Mist Chapter 1

I play hockey. I really don't like hockey as a sport. I get hurt, break bones and spend weeks in wheelchairs. I wish I could have been good at something else. I've seen people play violins and instruments like the flute, the tuba and many others with a prodigious level of talent. I've heard of chess players beating Grandmasters on their first try. Artists able to paint the greatest works of art ever known. I wanted to be an artist, I wanted to play music, I wanted to be a chess grandmaster, but I got stuck being a virtuoso at hockey.

Hockey is a sport that a good percent of the population of the world watch, a small percentage play and a large percentage of those who play get hurt.

I was a virtuoso at hockey, I still am. The awards, the flashing lights, the fame of it got to me. The cameras immortalized my victory over the other team, it was intoxicating. I got addicted to winning. I got addicted to the fame and so I played harder, I tried harder, I trained harder and at the end I flew too close to the Sun and got burned.

I went down bad. I had an injury so devastating that I could never be in the ice rink again. My coordination was shot. My sight, blurry. My muscles atrophied from the lack of use over the years. Still, I love that sport and I hated it all the same. It is a duality that I'm working through. My therapist says that I need to focus on the here and now and not the past.

My final year of college. I was getting a stem degree with a nanotechnology minor and a bioengineering major. The work is hard, the syllabus Aramaic in my ability to understand it and class timings a representation of Chaos Theory.

The students, partygoers, some serious and most not while the teachers are drunk most of the time, at least in how they teach.

I had the grades, the physical and mental acuity to go to some of the best schools in the world. I applied and I got into Grenntime School For Innovation, Marlbo Academy Of Presidents, Prenest Collegiate Academy of STEM and more.

Rage, blinding, all consuming filled my mind as I thought back to my last game. The damn injury at my last game!! The last game I could ever play made me lose it all.

With tired resignation I continue on thinking. Thinking about why I was rejected. I was more profitable, more sellable, more of an icon when I was winning, when I was in the rink. My grades meant nothing, my ability and my mental acuity meant nothing in the face of my prodigious level of talent in hockey.

These schools didn't care about who I was, how smart I was and my ability to change the world in the future.

A mix of rage and resignation tinges my thoughts as I think what I thought a thousand times before.

They wanted money, they wanted profit and I was more profitable as the undefeatable hockey player. They gave vague excuses on how something came up and my records are incomplete. Horse shit is the only thing I could say. They didn't want a broken person, didn't want someone who knew that she was broken, who picked up all the pieces, put them back together better than ever.

Someone who will become one of the best in their field. No, they really did not.

Focus lost, she stumbled but didn't fall.

Continuing her walking she goes back to her thoughts.

I mumble 1...2…3… Counting, one of the few things my therapist told me that worked. It's ....difficult to control my rage when I think back to my last game. It's been years, people say that the problem should go away. Well that's not how it works. Rage and the injury, a constant reminder. It all still there, part of me, sadness and anger, at myself, at everyone and everything.

I have gotten control, a flimsy control but the injury colors my life. A film of color over what is. I have pushed back the film years ago, stuffed into a corner of my mind. Lock and key, chains and steel doors all to keep it down. It comes back though. In moments of quiet. In my introspections. In my eyes, looking at myself. It hurts. I get over it and lock it away again.

“Hhaah” a calming breath interrupts the young woman's muttering. She looks up and with a steadier step resumes her journey and introspection.

I wear glasses now. I never really had them before. I had good eyesight, 20/20. I was strong, I trained and worked to the bone to forge myself, my mind and body to be perfect at hockey. Years…I spent years training, building up muscle and stamina. Gaining the explosive strength and reaction speed to become the best. I used to feel like I was the height of physical and mental fitness. Able to take on anything and keep going.

A sigh leaves her, resigned, a brooding melancholy.

It was gone, I'm still fit, but not as fit. I can still see, but not without glasses. I could move fine, if the definition of fine was bumbling around and hitting things a few times a day.

Life became more difficult. “That is just how life is” , my friends said. I believed them and understood more than I ever wanted to. Life keeps throwing things at you and you pick yourself up, you dust yourself off, you flip it off and you continue with your day.

Today is the one day I really wished was better than yesterday. I would have taken yesterday over today but life is as life does.

It throws things at you mostly big, heavy, sharp and dirty dirty things but you live with it, you flip it off and sometimes you want to punch it in the face.

Out the door, a book bag in hand bumbling along, my legs eating the distance from my dorm to my class I see a figure bobbing through the mass of students. Bright hair, brownish with brown bright highlights and of course I can only mean…..Alyssa. A nuisance and a friend.

She was part of my hockey team. She was the runner up, the bouncy happy-go-lucky girl that takes everything in stride. I used to like her very much, but now I can't stand the sight of Alyssa and it's not her fault.

She's just happy, inversely I'm not, and being around ‘that’ really drains me. She pulls energy from me like a vampire feeding on the succulent blood of a sprightly 20 year old. But as with the Vampire and the 20 year old, you coexist.

“Alyssa, how are you?” My drab and slightly annoyed voice askes the bouncing brunette.

“Amazing!!! I just got another hockey medal you know?!!!! I'm soooo happy!!!! Want to go and see it!? It's in the medal cabinet at school! You have to look, it's awesome….

I walk away with the chatty lovable annoying friend following. I pay no attention to her inane rambling, keeping focused on my destination and my locomotive skills. When you can move, but barely, you need to focus on actions that others can do without thinking.

We get to class, walk in and take our seats. ‘Hhhaaa’ a heavy sigh leaves my control as Alyssa sits four rows behind me, right next to a window. The joy of silence and stillness is one not many appreciate. Alyssa even less.

She is next to someone she has a crush on so I usually boycott that area. I still don't think that boy who thinks he is a man is right for her. Alyssa is annoying, and she is lovable and innocent. If that fluff of a boy tries anything, my rage will be his last worry on this mortal plane.

Snapped out of my fatal musings for my friend's unfortunate crush, by a voice I turn to the front.

“Settle down, everyone. I have some good news. Everybody settle down.” States the teacher walking in.

I turn my attention to and observe my teacher. A relatively good one. Not one of the drunken teacher styles of combat teaching.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“What is it, Miss Williams? What's the news?” A random voice echoes in the classroom, murmurs spreading like wildfire.

“ The final exam is an open note test.”

With that the gates of pandemonium broke.

“Wooooooo!!”

“Nice!!”

“I won't fail anymore!!!!”

“Have you seen your scores, your screwed man!”

“Shut up!! The finals are a large percentage, I should pass!! Right?”

Cheers, hoots, howls and more continue on as I cover my ears. A ringing taking hold as the volume irritates my wound. Dizzy and off balance, I fall. No one notices, and things take an eerie turn. It is pindrop silent.

I start to feel nervous for some reason. It is never that silent. Never! I'm jittery for some reason. Looking up from the ground I can see it in people's eyes, a fear, confusion and a sense that they wanted to flee.

‘From what?’ Is my thought. Why is everyone quiet? I feel strained as I get up and I see it.

“Whaaa…” My words fail me, my mind trying to rationalize the impossible. The sky is Red.

A minute or two of pure bafflement later. I start thinking. It's not sundown red. It's not slightly tinted red or pinkish when early or late. It's Blood Red. It's Rage Red.

Years of practice for hockey allow me to center my mind, letting decisions flow by. I decided to leave. I know it's safer in a group but I need to get home. I want to be with my family when this concludes. It could kill us all or it's a new weapon from another country. Whatever it is, I want to spend my last moments with my family.

I turn around looking away from the window. Everybody is still in a state of shock. I leave everything and walk away, out the door.

The hallways are a ghost town. I think everyone is still in shock. Frozen. It's strange and I don't spend much brain bandwidth on that as I decide to head down and leave as quickly as possible to get to my dorm and from there I can drive and head back home.

With a plan of action in place I head down the stairs quickly and as carefully as possible. Looking outside it seems even stranger than through the classroom windows.

I try to make sense of this new phenomenon. And I can't make heads or tails of it. Everything seems strangely frozen in time. Eerily so. It felt like I was the only one able to move. I looked around and a normal college town met my sight. Cars here and there, some students, and some apartments nearby. It was a normal college town. The situation wasn’t normal though. The sky wasn’t normal. What's happening to the people wasn’t normal.

The students, everyone really, were staring towards the heavens. People just stopped and looked up. Animals too. Even the cicadas are quiet and usually during the spring they're buzzing up a storm.

Averting my gaze I follow my action plan. The horror and urgency at the situation grew with every step outside. I stumble and walk to the apartments across the street. The moment I get in the strange freeze seems to wear off. People stream away from the roads, driving or running.

Some follow me into the apartments. I make my way up, deciding to leave things alone for now. Going to my room seems like a good idea. I could get my keys and head home. It had a narrow staircase, smallish hallway and a single door to my room.

The stairs could barely fit three people and similar to the hallway it blocked too many people from crowding. Viva la capitalism. Colleges and college-built apartments next to them. Functional and a great way to make a quick buck.

I shut the door and grabbed my keys. Deciding in turn that I needed a weapon as the situation seemed to continue deteriorating. My hockey stick.

I could not move. I didn't want to. I was safe here. ‘But your family’, a part of my mind seemed to say. ‘Think about your family. You love them and you want to make sure that they are safe.’ It continued on. I couldn't ignore it. I wanted to be safe and I wanted my family. With moments of jittery pacing and facing my indecision I found that I wanted my family more than my own safety.

Looking out my room window my jitteriness transformed into full blown shaking and moving and pacing. I felt like something more was coming. A red sky and no other changes? That is not how things work in reality. Every action has a cause and effect. A forgotten portion of that phrase is that it also has a consequence.

I was anticipating some sort of completely crazy occurrence. I just didn't know the timelines. Will it happen now, in a few minutes or a few months? While waiting for the other shoe to drop I kept an eye out the window.

After a few minutes that felt like eternity, I slowly started to relax, not even realizing that I was tense and stressed. The moment that I relaxed, the atmosphere just seemed to Crack. It broke and shattered. Like when a window pane meets a baseball.

Staring out the window, a Mist, just appeared. A blanket over the ground as far as I could see. An omnipresent bog of shadow and darkness. That the initial flash of what I saw as it appeared entranced me. It seemed to have everything, all the colors. I saw greens and blues. Infinite hues and shades of light purple and pinks and more. A lot more. I saw soggy, foggy, swampy greens and grays. And this fog was everywhere. It looked like it was climbing the walls.

Backing away from my apartment window, the Mist was nearby. It felt like it was stalking me from just outside my window. I had a feeling that it could be everywhere, that nothing could stop it. It stayed away, it didn't appear in my room.

It seemed some areas were free of the Mist. It felt like the Mist decided to be kind and leave those places alone. They were glowing with a blinding green and blue. A circle, a square and more flashed in my vision. Always shapes and colors, but only those two, green and blue.

There wasn't more than one of these areas that I could see. Areas the Mist left alone. It was across from my building, surrounding another dorm. Gathering my courage and looking out the window I could see another one. It was directly under me. Not under my feet, but under the building surrounding it. It was shapes and colors once again.

I think it might definitely cover the back portion of the apartment too. I hope so. Who knows what happens when anyone touches the Mist.

I move away from the window again and try to calm down. I sit and just stare at the wall. As I slowly feel the tension receding I start to feel…. Weird. It seemed there is this feeling, an instinct just telling me something was different. Something Was that Was Not before. I felt better. My sight is still blurry but my body is in perfect control.

Lifting my hand, it was steady as the earth when moments before it shook even when supported. My spine was straight with the twinges that went through before. Hurrying to stand I pulled up my jeans to look at my calves.

Tears fell as staring back at me was clean and smooth skin. No sign of scars, no gouges, no shriveled muscles. I…I was…I was whole once again. I…I was healed. I..I could run again.

Crying tears of joy as I felt better than I have for years, I feel like running, screaming, being happy for this situation. I don't know what the Red sky is nor the Mist but I absolutely love it. It healed me. I will give it one pass, only one on whatever horrible thing comes next.

Feeling bloated, I look at my stomach and paw at it. Not larger than usual. Now if it's not my stomach it might be inside me? Freaking the fxxk out I try to explore the feeling. Hoping beyond hope that it's not chest busters. There are easier and better ways to kick yourself off the mortal coil than alien parasites blowing holes in your chest while emerging in a spray of blood and gore.

Looking inward it felt glorious, there was this unending font of energy in me. No, not in me, next to me, related to me. A feeling of tangential relation seems to be the best way to describe it.

It's filled with energy, a suns’ worth. No, not a sun, all the suns, moons and everything. It is infinite. The most pure and true representation of infinite energy made form. I blank. I freeze. My thoughts are glacial. All I can feel in my being is awe and reverence at the source of this energy.

After a good long while I noticed a peculiar thing. There is a connection, a string of energy from me to the tangential part of me and from it to the energy. From the string, more of a highway of energy, to me. The awe inspiring energy trickled into the tangential part of me. It was a miniscule amount. Pretty much nothing in the face of the infinite.

I got none of the energy, my tangential part absorbed it, water drained to an abyss. I would definitely be like a watermelon meeting an anvil if all that energy flowed into my body. Not pretty. Not at all.

Relieved that it's not chest busters and awe still in play, peace fills me as I'm still alive and beautiful, if I do say so myself. A little vanity goes a long way with keeping my self-confidence high. Gotta keep my head up in this apparent Misty, whatchamacallit, apocalypse, that I am currently living through. It's amazing for healing me, and pretty dangerous just the same.

With the bloating feeling explained, I feel a great number of questions percolating in my noggin. The energy is going to the tangential me. What is happening with it? Is tangential me going to fill up and then kill me? I don’t know, here's wishing that it doesn't happen.

I spent a good while looking in a direction that doesn't usually get viewers a tangential sort to reality. I hear a sound that snaps me out of my observation. Awake and alert, I feel a deep growl of sorts as it vibrates everything. It's not like a bear's growl nor an angry dogs.

It feels like the revving of an engine mixed with a tinny squeaking. It resonated as I stood up to find the source of it. Peering out the window once again, I searched high and low, left and right. Trying to find the possibly hungry, very much angry and definitely deadly source of that sound.

It was a rat. Well, as much as a possibly five foot large, muscle bound steroid using, freaking gray skin thicker than leather, beady eyed, daggers for teeth, monstrosity, resembles a rat. As I stared and tried to make sense of the absurd sight across my eyes, it of course looked up and into my eyes.

“Panic is me and I am panicking. I can't stop saying everything I'm thinking, whyy!???”

In my panicking state I spew nonsense, a way to cope I guess. Even with the realization the nonsense continues.

“I’m screwed. I am so very screwed. Screwed is me. Well, nice knowing you everybody. Here lies the grave of I, the absolutely amazing woman known as Jay. Aka Isabelle Jessie Enkaloa.

With that the involuntary introduction seems to peter out. With a blank mind, and minutes of me being still I calm down enough to think. I pontificate into the ether feeling absurdly whimsical at my fate.

How I wished today was better than yesterday.