The murk slithered through her nose with each colourful breath. Mensha couched mightily wheezing as he recovered, he wrapped his shirt around his face, and it helped marginally.

“You all right,” she rubbed his recovering frame.

“Yes, I’m surprised you can breathe.” It was uncomfortable but wasn’t drowning her like Mensha.

“Maybe I’m just built differently,” she tried with a wan smile, she winced at her delivery. Yet her smile grew when he afforded her a chuckle.

“Maybe,” he said straightening, “It has to do with your glowing.”

She looked at herself and the mists were a little thinner and less grasping around her. “You might be right,” She focused on her skin it shone with a faint light that would’ve been indiscernible in the brightness prior.

She returned her attention to the corridors, “So what are we doing now,”

“Perhaps we’ll get somewhere if we keep walking.”

She glanced at him, “You really think so,”

“No, but optimism is important in times of hardship, and I see a lot of hardship in our future.”

She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath of the cloying mists, “Ok, no panicking, let’s get supplies and mask for you.” She spoke we renewed confidence, the mists retreated under her rising glow. “Then we play it by ear.”

She received no complaint,

In the hours that followed they ransacked many stores, taking anything, they thought remotely useful and putting it in large, pilfered bags. Mensah’s innocent smile while stealing from a pharmacy lifted her mood, though his disregard for the pillar smote corpse and the ever-present mist added a macabre edge.

“Let’s take a break,” her partner wheezed through his mask after their plunder. Hours of walking through the mists twisted corridors hadn’t been easy on him, they were barely any closer to finding a way out. All they knew was that they passed familiar halls on occasion.

“Ya, I could use a break.” She rubbed her feet.

“No need to spare my pride it’s not that fragile.” His eyes smiled behind the mask.

“Sorry,”

“It’s okay Summer, just let me catch my breath.” He slid to the floor and took heavy straining breaths eyes closed.

She worried he might never get up. She dropped her recently stolen bat and sat beside him, her light ever so slightly thinning the oily atmosphere. A thought crossed her mind, she pressed her hands to the sides of his face. His eyes flicked open and he stared quizzically at her, he breathed easier.

“Thank you,” he said luxuriating in the cleaner breaths, “but I don’t think this is a long-term solution.”

“You could always lie in my lap,”

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“While walking,” he quirked a brow.

She couldn’t contain her laughter, silly as it was it eased the low-lying tension that surrounded her. The mists eased back under her brightening glow.

Wait, she’d brightened earlier, and she’d brightened now. She closed her eyes on focused on the warm feeling in her chest holding it tightly, slowly she opened her eyes. The writhing sea of colour had retreated with air in her immediate vicinity clear and everything farther thinned.

“You were saying.” She smiled broadly,

“I’m giving up on trying to understand what’s happening for now.” Cautiously he touched her face, she glowed as he caressed her cheeks, ”Summer, you’re hot.”

Heat rose to her cheeks, and she pulled his arm away. “Now’s not the time.”

“I’m being quite literal, you could steam water.”

“Well-“

A child’s cry disturbed the mist, they bolted upright her light stuttering. She grasped her bat.

“Think about it, Summer.” Said Mensha as she jogged towards the sound. “This could be a trap.”

“And if it isn’t.”

His footsteps followed her, “This is as good a lead as any.” he sighed, and couched on the mist, “I’m with you Summer, just please keep the mist away.”

She did with new heat and determination in her heart.

With each step towards the screaming the mist thickened, choking her halo, as the world dimmed. She wrapped her free hand around Mensah’s.

They’d run further in a few steps than the prior hours.

She almost ran over the stranger in the midst.

A woman her wide eyes staring into Summer’s, her hand clenched around a phone – its flashlight failing to pierce the mist.

The unexpected pair shared a prolonged stare.

“Apologise, for the inconvenience but hello,” Mensah’s interruption broke their staring contest. The screams wrapped into the laughter of beetles and scarabs. “and I believe we’ve been duped.”

“What?” the woman muttered through the scarf wrapped around her mouth and nose, “Wait-”

“Before you ask no, we don’t know what’s happening, we followed the screaming here, yes she’s glowing, and no we don’t know why.” Mensha rattled in a flurry that stunned both women.

The woman turned back to Summer and her eyes widened further.

“Mensha, stop you’re being too much,”

“Apologises,” he said half-heartedly as he surveyed the oily mist. “I simply think it’d be better to hurry seeing as something is out there.”

“Ok, ok,” said the stranger and turned her attention to the mist. “I’m Stace by the way,” and Summer was once again surprised by the efficacy of her fiancé’s unerring politeness.

She would’ve found the exchange hilarious if she wasn’t so pissed with herself. At least they could help, and strangers met. – something stirred in the mist. That was if they could help themselves.

The trio stared into the encircling gloom, others pushed into their little circle, their expressions as dark as the mist.

They mixed into the group after a much more tense exchange with Summer. The chittering grew in step with their numbers, it was palpably giddy. They tried moving but the dark haze followed them and no one in their small group had the courage to leave.

A streak leap out of the shadows at Mensha, before she could think she pushed him aside. It struck her in her raised arms, biting deep into her flesh.

It was on her before she hit the ground, lashing, and sticking with sickening cheer. Her head crashed to the floor and she caught a glimpse of the survivors scattering into the mist.

Someone pulled her up, Mensha? Her head hurt and her arm felt numb. She caught glimpses of fleeing forms and uproarious laughter as she was pulled into the gloom.

She found her feet and ran with him, relieved to note she’d kept her bat, for all the good it had done.

She pushed and the mist retreated a little further, the numbness dissipated a bit.

It crept back slowly at first, but as the mist lightened and she breathed a sigh of relief it crashed down. Her shine dying to glow as she lost feeling in her everything.

Her legs buckled and Mensha carried her on, as her vision dimmed. She clutched desperately to hum, her breaths indistinct against her racing heart.

He spoke as they fled but she couldn’t make out the words.

She tried to speak as the mists darkened, they didn’t need to die together.

It was a mix of fear and relief when he pried off her weak fingers, he pushed her into a closet and ran off chased by the laughing mist the former overwhelmed her – a spark of love warmed her.

Her consciousness left her before it could twist to despair.