On our way back to the car, I got the feeling again.

That very vague sense of dread, spreading outward from my solar plexus. After a moment's worth of mulling over the strangely familiar feeling in my head, I saw it for what it was, and began to run. I knew what it was. How could I have forgotten?

As I broke into a sprint, I chanced a glance forward through the narrow ravine of street between two large buildings, into the setting sun. Something about it irritated me, but I couldn't place it.

The realisation, however, did not wait long after I began thinking how strange it was that the sun was already setting when it was still so far from the horizon.

When the horrifying truth finally hit me, I stumbled, almost fell to the ground, and ran even faster.

The sun wasn't setting.

It was dimming.

***

The car's tires were screaming in protest as I pushed it to its absolute limit, the engine howling and the forward tires screeching as I avoided yet another wreck by a hair's breadth. It didn't matter if I crashed now, or if I nicked off a side mirror, or if the tires gave up.

IT was coming.

I'd been a fool to underestimate it, to think I could in any way understand even a fragment of what it was.

I glanced through the back mirror, and saw every visible spot of the horizon taken up by a swirling black mass, like a malevolent thunderstorm - indeed, if I strained my eyes, I could actually see the occasional lightning strike.

Our best, hell, our only chance lay by the river. If we could get to the river, commandeer the fastest ship or yacht or whatever available, we might be able to flee onto the open water.

I drove along the shoreline, loudly cursing the city's designers for not including more piers, my eyes steadily searching the shoreline for anything, and everything, that could be used for transportation on water.

I would prefer something that could store the entire car, because unloading everything would take extremely precious time, but at this point anything would do.

That is when I spied it, at the edge of my visible range, tied to a small, private pier - our ticket out of this cursed city. I took a sharp right onto the narrow bridge, and actually used the car as a ram to shove aside the few bikes just standing there, decoratively.

On the other side of the river, there was a secured fence gate that led to the private property containing our future boat, and after a moment's hesitation, I floored the gas and punched through it, the car an iron fist.

***

Unloading the car was not a long affair, considering what I did was simply throw every bag and mystery item on the deck, before patting our trusty car goodbye, and jumping onto the small yacht myself.

I was ever so slightly sad to see the car gone, but that feeling lasted only for a moment, instantly replaced with dread in my chest as I looked up, only to see the veritable wall of darkness approaching.

I quickly jumped into the small, open bridge on the very top of our newly acquired asset, and after a brief examination of the controls, judged them to be sufficiently similar to a car. The owner was either exceedingly lucky, preparing to leave when the vanishing hit or just inconsiderate to himself, because the keys were lying right there, in grabbing distance.

I turned the biggest and most serious-looking one in the boat's strange ignition, and the engine roared to life.

As we pulled out of the little alcove, I chanced another glance at the approaching wall of death, and to my absolute astonishment and horror, witnessed it effortlessly shred an entire skyscraper as though it was wet tissue paper.

One moment it was there, solid as steel, the next moment it was loose rubble being pushed by the approaching storm.

I pushed the boat to its limit - here on the open water, there wasn't much in the way of obstacles - and whipped around the little bend just in time to see the distinct middle tower of the Smithsonian institute disintegrate into fine dust under the storm's relentless onslaught.

Pushing just a little bit more on the gas pedal, the engine protested, but did not speed up any more.

We had to first get out of this river, then out of the bay - only then would we be on open waters, and hopefully safe. though the literal storm behind me, slowly approaching, did nothing to inspire confidence.

Quite in the negative, actually. Over the last few minutes of mad dash along the river, I'd noticed that my back was distinctly colder than my front, which said much about the storm's, or being's icy aura. It really wasn't playing any more, it seemed.

After what felt like hours, but were only mere minutes, the boat broke into the bay, and I did another sharp right, intent on passing by Virginia Beach on the way out.

I suddenly felt a sinking feeling, and looked around - only to see Raven hanging on to the handrail beside me, both talons dug into the leather gripping, eyes closed in the harsh wind. She was still with me. The soft pressure from my inside pocket told me that I'd not lost the mirror shard either.

While nearing the cape from the north, I quickly checked my pockets as well, and let out a sigh of relief; we hadn't lost the diamond in my mad dash for safety. I took a tentative look back, at the city we'd just escaped from, only to be greeted with the simultaneously most humbling and most terrifying sight I'd ever had the displeasure of witnessing.

The entire city, or whatever was left of it, was consumed by the boiling shadow, which seemed to have appropriated chunks of buildings, entire roads, innumerable glass shards and a lot of other, more miniscule objects inside itself, and was currently destroying the city with extreme prejudice. I watched a tendril of darkness, at least as thick as the yacht was wide, lash out and tear into one of the last remaining skyscrapers, before picking it up like a child picks up a toy and smashing it into dust on the ravaged ground.

But that wasn't the worst thing. The absolute worst thing was the Hatred this thing was radiating. It was such a deep and profound feeling of hatred, directed specifically at me, that it almost drove me to tears - from twenty kilometers away.

It seemed to stretch into the sky further than the clouds would, forming a bizarre crown of darkness, chaos, death and destruction.

I felt very small.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

***

We broke into the Atlantic a few hours later.

I'd kept away from the cape for now, feeling paranoid after witnessing the level of destruction the demon had portrayed in the city.

When I'd looked back again about halfway to the cape, I saw nothing remain of the city which had once stood there, on the horizon. Indeed, the ground seemed to cave in somewhat, the curvature of the earth disturbed by an enormous crater of ground down city.

I did a quick salute for our lost brother, the car, before sitting back down in the driver's seat and checking the fuel reserves. They appeared to be good for about two thirds of the way across the atlantic, but luckily, I'd hefted all the filled canisters from our car onto the deck as well. All in all, it should be enough to get us there.

Setting the boat to autopilot, I quickly made to stow the bags and canisters and various devices in the little cabin below deck, which appeared to be expensive, yet small. Not small enough for the supplies and gas, though.

Gas - oh no.

Oh fuck oh no. I had Gasoline. Didn't boats use Diesel, though?

I flew up the stairs and into the little bridge area, rummaging through what amounted to file storage for anything that told me what this little boat used as fuel.

Eventually, I found the manual, flipped through its yellowed pages, and cursed loudly. Extremely loudly.

"Fill with Diesel."

***

Turns out, we were apparently not destined to be stranded at sea.

Not because diesel engines can run on high octane gasoline, but because apparently, the ocean was freezing over.

I was lamenting our fuel situation, when the boat hit something. I looked up, only to see patches of the water in front of our boat rapidly freezing over, then breaking, all into massive triangle shapes.

In an effort not to be frozen stuck, I quickly reversed our engine, and successfully managed to get the boat free before whatever it was before us managed to stick our only method of transportation to itself.

When set off to the right of the disturbance, I suddenly heard a loud crack, like ice breaking, and the middle of the patch began to lift itself.

Like a veil of frozen majesty, the broken triangles of ice had formed scales, perhaps, or chainmail of some sort, which was rapidly rising from the water.

I quickly pulled out the mirror shards and pushed them out toward the growing ice sculpture, which was now drawing in water and building its scales in real time, as they were consumed by the growing shape.

"Have you ever seen anything like this? What do we do?"

When I turned the mirror around, my reflection was pale. Paler than I had ever seen her, even when she'd told us that the shadow demon wasn't really dead.

"Turn around. Drive as fast as you can."

"What-"

"DRIVE! NOW!"

That last statement was not a request, it was an order. I saw a tinge of fear as my reflection tried to desperately get her face under control, but to no avail. Something that scared her enough to lose total composure? No thank you.

Hitting the gas pedal with everything I had, the engine roared to life and blasted us off in the opposite direction, toward the mainland. I aimed a bit lower than the now destroyed city, and looked back.

Just as I did that, the shape had apparently fully emerged from wherever it was it came from, and I instinctively knew what it was. Parts of my lizard brain I didn't even know existed screamed at me to RUN, to GET AWAY.

From the ice shards sprang a titanic snake, its near-transparent body illuminated from within by a luminescence with the coldest color temperature I'd ever seen.

Just as the tip of its tail vanished in the water, its head sprang forth, but not behind me, no no. In front of us.

A titanic maw, crowned with a multitude of glowing blue eyes, were staring down at the boat.

Then, it spoke, with a voice that was deafening and a whisper at the same time, but held a bass that shook the boat and rattled my entire body.

"IT HAS MAIMED. IT WILL SURRENDER."

It was a statement of fact, of royalty, almost. There was no denying it, no questions or retorts. I should just give up, come out from under the bridge and... wait. No. I didn't come this far only to resist this statement. I knew it was the truth, I would stand up and...what is this? what's happening?

With a gut-wrenching mental SNAP, something in my head loosened, and I stumbled back into the chair. It was as though my mind took a deep breath, and I shook my head. That thing, it had ordered me to do something.

And now, it was waiting for me to follow its command, seemingly oblivious to my snapping free from it.

No. I was Amelia Grayheart, The last Human on Earth, and I wasn't going to surrender to some icy snake. First, they destroy my people. Then, they destroyed my home. And now, they want to destroy ME? Not today. Today, I would destroy THEM.

I floored the gas pedal, and the engine roared to life, like a challenge to the mighty beast of solid water before me.

Then, the entire boat lurched forward, and catapulted itself off a loose shard of the ice that had formed where its body broke the surface, and for a moment, everything was weightless. I could only stare as the bulk of our boat, which was exceptionally heavy, smashed front-end into the titan like a wedge cast by Thor himself. Where the boat impacted its armor, it broke through easily. After a segment of its armor was smashed to bits, the boat seemed to crash into a veritable forest of icy spires and formations, which I quickly understood to be the "organs" of the beast, and then out the other side, skidding on the icy surface, before the beast began to howl in pain.

Not that I cared about its pain at this point, honestly. The moment my boat hit water again, I was off toward the mainland, leaving the furiously screeching and thrashing ice-snake behind me. I had my doubt that it was dead, and I didn't want to encounter it on the open ocean with no vector to escape.

If both land and water transportation were out, that left only one thing.

"Hey, Reflection. Do you by chance know how to fly a plane?"

My reflection was still as pale as before, staring at me wordlessly. Something on my face...?

"You... you resisted the compulsion."

"I did. Back to the question. Can you fly a plane?"

"I don't think you understand the magnitude of what you have just done."

"And I don't particularly care to. Plane. Yes or no?"

"No, I should have expected...Plane? No. However, I know a shortcut," said my reflection, waving dismissively with some color creeping back into her features. It seems my bluntness had dispersed some of the earlier confounding.

"A 'shortcut', you say?" I almost growled the word. "Could you perhaps tell me things like this sooner, so we're not ATTACKED BY GIGANTIC SEA TITANS?!?"

***

We reached the shore by that evening, simply beaching the boat among others, and then making a small campfire using driftwood between three smaller boats stacked together.

"You were about to tell me about this shortcut."

"Ah, yes. Sorry. I was preoccupied."

"..."

"Sorry. Alright. Shortcut," she fumbled over the words. Was snapping out of a compulsion like that truly such an amazing feat?

"The first thing you need to understand is that this," she gesticulated to everything around us, "Is not all there is to your world. I know of one separate realm which is adjacent to this one. Space flows more freely there, and we will not have to cross water."

"Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" I barely managed to suppress my desire to smash the mirror shard with my foot. What was the value in withholding such vital information?

"Because you were not ready. This realm... it is separate for a reason. Though part of your world, it will be undeniably wrong, even to you, who theoretically share it. I was concerned for your health, Amy. But that thing you pulled off with the ice-snake? If anyone can do it, you can."

"I see." I did not see. "How do we get there?"

"Ah, yes. That will be the difficult part. We will need a place with a strong spiritual connection, but not tainted by an existing religion. A sacred forest, perhaps."

"I see. Does it have a name, this 'other realm'?" I asked, slightly sceptical of the whole thing. It seemed too convenient.

"Yes, it does. Or did, perhaps. It's been a long time." my Reflection replied. "Its inhabitants had their own name, similar to how you call your planet 'Earth'.

"Well, what was it?" I prodded, after it seemed that she'd fallen into thought once again.

"Ah yes, sorry. I believe they called it 'dùthaich nan dìochuimhne'."