A little while later, the five of you are sitting around the coffee table in Addy's family room. It's silent. Everybody is in their own heads. They're all looking out the window or off into space.
You came prepared for this and know just what to do.
It takes a moment, but first Kirill notices, then Diego, and then Addy. None of them seem to want to move though, as though they're scared of being criticized for even daring to look at what you've just presented them with.
Anuja sighs and rolls her eyes. That seems to be enough to prompt action.
In unison, they all lean forward to take a closer look.
"What even…" Diego says as he picks one of them up. "There's so many of them. The people, or whatever they are, I mean."
"I didn't see them when I was taking the photos," Anuja says. She looks over at Addy. "You have to believe me."
Addy doesn't say anything. Their eyes are on the photos, though, and they're really looking.
"I've never seen anything like this before," Kirill says, a little breathless. "I've seen some pictures on websites with maybe one or two faces, but never anything like this. Never this many of them. Some of them look like they're from a really long time ago. Like this one," he says, tapping a shape that looks like a man in a cap and uniform. "He looks like a soldier. I might not know everything about American history, but I know soldiers haven't dressed like that in a long time."
"How do you explain this away?" Diego asks Addy. "Are you gonna say Anuja faked them? That they're just weird splotches that coincidentally happen to look exactly like people?"
"I don't know," Addy says. "I mean, no, obviously. I know Anuja isn't a pathological liar and that she wouldn't do that."
"Then what do you think these are?" Diego asks, pointing at each of the figures in one of the photos.
"I don't know," Addy repeats.
"When that thing in the fog attacked the boat, it didn't feel like a group of people," Anuja says. "It felt like one thing. One entity. Almost like a giant animal or something."
"A fog beast," Diego says.
"Yeah," Anuja agrees. "Exactly."
"I have an idea," Diego says. "We tried to learn about this thing by luring it out to us, but what if we went out and found it in its natural habitat? The place it goes when there isn't any fog."
"Which is where?" you ask.
"I'm only guessing, but I think we'd be able to find it on the astral plane. By using astral projection."