Awoken

Serra Elinsen

Copyright 2013 Serra Elinsen

Smashwords Edition

Cover illustration by Ariel Johnson

For Him,

who has blessed me so completely.

CONTENTS

Prologue: Crashing

Chapter One: Colorless

Chapter Two: Clairvoyance

Chapter Three: Convocation

Chapter Four: Consternation

Chapter Five: Contradictions

Chapter Six: Confrontation

Chapter Seven: Conspiracy

Chapter Eight: Contaminated

Chapter Nine: Captivated

Chapter Ten: Chaos

Chapter Eleven: Cleo

Chapter Twelve: Cosmopolis

Chapter Thirteen: Changes

Chapter Fourteen: Castigated

Chapter Fifteen: Confusion

Chapter Sixteen: Cleansed

Chapter Seventeen: Complications

Chapter Eighteen: Crystal

Chapter Nineteen: Crushed

Chapter Twenty: Captured

Chapter Twenty-One: Cataclysm

Chapter Twenty-Two: Cthulhu

Chapter Twenty-Three: Choices

Epilogue: Complete

Acknowledgements

About the Author

That is not dead which can eternal lie,

yet with strange aeons even death may die.

But love will never die…

Prologue: Crashing

The preternatural landscape was descended upon by fog. Everything around me was hidden in misty grey. Even my own senses seemed distant, as if someone else were feeling for me. I stood on stone, ankle-deep in shallow water. The smell of the sea wafted in from far away.

How did I get here? And where was here? I couldn’t remember anything—not my family, my friends, my home, my dark past or my murky future. Not a thing but my name.

“Andromeda,” I named myself quietly. The word was louder than I thought it would be, breaking through the deep silence. The mist cleared slightly, as if listening, and stony ruins seemed to stretch on around me for miles. A new sound joined my echoing voice—the sound of waves crashing over rocks.

Crash.

Now in the foggy distance, I could see tall, crumbling towers. A pale sun hid behind the cloudy sky. And beyond the cliff’s edge just in front of me—I gasped for a moment—was a drop into the raging ocean. Five hundred feet? A thousand? I’d never been good at distances, but I knew the fall would kill me.

I took a few steps back, each one violating that sacred silence with another soft splash. Below, the waves:

Crash.

A cold wind slammed into me from across the sea, knocking me further away from the cliff’s edge onto the ground. My head spun for a few delirious moments, and my hands grasped at the smooth, slippery stone to push myself up.

“Gwher fhtagn y’osp silm Pso’dau ia…”

I looked around for a moment. Nothing but the ruins around me. Then where was that murmuring coming from?

“…y’osp tsem fhtagn Nor’Jarm Cthulhu Gr’der’si di ia…”

I gasped. It was impossible! My heart pounded relentlessly in my chest.

The stone itself was whispering!

“Fhtagn Nor’Farm Cthulhu Gr’der’si di ia! Ph’nglui ya mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!”

And then I heard something echoing in the distance. A reply. It was a mighty roar from the depths, like the proudest of whalesongs given form! “Gr’dar Iscio jaq’te yr’ra!”