It appeared before me brightly

Here is a short Lovecraftian-style story I wrote not too long ago.

It doesn't really have a title, so I am using a part of the first sentence for the "title".

Anyway, I hope you like it. :)

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It appeared before me brightly, fluorescently. I dared not look directly at it for it pained me to gaze upon it in its glory. The aching on the back of my eyes was testament to that.

I am not sure exactly where it came from or exactly what it was and I am afraid if I knew those things I would not be able to return to life as I once knew it. Perhaps even now, knowing of its existence would make that true as well.

I could not hold onto the talisman any stronger without breaking it, knowing that in that instant, I would be no more and the circle would be broken. It knew my thoughts perhaps even before I knew them and I remained frozen in fear. It knew that I merely had to touch the talisman I had made, per the ritual instructions, to the circle, also per the ritual, and it would be banished.

I had spent the better part of a week assembling the parts needed to make my talisman and circle. I gathered the rosewood from an antique chair I bought on eBay. The feathers were another matter. It is not often one finds feathers for a Resplendent Quetzal, or knows what one is for that matter, but I suppose that is what I get for using a Central America sourced ritual.

Really, the hardest part for me was to use my own blood in the creation of the circle. I am not exactly strong in the pain category so it took a good twenty minutes for me to get the nerve to stab my thumb and drip it into the rosemary, talc, and sage mixture for the circle. But, oh boy, since I laid that circle down, things changed.

The energy of the room electrified as I used the mortar and pestle to grind my ingredients together. It was as if it knew what I was planning and was setting up my room as its gateway. It knew, it was ready and it was full of glee.

Well, it was full of glee until I showed it my talisman. Perhaps it was too overconfident in its own self-worth to believe I could still be holding onto this talisman in its presence. And I could feel the rage building. I could feel it strengthening. It was only a matter of moments before it would break through, if only I would let it.

Fear does strange things to men. In some, it causes panic and flight. To preserve oneself was the ultimate necessity regardless of any consequence, even at the expense of those he loves the most. With little rational thought, he would throw his wife and children in front of such a being, such as I was confronting now, for the mere few extra moments he may have to survive such an encounter.

There are other men who would willingly sacrifice themselves for the “greater good”. Total disregard for all that holds him dear and willingly give himself over to his own demise. A man who would push aside even his enemy to take on the immense being I hold in front of me to give them a mere few extra moments after his death.

Then there are men like me, both rational and emotional at the same time. Willing to sacrifice himself for those he holds dear, but selfish enough to know that sacrificing in vain is as pointless as it is wasteful. This is why, at this very thought; I began to lower the talisman.

A shriek of fear and anger and agony and astonishment so deafening as to wake even a stone was bellowed by it that I nearly snapped my talisman, the only protection in the universe that I needed at this moment. If even the feather were to become unattached I would be damned to some hellish nonexistence forever knowing I have doomed all mankind to the whims of this metaterrestrial.

But a sudden calm came over me. I knew beyond all knowing that I could banish this creature, at least this time, back to whence it came. By a mere touch of my efficant I would be free from its sway and its wrath. In mere moments I would have it be gone.

Let me note, at this time, a little quirk when it comes to rituals. In no way do I advocate using them, especially ancient ones that have been translated perhaps too many times. It is this mistake that I made in conjuring such a monstrosity and using such a ritual of protection that instantaneously I was aware of another presence in my room. A being I loved so dearly that my heart sank with a voluminous thud when the shrieking turned immediately to a cancerous laughter so despicable as to almost be contagious.

It knew and it leapt from the circle of protection. I slumped in fear as it came at me. Its touch was so cold that I shall shiver no longer in the dead of winter. In that moment, I knew that death or worse was here for me and in that moment I knew that it was not to be right now.

As I landed on my blue-green carpet, I saw from the corner of my eye the last glimmer of the burning, fluorescence of the beyonder enter my beloved kitten Mortimer, who had deftly opened my bedroom door to see what the racket had been. Who could have known that only whose blood that was in the circle of protection was protected?

And knowing in my heart of hearts that I had doomed us all because of that damn ritual I found on the Internet!