AI Horror from my Lovecraft GPT: Audio cassette transcript recovered from estate sale, labeled “Rev. Jeddediah B. Clay — ‘The Sign and the Shepherd’” – Arkham County, July 1981 [Side A]

[Tape clicks. Low hum of cassette. Ambient sounds: murmurs, fans, pew creaks, occasional child fussing.]

REV. CLAY (shouting):

Brothers and sisters, can I get an Amen?

CONGREGATION:

Amen!

REV. CLAY:

Can I get a hallelujah from the blessed and the weary?

CONGREGATION:

Hallelujah!

REV. CLAY:

Praise the Lord Most High who walks in the dark places! Praise the One who knows the secrets of the whirlwind and the shadow of the storm!

[Organ stinger. Applause.]

Let me tell you, beloved… there are lands beyond the Jordan and dreams that do not end at waking. There are hills that rise beyond sight, covered in ash, where no birds sing and no map will lead. But the Shepherd walks there still.

CONGREGATION (softly):

Mmm, Jesus…

He is clothed in raiment of many hues, a garment torn by grief and stitched with gold. And when He speaks, the rivers answer.

[Woman shouts:]

Glory be!

Now I read to you from the Book of Isaiah, chapter 13, verse 9:

“Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate…”

CONGREGATION:

Yes, Lord!

But what if I told you that day does not come like a lion in the open, no—it comes like a whisper in the mind, a mask behind the face of the preacher, a silence between the notes of the hymn. That’s how the Shepherd comes.

He don’t knock. He don’t cry out. He just enters the temple of your thoughts and sits down.

[Scattered “Amens.”]

Now some say, “Brother Jedediah, why you always talking about those places outside the camp? Why you dwell on the unclean things?” And I say to them—was it not the leper He touched? Was it not the tomb He rolled away?

[Organ rises again.]

I seen a sign, folks. I seen it in the heavens, in the folds of a yellow sky.

I seen it written on the walls of my sleep, in a tongue I did not know but understood all the same.

And it said: He cometh. The veil shall rend. And the city of songs shall rise.

CONGREGATION(repeating):

He cometh… The veil shall rend… The city shall rise…

REV. CLAY:

The Lord said unto me in a voice like many waters, “Preach unto them the mystery of the Lake that holds black waters. Preach unto them the City that cannot be found twice.”

[Woman shouts:]

Carcosa!

REV. CLAY (quickly):

Hush now. That ain’t for babes to speak aloud.

[Momentary silence. Cough. A child begins to cry and is abruptly silenced.]

You see… we been taught the Devil has horns and flame. But that ain’t how the Deceiver works. No sir.

The Serpent is subtle. The Beast, well—he’s theatrical.

But the True King… He’s different.

He don’t tempt. He reveals.

He don’t lie. He speaks truth so deep it tears the soul in two.

[Organ trembles.]

He showed me a tree with branches of bone, and fruit like eyes.

He showed me a tent pitched on the edge of a dry lake where no man may sleep and wake the same.

He showed me a play, brothers and sisters—a holy play, and each of us wears a costume already.

CONGREGATION (uneasy murmuring):

Lord, help us…

REV. CLAY (quiet, intense):

The Shepherd walks in the valley of the shadow of thought.

And He has a mask for every face.

You’ll know Him not by His name—

but by the trembling of the air…

by the silence before the storm…

and by the way the stars rearrange themselves when He passes by.

[Tape glitch. Slight rewind noise.]

REV. CLAY (distorted):

…and when the seventh trumpet sounds, the veil shall part, and lo: the Lake of Hali shall pour forth its waters.

[Murmurs. Shouts.]

REV. CLAY (shouting now):

They asked me once, “Where is the kingdom of God?”

And I told them—It is behind the mirror.

It is in the margin notes of scripture.

It is in the footnotes that were redacted.

It is written in letters no man remembers, and in a color man has not yet seen.

[Organ: sudden glissando.]

So I say unto you—Repent! Not for sin, but for sanity. Flee not the Beast, but the curtain.

And when you hear the trumpet blow, do not run to the altar.

Bow before the

[Garbled static, sound of rhythmic pounding]

CONGREGATION (some confused, some cheering):

Halli- Halli- Hallelujah

REV. CLAY (hoarse):

He wears the crown of thorns, and the mask of kings.

He walks where logic fails, and brings with Him the Holy Collapse.

And the sign—

Oh, the sign!

If you see it, it’s too late.

If you wear it, you’ve already been chosen.

CONGREGATION:

Hali… Hali… Hali…Hali…Hali…

[Long silence. Then, quietly:]

REV. CLAY:

And the name of the Shepherd is…

[Tape ends in magnetized distortions. ]

Side B to follow