Nomads

2: Fog Dweller

   Fog Dweller... Those words left the policemen confused and speechless for a few moments. I guess they weren't expecting Tris to come up with something like that.

   "Fog Dweller? Pfft, What's that, a horror movie monster? Quit making stuff up and get out of here, this isn't the time to fool around!", was the reply from one of them.

   I can't really blame them for not knowing what a Fog Dweller is, but we couldn't waste our time explaining it to them. "Say what you want, but we gotta find out where it is," I added. While I got closer to the body, Tris investigated the classroom to find any clues about the murdering beast. I guess the policemen got tired of nagging us, so they just made sure no one else entered the building.

   Upon searching through her clothes, I discovered her ID card. Her name was Caroline Newhall, a 13 year old 7th grader from Olympia, Washington. From her picture, she had short brown hair, wore a pair of red glasses and had light blue eyes. Along with the ID card, in her pockets were a tissue, likely used to clean her glasses, and a photo of her and two other girls wearing the same uniform.

   I stood up and got close to Tris. "Tris dear, look at this." I showed him the photo of Caroline and her presumably two friends. "Maybe they were the last two to see the victim."

   "Yeah, we should look for them, they might be outside," replied Tris while looking at the photo. "Well, I looked around, but nothing other than the body seems out of place." He pointed towards the windows. "What I find weird is that none of the windows are broken, so I believe the Dweller might not've escaped." That sounded strange. Why wouldn't it want to leave? I know that Dwellers try eating as many humans as they can, but for one to stay exposed for this long is definitily suspicious. "In any case, we better find those two girls quickly, Sol dear." I agreed, so we walk out of the classroom.

   When going through the hallway, we noticed the forensics running towards the body. Good thing too, now we have to wait for them to spill the beans on the time of her death.

   Outside of the school building, all the students were still there, and took notice of us two exiting. I rapidly pointed towards them and stared determined. "It's them!" Tris turned his line of sight, and saw the girls we were looking for. We looked at each other and nodded, and then ran like crazy at the students. Their expressions of surprise were visible from quite the distance.

   Right when we were a few meters away from our possible witnesses, we stop dead on our tracks and pointed our fingers at them. "There you are!" We both shouted, to the confusion and shock of everyone around us.

   Tris and I grabbed the girls from their wrists and ran back to the classroom, whilst they could barely keep up with our pace. "W-wait! What's going on!?" We could hear them scream at us, not having any idea of what was happening.

   The moment we stopped in front of the murder scene, they fell to the ground and were panting out of exhaustion. "This kids are each time in less and less shape," commented Tris. I giggled and grabbed Tris' arm. "Maybe we should give them some lessons, Tris dear."

   "What... what do you want from us...?" asked one of the girls, still tired from running. Tris went straight to the point and told them about the murder of their friend. This left them crying and sobbing for a couple of minutes. They were astonished to learn that something as crazy as a monster had killed Caroline. That was understandable, so Tris and I gave them a bit of time for them to calm down.

   "Now now, listen girls, we'll do our best to get rid of whatever killed your friend, but we need you to give us the information we need, OK? We give you our word." I held their hands and smiled at them. These seemed to calm them down a little, enough for them to tell us what we needed to know.

   "I'm Georgia, and this is Natalie," said Georgia, whipping the tears off. "Caroline was our best friend, we did everything together." "The three of us knew each other since kindergarden," added Natalie.

   Tris placed his hand on Natalie's shoulder and looked at her in the eyes. "When was it the last time you saw Caroline?" She was rather uncomfortable by Tris' gaze, but that didn't keep her from talking.

   "It was yesterday after classes. We usually go home together, but she had to stay and look for someone," said Natalie, now more tranquil.

   "Someone? Who?" I asked while tilting my head a little bit.

   "Mr. Ramesh, our chemistry teacher. Caroline had missed his last exam, so she wanted to talk to him after classes to see if she could take it at that moment." I looked at Tris, worried about what we were just told. That Mr. Ramesh seemed a bit suspicious.

   "Last night, Natalie and I tried to call her, but she never answered, so we thought that maybe she just had fallen asleep in her bed," said Georgia.

   What the girls were telling us was quite useful information. During that time, she was most likely alone, and the Dweller attacked Caroline when no one was nearby. This one seemed smarter than the monsters Tris and I've encountered thus far.

   "One last thing," I added. "Did you happen to notice anything strange or bizarre yesterday?"

   Georgia and Natalie looked somewhat intrigued and puzzled towards my question. "Something strange...? Oh yeah! Right when Georgia and I were leaving the school, we noticed that some weird fog was starting to appear behind the building, so we hurried up to leave before it reached us."

   "A weird fog? Could you be more specific please? What was weird about it?" Asked Tris, piecing together what the girls have testified.

   "It had a redish tone, and I could swear I heard noises coming from it," replied Georgia.

   A redish tone fog. That confirmed what Tris and I thought it was: The Red Fog.

   At first, it looks just like your regular fog, just a bit more red than usual. But getting close to it means huge trouble. If you enter the Red Fog, you'll attract the attention of the Fog Dwellers, the horrible monsters that live within it. Once inside, it's very difficult to escape if a Dweller has spotted you. What's worse is that, the moment one of them gets a taste of human blood, it becomes able to leave the fog and stay in our world. 

   Caroline was really unlucky. She likely didn't notice the Red Fog until it was too late, and she accidentally entered it. A Dweller found her, wounded her arm, and tested her blood so that it could chase her to the school. My guess is that she tried to hide inside classroom 35, but the creature tracked her down and killed her right there. This monster might've also left the room, locked the door and broke the doorknob to make the police believe it was a person who did it, which explains why the windows were in mint condition.

   "Thanks girl. Now we gotta find this teacher and interrogate him about what he did yesterday," Tris commented. "But first..." Tris then put two of his fingers in his eye socket and got out a piece of candy. "You want some candy?" He said so nonchalantly. 

   The reaction of the girls was quite the show, to be honest. "Eww NO!" They screamed, making faces of disgust and horror. I couldn't help but to start laughing. That trick of his never fails to amuse me. 

   Tris put the piece of candy back inside his eye socket and grabbed my hand. We had to pay a visit to a certain chemistry teacher.

   "Good luck guys!" said the girls as we left. I wished their close friend's life hadn't ended like this, but there was no turning back.

   It seemed clear to me at the moment. Whatever happened between the Dweller and Caroline must've been during the time she was looking for her teacher onwards. Right now, the main suspect was Mr. Ramesh, so Tris and I left to try and find him.