The Tale of the Evil Eye

The Tale of the
Evil Eye

by
James Glendinning





Deep inside myself, I smiled with glee as the ray of light struck my single open eye.  Though normal sight was denied me, I could sense things beyond the ken of mere mortals and I knew that this fateful light spelled an end to my earthly torments.  My careful sowing of madness' seeds in my hapless young assistant was about to bear fruit in my death.

My evil saga had begun many years before.  I was born the second son of minor nobility, the Earl of _________.  Dear father had squandered most of the family fortune, and my older brother was fast consuming the remainder.  My poor mother surrendered to despair shortly after my birth, and I was left alone with these two wastrels.  As soon as I turned eighteen, I took to His Majesty's service to escape my wretched home.  

In 1780, I turned twenty-one and was posted to India as a junior officer.  I was a green fool, and the troops regarded me as merely another young peer who had been exiled for lack of a better place to go.  Soon after my posting, I began wandering the streets, drinking the foul Indian brews with the natives, and destroying myself as surely as my brother and father.  I became fascinated with the Indian fakirs and their amazing ability to ignore pain and physical need.  I began to quest after their secrets with a zeal that rapidly eclipsed my lust for spirits.  Spirits!  How soon was I to know the true meaning of that word, and to rue my Knowledge.

I never knew if the little man that led me to my fate was merely trying to teach a nosy foreigner a lesson, or was acting as some part of a larger plan.  The Gods know how I have felt wholly a pawn for so long.  Whatever the circumstance, the facts began to scroll forth about six months after my arrival in India.  I was in a seedy tavern, endeavoring to pry the secrets of the yogis from a novice student in their beliefs, when a small exceptionally dark specimen presented himself to me.  His body appeared twisted and stunted, as if some evil force had warped his being.  I later learned that service to the master has such effects.

The stranger informed me, in stilted English, that he could lead me to the knowledge I sought, and he gestured for me to follow him.  I rose as one in a stupor, and followed him through a twisting run of back alleys that soon had me hopelessly lost.  We finally reached an abandoned building that sat apart from its fellows, an oddity in these cramped quarters.  My guide beckoned me to enter, and I crossed the rubicon freely.  Upon entering, I glimpsed a book on a pedestal.  Gods curse the day that first I saw that evil tome, for as I drew near, I saw that it was none other than the NECRONOMICON , sole work of the mad Arab, Abdul al-Harazad!  My heart raced with desire to grasp this foul and ancient Knowledge.

The events of the next few decades passed in a sort of haze, with all my actions seeming to serve a certain purpose.  I returned to the base, and was immediately shipped back to England to bury my father and brother, who had died within hours of one another.  My family's fortune was mysteriously restored, and I began to cut a swath through society, aided by a strange new ability.  It seemed that when I gazed on others with the eye that first beheld the Book, I seemed to see their thoughts and feelings.  This made them easy to manipulate, and  any who resisted were usually cowed by a prolonged stare.  I gathered the most decadent members of London society around myself and began to share my evil knowledge with them.  The core of our group came to be known as the Golden Dawn, and all of London trembled at our names.  Our gatherings became drunken debauches where laudanum and evil reigned.  We corrupted as many innocents as we could, introducing the promising young playwright Oscar Wilde to the love for sodomy that would prove his downfall, and starting  the young Lord Byron  on the path that would lead his son to twist minds through his warped works.  One of my greatest regrets was the loss of a child I fathered with a young woman who attended our conclaves for a time.  Early in our dalliance, she became abhorrent of our doings, and left when she realized she was carrying my child.  I believe she married a long time friend by the name of Crowley.  It was my understanding that she planned to enter her son in the ministry.

In the mid 1840's, I felt that the time had come to move on, that I had one final task to accomplish.  So, I bequeathed the majority of my wealth to my followers and made my way to America.  I found a home in Boston, and retained a housekeeper named Mary Lovecraft. I felt no impulse to continue my activities here, but I did feel compelled to seduce this inexperienced  woman.  Unbeknownst to her husband, this beautiful young creature serviced a hoary old man for two years.  By this time, my eye had become cloudy and blind, but its special powers seemed to grow stronger.  I knew it was not love or lust that attracted sweet Mary to me, but some other compulsion.  After two years, it became obvious that I had contracted syphilis while in England.  Mary also developed the disease, and  she carried it home to her husband.  When she discovered this, she fled, taking with her a legacy that would haunt her family for generations.  

Once Mary left, I felt fulfilled, and I knew that the time had come to end my stay on this plane.  I advertised for an assistant, and my eye revealed to me the perfect choice in a nervous young man named Herman Edgar Mudgett.  I knew my life had to end in violence, but not by my own hand.  Therefore it became essential to drive this poor fool mad so he would do the deed.  His will was so weak that breaking him was simple.  I filled the walls with death-watches and turned the gas up so that the lamps would burn terribly bright.  Then I began feeding him small doses of laudanum to heighten his senses.  The sudden cacophony of sights and sounds that struck him unnerved him terribly.  Then I began to turn the full force of my occluded eye on him, as if I were some carrion bird waiting to feast.  In a matter of weeks he trembled at my gaze, and in a month he dared my bed chamber.  I knew of his presence,   but I had to be certain that he would act violently enough to end me at once.  My plan was to let him  see me sleep for several days.  This I did, and the waiting seemed to wear worse on him.  Finally, when I knew his courage had reached his peak, I opened my evil eye as he entered the room!  His light fell on it, and he attacked it with a verve that showed he had a talent for such things.  I quickly expired and passed into the tentacles of the Master, secure in the knowledge that I had spread Its word on Earth.


Finis