Why does the congregation gather only when the tide is highest? What lies beneath those weathered pews, and why do the hymns sound more like ocean chants? Who carved those strange symbols into the altar, and what do the parishioners really worship here?
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Where does madness leave off and reality begin?
― H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow over Innsmouth
The church bells of Innsmouth rang with a tone that seemed to vibrate through water rather than air. Father Cornelius had noticed it the moment he arrived to replace the mysteriously absent Reverend Blackwood. The bronze bells, he discovered, weren’t bronze at all---they were cast from some greenish metal that seemed to shift and flow when viewed from the corner of his eye.
The congregation troubled him more than the bells. They sat in perfect rows, their eyes reflecting the candlelight with an oily, pearl-like sheen. Their hymns followed no melody he recognized from seminary, rising and falling like tidal patterns. Mrs. Eliza Waite, the church organist, played with webbed fingers that she claimed were merely a birth defect, though her playing summoned harmonics that made the stained glass windows weep condensation.
During his first sermon, Father Cornelius spoke of salvation and redemption, but the words felt hollow against the weight of expectant stares. The congregation’s attention focused not on him, but on the altar---specifically, on the carved stone panel behind it. What he had initially taken for abstract religious imagery now revealed itself as something far more disturbing: tentacled forms rising from stylized waves, and figures that might have been human if not for their elongated limbs and bulbous eyes.
On the night of the new moon, the truth revealed itself. The congregation gathered not for evening prayer, but for something far older. They removed their coats and hats, revealing scales that caught the moonlight streaming through the windows. Their leader, ancient Mrs. Waite, spoke in a language that predated human speech, her voice carrying the rhythm of waves against stone.
Father Cornelius tried to flee, but found his legs wouldn’t obey. The baptismal font had begun to glow with phosphorescent light, and from its depths rose something that had never been water. As the congregation began their true hymn---a song of depths and drowning and things that swam in spaces between stars---he understood why Reverend Blackwood had left no forwarding address.
The church bells rang out across Innsmouth one final time before falling silent forever. By morning, the building appeared empty, its doors standing open to reveal nothing but shadows and the lingering scent of brine. Some say on moonless nights, you can still hear the congregation singing their impossible hymns, calling to depths that answer back.
