Shrouded in mist

The days following the incident had a sense of calmness to them. Taki had notified Kaito's household of what had happened to him, and as a consequence he got house arrest for the rest of the week. Since Kaito was in a rather worrying state physically, staying at home a few days would do him good nonetheless. Taki could press Kaito about what happened to him, but some part of her hoped he trusts her enough to say it on his own accord.

2.1
As I woke up from a long nap, the sun shun through the blinds just a bit. My left foot felt extra stiff as I tried to stand up. My mother had left food and water in my room, and I couldn't pass on the opportunity of indulging myself into some delightful home cooking. While eating, my mind wandered back to what happened a few days prior. Everything that happened was replaying in my head over and over again. It surely was not a dream, as I felt everything clearly with my own skin. I could not remember anything from what happened afterwards though. Taki was clearly there when I awoke, so she must have been close. I could ask her about it, but I guess it also doesn't matter all too much what happened. The fact we're still both here is what matters most. It surely is fine, otherwise she'll surely tell me.

The days slowly withered by as the snow continued to drop on the already white-covered roads. Before too long, Kaito was already back on his bike, cycling to the hangar that was now filled with even more mystery. He informed Taki that he'd be there at the earliest in the morning with a big smile on his face. The bike was almost thrown against the wall of the hangar as Kaito threw open the rusty door. The excitement of knowing whether he could enter the Virenic world again lingered on his mind constantly as he was bedridden. He couldn't tell anyone what had happened, but after thinking it through time and time again, he realized that this world could be a possible escape of the town he was living in now. If he was able to travel through the worlds, then there might be a way to take other people like his parents and Taki with him as well. Kaito sprinted past the robots Taki and him had built just a week ago, traversed the conveyor belts and belted towards the now, cleaned, office area. Kaito's eyes sparkled as he arrived at the doorway, but the disappointment was immense. The ice was gone. Not a single spark of what was there not too long had disappeared. Not a single sound echoed through the room in the back of the hangar. 
Kaito sobbed quietly. All that he hoped for these past days had been squashed. It was maybe far fetched, and he knew that, yet it felt like such a defeat that he might not enter that world ever again.  A tear slides down his cheek when a voice sounds from far behind.

"Kaito, where are you?" 
It was clear to know who it was, and without much hesitation, he confidently shouted back. 
'In the back!'
He turned to look over his shoulder and saw a female figure approach. 
"I thought you might have collapsed again. You could have at least waited for me before entered. It is as if you want to make me worried on purpose."
Taki pouted slightly as she said it, and Kaito could only give a small smirk, not revealing his true intention on entering as quickly as he did.
'I simply couldn't resist the temptation of being back here again.'
It was half a lie. It was true he longed to be back where he felt best, but the block of ice should stay his secret. 
After bickering a bit like they used to always do, they continued their work on the robots. Kaito explained to Taki what he had done to fix the problems she had. Although she didn't want to admit it, she was impressed by the work he had performed. Taki knew that Kaito was rather smart for his age, especially since they had been so limited in terms of education. Tondra would only limit him in his potential, but as their parents had told them, barely anyone ever ventured from here. Her parents had never explained to her why this was the case, and she suspected Kaito did not know the reason either. Before they knew it, a few hours had passed, and lunchtime was on the horizon. 
'Taki, fancy going for a quick stroll before lunch?' My foot is still sore, so I feel like stretching it a bit.' 
A sound argument, Taki thought, and almost immediately agreed. 
After putting on their warm clothing, they ventured outside the hangar.  

2.2
‘It is rather misty isn’t it?’ I noted to Taki. 
“Yeah. I haven’t seen it be like this for what feels like years."
As the pair wandered a small distance from their workshop, a thick mist filled the nearby area.
"I also smell something... peculiar.”
'Fire.' A quick response.
"What?" Taki was a bit baffled.
'It smells like fire, I said'.
"So you are saying that someone is having a fire at this moment with this much mist around?" Taki looked unconvinced. 
'Do you think I can see from so far away? Who knows what someone is doing.  It would not be my choice to start a fire with such bad visibility, but people are rather stubborn, so it wouldn’t be surprising if someone did not care.' It simply was the truth, yet it did seem strange.
"I guess it is better if we go check it out".  Taki sounded rather concerned about the matter. 
'If it is on the way home it shouldn’t be too big of a problem I guess.' 
"Seems it is best for us to hurry up then".
We decided to cut our work for the day short and skip lunch in order to make sure nothing was up. The bad visibility together with the snow made it extremely difficult to navigate the streets, which normally were already hard to cross. We somehow found our way for a good five minutes before we heard some noise coming from some distance away. 
"You hear that?"
Taki looked at me first before she stood still to have clearer sound. 
"It sounds, like a human?" It was a faint sound. 
'It does sound human,' I murmured. 'But something’s off'. 
Taki nodded, her eyes narrowing as she scanned the fog ahead.
"It’s too distorted to tell for sure. Could it be someone hurt? Or maybe they’re... crying?"
'I think we should check it out,' I said hesitantly, gripping the handlebars of my bike a little tighter.
"Yeah," Taki agreed, though her voice was tense. 
"If someone’s in trouble, we can’t just leave them."

As we ventured deeper into the mist, each step in the snow filled our ears with a crunch. Based on the history of this town, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this mist was not natural. It felt heavy, dense and oppressive.
At last we saw it, a flickering orange glow cutting through the grey haze ahead. It was not large, maybe the size of a small campfire, but it was enough to quicken my pulse. My heart started to beat faster. As we stepped closer, the glow resolved into the shape of a fire. And beside it,
hunched over and trembling, was a man. His silhouette wavered in the haze, but as the mist parted momentarily, I saw his face - and so did Taki.
“Dad?” she whispered, her voice breaking. 
The man’s head snapped up, his eyes wide and glassy. His clothes were torn and singed, the edges blackened with soot. His hands were trembling as he clutched something - a charred piece of wood, perhaps - but his grip looked desperate, as if it were the only thing tethering him to reality. "Taki?" His voice was raw, trembling with both disbelief and relief. 
"Taki, is that you?" 
Taki dropped her bike without a second thought and ran to him, falling to her knees and
grabbing his hands. "Dad, what happened? Why are you out here?" 
Her words tumbled out in a frantic rush. He didn’t answer immediately. His gaze darted around, his breathing shallow and erratic, as though he were afraid the mist itself might attack. Finally, he asked with a whisper, "Is Kaito there with you?"
"Yes dad, we were together in the hangar as usual, but why does that matter?"
As if he had a lump in his throat, he muttered the words. 
"The town... it’s gone. Everything’s gone. Burned to ashes." 
Tears came from his eyes, his lips trembling. I felt my stomach drop.
'What do you mean, gone?' I asked, stepping closer, though my voice sounded distant to my own ears. He shook his head, his expression wild.
"Kaito! Give him some space." Taki's voice was harsh.
Through the snot and tears he gave a nod to Kaito.
"It's okay Taki."
After a short pause he continued.
"Shortly after you left Taki, I got ready to go to work like every other day. I felt good, and knowing that you got to see Kaito again gave me that little extra motivation. Adrian and I started building a garden shed for one of the ladies in town, when a loud bang came from the opposite direction of the hangar. Loud noises occur more often than not, but before we knew it, the bang wasn't the only thing we heard." 

My heart felt like it was in my throat. 

"We started to hear screams, a lot of them. 'Help!' 'That thing isn't human', they were screaming. Adrian and I were perplexed at what was happening. Then one of the larger building caught fire, its temperature feeling hotter than usual."  
His voice cracked, and he buried his face in his soot-covered hands. Taki grabbed his shoulders, shaking him gently. 
"Dad, slow down. Who came? What did you see?" 
Her voice was steady, but I could see her knuckles whitening as she gripped him. 
"I-I don’t know," he stammered, his voice breaking. 
"Figures in the mist. They moved like shadows but with glowing eyes - so many eyes. They set everything ablaze, Taki. Everyone’s gone! Everyone!" 
I stood frozen, my mind racing. Shadows with glowing eyes? What was this man rambling about.

Thunk!

A streak of yellow static zipped through the air, stopping mere centimeters from my left eye. The object - long, sleek and blackened like scorched iron - hovered unnaturally, crackling with faint sparks. A spear.
"Kaito," a voice drawled behind me. I spun around, my heart hammering, but the man’s voice stopped me cold. Smooth and dispassionate, it carried a weight of familiarity I couldn’t place. "I’d advise you to be more careful," the man continued, his words almost lazily delivered. "I cannot lose you so easily. But take heed - I will not help you like this every time. Whatever comes for you next will be yours to handle."
Before I could even form a response  - Who? What? - the speaker stepped into my peripheral vision. His crimson fedora stood out starkly against the grey mist, his face obscured beneath its shadow. Then, as if he were never there, he vanished. The spear disappeared with him, leaving only a faint ripple of static in the frozen air. "It was him!" Taki’s voice broke through my stunned silence. Her eyes darted toward where the figure had stood.
"That’s the guy from the - " She didn’t finish. A second spear shot past her ear, so close that the faint hum of its passage left her frozen mid-sentence. The air around us grew unnaturally cold. My breaths came out in sharp clouds, and the faint smell of burning intensified. From somewhere deep in the mist came a low, guttural growl - followed by a second, higher-pitched
sound, like laughter distorted through static. “What the hell was that?” Taki hissed, her voice trembling as she clung to her father. I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. My eyes were fixed on the spear - on the intricate, otherworldly markings etched into its shaft, glowing faintly in the dim light of the fire. Whatever had thrown it wasn’t far away. 
"We need to move," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. 
My heart was pounding, and my hands were clammy despite the cold. Taki’s father let out a sharp, panicked breath.
"They’re here," he muttered, his eyes wide and unseeing. 
"They followed me. I shouldn’t have stopped - I shouldn’t have stopped."
'Who’s they?' I demanded, though deep down, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. Before he could answer, the mist shifted again, parting just enough to reveal two figures emerging from the haze. 
They were tall, impossibly tall, their forms flickering and indistinct as though they weren’t entirely real. Their eyes - bright, searing pinpricks of light - pierced through the fog, locking onto us. 
One of them raised its hand - or what I assumed was its hand - and the growling sound grew louder, reverberating in my chest like thunder.
'Run!' I screamed, harder than I had ever done. 
Fear covered my face. 
I pinched myself just to check, and indeed, this was not a dream.

Without hesitation, the three of us all ran faster than we had ever done. All I heard behind me was the noise of three gargantuan giants moving towards us.
Normally the sky was filled with clouds with small snowflakes coming down more than anything else. Yet, at this current moment, a large opening in the clouds started to emerge, whereas everything else started to look darker and darker. 
Bright sunshine shun through the break in the clouds, but after a few seconds it all changed. The hole in the clouds started to close, and a massive amount of rain started to fall down. 
Very close behind us, thunder struck, and it seemed that the giants behind us were the weather to change without reason.
'Head straight to the hangar', I shouted will all my might to Taki and her father. It seemed hopeless though. Due to the rain, the snowy path is turning into a brownish mud, and the mist becomes thicker and thicker, blocking our vision.
My legs began to feel heavier and heavier.
Not now, I thought. It wasn’t just my legs, but my head started to feel heavier as well. I felt panic in my heart. My heart rate goes faster and faster when it suddenly it feels as if I'd been shot in the left side of my body.
I fell on my knees, landing on the ground with my face flat on the ground. 
Noise came from in front of me, presumably Taki and her father shouting my name.
It was all over, wasn’t it? My body has given up.  Physically and mentally exhausted. All that work we did. All the studying. Was it really for nothing? All the pain and happiness that I’ve lived through, was I never going to feel any of it anymore? I just couldn’t. My legs feel like they are anchored to the icy ground. 

"..."
"...to!"
"Kaito!"
A faint noise entered my ears. I mustered the rest of my strength to look up, and saw Taki tugging my jacked profusely. "Kaito, you have to get up!" 
She was not whispering, she was screaming at me. She was horrified, tears flowing down.
Yet I here I was, pathetically on the ground. 
What a shitty situation it is, but I guess I cannot give up now. 

The world around me started to tilt, but with the help of Taki I managed to get up.
It was then that I remembered one of the stories I read recently.

The fall of burning meteors reflected in his light blue, glistering eyes.
Is it really over?
Even before it truly began?

They always say it's better to look ahead than behind.
But without my own choosing, mirrors have been placed before my eyes - mirrors that reflect the only hope for a future back into the past.

What would I have done differently,
had I known it would end like this?
Maybe I would have read more books.
Hugged my family more often.
Treated myself.
Appreciated the small things in life.

But you never know when it ends,
nor when it begins.
Life is too unpredictable to dissect the choices you've made.
Maybe that's why it is better to simply accept what happens.

Worry is rarely productive.
Thinking too much is a double-edged sword.
It births creativity and stories that otherwise would never have existed -
but also doubt, fear, and regret over things beyond our control.

A flaw of humankind.
Just like pointing fingers at others,
even when we ourselves are the reason it all happens.

And knowing they all laugh as a defense mechanism.
Always denying that anything is wrong.
Why can't they just admit that not everything is as they wish it to be?
That no is free of struggle?

We are all the same.
Human.

And yet, sometimes it feels like we have forgotten that.
Like we are set on making life as difficult as possible for one another.
As if negativity wins trust faster than positivity ever will.

And then -
all those thoughts,
and a single meteor -
and before we even know it:

Everything we knew,
everything we said,
everything we were told -

Everything.
Simply everything.
Gone.
And for nothing.

All that pain.
All that suffering.
Knowing it slowly breaks us.

And then I look up.
And I see the flames.
And the only thing I can think of -

Are those moments that could have gone differently.
The times I said "no".
And never the days I thought, 'I am happy'.

Now I stand here -
battered, consumed, alone.
No one around me.
Utterly alone, with a burning stone.

The force wipes everything away.
Houses. Valleys.

Bicycles, cars.
Even the skeleton of what once was a town.

and my worries.

And now that the ground beneath me has vanished,
everything I once thought,
must forever wander through my mind.

Because no matter how many times I wish not to think -
to simply sleep, and feel nothing -
there are those rare moments.
Small, precious moments,
that make life worth it.

And I hope,
that one day I no longer have to think of what was destroyed,

but only of how the sun shines into my eyes.
How the dusk disappears.
How the birds sing again.
And how my worries, like dust in the wind,
vanish into nothing -
like the meteor crashing into the earth,
as the space we once knew,
falls silent under the weight of all those days we spent speaking to each other.

Wait.
I wrote this story myself.

2.3
As I held onto Taki's shoulder, the ground beneath us became unsolidified. It swayed and churned like water frozen mid-wave. The mist started to feel alive, coiling and writhing around me with a mind of its own. It pressed against my skin, cold and suffocating, and yet beneath the chill, there was a faint crackle, like static building in the air before a storm. 
My fingers twitched involuntarily, and for a brief moment, I swore I saw sparks dance across my palms - tiny threads of light, cold as frost and sharp as lightning.
In the distance, the giants’ silhouettes loomed, their glowing eyes like embers piercing the fog. Their guttural growls shook the air, each step sending tremors through the ground. Behind me, Taki’s father screamed again, but his words were swallowed by the thunderous roar of one of the creatures. The sound sent a spike of pain through my skull, and I clutched my head, willing the noise to stop. The cold spread through my chest, deeper and more piercing than before.
It wasn’t just the winter air. It was something inside me, freezing and electric, like a storm trapped beneath my ribs. My heartbeat pounded louder, each thud resonating in my ears like the drum of an oncoming march.
What is this?
The question barely formed in my mind before a flood of fragmented images
washed over me. Flashes of light. A room. Pain, sharp and relentless. Voices, muffled and distant, speaking words I couldn’t understand. And above it all, a sensation of boundless power, like staring into the heart of a star and feeling it stare back.
I gazed over at Taki's face, and she was clearly struggling. Having to traverse the path herself and help me was taking too big of a toll on her.
'Taki, you have to go ahead without me!' My lungs burned for each word I spoke.
With pain in all my limbs I let go of my arm around Taki, making me stumble and fall on the ground.
"Kaito!"
Taki tried to grab me, but when she aimed her hand at my arm, she got shot back. 
'Taki, it’s not safe!’ 
Taki screamed my name, but there's no point.
'Taki, just run! Get to safety!'
The giants were closer now. I could hear the crunch of their massive limbs against the snow, the ground quaking beneath their weight. My hands dug into the icy mud, desperate to push myself up, but my body wouldn’t listen.
'No,' I whispered hoarsely, my breath visible in the freezing air. 'Not like this.'
The crackle in the air intensified, and the mist around me began to shift. Swirls of frost and static twisted together, forming patterns that seemed almost intentional, as though the universe itself was holding its breath. I felt a pull, a connection to something vast and incomprehensible, a force that stretched beyond the edges of the world. It was terrifying and exhilarating all at once. Above me, the storm changed. The snow stopped falling, replaced by a strange stillness. The clouds churned violently, the grey swirling into black, and then - light. A jagged streak of golden lightning tore through the sky, illuminating the giants in stark, blinding relief. The cold in my chest burned now, sharp and insistent, demanding release. I gasped as the sensation spread to my arms, my legs, every part of me.
The static around me erupted into life, snapping and sparking in wild arcs that danced across the ground, fusing the ice and mud into a frozen mosaic.
My hands glowed faintly, an otherworldly light pulsing beneath my skin, as if the stars themselves had been woven into my veins.
The giants paused, their glowing eyes narrowing as if they sensed the shift, it seemed they sensed some form of danger. One of them let out a deep, rumbling snarl and raised its arm, a shadowy weapon forming in its massive hand. The air around it grew heavy, thick with an oppressive energy that made my chest tighten.

Taki’s voice cut through the haze, sharp and urgent. "Kaito! Get up! Please!" 
A cry, her face riddles with snot, mud and tears. 
Her words struck something deep within me, a tether to the present that pulled me back from the brink of despair. My fingers dug into the frozen ground, and this time, I pushed. My body screamed in protest, but I forced myself to my knees. The storm responded. Another bolt of lightning struck, closer this time, the deafening crack splitting the air. The ground trembled violently, sending ripples through the mist. Around me, the frost and static surged, intertwining in jagged patterns that seemed to pulse in time with my heartbeat. The light in my hands grew brighter, spilling over and arcing outwards like tiny rivers of molten ice. I didn’t understand what was happening, but I couldn’t stop it. The power inside me demanded release, building and building until it felt like my very skin would shatter. And then, as the giant’s weapon descended, I let go. Underneath the foot which was still so sore this morning, a massive flash of blue and green electricity filled the space, cutting through the oppressive fog. It was not just power that I was feeling, it was a purpose, a force that demanded action.

The giant loomed above me, its glowing eyes narrowing as it swung its gargantuan sword. The air whistled with the force of its descent, but I was already moving. The ground underneath me and the giant started to crack, a massive creak splitting the ground into two halves, altering the shape of the landscape. The giant roared, its stone-like arms trembling as it scurried for balance. Instead of aiming his swing at me for a second time, it stabbed its sword in the ground with force, sending a shockwave rippling through the air, shattering more of the ground beneath us. Sparks and shards of ice exploded outward, illuminating the mist with bursts of green and blue light. For a brief moment, I locked eyes with it, the glowing orbs within its shadowy face burning with something almost... primal.
Another swing of the sword was coming my way, and I leapt back to one side of the now-split ground, rolling across the frozen ground just as the sword struck where I had been standing. The impact was deafening, sending more chunks of ice and mud flying into the air. I skidded to a stop and immediately glanced toward Taki and her father. 
They were crouched several meters away, shielding themselves from the debris and the cracks. Relief flooded through me to see that they were unharmed. The giant straightened, pulling its sword from the crater it had created. Its glowing eyes locked onto me once more, and a guttural growl reverberated through the air.
Although I felt my energy had returned, I felt my heart beat was higher than ever. Adrenaline was flowing through me, yet the fear I experienced before had not yet faded.
The giant then attempted another swing, closing the distance between him and myself. 
It could have been straight luck, or a bad omen, but as the giant came closer the ground underneath us both completely gave in. 

It felt as if time froze.
Literally.