Paisley

I watched as the men pulled on the church doors, attempting to pull them in against the force of the winds from the storm. Sounds erupted from their mouths as they attempted to pull the doors, barely audible over the sounds of rain and thunder. However, once the doors were closed, things were much quieter, almost to the point here I could hear a pin drop from where I was, at the sanctuary.

It felt as though the storm came out of nowhere, there were no storm clouds earlier in the day, no report of a storm coming in. The sky just randomly grew dark, and before I knew it, I was running from the beach into the church to shelter, along with what seemed like fifty other people. However, the number grew, possibly making it just about a hundred and fifty of us, taking shelter within the holy walls. 

Let's just hope they were holy enough to not get blown down...

I pulled my phone from my pocket, and called my mother. As though she was anticipating my call, she picked up on the first ring.

"Are you okay?" There was a panic in her voice, and her breathing was heavy and rushed. I could feel her anxiousness through the phone, and I could hear my father in the background asking my mother if I was safe.

"I'm at a shelter, mom. Don't worry, I'll be home as soon as this is over," I said, trying to stay calm enough to calm her down. 

"I hope so" she said, her voice gravitating slightly to normal. "You have snacks and water to last you through this, right?"

"Yeah, I have everything. And the shelter has supplies. I'll be fine"

"Okay, call me as soon as you're ready to leave."

"Will do."

I hung up, and looked around at all of the families in front of me. The crowd was made up of families, some that included little kids who were huddled with their parents, trying to keep warm. Everyone seemed confused as to what to do, or how to handle what was going on. Most seemed to not have had time to prepare to come to the church, didn't pack any extra clothes, only grabbed the essentials.

Suddenly, I was snapped out of my thoughts by everything going dark. Light from cellular devices flickered on around me, and I took my phone from my pocket and looked at the percentage. It was far too low to join everyone in trying to see what exactly was happening around me, so I decided to try to save my battery and see what others decided to see.

I looked around blindly, and realized that one of the church's smaller doors was swinging open. Running up to it to close it, my eyes picked up on two figures a few steps away.

"Get away from there!"

I looked back and saw a man behind me. Big. Strong. Running in my direction as fast as possible. However, when I looked back outside, The two figures seemed to be struggling against the high winds of the storm. Looking back at the man, he had gotten closer, and was ready to reach out and pull in the door.  That's when impulse kicked in and I ran out into the rain.

The water hitting my body felt like electricity on my skin. However, I fought through the sensation, and ran to the two people who were struggling towards the church, the wind carrying me faster than I could run.

"Turn around!" one of the figures, sharing the all to familiar voice of the church's pastor, said, and as I got closer, I realized that he was dragging the body. However, it was almost too late, Because I was too close to just turn back and run into the church. However, when I caught up to the two, I saw that was the church's pastor, and a man who had blood dripping slowly from a cut in his head. Seeing the damage done to the man, I froze, debating if I should be carrying the man.

"You shouldn't have come out here," Pastor Rowe said, gasping for breath. "It's too dangerous, you should've stayed inside."

"Seems like that's out of the option now," I replied, hesitantly grabbing the man's other arm, then slinking back quickly.

The man's skin felt almost as hot as fire. Almost too hot to touch, but I grabbed his hand again anyways and started dragging him towards the church.

"Yeah, something's extremely wrong. Was hoping there was a nurse in that church that could help." Pastor Rowe looked at me, an expression of concern on his face. "You know if anyone in there's injured? And if anyone's helping them?"

"I guess we'll find out soon," I said.

I only wish I knew how wrong I was.

The man started coughing, and the arm I was holding hot hotter, causing me to release it. Looking at my hands, I saw what appeared to be black lines across them, looking like charred marks. And looking back at the man, I saw his skin start to glow orange around his heart through his opened shirt. After a few seconds, the pastor released the man as well, and looked down as he started to cough and convulse more and more.

Then... Then he burst into flames.

I looked on in fear as the Pastor was blown backwards by the sudden explosion, and the man screamed and convulsed in pain, fear and confusion filling my brain. I didn't know what to do.

A scream echoed over the sounds of the rain, and I looked back at the church to see glowing lights coming through the windows. Running up to the door, which was now closed, I shook and pulled as much as I could, but it wouldn't budge. Feeling the door handle slowly get hot, I released it, the thought floating through my brain that someone just burst into flames there, and there was a burning body in the other side of that door. A burning body that was once a living, breathing individual.

"You don't mind if I break the window, do you?" I shouted towards the pastor, and he looked at me in confusion. He then nodded.

"This is one circumstance where I think breaking into a church is a good idea."

However, before I could take up any object close to me that was strong enough to break the glass, a bolt of lightning flashed, and a giant figure could be seen in the ocean, appearing to be laying down, not moving at all, even with the high winds blowing.