Reaper

A Walk Through The Fog

I didn't sleep well that night. A nightmare swarmed my head, corrupting a peaceful dream, and it caused me to jolt awake and bolt upright. It took me a moment to realize I was drenched in cold sweat. Several minutes passed before I was calm enough to breathe correctly, and I checked my alarm clock on my nightstand. I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep after that nightmare, so I groaned when I saw that it was only 3:06 AM, and I didn't have to leave the house for maybe another two-and-a-half hours.

What am I supposed to do until then? I thought. Considering my limited options, I decided to just mess around with some of my new Halloween makeup. Halloween was coming up, and I wanted to get the makeup just right. I was planning on going as Eric Draven from The Crow, so there wasn't much work to do. It was just black and white makeup, so it wouldn't take more than maybe five minutes to complete.

Just as I was getting the makeup and costume out, a chill ran down my spine, and I felt like someone was watching me. I glanced over my shoulder, and as soon as I did, the feeling left me, and I saw nothing there. There was only my bedroom, the somewhat bright moonlight casting dark shadows amongst my furniture from the window, and the shadowed woods just beyond the glass. Shrugging it off, I proceeded to the bathroom to put everything together: painting my face white with face paint, keeping the character committed, I used black lipstick to black my eyes out, draw the symmetrical, vertical lines above and below my eyes, cover my lips, and draw the near-Joker smile on, then used a straightener to make my shoulder length black hair a little wavier, then put the costume itself on.

The leather trousers were actually more comfortable than I thought they would be, I had to make some of the rips and holes in the thin, black, long sleeve sweater a little larger than they were, and the leather duster was heavier than originally thought to be. But it turned out to look great, whether I had Brandon Lee's facial structure or not. I looked at the costume and the makeup in the mirror, checking to see if I needed to make any further adjustments, and after a few minutes of close examination, I decided that it was perfect. And knowing me, right after that, I decided to take the costume off, wash all the makeup off, and soak my hair in water and mess with it a little so it wouldn't stay wavy and slightly stiff. I put a little conditioner in it so it wouldn't smell bad, and so it would be softer. (A/N: I actually don't know if you can do that with hair and expect it to work. I'm a guy, so I don't ever do that sort of thing.)

I picked the costume up, turned the bathroom light off as I walked out, hung the costume up in my closet, and went back to bed, checking the time: 3:45. I sighed and rolled onto my back. This night is never going to end. I thought as I stared up at the ceiling, even though I only did one thing since I woke up. I didn't want to go back to bed after that nightmare, and the feeling that someone had been watching me earlier creeped me out a little, so I was even less inclined to go back to sleep. Instead, I started thinking about anything and everything that popped into my head.

The sound of my alarm going off brought me out of my thoughts. I blinked, turned onto my side to turn the alarm off, glanced at the time, then sat up and looked outside. 5:30, and it was still a little dark outside. Alright, I thought. Ten minutes to get ready before I have to leave.

Ten minutes was just enough time for me, actually. I didn't have to put on the fanciest clothes and the most diamond and gold filled jewelry I had, or practically put on a whole new face with all the makeup I had, or put on the tallest heels I owned, and act like I was going to the Queen's Royal Ball. I didn't have to do any of that- nor did I ever- because I'm not that type of person. I could look just as good with a little bit of eyeliner, maybe some mascara, a blouse and a skirt or a simple dress...but that was only on "special" occasions.

I just slipped on a T-shirt, jeans, zip-up hoodie, red Converse, grabbed my backpack, and I was ready to go- after eating breakfast, brushing my teeth, and all that jazz. My dad wasn't awake yet, so I left him a note saying I left for school a little earlier. I left it on the kitchen table, and set out to take a new route to school.

This new route was a little creepy, but that was probably just because of the same deathly silence from yesterday, and the fairly thick fog that ran throughout these woods. I had a feeling that the deathly silence was going to be permanent. Taking in my surroundings to map out where I was for next time, I took notice that the road was so run-down and old, nature had long since begun to reclaim it, and it hardly looked like a road at all. At least I could still tell that it was a road so I wouldn't get lost out here. It took about ten minutes to reach this road from my house, which, remembering what Jason had told me, probably meant that the time it would take to get to school from here would be the same as my main route- minus the time it took to reach this road.

I felt like that one person in some horror movies that always seems to get separated from the group, gets lost, and inevitably gets taken out by whatever is hunting the group down. Only, I wasn't lost, I wasn't with a group, and hopefully I wasn't being hunted down. Nobody except Jason would know where I was if I were killed, but that's only with the chance that I would be left here to rot instead of taken to my killer's secret hideout and either eaten by them, cremated in a fireplace or something similar, or eaten by their dogs.

Eventually, I reached a point where I imagined the old Victorian house would be, but, obviously, I couldn't actually see the house. I just knew it was around here because the vibe in the woods was different here...and not in a good way. I hurried past the area as fast as I could, nearly tripping over fallen branches, and having to climb over a couple of fallen trees. The fog started clearing up a bit as the sun began to rise, and I could see farther ahead of me. The vibe only got worse as I continued, though, and soon, I reached a point where I started feeling nauseous.

It was by this point where I spotted something several yards to my left in a small clearing. I couldn't see it clearly, but it looked like a man in a light grey cloak, standing in front of a stone table on a large, round, stone patio thing...but he looked much too tall to be human. I started walking faster, nearly jogging by this point, as I started feeling dizzy and even more nauseous. Strangely enough, as soon as that was long out of my sight, I almost immediately stopped feeling nauseous.