The fog came. Slowly, at first, as if unsure whether it wanted to stay. It crept over the towns like a whispered secret, settling over roads and streets, turning trees into dark, hollow shapes. People stopped talking about it, eventually. They just waited.
At first, they thought it was just a freak weather event. Some strange, thick fog that would pass after a few hours, maybe a day. But it didn't. It thickened. It stuck around. It pressed in, so heavy that people couldn't see their own hands in front of them. So thick it swallowed cars whole. If you went too far into it, you didn't come back.
No one knew where the fog came from. No one knew why it started. But people noticed when the first person vanished. A mother, two kids, and a dog gone in the blink of an eye. They were standing outside their house, the fog curling around their ankles. And then, just like that, they were gone. The police arrived too late. By the time anyone thought to check, they were long gone.
And then it happened again. And again. Over time, it became clear. People were disappearing. No trace. No reason. They were just… gone. People left their homes, their work, their lives, and no one knew how or why. The fog was thickest when it happened, but even after it lifted for a time, they found no evidence. The ground wasn't disturbed. Nothing was moved. No screams, no cries for help.
As the days wore on, the world felt like it was holding its breath.
By the time twenty percent of the population was gone, panic set in. Stores were looted. People fought in the streets. No one cared about survival anymore. It was every person for themselves. Law and order didn't matter anymore. And the fog? It didn't stop. It came back every night, thick and suffocating. People stopped going out after sunset. Those who did vanished without a trace.
Anna was alone in a house that felt colder every day. No family, no friends left. The city was practically empty now. Houses boarded up, streets empty, only the fog rolling through. It was quieter than she'd ever known. Quieter than she ever wanted it to be. It was almost like the world was waiting for something, but Anna didn't know what. She had no reason to leave. She'd stopped trying to make sense of it. The world was falling apart, and she didn't even care.
She looked out the window at the stretch of empty road, the fog thickening again, creeping toward her house like some unseen force. The clouds pressed down on the earth like a wet blanket. The trees in the yard weren't visible beyond the fog. She'd seen people vanish in front of her house. Some of them were close. A man on his porch, a woman walking her dog—both gone without a sound, like the fog had swallowed them whole.
She didn't know what was left. There was no one to talk to. No one to argue with, no one to care for. It didn't matter.
It was almost nightfall. The fog was creeping closer.
She pulled the curtains shut, but it didn't make a difference. She knew the fog was still there, just beyond the walls, just out of sight. There was nothing left for her out there. It was quiet now, the kind of quiet that makes your skin crawl. Even the cars had stopped driving down the road. The radio had stopped broadcasting, the TV channels were static. The world was just blank, everything fading away in a slow, miserable crawl.
Anna pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders. She shouldn't have come here, but what did it matter? She hadn't planned to survive.
As night began to settle, the fog returned in full force. She could see it, swirling outside the window, creeping over the yard and up the porch. It was only a matter of time before it came for her too. But she didn't care.
She heard a knock at the door.
It was faint, muffled. She had to be imagining it. There was no one left.
The knock came again, louder this time. Hesitant, but still there.
Anna stood. Her legs were shaky. Her heart felt like it was trying to break out of her chest. There shouldn't be anyone. No one could be out there.
The knock came a third time, followed by a soft voice.
"Please... help me."
Anna's breath caught in her throat. The voice was unfamiliar, broken. It sounded like it belonged to someone who hadn't spoken in days. She stood frozen in place. What did it matter? Was this some trick? Was the fog trying to pull her in? Or was someone really out there?
Without thinking, she stumbled to the door. She grabbed the handle, and without hesitation, yanked it open.
There was nothing.
No one.
Just the fog, pressing in like a wall.
Anna stood in the doorway, staring out into the thick, swirling mist. It was so dense, she couldn't see past the porch. She stepped out, not sure why. Maybe it was the loneliness. Maybe it was just the desperation.
The fog closed in around her like a living thing, and she walked forward without thinking. She couldn't see her own hands in front of her face now. The world had become a sea of gray, the ground below her feet soft and damp.
There was nothing but silence. No one else. Just the fog and Anna.
Her steps felt wrong. Like she wasn't walking on solid ground, like the earth was trying to pull her down, take her away. She could feel something. A presence. Something moving through the fog, something watching her. It was too quiet now, so quiet she could hear her own pulse thundering in her ears.
She kept walking. She couldn't stop.
The fog thickened. The road ahead faded.
And then—she wasn't alone.
A shape appeared in the mist. A man, maybe. It was too hard to tell. He was a silhouette, a dark figure that moved toward her, slow and deliberate. His steps were heavy, and the ground beneath him seemed to tremble with each one.
"Who's there?" Anna called, her voice cracking.
No answer.
She stepped closer, eyes straining to make out any detail.
"Please, help me. I—I'm lost."
The figure didn't respond. He just kept moving toward her. Anna took a step back, her heart racing, but her legs refused to move fast enough. Something wasn't right. The figure wasn't real. It couldn't be. The fog was making her see things, wasn't it?
She turned to run.
But the figure was faster. She felt something grab her arm, cold fingers digging into her skin. It yanked her back, and she stumbled, her feet scrambling for purchase. She couldn't breathe. The fog was closing in around her, pressing down, suffocating her.
A scream tore from her throat as the figure pulled her closer. She could feel its cold breath, its hands digging into her skin, pulling her into the mist. It didn't let go. It didn't speak. It didn't need to.
Anna fought, but it was useless. The fog pressed against her face, filling her lungs. She gasped for air, but the fog didn't let her breathe. Her vision blurred, her mind hazy, the world slipping further and further away.
And then, the world went still.
The figure disappeared. The fog cleared.
But Anna was alone.
She never came back. Not the same way, anyway.