It's late when you pass the old sign that says "Welcome to Arbor Isle." The chipped paint and bird poop splattered on it make the town look totally uninviting, which is probably for the best. Summer is almost over, but lingering tourists would do best to steer clear of this hellhole right now.
"I hate to say it," Diego says quietly, trying not to wake Anuja who is asleep in the front, "but isn't the fog supposed to come in tomorrow? We don't really have a plan."
"According to a monster Petzeiros saw in what basically amounts to a nightmare?" Addy asks. "I still think we're dealing with a combination of mass hysteria and a group of bored jerks trying to scare people."
Diego turns to you, ignoring Addy. "We need to have some kind of strategy."
"How about staying inside your house if you're so scared of it?" Addy says.
"Are we okay with other people getting hurt by it even if we're fine, then?" Diego asks. "What if more people like that lobsterman go missing?"
You watch the houses pass by, their windows all darkened, as you head towards Main Street. "There isn't exactly a protocol for this kind of thing. We can't put up a notice saying 'Everyone stay indoors, fog is full of ghosts.'"
"No," Kirill mutters, and you realize he's also awake even though he hasn't said anything in quite a while. "The Fog Beast is partly of this world, partly of another. We need to make use of powers similar to what it has in order to suppress it."
"Arbor Isle is full of superstitious weirdos," Addy points out. "Why don't you rally them to help you in your crusade against haunted weather phenomena?"
"That's actually not a half-bad idea," Diego says, disregarding Addy's intended sarcasm. "The Fog Beast is terrorizing them too, after all."
"Maybe it won't go away unless we give it something it wants," Anuja says, her voice dry as she stirs in the passenger seat. "Maybe it won't stop until it hurts enough people."