Lenore almost had everything she wanted.
In just a few short months, she'd graduate early from high school, start an internship at her father's new startup in San Francisco, and then head off to college in the fall on a full scholarship. Everything...
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As Victor sat in her mother's favourite chair, a strange, hazy aura hovered over him. It was as though he'd somehow carried the outside fog in with him, and now it snaked around his body, pale and smoky white, swelling and swaying in a breeze that Lenore could not feel. She stared at it, her mind blank. The movement was hypnotizing. It went back and forth, back and forth, almost like it was breathing.
"Lenore?" Victor asked, his brow folding together as he watched her stare. "What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Lenore met his gaze and tried to open her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Her mind had gone blank. She couldn't make sense of what she was seeing.
"Is there something on me?" Victor asked, finally looking down at himself.
It took him a second to see the strange haze.
"What the hell?"
He raised his arms in front of him, moving them back and forth, as though he could shake the hazy shapes off like cobwebs.
But it held on.
"What... What the hell is this?"
He leapt from the chair and began to brush at his arms, trying to peel the mist off his skin. His hands swept right through it, barely shifting it, and it sprung back into place in an instant, clinging closer than ever.
"What the hell is this?" Victor cried, his voice hitching in panic. "What is happening? What the hell is happening to me?"
The sounds of Victor's panic broke Lenore out of her trance. She jumped up from the floor and rushed to his side.
"It's okay! You're okay! You're gonna be okay!" she told him. There was no way she could know this was true, but it was all she could think to say. She grabbed for his hands and found them icy cold, even in front of the fire. "It's all going to be okay now that you're—"
Victor's eyes met hers, shining with tears, his lip trembling. He was shaking all over. "Lenore, what is happening to me?"
Once again, Lenore was at a loss for words. He wanted answers, and she had none to give. All she knew was what happened before he'd disappeared into the woods. Maybe that would be enough.
"I don't know what's happening," Lenore said softly. "But I can tell you what happened."
Victor went still, his face tensing in confusion.
Lenore was worried it'd be like that. "You really don't remember anything?"
"Remember what?" Victor cried, frustrated. "What am I supposed to remember? I remember walking home from here and—" His eyes went out of focus again, like they had in the backyard, as though something was blocking his memory. "What happened to me?"
Lenore pressed her lips together and took a deep breath, trying to screw up the courage to tell him the truth. It wasn't going to be easy.
