First of things, I am writing this to warn people to not do the same mistakes I did. I damned my life and my ending is near. In this sea of nothingness we dwell on, The well of knowledge is tempting, but do not drink from it! For when you consume it, it consumes you back.
My name is Henry White, 38 years old. I am a geologist. Now I regret chosing this path to my life, but at the time I proudly carried the title around.
For you to understand the madness that unveiled in my life, first we need to go way back in time to last year, when it all begun.
It was the first day of the expedition we were doing in Africa, exploring ruins of an old and long forgotten civilization. The exact place I won’t give, it should stay a mystery, for the good of humanity.
We set camp there and started the hard work. Our crew was composed of mostly locals, who would do the hard work, like excavating. Some would die to conditions like exhaustion, but it was in the name of science.
On the second day we finally reached the ruins. The rocks found there were dated as old as humanity itself.
On the third day we got deeper into the ruins, and as we delve the weirder things appeared to be. On the walls, long forgotten symbols, that now I understand as danger, but clueless I was at that point in time.
The fourth day of excavation was when we begun to uncover the deep secrets that were buried there for a long time. Weird symbols, water systems, weapons such as spears and swords, forges, saddles, aquariums and a bunch of other things I’ll not mention. This civilization that was old as the human race had technology that was totally ahead of its time. This would just break our understanding of history as we know. But now it should stay hidden, with the rest of the unholy things that lies there.
On the fifth and sixth day, we didn’t get much progress done. But it was at the Seventh day that things took a turn for the worst. We found a giant room, really withered, it was covered in debris. The locals would not enter it, fearing local legends. So it was my job to do it. And there, after walking a few minutes, I found it, a book, preserved much better than anything else there, laying on a pedestal. As I reached for it, my body felt a unexplainable sensation of dread, like it knew something bad was going to happen, but I took it anyway and quickly returned to the rest of the crew, they would back off when I approached them, saying their natives words meaning devil, or evil. I should have listened.
Returning to the surface. Excited and for some reason nervous, I opened the book and started skimming through it. For my surprise, it was written in various languages, including English. At first for some reason I didn’t notice nothing wrong, but when I realized it, laying on my bed, I felt that sensation again, that sensation of horror and agony. It was so strong that I got up and started reading the book. That was my worst mistake.
On its cover, there was only a weird symbol that did not match anything I had ever seen. Opening it, I could see a lot of languages. French, English, Japanese, a bunch of them composed each page. I’ll write what I saw on the first pages of it, so you can understand the horror that consumed me. But only the first pages, the rest should be forever lost from human eyes…
For you to really understand what I will write. You should discard all the notion you have about, life, death, time, space, dimensions and worlds. With that you might comprehend the horror I was faced with
It started talking about how the universe always existed, it never truly begun, or ended. And how it is infinite in size. But inside that one mega universe, you had infinite mini universes we would call multiverses. Each one being derivative of one another. In these worlds, things could be the same, only changing small things that happened, or things could be really different, changing everything.
And that is where my my sense of dread begun, cycles. The world we live in, is composed of cycles, life and death, the ouroboros.
Our life as we know it starts with a cosmic big bang, and ends with another, starting again the same, repeating everything, all our choices, we were faded to do it all again, for the eternity.
When I reached this part, it was already day, and I started reading at night, so I spent an entire night reading it.
At first I didn’t believe in anything the book said. Even though these concepts filled me with dread. For me it was just another crazy mythology from some old civilization. Oh how wrong I was.
I slept during the morning and let exploring job to the other geologists in the place. During my sleep, a very horrid nightmare haunted my dreams. The book, spoke to me, calling itself the book of the void, and demanding me to continue reading it, I was going to do it, but when I got closer to it, a weird vibration overcame my body, and from the ground a thing I could only describe as a “human skin tentacle” appeared, and draged my feet down with it. In that moment, I woke up screaming, gladly no one was around to hear it.
Waking up, I took my breakfast, changed my clothes and got to read the book again, looking back it was a horrible choice, but somehow I was compelled to do it.
Opening it from the page I left I continued my reading.
It was still talking about the intricate innards of human life. How every human, animal and else, was faded to repeat the same actions again, and again, for eternity. This got me fearing my own existence, what if I was trapped, doomed to a cycle of existence. Of course it was fake, at least is what I thought at the time…
At this time, I thought about who had written the book, there was no explicit writer, so I continued reading, in hope that it would shed a light on my questions. How I wish it didn’t.
Now is the time I will ask for your comprehension, you might think I am crazy, but please, bear with me.
As I continued reading, the book described complex topics about life and the universe. What our universe contains, but what scared me the most, was what our universe does not have. Something from outside our universe, from outside existence itself, the chaos, the void, a place not made out of matter but concepts, and thoughts, of something not material, but abstract. Now the part that scared me the most, creatures habit that place. The truth is that the word “creatures” loosely describes it. They are, or better, they aren’t. They exist in a immaterial existence, feeding on our thoughts of agony and horror, consuming the human mind, until leaving the person completely insane. They have no form or shape, at times, assuming our most feared thoughts and nightmares.
These “creatures” live outside our universe, and cannot cross that barrier, until some kind of dark sacrifice happens, in which the specifics I won’t describe, but keep in mind it is horrible.
As I read these things, my mind was more at ease, it was clearly some invention of an old civilization. Creatures made out of the immaterial? It was surely crazy. Oh, how wrong I was.
I stopped reading the book and laughed at myself, laughing about how scared I was until this point. But when I looked at the book, my smile was completely gone, it had some kind of dark aura, I could feel it. Putting it in my drawer, I got to work.
Exploring more of those deep ruins, I could see more of those engravings on the walls. Showing humans, wearing animal skin, and helmets, full of feathers and horns. Technology way out of time to those there.
Over them, some kind of giant eye was depicted, at that time I didn’t knew what that was, today I know, but won’t tell what it was, for your own safety.
Another engraving depicted a ritual, or some kind of sacrifice, the same one on the book.
Suddenly, a lot of bugs came from the cracks on the walls, bugs of all different kinds, they over took the entire place, biting and stinging our group, we quickly ran away from there, but one local worker had died.
At the time I thought it was really strange, but now I know it was a preface of what was going to happen. Also, during the attack, I recalled feeling a similar vibration to which I felt in my dreams.
The bugs followed us to the entrance of the cave, there, they stopped and got back to hiding. Nobody wanted to get back there today.
Returning to the surface, I saw some of the local workers making a fire, and inside of the fire, I could see the book. Quickly I got close and put my hand in the fire, taking the book, that was strangely unharmed by it. At the time I screamed at them, angrily, but today I know I should had let them burn it. My hand got burned. For a long time, I really don’t know why I did that, maybe because it was a relic of the past that at the time I didn’t want it to be lost, or because the book itself wanted me to help it, anyway, I did it.
Getting back inside my tent, I really wanted to read the book, but the pain was stronger, it didn’t let me concentrate, so I tried sleeping, at first I couldn’t, but after some time it came to me, and I slept, but I didn’t knew it. Thinking I was still wake, I returned to my readings, but all the pages only said one thing, “RUN”. Insects flooded my tent, and more of those tentacles appeared all around, holding my legs and and arms tightly, the bugs were devouring me.
Suddenly, I woke up, in the middle of the night, everyone was already sleeping. The pain had ceased a little, and I wasn’t feeling tired, so I decided to continue reading the book.
It was written that those creatures themselves had written the book, and given as a gift to the primal humans. At this point the book was full of detailed instructions of how to construct houses, weapons, water systems, of how to domesticate animals and plants, how to use the fire as an ally, forging weapons and cooking meat. All of this coincided with the engravings on the walls. I was starting to really get worried, what if it all was real, no way? Right?
Before I could continue reading. I felt the vibration again, I looked for it everywhere, but I couldn’t find from where it came from.
Getting out of my tent, I saw a bunch of bugs around it, surrounding it, making a circle. I was astonished, but before I could even think, the vibration got louder, and I couldn’t handle it no more. With my hand on my ears, I threw myself on the ground, there, looking up, I saw something, a shape, floating above me, but before I could get a good look at it I passed away.
Waking up, surrounded by my fellow workers, they seemed scared, talking about the book.
After getting up, and getting back on my feet, they tried to talk to me something about the book. Oh how I should have heard them! But instead I got angry at them, and got back in my tent, to eat something and continue my reading.
Getting back to reading. It said that the civilization reading it, could have all of these secrets of the old world revealed to them, these creatures just asked for a sacrifice. This sacrifice would allow one of them to cross the barrier, and get access to the human world. If it happened, I will not say, I will say however, that the book does not describe a bright future for humanity.
The book also talked in depth about the concept of time and space, us, humans, we live in three dimensions, we can only perceive those three: length, width and depth. But these creatures were above dimensions itself, being able to perceive all of them. I repeat, it is said to exist infinite dimensions, and these creatures are above all of those, existing in some kind of existence above time and space itself. With that power, they are able to perceive it differently from us. Being capable of freely moving around it, going back to the past and forwarding to the future as they want. Being everywhere and anywhere at the same time. Time for them is more like the change of the space.
To understand this, imagine humanity as a line in a two dimensional space, length and width, and us humans as a little bug on it. for us, the line is just a dot, in which would be the present. For them, the line is truly a line, and they are able to freely roam around it as they please.
These things took time to understand, and truly talking, I didn’t even understand it fully.
They also talked about infinity, how you can have multiple infinities and lesser infinities. Like a cycle that lasts forever, and one that lasts more than forever. Concepts we can’t understand.
At this point I was completely terrified, maybe it could be true, these thoughts were creeping on my mind, but still, I continued reading.
It also said that they were above the cycles of humanities, existing and not existing at the same time in all of the universes. Only being capable of communicating in dreams, and with those born truly mad, saying that those who are crazy, in fact, could see and hear more than the normative people. Like how a schizophrenic pacient can see a portion of the true world, how things truly are, this being why they are mad, human can’t comprehend these things, we were not made for it. Humanity will end when we discover all the secrets of the earth and we start looking at the secrets of the cosmos, there, humanity will end.
I really wanted to stop reading, but somehow I could not, the book was holding me tight, slaving me to it.
Going in depth about the concept of discernment, it said that people have it in different levels, some having more, some having less. Having more, would allow us to see a glimpse of these things, of the truth, something our brains can’t comprehend, so it just blacks out, like when you go over the speed of light, or when you look into a black hole, but what if it didn’t? The answer is simple, we would just get crazy and lose our minds.
The more you searched for those things, the more discernment you would get, and then you would be able to see what no nightmare or dream would ever show, what no thought could ever reveal, what no mind could ever conceive. But the human mind wasn’t made to receive this kind of knowledge, so it would deteriorate, leaving you crazy in the process.
When I noticed, It was already night, I had skipped all the things I should do, but the book wouldn’t let me go, I needed to continue reading it. I tried to, but I was tired, so I feel asleep on the book.
In my dreams, I could see blood everywhere, rivers and rivers of blood, The land was still the same in which I was, but no one was there with me. Out of nowhere, millions of bugs rose from the depths of the blood, and the vibration started again. I tried to run away, but the tentacles also appeared from the blood and held me. The bugs devoured me again. That was when I woke up.
Now awake, but this time I was in the middle of the ruins. Did I walk all the way there by myself while sleeping? It seemed so.
Slowly making my way to the surface, cold and hungry, I almost fainted when I saw it. All of the workers that were with me, all of them, dead. Their limbs scattered all around, blood was everywhere. Something bad had happened, it was like a bomb had dropped there, but it couldn’t be it, everything was still in place.
I walked around there, in disbelief, I vomited for some solid minutes. Until I got back in my tent, got the book and started walking for hours and hours in the direction of something or someone. After sometime I found a small city and stayed the until I contacted the police about what happened, but without my translation team, they couldn’t understand what I said, And I couldn’t understand what they said. So they just deported me back to France, a move in which I was very happy with, but at the same time worried. What had happened there? At the time I didn’t knew, now I wish it was like back them.
During the trip back the boat was full. at night I couldn’t sleep, thoughts permeated my mind. should I tell someone? Would they even believe me? I preferred not to tell. Insects congregated around my bed, signing their infernal song and dancing their demonic dance.
Arriving at France things didn’t get any better. In fact it got worse, they would come from everywhere, inside the walls, underneath my bed, the windows, anywhere. It had been some weeks since I last read the book, my mind was too concentrated on the bloodbath and the killing. I was going numb. The insects were trying to warn me, I should have listened to them.
For sometime the insects and the dreams stopped, but it all came back once I read the book again. I didn’t want to, but it called me, and I answered.
The more pages I read the more I wanted. It was still talking about the negative energy and how they fed on agony and evil. How evil doings and agony fuelled them, and how animals and insects could feel this energy and be attracted to them. Not that coincidentally they started to appear again as soon as I started to read the book. The insects and the dreams.
More weird things started to happen around my house, objects would fall at random, things would disappear and come back on different places. I could hear undescribable noises, specially at night.
All these things made me want to throw the book away, but somehow I couldn’t, I was attracted to it, just like the insects. Talking about them, things got worse, they were coming from inside my body, all my orifices, and pores, and I was getting weak. At night, in my dreams, I could see the thing feeding on me, sucking my energy and blood with those tentacles, It was made only out of tentacles, infinite tentacles, you count one, three more appear.
My meals consisted of raw meat, or anything edible I could see, my house smelled like feces and blood. Cockroachs, flies, mosquitoes, maggots and other undescribable insects roamed around my house, like it was theirs. I could hear them, speaking to me, saying cursed and unmentionable things, that only would make sense in the mind of a madman, in which I was becoming.
The neighbors complained and the police came, several times, they couldn’t do nothing, but they were trying to get me out of my own house.
I couldn’t eat anything no more, or even get out of my bed, the only thing I could do was read the damn book.
Interdimensional space placement, universe borders, sentient space, living colors, all abstracts representations of concepts that my mind blended together, no human at all should have this knowledge.
I finished the book, I did it, after three months of long torture, and non-stop reading. That’s when I reunited my last strengths, to write this warning.
I’m gonna burn this house down, with me and the book inside, no one should ever know these cursed things. I say my goodbyes to you. My last warning, is to not look at the void, it does not only looks back at you, it consumes you entirely.