Hear the Squidman Speak

"Hear the Squidman Speak" is a short Cthulhu Mythos story by author Mike Minnis.
==Synopsis==
The story is told as an interview between a man incarcerated in a lunatic asylum for killing a former movie star and a second, unknown party; although the man first denies the murder, he confesses at the conclusion.
Artie Ashbourne has dreamt of Cthulhu and the coming of the Old Ones his entire life, and has spent years trying to shut the insidious voices out of his head. One of the distractions he uses is the release of the movie theatre, and this is where he first discovers his hero, a B-movie actor named Geoff Tucker.
Tucker's career is covered in brief, from his glory days, through succumbing to his addictions, subsequent rehabilitation and return to the screen, to his final fall from grace and retirement to his hometown of Arkham. In an effort to revive Tucker's career, Ashbourne writes a screenplay for him based on his dreams, but Tucker believes him to be nothing more than another crackpot groupie.
However, the screenplay has come to the notice of the Deep Ones of Innsmouth who do not like what they have read: soon a group of Innsmouth heavies abduct Ashbourne and show him a Shoggoth, telling him that he will be fed to the creature if he does not kill Tucker (the exact reason for their desire to see Tucker dead is not explained). He complies with their demands and is convicted of the murder, serving his sentence in a lunatic asylum.
==Characters==
*Arthur "the Squidman" Ashbourne, a man who developed an inexplicable connection to Cthulhu after investigating an abandoned house as a child.
*Geoffrey Tucker, a disgraced former low-budget movie star.
==Publication History==
"Hear the Squidman Speak" was published in the E. P. Berglund-edited online zine Nightscapes #9 in September 1998.
Category:Mike Minnis works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works