As the fog drew back, it slowly revealed much more of what was lurking in front of me. It extended much further back than I had previously imagined, and I was beginning to make out the outline of something much, much, much larger in the distance. I felt the icy clutch of fear grasp onto my stomach and clench tightly as I realized just what was happening; the sound was coming from that thing. My heart felt as if it was doing somersaults, sinking to the depths and then rising again into my throat as I concluded that the shape that I had first seen was a leg. Only a leg. Not a moment after I reached that realization, the rumbling started to rise in volume until it reached a point where it felt like my brain was being boiled.

Then, all noise in the city abruptly stopped.

At the same time, the fog, rain and wind completely vanished all at once. One moment it was there, the next second it was gone leaving what lurked within completely unveiled. I could see everything clearly.

"Huge."

"Massive."

"Vast."

"Immense."

"Gargantuan."

"Leviathan."

"Monumental."

"Colossal."

"Prodigious."

"Immeasurable."

Not one of these adjectives sufficed to properly describe the absolute size of the thing.

It was far bigger than anything I could have possibly imagined.

And to my bewilderment, it moved with the motions of a living creature.

In height, it went further up than the top of the tallest nearby skyscrapers and in length... Well... I couldn't even see where it ended. The first thing my eyes locked onto was what I could see of its torso, if that's indeed what it was. It had the same rocky texture all over its body, along its back there were what almost seemed like small mountains that jutted out unevenly. It was down on all its legs, which were so numerous I could never have counted them all. They reminded me almost of the legs of a tarantula, long and thin in comparison to the rest of its body, though in place of hairs, rock-like protrusions covered them. I had to blink a few times to make sure my vision wasn't just blurry, but it looked like the outline of the creature wasn't entirely solid. It seemed to wisp in the wind like smoke... or fog.

Finally, my eyes made their way to its head, which was attached to a smooth and almost leathery looking neck. Its face was almost reminiscent of a crocodile, no, wait, a whale? A spider, a wolf, a locust, a bull, a scorpion, a lion, no it was almost like a... I couldn't even tell. It was unlike anything I could even attempt to describe.

Without any more doubts: this was it. The source of the earthquakes, the shapes that had been seen in the fog and the thing that made the sound.

It looked down at me. As it did, I could hear its massive body lurching at the motion. I swear it was looking right at me and the car, but that couldn't be it. There's no way something like this would have any reason to notice me. There's no reason why it would even think of me.

At first, I could barely make out the eyes, but when I focused on them I saw that they radiated pure predatory instinct. But I knew deep inside that they gazed not at any one creature; they gazed at... everything. Instead of pupils, I saw the faces of people I knew, had once known and people I had not yet met. My grandparents, my father, my mother, my wife, my son, my aunts, uncles and cousins, good friends, people I hadn't seen in years and people I didn't even remember but knew I had once seen.

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I saw myself.

Half of the faces were screaming like they were enduring the worst torments imaginable, while the other half were laughing as if they had just been told the funniest joke they had ever heard.

"What?"

That seemed to be the only word coursing through my mind at that moment. Over and over again.

What was I looking at? What kind of twisted abomination, what mockery of nature was I looking at? And where did it come from?

It was wrong. That was the only way I could describe its presence.

It just didn't feel right. It didn't feel right being here, it shouldn't exist, and it couldn't. It felt leagues more bizarre and otherworldly than those monstrosities that had chased after us. My mind could just not wrap around what was standing in front of me, only a mere sixty or so feet away. And yet...

As otherworldly as it appeared, it also fit somehow. Though it could not and should not exist, it could and it did.

It was right. It was a raw force of nature. A manifestation of the absolute and total fury of the Earth. Something so alien and beyond human conception and intelligence, and yet so familiar all at once.

My mind continued to twist and turn through a winding maze of shock and disbelief on the precipice of madness. As I tried to find an answer to what I was looking at, one phrase resounded, again and again:

What. Was. It?

"The Storm."

The thought flashed into my mind like a violent bolt of lightning sent hurtling from the heavens. I felt like I would freeze from the chills that ran from my brain all the way down my spine as I made that final connection.

This thing; it was the storm. I do not know how it was possible, but someway, somehow, this horror was the storm. I don't just mean it caused the storm. It was the storm.

Mingling in with my fear, I felt a presence that was best described as... Power.

I felt an overwhelming amount of power emanating from the creature and I knew it was beyond anything else in this world. I knew that no matter how hard we tried, no matter what we did, we would never be able to stand against something so powerful, so almighty. Mingling with that raw power, I felt the storm flowing from it, like how blood flows from the heart.

I did not only fear the creature, I was in total awe.

It was the absolute pinnacle, the peak. It was more than anything, it was the, it was-

I was literally dragged out of my trance as I felt someone pull me into the car and I fell in the backseat. It was Aaron that had pulled me in, a look of exertion and determination on his face. Through the windshield, I could see that it was starting to move again, lifting up one of the innumerable legs to its left. Jared was still in a daze, I could hear him muttering something about the creature.

Somehow, I managed to scream, "Jared! We have to go, now!"

But he didn't move. I leaned forward and shook his arm. "Jared! Come on, Jared! We can't waste any time! Now!"

He still wouldn't snap out of it. I turned to the creature again, just in time to see one of its legs crash into the ground, causing the car to shake. We had to get out of here soon or we'd be done for. I had to act, despite the fact that my body was violently shaking in fear, despite the absolute incomprehensibility of the what we were faced with, I had to cast it aside and take action. I pushed all thoughts aside, all thoughts except for survival.

I climbed up into the front passenger seat, and as I did the ground shaking almost sent me flying back. I managed to haul myself up and tried one last time to shake Jared back to reality, but it was no use. Three quakes, one after the other, shook the car. I pulled Jared from his seat, moving him to the passenger side and seating myself in the driver seat. I turned the key, and the engine roared to life, mingling with the sound of the quaking earth. I surveyed the area, keeping my eyes off the creature because I knew that if they met it, I'd become mesmerized by it again. There was a turn off on the other side of the gas station... right next to one of the legs of the creature. That was the only way we could go without having to go back. We couldn't go back.

I took a deep breath, and then I slammed hard on the gas pedal, making the engine roar louder and sending us hurtling down the road. Aaron and Jared were still looking up at the beast, but I didn't dare look. All I paid attention to was the road, its legs and the rhythm of the quaking earth.

The leg closest to us, less than ten feet ahead, lifted into the air. We were going to go right under it. We sped under it just in time for it to crash into the ground behind us. The road shook, and the car fishtailed. I slammed the breaks, causing us to drift around the turn. I glanced at the rear view mirror one last time, seeing a fraction of the outline of the monstrosity. With only a moment's hesitation, I brought the gas pedal to the floor, leaving the heart of the storm behind us. As we drove away, I could hear its moans and roars slowly fade away. Slowly, the rain returned and before long it became torrential again. The fog did not come back.

I don't know how, but an overwhelming calmness enveloped me as we drove away from the thing. I felt like I had seen it all now, nothing could shake me into stupor anymore. But I knew that this was not the end, there was a long road ahead of us.

I was certain that the storm had more surprises in store for us.