A week had passed since the dinner at the Adler's, there had been no more incidents, no updates from the AMU on the progress of their investigation. No one knew what to expect, maybe the dire beast moved on like it did with the other towns – I thought. The whole town's so tensed and scared, you can feel it, see it on everyone's faces every day and they have no idea why this happened or what is doing it. The AMU trucks patrolling the streets with their vehicle mounted machine guns don't seem to ease the tension at all and with the winter carnival here, the festive spirit seems very far. The winter carnival is probably the biggest and most famous celebration in Stowe, it's a time where the town comes alive with torchlight parades, snow sculpting contests, fireworks, live music and lots of outdoor activities. Everyone assumed the carnival would be cancelled but Mayor Darien Stowe insisted that it was the perfect way to brighten our spirits and bring the town together again. The carnival starts tonight, my parents and I pulled up just in time to see the parade, the marchers juggling their glow sticks in the air while the crowd cheers.
"Hey!" Susan said.
"Hi! You made it"
"Of course, I wasn't going to miss my first Stowe carnival" she said looking around. "This is amazing, we never had a carnival this big in Waterbury"
She wasn't wrong about it being amazing, it was clear the Mayor's office tried to make this year's carnival more festive, they outdid themselves this year with glowing lights hanging on each tree and trimmed bushes in the park giving the place a wonderful glow, more booths than usual with a lot more fun activities.
"Hey guys!" Chris waved as he and Karen approached us.
"So what do you think?" Karen asked Susan gesturing at the carnival.
"It's awesome, I was just telling Fred how cool this all looks"
"In Stowe we do it right" Chris said with a smirk. "If you think this is cool wait till you see the after party in the woods, the party we told you about, the one students throw when there's a major festivity like this"
I turned to Chris "You know that party is cancelled right?"
"What? Why?" Chris asked with a surprised look on his face.
"Seriously? It's not exactly a good time to throw a party in the woods when something is killing people"
Chris had a look of realization "Oh, I forgot about that for a second"
"I'm going to get ice cream, anybody want one?" I asked.
"Get me vanilla" Susan responded.
"Same" Karen said.
Chris took a step in my direction "I'll go with you"
Chris and I walked over to the other side of the park where the booths were positioned. There was a short queue at the ice cream stand so Chris and I joined the line.
"How are you holding up with your buzzing hands?" Chris whispered, I knew he was referring to my powers.
"All good, I mean so far no incidents. Sometimes when I get mad I unintentionally make the lights flicker but aside that I feel I got a handle on it"
"If the town wasn't so hot we would've found a quiet place where you could practice and get better control without the fear of prying eyes" Chris said.
I nodded in agreement and all of a sudden sirens started going off, by the expression on everyone's faces it was clear that people were jumpy. The alarms came from the AMU vehicles stationed all over the park for security. One by one they all drove out of the park and formed a convoy and sped off. One AMU vehicle was left at the park with two soldiers sitting in it.
"You think they found it?" Chris asked.
"I hope so, I can't wait for this to be over"
When it got to our turn Chris and I got the ice creams and were heading back to the girls when the noise of a loud roar engulfed the park. The roar was so loud that everyone stopped what they were doing, aside from the electronic tune coming from the carnival rides it was almost pitch silent. My eyes wandered the park to see where the noise came from, then I felt thumping from the ground, I could've sworn it had the rhythm of a galloping horse. The Rhythm got stronger and louder, it was clear that something really big was running towards the park and its arrival was imminent.
"Run" a man yelled.
The park was thrown into chaos, everyone running in every direction, the roar came again and it was so close this time it actually sent shivers down my spine. I turned to the direction of roar and there it was, an enormous figure bursting out from behind the trees, it ran straight out into the park but it didn't stop, it ran directly at the only AMU patrol vehicle left in the park and collided directly at it. The car rolled over and came to a very rough and destructive stop, thankfully the two AMU soldiers got out when everyone initially heard the first roar. It was as if it was intelligent enough to not want them calling for backup. The two soldiers opened fire at the creature but it didn't seem to affect it much, he charged at them with such speed you wouldn't expect for its size.
"What is that thing?" one of the soldiers yelled as he ran for cover, the other soldier stood his ground firing away at it.
The beast ran up to him, bit him on his hand and tossed him across the park like a chew toy. The dire beast then stood on its two feet and roared into the sky, that was when I got a good look at the creature. I know Mr. Brown compared the dire beast to a grizzly but it actually looked like a grizzly bear, well mostly. It was about thirteen feet just as the Alchemist said and Its body was covered with rough and patchy fur that failed to hide the raw brutality of its form, it also had bone spikes protruding from its shoulders, spine and forearms, as though its skeleton was trying to tear free from its own flesh.
"C'mon" Chris yelled as he dragged me by the arm. We ran into a booth which had been abandoned by its owner and looked out at the monster.
"Did you see where the other soldier went?" I asked.
"Looks like he's checking on his colleague" Chris pointed at him approaching the other soldier who was screaming in pain after being tossed by the dire beast.
I don't know if it was just its nature but the beast seemed really pissed off, it destroyed the ice sculptures and decoration it could find, it kept growling and roaring in every direction.
"Dude we have to get out of here" Chris said panting heavily.
People had gotten to their cars and started to race away, unfortunately the sound of chaotic and disorganized speeding cars caught its attention. It started to run towards the cars but it came to a stop when someone shot a flare gun right in its eye, the beast roared and used its bone disfigured paw to try to get the flare out of its eye. Chris and I turned to see who took the shot, it was Mr. Adler.
"Right here you big ugly mutt" Mr. Adler yelled at the top of his voice.
I must admit that the Alchemist is a pretty good shot, I'm starting to think he intentionally didn't shoot me in the woods that day. The dire beast was able to get the flare out, Mr. Adler took another shot but the dire beast quickly moved its head out of the way, watching the flare whiz past it and then returned its focus on Mr. Adler. It charged at him with a deafening roar, Mr. Adler ran for cover, he jumped over every trimmed bush and obstacle in the way, from his direction he was headed into the main town, he must've planned to use the buildings for cover which is a brilliant idea.
"This is our chance, we have to find our parents and get out of here" Chris said as we calmly exited the booth.
"I have to help him" I said.
Chris turned to me in shock "No, no, no. Don't let your powers deceive you, you can't do anything to that monster"
"I don't have to defeat it but I can finally do something with these abilities and help as many people as I can"
I looked over at the booth we just exited, it sold masquerade masks, I leaned over the counter and grabbed a mask and put it on.
"Your jacket" Chris pointed out, anyone who payed attention would know it was my jacket. Chris leaned over the counter and grabbed a coat that must've belonged to the owner of the booth.
"I can't wear that, it's too big" I said.
Chris scoffed "You're about to run to your death and your worried about how this coat will look on you. Next time carry the hoodie I made for you, the one with the lightning bolt"
"Yeah, yeah" I took the coat and put it on "Find my Parents, Karen, Susan, get them out of here"
"Be careful" Chris voiced as I ran after the beast.
I ran into town and followed the trail of destruction laid by the dire beast from ramming into building and street lights, I finally caught up to them. Mr. Adler had a handgun, he put up a good fight but from my view he was very close to being a dire snack. He was running and at the same time shooting at the angry monster chasing him. I looked around to see what I could use as a weapon, the beast had run through a tire shopped because the street was littered with tires. I picked a big one up with ease thanks to my super strength and threw it at the dire beast with as much strength as I could gather, the tire hit its midsection with enough force that it made it to stagger a little. The dire beast got its balance and gently approached me, I picked up another tire and threw it at the beast but I missed, like the tire was way off target, the fear of an enormous beast heading right at me started to get to me, I picked up one of those city benches at the side of the road at threw it at the beast but my aim was completely off again, the wooden bench passed by the beast and broke into pieces upon hitting the floor. Mr. Adler opened fire on the dire beast again, causing a distraction I could use, I ran over to the other side of the street and a crazy idea popped into my head, I picked up a car, it was extremely heavy but I just kept pulling it up until it was above my head, finally I tossed it at the dire beast. In my head I imagined the car colliding with the beast and exploding but it just hit it on its shoulder, made a loud metallic clank and fell to the floor.
"Run" Mr. Adler yelled as it charged at me.
I still had one more card up my sleeve, I pointed both my arms in its direction and yelled with such intensity that multiple uncontrolled streaks of lighting came gushing from my hands in different directions causing a lot of destruction.