Prompt: One day you wake up with the powers of an elder god, space and time are yours to command. A few days later there’s a knock at the door. You answer it to find Cthulhu in a suit and tie, “I believe there’s been a mix up.” He says.
Before I could usher him away, he pushed passed me and into my doctor’s office. I was taken aback that he was the size of a normal person, not the titanic figure that so many claimed him to be. Before I could ask him why he was here, he turned in the center of the room and faced me.
“I have come to issue a cease and desist on the behalf of the Elder Gods.” Cthulhu said, glancing around my office.
“What? Why?” I closed the door and stood closer to him. “Why would they do that?”
“Well, simply because you’re doing the work of others and you are not a true Elder God, and this is the most professional way to go about it. Oztalun wanted to seal you far below the earth, Orryx wanted to strap you to a chair and force you to look upon him for eternity, and Vorvadoss… Well, I do not want to get into what he wanted to do.
“The point is we want you to cease doing the work of an Elder God — driving men to madness, giving them insight far beyond their comprehension, having books written about you that speak of forbidden knowledge that only the insane would read, and so forth.” Cthulhu placed his briefcase onto the small coffee table, opened it and took out a thick, rope-bound document. He closed his briefcase and picked it up, then tossed the document onto the table.
I knew of the Ones Before Me, but I did not believe that they would be humanistic about it. They are uncaring, unimaginable, unworldly gods; why would they care that I, too, was similar to them, albeit more modern. I had an office where I saw those who wished to learn beyond the reality they believed in so dearly, I scheduled appointments, had meetings, published works of ancient knowledge, I did things that the Elder Gods refused to do.
I wanted to guide those unfortunate souls towards the path of esotericism, so, perhaps, they would release their grip on the modern gods of present day and worship those who are worthy, like the Elder Gods, or the Outer Gods, or the Great Old Ones. I was doing them a service and they give me this?
“You know I can read your mind, right?”
“Sorry, totally forgot. So why do this? I am helping the Elder Gods without them doing any work.”
Sighing, he said. “You give us a bad name, truthfully. We are not supposed to be in sight, we are not supposed to help or harm the humans, we are not supposed to even be known — but thanks to some author, who will not be named, we are. We are the uncaring, the unmoving, we are the ones who are behind the veil of reality that only a few idiots look behind. What you are doing is whitewashing who we are, what we are, and doling out information that is not meant for humanity.”
I stood in silence for a moment, then asked, “What if I choose not to?”
“I could not describe what horrors lay in wait for you if you choose that course of action, but remember that it is not just men who go mad when dealing with the Elder Gods.” He strode over to the door, and opened it. “Oh, and also do not forget that I have acquaintances in places that are far beyond all the Gods you know of.” Then he left my office, turned down the hall and disappeared.
I shut the door, walked over to my desk and leaned against it. I stared at the large document sitting on the table, then closed my closed. God… What was I to do?
Read my previous prompt, “The Thing From the Fourth Dimension.”
Purchase my work on Amazon.
Micah Castle 
One thought on “Writing Prompt #20 — The Unwanted Elder God”