(Content/trigger warnings for this chapter: anxiety)

**Isabelle**

Stars glimmered in the sky above us, and a slight wind whispered through the trees in nearby yards, keeping me cool while we ran. We sprinted until we grew tired, breathing in fresh, frigid air; then we slowed, trekking around glossy puddles and slush on the edge of the street, illuminated by lampposts. Faded two-story houses in a variety of soft pastel tones and familiar shapes stood on either side of the pavement. I gripped the straps over my shoulders tightly.

Shadows worked to cloak everything outside our path, but Ranya was with me. As long as I stayed near her, I could keep my fear at bay, though my heart beat fast and my ears strained for any odd sounds. I jumped and my heart spluttered at every one as I tried to reassure myself that it was just a normal night happening. I was on this trip to get rid of my powers and therefore keep myself safe from the dangerous supernatural. To be rid of the fear of Pitch, Fear Angels, and Terror Storms. That was enough motivation to push me forward.

I was about to speak, my eyes darting a thick rustling bush, when Ranya said, "The school's not far." She glanced at me, her green irises still visible in the dimness. "A couple more blocks, and then that street surrounded by fields—I think they're growing beans this year—and a few more short blocks." She readjusted the duffel bag, slinging the strap over her head to her opposite shoulder.

Then we filled each other in on our schools' attacks. I told her about my vision and how I'd recognized the Fear Angels, spilling how I couldn't use my powers anymore because they were making the symbol grow, and Ranya spoke about the vanishing white mist and details about her encounters with Dakota and the Nightmare King. I had a feeling she was leaving something out, though. Something about what Pitch had said or done.

"So who was the boy who told Jack I was in danger?" she asked when we finished.

I shrugged. "I think he's a fourth grader. I saved him from falling off the playground yesterday, but I don't know him otherwise. He said he was… possessed by a woman who lured you into your high school. But he was too scared to tell us her full plan."

Ranya stiffened. She opened her mouth, but then closed it and shook her head. "Thanks for telling me."

My heart began to beat quicker, and I shivered as a stronger breeze slipped down the back of my warm coat. What did she know that she wasn't telling me? My eyes snapped to a tall overgrown poplar as I jumped from a wooden creaking sound. Fear was exhausting. "Do you know how to contact Mother Nature? I'm wondering if she could help protect me. I know she's temperamental, but…" I bit my lip.

Ranya drew a hand through her hair and looked into the distance. "Yeah, that makes sense. And Jack left you today—the Guardians are protecting our whole family, so you need someone who's only protecting you." She shook her head. "Honestly, though, I don't know how to contact Mother Nature. No one in the books ever tried, and she wasn't in the movie, so we don't have an example to follow. But sometimes she's just watching. She's watched the Guardians before. Maybe she's doing it to us right now."

I glanced through the shifting darkness.

"Only Tooth and Jack can sense her if she's hidden," Ranya explained. "I don't see her, so if she is around, she doesn't want us to know."

Then something in the air suddenly changed. The little hairs on my back stood on end, and I whipped my head around as my heart pounded harder. This was more than just strange sounds I could eventually explain.

Ranya followed my gaze and stepped closer. "What's wrong?"

"I think there's something dangerous here!"

She relaxed and sighed. "How come?"

I threw my head back. No dark clouds brewed in the speckled sky, so it wasn't a Terror Storm. "I just feel like there's something near us." I stepped closer to Ranya. "Not Mother Nature, but something bad. I just have a feeling."

"Maybe it's an animal or something. We're almost at the fields—look." Ranya pointed as we rounded the last triangular house. I could hardly see the wide stretch of road bordered by thick snowy fields sifting in the wind. Precarious powerlines ran along one edge. Darkness nearly completely smothered the area; no lampposts lit the road, only the stars and Windshallow-purple crescent Moon.

I gripped the straps over my shoulders tighter. I began to tremble. Ranya glanced over at me. "Here—how about we run?" she said. Far away, I could see dim lights just peeking through the darkness.

Something rustled in the cloaked field, too loud and large to be wind. Ranya's hand flew over my mouth; she pulled me down behind the three-foot-tall cliff of snow bordering the edge of the road. We stayed crouched for a moment. The wind howled, and I strained my ears for any other odd sounds, a footstep or a voice. My heart wouldn't stop pounding. But nothing happened, and Ranya slowly stood and lifted her head above the snowbank.

I sensed something behind me, and spun.

A thick white mist bloomed across the streets behind us like a bright ash cloud, rapidly growing, towering and expanding to my sides. Sharp, spiny beings formed at the front. They reminded me of snakes, but perhaps even more of the one picture of starving children I'd seen.

In the brief moment while I processed what I saw, I witnessed frail trees in the nearest yards vanish as the fog enveloped them.

I screamed, "Ranya!"

Her gaze snapped over her shoulder, and her eyes widened. She yanked me to my feet even before I had the chance to stand. "Run!"

We sprinted down the road. Each rapid pound of my heart shook my body like my bag slamming hard into my back. The mist was fifty feet from us, but moved quicker than we. It stretched to the sides, all-encompassing.

My mind went through a thousand possible ideas on how to survive. None of them were good.

Yet, I still tried to shout over my panting, my voice shaking, "Can we hide… where it won't get us?" I desperately scanned our surroundings a hundredth time. Only flat fields smothered in deep snow, and leaning powerlines, all directly in the mist's path where they would vanish, sat around us. I wasn't certain what I was looking for, but I didn't find it.

"You can't hide from… the mist!" Ranya breathed, and she tried to yank me faster. But we couldn't pump our legs any more rapidly. The fog consumed the electric wires, shutting off the lampposts and other house lights behind us. We plunged even further into darkness. The mist beings' low hoarse whispering reached me in a language I couldn't comprehend. It sounded as if it had come before time itself.

I desperately scanned the dark fields again. Did any of them have a vehicle we could drive? No. Any people who could help? No one lived out here.

All of this happened in less than a second.

"Do you have any… weapons for the mist?" I asked Ranya.

"No. We just have to… run. The mist will… leave eventually." Her voice shook. When would the mist leave? After it had killed us?

There was one thing I could think of that might help. There wasn't much hope otherwise. I held my free hand back toward the fog, trying frantically to concentrate on a shield or freezing the mist in time, anything that might spur my powers to life. But my thoughts ran too quickly for me to catch. I kept trying.

I pictured the mists freezing. My filigree chains blooming from my fingers and somehow wrapping around the white fog. I imagined forming a shield like a bubble around Ranya and me, shutting out the mist right when it was about to… How would it feel to vanish? Would it be painful? Would it be like dying?

The fog was ten feet from us now. Ranya tried to push us to run faster. I tried harder to concentrate. My powers, my powers. My shield's stained glass material. It wrapping around us… The mist was moving awfully fast.

It was five feet from us now. I screamed. Shields… Death… Time… Mist… I still held my shaking hand toward it. It rushed us. I thought of a shield. Its twinkling material and swirly star patterns.

Blue glassy substance bloomed from my fingers, spiraling into stars and swirls and mosaics. As the mist shot closer, the shield formed a bubble against the ground around us and shut the fog out.

My heart slowed a fraction.

The mist bounced off the edge of the shield. Mist beings raked and gnawed against it, but it held strong.

I fell to the ground, still trembling as their hoarse whispers from snake-like tongues filled the air around us. For a moment, their whispering shifted to English: "Dakota Halbrook is jaded against the supernatural. The Watcher's curse has devastated her future—her college dreams, her career, and her desire for a spouse and children. That is why she despises the Guardians; they're bringing more trouble to an already-cursed town."

Ranya took her own shaky breaths. We watched the shield as the mist beings' words turned to their guttural language again. No mist came through, and the intricate stained glass-like shield didn't disappear. I remembered the suspicious sound we had heard earlier and searched the darkness. Had that been who controlled the fog?

I stood back up.

I didn't know how long we stayed there staring before Ranya turned to me. "We're safe, Isabelle. The fog will go away soon. It went away last time."

But I couldn't believe I was safe. Fear kept screaming through my bones that I still might die, despite being inside a shield the mist couldn't get through. Fear screamed and screamed and wouldn't quiet.

An hour later, Ranya's stance relaxed, and she began falling asleep standing up, though she always jerked awake after a few minutes. I never slept. I watched the mist, always holding one hand out toward it in case the shield failed. And I made certain it was solid. My eyes begged me to sleep, but I couldn't drop my guard. I longed for safety, for rest, and my body pleaded with me to calm, but my brain kept firing warning signals, telling me I must stay awake or I would die. I barely noticed when daylight sifted through the mist.

The white fog, and then my shield, faded, though I refused to move until Ranya walked into the normal Windshallow mist to confirm that dangerous things weren't still hiding somewhere.

My heart rate eventually slowed to a calm. Then I could barely move without falling asleep.

As we finished walking to the high school, my head ached hard, and my thoughts were hazy. They whirred within my skull, though, still tainted with fear of who or what had lurked in the dark. Who had summoned the mist? And why? They had gone to Ranya's school, and then had come after us when we escaped our house. None of the Guardians had ever come across it; so was it after Ranya specifically?

That was what the boy had been warning about, hadn't it? Was the being who had lured Ranya back into her high school behind the mist?

Someone had to ask him more about that being and her plan. Ranya wouldn't be able to beat Pitch if the woman behind the mist attacked her whenever she stepped outside the Guardians' protection. I just had to figure out who that boy was. Then I could tell Ranya so she could ask him and find out how to defeat the mist, and no one could love me more and make me closer to becoming a dead body.

Except… Ranya would have more love for me if I told her about all that, helped her.

Did I… have to do it myself? But wouldn't that make me get more love, too, since the boy would know what I was doing, being kind to my sister? Perhaps he'd be more scared since he feared the possessing woman, but others might find out, and perhaps the boy would grow braver once she had been defeated, and he would love me then. And trying to learn about the possessing woman in general would be dangerous. She might come after me if she saw or heard about what I was doing. Based on what I'd seen at my school when the pale boy lost possession, she seemed to be invisible. What if she was watching me right now?

My heart pounded.

(A/N: I appreciate all favorites, reviews, and follows! And my Discord server is still open! Join to talk and make friends with other RotG fans, including myself, share your own and others' fanworks, talk about mine, and even, if you choose, get notified every time I post! I have the link on my profile (FFN won't let me post it here)!)