Taken by the fog

New victim

"Thank you." I replied before making my way back to my friends. Can't I have one normal day? Is it so much to ask?

"Do you agree with Lilith?" I asked TJ as we were both sipping our tea in my room. After the discussion we had at Jackson and Drews, we decided to relax and just play some games and drink some cocktails. We left at 2 am but TJ and I felt as if we should have tea and some time for gossip. We both snuggled up in some blankets and grabbed some ice cream from downstairs.
"About everything to lose? Indirectly yes." He answered honestly. "Next time, we have to invite Lilith and Ileyna to this gossip time party thing."
"I agree with all of it. We have everything to lose by losing the freedom of our families, right?" TJ simply nodded, taking another sip of his tea. Somewhere in the midst of our gossiping, we both fell asleep. The tea and ice cream safely placed on my bedside table.

"I don't care that she's asleep, she'll just have to wake up!" A voice shouted from downstairs.
"You come barging into my house at 6 in the morning. Some people are still sleeping." Sam yelled back from upstairs. Someone is in the house? Who? How did they get in?
"It's not my problem that you guys spend last night wasting your time on nothing." The voice shouted back, a female voice. I slowly raised and walked to my door, opening it slightly. Sam looked over and his hand slightly gestured for me to go back into the room. I wouldn't have noticed if he didn't look towards his hands first.
"Well, some people actually have lives. If that's not your scene, fine. Just leave us be and let us sleep. I will send her to you when she awakes." Sam continued.
"I don't have that much time." The voice sounded weak all of a sudden, why do I recognize it? I know this voice but I can't place it.
"What do you mean?" Sam sounded worried.
"Nothing, just tell her Jess came by." I barely registered the name before the door slam shut. I shot out of the door but Sam stopped me above the stairs.
"Where are you going?" He demanded to know.
"I'm going after her, she knows something and I have to know what. She was near Ileyna's house yesterday but ran off before I caught up to her." I tried to explain. "She is the mayor's daughter, so maybe she knows more than we do."
"I'll go with you." Sam decided. "I want to know how she got in my house."

We ran after Jess, a minute after she left. Although my sleep, better said my lack of, I felt awake. We sprinted towards the main plaza, Sam's house is on the end of a one-way street. We didn't see anyone so we decided to continue our search through town.
"We should watch our time before TJ wakes up." Sam sighed.
"No we don't, I left a message next to him explaining that we are following a lead." I replied. Hopefully, my message was enough to keep TJ inside, that guy can get lost in a supermarket and I do not have the time to find him as well.

We walked around for fifteen minutes, covering almost half of the town.
"Should we quit?" Sam cautiously brought up.
"No, we have to find her. I didn't like the way she told you she didn't have much time. She sounded so scared." I sounded really defensive. Sam simply sighed and continued to drag me through town. After an hour of searching, we searched the entire town.
"Let's search the woods." Sam said as he walked onto a trail. We walked around still not finding anything until a scream pierced through the silence of the woods.
"Where did that come from?" I froze.
"The right side of the woods." Sam answered confidently. He grabbed my hand and started to run, adjusting his pace to mine. At some point he must've seen something as he ducked behind a tree, dragging me with him.
"What is it?" I whispered.
"There is someone there, not sure who. Can you please listen to me and stay here?" He tried.
"No! Are you crazy? Have you never read or saw a movie? If we split up it will go wrong and one of us might die, probably me." I whispered back furiously.
"In movies, it doesn't matter if they're together or alone, they die nonetheless." He replied annoyed.
"Just walk, I'll be behind you." I grabbed a branch from the ground and handed it to Sam. "At least we'll be somewhat armed."
"Fine, whatever." Sam sighed defeated.

We slowly made our way to the clearing.
"The person is gone, I didn't see who it was." Sam answered his own question.
"Was he or she alone?" I walked past him over the path. Something I shouldn't have done. As soon as I walked past an oak on my left, a swoosh sound could be heard. I dove forward, feeling the ground give away under me. Sam reached me in time and grabbed my arm. An arrow had been shot from the left side of us, burying itself in one of the trees on my right.
"Someone shot it, there wasn't a trigger." Sam looked in the direction from which the arrow came. "I figure it's the same person who dug this hole."
"Thanks for the analysis, can you pull me up now?" Great that he analyses what happened and is looking out for danger, but I'm still hanging here.
"Oh right." He helped me up and we continued to walk to the clearing. "No one here."
"Are you sure?" Sam went to the right whereas I walked to the left.
"Yes, I see nothing."
"Look at this side." Sam turned around and walked over to me. From his reaction, I could see the point at which he saw what I was seeing.

On the tree dressed in a pink chiffon dress, hair and makeup on point, looking like a ballerina, hung Jess. Her eyes were lifeless, her mouth open in the scream which pierced through the woods, her hands in perfect position, her feet broken to be pointed as straight as possible. The bruising was starting to show, the blue a sharp contrast to the pink dress. Blood was dripping down the front of the dress and the tree, the amount of it was sickening.
"How did someone do this so fast?" Sam thought aloud.
"Maybe they didn't, we searched for a while. They led us astray, they probably had time to make her change and to mutilate her. We only heard the last part, the scream." I tried to trace back the horror she must have gone through.
"She didn't scream while being strangled, I think." Sam reasoned.
"She was tortured and the final blow must be her being hung or being killed." I walked closer to the body, slightly weary since the incident with Rose.
"She's dead, she won't attack you."
"That's what I thought last time, but Rose looked that and still attacked me."
"Wait, the old lady? That's where she went?"
"What do you mean?"
"She went missing shortly after she came to the fog. Orson played it off as nothing but Jackson said he saw Judith and Orson cross over unplanned. When we saw them next, Orson was rocking some pretty good bruises."
"So it was them? I was with Connor and TJ when we found Rose, shortly after I went back with Mike and we saw a boy and a girl. Now I know, Judith and Orson, I'm the one-hit Orson with a baseball bat. Hence the bruises."
"This story sure took a twist." Sam acknowledged. I nodded and walked closer to Jess. The branch at ready and my conscious being more aware of what could happen, I stood in front of her. A stab wound on her stomach ripped the material of her dress. Staining it with the red color and drenching it with a metallic smell.
"She got stabbed." I simply stated. "No sign of breathing, whatsoever." My shoulders slumped down as if I had just walked out of my room to talk to her. Just went out instead of listening.
"This isn't your fault. No one could see this coming, rarely anyone gets killed apart from punishment."
"Wait a second." I ignored Sam and wiped away the tear which was rolling down my cheek. "We're near the crossing, look at that tree. From here it's only 246steps to the line. If Judith and Orson could cross without anyone knowing, shouldn't we be able to do the same?"
"We might, we need a huge distraction to make sure no one notices. We also don't know if the one on the other side gets a registration of it."
"It's a risk I'm willing to take. We've never been friends but this is wrong and I'm sick of waiting and adjusting to their plan. It's their turn to make an adjustment." With that I started to walk north, 246 steps to be precise.

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