The man jumped through the window; landing feet first and continuing into a roll. He stumbled to his feet, continuing to run. The wall behind him erupted into a volcano of bricks and splinters as the Behemoth made its rage known. Crashing through the side of the building, the creature stood 4 stories tall, and was covered in scales the color of mud. It’s amorphous blob-like appearance shifted in the night as it lulled after the man, shooting out spongy limbs to latch onto the ground and pull itself forward, lunging its massive frame in short spurts.
It’s roar as it pursued him was unlike anything science has ever identified; like a whale song composed entirely in swearing. It’s foul howl hunted him as he made a dash for the tree line, his heart pumping to the beat of his feet mashing against the grass beneath him.
The limbs the creature had been using to pull itself forward retracted back into its body, the chunky flesh smooth where there had once been an appendage. It drew itself taller, narrower, concentrating its mass into a tower of muck, before toppling forward.
The earth groaned beneath the shifting mass, while the man looked for any sort of possible escape. There was an old rusted car that had been abandoned years ago out in the field; he made his way to it. He jumped, sliding across the hood, then pressed himself to the far side of it, as the wet slapping of stone thundered above him.
The car sank several feet, the glass breaking, the metal twisting under the sheer force of the ferocious creature. It provided enough resistance, however, to form a tent out of the beast, giving a small amount of space between where the creature rested on the car and on the ground. The man laid still, trapped in a coffin of evil. His breath was coming in short gasps as he tried to recover from his ordeal.
The scales in front of his face pulled away from each other, fading into the marshy interior of the creature. An eye, roughly the size of a dinner plate, seemingly swam down to the surface to greet him.
“Who are you?” the man gasped. “What are you? How are you even real?” The eye blinked. It seemed to take longer than it should have, and left a thick slimy trail behind as the eye was revealed. The man expected the thing to form a mouth, but instead it seemed to reverberate throughout its entire body, the gigantic crust of putty vibrating enough to form sound.
“Me.” The deafening reverberation rocked the man where he lay.
“Wh...what?” the man was beginning to run out of air.
“I am me.”
“You’re you?”
“Yes.”
“What the hell does that even mean?”
“I am me.”
“Well, could you please get the hell off of me?” There was a great shudder throughout the creature as it seemed to contemplate this. Seconds later, the man could feel fresh air breathing across his body as the gigantic creature rolled away. The eye had ended up being propped on top of the car, looking down at him. The man rolled away from the creature, before standing on shaking legs.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“Play.”
“You want to play? Play what?”
“Tag.”
“You were playing tag?” the man screamed.
“Yes.”
“There’s no killing in tag!”
“You’re not dead.”
“I... I barely managed to survive! If that car had been there, I would have been squished!”
“Being squished is fun.”
“It... what? Being squished is not fun!”
“It is. Squish me.”
“I’m not... I don’t... How would I even do that?!” The eye blinked twice before it responded.
“Squish me.”
“I’m not squishing you!”
“Play with me.”
“No! I’m going home!”
“Can I come with you?”
“No you can’t come with me, what the hell would you even do when we got there? You can’t fit in my house!”
“I could squish it.”
“No squishing!”
The eye regarded him for several more seconds. “You’re no fun.” With that, creature began to roll away from him, the eye retreating into the belly of the beast. he watched in shock as it lumbered over to where the building had once stood.
He understood now why he hadn’t been struck by flying debris. How the building had contained a creature that seemed impossibly huge. He watched as it settled itself down next to the parking lot, then flattened off its sides, its top. Holes appeared, equal sizes, equal spacing, covered with a thin film of membrane that eventually hardened and turned transparent. The membranes revealed empty rooms, empty furniture, littered with personal effects.
“What the hell is going on?” the man screamed, his voice echoing against the inky blackness of night.
“I’m trying to sleep,” the building replied.
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