by Lee Miller
Sara was already starting to catch a light buzz, but figured why the hell not. “I assume my room is still ready to be used?” Jackie asked. “Oh. Of course. I’ve washed the sheets and all, but it’s just as ready for you as the day you moved back home mom.” Sara was thankful they hadn’t decided to use the room for storage after all. She wouldn’t have cared much for the idea of moving everything back out of it. Over the next glass of wine, Sara finished telling Jackie about the other episodes she had been having, including the one to day were she saw Tommy come out of a column of clouds and shoot Beth in the back of the head. As she spoke, she realized just how crazy all of this must sound to her mother-in-law. Jackie sat quiet and listened to the stories about the insane stress her beloved daughter-in-law was under. After Sara was done speaking, silence filled the room, the only noise permeating the open space was the sound of the gusting window outside. “Sara.” Jackie began after what seemed a long time. “I can’t debunk the rest of your stories as easily as the forgotten part of the city, but have you thought that your episodes come from an overabundance of stress and not necessarily the fracturing of your mind?” Jackie’s words were soft and gentle. She had taken great care in the way she phrased the question. “I mean, dear lady! Over the past year you seem to have been fighting so hard for some sense of normalcy to return that you have built a mountain of stress on your back. Normal is a way of looking at things, it’s not just life; it’s how you view life. Granted, some of the things you’ve been through aren’t exactly anyone’s definition of ‘normal’ or anywhere close to it. I have learned in my life the harder you fight for something, the harder the fight gets. The stronger you cling to something, the more difficult it is to embrace anything new, and when what you are clinging to the most and something new weigh in equal measurements, well, the results can tend to be catastrophic, and generally not pleasant for the person in the center of it all. You need to relax dear one. Take each day as it comes and stop thinking you know what tomorrow is going to bring. Today and tomorrow are never exactly the same. Today’s normal could be tomorrows abnormal and you have to allow for that. You’ve spent all this time wanting to return to a life that will never be yours again. I’m sorry sweetie, but Chris isn’t coming back. You need to stop going through life waiting for him to walk through that door. Build a life for you, minus him. Or you’ll never find happiness again.” Sara listened intently to what Jackie had to say, and even though some of it hurt, like the mentioning of Chris and him being gone for good, she felt like a piece of the weight that had been riding her was lifting. “Perhaps she’s right” Sara thought to herself. “Maybe I need to start new, instead of trying to rebuild a life that doesn’t exist anymore.” Sara looked to Beth, and without having to even ask the question, Beth smiled and said, “Of course I’ll help. It’s you and me chica.” Sara was grateful to these two wonderful women in her life. Tomorrow they would drive out to the fog and investigate it. Tomorrow she would start building a new life for herself, and work on finally being able to let Chris go. Problem was, Tomorrows never come; there are only todays.
As the morning sun, filtered by the clouds between it and the ground, attempted to pierce the dark blanket, Sara and her two companions were getting ready to set on their trip to the mysterious fog bank. Sara thought it would do her a world of good to prove that there really was a part of the city that others had forgotten existed inside the gray swirling mass. As they ate breakfast, they sat and watched the local news for reports of the misty wall and for Sara to see if it had moved any more. She was startled to learn another two streets had disappeared over night; of course, neither Beth nor Jackie had any memory of those streets ever existing. Now that the idea was out there, Sara was not going to be dissuaded to go check out the area. She had no idea of what they were going to find, but she hoped that among other things, they find the truth. They all got geared up in their warmest cold weather clothing. They packed road flares, wool blankets, water and some food. Sara insisted they take a survival pack with them, none had any idea what to expect when they got to the misty boarder. They got the truck packed up. Taking any of the cars seemed unfeasible to Sara. The streets hadn’t been tended to in a few days and there was plenty of snow and ice built up.
As they exited the parking garage, an air of excitement and festivity filled the cab of the truck. What should be one of the scariest things any of them had done was turning out to be one of the craziest and adventurous. Sara knew in the back reaches of her mind that they should be approaching this with more caution than they seem capable of at the moment, but she found it hard to squash the humor and laughter they all shared in. Sara stopped the truck at the next intersection and shifted it into four-wheel drive. She didn’t know if they’d need it, but it was better to be safe than sorry. As she was about to put the back into gear, she looked out through the windshield at the looming dark gray wall of clouds that reached from the clouds to the ground and covered everything it touched, seemingly making everything disappear. A gentle snow was falling but seemed to get more intense the closer they got to their destination. They pulled up to within feet of the swirling mass. The road should conceivably keep going, but it appeared to just end at the edge of the wall. They sat in the truck for a bit, trying to plan their next move. “I don’t get it.” Beth was saying. “If the city ends here, why does it seem like the road should keep going?” nether she or Jackie had an answer, but Sara knew. “The city didn’t used to end here.” She offered. “This road continued. About another three miles down and on the right was were the hospital complex and Dr. Morgan’s office, but neither of you remember that.” The good cheer was suddenly gone. The massive wall in front of them seemed to suck all the happiness out of the three women. “Well, this seemed like a good idea at the time.” Sara lamented. “It still is Sara. We have questions, and this gray mess has answers, let’s go get them.” Jackie’s voice was firm and resolute. Sara thought the older woman felt more assure of their course than Sara did. Sara asked the two other women to stay in the warm tuck. She wanted to get out alone and get a feel for things. As she exited the driver’s door, an arctic air coming from the mass set in on her. She looked at the ground where it ended and followed it up for as far as she could see. She saw where it connected to the clouds above. From a distance, the wall looked to be smooth and flat, being this close; she could see it looked like the clouds above them. Jagged and swirling. It appeared to be alive; Sara could sense the malevolence coming from deep within. The wall acted like a starving caged animal that caught the scent of a nearby pray and was pulling at its restraints, trying to get to it. Sara looked to the left and right, the wall stretched as far as the eye could see in either direction. “Nothing about this makes sense.” She muttered to herself. “Logically speaking, this shouldn’t exist, but it does.” She heard a growl come from somewhere within and it unnerved her. She stepped right up to where the edge was, trying to look beyond the surface. She could barely make out shapes inside the swirling gray, wet mass. Standing at the very edge, Sara felt cold down to the very core of her bones. If it was possible, the mass was even colder than the air temperature away from it. She put her hand on the surface of the mass. A radiating cold shot through her almost like an electric jolt. She turned back towards the truck as she heard the two women open their doors. She waived for them to stay back, when she turned back towards the mass, her hand still touching its surface, she had the distinct feeling of death. She felt like she was standing in her own grave.
Then she did the stupidest thing she had ever done in her entire life, she stepped into the swirling mass. Her vision was reduced to 10 or 15 feet. It wasn’t as dense once actually inside of it. The shapes she saw from the outside made more sense to her, they were more defined. They were the buildings that should have been here. Along the streets she saw parked cars next to the curb and empty cars sitting in the middle of the road, or parked at an odd angle. Some had gone over the curb and ran into buildings. The scene looked as if the raptur
e had occurred and people just suddenly disappeared from their moving vehicle once they drove into the fog bank. She stepped back out of the dense fog to talk with Beth and Jackie about what was inside and get them to stay back. Apparently the fog didn’t have the same effect on her that it would have on them. As she exited, she saw that both Jackie and Beth had gotten out of the truck and were standing at the brink of the fog bank yelling for her. “I’m right here.” She told them, her voice more calm than she actually felt. “What the hell were you thinking?!” Jackie shot back at her. Sara knew they wouldn’t have approved of her decision to step into the fog without them. I just walked a couple of feet in and got the lay of the land. “A couple of feet in?!” both Jackie and Beth looked like they had seen a ghost. “Yes, I was only gone for a minute or two.” Sara explained. “No Sara, you were gone for a little over two hours.” Beth said. Sara looked at her friend in shock. “How can that be? I just stepped in, looked around and came back.” “We were about to say screw it and drive in to start looking for you!” Jackie added. “That would be a bad idea ladies. Apparently the city still exists inside the fog. Buildings, cars, everything. Except people. Visibility is low. For some reason the fog doesn’t have the effect on me that it has on other people.” Sara didn’t know of any other way to explain it. Apparently she could enter and exit the roiling mass unharmed. However she didn’t know how far she could go in. “if we can’t go in with you, then why the hell did we come with you?” Jackie was getting a little annoyed. “I have an idea, get the rope we brought from the truck, I’m going to tie one end to me and you two feed it as I move through the mass. If I give a sharp tug pull me back. We need answers, and I’m the only one who can get them for us. Bring the truck right to the edge and tie the very end of the rope to the bumper.” Sara instructed. “If y’all can’t go in with me, then you can at least be my lifeline to get back out.” Neither of her two companions really liked this idea, but conceded it was probably the best plan they could come up with. When everything was ready, Sara grabbed the thermos of coffee and some of the road flares. She didn’t know if she’d need light in there, but she wanted to leave nothing to chance. “Okay. We ready?” she asked. “Sara. I don’t like this. Something feels very wrong. Maybe we should just leave this alone and go back home?” Jackie was pleading with her to change her mind. “If we don’t solve this problem, we may not have a home for much longer. The walls of this monstrosity is closing in on the city, our apartment building seems to be the center. How much longer will it stay at bay?” both of the ladies knew she was right. “I’ll be back. I love you both. Nothing could keep me from returning, just be ready in case I need help.” She gave Jackie and Beth a hug. “Okay Sara, we have about 500 feet of rope. That’s your limit. Under no circumstances should you take the rope off of you.” Sara listened to Beth’s instructions with rapt attention. “Understood. I’ll be back. Hopefully we can get our answers in 500 feet or less.” Sara turned back to the oscillating wall; it appeared to be taunting her. Challenging her to try and invading it again. If it was possible, Sara thought it looked angrier than it did earlier. She stepped up to the threshold and sparked a flare; she tossed it a few feet in front of her. “Challenge. Accepted, you asshole.” She walked through the curtain of mist with purpose.
After a few feet in, she stopped and let her eyes adjust to the light change. She looked back and saw the flare was still burning and she could just barely make out the shapes of the truck and her two friends. She turned around and faced the interior of the ghostly wall. “Well, this was a bright idea.” She thought to herself. She also knew her time was limited, based off what she learned when she returned to Jackie and Beth. Time didn’t flow in here the way it did outside the veil. If she stayed in her too long, who knows what she’s find when she got back. She also knew she had to keep in mind that the wall does grow outward. She couldn’t have Beth and Jackie so close to it that it engulfed them with little to no warning, in short, she had to hurry. She was racing against time.
She walked straight down the road at a quick pace. She looked around for anything she thought worthy of investigating. She noticed that the cars were still running, some saw the fog bank and thought to turn on their headlights. She went to the right where she had seen the one of the cars that embedded itself into the side of a gas station, a few feet and this may have been a raging inferno. She pulled herself up at that thought. “Hmm…” she thought. And continued to the car. She walked around from the side of it to the back. She saw the license plate and her breath caught in her throat. It read ‘DRMORGAN’. “No way. No way it’s that easy.” She went to the driver side door and looked in, the car was still running but nobody was inside. “He must have been on his way to work.” She thought. She decided she needed to get a good look at the inside, and tried the driver’s door. It was unlocked and opened up with ease, despite the front being smashed into the wall. On the seat she found file folders. “Current patience?” she thought. She flipped through but didn’t find anything pertaining to her. She wanted to investigate deeper in, she sparked another flare and set it next to the car. She would come back here. She made her way deeper into the swirling gray fog, she noticed the temperature dropped and the mass got darker the further in she got. She figured she had gone about 300 feet when she saw something shifting on her left. She stopped and looked, she couldn’t see anything. The mass was thickening. She closed her eyes and stilled her breath. Somewhere in the distance she heard the shuffling sound of feet on pavement and a soft chuckling sound. She half thought of calling out, to see if someone was trapped and needed her help, what she heard next turned her blood into ice and sent a chill through her skin. “Hahaha… Saaaarrrrraaaaaa.” The sound seemed to come from all around her. She turned in a slow 360 degree turn to try and find her bearings and get a fix on the voice she heard. “Saaaaaarrrrrrrraaaaaa…..” The voice came to her like a whisper on the wind. “Who’s there? What do you want?” She steeled herself for the fight she thought was coming. She listened to the eerie silence. The mist that surrounded her seemed to growl in contempt at her presence inside of it. “Keep going Sara. You’ll finally get to where you are going. The truth is uglier than you can possibly imagine.” She couldn’t place the voice. It sounded like multiple voices combined into one, or maybe more like a well-timed chorus reciting words in complete unison. She continued walking deeper into the mist. “Still haven’t told me what you want.” She reminded her invisible friend. “Oh. I think you know what we want. If not, you’ll soon figure it out Sara.” The ominous tone unmistakable. She tried playing it off as a game. She figured if the voices meant her harm, better to find out sooner than later. “You said ‘we’, as you’re plural. More than one.” “Very good. Nothing much escapes you, does it? Now if you could only see the truth that’s right in front of your face.” The voices decided to play along with the game motif. “Truth is relative and always in constant fluctuation. One person’s truth is another’s lie.” Sara decided to try philosophy on her unseen visitors. “Hahaha. There is a truth only the dead know Sara. It is absolute and it’s one you’ll find. Sooner before later.” Sara felt the ice shooting up her spine and the goose pimples rising on her skin. “It’s a truth poor Jackie just found out.” It continued. Sara stopped. Fear gripped her. “Keep going ahead Sara. You’ll find out for yourself.” Sara heard what sounded like feet shuffling in every direction away from her. Like an unseen crowd dispersing. She stood there, the gray mass darkening to a shade she had never seen before. It was almost black, but just a shade off from it.