Hello.
Back in January of 2015 I embarked on a month-long experiment. Every morning I woke up and wrote for 15 minutes. I then sent whatever I wrote to illustrator Ossaín Ávila Cárdenas. He would then spend 15 minutes drawing something inspired by what I wrote.
The website we originally created these stories for no longer exists.
Only 15 physical copies of this book were published.
The ebook was available only for a limited time.
Until now.
Shot of Jack Top Shelf subscribers you get this ebook right now for no additional cost.
And all subscribers get access to one 15-Minute Story right here in this post. Enjoy.
- Jack Cameron
The New Pet
My girlfriend works in an occult shop. This means that the candles in my house don’t only smell nice, they have a meaning. The green candle is supposed to give you success in money. The black one takes away nightmares. I have a dozen different kinds of incense at all times. There’s almost always at least a tiny bit of glitter somewhere on her body. It also means that sometimes she brings home strange things that I didn’t know actually existed.
I first noticed there was something in the turtle tank when I got home from work. I might not have noticed. It’s been a while since we cleaned the thing, but I heard the audible pop of a bubble. I glanced at the tank from the couch and saw two more purple bubbles float to the surface of the water and then pop.
I stood up to take a closer look. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. While the turtle was sitting on his floating piece of bark, there was something else at the bottom of the tank. It was about the size of the turtle, but its face was full of tentacles and when I looked at it, it looked right back at me. Another purple bubble appeared in front of it and floated up. When it popped, I noticed the brimstone smell.
“Honey,” I said, “What’s in the turtle tank?”
“Oh.” I heard her say from upstairs, “I got him from work.”
“What’s in the turtle tank?” I repeated.
“It’s Cthulhu. A baby one.”
“What?”
“It’s okay. The turtle will enjoy the company.” She came downstairs and looked at it as another purple bubble popped.
“What’s it doing?” I asked.
“It’s conjuring.”
We’d talked about pets before. I was fine with the turtle. Ultra low maintenance pet that doesn’t shit around the house. No big deal. We’d talked about getting a dog, but neither of us are home enough for that. But we had definitely not talked about bringing home a Dark God to make friends with our turtle.
Just for the record, it did NOT make friends with the turtle. The next morning when I turned the light on in the turtle tank, I noticed something different about the turtle. It took me a minute to realize that it wasn’t the turtle at all. It was Cthulhu wearing the turtle’s shell.
It turns out there’s no returns when you buy Cthulhu from a new age shop. Not even if you’re an employee. There’s also no selling Cthulhu or moving Cthulhu if Cthulhu doesn’t want to be moved. And while it may be cute as a baby (if you find tentacle faced green monster baby Dark Gods cute), it’s important to note that Cthulhu gets bigger. A lot bigger.
END.
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