The Psychic Investigator

"The Psychic Investigator" is a short Cthulhu Mythos story by British author David A. Riley which first appeared in the Gavin Chappell-edited zine Lovecraftiana (unknown year, Rogue Planet Press). It proved popular enough to have been voted for by the fanbase on Facebook for inclusion in a Best of… collection (2023, Rogue Planet Press).
==Synopsis==
A team of paranormal investigators look into historic and ongoing reports of spooks in an abandoned area of the English town Edgebottom named Grudge End. On the first night, the group splits into two teams, and soon one of the teams goes missing: reports to apathetic local law enforcement go largely ignored, and the remaining team is at a loss on how to proceed until the others miraculously reappear, relating a fantastical tale of having been transported to a blasted future wasteland before being inexplicably returned.
After a lengthy discussion, a number of the group decide to return to the site of the first team's disappearance in an effort to get to the bottom of things. As they had hoped, the investigators find themselves once again transported into the hellish landscape, but this time are confronted with a group of mutated cultists. Fleeing the fanatics, they take refuge overnight in a shattered library, hiding from not only the cult, but also the feral ghouls which stalk the world in darkness.
The following morning, the group make their way to the site where they were first transported from modern-day Earth and manage to find a way to return to their own time, but not before one of the cultists slips them a copy of the last issue of a local newspaper to be published before the calamity which befell the world- an issue which has a date very, very near at hand…
==Mythos Connections==
In addition to the ghouls encountered by the explorers, one member of the team mentions his prior experience with books such as the Necronomicon and Unaussprechlichen Kulten.
==Publication History==
*Lovecraftiana (unknown date, Rogue Planet Press)
*The Best of Lovecraftiana (2023, Rogue Planet Press)
Category:David A. Riley works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works