Their trip through the streets went relatively fine. Nothing bad really happened, right up until fog began to settle in again. It felt like it got thicker by the second, covering Soren's eyes and slightly blocking his vision.

"What the fuck?" Jasmine said, waving in front of her. She'd slowed to a stop at this point, and it seemed the fog had blocked her vision a bit as well. "What're you doing? What is this?"

"I'm not doing anything! It's bothering me too," he said defensively.

"It's literally coming from you," she said. "Look at your hand."

He lifted it in front of him, only to see ... fog? It bled out of his skin, the layer thickening by the second.

"What the fuck is happening to me?" he murmured, very much concerned.

"Do you feel alright?" It seemed as though Jasmine believed he had no idea what was happening, which was definitely a relief.

"I feel alright, just a bit tired," he replied. "Actually, really tired. More than I usually feel from running."

As people who lived in a world with monsters, Soren and his group had spent a lot of time running away. They fought less often than they ran, so he had pretty decent stamina --- that is to say, running at a slower speed for about ten minutes shouldn't have exhausted him that much.

"We could maybe ask Leo about it? He might know what it is. It's not that far away..." she frowned a bit as she talked, seemingly pondering the mist.

"Leo is... your friend?" Soren asked, though he figured he already knew the answer.

"We can go a bit slower. We're decently far from those assholes," Jasmine said, ignoring him. "Keep going forward."

It was only five more minutes of walking until they reached the place she wanted to go. She pulled a key out of the smaller pocket in her bag, unlocking the door with it.

"They have keys? Where?" Soren asked.

"It's hanging in the inside, next to the doorframe," Jasmine replied, opening the door. Inside was a tall boy, also carrying a gun, but his was smaller. "Hey Leo."

"Who's this?" Leo asked, pointing his gun at Soren.

"I saw him several blocks from here. He's new and seems safe. He's also having a fog problem?" Jasmine replied, walking through the doorway.

"I'm Soren," he said nervously, eyes glued to the gun. The third time within an hour --- that's not a great sign, is it?

Leo sighed before waving the gun towards the kitchen. "Come in."

The inside was mostly the same as the other two buildings Soren had been in. Everything was the same color and in the same position, but the pillows had been jostled and there was a mess of first-aid kits on the counter. It was definitely more lived-in than the other buildings that he'd seen.

"How did you guys get in?" Soren asked, seeing the unbroken window next to the door.

"We came through the second story," Jasmine replied, jumping onto the couch. "But we boarded up that window, so it should be safer now. We'll board up the lower one soon too."

"Today, not just soon," Leo corrected her. He then turned to Soren, saying "Anyone can enter just by breaking the window right now. We've gotta fix it. What's win the fog?"

"We were hoping you could help us with that," Jasmine replied. "He keeps oozing fog, it's really weird."

Stolen novel; please report.

"Do you know what this is?" Soren asked. "It's also making me really tired."

"Hmmm..." Leo seemed to ponder it. "Are you related to Numen?"

"Related to what?"

"Numen. They're said to have created the world, and children with their energy tend to have weird abilities. One of which might be fog, I assume." Leo reached out towards the fog, but stopped just before touching it. "Is it..."

"It doesn't hurt," Jasmine said. She then turned to Soren and asked, "Can you control it?"

"I-I don't know how," he said. He was so tired all of a sudden --- it's like the attention made the mist bleed out faster, making him more fatigued. His head began to ache and snot dripped from his nose.

"You have a nosebleed!" Jasmine cried out, seeming a bit more panicked. She ran to the counter and picked a gauze pad out of a first-aid kit.

"Try to imagine the mist as a river," Leo said, ever calm, approaching Soren. "Can you imagine it? Try building a dam to block it."

He tried to imagine it. A river, a dam, no more mist, please no more mist. He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them, but still the fog oozed out. Soren closed his eyes again trying to add more detail.

A river, the water brown from mud and rocks. Some boulders maybe, or large concrete blocks from a river nearby. He imagined a wall made of cobblestone outside --- though he'd never seen a dam, Soren figured it probably looked like that. The river fought the wall, trying to crack it and break through, but it held fast.

It had to.

"Here," Jasmine placed the gauze into his hand. Soren opened his eyes and looked at it, before placing it below his nose and trying to put pressure around the bridge.

"You did it. Yay," Leo said, deadpan.

"Yay is right!" Jasmine said, seeming more excited. She opened a pantry door and picked out a jar of small oval nuts.

"But more important is boarding up the window," said Leo, glancing at the light grey curtain.

"I see," Soren replied, a bit unsure of what he was supposed to say. Offer to help? Ask what Jasmine was eating? "What're you eating?"

"Hmm?" Jasmine tilted her head up, looking at him. "They're peanuts. Want some?"

She held the jar up at him. He walked forward and reached for them before Leo suddenly grabbed his arm.

"If you've never had them before, don't eat them right now. If you're severely allergic and go into anaphylactic shock, we wouldn't be able to help you 'cause we don't have an EpiPen."

Soren nodded like he knew what that was and pulled his hand back. "Do you need help boarding up the window?" he asked hesitantly.

"Sure," Leo replied. "There're cabinet doors next to the window, so we can do it now."

Soren walked over and grabbed a board. It was a bit wider than the window, so it didn't fit inside fully. Leo grabbed a hammer from the table and a nail, then adjusted how Soren was holding the wood before nailing the cabinet door to the window frame. It really looked like he would blast through his thumb, but weirdly enough he didn't hit it once.

Five nails later, they were onto the second cabinet door, and five nails after that they were done. Jasmine had settled on the couch, so Soren plopped onto the rocking chair diagonally right to her, while Leo took the armchair on the left.

They stared at each other awkwardly for ten seconds.

"So..." she said, basically begging them to talk.

"Did you use any bullets?" Leo asked.

"Yes," Jasmine said, before explaining the situation. She told him about the three men she and Soren had seen, and how she'd shot one. "Necrophiliacs, the lot of them."

"Fucking disgusting," Leo said, scrunching up his face. Soren had no idea what Jasmine had meant, but evidently it was gross, so he frowned a bit too.

"Yeah," she said, before continuing on about how they were running away. She talked about scaling the wall and breaking through the window, then how the ran through the door back to the house. "We made sure to stay out of sight, too, so they didn't follow us."

"That's good," Leo said appreciatively.

"Can I grab some food?" Soren asked, pointing at the pantry. The other two nodded, so he went over and grabbed a can of peaches. He grabbed the tab and pulled it back, then began looking around for utensils.

"What should we do now?" Leo asked, looking at Jasmine. "The first-aid kit collection seems satisfying enough."

"Umm..." she hesitated. "Wait and see?"

"Maybe we should try and figure out how we got here. And also how to leave." Soren had said maybe, but he really hoped they would agree. He missed Ceres and Sig and Luz already.

"But how would we start?" Leo asked.

"The Numen. You said energy from them created abilities, right? So why not tell us about them?" Jasmine said.

"I don't know much. Just that the first one is called the Dominus Numen, and space - Locium - and time - Aevus - came after. My mom prayed to those too, but none of the others. Besides that, I know shape was Fatio and death Letors. There're some others, but..." he paused, seeming to ponder. "Ah! I remember mist was Cabula. That's probably where you got your energy from, Soren."

Said person put their can of peaches down along with the knife he was eating them with, before walking over. "Cabula's a weird name."

"I know what you mean," Jasmine said. Soren plopped down on the couch next to her.

"Where do we go from here?" he asked. "Any more you can remember?"

"There's a lot," Leo replied. "I probably won't be able to remember them without specific prompts from y'all."

"Well, how about-" Jasmine started. Then it all went black.