There’s a Giant Person in the Sky
I think I’ve lost my goddamn mind. Everything was fine until I walked out of work this afternoon. Dan, my cube-mate, and I were walking out of the building talking about our plans for the weekend. We had been pulling overtime, one of our clients was being more needy than usual, and we had agreed that lots of drinking was the only sensible plan for the weekend. As I stepped outside though, I had to double-check if I was drunk already. There was a huge… person in the sky. At least, it looks like a person. The general shape of it was humanoid, but it towered over the horizon, almost like it was actually out in space just floating over the world. I stopped dead in my tracks. Dan looked back when he realized I wasn’t beside him anymore and saw me staring up at the sky with a look of horror. “You alright?” he asked, looking concerned. “You see that, don’t you?” I stammered out, still not believing what I was seeing. “See what, man? There’s a few clouds but doesn’t look like any rain coming this way.” “No. The person. There’s a huge person up there on the horizon. You seriously don’t see it?” I couldn’t fathom how he couldn’t see it. It was almost blocking out the sun and it had a big toothy grin on its face, just surveying the world. “You been sleeping okay? I think all this overtime is stretching you thin.” Dan looked worried. I know I sounded insane. “Yeah… yeah, probably just staring at that monitor all day. Got my mind going crazy.” I dropped the subject and kept going. As I got in my car, I looked back over to where the thing was. It was still there, now staring off upwards, into whatever sky was above it. “I’ll see you on Monday! I’m just going to go get some sleep!” I shouted out the window as I started the engine. The thing hovered there as I went through the rush hour traffic to get back home. All the stop and go gave me time to really get a look at it. It looked more and more uncanny as time went on. Instead of two eyes, it had multiple. The entire top of its face was covered in eyes, some small, some huge. There was no nose, just what looked like a slit running down half of its face until it came to the mouth. The mouth was the terrifying part. It was wide open, almost slack-jawed, and full of teeth. I don’t mean like a bit toothy smile like some kid who had just gotten their first adult teeth and wanted to show them off. This thing had rows of teeth. It looked like a shark almost with row after row of sharp, pointed teeth. They went around its entire mouth. Not just top and bottom, it had teeth on all sides, like a fucking garbage disposal for small planets. The damn thing was so huge I could only see it from the chest up. The rest had disappeared over the horizon. I finally got home and night had fallen, but the giant hadn’t shifted at all. By this time, I’m creeped the hell out. I decide I’m just going to go inside, close my curtains, and go the fuck to sleep. I’m just tired, right? This is all going to be gone in the morning. I take one of my sleeping pills and am out in half an hour. The only thing I can remember about my dream that night is that the thing in the sky was picking people up and dropping them into its mouth. They were so far away but I could still hear their screams as they were slashed to bits on the teeth. I woke up the next morning and opened my window, bracing myself to see the creature towering above the city outside. To my relief, it wasn’t there. I can’t tell you just how relieved I was. The last thing I need is a psychotic break to put me out of commission. It was a Saturday, and my first day off in almost two weeks. I made some breakfast, and decided to go out and browse around the library for something new to read. As I stepped out of my house and got in my car, I looked out above the house. The bedroom window faced my driveway, and I didn’t think to look out any other windows before I stepped out of the house. It was still there. It had just shifted to the other side of the earth, or maybe the earth had just rotated to the point where it was in a different position. It stood there, the same expression on its face as last night. I saw a plane fly by in the sky, barely brushing by the shoulder of the creature. It moved one of its many eyes to look at the plane, and a different eye focused on it as it moved by the creature. With one swift move, it bent over and crunched down on the plane. There was a small plume of smoke and a flash of fire, and then it was gone. I couldn’t believe my eyes. How many people were on that flight? How many people just lost family members to that… thing? I had to do something. I called 911. “Operator, what’s your emergency?” A woman’s voice, polite, yet urgent. “An airplane just blew up in the sky. There’s a giant creature up there. It looks almost like a person, but it just ate a fucking plane!” “Sir, I’m going to need you to please calm down. Now, you said a plane exploded?” “Yes! Not really exploded, though. It was more… eaten. The thing in the sky leaned over and swallowed it.” “Sir, this line is for emergencies only. You know that faking an emergency call is a crime, right?” “I’m not fucking faking! Those people on that plane are dead! Don’t you care about that?” “Sir, I’m going to disconnect the line. Please only call us if there is a real emergency.” The line went dead. Fuck. What do I do? Dan couldn’t see it yesterday, and the emergency operator obviously hadn’t heard anything about it. I looked back up at the thing on the horizon. It had turned, and was facing my direction now. As I stared at it, it looked down towards the ground. Every single eye on its face looked right at me. I know it sounds crazy that I could tell from that distance but I know it was looking at me. It could somehow sense I realized this, because the grin on its face got even wider. I don’t know how long I sat there screaming. All I know is that the next thing I knew there were two guys in suits outside my car window. One was knocking on the glass while the other had his gun drawn. “Please step out of the car and come with us, sir.” The man knocking on the glass said. The other one lowered his gun slightly, and gave me a look as if to say that it was okay. “We don’t want to use force, but we have been authorized to if you do not comply.” “What the fuck is going on?” I said as I opened my door. “Who the hell are you? Can you see that fucking thing?” “No, sir, we cannot. However, we can take you to someone that has answers for you. The things you are seeing are real.” The one with the gun looked concerned, almost like he was sorry for me. The other guy just acted like he wanted to be done with it all. “Fine. As long as I know I’m not crazy.” I walked over to their car with them. One opened the back door, and motioned for me to get in. We drove for what seemed like hours. I know we were a good ways outside of the city by the time we pulled up to a small shack off a dirt road. I looked up at the horizon as I got out of the car. Over the tops of the trees, I could barely see the top of the giants head. One of the eyes on top was still looking right at me. “Follow us, please,” said one of the men. “So you’re going to murder me now, right?” I quipped. I was losing my shit, but trying to retain a facade. “We’re not in the business of murdering, sir. Quite the opposite, actually.” As I walked into the small shack I realized it wasn’t small at all. Passing through the door, there was a panel on the wall. This was just an elevator. The agents stood in front of me in the lift as one hit the button. Slowly, we descended down into the depths. When the lift stopped and the door opened, there was a small room with a desk set up next to the wall and a door leading out to the left. An older man was sitting behind the desk, reclined back in a chair that looked like it would tip any second. “Sir, we have the Cognizant in question,” one of the men said. The man in the chair almost fell back in surprise, then sat forward and looked at me. “Yes, please come in. Have a seat. How are you doing today?” he asked. “I… uh… I’ve been better. I’m pretty sure none of this is real though.” I looked around, trying to think of how I could get out if I needed to. It felt good though, almost relieving that I couldn’t see that thing looking at me. “I can assure you, this is all real. You’re very much awake, and that creature in the sky is as real as you and I are.” The man smiled at me as if we were just talking about something as simple as the weather, not a death giant in the sky. “You mean I’m not crazy? You can see that thing too?” I asked in disbelief. I still couldn’t fully grasp what was happening. If I wasn’t crazy, then what the hell was going on? “Not crazy, I promise. I personally cannot see that creature. I do know a few others that can, though. I’m honestly surprised you’ve slipped under our radar for this long. We usually catch you guys much earlier in life.” “You guys? What the fuck is going on? Can you please just stop being cryptic and tell me why the fuck I’m not crazy?” I was getting tired of all this runaround. There’s something really fucked-up going on, and this guy is treating it like fucking Sunday brunch. “Well, I can explain everything to you, but first, I think you better have a seat. Would you like some coffee? It’s quite a long story…” I sat down in front of him, and listened as he laid everything out. * * * * * * I sat down across from the old man at the table, not knowing what to expect. What had my life become in the past couple of days? “Where are my manners? My name is Ronald, pleased to meet you.” The man extended his hand to me. I took it, hesitantly. He had a firm grip, and shook my hand as if he was an old friend. “So are you going to tell me why life has gotten so crazy in the past day?” I asked him. “Yes, that’s going to be quite the story. So, you’ve seen our ocularly-blessed friend outside?” “I thought you said you can’t see him. How do you know what he looks like?” “I told you, I have friends that can. One of them is quite the gifted artist.” At this, he pulled a paper from the desk drawer; on it was a near-perfect sketch of the creature I had been seeing. Just the thought of it sent a shiver down my spine. “Now, as I’ve said, you’re not the only one of your kind running around out there. About one percent of the earth’s population can see these things. We call them Aberrations. They pop up every so often, and our job is to take care of them before they cause any major damage.” “This one already ate a fucking plane! How did you not stop that sooner?” Now I was getting angry. If they knew these things were coming how did they not take care of it sooner? It had been there almost an entire day before it took the plane out of the sky. “Yes, well. That one is going to weigh on us a while. Thing is, we’ve never seen one this large. Usually, the Aberrations that appear are on a much smaller scale. Think your typical Hollywood monster movie, that’s the scale we’re used to dealing with. This thing though… he’s big. Bigger than we’re used to. We haven’t quite come up with a plan to take him out yet.” “Him? How do you know it’s a him? What do you mean there are more of them?” My head was beginning to hurt. This was all too much to take in. “Oh, you can tell it’s a him if you get close enough to where he’s positioned, trust me,” he chuckled. Was this all so normal he could joke about it? “So what do you mean there are more? How have people not heard about these things by now?” “We’re very good at our jobs. Usually, anyway. There is typically some collateral damage from the larger ones, but most are small and can be taken care of with little notice from the outside world. I guarantee you’ve heard about some of the larger ones: Chernobyl, the San Francisco Earthquake… the LA riots were quite nasty. That one had a profound effect on the surrounding population.” “So why am I just seeing this now? How come I haven’t heard about it before?” My head was really pounding now. Fucking hell, I’m twenty-six years old. I would have noticed these fucking monsters by now. “It seems this is just the first one both large enough and near enough to catch your attention. No other explanation I can think of really. Like I said, they’re usually much smaller than what we’re dealing with now.” “But you said that you take care of these things? Like, you make sure that they don’t cause too much damage and you can kill them?” I didn’t give a shit what he told me at this point. I just wanted to know if we could get rid of this thing so it would stop staring at me. I could still feel its gaze even though we were underground. “Well, we can’t necessarily kill them, but we can send them back to where they came from. You see, the Aberrations are from Earth, just not our Earth. On occasion, the walls between our dimensions… tear, so to speak. This allows these things to slip through and cause havoc. Thing is, we never know what to expect because there are so many different variables.” “So you’re telling me that giant fuck in the sky is from Dimension X or something?” This was a lot to take in in one day. Holy shit, I need a nap. “The one outside is actually from dimension 426-9. First one we’ve encountered from that dimension. Seems like quite the nasty place, from what one of my colleagues told me.” “One of the others like me?” I asked. All this Aberration stuff was interesting, but I want to know who else can see these things. Someone I can talk to that actually knows how fucking insane all of this is. “Yes. We currently have three other Cognizants working with us. You will get to meet them soon enough, if you choose to join us.” “Depends, what’s the pay like and is there health insurance?” I quipped back at him. I want answers, not some vague offers and sci-fi names. “I’m sure you’re being sarcastic, but yes. We do offer a hefty pay. Dental coverage too, if that interests you. Anyway, time is somewhat of the essence here. You are a Cognizant, someone who possesses the ability to see an Aberration. With some honing of your ability, you can eventually see into the other dimensions as well.” “So we’re special then?” “Very. As I said, only about one percent of the population has this ability, and most of them go mad from it at a young age. It frequently gets misconstrued as a myriad of mental illnesses, and sometimes what they see is so horrible it just breaks them outright. There have been quite a few that put their abilities to good use for personal gain, though.” “And you want to recruit me?” “We would like your assistance, yes. If we have more Cognizants on hand, we can find Aberrations more quickly, and have you all in different locations keeping an eye on things. We will do all the heavy lifting when it comes to getting rid of the ones that appear. We just need you to be our canary, so to speak.” “Doesn’t sound like too dangerous of a job…” I still wasn’t sure. I kept expecting to wake up any second and have this all be a dream, but the cold air in the room and feeling the Aberrations gaze shooting through the ground at me made it all too real. “I must warn you: you will see some horrible things. Creatures that look like us, but can tear through you with a snap of their fingers. Lovecraftian nightmares, creatures much uglier than our friend in the sky. This will drain you.” His tone was much more serious now. We were reaching the end. “Look, if I can get that giant asshole up there to go away, I’ll do whatever I can.” Besides, this might actually be a nice change of pace. Keep a lookout for any weird happenings, and get paid for it. Sounds good to me. “Very well. Our agents here will escort you back home. Here is a card with my number. Please keep an eye on our friend up there for now and study him. This is a tall order for your first case, but I guarantee you will learn quite a bit from it. You’ll also be subject to regular psych evaluations. We will contact you when we get everything processed.” “So I’m a monster hunter now?” “More of a monster surveyor, if you will.” I got up and followed the agents back to the elevator and up to the surface. When we stepped out of the shack, Big Guy was still there, watching me. All of his eyes followed as I walked over to the car. They kept following us as they drove me back home. Things were going to get very interesting. I didn’t realize just how much more awful the Aberrations could be. * * * * * * Things got… well, awful, to be honest. On the bright side, the big guy is gone. I have no idea how they do it, but he was sent back to whatever hellhole he came from. Ronald tried to explain it to me but it was really just a bunch of babble, quantum physics, and all that shit. Now, though, I’ll take the big eyes in the sky any day over the things I’ve seen and learned these past few days. I met with the other Cognizants and they told me some of what I should expect out of this, and gave me some files about past Aberrations and some of the ones they’ve seen for themselves. Turns out some pretty famous people were like this. Lovecraft? All that shit he wrote about was from personal experience. Turns out there really is another dimension beyond ours that’s ruled by giant monsters called the Eldritch. Thankfully, none of those have passed through. He just looked into their dimension. As for some of the worse events in history… also Aberrations. The San Francisco fire was caused by an Aberration made of pure flame coming through the rift one night. Chernobyl was a creature that fed on radiation. There’s so much more… it’s just all a lot to take in. As far as my own personal experience, I’ve been learning to look into the other worlds that are out there. Most actually aren’t that bad, worlds just like ours but with slight differences. The others though… they’re few and far between but they’re made up of some of the most terrifying shit I’ve ever seen. So, things had been pretty quiet on our world until a week ago. Another thing that the Administration provided me with is a satellite link so I can view different areas of the world through satellite feeds and get access to almost any camera. I was watching a feed from Florida when I saw that there was a hurricane forming off the coast. Looking further at one of the storm cams, I noticed there was something off in the water that seemed… big. That’s putting it simply. Then when lightning flashed in the middle of the storm I saw it. It was gigantic. Not quite as big as Eyes was, but at least big enough to level a small city. It looked like it was in the center of the storm. I zoomed in, hoping to get a better look. It looked to be made out of pure darkness, with tendrils popping out of it in every direction. I saw a storm chaser plane flying close to it and my stomach fell out. One of the tendrils snapped out like lightning, piercing straight through the plane. It went down into the water. I picked up my phone and dialed Ronald’s number. “We have a problem off the coast of Florida. Creature in the middle of a giant hurricane. Looks like a giant black hole but it took a storm chaser plane down.” “We’re on it,” he said. “There’s something you should know though. The other three have been noticing much heavier activity the past few days. There seems to be an increase in Aberrations.” “Great. Just what I fucking need.” I said, sighing. “Will you guys be able to take care of this thing? If it’s in Florida that’s one state too close for me.” “We’re stretched a little thin at the moment, but it will be taken care of.” He said. The line went dead then. Guess there wasn’t much time to talk. I decided to see what he meant by heavier activity. I pulled up the log where we all recorded our findings. There had been a lot more entries in the past three days than in the past two weeks combined. This wasn’t good. I scrolled through, seeing some of what we were dealing with. Victoria had apparently seen a massive ram with eight horns storming through the hills in Scotland. Greg caught a guy in the middle of Atlanta that was disintegrating anything he touched. All small things, thankfully. Nothing too big, until this hurricane. I decided to turn in for the night. There wasn’t much else to do at the moment, and nothing could be done about the hurricane. I’m sure they would have it taken care of by morning. Everything went smoothly the next day. The hurricane was gone, the tendrils disappeared. Seemed to be much slower. I actually managed to go a whole day without spotting anything. That night I got woken up by my phone ringing. I saw that it was Ronald. I groggily answered it, still half asleep. “Yeah?” I asked. “Look outside. Tell me what you see.” “Uh. Okay. Let me put pants on real quick.” “No time! Go! Now!” he pressed. Shit. This must be bad. I walked downstairs and out my front door. It was bright, way too bright to be this early in the morning. What the hell… “Oh, fuck,” I said as I looked into the sky. This is bad. This is way worse than Eyes. “What is it?!” Ronald shouted through the phone. “Tell me, goddammit!” “The… the whole sky is torn open.” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I described everything to Ronald as I saw it. Up above me, there was a tear running across the entire sky. Through it there were hands reaching through, clawing at the night. These were huge hands, each one at least the size of a car, with large claws and seven fingers on each. As they clawed, the tear grew. Behind the mass of hands, light was pouring through. The light was almost a pure red color, like that of a sun close up. “Ronald.” I said, “I think Hell just opened up above us.” “Look I need you to keep your shit together. We’re working on closing this one but we’re still recovering from the last few Aberrations. We have a team on the way to assess the situation. Keep an eye and make sure nothing else happens.” “You better hurry. They’re tearing it even more as we speak.” The hands multiplied, more and more reaching through as the tear grew wider. I finally saw one of the creatures the hands belonged to as it fought its way out of the mass. It looked… well, there’s no good comparison to what it looked like. It was big, at least the size of a small skyscraper. The limbs were long, spindly, but looked muscled. It had a long torso with a slim lower half, and it steadily got wider as it reached the top where I’m guessing its lungs were. The heads were the worst part. It had four heads; at least, I think they were all heads. One of them was just a giant mass of sharp teeth, black as space. One was a giant glowing red orb. I realized with horror that this was where all the light was coming from, all of these glowing orbs on each of these creatures. The other two heads worked in unison, large tentacles branching off from each, almost like they were feeling the area around them. It fell slowly to the ground. When it finally landed, I could see it standing up on the other side of town, towering over everything else in the area. It started moving, at first seeming to check out its surroundings, then slowly lowering the tentacled heads down and running them over the ground. I saw it pick up a car and hold it up to the orb. As it held it close, the car began melting. After it was softened it lowered it into the maw of teeth. It looked up at the tear, widening as more of its kind started clamoring at it. That’s when it let out a sound that will haunt me until I die. It was like an explosion mixed with the screams of a thousand dying people. As it roared, the clamoring at the tear became more frenzied. It finished, and started walking my way. * * * * * * The creature was moving straight for me, every step bringing it at least a hundred feet closer. The red orb that was one of its heads glowed brighter as it came closer. It was like it could sense me. I jumped in my car and called Ronald. “You guys need to get a handle on this. Now!” I screamed into the phone. “This thing is after me, and there are more like it coming down every second.” “Shit!” he said. “I have a team en route to you right now. Just stay where you are.” “I’m getting the fuck out of here unless your team can be here within two minutes. The creature is huge and it knows where I am. It’s going to be on top of me within five minutes. I already saw what it could do to a car, and I’m not fond of having that happen to me.” “Fucking hell. Okay. Do you have the list of safe houses with you?” he asked. “Yeah. I’m going to the closest one. It’s only about fifteen minutes away. Hopefully, my car can outrun that thing.” “Good. We’ll be in touch.” I have to move. Quick. The thing was still stomping towards me. I could see light poles and cars crushed under its feet in the distance. The orb continued to get brighter. Above me, more continued to fall from the tear in the sky. It began to rain at that point, wind howling. It still didn’t faze the creature. Everyone else probably just thought it was some freak storm tearing everything down. I got in the car and squealed out of my driveway. The safe house was a few miles outside of town, in an abandoned convenience store off the highway. I just had to get there and push the code on the back door to take me a mile underground into the bunker. I got to the edge of town, little over a mile to go when one of those things fell from the sky right in front of me. I didn’t see it coming until it was too late, but it’s front left foot landed right on the hood of my car, I got jolted forward and hit my head on the steering wheel. I was dazed. Everything blurred and I felt warm blood dripping from my forehead into my eyes. This is bad. This is really fucking bad. I vaguely saw one of the tentacles wrap around what was left of my car and pick it up with me still in it. Had to act fast. I reached down and unclipped my seatbelt, at the same time shoving the car door open. I rolled out as the car was turned over and lifted into the air. Goddammit. I’ve got to go. I rolled over and got to my feet. Everything hurt. I could feel my heart beating into my throat. I started trying to run but goddamn it hurt. I probably had a couple of broken ribs. Maybe a concussion. I’m amazed I’m still able to walk at all. The creature let out a roar as it brought my car up to the orb. I assume it’s an eye. The car started to melt as the howl of rage got louder. I looked up as I ran and saw more falling to the sky, even faster than before. They were coming down by the dozens now. My phone rang in my pocket. I was still trying to run from the monster, and right now it was right above me. Even if I survived this, I’m not sure if the world will. I dug my phone out as I continued running. “Little busy right now. Tell me you have some good news.” “Where are you? Our other Cognizants have reports of these things falling near them as well,” Ronald said. I could hear the fear in his voice. This might be where it all ends. “Where are you now?” “I’m on the side of 17. One of these bastards dropped right in front of my car and wrecked it. I’m probably a mile out from the bunker.” “Good. I have two agents a mile behind you. Find a safe place to hide until they get there and they can take you the rest of the way.” “I don’t think you fucking understand me right now. This thing is on the damn road. I don’t think they’ll get through.” “They will. Just hide until then.” He hung up at that. Shit. I don’t even know how I’m supposed to hide. If they’re a mile up the road then hopefully that means three minutes, max. Now isn’t the time for them to be careful drivers. My best bet right now is to just run and dodge until they get here. The orb swiveled around and I swear it looked right at me. The head with the mouth moved down towards me, extending on the neck as it came down toward me, almost bending completely backwards to reach where I was underneath it. While it was doing that, one of the tentacled heads reached around from the side, like it was trying to close me in. Fuck. This is bad. This is really bad. I closed my eyes and hoped for time to just stop right there. For the tear to disappear and this damn thing to vanish. I had a flash of the dimension it came from. The landscape was leveled. Where buildings once stood, there were now just ruins. These things overran the land, devouring anything they can find. Their movements seemed to be determined by some sort of hive mind, all going toward the same goal. They were hungry, and we were the next buffet. I snapped out of it and faced down the maw in front of me. I couldn’t run to the right because of the tentacles. The highway barrier was on my left. Nowhere to go but behind me and even then I didn’t know how fast those teeth would move. I had to do something. I closed my eyes, gritting myself for what was about to happen. When I opened them again I almost gasped. The creature was gone. Disappeared into thin air. In front of me stood one of the agents who picked me up on the day I saw the Big Guy, and he was holding a device that looked sort of like a projector. “Get in,” he said, nodding back towards the car. I didn’t question it, but ran over and got into the backseat. “So that’s how you guys get rid of the Aberrations?” I asked. “Yes and no. Just one of these can work for a smaller-scale Aberration. I still have no clue how we’re going to fix the tear, though. Our number one priority is getting you to safety and treating your wounds.” We drove the rest of the way to the convenience store, and I watched as more and more fell from the tear in the sky as we drove. There had to be hundreds by now. Who knows how widespread they could be? They parked outside and rushed me in. We took the elevator past the door and it went the mile down to the bunker in almost ten seconds. I swear I almost hit the ceiling as it went down. We stepped out into a brightly lit room, all-white walls, with a couch and small kitchen on one side and a bed on the other. Against the far wall were a ham radio and a small television. “Alright, here. You’re obviously pretty banged up. Take this for the pain and lay down. We’ll keep you updated as things go on. One of us will be on duty constantly to monitor the situation,” he said as he handed me a couple of pills. “How are you guys going to know what the fuck is going on if I’m not up there?” “Ronald is coming up with a contingency plan, and we have the other Cognizants keeping an eye on things. Just rest for now and we’ll take care of all the big stuff. Priority for you is resting. Won’t matter what you can see if you’re fucking dead.” I didn’t like it, but I didn’t have many alternatives. I took the pills and swallowed them, then laid down carefully on the bed. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off I felt every injury. Definitely broken ribs, possibly dislocated shoulder. There was a nice gash across my left leg too. The stuff they gave me was better than anything a doctor could prescribe though. I drifted off in no time. * * * * * * When I woke up, the other agent was sitting at the desk, talking over the radio. “What’s going on?” I asked, sitting up way too quickly and feeling the sting in my chest. “Easy there,” he said, looking over at me. “We have it all under control. Some of the guys in the tech department figured out how to close the tear. Now we’re just rounding up all the ones that fell. You’re going to stay down here for a few days while you recover.” “How the hell…” I said. There’s no way. This looked like the fucking apocalypse and somehow we managed to completely avoid it? “I can’t promise it’s a permanent solution, so we’re keeping an eye on everything. We have your camera array set up down here so you can monitor and report as needed.” I still couldn’t believe it. There’s no way this could have been done with so quickly. That’s when the ground started to shake. “What the fuck is that?” The agent shouted, looking towards the door. The ham radio crackled. “Be alert. One of the strays is still after the Cognizant. They are fixed above your bunker.” Jesus. The goddamn things are still trying to hunt us down even though they’ve been closed off from the rest. The ground shook again and I heard a loud crash from behind the steel door that leads to the elevator. “Fuck. That’s bad,” the agent said. He pulled up a camera on the TV. The satellite feed zoomed down on our location, showing a blaze beginning where the convenience store used to be. Now there was rubble. I knew he couldn’t see it, but I could. One of the Aberrations was above us, thrashing around at the store. It had found where the elevator shaft was and was battering it, trying to dig deeper. The noise we heard was the elevator car dropping the mile downward. So, now it’s a day later and I’m writing this all out. Some agents finally showed up, flashed one of those projector things at it and got it to go away. I saw one of them get picked up by it first, though. It picked it up with a tentacle and brought it close to the orb. I can still see the man’s face as he looked up to the sky, clearly in the camera. I think he saw eternity. He was put into the maw a moment later, a geyser of blood pouring out. That’s when the Aberration vanished, leaving only the rain of blood and rubble as a reminder it had been there. We’re waiting for rescue now, but it’s an iffy situation. Being a mile under the earth makes it bad, but the elevator crash made the structure unsound. They have to move carefully. One wrong move could bring this whole place crashing down. So, this may be where it ends. I’ll keep looking for Aberrations until I either die or get the fuck out of here. All of you should know there are things coming into this world that don’t belong here. We narrowly avoided the apocalypse yesterday. There’s no guarantee we’ll be this lucky next time. Credit: Ross Tyson (Official Website • Reddit • Patreon) Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.