Page 59 of Mytho Investigations: Side Stories

“What kind of club? Why didn’t you invite me?”

“Because I didn’t know what it was going to be like and I…” he didn’t want Sean to be clinging to his side, unwilling to talk to anyone but him.

The pens on his desk danced and one rolled off and landed on the floor. The window rattled like when the military jets flew over the house where he’d grown up.

“Earthquake.” Sean pulled up his pants.

Jordan did the same. The walls pulsed and for a couple of breaths, his stomach lifted as if he was about to be sick.

“Something isn’t right. Earthquakes—” Sean was suddenly airborne.

And so was he. He didn’t know how it had happened.

He hit the ground, smashing his hip on the drawer that was now on the ground. He swore, but couldn’t hear his voice.

Another boom. He’d heard the sonic booms as the jets had broken the sound barrier, but this was different. It was within him.

“Are we under attack?” He shouted.

Sean stared at him, then crawled for the door.

The building groaned. The explosions continued. Jordan pulled himself up and gripped the windowsill, needing to figure out what was happening.

Lights were going out. Buildings toppled.

Was it safer in or out?

He turned. Sean sat against the door with blood running down the side of his face. If the building collapsed, they’d be buried along with all the other students. He strode over and pulled Sean up. “We need to get out of here.”

This time, he heard himself. Jordan grabbed his keys. If the building was still standing—if the world was still here—he could do without his shit being looted. He locked the door after them.

Hand in hand, they ran along the corridor and down the three flights of stairs and out into the open. The red brick building that should have been on the other side of the street was half missing, and rubble was strewn all over the road. A new white building, or half of it, listed where the red one had been.

Something big and hairy ran past, screaming, howling. Jordan stepped back. It looked like. No. It couldn’t have been a werewolf. He shook his head even as he watched it run up the street and into the dark.

“What the fuck?” Sean asked.

Jordan had no answer. He let go of Sean and walked into the road, then bent over and picked up a red brick. It was real. Heavy. He wasn’t asleep.

Overhead, something roared. He flinched and cowered. The sound chilled the center of his bones and all he wanted to was hide, but he couldn’t move as a massive beast—a dragon?—swept over the building.

That wasn’t possible.

Sean swore as though he’d seen the beast, too.

That was when Jordan realized the explosions had stopped and the ground no longer shook. Whatever it was, it was over.

The sirens of emergency vehicles began to fill the night. Fallen power cables sparked up the road from him.

“We should go in and call emergency services. It’s not safe out,” Sean said.

Jordan stood in the middle of the road. Rubble was scattered around. A car was overturned. No vehicle would be able to reach them.

From the new building that shouldn’t be there, someone cried as though calling for help.

Jordan turned around. His building was standing. The one next to it wasn’t and survivors were spilling on to the street. “People are hurt. We have to do something.”

“What are you going to do?” Sean asked, taking a step back.