Once the earthquake had settled, and the people gained a sense of ease and confidence, they all started marching towards the suspected culprit that caused the sudden earthquake: the giant gaping hole in the middle of Central Park.
At first, they walked with grace and diligence, unsure of the stability of the land beyond the hole. But as they inched closer, and the ground showed no signs of fracture, they quickened their pace and made it to the edge of the hole.
It had managed to consume a large portion of Central Park in a matter of seconds, swallowing up a few bystanders who were unfortunate enough to cross paths with its expansion. As they looked down, people watched in bewilderment as the violet light shone from the depths below.
Pretty soon, people started whipping out their phones to capture a few pictures and videos of this strange pit. While some kept it to themselves, the majority started posting it on their social media; others yelled names into it, hoping to get a response back. Although their voices echo deep into the hole, they were met back with silence.
It didn't take long for the journalists to flock in, like vultures spotting a rotting carcass in the middle of the desert. Two of these reporters, one holding a camera and another holding a microphone, approached Claude to ask him for the details.
"Excuse me, sir! Did you see what happened here?" One of the dozen reporters walked up to him and asked. She holds her microphone near his face.
"Uh, yeah, I did. That hole nearly gobbled me up," he answered calmly, nodding with his head.
"That's great! Wonderful!" she exclaims with enthusiasm. She pulls back the microphone to allow the audience to hear her.
"Would you mind telling us what happened? I think all our viewers like to know too," She throws another question before pushing the microphone back at Claude's face again.
"Sure. Sounds like a good excuse to not get back to work," he replied in a joking manner. He then goes on to elaborate on what he saw: about the hole in the ground, how it illuminated some weird violet light, and how it expanded the moment the sudden earthquake struck.
"Hm… Interesting. Did you see anyone fall inside?" the news reporter continues to ask.
"Yeah, a bunch of people. It was about to gobble me up too! But, eh, thankfully, it stopped expanding before that happened," Claude replied.
"Alright, well, thank you for taking your time with us. I hope we weren't a bother!" she states. After the woman was done interviewing Claude, she started walking in the direction of the glowing hole, all while yapping in front of the camera, regurgitating information that had already been told.
Claude, still pumped full of adrenaline, sits down on a nearby bench to help him cool off. He rests his back on the wooden seat and tilts his head up to gaze at the sky, hoping that will hasten the process. For a minute, it was all that he saw: a great blue sky littered with puffy white clouds of all shapes and sizes.
But then suddenly, a strange humanoid creature just materializes out of thin air and remains levitating above the glowing hole. It had a very feminine figure and was equipped with a pair of enormous black wings that flapped and propelled it in the air. For a moment, Claude thought that he was hallucinating. Surely, everyone else nearby would hear the flap of her wings, or at least notice a large shadow looming over them. But as he scanned the crowd with his own eyes, nobody seemed to have noticed.
To test out whether he was hallucinating or not, Claude takes out his phone and opens the camera app. If the phone was able to take a picture of the creature, he can be certain that he was not hallucinating its existence, because the camera should not be able to capture something that doesn't exist.
Once the camera app opens up, he points it in the direction of the creature and takes a photo. He then looks down, goes into his gallery app, and checks out the picture he just took. Somehow, the creature was present in the digital image, confirming that Claude wasn't hallucinating.
Claude suddenly felt a shiver go down his spine. The realization that the figure was not a part of his imagination hits him like a truck. Yet, despite his fear lingering in his heart, he also felt intrigued by the being. What was it? Where did it come from? Did it come through the portal? How did it remain invisible?
As all these questions raced through his head, his curious mind demanded to quench his thirst. He therefore lifts up his phone again and focuses on the figure. He then zooms in, gathering a clearer shot of its face and body, all without moving forward.
Claude could see that the two wings attached to the back of her human body, flapping silently to keep her afloat, were made out of a thin coat of flesh. These wings had thin branches of glowing purple veins all over the surface. From afar, they looked like a piece of decoration, meant to give her wings character and style.
Her body, which took the form of a curvaceous hourglass figure, was adorned in an ornate piece of black armor, covering every inch of her skin. Her head had a pair of black horns, protruding through two holes on her helmet.
Her long violet hair waved around as she continued to fly above the glowing hole, partly covering the long and pointy ears she possessed. Her face, although very human and drop-dead gorgeous, contrasted greatly with these piercing purple eyes resembling a soulless crocodile.
Seeing the alien through his high-resolution camera made his heart beat rapidly, not just out of fear, but also anticipation. He wondered what it was thinking and what it wanted to do. Thinking that something was about to happen, Claude hits the red button and starts recording.
The creature scans the environment with her striking purple eyes. As she did so, her expression quickly changed from a cold disinterest to one of intrigue and surprise. He then sees her muttering something under her breath before closing her eyes.
The moment her lips stopped moving, her entire body started to shine a violet light, brighter than the sun itself. He is then hit with a strong gust of wind, nearly sending him an inch backwards. His ears then pick up the sound of the wings flapping about, cutting the air with ease.
Once her body stopped shining like the great fireball in the sky, everyone looked up to stare at the mysterious flying creature above their heads. Their reactions varied, from shock to horror to uncertainty and curiosity. Now that she had managed to grab everyone's attention, she began to speak to the crowd below.
"Denizens of this domain!" she began, greeting the crowd in perfect English.
"I am the First Elite General of the Demon World, Sylvia Lavenda. I came here as an envoy for our sovereign, our king, Nazeer Azermouth! This realm, as of today, falls into his dominion!" she proclaims.
"Choose to yield and serve His Highness or brace yourselves for the inevitable subjugation by our formidable army!" she warns, her voice carrying a powerful aura around it.
"Oh yeah? And what if we don't, ya thot?" a drunk young man in the crowd yells back, sticking his tongue out at the creature. The people surrounding him quickly walk away from him, wanting nothing to do with the man. Sylvia, keeping her calm and collected demeanor, points her finger at the man.
As she slowly raises her hand, the man starts levitating high up in the air. He starts yelling and panicking, demanding the demon to put him down. Like a feral cat in space, not knowing what to do, he starts punching and kicking the air around him to try and break free, only stopping when he was at eye level with Sylvia.
"Hey! I said put me down, ya stupid bitch! Put me down!" he demands. Sylvia frowns at him, clearly fuming with anger.
"Such arrogance... it's truly infuriating," she replies, before clenching her fists. The man suddenly stops moving, and starts screaming off the top of his lungs. His clothes turn to ash and burn away, while his body swells, and his skin turns red. The man starts screaming in pain, begging the creature to stop.
"HELP! HELP! IT BURNS! STOP! STOP! AHH-"
"BOOM!"
His pleas were cut short as he erupts, bursting out and raining down his scorching hot blood all over the people below. Some of it lands on her face, which she quickly cleans by using her long, red tongue. It took the people a second to process what just happened. The moment it clicked, it caused a huge wave of panic and fear to erupt amongst the crowd.
Fueled by a new rush of adrenaline, Claude jumps over the bench and runs as fast as he can. His curiosity dissipates in an instant, replacing the familiar instinctual desire to survive. He exited Central Park and headed straight to the parking lot. On the way, he could feel his phone sing and vibrate as someone was trying to contact him. Claude instinctively picked up the call, putting the phone near his ear.
"Claude! Are you alright? Some kind of short earthquake happened, and I thought you..."
"Jerry! Jerry! Listen to me," Claude interjects. Despite not being friends, he felt he should warn his co-worker about what just happened.
"You need to get out of the office now! We are being attacked by some aliens!" he screams into the phone.
"Woah! Woah! Slow down! Aliens?" He asks, very skeptical of Claude's 'wild' claims.
"Yes! Aliens! They call themselves demons, and they say they want to subjugate the earth!"
"Demons? Why would they name themselves after beings from the underworld?" he questions.
"I don't fucking know, Jerry! All I know is that they came from a hole in Central Park, and they say they are going to subjugate humanity! They even blew up a guy in front of me! So, leave now!" Claude warned him.
"Listen, Claude, did a brick hit you in the head? You sound crazy," he voiced his skepticism. It wasn't long till he was cut off by an employee screaming in the background, yelling that there was a dragon on top of a skyscraper.
"Holy fucking shit! Run! RUN!" Claude can hear his screams, picked up by his phone's microphone. Jerry, speaking in a hushed tone, quickly replies to Claude before hanging up.
"Listen, Claude, I think I believe you now. Thank you for warning me. Goodbye!"
Claude finally arrives at the parking lot holding his ticket to escape this concrete prison; his car! As he takes the stairs to reach the very top where his vehicle resides, he picks up his phone and starts dialing his mother.
It would be very unwise to stay here with that creature running around. Couple that with the dragons flying over in the sky, Claude had little confidence that the army was going to take them down. His best option would be to leave this city immediately.
"Hello sweetie. What's the matter? Why'd you call?" She inquires in a calm and soothing voice.
"Ma! Ma! I need you to pack everything in the house! We need to leave this city, now!" He yells in a frantic tone, spooking his mother.
"Why? What's wrong, sweetie? Is everything alright?" She now asks in a worried tone. Claude finally makes it to the top of the parking lot, a place with an exposed roof. He could see large dragons with enormous wings, breathing their scorching hot flames down skyscrapers.
"No! No! It's not alright! I need you to pack everything you got! We are leaving the city!" he repeated.
"But why? Why do we have to leave? Why are you...?" she asks. Claude dashes to his car and enters the vehicle.
"Aliens! Aliens calling themselves demons are taking over the city! Turn on the damn television if you don't believe me!" he replies, cutting her off.
"Look ma! I got to go! I'll meet you back home!" he adds before hanging up on her. He then threw his phone into the passenger seat, pressed the power button to turn on the car, and drove towards the exit tunnel. Once he got on the road, he switched to sport mode and hit the gas as hard as he could.