The Exham Priory: Episode 1 — The Black Pyramid
The return of Frank Nevers and Cleo Moon.
What would you do for a life less ordinary? For Frank Nevers and Cleo Moon, back in the 70s, this was the question that drove their lives. He became a journalist, seeking out the extraordinary, investigating the world itself. She became a spy, the woman with all the answers; the extraordinary is where she lived. And when their paths inevitably crossed, they became man and wife, setting out together on the grand adventure of life.
That adventure brought them to a cosmic conspiracy involving a machine out of time and a cat with infinite lives. But that’s a story for another time.
After their first brush with the truly extraordinary, Frank and Cleo found themselves transported to the year 2024. The first few months were stressful and exciting, good times. But when the unavoidable boredom of post-modern life began to set in, they decided it was time for another grand adventure. That’s how they found the Exham Project.
THE WESTERN DESERT, EGYPT — 2024
Janice’s life had always been stubbornly ordinary. Like Frank, she was a journalist. Unlike him, the best she could manage with her journalism degree was a content writing job with an archaeological magazine. However, after a year of writing lists and editing blog posts, she finally caught a break.
It was the single greatest archaeological find of the 21st century, a previously undiscovered pyramid in Egypt’s Western Desert. The magnificent structure, built out of rare black limestone, had lain buried under the sands for centuries until its discovery by Egyptologist Reginald Carter. The British Museum commissioned an expedition, and against all odds, Janice landed the job of embedded journalist, travelling with the team and reporting on their findings.
Five weeks into the expedition, Janice wished she’d stayed ordinary.
FROM THE PERSONAL JOURNAL OF DR REGINALD CARTER
Bringing Alice along was a mistake. There isn’t anything for a six-year-old to do at an archaeological dig. She just roams around getting in the way. I don’t know what to do with her. Ever since her mother died, she’s just been so lost. I’d hoped this trip would bring us together, but maybe I simply don’t have the knack for it.
The dig is going well though.
The pyramid is surprisingly well-preserved, and easily the biggest ever discovered. The architecture and layout are drastically different from anything I’ve seen. It’s essentially one large pyramid with a smaller one enclosed within. We set up camp in the outer pyramid and the data we’ve found here is already quite exciting. There are no statues, hieroglyphic writing, or any of the other standard features of New Kingdom pyramids. Instead, there’s a single motif repeated over and over. If it’s a hieroglyph, it’s not in any of our databases. It looks like a seven-pointed star bound by a circle. I’ve sent a drawing to the Museum; something for the semioticians to work out.
Exploring the inner pyramid has proven to be a challenge. The construction of this place is such that any attempt to breach the inner sanctum would collapse the outer pyramid and bury us all. No doubt an advanced safety measure against grave robbers. The Museum said they’re sending some experts, but I think we’ve found a solution: digging a tunnel under the walls.
It’s been 32 days exactly since we arrived. The tunnel is almost complete and I’m confident that tomorrow we’ll be able to enter the second pyramid. Who knows what secrets we’ll find there?
THE BLACK PYRAMID — PRESENT
The outer pyramid didn’t offer any easy hiding places. Burning torches cast light in every corner, dancing across the blood-stained walls. The camp was the only real shelter, littered as it was with the dismembered bodies of Janice’s erstwhile colleagues. She had taken to hiding among the bodies, hoping that their unbearable stench would hide her from the monster.
Funnily enough, Janice had no idea what the monster was. She’d had terrible diarrhoea ever since she arrived in Egypt. As a result, she couldn’t join the archaeologists when they entered the inner pyramid. Now, she was almost thankful.
Janice was the only one left alive. Or so she thought.
“Excuse me,” said a voice, startling Janice. It sounded like a little girl. Janice peered out from between the legs of the team doctor. It was a little girl, with a pretty pink frock and short blonde pigtails. Janice recognised her; it was Alice, Dr Carter’s daughter.
“Are you alright?” the girl asked.
“You need to hide, Alice,” Janice whispered. “There’s a monster.”
“There’s no monster,” Alice laughed. “There’s nobody.”
Cautiously, Janice got to her feet. The pyramid did seem deserted except for the two of them. And the many, many corpses.
“Sorry,” Alice said, looking down at her feet. She was holding something behind her back.
“I just get sooo bored,” she said. “I found this ball but there’s no one to play with.”
“I…I can play with you,” Janice said. “Just as soon as we leave this place.”
“And go where?” the girl asked with a laugh. “There’s nothing outside. Come on, just play with me for a little bit. See, it’s such a nice ball.”
Alice showed her what she was hiding behind her back, the “ball” she wanted to play with, and Janice choked back a scream. It was the head of Dr Reginald Carter.
The girl smiled and Janice ran for her life.
Alice was right, of course. Outside the pyramid, there was nothing but sand. The dunes of the Sahara stretched as far as the eye could see. And still, Janice ran, her feet sinking into the treacherous sand, fighting against the wind that whipped grains in her eyes and the sun that burned every inch of exposed skin. This was how she would die—Janice knew that—but that was no reason to stop running.
What she didn’t expect was to run headfirst into a strange man, tumbling them both onto the hardwood floor. There’s a floor? Janice thought to herself as she regained her bearings.
She wasn’t in the desert anymore. The man she’d knocked down was groaning beside her. They were in a house, a very large one it seemed. Behind her was an open door, and through it, Janice could see the Western Desert and the black pyramid.
“Would you mind getting off my husband?” a voice asked. Janice looked up and saw a dark-haired woman standing over her.
“I’m Cleo Moon,” the woman said. “That man on the floor is Frank Nevers. Now, who the hell are you?”
THE PRIORY — SHORTLY AFTER
Cleo shut the door and escorted Janice to a parlour room. Frank joined them after he’d recovered. Cleo made some tea and offered Janice a cup.
“Where are we?” Janice asked as she took a sip. “What is this place?”
“This is Exham Priory,” Cleo told her. “Just your average haunted house and interdimensional nexus. Never mind that now, what happened to you?”
Janice told them the whole story, everything she’d seen. When she was done, Cleo patted her hand and poured her more tea.
“The Western Desert,” Frank mused. “Funny, we were just on our way there.”
“The British Museum asked us to take a look,” Cleo explained. “Now it sounds like we should have been there sooner. Better late than never, I suppose.”
“Wait, you’re going back there?” Janice asked incredulously. “I just told you there’s a monster killing people in that godforsaken pyramid.”
Cleo’s eyes narrowed. There was a determined set to her jaw.
“Janice,” Frank said, placing a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “You’ve been through a terribly traumatic experience. You don’t have to go anywhere. But, as for us—”
“There’s a little girl,” Cleo said firmly. “A little girl, all alone, with a monster wearing her skin. We’re going to do something about it.”
THE BLACK PYRAMID — A FEW HOURS LATER
They found the place just as Janice had described it. Dismembered corpses were strewn about the place like abandoned toys. There was blood everywhere. And in the midst of it all, with the inner pyramid rising high above her, was the girl.
“More playmates,” she said, clapping gleefully. “We’re going to have such fun!”
“Knock it off,” Cleo snapped. “You have some nerve.”
The girl laughed. “You know, I picked this body at random,” she said. “It’s not like I wanted to be a little whelp. But now, seeing how much it bothers you… Oh, it’s just delicious.”
“Quite a place you’ve got here,” Frank said, trying a different approach.
“Do you like it?” the girl asked playfully. “They built this all for me, the little monkeys. To keep me locked away. As if something like this could hold me.”
“But it did hold you,” he pointed out. “For a good long time.”
“Time means nothing to one such as I.” The monster grinned wide, her teeth looking like yellowed fangs. “I am Yog-Sothoth, an Outer God. When your ancestors crawled out of the seas, I was already ancient. I am the gate and the key. I am not bound by the rules of time and space, not anymore. Your world is at an end, monkey. R'lyeh has fallen. The Messiah returns. That is not dead which can eternal lie.”
“Big deal,” Cleo said, ignoring the uneasy feeling spidering up her spine. “If you’re so powerful, leave the girl. Face us as you really are.”
The monster obliged. Alice’s mouth opened and out of it poured a long black stream of viscous liquid that hung in the air like a ghostly streamer. Her whole body seemed to convulse as it wriggled out of her, and when it was all gone, the little girl crumpled to the floor.
Frank and Cleo rushed to Alice’s side. She was unconscious, but her pulse was steady.
An otherworldly cold filled the pyramid. The torches went out and shadows filled the chamber. Yet the amorphous monster glowed with an ethereal light. Frank and Cleo felt an unnatural dread grip their hearts, draining away all hope, joy, and life. As they watched, it took the shape of a giant reptilian eye, with dark tentacles growing out of it in all directions, twisting and turning between the strings of time itself.
This was the true secret of the Black Pyramid. This was the power of Yog-Sothoth.
“Impressive,” Frank managed through chattering teeth. “But it’s not enough.”
“Ah, the last words of an idiot.” The monster’s voice vibrated in their skulls. Its words weren’t heard, they were felt. “Already I am regaining the full extent of my power. Soon, I shall transcend this physical plane and move beyond your limited ken. This is the end, mortals. I won’t remember you.”
The eye of Yog-Sothoth dilated and a beam of anti-time erupted towards them. Reality itself dissolved in the path of its destruction, atoms torn apart and dissolved into nothingness. And then, in what would surely have been their last moment, Frank whistled.
There was a flash of blue light and the beam disappeared. When the dust cleared, Frank, Cleo, and Alice were completely unharmed. Between them and the mighty Yog-Sothoth, there now stood a small black cat, licking its paws and purring softly.
Frank looked up at the great and horrible Outer God and smiled.
“This is my friend Toby,” he said. “The Infinite Cat. A mad scientist accidentally turned him into a transdimensional singularity. He’s not bound by the rules of time and space either.”
“You are pretty impressive,” Cleo joined in, picking up the sleeping girl and getting to her feet. “As cosmic predators go, you’re definitely high up on the food chain. But when you spend your whole life as a big fish eating little fish, it’s easy to forget there’s always something bigger than you.”
The Infinite Cat stretched lazily and locked eyes with the monster. And for the first time in all the aeons it had lived, Yog-Sothoth knew fear.
THE PRIORY — A FEW DAYS LATER
Frank and Cleo were in their boss’s office, giving their final report. The Professor, they called him. He was a grave man with silver hair and bright blue eyes.
“I can’t say I condone your methods,” the Professor said once they were finished. “But, thanks to the untimely demise of the great Yog-Sothoth, the Black Pyramid is now in the custody of the Exham Project. Our researchers have already started documenting what remains of the structure.”
“Excellent,” Frank said cheerily. “That’s good news, isn’t it?”
“What about Janice?” Cleo asked. “And the little girl, Alice. Will they be okay?”
The Professor nodded. “They’re both fully recovered, physically at least. Psychologically, it could be a while before they forget the terrible things that happened to them. But with time, those scars too should heal.”
“That’s that then,” said Frank, getting to his feet and making for the door. “Not bad for a Tuesday.”
“Just a moment, Mr Nevers,” the Professor interjected. “There’s still the small matter of you feeding an Outer God to your cat…”
In the end, Frank and Cleo weren’t punished too harshly. All was right with the world again, or as right as it could be. And yet…
On sleepless nights, as Frank snored peacefully beside her, Cleo tossed and turned, unable to get the dead god’s words out of her mind.
R'lyeh has fallen. The Messiah returns. That is not dead which can eternal lie.
There was an ominous truth in those words, a hint of terrible things to come. But it wasn’t fear that kept Cleo awake, it was excitement. The adventure had just begun.