Shadowveil - The Forgotten

Chapter 8: Disquieting Circumstance

It was almost 3 pm when Samantha had finished cleaning up a room on the first floor of the restaurant. The renovation company was going to come by again the next day to blow out a wall or two to make space for more seats and tables as part of her expansion plan to make it more attractive for lunch-eating customers.

She was lying in only her underwear on the bed in her room, trying to watch some TV. She flipped through the channels but found herself drifting off and couldn't find any peace of mind when thinking about everything that had happened. She kind of hated herself for not telling Patrick that the reason why she didn't want to go with him was because of her extreme agoraphobia, and that the only place where she felt somewhat at ease was in the restaurant. She had suppliers come by to drop off ingredients and other stuff so she never went out by herself unless she had something important to go to, like a doctor's appointment. Having lived like that for a long time after her losses in the past, she had become too isolated and too numb to ever force herself to go outside, which for her developed into a severe social phobia over time. If she had been honest with Patrick before and talked to him about it, maybe she could have mustered up the courage to go with him anyway.

"Ahhh, crap!" Samantha cried out as she slammed the bedcover and threw the TV remote onto the nightstand. "If only I'd learn to speak up more, then I probably wouldn't be in this shitty situation! But no Sam you always have to go there don't you?" Aggravated, she went over to the window to try and clear her head. The sun was since a few hours back hidden behind heavy clouds and it had by now started to pour down in Cordale. She checked up and down the streets as the snow washed away and busy people were going nowhere, soaking in the rain. She had halfway made up her mind to actually go out there and follow Patrick to the school, but her aversion to being in public places was equally strong. Contemplating her options for a little while, she finally decided to try and let go of her anxiety and head out after him.

*

Samantha slipped into some fresh clothes, applied some makeup and put her hair up in a ponytail before taking her outdoor jacket from the closet. This was the first time in a long while that she had used it, and it was dusty from all the years of neglect. Maybe it looked a little outdated, but she didn't actually care about it at that point. She then ran down the stairs and quickly put on her shoes and checked so that everything was in order before activating the alarm system by the door. With a deep sigh she hoped that she wouldn't break down and cry from going into the throngs of people on the other side. She opened the door and stepped outside, closing and locking the door behind her.

When Samantha saw all the people roaming about outside in a hectic fashion, accompanied by honking car horns and flashing lights from the nearby shopping district, she suddenly felt some kind of dizziness wash over her. "I can't even step outside before these damn anxiety attacks start. I really am pathetic," she thought as she leaned on the windowsill beside the door.

Not soon after, she realized that whatever this sensation was it probably didn't have anything to do with her agoraphobia. Her usual symptoms of having trouble breathing and the involuntary shaking that always followed didn't occur. She almost felt in control of her body's reactions and understood that this feeling was something else entirely. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to focus her energy on the task she'd set out for. After pushing herself up from the windowsill and opening her eyes again, she noticed that all the people in the street had up and vanished into thin air.

"What the...?" she stuttered and blinked to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. Bewildered, she watched as the vivid colors of the world around her slowly fading into a dull sepia tone. She took a few careful steps onto the streets from the curb. Not soon after, a gray fog spread across the city, bringing with it a hint of coldness. Everything had gone utterly silent. There were no more rumbling cars, no people chattering, no bird calls and not even a wind rustling the sidewalk tree leaves. The cars that remained on the streets were empty and unmoving, and the streets themselves were cracked and crumbling. The quietude was unnerving and Samantha had never experienced anything like it in her entire life. She didn't understand anything of what was going on but her determination to find Patrick outweighed her apprehensions.

*

Having made her way through some neighborhoods in the outer center of Moonvale County, Samantha came upon a derelict park with a playground she used to frequent as a child. Its formerly cheerful atmosphere was now deeply affected by the gray fog and its dank influence. She knew that she'd be able to save some time if she cut through the playground since it was pretty close to the school. Chills ran down her spine as she pushed open the screeching entrance gate and entered the playground. She could hear footsteps on the wooden planks as if someone was running away from there.

"Umm... h-hello? Is anyone there?" she asked and looked around nervously, but to no avail. Some kind of vision suddenly flashed before her eyes as she set foot in the large sandbox area. There was a girl crying on a bench, resting her head on a woman's lap. Just as soon as it had appeared, the strange scene vanished and the area went back to its foggy state. Samantha was more than a little confused over what just happened but couldn't afford to stick around to find out.

She noticed a few menacing statues around the playground that she didn't remember from when she was young. Their blank stone eyes almost seemed to follow her around, but then again, she was getting more than a little spooked by the city's eerie transformation. There were serpentine pathways going through the playground towards the adjacent park, but she couldn't see very far due to the heavy fog. Samantha carried on while thinking about how lively the park must have been just a little while ago, and how nervous she would've been had she come at that time. All the people, the laughter, the birdsong and the voices would've probably meshed together and paralyzed her before she'd know it. But seeing the mysterious happenings that were affecting the Cordale cityscape made her start to rethink her perspective. She didn't have any time to reflect upon it any more as rustling sounds from the playground suddenly caught her attention.

As she crossed the outer rim of the playground and threw a glance over her shoulder, she noticed that the statues had inexplicably disappeared. The uncanny sight distressed her and she picked up her pace to rejoin Patrick as soon as possible.

*

When she got to the forested center of the park, she scoured the copse after hearing the same rustling sounds as before. They seemed much closer this time. Her heart started to beat faster and she began sweating. Surrounded by the trees, the signs of her anxiety surfaced and she clearly felt the heightened tension in her body. Before she could react, a formless light-blue matter akin to liquid slithered down the tree trunks from the grey canopy above. Her mind froze as the matter started to take the shape of what looked like disfigured people. They had no faces and their bodies were semi-transparent and lumpy. One thing was clear: they sure as hell weren't human.

Their distorted chattering voices echoed in the grove as they started to close in on Samantha. At first she was unable to move, immobilized with fear. As one of the beings suddenly lunged at her with a shrill, spine-chilling cry, she impulsively picked up a branch and swung it towards the creature, hitting it squarely in the side. It fell down on the grass but immediately tried to get up again. The others started whispering incoherently before advancing towards their target. She wasn't about to wait around for whatever violent intentions they had and immediately fled down a path leading towards the park's southern part.

Before making it very far, Samantha noticed that the grayish fog had lifted a little and that some trees further on had fallen down. A deafening roar suddenly reverberated from somewhere in the distance. The hair-raising sound temporarily paralyzed Samantha, but in spite of her fears she knew that she couldn't stop what with the misshapen creatures still chasing her.

As she continued onward, some kind of even more bizarre event suddenly transformed the world around her again, adding to the insanity of the situation. The area ahead had cracked and split open, even worse than the state of the streets in the grayish cityscape. The fog dispersed completely and the world was plunged into some kind of semi-opaque darkness, tinged with a dim orange light from an unknown source. Upon closer inspection, it seemed as if the gloom itself was somehow emitting the mysterious sheen. The grass pulled itself out from the ground and caught on fire as it drifted upwards in an unnerving manner. Some of the high buildings around the park started to crack and tilt, while others collapsed right away. The gaping holes in the ground sent chills down Samantha's spine as she caught glimpses of the seemingly bottomless chasms below.