The Dark Nebula

: The House On The Borderland

Years melted into the past, centuries, aeons. The light of the

incandescent star, sank to a furious red.



It was later, that I saw the dark nebula--at first, an impalpable

cloud, away to my right. It grew, steadily, to a clot of blackness in

the night. How long I watched, it is impossible to say; for time, as we

count it, was a thing of the past. It came closer, a shapeless

monstrosity of darkness--tremend us. It seemed to slip across the night,

sleepily--a very hell-fog. Slowly, it slid nearer, and passed into the

void, between me and the Central Suns. It was as though a curtain had

been drawn before my vision. A strange tremor of fear took me, and a

fresh sense of wonder.



The green twilight that had reigned for so many millions of years, had

now given place to impenetrable gloom. Motionless, I peered about me. A

century fled, and it seemed to me that I detected occasional dull glows

of red, passing me at intervals.



Earnestly, I gazed, and, presently, seemed to see circular masses, that

showed muddily red, within the clouded blackness. They appeared to be

growing out of the nebulous murk. Awhile, and they became plainer to my

accustomed vision. I could see them, now, with a fair amount of

distinctness--ruddy-tinged spheres, similar, in size, to the luminous

globes that I had seen, so long previously.



They floated past me, continually. Gradually, a peculiar uneasiness

seized me. I became aware of a growing feeling of repugnance and dread.

It was directed against those passing orbs, and seemed born of intuitive

knowledge, rather than of any real cause or reason.



Some of the passing globes were brighter than others; and, it was from

one of these, that a face looked, suddenly. A face, human in its

outline; but so tortured with woe, that I stared, aghast. I had not

thought there was such sorrow, as I saw there. I was conscious of an

added sense of pain, on perceiving that the eyes, which glared so

wildly, were sightless. A while longer, I saw it; then it had passed on,

into the surrounding gloom. After this, I saw others--all wearing that

look of hopeless sorrow; and blind.



A long time went by, and I became aware that I was nearer to the orbs,

than I had been. At this, I grew uneasy; though I was less in fear of

those strange globules, than I had been, before seeing their sorrowful

inhabitants; for sympathy had tempered my fear.



Later, there was no doubt but that I was being carried closer to the

red spheres, and, presently, I floated among them. In awhile, I

perceived one bearing down upon me. I was helpless to move from its

path. In a minute, it seemed, it was upon me, and I was submerged in a

deep red mist. This cleared, and I stared, confusedly, across the

immense breadth of the Plain of Silence. It appeared just as I had first

seen it. I was moving forward, steadily, across its surface. Away ahead,

shone the vast, blood-red ring that lit the place. All around, was

spread the extraordinary desolation of stillness, that had so impressed

me during my previous wanderings across its starkness.



Presently, I saw, rising up into the ruddy gloom, the distant peaks of

the mighty amphitheatre of mountains, where, untold ages before, I had

been shown my first glimpse of the terrors that underlie many things;

and where, vast and silent, watched by a thousand mute gods, stands the

replica of this house of mysteries--this house that I had seen swallowed

up in that hell-fire, ere the earth had kissed the sun, and vanished

for ever.



Though I could see the crests of the mountain-amphitheatre, yet it was

a great while before their lower portions became visible. Possibly, this

was due to the strange, ruddy haze, that seemed to cling to the surface

of the Plain. However, be this as it may, I saw them at last.



In a still further space of time, I had come so close to the mountains,

that they appeared to overhang me. Presently, I saw the great rift, open

before me, and I drifted into it; without volition on my part.



Later, I came out upon the breadth of the enormous arena. There, at an

apparent distance of some five miles, stood the House, huge, monstrous

and silent--lying in the very center of that stupendous amphitheatre. So

far as I could see, it had not altered in any way; but looked as though

it were only yesterday that I had seen it. Around, the grim, dark

mountains frowned down upon me from their lofty silences.



Far to my right, away up among inaccessible peaks, loomed the enormous

bulk of the great Beast-god. Higher, I saw the hideous form of the dread

goddess, rising up through the red gloom, thousands of fathoms above

me. To the left, I made out the monstrous Eyeless-Thing, grey and

inscrutable. Further off, reclining on its lofty ledge, the livid

Ghoul-Shape showed--a splash of sinister color, among the dark

mountains.



Slowly, I moved out across the great arena--floating. As I went, I made

out the dim forms of many of the other lurking Horrors that peopled

those supreme heights.



Gradually, I neared the House, and my thoughts flashed back across the

abyss of years. I remembered the dread Specter of the Place. A short

while passed, and I saw that I was being wafted directly toward the

enormous mass of that silent building.



About this time, I became aware, in an indifferent sort of way, of a

growing sense of numbness, that robbed me of the fear, which I should

otherwise have felt, on approaching that awesome Pile. As it was, I

viewed it, calmly--much as a man views calamity through the haze of his

tobacco smoke.



In a little while, I had come so close to the House, as to be able to

distinguish many of the details about it. The longer I looked, the more

was I confirmed in my long-ago impressions of its entire similitude to

this strange house. Save in its enormous size, I could find

nothing unlike.



Suddenly, as I stared, a great feeling of amazement filled me. I had

come opposite to that part, where the outer door, leading into the

study, is situated. There, lying right across the threshold, lay a great

length of coping stone, identical--save in size and color--with the

piece I had dislodged in my fight with the Pit-creatures.



I floated nearer, and my astonishment increased, as I noted that the

door was broken partly from its hinges, precisely in the manner that my

study door had been forced inward, by the assaults of the Swine-things.

The sight started a train of thoughts, and I began to trace, dimly,

that the attack on this house, might have a far deeper significance than

I had, hitherto, imagined. I remembered how, long ago, in the old

earth-days, I had half suspected that, in some unexplainable manner,

this house, in which I live, was en rapport--to use a recognized

term--with that other tremendous structure, away in the midst of that

incomparable Plain.



Now, however, it began to be borne upon me, that I had but vaguely

conceived what the realization of my suspicion meant. I began to

understand, with a more than human clearness, that the attack I had

repelled, was, in some extraordinary manner, connected with an attack

upon that strange edifice.



With a curious inconsequence, my thoughts abruptly left the matter; to

dwell, wonderingly, upon the peculiar material, out of which the House

was constructed. It was--as I have mentioned, earlier--of a deep, green

color. Yet, now that I had come so close to it, I perceived that it

fluctuated at times, though slightly--glowing and fading, much as do the

fumes of phosphorus, when rubbed upon the hand, in the dark.



Presently, my attention was distracted from this, by coming to the

great entrance. Here, for the first time, I was afraid; for, all in a

moment, the huge doors swung back, and I drifted in between them,

helplessly. Inside, all was blackness, impalpable. In an instant, I had

crossed the threshold, and the great doors closed, silently, shutting me

in that lightless place.



For a while, I seemed to hang, motionless; suspended amid the darkness.

Then, I became conscious that I was moving again; where, I could not

tell. Suddenly, far down beneath me, I seemed to hear a murmurous noise

of Swine-laughter. It sank away, and the succeeding silence appeared

clogged with horror.



Then a door opened somewhere ahead; a white haze of light filtered

through, and I floated slowly into a room, that seemed strangely

familiar. All at once, there came a bewildering, screaming noise, that

deafened me. I saw a blurred vista of visions, flaming before my sight.

My senses were dazed, through the space of an eternal moment. Then, my

power of seeing, came back to me. The dizzy, hazy feeling passed, and I

saw, clearly.