ScareS 5, (pairing?), no particular fandom (Part 2)
Several days pass and you haven't gotten any closer to finding a way out of the fog. Quite the contrary, the Fog likes it to play with you, letting all of your tries end in a disaster. Swallowing the trails out of pebbles, bread and even broken plates you leave behind for orientation, sending you to another part of the forest with every trip but never to where you want to go.
To make things worse, you always encounter bodies on your trips. Like showing off trophies, you keep finding skeletons scattered across the forest, sometimes half devoured by nature already, sometimes so fresh they look just gnawed off...or whatever happened to them.
When Sasha refuses one week after your arrival to set another foot in the Fog, you can't be mad. You see yourself, that it is hopeless. That this blasted thing is just playing with you.
Thus, you spend this day with sitting in the sun outside your little house and watching the people, trying to gauge, if someone could be on your side and want to flee despite the public opinion.
What you see, is almost as disturbing as the bodies in the forest. The people are so... happy. Content to spend the rest of their lives in this place, not one thinking about leaving and exploring the modern times. Going about their days without trying to change something, completely at ease with the monotone routine.
Suddenly, Sasha sits up a little more and you look first to your friend and then in the direction they look at to see an elderly woman passing you, using a walking stick to walk on one of the dirt paths leading straight into the Fog.
Those keep wondering the both of you. If nobody ever leaves this place, why have such ways? Had the village been cut off one day, thus once known the contact to the outside world? Or did they...bring their precious Fog some kind of sacrifice to keep it happy via these paths? Especially this last idea was worrying.
"Maria!," Sasha calls out, jumping up and, seeing your confusion, quickly explains, "She helped me, when I arrived, treated my scratches and calmed me down."
Hurrying after the woman, the two of you have reached the elder in no time. "Maria, where are you going!?," Sasha asks, beyond worried.
The woman's happy smile stretches out all of her wrinkles and yet...doesn't reach her eyes. Quite the contrary, her eyes seem to restlessly roll in her sockets.
"I'm going to feed the Fog. It's my turn.," she explains serenely, her eyes looking quickly from left to right and right to left as if trying to escape.
"We can do that for you!," you offer, not wanting to have the poor woman in more distress, although that weird contrast between her face and eyes creeps you out a bit. "Oh no, Little Ones, the Fog chose me to feed off.," Maria declines, still friendly.
You freeze up at once and Sasha stiffens next to you. Feed...off? Like...eating her? "You can't do that!," you screech, but the woman's...face...never loses its smile. Her eyes, however, look panicked and moist.
"It is alright, Young Ones. I am delighted to be able to serve our gracious Fog.," she soothes with her eyes even more desperate and just goes on.
Sasha quickly catches up again and blocks her path. "You don't have to do this! I can SEE, that you don't want to do this!," your friend pleads with her.
"Nonsense, dear child. Of course I want to do this. It is my time, the Fog is calling me." And she walks around your frozen friend. The both of you are shocked and routed to the spot at hearing her say such things, when her soul obviously doesn't want to become anyone's meal.
The elder woman is almost in front of the Fog, when you almost simultaneously come back to life.
With your long legs, the two of you manage it to catch up again and the both of you quickly grab her meager arms to stop her.
The old woman has no chance against your combined strength. Still, she keeps moving like a toy robot, that had been wind up, unable to stop, until the accumulated energy is used up. For good measure, you pull her a bit back, her heels dragging over the gravel.
A strange movement goes through the Fog and you tense, but nothing bursts through the veil. Nothing, but a hiss from no animal you know and definitely no human being and you suddenly feel chastised? As if you have done something incredibly stupid, but if you let go now, you'll be forgiven...
Shaking your head, you manage it to get rid of the feeling again, but looking over to Sasha, you see their grip slackening, staring at the Fog with their mouth gaping open. "Don't you dare!," you snap and it works – Sasha turns to you and their grip's strength returns.
The hiss sounds again, but this time, you both resist it with ease. Another movement, as if wind makes it billow, lets the Fog move gently forwards, just to the point, where Maria's drag-marks start.
"I don't get it. Maria told me about how this Fog can change its size at will!," Sasha whispers, as if fearing to agitate it by speaking too loud.
Frowning, you look around, seeing some of the villagers watch you, but not interfering. Just watching on...like sheep chewing on grass.
"They are the livestock.," you realize, having Sasha blink owlishly at you. "Huh?" "The people here, they are fed and bred like sheep, or cattle. And when the Fog feels like it, he devours them, but only one at a time."
Sasha has greatly paled due to your words, but bravely presses on, "Then...why not take another...piece of food?"
You look at the Fog. "Maybe...it can't. Maybe it works by different standards? I mean, it isn't human or an animal, so it applies to...different rules? It probably needs Maria here and can't exchange her for someone else."
Sasha grimaces. "This forest exists for so long and nobody, who ever came here, thought about stopping the suicidal people?," they ask mournfully. "The villagers probably appeared crazy to them, or they simply didn't question it. No matter, we now have a chance to flee. And we will take them with us.," you declare determinedly. "...How?," Sasha questions.
To prevent Maria from running into her doom after all, since she hadn't stopped her attempts on reaching the Fog the whole time, you lock her up in your temporary home, making sure, that she won't escape while you are busy and quickly get to work.
As the villagers have no self-preservation instincts, they don't fight the two of you as you have them meet in the middle of the village, following your instructions like the sheep the Fog has made out of them.
And didn't this come back to bite it now, you think darkly, as you and Sasha proceed with tying the people to each other at the wrists with everything you find: rope, wool strands, even scarves and shirts, until you have them all covered, with Maria bound to a large man's back standing in the middle. You hope, that the Fog can't get past this wall of people.
The villagers remain docile, some only complaining about the jobs they need to do, but you keep telling them, that it can wait and they are content again. It's creepy and you will definitely need a therapy after that, but it makes things much easier for you.
The only ray of hope are the children. They understand, that you want to get out of the Fog and they are happy to explore the world behind it, so you just have to tell them to stay close to you or their parents and you can be quite sure, that they will obey without needing to be tied up as well. It makes you optimistic, that they will overcome this whole ordeal eventually.
After you have freed the animals and decided between the two of you, that you will leave them to their own devices, the Fog has thinned out remarkably. You have starved it successfully. Could it die? You won't stick around to find out.
Grabbing a rope connected to your 'herd' – as true as it is, it's also very cruel to even think it – you gently lead the villagers after Sasha bravely walking in the front, intent on leaving the cursed village behind.
In retrospective, the distance to your village was less than a kilometre, probably just a bit more than half of it, but it was still the longest track in your life.
The thin veils, which should be harmless by...well, logic...lash out to you as you pass and you acquire quite a few scratches and even bleeding cuts from the contact. At some point, you can only limp on, an unseen thing or blade having cut your leg so deeply it bleeds quite profusely even after ten minutes have passed.
Sasha doesn't look much better, bleeding as well in various places, but pressing on like you do. The villagers, funnily enough, are completely spared. Probably, because it isn't the livestock's fault, when it gets stolen, you think grimly, which only has your determination grow.
A lifetime – or three hours; you're still not sure, if your watch isn't influenced by this Fog, too, because it hadn't felt like so little time has passed – later, the Fog finally lifts, almost begrudgingly, as if reluctantly admitting defeat, and you and Sasha both weep in pure relief upon seeing the walls of the valley your village surrounds.
You waste no time in calling for help in the setting sun, moving with your 'herd' up the slightly steep walls. The villagers are a bit more reluctant now, not willing to leave their Fog behind, but their ingrained obedience forces them to follow still, away from the nightmare.
It takes quite some time for you and Sasha to have your people believe you. Not, that you blame them, it IS quite the story, but the wounds, the bodies people start to uncover as the Fog keeps thinning and of course the villagers, who are all the time talking about the Fog and how they need to feed it and who don't even know one thing about modern times, eventually convince them.
As they realize the threat the Fog poses, they send more teams in special suits into the forest to try and find a source for the Fog, but when they come up empty, it is decided to burn the forest down.
You and everyone else living at the village are temporarily relocated in a nearby city for the procedure of the controlled inferno and you and Sasha make sure to keep an eye on Maria, who is ever since your return constantly twitching, refusing food and water and needs to be fed with an IV while being bound to the bed.
She keeps mumbling about the Fog, even after the scheduled fire has started and you can see a large pillar of smoke rise from your home.
Then, however, when the smoke pillar doesn't grow anymore, the twitching dies down, as does the mumbling and after a while, Maria looks at you, her face and eyes showing both only gratitude.
"Thank you.," she whispers hoarsely and to you, these are the best words in the world. Because they mean, that the nightmare is finally over. Forever.
"Hm?," the firefighter mumbles, squinting at the billowing clouds of smoke coming from the just extinguished fire needed to clear the valley off a forest – although there were some rumors about a 'haunted forest' there... – trying to see past them.
"You okay?," his colleague asks, coming over. "Yeah, just...thought I saw something move there, besides the smoke.," the other shrugs.
"What, you getting the creeps because of the rumors?," the older asks with a laugh. "Shut up.," comes the reply and eventually, the two men walk away, not noticing the dark creature moving behind them.
It's hardly different to the smoke it peels itself away from, having no clear shape, just a wispy, black colored appearance, that seems to have several limbs, that appear and disappear with every movement as it drags itself out of the valley, unearthly red eyes glowing viciously in the darkness of the just beginning night as it merges with the shadows...
Title: The Fog – Modern Edition
Don't ask me, how I managed to get that much story out of a single idea brewing for a while in my head. And I still have some alternatives to that plot, that are in the next chapters with explanations as to where they fit in. Thanks for reading! :D