Slow Apocalypse

The creature was several stories tall, spider-limbed, with a bulbous purple body speckled with man-sized, teal bubbles. They looked empty. Its slender legs narrowed to gleaming points at the ends. It was apparently indestructible.

If you sat in place, you could see it move, like watching the hour hand of a clock.

We came to the park every day it was on our street. I remember the sound it made when its needle-foot gradually pressed through a car's roof. I feel like I can still hear that endless, rending squeal, even now.

Sometimes I wonder if it ever stopped walking.

Beauty and the Beast

She was beautiful. She knew that. It was the source of the whole problem. A beautiful girl must have a suitable death. Long illnesses were unacceptable. Mere traffic accidents, unthinkable. Violence was potentially viable, within certain limits. It was the lack of control, the variables, that made it risky.

Ideally, she would stand on a great height, face down a monstrous presence, scream dramatically, and fall to a tragic end. And now, at last, she was ready. She stood atop the skyscraper, watching the tiny people below. The ground trembled, as under the impact of a mighty foot. She smiled.

Practical Demonstration

Jack walked to the center of the stage. The lights went low, focused on him. The audience quieted as much as the audience at an elementary school talent show ever truly became quiet.

"My talent... um..." Jack began. He hesitated. "I kill monsters."

There was a pause. A baby wailed in the silence; true silence, now.

"With this." Jack brought his hand out from behind his back, revealing a dented and notched baseball bat.

The first nervous titters went up from the audience. They kept laughing right up until the first thunderous footstep rattled the fluorescent lights in their sockets.

Our Monster

Engines filled the city with noise and heat, choked it with diesel fumes. Tanks rumbled to themselves. Teams of soldiers with rocket launchers and artillery sweated in the heat of the sun. Great banks of anti-vehicular missiles stood ready.

On the shore, the water slowly washed away the man-deep footprints sunk in the sand. The ocean sat quiet, unruffled, its surface stirred only by wind. No vast bulk rose from the depths. No reptilian behemoth surged toward land.

In the city, they waited. Everything was in readiness for his arrival. Where was he? When would he come back to them?