Monommy
Chapter 135: Slain
As the last of the soldiers and monomasters boarded the final helicopters and took to the skies, Glenn stared off into the distance. The morning had come just as it always did, although the sky seemed a bit different today. The morning sun lit up the world in shades of purple and red. On any other day, Glenn would say it’s a beautiful morning.
But today wasn’t just another day. The safehouse was awoken by Marcus Lane’s abrupt announcement that he had received reports that the moon had completely vanished, and masses of flesh, bones, and blood were rapidly filling the space near the Earth. It was accelerating at a speed they hadn’t expected. Today could very well be their last.
Glenn hadn’t expected Kane, Od, and Ember to hug him goodbye, but he felt honoured when they did. Part of him wished he went with them, but he knew that his place was here with Maia and Dana.
The safehouse was much more empty than the night before, which was strange to Glenn, as before the True Emergence Event began, only he and his father had ever been inside. But now that he’d seen it in use, it felt almost lonely. Of course, he wasn’t alone: Toastmy and the girls were there, as were Marcus Lane and Mason Cobb.
As he watched the final helicopter disappear into the distance, a creeping anxiety started to overtake him. Then he noticed a flickering blue and purple light in the corner of his vision. He turned and saw Plasmamy, Keith’s Monommy partner, run into the backyard.
“Glenn! You have to come quick, it’s Keith!” she desperately coughed out.
“Mason, Marcus, watch the girls,” yelled Glenn.
“With our lives, Glenn,” Cobb replied, reaching for a shotgun and positioning himself by the door.
“Be ready for anything,” said Bytemy, disconnecting herself from the computer and casting a reinforcement spell on Marcus’ cyber-arm.
Plasmamy led Glenn and Toastmy across the cul-de-sac into the backyard of one of Glenn’s neighbours, where Janet was fighting against a massive glistening red tentacle covered in what looked like teeth.
She was unleashing a constant barrage of burning flames from her wrists to hold the massive tentacle back, but she was beginning to waver, the stream of flame becoming shorter and shorter.
Balls of white hot fire shot out from Immolmy in all directions as more and more tendrils burst forth from the ground below them. Immolmy’s fire sprite was shrinking more and more as it, too, became overwhelmed by the fire.
Toastmy saw Keith lying next to some bushes and ran to his side.
Glenn leapt into action, joining Janet’s side and unleashing flames of his own. Glenn’s orange-red flames contrasted against the white-yellow fire from Janet and Immolmy. With Glenn’s power added to Janet’s, they were able to burn the tentacle further back, until it seemed to recoil in pain and returned to the hole in the earth it emerged from. The smaller tendrils attacking Immolmy seemed to die down and retreat as well.
As it did, Janet slumped over into Glenn, who caught her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“K-keith,” she muttered.
Glenn turned to see Toastmy already crouched over Keith.
“Toastmy’s got him, he’ll be okay!” Glenn assured Janet. He looked down. She was covered in blood. “We’re gonna get you back to the safehouse. Patch you up real good, you hear?”
Janet nodded, but her eyes were filling up with tears.
Glenn helped Janet to her feet and started to hobble back across the cul-de-sac. Before they could make it out of the yard, though, the toothed tentacle breached the asphalt, knocking Glenn and Janet on their backs.
Glenn grabbed on to Janet and ran behind the neighbour’s house before placing her gently by the bushes next to Keith and Toastmy, who was sat there, staring into Keith’s eyes. Something was very wrong.
“Toastmy we gotta roast that S.O.B,” said Glenn, reaching for Toastmy’s hand. Toastmy grabbed Glenn’s hand, who slung her onto his right shoulder.
Glenn whipped out from behind the house just in time to see the tentacle smash into the next house over, completely destroying it.
Glenn and Toastmy called out in unison to cast Toastmy’s Special Attack: “Mellow Roaster!”
Huge blasts of scorching hot flame erupted from Toastmy and Glenn’s open palms, interspersed with red-hot molten shreds of marshmallow. A silly attack, but an effective one.
The combined force of Toastmy and Glenn was able to hold the tentacle back, but then just as before, smaller tendrils burst up from the ground below them.
Immolmy and Plasmamy began blindly throwing fire and lightning spells left and right to deal with the pesky tendrils as Glenn and Toastmy held the bigger tentacle back.
As soon as the toothed tentacle gave way, retreating back into the earth, something shoved Glenn to the side. He turned to see Janet staring back at him, but something was different about her. She stared at Glenn, but it was more like she was staring past him.
“Janet get back to Keith, it’s not safe,” said Glenn. Janet walked past him, as if he had said nothing. As if he wasn’t even there. “Janet!”
“Glenn, that’s the same look Keith had,” said Toastmy.
“What do you mean?”
“His eyes weren’t looking at anything. He wasn’t responding to anything I said,” said Toastmy. “It was like he wasn’t there at all.”
Immolmy finished off the last of the tendrils and ran over to Janet. “Janet what’s your deal?! Are you okay?”
Janet kept walking until she was in the middle of the cul-de-sac, where she sat down. Immolmy ran to join her.
“Plasmamy, how’s Keith?” Glenn asked. No response. He turned around, and Plasmamy was nowhere to be seen.
Toastmy hopped off Glenn’s shoulder and went to the corner where she’d left Keith. As she turned the corner, she saw that Keith was completely missing as well. “Glenn…?”
Glenn joined Toastmy’s side, and saw that the grass where Keith had once laid had now turned completely red.
“What the heck…” Glenn crouched down to inspect the grass. Each individual blade, on closer inspection, now looked like tiny, thin, human tongues.
“Get off the grass, Toastmy,” he said quickly, scooping Toastmy up and returning to the street. Janet lied there, on the asphalt, completely motionless. Immolmy and Plasmamy were stood over her.
“Is she okay?” Toastmy asked as they approached.
“She hasn’t responded to anything I’ve said,” Immolmy cried, “This is what happened to Keith right before… right before…” She couldn’t say it.
“Plasmamy, get one of the first aid kits from the safehouse,” Glenn instructed as he knelt down. He didn’t know a lot, but he’d do everything he could.
“O-oh, I’m Plasmamy, r-right,” said Plasmamy as she began to run off in the wrong direction.
“No…” Toastmy said, her voice shaking. “Plasmamy, that’s the wrong way… Do you not remember?”
“N-no, I just got here, I-I’m sorry,” Plasmamy replied. She was scared, and new. Brand new.
“She reincarnated…”
Glenn froze. “So Keith’s..?”
It was dead silent for a moment, until Immolmy finally spoke.
“Keith’s dead.”
Glenn wiped a tear from his eye. “How did this happen? Was it the tentacles?”
“I don’t know,” said immolmy, “Plasmamy and I were taking a break while the humans burned back some biomass, then suddenly I heard Janet and Keith screaming about a Chaos-type.”
“A Chaos-type? Not just the tentacles and goo?” Glenn asked.
“Yeah,” said Immolmy.
“What did it look like? Where did it go?”
“We can’t see them, Glenn!” Immolmy thrust her fire poker into the asphalt in frustration. As she did, a squealing shriek could be heard from beneath them.
Glenn looked down. The asphalt had changed. It now had the appearance of human skin, and what looked like lips were slowly forming around Janet.
“Get her off the road! Now!” Glenn screamed suddenly, grabbing Janet by the shoulders. “You two get her legs!” Plasmamy and Immolmy each grabbed one of Janet’s legs.
Janet furiously thrashed her legs until the Monommy lost their grip on her, and kept thrashing to keep Glenn off of her as well.
“Janet you gotta get up!” Glenn yelled. The skin on the ground changed shape, becoming more and more like lips with each passing second.
“JANET!” Glenn screamed, wrapping his arms around her shoulder and lifting her as best he could. Again, she flailed and broke free. The lips had fully formed, and were beginning to part.
Glenn was torn between his own safety and Janet’s. Then he thought about his girls. Glenn stepped back and ran. “Run!” he screamed.
As they approached the presumed safety of their front yard, Toastmy called out, “Janet, your baby!”
As if something awoke inside Janet, she sprang to her feet, and began to run alongside Immolmy and Plasmamy. Glenn leapt up to grab her outstretched hand.
In a fraction of an instant, a flash of red exploded through the cul de sac as the mouth in the ground opened wide and shut closed. The mouth immediately began to fade back to asphalt along with the surrounding street. All that remained was a seemingly normal street, with Janet’s blood, Plasmamy’s glass shards, and the remnants of Immolmy’s flames burning in the centre.
“JANET!!” Glenn screamed until his voice gave out. The anomaly had killed them all. Only Glenn and Toastmy remained.
“Glenn we need to go,” said Toastmy between sobs, “We need to evacuate the safehouse.”
Tears streamed down Glenn’s face like waterfalls. He picked up Toastmy and walked back to the safehouse, his mind so flooded with grief that he barely noticed he was walking.
When they arrived, the door was open. Glenn definitely closed it. He ran inside just in time to hear the blast of Cobb’s shotgun firing.
Glenn whipped around the corner and saw that the safehouse’s food shelves and couches had all been shredded into tiny pieces, and somehow serenely floating in the centre of the room was a Chaos-type. But this Chaos-type wasn’t like the ones Glenn had previously encountered, nor was it like the ones he’d seen in the news. While most Chaos-types looked like gory Monommy, this one looked particularly… human. In proportions and somehow demeanor, it sent a shiver up Glenn’s spine.
Toastmy’s heart sank, and her eyes filled with tears. For the first time, she could see an anomaly.
What Toastmy couldn’t see, however, was the small grey Chaos-type that had latched itself onto the larger one’s exposed brainstem. Glenn almost puked in his mouth seeing its little grey tentacles weaving in and out of the larger creature’s grey matter.
Marcus Lane, Maia, and Dana were cowering in the corner, with only Bytemy standing between them and the Chaos-type.
In the centre of the room, Mason Cobb was circling the creature, keeping its attention with shotgun blasts to the chest, being careful not to look up at its face. Whenever the creature would move its massive floating eyeball, Cobb would immediately close his eyes and fire at the eye. This made it turn to blink out the shells, which scattered all over the safehouse’s concrete floor.
“Keep your eyes closed, girls!” Cobb screamed, closing his eyes and pulling the trigger once again. The shotgun shells splattered against the anomaly’s wet sclera, shredding parts of it away before its tendril-like muscles could form an eyelid to ‘cry’ out the shells.
Cobb turned his head over to Glenn. “Whatever you do, don’t make eye contact with it!”
But it was too late, Glenn had looked at its face, and inevitably made eye contact thanks to the creature’s many eyes. In the brief moment Glenn could still think for himself, he thought he saw the eye of a very sad woman. He thought he saw Cherise Caulfield.
But that was the last thought of his own to cross his mind, now the only thought in his head was ‘Approach.’
Glenn obeyed, and began to slowly and calmly walk forward. All he could see was that creature’s eyes, but also something… more.
Another eye, behind the ones he gazed into.
All he could hear was static, then suddenly silence, so quiet that all he could hear was the blood flowing through his own veins.
Cobb continued to fire rounds into the monster, but Glenn couldn’t hear it.
Couldn’t see it.
Couldn’t feel it.
All he could feel… was calm.
Toastmy began furiously slapping Glenn in the face as he mindlessly walked towards the anomaly in a desperate attempt to wake him up from his stupor. He felt none of it. Toastmy stopped slapping him when she realized it wasn’t working, and she looked into his eyes. It was the same look Keith and Janet just had.
“Glenn, no,” Toastmy cried, wrapping her arms around his head in a tight embrace. She yanked on his mustache hairs in one last attempt to wake him up, but still, he wouldn’t respond. He just walked closer and closer.
“Somebody stop him for the love of god!” Cobb shouted before firing his gun once more. “For fucks sake-” Cobb kicked a bag of sugar towards the anomaly. It was instantly shredded to pieces in a blur of red. “That’s what’ll happen! Lane get your fuckin’ ass up here!”
Bytemy turned to Marcus and reached out her hand. “You aren’t alone.” Marcus hesitated, but grabbed Bytemy’s hand anyways. She lifted him up and they ran to Cobb’s side.
“I’m sorry, Maia,” said Rozermy, jumping out from behind their makeshift barricade. “I can’t stay here. Icezermy, take care of her, okay?” Icezermy nodded, and grabbed on to Maia and Dana, holding them tight.
“Rozermy, don’t!” Maia called out, trying to break free from Icezermy’s grasp to join them. Dana held her arm out to help Icezermy hold Maia back.
“She’ll be okay, Rozermy never loses!” said Dana. “Trust your big sister?”
Maia sat back down. “Okay…”
“Keep your eyes closed,” said Dana as she hugged her sister close.
“Someone please pin that mindless idiot down,” Cobb groaned, blasting the anomaly again.
Rozermy immediately pounced into Glenn’s chest, knocking him right on his ass.
“Thank you Rozermy” Toastmy sobbed.
“Okay Marcus, aim for the mainframe!” Bytemy shouted as her coiled cables fused into a cannon shaped like an S Cable.
Marcus took a deep breath, shook off his fear, and held up his cyber-arm. His arm and Bytemy’s cannon cycled through colours until they both turned green and Bytemy emitted a ‘ding!’ sound.
The Cyber-type and the scientist screamed together, “Data Stream!”, and a brightly glowing blue and green beam of pixels and light fired forth from Bytemy and Marcus Lane, into the creature’s chest.
“I have an idea!” Bytemy shouted.
“Me too,” said Marcus.
The two of them slowly brought the searing beam up higher and higher, until it was burning into the creature’s flayed open neck.
Bytemy grabbed Marcus’s arm with her clawed hand. “Close your eyes!” Marcus did so and Bytemy aimed both their beams into the creature’s head, being sure to spread the energy to every one of its eyes.
“Try indoctrinating them now with your magic disabled!” Bytemy spat.
Dr.Lane excitedly opened his eyes and immediately made eye contact with the creature.
He lost his mind immediately and began to walk forward.
“No!” Bytemy pulled him back. Marcus thrashed and struggled to try and break free from Bytemy’s grip. “Why didn’t it work?”
“We’ve tried that. Cyber magic can’t undo Reklauzolth’s influence, only Divine magic can,” Cobb explained. “Use your magic to kill this thing instead, PLEASE.” He fired another shotgun blast into the anomaly. “You too, Toastmy! Fuck, I need to reload!”
“I wish I could help but… ugh,” said Bytemy. She was struggling to hold Marcus back from killing himself now.
Icezermy leapt out from behind the barricade and pounced on Marcus Lane, pinning him down right next to Glenn.
“Thank you, weird Rozermy,” said Bytemy. She leapt forward into the anomaly to slash it with her claw, but an unseen thrashing red blur smacked Bytemy out of the air.
“Ranged attacks!” Toastmy shouted. “Mellow Roaster!” Her fiery attack scorched the connective tissues and optic nerves that connected the massive eyeball to the rest of the creature. The eye flailed and thrashed about, slamming into the ground multiple times, the ground shaking with each impact.
Bytemy rose back into the air and aimed her cannon at the entity’s head once again. “Data Stream!”
Bytemy could see that the pixel beam wasn’t quite making contact with the entity, as if something had gotten between the beam and the entity’s head. What she couldn’t see was the small grey Chaos-type taking the brunt of the attack.
Icezermy’s hands were full keeping Marcus on the ground, and Rozermy was struggling to prevent Glenn from overpowering her. He kept shaking free from her vines, only for her to cast them once again.
Cobb finished loading his shotgun and aimed it at the massive eye just as it ceased its thrashing. The eye quickly turned to face Cobb, he shut his eyes, and pulled the trigger. The gun clicks, and Cobb instinctively opens his eyes to fix the jam.
The eye instantly repositioned itself, and its gaze met that of Mason Cobb’s.
Instantly, Cobb’s thoughts turned to a constant voice. ‘Approach.’
He dropped his shotgun and calmly walked towards the entity.
“Stop him!” Toastmy yelled as she leapt to Cobb’s leg, pulling as hard as she could.
Bytemy stopped her Data Stream attack and grabbed on to Cobb’s arm with her wires and claw. Toasty and Bytemy pulled Cobb back as hard as they could, but he was stronger than them, and he continued to walk forward.
As Cobb grew closer and closer to the entity with each laboured step, Toastmy and Bytemy looked at each other. It was three lives or one. At the last possible second, they let Cobb go.
Cobb calmly walked forward.
The entity turned its head to look at the man, and it spoke, its voice like hundreds of people talking at once, with one voice overpowering the crowd: Cherise Caulfield. “Welcome back.”
Cobb’s body went limp, and he fell forwards into the entity. There was a blurry rush of red, and in a matter of seconds, Cobb’s body was shredded into tiny pieces, splattered all across the safehouse.
“Keep your eyes closed!” Toastmy screamed, her tears clouding her vision. As if responding to her outburst, another blur of red rocketed out from the entity’s arm, smashing Toastmy into the concrete wall, the impact leaving a crater where her body collided with the wall. Toastmy slumped over, unconscious.
Bytemy screamed and started firing off data lasers rapidly. Each blast slightly seared the flesh of the entity, but it seemed unbothered. In fact, it seemed to be completely ignoring her.
The entity turned its body around to face the barricade the girls were hid behind.
It’s massive eye slowly turned to face the girls as well.
Bytemy quickly wrapped her wires around the base of the eyeball, squeezing the optic nerves. The entity calmly moved its arm and slashed through the coiling wires, causing Bytemy to screech in pain and collapse to the ground.
Marcus’ cyber-arm shattered and dissipated into nothingness, Bytemy’s maintenance spell failing from her broken concentration.
The entity slowly approached the upturned tables and couches that the girls hid behind. Rozermy and Icezermy looked up in horror as the anomalous monster got closer and closer to their friends.
The entity swiped its arm, there was a blur of red, and one of the tables went flying, smashing into the walls of the safehouse. Then the couches were torn to bits.
The girls screamed.
“Fellow wishmaker,” the entity moaned, “It’s time to become one.”
Another flashing blur of red. More tables tossed across the room.
“Dad!” Dana screamed.
Glenn’s body, once struggling against Rozermy, went limp. He blinked. Rozermy could see the life in his eyes once again.
Rozermy immediately got off of Glenn and launched her body into the monster’s massive eyeball, sinking her claws into its jagged pupil.
Glenn leapt to his feet and charged the entity with a tightly clenched fist.
“Get the FUCK away from my babies!” Glenn roared.
His fist, aimed at the anomaly’s head, collided with the smaller grey Chaos-type as it leapt in front to protect the larger one. Glenn’s fist tore through the small anomaly’s head, and a loud, echoing crunch echoed through the safehouse. The grey anomaly flew to the side, smashing into the wall next to Toastmy’s unconscious body. As it slid down the wall, its eyes and teeth fell free from its head. Glenn had killed Abomimy.
Bytemy winced through the pain and closed her eyes, focusing on her breathing. She’d need to repair herself before she could help at all.
Glenn’s left hand swung up in a mighty uppercut, bruising some its eyes. The jaw underneath the mass of pulsing flesh and eyes dislocated, and some of Caulfield’s natural teeth came out of their sockets. The monster fell out of its levitation to the ground, losing its balance.
Glenn ignited his fists with fire magic, and grabbed onto the anomaly’s exposed spine, spinning it around and using the momentum to throw it far away from the girls.
Rozermy held on for dear life as the entity collapsed into the toppled shelves.
As the anomaly rose back up into its levitation, it slammed its eye into the ground, smashing Rozermy repeatedly against the metal shelves.
Glenn held up his palms and shouted “Mellow Roaster!” The fiery attack engulfed the monster’s exposed flesh, igniting it. The creature screamed out in pain, but rose to face Glenn directly, staring directly into his eyes.
The flames bright light shielded Glenn’s eyes and mind from the entity’s influence.
A blur of red flashed and rapidly flew towards Glenn, ignoring the flames from Mellow Roaster. Glenn’s adrenaline and parental rage sped up his reaction time, allowing him to see the lashing muscle fibres in slow motion, and he grabbed them with flaming hands. The flames from Mellow Roaster ignited more of the entity’s body as Glenn focussed on holding back the red tendrils snaking their way up his arms.
Then Glenn flexed his muscles, and bright orange flames exploded up his arms, ending at his broad shoulders.
The entity screeched once more, and the tendrils burned cleanly off of Glenn’s immolating arms.
The entity swung its massive eye through the air, and Rozermy finally lost her grip. She flew through the air, but Glenn caught her by the tail, extinguishing the flame on his hand to not hurt her. He put her gently on the ground, then reignited his hand. As he did, the flames on his arms grew and burst outwards, raging with power and heat.
“Roar of Thorns!” Rozermy screamed, unleashing a rapid torrent of thorns into the massive eye before pouncing back onto it and digging her claws in.
The entity swung the massive eyeball about, trying to shake Rozermy off once again. As its focus was on Rozermy, Glenn seized the opportunity and dashed forward, planting his flaming elbow directly in the monster’s chest, cracking its ribs.
The anomaly’s jaw scythe swung around and slashed across Glenn’s chest, destroying his beloved flannel shirt. As the toothy weapon slashed across him, he grabbed hold of the monster’s arm and spread the flames from his arms onto the anomaly’s exposed flesh. Then he pulled as hard as he could, and a huge chunk of seared flesh was ripped off. It landed on the ground with a loud splat, then flailed around wildly.
The anomaly screeched and the flesh around its face opened up to reveal a shattered human jaw. It plunged its broken mouth down and somehow bit into Glenn’s neck.
The rageful man responded with a powerful punch into the creature’s many eyes. It broke him free of the monster’s grip, but Glenn wasn’t done with it yet. He smashed both flaming hands onto either side of the creature’s head, and pulled down hard, ramming his knee into its face.
It coughed up blood. Glenn thrust his arms forwards and unleashed a massive explosion of flame directly into the monster’s burst open back, scorching it from the inside. Still, it wouldn’t die. It turned around and wrapped its arm around Glenn, constricting him like a snake. It thrashed Glenn around, smashing him around the safehouse.
Toastmy woke up and saw the anomaly flailing Glenn around. This awoke a rage deep inside her. Her normally calmly ‘burning’ flame-shaped hair was going erratic, sparking around like an out of control bonfire.
Toastmy got to her feet, thrust her arms out, and manifested two large, pointed logs. Marshmallow roasting sticks four times her size. She flexed her arms, and they ignited.
The monster thrust Glenn into the ground and held its jaw scythe at the base of his neck, pressing down with great force. Just before it could penetrate his skin, the entity released Glenn and fell back for a moment. Toastmy had impaled it with her massive burning stakes. She quickly created another two and tossed one to Glenn, who got up and wielded it like a spear.
The entity lunged forward with great speed, as did Toastmy and Glenn. Toastmy penetrated the monster’s arm, ramming the stake through it from end to end with great accuracy.
The monster swung its optic nerves around to ensnare Glenn, but he swung at the massive eyeball with his flaming stick as if it were a baseball. Then he leapt onto the monster, pinning it down to the ground.
“This is for Guardiamy,” he said coldly as he thrust the stake through the anomaly’s head.
He thrust his flaming arms into the stake over and over, driving it more and more into the ground, spreading bursts of flame from his arms more and more as he did so until the creature’s entire body was burning like a raging bonfire.
With one final flaming punch, he ended the reign of Caulfield once and for all.
All that remained of the anomaly was a smoldering pile of burning flesh.
Glenn’s children were safe.
The flames on his arms extinguished, and he collapsed onto the floor next to Toastmy, panting heavily. Sweat soaked his clothes and body, and the smell of burning flesh and toasted marshmallows filled the air. A sickening combination.
Icezermy gently hopped off of Marcus Lane as Bytemy managed to heal enough to return herself to her usual state of levitating. Marcus’s eyes had returned to normal.
Rozermy quickly ran to the girls and helped them out from behind the partially destroyed barricade. As soon as they were out, they ran over to Glenn and hugged him.
Glenn’s eyes filled with tears and he began openly sobbing.
“I almost lost everything,” he sobbed. “I’m so glad you kids are okay.”
“We love you dad,” said Dana, hugging him tighter.
“I love you too,” Glenn chuckled between sobbing. “I love you both more than I could ever describe.”
Toastmy looked around the ravaged safehouse. The destroyed furniture, the ruined food shelves, the massive cracks and dents in the concrete itself… the piles of flesh, blood, and the burning corpse.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said, tugging on what remained of Glenn’s shirt.
“Yeah,” Glenn sniffed. “We’ll go to Ellen’s basement.”
The humans and Monommy left the destroyed safehouse, walking out into the fresh air. It was much easier to breathe out here.
“What happened back there, Marcus?” Bytemy asked. “You went all… well, suicidal on us.”
“It took away my free will,” said Marcus, shaking. “It was somehow worse than Caulfield’s influence. It was Caulfield, but… more. Reklauzolth.”
Bytemy wrapped her freshly repaired wires around Marcus’s arm stump, and started to rebuild his arm.
Glenn held his children close to him as they walked, and instinctively shoved them behind him when he looked into the horizon past the destroyed house across the street.
In the far distance, a colossal, toothed tentacle, at least thirty times larger than the one he’d fought earlier, slowly emerged, partially eclipsing the sun as it rose.