Free Goat Mother and Others: The Collected Mythos Fiction of Pierre Comtois by Pierre V. Comtois, Charlie Krank, Nick Nacario

almost ten years, and now that the time draws close, I have no intention of letting anything ruin it.”
    “Many years, yes, many years have the Tcho Tcho endured without the blessings of our mother, Shub-Niggurath. There are no more younglings to continue our traditions, and those of us who yet live grow older. A new Goat-Mother we needs to restore the blessings of fertility that flow from the goat of a thousand young…”
    “Yes, yes; you will soon have yourselves a new goat-mother. All has been prepared. As I promised, the candidate will be here when the time comes. Just make sure your man brings the essence of the Black Lotus with him…and the book as well.”
    “He will have both.”
    “Good, then I’ll look forward to your emissary’s arrival.”
    Darlene stood transfixed, lost in thought as her mind tried to make sense of what she’d heard. It was only with the click of the answering machine as it completed its rewind cycle that she was jolted back to an awareness of her present surroundings.
    What had her uncle been up to? A trade of some kind for sure, obviously involving the packed ring binder presented to her by Shuri earlier in the evening. But the trade her uncle had had in mind, it sounded as if it had to do with a person rather than a thing like one of the statuettes stored around the house. But who? By the way he had spoken, it sounded as if whoever it was that he had in mind would be here in time for Shuri’s arrival. Whitney? He hardly fit a female-oriented role evoked by such phrases as “goat-mother,” fertility, and the restoration of “younglings.” Then a cold realization swept over her, as she stood in the room where perhaps her uncle had first devised and then executed what occurred to her as a cold-blooded and calculated plot that could only have been aimed at herself.
    But that was impossible, ridiculous!
she thought. Her common-sense, asserting itself, refused to accept the conclusion the facts as she knew them seemed to indicate. Her uncle, sensitive to her desperation to escape the stultifying, small-town world of Dean’s Corners, and perhaps sympathetic to her desires to widen her knowledge, had generously paid for a full four years of college. He had left her his house and all his possessions upon his death. He’d invited her to visit this time because he knew he was ill and wanted to see her once more before he died. That was all there was to it.
    But then, there was the telephone conversation she’d just heard. It was her uncle’s voice, clearly involved with an arrangement with someone that involved trading a “candidate” for “goat-mother” for some secret knowledge contained in a book especially compiled for him. He had assured the speaker on the other end of the line that the “candidate” would be at the house when the delivery of the book was made. Since Shuri’s arrival, that included only Whitney and herself. What did it all mean? Reluctantly, her mind began offering an alternate explanation for her uncle’s past generosity: what if he’d planned on putting her into his debt. Not asking for anything in return, but expecting to some day play on her sense of obligation to lure her to his home when the time came to make the transaction?
    It was crazy, but it was the only explanation that made sense. But with her uncle dead, the deal would be off, right? There was no way Shuri and his people could collect on the deal. Yes, that was it. In the morning, she’d give Shuri’s book back to him and tell him that whatever arrangement there was with her uncle was canceled.
    Determined to go through with her plan first thing in the morning, Darlene was headed to her bedroom when she remembered she’d left the binder in the living room. For safe keeping, she decided to take it with her for the night.

    A noise woke her up. Raising herself onto an elbow Darlene listened, but heard only the familiar sounds an old house makes at night and outside, the lonely calls of