Chapter 14

After

2016

“Jen, stop!”

The warning in Katherine's voice startled him.

Jenarius stopped in his tracks and turned to face Katherine who had stopped his movement with a hand to his jacket. He was being gripped harshly and he turned to glance down at Katherine. His heart beat quickened. Her face had gone pale.

“What’s wrong?”

Her eyes were wide with fear, her mouth slightly gaping open, she pointed towards the end of lot and his eyes followed. Something was familiar about the man who was standing, lone and confident, across from them.

Jenarius strained his eyes and gripped Harvey tight against his body as he made him out. It took Jenarius a second- for he had stopped dreaming of his tormentor long time ago- but after a few more seconds of watching, he knew exactly what he was looking at.

It was him.

It was The Mist.

He felt fear, held onto it, and then he let it slide away. They still had time to run, he knew it all too well, as long as they were far away from The Mist.

Jenarius searched his eyes for Phoebe, demon Phoebe, and he stifled a groan when her misty swirl revealed her to them in a flash.

Her hair was still red, that’s what he noticed first, but she had changed- more than the obvious fact that she was dead- she was older.

10 years older.

She stood tall now, dressed terribly in the last piece of clothing she had been seen it.

Her uniform was stripped, for she had outgrown it, the material worn out, but it clung to her hips and covered her lower body, then opened at her stomach, which was as pale as the rest of her, and then appeared again to cover her breasts that had matured over the years.

Jenarius found it selfish that The Mist had an outfit- a whole fucking suit on- yet he couldn’t dress the one who was doing all the work.

Phoebe casually knelt down and hunched on all fours while The Mist stood with his hands in his pockets, he appeared the same. One side man and the other just a wisp of the black fog he could turn into at any time.

“Jen!” The Mist called, smiling. “I have missed you dearly.”

Jenarius felt Katherine stiffen beside him and he pulled her closer.

He sucked in a deep breath and let it out- willing his body to relax so he could think of a way to escape this.

A part of him, the old him that had reappeared for this drastic moment in time, told him there was no point.

“What the hell do you want?” Jenarius snapped.

“Oh, Jen,” The Mist sighed, impishly, “I’m just so weak. I need you to strengthen me, like you did before.”

Jenarius felt Katherine shiver and he gripped her hand even harder. She was so strong, so brave, unlike the screaming mess Leane had been (may her spirit rest in peace).

He broke a sweat, even in the cold wind, and didn’t know what he was meant to look at or truly be threatened by.

Phoebe patiently hovered on the ground, her head now and again rubbing the thigh of The Mist, and the monster himself only watched with a smile on his face- as though he was there for a casual tea party.

“You want strength?” Jenarius snapped angrily. “Take me only-,”

“-Jen, no!” Katherine cried out.

“-Leave my son and leave Katherine. Take me and I’ll feed you for eternity.”

Jenarius would do it, he truly would. He knew he would rather die than spend a waking moment without either Katherine or Harvey, he wouldn’t be able to bare the pain.

Not for a second time.

The Mist wasn’t having it. Once again, much like the last time they had crossed paths, he didn’t care.

Not one shitty bit.

“But my Darling, over here,” he nodded his head towards Phoebe who purred in reply, “she gets very- very- hungry.”

That was a no. A hell no, even.

Jenarius decided he would just have to sacrifice himself to save his loved ones. It would be worth it, he knew, it would.

He didn’t waste any time.

Jenarius turned to Katherine and leaned down to hand Harvey to her. She took a step back and his eyes widened in annoyance- shock- possibly both.

“What are you doing?”

She was shoving his shoulder towards the car and right at the corner of his eye, the two devils in his life had started to approach.

Katherine’s dilated pupils darted between the attackers and Jen and her child. She continued to shove at his arm, roughly urging him to leave.

“Save yourself,” she said harshly, “save Harvey!”

Jenarius wouldn’t have cared if it had been anybody else but he was looking at Katherine, Katherine! The woman who had figuratively and now almost would literally save his life.

She had given him a new life, with her and a baby. She had replaced the past with something brighter and he didn’t know how to tell her that he loved her for it.

He had always over her.

Since the first day they met and to that very moment.

“Katherine,” he begged, “I can’t do this without you.”

The Mist turned into the fog, right along with Phoebe, and they swirled together- in harmony- and shifted towards their victims.

Jenarius glanced at Katherine one last time, helpless and afraid- again- and her eyes widened in panic.

“Go!” she screamed.

Jenarius shook his head, utterly stunned.

“I’m not leaving you behind!”

Katherine was already running towards the mist, running towards doom, killing herself each step she took.

Jenarius found himself walking backwards, only to save the boy in his grip, only to make what she was about to do worth it.

He didn’t have time to see what would happen.

He opened the car door and placed Harvey in the front seat, ignoring his baby's watering eyes and loud whimpering.

Harvey wanted his mother, but right now, so did Jen.

He climbed into the front seat, right beside his son, and buckled them both up.

Jenarius faced the front and veered up the engine. It roared to life and he started to reverse just as Phoebe slammed into the windscreen.

Jenarius flinched but didn’t scream and couldn’t even think to cry even though he desperately wanted to.

This time, he had to be strong for his son or else he might as well have handed the baby to her.

Jenarius steered wildly, driving backwards, foot squashing the gas break until his ankle started to ache, turning numb- all the while his eyes were glued to the evil white eyes on the smiling face of his dead daughter.

She was kneeling on the windscreen, legs spread apart, her animalistic head snapping over and over even as she banged her pale fists against the glass.

It was going to break. He could hear it.

It cracked and cracked, the sound echoed with the engine, her screams and Harvey’s cries tuned into one brain numbing sonata but he ignored the sound.

He had to get away from her before she turned into the mist.

And as though she could hear his thoughts, even though she literally could, Phoebe smiled wickedly at Jenarius and closed her white eyes.

She began to fade, first her hands and then her legs and then her entire body wafted up into the air and turned into the mist.

Jenarius let out a whimper and it sounded worse than his baby’s cries.

He became desperate, tired, but mostly desperate.

His heart Jack hammered in his chest as he thought of a solution.

He hadn’t turned around because he was still waiting for Katherine, still hoping to see her.

They wouldn’t kill her without him there to watch, he was positive of that now.

This was all for him.

Some sick game, some stupid activity for the paranormal. He wanted to appraise them for their ambition. He had never been this focused in his entire life, even before they came and fucked everything up for him the first time.

Jenarius was losing time and he was losing time quick. Ramming the car into anything but the air wasn’t an option.

He didn’t want to accidentally kill Harvey in the process of saving him.

He steered left and the car turned sharply. Wisps of Phoebe’s floating mist sputtered around the air around the windscreen.

He pushed the gas pedal and the truck screeched forward and sped up. He glanced down at Harvey; still screaming, still crying- he had never been prouder of the boy before.

Jenarius could see Katherine in sight but it wasn’t something to celebrate about.

Her eyes were blank, her face was stony, she looked to be in shock if not for the gaping, bleeding hole on the left side of her chest.

The Mist stood beside her with his misty arm holding her up for him to see, for Jenarius to watch.

Those black eyes smiled and his mouth pulled. His physical arm lifted up as Jenarius drove right towards them and he almost broke at the sight of a bloodied organ in the hands of The Mist.

It was Katherine’s heart.

The pain came like washing waves crashing against a shore. It gripped his soul, clawed at his brain, consumed him inside and out until he couldn’t take it anymore.

Phoebe was too misty to beat the breaking wind as the car sped through the lot.

Jenarius forgot about her, forgot about Harvey, forgot about Katherine, as he glared at the man who had ruined his life.

Again.

The Mist grinned and released a shrill laugh, a mad laugh, his mouth gaped wide open as he brought his dinner to his mouth.

He bit into the heart in his hand just as Jenarius drove right through him.

But the car didn’t hit a man, it barely hit the corpse of the mother of his child The Mist had been holding onto, instead it slipped through a curtain of black fog and broke out into the air.

The heart of Katherine Wanders dropped onto the hood of Jenarius’ car and blood splattered onto his cracked windscreen as he drove faster, madly speeding up, leaving Phoebe and The Mist behind.