(POV – Protagonist)
I calmly observed the massive gate open in front of . After attaching a cara to my body, Emily lifted into the air, raising upward with steady movents, while Laura, Victor, and Rupert followed closely behind.
Standing before the colossal structure, the first thing that caught my attention was the strange behavior of the fog: it seed to respect an invisible boundary, not infiltrating past the gate's interior.
Outside, the world was so thickly blanketed by white that it was impossible to see more than a few ters ahead, as if we were surrounded by a living wall of mist.
Even though the gate was fully open, the fog wasn’t creeping into the interior of the warehouse we were in. When the gate began to open, I took the chance to carefully examine the area using my eyes. However, to my surprise, there was no glowing—indicating that the fog was completely natural.
In other words, an anomalous phenonon had occurred, which oddly resulted in a regular fog, perhaps expelled by the anomaly itself or through so indirect effect. In any case, the fog seed harmless, at least to a point, gently hanging in the air like a thin curtain separating the outside from our refuge.
As I montarily lost myself in thought, Emily’s firm voice echoed behind : “We’re counting on you, [Angel of Death]. Try to docunt everything you can and, if possible, figure out the origin of this strange fog. But above all, rember to prioritize your safety”
I turned for a brief mont and t Emily’s gaze. She was smiling warmly, as if trying to reassure with just her expression. Victor and Rupert, on the other hand, maintained an apparently indifferent stance. Still, I noticed both casting furtive glances my way, trying to disguise it.
Despite their neutral masks, I could catch a subtle hint of concern in their faces... of course, it was sothing so slight, almost like a drop of oil lost in a vast ocean. Especially Rupert, with whom I had barely exchanged words up to that point.
On the other hand, as soon as Laura felt my gaze on her, she waved enthusiastically at , like a child eager for attention... Well, how can I put it? Laura was exactly as always: spontaneous and unpredictable.
Anyway, to explain how exactly I ended up in this situation, I’ll need to rewind a few minutes back in ti—more precisely, to the mont when I suddenly found myself transford into a personal mannequin for Laura.
***
(POV – Emily Parker)
Emily sighed inwardly as she watched the scene unfolding before her. In a few words, Laura had turned the [Angel of Death] into a kind of mannequin—or doll, depending on what you preferred to call it.
Each ti Laura dressed the little anomaly in a new outfit, she’d imdiately furrow her brow, say she could find sothing better, and, without wasting any ti, swap it for another piece. At first, Emily wasn’t bothered by it; she even found it a bit amusing.
However, after nearly five minutes of watching that endless sequence of outfit changes and indecisions, even she was starting to feel the fatigue build up, silently wondering how much longer this would last.
In the end, the anomaly didn’t wear any of the clothes Laura had insisted it try. According to Laura, none of the pieces were able to enhance the creature's natural cuteness. Emily stayed silent after hearing this, struggling against irritation as she rembered all the ti wasted on that pointless attempt.
Although an intense urge to strangle Laura gripped her for a few seconds, Emily took a deep breath and decided to ignore her. No more argunts, and sticking to the original plan, she carefully attached a small cara to the little anomaly’s chest, preparing it for the mission.
As she adjusted the cara, Emily raised her gaze. The anomaly was staring at her intently, its face expressionless and indifferent, making it almost impossible to guess what was going on in its mind.
Its eyes blinked at brief, regular intervals and, perhaps sensing Emily’s focused stare, it tilted its head slightly to the side, displaying a subtle yet clear confusion at her gesture.
Seeing this, Emily couldn’t help but smile faintly, the corner of her lips curling. Carefully, she finished securing the cara to the anomaly’s body. In a way, the anomaly didn’t seem any different from usual—the only change was the small device now fixed to its chest. Through it, everything the anomaly saw outside the base could be monitored in real-ti by those inside.
From Emily’s point of view, there was sothing strange about all of this. She couldn’t explain why, but almost everything outside still seed to be working perfectly. Even the contact with nearby bases had been restored without major issues. So, in her mind, maintaining the cara’s signal while the little anomaly explored the outside should also be possible—at least, in theory.
“It’s all set. Now, everything you see, we’ll see too. Just try to rember not to disappear suddenly, like you usually do. I have a feeling that if you do that, the cara will lose the signal and we’ll be plunged into complete darkness in here” Emily said, keeping her eyes fixed on the anomaly in front of her.
As the little anomaly fixed its curious gaze on the device attached to its chest, Emily fell into thought. She wondered what exactly she would ask the anomaly to do once they were outside.
If she was being honest with herself, the truth was that, beyond the fog rapidly spreading around, she had no idea what to expect. The radars installed in the facility, which should be able to detect any signals, were completely useless—they couldn’t pick up any kind of energy or movent coming from the outside.
In the end, since the equipnt could reveal almost nothing about the external situation, personnel had to be sent to investigate what was going on. However, these teams never returned. With each new attempt, more strange sounds erged from the dense fog, an unsettling noise that abruptly dissipated, followed by silence.
No one ever ca back. It was then that Emily, facing the mounting tension, finally confird: sothing, out there, was present. And that sothing, with an unrelenting presence, was hunting anyone who dared venture beyond the safety of the base, into the fog.
Sure, it wasn’t like Emily had never sent teams equipped with caras, just like the little anomaly was doing now. However, unfortunately, the result was always the sa: the team mbers were brutally killed by sothing out there.
The forms of these creatures varied, but there was one undeniable thing they all had in common: the presence of an unrelenting threat, hunting them. The creatures didn’t follow any pattern, and the thods they used to eliminate their victims were as cruel as they were varied—ranging from violent crushing to horrific dismbernts. Each encounter seed more brutal than the last.
In the end, Emily imposed a strict order, forbidding anyone from leaving the base. She knew this would be a death sentence for everyone. However, as a last resort, the one being she still held hope for—soone whose survival, even in the worst circumstances, seed possible—was also being sent outside.
***
(POV – Protagonist)
The mont I stepped outside the warehouse, I was imdiately engulfed by a thick fog that seed endless. Visibility was practically zero; all my eyes could make out was a dense white curtain, obscuring everything around .
The air was damp and cold, and the fog stretched on infinitely ahead of . I looked around, but beyond the warehouse entrance, there was no sign of anything else—just the oppressive, foggy emptiness surrounding .
A sharp crack broke the silence, and as I turned, I saw the warehouse slowly closing, its massive doors creaking. Emily, Laura, Victor, and Rupert were there, watching with unreadable expressions. I held their gaze until the gate closed completely.
The exact mont the doors sealed, sothing strange happened: the warehouse, as if being swallowed by an invisible force, disappeared into a thick fog that seed to rise from the very ground. I could still see a small part of the gate, but the fog made everything blurry and distorted, making it hard to see. The silhouette of the gate remained visible, though it was blurred.
In the end, all I did was stand there in front of the warehouse, as if ti had slowed down around . Three, maybe four minutes passed while I stood still, lost in my own thoughts. To be honest, I had no idea what to do next. My vision was completely obstructed, as if an invisible fog had taken over my field of view.
Where should I go first? What should I do? Deep down, I knew that in the worst-case scenario, I could just use my ability to swim through the shadows, but for so reason, that idea didn’t seem so simple. Emily had warned that the cara probably wouldn’t transmit any signal anymore, and I didn’t want to risk it.
While I was lost in thought about it, Laura’s voice echoed, her tone sowhat muffled, but still clear enough for to identify that it was coming from the cara: “Oh! The fog is really covering everything ahead. The fact that it looks like sothing out of a horror movie only makes it more terrifying. Be careful, [Angel of Death]!”
Even with Laura’s warning, honestly, it didn’t seem like there was much I could do. I an, I couldn’t even see what was in front of . Sure, not that I would die if I was caught off guard, but for the sake of my ntal sanity, I’d rather avoid the mont when I look at my own body and so parts of it are just missing.
As I grimly reflected on all of this, Emily’s voice ca through the cara attached to my chest, breaking the heavy silence: “[Angel of Death], it’s , Emily. We’ll be communicating through the device we placed on your chest. First, try walking a few steps forward... is the sound really coming through, can you hear it?”
I blinked slowly, trying to process Emily’s words. The fog around seed to devour everything, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make anything out. The sense of disorientation was palpable. In the end, I decided to follow her suggestion; after all, there didn’t seem to be a better alternative.
Slowly, I began walking through the thick fog, the environnt in an eerie silence. Every step I took echoed faintly, breaking the stillness, but... wait, steps? The realization that I was indeed making noise made look down at the ground, an almost automatic gesture.
Hearing my footsteps was a strange feeling. I don’t an to sound pretentious, but I’m light—so light that I actually have no weight. I’ve never been able to hear my own steps. That’s because I’m so ethereal that even when walking, I don’t make a sound. In other words, the footsteps I was hearing weren’t mine. And, as I expected, as soon as my eyes focused on the ground, I realized there was sothing there, right beneath my feet.
The texture was strange... or rather, no matter how you looked at it, it looked like a heap of shattered flesh, spread across the ground, in a grotesque state. And on top of that, whatever it was, it was clearly writhing, as if still alive.
My eyes fixed on the flesh, as I tried, in vain, to ntally understand what the hell I was stepping on. My mind spun, trying to speculate about the origin of that repulsive thing, when suddenly, voices ca through the cara, interrupting my thoughts.
“Ugh!!!” The sound was muffled, as if it was stuck in soone’s throat.
All I could hear were the muffled sounds of gagging, and that’s when I realized: if anyone were to witness sothing like this, the first reaction would be to try to control their stomach, after all, the scene itself was grotesque enough to provoke that impulse. Of course, it had been a long ti since I could fit into what might be considered "normal" I an, I’m an anomaly.
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