Just in case you get confused, or can't work it out, this fanfic is based on Frank Darabont's film adaption of Stephen King's The Mist.
The Twilight of Mist
Chapter 1
Ron Johnson awoke abruptly as the RRRRRRIIIIINGGG! of his alarm clock filled his ears. He raised himself into a sitting position, blinking the sleep from his eyes as he glanced around the room before him. Ron's room isn't anything special; a small room with a bed, a large TV and Scream and Jaws posters decorating the walls.
Slowly, the memories of the night before returned to him as his brain began to wake. Then, an image of drenching sheets of rain falling across the streets and forks of lightning flashing across the black, cloudy sky flashed through his brain as the memory returned to him: the storm!
The night before, there had been a thunderstorm. And a very strong one at that!
Ron darted out of bed towards the window opposite, half-expecting to find dozens of twisted trees lying across cars and piles of rubble that were once the other houses on Kansas Road.
His excitement dimmed as soon as it was born when he reached the window, but it did not die away. Most of the neighbours' trees and utility poles were either loosened and standing at an awkward angle which reminded Ron of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or fallen across yards, sidewalks and cars. Some neighbours were out on their yards or the sidewalk, hands behind heads, staring at their flattened garages or crushed, precious sportscars.
Ron had been so shocked by the leftover destruction across Kansas Road, by the time he noticed their front yard he had observed nearly all the rest of the chaos! Just below his window, his mother, Elisa, was standing, hands over her mouth, in front of the porch, staring over at the driveway to the left of the house.
Ron followed her gaze and at once saw what had captured her eyes: the oak tree in the nextdoor neighbour's yard had toppled to the right, the fence dividing the two yards and the Johnsons' Land Rover crushed beneath it!
The Land Rover's roof had caved in with the force of the tree, one of the rear wheels had rolled away and rested on the yard path, and all of the rear windows were smashed open with the force.
Elisa had loved that Land Rover. It was the last gift her husband ever gave her before he was manslaughtered on a vacation to Miami. Ever since, Elisa had cherished it, always keeping it sparkling clean, talking to Ron, his 15-year-old sister, Julie, and their 9-year-old brother, Ben, about their father whenever she took them for a ride in it. One time, she even attacked and beat a teenage youth when she caught him spray-painting it. Fortunately, Elisa got off lucky.
Without thinking, Ron pulled himself into blue, denim jeans, a green shirt, and a light-grey hoodie jacket and strode downstairs.
Ron is a skinny person, thirteen and a half years old, with warm, green eyes and shaggy, brown hair.
The staircase at the end of the landing leads down to the hallway. Just in front is the front door, down the hallway to the left is the living room, and at the end is the kitchen. There was a soft meow from down the hall and the Johnsons' cat, Lenny, moved past Ron and up the staircase.
Lenny is usually somewhat 'mischievous', snooping around wherever he isn't meant to unless he knows it's a very bad idea.
Ron was about to open the door when it abruptly swung open and his mother, Elisa, stepped off the porch and into the dimly lit hallway. "Fuck!" she hissed coldly to herself. Then she looked up and noticed Ron.
"Oh, Ronald," she murmured softly. "I'm sorry, darling; I shouldn't have spoken like that. It's just your father's car ..."
Elisa is tall and skinny with curly, blond hair and somewhat glassy blue eyes.
At that moment, Ron spun round to see his brother, Ben, and sister, Julie, moving quickly downstairs behind him.
Julie is tall and thin, with long, dark hair and beautiful blue eyes. Ben, on the other hand, is pudgy-faced and short, much like the deputy manager at the market down Kansas Road. Ben has messy, blond hair like Elisa and green eyes.
Elisa lowered her eyes slightly and sighed, then raised them back to her children. "Kids, I'm gonna go down to the book store to see if they've got anything good there, then I'll pop down to the hardware store."
Probably that Lord of the Rings book Ben's been begging for since last Christmas, Ron thought to himself, a thin, weak smile playing across his lips.
"Julie, you're in charge 'til I get back," Elisa said sternly.
"Aww," Ben moaned quietly to himself.
Ron and Julie stood in the open doorway, staring across their front yard as their mother strode down the sidewalk. She turned round to face them and waved them goodbye. Then she disappeared behind the house nextdoor and was gone.
"Look at that," Julie said aloud.
Ron turned to face her and saw she was staring across the street. He followed her gaze and at once saw what had caught her eye: a stripe of pale white cloud or fog, visible some couple hundred feet beyond the set of houses just across the road. Ron couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like it was halfway across the nearby lake already.
"Is that mist?" she said quietly.
"Not like any mist I've ever seen," Ron replied, eyes fixed on the thick, white mist.
Ron could feel it in his guts. There was something unnerving about this mist - if that was indeed what it was. Something ... supernatural! Something...
"Hey, Ron!" a familiar voice called out from up Kansas Road and Ron's mind abruptly snapped away from the strange mist. He spun round in the direction of the voice and felt his heart beat with excitement!
Ron's four friends came tearing down the street toward him, faces red with exhaust.
"Hey, pal," Ron's best friend, Mike Grady gasped as he slowed his pace and regained his breath, hands on knees. Mike is thin, with messy, black hair and blue eyes.
Ron observed the three others behind Mike, hands on knees, gasping, like him.
Kelly Myers, a tall girl with long, blond hair and beautiful facial features and blue eyes.
Harry Jameson, a tall kid with dark-brown eyes and jet-black, curly hair.
And Zoe Roberts, a chubby-looking girl with eyes muddy-brown as her hair, which is tied back in a ponytail.
"What's up with your sis?" Harry asked, eyes fixed over Ron's shoulder. Ron spun round to face Julie and at once saw her eyes still fixed on the approaching bank of mist.
"Julie?" Ron said quietly.
"That's some weird mist," Zoe muttered.
"I saw it coming down the mountain earlier from the military base," Harry proclaimed.
Kelly said, "My dad works up there, on the Arrowhead Project. Says they try to open portals into other dimensions."
Ron quickly stifled a laugh. Mr Myers is a scientist, who works for the Government. He spends most of his time at work, which has been at the Arrowhead base for the past two years.
"Yeah, I bet they're holding It or Lord Fear captive up there!" Ron exclaimed sarcastically. That got everyone laughing except Julie.
Little did any of them know that the coming events would make it no joking matter ever again!
Julie usually acts not much more mature than Ron or Ben, but when something looks serious, she always embraces her responsible side. If only the other kids could have sensed the coming apocalypse that she could!
Once the kids regained their control, the question immediately popped into Ron's head: "What are you guys all doing here?"
"We were heading down to the store to get some candy, but we decided to stop by," Harry replied. Harry is kind and sensible, but if there's something he can't understand, he'll simply deny it. He once even denied atoms existing when he couldn't understand them in science class when he was ten!
"Want to come with us?" Mike asked.
"No thanks," Ron replied. "Hey, wanna come in? I've got some candy, and I just got Jaws on DVD!"
"But I thought the power was out," Zoe exclaimed dumbly. Zoe is something of a horror-movie fan, and she's not exactly the brighter bulb in the group.
"We've got our own generator, remember?" Ron exclaimed as though it should have been obvious, even for her.
Elisa had won the lottery three years back, and had spent the money on a generator for the house.
Kelly said softly, "Yeah, o ..."
The last few letters were drowned out by the loud rumble of three khaki trucks as they rumbled past, and swivelled round the corner up the street, towards the incoming mist.
At once the memory snapped back into Ron's mind as a State Police car tore past after the army vehicles, siren wailing like a banshee.
Ron quickly spun round to face the opposite side of the street and uttered a cry of surprise.
The thick, dull mist was now at the most half as far away as it had been when Ron last looked. His friends noticed it too.
"About that Jaws DVD?" Mike said, his voice trembling slightly.
Mike, Kelly, Zoe, Ron and Harry sat in the sofa, a bowl of popcorn between them, and the movie before them for now erasing all worry or thought of the eerie mist.
Occasionally, however, there was a loud rumble or wailing siren from on the street outside as an Army truck or a police car sped past.
Julie stood, still as stone in front of the large window beside the sofa, eyes fixed on the dull mist as it moved closer to their street.
Then, about a sixth through the movie, a loud, wailing sound from outside quickly snapped Ron's mind away from the movie and returned his memory of the mist once more: the wail rose, then fell, then rose again. It was the civil defence siren.
Ron knew long before he and his four friends reached the window what was happening.
The mist was coming.
Well, that's the first chapter. Chapter 2 might take a while, though.