The Bones of the Old Ones

"The Bones of the Old Ones" is a short Cthulhu Mythos story by American author Jeffrey Thomas. Part of a short series set in his dystopian sci-fi setting of Punktown, it was first published in The Bones of the Old Ones and Other Lovecraftian Tales by Necropolitan Press in 1995.
==Synopsis==
Detective Inspector John Bell of the Paxton Police Department is called to the scene of a mass murder where the only survivor was a strange young child. He is soon informed that the perpetrator, an old friend of his by the name of Joshua Kaddish, is in custody and apparently spared the boy on purpose. Through questioning and a scan of Kaddish's memories, Bell is convinced that the murdered people were in fact a cult dedicated to bringing about the return of the Old Ones, employing supernatural means such as the Hounds of Tindalos to further their goals.
At this time, reports on the news networks begin to announce loos of contact with Earth; the phenomenon soon extends to Luna Colony, Mars, the Jovian colonies and Titan.
Shortly after, Kaddish escapes from police custody; he and Bell quickly deduce that the surviving child is in fact an avatar of Yog-Sothoth, a tool to be used to open the gates for the other gods to pour through. Confronting the boy, the being reveals his true nature and begins to transform into a dimensional portal; Kaddish is successful in closing the gate and killing the child, but it costs him his life.
The story concludes with transmissions slowly returning from Earth and the silent colonies, and the revelation that thousands of people across the galaxy have been horribly disfigured, their minds shattered by the events of the last few hours.
==Publication History==
*The Bones of the Old Ones and Other Lovecraftian Tales (1995)
*Dreaming in R'lyeh Issue 1 (2003)
*Unholy Dimensions (2005)
*Voices from Punktown (2008)
*Geschichten aus dem Cthulhu-Mythos (2012, German-language collection)
*Punktown: Volume 1 (2021)
==Trivia==
*The name of the murdered cult leader, Willy Pugmire, is likely a nod to the late American author W. H. Pugmire, with whom Thomas later collaborated on the 2013 Cthulhu Mythos collection Encounters with Enoch Coffin.
Category:Expanded Mythos Works
Category:Jeffrey Thomas works