"Dreams, after all, are insubstantial things, like mist itself..."
- Stephen King
It all began with a storm.
Nothing out of the ordinary. Storms were natural. Falling trees were natural. The mist, however? There was nothing natural about that mist...
Everybody apart from Kaminari saw it, but we had all lost the ability to speak. Whatever was entering the loading dock was long, thick, and definitely not normal. "O..oi, why are you guys..." Kaminari trailed off as he turned around, yelping loudly the moment he saw the snake-like thing. No, not snake-like. It was closer to a tentacle. "What the flying fuck..?!"
He took several large steps backwards, but that only alerted the thing, and it stiffened for all but a second before it lunged out, wrapping around his ankle. Usually, when faced with a risky situation, my body would automatically choose the flight option, but this time, for whatever reason, my instinct to fight kicked in.
"Sta..stay still..!" Rushing forward, I began to kick and stomp at the slimy tendril, and after a few hits, it retracted a little, freeing Kaminari. "N..nah, nah, guys, shut it..! Midoriya, shut it..!" Mechanical buzzes and splutters echoed through the dock, but they weren't coming from the door. They were coming from the generator itself.
"I'm trying..! It's stalled..!" The greenet was nearly shrieking, pushing buttons and tugging on levers. The tentacle, or whatever the hell it was really attached to, decided that my boot wasn't as threatening as it had originally thought, and again, it lurched out and took hold of the bagging boy. This time, it meant business, and with a single tug it had Kaminari on his back, screeching out as he squirmed and kicked out in retaliation.
Shit shit shit..!
"Get it the fuck off..! Sh..Shinso, get it off!" In a matter of seconds I was there with him, arms hooked under his pits as I dragged him backwards. The creature was strong, that much was obvious, but it didn't seem to want to play tug-of-war. My eyes flickered to the side, where I could see both Iguchi and Setsuno standing there, petrified as though they had gazed into the eyes of a gorgon. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! Help him..!"
Once I saw their faces, I knew that neither one of them would be coming to help. All that big talk, yet they were nothing but a pair of spineless cowards themselves. "Shiiiiiiiiit, there's more! There's fucking more..!" Kaminari wailed, and my attention snapped back to the door, where the mist only spilled with the movement of two more of the oily-looking appendages. These ones, however, were different.
They were lumpier than the first, and each bump had a spine, which had us all the more terrified. This was no freakish land octopus, nor a snake. This was something nobody had ever seen before. "Kick! Kaminari, kick as hard as you can..!" I egged my friend on as I pulled, my injured back complaining with sharp jolts of pain.
He did exactly as I had said, but it didn't deter the slimy beasts, and one of the reinforcements began to slither up his leg, passing slowly across his thigh. "I don't consent! I don't fucking consent! Get it off get it off get it off..!" As it climbed towards his upper body, Kaminari leaned his head back and tried to hide his face beneath my chin, every inch of him shaking in fear.
I have to get it off him, but if I let go to try, what'll it do?!
I wasn't willing to risk it, so I just kept trying to drag him backwards. Once the tentacle reached his shoulder, the tip dangerously close to my chest, it stopped, resting against his clothing. Was it just feeling him?
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