Dawn Lands: Chapter 1

The fog was thick tonight. It seemed to creep in from every direction, rising up from the valley floor and rolling down the mountainside, purposefully converging right at the front door of the modest resort. It was unusual to see fog so thick at this hour. There wasn't a warm front moving through, and the air up on the mountain had actually been much cooler than normal. There was something surreal about this fog. Something unnatural.

If there was one thing Madeline didn't like, it was the unnatural.

Madeline, the titular “Aunt Maddy” of “Aunt Maddy's Homestyle Bed & Breakfast”, couldn't shake the chill that seemed to penetrate her to the bone. She stood on the front porch of her Bed & Breakfast, gazing worriedly at the fog. It wouldn't be long before it overtook her completely, and judging from the density it would probably linger all night. That worried Maddy. She had important guests coming, and the fog would make their trek up the mountain extremely difficult at best, and extremely dangerous at worst.

Maddy had lived on the mountain long enough to know how to navigate in this kind of weather, but she doubted her guests would know. On a normal night, she might have been a little worried, had that touch of anxiety that grips every adult with children in their care. But this wasn't a normal night, and the anxiety she wrestled with was far more than just a touch. The girls had been through so much already, far more than anyone should have to endure. She couldn't bear to think of anything else happening to them... and so close to the holidays.

It would be difficult enough to get through the next few weeks herself.

She was in desperate of Clair's company right now. She yearned to pick up the phone and call her sister, pour all of our troubles out to her. Clair was Madeline's younger sister, but she was the most attentive listener Maddy had ever known. Ever since they were young, Maddy felt like she could confide in Clair. She didn't always have a lot to say, didn't always have advice to hand out, but she listened. That itself meant a great deal to Maddy.

Of course, she hadn't spoken to Clair in five or six years. Maddy swooned against the pang of regret that pierced her heart. Six years. And now this happened... now she would never be able to talk to her sister again.

The grief was crushing, overwhelming. Yet she fought against it as best she could. She had to be strong, for the girls. They would be looking to her for stability, guidance through this tragedy.

Maddy drew her arms around her. The cold penetrated her coat and she shivered. The fog rolled lazily along the ground, approaching the patio on which she stood with a speed she had never witnessed before.

Something's not right about that fog, Maddy thought.

She was about to turn away and head inside, but something else caught her eye. On the ridge just above the resort, there stood... something. It held the vague shape of a man, but it was hard to tell from this distance. By all rights, Maddy should not have seen him. Her visibility was limited by the fog. Yet there he
stood – if a he it was – enveloped by fog, yet surrounded by a strange, dim light.
Maddy shivered again and tore herself away from the strange sight. She told herself it was nothing, maybe a trick of the light from her own resort. Nevertheless, she turned back once more before going inside.

The figure was gone.