CHAPTER 5. MISTBOUND
The bell tower made a deep groaning sound right under our feet. The wind changed direction then. It started to stir up the fog down below us.
Mrs. Dalren gripped the railing tight with both her hands. She looked like she thought the whole tower could just fall apart any second under her weight.
The village down there seemed completely drowned in this pale sea that kept moving around. Fog rolled in like thick waves. It swallowed up all the houses and fences and streets. The whole thing happened in these slow breaths that felt way too deliberate.
This fog was not natural at all. It never had been natural in the first place. The Citadel sent this stuff our way. I could sense its presence somehow. The air trembled in a strange way.
It felt like distant walls were shifting around in some hidden place. No human eye was ever meant to see that kind of thing.
Shapes started moving down below us. They drifted in between the houses. Some of them stood tall. Others bent at these impossible angles.
A few crawled along the ground. They all stayed completely silent,every one of them seemed to be searching for something specific.
They were searching for me.
Mrs. Dalren's voice cracked when she spoke up. "Elias," she said.
"They are everywhere around us,we are trapped up here."
"What about everyone else in the village?have they all been taken already?
Her words hit me hard. It twisted in my ribs like a sharp knife. I scanned the fog one more time.
"No"I said in a quiet voice.
" Not yet anyway, there are survivors out there still. There just have to be some left"
A faint scream echoed through the fog right then. It sounded far away. But it cut sharp enough to slice through all the endless murmurs coming from below. It was like the fog itself responded to what I said.
Mrs. Dalren clamped her hand over her mouth tight.
" People are still out there somewhere"she said.
I set my lantern down carefully on the stone ledge nearby. "We are not leaving them behind to die like that" I told her.
She swallowed hard before she could speak again. "Then what do we do now??" she asked.
"Elias, what kind of plan could you even have against something like that??"
She pointed toward the fog with a shaky hand.
I did not answer her right away. The truth felt ugly in a way. It seemed dangerous too. And pretty much desperate all around.
"I am going back" I said
Mrs. Dalren stared right at me. She looked like she thought I lost my mind completely. "Back??"she repeated.
"Back where exactly? Do not tell me that you mean.....
She stopped herself mid-sentence. Her eyes widened up with pure horror.
I said it anyway without holding back.
"To the Citadel!"
"No."she whispered while stepping backward.
"No, absolutely not at all,you escaped that monster once already,why would you ever think about going back there??
"The Citadel does not send out its hunters without some kind of reason. Its walls whisper my name whenever I close my eyes at night. Liora is still trapped inside there somewhere"
I did not say any of that out loud though. Instead, I just said this.
" Look over there"
I pointed beyond the edge of the fog. One of those shapes had a long neck that bent low. Its limbs dragged along behind it. That thing glided right across the square below us. It paused under a shattered lantern for a moment.
A second shape drifted in right behind the first one. Then another joined them. There were dozens of these things. Maybe even more than that.
"They will not stop coming after us" I whispered.
"Not until they finally find me down there, and they will kill anyone who tries to get in their way.
Mrs. Dalren's knees almost gave out on her. "So all of this is because of you??"she asked.
"Yes, that is right"
Her breath came out in shudders. She covered her face with her hands for just a moment. Then she lowered them slowly. She exhaled one long trembling breath.
"Fine"she whispered after that." Then we help the others however we can"
"But Elias,how are you supposed to get back to the Citadel exactly??"
"Mirrors!"I told her simply.
Her head whipped around toward me fast. "No!" she said firmly."
" No way,you are not doing that at all,If you touch one of those things again, it will drag you straight back into that nightmare"
That is pretty much the whole idea behind it.
She grabbed at my sleeve then. She shook her head back and forth violently.
"Elias, listen to me closely,there has to be some other way around this"
"There is not any other way"
Before she could start arguing more, something shifted down below us. A narrow figure stepped out into the square. It moved slowly and quietly. Unlike the others, it did not glide along. It did not bend in unnatural ways or flicker in the light.
It just walked like normal.
Mrs. Dalren went completely rigid beside me. "Elias" she said.
"Is that a person down there?Is that really someone real?
I squinted my eyes to see better. It was a girl down there,she walked barefoot across the stones. Her skin looked pale in the dim light. She wore a torn blue dress that hung loose. Her hair fell over her face.
It dripped with moisture from the fog around her. She moved like someone walking through a deep sleep.
Then she lifted her head up slowly.
The breath caught dead in my chest. It was Liora.
Her eyes looked hollow and empty. But her face, that part was hers exactly.
"Elias, Mrs Dalren whispered softly,is that her down there??
"No" I said before she could finish the thought.
"That is not Liora at all"
She froze in place right there.
" But she looks just like her"she said.
"She is not real in any way"
The Liora shape stepped forward again. She took slow and deliberate steps across the ground.
Then she lifted her hand up. And she waved at us.
Mrs. Dalren stepped backward in pure terror. "Why would it take on her form like that" she asked.
I swallowed hard before answering.
"Because the Citadel wants me back badly,and it knows exactly how to lure me in close."
The Liora shape tilted her head to one side. A slow smile spread across her face. It stretched too wide. It looked too forced somehow. Her neck cracked with a loud sound as she straightened up.
"That was not Liora's smile at all,it never could be"
The fog beneath her feet thickened up fast. It swirled in these unnatural spirals around her.
"Elias" Mrs. Dalren whispered again.
" We need to get down from this tower right now"
As she spoke those words, the false Liora lifted both her hands up high.
The fog responded to her instantly. It rushed upward in a big swirl. It moved around her like a storm rising up at her command.
The creatures hidden deep inside that fog started moving faster. Their heads snapped toward our tower up high.
Mrs. Dalren clutched at my arm tight.
"She is calling all of them here"she said.
"Because she is not really her at all"I replied.
The Citadel speaks through that shape now.
The girl's mouth opened wide then. It opened too wide for any normal face ,far too wide.
And a voice came pouring out from her. That voice sounded wrong in every way. It layered over itself. It echoed like it came from a thousand different halls all at once.
"COME BACK" it said.
The sound hit so powerful that the stone under our feet vibrated hard. Mrs. Dalren screamed out loud. I grabbed hold of her quick. I pulled us both away from the rail as cracks split open across the tower's edge.
The fog roared upward toward us.
"They are coming right now" Mrs. Dalren cried out.
"We need to find survivors"I said firmly.
" We need every single person who is left out there"
"And then what happens?" she cried. "What comes after that??"
"We get them all to the chapel for safety,It stands as the strongest building in the whole village. The walls there are thick and solid. No windows sit low enough for anything to crawl right through them.
"And what about after we reach it??" she asked.
"I go in alone"
Her eyes brimmed full with tears.
" You mean into the Citadel itself??"
I nodded just once to confirm it.
"And you plan to come back out after that??"
"I will try my best to make it happen"
She gripped my sleeve even tighter. "Then let us hurry up now"
I lifted the lantern off the ledge. Its flame flickered back and forth violently. It struggled hard against the wind.
We descended the stairs two at a time down the tower. Shadows leaked through cracks in the walls around us. Thin tendrils stretched out like fingers,they seemed eager to touch us if they could.
"They are already inside the tower somewhere"Mrs. Dalren whispered.
"Just keep moving forward no matter what"
As we reached the bottom of the stairs, we heard voices from outside. Those voices shook with terror. They sounded desperate and afraid.
"Please let us in right now!"one called out.
"Someone open the door for us quick!"another begged.
"Mom, it is right behind us coming closer!" a child cried.
I unbolted the door fast. I yanked it open wide.
Six villagers stumbled inside the tower then. Two men led the way, a woman held her young son close.
An elderly couple followed behind them. Mud stained all over their clothes from the ground. Tears streaked down their faces in lines. They collapsed right onto the stone floor.they gasped for air,they sobbed hard,their bodies shook without stopping.
"Elias," oh thank goodness you are still alive, one man breathed out.
"Please help us" the woman cried. We saw shapes moving near the river. My daughter almost got caught by one of them.
The little boy clung tight to her neck. He trembled all over.
"It touched the window with its hand"he said. "It touched it right there"
Mrs. Dalren knelt down beside them all. "Where are the rest of the people"she asked.
A man shook his head slowly. We tried hard to find everyone else. The fog moved around us strangely. It blocked all the paths we knew. We heard screams coming from somewhere close.
Another voice spoke up then. It sounded old and cracked with age.
"Some of them never even came out from their houses at all" the old woman whispered.
My throat tightened up in my chest. This village was dying slow right before our eyes.
The fog outside shuddered once more. It felt like something massive moved through it deep down.
I stepped forward toward the group.
"Listen to me very carefully now" I said.
"Everyone listen up"
They lifted their faces up toward me. Tears still streaked across their skin.
"You need to get to the chapel as fast as possible."
"Do it now without waiting"
The older woman sobbed louder. "We can barely see ten steps ahead in this mess, how are we supposed to reach it without walking straight into one of those things??"
"I will get you there safely" I said. My voice stayed steady for them.
Mrs. Dalren stood up suddenly beside me. "Then I am coming with you too"
"You should stay with the others "
"No"she cut in. She shook her head back and forth hard.
" If you die out there in the fog, these people will not survive much longer,they need more than just one pair of eyes watching out"
I stared right at her for a moment. She looked terrified down to her core.
But she did not back down from it. Not even a little.
"Fine then" I said.
"Stay close to me out there,no matter what you hear in the dark.No matter what strange things you see moving"
The fog outside thickened even more. It turned from pale gray to this deep heavy shade.
And somewhere deep within that fog, a soft voice whispered out. It sounded familiar in a way that chilled me.
"Elias"it called softly.
Mrs. Dalren jerked back from the door.
"Was that her voice again??" she asked.
"That Liora thing calling out??"
"No" I said in a quiet tone.
This voice came out softer than before. It felt more fragile somehow. And more real in the moment.
But none of that really mattered here. It was not her true voice.
Not in this place,not during this nightmare we faced.
The Citadel tightened its grip on everything around us. It blurred the line between illusion and what felt real. It made it hard to even breathe sometimes.
"We are leaving right now"I said.
"No more waiting"
The villagers all stood up slowly. Their legs shook under them bad. But they stood anyway without falling.
I gripped the door handle tight in my hand.
Outside, the fog pulsed just once like a heartbeat.
It felt like a warning coming our way. Or maybe a direct threat. Perhaps even a promise of worse to come.
I opened the door wide then.
The fog rushed in toward us. It felt like cold breath on our skin.
"Stay right behind me no matter what" I whispered to them all.
And we stepped out into the mist together....