Fog of Shadows

Part 17

After investigating her room a little more and discovering that the window in her room was nailed shut, Alisea feels the need to reunite with her companions in the living room. She hoped that the companionship and the warmth of the fire would raise her dampened spirits. Once in the living room, she found her boyfriend and Lillian having a friendly conversation. Noticing her presence, Flinn looked up and smiled.

"Lillian just told me that her great, great, grandmother might be able to help us find Janet."

"Really?" Alisea was amazed that they had hardly been on the island for more than a few hours and had already gotten a lead.

"I know that my moma mentioned a girl by that name a few times. She knows everyone that lives on this island. After all, she is the oldest one on the island and almost everyone who comes to this island meets her." Lillian's milky eyes seemed to focus on the spot where Alisea stood. Alisea tried to move a little to the right to escape Lillian's milky eyes.

"I hope you don't mind that I strive off the topic, but I noticed that the windows in my room were nailed shut; what is the reason for this?" At this, Lillian squirmed in her seat, she clearly knew the reason, but apparently did not feel comfortable discussing this with people she hardly knew. "I have to ask the same thing, is it that way in all rooms?" added Flinn with a raised eyebrow.

"I should not be the one to explain this, my moma was the one to nail the windows shut, but she had the right reasons." After a short moment of silence to make sure her audience was still listening, "On this island, there is the belief that there is a monster that lives in the fog; it sneaks in through people's windows and steals them away. Those people are never seen again. Therefore, as you see, the nailed-shut windows are for your own good."

"There is a monster in the fog?" Flinn had a little trouble believing this; he had lived around multiple types of monsters in his life and had never heard of one that lives in fog and kidnaps people.

"It is and old legend, I think it was created to explain why so many people go missing all the time on this island. My moma is a firm believer in the legend, but I believe that they get lost in the fog and eventually walk off a cliff or perish in the woods. I simply cannot believe that there is a monster in the fog; would not someone have at least seen it once and have some sort of description, if it existed?"

"You should believe child!" came the voice of the old women from the entrance of the living room. "But moma, no one has ever proven that it exist." Argued Lillian as her eyes focused on the old women. "How can they prove the grey man exists, if they never live to see the next day? You of all people should believe; remember that the grey man took your dear father from us."

"Moma, papa left this island to look for mama."

"No, it took her too. Everyone knows this and accepts this, but you. Now I want you to go to your room for the night." She pointed with one of her boney fingers down the hall of the women's wing. Lillian, clearly a little disappointed, marched down to her room and was not seen for the rest of the night.

"Ma'am, sorry for being curious, but what exactly is the grey man?" asked Flinn, he was trying to make heads and tails out of the information presented to him. "He is a demon shadow and he hides in the fog. He is waiting out there; waiting for someone to let his or her guard down. He steals them away to take their skin and grind their bones. If you were smart, you would not have come here, but now that you are here you should know so you can defend yourselves." To the two young captains, the old women's warning sounded like the ramblings of a nut-job. Over the years of their training, they had heard of strange tails; some were true and others were not, but none of the stories they have ever heard even came close to what the old women was saying. Feeling that it was her fault that the topic strayed off course; Alisea tried to steer it back to the topic of their mission. "Ma'am, may I ask you what you know about a girl named Janet?"

"That depends on what you want to know." The old women's eyes were dark; compared to Lillian's milky eyes, this woman's eyes were little black holes. They were devoid of life and emotion. "Well, she is the reason why we are here. She is the niece of our principal and he really misses her." On que, Flinn pulled out the small image of the girl from his jacket pocket and handed it over to the old women. She took the image in her gnarled hands, looked at it for a few seconds, and then returned it Flinn. "You won't find her anymore. She disappeared. They grey man took her."

XXXXX

As he lay in bed, the damp covers clinging to his body like an unwanted second skin, the room smelled like a basement, and his throat burned from the dinner. The dinner hardly merited the title of such. The dinner consisted of a soup that contained more salt then broth, the bread was flat and tasteless, and the water had an odd green tinge. Nevertheless, the group did their best not to insult the host, though it was one of the few times Flinn had seen Shill hardly eat. As he lay there in the strange and uncomfortable bed, he could not shake the feeling of something watching him from beyond the window that stood beside his bed. He tried to forget the lore of the island that the old women had told him, but doing so seemed impossible. Every few minutes he would hear a noise outside or see something move in the shadows of the room. Hardly had he ever felt this vulnerable and lonely. He admitted to himself that he missed his friends and he missed Alisea. He thought about how her smile always made him feel warm and how he wished, he had seen it before going to bed; he missed that warmth in this cold and eerie room.