The beach called. The sun. The sand. The women wearing bikinis. What's not to love?

Zack did his Tong Zi Gong stretching exercises outside the men's changing room while he waited for Bayei. A few people stared but he felt that it was a poor usage of his time to simply stand idle. In his own mind the long term benefits outweighed the con of looking like a weirdo in front of a bunch of random strangers for a day. But that was fine, most of them were out of shape anyway, so their opinions didn’t matter.

A pair of redneck fishermen walked past him. Both wore plaid checkered shirts and overalls. Zack didn’t need to enhance his sense of smell to know the reek of Budweiser beer.

"It's the strangest thing I've ever seen at a fishing competition. Not one catch among over a hundred participants."

The other said “If I’d ‘ave seen it on the news I wouldn’ta believed it. Twenty square miles, the lowest is five hundred feet below the water line. This lake should have thousands of fish in it.” then he spit something brown off to the side.

“Ya think dat dat blue giant dat was in da sky decided to give dem fish brains somehaw?”

“Dunno, bu not many people get to talk to big man himself. Best we can do is make a petition to find out why dis competition been’s scrubbed.” then they mercifully left earshot range.

Zack groaned ‘The inbreeding is strong with these ones. No, that’s not why they’re idiots. They simply haven’t done anything to improve themselves. All that sitting and staring can’t be healthy for the brain. Such low information intake.’

But their complaints were well founded. The lake was twenty square miles wide, with the lowest point being five hundred feet below the water line. It should've been teeming with life.

He made an attempt to reach backwards and touch his heels but just ended up falling over, then caught himself and stood upright, much to the amusement of passersby.

He called out over the barricade “Bayei! You almost done in there?”

The violet haired gray skinned Dirske woman called back to him “Um. Why don’t you just go swimming without me.”

“You’re the one who wanted to go swimming in the first place cuz you’ve never done it before.”

“But I’m not sure that this is the kind of thing that people wear in public.”

“You’ve seen the bikinis on the women out here. What you have on is modest. But if you want something different then you should know that I came prepared to aid you in your plight.” then he took a string bikini out of his pocket and threw it over the concrete barricade where Bayei was changing.

A few seconds passed, then a few more passed uncomfortably before Zack said “That was meant to be a joke.”

A slow laughter came from behind the concrete barricade, then it began to build “Ahahaha, I...haha...and when I thought those brainless ass shaking...ha...women had no respect for themselves, now I get shown this. Who would ever wear this in public?”

“I’m going to assume that it’s mostly worn in private.”

Bayei stepped out from behind the barricade and said “Oh, and would you like to see me wearing this thing that can’t weigh more than a quarter pound of fabric?” She had on a black one piece that came down a few inches to cover her midsection and most of her chest. Covering her hips area were long black swimwear but other women would call them jogging shorts.

Zack said “This is an obvious trap, so I choose to not answer. I'll see you on the beach.” then he walked away.

One hundred feet away he saw a crowd of forty people walking towards a strange white mist that had appeared out of nowhere. They all seemed to be in a daze and like zombies they all walked forward one step at a time. A curiosity took hold of Zack, he wanted to know what everyone was looking at and where they were going. It was like an extreme itch that he couldn't help but to satisfy.

He couldn't help but wonder why everyone was so transfixed. The sky was blue, the lake itself a bit darker shade. There were a few green trees on the other side of the bank. A gray spire grew out of it's center. But all of that was normal.

Zack followed the crowds. Insects flew past him, all going in the same direction. Squirrels bounded past him, birds flew overhead, slavishly making their way along with every other living thing in the area.

Only then did Zack recognize the towering mound of gray corpse-like flesh rising out of the middle of the lake to be an unnatural thing. Growing with each passing second. Ellipsoidal bulbs expanded on it's stalk, each with their own set of long and thin spear-like teeth within circular mouths. They opened, beckoning all of the winged wildlife inside, then closing once they'd entered.

Zack wracked his horror-filled mind as he saw the abberation 'I have been hypnotically walking towards that thing for the past two minutes. How could I have only noticed it now? No. I have been looking at it this whole time but for whatever reason I thought it was simply a natural part of the environment'. Yet still he continued walking towards it without the ability to stop 'My mind is being manipulated. I can no longer control my own body' with great effort he managed to turn his walking into a sort of jerking movement, but his progess wasn't slowed.

The people ahead began to float in the air and fly towards the aberration. Rising out of the shallow water. Panic set in for them and dozens of people began to claw at the air uselessly like a fish flopping on dry land.

Zack violently twisted his body sideways, causing himself to stumble so he could wrap his arm around a pole attached to a dock. He grabbed a wooden plank with his other arm that still seemed to be under his control. His feet moved of their own accord to get him to stand up again but he held tightly to the dock and kept himself from rising. Then both his hands released and he began to crawl forward against his own will. But only for a moment. He floated towards the aberration that did not belong to this dimension and most assuredly rebelled against the physical laws of this universe.

The teeth opened beneath his feet as if to welcome him inside. In the dark pit of it's throat he saw a swirling mass of bizarre colors. Zack couldn't identify the reason why the sight seized his entire body with terror.

A booming voice called out "Qz'jirhith, unhatched nightmare and engorger of minds. How dare you intrude on my domain."

A towering javelin of fire descended from the sky. Zack's world rocked around him. The heat seemed to penetrate the top layer of this skin until it nearly turned to pain. The force of the impact hurled Zack away with the force of a rocket. The viscera of the gray aberration flying perpindicular to him. His body impacted the water like a comet, driving him into the mud on the bottom. With no air in his lungs, he fought to keep from inhaling.

He crawled out of the lake and looked back to see the bloody floating remnants of the hideous gray spire all over the lake. Along with the bodies of several people. In the sky above, Akmadouric floated in low orbit. He wasn't as large as he had been on Arrival day, but he still appeared a bit larger than the moon.

Death was not something Zack wanted to experience again. Even if it was temporary, being in that state was horrible. He laid on the sand and curled up into a fetal position.

Zack sat with Bayei's arm wrapped over his shoulders, safe in his home. It had been three hours since the first interdimensional incursion by a hostile deity and he still couldn't stop shuddering. The news crew that had shown up asked him a few questions and he answered a few before retiring due to going into shock.

The nine o' clock news turned on and a pair of talking heads appeared on the screen.

The ten star blonde on the left said "Today, 32 lives were lost when Qz'jirhith, the unhatched nightmare invaded this dimension. And Akmadouric has told us everything he knows about this entity, which we will now convey to the rest of the world."

The supposedly good looking anchorman on the right said, "Unhatched nightmare. That is an interesting title. It's like he has yet to be born but he is still considered a deity."

The blonde said "According to Akmadouric, yes. But there is more to the title. His worshippers believe that when their deity consumes enough essence he will hatch and reality itself will ascend."

"That sounds...disconcerting. Do we have any more information than that?"

The blonde shook her head "No, but Akmadouric did tell us that Qz'jirhith uses an unknown method of interdimensional travel but seems to appear in the dark at the bottom of a body of water. Unfortunately, the home dimension of this threat hasn't been located."

A ten star red head appeared on the screen "Breaking news, the EDF has announced that it will commit it's fullest resources towards the extermination of Qz'jirhith. We go live now to hear a statement from..."

Zack tuned out the name of the talking head as the camera switched to a man in a business suit and tie "We do not know how much information this...entity got about our dimension. Therefore we cannot allow it to remain as a threat. Blah blah blah."

Zack sighed "Do they even know what they are getting themselves into?"