The unexpected
At first, I didn't even bother turning around. I thought the noise behind me was just people celebrating someone had mentioned a musician performing in town today. But the sound kept getting louder, closer. It didn't feel like cheering anymore. It felt… wrong.
I finally turned.
A wave of people was running toward me, their faces twisted with fear. From a distance I couldn't tell what was happening, but one thing was clear something was terribly, terribly wrong. Cars were being abandoned in the street as people sprinted away.
Then came the deep, trembling boom not one, but several, shaking the air. Shouting rose over the chaos. Somewhere behind the smoke, something heavy crashed, and the ground trembled.
For a moment, I stood frozen, as if something had pinned my feet to the ground. Helicopters cut across the sky. Military planes followed.
"What is happening?" I whispered, but no one could answer everyone around me was too busy running for their lives.
I forced my feet to move and began running with the crowd. My thoughts tumbled over each other. Are we under attack? Are those bombs? Or… magic? One of those creatures?
I didn't know. But I knew I wouldn't survive if I kept standing there.
Even while running, curiosity clawed at me I needed to see what we were fleeing from. I slowed slightly and turned my head.
What I saw sent a jolt of cold electricity through my entire body.
Dust swallowed the street. Something huge moved behind it too large to be a building, too steady to be falling debris. Then the figures stepped out of the haze, and I saw them clearly.
Gyents.
The stories hadn't lied. They were real. And worse they were here.
My knees nearly gave out, but fear pushed them forward again. I ran harder, faster than I ever had in my life. Was this a nightmare? Another one of those dreams? I wanted to wake up. I prayed for it. But the air, the noise, the shaking ground it was all too real.
We kept running without knowing where safety was. Explosions echoed through the city. Buildings groaned as they collapsed. People shouted names, begged for help, cried for loved ones.
A group ran just ahead of me a woman carrying a small girl, a teenage girl, and a boy a little older. I had barely registered them when something heavy crashed from the sky onto the street in front of us.
The impact threw dust everywhere and sent the group scattering but two of them didn't make it.
My stomach twisted. I had never seen someone's life end before not like this, not so suddenly. But there was no time to freeze, no time to break down. If I stopped, I'd join them.
I forced myself forward, dodging debris and overturned cars as the crowd swept me along.
Behind us, the Gyents roared a sound so deep it rattled my ribs. They were closer now, their massive shapes moving through the smoke. They weren't half-dressed like the stories claimed; they wore dark, structured clothing, almost like armor. But that didn't matter. Stories or not, everybody knew one thing: if a Gyent caught you, you weren't surviving.
After what felt like an hour of running, a voice called out through the chaos:
"THIS WAY! COME THIS WAY!"
I had already passed the corner when I turned back and saw people rushing toward an open sewer entrance.
Left: the Gyents closing in, grabbing people with terrifying ease.
Right: the sewer dark, narrow, but offering a chance to live.
No choice.
I ran toward it.
I was only a few steps away from the entrance when something yanked my leg from under me. I hit the ground hard, air knocking out of my lungs.
I tried to get up but something pulled me back down again.
My leg.
It was trapped beneath a bent metal beam from a collapsed building.
"No, no, no " My voice broke. I pulled at my leg, pushed at the metal, tried everything, but it didn't budge.
The ground shook. Footsteps enormous, heavy grew louder.
I looked to my left.
At first, all I saw were massive boots. Then the rest of the Gyent came into view, towering above me, holding a hammer bigger than my entire body. He wasn't more than a few steps away.
This was it.
This was how I was going to die.
My mother's face flashed in my mind, then my father's, then my siblings'. Would they ever know what happened to me? Were they already heading south like Mom wanted? Were they safe?
The Gyent stepped closer.
I closed my eyes, took a trembling breath, and whispered the only thing that came to me:
"Please… let it be quick."