From the "friend's" party earlier, you head back to where the party was held. An underground bunker or base, more specific, a large glass rectangular prism that held the birthday gifts for a party with nearly hundreds of attendants. Inside of a container in the glass box is a stack of money and cards totaling to at least a few hundred dollars or more. The base was large, but the money was inside of a box, inside a glass enclosure visible from the entrance.

After counting the excessive number of $20s, a couple $10s, even finding a number of $2 bills in the stack, sudden, bright lights from behind flash onto you. Three police officers start questioning you, the one standing before- and just holding the stack of guarded money. Two of the officers were dark haired men, the third was a blond women.

You avoid showing panic and explain that you were asked by your friend to count the money and know how obviously suspicious you look, hoping for the words of your "friend" to be what saves you from this predicament.

Suddenly though, the glass cube the four of us were in devolved into chaos. You don't quite remember if it was a rumble in the base or if one of the three guards sought to take the money for himself that set everyone off, but you knew you needed to take cover and attempt escape along with the officers themselves. Scrambling towards the exit, two of the heavily armed officers and yourself flail as you attempt to run. They even take out their firearms.

Shit, the guard who stayed in the box started to fire at you- why, what did you do!?

In their haste, another of the three dropped their gun on the ground in front of you; as an out, you drop to the ground to pick it up, facing behind you as you do so. One of the fleeing officers already attempted to fire back at the hostile officer, so you feel less conflicted about the worry of getting charged for assaulting an officer despite the obvious self defense. Your shot is the one to fell your attacker, having landed maybe an inch above the space that would be directly in-between the eyes.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Acknowledging the current lack of a threat, the two remaining officers, the blond women and man who had dark hair and eyes, approach again. One thanks you for your help despite the sudden betrayal of their supposed ally, the other awkwardly asks for their gun back, which you immediately comply with.

More officers are called to deal with this aftermath.

Setting the fresh corpse resting against a picnic table within the bunker, one of the guards poeticly places the weapon used to kill him in his own hand as his body sits facing away from the entrance.

Now more tired than anything, you return to your apparent room within the bunker as the officers take care of the rest.

Unbeknownst to you, the now unsupervised corpse's finger twitching over the trigger causes the shot fired to break glass deeper into the underground facility. From within that curved glass semi-cylinder half into the wall, some tissue of a large, light green scaled creature snaps. Clear fluid leaks from the now broken glass, and an eye larger than some human children snaps open.

As you converse with a friend online from the perceived safety of your room. They inform you of the news that even more officers have been killed by some large, mysterious being in the same base that you still reside in as your heartbeat starts to quicken all over again and realization dons you online friend's face in the form of a sardonic smile.

You can even here movement from outside your locked door, the sound of harsh breath and sliding scales. Your fast heartbeat overwhelms your sense of sound all the more. In an effort to avoid detection, you silently make your way to a stuffed animal larger than you are. Slicing a slit in its back for you to climb into, you intend to bet that you won't be detected from within as you slowly inch your way to the exit of the deathtrap you foolishly decided to spend the night in.

Again, your overwhelmingly loud heartbeat does no favors for your ability to sense as you also sweat profusely from inside the stuffed bear.

The door you've intentionally unlocked opens a crack. Your heartbeat is overpowering enough that I'm abruptly woken from this dream- or maybe nightmare.