I walk away from the horror, the madness, the never-ending fights. I am done. I no longer possess the spirit nor the means to overcome these abominations. They are evil manifest. The powers they wield are more than I can overcome. I will never see Ella again, my son is gone forever. My only hope is blissful nothingness when I die. I have stared into the abyss, and it did far more than stare back. It has taken everything from me. I have nothing left...

...Except the people fighting next to me. Michael, Jenny, Vincent, Amanda, Mary, Marie, Bob, Mark, Gloria, Jim, Harvey, Dexter, Pete, Joe. Some faces new, some have been by my side for the entire ride. I look at them and see their determination. They have given their all, and everything has been taken from them as well. They fight on. Harvey is a man well into old age, he fights on. Jenny fights for her sister, Michael fights because it is the only thing he feels good at, Mary fights for her beliefs, and for them that is enough. They fight and they will die. Yet they fight on.

I look at myself, I am no fighter. I am a coward. I have walked away from the fight. I walk away from the robed figures that steal innocents. I walk away from the beasts in the woods. I walk away from the rotting bodies of friends past. I walk away from the tentacled creatures that gnaw at the foundations of the world. I walk away from the horror that was born on Wizard’s Hill.

The skies open up and rain falls. Bolts of lightning strike the ground at my feet, and I keep walking. I do not fear my death, I welcome it. Let the heavens swallow me whole. The visions that plague me swim through my brain and flicker nightmares before my eyes. I no longer care. I walk on. A man runs up to me, blood pouring down his face from a wound above his eyes. “Yog-Sothoth is the key and the gate. All answers are within him.” I shrug off the lunatic. I make it no more than five steps and my skull feels like it has ripped open. I fall to my knees, screaming at a world gone red.

The pain is gone so suddenly I find myself lost. I glance about, and am horrified by what I see. I am home. My house. I run to my room, it is empty and still. I should have known better. “Calvin?” I hear a voice that can’t exist. Ella is calling my name. “ELLA!” She appears ghostly before me. I reach out to touch her, my hand goes through her. “Calvin, the answers you seek will be found in Innsmouth. The Deep Ones are moving against the forces that sought to break into Arkham. Your presence was needed, so I was taken. You can't give up yet, remember how much I love you, Calvin...” With that she is gone, and I am alone in the storm.

Lightning flares in front of my eyes, blinding me to the world around me. They took her, but she still lives. I almost walked away from Ella. I had nothing left to give, so I let them take everything from me. Now I have Ella, and I will not lose her again. Let the monsters come. Let them come in the thousands. I will free my wife even if I must do so over a mound of corpses. Let the blood flow, let the storm rage. I go to Innsmouth to end this.