Read "The City Condemned to Hell" by Randolph Craig online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
THAT Monday at midnight, a new beacon flared in the Manhattan skyline. It seemed to waver at first, like a star trying to be born, and then one brilliant plume of violet light shot upward and southward. A sparkling spray edged electrically bright from either side.and then the ray thickened, rose and seemed to comb the constellations. Feeling its way among the scattered clouds like a thing alive--huge, probing tentacle!
Then, after the momentary display which attracted a thousand eyes, it settled into a steady purple glow.