"Alien powers linger in their bodies?"

"Alien powers linger in their bodies?" by Greg Orikson (Printed Posthumously)

Orbis Observer vol. 92

Ever read the Monkey Paw? It's based on a "true" story. That's Alkaev's hand, in which the alien shapeshifter has been trapped since someone ate his body and turned him into a good luck charm. That's ok. Alkaev granted the dude his every wish, to include a swift death after all the heartache his first hundred wishes brought him.

After extensive research, I discovered that Alkaev once haunted the long-lost Rus kingdom between the Baltic and Black seas. A Norse inscription in a Jarl's tomb tells a cautionary proverb, "Beware the Heart-Giver of Garðaríki." Curiously, the runic inscription was written on a stone heart next to the corpse whose ribs were expanded, suggesting its own heart had been forcibly removed.

The alien shape-shifter features in a monastery's logs. Near Inkerman the monastery of St. Clement lurked in a cave as a hideaway for Byzantine religious refugees. They brought many relics, to include the bones of St. Clement. They also speak of securing the "cursed hand of the Seducer" until the British looted the place in the 1850s. Alkaev had been reduced to a single paw by a ritualistic "god-eaters" guild and passed down as an heirloom of authority. They lost this powerful totem somewhere before these monks became guardians of the hand. It is rumored that another Orbis favorite, the Grey Man, had a hand in this transfer.

Once in British possession, the artifact switched museum vault to museum vault. Apparently, each research team had terrible tragedies. Some ended in mortuaries, others in bedlam. In a curious event, the Paw changed hands across the Pond to an American novelist, H.P. Lovecraft, for a short time before making its way into another family's collection after his estate sold.

As you fellow enthusiasts for truth know well, I could not let this mystery go unquestioned. I located the family and obtained a first-hand look at the paw on condition of anonymity (I was in central Romania--read Transylvania--at a former Count's family castle. Hint, hint.). Its shriveled, five-digit shape has long, coarse hairs along its back. This gives it an anthropoid appearance, whether man or monkey is hard to tell. Golden chain links mount the wrist where it seems to have been sheared by a finely sharpened blade. This chain is 6 to 8 inches in diameter, enough to place around an average head.

The owner warned me not to touch it, which made me suspect it was a forgery. However, upon pretense of requesting tea, I allowed myself to be left alone with the artifact. I touched it and immediately felt a hum as though some form of energy emitted from its surface. I slipped the necklace over my neck and, as the paw touched my chest, I simultaneously heard a voice in my mind and felt that same electric warmth all over me. The voice asked, "What is your heart's desire?"

I had planned a clever response you see, but it didn't ask my mind. It asked my heart. Of course, I wanted to know the truth. Every.Bit.Of.It. Now, I'm telling you: Beware the Paw before it kills you.