By: ToeClaws
| Wind whistled across Lestmen Park, nipping at the cold bare branches of the early winter trees. Eric grunted as a gust caught him square in the face. “Damn cold weather. You think someone would invent a weather control system or something,” he muttered through gritted teeth. Cold as it was, cutting through the park saved him considerable time on the walk home from college. Being early December, the skies were already darkening with night, as thick dark clouds seemed to pile in the sky above him. He heard a soft crackle of thunder; once an oddity in the winter season, but global warming had since changed some rules of nature.
| Onward he crept down the path - no snow in his way, at least, but the winds were getting stronger, and the odd snowflake flew almost horizontally past him. Another thunderclap sounded, closer than the first. He could see the flashes of lightening now, making him all the more anxious to hurry on his way home. The parks trees began to dance wildly about him, and snow began to fall in a heavy curtain. “Oh great… wonderful. I really wanted a reminder of why I should be in Hawaii right now. On all the nights I’m stuck without a ride this one had to be the one that…” A loud crack threw Eric to the ground in mid sentence as a bolt of lightning split the snow certain just in front of him. He fell back, blinded by the brilliant light of the burst, landing in a crumpled heap on the icy ground.
| Seeing nothing, he heard a strange hissing noise in front of him. At first he thought it was just his ears playing tricks on him because of the volume of the blast, but then it changed. It started humming, higher and higher went its pitch until it was almost a scream. His vision started to come back to him, and in the brilliant shimmer that surrounded his sight, he could make out a brilliant blue. Again, he thought it a trick that his pained eyes were playing on his mind, but it to started to change. It grew, steadily larger from a crack to a widened ellipse. The colour began to change from a shimmering blue to a brighter daytime look… or was it daytime?
| He rose, and took a step towards the shimmering ellipse, squinting his eyes and trying to focus on something that could not be. The claws that reached through and took hold of him was the last thing he expected, and was pulled through with yelp.
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