two were doing in there, but I haven’t seen her like that in months!”

“Just glad I could help.” I replied quietly.

​

I spent a good portion of the night going through some of my other grimoires, looking for runes that matched the ones in the Bolstad House. It took me a few hours, but I did eventually manage to find something that looked promising. I made some notes on them before turning in for the evening.

​

I had work the next morning, but I left my findings with Sandra before I left.

“I’ll see what I can do with these.” She’d said to me, “I think I’ve got something we can use as a light source. I’ll be working on it today. Then Rory and I are going up to the roof tonight to get it set up… You should come… If you want to…”

“I want to,” I assured her.

I wouldn’t miss it.

​

After work, I took the bus back home and went straight to Sandra and Rory’s place. Judging by the look of it, they’d finished their work on the light.

​

“It’s set to activate when it gets dark out, and the solar panels means it charges during the day.” Sandra had said, “That keeps it fairly low maintenance… I added the runes you gave me to the base and added some plastic to the outside to give the light a green hue. God willing, this’ll work…”

“God willing.” I repeated.

As I inspected the light, Rory leaned against the wall, watching us. She looked a little baffled by all of this, but didn’t say much about it.

​

The roof access for Starkmann Building usually isn’t locked, so we had no difficulty getting up there. The twilight sky stretched on above us, near infinitely and I caught Sandra looking warily up at it, although she didn’t seem to falter, much. Once she’d returned her focus to the ground, she looked around for a place to set her light.

“How about on top of the door.” Rory suggested, “You said this thing needs to be on the highest point, right?”

“I think so… That looks like it’ll work…” Sandra said, “Rory, can you boost me up?”

​

On cue, Rory got down and helped Sandra get on top of the door. I watched as she set up the light, before scanning the horizon. The sunset was beautiful that night… It was kinda nice to get to see it from up there. I studied the clouds drifting lazily past, before looking at the two beautiful girls who’d moved in down the hall from me… Sandra looked happy, and so did Rory… It was a nice look on them. I glanced back towards the sunset sky, feeling contented like everything was going to be alright.

​

And then I saw it.

​

Movement behind the clouds.

​

A lone airplane that seemed oddly out of place drifted past the sky… And I began to feel a low pressure building up in my head. I looked back over at Sandra, who’d paused. Her smile was gone and she was watching the passing plane. The color had started to drain from her face as her expression became a look of mortal dread.

​

“Sandra?” Rory asked, but she got no response. “Sandra, what’s wrong?”

“He’s here…” Was her only reply.

​

Behind the clouds, I could see distant lights. Like a million little stars, fixated on us. The pressure in my head grew more and more intense, and I almost felt like my skull was going to pop. My breathing grew heavier as I stared into the golden void above us. I could hear Rory letting out a hiss of pain too.

​

“What the hell is that?” She asked, before looking to the sky.

I know she saw it.

We all did.

Kahmarth was coming.

​

My ears were starting to ring as the stars grew brighter. Rory let out a cry of pain, clutching her head suddenly and leaving Sandra’s legs dangling as she hung above the door. The light was partially set up, but it wasn’t on yet. My skull felt like it was being crushed and I watched as Sandra struggled to pull herself back up to the roof. She was losing her grip… She was going to fall.

​

I could taste blood in my mouth as I stumbled towards her, but my knees were starting to feel weak. My vision was getting blurry and before I could reach her, I collapsed.

“Sandra…” I rasped.

​

She slipped back a bit, letting out a cry of pain and fear as she did. Then I saw Rory stumbling to her feet. She lunged for Sandra, grabbing her from behind and pushing her back up. With shaking hands, Sandra crawled for the light and took one last look up at the formless madness that descended upon us.

​

I could see blood trickling from her nose as she stared defiantly up at it. The light turned on. And then I heard it speak.

​

The words… I don’t know what it said. But I felt them ripple across the sky.

​

The clouds seemed to flinch back. The lights in the sky, which may have been its eyes seemed to shine brighter before they faded away entirely…

​

And then it was over.

​

I lay on the ground, the pressure fading from my head. Rory sank to the ground by the door… And Sandra lay beside the light, staring up into the heavens.

​

I knew she was smiling.

​

It’s been two years since we installed the light. Sandra’s a different person now… She’s not the person that Rory used to know. I can still see the pain in her eyes sometimes. She still has a long way to go to heal, but she’s not doing it alone. She’s got Rory… And she’s got me.

​

I sold my little apartment a while back. It wasn’t that big of a change. I was spending most of my time with Rory and Sandra anyways. I know I got into this whole thing to flirt with the cute air force girl down the hall, but I’ve got no issues with dating her cute housemate too.