The early morning fog loomed as far as I could see, it was almost tangible, shrouding everything in a thick white veil, the light barely managing to penetrate the haze. The sounds of birdsong and motors that should have been filling the air around me all seemed to have disappeared, even my footsteps had been swallowed by the greedy beast.

I pulled my brown winter jacket closer to my body, hoping to gain some sense of warmth that morning. It was to no avail, the fog seemed to be leaching the heat right from my bones, pulling it to become stronger. It was July but felt like December, which didn't make sense because I lived in upper Michigan. I blamed global warming.

The laughing wind crept up to me, following me while as I walked, hissing at the warmth of my body. The cold readied to strike at me with its poisonous venom. My heart was pumping slower due to the icy frost burning my body. Freaking global warming. I trudged along the pavement at a sedate pace, my mind focused on quickly getting to my school for an early archery practice.

If it wasn't mandatory for all students to be in a club I probably wouldn't have been in one. Archery, at the time, seemed like a safe and fun option for me to choose. Of course, I was wrong. My coach, a wiry and awkward man of 35 was a drill Sargent, whose only enjoyment seemed to come from torturing the High-Schoolers. Hence why I had to walk to school at five in the morning to get to an early practice.

I had just gotten to the school and was heading around the corner of the building when I ran into Rose, my best friend. "Jesus, you startled me. Don't do that to me." Rose's face suddenly beamed with happiness, her face contorting into places I didn't know a face could make.

She said, almost screaming, "ADDIE! ARE YOU READY FOR A BRIGHT HAPPY AND WONDERFUL DAY? TODAY IS—"

"Rose…Shut up."

"Sorry— I have a lot of energy today."

I raised an eyebrow. "I couldn't tell." For a moment Rose looked pinched and narrowed. Then it went away just as quickly as it came and grew into a huge smile. "WOW- I always forget your not a morning person."

"I really hate mornings." Rose laughed, grabbing my arm, she led me to the archery range right behind the school were already a small group of classmates had conversed.

My friends Scott, Katie, and Eddie stood in a small circle in the Dojo conversing, their voices pentrating through the chipper of birds. Scott was flapping his arms in every which way, up then down, while screaming something about some new video game he couldn't wait to get his hands on.

"You just Don't understand! The game is a flipping masterpiece…PICASSO COULD HAVE MADE IT!" He was sputtering now, not really making sense to a girl who had never played video games in her life. " –It's beautiful."

"We get it Scott" Katie said, her voice sounding almost bored and slurred. "It's the best game you've ever played. This is the fifth time you have told us that in the past ten minutes."

"You just don't understand Katie." He put emphasis on Katie as if it was some kind of insult. "IT'S-B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L."

I couldn't take listening to it any longer. "Hey, guys!" I said, stepping into the little circle "Are you ready to shoot some things?" Rose and Katie grinned from ear to ear, holdimg their mouths.

I made my way towards the shelf of bows. In the corner was a cabinet that smelled like a recently carved rocking chair someone might buy at cracker barrel. Bows made of wood and plastic and metal and materials I can't even name. Arrows with feathers cut in flawless uniform lines. I chose a bow, strung it, and slung the matching quiver of arrows over my shoulder.

Walking a few feet over towards the range, I stood in front of the target and never let my eyes leave it. I reached back to grab an arrow from my quiver, taking note of everything that could interfere with the release of the arrow; The wind and so forth. As I nocked the arrow, it's flight path was already forming in my head: between the branches of trees in the way and right into the center of the target. I pulled the string back, all the way past my ear, letting the tension build in the arrow before it flew. I raised the arrow to meet its flight path, and released. The string snapped forward with the force of twenty punches and hit dead center. Easy.

I did the same with my next arrow, breathing out as the arrow released and hit the target to the right of the one I already hit. I did the same with my next arrow to the target on my left.

My next arrow was aimed at a target that was hidden in a tree behind the range. I released it. It went flying through the air, breaking branches in a loud crack before it hit the target above.

The next two arrows I notched at the same time. I wanted to try something new. Mostly, because I wanted to feel like Robin Hood and feel cooler than I was. I held the bow even, a perfect, undaunted horizon; always leveled with the nose, just as I had been taught. They made their mark: perfect and even.

"Damn-" I heard Eddie say from behind me. A chorus of agreement rang out from my other friends.

"Damn Indeed." Another voice said. It was Mr. Moyer who seemed to appear from nowhere. " You've gotten better Adelyn."

I shrugged, not exactly comfortable with all of the attention. "I guess practice makes perfect?

"Yeah?" He asked, a smile creeping up on his face. "And why do you feel the need to be perfect?"

"Exactly, How long have you been practicing?' Katie cut in, her eyebrow raised incredulously.

"…A lot…"

"Well, that clears things up." She muttered, loud enough so that I could hear.

"THAT WAS FLIPPING AWESOME. YOU WERE LIKE- AND IT WAS-O MY GOD-LIKE WOW. IT WAS LIKE YOU WERE A CHARACTER IN MY VIDEO GAME!" Scott practically screamed, again flailing his arms around over his head. That kid, I had decided then, had some serious issues.

For the next few hours, we made turns shooting in succession until It was finally time for school to start. I internally groaned, realizing I had forgotten to do my homework because I fell asleep while reading…Again. It was something that I did on quite a regular basis. I was about to leave the range when Mr. Moyer approached me.

"Addie," he said, pulling me aside. "Do you mind if I talk to you before your classes start."

"Not at all." I told him.

"I've been hearing from some of your teachers that for the past few weeks your grades have been dramatically dropping. Can you tell me why that is, Addie? You've never been someone to not due their work in the past. Can you help me understand?" His voice was almost pleading.

I sighed. I had a feeling that this conversation was coming. It was no secret that in the past I had a 4.0 grade average but lately my A's slowly began to slip into B's then C's. "My parents, their getting a divorce." I frowned, looking down at the earth below me. "It's been tough. I know it's not an excuse but I'll pull myself together, I can promise you that."

"I know you can do it Addie." He smiled at me, uncharacteristically. He was never one to smile before. "Something tells me your gonna have a great year."

"What makes you think that, Mr. Moyer?" I asked, my brow raising. I began to fidget in my place.

"Oh, I just know. I can see those kind of things, the happiness that is, and the sadness." He took off the mended glasses that he had perched on his head. "You see Addie, You can't have one without the other. That's what makes life worth living. When you reach a point in your life when you have something so great that it causes you so much sadness to leave it all behind, that's when you will find that you have truly lived. What is a life without suffering? It makes you cherish your happiness all the more."

"I'm not sure I understand sir." I said, shaking my head. "What exactly are you talking about?"

"No, you wouldn't understand, would you?" He stopped, looking up into the distance. "Not yet, anyways... You...You have so much more to discover Addie, Don't take any of it for granted."

"I guess I'll try not to sir." I said frowning. This seemed to be coming from nowhere. I had never seen him as the caring teacher before. He always seemed to be aloof and strange, but he never had given me pep talks in the past before.

"Don't try Addie, Live."

"Right." I said, emphasizing right. "I gotta go."

"Of course..." He started to turn around but faced me again. "Oh…Addie?"

"What Mr. Moyer?" I asked confused to hear what else he might say."

He smiled. "One more thing. Be careful of the fog. We can't go and lose you too... Also, don't forget I expect you to have your homework done and on my desk by the time class starts tomorrow.

"I won't forget, Mr. Moyer." I turned around and headed back to school. That was a conversation I wasn't likely to forget anytime soon.

Inside, the school was lively. The halls were crowded with people, and the chaos filled with chaos, like a movie. There was a couple that making out on the left side of the hall, and about ten feet further down, a group of girls were huddled in front of an open locker doing their makeup in the small mirror. Opposite them, a group of Axe smelling boys, and between them, the parade of geeks who looked like they had seen better days.

The bell went off and I made my way down the tiled hallway to my first-period class Pre-Calc. I took a seat next to Katie. Finally our teacher, Mrs. Minnier walked in. She had a hawkish air about her. Even her nose was curved and beaky. She had eyes of dark brown that fixed you in ice should you dare disagree or talk out of turn. She was willow-wand thin, so stick-like that it was hard to imagine her eating much at all, at least not without wiping her narrow lips after every bite. Her hair wasn't so much blonde as a washed out brown like it just couldn't be bothered to be anything at all Like many women of her age she had it cut short to hide its lack of volume. A century ago, she would have been brutal with the cane.

The teacher had the look of one who had woken up one spring morning to find that their youth had passed by before they had had any fun. She gazed at the class as if their faces had become a sea, a moving mass of nothing she could focus on or care about. The lesson poured out from her in the same emotionless pattern it had for the past fifteen years, she even breathed in the same places. The smart suits she had diligently worn as a new graduate and given way to elastic waist-banded pants and long flowing tops. Her face knew how to perform all the right gestures, but the passion behind them had long since abandoned her. She still handed out homework, but didn't care if the kids did it or not. More coming back to her meant more marking, that meant less time she would be able to spend with her motorcycle boyfriend who was in desperate need of a haircut and deodorant.

It was this teacher who made me think that classrooms were a place that should be feared. She seemed, for unknown reasons, to detest me with every fiber of her being. She would always give me detentions for stupid things, like forgetting a pencil or wearing a color of a shirt she didn't like.

Today, I had prayed would be a good day. But, It seemed some unknown power that really hated me had other ideas. She smiled wickedly and marched towards my desk as if I were her prey. For all I knew, she was some kind of evil monster who wanted nothing but to eat me for lunch. It definitely seemed that way.

She finally stopped in front of my desk and I slowly started to hit my head against it in frustration. "How can I help, Mrs. Minnier?"

"I was very displeased to see you didn't show up to detention last night. Very upset. …Very. I think a week of detention should make up for that. Don't you think? Hmm? Yes?"

Shit… I had forgotten about that. But, In my defense, the detention was because I was chewing on a pencil while thinking. Go ahead. Shoot me. I'm a menace to pencils and their families everywhere.

She made her way back to the front of the classroom her head held high, gloating, all the while smirking that thin mouth of hers. She started talking about current events, which I was pretty sure had nothing to do with Pre-Calc but I guess she could do what she wanted. At the least I was actually learning something.

A perky girl in the front row who was always a kiss-up in platform heels, I think her name was Taylor, raised her hand.

"Yes?" The teacher purred, rolling her eyes.

"Can you tell us anything about the fog, and like If we can stop it by like saving the planet…or something?" I was suddenly very interested. As was the rest of the class who were suddenly wide awake, leaning in to hear the teacher's reply.

She sighed and put the glasses that rested on her head on her uniform desk. " There is not much I can tell, Besides what you already know. But, what I can tell you is to be careful, Yes? If you get caught in it without a coat you could freeze to death. Several people have already died, but I don't need to tell you that." Her eyes moved to the empty desk in the middle of the room.

The desk once belonged to Diamond Richards. She was girl with so much energy you couldn't help but to smile. She had a little brother only a few years younger than herself that she had become a mother to since her parents were deadbeats. She froze to death last week. Her brother cried, her parents only asked about the money. Death wasn't kind. I knew that. It snatched where it could, taking people who were far too young, far too good. It didn't pretend to care, it didn't pretend to distinguish. It didn't hesitate to take even the smallest and innocent of people.

A silence overcame the classroom. Silence gnawed at my twisted insides. Silence hung in the air like the suspended moment before a falling glass shatters on the ground. It was quiet, like a gaping void, needing to be filled with sounds, words, anything. It was poisonous in it's sheer nothingness, cruelly underscoring how vapid their conversation had become. The silence was eerily unnatural, like a dawn devoid of birdsong and classroom with an empty desk.

"As for saving the planet," The teacher continued. "Perhaps you should stop drinking five cups of Starbucks a day. It's a wonder what those cups can do to sea turtles."

My next class was Humanities, a class that I actually loved. It was taught by an energetic, wispy women, who was eight months pregnant and looked like the baby might pop out at any moment. She was a kind woman who never liked too her raise her voice. Although this never made her a pushover, she was scary when she was angry. She would have us do giant art projects like making an aqueduct or a Canopic jar.

The class ended uneventful, as did the rest of the day. I, of course, chose to forget that I had detention after school. In actuality, No energy in the world prepare me for two hours with that teacher.

The cafeteria at lunch was a cacophony of loud chatter, each table a cosseted huddle of people raising their voices to be heard above the din. The food was secondary to the information that was exchanged there. Over the over-salted fries alliances formed and gossip traded like silly bans. The cafeteria was really the school gym. A hatch connecting it to the kitchen was opened and the smell of chips and baked beans came wafting in. We lined up across the back-wall with brown Formica trays in our hands, kicking the wall with our toes, or leaning on it as we shuffled along, unenthusiastic for the food. Todays special: mush…Yay.

I sat next to Scott, Katie, Eddie, and another girl named Carmen. Scott was again enthusiastic as ever talking about some new video game, The Legend of Zelda or whatever. Katie was desperately trying to tune him out with her I-pod. Eddie, you may ask. Well, he was content with throwing fries at unsuspecting freshman who didn't have the courage to stand up to him. I sometimes couldn't believe I was friends with them. But then I realized, that no one could ever compare to them.

Eddie decided to take a break from pelting kids and started talking seriously, his eyes drooped down ward to were his hands were fidgeting mercilessly. "They say if the weather keeps dropping Michigan might be as cold as Antartica... and the fog- it gets thicker every day." Not one of us could help looking at the empty table in the corner where Diamond and her friend group used to sit. Her friends had since moved to different tables, not wanting to look at the vacant chair that was a constant reminder of her death.

Our whole table suddenly got extremely quiet until Eddie broke the silence. "…It's probably global warming." He whispered. We all suddenly broke into uncontrollable fits of laughter.

The laughter died down and was left with hushed melancholy. We ate the rest of our lunches in quiet. Every once in a while someone, usually Eddie or Scott, tried to break the silence with a lame joke. They would pat themselves on their back and then carry on eating their lunches in the quiet.

The day finally ended. I walked home like I did every day. This day something made me increasingly on edge. The fog around me kept shifting in dense, smoky swirls. I could hardly see through it anymore, it was so dense.

The Mist was so thick, Milky and heavy, making it impossible to see past my fingers spread out in front of me. If only I Had a flashlight to shine through the fog, but, alas I didn't. I walked a few more steps in front of me, feet clanking against the concrete below me, carful not to run into anything that might make me fall, and that was when I heard them.

They were whispering, disembodied voices, emanating from all around me, calling my name in slurs. It was like they were the cries of the dead reaching out their pale hands to greet a loved one they yearned to see again. Whether they were calling out to me in good spirit or not it didn't seem to matter. Instead, it made my blood run cold, hairs standing up on my arms as the arctic mist billowed by me. If Dementors from Harry Potter actually existed, this is what I assumed them taking my soul would feel like, sinister, depressed, and dangerous. My mind was starting to fail, like an engine that turns over and over, never kicking into action. I couldn't formulate a thought. There was no way out of the fog, but I knew I had to get out.

Then one voice rang above the rest.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

My heart screamed, wanting to escape my chest. A child's voice I realized, maybe a nine, ten year old boy, screaming a name for help.

"LINK!"

Then next thing I knew I felt like I was being pushed from side to side. Hands, that I couldn't see grabbed me from every way. I wanted to scream, but no sound came out. Instead, I fell to my knees on wet and crunchy grass beneath me. Maybe, I had walked further than I thought. I could have sworn I was just walking on concrete. I felt something, like tendrils caressing my neck. A hand, maybe?

Thump,

Thump,

Thump went my heart.

As quickly as it came the silence ended. I waited for a few seconds in anticipation. The fog was still there and I knew it wasn't over yet. Then, chillingly, there was a voice right by my ear as clear and concise as day. "The mist is just the beginning."

The world exploded. The mist blew around like a tornado taking more voices with it, pushing me closer to the ground. Next, light erupted, a supernova of colors whipping past me. A velvety black frames my Vision. "Keep your eyes open" I told myself, trying to push up from the ground. A second later, I fell back down and darkness enveloped me