Rellian stepped out of the room, Nella close in tow behind him. Things had gone well, and as it was going now, he might actually have the courage to do it now. But then again, he had always had trouble with this kind of thing, so he wasn’t about to mentally punish himself for it yet. He… That was it. He just needed to talk to somebody who knew about his problem, who knew about what he was going through.
“Rellian?” Nella asked, sliding alongside him with an annoyed look on her face. “Earth to Rellian?”
He snapped to attention swiftly, his posture instantly becoming that of a soldier’s. “Y-Yeah?” he stumbled, trying to keep his cool as well as he kept it around everybody as a group. When he was talking alone with somebody, no matter who it was, he always found conversation difficult.
“You feeling okay?” she asked softly, tilting her head to the side and letting her hair fall aimlessly over a bit of her face. “You seem… Distant. More than when we were talking”
It was true, and Rellian would be the first to admit it. For one, it was beyond awkward going into a room alone with Nile’s ex, but he needed a few answers, a few only she could give him. Strange enough, though, the rooms didn’t have keys, they were all unlocked. Maybe the manager of this hotel was on vacation, and all of his staff was on strike for better conditions. Or maybe the Dancing Raven had gone out of business a bit ago, and nobody had ever come here to bulldoze the place. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen anybody but his friends and their parents this entire time… Was this place some kind of abandoned city? He couldn’t tell.
“I’m okay” the yellow snaked returned after a while, smiling as they walked down the hallway. In truth, he was actually feeling better than before. Sure, he had been left out of a massive group hug, but that didn’t matter to him anymore.
The hallways in the hotel were beautiful, the rugs that they walked on were covered in various and intricate patterns that looked like they belonged in a royal palace instead of a rundown inn. There were silver fabrics mixed with a deep red, and then a pattern of gold mixed in that looked like a stalk of corn before it had been peeled. The silver made seemingly random lines around the gold symbols and mahogany backdrop.
“Well, everybody should still be-“ Nella began as they rounded the corner, but stopped midsentence. Everybody was gone.
The lobby stood empty where there had been, moments ago, a thriving crowd of his friends. But, unless his eyes lied to him, the high-roofed entrance was as empty as it had been when they first arrived.
“Wha…” Rellian mused in disbelief, taking a hesitant step forward into the lobby area. His footstep sounded like it would echo until the end of world in the emptiness that seemed to encase the entire city.
“I gues… They went out somewhere?” Nella suggested, walking slowly past Rellian and keeping her eyes peeled around the room, just in case they were playing a prank. “They had a right to leave us, I mean, we just kind of walked out, and…”
Rellian was no longer listening, but staring out the window at the top of the double doors, his eyes completely transfixed there. He couldn’t see anything but gray behind the window. Nothing but a never ending expanse of dull and bland gray. It was almost like somebody had taken a can of paint to the window just so they couldn’t see out. But there were variations in the monotonous window, some parts lighter, some parts darker, and the both of them shifting back and forth endlessly. He then realized what it was.
When had the fog rolled in?
“Uh… Earth to Rellian?” the wolf chided, placing both paws on her hips and letting her tail stand on end with irritation. “Are you even listening, to me?”
He didn’t respond for a second, lost in his own thoughts. But after snapping back to reality, he turned his eyes towards her. “Nella… When did the fog roll in?” he asked blankly, his face showing nothing but confusion.
Her eyes went out the window as well, and she blinked in disbelief. Apparently she was having the same thoughts as he was.
They both stood frozen there for a second, and eventually Rellian had to break the silence with something. “Look…” he sighed softly. “They probably went outside to go exploring or something, and are now lost in the fog.” He took a step towards the door, but stopped. “You coming?”
She didn’t budge for a split second, as if she wasn’t really there. Her eyes were slightly glazed over, as if she were in some sort of deep daydream, but before Rellian could snap the wolf out of it, she shook her head and nodded. “You’re right” she chimed in, walking briskly towards the door. “C’mon”
Rellian couldn’t argue with the way she negotiated. Silently, he jogged to catch up with her as she opened the door. It creaked loudly every inch she opened it, and she sure took her sweet time inching the door inwards.
Fog began to seep in through the doorway, and just as she stepped out, the fog seemed to envelope her. Rellian blinked, wondering if what he was seeing was real. She was gone, just like that, out in the densest fog he had seen in his entire life. Yet there it was, in front of his eyes, seeping into the foyer as the door began to automatically close behind her with the same creaking symphony that had accompanied its opening. Without a moment’s hesitation, he ran out after her, slipping through the door as it slammed close behind him with a resounding crash.
He was immediately surrounded by gray and white. Nothing but monotonous endlessness, stretching out as far as he could see. Of course, he could only see a few feet in front of his face, which he had just figured out by putting a paw in front of his face. If he hadn’t just left the hotel behind him, he would have no idea where he was. There were a few shadows here and there, a few cars in the parking lot, a figuring running towards one of them. That had to be Nella.
“Nella!” he shouted out, taking off running after the figure who darted towards the car. When he got closer, he began to realize that it was, in actuality, a large truck. That was TK’s father’s truck, the bronze paint job beginning to add color the bleak surroundings.
“There you are…” he panted softly, walking up towards the truck. But there was more than one person by that truck. Some were sitting on it, some were leaning against it, and some were sitting in the bed… A few steps closer and he realized exactly who it was leaning there. TK, Nile and Leena all sitting in the bed, Nella leaning against the door, and Ren and Yani sitting on top, arms around each other.
All of their heads turned as soon as he got close enough to tell who was there, and he smirked. “You all go out there exploring or something?” he chuckled, slapping a hand against the car and making sure his fingers didn’t scratch the paint job. He had to be sure of that. “If you did, you certainly didn’t get too far…”
His comments were met by silence and unblinking stares from the other six that waited for him, even Nella. It was then that he began to think. Something was out of the ordinary here, besides the fog. Oh.
“Where’s Milo…?” he he asked warily, trailing of at the end to nothing.
Again silence. Nella turned her gaze towards the gravel.
“No idea” Leena groaned dryly, grabbing her forearms and rubbing them gently like she was cold. It was actually a little bit warm despite the fog, warm enough to make Rellian uncomfortable. “We went out exploring to see who could find the most interesting thing to bring back… He should have been here ten minutes ago at least”
Rellian was more than worried now, and most of the group shared his worry. Except for Ren, who was too busy trying to grope the annoyed albino dingo next to him, who seemed to melt into the fog around the truck.
“I…” TK said softly, turning his head hopefully up towards everybody else. “I found a map of this place at the tourist center”
Everybody nodded and there were a few mumbles, but everybody else began to pull things out of their pockets.
Yani had found an antique camera sitting in the middle of the road with a flash bulb as big as the camera itself. She had no idea if it had film in it or not. Ren had found a naughty magazine from one of the adult stores, Nile had found an oversized knife that looked more like a sword stuck in one of the restaurant’s doors, and Leena had found what looked to be a blank white credit card in the gravel at the edge of the parking lot. None of them had gone particularly far, according to TK’s map which everybody studied. The corn shop was right next door to the hotel, the restaurant was behind the hotel, and the visitor’s center where TK had gotten the map was directly in front of them. The only thing missing was Milo, and Rellian was beginning to get a little worried about the pint-sized coyote. The poor guy was probably lost out in the fog, curled up in a little ball. There was nobody here but them, so he wasn’t in any kind of trouble, right?
“Hey…” Nile suddenly spoke up, turning his head out towards the fog. “I never really got to ask, but where are you’re parents?”
Rellian blinked a few times. He could hear the worry in Nile’s voice, and he understood it all too well. If the parents had gone missing, and then Milo… Now Rellian was just getting paranoid.
“They went out to go shopping at the local antique stores…” Rellian replied firmly. “Right after we got here, they said they would get out of our way for the surprise”
“TK” Nile said, his voice teetering like he was balancing on the knife-edge of a cliff. “Let… Give me the map” He held out a paw.
TK was more than happy to oblige, and placed the folded piece of paper in Nile’s outstretched paw. Nile studied it for a few few seconds, and his eyes suddenly sank as some kind of realization hit him. Rellian knew all too well exactly what he was going to say before it left his mouth.
“There are no antique shops here”
The statement echoed through the air, reaching unbelieving ears. Everybody was still, nobody said a word, and the sudden silence was instantly as thick as the fog that drifted around the truck.
“O… Okay” Nella quickly recovered, pushing herself off of the side of the truck with her shoulders so she could stand upright. “Maybe they just went out sightseeing, and got stuck in this awful fog without a map”
There were a few nods of agreement among the seven, but the agreement was quickly undermined with murmurs and undertones of unease.
Yani was the first one to disagree, her tail hanging off the edge of the truck lifelessly. “Then why is TK’s truck still here?” she challenged, leaning slightly forward towards Nella.
Nella nodded in agreement, looking daggers back at Yani. Rellian could feel the electricity pulsing through the air around them, and made sure to stay well back before the fireworks began to go off. “Maybe they all piled into one car to save gas” she smirked. “Milo’s parents have a minivan”
“Lies”
Everybody blinked again, wondering where the omnipresent voice had come from. Rellian already knew, and just turned towards Leena and smirked. She had to have practiced throwing her voice around during the summer break. She was d**ned good at it.
“I saw Milo’s parents’ van while I went to find this card” she said in her normal voice, leaning against the back window of the cab, closing her eyes calmly like she hadn’t a care in the world. “So in other words, they just didn’t drive, they walked around, and are now as lost as Milo is. Hell, they probably ran into each other on the way and are having a good laugh in an abandoned supermarket eating all the ice cream they can handle”
Well, she had thought that one through very thoroughly, and Rellian knew that wasn’t the case. “Again, not the case” he interjected, walking unsteadily towards the cab. He was trying his hardest to not panic and be the stoic, but he was finding that very difficult. “My parents, on the way out, said that Milo’s father would drive everybody around, since they had the minivan.”
More silence ensued, only made worse by the suffocating fog that seemed to creep closer whenever Rellian looked away. Everybody just seemed… Lost. Not scared, not confused, just… Lost.
“Okay, okay” Rellian finally groaned, stuffing his gloved hands in his pockets and praying he didn’t rip the fabric. “Look, here’s the deal. They probably saw the fog rolling down the hill and decided it would be safer to walk instead”
Judging from the skeptic response he received from the other six on the truck, he was positive that nobody else believed a word he had just said. Hell, it was a possibility, and probably the most likely possibility he had heard all day, yet they were rebuking it like he had offered that they had been abducted by aliens. Well, it was their own fault if they went crazy believing there was some ulterior and supernatural motive to this.
“Fine, fine” Rellian growled, curling his upper lip a little bit and walking towards Nile. “Give me the map, I’m going out to look for them…”
Nile just stared back blankly, his face completely unreadable like an empty page. With a roll of his eyes, the snake hopped up into the bed of the truck, jacket flapping behind him, and he literally yanked the map out of Nile’s paws. He felt rather guilty treating Nile like this, but he was doing what had to be done. If Milo was lost, he probably wouldn’t be able to find his way for hours, hell, maybe even until the next day. This place wasn’t that big, but with the fog as it was, Raven’s Hollow suddenly seemed monstrously gargantuan.
Silence followed him into the foggy streets. The shadows of unseen things danced around him as everything disappeared from view, and he began to growl to himself in irritation. They were just going to sit there and grow mold, so he had taken it upon himself to find Milo and their parents. If they wanted to do nothing about it, that was their problem. Not his. He can’t believe he even considered that…
“MILO!” he shouted, cupping his gloved hands around his mouth to project his shotu as far as he could. But it seemed like the fog was swallowing up his every word into its endless expanses. “MILO!”
Echoes came back at him from the streets on the side, and he knew that the sound was carrying somewhere, if not throughout the entire town. But if he was going to find his way back, he would just rely on the map. Now if only he had a pencil he could mark his path and take every crossroad so he could cover every inch of the d**ned town.
He traced the turn he had made this far from the hotel, and found he was right next to the visitor’s center. So on his right, there it was. He saw the silhouette of what looked like an information kiosk, and turned to head towards it.
Every step he took was rather shaky, as if he was expecting somebody to be there waiting for him. But it was empty save a few scattered papers that had fallen aimlessly around the old wooden structure. It was only an eight-sided wooden counter with a tent-like roof to it, nothing more. Rather boring.
"This place sucks” he chuckled under his breath, placing hands on the counter to launch himself on the other side. Once inside of the kiosk, he took a quick survey of the dump. The only things on the ground were scattered maps, but on top of the counter was a cup filled to the brim with pens and pencils.
Score one for me! Quickly, he found the only sharp pencil in there, and made a few scribbles on the paper about where had been and where he hadn’t been. Without the map and pencil, he would be in the same situation as Milo and the parents, lost without a single clue even though he hadn’t walked too far from the hotel. Closing his eyes and sighing, he vaulted himself over the kiosk without even thinking about it.
The fog was unbelievably thick; he couldn’t even see the other side of the street from where he was. He could definitely understand Milo losing his sense of direction in here. Rellian was now beginning to wish that somebody had come with him, even if it was just for the sake of somebody being beside him.
As if on cue, he heard somebody calling his name a bit further away and tried to place the voice. It almost sounded like-
“Nile!” he shouted back into the fog. He couldn’t even tell where the coyote’s call had come from, but he knew that they would find each other soon enough. As soon as he saw a silhouette running in his general direction, he sighed with relief and waved his hands above him in the air, hoping to get his attention. Sure enough, the figure turned towards him and began to walk out of the shroud of gray that obscured him.
“Thank God” the snake sighed with relief, throwing his arms back down to his side and letting them hang there. His prayers had been answered perfectly. “I was getting a bit jumpy out here…”
Nile just laughed a bit and walked right over to the counter, peering over the edge and seeing that he hadn’t missed anything so far. “Yeah” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “Everybody else voted to go back in and wait except for TK, who’s still sitting in the back of the truck and listening in case he hears Milo shouting.” Nile turned his head a bit to the side, his eyes focused intently on the ground. If he was staring any harder, he would probably bore a hole straight towards the center of the earth. Nile really did care about Milo that much, huh? He never would have guessed, nobody said anything when they played a prank on the little guy, but he remembered Nile refusing to take place in them. Now Rellian was beginning to feel bad about everything they’d done to him…
“That’s good” Rellian responded, but he wasn’t fully there. He was half inset in his own thoughts, going back a while. Milo… The worst prank they had done was by far they’re elaborate one over spring break…
He shook his head. That had been a mistake, a bad idea, and he knew not to do something like that again. Poor guy. “Alright, let’s get looking then!” Rellian exclaimed out of nowhere, spontaneously raising a gloved hand above his head and pointing out into the fog. Before Nile could say anything, Rellian made to sure to get some space ahead of him.
Nile could only blink as Rellian started acting like a nervous kid with ADD. He had been acting strange before today, but this was just something else. But before he could even get in another thought, he saw the black and yellow snake begin to fade into the darkening gray. It must nearing sunset, or maybe the was already down. He couldn’t tell…
So he charged after the yellow shape, yelling at him to slow down and hold up. He wasn’t about to get lost himself in this hellish town. Eventually, he caught back up with the strangely acting snake, still shouting. Rellian stopped where he was, taking a few extra steps so he wouldn’t lose his balance. As he turned, his blurry shape seemed rather confused as to why Nile had made him stop.
“We’re you… Just going to run until you lost me or something?!” Nile shouted, his voice plagued with annoyance with the snake. If he was going to run off randomly like that, he should’ve just stayed with TK.
Rellian looked… He looked surprised and shocked that Nile was yelling at him like that. His eyes looked a little bit more sunken than before, and his slightly limp ears seemed to sink slightly. He reminded Nile of a little child who was being scolded by his mother for straying too far from her side.
“Sorry…” he glumly responded, keeping his eyes glued to the pavement, or what he could see of it.
“No worries, man” Nile grinned, walking over and giving him a friendly pat on the head. Nile wasn’t too much taller than the snake, but he definitely had more of a presence than Rellian.
Nile could have sworn he saw a little blush in Rellian’s cheeks, though it was hard to tell, since he wasn’t exactly a mammal. Blowing it off as a hint of covered fear, he turned his gaze back towards the fog again. When was this horrendous weather going to go away? He wished everything would just calm down for once. So much for avoiding drama…
“C’mon” Nile said uneasily, and with a flick of his tail and a bounce in his step, made his way down the street, not yet checking to see if his friend followed him. He had enough things to worry about, and he was sure Rellian would be a bit offended by being treated like a little brother.
“Hey… Nile?” Rellian asked meekly, his voice barely cutting through the light fog that was between the two.
“Yeah?” he asked, looking to both sides of him. Nope, no sign of anybody… This place truly was empty.
“I wanted to ask you… Ar-“
“It’s okay” Nile said, stopping dead in his tracks. He knew exactly what Rellian was going to say, and in fact, instead of being angry, was more than happy. His best friend was asking him… Telling him the truth. “It’s okay… You and Nella would be great together”
The footsteps behind him stopped dead right behind him, and he was surprised he couldn’t feel the snake closing in behind him. “I…” he started, and shook his head. “It’s not that, I don’t have a crush on her”
Wait, what? Nile turned slowly around, thingying his head ever so slightly to the side to show that he didn’t quite understand. If it wasn’t that that was making him so underspoken, then what the hell was it?
“Nile… I-“
“RUN!”
Who… That almost sounded like…
“Milo!” Rellian shouted, taking a step forward as he saw the tiny shape begin to appear in the fog. From what Nile could tell, he was running headlong towards them, not even caring that with the lack of visibility, they’d probably crash right into each before they could blink.
But why should they run? Milo was probably just playing a prank on them, but… Wait, there was another shape running behind him, no almost right beside him now. A dark patch in the fog, the way the other shape moved was chilling haunting, like it glided over the ground instead of ran. It almost reminded him of Rellian sneaking around, he seemed to just slide along with floor…
“RUN!” Milo repeated, coming into full view as he dashed right past them, leaving them in the dust. By the time Nile turned around to see where he was going, the other figure behind him had already gone by, and he didn’t catch a good glimpse of who it was before they both disappeared into the fog again.
“Crazy kid…” Rellian chuckled, scratching the back of his head gently. “Probably stole something and got in trouble”
Nile blinked a few times, his ears perking up. Besides the constant shouting of Milo, there were more footsteps behind them, where the little coyote had just come from. “Rellian…” Nile said cautiously, not daring to turn around and see if anybody was there. “This place… We’re the only ones here, everything is abandoned…”
Rellian seemed off of his rocker for a split second, and then he turned around. “Then…” he said softly, his eyes focused completely on what Nile couldn’t see. And from what the coyote could see, Rellian didn’t like it. “Oh… nuts!”
Before they even knew what they were doing, they were dashing headlong in a desperate rush. He wasn’t sure why, but Nile could tell that whoever was running after them wasn’t their parents. Their old parents could never run that fast, and they wouldn’t be so d**nably quiet with every step. Nile could barely hear anything, but when he turned his head back for a moment, he saw them. Black shapes a bit back in the fog, barely visible, but only a few of them. And from the way they moved, the way they barely jostled while running, Nile knew they weren’t there just for a pleasant visit.
He snapped his head back in front of him, tearing his eyes away from the aberrations chasing him so that he could see where he was running. But with the blank expanse in front of him, it was impossible to tell exactly what he was running into at all. For all he knew, there could be somebody standing in front of them only a few yards away, and he wouldn’t be able to see them. Panic coursed through him like lightning, and his feet quickened, the tempo of his footsteps accelerating as quick as his breathing was. His pants came in short, small gasps and his eyes began to widen, squint, and widen again, trying to find his way through the now massive town.
Where was he now… What was happening? He turned to make sure Rellian was beside him, but… He was gone, there was nobody running at his side now. But wait, there was a slightly shifting figure in the fog running ahead of him… d**n, when had Rellian learned to run so fast? Nile couldn’t think of that now, he just knew that he had to find the hotel, get inside, and lock all of the d**ned doors. Block the windows. There was somebody there. In the fog. After him. And everybody else. Milo too.
But Milo- Oh god, Milo probably had already been caught by whoever was after them, one of the figures had been running almost beside him this entire time. But was Milo… No, he had to think about himself now, the rest of them could only help themselves, like him. If Milo had a good reason to be running in a panic, so did he.
He was leaning too far forward. His balance got thrown off a bit. He stumbled. Recovered. Kept running. Running. That was all he could do now, run for his life. The shops on his side of the street were passing by too quickly for him to tell if he could take shelter in them. d**n. He wished he had Rellian’s map, with that, he could probably find his way back to the hotel. d**n.
His eyes turned again towards the figure in the fog running in front of him now. Rellian. All he had to do was follow the snake, he had the map. The map that would lead to safety. Yes, he would make it. They would make it.
But Rellian just kept running straight forward, and Nile knew that the path they had taken down the street had only been straight for a while before they turned to go off another street from the hotel.
The visitor’s center, yes. That should have been on his left. He began to hug the left side of the curb, not knowing how much longer he could hold up at the pace he was going. Right as he checked for it, there it was, coming up right in front of him.
Without a second thought, he dove headfirst into the kiosk, barely clearing the coutner, but rolling and crashing against the back wall. This was… This was as good of a place to hide as any. This was right across from the hotel, so if he needed to make a run for it, he could probably make it. Right as he dove in though, the extremely light footsteps, he couldn’t tell how many, a dull thud somewhere close, then they passed him right by, continuing down the street after Rellian, and…
Milo… Was he okay? He was never too good of a runner, but Nile was amazed that they didn’t catch up to him while he and Rellian sprinted down the street after him. He hadn’t had that far of a head start, had he? Everything was blurring together now, nothing was making sense…
Heh. Their parents, that was it. Just playing a joke on them, trying to freak them out. Great idea, he was surprised he had fallen for it so easily.
It took all of the restraint he had inside of him not to start laughing right then and there; he had fallen face first into their little prank like a blind kid into an elevator shaft. They had planned it very well though, getting Milo to join in with them… Nile guessed he deserved this though. Milo had always been the blunt end of everybody’s tasteless jokes and pranks, and now he was having his fun with them. He envied Milo right now.
Nile sighed, smirking as he started to get, but his head touched something sharp, just above where he had been sitting. Either the corner of the desk had been very pointy, or…
He shrank back down and slid out from the side of the counter before turning his head back to see exactly what he had hit.
He panicked. That shouldn’t be there, it shouldn’t be there. Why was there a throwing knife sticking out of the wood just above his head? His parents wouldn’t throw anything like that, not anything that was real. Maybe it was one of those fake ones people bought at the novelty dollar stores. He reached forward with a hesitant paw to run a finger along it, and winced. It didn’t break the skin, but that blade was sharper than any knife he’d seen at home in his kitchen.
No, this wasn’t a prank. There truly was somebody out there trying to kill him. Kill them. The fog had saved his life, maybe since the attacker couldn’t see too well, the knife missed him by an inch. That blade probably gave him a nice haircut before it stuck into the wood though…
Rellian. Milo. His thoughts returned to them and he instantly shot up to his feet, looking around in the fog. There were no more shouts, no more footsteps, and no more shapes in the fog. Dead silence. Deadly silence.
“d**n…” he swore, furrowing his brow and trying not to cower back under the desk. It took everything he had not to just curl up in a ball and whimper for a few minutes. He had to be strong, he had to be aware, alert…
Wait, the knife he had found… He had left it with TK and everybody else when he had gone off to find Milo. They didn’t have firearms apparently, so he would be on a level playing field with them. It was at least something to defend himself with... If he could unstuck the knife from the wood, that would be another weapon he could use, even if he couldn’t throw a baseball worth anything, much less a knife.
Placing a foot on the wood beside the knife, he placed both paws on the hilt and pulled. Surprisingly, it came out rather easily, since he apparently had the right angle. Holding in his paw, he winced ever so slightly. He had never held any sort of thing before that he intended to use as a weapon… And having the power to kill somebody was… Scary.
He wasn’t sure if he could do it. Even to save Rellian and Milo, he couldn’t kill anybody else, could he? No… He couldn’t… But he would have to force himself to.
With a nervous and uneasy chuckle, which he hoped would set him at ease, he hopped over the counter again. He kept a wary eye peeled for any kind of shift in the fog. He had to be careful. First off, find TK, get the knife. That was it for now. Save thinking for later.
He started off at a comfortable and quiet jog, watching the ground to make sure he didn’t kick anything or trip. He had to be completely silent. A few steps later he was on the gravel parking lot and he had to walk slowly so the crunching noise didn’t carry through the entire town. Even though he walked as slowly as he could, the small rocks crackled beneath his feet each step like he was walking on snap and pop fireworks. Every paced step could give him away, every-
“Nile?” came a voice from his right, and he instantly swiveled around to see who had called his name. There was the truck, right next to him, and he guessed it was TK who was still sitting in the bed. “You starting a knife collection?”
Remembering the knife, he made a shushing sound and put his unarmed paw over his mouth, walking slowly towards the truck, barely daring to breathe. They had probably heard that… Dammit TK.
A look of confusion spread wildly across the large tiger’s face, but he didn’t say another word until Nile was sitting in the bed with him. “TK…” he whispered, his voice shakier than he would have preferred. He probably sounded like a scared little girl. “You have to listen… Get inside the hotel, lock the doors, and keep everybody inside”
TK’s face was blank, it was as if he hadn’t heard. “Are we locking out Milo again…?” he groaned softly, his tail flicking behind him in annoyance. “You know I’m against-“
“No” Nile interrupted him, his eyebrows lowering a bit further so they rested on top of his eyes. “I’ll tell you this once, and you’d better believe me” TK had to believe him.
He explained what had happened after he left, the empty visitor’s desk, Milo running by and yelling, the shadows in the fog… During the whole explanation TK’s face was as solid as a boulder, as if Nile was talking about the weather. But when it came to the knife he had found lodged above his head by a few inches… Then the tiger’s eyebrows raised in surprise, and he almost looked afraid for the first time since Nile could remember.
“You’re… Serious?” came the choked reply from his friend, but Nile nodded grimly. “Yes… Now get inside and keep everybody in there. Now”
TK was rather surprised as being commanded by somebody who was only six feet tall, but he shook his head. “Alright… I take it Rellian and Milo made it back?”
Nile’s face twisted a bit. “I… Haven’t seen them” he whimpered softly. He felt that urge to just curl up in a ball again, and fought against it.
“Then no”
Nile blinked a few times, his eyes wide. “But-“
“Can it” TK snarled, but put on a smile afterwards. “You truly think I’m going to let my best friends get locked out with some killer on the loose?”
Nile was taken instantly aback by the sudden courage that TK was showing. Sure, he was monstrously tall and well over six and a half feet now, but how could he so calmly walk into a blinding fog unarmed against somebody with a knife? But… Nile had his knife, and he could give TK the one he had pulled out of the desk, and maybe the figure only had one weapon. But there had been more than one person out there, he was positive of it.
“Alright…” Nile nodded, closing his eyes to think. Rellian had run to the side of the hotel, maybe even passing it up. But he had the map, so he probably found a good hiding place. Milo though, Nile had no idea about.
“Here” Nile offered, handing him the knife he had. TK just stared at it, but after a slight hesitation, reached out a paw and took it. “But where’s the knife I found earlier?”
TK silently motioned over towards the tailgate, and sure enough, there it was. A little bit rusty on the blade, and probably unbalanced thanks to the large blade, but it was better than nothing. Much better than nothing.
Once they were both armed, they nodded to each other in silent agreement. There was nothing to say, except that this was a very bad idea. And anything else that could be said would be grossly inappropriate.
They walked into the gray night side by side.