More Fractured Tales stories!
It was Halloween… a day she had once loved to celebrate… when she was younger… but that felt like a lifetime ago now.
And yet… she remembered those times so well.
She would go into town in the morning and walk the streets… admiring the decorations in the front yards, and in the windows of the houses.
She remembered being amazed at the creativity of the displays.
At noon she would stop for lunch in a small cafe… her annual treat of homemade french fries and chicken nuggets… the only time she ate fried food.
Then she would hurry home to turn on the lights… plug in the animated items… and check that everything was working.
Next was her costume… a different one each year… and she strived to make it the very best that she could.
Finally, she set out the treats… bowls and bowls of every kind of Halloween treat she had been able to find in the stores… and of course, there were always plenty of treats left over.
Ohhhh… those had been such enjoyable times.
But then, seven years ago… everything changed.
That was the first time the fog came in… the Halloween Fog she called it.
And it was the last time she had enjoyed… or made preparations for… the holiday… she had not celebrated Halloween since then.
She looked out the window of her little house… the fog was already rolling in from out on the bay… moving across the land… just like it always did… every year without fail… on Halloween.
Opening the front door, she stepped outside… it was cold and damp outside… but then, she had known it would be.
It was just a few feet from her door… a thick wall of insubstantial mist… and if you stretched out your hand, you could actually feel it.
But she had no intention of getting that close… she had learned her lesson seven years ago… a memory that still made her shiver.
Oh, there was fog at other times… but not like this… this dense green stuff… that moved and reshaped itself.
It was the reason she did not pick up Halloween treats anymore… no one came to get them now.
She knew that people thought she was weird… that she was mentally unstable… but she knew the difference… she knew it was the Fog that kept them away.
This fog… the Halloween Fog… was not just an ordinary fog.
To begin with… it was a ghoulish green colour… and everything it touched was left with… a cold, slimy feeling after the Fog retreated.
But that wasn’t the worst… it appeared to move and change shape… almost as if it was alive.
Logically, she knew that fog was not alive… but this was different.
If you stood still… and gazed into it too long… it was mesmerizing… perhaps even hypnotizing.
Soon it would surround the entire house… so dense that she would not be able to see past it… the Fog would be all she could see.
Three years ago, a physiologist called it homichlophobia… or some fake name like that… and told her to make an appointment… but she never did.
She knew the truth… she could feel it in every fibre of her being.
Something was out there in that Fog… and it wanted something from her… and when the time was right… she would find out.
As she started to tremble… she went back inside… closed and barred the door… drew the heavy curtains across every window… and waited for the terror to begin.
