His Own Most Fantastic Creation by S. T. Joshi & S. T. Joshi

Author:S. T. Joshi & S. T. Joshi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Lovecraft, Anthology, Supernatural
Publisher: PS Publishing
Published: 2022-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

A MEETING BENEATH THE MOON

Mark Howard Jones

The stars overhead defiled the darkness, drawing unsettling silver patterns against the black backdrop, and the moon was larger and paler than any waking sky had ever held.

The garden stretched a long way from the house, and the man with the pale complexion wasn’t sure whether he’d ever seen the full extent of it. He anticipated that some obscure, previously unseen corner of it might one day yield a sight that would fill him with wonder or joy. Or perhaps some other, less wholesome emotion.

Once he’d been certain that the sea touched the garden at one point, far distant. But when he’d tried to find it again he’d become lost, unable to revisit the place where the tang of brine and ozone in the air made him feel as if he were setting out on a long voyage of discovery.

He turned and looked back at the impossibly tall dark house from which he’d emerged. The darkened windows of the forbidding structure seemed to hold his attention for longer than they should have done.

He tore his attention away and finished tying his sturdy gardening apron at the back. Frowning slightly, he reflected on how demanding a garden this large, and this unusual, could be.

The layout of the vast garden appeared to change regularly, yet he always retained a map of sorts in his mind, so that whatever happened he could find his way back to the house from within the heart of the leafy labyrinth. But that didn’t stop it from surprising him at almost every turn.

Nearby a small tree, stirred to life by a lazy breeze, sighed a sentence of alien sibilance.

On nights like this, when the starlight was so cold, he could sense the presence of a darker dreamer, reaching towards him through the icy blackness.

At first it was tiny and far away, like the sound of a single candle guttering in the vast darkness of a cathedral. Then it drew closer and closer. Finally it was as persistent as an unwelcome visitor hammering on the door of night.

It was then that he headed for a small grove of trees not very far from the house. They had tall, slender trunks crowned with upward-facing branches, and he had no idea why he had sought them out. They each bore a symbol on their trunks.

At first, he thought they had been carved into the light-coloured bark of each tree individually. But on closer examination, the strange five-pointed symbol seemed to have occurred naturally, growing there in some inexplicable fashion as each tree developed.

Whenever he stood within or near the tiny grove, the unwelcome sensation receded until he could no longer feel it. This was a place of peace that he cherished.

The gardener looked around at the plants waiting to be tended and mused that he had planted none of them. They had all seeded themselves. He had no doubt that each of them had come here from a very far-off place, seeking a very particular nourishment.

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