Images of her life were flashing before her eyes as the monster again held a claw in attacking position. It hadnâ€™t exactly been a happy life, yet somehow those were the only images she saw, happy ones of her floating in a pool, swinging as high as she could go, dancing wildly about her room. Then just as suddenly as they had started, the images stopped. Again, she was staring at the beast with the claws, but his focus was no longer on her. She turned her head just in time to see a guy crash through a glass window. With the beast distracted, she ran, heading as far away as she could get.<br/><br/>Mishiko crouched low behind the pharmacetical counter at the back of the store. Mumbled prayers spilled from her lips as she hoped she was just dreaming. She had lived through a lot of nightmarish situations, but those had all been real nightmares. Thisâ€¦this was something from out of a horror film, something that could only be conceived in someoneâ€™s twisted imagination. Suddenly, admist her prayers, the ground started shaking. The lights flickered on and off, huge panes of glass fell from the windows and shattered, medicine bottles toppled from the counter and bounced on her head. She ducked, holding her hands behind her head. â€œAn earthquake? Now? Sure, why not? My day was boring as it was,â€ she mumbled as the shaking grew ever more violent.<br/><br/>When the shaking seemed to have stopped, she lifted her head an inch off the floor and looked up. A huge chunk of ice fell through the roof, followed by other chunks. â€œOkay, clearly, the world is ending, ad that demon thing came to take my soul to Hell. What a great day!â€ She then jumped as a white hot bolt of lightning shot through the hole in the roof. â€œI gotta hand it to the big guy though. If this was an end of world movie, itâ€™d probably be rated number one.â€ For several minutes lightning poured in through the hole, though none of it struck her. Other than a slightly warm face, she was totally unaffected by the white hot bolt.<br/><br/>Finally, at long last, everything seemed to have calmed down. It had all taken a surprisingly short time to happen, but she had survived it all and was still alive. She felt like one of those people who emerged from a completely destroyed building at the end of a disaster film, victorious and proud and relieved. Then she remembered the guy who had crashed through the window just before the earthquake had started. Was he okay too? She got to her feet shakily and looked over the counter. Small fires had sprung up all over the place from the lightning strike. Boxes had fallen from the shelves and entire lines of shelves had toppled over. The really remarkable thing though was the guy that was just standing there, just standing there with smoke and fire billowing around him and the hopefully dead beast laying at his feet. She could only nod when he asked if she was okay, her mouth gaping at the sight of the hero-like figure before her.