“Pretty positive,” I said.
“Can I see?” Little Nicole whacked my arm in her attempt to reach for the map.
“Ouch!”
“Sorry.” She proceeded to feel around, tapping my arm. I slipped the map into her hand. “Thanks.”
“Yup.”
“Hmm…That’s so strange. It feels like we’ve been walking straight.” She sounded just as confused as I was.
“Exactly,” I said, “But we shouldn’t be surprised, this is the Fog of Disorientation after all.”
“Maybe, if we start walking again, the dot on the map will move with us?”
I thought for a minute, “That’s actually a good idea.”
“Of course it’s a good idea.”
“You don’t have to be so snobby about it,” I told her, “Give me the map, let’s try this out.”
“Now who’s being the snob?” She said, returning the map to me.
“Don’t push it kid, you’re the one who’s fading away, now take my hand.” I reached my hand toward her.
“Rude,” She said as she grabbed my hand a little tight.
I watched the map as we started walking again. Sure enough, the little blue dot started to move and left behind a solid blue line. So, I led us in the direction of straight.
“Is it working?” Little Nicole asked.
“Looks like it,” I replied.
Just then, a ghostly howl echoed around us.
“What was that?” Little Nicole squeezed my hand harder.
“Ow! Little Nicole, you're hurting me.”
“Sorry, I'm just scared.”
“Rela-” The howl sounded again, cutting me off.
“There it is again!” She whimpered.
“Just keep walking,” I told her, “We’re almost out.” We were so close, I didn’t want any distractions.
A gust of wind blew past us, breaking up the fog just enough for us to see a few more feet in front of us. But what we saw in that broken up fog was unsettling.
The fog itself formed into a large, floating face. The ghostly howl sounded again as the face disappeared. Little Nicole was glued to my side in fear.
More gusts of wind blew around us from different directions, and each time, the fog face appeared in a different spot.
“Who are you?” I yelled. The face blew toward me in an explosion of wind.
“Who are you?” The ghostly voice asked back as the face disappeared, yet again.
“I asked you first.”
The fog face reappeared in front of me. As creepy as it was, a little part of me was slightly happy to see something other than just plain fog.
Its fog eyes looked back and forth from me to Little Nicole.
Its gaze settled on me.