In the mist

The Comrades settled on the border of Haloria and Keshock, a village known for its abundance of rocks, water, and quality meat that came at high prices, but those were not the things the Comrades knew them for. The attack on Haloria was the third in five decades with the one on Keshock being the first.

The people of Keshock had fled their homes and escaped into the neighboring villages, towns, and districts, coming back years after when their new Chief informed them of the deal made with the Vampire King. Since then the peace and tranquility in the village was remarkable with them flourishing more than before.

" His scent is coming from the market ". Cadbury told the rest of the Comrades as they growled in anger, thinking their leader had deceived them.

The strands of cloaks they found on the ground carried with them their leader's scent, the scent that led them hitherto, to the border between the village and the district, but when they got to the border, the scent seemed to have vanished giving them the impression that their leader and King had misled them. They were intending to enter the village in their vampire form and scare the humans.

" He did not pass here but a place where the natural factors had rid him of scent. I smell it now from the market ". Cadbury added and jumped over the border with the Comrades following him.

•

Caroline and Edgar continued in their journey, with the former creating more space between them than when they entered the woods. Though his face was all neat and the smell of blood was discarded from his skin, she couldn't but imagine him eating the meat, raw as it was without being heated up. It made her compare him to an animal and feel pity for him as if he was caused.

They walked out of the woods following the bank of the lake and through a stone bridge. The splendor of the bridge distracted her from the disturbing image of Edgar, as she marveled at the architectural design of it. Across it to the other side, trees gathered again, man-crafted, with the darkness of the woods on the other side of the lake coming to be seen at the end of this woods. She accredited such darkness to the surplus arrangement of trees at the edge of each wood.

The ducks, the clear water, the pebbles of different colors, the bridge, and the darkness that gave off an eerie feeling, Caroline inscribed every detail in her head, vowing she would come in the nearest future to visit the place.

Out of the woods, they walked down a slope and came to stand on an expanse of land with gigantic black rocks piled on both sides. Cold and dust welcomed them as they tripped farther into the empty and barren land that was of natural beauty in Caroline's eyes. She found the place appealing to behold as she compared the places they had passed.

On one side was the freshness, the greenery, the everything life, and on the other, the emptiness, the dryness, and the cold. She smiled at the demarcation between blossom and emptiness. A new phase of her life was starting but she had stories to tell.

The pile of rocks continued as they entered a cloud of mist that blurred her vision and until they were deeper in it, she got to see more mist gathering from the ground and reaching above them to a height she did not know. The cold that hit them when they entered the land was little compared to the one that wrapped around her.

" Edgar ". She called to him as they penetrated more with the mist becoming heavy and the cold, spine-wrenching. His footsteps were still heard close to her but the mist did not permit her to see him. " Edgar ". She called louder when he did not answer the first question. For some reason, she felt afraid.

In the mist, she moved further, comforting herself with the thought that because of the mist, Edgar could not hear or see her as well. She enveloped herself with her arms, her teeth chattering as the cold increased.

Suddenly, out of the mist, a hand held her and she sighed thinking it was him but when she looked down at it, it was bony with fingernails, long and sharp. Caroline screamed as she tried to get it off her, but the grip around her wrist was tight, dragging her to the side of the mist where Edgar was meant to be. An ear-piercing scream erupted in her throat again as she struggled with the hand to free herself.

Another held her right ankle another hand, her left ankle. She screamed louder as the hand that reached her right wrist curled like a snake and tightened around her arm.

" Edgar!!! ". She called him, her voice becoming hoarse. The hands around her tightened more as though wanting to crush her bones.

From the front, another one, a longer one came for her mouth. Caroline shook where she was as those hands that wrapped her limbs seemed to have changed their minds and held her in position for the other hand to wrap around her head.

She screamed, her eyes widening as the hand clasped her neck and swathed her head, closing her mouth and her eyes in the process. She kept shaking for freedom, even when it looked like she had been defeated and her body succumbed to the ache around her hands and feet.

It was suffocating, the hand that enclosed her head. It was depriving her of her breath, slowing down her heartbeat. She struggled more and more. Was this his plan? To take her out of the district, only to kill her in the end?

Her eyes became heavy and her blood, hot as she felt her life seep out of her, from her feet to her neck and her lids, her body was shutting out on her.