The fog had rolled in yesterday morning, thick and impenetrable, swallowing the town of Ridgemont whole. It stretched across the landscape like a blanket of ash, blocking out the sky, the sun, and any sense of direction. It wasn’t just a simple weather phenomenon—it felt alive, like it was watching them, sealing the town off from the outside world.

Phones had stopped working. Power lines were down. No one could get in or out, and every attempt to contact someone beyond the fog had ended in failure. A few brave souls had ventured into the dense, eerie mist, determined to find the edge and make it to safety, but none of them had returned.

Inside the fog-covered town, the disappearances hadn’t slowed—they had gotten worse. More people had gone missing, their homes found eerily empty, their belongings untouched. Some had left behind nothing more than bloodstains or strange, cryptic messages. The town was unraveling, and the air was thick with fear.

A group had finally come together, a small band of survivors who refused to sit back and wait to be taken like the others. They had gathered in the old Ridgemont library, its heavy, dust-covered shelves providing a strange sense of comfort amidst the growing chaos. They were there to find answers, to figure out what was happening in their town before it was too late.

At the center of the group stood Rachel Barnes, a sharp-witted woman in her late twenties. She wasn’t originally from Ridgemont—she had moved here a year ago after a personal tragedy she didn’t speak of—but she had taken charge quickly. Her hair was tied back in a loose bun, and her eyes darted from face to face as they discussed their options, calculating, analyzing. She had no illusions about what was going on. Something supernatural was at play, something far darker than anyone wanted to admit. She had seen it before, a glimpse of the horror that had nearly consumed her a decade ago.

Next to Rachel stood Officer Jake Mitchell, Ridgemont’s lone police officer still trying to maintain order. He was a broad-shouldered man in his thirties, with a permanent frown etched into his face. He had always prided himself on protecting the town, but lately, he’d felt powerless. His gun was holstered at his side, but he knew deep down it wouldn’t do much against whatever had been hunting them. He had lost too many people already, including his younger brother, one of the first to vanish when the fog arrived.

Across from them sat Dr. Amelia Frost, a tall, stoic woman in her forties who had been the town’s doctor for nearly two decades. She was practical, no-nonsense, and skeptical of anything that couldn’t be explained by science. But after what she had seen—the blood, the strange symbols carved into the walls of her clinic, the faces of the dead in the fog—she was starting to doubt everything she had ever believed. She was there because, despite her skepticism, she knew something terrible was happening, and she needed answers as much as the others.

And then there was Nick Harper, a local reporter who had been writing about the strange disappearances for months, long before the fog rolled in. His curiosity had led him into dark places—too many sleepless nights, too many stories about haunted houses and old legends. He believed the town’s history was tied to the current events, that something long buried in Ridgemont’s past had clawed its way back to the surface. He was jumpy, his hands constantly shaking as he jotted down notes, but his mind was sharp, and his instincts were usually spot on.

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They were all gathered around the wooden table in the library’s back room, talking in low voices, each one trying to make sense of the madness.

"We have to stop this," Rachel said, her voice firm, cutting through the silence. "There’s something out there, something that’s been unleashed. The disappearances, the fog… they’re connected. We need to figure out how to stop it before we all end up like the others."

Jake rubbed his temples, leaning back in his chair. "I don’t even know where to start. Half the town is gone, and we can’t even get a signal out to call for help. It’s like we’re completely cut off from the rest of the world."

"It’s not natural," Nick said, his voice hushed. "The fog isn’t just weather. It’s doing something. I’ve been trying to track the pattern of the disappearances—every time, there’s a surge in the fog just before someone vanishes. It’s like it’s… alive. Like it’s hunting people."

Amelia shook her head. "We need more than theories. We need to figure out a way to survive this."

Before Rachel could respond, the silence in the room was shattered by a loud crack, followed by a low, rumbling sound. Everyone jumped, their heads snapping toward the back wall of the library. The wallpaper, a faded floral pattern, had started to peel away, curling at the edges as though something beneath it was pushing through.

Rachel was the first to stand, her eyes narrowing as she approached the wall, her heart pounding in her chest. "What the hell…?"

The wallpaper continued to tear, the curling edges exposing dark, jagged cracks in the plaster. And then, from behind the peeling paper, something began to emerge.

Faces.

Hundreds of faces, pressing against the wall as though they were trapped just beneath the surface, their features distorted, twisted in silent screams. Their eyes bulged, their mouths opened wide in terror, but no sound escaped them. The faces were frozen in eternal horror, their hands reaching out, pushing against the wallpaper, their fingers curling as though they were trying to claw their way free.

Jake swore under his breath, backing away from the wall, his hand instinctively reaching for his gun. "What the fuck is this?"

"It’s them," Nick whispered, his voice trembling. "The missing people… it’s them."

The wallpaper continued to peel away, revealing more and more faces, their expressions contorted in agony. Some of them were familiar—faces of those who had disappeared in the last few days. Others were strangers, their features distorted beyond recognition, as though they had been trapped there for far longer.

Rachel felt her throat tighten as she stared at the faces, her mind racing. The Crawler. This was his work. She knew it deep down, even if the others didn’t yet understand. He had claimed these people, trapped them in some twisted nightmare. And now, he was coming for the rest of them.

"We need to get out of here," she said, her voice steady despite the terror clawing at her chest. "Now."

But before they could move, the faces began to shift, their mouths moving in silent unison, forming words that Rachel could feel rather than hear.

"You’re next."

The room seemed to close in around them, the air growing thicker, heavier, suffocating. The fog outside pressed against the windows, and the faces in the wall stared at them with hollow, pleading eyes.

The fog had cut the town off from the world. And now, it seemed the nightmare that had haunted Rachel for the last ten years was about to consume everyone.