Read at your own risk: Short stories to make your spine shiver

The Fog

     "There's been another one." Michal said. "They say it was the fog again. You don't believe any of that nonsense, do you?" He asked Sinai over the top of his newspaper.
"I don't know..." Sinai speculated. "There have been a lot of these incidents, definitely too many to chalk up as a coincidence."
"Oh honestly. You don't believe this nonsense about fog do you? I mean what can fog do to you?" Michal was the type not to believe anything unless it was firmly proven. He took great care to look exactly like everyone else did. He thought this was a good thing. Sinai was his polar opposite. Her nose was a bit too big and her teeth were a tad crooked. She thought that a person was meant to look however they looked.
"But the way they found them though... With their eyes blank and grey... So... So empty. And their faces, like they had just seen their worst fear. They say that they seemed to be choked." Michal snapped the paper shut and put it down on the coffee table with an air of finality and turned his calculating gaze on Sinai.
"How about this, we go for a nice picnic in that clearing on top of that ridge you've always loved to hike. That will take your mind of this fog nonsense."
"Oh that sounds lovely, Michal!" Sinai said, smiling. "Let's go!" She grabbed a basket and packed a few sandwiches and drinks for them both. The morning air was crisp, as they walked through the dew that weighed down on the grass. They reached the town and stopped by the diner for a quick breakfast. The waitress, Susan, gave them their food, a grilled cheese for Sinai, and toast with oatmeal for Michal, not too hot or cold.
"You two sure you want to be out?" She said, "Haven't you heard about the incidents?" Sinai opened her mouth to speak but before she could Michal cut in.
"That's just a bunch of bull." He waved his hand dismissively. The waitress left the table and Michal turned to Sinai. "Grilled cheese for breakfast, really?"
"Well I felt like it. I can be a little out of the ordinary if I want to." She put on an indignant face. "And I am going to enjoy my grilled cheese for breakfast thank you very much."
"I never said there was anything wrong with grilled cheese for breakfast, it's just odd that's all. Don't you care what people will think?"
"Frankly no, I don't really care. They can take their opinions and stuff it for all that it matters to me." Sinai bit into her grilled cheese and Michal put a glob of his grey-brown oatmeal onto his spoon and watched the cream seep into it. "Why do you insist on being so ordinary Michal?" Sinai asked. She had never understood Michal's desire to be just like everyone else, to take the same road, even if it lead to disaster.
"Well fitting in and conforming to the standards of everyone else is simply easier that fighting tooth and nail in the other direction." Michal stated. He stood up and paid the check, not even bothering to finish his oatmeal.

By the time they had gotten midway up the ridge, it was noon and the sun was beating on their backs and sweat dripped down Sinai's brow, smudging her makeup, but she payed it no mind. She forged ahead, determined to reach the top, Michal hung back and took a long sip from his red water bottle. A butterfly fluttered off the path, it's bright wings catching the sun. In the distance he heard a fox call.
"How about we stop for a time Sinai." He said.
"No. I heard the view from ridge looks gorgeous in the sunset and I don't want to miss it."
"It's almost lunch, why don't we stop here and eat, we can see the ridge after we eat." So the pair sat down in the mid afternoon sun and ate their lunch. Michal had insisted on and turkey and mayonnaise, while Sinai had packed for herself a honey and biscuits sandwich. "Again with the odd food choices Sinai. Really what do you think the reason that foods are given a specific category and time was for? Lunch is at lunch and breakfast is at breakfast."
"So I could ignore them." Sinai retorted as Michal rolled his eyes.
They set off again and reached the top just as the sun's rays began to sink beneath the horizon. "Oh Michal! Isn't it just beautiful!" Siani breathed.
"Gorgeous." Michal sounded less than thrilled.
"Well you could at least act excited for my sake." Sinai looked at Michal who could not have been more uninterested.
"Well. We've seen all there is to see. Let's get home. I'll see you at work"
"Oh really Michal. Can't we stay longer?"
"Oh, I thought you didn't want the fog to get you." Michal rolled his eyes, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Fine. Let's go." The two headed down the ridge. A fox streaked down the main path close on the heels of a white rabbit. Sinai noticed a stray path that seemed to lead away from the main one, she remembered seeing it on the trail map, and it was a much quicker way down but it was a great deal harder to navigate. She saw a beautiful butterfly float down the path on gauzy wings. "Oh Michal let's take that path. I think it's a short cut. It looks fun anyhow."
"No one had gone down that path in years, look how few footprints there are. This path is easier."
"Well suit yourself. I'm going down it. I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe we can take a day off and do something fun." Sinai turned and walked down the path watching the butterfly flutter in front of her. Michal turned and walked down the main path, he saw the tiny white rabbit's body.
"Well it seems that fox had himself a mighty good dinner." He chuckled to himself. A thin fog had formed around his ankles. He shivered. It had gotten cold out. The fog got denser and Michal started to lose sight of the path. The dying rays of the sun seemed to set the fog on fire, the same colors of the fox's coat. He thought he could hear Sinai calling, but he ignored it.
"It's just my mind playing tricks on me." He told himself. The fog was thick as the oatmeal he had eaten that morning, in the distance he could hear a fox calling out in the dusk. The fog was as dark now as night itself, he heard Sinai calling and stumbled blindly in that direction, only to find the voice had moved farther away. The fog smothered him, got into his lungs, his very being, he couldn't breath, it was like a cold, wet, hand choking him, he struggled to move to do anything, all he could do was stand there, terrified, hearing Sinai's voice grow closer, closer, when he felt he could not fight anymore, he saw a figure. "Sinai!" He called out desperately. "Sinai! You were right! Oh if I can ever get out of here I'll listen to you I promise, as the figure got closer he could see that it was not Siani.

His final scream was cut short, and the last thing Michal would ever see before the fog seeped into his eyes, was a figure who seemed to be made up of the fog itself, leaning over him, saying something he could not hear, all he could hear, was a fox call in the distance.