Sirens wailed nearby, signaling the townsfolk to take cover from a danger they had tried to convince themselves wasn’t real…

People are running in every direction. The market that was just filled with life and smiles moments ago has been ghosted. It is empty now. Everyone just dropped what they were holding and ran. There is kids calling for their parents, lost. Parents and families searching to find each other. But they wont. The smoke is too thick already.

Black fog covers everyones feet, some stop running, some try to get to higher ground. It’s cold. Mara has seen this before. Not for herself, but in stories and books she had read. The smoke isn’t the real danger.

The fog rises more, now to knee height. It isn’t just any fog. It’s black and freezing at the touch. Mara knows the only escape is up, so she moves with the people going to high ground. Whether it’s a roof or a tree, people are climbing.

The smoke is thick and impossible to see through, but Mara can spot a dark hand reaching for someones ankle and tugs them up and out of the way. The hand retreats. There are more hands, a lot of them belong to the townspeople, reaching up as if hoping to escape the fog. It is useless. She watches as each of those hands turn to stone as their souls are sucked out from their bodies.

It will pass eventually. But there is only a small chance anyone alive now will be able to see the aftermath. One hand reaches for her arm, crying for help. Mara watches it turn to stone and crumble when it hits the ground. The smoke is high now, right to the edge of the rooftops.

The stories of this smoke have been heard before, but no one believed them. The evidence was there, but nobody WANTED to believe it. They were afraid. Just like they are now, except now they have no idea what to do. How to survive. They weren’t prepared because they never wanted to believe they had to be.

The smoke is rising over the buildings now. People are trampling over each other to reach the peak of the rooves. Even kids are rolling over the side. Family members watching their brother, sister, mother, father, son, daughter disappear into darkness. Mara is closer to the edge now. She’s staring off into the horizon when she realizes there’s a whole person laying next to her. They’re stone. The smoke got to them.

She watches as more people fall off. There’s only three or four survivors on each roof now. That number is slowly decreasing with each inch the fog rises.

It’s at her feet now again. Mara is standing up on the peak of the roof now and the smoke is at her feet and slowly rising higher.

Once it reaches her knees, it pauses, then retreats. The smoke lowers back to the ground, revealing the now stone statues that used to have souls and the ability to move. They’re forever frozen in place now. People are dropping to the ground where a small amount of fog still remains, swirling harmlessly around feet, before disappearing completely.

Mara joins the survivors on the ground. She reaches out and touches her hand to the shoulder of a little kid. Stone, and sitting still on the floor against a home with his little knees bent into his chest. There’s another statue, reaching up as if they were trying to reach the roof to climb up with the others. But they were too late.

So many people were too late. Too many. Today was the day they went still. None of these people will walk again. Mara knows this wasn’t random. The fog would be back. And when it does, she’ll be prepared.

This was rlly rushed so sorry.