The Watchman Watches in Vain

Alex pauses a heartbeat too long. Enveloped in the beam of sickly light, he is at once immobilised. He stands stiffly, enveloped in a green glowing film, too rigid even to topple against a pew.

The monster utters another alien noise of distress. It staggers further along the aisle, leaving a trail of blue-green ichor. Its beam weapon trembles in its loosening grip but it seems to be preparing to launch a second filthy ray.

The creature’s device smashes as Emma’s bullet passes through it, causing it to detonate in a pulse of bright heat. The creature is incinerated, filling the old building with an alien stench!

There is another horror to discover in the abandoned old church. Between the pews, the investigators find three human corpses. They have been grotesquely emptied of fluids. From their clothes, two appear to have been vagrants, but the third husk of a cadaver is dressed in the garb of a Misk U student. All bear the marks of terrible wounds. Sucker and puncture marks that reveal that the monster was a form of esoteric vampire, feeding on the fluids and organs of living prey!

Yet this revelation, which would sent the investigators reeling a day or so earlier, barely registers after the horror of their battle.

There are two further avenues of terror to explore. The bell tower above, from which the humming noise still emits. And the crypt, reachable by a chill stairway at the rear of the church.

Somehow, Melodies bandages absorb the glow that films Alex’s skin. By stages, he is able to blink, move his fingers, then take a decent breath. Within a few minutes he is able walk, if rather stiffly. His voice is feeble and hoarse, though his confusion has abated…

Emma scales the creaking boards to the bell tower. Those behind her cannot follow too closely, lest the staircase collapse under the combined weight. So she is the first to reach the deck where the church’s bronze bells once pealed. To the east and south stretch the city’s nocturnal streets. To the north, she glimpses the old Miskatonic, reflecting Arkham’s lights.

But there is something else there. Something impossible…

Above, a dozen yards above her head, an object hovers weightlessly. Leaden grey and and shaped like a crooked bomb or torpedo, it turns slowly in the air high above the Main Street corner. Emma guesses that it is a starship, a vehicle that navigates the endless void of space. Docked weightlessly with the church’s steeple acting as a kind of anchor. But whereas the heaven ships she had seen in comics are sleek and modern, the object she now glimpses is ugly and misshapen. The only feature that breaks its lumpen form is a crude, heavy-looking porthole from which another of the vampire creatures peers through sunken eyes. It watches for a split second…

The ship’s engines detonate, casting it rapidly into the darkness of the sky. Deafened by their din and fearful that the steeple will collapse at it shakes from their impact, Emma watches as the crooked object rises and is quickly hidden in cloud.

…..

"We’ll done, you’ve done very well. Another brandy? I recommend it for settling the nerves…"

King looks at the four adventurers with concern. He is disappointed that Tillinghast left the group so quickly, but seems surprised and pleased that those remaining handled the perils successfully.

"So ghouls… but then an alien visitor of some sort. What do you think happened? I mean, what was the connection? And why could Harrington see the object, presumably, before he promised to make a photograph?"