Into the Mist

Chapter I- We Warn You

…Our next story this morning: county authorities are investigating what appears to be yet another case in a string of brutal murders and disappearances that have plagued the area for the past several weeks. Surveillance footage indicates that the assault occurred at around 2:00 A.M. outside this local convenience store. The video shows a customer in the back parking lot after exiting the store. Said customer was then immediately attacked by an unknown assailant.

We warn you, what you are about to see is disturbing…

A young, brown-haired boy with green highlights in his bangs sat across from the television on the living room couch, his mouth rejecting the marshmallow cereal he ate onto his lap as the footage unfolded on the Channel 4 News Network.

In the recorded footage depicted on the screen, a middle-aged male with short brown hair had just set his groceries in the truck bed behind the cab of his Ford Escalade, just seconds before getting jumped by an unusually tall and very unusually hairy-looking intruder. The soundless footage reflected a man-sized object, at least six feet tall with striking muscular features and long fingers landing atop the unfortunate man, pinning him to the concrete while raising a long middle finger high in the air. Blood sprayed violently from the man’s neck as the digit stabbed into his jugular artery. Finally, in a hold akin to a cradle, the assailant buried his face into the wound, stopping the flow of blood as it trickled down the man’s neck. Mere fractions of a second later, neither victim nor attacker remained at the scene, leaving a scraped-along pool of blood on the concrete next to the truck.

…At this point, police are continuing their search for both victim and assailant. The identity of the attacker remains unknown…

“SAM!” demanded a shrill feminine voice, causing the boy to jolt his head towards the origin of the sound. In the doorway to the living room stood a woman in her mid-forties, average height with short, brown hair. One could tell by the way she folded her arms around under her breasts, hidden by a white and purple floral dress, that she was not pleased.

“M-Mom!” Sam sputtered, causing even more cereal to spill from his mouth. “I didn’t-"

“Save it. I come down here for my morning coffee, and I find you with cereal spilled all over your lap! On top of that, you know you’re not supposed to be eating in the living room!”

“Sorry, mom…” Sam knew he had been caught with no way out.

“You had better go upstairs and get some new pants, mister!” his mother commanded. “Hurry up, you have school in twenty minutes, and… are you watching the news again?!”

“…yes.” sighed Sam.

“Sam, you know you’re not supposed to watch the news!” his mother commanded.

“But mom, some guy just got jumped outside the gas station on the corner! There was more blood than you would believe!”

“Especially not that type of story!” reprimanded his mother. “You’re only ten years old! This stuff could really mess you up! Do you want to have nightmares from television?! You’re lucky your father…”

Her voice trailed off as she too glanced at the T.V., continuing to watch the newscast.

“…I'm Deborah Dunhamm, and we have an exclusive interview with county police chief, Michael Reiley and his son Seymour, an up-and-coming star for the county department. Sir, can you tell us exactly why these cases are so unusual for murder and kidnappings? How about a scoop?”

“Well, Deborah…” Michael began to explain. “…the reason that we’ve taken special interest in this case if for the same reason we take any case- the health and safety of the community and our department. We just don’t understand how this could mark the eighteenth confirmed killing in only twenty days. It’s baffling, the numbers, the lack of conclusive evidence, the method…

“MOM! We’re out of toilet paper upstairs!” cried a slightly younger voice, much akin to the middle-aged woman accompanying Sam in the living room. Surely enough, the figure bypassed the two with a cup of coffee in hand, only to crane her neck around at the T.V. to see what all of the fuss was. She spoke in a cute, somewhat geeky voice, wore a purple fleece hoodie, grey sweatpants, and shoes accentuated by her long, brown hair, one pink and one lavender streak presented itself from her bangs to the ends above her lower back.

“…Um… mom?” she chirped. “Are you listening to me?”

“…Methods? How are they strange? Seymour, how about an opinion from you, the star rookie of the county S.T.A.R.S. team?”

“…Um… actually, I’m not officially a S.T.A.R.S. team member yet. I just applied for a position. But the methods the department has found evidence of do strike us as quite unsettling…”

“Hey, Amber, it’s your boyfriend!” Sam teased, snickering as he pointed to the handsome young man on the television.

“SHUT UP, SAM!” Amber Simmens, now blushing furiously, commanded at the joking ten-year-old. The girl, however, did lean in to see the newscast herself. The screen in her view revealed the person in question- a young man in his early twenties wearing a white regulation police uniform with two grey stripes on each shoulder, the front fitted with four pockets of equal size. The white color contrasted his tar-black hair quite well, his bangs parted in a way that portrayed his forehead while covering his temples and half of his cheeks, while the back remained straight and relatively ordinary. One could just barely make out his white undershirt, as well as the upper portion of his black uniform pants.

“Amber, be nice!” their mother interrupted. “And Sam, stop teasing your sister.”

“Fine…” groaned Sam in defeat.

“…How exactly do you mean ‘unsettling’?”

“Well, because we’ve never seen anyone be attacked or killed like this. The markings on the concrete, the weird fur left behind… it’s almost as if some animal has been doing this. But even then, we can’t figure out why they would kill seventeen others in the same way so quickly.”

“Correct.” Michael, the black-haired, slightly overweight mid-forties father of the twenty-one-year-old spoke. "The county police department have therefore put out a number of advisories instructing citizens to stay away from any wild or stray animals they may encounter. We’ve also put up a rabies advisory with the help of the city health department.”

“But Mr. Reiley, that does not explain the images on the videos we’ve recovered from the crime scene. Whatever did this looked to be at least six feet tall. What type of animal around here could do something like this?”

“It could have been a black bear. But the assailant looks a bit too… lean to be a bear. We’ve seen mountain lions, but only very rarely in this area. And coyotes don’t do this sort of thing alone.”

“Officer Seymour, could this at all be a rabid man?”

“Likely not, as a man at this stage of the rabies virus would be incapacitated from pain and seizures. Aside from that, humans infected with the rabies virus typically die long before twenty days, once symptoms appear. Violence and erratic behavior last less than that period as well, as after a few days, the human body will go into a coma in most cases.” spoke Seymour. “I’ve seen a case of clinical rabies in my line of work, it definitely is not pretty.”

“Furthermore, the most important advice we can give our citizens at the moment is to stay out of the woods, and not to wander around at night…”

*Click*

“Aaaw, what?! Come on, Mom!”

“Alright, you two.” the woman in question spoke. “Finish getting ready for school. That means you, Amber. And Sam, go change your pants for the love of God.”

“Alright mom…” Sam grumbled, having to get up from the warm spot on the couch he had created over the past twenty minutes. Within a few seconds, Sam had begun walking upstairs to his room.

“AND NO MORE NEWS!” his mother called. “YOU’RE TOO YOUNG TO UNDERSTAND THAT STUFF!”

Their mother then turned to face amber, still beet red from the earlier comment.

“Amber, you really need to lay off that boy.” she spoke.

“…Who now?” Amber questioned. “Sam?”

“No, that Seymour kid you’re always looking at. And yes, I’ve seen you staring at him when you walk by the police department. I was driving that same road.”

“MOM…!” Amber began to defend. “I am not always looking at him…”

“Oh please, I know you’re going to go try to talk to him after school today.”

“Wait, how did you figure that out?!” Amber asked, worried about her mother’s answer.

“I you forget that I can hear you in the next room over… Once you’re a mother, you’ll understand that we can be everywhere at once, kiddo.”

“I’m just going to meet him! We’re just going to be friends!” protested Amber, blushing lightly. “Well, hopefully… if he can see past my social insecurities.”

“Amber, he’s four years older than you.” reasoned her mother. “You could always find someone more your age if you tried.”

“Mom, I’m eighteen.” grumbled the teen, turning around to face the wall. “Aren’t I allowed to choose who my friends are, even if it’s just a little bit of choice?”

Her mother looked down with a cocked eyebrow at the teenager’s butt crack.

“Then what’s with the thong?”

Amber’s heart skipped a beat, leaving her face even redder than before.

“I-I am not wearing a thong…!” she lied.

However, this tactic appeared to be too little too late, as her mother had already snuck up behind her, quickly grabbing the strap of a bright red thong, letting it snap back against her skin like a rubber band.

“AIIEEE!” Amber shrieked, rubbing the new red line on her lower back. “Ugh, rude!”

“Amber, I know you better than anyone else in this world. You don’t ever wear sweat pants… Believe me, I was there too at your age. But I don’t want you just parading around in skimpy underwear causing a pep-rally in some boy’s pants. Besides making you look like you come from a family full of immorality, you look like a slut yourself.”

“…Mom… who are you to tell me who I can’t be friends with?” Amber protested. “You aren’t in charge of my relations with my friends and acquaintances!”

“That may be true, Amber, but I am in charge of how you are to present yourself to the outside world.” her mother explained. “And as your mother, I am telling you that romance can wait. You need to keep on top of your school work like you’ve been the rest of your life if you want to get into Harvard on a full ride, don’t you?”

“Mom, there are no romantic feelings emanating from me at this time! I don’t even know the guy!” Amber denied, turning toward the kitchen and away from her prying mother.

“…Are there now?”