ELDRITCH HORRORS: DARK TALES

The Specimen

by Linda Navroth

(Excerpt pp. 79-80, Eldritch Horrors: Dark Tales)

I stumbled back involuntarily as my nostrils were assailed with a disgusting smell—like rotting fish, only worse. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust; the lights had been dimmed, and the gloom was punctuated by flashes of lightning at the high windows on the west side. There was the sound of water splashing and then it dawned on me that we were in the hydrotherapy room. There were six tubs lined up against the east wall, and it was to one at the far end that Ramsey now directed my attention.

I noticed that the tub had been fitted with a canvas security cover, which only allowed the patient’s head to remain outside. I had never approved of this form of therapy and had voiced my objections about it to Ramsey many times. But this night I did not object, for what I saw confined there terrified me. Its facial features were distorted into a hideous mask of piscine and batrachian eccentricity that left me speechless and repulsed. Occasional flashes of lightning brought its weird visage into sharp relief, and I was once again very glad that it was restrained.

“Well, what do you think?” Ramsey shouted over the roaring thunder that echoed loudly in the tiled room. “Isn’t it the most amazing specimen you have ever laid eyes on?”

Still speechless, I could only nod in reply. The thing in the tub began to struggle ferociously, and in doing so, ripped the canvas covering about halfway, exposing its torso. I could now see that whatever changes were happening to the face were affecting the rest of it as well; its body was covered in a strange scaly covering , like the armored plating of an armadillo, though the plates were darker and a much rougher texture.

The creature flailed one of its arms the air, the wrist held fast in a leather cuff which was tethered to a heavy chain bolted to the floor. I saw what used to be its hand; it had become a sort of webbed appendage with large claws. The creature was extremely agitated. It splashed and pulled hard on the restraints, then let out a wet, guttural noise that brought goose bumps to my skin.

“What on earth is that thing?” I asked, brought out of my shocked stupor.

“It’s a new species, that’s what!” Ramsey cried triumphantly. “It’s one of those Innsmouth hybrids that we’ve heard rumors about for so long.”

(...)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Paul S. Kemp:
One Thousand and One Words

W. H. Pugmire
Recompense of Sorrow (brand-new Sesqua Valley!)

Ron Shiflet
Out of the Frying Pan

Don Webb
The Jest of Yig

Gary Hill
Rest in Peace, Jeremy Randall

Simon Bleaken
Ashanna's Whispers

Leigh Blackmore
The Return of Zoth-Ommog

Thomas Strømsholt
Devouring Darkness Hovers

Benjamin Szumskyj
A Haunting From Beyond

Linda Navroth
The Specimen

Dan Clore
The Dying God

Blake Wilson
The Door to Nowhere

Paul Mackintosh
The People of the Island

Henrik Sandbeck Harksen
The Bibliophile