Eternal Night

(III) Chapter 19: A New Creature

Something was plummeting to the earth from the heavens, burning brightly as it finished reentering the earth's atmosphere – and it was moving fast.

"What is it? A meteor? Perhaps a bit of space debris?" Satanas inquired but Armand shrugged.

"I haven't the slightest..." he began, but he stopped when he noticed his youngest, Alayna, racing out of the house from the conservatory. "Lana? What is it?" he shouted across the way.

"It's a person!" she called back before disappearing into the snow-covered gardens.

"What? How could she possibly know that?" Eduardo asked incredulously, but the pair of them were already on the move, several others having gathered near windows and doors as whatever it was that had been falling from the sky disappeared behind the trees of the surrounding wood. It all came to a head when it finally collided the earth.

Its impact was deafening, a loud crack resonating through the night. From what Armand could tell, the thing must have hit stone – or perhaps even a thick sheet of ice? It seemed to have fallen in the direction of the lake in the center of the forest and that, as far as he knew, was still frozen solid. Had been since the end of November. They navigated the garden paths through the recently fallen snow with haste before reaching the edge of the wood. The night was dark, the moon hidden behind the clouds, and yet there was light coming from up ahead.

Armand and Eduardo finally reached Alayna at the edge of the lake, but something was not quite right.

The ice had gone – completely melted from the looks of it, and a thick layer of mist hovered over the surface of the water, rising up into the frigid air in thick billows of steam. The body of water itself also appeared to be glowing from within, something causing the rock and silt beneath to shimmer as if the entire floor had been covered in diamonds and crystals – glistening with light and reflective rainbow prisms.

"What do you think it is?" Eduardo asked, struggling to see through the steam as the light slowly retreated toward the center of the lake.

"I'm not sure," Alayna admitted. "It had arms and legs, though."

"You could tell that all the way from the conservatory?" Armand asked, sounding doubtful.

"Gigi and I were trying out the new telescope. Whatever it is," and she looked back out toward the fading light, "it's human."

"Or at least human-shaped," Satanas corrected with a twinge of lingering skepticism.

Georgine and Joséphine soon joined them at the water's edge.

"Well?"

"We can't make out whatever it is through the steam," Armand explained. Eduardo smirked.

"At least there's one thing we can do about that," and he took a few steps back before shifting into his hellbeast form, but only part way – just enough so he could utilize the great bat-like wings that had sprouted from his back.

With a leap up into the air so he could angle himself just right, he took to flapping, strong billows of air that then pushed back against the mist shrouding the lake like a thick, white veil; just as the unknown light all but blinked out of existence.

Alayna narrowed her gaze as if it would help her see better, and slowly but surely, the ghostly haze retreated, revealing something pale floating out in the middle of the water. Recognition passed over her features as she gasped and suddenly dove in without a word of explanation. Armand called out for her, ordering her to come back, but then he felt his eldest daughter's grip on his arm. He followed Gigi's gaze before he realized just what had fallen from the sky.