Tami May, and Marlean crowded around me as we stared out the kitchen door. Frances had yet to return, and we had grown worried, and perhaps a bit annoyed at the delay of our morning meal. Plus, it wasn't like Frances to take so long to complete a task, especially one involving food. But color us surprised when we found that there was no one to be found in the kitchen and even worse no sign of breakfast being prepared. It was all rather distressing, to say the least.
“You should go out there," said Tami May, nearly pushing me out into the strange fog. “Look! Frances even tied some of her yarn to the door handle. I bet it would lead right to her.”
The yarn lay limp at the door handle, more than likely Frances hadn't been paying attention and her yarn had run out mid-investigation. But this was how it always went. If Frances couldn't be found to bulldoze her way in, with a smile and too much conversation, then it was thrust upon me. Not that this was surprising, I wasn't the leader of the polite society and proper ladies' club for nothing. But still, I had no want to go wandering around in that fog. With or without the horrid, tie-dyed yarn string tied to the door handle to lead my way.
“Tami May, I am not just going to go out there, do you hear those sounds?” Something akin to a horse screeched in the fog. As far as I knew, there were no horses just running around the forest. “I'll just get lost and then you two will just close the door and pretend like nothing ever happened. I think it would be best if we called the police."
Marlean nodded her head in agreement and hurried over to a wall phone that still hung from the wall of the kitchen. She picked it up without a word and then promptly hung it back on its cradle.
“Hem!” She picked it up again. “Oh hello! Mehm yes, I will tell them." She covered the mouthpiece of the phone with her palm. "The System says that the cell phone installation is running behind and that if we need any assistance with the tutorial this phone will do just fine. Oh, and it says that Frances is currently in a battle with a boss who has a long-standing blood feud with her family and it's not looking good.”
I just stared back at her. This was the last thing I needed, Marlean had always been a bit loopy, but this whole System thing, yeesh. She had been whispering into my ear about it the whole walk down to the kitchen. Eyeing Tami May the whole time to make sure she didn’t hear anything.
Apparently, my bloodline wasn't important and had been seeded here to be fodder, whatever that was supposed to mean. I can tell you without any shame that comments like that hurt. My family has a long and rich bloodline of important people. Of course, she, Tami May, and Frances were important to this System thing, and so they had to be kept in the dark.
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"Dear god Marlean I don't think those phones have worked for years now." I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. "Honestly I think they just leave them up because they would have to pay someone to take them down." I pressed my thumb to the fingerprint scanner and the smiling happy faces of my two deceased dogs Topo, and Rafia filled the screen. The sight of them nearly pushed all worry from my mind, but just nearly. Unfortunately, I was greeted with a no-service signal. "Well, that's not good in many different ways."
A wet pop sounded from outside grabbing our attention. Marlean hurried back from the wall phone, she had dismantled it from the wall and now had it pressed tightly to her ear. The loose cord dangled down across her shoulder.
"What in the ever-loving mercy of our mothers are you doing Marlean?"
"No! What really! Ok, we will hurry." Marlean moved the phone from her ear and covered the speaker with her hand. “The System says that Frances has won the battle but has also lost. It was… vague but suggested that we should go out and grab her loot.” A single tear ran down her cheek. “I think she might be dead.”
My mouth dropped, a display of unladylike behavior that my mother would have instantly punished. Thankfully she had been dead for quite some time.
“What does that mean Marlean? Is Frances ok?” I couldn’t even believe I was asking that.
The fog rolled back from the door like a tide, or in reply to my question, and disappeared into the trees on the far side of the garden. A faint sparkly red haze hung in the air glittering in the morning light that could now shine without interference. To my horror, I could see Frances's prone body lying there, and something, or somebody else.
“What is that… are they green?” Tami May bobbed over my shoulder trying to get a better look while at the same time not trying to get any closer to whomever was leaning over Frances.
“Hay you what are you doing to our friend,” I said taking one tentative step out the door.
They stood up quickly pulling something big and white from Frances before darting away. Hesitating for just a moment, I quickly made my way over to her still form, Tami May and Marlean silently in my wake.
It was immediately apparent that something horrible had in fact happened. The lifeless body of our temporary caretaker came into view just a ways from Frances. Tami May screamed in horror. She clamped a bony hand onto my arm as Marlean moved past us. Blood covered just about everything in the vicinity, not to mention the mound of flesh that lay just a few feet away, and was speckled throughout.
“What happened here?” I didn’t know what else to say. Obviously, something bad happened, but what? Had it been that little green man? “I think we need to get back inside.”
“The System says we will be fine as long as we don’t go into the fog.” She moved the phone from her ear once again and covered the receiver. “They call it the fog of war, whatever that’s supposed to mean.” She turned from me and bent down to pluck a shiny wrapper off Frances's bloody chest. “Huh I wonder if—”
But her words were cut off as Frances suddenly sat up with a gasp. Tami May screamed into my ear as she nearly ripped my arm from my socket. And I couldn’t help but stifle a sharp intake with my free hand as Frances looked at each one of us and smiled.
“Hot dam I thought for sure I was dead.”