The Midnight Abomination (Cthulhu Mythos story)

[Peregrin Toker]

This story, my first Cthulhu Mythos story, was intended specifically to be posted on H.P. Lovecraft's 113-year birthday (eg. yesterday) but I was too busy. It also went through a number of different working titles, from "The Horror At The Highway" over "The Highway of Hell" to its current. So here it is...


The Midnight Abomination
Dedicated to the memory of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, 1890-1947


My name is Anton Cornelius Söderberg. Once upon a time, I led a normal life.

And I didn'texpect it to take any unusual turns, definately not anything paranormal.

I certainly neither wanted nor counted on an encounter with the supernatural rendering me paranoid and haunted by trauma.


But then... a mere week ago came that fateful day. I cannot comprehend what I saw or try to explain the true nature of that dreaded thing I saw... for I would be better off ignorant about it, and so would you.

Nonetheless, I will tell the story in the vain hope that somebody will believe me.

On a freezing Saturday night I was returning from Copenhagen, where I celebrated my father's birthday. Driving on a lonely highway in my Toyota Celica, I noticed something eerie.

It started with a most disturbing yet all but nonexistant sound I heard. At first, I thought it was a mere illusion which had its roots in my exhausted mind which longed for sleep.

However, that unnerving and undescribable sound - which at once was so silent yet so remarkable - continued for so long that I was convinced of the sound's reality.

I then reminded myself that I should not be paying attention to such a triviality. After all, I was in a car currently travelling at 120 km/h and careless driving could turn it into a flaming wreck and me into a bloodied corpse.

But no matter how hard I concentrated on driving towards my hometown, that unnatural sound couldn't help but draw my attention. As barely any other vehicle was on the road save for the occassional car or lorry, I slowed down significantly.



By the time I slowed down to 100 km/h, something apparently passed over my car like a bird swooping over it, but it must have been travelling faster than my car. I could not truly see what it was which flew over me, but I knew it was something which should not be there.

Both of my eyes were still focused on the road, but they also informed me of that abomination flying so close to my car, that I was starting to get a glimpse of what it was.

The first fact that was certain was that this... thing was dark in colouration, in fact I would not be lying if I said it was blacker than the night sky itself. Because of this I could not get see its shape very well nor get an estimate of its size, but it certainly was larger than a bird.

Then, I assumed it just might be somebody playing a prank with a radio-operated model airplane and looked to the side - a sign by the roadside told me that I hadn't got in lane for my hometown some ten kilometres ago! I counted to go in lane for the next city and then change direction back to my home. All while some horrific, unexplainable flying thing flew only few metres from my car and seemed to somehow be following the car even though it was flying ahead of it.


Matters weren't helped by the unnerving sounds it made... a sound which turned out to be silence itself. Also, I noted that as I ventured further down the highway hoping for a lane leading to a town where I could change direction back to my home, traffic signs became alarmingly absent.

It was clear that Something was wrong.

I also noticed that my car was the only vehicle on the road. Not even a single truck was to be seen. And the disturbingly silent black thing flying ahead of the car - not to mention my inability to see the dreaded thing's shape - was starting to drive me mad.

In a hope that abomination would fly away, I hammered my foot against the brake pedal and with a hideous screech my Celica decelerated. As it stopped, so did that bizarre flying thing.


My eyes informed me that it was full moon, and that darkest horror of the night flew up into the moonlight and revealed its most surreal and sinister nature.

Its loathsome shape was very visible and disturbingly similar to those horned, winged gargoyles which adorned many a Gothic cathedral... but it was alive. Already eerie enough when carved in stone, seeing such a creature alive sent a thunderbolt of fear through my heart. When I first saw the gargoyles of a Gothic building, I assumed them to be the product of a vivid imagination and nothing more than that...

But here it was. Seeing one of these creatures in flesh and bone, its black and leathery wings flapping silently, was truly an otherworldly and most frightening experience. A creature which all humans thought to be creature of myth, alive and very real, up there in the air - darker than the night sky itself, with the bright moon forming a contrasting background.

I could not believe it - and yet, that winged abomination of the night was there in all its unholy glory.

In a sudden move which drowned all of my mind's remaining rational thought in a horrendous tsunami of darksome terror, that winged fiend swooped down to land upon the hood of my car.

When it was less than a metre away, I could truly see what this thing was.


It was the size of a small human, but it only vaguely resembled one in its form... with smooth skin pure black in colour, enormous bat-like wings, long and sharp talons for fingers, smooth curved horns adorning its head in a manner that at once inspired awe and dread... but that was not the most bizarre feature of it...


No, if I remember anything about it - it is the following fact... it had no face!!

I am absolutely right - where a face should be, there was only dark whale-like skin like that covering the rest of its hideous body. I was not mistaken - I stared at the creature straight through the windshield of my car, it was right in front of me. Seeing such a creature in flesh and blood is frightening enough, but finding out that it has no face at all is such an unpleasant sight that I have never, ever seen or heard of anything more frightening.

This was no devil or demon. This was... no, I cannot comprehend what it was. All I know is that the last thing I saw was the faceless creature spreading it wings to fly away.


Then, I woke up in the driving seat of the car. It was parked neatly nearby my house. I first assumed that I had fallen asleep as soon as I had parked my car and had a terrible nightmare, but then I went outside my car and noticed various places on the car... certain damage which wasn't there before. I knew this, because they appeared like a disfigurement of the smooth bodywork of the navy-blue car. As I studied them closer, I found out what left them. They were vaguely similar to the claw marks a bird of prey might leave, but only vaguely... and the marks from the claws were much, much larger. Other of the marks appeared as though a man with knife-sharp nails had held unto the car.

Was it the faceless fiend which left those claw-marks... or some accident forgotten by a tired mind? Or could it be that a whole pack of these winged monstrosities had carried my car to my home?? I do not know... nor do I wish to know.

One thing, however, was for sure: I have been unable to sleep ever since, and psychiatrists could only do little to help me. Such is the price for seeing something which humans were never supposed to see.

[God Emperor]

Very good.

[Singular Quartet]

It definalty has a lovecraftian feel to its writing, sorta pulpy, but with some substance behind it. Granted, it doesn't have the proper setting (Almsot all Lovecraft stories took place in rural Massachusetts (and I (naturally) live in a suburb of Boston)

[Peregrin Toker]

It definalty has a lovecraftian feel to its writing, sorta pulpy, but with some substance behind it. Granted, it doesn't have the proper setting (Almsot all Lovecraft stories took place in rural Massachusetts (and I (naturally) live in a suburb of Boston)

Who says a Cthulhu Mythos story has to be set in New England?

If Lovecraft lived in, say, Tennessee, he'd probably have set most of his stories there.

[Singular Quartet]

It definalty has a lovecraftian feel to its writing, sorta pulpy, but with some substance behind it. Granted, it doesn't have the proper setting (Almsot all Lovecraft stories took place in rural Massachusetts (and I (naturally) live in a suburb of Boston)

Who says a Cthulhu Mythos story has to be set in New England?

If Lovecraft lived in, say, Tennessee, he'd probably have set most of his stories there.

Well.. fine. But MA has the larger portion of random monsters and crap, so it would have been more expected. You actually did a half-way decent job of mimicing his wriitng, IIRC...

[Peregrin Toker]

It definalty has a lovecraftian feel to its writing, sorta pulpy, but with some substance behind it. Granted, it doesn't have the proper setting (Almsot all Lovecraft stories took place in rural Massachusetts (and I (naturally) live in a suburb of Boston)

Who says a Cthulhu Mythos story has to be set in New England?

If Lovecraft lived in, say, Tennessee, he'd probably have set most of his stories there.

Well.. fine. But MA has the larger portion of random monsters and crap, so it would have been more expected. You actually did a half-way decent job of mimicing his wriitng, IIRC...

Really?? I actually tried to avoid imitating Lovecraft slavishly.

BTW - I know more about Scandinavia than New England, so that's where I'm setting my Cthulhu Mythos stories.

[Singular Quartet]

Who says a Cthulhu Mythos story has to be set in New England?

If Lovecraft lived in, say, Tennessee, he'd probably have set most of his stories there.

Well.. fine. But MA has the larger portion of random monsters and crap, so it would have been more expected. You actually did a half-way decent job of mimicing his wriitng, IIRC...

Really?? I actually tried to avoid imitating Lovecraft slavishly.

Well, Lovecraft varied quite a bit in his writing career. He occasionally seemed over descriptive when doing his first person stuff, and he also ahd that cheesy "Too horrible for words" feel to his descriptions of monsters, that used a few metaphors and such. It's still pretty good, though.

BTW - I know more about Scandinavia than New England, so that's where I'm setting my Cthulhu Mythos stories.

Given that Dunwich is a fictional place, you odn't need to worry all that much. Granted, since you set it in present day... yeah, I suppose it would be a better idea to set it in Scandinavian.

[Peregrin Toker]

Well.. fine. But MA has the larger portion of random monsters and crap, so it would have been more expected. You actually did a half-way decent job of mimicing his wriitng, IIRC...

Really?? I actually tried to avoid imitating Lovecraft slavishly.

Well, Lovecraft varied quite a bit in his writing career. He occasionally seemed over descriptive when doing his first person stuff, and he also ahd that cheesy "Too horrible for words" feel to his descriptions of monsters, that used a few metaphors and such. It's still pretty good, though.

Next time I'll write a Cthulhu Mythos story, however, I promise I'll try to find my own style.