Up From The Deep by Vaughn Jackson (highly recommended books txt) 📕

seeping into the car like aerated poison. He coughed and covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve. Traffic heading towards the city was sparse. So, Raymond noticed, were the sounds of sirens and emergency responders. He hadn’t realized how long the drive had taken the first time. His back ached and itched as he fidgeted in the back seat of the car.

“Holy shit,” Arnett said, peering past Raymond and out the passenger window. Raymond turned in his seat to look as well. The creature’s draconic head could be seen towering above the city skyline, fresh magma still dripping down through the cracks and crags of its skin.

A double row of razor-sharp teeth protruded from its mouth, revealed with each furious roar. Two glowing orange horns crowned its head, the most prominent in a double row of spikes that ran down its neck before shifting form into a plate-armored carapace the color of dried blood. It stood on two thick hindlegs, slightly hunched by the weight of two long arms terminating in three iron black claws each. The creature threw back its head and arms and roared, shattering the windows of several nearby buildings, before lashing out at the air around it.

“That’s not our creature,” Ashleigh said.

“What?” Arnett asked, turning to look from the monster to Ashleigh.

“She’s right.” Raymond stared at the creature, as realization dawned on him.

“What the hell does that mean?” Arnett shouted.

“The one we woke up was grey,” Ashleigh said. “Like the color of the ocean.”

“And bigger,” Raymond said. He let the information hang in the air. The weight of understanding threatened to crush them in the silence of the car. “There’s two of them.”

The creature screamed as if in response to their realization, causing the windows of the car to rattle violently. Arnett swerved to avoid another car speeding down the wrong side of the road. They made a turn and the creature came full into view. It towered at the base of Kilauea, dwarfing the Honolulu skyline with its demoniac form. The torn carcass of the Magnapinna, or what remained of it, had been pulled from the shore, and almost entirely eaten.

“Guess this one was hungry,” Arnett said.

He stopped the car and all of them filed out onto the street. Even this far away the creature’s presence was overwhelming. A pair of magma-soaked wings draped down its body, like a cape on a king. With a lazy swish of its thorny tail, it toppled a nearby skyscraper. Raymond wondered how many people died as the structure crumbled down onto itself. The thought made him nauseous. Over the roar of the city falling apart, he could just make out the cracks and pops of guns, infantile compared to the creature’s power.

Arnett’s radio crackled to life. Sheriff Truman’s voice came as a staticky shout. “Sanderson, where are you?”

“I’m just outside the city, I— Are you seeing this?”

“Seeing this!” The sound of gunfire punctuated his exclamation. “I’m down here shooting at fucking Satan himself and you’re sightseeing?”

“Guess he believes now,” Ashleigh said.

“Truman, get out of there,” Arnett shouted into the radio.

“We’re pulling back now,” his voice crackled back. “We got out who we could.”

“Tell him he needs to hurry,” Raymond said, leaning on the car for support. “Something’s happening, and I doubt it’s good.”

The creature reared back and opened its mouth wider and wider until Raymond was sure he could see it begin to foam at the corners. Its wings spread and expanded, the translucent membranes spreading to show a network of veins. The horns crackled to life before bursting into flames. It beat its wings violently, and as it did, the network of veins began to glow a vibrant red. A hiss like the world’s largest gas leak filled the air.

Raymond shivered as the temperature plummeted. Even the guns fell silent as the city froze to see what would happen next.

And then the world cracked in half.

The sound was terrible, like the blast of an atom bomb. Raymond grabbed his ears and felt blood run down the side of his head beneath palms. The air in front of the creature rippled as it whipped its head towards the ground. Trees in the direct path of the shimmering air snapped at their bases and burst into flames, disappearing to ash almost instantly. Buildings nearby that were strong enough to withstand the force reddened and began to melt and sag down to the ground. The rest simply disintegrated on impact. The sky burned an angry red as fire and molten material spread their devastation throughout the city.

A scream crackled through Arnett’s radio, but it was short-lived and soon there was no sound but the static. The rookie cop begged the sheriff to respond. He radioed the rest of his squad as well. No one answered. Arnett slumped into a sitting position on the hood of his car. The gunshots had stopped. There were only the deep rumbling noises of the creature, noises that sounded like the laughter of a cruel god.

“How in the ever-loving fuck are we supposed to do anything about that?” Arnett shouted, wiping the blood from his ears.

Ashleigh just stood in stunned silence as Raymond said a silent prayer for the dead.

“No, seriously, it just turned the whole fucking city into Michael Bay’s version of hell! That thing is a dragon. An honest-to-fucking-god dragon!”

“Dragons aren’t real,” Ashleigh said. Her hands were trembling.

Arnett gestured at the creature mulling about the city. “Then what should I call that thing?”

“Dragons. Aren’t. Real.”

Raymond interjected, “Aren’t they?” He closed his eyes and breathed deep the acrid smoke and the oceanic smell of the nearby shoreline. His jaw hurt, clenched tight to hold back his own feelings.

“Sir?”

“Every story has to start from somewhere, right?” Raymond shrugged. “Why not with this creature, born from fire?” He pointed at the volcano. Half of it looked as though it had burst open from the inside. A steady stream of lava flowed down the slope on a slow path towards the city.

Ashleigh’s mouth hung open a