The Mist

14

Mike

"Her nose is bleeding again," Will said from where he sat next to El. Mike turned and saw he was right. He dropped the radio he had been playing around with trying to get a station mostly for El but also to have some kind of noise in the too-quiet house, he even thought about playing the mixtape he had made but that was just for El. Mike got up and grabbed another tissue and gently wiped the blood away before throwing it in the growing pile in the trash can.

"That's the 4th one in the last five hours," Max said walking back into the room, crossing her arms.

"I know," Mike said, sitting back down on the floor in front of the couch El slept on and look at her a moment before he turned to look at Max, "But I don't think waking her up now would help anything."

"What happens if she doesn't wake up for like a day or two? What do we do then?"

"I believe in El," Mike said, not ever wanting to think of something like that.

Max let out a breath before she sat down in the armchair on the opposite side of the room from him. For a moment they both sat in silence before she spoke again.

"How are you okay with this?" Max asked him finally, "You said it yourself that you love her. But you're letting her be in a coma and have no idea what she's facing right now. "

"Of course I'm not okay with this," Mike answered, "I've watched El sacrifice herself time after time for us, and I hate it every time. I just want us to be normal teens who have to worry about school and what music is on the radio. But she's not and that means we're not either. You were right about it being her choice and that she knows her limits. But I'll stand next to her when she reaches them and help her back up."

Max nodded but he wasn't done. "Why are you so worried about her now when before you were the one telling me to calm down all of a sudden?"

Max looked down not meeting his eyes as she spoke. "I just don't want to see someone else I care about die this summer….After Billy...I don't know if I would be able to handle it again."

Mike nodded and understood what she was saying. They both loved El in a different way they all did and if they lost her….

He shook his head not letting that thought even play for a moment in his head but luckily he didn't have to because just then he heard Dustin and Lucas calling them.

Mike felt his heart stop realizing that there was something in their voices that felt like there was something very wrong going on. He stood then with Max and Will as their friends they came running into the room.

"What's wrong?" Max asked, Lucas as they stopped in front of them. "Look out the window," Dustin answered.

Mike and Max went over to the window as they were told too and he felt a wave of fear go through him as he saw the outside world. It had turned into something from a horror novel. Mist mixed with a thick fog that made it difficult to see the surrounding landscape of the woods and yard. The trees looked like large blurry gray things that loomed over them like menacingly, the ground turned into a cloud that looked like if he took a step out he would fall right through it.

"When did this happen?" Max asked, turning back to Lucas.

"I don't know, we were just looking around the tool shed for something to do until El woke up when we noticed it all of a sudden."

"You didn't notice that it started raining when you were outside?" Max asked, "How did y-"

"Um, guys is everyone inside?" Will asked, joining them to look outside.

Mike turned and shouted out to Nancy and Jonathan from where they were making lunch in the kitchen and in a moment everyone stood in the living room. He did a quick headcount to confirm it before he turned back to Will. "Everyone's here, why?"

"There's something moving around out there, don't you see it?"

Mike turned back to the window at his words, it only took a moment until he saw what Will was talking about. He couldn't see who it was or even if it was a person. Just that the fog moved like when you run your hand through the steam of a boiling pot of water, the fog moving aside to make room for whatever it was.

"It's moving too fast to be a person," Nancy said, joining them at the window along with Jonathan.

"Where is it going?" Max asked.

They all watched as it seemed to go around the side of the house and disappeared from sight before another shadow like figure joined it. Suddenly the world seemed to go very, very still and it was like no one wanted to move, barely breathing as all the lights in the house started to flicker, the only sound left in the world the wind blowing gently through the trees.

Mike breathed out slowly, his breath fogging up the glass in front of him as the air grew cold suddenly his eyes glued to the cloudy world outside when a handprint appeared out of nowhere, the sound of someone hitting the glass making them all jump back.

"Get away from the windows!" Jonathan said grabbing Mike's and Will's arms pulling them away. But it was too late. They watched in horror as whatever was banged on the window over and over again as a crack started to form, spidering outward before it shattered inwards.

Faster then Mike could keep up with Jonathan turned them away from the breaking glass and pushed them away and over towards Nancy who had her arms out, keeping the others behind her.

"Get behind me!" Nancy shouted at them but Mike didn't listen instead he looked over at El's unconscious body on the couch, helpless.

Without thinking he went over and scooped her into his arms before he joined the others behind Nancy as they watched a figure step through the window and seemed to solidify in front of them.

"Bruce Lowe?!" Nancy said, her voice going high with fear.

"Hello again Nancy Drew," Bruce said with a sickening smile, black ink dripping from his lips to fall to the floor.

"Really?" Jonathan said under his breath, remaining the last time he had seen the other man, the bruises he still had from the fight before he swung out with a fist but the other man simply stood there as Jonathan's fist when right thought him.

"That's not fair," Jonathan said right before Bruce made his own fist and when he swung out it hit Jonathan in the side of the ribs, knocking the air out of him before the older man swung again and hit him in the jaw faster than everyone could keep open with.

They watched frozen in place as Jonathan hit the floor hard, the breath knocked out of him as he held his side but still tried to get up a moment later only to have the older man grab the collar of his t-shirt and slam him back to the ground over and over again a punch to Jonathan's stomach finally made Nancy move even with the memory of that night at the hospital.

"Jonathan!" Nancy shouted snapping but to reality. She ran forward and grabbed an empty flower vase and slammed it over his head as hard as she could. Surprisingly it broke over his head as he was solid unlike what had happened with Jonathan but it didn't seem to hurt him as it would have less than a month ago.

"Oh Nancy, that was the wrong thing to do," Bruce said, turning to face her.

Nancy took a step away but it was too late. Bruce grabbed for her and Nancy jumped back only to be cornered, her back hitting into the wall.

"How are you going to get out of this one Nancy Drew?"

"Good question," Dustin said, moving away from his friends before he grabbed the closest thing to him, a book off the floor and threw it only to have Bruce grab it from the air before it hit him.

"Well that's the first time a good book has failed me," Dustin said as the older man turned on him. But before he could take a step. The house was flooded with light from the outside. A second later Bruce disappeared into a mist as whoever it was outside started honking a car horn.

For a moment they all simply looked at one another not sure what had just happened, why had he disappeared? before the car honked again and it caught their attention.

Nancy was the first to move as she ran over to Jonathan and helped him up as Max went to the front door and opened to see Steve and Robin running up the porch but stopped when they saw the door open.

"Have you guys seen what happened?" Steve asked as everyone ran out of the house, Mike still carrying an unconscious El in his arms and Jonathan leading on Nancy, a dark bruise already forming on his cheek.

"You mean the people that should be dead walking around and the fog that is probably out to kill us?" Dustin said, "Yeah we've seen it."

"We need to get out of here," Nancy said looking at Steve and Robin as they made their way to the cars. "We need to stick together."

"Yeah of course but where are we going to go the whole town is like this, there's nobody around either. It's like a ghost town."

Mike shared a look with everyone at that new knowledge. That this wasn't just here but everywhere.

"It doesn't matter, we can't stay here," Nancy said because it was true, looking around there was still things moving in the fog, but keeping away from them for now.

"Sounds like a sound plan," Steve said, running over to his car and opened the door as Dustin, Lacus, Max, and Robin all got in.

Will opened the door for Mike who laid El down gently before he got in next to her, pulling her upper body to lay on his lap.

"Will catch."

Will turned in time to catch the walkie talkie Dustin threw at him before he got into the car and a moment later Nancy it and they pulled away, Steve followed after them. All unsure what was happening but know that wherever they went they couldn't escape they would have to fight, how was the real question. How do you fight a ghost?

AN

Thanks for reading, it means a lot to me. If you want to review and give me your thoughts and or any criticism on what I could do better please feel free, it always helps. I hope your all doing well as you can be right now. Wishing you all the best 3 Sorry for not posting yesterday, had a bit of a headache but feeling better now.