San Diego should have been sleeping peacefully afterward beneath quiet coastal wind and distant ocean waves rolling endlessly against dark shoreline beneath scattered midnight fog drifting softly through empty downtown streets.
Instead fear spread silently tonight afterward.
Invisible fear.
Ancient fear afterward beneath flickering streetlights and restless clouds hanging unnaturally low above the city skyline.
At exactly two o'clock afterward every electronic screen across downtown glitched violently for three brief seconds beneath strange crimson static and low distorted sound vibrating sharply through speakers and radio stations alike.
People noticed instantly afterward.
Taxi drivers cursed beneath confused frustration.
Night-shift nurses paused uneasily afterward beside hospital windows and exhausted bartenders stared upward from crowded nightlife districts beneath growing tension nobody properly understood.
Something felt wrong tonight afterward.
Terribly wrong.
