Chapter 43

"Dee's gone!" Jessica's words echo in Kit's ears. "They've run away!"

As if his head were underwater, his thoughts feeling muddled, he feels a cold chill spread throughout his body, his muscles cramping up and he can't move. For a moment, it's as if he has blacked out, his vision going black and all his senses disconnecting.

But then the sound of the phone hitting the floor startles him out of his daze, and he sees Baz and Aster staring at him with concerned looks on their faces.

He can see Aster's mouth moving, but he can't hear any sounds coming out.

A violent tremor ran through his whole body. Like a million tiny insects crawling over his skin, beads of cold sweat break out across his back.

A bad omen.

Was that what that was? This morning, that sensation that something had been observing them, had that meant something? Had his mind, subconsciously been trying to warn him, tell him something was wrong? No, that was unrealistic. But perhaps…

Stranger things had definitely happened. If Jessica had said that she had been trying to contact Kit but hadn't been able to. Could something have been blocking the signal?

Someone pinches his side, and Kit is startled out of his spiralling train of thought.

"Hey, Kit." Baz's face looms very near his own. "Say something." Both Baz and Aster are looking at him with concerned expressions.

Ashamed, Kit looks away, down at the floor, and accidentally he sees his phone that had fallen from his hand. The black screen stares up at him, the call has long since cut off, Jessica hanging up when he had stopped answering. But remembering Jessica's message, he feels his stomach twisting into a tight knot.

"Kit." Baz pinches him again. "Stay with us. What's wrong?"

Kit shakes his head. Trying to speak, he finds his mouth has gone completely dry, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth. To speak, even if he wanted, would have been impossible. It's as if all the words had died in his throat and were suffocating him.

Baz leans over him, placing a hand on his forehead as if checking for a fever. The action forces Kit to look up, and now he's staring directly into Baz's eyes, his own shell shocked expression reflected on Baz's pupils staring back at him.

"Kit," Baz is staring at him intently, "tell me, what's wrong?"

Again, Kit tries to answer, his mouth opening and closing, not even able to form words.

Aster looks worriedly between the two of them. "Baz," the space between xeir brow is furrowed, "let him breathe."

There's the pinprick of tears at the corner of Kit's eyes. He squeezes his eyes shut, willing them to go away. He tries to take a deep breath, but it still feels like his throat is closing off. "Dee…" he manages to gasp out. "They disappeared. Gone."

"Gone?" Aster's frown deepened. "What do you mean gone? Gone where? People just don't disappear."

Kit shakes his head. I don't know, he wants to say. His thoughts are all overlapping, and he can't make sense of them.

'Dee's gone.' That was all Jessica had been able to tell him.

Something like this should not have happened. Dee was supposed to be safe, should have been safe from all of this. Why would they run away? Why?

"Kit!" Aster's voice cut through Kit's thoughts. "Focus! You say Dee's gone? Then do something! Go! Don't just stay sitting there!" Xe throws the flower vase, on the bedside table, with flowers and all, at Kit. But perhaps due to xeir injury, the aim is off, and Baz has to duck, only narrowly avoiding having his skull split open.

Kit cringes at the sound of the glass shattering against the wall behind them. That will definitely not go by unnoticed by the hospital staff. Any moment now, a nurse will be coming by to see what the deal is.

Baz clicks his tongue in disapproval, shaking his head at the broken pieces of the vase on the floor. "That was a gift, you know." The flowers lie miserably on the floor amidst a rapidly spreading puddle of water and shards of glass.

Aster upturns xeir nose. "They were ugly."

Baz just sighs and turns away from the mess behind him. He gives a light kick to the leg of the chair where Kit is sitting. "Aster is right though," Baz gives him a serious look, "you should go."

Kit shakes his head to clear it. It's true. Staying here, only thinking about the what-ifs and worst case scenarios, would not help, and he would only end up driving himself crazy. It would be better for him to go and verify what had actually happened.

~~~

"I don't know what to do." Jessica looks around nervously. "What am I supposed to do?" She had come out to meet Kit at the park near her house. She was bundled up in several layers of clothes, her figure smothered under at least three different coats. Jessica buries her face in her hands, her mittens making her voice come out muffled, "I couldn't even bring myself to tell my mom." She groans. "Sorry for dragging you into this, Kit. Ah, you know, it's probably not that big of a deal and we'll find her hidden away in the backroom of some shop eating the poor owner out of house and home." Jessica gives a weak laugh.

Kit wants to believe her words, but it's obvious not even Jessica herself believes them.

"She couldn't have gone far, right? I mean, someone would have noticed a kid wandering the streets alone and would have reported it."

"Unless they shifted into a fox."

That gives Jessica a pause. "You're right." She chews on the tip of her thumb. "What do you propose we do?"

If he had something of Dee's, he could trace her trial and they could find her. But Jessica had been adamant that her mother would not find out about Dee's disappearance and getting something of Dee's out of the house would be too suspicious. Any sort of magic for finding another person required that there be something of the missing individual to be present. It looks like they were stuck with looking for Dee the old-fashioned method.

"Should we split up?" Jessica keeps chewing on her thumb. "To cover more ground?"

"It's the best we can do."

It's the only thing they can do.

~~~

Night is already falling, and Dee is still nowhere to be seen.

He blows on his hands to try and keep them warm, and he sees as his breath fogs in the air. In a few hours it would be so cold that being out like this would be almost impossible. Spending the night out in the open, any person would most certainly freeze to death.

Dee, where are you?

He should be feeling tired from how much he has been walking, but rather, he feels numb, his surroundings have become a blur as more time passes and all the houses and streets have started to look the same.

He's not getting anywhere like this.

Dee… They've only known each other for a short time, yet he has grown attached to her. To think that something might have happened to her… He feels his stomach turn at the thought.

He goes to sit down at a nearby bench. He runs a hand through his hair. He takes a deep breath.

Suddenly his phone rings.

It's Jessica.

A hundred possibilities run through his mind in the few seconds it takes to press the answer button with shaky hands.

"Kit." Jessica's voice sounds far away. He can barely focus on what she's saying, his brain thinking up all the worst possible scenarios. "-Kit, can you hear me? Did you hear what I just said?"

"Ah, yeah. Sorry. I'm listening now."

"Kit, they found her. They found Dee."

He can hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears, all the blood rushing to his head.

"She's alive."

For the first time that day, Kit is able to let out a sigh of relief. "Where are they?" his own voice sounds hoarse to him.

"About that…" Jessica falls quiet a few seconds. "They… They're not answering. I- I think it would be better if you saw for yourself."

Kit doesn't remember how he got to the hospital. To be honest, most details from that time are a bit unclear to him.

Apparently, while he and Jessica had been focused on looking for Dee in the more populated areas in town, Dee had been somewhere far away, because someone else had stumbled across them at the edge of the forest. She had already been unconscious when they had found her. The cause was unknown. The doctors couldn't find any physical damage, external nor internal, other than a few scratches here and there.

But it's been three days and still there were no signs of Dee waking up anytime soon.

Ever since they had been brought in, Kit hadn't left their side. The few times he'd had to go away, he couldn't help but want to rush back to Dee's side.

If Dee were to wake up, he wanted to be there. If something were to happen and he wasn't there this time, his guilt would keep eating at him forever. She was supposed to be his responsibility, and even if the circumstances were a special case, he kept telling himself he could have done more.

He's been dozing off in a chair for the last couple of hours when he's suddenly woken up by the sound of the bed sheets rustling. (He's been so on edge lately, even the smallest sound like this is enough to have him awake and alert.)

Dee is slowly starting to stir; fingers twitching and their eyelashes flutter against their cheeks. Their head starts moving from side to side, as if she were having an unpleasant dream. Until finally, her eyes fly open.

They have woken up.

Feeling like he has his heart in his throat, Kit calls out her name, "Dee…"

Slowly, Dee turns her head to face him. They blink a couple of times, fixing him with a blank stare.

Kit opens his mouth to say something, but Dee speaks before he can.

"Who are you?" Their voice sounds hollow, with no life.

"Dee… It's me."

Suddenly realising where they are, Dee sits up and their head whips around. "Where am I?" Panic starts creeping into their voice. "What is this place? Who are you?!"

Kit moves closer, trying to approach her and calm her down, but when he tries to place a hand on her shoulder, Dee shrinks away.

"Don't touch me!" she shrieks. "Get away!" She covers her face with her hands, her voice verging on hysteria. "Where… Where am I? What am I doing here? What is this place?"

"Dee, listen to me-"

"NO!" Her voice is a high pitched scream, "Stay away!" Her hands have come to clutch the sheets at her sides, her eyes darting around like a wild beast trapped in a corner. "What is this… What is this?! WHAT IS THIS?!" She keeps repeating the same phrase, rocking back and forth, her hands pulling at her hair.

Kit is reminded of the woman out on the street when the dead birds had started falling from the sky. They both have the same crazed look in their eyes. Both her and Dee, it's like they have gone completely mad.

Soon, there are nurses coming into the room, but upon seeing them, Dee only starts screaming louder. There are no longer words coming out, just shrieks. When they try to approach her, they jump down from the bed and back away to a corner of the room. Their eyes keep darting around, bloodshot and frenzied, her breathing coming out fast and heavy.

And then in the blink of an eye, they have turned into their fox form and they are running out, past the doctor and nurses, away from Kit.

Without thinking about it, Kit tries to run after them. But there's too many people, the hallways are too crowded and it's too easy to lose sight of them amongst the crowd.

He bursts out of the hospital's front doors panting, his heart beating a mile an hour.

Dee… He's lost them again.

Dee, wherever you are, I promise I will find you. I promise I will make things right this time. I won't let you be alone again.

He finds himself wandering the streets. He hasn't contacted anyone, no one has contacted him either. He figures the hospital staff has already informed Jessica, and Jessica has told the others. In a way, he's grateful for being left alone. He doesn't think he would be in the mood to talk to anyone right now.

In his shock, he hasn't even noticed that he has come to the edge of the forest, right where the last houses (now empty for safety reasons) are.

What could have happened? Just what is hiding in the forest? What could it have been to have made Dee turn like this?

Suddenly the forest seems darker, more sinister. It's almost like a murderous aura coming from it. Yes, the Forest of Mist has always been a source of wonder, more spine-chilling than anything, but never outright menacing. Not like now.

Kit feels a shiver run down his spine, like when someone's gaze falls on your back. A cold breeze hits his face. The metallic smell of blood fills his nostrils. It's coming from the forest.

He sees tendrils of mist curling out from the trees, crawling across the ground. He crouches down to examine it, but is almost immediately knocked back by a blast of wind. He hits the back of his head, spots swimming across his vision for a few seconds, and before he can get back up, there is another blast of wind, this one stronger than the last one. The mist has spread farther now, surrounding him completely. And it only keeps increasing.

The stench of blood has also increased along with the amount of mist.

The mist… Only now is he noticing the smell is from the mist.

This was bad. If this were to be an occurrence like the blood rain, this could be the end.

No, this was most definitely a sign of the end. The demon had played all its cards, the stage had already been set. It was time for the play to come to its conclusion.