Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Death in the Mist wasn’t permanent. Yan knew that. Every time you died in a match, you’d come back. But that didn’t stop Yan from being scared. Scared that one day she’d be killed and stay dead. Even though she desperately wished to escape from the Mist’s realm, death was not the way she wanted to do it.

As she was chased through the grounds of Roanoke Woods, Yan knew she was running out of time. She was the only one left, and she could feel the Watcher gaining on her by the second. Her breath started coming out in ragged gasps as she forced herself onwards. She was in a dead area and was running out of stamina, but yet she still continued to run.

“Just give up already. You can’t run forever.” Alexei sighed. Yan didn’t dare respond, attempting to conserve her stamina. It was futile. She was slow and they both knew it. With a gasp, she finally fell to her knees. The Watcher took his time advancing on her, twirling his baton around in his hands.

“What happened, Yan?” He mocked. “There’s no Nathan to protect you now.” Yan remained quiet, bracing herself for the blow that was sure to come. But it didn’t. She looked up in confusion and saw the reason why Alexei had paused.

A rift had opened up in the sky. It reminded her of the orb that hung above the destroyed archery range, but this was different. The rift looked like it ripped straight through the dark sky, with bright light shining through the cracks. The Heiress winced and shut her eyes against the blinding light. What was going on?

When she opened her eyes again, she immediately knew something was wrong. The cabins and trees around her had vanished, and were replaced by tall stalks of wheat. The sky was still dark, but it didn’t look familiar. Yan scrambled to her feet and gasped. She was in some sort of field. Did the rift bring her here? Was it a new map? But she was alone.

At least, she thought she was. A sudden groan made her jump, and she looked down to see that she unfortunately was not alone. The Watcher was lying at her feet, groaning like a little bitch. Yan recoiled and backed away, but he just continued to stir. After a moment of hesitation, she crouched down and tugged the baton out of his hands. Being careful not to touch the part sparking with electricity, she threw the weapon away from her as hard as she could.

“Hey! What the hell are you two kids doing out here?” A voice suddenly called out. Yan shielded her eyes as a flashlight’s beam swept over her. A tall, heavyset man lumbered into view, swinging his flashlight around the area. Yan recognized his uniform. A sheriff. “It’s nearly one in the morning! Don’t you kids have school tomorrow?”

“I’m twenty-five.” A voice deadpanned from behind Yan. She turned around and almost screamed at the sight of Alexei awake and on his feet.

“Officer!” She yelped, turning back to the sheriff. “This man– you have to arrest him. He’s a murderer and a terrorist!”

The sheriff looked between Yan and Alexei, confusion written all over his face. “Sir, I’m going to ask you to take off the helmet.” He demanded. After a moment of silence, the Watcher rolled his eyes and yanked it off. He looked nothing like what Yan expected him to, but that didn’t matter.

“Look, officer, I– this guy, he’s killed my friends!” The sheriff still looked skeptical. “If you don’t believe me, look over there!” Yan pointed in the direction where she’d thrown the baton. “There’s a weapon, a baton thing- that’s what he used to kill us!”

“Now, hold on a moment. What exactly do you mean by ‘us’, missy?” At that, Yan froze up. If she told him about everything– the Mist, the death matches, the killers– he’d probably laugh in her face. If someone had told her that they were abducted by mist and forced to survive against a killer for who knows how long, she’d probably think they were crazy too.

“I can explain everything, officer.” Alexei said with a placating smile. “We were at a house party– she’s gotten a little confused, you know how it is.”

“You went to a party wearing that?”

“A costume party.”

“He’s LYING!” Yan shrieked. She felt her eyes begin to water as she clasped her hands together. “Officer, please! You have to believe me, he–”

“Miss, please!” The sheriff cut her off. “I’m sorry, but there’s really nothing I can do without any evidence. I can drive you to the police station if you’d like, but other than that, I can’t help you.”

Yan curled her hands into fists. There was nothing she could do. For a second, she considered telling the sheriff who she was– maybe he’d care more about what she had to say if he knew who her father was. But she decided not to do it almost as quickly as she thought of it. She didn’t want to be the kind of girl that always had to rely on her father.

Ten minutes later, both Alexei and Yan were seated in the back seat of the sheriff’s car, making their way towards the police station. Yan stared out the window the entire time, thinking about the predicament she was in. It had started to sink in that she was really free from the Mist’s realm. But she had two major problems she needed to figure out how to deal with, and the biggest one was sitting a seat away from her.

“Hey, you two. We’re here.”

After receiving many thank-you’s from Yan, the sheriff drove off, leaving Alexei and the Heiress standing awkwardly outside of the police station. Before she could walk inside, the Watcher spoke to her for the first time since they’d been dropped in the field.

“They’re not going to believe you, you know. Anybody with a brain would think that you’re drunk or something.”

Yan’s hand froze on the door handle, but she forced herself to ignore his words. “Don’t talk to me.”

“You know I’m right.”

“What I know is that you’re a lying murderer who’s gonna get what’s coming to him. So just leave me alone and go do whatever weirdos like you do.”

“Woah… Harsh. Your insults are absolutely scathing.” Alexei folded his arms and leaned against the window of the station. The two stood in silence for a long time. Deep down, Yan knew he was right. She had no proof other than her word, which was nowhere near enough.

What she needed was a plan. Her first order of business would be to get as far away from the Watcher as she could. She’d heard the things Sanjana had said about him. She did not want to be anywhere near the catgirl loving shut-in.

She would then need a phone to call her mother. She had no idea where in the world she was, but she was confident it wasn’t anywhere she’d ever been before. And while she didn’t want to admit it, without her mother or Nathan she wasn’t able to do much on her own.

That was the plan. Get far, far away from the Watcher, then call her mother.

Easy.

Chapter Text

“Going somewhere?”

The Heiress ignored him. Alexei pushed himself off of the station wall and began to follow her. Honestly, he didn’t really have a plan. Of course, he was glad to get out of the Mist. The cycle had gotten stale after the first few rounds. All he really wanted was to go back to his room and his computer.

There was just one issue. He had nothing. No wallet meant no money. No phone meant no communication. He was free, but honestly, he might have preferred being trapped in the Mist rather than being tossed into a random place with nothing to his name.

“Why are you following me?” Yan grouched, interrupting his thoughts. He’d never heard her so annoyed. Usually whenever he saw her during rounds she was whining and screeching for Nathan. He only really remembered her because of that and the annoying machine that she had.

He shrugged. He wasn’t too sure himself. Truth be told, Alexei just wanted to see what she was going to do. Yan rolled her eyes half-heartedly. A few minutes passed in awkward silence as the two walked on.

“So… You’re rich.” Alexei stated. He wasn’t trying to be friendly, he was just curious.

Yan hesitated before answering. “How’d you know?”

“You have the energy of a girl who’s been spoiled by Daddy’s money. Plus, you’ve got that bodyguard guy… Oh, and the robot.”

At the mention of P3-NG, Yan abruptly stopped walking. “Don’t talk about him. Please.”

“Okay, okay. Sorry… Sheesh. Where are we going, anyway?”

“You mean, where are you following me?” The Heiress yanked her fingers through her ponytail, looking stressed out. “If you really must know, I’m trying to find a phone. I need to call my mother…”

“You’re not going to find a phone lying around waiting to be used, genius. Unless you’re talking about a pay phone.”

“I don’t know how to use those.” Yan admitted, blushing from embarrassment.

Alexei pinched the bridge of his nose. This girl was hopeless. He’d expected her to be spoiled, not helpless. “Do you just have butlers who do everything for you or something?”

“No… It was just my mom, Nathan, and–” She stopped herself before she finished her sentence. “Never mind. Ugh. I don’t even know why I’m talking to you.”

“Look– there’s a library. The receptionist will probably let you use the phone at the front desk.” Alexei gestured to the aforementioned library that was a few buildings away from where they stood. The lights were still on, brightening up the street.

“It’s like three in the morning. What library is open at that time?”

“That one.”

After a short walk, the two were standing at the front desk of the library. The lady behind the desk graciously allowed Yan to use the phone. Her hands shook as she punched in the numbers on the keypad. She wasn’t sure why she was so nervous. Maybe it was because she’d been in the Mist for so long she didn’t know if her mother would even remember her.

Yan brought the phone to her ear and waited for her mother to pick up. One ring. Two rings. Three rings. Would the call even go through? Four rings. Five–

“Hello?”

“Oh! Hello. Hi.” Yan fumbled over her words.

“Who is this?”

“It’s me. Yan.” There was a long pause. “Your… Your daughter.”

“Daughter? I don’t have a daughter. What are you talking about?”

Yan felt her heart drop to her stomach. Her voice shook as she spoke. “Mom, you don’t… Don’t you remember me? I–”

“Is this some kind of scam? I told you, I don’t have a daughter. Please don’t contact me again.”

Click.

Yan stood there with the phone still in her hands, frozen in shock. Surely she had the wrong number. There was no way her own mother didn’t recognize her voice. Had she really been forgotten so easily?

“Are you alright, miss? You’re looking a little pale.” Yan jumped as the front desk lady’s words cut through her thoughts. She smiled forcefully and nodded, placing the phone back into its holder. Alexei looked bored, staring in the direction of the computers. He started as Yan walked past him and out of the building looking like she was on the verge of tears.

He followed her out at a leisurely pace, his mind still on the computers. Neither of them spoke. The Watcher was so distracted that he hadn’t even noticed that Yan had stopped to sit on an outdoor bench. She was hunched over and had her head in her hands.

“Are you crying?” Alexei asked in horror. He did not want to deal with a crying girl. There was a reason why he didn’t have girlfriends growing up.

“No.” Yan sniffled. “Leave me alone.”

“What, did your mom refuse to give you another credit card or something? You do know you can just get a job, right?”

“Shut up! Please! I don’t want to talk right now, okay? Just leave!” Yan sobbed. Definitely crying. Alexei did consider walking away. Truth be told, he wouldn’t really feel bad about it. He wasn’t the type of person to get all emotional whenever somebody cried around him. But he did want to know what happened. So he sat down on the opposite end of the bench and awkwardly waited for her to finish her blubbering.

A painful few minutes went by before Yan finally dried her eyes and sighed. “Look… it’s late, and we’re both tired. Probably. Can’t we just focus on finding a place to sleep for now?”

Alexei was a bit surprised that she used ‘we.’ Wasn’t she trying to get him arrested less than two hours ago? “Unless you’ve got money on you, which I’m assuming you don’t… You’re out of luck. I mean, there’s always the bench to sleep on… Or under a bridge… And of course, the good old pavement.”

Yan’s face had twisted in horror. She didn’t even want to imagine how it would feel to attempt to get a good night’s sleep on the crusty pavement. “I don’t want to sleep on a bench.”

“Neither do I, but we don’t always get what we want in life. Unless you prefer the ground?”

“No!” Yan nearly screamed. “The bench is just fine, thank you very much.”

That night was not a comfortable one. Yan had never been more uncomfortable, sleeping next to the man who’d been trying to kill her less than a day ago. Her back ached as she tried getting into a more comfortable position. But the thing that was really keeping her up was the conversation she’d had with her mother.

Did her own mother really forget who she was? How long had she been in the Mist? She’d meant to ask the librarian what the year was, but she’d been too distracted to remember. Thinking about what happened made her heart hurt almost as badly as her back currently did. Why were these benches so hard??

This would be a very long night.

Chapter Text

The first thing Yan thought when she woke up was that she had somehow died and found herself in Hell. Her entire body ached from head to toe, and it was unfathomably hot. It took her a few moments to remember everything that had happened. Without a doubt, that had been the worst night of her life.

It had taken her hours to fall asleep, so by the time she finally was able to close her eyes the sun had already begun to rise. Now here she was, baking in the midday sun. Standing up was a Herculean task she wasn’t quite ready to face, so she just lay there, wishing she was in her comfortable bed at home.

Home. Her mother. Nathan. Yan felt herself tearing up again at the thought of him still trapped within the Mist. She wiped her eyes and forced herself to stand. Immediately she noticed that Alexei was gone. Had he decided to leave her and tough it out on his own? She wouldn’t be that broken up about it, but she had to admit it did sting a little.

The people walking by gave her strange looks. How disheveled did she look?

“So. You’re finally awake.”

Yan turned around to see Alexei standing behind her, carrying three plastic bags. He’d ditched the black armor Yan always saw him wearing, and was dressed in plain streetwear instead. He tossed two of the bags onto the bench she’d been sleeping on. “New clothes. And food.”

“Where’d you get the money for that?”

He held up the third bag. “Bottles and cans. I’ve been picking them up all night. It’s actually pretty good money.” He certainly looked like he’d been up all night. “There’s a public bathroom over there you can use if you want.”

Once she was in the bathroom, Yan realized just how unkempt she looked. Her hair was a mess and she had dark bags underneath her eyes. While trying to fix the disaster, Yan thought about her predicament. She couldn’t go home. She had no money. And while a few hours ago she was more than willing to ditch the Watcher, now she wasn’t so sure that was the best course of action.

Yan was too used to relying on others. Her parents, Nathan– hell, even P3-NG. She wasn’t dumb– she knew that she wouldn’t last long if she was left to fend for herself. As much as she didn’t want to, she had to admit she was grateful for the help. But the Watcher’s help just made her more confused.

Why was he being so darn nice?

She asked him this as soon as she was finished in the bathroom. Honestly, he wasn’t really too sure himself. Alexei could’ve just gone off on his own and would’ve been fine. He wouldn’t even feel bad. But he didn’t, and now here he was.

He just shrugged in response. “Couldn’t tell you. But if you were that girl with the white headband, I would’ve ditched you so fast.”

Yan let out a small laugh. She didn’t like Yronica much either.

After she’d eaten, Alexei handed her an empty bag and told her to get to collecting more cans. She was glad he’d gotten her a hat, because the sun was relentless.

If the past Yan been told that in the future she’d be rooting around in recycling bins for bottles, she would’ve probably laughed. It wasn’t so funny now that she was actually living through this nightmare. While reaching to pick up a can discarded beside a shop, she paused to read a sign plastered onto the window. They were hiring.

Yan yanked the paper off of the window and stuffed it into the bag. She’d keep it in mind for later. She’d rather work in an actual store instead of picking up cans all day.

By the time she’d completely filled up the bag, her back hurt more than it did when she woke up and she’d gotten sunburn. Her feet dragged as she trudged back to that stupid bench. Yan prayed they’d get enough money for a hotel room or something, even a crappy one.

Yan’s day was further soured when she and Alexei went to the bottle depot to collect their money.

“TWENTY dollars?!” She wailed. “I did all of that for twenty dollars?”

“Hey, if you want more, you’re free to go find some more cans.” Alexei added the twenty to a ten he already had in his pocket. That reminded Yan of the sign she’d seen. Clearly, this way of making money wasn’t viable. She picked the piece of paper out of the bag and showed it to the Watcher.

“Huh. You didn’t strike me as the type who’d want to get a job. But by all means, go for it.”

And go for it, she did. Using the library phone, Yan called the store and was able to secure an interview. She’d never worked a job before, and didn’t know what to expect. Alexei wasn’t much help, although Yan didn’t expect much from him anyway.

The rest of the day consisted of Alexei catching up on sleep and Yan being bored out of her skull. Unfortunately, it was back to the bench that night, as thirty dollars was not nearly enough for a hotel. They found a different one, which was far worse than first as it was plastic. Yan didn’t manage to get any sleep at all. Being in the Mist was horrible, but at least she’d had a nice-ish cabin and a bed to sleep on.

As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she felt guilty. Her friends were still stuck in that terrible place, and here she was complaining about having to sleep in an uncomfortable place. Yan closed her eyes and tried not to think about the Mist.

The next day was a little better. Yan’s interview went well, and she managed to snag a cashier position for the coffee shop. She’d start in a day. Yan knew that Yeona used to work at a cafe, but the two only really talked a handful of times. She kind of regretted that now.

At least things were looking up for her. She had a job, and as soon as she got paid she’d be able to finally sleep on a real bed.

The next day couldn’t come soon enough.

Chapter Text

Becca’s hands shook as she worked on the generator, trying her best not to mess up. She’d been doing this for so long that she’d lost count, but this round’s killer terrified her the most. Occasionally, paranormal sounds coming from the mines near her filled her ears, scaring the snot out of her. Becca tried her best to ignore them.

She was so focused on completing the generator she didn’t even notice when her heart rate began to increase. It was only when the Unforgotten was mere feet away from her and had raised its claws that she finally noticed her predicament. Abandoning the generator, Becca sprung into action and ran like hell. She had nothing to defend herself with– Becca often found herself wishing she had a gun like her brother, or something like Mamo’s bat.

Becca would fight if push came to shove, but she wasn’t going to go anywhere near that demon. As she vaulted over a broken fence, she could feel herself getting more and more tired. In her panic she’d forgotten to conserve her stamina. The Unforgotten was catching up to her, bringing along its aura of menace.

“G̸̳̐o̶̦̖̔̎͝d̶̩̹̀̔̐.̷̨͋ ̸̨̘̝͐̒̓Y̴̠̝͗̈́͜ö̷̱͚̫́ụ̵͓̊̑'̸̺̈̇ŕ̴̥͎ȅ̶̪̻̬̒̈́ ̴͍͠͠å̷̧̕ ̴͙̇l̷͔̓̿o̸̧̞̻͠s̴̳͖̿ẻ̸͔ŕ̷̪̂̓.̴̱́͘” It taunted, mimicking Yronica’s voice. It came out wrong and distorted, sending a shiver down Becca’s spine. The Final Girl darted inside of the dingy gas station and hurriedly climbed into a locker, slamming the door shut. She held her breath as the Unforgotten drifted inside, doing her best to stay composed. Her heart was beating so fast she thought it was going to jump out of her chest.

A nerve-wracking few seconds passed before the Unforgotten teleported, leaving behind nothing but a cloud of black mist.

Becca let out her breath with a gasp and stumbled out of the locker. By the time she made it back to the generator she was working on, it had completely regressed. With an irritated sigh she began to work on it again, but not a minute had gone by before she was joined by somebody else.

“Nathan. Hey.”

“Becca.” Nathan barely acknowledged her, instead focusing on the generator wires. Becca knew something wasn’t right. Nathan was a man of few words, but he usually had more to say than that. She felt like she knew what the issue was.

“What’s up? I can tell something’s bothering you.”

Nathan was quiet for a few moments before responding. “Becca. Have you seen Yan at all lately?”

Becca slowly shook her head no. She was friends with the Heiress, but truthfully, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her. The last time they’d talked was… what, a week ago? Five days? She had stopped counting the days a long time ago, but she had noticed that Yan wasn’t around.

It was weird– there wasn’t exactly anywhere to go. The only areas that the survivors knew of were the cabins and the vast forest that surrounded them, but Becca knew Yan. She wouldn’t go anywhere near that place, especially with the threat of the ‘anomaly area’ Sanjana had talked about in the past. Unless Yan had been hiding under one of the cabins for the past few days, she really was gone.

The sound of the generator backfiring startled her out of her thoughts. Nathan had abandoned the wires and had his head in his hands. Becca watched awkwardly for a few seconds before reaching out and patting his back. She had no idea what she was doing.

“Sorry.” Nathan’s voice came out muffled from behind his hands. “I’m just so angry with myself. I don’t understand how this could have happened. It’s my job to protect her, but now I just– I don’t–”

“Nathan. Stop it.” Becca interrupted. “I don’t want you to blame yourself for any of this, alright? This was clearly out of your control. Yan’s disappearance, it wasn’t…I don’t think it was normal. Nobody can just vanish without a trace in a place like this.”

Becca had a very good idea of what she thought had happened to Yan, but she didn’t dare tell Nathan. She didn’t want him to freak out even more. She opened her mouth to continue, but shut up when she noticed her heartbeat getting faster. In a flash, Nathan was on his feet, holding out an arm in front of her protectively. “Get away from here. I’ll hold it off.” He ordered.

She didn’t hesitate to listen. Becca scrambled away as fast as she could, trusting that Nathan could hold his own against the being. She didn’t stop until she was at a generator on the other side of the map. Becca hated that this was all she could do. Run. Hide. Fix generators. She wanted to be able to do more.

She remembered the rage that she felt when she’d driven that knife into the skull of her boyfriend’s killer. For a reason she didn’t understand, she never felt hatred as strong as that when going up against the killers here. It was a bit hard to take some of them seriously. No way was she scared of some psychopathic teenager with a knife.

“Becca?”

“Oh, Eiji. Hey.”

Becca and Eiji were on friendly terms. She wouldn’t say he was her best bud, but he was one of the few people she really spent time with apart from Yan. Becca wasn’t exactly the most popular survivor in the Mist. She mostly talked to the same few people.

Eiji carefully set aside his camera before getting on the generator with her. They worked in silence for a while until Eiji cleared his throat. “Um… Becca. You and Yan… you’re friends, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so. What’s with the question?”

“Well… You probably already know that, well, Yan’s gone. But I don’t think she’s the only one.” Eiji muttered, focusing most of his attention on the generator. Becca raised an eyebrow. She didn’t know everybody in the Mist, but she was fairly certain that none of the other survivors had disappeared. Unless…

“Is it that werewolf guy you’re always hanging around with? Your boyfriend?”

Eiji nearly messed up on the generator at the mention of the Werewolf. “Cole? No, not him. I– I mean– well, he told me something. You know that killer who wears the black armor and has that baton?”

Unfortunately, she did. She had a hatred for that guy. Becca had heard more than enough about him from Sanjana and Kelvin. She nodded, and Eiji continued. “Cole told me that he hasn’t seen him around at all. And from what he’s heard, none of the killers have either. It’s like he’s just, well, disappeared.”

Becca ruminated on the information. She didn’t think Eiji was lying to her, but what he said didn’t make a lot of sense to her. Out of all people, why were those two the ones who had gone missing? What did they even have in common other than both being taken by the Mist??

“How come you’re telling me this?”

“Well… I mean, you two are close. Plus, if I told Nathan he’d just freak out and get even more worried than he already is. And Jun would just tell Nathan if I even mentioned any of this to him.”

“Makes sense. But–”

Eiji’s eyes widened at something behind her. “Duck!” He yelled. Becca instinctively did as he said. She shut her eyes as the blinding flash of his camera went off, momentarily stunning the Unforgotten.

“Y̷̳̹̘͂o̴̬̮̱͉͛u̴̢͙̤̘͈͛̉͒͑͌'̵̜̘̉r̶͖̰̃̀͝ę̷̤̩̼̀͊̽̕͠ ̷̨͚͎̙̈̂ö̶͈̜͚́̊ṇ̷̀̐͝ ̴̢̮͂̊t̵͍̳͗h̵̫̳̱͛͛̂e̴̦̥̯̽ ̸͈̮̰̗̘͂n̴̮̻͌̽̚à̴͎͎̼͍̤̓̚̕ů̴̜́̋̓͝g̸͎͉͎̰̺̿̈́͝ḫ̷̨͚̮͂̒̚t̷͕̎y̵̛͉ͅ ̸̧͈̻͠l̷̟̜͙̔̽́̎í̵̟̎s̶̘͚̭̲͘t̴̛̻͍̅͒͌̄.̵͕͈̀̄̓͑̃” It snarled. Becca had been so engrossed in the conversation that she’d forgotten about the situation it was in. She hadn’t even realized that her heart was racing a hundred miles a minute.

By the time Becca registered what had happened Eiji was already gone. She got up and ran, but the Unforgotten was hot on her heels. With a vicious lunge, its claws slashed right through her sweater, making her shriek in pain. She collapsed onto her back, but knew something was very wrong right away.

“What the hell?” She gasped. Becca felt warm blood pooling underneath her, something that shouldn’t have been there. Even when the survivors were cut with knives, they never bled.

Instead of leaving in pursuit of another survivor, the Unforgotten raised its claws again and swiped at her arm, sending blood spraying across the ground.

Killers weren’t supposed to hit survivors when they were down. Even the most bloodthirsty killers respected that unspoken rule.

“Ÿ̷̼́͐͝o̷̤̾ṳ̸̫̠̠̺̄̈̍́ŗ̶̱̰̄͜ ̵̫̞̲̪̃̕f̶̙̿̓e̴̳̣͑̆a̷̛̻̹͑̆͂͝r̵̙̝͕̹̓̋̏̚ͅ ̴̣̝̦͕͊̀̎̃̕ĩ̷̢̔̂͝s̶̟̠͆̇͋̊͝ ̸̘͈̼͒̌į̷̯́́̓͠n̵̲̻͑t̸͖̬̀̉̓͋̀ȯ̵̧̡̘̪͒̓͑x̴̛̭̍͒̍̚t̷̢̡̮̮̞̎̈́͘͘i̷̧̘̾̎͛̓c̵̗̊̚̚a̷̰̣̿͗̇̕t̶͈͊i̴̢͎̾́n̷̗͠͠ģ̷̠̬͖̳͒͠.̵̢̺̳̭̽͋” The creature said, mimicking Seoung’s voice. Becca scooted backwards as quickly as she could. Her breath came in short gasps as she clutched at the wound on her arm, attempting to stop the bleeding. She was unable to do anything about the gashes on her back.

Swear poured down her forehead as she stared at the demon standing in front of her. Was this how she’d go out? She didn’t want to die yet. Not here, not like this. Becca vaguely remembered thinking the same thing all those years ago when faced with the man who’d almost ended her life.

“Hey! Eat this, you jerk!” A voice yelled out from behind Becca. She turned around to see Dakota spraying the Unforgotten with her flame spray. It shrieked as it was engulfed with flames for a few seconds before they burnt out.

“C̷̼̤̩͈͒̑̓o̴͎̔̋m̵̡̮̲̱̮̀̍͑ê̶̥͈͔̰͋̽̊̓͜ ̴͈̥̳̆̎ó̵̹͕̭̯̞̎n̵̨͗̌ ̷̧̧̱̻̐̇́̅ͅt̵͔̚h̶̨̍ͅȩ̶͎̤́͛n̵̖̦͖̿̑͘͠!̶͔̞͇͈̀̏͗ ̴̡̞̥͂̔̉͝L̴̗͛͑͑̈́e̷͎͈̾̋t̵̺̬̫̀̈́'̸̪̒͐̈́̋͝s̷̫̘̫̳̊ ̶͓̰̠͋͛̌͠f̴͙͓͎̒ỉ̵̮̫͕̾͑̆͜͠g̸͇̞̘̓̈̈́̌͠h̴̦̎̆̀t̴̲͈̋͌͊̍͊!̶̖̽͌͌” It shrieked, completely forgetting about the Final Girl in order to chase after Dakota. Becca was unable to do anything but sit there and attempt to staunch the wounds that were still open. Was it even possible to die in this place?

Her vision was suddenly obscured by white mist, signaling that the round was over. Becca blinked and she was on the floor of her cabin. The bleeding had stopped, but she still felt the searing pain of the Unforgotten’s claws on her skin.

She had so many questions, but only one was at the front of her mind.

What the fuck had just happened?

Chapter Text

“I’m sick,” Yan announced. She was sprawled out like a starfish on the dingy motel room’s bed.

“Of what?”

“Work.”

The Watcher rolled his eyes and returned to staring at the spider making its way up the wall. Things had changed a lot for them in the past two weeks. With Yan’s paycheck, the two had finally been able to afford a crappy motel room. Despite the terrible conditions, the Heiress had actually cried when she first saw the room. Alexei suspected it was because of the rather comfortable looking bed.

“Unless you wanna lose the bed, you better get over your life-threatening illness.”

“Jerk.”

“Whatever.” Alexei got up and put on a sweater over his t-shirt. “I’m going on a walk.”

After she was sure he was gone, Yan reached under the bed and pulled out a cheap journal she’d bought. Journaling was a hobby she’d picked up a week ago, something she never imagined herself doing. Putting her feelings on paper kept her from losing her mind.

As she wrote about nothing in particular, her mind started to wander. Whenever she managed to get any alone time, which wasn’t easy, she would think about the Mist. She still had zero idea how exactly she was able to escape from that place. Yan wasn’t even sure why she was taken out in the first place with Alexei of all people.

Truth be told, she was still kind of afraid of him. He acted normal, but Yan knew what he was capable of. Abandoning him and hopping on a bus to another city was a thought that had crossed her mind once or twice. But she knew she would never be able to do that, so she tried not to waste her time thinking about it.

Unfortunately, that led to her to thinking about her friends– her family– that were still suffering in the Mist. While she was here living a relatively normal life, they were stuck in what she thought of as Hell, and she could do nothing about it. Not until she figured out what, or rather, who took her out of the realm.

As soon as she thought that, she was struck by a theory that was so obvious she was surprised she hadn’t thought of it before.

Sanjana and Kelvin. Before they had appeared in the Mist, they’d managed to open a rift inside of the Mist. Plenty of the survivors had heard voices coming through it, leading to them believing that they’d soon be rescued. They were wrong, obviously, but that wasn’t important. Sanjana and Kelvin were proof that gaining access to the Mist’s realm was possible. The Rift couldn’t be a one-way passage either, or else she wouldn’t have been able to escape.

Yan furiously wrote down all of her thoughts, her pen moving a million miles a minute. The more she wrote, the more anxious she became. How was she going to research more about the Rift? She didn’t even know what organization Sanjana and Kelvin worked for. Who would even believe her if she tried asking anybody about it? They’d think she was crazy. Maybe she was. Why was she so obsessed with the Mist, anyway? She was free, wasn’t she? Why didn’t she just forget? Why COULDN’T she just forget?

She hadn’t even noticed how tightly she had been clutching her pen until her palm stung, forcing her to stop. Her fingernails had dug into her palm forcefully enough to draw blood. Yan stared at her hand, entranced at the sight of the singular droplet that had oozed out of the small wound. It was only when she heard a whisper from behind her that she snapped out of her trance and whipped around.

“Found you.”

It was a voice Yan had heard in her nightmares countless times. There was nobody behind her when she turned, but she knew she wasn’t hearing things. She abandoned her journal on top of the bed and picked up the closest thing to a weapon she could find– a cheap lamp. She yanked the power cord out of the outlet and held it out in front of her as if it was a baseball bat. There was no Nathan to protect her now.

The feeling of a cold metal blade on her neck almost startled her into dropping her makeshift weapon. With a shriek, she turned around again and practically sprinted to the small bathroom connected to their room. Yan locked the door and pressed her back against it, clutching the lamp as tightly as she could. Her breathing became shallow as who she assumed to be the Stalker softly knocked on the door.

“Come out and play, Yan. I’m bored.” The knocking stopped, and was instead replaced by the sound of a knife scraping against the door. Yan covered her mouth with one of her hands and tried to hold back her tears. This situation was truly something straight out of her nightmares, and she was facing it alone.

When Yan first came face-to-face with the Stalker, she hadn’t thought much of the girl. Taliyah was much shorter than her, and wasn’t all that threatening. But God, that girl knew how to scare people. The amount of times she’d earned a knife in the back because of Taliyah’s ability to sneak up on the survivors was as embarrassing as it was terrifying.

The scratching began to get louder and louder until it was so ear piercing that Yan had to drop the lamp completely in order to cover her ears. She let out a scream, but the Stalker was relentless. Yan dug her fingers deep into her ears and squeezed her eyes shut as tight as possible, trying and failing to block out the grating sound. She began to feel light-headed and was afraid she was going to black out before the noise suddenly stopped.

With a sob she collapsed against the door, her hands shaking so badly she couldn’t even pick up the lamp. Her ears rang so loudly she could barely even hear her own breathing. As she stared at the wall, they began to bleed. Thick blood flowed down the walls, staining the muddy yellow wallpaper and seeping onto the floor. Yan jumped onto the counter so fast that her P.E. teacher would have shed a tear. The bloodflow didn’t stop. The bathroom slowly began to fill up with the red liquid, contaminating everything it came into contact with.

Yan began to hyperventilate as the blood lapped at her feet, making her cringe away. She began to scream again, but she wasn’t the only one. She heard the screams of Nathan, of her mother, her father– everyone she cared about, everyone who cared for her– they were suffering, and she was suffering too, and the screaming wouldn’t stop and–

“Yan?”

A sudden knock on the door– a real one– brought her back to reality. “Why are you screaming? Did you find a penny on the floor?”

Alexei.

Still breathing heavily, Yan slowly descended from her crouched position on the counter after making sure it was completely clean. Well, clean of blood. She didn’t notice just how filthy the bathroom floor really was.

“Alexei?” She asked, shaking slightly. Was he even real? “Alexei?”

“Since when did my name become a mantra?” He snarked. “Open the door already.”

Yan nearly started crying again from relief. She hadn’t noticed just how much her entire body ached. She had fingernail marks on her arms to join the one on the palm of her hand. The lamp she’d brought inside was broken, the lightbulb smashes to pieces on the ground. She stepped around the shards of glass and carefully opened the door.

Alexei’s eyes widened at the mess inside of the bathroom. “I don’t even want to ask about what the hell you were doing in here. I could hear you screaming like a banshee from the hallway–”

He stopped mid-sentence. “I could hear you screaming like you’d just gotten your allowance taken away from the hallway. If there was anybody else who was staying in this dump they would’ve called the reception, you know.”

Yan opted not to respond. She instead pushed past him and headed straight for the journal she'd carelessly abandoned on the bed, trying her best to stow it away before the Watcher noticed it. She was not successful.

“There’s no point in trying to hide that. I already read through it days ago.”

“You did WHAT?!” Yan shrieked.

“You didn’t do a very good job of hiding it.” Alexei shrugged.

Once again, Yan didn’t respond and instead shoved the notebook back under the bed before getting under the covers with a huff.

“You’re going to sleep already? It’s barely eight.”

“Leave me alone.”

“Touchy.”

He left her alone. Yan was extremely grateful that he didn't read anything that she'd written that evening.

Neither of them got much sleep that night.

Chapter Text

“Hello! What can I get for you?”

Yan smiled at the person whose order she was taking. She’d been working at the cafe for a while now, and was making less mistakes than she did on her first day. Sometimes she still messed up orders, but her manager had instilled the fear of God into her so many times she’d stopped making those mistakes a long while ago.

Her hands shook slightly as she input the order into the system. She still thought of the– what was she even supposed to call it? Hallucination? Nightmare? Whatever. The point was, Yan wasn’t over it. Every time she closed her eyes, she remembered how real the sound of the Stalker’s knife scraping against the door sounded.

“Hello? Hello? Are you listening to me?”

Yan snapped out of her thoughts. The customer was staring intently at her, probably wondering whether or not he should call for help.

“Oh! Sorry… uh, could you please repeat what you said?”

“I asked if I could pay with cash.”

“Yes…?”

Yan wondered why he was asking. Wasn’t it common knowledge that you could pay for a coffee with cash? The customer handed over three five dollar bills and told her to keep the change. She flipped through the bills and paused at the sight of a piece of paper stuck between the money. Upon closer inspection, she realized the guy had given her his number.

Weird. She thought people only did that in TV shows. Before she could stuff the paper in her pocket and forget about it, one of her co-workers materialized beside her.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, nothing…”

Yan tried putting the slip away, but her co-worker– what was her name again? Yan had already forgotten– snatched it away.

Yan already felt a headache coming as the girl let out a squeal and called over practically every female working at the cafe. She half-wished that the manager would come over and put a stop to the madness, but then again, she was positive he only showed up to yell at her for doing something wrong.

After an exhausting couple minutes of being heckled, Yan excused herself to take her lunch break. She technically wasn’t allowed to leave the store while on break, but since the manager was nowhere to be found, she decided it would be okay just this once. The tiny break room was a nightmare to be in.

Once outside the cafe, Yan began rooting in her pocket for spare change. She pulled out the fives from her earlier order and realized she had forgotten to put the cash in the register. Oops.

“What’re you doing out here?”

Yan jumped and stuffed the money back into her pocket.

“What are you doing here?”

Alexei shrugged. “I wanted some coffee.”

Yan rolled her eyes. There was a coffee shop across the street from their motel, but he chose to walk twenty minutes to get to the one she worked at. The lengths he went to just to annoy her.

“Well, you’ll have to order it from someone else, ‘cause I’m on break.” She turned around and started walking towards the sandwich shop down the street. The money she’d accidentally stolen weighed heavy in her pocket. Well, it was too late to return it now. And besides, she needed it much more than the cafe did.

She’d started thinking like that more and more recently. Yan wasn’t too proud of who she was becoming, but her circumstances were humiliating. She went from being able to afford whatever she wanted to pinching for pennies. How the mighty have fallen.

When she’d made it back to the cafe fifteen minutes later, she found Alexei still waiting in the same spot where she’d left him.

“You want me to take your order that badly?” She asked incredulously.

“I don’t like the girl at the counter. She looks weird.” He complained.

Alexei reminded Yan of an overgrown baby. Unfortunately, her break was over, so she was forced to return to her regular position. She only had a few more hours of the day to get through, but her headache was getting worse. They had been getting more and more frequent.

While taking Alexei’s order, she saw a figure out of the corner of her eye. When she turned to see what it was, nothing was there. Was she really going crazy? First that hallucination, and now she was seeing things?

“Hey, Yan. Do you know that guy?”

A girl she worked with who always mispronounced her name tapped her on the shoulder. Seriously, did nobody have anything better to do other than ask her questions she didn’t feel like answering?

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Could you maybe get me his number?”
Yan pinched the bridge of her nose. She did not have the energy to respond.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. By the time she finally clocked out her headache had gotten so bad she had to find a bench and sit down. Yan had considered going to the doctor’s about it, but dismissed the thought. It would pass soon. Probably.

“Umm, excuse me?” A quiet voice asked.

“What do you want?” She snapped. As soon as the words came out of her mouth she regretted them. She’d sounded like Yronica, someone who she aspired to never be like.

“Sorry. That was mean.”

“It’s okay. I was just wondering if you were okay… you look really stressed.”

Yan looked up at the stranger and nearly jumped out of her skin. For a second, she’d thought the Idol was looking back at her. But no, it wasn’t him. They looked similar, but this guy’s eyes were a much darker shade of green.

“Yeah, I’m fine…” At the guy’s disbelieving look, she sighed. “No, not really. Sorry, I’m just dealing with a lot right now.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Did she want to talk about it? For so long, she’d been bottling up all of her emotions. She certainly wasn’t going to confide in Alexei of all people, and outside of him she didn’t really have anybody else. But if she told him about everything that happened the past few weeks, he’d probably start wondering whether or not he should get her checked into a mental facility.

“I… have to be somewhere right now. Sorry.”

Yan got out of there as fast as she could. Her hands were shaking again. Why was it so difficult to just tell somebody how she felt? For the thousandth time she wished Nathan was with her. Or her mother. Especially her mother.

She pressed a hand to her forehead. Maybe she really did need to see somebody about the headaches.

Whatever. She would be okay. A solution to her problems would come in due time.

Chapter Text

Being a journalist, it was Millicent’s job to notice things that others would usually miss. So when she noticed how different Becca had been acting the past few days, she took it upon herself to investigate.

As she walked up the steps to Becca’s cabin armed with her notepad and pen, she wondered what kind of an approach she should take. Maybe she would engage in some small talk before going in for the kill. She didn’t want Becca telling her to beat it before she even entered the cabin.

After a few knocks, Becca opened the door a crack and peered at Millicent for a second before attempting to shut it again. Before the door fully closed, Millicent stuck her foot between the crack and swung it open again, sending Becca stumbling backwards.

“Hey! In case you didn’t know, I’m Millicent, Millicent Hurley. Why don’t we have a chat?”

“Get lost.”

Millicent did the opposite and invited herself in. She could feel Becca glowering at the back of her head as she surveyed the cabin.

“What do you want? I’m not really in the mood for visitors.” Becca sighed, sounding tired. Millicent beamed at her, trying to seem as friendly as possible.

“Well, Becca, I’ve got a bee in my bonnet. So I need your help. Take a seat, why don’t you?”

“No, thanks.”

Millicent opened her notepad anyway. “So… you’ve been acting weird the past few days. You’re normally pretty quiet, but lately I don’t see you coming out of your cabin at all. Tell me about what’s caused you to feel so isolated.”

Becca blinked. She hadn’t talked to anybody in the past few days, not even Gavin, but she hadn’t expected anybody except him to notice. Maybe it would be good for her to finally tell somebody about what had happened.

She sat down on the edge of her bed and sighed. “It’s a long story. Kind of.”

“We’ve got all the time in the world, love.”

So Becca told her. Everything about the Unforgotten, and the bleeding, and the scars.

“Show me.”
“What, you don’t believe me?”

Millicent shrugged. “No, I believe you one hundred percent. I just want to see what they look like. What if they’re all creepy and rotten? That would be cool, don’t you think?”

Becca rolled her eyes, but got up and showed her the ones on her back all the same. Millicent reached out to touch them, but Becca warned her that if she tried she’d give Millicent her own scars to show off.

“I see, I see… this is all very interesting. Thanks for sharing, Becca. I appreciate it.” Millicent said, dutifully noting everything down. Becca just nodded and glanced towards the door. It was clear she wanted Millicent out.

“Oh, one more thing before I go. Could you, ah… tell me about how you got into this place?” At the sight of Becca’s raised eyebrow, she clarified. “I mean, how did you get taken by the Mist? If you don’t mind sharing.”

Well, she’d already poured her heart out to the journalist. It wouldn’t hurt to tell her a little more.

“Well, ain’t that the bee’s knees!” Millicent said cheerfully as she wrote furiously.

“Yeah, yeah. Now can you leave? Please?”

“Well, I mean, not the part about your boyfriend dying.”

“Millicent! Please!”

“And the part about you getting stabbed. And the–”

“GOODBYE, Millicent!”
_____________________

Back in her own cabin, Millicent crossed to the table where she kept all of her notes. She tore the sheet of paper that had all of her notes from her interview with Becca and placed it beside a paper with notes from an interview with Yan she’d had a while ago.

Yan… she had gone missing, hadn’t she? Millicent had tried getting information from Nathan, but the guy refused to talk to her. She understood– it was really none of her beeswax. But being nosy was part of her nature. She just had to know.

She’d managed to finesse Eiji, who she knew was friends with Yan, for more info, but all he’d told her was that she wasn’t the only one who’d gone missing. He hadn’t told her any other names, but she’d managed to figure it out herself.

She’d visited every single survivor cabin and determined that none of them were missing, which made her realize it was one of the killers. Since Eiji had told her about the missing person, she’d gone against almost every killer in a round. Except for one.

Both Yan and the Watcher were missing. Vanished. She had two questions. How, and why? From what she knew, they had nothing in common. They weren’t friends, and they definitely weren’t sweethearts. It had to be an external source, she was sure of it. But what?

She pressed a hand to her forehead and collapsed onto her bed. All of that thinking was making her head hurt. But she didn’t just want to wait around until the next round. She wanted to investigate.

A thought itched the back of her mind. Millicent struggled to remember before it hit her. Something Sanjana had said. The forest– if you went too deep inside, you entered the ‘anomaly area’. A place where the mist sort of went loco.

What if that was the reason for the two’s disappearance? Maybe they went too deep into the forest and–

Hope bloomed inside of her chest. What if they’d somehow escaped from the Mist? Maybe it had gone so haywire that they were forced out of the realm. But just as quickly as the hope grew, it was snuffed out. It was impossible to escape. She knew some people had been in here for years, decades even. If there was a way out, they would have found it by now.

But maybe…

Millicent made up her mind. She considered leaving her notes behind in case she didn’t make it back, but decided against it. As she gathered her notes, she thought about telling somebody about where she was going. If she really did end up going missing like the other two, they’d at least know the reason.

Ultimately, she decided to just go. The next round could start at any moment, and she didn’t want to dilly-dally. Tucking the notes into her breast pocket, she steeled herself for the unknown before exiting her cabin and heading for the forest.

Chapter Text

It was Saturday, and Yan was taking it easy. She flipped through channels on the old television, looking for something good to watch. Eventually she landed on a horror movie. She wasn’t too fond of them, but she didn’t feel like watching cartoons, so she let it play.

Her headaches still hadn’t gone away. This was no random sickness. She was seriously starting to wonder if she had cancer or something. She stuck her face in a pillow and tried to will the pain away, but it persisted.
The loud noises coming from the television made the headache worse, but she was comfortable where she lay and didn’t feel like getting up. She’d been willing to go see a doctor and had actually made the trip to the hospital before getting cold feet. Yan wasn’t sure why.

Eventually, her boredom got the better of her. She got up and switched off the TV. Yan decided to go to the library– she hadn’t been there in ages, and the computers would be a good distraction. There was something she needed to look into, anyway.

The walk there was peaceful. She thought about where she’d go to eat dinner. Alexei was rarely around in the evenings, so she usually just ate out by herself. Yan always wondered what he got up to since he didn’t have a job like her, but never asked. They didn’t talk much.

She tried her best to keep her mind on other subjects, but eventually her thoughts wandered back to the Mist. They always did, no matter how hard she tried not to think about it. Her heart began to ache at the thought of Nathan, but she forced him out of her head. She didn’t want to break down here in public.

Once inside the library, she made a beeline for the computers. Something had been bothering her for a while now, and she needed to do research.

Yan hesitated before typing ‘the mist’ into the Google search bar. The results were all about some movie. She tried again, this time searching ‘mist taking people to another realm’. No hits. Yan sighed in frustration before she remembered Kelvin and Sanjana’s agency. They were researching the Mist, weren’t they? She didn’t know the name, but she’d be able to find it easily enough.

She searched ‘mist research agency’. Nothing. Yan tried searching both Kelvin and Sanjana’s names, but she had no idea what their last names were. Eventually she gave up and started playing online games.

When her twenty minutes on the computer were up, she decided to browse for books. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d read anything that wasn’t a menu. Yan wandered over to the young adult section and picked out the first few novels that she saw.

She remembered when she’d stay up all night reading under her covers. Yan missed being able to live so carefree. All she thought about now was money this, work that. One of these days she’d force Alexei the bum to get a job so she’d be able to rest up.

She still sometimes wondered why she stuck around with him. All of the money she earned was hers– she could easily just up and leave. It wasn’t like she lived in fear around him, but it was a little uncomfortable hanging around with someone who would’ve killed you without a second thought a while ago.

Well, there was no use thinking about that now. She’d made her bed, and now she’d have to sleep in it.

Speaking of sleep, Yan wished she could take a good long nap. She woke up unreasonably early most days, as her sleep was plagued by countless nightmares. She didn’t remember the last time she’d had a proper good night’s sleep, other than the very first night her and Alexei had gotten the motel room.

Last night’s dream had been one of the worst. She tried not to replay it as she leafed through one of the books she’d picked out. It was some generic romance novel, a genre she liked. It was cliche and predictable, but Yan didn’t mind.

At least now she had something to distract her from all of her troubles.

Chapter Text

“Could you take out the trash, Yan? I’m leaving early today and won’t have time to help you clean up…”

Yan rolled her eyes but agreed to the request anyway. It wasn’t like she had anywhere to be, but still. Nobody wanted to be stuck cleaning up after everybody was already gone. She continued to wipe down tables. Yan had been doing the dirty work for so long that her hands moved automatically.

She made sure to tie back her hair before pulling on gloves and grabbing the trash. Yan wished she wasn’t such a pushover sometimes. Since she said yes to nearly everything that was asked of her, there wasn’t a day that went by where she wasn’t stuck with doing some mundane task.

As she was about to toss the plastic bags into the dumpster, something inside one of the bags caught her eye. She twisted the bag so she could see the contents at a different angle. It was sort of shiny and dark in color. Sort of like money.

Without hesitation, Yan ripped open the bag and began rooting inside to grab the object. Normally she wouldn’t have gone anywhere near the trash, but desperate times called for desperate measures. All of the money she’d spent eating out at restaurants and buying new clothes was starting to add up.

All of her excitement immediately faded as she pulled out the mystery item. It wasn’t money, and she was about to toss it back into the bag but the word “free” caught her eye. Looking closer, she discovered it was a voucher for two tickets to the local amusement park.

How convenient…

Yan stuck the voucher in her apron pocket before taking care of the trash. She hadn’t even thought of anything that wasn’t work related for a long while. Had she even taken a day off ever since she’d started at her position? At least the voucher gave her an excuse to have some fun. The only issue was that she’d have to convince Alexei to come with her.
_____________________

“No.”

“But why?! You’re not even losing anything.”

“Because I don’t want to.”

Yan was standing over Alexei, who was curled up like a cat on the pullout sofa. She threw her hands in the air, frustrated. “Look, I’m asking you nicely. Will you please come with me? Please?”

“Hmm, let me think about it…” He made a show of scrunching up his face and putting a finger to his chin. “No.”

Yan felt like screaming. It was like he was ragebaiting her on purpose. Luckily, she had a trump card.

“If you don’t come with me, not only will I stop paying for this room with MY money, I will get on the earliest bus to the next town over and you will never see me again. No more relying on Yan’s money.” She turned around and smirked. Three, two, one–

Alexei sat up at the speed of light. “You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, but I would.”

She’d won. After many grumbles and complaints and sighs, Alexei finally agreed to go. So the next day, the two of them took the bus across town to the amusement park. The whole ride Yan couldn’t contain her excitement. She talked so much that the passengers sitting near the two started giving her glares, but she didn’t notice.

By the time they got there, Alexei had a headache. The hot sun just made him feel worse. He pulled his baseball cap low over his face, and saw Yan mimic the action out of the corner of his eye. Once they’d gotten inside the park, Yan immediately sped off to find some ride, leaving Alexei by himself in the middle of the crowd.

Before he’d even taken one step, he felt someone barrel into him so hard it sent him to the floor. On his way down he let out a curse that would make his grandmother roll in her grave. The person who’d knocked him over– a little kid by the way he sounded– immediately started crying.

He did not have the energy to deal with the kid’s nonsense, but unfortunately for him, by the time he’d gotten up a woman had materialized at the kid’s side.

“Sorry about him– I told him to stay put, but he ran off when my back was turned,” she apologized. The little demon was still crying his eyes out, but the lady ignored him. Alexei shrugged and started to walk away before the lady called for him to come back.

“I don’t mean to bother you, but I was actually looking for somebody to take care of my kids. It would be nice to get some time off, but they’re all pretty young and I can’t leave them at home by themselves.”

Alexei had no idea why she was complaining to him about her troubles, but by the time he’d realized what she’d been insinuating, the lady had pressed a piece of paper with her number on it and had disappeared along with her little demon spawn.

He was ready to throw the paper straight into the garbage, but he stopped to reconsider. The threat Yan had made the previous day had stuck with him– if she really did decide to up and leave, he’d have nothing. As much as he liked slacking off all day, he wouldn’t be able to live like that forever.

With an annoyed sigh, he stowed the paper in his pocket and started looking for Yan. None of the rides interested him. He just wanted to go back to the library– or rather, the computers. Alexei supposed that was another reason he needed to take that babysitting gig. If he could save up enough for a laptop, he’d be set.

As he walked through the park, one ride in particular caught his eye. It didn’t look like a death trap, so that was something. It wouldn’t hurt him to try just one ride, would it? He came to have fun, after all. One ride wouldn’t kill him.

Unfortunately, one ride nearly DID kill him. Halfway through the ride, the mechanisms failed and every passenger was stuck upside down for almost half an hour. Alexei was more than a little upset at this. Not only did he lose his hat, which exposed him to the scorching sun, he’d nearly passed out because of the head rush.

The thought of what could’ve happened to him if he’d slipped out of the protective straps almost made him shudder. It had happened to him once before, when he was younger. Why he decided to go on another roller coaster when he’d experienced that, he had no idea. That’s what he got for getting out of his comfort zone.

Luckily, the woman’s phone number had stayed in his jean pocket. Alexei seriously considered ditching Yan and hopping on the first bus back to the motel, but ultimately decided to wait. He was still feeling pretty nauseous from the ride, anyway.

He covered his eyes with his hand as he continued his search for Yan. He finally spotted her on some rickety contraption after nearly an hour of aimlessly wandering around, and walked up to the line for the ride. Yan was screaming her head off, but she looked like she was having fun. He wished he could say the same for himself.

Once she was off the ride, Alexei snatched the cap off her head and placed it on his own. Yan didn’t even bother to fight for it, and instead kept her head down as they walked. She looked as if she’d gone on one too many rides. Not only was she paler than usual, but her face was slightly green.

“Let’s go,” she grumbled. Alexei shrugged and pivoted towards the exit. Fine with him. He’d had enough of amusement parks for a lifetime.

As they passed by the concession stands, it was like someone had flipped a switch. Yan immediately perked up and started inching towards the corndog stand. Alexei rolled his eyes but followed her anyways.

He thought about telling Yan about the job opportunity, but decided not to. He didn’t want her to start asking him to help her with paying for the motel. Believe it or not, he wasn’t a big fan of sharing his stuff.

He didn’t really owe her anything, anyway.

Chapter Text

It was a boring day for Alexei. The library was closed, so he couldn’t use the computers. He only had five bucks on him, which wasn’t enough to do anything fun. He settled for going on a walk to clear his head, wandering aimlessly around town.

He’d ended up calling the number that the lady at the park had given him, and a date was set for the next day. Alexei didn’t even really like kids, but he really needed the money. Besides, kids liked their privacy, didn’t they? He would probably just watch TV all day while they stayed in their rooms.

He no longer needed to ask for directions whenever he wanted to walk around town– he’d been living there for long enough to know that it was relatively small. He even recognized a few of the townsfolk whenever he decided to pay a visit to the coffee shop, but he never went out of his way to interact with them. He still preferred to keep to himself. 

Alexei was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice somebody was trying to get his attention until they lightly tapped on his shoulder, causing him to turn around. He looked at the stranger for a second before recoiling. This woman– he knew her. He’d seen her before– although he struggled to remember from where.

“Hi.” She said.

“...”

“Oh, I should probably introduce myself, shouldn’t I? The name’s Millicent, Millicent Hurley. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” She stuck out her hand for a handshake. Alexei hesitated before he obliged. He remembered her now– she was in the Mist, he was sure of it. One of the survivors. He now remembered that he’d killed her many, many times before. 

She was on the slower side.

But she didn’t seem to recognize him. Probably because he wore that armor all the time. He wasn’t sure if anybody except for Yan knew how he actually looked under the mask.

“Would you be so kind and show me to the nearest general store? I’d love to place a call.”

The woman, or Millicent, looked rather disoriented. If he remembered correctly, she was from a different time period. Judging by the way she spoke, probably sometime in the 1900’s. Despite that, she didn’t look a day over thirty.

“Er… Okay. Follow me.”

The two walked to the closest convenience store in silence. Alexei wasn’t the chatty type. He wasn’t sure what to do about Millicent. The best course of action would just be to lead her to the store and leave, but if she decided to stick around it would be difficult to shake her.

He took a quick look behind him and saw Millicent looking around in awe and confusion. She clearly wasn’t paying any attention to him.

“Here it is.” He announced, stopping in front of the store.

Millicent took one step inside and immediately walked back out with wide eyes. Alexei couldn’t blame her. The loud punk music the store was playing would be enough to kill a Victorian child. 

“On second thought, would you lead me to the post office instead?”

Alexei didn’t want to show her around all day, and seriously considered dumping her with Yan and finding a different library to waste his time at. But if she saw Yan, surely she’d recognize her, and possibly connect the dots.

Whatever. He’d take his chances. Not much she could do if she found out, anyway.

“Um… how about I get my, er, friend, to show you around? She knows this town like the back of her hand– she’ll be able to get you anywhere.”

“If you insist, doll.”

So off they walked. As soon as they stepped inside Alexei made a weak excuse and gave a vague description of Yan before practically running out, leaving Millicent by herself.

Millicent looked around nervously, feeling incredibly overwhelmed. She had no idea how things worked here. Wherever she was, it definitely wasn’t Vienna. She was a bit afraid, but she was also glad she wouldn’t have to speak any German.

After a few minutes of gathering her courage, she walked up to the counter. The girl standing behind it had violently red hair and heavy makeup. Definitely not the girl the guy who’d shown her around described. Millicent felt stupid for not asking for his name, but it was too late now.

She described the girl to the employee, but the cashier told her that she was on break. Millicent didn’t mind waiting, so she took a seat and began to go through her notes. She was extremely glad that she’d decided to take them with her into the forest, although she’d forgotten about her recorder. Millicent missed it already.

When Millicent looked up again, she saw the girl at the counter and did a double take. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. Were her eyes playing tricks on her?

She walked up to the counter and glanced at the employee’s nametag. She wasn’t hallucinating– it really was Yan, in the flesh. She looked different– there were heavy bags under her eyes and her hair was in a braid instead of a ponytail, but she still had the same face.

But she had to be sure. Plenty of people had the name Yan, right?

“What can I get for you?” Yan asked. She didn’t sound anything like Millicent remembered. Much more tired.

“Sorry to ask this, but um… you’re Yan Tian, correct?”

Yan’s head snapped up so fast Millicent was worried she’d break her neck. Her eyes narrowed, then widened with realization. “Millicent?”

Millicent grinned at her. “In the flesh.”

Instead of looking happy, Yan’s expression looked– fearful?  Almost as if she was scared at the sight of her. Millicent brought a hand to her cheek. Did something happen to her face?

“Oh. Um. Could you… have a seat? I’ll be done soon, then we can… yeah.”

Millicent nodded and shuffled back to her spot. Now she was even more confused. She hardly had a moment to herself, though, as someone slid into the spot across from her immediately after she sat down.

“Hey."

“Er… hello...”

“Are you here by yourself?”

Millicent nodded absentmindedly, her mind still on the conversation she’d just had. The guy across from her talked and talked and talked, but she didn’t pay attention. At every pause between his sentences, she nodded to make it seem like she was interested in whatever nonsense he was yapping about.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

“Sure…”

The man left and returned minutes later with two massive drinks. Millicent stared at the unholy concoction as it was placed in front of her.

“Why is it pink?” She asked incredulously, poking the thick drink with a straw.

The stranger threw back his head and laughed loudly, causing the other patrons to look at the pair strangely. Millicent turned red and kept her head down. “You’re so funny. Come on, try it.”

With reluctance, she picked up the abomination and took a small sip. Her reaction was instant. Millicent immediately brought her hands to her mouth, dropping the cup in the process. The pink liquid sprayed everywhere, making a mess that an unlucky employee would have to clean.

Gagging, Millicent excused herself before running out of the coffee shop. Yan watched her go from the counter. She wasn’t that surprised by the Recorder’s reaction to the sugar-filled monstrosity, but the sounds of Millicent retching still made her wince. It was a bit funny, though.

“Yan, could you clean that up?”

Maybe it wasn’t very funny after all.

_____________________

After finishing her shift an hour later, Yan looked around for Millicent. She knew she wouldn’t stray too far away from the coffee shop, and sure enough, she found Millicent sitting on a bench a block away.

“Are you feeling better?” Yan asked. Millicent still looked pale.

“Why did that thing have so much sugar? I think I got diabetes just from looking at it.”

Yan let out a weak chuckle. She still felt uneasy about Millicent’s sudden appearance.

Without warning, her hand snaked out and pinched Millicent hard. The Recorder let out a yelp and bolted to her feet, glaring at Yan.

“What the hell was that for?”

“Sorry!” Yan apologized. “I was just trying to see if, um…”

She wanted to make sure that she wasn’t somehow hallucinating again. 

“Whatever,” Millicent grumbled, rubbing her arm. A bruise was already forming. Yan laughed again, but it was much more nervous.

“Um, so… how did you get here?? I mean, I thought it wasn’t possible to get out– well, it is, because the three of us did, obviously, but I thought that–”

“Woah, woah, slow down,” Millicent interrupted. “I’ll tell you all about it. Catch your breath.”

And so she did. The two walked towards the motel while Millicent recounted her story.

“Well, I was in my cabin,” she started. “I was thinking about how you’d gone missing, and figured that I should investigate. So I went into the forest.”

She remembered the experience well. She hadn’t brought a flashlight, so as she traveled deeper into the woods her visibility became poor. At one point, the trees looked as if they moved, with their branches scratching at her clothes. Millicent had kept her eyes on the floor. She’d seriously begun to consider turning around.

But she’d made it. Covered in sweat and feeling miserable, she’d found herself at the edge of the forest. The trees had started to warp, giving her a headache. About to collapse, she’d slumped over a fallen log before feeling a sudden warmth.

There was no sun in sight– she was convinced the Mist was playing tricks on her. Her eyes had shut tighter as she fought not to look, but her curiosity won out. When she’d lifted her head, she saw a bright, pulsating orb that looked as if it was made of light.

She’d reached out a hand to touch it, and–

“–And then I was here. Well, not here exactly– I woke up in the middle of the street. I was nearly run over by an automobile. Could you believe it?”

Yan blinked. “That’s it?”

“That’s all I remember.”

Yan had been so absorbed in the story that she hadn’t even realized they’d arrived at the motel. As they climbed up the stairs to her room, something itched at the back of Millicent’s mind. Something Yan had said at the beginning of their conversation.

“What did you mean by ‘the three of us?’”

“Huh?”

Yan was only half paying attention. She struggled to unlock the room door with a rusty old key while Millicent watched.

“When we started talking. You said that you knew it was possible for people to escape the mist because ‘the three of us’ were able to get out.” Her eyes widened in realization at the exact moment Yan succeeded in opening the door. “Don’t tell me–”

“Yan, is that you? Finally, what took you so long?” A voice called from inside of the room. A guy dressed casually in sweats and a t-shirt came into view– the same guy who had shown her around mere hours ago. He froze at the sight of Millicent standing in the doorway beside Yan.

“Oh,” Yan said lamely as she looked between them.

“Oh.” The man blinked.

“Oh.” Millicent gasped. She raised her hand and pointed at the guy. She could feel the cogs in her brain turning rapidly as she connected the dots.

“You!”

“Me,” He sighed.

Yan bit her lip nervously. She didn’t want anything drastic to happen, especially in a place like this. She reached out a hand to place on Millicent’s shoulder. “Millicent, why don’t you–

“I won’t do anything!” Millicent screeched. Yan blanched and retracted her hand. “You– I can’t believe you! I knew that he made it out, too, but to think that you were actually fraternizing with him?” 

“Er…”

“You do realize that you’re living with a murderer?” Millicent spat. She dropped the hand she was using to point at the Watcher and spun around, stalking down the hallway. The two watched her go.

“Better go after her,” Alexei said. Yan glanced at him, confused.

“Why would I do that? She’s clearly upset. It would be better to let her blow off her steam.”

“Yeah, and what if she goes to the police? I remember pretty clearly that you tried that the first night we were here.”

Yan rolled her eyes as she remembered. He had a point.

“Fine, whatever. But by the time I get back I don’t want you here. You’ll probably just get her mad again.”

“Fair enough.”

Chapter Text

“Oh, good, you’re here. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. You’ll have to make lunch and dinner for the kids yourself, if that’s okay…”

Alexei stood awkwardly in the doorway as he watched the woman rush around her house. He could hear kids screaming from upstairs, and mentally prepared himself for what would probably be the most annoying night of his life.

He already regretted accepting the job offer, although he didn’t know why he expected better.

“Er, yeah, that’s fine,” He lied. He had no idea how to cook– his meals usually consisted of instant noodles and pre-made garbage. What did kids like eating, anyway? The little gremlins probably survived on a diet of dino nuggets and entitlement.

“See you at eleven!” She shouted before rushing out the door and getting into her car. Alexei blinked. Eleven? He’d be stuck here for more than ten hours. He hadn’t even seen any of the kids and he already had a headache.

As soon as the door slammed shut, three kids came tumbling down the stairs. Literally. One of them actually slammed their head against a wall and started to scream hysterically. Naturally, the other two started to laugh at the injured kid. Alexei had zero idea what to do. He didn’t even know their names.

He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “Can you guys be quiet for a second? I can’t even hear my own thoughts.”

“You’re not my mom!” All three kids screamed in unison– even the one with the head injury. They all ran back up the stairs, leaving him still standing in the entrance. He hadn’t moved a muscle since entering the house.

“…”

Well, if they didn’t want to listen to him, he wouldn’t force them. He shucked off his shoes before plopping down on the sofa and picking up the remote. He’d just picked out a movie that looked entertaining enough when he felt a cold, clammy, crusty hand on his shoulder. The speed at which he jumped and turned around would’ve made Olympic champions proud.

“Who are you?”

Alexei recognized the kid immediately– it was the demon spawn that had knocked him over at the amusement park. He struggled to come up with an answer before an idea popped into his head.

He formed his hands into a claw shape and bared his teeth at the kid, trying his best to look intimidating. “I’m a monster, and I’ve come to eat you. Better go hide under your bed before I get you.”

The kid screamed and bolted up the stairs. Alexei smiled in satisfaction before going back to his movie. Unfortunately, that was a huge mistake. Not five minutes had passed before all three kids came running down the stairs, armed with various household tools and yelling out a battle cry.

Alexei let out a high-pitched scream as the children jumped him, attacking him with their appliances of destruction. It wasn’t until one of them declared that they had killed the monster that they backed off. He didn’t even feel angry– he was just embarrassed that a bunch of little kids had gotten the better of him.

“I’m hungry,” One of the kids declared.

“So?”

“Mommy said you’re going to make us lunch.” Another whined. Alexei gave the kid a side-eye.

“Go make yourself a sandwich.”

As if they’d planned it, all three kids started to cry in unison.

“Okay, okay, fine! Just be patient. Geez.”

The children followed him to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and stared at the contents. Completely bare. The freezer was practically the same. Where were the dino nuggets when you needed them??

“Change of plans. We’re going out for lunch. Go get dressed.”

All three kids were still in their pajamas. This time, Alexei followed them as they rushed up the stairs. He didn’t want them taking three hours to get ready.

“I want to wear this,” The kid who’d knocked him over said, showing Alexei an inflatable dinosaur costume.

“No.”

“Mommy said I could wear it.”

Since when did kids become so unreasonable? He didn’t remember being so troublesome when he was younger.

After nearly an hour of tantrums, tears, and arguments, all three kids were ready to go in respectable, normal clothing. The four of them set off towards the closest restaurant. Alexei had managed to save up twenty bucks, which he had safely tucked into his pocket.

He had no idea what to say to the kids. He figured he should start with introductions.

“Er… so, what are your names?”

“Nunya,” One of them quipped. The other two giggled loudly. Alexei fell for the bait hook, line, and sinker.

“What?”

“None of your business!”

Alexei gave up on conversation after that little stunt.

Ten minutes later, they were at the restaurant. Alexei wrinkled his nose as they walked inside. The air smelled like grease and potatoes, and there were stains everywhere. How could anybody seriously want to eat here?

The place was completely empty except for one person. Alexei groaned when he realized who it was. Of course Millicent just so happened to be there. Of all the rotten luck.
“Why are you here?”

“I have a better question.” she muttered, eyeing the kids. They’d already started running around the place, screaming at the top of their lungs. He felt bad for the employee at the counter.

“Babysitting.” He grumbled.

“I didn’t take you for the babysitting type.”

“I didn’t take you for the nosy type.”

“I’m a journalist. Of course I’m nosy.”

Alexei ignored the rebuttal and instead went up to the cashier to order. She looked exhausted. He was reminded of how Yan looked after she came back from her shifts. If he had to deal with children’s nonsense at his job every day, he was sure he’d look like that as well.

After placing his order and collecting the change, he realized he didn’t hear the kids’ irritating screams anymore. To his absolute shock, he found them all crowded around Millicent, who was actually smiling. Not knowing what to do, he stood off to the side awkwardly while waiting for the food.

“These kids are so nice,” Millicent mused. Alexei had a hard time believing her. He was a bit surprised that she was talking to him at all. He had no idea what Yan had said to her that made her able to stand being in the same room as him.

“Yeah, sure…”

“What are their names?”

“Good question.”

Millicent blinked and turned to the kids. “What are your names?”

“I’m Edward,” one said.

“I’m Alice,” the second added.

“And I’m Jasper,” the last kid finished.

Alexei cringed. All of a sudden, he felt terrible for the three. He silently hoped that they would never read the series their names came from.

All conversation stopped once their food was ready. With the kids focused on their food, Millicent and Alexei were left to stare awkwardly at the floor. Finally, Alexei cleared his throat.

“So why are you here?”

Millicent sighed. “I’ve got nowhere else to be.”

“Oh, right…”

Alexei had forgotten that she wasn’t from the current time period. All of her friends and relatives were probably long dead.

“We’re full.” Alice announced. None of them were even halfway finished with their food. Alexei groaned in frustration. Millicent smiled sympathetically but said nothing.

“Okay, fine. We’re going, then.”

The kids immediately got up and started to run around again. Alexei tossed all of the uneaten food into the paper bag and stood up as well. Millicent remained where she was, looking depressed. He didn’t blame her.

“Um… you can come with, if you want. Honestly, I don’t really know what I’m doing.” Alexei muttered. Millicent’s face lit up with a smile, and she bounded out of her seat.

“Okay!”

He was surprised at how willing she was to stick around with him, but he was grateful. He wasn’t going to last long by himself.
_____________________

“This place is a mess,” Millicent whistled as they walked inside of the house. Alexei hadn’t noticed it before, but she was right. There were clothes and books everywhere. The sink was full of dirty dishes. The floor was littered with trash.

“Right…”

“Hey, why don’t you three go play in your rooms while we clean?” Millicent said to the kids. They all ran upstairs yet again, leaving the two alone. Alexei felt mildly uncomfortable, but to his surprise, Millicent didn’t look bothered at all.

The two worked in silence for a while before Millicent spoke.

“There’s actually something I’ve been wanting to ask you...”

“I’m all ears.”

“This might be a big ask, but could you tell me how you ended up being taken? By the Mist, I mean.” Millicent seemed almost nervous to ask.

“No.”

She sighed.

Alexei’s curiosity piqued. “What for?”

“Well, I guess you could call it a project that I’m doing,” Millicent said. “I’ve been asking as many survivors as I could about how they all, well, you know. I was just trying to figure out if there’s some sort of pattern, or…”

“Oh.”

Alexei hadn’t thought about that possibility. The people who the Mist chose to abduct seemed completely random. The two of them, for example. There was nothing that connected them together.

“We’re hungry!” The kids screamed from upstairs. Alexei seriously felt like he might scream from frustration.

Millicent cracked a small smile at his plight. “I used to babysit, you know. You get used to the weird behavior after a while.”

“Let’s hope so.” Alexei grumbled.