Diabolic


Tom

Tom Schroder and his family had lived in San Francisco all their lives in a small two story house only a few blocks from the beach. He lived with his father and his older sister Gina. His parents had a divorce when he was nine, and his mother moved out of state several months later. She wasn't exactly cruel, but she could have been a much better parent, so he never really missed her much. Tom himself was quiet, reserved and for the most part, well mannered. His hair was dark brown and slightly curly, falling to his eyes, which were behind a pair of glasses. He was usually good in school, but after a nasty break-up with his girlfriend of two years, his grades began to slip as nothing around him seemed important anymore.

July 13, 2005

Tom sat at his desk in his final class of the day, staring at the minute hand on the clock. The teacher was explaining the homework assignment, but he wasn't paying any attention. He woke up way too early and was already sleepy, and it wasn't even dark outside. The minute hand switched over to 2:45 and the bell rang throughout the halls. He tried to be the first out the door, but he bumped into somebody who was trying the same thing. A tall, lanky kid named Mark Jenners. "Watch it, Schroder!" He jabbed Tom in the arm and walked out of the classroom. Tom didn't say anything, and exited the classroom, then the school itself.

As he walked home, he couldn't help but get annoyed by the constant wind. He'd lived in San Francisco his whole life, but the wind was something he never had gotten used to. "Tommay!" He groaned to himself, as there was only one person who actually said "Tommay", and he didn't like that person much at all, but of course never acted like it. Fred constantly talked to Tom about things he had absolutely no interest in, and never asked if he had interest in the first place.

"Fred, hey." Tom said, trying to sound enthused.

"What're you up to?"

Tom put his hands in his pockets. "Just heading home. What about you?"

Fred pulled something out of his backpack. "Going to the movies! 7:40."

Already knowing the answer to his question, he asked. "What're you going to see?"

"Fantastic Four, baby!"

God, that movie looks like crap. "Ah man, I wish I could go. Be sure to tell me how it is tomorrow?"

"I already know how it's going to be...the best comic movie ever made!"

"I'll see you, Fred."

Tom turned around and continued on toward his house. That was pointless.

Gina

Gina stood in the middle of the rock/alternative isle of the music store she worked at, listening to this kid ramble on about U2, wondering why he wasn't in school.

"$50 for the 'cheap' seats, just so this guy can go feed some Cambodian kids or whatever? It's stupid!" She didn't bother saying anything and looked at her watch; 2:45.

"You know what, I have to go on my break. You see that guy over there?" She pointed to a co-worker across the store. "He loves U2, and i'm sure he'll find this interesting. Go ask him for some help." Gina clocked out, got in her car and drove home. She made sure she didn't work too far from home, as traveling in San Francisco could be hectic, or just plain slow. After about ten minutes of driving, she pulled into the driveway. As she got out of the car she noticed the front door was halfway open.

"Dammit Tommy, shut the door behind you. Anybody can just walk in here and take whatever they want."

Tom looked up from the sofa in the living room, where he'd been sitting from the moment he got home. "What do we have that anybody would even want?"

His sister's answer was an annoyed "uh!" and a hand motion at the huge entertainment system in front of him, along with the equally huge T.V.

"This? You know, if anybody could figure out how to get all of this out that little door before anybody got home, then they deserve to keep it."

Gina sighed. "Tom."

"Sister?"

"Close the door behind you."

She walked into the kitchen and pulled a Hot Pocket out of the freezer and threw it in the microwave, then went back into the living room and sat next to her brother. She pulled an inhaler out of her pocket, shook it, and inhaled.

"How's work?" Tom asked, without turning his head from the T.V.

"The usual. Though this one guy came in asking for 'The Astrohounds'? I didn't know what he was talking about. I even looked it up, nothing. I think he was on something...or just stupid. How was school?"

"Same as always, boring." Tom still didn't look away from the T.V.

"It wouldn't be so boring if you shook out of this funk or whatever you're in and started doing your work."

He turned to her again. "Oh, Hi Mom! I didn't know you moved back in?"

Gina rolled her eyes and went back into the kitchen to eat her food. By the time she finished, she already had to go back.

"I'll be home around 6:00. When Dad gets home, atleast act like you did some work today?"

Her brother shrugged. "I guess so. Leaving already?"

"Yeah, my break is only half an hour."

Tom shook his head. "Then why waste it driving for 20 minutes just to be here for 10, when you can go eat some fast food or something?"

Gina opened the front door. "I just like being here. It makes the break seem more...I don't know, worth it. It's weird."

Tom nodded. "Sure is. See you around 6:00."

As his sister returned to work, Tom decided to go up to his room and finish his game on the computer. He thought about taking a nap since he was so tired, but figured it'd just ruin his chances of sleeping normally that night. He sat down at his desk and loaded his game...and the next thing he knew, he heard the front door open and shut. Tom looked at the clock; 5:43. Holy crap, feels like I was only here for twenty minutes! He walked downstairs to find his Dad sitting at the kitchen table. "Hey."

His dad looked up from the table, where he was already building a sandwich. "Hey, how was school?"

"Same as always."

His father looked back down at the sandwich. "Any work this time?"

Tom didn't say anything.

"Look, if you're not going to do any schoolwork, you might as well just get a job and do that instead. Atleast you'll be getting paid."

He didn't respond for a moment, deciding if he was actually serious or not. "Drop out of school for a job? Doesn't sound like advice you'd give. What gives?"

"I know you've practically given up on school since Christina broke up with you, so why not just make it official? If you're going to wake up, travel somewhere, sit there for half the day, why not make some money doing it?"

Tom was a little weirded out by the words coming from his father. "I'm not going to drop out of school. I'll start doing my work soon. It's just...I feel like I can't. It doesn't matter to me."

"Yeah, well... someday you're going to realize there are bigger things to worry about than an ex-girlfriend."

"...I guess." At this moment, Gina walked in the door. She looked at her brother, standing on the staircase and her dad looking at him from the dinner table. "Am I interrupting something?"

Tom shook his head. "I don't feel well, I'm going to go lay down. I don't feel well, so if I fall asleep, don't wake me up."

His sister didn't say anything, only nodded.

"Sure. Feel better, and think about what I said." His dad said, with a mouthful of food.

"Yeah, thank you."

Tom went back to his room, turned his computer off and laid in bed. Before he knew it, he'd fallen fast asleep.

July 14, 2005

"TOM, get up now!" He shot up out of bed as his sisters voice screamed at him from the doorway. He reached for his glasses, put them on and looked at the clock; 1:12. He heard a bunch of clatter coming from downstairs. "What's going on?"

"Something's going on outside. We have to get out of the house, now!" He forced himself out of bed and attempted to shake off his nagging tiredness. His sister raced out of sight toward her room. He heard a faint commotion outside; people shouting and cars honking. A slight tremor shook his room. What the hell is going on? His heart began to race. He rushed downstairs and saw his dad gathering food and water bottles in a backpack. "Dad?"

"Tom! Get shoes and a jacket. We're leaving."

He turned around and started up the stairs, then stopped and turned back. "Earthquake?" His question was answered by an enormous screeching roar from outside. Another tremor. His eyes widened with confusion and terror, and he rushed back up the stairs to put on his shoes and jacket. "Gina!" She came out of her room with the same things on and the two ran downstairs. A large series of explosions were heard in the distance. "We're going to jump in the car, and we're going to drive as far away from here as possible." He opened the door and didn't move. The road infront of their house was filled with traffic, moving as slow as possible.

The three exited their house and looked at billows of smoke coming from downtown. A man got out of his car in the non-moving traffic and took off running up the street. Gina's gaze followed him, and caught sight of something far off, through all of the smoke. She froze when her eyes grasped the entire outline.

Easily two hundred feet above the air, she saw a massive, black head. Large, grey dorsal fins stuck jaggedly from the back. The beast turned in their direction, and she saw it's lifeless, white eyes. She grabbed her brothers arm pointed to the creature. "Oh my god, what the hell is that!" Their father didn't wait around to find out as he grabbed Gina's arm and tugged her in his direction as he began to run down the street. The entire time they ran, they kept their eyes on the giant in the distance.

Suddenly, Tom stopped. "Look!" The dorsal fins began to glow a bright white, and a light buzzing sound was heard. The monster's jaws opened, and the same bright white glow came from inside it's mouth. It looked in the opposite direction of the Schroders, and with what could only be described as a sonic boom, sent a thick beam of fire from it's mouth onto the surrounding ground and buildings. More explosions were heard, and the black hide of the creature was lighten by the fire it had caused.

"Let's keep moving!"

Another large tremor went through the ground...and another, larger one. The monster was coming closer to their area. "Go! Faster!" The family fled as fast as they could, but the incoming beast's massive stature made their running speed redundant. It crashed through a small row of houses down the street from theirs. Almost every single driver abandoned their car as the giant lumbered onto the street at the far end. It turned toward the row of cars, and looked down at all of the people running for their lives. An eardrum shattering bellow escaped it's jaws, and the dorsal fins began to buzz and glow again. Tom looked back to catch this happening. "It's doing it again!" The blinding stream of fire came out of it's mouth and connected with the cars toward it's feet, causing a number of explosions, sending cars and people flying. It aimed it's breath upward, burning down all of the cars and people along the street. Tom ran up to the first house he saw and kicked in the front door. "IN! or we die!" Gina ran inside and turned around. Their dad was still standing on the sidewalk. "Dad, hurry!"

"We have to keep going this way, it'll crush us if we stay insi-" His words were cut short by a flaming car that came hurdling from down the street, crashing into him. Gina fell to her knees. "Dad!" Tom ran back to the doorway, no sign of his dad anywhere. His throat began to burn, along with his eyes as he realized his dad was under the burning car. He knew there was absolutely no way he could have survived that. He turned back to his sister who was in tears. He peeked his head back out of the door, the monster was looking the other way, sending the fiery breath into another portion of the town.

"We have to keep moving, it's facing the other way. We can't be in here when it tears through the buildings." She got up, sobbing hard. He gripped his sister and hugged her. "He's gone. We have to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to us, come on."

Tom and Gina walked out of the house to a street on fire, burnt bodies littering the street and flaming, upturned cars scattered.

They turned at the first intersection, away from the giant behind them. Two police cars with their sirens blaring sped past them as they kept running. After a moment, another explosion went off and one of the sirens was silenced. The remaining police car zoomed past them in the direction it came from...followed by the blood curdling roar. The ground shook as the beast appeared to be following the police car, leading it back toward them. "It's coming...we have to go this way!" Tom cried, pointing to the left side of the intersection, as they were on the right. Gina stopped in the middle of the intersection, crying. "I can't keep running." Tom looked at the enormous reptile walking in their direction. "You HAVE to. If you don't, you're going to die!" She fell to the ground, trying to breathe.

She pulled her inhaler out of her pocket. It was at this moment they realized the rhythmic tremors of the monsters footsteps had stopped. They both looked up as it was standing only a hundred feet from them, looking down at the two. The stoplight above them changed from red to green. All of a sudden, Tom's ears had drowned out all of the honking, screaming and crying that had been constantly in earshot since they set foot outside. Instead, he could only hear the loud buzzing sound coming from the dragon standing before him. He sat down next to his sister and wrapped his arms around her. "I love you." He shut his eyes, and after a split second of excruciating heat, it was all over.