The fog thickened further as she strode along the beach. It was clear she had a purpose, although a casual onlooker would probably not think anything out of the ordinary and continue happily with their life. Not that there was anyone about to see her now. The wind was against her, whipping icily at her cheeks and roaring past her ears so that she was deafened to everything else. The busy sounds of the nearby seaside town were long drowned out.
Soon the mist was so heavy that she could barely see a few feet ahead of her- only dark, indistinguishable shapes which she blindly tried to avoid. A few times she caught her toes on larger rocks which had been obscured from her view, but carried on with not much reaction. Expressing pain was pointless.
The blood-red cliffs off to her left jutted awkwardly out of the gloom, providing the only splash of colour to the otherwise completely dreary, grey landscape.
Suddenly she felt a soft crunch under her feet, an unexpected change from what felt like miles of flat sand. She squinted downwards, grimacing at the pile of dead crabs she had stepped on. Crabs were the main catch of this town. You could buy crab anywhere and in any form, and they were famous for their taste. For this many to die was unheard of. The fog momentarily thinned ahead of her, and she snapped her head back up to look around her, revealing thousands upon thousands of lifeless, empty crab shells, piled high at the water's edge. He was close.
When He appeared she barely noticed him at first; he was so pale and wearing a cloak of a shimmering grey that almost made it seem as if he was made of the mist itself, a trick of the mind that caused random shapes in the mist to twist into the form of a man. Only his eyes made him stand out- a piercing red that penetrated the heavy curtain of fog. She shivered, although it was a different from the effects of the brutal weather. She stopped walking, turning to stare straight out at Him.
"You know, there's a nice, warm Starbucks down the road that would have done just fine." She said calmly. Although the wind was still strong, whistling icily across the beach, she didn't feel the need to shout. He could hear her, she was certain.
When his reply came, the words were seemingly all around her, as if his voice was carried through the fog and whispered to her by the wind. Which, thinking about it, was probably the case.
You called me here. Why?
"I think you know what I want." Her attitude had changed, her voice low and void of all friendliness.
Yes.
"Then I suggest you hand it over quickly."
He laughed, a cold, joyless sound. I don't let anybody have it except me.
She smiled. "Well, love, I'm not just anybody."
She raised a hand in front of her slowly, watching the red eyes with calm concentration. He laughed again, though she thought she could sense a new added uneasiness to the sound.
You can't do anything to me. How many stupid, pathetic humans do you think have tried this same trick before?
In response, she only lifted one eyebrow and shrugged, almost apologetically. And then she curled her fingers inwards, mimicking the action of squeezing a small ball in the air in front of her. There was a blinding surge of pure white light that tore through the fog, dispersing it with a faint scream. The wind died down instantaneously, allowing her to comfortably scramble her way over the crab hills to the exact spot where He had been standing moments before, but where there was now nothing.
"Sorry, but I wasn't really in the mood to discuss it." She muttered, scanning the ground. There was no sign that anyone had been there at all, except for a shining, silver chain that lay- desperately out of place- among the husks. She plucked it out gleefully, marvelling at the shape of the pendant swinging at the end of it. She wiped it on her jumper to rid it of most of the dirt, before holding it to the light and running a finger around the edge, taking in the shape- a small ring penetrated by a thin line, both encased in a neat triangle.
After a few moment of inspection the pendant was dropped unceremoniously around her neck. She allowed herself one more private smirk of triumph, and then the girl vanished with a soft whoosh.