Akuji

African horror to come

Akuji- Lord of the Underworlds 

Free reading

 This is the opening to one of my projects, the intention is to write a story of adventure in the style of Rider Haggard, like my Amazon second best selling book Did we see him? 

Did we see him?

 DWSH was based on a true mystery, this is fiction, or is it?

 In the land of Akuji believe everything, for anything is possible.

Akuji - Lord of the Underworld.

"Akuji, how I wish I could forget the name, and the untold terrors it brings back to my tormented mind; alas, once heard, never forgotten. Before I proceed to tell you of the terrors I had the misfortune to witness, let me introduce myself, and explain how I came upon the name which has tormented for so many months.

My name is Gregory Harding; I am the executor of my late uncle Charles Palmerston's will. You may have come across one of his works, Did we see him. The book was a popular read among the well-to-do social circles for some months after its release. Sadly, my late uncle never saw the success of his work on the disappearance of Lord Percy Fawcett.  Always searching for new mysteries, he ventured out one day, and was never seen again. The only link to his whereabouts is a half-finished work called Did we see them. Who the "them" in the story is we have no idea, but, knowing my uncle it probably involved some unsolved mystery. 

One theory is he was going to look for clues to the Mallory/Irvine mystery. Another theory was he developed his time travel machine and disappeared back in time. Strange things began to happen when he returned from the Amazon after searching for Fawcett. One night he left the club to take some air, and have a smoke; on his return to the club found ten years had elapsed; a mystery he was never able to explain. The best he could do was put forward a theory of the time travel. Science is run by big societies, with lots of money, and time travel was for H.G. Wells' fans to read, not for scientists to make theories about.

At the time of his disappearance, the most popular theory put forward was the ridicule he suffered at the hands of the Science community caused a breakdown, and he walked out. This I know to be untrue, my late uncle was a man of resolution, and would never walk out on what he loved –Science. The community may have deserted him, but he would never desert Science. Months passed, and I had no word from my late uncle. This in itself was worrying, as we'd always kept in contact since my college days. One day I was sat in the lounge of the hotel I use when in town, when the concierge handed me a letter. The letter was from my uncle's solicitors. I thanked the concierge and opened the letter. Inside was a letter from my uncle, it wasn't long, but the message didn't need to be; my uncle had a habit of saying much in a few words. The letter read: "My dear Gregory, if you are reading this it means I have been lost in Africa on my last search. I beseech you not to look for me. I'm on a search for Akuji, at this time I don't know if I am sane, or if he is playing tricks on my mind. I beg of you, sort my things out, take what you wish and burn this letter. I would say God save me, but I think I am beyond divine intervention.. Yours, your loving uncle Charles Palmerston."

My uncle being a man of science, and a devout Christian, would not have taken the Lord's name lightly, so what had scared him so badly, and who is Akuji? Since man set foot on African soil, there have been stories of strange beings. Some of the stories can be attributed to illnesses contracted in that awful place; others can be put down to maladies of the mind.

 Through the reports one name keeps appearing. The name is Akuji. What, or who it is I don't know. What could have happened in the jungle which scared my uncle, I have no idea.  He never recovered from the horrors he saw in the Amazon. I fear this expedition could have been planned as a desperate to save some scientific honour. Some horror plagued my uncle; whatever it was, it made him stop his journal, and set off on a trip back to Africa. A trip he feared he would not return from. I sat for some time pondering my uncle’s actions. What could have driven him back to that continent? 

We didn't have much time to talk after his return from the first trip but I got the distinct impression nothing on this planet would get him to return. He talked of nights without sleep, fearing for his sanity. Of the dark areas of his mind that he could only escape by staying awake. He had witnessed horrors beyond speaking in the Amazon, but he told me the trip to Africa made those pail into insignificance; and yet he did return.After deep thought, I decided to do go against his wishes. I couldn't let my uncle rot in some jungle, and not try to find out what had happened. That was my first error of judgement, as I was later to find out.