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They came out of the mist when they came.

Technically, the mist came first. The first mystery, the mist. falling on our little town one morning, one bright, bright summer morning when mist is incongruous and just should not be. Yet there it was, this all encompassing mist, covering everything.

Smith said it was an accident at the science laboratory on the outskirts of town.

“Must be” he said, offering no real explanation as to why, but we accepted it because it made as much sense as anything, and a lot more sense than other theories in any case.

“Will it make us sick?” Gwen asked, her general nervousness ramped up to near hysteria. It took so little with Gwen.

“Maybe,” Smith said, ever the optimist. “I think probably it might. Best to stay indoors if you can.”

She didn’t take anymore convincing than that, disappearing into her home, leaving the rest of us out on the street, just trying to see through the mist.

Then they came, shadowy figures we at first thought were other townsfolk, but even as they got close enough to be seen, as close as we were to each other, they still couldn’t be made out distinctly. They were misty people, misty people in the mist. Shadows in the shadows.

“Help us!” Gwen cried, having come outside again when they came. Staying inside hadn’t settled her nerves any. She jingled and jangled till she was almost as indistinct as them.

I was about to say to her not to go to close to them. I would have said they are misty people from the mist, don’t go too close, but she was in such a hurry.

And then they surrounded her, fell on her, and there were three sharp cries and the sound of cracking bones, then something that sounded like gnawing, in the mist.

It took so little with Gwen.

But we didn’t think of that, not really, as we ran, into the mist, and towards more misty people. Towards our fates, just like Gwen.

It took so little for us too. Just misty monsters in the mist.

(c ) Helen M Valentina 2017