Open Minds: The Fog

Chapter Seventeen:Lexi-In Which Some Actual Plot Happens

Lexi had been walking forever. Sometimes, faded white spirits like ghosts would linger in her vision, but never anything substantial. She wished she knew more about the Fog before she's gone in. Like how to get out. The door was far behind her, hopefully in a straight line. She was beginning to feel like she was getting somewhere when a shudder passed through her body. She stopped, flesh tingling.

She felt some solid pull in her Lihe disappear. She tried to open her eyes to it. Nothing. No Lihe. Which was impossible, because this was where Lihe came from. She put out her hands, still tingling and tried to draw a spell circle. Nothing. She broke into a cold sweat. There was no plan. There was map. There was no weapon. There was no Lihe. She was alone, vulnerable, and turning white.

Turning white? Lexi stopped herself at that thought. She had been staring at her Like-less hands. Her fingertips were white, a dull, see-through white that was creeping toward her wrists. She had to move faster.

Move faster where? Where was she going? What was she doing? Caliph! Jeanie! She shook herself and took a step. SHe had to remember. She hummed the first song that came into her head. "Bicycle" by Queen. The sound vanished into the Fog, but it was sound. Every few steps, she had to remember her mission. To the tune of Bicycle, she sang to herself, "I am finding Jeanie Lee, I am saving her life, bicycle race"

She kept going like this for some time she couldn't place. Little by little, her brain became like play-doh, and different ideas bubbled. "My name is Reese and I am-no, I'm Lexi!" She shook her head. "We are-I am the-no, Lexi!" She stopped. "They took my home, no they didn't; my home is SAEPTA. SAEPTA! How horrid-they're my home! Bicycle race! I want to ride-they killed us! Shoal! My name is Reese and-Shut up!"

Lesi dropped to her knees and clamped her mouth shut. She would never listen to Queen again. Something wasn't right. The white was up to her elbow and her fingers looked distorted. She sniffed and with dismay, huge, globby tears rolled down her face.

"How undignified," she mumbled. "Should we help her?" She slapped her hand over her mouth. "No!" She said between her not-really-fingers. "Don't use me!" She felt something.

She pushed away her curtain of hair and saw bright red rain boots. Her brain flashed with dreams of the past week, the boots. She half expected to see herself in the boots when she looked up. But no, there were four boots and she was sure she only had two feet. She looked up unwillingly, wiping snot on her sleeve.

There were two children there. She remembered someone teaching her that twins were the symbol of innocence in the ancient Spig civilization. The girls had porcelain faces almost, pale, placid, and with rosy cheeks and mouth. Their eyes were closed, but they looked at Lexi with pity and sorrow.

"You remember us," they chorused, without opening their mouths. "We helped you the last time. We told you our name?, do you remember? You ran away..." Their pink mouths frowned and Lexi felt very, very sorry for hurting them, despite not remembering them at all.

"You were a boy, then, but you are still you...Shall we tell you our name?" They leaned slightly down, so they and Lexi saw eye to closed eye. "We are they Grey. We live here."

Lexi's play-doh brain remembered a face, blurred and pale, screaming. It called to mind the Grey, smiling and swinging on a playground in the Fog, and then they were someone else, and another, and another. Bicycle race.

Lexi forced herself to remember Lexi, and Allison, and Jean and her brother and everyone who she knew was hers. The Grey spoke again.

"You keep coming back and you never leave, we're so glad you can give us such presents. It's a pity is saddens you so." They reached down and Lexi was standing. Her thoughts swirled and for a moment she heard her own voice in memory, 'we're like you, and you need us...'

They Grey each took one of Lexi's hands in their own small, toddlerish ones. "We want you to be at home again, where do you want to go?"

Lexi's brain murmured 'Egypt, home, out, Caliph,mother, him,' but Lexi said, "The playground, please, the one in that leads to everything else." She was going off at a hunch that finding one landmark would lead her to where she needed to go, but she wasn't al all sure. Worst-case scenario, she died. And that wasn't looking too bad, had her own voice chattered on in her head, interrupted by the thoughts of someone else. Or maybe they were all her and-Oh look. White shoulders, no hands. She pulled her hoodie over her hands, ignoring the numbness that covered her body.

As she walked with the Grey, her mind showed her an old man, a small boy, twisted in pain, a woman laughing maniacally, and a solid wall with a few cracks. She fought to keep her eyes open.

"Where are my hands?" She wondered vaguely out loud. She hadn't meant to say it, but she hadn't meant not to, so there it was.

"You're Becoming, of course. The more you fight, the more you let in, the more you Become," The children answered.

Lexi wiggled her invisible fingertips. She envisioned the brick wall and he boy and all the other flashes of distorted thought being gently pushed away, far away. She imagined her head filling up with her life, which she began to remember piece by piece. She wanted a team. Yeah, well, she was going to get one. She imagined Taylor giving her fast food in the girls room, and Corduroy trying to Suplex her, and Cambridge taking her to SAEPTA after the fight. She could see her fingers. She even had to move her hands to see past them, to the swing set, and to the people who sat.

Glossary:

I am so sick of writing the glossary honestly it's the most loathsome part of writing this shit. If you're confused, just comment. If there's a big new word, I'll explain it, I'm sorry.

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