The Last Dainv

Slowly opening her eyes, light filtered through the gaps in the curtains and hit Mia right in the eyes. She got up, seeing everyone was still asleep, sprawled across the sofas and comforters used as cushions.

They had watched true crime documentaries until 3am. One episode after another, they couldn't stop being intrigued. Bernard had even linked one of the cases to an Aurian murdering a man in broad daylight, which was why the mundane police couldn't apprehend the true murderer. This riled up the girls, including Mia.

Turns out, Bernard's dad was an Aurian who worked as a mundane cop. He had grown up hearing stories about unsolvable cases exactly due to the cases being involved with an Aurian. They would later be either reported to Neutral Grounds or the Path.

Pushing herself up from her makeshift comforter cushion, she got up and quietly made her way to the bathroom. Her bare feet padded softly against the wooden floorboards, feeling its coldness directly.

In the bathroom, she brushed her teeth and washed her face with cold water. Now fully awake, she dried her face with her white towel on the towel rack.

Last night was anticlimactic. Though they watched multiple true crime episodes, nothing exactly happened. Nothing that she expected anyway. Halfway through the second episode, Mia was already clenching her fist at the thought of a ghoul shattering the glass and all hell breaking loose.

But nothing happened.

Maybe the scouting thing wasn't such a bad idea after all. They had checked the shed and basement, found creepy stuff, and were rewarded with an axe and a shovel as weapons.

Heading back to the living room, Mia saw Jacob was already awake, doing something very odd. He was crouched at the corner of the sofa, peeking through a small gap in the curtains, clearly choosing the corner to not wake up the two girls on the sofa.

Mia went back to her spot and whispered, "What are you looking at?"

Jacob looked back at her, his face was that of a man that just saw terror. "There's a thick fog outside. I can't even see the closest tree."

"So? It's morning fog. That happens."

"There's a silhouette out there," Jacob whispered. "An old lady. Just standing there."

Bernard's eyes snapped open as soon as Jacob's sentence finished. In one sudden and quick motion, he was on his feet, moving toward the sofa by the window.

"Wake up," he said to the three who were still sleeping. "Everyone up. Now."

Jessica groaned. "What time is it..."

"Up. Now."

Bernard pushed Jacob aside and took his position at the curtain gap. His eyes narrowed as he peered outside.

Mia moved to the other side of the window and pulled back the curtain just enough to see. The fog was exactly as Jacob described. It was so thick that she couldn't see the nearest tree. It was like the cabin was floating inside a cloud.

From how thick the fog was, it was making the daytime even look like late afternoon, almost evening, without the orange haze.

"This is one of the proctors' tricks," Bernard said. "They're testing us. Trying to disorient us."

Mia squinted into the fog. "Or it's just fog. This is a forest. Fog happens."

"Didn't you see the silhouette outside?"

Mia looked again. Nothing. Just fog. "I don't see anything."

"What?" Bernard peeked through the curtain again. "No way..." He closed the curtains again. "It was there. I saw it. You saw it too, right, Jacob?"

"I saw it too," Jacob agreed.

Yuri had gotten up from the sofa and craned up to reach the middle edge of the curtains. Parting the fabric slightly, she peeked an eye out the window. Jessica followed her as well, peeking from above her.

"I don't see anything," Yuri said.

"Me neither," Jessica said.

Yuri pulled out her phone and checked the time. "It's already 12pm."

Mia grabbed her own phone. Sure enough, the screen read 12:07pm. They were completely knocked out for 9 hours. At least they had good sleep.

Yuri looked at Andrew, who was still sitting on the floor, rubbing his eyes. "Andrew. Look through the window. Tell us if you see anything."

Andrew shook his head. "No."

"What do you mean, no?"

"I'm still sleepy. Besides, if there's something out there, I don't want to see it."

Yuri sighed. "Whatever. If only Jacob and Bernard saw it, it might just be an animal. It's not there anymore, so whatever it was probably left." She rubbed her stomach. "Besides, we don't sense any signatures around. And I'm hungry. We should eat first, then figure out what to do."

"This isn't time to be thinking about food! We need to board up the cabin and play defense. If there's things out there moving around in that fog, we're going to get fucked if they get inside," Bernard raised his voice to an almost yell.

Mia turned to Jacob. "What do you think?"

Jacob's eyes shifted around and towards the entrance door. "I think we should board up. What I saw... it didn't look like an animal. It looked like a person. Standing completely still."

"Andrew?"

Andrew had finally gotten to his feet. Moving himself towards the curtains, he took one peek and called out a decision. "Board up. This fog gives me the creeps, bro."

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Mia nodded slowly. "Then we board up. We can eat MREs after."

Bernard was the first to move. He picked up a sideboard with ease and moved it in front of the entrance door, blocking it from opening. The others gathered what they could to board up the rooms with the bedframes and closets in the bedrooms.

Back in the living room, they boarded up the window with the sofa and cabinets, setting the centre as the safe space where the comforter and pillows sat.

Within 30 minutes, the living room and bedrooms were all boarded up to the best of their ability and tools.

The team sat in a circle on the floor, no longer with a coffee table. Each one had an MRE box on their person.

Mia tore open hers. Inside was a pocket that had 'Lasagna' printed right on it. Not bad for something that would last decades. Filling the heating element pouch from a bottle she had filled from the kitchen sink, she slipped in the packets that needed to be heated inside and leaned it against the pillow to do its thing.

After a few seconds, it started hissing, and steam rose from the bag. A few minutes later, she took out the packet, poured the contents onto a plate, and started eating.

"It's good," Mia chewed slowly. "But definitely has too much salt."

Bernard was already halfway through his even though she had just taken her first bite. "It's meant for survival. Awakened need more calories anyway, and you're just going to sweat it out. Who cares about salt?"

"I still want to eat healthy," Mia muttered.

Jessica held up a small packet. "Anyone want to trade crackers? If anyone has a brownie, I'll take it."

"I have a brownie. You can have mine if the crackers come with cheese." Jacob extended his own packet.

"They do."

They exchanged packets across the circle. Jacob immediately ripped open the cheese spread and started applying it to a cracker with his finger.

"Gross," Jessica said. "Use the little spoon thing."

"Fingers taste better."

Yuri had stopped eating. Her head was tilted slightly, like she was listening for something. "Has anyone noticed that everything around the cabin is too quiet? Even last night it was quiet."

"I noticed," Mia said.

Andrew nodded. "Me too. My tracking skills haven't picked up any animal prints when I looked outside or any animal calls. That's why I agreed to board up."

And then, as if on cue, three knocks sounded on the front door. It was as if it was a normal day and they were expecting guests. The kind of knock that certainly none of them were expecting, even if the knocks were polite.

Bernard's hand shot up, one finger pressed against his lips. Don't make a sound.

Everyone froze.

The knocking came again. Louder.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

And that's when the polite facade broke, as whatever was behind the door continuously just knocked on the door. Gradually, the knocking became a constant banging, making the wood groan under the relentless assault.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Mia's heart was thumping so hard that she started sweating just from sitting down. She had been in dangerous situations before, such as the haunted asylum and the Witch Nyx thing. But all of that was with Gale, who had always seemed to know the answer to everything.

This was different. Everyone here was a rookie. Bernard looked like he didn't have anything under control. The two other women and especially the two other boys had no clue what to do. None of them were trained for this kind of shit.

Before she even knew Gale was competent, she had already felt like he basically knew what to do, except for his irrational phasmophobia.

All they could do was stay still, wait, and hope the thing just leaves.

And then, as suddenly as it started, the banging stopped.

...

...

...

Bernard kept his fingers on his lips even through the silence. His eyes met all of theirs in turn. Mia could clearly see beads of sweat pouring down from the man's temples.

For a while, no one did anything. Their breaths were shallow to avoid making any sound. Time crept by.

One minute... two minutes... five... then ten minutes.

Bernard looked directly at Andrew, and somehow, Andrew nodded, understanding the question.

Andrew closed his eyes for a moment. Opening them once again, he shook his head at Bernard.

Looking directly at Bernard, his eyes told Mia everything.

The thing was still there.

Jacob's finger pointed out through the window.

Shadows on the curtains shifted. Something was moving outside. Tall with long, flowing hair. Heavy footsteps on the dirt could be heard from outside the cabin.

Thump... thump... It moved to the right. Past the living room window. Around the corner of the cabin. The footsteps grew quieter as it moved toward the back. Then louder and clearer as it passed the bathroom. It arrived once again back at the front door, where the footsteps ended.

BOOM.

The door shuddered and crackled. A visible crack appeared right where the door's knob was.

BOOM. The crack widened. The sideboard they had pushed against it was starting to slide.

Bernard thrust his hands forward. A purple translucent dimly glowing force field moved towards the door and over it, reinforcing the door's wall.

Another bang on the door, and the door held. Again, it repeated the motion continuously in a rhythmic manner, but each bang on the door was met with resistance by the purple force field behind the door.

Jessica's shoulders trembled. Yuri was clenching her axe. Jacob had closed his eyes tight.

Then suddenly, once again, it stopped banging on the door. Footsteps on the dirt could be heard again. It moved away from the door. It circled the cabin once more slowly, more deliberately this time, taking its sweet long time to walk around for a full minute.

The shadow stopped right at the window of the living room. Glass suddenly shattered inward, spraying across the room. The sofa and cabinet they had pushed against the window lurched back. Something slammed into them from the outside, almost toppling them backwards.

"Don't let it get in!" Bernard shouted.

Andrew, Bernard, and Jessica rushed to the window, pressing their bodies against the sofa to keep the barricade in place. The cabinet was already tilting, something pushing against it from the other side.

The thing grew more impatient as it now confirmed that there were living beings inside.

Mia saw it through the gap between the cabinet and the sofa. It was a... a thing. It had the same silhouette as the woman in the vintage mirror from the shed.

Long limbs, hunched posture, elongated neck, hair too long, too tall of a figure. Its hair flowed like it was underwater from the non-existent current. Everything about it was wrong.

And then there was its face. It was just a black hole. There was nothing there. Yet Mia felt its gaze upon her.

Mia raised her hands and focused. She imagined a psychic force flowing through her towards the thing. The ether in her secondary veins flowed through her hands and sent out the psychic haze towards the thing.

For a second, it was stunned. Just for a single second.

Then it continued, slamming against the barricade, now even angrier at what just happened.

Mia sent another psychic wave. Another one-second pause. And without hesitation, it continued its relentless assault.

This was a waste of ether. The stuns weren't doing any damage. It was just a stun, nothing else.

Blue light lit up the hole on the barricade beside her.

Yuri stood with her axe raised. Blue flames engulfed the blade of the axe and its handle that didn't burn her hands. Her eyes locked onto the thing behind the barricades.

"Back off!" Yuri shouted.

"No!" Bernard shouted.

"Trust me!"

Andrew, Bernard, and Jessica looked at each other. Then they let go and dove to the sides.

The monster came through, bursting through the gap. Wood, glass, and fabric sprayed inwards into the living room. Its black hole face turned to look for its prey.

Yuri's axe was already mid arc. Blade wreathed in fire sliced through the thing's elongated neck. The head separated from the body in a spray of foul-smelling, shit-like scent. The flames spread instantly, engulfing the fluids as well as the body and head.

For a while, no one talked. They just stared at the pile of burning organic matter on the floor until only ashes were left in under a minute.

Mia's hand shook. Just casting 6 of the psychic waves felt like she was already down to half of her ether reserves. But they survived.

"Holy shit," Jacob whispered, pointing through the open shattered window.

Tens of silhouettes appeared in the fog, all just outside of clear view as they hid behind the veil. Ungodly groans could be heard from those now that the window was gone. Their voices sounded like something straight out of things that were supposed to be dead. Clicking and clacking noises could be heard, either from their joints or their mouths.

"Prepare for defense," Bernard grunted, turning to Mia. "You're the key here. That one-second stun is the difference between Yuri killing these things and one of us getting killed. Conserve your ether. Use it only when she's ready to strike."

Mia nodded.