The Apparition (IC): It Begins

He sounds awfully grouchy, Sage thought, frowning slightly. She began to slip away quietly, having heard enough of the mayor.

Her brother spotted her in the crowd, having been summoned to the meeting. He waved at her happily. She rolled her eyes and waved back with a false grin.

"Have I made myself clear?" asked Leeth. Many people in the crowd nodded. "Are there any questions, any at all?" he asked. Nobody at the moment raised their hands, however he waited for anyone to have sudden thoughts. It was only like the people to think of their questions later on and Leeth was not in a good mood. He wanted this terrible thing to end now and be forgotten. It brought ever so much stress to him, he acted angrily which was unlike him in every way possible.

Through the fog, Emily thought she could hear voices. It sounded like a lot of people were gathered in the town square, and she could hear the mayor's voice. She thought he mentioned something about the asylum, and he sounded angry. Oh, no, no! Not the asylum! I'm not crazy like those people! Don't make me go there! She was terrified, and as much as she wanted to say she wasn't insane, she felt like her mind was slipping away from her. But at the same time, she knew she was having a panic attack, and logically, you felt like you were going mad when you did. She didn't know, her reason was overwhelmed by fear. She wished the fog would go away, and she wish she knew where to go. Was she imagining the voices? Goodness, she was losing her mind? She really hoped that wasn't the case. She wanted to get out of there, but she had nowhere to go, and there was no place she could go that did not have more fog than where she was standing. It did not make it easier, that there was something truly evil about the fog.

So she sat there, pleading silently for someone to come and tell her that she was okay and that she wasn't crazy. She couldn't even tell herself that she was sane, because she would feel like she was telling herself a lie. But who would want to help a strange boy with a feminine voice that was cowering with sheer terror? Nobody really knew her alias, aside from Edward's name, and the fact that he wandered the town might have made him into a shifty character, or a sort of boy that has nothing better to do with his time. Generally, Emily portrayed Edward as a young gentleman, and was always very polite, but she avoided contact with others, for fear of discovery. Now she wished she had been more outgoing, maybe then someone would help. Please, please, someone help me!

The voices around Emily began to swirl and turn around her, as if swimming in a circle around the poor soul. Eventually though they began to vanish as another triangular sign was revealed on a tree from the clearing off fog. However, it did not glow orange for Emily... The triangular sign with the tiny circle in the middle... it was only a mystery what it meant, what it did, and what was happening...

Leeth stood scowling at the people. "If you have any concerns, I will be in my office. But I want no more of this nonsense! We have better things to do than to worry about your crazy stories!" he stated. "Good day!" he finally said and turned back to walk into the town hall. An officer walking from town square noticed this "boy" standing around. "Sir? Are you okay?" he asked walking up to this person.

Emily thought she heard someone addressing her, "Homichlophobia..." She said, rendered unable to speak full sentences. "Fog...evil...can't breathe..." She started to tremble again, but it was clear that she was terrified of the fog, concerning that she had mentioned a sort of phobia regarding it. However, now that there was a person standing there, it eased up a little bit. She took a breath, and shakily stood up, leaning against the wall. She tried to make her voice huskier in an attempt to disguise its normally higher soprano pitch. "I'm sorry...I came out here...I didn't think fog would come. I'm prone to panic attacks...I thought I was losing my mind...I thought I heard the mayor's voice mention an asylum...I'm not insane! Please don't throw me in there! It wasn't a ghost! It was the fog!" The crazy thing was that Emily was a bit too far to hear the mayor's voice clearly enough to make out a whole lot of what he said, in regards to regular hearing. She had really sensitive ears, and her nose was the same way. Actually, her parents called her hypersensitive, because she got frightened so easily, and she would feel sick if she smelled or heard certain things.

The officer took out a leather notebook and a pencil. He looked at her curiously, thinking it was another insane case. "What's you name?" he asked, making a questionable face. Leeth on the other hand had made his way back up to his office. He plopped down into his chair, and sipped from a glass of golden whiskey, to flush his problems away.

"Sir, I don't think you should be drinking at a time like this" one of the officials said as he walked into the room and found the mayor. Leeth rolled his eyes. "Just keep sendin' them to the asylum" he said.

"They call Edward, sir, Edward Stowe." Emily said, trying to keep herself in disguise. She then saw the notepad, and the look on the officer's face. Her eyes narrowed, "Now that the fog has cleared, I can think quite clearly, officer. As I said before, I have Homichlophobia, and the fog caused a panic attack. I thought I was going to be smothered." It was pretty obvious that she had caught on that he was going to send her to the insane asylum. If he tried, she'd bolt, and she considered herself a pretty fast runner.

As the crowd dispersed, and the mayor left the scene, Sage found herself once more among a throng of inconspiciouity. Just the way she liked it.

She originally had come into town to buy something sweet to eat, but the events of today were far too interesting for her to be distracted with candied goods. For example, what was the officer over there doing, talking to that boy?

She meandered over slowly, trying to catch their conversation.

"Edward... Stowe..." the officer said writing the name on the notepad. "Panic attack eh? Perhaps you should get that looked at. Come with me, we can get you checked up on"

Suddenly a strange buzzing noise emitted from somewhere and a warped swishing noise soon mixed in creating strange sounds and illusions that the officer himself could not explain. He looked over on a tree, seeing a triangular sign with a slash through it. Of course he didn't believe in the supernatural--which is what got him in his position--but this seemed very odd. The bushes began to rustle and then stop abruptly. He stood quietly and all of a sudden a strange whisper mixed in with the noises that were beginning to fade. "N-nevermind, you just go on then!" he said and took off running in the other direction.

Emily's eyes remained narrowed with suspicion as she watched the officer leave. She had only noticed the strange symbol on the tree when the man had looked at it. She walked up and examined it closely. The slash through the triangle seemed to give it five points, just like a star. For some reason, the sight of it filled her with a deep sense of dread. She stared for the longest time, before a better word to describe it dawned on her; it looked somewhat like a form of pentagram, an evil symbol. She inhaled sharply, before shivering, as though a cold wind had given her a chill. Gritting her teeth, she sharply backed away, and ran off. However, she did not see the girl watching, and bumped into her sidelong, not enough to knock her down, but just enough to give both of them a jolt. "Sorry! I have to get out of here! You'd be wise to do the same!" She called back, as she vanished into the distance.

A boy, about thirteen years old began walking into the town, straight from the woods. The bottom of his old white T-shirt was stained with red blood and his fingertips were drenched with the same eerie substance. His eyes were gray and his skin had turned the whitest shade of pale ever imaginable with grayish shadows coming out from under his eyes. He moaned and seemed virtually unlike a human. In one of his hands he carried a long hatchet and the other seemed to clutch air, twitching and grasping it like it belonged to a madman.

A woman walked by the path that he was coming up from turning her head, she spotted him, noticed all of the horrendous features, and screamed, taking off and running. The boy spotted a triangular shape carved into a wooden fence just up ahead. He took the hatchet and quickly struck through the fence, cutting it up and destroying the symbol. As soon as that was over with, he went on.

Sage had not had the time to say anything to Emily, but she had noticed what Emily was looking at. Since Sage's attention was already drawn toward the triangle, she also spotted the pale boy with the hatchet, and watched with interest what he did to the tree.

She backed away, to maintain a safe distance. He didn't seem to see her, and that was the way she wanted it to stay. The smell of blood caused adrenaline to begin flowing through her, and Sage felt that running would not be an option.

She hid between two buildings, in a shallow ally. Here she had a full view of the plaza, and of anyone who might step out into it. She watched the bloodstained specter walk away.

When the boy was done with the unmarked sign on the fence, he spotted Sage, grunted, and began walking towards her, raising the hatchet about to strike. Suddenly a loud thumb and an allaaah sound came through the air as a figure dressed in black appeared so fast you could barely see it, standing right in front of the boy. It shouted something and suddenly was gone with a flash. The boy gave a last glance at Sage, then turned and walked in the other direction.

Emily still couldn't believe what had happened. As she entered her house through the back door and slammed it shut behind her, she stood there, palms pressed against it, pale. A pentagram had been carved into the tree, and then there was the fog, which for some reason seemed even more malignant than usual. Was someone in the town practicing witchcraft, or trying to pull mean pranks on everyone in town? The former seemed more likely. She didn't know if it had any link to the malice the fog seemed to bear, but she knew whoever had carved that symbol was dangerous. Witchcraft people were dangerous. One moment, they were just like anyone else. Next, they were insane people who killed your pet dog.

With this in mind, she went to her room and quickly changed back into her usual clothing. A simple black dress with long sleeves and no ornamentation whatsoever. It drove her mother crazy, considering it made her look like a vampire, her skin was so pale, but she didn't care. She wasn't about to bring attention to herself.

"Must... destroy... symbols..." said the boy as he kept walking, people scattering and shouting as he came by. He chopped down several trees with the triangular symbol on it. A strange figure seemed to be walking behind him the entire time. "Destroy th-them..." a whisper seemed to come. After destroying about three of these symbols that seemingly repelled whatever evil was going on, a few officers came into the area with their guns held high. They boy raised his hatchet, ready to strike. Before he could, he was shot and he fell over. The strange shadow that had been following him had disappeared.

As Alan walked awkwardly home, he heard a gunshot and stopped. He looked over his shoulder, but saw nothing. He figured that the gunshot happened across the city, but why?

Despite his mental protesting, he turned back. He stopped once again stopped, this time at an intersection. He couldn't help thinking, Do I really want to get involved? Something flickered at the corner of his eyes, and he noticed a strange symbol carved into a tree at the forest's edge. Upon closer inspection, he found that it was a triangle with a small circle inside.

He looked around, wondering if anyone else had noticed it. Everyone seemed oblivious.

Curious, he approached.

Upon changing back to her regular identity, Emily found herself in deep thought. She pondered the way the symbol had looked, and then the way it had been slashed. She then realized that the slash probably wasn't part of the normal symbol, and that it had probably been done later after it had been carved. If that was the case, it hadn't been a pentagram. She realized it hadn't been the symbol itself that had frightened her. It had been something regarding that slash mark. Who had made it? If it wasn't an evil symbol, then what was it, and who had cut it? Who was the one that had destroyed the pattern?

Taken up by curiosity, Emily took a piece of paper and drew the triangle and circle in the center of the page with ink, leaving out the slash mark. This time, she touched the symbol and felt something different. It wasn't unpleasant, she realized, but somehow calming to look at. She then decided that no, the symbol was something else, and not a pentagram. The only evil part of the pattern she had seen had been the slash across it. It did not belong.

The guns unnerved Sage, and she lost her cool. She walked away from the scene, afraid that the officers would shoot her just for looking suspicious. That boy....he had been so ghastly; so eerie! Suddenly Sage felt very sick to her stomach.

She shivered, walking between buildings once more and eventually finding herself on another main road. She shrugged off her sick feeling. The town wasn't large, but it was big enough for her to disappear in. Already she felt safer, and pulled her hood down again so she could see clearly.

There were people about, just chatting or going about their buisness. None of them looked her way, as usual. Sage felt she was already having one strange day, and kept her eyes peeled for more of the symbols. She still didn't know what they ment, but the orange glow about them told her they were involved with something spectral.

A few children, two boys and three girls, sat on the hump of a hill just behind a few buildings, overlooking the town. They sat, having a sort of picnic with a blanket spread and a basket of food out and open, they scooped sandwiches out from it and ate, drinking tea. Suddenly a breeze came from the woods. Each of them dropped their food and drinks, some of the teacups spilled tea everywhere, they paid no heed.

Each slowly turned their heads to face the forest, they did not move after that. A strange whisper came from the bushes and the children would have nodded, but they didn't... They ever so slowly... turned their heads, looking at the town. Each stood up, dropping all they had and began walking down the hill, plucking knives from their pockets...

The presence of a triangular sign made itself quite clear smocked upon the face of the side of an old building, another scrapped onto the ground of one of the roads, a particularly large one. Another was on a tree, and yet another was marked on a door in red paint.

Alan approached the peculiar symbol. It wasn't glowing to him, but it still seemed odd. Perhaps they were carved by a believer of the ghosts, or even stranger, a person who supported the ghost?

The things people do.

However, he was still confused, even with this exclamation. Why did all the things that happened to him happen? It was all rather confusing, although he would not dare wander tot he exclamation of "ghosts."

(StheT, the signs only glow to certain people for a reason you'll find out later, so Alan can't see them glow, sorry for the confusion)

Two little girls, with pale grayish skin pushed Alan over, out of the way of the sign. They took long knives and cut long slashes in it, immediately the sign would loose it's power. The children were vicious, they seemed to drool thick blackish liquids from their mouths. Their eyes had turned white and gray and dark blackish shadows were under their eyes. Their own fingers were beginning to grow sharp, crude claw-like fingernails. The growled and sneered, then ran from the sign and were gone into the mist behind the buildings.

Alan traced his fingers along the bark, examining the cuts. The carving was so clean, but at the same time it looked like it wasn't carved with care. It seemed as if the person stopped at the tree, took a few seconds to create the symbol, and walked away.

But what did the carving mean? Alan felt a strange sense of security when near it, but that security felt alien, as if he would be naturally scared if it weren't for this. What did the carving mean? Whatever it was, it was effecting him somehow.

But he was so focused on the sign that he didn't have time to react when he was grabbed and thrown to the side.

Two little girls ran away, laughing manically. Alan hissed in anger, but took one look at the sign and lost his composure. The sign was crossed out, and all the security that it have been giving to him was gone. He got up and chased after the girls at a surprising speed. He needed to know what was going on!

The girls eventually noticed Alan chasing them and they ran straight into the woods, hoping so dearly that he would follow. If Alan would go far enough with them... he would be a nonbeliever no more...

The two boys and the third girl broke the glass the window of a butcher shop, completely ignoring the unlocked door. This seemed to be purely to startle whoever was inside. To their disappointment nobody was around. The quickly moved around the room, wrecking everything and crashing large jars of spices and meats to find... something...

A large fat, greasy man came in and screamed. They growled, holding up their knives and jumping onto him, stabbing him and cutting flesh. Red! Red was everywhere! Red! Eventually after a slick, clean, slice to the throat, the man fell over dead. The kept searching the shop, looking for a symbol...

Alan slowed when the woods came in sight, and stopped completely when the girls ran inside. this was so strange! Were they trying to lead him into the woods?

Alan stepped back. He was going to have to report this. He briefly wondered about where else the girls have been. If they were running around the city like this, they'd be... arrested? Sent to the Juvinile Hall, or the insane asylum? Where is law enforcement, doing their job!?

Suddenly the figure of a woman dressed in black appeared about ten meters away from Alan. The girls had run behind this woman and peaked their heads out from behind, looking at him and grinning. A strange whisper came into the air and a very strange breeze with a heavy feeling swished in the air and seemed to scoop up souls themselves.

"Alan!" the figure said, yet its lips did not move. Most of its face seemed to be masked by a clump of fog in front of its face and its black hair hanging down in front of it. A few ravens flew down from the branches of trees, three perched themselves on the figure's shoulders.