The Squid that Ate Cleveland

It was an ancient beast, created by heavenly forces beyond our world, long before

humanity began. Time had made it sour and moody, and not eating an armada of ships in a few hundred years made it hungry. So it decided to go to the food, instead of letting the food come to it. So it started at the top of the St. Lewis river, ploughing through Quebec and bashing through Montreal. The Niagara Falls were decimated and the poor city of Buffalo, NY was completely destroyed.

Strange earthquakes were felt throughout northeastern America and southeastern Canada, and the water level in the St. Lewis river and the Great Lakes rose thirty feet. Tentacles were seen waving above Lake Ontario. When it reached Lake Erie, it burrowed down, ​deep​ down under the Superness Galaxy Go water treatment plant.

It was mid afternoon when it struck. Before, all had been quiet. The people of Cleveland, fleeing the heat, had headed indoors to air conditioning and lemonade. Only a few unfortunate souls walked the cracked, hot sidewalks. Even the feral cats and dogs had retreated under cars and into open garages. The only noises were the distant honking of horns and moaning of engines. Even the sparrows and pigeons had gone quiet.

Then, so small that few noticed it, there was a little rumble, like the aftershock of an earthquake. A businessman on his way to work at Superness Galaxy Go stumbled and fell as the ground moved under him. Believe me when I say you don’t want that to happen to you.

Suddenly, the entire building rose up out of the ground, pushed up by a ​squid​ twice the size of Cincinnati. It spun gracefully, opened its maw, and swallowed Cleveland whole.