The Wraith of Billowing Smoke

The entire town was made of little more than ants in the glowering condescension of Azathoth, and just as uncaring his disregard resounded at the sight of their lives becoming snuffed out like a colony trampled underfoot. These figures who lived their whole lives cautiously plodding not to offend his delicate sensibilities were no safer in this moment than the worms in the soil who drown once the rain falls.

The unthinkable volume of water cascade across the form of the sky, blackening out the façade of the formerly rustic skyline that occupied the space before. Though Derek smiled unseemly, Sylvia shivered and quaked at the scale of what had occurred. Who she had become, in allying herself with this grinning figure of death—the thought troubled her.

"Derek, what have we done..?" she shook her head, and balked at the scale of destruction, as the encroaching blackness swallowed up every hint of civilization from here to the pinnacles of weathered limestone that separated the forest from the massive expanse of ocean beyond. "All those people... Did I just— kill them?"

"Hah! Serves them right, for languishing in the shadow of a heedless god. It was only a matter of time until they got what was due to them," he spat. "I can only hope that my so-called 'mother' perished first! Hahahahaha! It's about damn time, I was rid of her!"

She covered her mouth, and screamed at his proclamation. "Derek!!! How could you say such things?!"

"Sylvia, there is no greater gift I can give to these terrible people than the release of death. I now know that the life within the Everglades is little more than a draining life of slavery to a being who cares little for your well-being. Think of how terrible it was to be trapped within your own--"

He started to explain, but his breath was stopped as he witnessed an unthinkable sight. The waters stopped advancing in mid-air, and that great black spot was seeming to grow closer to them by the minute. "Wait a minute..... That can't be... coming back towards us, could it?" His heart beat began to rush once again. They were in much more danger than he initially assumed!

Sylvia just sighed, relieved that all her friends and family would not be crushed under the weight of a titanic deluge of thick black sludge. That amount of water pressure would surely roll over all of life, reducing it into the dust where they formerly trod.

She sank onto her knees, accepting her fate. If that amount of liquid midnight was so inspired as to defy the very laws of momentum to snuff out her life, then there was little that she could do. It would surely find her in time.

How does someone defeat a creature with no heart, no eyes, no brain, or lungs? It was like a mindless plague equally disastrous to king and pauper alike. It was like attacking a hurricane. It was like striking the very ocean itself.

Derek never faltered for a single second, hauling her back onto her feet with his extended arm. "Come on, Sylvia, it isn't safe here!" He saw something that the young woman did not, and he wasn't content to let himself die before completing his mission. Also, it wouldn't hurt to have her by his side when he eventually achieved his goal.

"What's the point?" she asked, unmoved by his urgent pleas. "It's just going to follow us to the ends of the earth to drown us. At least, this way nobody else has to get hurt!"

He shouted at her. "As if! Tell me something, you stupid slut! Are you really satisfied with only two rounds, after all those years of buildup?! Get on your fucking feet, whore. There are much more terrible things to fear than a dumb mass of thoughtless splooge!" and he gestured up into the encroaching void... but no, not at the void itself. There was something else.

Within that inky blackness like a hole in the space of the horizon like the night brought down to the earth below, there stood a decrepit figure standing on staunch and emaciated limbs like tentpoles. The figure was tall. Taller than a man should be, but not unreasonable so.

Their legs strolled into the surface of the fluid with such grace that it almost appeared that they were defying gravity itself. Even from this distance, with most of their clothes dyed pitch black by the fluid's touch, the silhouette was unmistakable. It was a form they were raised to fear from a formative age, of course. The hooked and sharpened tips of the fingers cut through the air as they waded across the incredible expanse. Too fast, even for their size.

It was a member of the council, who had cast the volume aside with a wave of his fingers, and seemed unnervingly pissed. They were focused, loathsome, merciless—and worst of all—coming right for them!

Smoke billowed from their footsteps, and they thundered against the earth as they made their approach. Her bloodcurdling scream of terror was enough to pull her to her feet. Drowning was one thing, but incurring the wrath of the council was an entirely different matter altogether! "Dude, let's get the fuck out of here."

"Finally, you're making some goddamn sense." He took off running in a specific direction, like he had always assumed something like this would eventually come to pass. "I've got a plan."

As they sprinted, the figure slowly grew from a dot in the far distance into a shadowy blot, and then into a speeding, vengeful cloud of malicious intent. "Derek Adler." they demanded. The air grew cold, and the senses reeled at the sound of their voice, like a cheese grater upon the gray matter of the brain. "You have threatened the balance of The Everglades. Our warnings have proven insufficient, and so you have now availed your life to be forfeit."

They extended their arm, and the earth obeyed; sinking down, muddily, to inter the teens' progress.  They splashed and sloshed across the marshy soil, undeterred as the figure's terrible powers seemed to pale with distance. They were managing alright at the moment, but that distance was closing quickly with every passing second.

"Derek..?" Sylvia called, unsure that they had any chance of getting out of there with their hides intact. "Now would be a great chance for you to show off this amazing plan you were talking about earlier!"

"Just a little further!" He doubled his sprinting power, and approached what seemed like a natural divot in the earth. It was the kind that appeared when water flowed regularly across a gap over decades, wearing even solid rock of a desert canyon smooth with its endless procession.

The figure was only paces behind them, now. Their long, spidery fingertips growing ever closer to clutching the hem of her flowing skirt, or his billowing sweatshirt. "Only moments now, boy. It is time to pay the price for your sins of hubris. You will not be missed."

The desperation was evident in his voice as he shouted his final order "When I say go, we need to jump over the gap! Okay?!"

"Derreeek..." Sylvia cried, feeling the figure's fingertips scrape seldomly against her exposed backside "I can't, I'm so s—"

"Do you trust me?!" He shouted, as their hand tugged his hood, and he roughly pulled himself free. That wouldn't work a second time.

She squeezed his hand, and shouted "Yes!!!!!" So, he squeezed her hand in turn, and approached the small gap.

"Then, now!" He screamed, sailing into the air beyond the thin gap, and so she leaped quickly behind him. The decrepit form of the assailant grinned and reached out to grab them both by the collar of their shirts, snatching them out of the air, but then knit their eyebrows together, as his claws held nothing but air. The two miscreants had simply jumped into the space beyond, disappearing from the sight of the council member entirely.

Sylvia freaked out, having been caught out of the air like her entire body weight was little more than the mass of a falling apple. Derek quickly reacted, slapping his hand over her mouth, and motioning with a finger over his lips to signal that she remain silent. It would only work if she allowed them to believe they had somehow failed.

The councilmember held them both aloft, and stared with wonder at the sight of the emptiness in its hands. They turned their palms over and under, in astonishment and disbelief that such a thing was even physically possible. Sylvia quaked, and quivered, at being held in the air against her will at the behest of a creature that physically beat a tsunami into submission.

Tears arose unbidden at the corners of her eyes. She held her breath. She didn't want to give him the luxury of her scent. As they examined their hands, time paused.