Act 2: Chu-Hättöth
During a rainy night, Lee Halloway was in his uncle's old office, investigating as usual when he found journals dating back to 1998, the journal when Dr. Simon Halloway conducted the case of "The Case of Leah Polà's Schizophrenic Behaviour".
Inside the writings, Dr. Halloway described Leah as a mid 30s aged woman, uncaring and nihilistic to everybody, had a liking for Howard Phillip Lovecraft's works and was a fan of eldritch horror, the woman lived alone in Pennsylvania, having no one to let out her feelings to.
One of the pages described how Leah slowly descended into madness when she told Dr. Halloway of seeing figures in her room at night, spiraling around her, the faces of the figures also matched the face of the figure in the bas-relief and led to Leah slowly lose her sanity after the repeated nightmares.
At the second page, Leah described seeing a cyclopean city to be golden, filled with castles with a great lake in the center where the old god resides and a being "A-Ji" is the old god's servant, the A-Ji resembled the being in the bas-relief.
At the third page, Lee's skin started to get goosebumps and terror slowly creeping into his heart as his uncle, Simon Halloway theorized that Leah's loneliness, nihilistic behaviour, and her obsession with Lovecraft contributed greatly to her schizophrenic state to which, Lee was similar to her in some ways as he was always a loner, and slightly nihilistic as well but he did not like Lovecraft but was a fan of horror.
As Lee read the pages of Dr. Simon Halloway's case on Leah Polà, a foreboding feeling befell Lee before he snapped back to reality as he heard a soft knock. Turning his head, he saw a bloodied hand pressed against the window before slowly sliding down, leaving a bloody trail.
In a rush of emotion, Lee ran towards the window, opening it and seeing no one.
Distressed and worn out, Lee decided to end his investigation there, deeming himself too overwhelmed by the things he discovered leading him to start seeing things that weren't supposed to be there.
He went home to his house but on the way home, whispers rang in his ears, speaking to him in every direction and in unknown language and he saw shadows moving, swearing as though it could be following him. After he reached his house, Lee slept to try and calm himself but in his sleep, he saw visions of A-Ji, looking at him with that horrifying smile and singing a horrifying rendition of the children's song "Ring around the Rosie" in a terrifying tone while seeing a blood red sky behind the A-Ji, with his uncle behind, strangled and smiling devilishly at him.
The man woke up in a cold sweat, horrified by the dream he had. Lee started to question his sanity, wondering if he is slowly becoming like Leah Polà or his uncle, Simon Halloway, but after gathering his thoughts, he went back to sleep, this time having no disturbance nor nightmare.
Daybreak came and Lee woke up and did his work throughout the day however, he could not rest at ease, every step he took felt like he was being watched by something he can't see, he heard whispers from dark corners and questioned his sanity even more.
After his duty ended, he dashed straight to his uncle's old office, turning the key and opening the door, he instantly and instinctively revolts as he smells the scent of rotting flesh and ash. Lee staggered back, stomach churning in disgust by the putrid scent as he slowly approached the desk of his uncle containing all the notes, journals and diaries of Leah Polà's case, the notes to his investigations of the bas-relief, the mysterious city.
He slowly pulled open one of the diaries containing the notes to Leah Polà's case, his eyes widened in terror and worry as he saw the pages burnt save for one page.
The page contained the word "Chu-Hättöth". Baffled, the man slammed the diary shut, feeling terrified and slightly angered by the burnt leads.
Suddenly, a voice whispered in his ear saying "Too late", and scaring the sanity out of Lee. He turned around, finding no one behind him, at this point Lee slowly started to question his sanity even more, he swore he could now see eyes looking at him from the corners of the room, and the whispers growing louder, saying inaudible things to him, that's when Lee's vision narrowed as the hallway in front of him stretched endlessly, making him nauseous.
Lee struggled to maintain his footing, holding on to the desk of his uncle as to not lose his balance. At the end of the hallway, he saw inscriptions of two things.
Chu-Hättöth and 44.9S67W written in jagged lines of dried red blood.
He went near the writing, touching the words embedded on the wall, out of curiosity and perhaps duty, Lee immediately grabbed a map, finding the coordinates of where this Chu-Hättöth could be.
After searching, he saw that the coordinates led near the Drake Passage and could possibly lead him to this Chu-Hättöth.
As Lee decided that he would go the coordinates, as he turned around he saw a figure emerge from the darkness, and it was A-Ji, its grin was terrifying and its height was even more intimidating, the A-Ji stood nearly 8 feet tall compared to Lee who stood only at 5 foot 4. Around them, whispers of children and laughing accompanied the A-Ji that started to walk towards Lee to which Lee did his best to run away. As he ran, he saw the walls start to change to something of a flesh that pulsated disgustingly as if they were inside someone's body.
With inhuman speed, the A-Ji chased after Lee its body elongating and rippling unnatural and abominable ways and shrieking in a note that made Lee slowly lose his sanity even more. After reaching a dead end, Lee pressed his back against the disgusting wall of flesh and had a hard time breathing as the atmosphere grew tenser and even the walls looked as if it started to close in on him and the whispers and singing of the children grew louder as if they were laughing at Lee Halloway, as the A-Ji slowly crept up to him, hitting him with an object that looked like a child's spinal cord that pulsated with a beating heart, Lee slowly lost consciousness but before doing so, the A-Ji whispered in his uncle's voice "I'm waiting" and saw visions of his uncle being eaten by the children inside Chu-Hättöth, visions of the city in the sky and the darkness inside the great lake of the city.