In Your Arms

Meeting Isen

Everything had changed so suddenly.

The strong heat from the morning was replaced with a bitter, cold cloud of fog. It covered every inch of Windsburg, and settled upon Farrah's exposed body like a blanket.

She jolted up all of a sudden in a coughing fit, trying to throw up something that had been lodged into her throat. It was only a figment of her imagination, but she was too bewildered to understand anything that was going on or what caused her to wind up there.

Her hands flew around her, searching for some sort of object to latch on to. She didn't utter a word as the memories of what happened prior to her blacking out began to resurface. There was no point in lying idle and worrying about it, because despite the dense fog surrounding her, she knew that it was already dark.

A bit of panic started to form deep inside her gut. She had to hurry and get back inside her home if she wanted to avoid whatever came into the town at this time, but though she couldn't be far from her porch, she was completely disoriented.

Farrah started to chew on her lower lip as she stood up on her two shaky legs, wandering off and hoping that she bumped into something familiar.

The freezing weather bit at her naked body, and though she wanted to remain quiet, she couldn't help but let out a few small whimpers of discomfort.

There was something awfully eerie about how strange the weather had become. She never expected it to be foggy in the area, but then again, she wasn't a weather reporter. Hopefully the unexpected change meant that at least a small amount of rain would fall either during the night or early in the morning.

Farrah found herself nearly colliding with an abandoned Volkswagen. She reached out to lean against it, sliding her fingers against its damp, damaged surface. Once she reached the front of the car, she was able to figure out where her home was. She was at the gas station, which was just across from her place. Farrah felt slightly stupid that she had been stumbling in the wrong direction the whole time, but she was relieved to at least know where she was heading now.

Farrah began to tiptoe and run towards the direction where she envisioned her house stood, trying not to make too much noise yet not caring if she did anyways. Safety was so close, and she was sure she saw the dark outline of her residence reaching out to her through the smoke...

But then it happened. A loud snap echoed throughout the entire town, bouncing off its empty structures and blasting right through Farrah's frail body. She covered her mouth the minute another snap was heard, then another one much closer than before.

It took every bit of her not to make a sound or scurry back to her den like a wild rabbit. She was frozen in a running position, one foot forward and the other behind her. Her eyes were the only ones free to look around, yet she couldn't see what was making such an earth-shattering sound.

Was it possible that she would ultimately make contact with the creature that came every night, or would she be dead before she even laid eyes on it? Her whole body shook like gelatin and all she wanted to do was drop dead on the floor before anything horrid happened- such as being mangled and torn to pieces by a hungry animal.

The crunching stopped, and for a few minutes there was absolutely no sound. Even the crickets seemed to fall silent, as if the world itself was suspended, waiting for something- anything- to break the uncomfortable sensation building up.

And then it was gone, broken by an unusual voice that was too stiff and fake, like something trying hard to imitate human speech. Farrah didn't think of this at that time, however. All that rang through her mind was 'There is someone else still alive.'