I work for a company that recovers strange artifacts. Workers must follow specific rules to survive. (part 9) Entry 9: The Watcher of the Skulls

Entry 8
Entry 9: The Watcher of the Skulls

Everything is, as they say, connected.
?There are things humanity should not have known. How to make fire, how to write music, how to smell the air around us.
There are the skulls of the Koekeux, and there are humans. Two distinct beings, yet now, twisted together in time.?
I, Mitchell, and a team of experts went back to Nenioweik Village. We arrived by helicopter, and I soon found myself investigating the monolith in the center.
The monolith was now a floating, large prism with strange glowing runes. It seemed? glassy, and when I touched it, the air seemed to warble and blanket over me, like it was trying to drown me.
I then heard this droning that was low, and it went on and one. Gradually it then seemed to be like a million words- a million screaming, distorted voices echoing screaming cries for help in thousands of languages.
?Careful,? an investigator wearing a blue trench coat far too big for him warned. ?Don?t let it suck you in.?
?What is it?? I asked.
?It?s, to my belief,? he began, blowing a bubble from a custom made pipe, ?a prison for the souls of this village and beyond.?
I nodded, not really understanding what Caleb Azalea- that?s his name, was going on about.
?These symbols,? a blonde haired woman in a more professional attire began, ?I think they talk about the Skulls of the Koekeux.?
?Really??
?I write down a translation.?
The translation is as follows:
?Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. There are things humanity should not have known. How to make fire, how to write music, how to smell the air around us. There are the skulls of the Koekeux, and there are humans. Two distinct beings, yet now, twisted together in time. You who would strike a deal with Him, representative of the Six, be wary.
He is the Dark Salesman, Caine Hunter, and he is not who he claims to be. He is not a friend, a loved one, but something otherworldly and inhuman. He is from the World Between Worlds from the City of Joy, which has the Ones With Long Faces and Seven Eyes. The Koekeux have power in this Bridge World, and the entrance to this world is here in this gateway.
- Quint Mognis IV?
Wait. Quint Mognis? Is this an ancestor of my doctor at Company 7? Is this all connected?
And there is another inscription, this one more in detail.
?From this world came Six Skulls of the Koekeux, when they themselves nearly drove their own species to extinction. Each Skull is formed by their own strange flesh and bone, and contain numerous properties.
The Enlightened gave knowledge and consciousness to life, The Blinded gave fear of the dark and strange, giant abominations onto the land, but also how to hunt the, The Drowned gave the Ocean?s Wrath, and the power to tame it.
The Burned One gave us pain, suffering, and the power to control others, The Thought Skull gave us mind, idea, and manipulation, and The Unity gave us perception of Time.
Together, they will summon the God of Light, the unknowable one and its servant, Ca?inis Hu?tuera.
- Elwood Glass III?
I did not recognize that name. The other symbols and paragraphs all told the same things, just reworded. However, I did find odd that they all spoke of a God of Light and Ca?inis Hu?tuera, which I assume, must be an older form of Caine Hunter.
We were supposed to head towards the old Angel Institute Building next, but I suddenly had this? pull from the monolith.
When I opened my eyes, I was in this? town.
All around me, the signs said ?Welcome to Joy!? and ?Stay With Us Forever!? and I heard this sweet, yet eerie music everywhere.
That?s when I noticed the people.
They were all smiling smiles too large, and faces too big, but not big enough, that if you weren?t paying attention, seemed exactly like humans.
They all seemed to be just walking around, but their movements were too stiff and then I saw this- this glimpse into them. Their faces would suddenly shift and become too long, and their eyes seemed to multiply-
Before I could see more, a hand tapped me on my back.
It was the Hitchhiker.
His eyes were still a glowing white, even in the strange sun that wasn?t a sun.
?You?!? I exclaimed, confused.
?Yes.?
?What do you want with me- or the Skull of the Blinded??
?Do not enter this place again,? he warned, tipping his fedora.
And before I could ask him more questions, he disappeared and then I looked, searching for him, but he wasn?t there. And then I looked towards the sky. There was something inhuman there, something large, rising from the ground, silhouetted impossibly, and it is? impossible to explain.
It?s was like an arm reaching out, large, long, and thin extending from the horizon, then joined by another, then a faceless head, and last, a thin, long neck, and an naked, thin body.
At the sight of this, everyone in the town seemed to twitch and look up at it.
And then I found hands pulling me away and I was on the floor, the strange investigator Azalea pulling me out.
?Wha-? I coughed, ?what happened??
?You seemed? stuck,? the investigator responded.
?Stuck??
?You were? melting into the void,? he replied. ?It was like strings were pulling you apart and there was-?
?What?? Azalea had stopped before completing the sentence.
?I- I just saw something,? he explained. ?I saw this? man in a fedora watching over you. And before I saw this faceless? thing try to take you into the monolith...?
?Just? where did everyone else go??
?They went to the institute,? Azalea informed. ?I?m? here interacting with the monolith.?
Before I could warn him, he touched the monolith and his eyes went white.
?NO!? I yelled too late, and he was? he wasn?t. Nothing seemed wrong with him.
Azalea turned to me, knowing. He just closed his eyes and thought.
?I feel? strange,? Azalea monotoned. ?There a unique quality in this monolith I have never seen before. I see a person, a man with a fedora- the? yes, you.?
Suddenly, his eyes went dark and he began to melt away, but then he began to speak this strange language and- then the monolith began to be ablaze, and then it was over. He had stopped, and sat down on the grass.
?How did you do that?? I asked.
?Simple fire spell they teach at the JPI. And also- Him, the Man with the Hat- the White Eyed Hitchhiker- I saw him and who he is.?
?Who is he??
?A man who asked for immortality from the skulls. He? what a tragedy. We should go to the others now.?
We headed over and got into Azalea?s car. It was a short drive- we could have walked, but we were both too confused.
Inside, the agents and investigators were carting away piles and piles of paper, all to be researched and questioned.
There was a staircase into a basement that I had previously not encountered before. It was older than the building, and made of stone.
I went down the stairs, and I was met by a room carved out of stone.
There were ancient cave paintings in there, and a journal on the floor. It was Gail Shard?s journal.
?The Koekeux skulls are being sought after. The date is 4/15/1974, and we have made significant progress in the Patagonia Caves. We have secured the Skull of the Drowned, which appeared to us when our camp was attacked by? living rain. We suspect the Skull of the Unity- time, may also be in here, as members of our group saw people who were here in the past, and a strange, advanced group from the future.
Today, I met the Watcher of the Skulls. He is a strange man, and he wants me to stop looking, afraid of my goal. What a fool. When the God of Light is awakened into this realm, I will use the Crimson Heart to kill Caine Hunter and take his place as the rightful heir to oversee this sad, broken, world. I will channel the Light and destroy the impure and evil.?
And that?s what was on the first page. The other pages start off telling what happened of significance on the day, then dwindle into this? mass of symbols. But now, I know Gail?s plan. To summon this God of Light and erase all she deems impure.
But inside, I found something stranger. There were these- these trophies, no, medals. They were Company 7 Badges, each belonging to different people.
I later checked their names. All of them had gone missing or found dead in strange ways (one of them was half-melted into a wall), while investigating something the company calls a ?Skull Shaped object, Incredible Source of Power?.
I did find it odd that Leviathan Kane was never mentioned, even though everything else in my investigation has. I conclude that Kane is? different. He just wants to live, or change something- likely his world, or wherever he and the Shadowpaths came from.
Wait- that was it!
His world- and where the Shadowpaths came from.
From The Caves of Nenioweik.


Source.