Totentanz

Many years ago, when I was a teenager, I remember one time when it wouldn’t stop raining for days. The heavens poured water onto the earth endlessly. There were no breaks in the downpour. That rain was dense, almost like a watery wall, obscuring everything in sight. Preventing anyone from going outside, or so I thought when it happened. I was jogging back then daily, and that one time I couldn’t go out to jog. I couldn’t leave the house at all, to be honest. It was a weekend so I remember my parents didn’t go out either. We just spent the week at home. I was sulking the whole time, complaining about being stuck inside.

The day the rain finally stopped, I remember I woke up to see a thick fog hanging outside of my window. It was so thick I couldn’t see more than a foot away through the window. I clearly remember opening the window to see if the rain had finally stopped. A terrible stench of sweat and copper filled my room, forcing me to cough. I hated the stench, but I was glad it had stopped raining at last. I skipped breakfast that morning because I was so excited to leave the house finally.

I brushed my teeth, got warmly dressed because the air outside was bone piercingly cold, and made my way outside. The moment I left the house, I felt like I had stepped inside a storm cloud. Everything was cold, damp, and foggy. That fog was the thickest fog I’ve ever encountered before or since. The horrendous stench followed my every step. Walking around the seemingly endless mazes of the mist, I started feeling as if someone was watching me. I kept looking over my shoulder. The longer I walked, the stronger this feeling had become.

At one point, I remember musing about a massive tentacled pillar made up of shadows and eyes staring at me. A breathy moan somewhere behind me cut my train of thought short. A chill ran across my body, prompting me to stop and look around. I couldn’t see anything but shifting walls of cloud-like substance.

Then I heard something heavy falling onto the concrete, followed by a shrill cry in the distance.

Something wasn’t right.

I just ran out of there, not thinking too much about the noises, not thinking about the scream. I just needed to get out of there. My body felt weird, my skin felt wrong. Running aimlessly got me in the last place I wanted to be. I don’t remember this had happened exactly anymore, but I remember seeing shadows moving in the fog. They moved awkwardly and frantically. I ran towards them.

The sound of shoes smacking against concrete rapidly had become unbearable before I reached the shadows. I changed my mind because of the noise and ran in the other direction, hoping to get away from the noises and the shadows, but these simply followed me.

As I ran, the shadows became a legion of ghastly figurines moving in the fog. They appeared from every conceivable direction. The noise got infinitely louder too, like drums pounding inside my skull. I could feel myself shaking as I ran. My eyes were watering and my lungs were burning. The ruckus all around me was overwhelming me. I felt like I was suffocating. I felt like I’m being crushed inside invisible walls. Nausea and dizziness twisted my insides and sense.

My frantic state ended with a sickening pop that echoed through space, ripping through the noises and the shadows. The most terrifying human sound I had ever heard followed the pop. A scream so loud and anguished it felt like knives being shoved into my ears. A man sporting a wide grin, a grin poorly hiding the absolute terror and utter despair, stumbled painfully out of the fog and towards me. He was dancing, dancing like a madman and clutching at his exposed tibia poking through his leg as he danced.

I wanted to approach him, but I couldn't. More dancing people came out of the mist, seeing them made me freeze. All of them wearing those sick grins even though undeniable misery shone through their teary eyes. Some audibly cried while others moaned, some just breathed heavily, but all of them danced to an inaudible tune I could not hear.

Pain and anguish contorting their faces, their bodies moved in odd ways they couldn’t stop. Some of them were on the brink of collapse. I just stood there and stared as they danced around me, in and out of the fog. I stood and slowly felt myself sinking into a deep, black hole of dread and hopelessness. Backing away from the dancing crowd, I hit something. Turning around, I saw a middle-aged man.

He

He

He

He collapsed on top of me…

I heard him wheeze his final breath out as he slid off of me and onto the concrete below us. I felt nausea returning and my skin crawling as I watched his lifeless body crash at my feet. That sickening grin never faded from his face as his bloodshot blue eyes started losing their color.

As I watched him there, lifeless, I felt something cold touching my back. I felt it all the way through my clothes. An icy claw. Something inside shifted gears, and I felt like I was going to die if I didn’t get out of there right away. My feet started moving almost on their own. I ran as fast as I could. I ran and ran and ran until I was back home. Away from whatever was inside that fog.

I could never bring myself to tell anyone about it until now. Eventually, everyone realized it had happened, but we pretend it never did. Nobody talks about the fog either. Maybe they’ve lost someone in the mist, maybe they’re a survivor of this deathly dance. We’ve lost a hundred thirty-eight people that day. Many more ended up crippled, but nobody dares talk about how they ended up that way. Everyone here knows it happened, but we never bring it up.

Outsiders don’t seem to know about it either. Mostly because nobody ever cares about anomalous weather in a remote little town, especially since the entire planet has been experiencing anomalous weather lately.

I doubt we’ll be able to forget the fog because I think it’s back…

It’s getting foggy outside, and I can feel the stench of copper and sweat filling my room and I can barely see shadowy silhouettes moving awkwardly in the distance… It’s already too late for them... They’ve been trapped in the mist's deathly dance.