Book of the Dead

About Book of the Dead

When a massive sinkhole opens up and swallows a retired couple from Iowa it seems like a freak occurrence. But it’s not the only one. Similar sinkholes are opening all over the world, even on the sea floor. And they’re getting bigger.

People living near the pits begin reporting strange phenomena—vibrations, sulfurous odors, and odd sounds in the stygian depths. Then the pets begin to go missing.

When people start disappearing as well, the government is forced to act. Professor Matt Kearns and a team of experts are sent in by the military to explore one of the sinkholes, and they discover far more than they bargained for.

From the war zones of the Syrian Desert to the fabled Library of Alexandria, and then to Hades itself, join Professor Matt Kearns as he attempts to unravel an age-old prophecy. The answers Matt seeks are hidden in the fabled Al Azif—known as the Book of the Dead—and he must find it, even if it kills him. Because time is running out, not just for Matt Kearns, but for all life on Earth.

Contents

1. About Book of the Dead
2. Epigraph
3. Prologue
5. PART 1 – And The Earth Shall Fall
6. Chapter 1
7. Chapter 2
8. Chapter 3
9. Chapter 4
10. Chapter 5
11. Chapter 6
12. Chapter 7
13. Chapter 8
14. Chapter 9
15. Chapter 10
16. Chapter 11
17. Chapter 12
18. Chapter 13
19. Chapter 14
21. PART 2 – Rise Up The Ancient Gods
22. Chapter 15
23. Chapter 16
24. Chapter 17
25. Chapter 18
26. Chapter 19
27. Chapter 20
28. Chapter 21
29. Chapter 22
30. Chapter 23
31. Chapter 24
32. Chapter 25
33. Chapter 26
34. Chapter 27
35. Chapter 28
36. Chapter 29
38. Epilogue
39. Author’s Notes
40. About Greig Beck
41. ​Also by Greig Beck
42. Copyright

To H.P. Lovecraft (1890 – 1937); the first father of macabre horror. Your legacy lives on, sir.

That is not dead which can eternal lie,

And with strange eons, even death may die

H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Hell is empty, and all the devils are here

Shakespeare’s The Tempest

The Book of the Dead, otherwise known as the Book, The Necronomicon, or the Al Azif, is an ancient grimoire of magnificent beauty and unspeakable horror. Many early-translated copies exist, but they contain little of the secrets of the Old Ones, and the incantations that deliver power over life and death. Rumor has it these details were intentionally omitted in the copies. The original remains lost to this day.

The Gated Deep

They slumber, a race far older than man’s first word,

In a city more ancient than Lemuria’s first brick.

The sleepers in the dirt, the burrowers below us all.

We who climb down into the depths find not just caverns of wet and slime,

But carved faces beautiful in their hideousness, carrying not one visage of mortal man.

Pathways spiral ever downward to hopelessness and eternal blackness.

There, find mighty columns, towering edifices, and streets too wide for a sapiens’s feet.

A primal city long past anything the tiny human mind could comprehend.