“Taquerias!” My sister shouted. I swiveled around to face her, smiling as I smashed some icing into her face while dodging her hand full of icing that was directed towards mines.

“You thought!” I belted out a laughter, which died as my world went dark as icing covered my vision.

“I always have a back up.” She laughed, then smothered more of the icing onto my face from the hand I had dodged previously.

Wiping it off, I frowned, watching as my mom ran away with my sister, chuckling like the cheaters they were. “Cheaters!” I shouted towards them while licking the icing off of my hands. I smiled in delight at the taste of cookie dough. My favorite. I thought. Walking towards the men’s restroom, I cleaned myself up before joining everyone back into the lobby.

Sitting down next to my sister in our makeshift birthday thrown’s, a slice of cake and cheese pizza was ready and waiting for us. I smiled and gobbled them up. Soon after we all played in the jungle gym, until it was sadly time to go. Saying goodbye to my friends, I took my moms hand and followed her out into the car with a bunch of gifts. We all piled in and made our way home.

I yawned and leaned back into the seat, with nothing better to do, I looked up into the starry skies above. Tilting my head and squinting my eyes, I saw something flying… no… swimming across the sky. Taken aback, I blinked and rubbed my eyes, unsure of what I was seeing. “Aquaria!” I shouted to my sister, reaching my arm out to shake her. She swatted my hand away and mumbled under her breath, half asleep. Tapping her again, knowing I had to show her no matter what. “Aquaria!”

“What!?” She shouted, annoyance lacing her words.

“Twins!…” My mom began. “…I know it’s y’alls birthday and I don’t want to have to lecture you, so please behave and don’t yell.”

“Sorry.” Aquaria responded while smacking my arm out of revenge.

I rubbed at it but I couldn’t dwell on it too much, because I didn’t want whatever it was to disappear. I pointed out the window “Look.”

She leaned over as far as the seatbelt would allow. “It better be goo…” Her words caught in her throat at what it was she was seeing, too stunned to speak. “W~what is that?”

“I~I don’t know.” I said staring up at the swimming thing that drew closer.

“M~mommy!” Aquaria and I shouted together. Her hand quickly snaked into mine and I reciprocated the feeling. We knew that something about that thing wasn’t right.

“Yes.” She said with a hint of annoyance.

“W~what’s that in the sky?” Aquaria asked, I knew she was hoping that mom had an answer like she always did.

“I’m sure it’s just the st…ars…” Mom said as she too stared up into the sky, her answer making Aquaria and I even more scared that she also didn’t know. “H~Honey…” Mom’s voice quivered. “A~Are you seeing this?”

“Yeah.” Dad answered. He pulled off to the side of the road and we all got out. Cars lined the highway as onlookers stared in absolute horror.

We all looked on as that thing inched closer. We held each other close but that didn’t stop my heart from falling to my toes, a fear I couldn’t explain. Assuming the others felt the same, when the sound of a whale, or dolphin… or whatever it was reverberated throughout the sky. It wasn’t high pitch but very, very deep, so deep it made the earth vibrate with it. That very sound sent a bone chilling terror crawling up my spine.