Their little car had been running nonstop, other than one or two stops to get food, since 10:30 AM, so it was no surprise that now, at 2:30 AM the next day, there wasn't any gas to keep pushing it forward. Pulled over to the side of the road, Aaron swore harshly, but softly so his sister would not hear him. He swung his legs to the side of the driver's seat and stood, now out of the car. A breeze continually rustled his blonde hair as he alerted Roxanne to their situation.
"We're out of gas? Damn, that sucks!" Roxanne responded to the news. Aaron's anger flared silently for a couple seconds as he realized that he could've sworn louder. It wouldn't matter if she heard him or not.
"Yep," Aaron replied with a somewhat bored tone. "Now what?"
"We could find that hotel we came here for." Roxanne suggested. "But we'd need a map. I saw a store a little ways back. Maybe we'll find one there."
"Was it a 24 hours store?"
"I think so, but I'm not too sure. The fog here is really thick. Why does it matter?" Roxanne checked her watch. "HOLY CRAP. IT'S 2:30. HOW LONG HAVE WE BEEN DRIVING, AARON?" She yelled in shock.
"I've been driving for 14 hours. You've been sleeping for 9 of those hours. Two, if it's 2:30, only 24 hour shops will be open." Aaron explained to his younger sister to get a 'I-get-that-but-still-holy-crap' look back from her.
Just then, another thing his younger sister said stood out to him. Damn, this fog is thick, he thought, How come I just now noticed? I must be even more tired than I thought. The fog swirling a little when he moved was always creepy, so how come it just now began to give him that same foreboding omen that he'd shrugged off earlier? A reoccurrence of this premonition put him on guard, so he reached into the car to grab a flashlight.
"You get a flashlight, too." Aaron instructed. "If we can't find each other in this fog, we can look for the beam of each other's flashlight," he reasoned to keep her from asking why. He didn't want to scare her because of some stupid feeling.
She did as her older brother told her to and grabbed the other flashlight.
"Then, let's go." Aaron closed his door and locked it, saving it from possible car thieves. Roxanne followed, and, flashlight in hand, the two began to walk back towards that shop.
They came to a stop once they found it. A little beat up, but not too bad. Aaron tried the door. It opened, just like any door should. He found himself walking inside the little store. It was a 24 hour shop, but the lights weren't on. He shone his flashlight back and forth. No one there. He assumed the cashier was on a break, so he walked toward the back of the shop to get snacks or something. He hadn't eaten since lunch, and it was closer to breakfast time than dinner, so he needed something to keep him going. He found a bag of sunflower seeds, a Sprite, an iced coffee, and a bag of Twinkies. Grabbing his loot, he began walking to the cash register.
And stopped dead in his tracks.
She screamed. Roxanne's familiar scream rang through the store and filled his ears. He dropped everything and ran at full speed to the front of the store. There he felt an almost uncontrollable urge to scream and run away, but his shock super-glued his feet to the floor. He didn't move.
In front of his eyes was a humanoid mass of flesh, held onto the wall by rusted chains. The bloody pulp was hung by the limbs that weren't quite arms, but that was the only way to describe the narrow strings on the upper half of it. The not-quite-legs hung limply below the not-quite-torso. The not-quite-face held no eyes. The eyes had been scratched out long ago. All that was left were two gaping holes of black where there may have once been eyes. Or maybe there were never eyes to fill those holes. The mouth had been plastered in a scream, or a roar, or mid-bite of something. This creature wasn't human, but the most terrifying part was not how the creature looked. That didn't strike as much fear into Aaron as something else about the monstrosity.
The monstrosity moved, indicating that it was alive.