Eleven

By Jason L. Langlois

Eleven went in
Only one came back
His hair snow white
Where once was jet black

The portal had opened
Only darkness within
But sounds, as if the sights
Could not be discerned by men

They chose from the bravest
They chose from the best
The group breached the portal
On an unholy quest

The cavernous fissure
Was quiet, unseeming
And then came a shout
Followed by screaming

It was not pain
That prompted the quailing
The words were all garbled
Their sanity failing

Then came the lone man
With shuffled steps walking
His mouth was tight shut
He'd offer no talking

For weeks he was kept
On close observation
Both day and night
With him were nurses stationed

But stubbornly silent
Not a sound from him peeped
Until, when exhausted
He spoke in his sleep

The words were not English
But "gorgamasuth"
And "sorgoth" and "yggsl"
Like a twisted Dr. Suess

The first nurse who heard it
Was frightened away
She leapt from the roof
The very next day.

The doctor was next
He heard, and the cried
And calmly jammed a needle
Into his eye

The man was abandoned
Alone in his bed
Until one night, after screaming
A nurse found him dead

His face was covered
In deep mask like terror
But the autopsy showed
No problem, no error

Eleven men entered
Eleven men gone
But thick in the air
Is the sense of deep wrong

The man's words were the summons
Of the ancient threat
This world it's new throne
Our futures now set

In horrible darkness
Our world will be thrown
As the deep ones, the nameless
Make our world their own