The Fantasy Fan, Volume 1, Number 10, June 1934: The Fan's Own Magazine — John Shaqi
The Fantasy Fan, Volume 1, Number 10, June 1934: The Fan's Own MagazineVarious
History
The Fantasy Fan, Volume 1, Number 10, June 1934: The Fan's Own Magazine
Various
Fan magazines; Fantasy fiction -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Fantasy fiction -- Periodicals
Suddenly I myself became possessed of a kind of augmented sight. Over
and above the luminous and shadowy chaos arose a picture which, though
vague, held the elements of consistency and permanence. It was indeed
somewhat familiar, for the unusual part was superimposed upon the usual
terrestrial scene much as a cinema view may be thrown upon the painted
curtain of a theater. I saw the attic laboratory, the electrical
machine, and the unsightly form of Tillinghast opposite me; but of all
the space unoccupied by familiar objects not one particle was vacant.
Indescribable shapes both alive and otherwise were mixed in disgusting
disarray, and close to every known thing were whole worlds of alien,
unknown entities. It likewise seemed that all the known things entered
into the composition of other unknown things, and vice versa. Foremost
among the living objects were inky, jellyish monstrosities which
flabbily quivered in harmony with the vibrations from the machine.
They were present in loathsome profusion, and I saw to my horror that
they _over-lapped_; that they were semi fluid and capable of passing
through one another and through what we know as solids. These things
were never still, but seemed ever floating about with some malignant
purpose. Sometimes they appeared to devour one another, the attacker
launching itself at its victim and instantaneously obliterating the
latter from sight. Shudderingly I felt that I knew what had obliterated
the unfortunate servants, and could not exclude the things from my mind
as I strove to observe other properties of the newly visible world that
lies unseen around us. But Tillinghast had been watching me, and was
speaking.
"You see them? You see them? You see the things that float and flop
about you and through you every moment of your life? You see the
creatures that form what men call the pure air and the blue sky? Have I
not succeeded in breaking down the barrier; have I not shown you worlds
that no other living men have seen?" I heard his scream through the
horrible chaos, and looked at the wild face thrust so offensively close
to mine. His eyes were pits of flame, and they glared at me with what I
now saw was overwhelming hatred. The machine droned detestably.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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