Neon Knights

Part Two: The Freaks

~The Mist~
​The hunger awoke it. It had been recuperating for many years now, how long it did not know. It had no conscious of time, only place, and it needed to feed.

​Arnie awoke with a fright. He had been dreaming of monsters. He shared a room with his older brother, Erik. Erik just loved to tease Arnie about being such a fraidy-cat. Arnie couldn't help the fact that he was eight and his brother was thirteen. He wasn't grown up yet and still feared the dark and screamed his way out of nightmares. But with this dream he didn't scream, he was too scared.
​The monster he dreamed of where from a movie Erik rented this weekend and Arnie had stumbled onto. He it was scary from the previews on TV but Arnie was determined to fight his fears. The movie was about vampires.
​In the movie, a mom and her son, who was around Arnie's age, were killed by a monster and came back as vampires. Arnie dreamed that he had been caught by the little boy in the movie after appearing at the foot of his bed. This was similar to the scene in the movie that caused Arnie to hide his head under the covers. And now that he had dreamed of this scene happening to him, he knew that he wasn't ready to be a big boy yet. He was just too scared.
​Arnie hid his head under the covers and tried to go back to sleep. He had surrounded himself with stuffed animals including a large Tender-heart Bear at his feet, a large Spongebob Squarepants at his lower right, and a large Patrick the Starfish at his immediate right. He was trying to barricade himself against the monsters he was scared of, his own little mini-fort of softness.
​Arnie peeked his head out from under the covers and looked over to his brother. Erik lied in his bed, one foot off the side of his twin, snoring like a jackhammer. Arnie took comfort in this, knowing that his brother was to protect him if anything happened.
​At his head and to his left were solid walls. This made Arnie feel like he had a fortress of safety surrounding him. He started feel more relaxed and to think happy thoughts. If only he could the image of the young vampire out of his head! For some reason, Arnie looked up at the air vent in the center of his room, noticing a strange mist emanating from the cracks.
​Thinking nothing of it, Arnie closed his eyes and ducked back under the covers. He wasn't scared of simple mist after all. Not like his friend Sammy Parkers. Sammy was scared of the mist and fog that sometimes scattered the plains in Kansas. Sammy said he once saw a monster in the mist and feared that if he walked into the fog that he would disappear forever. Arnie knew better, he wasn't a baby, just a kid, a kid who sometimes had nightmares.
Arnie heard a strange hiss, almost snake like.
They didn't own any snakes.
"Erik?" he finally whispered. He heard his brother grumble and shift, "Erik? Did you hear that?"
No answer.
​After a few moments, something brewed inside Arnie, courage. He wanted to face his fears and be an adult. If something was out there, he was surrounded by his safety blanket, two walls, and three humongous stuffed animals. If there was something (a figment of his imagination his mom called it) that was only in his head, then in his head he would use these six things to protect him. Arnie looked out from under the covers.
​At the foot of his bed, splashed from blue from the glow of his nightlight, stood the 8 year old vampire he had dreamed about. Arnie froze and his eyes went wide with terror. He couldn't move, he couldn't scream, he couldn't think, so he definitely couldn't believe that he was safe. He noticed that the boy was surrounded by a faint white mist. He suddenly knew that little Sammy Parker was right. There were monsters in the fog. The boy opened his mouth.
​The mist from the boy's body seemed to surround Arnie. He could feel nothing but fear. Fear in every inch of his body so strong that it was leaking out of him. Arnie wet himself thus confirming that this was no dream. Arnie heard the vampire hiss as his own heart stopped thudding against his chest and the world went back.

The boy tasted good. The blood of innocents always did. The mist needed the boy's fear to become whole again. But yet it hungered. The mist looked over at the other boy and saw that he was starting to stir. It felt a smile forming in the mist of his slowly forming face. He would take this one too.