Courtney Glover - Issue 35

Courtney Glover is originally from Fulton County, Georgia. She is a writer, published author, editor and amateur photographer. She is the editor of all three of the Sacred Feminine anthologies, as well as the various Open Skies Poetry anthologies including Somewhere Down The Yellow Brick Road. She’s also the editor of Pearls of Poetry and Part of My Life: A Collection of Poetry. Her work has been included in the following anthologies: The Sacred Feminine volumes 1-3, Shards, Psythur, Evermore 2, Who Am I Today, Light-Bringer, Encore, Ghosts and Haunted Happenings, Dragonflies and Fairies, Impspired Magazine volume 5, Impspired Magazine volume 10, Wheelsong Poetry 3, Soul Searching, Quintessence: Aspects of The Soul, Lothlorien Poetry Journal volume 23, and Tales of The Unexpected. She also has several of her poems featured on the Spillwords website. Her most recent book, In Your Darkest Dreams, a collection of dark poetry, is available for purchase on Amazon. Courtney currently resides with her family in Camden County, New Jersey.

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In Cabalistic Caverns

In the necropolis of R'lyeh, a recondite god lies covertly concealed, entombed discrete.

A primeval place, far from prying eyes, interred without ceremony, in a manner most discreet.

In the middle of nowhere, the prison kept secret from all outside of the military’s top brass. Lest He be freed and civilization would once again fall, societies would dissolve and collapse.

A monstrous entity in a vaulted vestibule, for a thousand years interred. In a sepulcher of chains set by theurgical incantation. His devilry, for now, deterred.

Deep underground, in a majestic place of canyons, cliffs, and vast rivers sublime. Hidden in plain sight, a paradise carved out by the raging waters, a millennia of time.

Where humans ventured, a shocking find met with awe and boundless wonder. Until one, by one, by one… their mortal minds were violently ripped asunder. In cabalistic caverns grande, only one was left to tell the tale of what she grievously saw.

“A vision of horrific death, famine and disease…” and Cthulhu stood, in chains, above it all.

The Madness Of It All

Where the salt water’s midnight aura consumes everything in its icy grasp of fate. 36,037 feet below, deep in the Pacific Ocean, far below any human’s perception. Where nothing, it’s thought, lives yet an abundantcy of darklings lie, balefully, in wait.

But they are mere servants, these malignant creatures of the deep, a malefic reception.

I wish we had listened to our guts and abandoned it all. The company, and its greed, be darned!

We began drilling in the ocean’s floor, farther down than ever before. It was all a feat in futility.

We assumed we were alone, but we couldn’t, it seemed, have been more wrong. The company we worked for gave vague excuses. Simply put, plausible deniability.

We knew of sea life that flourished near volcanic heat vents, in the darkness they belonged.

But these oceanic creatures, unlike the darklings, were a natural phenomena, nothing more.

The earthquakes were becoming more regular, though no seismic activity was detected.

We knew in the darkest parts of our hearts that we had awakened something ancient.

The company assured us, simply delusions due to the deep depths. An idea we rejected.

The company expected us to believe their obvious lies and stay complacent.

The company’s psychs called it psychological trauma due to extended periods of sensory deprivation.

You know that feeling you get, in the pit of your stomach, when something is really wrong? When the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, when you shiver for no reason at all? That was us, all 152. Then it struck. Destroying the buildings. Our lives would not be prolonged.

Outside we heard the darklings, a quietus parade of death. And civilization would fall.

Every building, flooded with oceanic water. The escape pods destroyed. We drowned, all 152.

And as we slowly died, the horrific truth of the dire situation was realized in that moment.

We had indeed awakened an ancient horde of monsters along with their deity of old.

The city of R'lyeh surrounded us in every direction. The ocean would have atonement.

The madness, the earthquakes, even our own deaths, orchestrated by It, as foretold.

A hybrid creature, humanoid with tentacles and wings. And death followed closely behind him.