He sprinted now; first beside Adira and then behind as the weight of the girls slowed him and the ever-narrowing tunnel forced them into single file. In another moment, he saw a tiny dot of yellow – the dying glow stick lying at the bottom of the pit. The walls now were barely further apart than his shoulders, and he yelled until his voice was rasping.

“Dive, dive.”

Adira did just that, and Matt followed. They both landed hard. Matt spun in time to see the walls coming together like lips, swallowing everything that had been behind, and probably below them. The huge stone lintel with the carvings remained in place above them, but beneath it now there was nothing but a blank wall.

Matt remained sprawled on the ground, the girls still with their faces buried in his chest. Adira was lying on her back, breathing hard. He closed his eyes, and concentrated, reaching out with his mind, trying to feel the monstrous presence – there was nothing. The sensations he had felt after the touch of the Shoggoth, the second sight and connection with the Beast, seemed gone. He looked down at his hand – the Book was still there.

“Is it over?” Adira rolled her head to look at him.

He smiled, seeing just how battered she was. “Over? I don’t know if it will ever be over. Maybe for this millennium it is. We need to see what happened above us – see what’s left.”

“Call me a cab.” She shut her eyes.

Matt grinned, and looked across to the tiny dot of yellow that was fast fading. “I’ll call you mad, if you want to be down here when the lights go out.”

She groaned and sat up. “Suddenly, I want to see the sun again.”

Matt got to his feet and pulled her up. She pointed at the Book. “That thing is trouble, it should stay here…or better yet, be destroyed.”

Matt looked down at the cover. The glyphs, the Enochian – the language of the angels or the Underworld – none of it made sense to him any more. The power to read them was gone.

“No. It’s not for us to decide that. It is both a sword and a shield – it needs to be protected – for the next time.” He craned his neck to look upward, but felt a tug on his arm. He looked down. One of the small girls looked up solemly.

“We want to go home now.”

Matt nodded. “Good idea; let’s all go home.”

*

“What the hell?” Decker watched in disbelief as the Shoggoths retreated like army ants pulling back into their nest. They ignored the soldiers firing at them, even though they exploded into black goo when struck. The very last seemed to become confused, ambling about, and then didn’t even bother trying to make it below ground. Instead, they simply started to fall apart, becoming an oily sludge that steamed and ran into the cracks of the earth.