Epilogue

It had been an epic night. The threatening storm had never unleashed its fury. Several people died, but many more monsters died. We had seen many Other Worlds. The realm of magic had been tapped. I had been driven insane, twice. And yet we all survived.

After Mandy had closed the last gate, there was a deafening pop that rolled its way through town followed by absolute silence. The dark clouds dissipated and let the stars have a fresh look at Arkham just before the warming sun rose. The monsters flying above the city disappeared. Mandy, Joe, and I met back at the Hospital where I tended to all of our wounds. We may have been a little banged up, but we would be all right.

Joe had killed two monster that night and closed four gates. He sat down on a bed and ate his unopened dinner from the previous evening. I walked over and tossed something on the bed next to him. He grabbed the small statue and looked up at me. "Where did you get this?" I told him I found it at the Historical Society just before Mandy closed the last gate. Apparently someone else had taken an interest in the statue and had stolen it from Joe. We still don't know who did it, but he could now fulfill the job of delivering the statue to the Silver Twilight Lodge, the reason he had come to Arkham.

I walked over to Mandy. I wasn't quite sure what to say. For being a University researcher, she knew how to dish out a good butt-whoopin. Her bag contained trophies from seven monster kills and the remains of five closed gates. She had lost her Tommy gun in the early hours of the morning, but the two cavalry sabers she had found quietly sat on a nearby counter. I asked her about the old tome called The King in Yellow she had carried all night. She hadn't translated it yet and she had hoped to have some quiet time over the night to research it. She just laughed when she told me that. I held out the .38 revolver she had given me before we split up earlier that night. She wouldn't take it. She told me I had needed it, now it needed me. She could be corny at times too. I asked her what she was going to do now. She would remain in Arkham and continue her studies at the University. Besides, if anything like this ever happened again, the town would need her to save them.

As for me, I decided to move on. I would miss the town and the people I helped save. It would be a while before I could sleep peacefully again there. I may return some day to visit my old friends, but for now I will continue practicing medicine in sunny Tucson, Arizona.

The secrets of that dark northeastern town would remain with me forever.