5. The Void In The Mist

The buildings all looked hollow, abandoned. The windows as soulless black holes from behind which it seemed only spectres and spirits loomed, watching out from their hidden places upon a world that seemed barren and desolate.
Morena's mood had been dark but even that had not prepared her for this ghost town shrouded under a living fog.
A living fog, that is exactly what it seemed like. It flowed around the buildings, around her car, it filled every space as if trying to choke the senses.
She passed through one empty street after another, the sky darkening and a sickly pall glowing in the misty air from the sporadic street lighting. Morena looked to the left and right, up alleyways and side streets as her car rumbled down the main road, glancing here and there for some sign of life in this morose place.
A sudden shadow darted across the road before her and with a screech from her tyres Morena slammed on the brakes, the car skidding as the wheels locked, the left front tyre hitting a pothole and bursting the radial with an audible pop.
"What the hell was that?" Morena groaned as she caught her breath behind the wheel, her hands trembling and her heart racing.
What had that been? It looked like a deer or something, but what would a deer be doing wandering the streets of the town center, even if the town did appear lifeless.
Tentatively she reached for the door handle, best to see what damage had been done to her tyre.
The air of Purity Bay was crisp with a slightly salty tang from the nearby ocean, and something else as well, something like a slight hint of... meat. That was it, there was a smell not unlike the interior of a butcher's shop, fresh cut meat hanging in order to properly drain of blood and get the good strong flavour.
There didn't appear to be a butcher's nearby however, and there certainly was no meat packing plant close by to cause such a smell.
"Oh God damn it," Morena cursed as she turned her attention towards her wheel, the radial had been completely shredded by that bloody pothole. Ragged tears ran along the tyre wall and clumps of rubber marked the path back to the point of impact.
There was no pothole!
She had been convinced of it, the heavy impact on the steering wheel and the sudden jarring of the car. And yet there was nothing there, the black streak of the skidmark led back to a single spot on the road where the wheels had originally locked. Had it been simply a blowout?
The problem now was that she didn't have a spare, she was certain of this because her late husband had become convinced of the benefits of run-flat tyres. "They'll be great for you, honey, you'll never need to worry about changing a tyre again, just drive to the nearest garage."
Except run-flat tyres work by having the car drive on a strengthened tyre wall and that isn't a lot of use when a large portion of said tyre wall is now lying in lumps along the road.
With nothing else for it Morena removed her jacket from the back seat and locked the car, she took a note of the street name from the sign on the corner and then took off to find some help.
She was only feet from the car before it was completely lost to the mist and the growing night, somewhere in the back of her mind she was thinking that it was perhaps a bad idea to be wandering the streets of an unfamiliar town by herself.
On the otherhand there didn't appear to be anyone else about anyway, she would probably be safe enough.
It was eerily quiet about town. Somewhere far off in the distance she could hear the roll of the waves breaking against the beach, but there was an abscence of bird calls or even the simple ambiant noise of traffic or people.
She continued in a direction that would, or should be taking her towards the coast.
From behind there was a sound like the clatter of light hooves, that deer or whatever it was again. Perhaps.
Looking around Morena could see nothing, the sound was gone.
It came again from a side alley and vanished almost as quickly.
Pulling her coat tight around her she walked on.
There were shop fronts around her now, obviously thise was the town center and equally obvious was the abscence of life.
She thought that she heard a sound like chittering, but it really felt like one of those sounds that you convince yourself that you have heard rather than actually hearing. Pausing for a few moments to listen she heard nothing more, and the mist refused to give up it's secrets.
Starting forward again Morena cursed silently to herself for becoming so skittish, though she still had to admit that it was highly unusual for a town to be so empty. The stores all looked relatively modern and well kept, it wasn't as though the town had been forgotten and left to rot, these businesses looked as though they could open tomorrow. If only there was somebody to open them.
She continued on as darkness finally took hold, the streetlights flickered in unison and somewhere in the distance a dog howled at an unseen moon.
Footsteps! Morena could hear the heavy sound of approaching footsteps, but she was unsure from where.
"Hello?"
She called once but was unsure if this had really been the best of ideas, there was still no one else on the street that she could see.
Quickening her pace Morena continued towards the coast, thanking providence that she had chosen to wear sneakers for the drive which left her footsteps as relatively silent now.
The footsteps still approached, she guessed from the sound that it was a man in leather soled shoes and wherever he was he was gaining.
Looking behind her still revealed nothing in the mist, and it was then that she really should have been looking at what was ahead of her.
Morena walked smacked into something soft, the sudden shock unbalanced her and she fell on her backside.
A man dressed in black stood with his face in shadow, a panic began to overtake her as she sat on the pavement.
"That was quite a stumble. Are you ok?"
He spoke in a pleasant, unaccented voice, it sounded soft yet at the same time confident and authoritive.
Morena was taken aback and sat dumbstruck.
He offered a hand to help her up, "Lucifer Pendragon, come on."
She accepted the offer of help and he easily pulled Morena to her feet.
There seemed to be more people on the streets now, in fact the town looked positively vibrant. Full of life.
The man named Lucifer gave her a charming smile and asked her to join him for a drink, somewhere inside her Morena found it impossible to refuse.
As they strode along towards the coast Morena failed to notice that it was a beautiful starry night, the fog had completely vanished.