30/10/2006 11:37:00

Ch 9: Pt 2

"Another night of fog' my companion muttered to no one in particular.

The unnaturally dense fog had wrapped itself around the trees like a death shroud.

"Strange how we never had a fog like this before Rev. Jerome came." I responded, not attempting to mask the bitterness in my throat.

"Why so angry, Gregory? He's done nothing wrong."

Has he? He's been terrible to Sarah, hetold Mr. Micheals that his wife's cat was a demonic familiar, he refused to marry Samuals to that pretty girl from the next town over, and he told Davidson that it was no good giving him his last rites- he was going to hell anyway."

"No offense, but your sister has been a little strange since Rev. Williams died."

"Since Rev. Jerome arrived, you mean."

"He arrived the day after Williams' death. You can't blame him for everything."

"He arrived a week before he was expected, and this fog came with him."

"What exactly are you saying?"

"That there's something not right about him."

My companion simply shook his head and let the conversation die. We both waited in silence, guns pointing into the fog, threatening it should it creep any closer in on us.

We had been sent out to find and kill whatever had been killing the livestock. Pigs, hens, cattle, even the masters best hounds had been found partially devoured. If it wasn't killed soon, the townspeople feared for their children.

It had also arrived shortly after the reverend had, though I didn't bring up this point with my companion. My sister's stories of his unkindness, told in whispers behind the chapel, coupled with his stories of hell and sinners, and the strange things that had been happening of late had made me incredibly suspicious.

A twig cracked in the fog, causing my companion and I to start. It took every ounce of control I had to not fire my round into the uncompromising mist. The moment passed and my companion lowered his gun and cracked a smile, as if he were about to say something.

The beast burst from the mist, its teeth and claws bared. It hit my companion fully in the neck and chest, knocking him down and ripping out his throat in a single, fluid motion.

I yelled in shock and fired straight into the back of its head. The impact barely even broke its concentration as it continued to rip apart my companion's still flailing body.

I yelled at it, hitting it with the butt of my rifle. It turned and snarled, blood and gore still oozing from its fangs. I swung my rifle again, hitting it across the snout. It growled and leapt at me.

I managed to shove the barrel of my rifle sideways into it's razor-filled maw as it hit me and knocked me to the ground.

My arms burned with the effort to keep it away from my throat. A stream of saliva dropped down from it's mouth and rolled down my cheek.

In desperation I threw my knee up into it's stomach. The beast howled, backing off of me. I rolled onto my hands and knees, sprung to my feet, and ran blindly into the mist. The beast howled with rage behind me.

I could barely see a foot in front of me as I ran. I hit a tree with my shoulder and was spent spinning to the round.

I hears the creature's growl. It was practically on top of me.

I scrambled to my feet again, and this time I tripped over something soft. I turned to see what it was. My blood froze in my veins.

Sarah lay bloody and broken on the soft, muddy ground. Her face was swollen with bruises and caked with blood. When I looked closer I realized that someone had sewn her mouth shut. Her belly and chest had had been cut open and her insides hollowed out and her throat had been slit.

I gagged, then pulled her tiny, mutilated form to my chest.

I sobbed and screamed into the air, praying for it not to be real, that it be another child, a dream, or some horrible fantasy. Anything for her to be alive. I cried out to God. I begged him. I cursed him.

The only answer to my cries was a familiar growl behind me.

I realized too late that I had dropped my rifle in my frenzy to escape.

I was running again before I could think about it. I'd dropped Sarah when I heard it again, I cursed myself for leaving her behind.

My foot splashed when it hit water. I stopped, looking around to figure out where I was, but the smell of salt told me I had wandered into the bayou.

If the beast didn't get me, the quicksand and gators would.

I swallowed. My heart hammered against my chest.

I strained my ears for the sound of the beast's footfalls or the splash of an approaching gator.

I closed my eyes, breathlessly chanting prayers.

I don't know how long I stood there, a foot in two dangers, slowly going mad with fear and anticipation.

The mist was slowly retreating as the sun awoke to burn away the shadows.

I was pulling my foot out of the muck when the beast burst out of the fog one more time.

I threw my arms up in front of my face and closed my eyes.

Nothing happened,

I opened my eyes and lowered my arms. The fog was back among the tress and dying. The morning's light had broken through the leaves and darted about the ground in golden shards.

I pulled my foot out of the mud. I was lightheaded and unsure. I felt as if I had come out of a nightmare, but wasn't quite awake yet.

It was in this state that I wandered back into town. I was greeted by a bizarre mixture of suspicion, fear, and confusion.

I saw the doctor, Master Lemon, and Rev. Jerome standing by a cart. In it, with his head laying a few inches from his neck and face staring up at me in a blank scream was my companion. Just as dead as I had left him. Rev. Jerome covered his face with a piece of cloth.

And darkness finally prevailed.