It was a new year and with new years came new promises. The lights of the New Year fireworks illuminated Washington, DC, revealing a sight of red, white, and blue. Weapons fired away into the skies as I just stayed at home. I never particularly liked loud noises,especially when I was busy in my room working on a new device. My dad walked in overjoyed around this time.  He was a towering guy with a scruffy black beard and calluses on his hands; signs of hard work being done.  He would pat me on my back as he spoke.

“Hey Sammy! How's my little engineer doing? I hear you got your first contract with a marine research company.” My dad cared deeply for me, always trying to keep me on the right track. After mom passed, he has always been really protective of me.

“Oh, uh yeah! I have some diving helmets here at my workstation. I got a friend who knows how to make some really tough glass that's able to handle some deep waters.” I said excitedly, pointing to my creation. They were fishbowl-like,with two prototypes up at the moment.

“You could explore the ocean with a protective thin shield generator,. No more bulky equipment needed! And the helmets are airtight, allowing everything inside to extract oxygen from the waters.” I explained excitedly as my dad whistled; clearly impressed with my fast work.

“Hey, I told you that you were a savant! "Come down for dinner now... don't want you starving out here," he said. I obliged as I took one last look at the city. We lived in an age where technology had advanced so far. We are even doing mining expeditions in space! I couldn't wait to see what was next.

Then I felt it…tremors shaking our modest duplex.I held on for dear life on the stairway as the earth began to rumble beneath me  harder than I ever felt. Was this just an earthquake? My question received an answer when my dad swiftly took me outside to witness the chaos in the sky.  We could see a meteor crashing into the distance. We lived in the suburbs of DC on the Maryland side and it landed east…could it have landed in the Atlantic? 

Stolen novel; please report.

Suddenly, my head felt like it had a vice around it with a sharp spike in its grip. Suddenly, a mighty screech pierced the air, causing everyone to groan in pain and fall to their knees with their hands raised. 

“D..Dad! Help me!” I reached out to help, but my arms barely worked as we huddled together. What's happening…are we dying? The ground was cracking open as my skin crawled and burst open with blood seeping from every known orifice we hear a voice.

“YOUR TRANSFORMATION SHALL BE GLORIOUS BUT PAINFUL MY CHILD. JOIN ME IN THE DEPTHS!”

Screams and tears were flowing as everyone's insides became outsides. We could hear and taste colors. We could live forever and yet die at the same time. But inside…it was still me; Samuel. And little Samuel wanted his dad to know that he loved him. But his throat was too full of curdled blood and mucus to do so. The seconds turned to minutes; the minutes turned to hours before things would soon end, but not in me waking up from a bad dream.

An alarm rang out as a bright red beam crashed down from the east as the buildings came crumbling around us. I curled up and wept, accepting my death as everything went black.

All I saw surrounding me was darkness as I stood. My body had no form. Was there life left to me…i didn't want it to be…my dad was definitely dead as well,right? If he lived,he would have to move forward without the man who sacrificed everything for my life. Taught me every bit of building I know..how to plan, how to love. Ezekiel Mayfield, you will always be remembered.

I just cried to myself in the darkness, I couldn't be alive,right? What the hell was that meteor and the voices and the pain…so many questions..and none of them would be answered clearly from this void.  I felt a pulsing in my chest..my heart was beating again?  I pushed against the void, it felt slimy as I drove my elbow into it falling onto my face as the concrete on the ground revealed itself.

I simply froze as I looked back at the small leafy pod I was in only to see a horrific sight.

The sky was a hazy brown, all buildings nearby were rubble. As I looked up at the sky in horror. A dead alien monstrosity was in the air. Crocodile like head and body with large  not proportional teeth paired with dozens of tentacle appendages. The shocks kept coming as I felt my skin and face…it was scales…and fins..my teeth were short and more varied yet sharp, my fingers were bloated  with new skin freshly webbed. To top it all off,there was a hanging light above my head…I was some type of angler fish person. 

And with that realization,another came very quickly.

I can not breathe.