THE COLD FOG followed me as I headed toward the tunnels. How long could I evade the entity? Its laughter echoed in my mind or in reality—I couldn’t tell which. I felt a shadow following me. Its cold presence entered the recesses of my mind as I moved stealthily through the forest.
I reached the husk of the house where my ghost-hunting team had encountered the walking dead. I found Sarah and Joe—their bodies, that is—still and cold. Their skin was gray, their eyes black.
What would the entity do to them? Would it turn them into zombie types, too? I shuddered at the thought that I might have to battle my old friends. While I tried to put these dark thoughts out of my mind, I saw a scene, like a memory, play through my thoughts—a glimpse of those who had lived in the house long before:
A mother in a tight-waisted cotton dress, which reached nearly to the floor, tucked her daughter into a small, white iron bed and pulled the quilts up to her chin.
“Mommy,” the girl said. “Where’s Daddy?” The girl could not have been older than seven.
“Daddy is doing his best for us,” her mother said quietly. “But where is he?” the girl asked again.
“In our hearts,” said the mother, kissing her daughter’s cheek gently. “Don’t worry. He won’t abandon us.”
The two took no notice of my presence in the room. I stood outside the glow of the oil lamp, but I was fairly certain that although the scene was taking place in the mid-1800s, I was standing near them in another time entirely. Nevertheless, I could feel their fear as strongly as if it were my own.
The scene vanished, and the present-day setting returned. The room remained in a state of decay and sorrow. Two skeletons lay where I’d seen the mother and daughter just moments before—one child-sized set of bones on a rotted mattress and one adult, collapsed over the moth-eaten quilts as though to protect the child. A cold wind entered the crumbling home, followed by the fog, and immediately the mother’s body rose and grabbed me. My heart raced.
“Please! Find a way to save my daughter!” she pleaded, sobbing. I nodded slowly, trying to back away. How could I bring her back? It seemed well beyond my power.
“I’ll try, but I don’t know—”
“Shh!” The mother looked over my shoulder. “He is coming. You must go!” A distant laughter followed. She released me and waved toward a large wardrobe in the dark corner of the room. She disappeared from view as I hid inside. Distant whispers seeped into the wardrobe. The entity had entered and was searching.
“Where are you?” it asked, sounding petulant. Through a crack in the door I could see it turn toward the wardrobe and approach slowly. “Could you be hiding?”
My heart hammered so loudly in my chest I feared it would hear me, but the entity stopped and turned, looking at the tunnel entrance. “So you have chosen to run,” it said as a shadow darted past the entrance. The entity disappeared into the tunnel, chasing after the shadow.
What was it that helped me? Slowly I opened the door of the wardrobe and stepped out. Both skeletons were gone, as were the bodies of my friends. Which of them had drawn the entity away? I slipped to the entrance of the tunnel and peered in.
A cold hand grabbed my shoulder. “Go quickly, my friend,” Joe said. “You must catch up to the entity. It holds the key.”
I was speechless. Joe was dead, yet there he was, instructing me. Was there another entity, a friendly one, inside Joe’s body? My question was left unanswered as Joe released me and vanished. I didn’t look back. The tunnel was mostly dark, dimly lit only by a light that would not reveal itself.
As silently as possible, I walked quickly into the tunnel. A cold fog billowed from the darkness. The entity was near. I crouched low in the darkness and stayed still. With the fog came those whispers. The entity approached me and stood near.
“What are you doing?” it said, kneeling not far from me. “Do you believe me to be evil?” Its laughter echoed. Did it know I was there? If so, why was it not attacking? I heard quick footsteps deep in the tunnel. The entity rose and followed the sound.
I waited a few moments before following the entity. From the shadows, Sarah spoke to me. All I could see was her outline. “There is a greater force at work here, my friend. You and the entity are opposite sides of the same coin. You are the lock, and it is the key.” She disappeared after she spoke. As I continued through the darkness, I pondered her words. I had no idea what she was trying to tell me.
The tunnel led to a dead end. As I turned, I came face-to-face with the entity. The fog around the entity began to dissipate, and its voice was near. “There is no time,” it said in a tone that sounded almost like concern. “I had hoped that by destroying this place and everything within it, I could prevent his entry.”
“Whose entry?” I asked with confusion.
“Darkness incarnate…” the entity replied. “What I am and what I have done pale in comparison to this entity. Something is changing. I am losing power. However, with the power I have left, I will return the girl to this world. You must get her out of here before the darkness can consume her.”
“I don’t understand.”
“There is no time to explain. You have no choice but to trust me.” The entity raised its hands, and what fog remained to its form massed around it, and the entity vanished. In its place stood the little girl I’d seen in the iron bed.
“Mister?” she asked in a frightened voice. “Have you seen my daddy?”
The entity…who had he been before he became the fog creature? Had he been her father once? Perhaps the father from the Civil War log entry?
“I don’t think so. I don’t know where he is. I’m sorry,” I said gently. “Please, come with me.” I extended my hand to her. She took it, and we walked away. What light remained began to fade. Darkness was coming.
The Soldier’s Descent