The Express Diaries by Nick Marsh

Author:Nick Marsh [Marsh, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pulp, Orient Express, Europe, Jazz Age, 1920s, Horror, Lovecraftian, adventure, RPG, Twenties, Travel, Cthulhu, Train, Mystery
Publisher: Innsmouth House Press
Published: 2015-02-08T22:00:00+00:00

Milos Valinchek’s Personal Journal (translated from Czech) Thursday, 12th November (Ctd.)

The darkness swallowed me completely as I waited for Mrs Sunderland and the others to return. My gun felt heavy, cold and reassuringly solid in my hand. There was nothing to do but to stand, and listen.

The mind is not used to such paucity of sensation. It grows impatient, and I have heard that it will begin to invent sights and sounds of its own if denied them for too long. That may have explained the noise I heard, though subsequent events suggest otherwise.

After a time, I grew aware of a strange sound, as of metal scraping against rock. It was quiet at first, but gradually becoming louder. My first thought was that perhaps it was one of the mine carts, but they had been louder, and heavier. This was something else. I cannot explain why, but the noise filled me with fear. It seemed to creep malignantly towards me, and I felt a sudden premonition that I would die there, alone in the dark. I held my breath as the noise became closer. I resisted the urge to call out a challenge, for it would have given away my position. I no longer felt hidden, but exposed, as if the maker of that noise was a thing of the night itself, and the darkness its ally.

The scraping stopped abruptly, and I gripped my gun, holding it before me, sweating despite the chill cavern air.

And then I heard voices behind me, and suddenly I could see again. The rest of the party had returned.

‘Everything all right, Milos?’ the colonel asked, noting my posture.

‘It is fine,’ I said. ‘I have heard no other voices.’

Colonel Goodenough nodded. He looked tired, but more normal than he had in days.

‘Were you successful?’ I asked. Violet and Grace appeared, each holding a piece of the cursed statue.

‘All done!’ Mrs Sunderland called cheerfully from the back of the group. I winced as her voice boomed around the cavern.

‘Please, Mrs Sunderland,’ I said, ‘We must try to remain quiet.’

‘Oh yes,’ she said. ‘Of course.’

The task ahead of us was still daunting – millions of tonnes of rock and earth above us, and miles of tunnels to get lost in. The most sensible plan was to attempt to locate the railroad, before the batteries in the electric torch ran out, and follow it in one direction or the other. It would get us out eventually. Until then, we decided to take whichever route was the easiest, and therefore the most likely for tourists to be allowed to walk.

Time stretched out before us, and it was difficult to know how long we searched, but I heard neither the shouts or footsteps of our pursuers, or the mysterious baleful scraping that I had heard on my own. After a number of false turns we entered into a large chamber. Violet’s rapidly dimming torch illuminated, to our great relief, a pair of metal rails running along the floor.

‘There!’ she said, as her torch finally died.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.