Was there a meteor shower tonight? Was a plane falling apart?
Oh shit.Oh shit, shit, shit.
Did that explain the blinding light? No. I was pretty sure nothing other than a spotlight could glow that brightly, but what the hell did I know? Did it explain the mini earthquake that had just rattled the trailer? Maybe…? But therewassomething, and whatever it was, it had to be big to make the ground shake. I couldn’t think of anything off the top of my head thatcouldbe that big, other than Godzilla, but kaijus weren’t real, so….
There was nothing to be scared of unless it really was chunks of an airplane falling out of the sky, on the verge of crushing me.
Forcing myself to get up, I headed around the couch and went straight for the front door. I grabbed my flashlight, unlocked the door, and peeked before going out there.
But in the same way I should have expected, in the only way that seemed to work in my life, what I expected wasn’t what I actually got.
Down the steps of my tiny deck, I looked around the yard and didn’t see a thing. I hadn’t imagined the light or the shaking. Had I? I’d always wondered if I’d end up going nuts since I spent so much time by myself, butno,I was too young. And there weren’t active tectonic plates around here; I was pretty sure. I went around the side of the trailer and stopped. Midstep and everything because….
Ohshit.
Oh shit, oh shit,oh shit.
Tiny purple fires were scattered across my yard.
Hand already shaking, I lifted my flashlight and aimed it at the center of them.
I gulped.
I turned it off, then turned it back on, thinking I’d imagined it.
I hadn’t.
I fucking hadn’t.
There was a body there. On the ground. In the dirt.
A human body.
A big one.
My hand shook like crazy as the beam of light settled on what looked like a piece of cloth spread out under what I was fairly certain was a male frame from the muscle proportions I could see.
A piece of cloth that looked an awful lot like… like… acape.
A cape.
Ohshit.
A fucking cape that was torn and tattered, but it was either a tablecloth or that.
And it was attached to a half-bared chest by a wish and a prayer.
My hand shook even more as I took in the color of it.
Oh boy.
Oh no.
It had been years since the last time I’d done the sign of the cross, but I did it right then.
I recognized the color of the suit that was more than half ripped off the body there.
Charcoal.
