Despite the earliness of his departure it was well into late morning before he was reintroduced

to his miraculously still existing house. The cabby - the only one who had been willing to navigate

through flooded roads and scattered debris - had demanded extra for the trouble of driving him out so

far. The argument had lasted several minutes, and at points it had seemed that coming to blows would

be inevitable.

"You'd still be walkin knee deep where I found you! No one else was comin this way!"

"Excuse me, but it isn't my fucking fault you were too busy fondling yourself to mention the

inability to do your basic goddamn job without conning wayward pedestrians! An extra fifty on top of

fare is dick-rottingly un-fricken-believable. You should be ashamed of your very existence for suggesting

it at all."

"You're a cheap asshole and I hope your house falls on top of you."

"Yeah, well, you probably take candy from babies."

In the end it took threatening to call his company for him to back down and leave, which Karkat

was grateful for since the guy had looked like he could bench press a semi. If it had come to an actual

altercation he would've only had two options available: cry or die. He wanted to be angry at Sollux for

being such a late sleeper - and the lack of weight in his wallet certainly spurred on that feeling - but

knowing it had been his own fault Sollux hadn't been able to sleep the night before humbled him

quickly. Besides, the guy would need his space today, more than likely.

Overall the damage wasn't near as bad as he'd feared. Shards of wood were scattered

everywhere suggesting the untimely demise of his fence, and the garage door had some rather sizeable

dents on its front. The most prominent thing he could notice, however, was the dark section that cut

the walls in near half, suggesting the water had flooded up to his shoulders.

The asshole had been right, spending the previous night at home would have been terrifying,

not that he would admit it to the others face.

To his dismay the other side had fared much worse. Whereas the front had suffered what

appeared as aesthetic damage, the rear of the house looked as though Poseidon had personally pointed

at his backyard saying, 'and fuck that place in particular.'

The fence was decimated, there was no other way Karkat could find to describe its state. The

entire back line of it had been ripped right from the ground, leaving deep gouges in their wake. Only

sections of the sides remained, the parts still standing residing closer to the house. Parts of it was

scattered everywhere, making the pieces in front look like splinters. The ocean, which hadn't pulled

completely back yet, was still lapping mere feet away from the former barrier.

Karkat could not prevent the groan from escaping upon discovery the state of his beloved pool.

The pool had been the one feature he had actually requested - Kankri had announced it an

absurd request with the ocean so near - but his father had looked at him with pity in his eyes (Karkat

hated that look directed at him) and called a specialist for install. It had been his favorite thing, next to

his romcoms and books. To see tiles ripped from their places, the torn metal of the in ground ladder

twisted and ripped to a near unrecognizable form, the general destruction made his heart drop. This

would not be an easy fix, and he wasn't sure if he could even request the money to repair it.

Knowing he would need proof of damage to satisfy his insurance company, he started up the

steps to the porch. The structure shook menacingly before he made it to the split landing, and decided

to take the garage entrance instead.

Unsurprisingly the door leading in from the back had been ripped clear off its hinges, and was

laying on top his overturned grill, along with the remnants of the former shelving. Stepping around the

junk scattered around he did a quick inspection of the cooking apparatus and found it completely

totaled. A few paces beyond was his Sunfish, the grill had acted as a barrier against any damage. He

ignored the small boat, cast a last glance at what used to cook his burgers, and went inside.

"Rest in peace you piece of shit." where his parting words t the un-trusty contraption.

There was immediate relief to see everything inside was how he left it, a mess but one he

caused and not the weather. The book he had been reading was still sitting pages down on the couch,

and his manuscript was still acting as the worlds lousiest carpet. The only thing that was affected was

the lower bath where the window had been broken with water and glass shards inside. Not something

he really looked forward to cleaning, but with things as they were he knew it could have been much

worse.

Karkat found his camera sitting on the fireplace mantel, and after placing fresh batteries in it he

returned outside, starting with the front and working his way around. The porch was hard to

photograph properly, as the structure appeared stable until used, but with some searching he found

where the support had been damaged and took pictures of that. A quick inspection of the ones that

supported his home all appeared to be undamaged.

The chore took the better part of an hour, getting the evidence as thoroughly as possible to

prevent the chance of his insurance trying to screw him over. When satisfied the camera was deposited

on the kitchen counter and he rolled his sleeves to his elbows. It was time to tackle what he could with

the pool.

The water was cloudy, cloudier then it should be for a standing body of water, which

immediately rose his suspicion. It wasn't unheard of for aquatic animals to be deposited by accident in

pools and ponds inland after flooding, and if there was something in there it could explain the damaged

support struts. He knew he needed to investigate, to be sure it was empty. If he called a repair crew and

they encountered something dangerous, or something died and began to rot in there, well he didn't

want to consider the ramifications. Reinforced with nothing but stubborn determination he took his

telescoping pole into hand, jabbing the netted end into the whole five to twelve feet of depths.

The shallower end of the pool revealed little, there was obviously some heavier debris in there

with the way the pole was catching on things. Once or twice he could swear something touched the pole

independently of his will, but try as he might he could not see through the first couple inches. With no

solid conclusions he moved deeper where managing the pole and avoiding obstructions became more

difficult. There seemed to be less at the bottom the deeper he went, though the net caught on

something and he had to wrestle it free again to the surface.

Inside the woven basket was a pair of glasses, mostly undamaged despite their location. A

shudder ran down Karkat's spine as he took into consideration the possibility of instead of an animal,

waiting for discovery could actually be a body. He really didn't want to call the police, he'd interacted

with them enough to last him several lifetimes. He set the glasses on a relatively unperturbed patch of

sand-grass before advancing to the deepest section.

His pole, unfortunately, was only fourteen feet and six inches (not the fifteen feet as

advertised) in length and he had never needed to push it so deep before so in the awkwardness of

handling it he was forced to kneel on the ground for better maneuverability.

The first warning that he had made a poor life decision came with a gentle yank on the pole, and

in his stupidity he gave it a tug back. The pole jerked again, nearly pulled from his hands and he placed

one foot to support him as he reared back to maintain its grip - and by doing so completely upset his

center of balance. He realized his mistake as mid-motion the pole was violently heaved from his grip,

sending him flying head first into the water.

The first few seconds were spent in confused terror. He thrashed around, the weight of his

shoes and clothes pulling him down as he tried to find the way back to the surface. A behemoth shadow

passed mere feet from him, and he screamed into the water, following the bubbles upwards. His head

broke and he gasped deeply, filling his lungs with air as he glanced around wildly. At the opposite end a

fin broke the surface, coursing back and forth before turning abruptly towards him.

"No!" Karkat screamed, thrashing out wildly towards the edge. "Fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck

you!"

Reaching blindly his hands gripped the edge, white knuckling as he propelled himself from the

pool, landing heavily on his side and yanking his feet after the rest of him just as the fin passed his

location and disappeared. He pushed himself backwards, scrambling quickly as his breakfast hit the

ground beside him. An arm, pale and gray came into view under the waves just long enough for him to

see clearly before it vanished again.

"Oh fuck." He choked as he pushed himself on to shaking arms. His legs almost failed beneath

him as the world went in and out of focus, the sea and sky blurring as he attempted to focus on the

singular goal of getting inside. He needed his phone, he needed to call the police and report a dead guy

in his pool that was being devoured by a shark and he could. not. breath.

Blindly he struggled up the first section of stairs, spurred unthinkingly by the sounds of

breaching water behind him. He continued to climb even as the ground lurched beneath him, not

registering the ominous creaks around and under him. He was not there he wasn't aware of the world

around him, he was in the clouds drowning and couldn't breathe couldn't think and his heart beat so

rapidly as if it planned to break through his ribcage and bleed him out like the person below...

His foot caught and he was staring at the bloodied water surrounding his small vessel as massive

beasts with eyes black as void ravaged it with gigantic maws and teeth like saw blades, held inches from

the frenzy of wild animals and their triggered bloodlust by the monster laughing behind him and he was

going to die. Pleas for mercy filled his ears and he realized it was him coming like a mantra to a God he

didn't believe and he was so sorry for going out and he would do anything just please...

He fell bodily to the side, slamming heavily against the railing and a crack like thunder pierced

around him. The world lurched, slow at first but gaining speed as the stairs detached from the rest of

the porch. The water that had been below rose to meet him in his descent, and he had just enough time

to scream his anger at the world before slamming through the surface and sucked the life giving, life

ending liquid deep into his lungs.