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Tatters of the King - episode 8

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 8 months ago

After escaping Carcosa, Winstanley and Wainwright took Cuthbert under their wing and fled to Inverness. A news report of tragic and unexplained deaths prompted them to return briefly to Lake Mullardoch in the hope that the occultist’s monoliths were the sources of power causing the deaths and that pulling them down would somehow prevent more deaths from occurring.

 

Winstanley and Wainwright returned to London and, after placing Cuthbert into an asylum, tried to settle back into their lives. The two believe that they failed in Carcosa and the thought of this failure haunts them. Alone in his cell, Cuthbert takes a different view, and he is comforted by the thought that they had managed to avert Hastur’s gaze from the earth.

 

As the months passed, Winstanley and Wainwright’s fear began to thaw as the chill fright of winter warmed into a balmy and hazy summer. Memories and bad dreams faded and the madness that had seemed to possess England slipped quietly away.

 

Not everything returned to normal however. Cuthbert’s descent into madness and the disappearance of Mr Keats had attracted unwanted attention. Mr Adrian Samuels, King’s Counsel, was employed by the family of Mr Keats and he began to ask awkward questions of Dr Winstanley, Dr Wainwright and Fred.

 

After encountering naught but resistance and evasiveness from Wainwright and obtaining little from Winstanley, Ms Samuels decided to seek out Cuthbert and to press the madman into telling him what he knew.

 

When he arrived at the asylum, Mr Samuels was surprised to see the daughter of an old colleague holding Cuthbert’s hand and talking to him in low tones. It transpired that the young lady, Ms Jean Hewart, was a former lover of Cuthbert who blamed herself for his madness. She claimed that she had dreams and visions which she shared with Cuthbert, and somehow the dreams and the visions came to haunt him even more deeply than they haunted her.

 

Ms Hewart and Mr Samuels swapped notes and decided to follow the only lead they had and to visit Lake Mullardoch. They were joined in this trip by a curious Fred. At Mullardoch house they were attacked by a hideous, bloated creature. Ms Hewart set about the creature with a tire iron, and gained enough time for the elderly Mr Samuels to retreat to their car. As Fred pressed the accelerator Ms Hewart leapt onto the running board, but the creature touched her and a massive electric shock caused her to lose her grip and fall unconscious to the ground. Fred and Mr Samuels managed to pull her body into the car and fled to Inverness where they completed a report for the Police.

 

The next day Fred and Mr Samuels were asked to identify the body of the creature, which had been shot by the Police. On examination they found that the creature was a badly deformed man and Fred identified him as the occultist leader, Edwards.

 

Ms Hewart recovered quickly from her ordeal and the three returned to London where Fred reported events to Winstanley and Wainwright. It was agreed to take Ms Hewart and Mr Samuels into confidence and they began to attend regular breakfasts hosted by Wainwright to discuss the events at Clare Melford and Mullardoch house.

 

In the quiet days of summer there was little to discuss at these breakfasts and they ceased to be a daily event. And, when meetings were held, discussion tended to revolve around the remarkable run-scoring feats of young Don Bradman during the Ashes rather than the occult.

 

However, as summer passed into autumn, things began to change. Ms Hewart and Dr Winstanley began to have nightmares of fading cities, deep lakes and mammoth sea creatures.

 

As the nightmares became more common, breakfast discussion turned to the mysterious letter writer who had revealed Edwards’ plan some months earlier. This letter writer seemed the only loose end in the case and Winstanley, for one, was set on tracking him down. A reference in one letter to “Nug’s Farm Well” and the West Country was enough for Winstanley and the others to take a month’s leave from work to investigate further. Bags were packed, arrangements were made and together Fred, Winstanley, Wainwright, Ms Hewart and Samuels departed for Gloucestershire.

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