Maid of the Mist

Clifton Hill looked spooky without any lights.

Zarina laughed at herself.

Everything was spooky without anyone else around.

Niagara Falls was as devoid of people as everywhere else. What had she expected?

The normally bustling street was dark and quiet. She could faintly hear the roar of the Falls in the distance, but other than that, it was as eerie as anywhere.

Her only company was Cat for the last couple of months, but she knew it was time to let him go.

She unclipped Cat’s leash when they reached the unlit Niagara SkyWheel, the 175-foot “view of a lifetime!” ferris wheel where all this awful business started.

Cat was uncertain of his newfound freedom. He looked up at her, ears cocked to the side. Ears that had warned her of noises she hadn’t quite heard but he was tuned right in, making her aware of what she’d hoped wasn’t lurking not too far away.

But it always was there. Lurking.

There was a noise in the distance. And then Cat was gone.

She tried not to watch him. She didn’t want to know what happened to him when he left her side.

It was too gruesome to watch, and even worse to imagine what was out there, just beyond her periphery, taking away everything and everyone she loved, hated, and didn’t even know.

The last three months had been literal hell on earth.

She was exhausted from being on edge all the time, watching everything and everyone disappear forever.

She looked up at the tall structure. It was dark but she could see the top buckets swaying in the breeze.

She checked her pocket. It was still there. But of course it was still there. Otherwise she wouldn’t be. She’d figured that out early on, as well.

She climbed into the empty basket. And of course it was the same one she’d climbed into three and a half months ago. She remembered because 25 was her favourite number. Pretty easy to remember that along with the other details of that day.

Why hadn’t a simple “no thank you” been enough?

She left the basket door open. She knew he’d be there soon enough.

Before she had a chance to do anything, he was beside her in the ferris wheel. The door was closed and the big wheel started moving.

She tried to keep the bile in her throat down.

She’d seen too many weird things to let something like no electricity, no operator, no humans anywhere, to question how the ride was moving on its own. Seemed like such a trivial thing.

Especially since he was beside her now.

She’d only known him for a day when he declared his undying love for her, pledging he’d love her until the end of time.

They were on this ferris wheel and she was so uncomfortable. She barely knew him.

When he asked her to join him in some strange world takeover she didn’t understand, she’d politely said, “No thank you.”

“I’m giving you the entire world and you’re saying, ‘No thank you?’ I’m not offering you a tea. I’m offering you eternity!” he bellowed, his voice reverberating off the glass.

She looked down at the operator, willing him to unload everyone quickly so she could escape this bizarre turn of events.

“I don’t want the entire world,” she replied. “I just want to finish school, move out, get a cat, find a job I love. The entire world sounds like way too much to handle.”

At the time, she thought the entire world he was talking about was metaphorical and even then it seemed overwhelming. Now that she knew he truly meant the entire world, she wished she’d never said yes to their first, and only, date.

She wasn’t interested in him or whatever he was offering. But he wasn't accepting that she said no.

He tried to give her a heart-shaped locket made of glass. It looked like it was filled with smoke. If she hadn’t so desperately wanted to get off the ferris wheel, she would’ve wanted to examine it, try to figure it out.

He insisted that she should accept his offer. “I’m giving you everything,” he said, his voice menacing despite the bright sunlight streaming into the car.

“But I don’t want everything,” she replied, pushing the locket back towards him. “And I especially don’t want it from you. Not if you were the last man on earth!” she added, surprising herself.

The ride jerked forward. They were almost to the bottom now.

He glowered at her. His fury was palpable in the tiny space.

She was worried he’d open the door and toss her out onto the pavement.

But he remained quiet, fuming, as the car ahead of them disembarked.

As soon as the operator opened the door, she took off. She was worried he’d follow her.

He didn’t.

She’d hoped that was the end of it.

But that was the end of everything as she knew it.

First, her family disappeared.

They’d go outside, or even just to another room, and never return.

Same with her friends.

The woman at the store who sold her her daily Doritos fix.

The mailman.

Within a few days, not a soul was around her.

Eventually, the news reports stopped.

Then the power went out.

She found Cat just outside her door one day. She decided to keep him on a leash to keep him close.

She didn’t know what was happening, but she knew everyone was leaving and not coming back, disappearing without a trace.

How was that even possible for so many to just disappear?

She found the misty locket in the pocket of the jacket she’d been wearing that night. He must’ve slipped it into her pocket before she ran from him.

She wanted to throw it away but superstition, or perhaps a longing for things to go back to the way they were before they met, made her keep it.

Back in the ferris wheel, she refused to look at him. She stared out at the darkness, wondering why things turned out this way.

“So…” he said.

“So,” she replied flatly.

“Have you reconsidered my offer?”

“No.”

“But you said…”

“I said ‘Not if you were the last man on earth.’ And look, here we are, with no one else around, and I’m still saying no. What part of those two letters don’t you understand?”

She could see his face’s reflection in the glass.

He looked like he was about to explode.

“But…you kept the locket! That must mean something!”

“It means I had some sort of self-preservation going on. I saw how everyone was disappearing after leaving my side. I eventually figured out it was a talisman or protection spell or something. Whatever that thing is out there won’t come near it.”

“I knew you were clever. That’s why I chose you. That thing, as you call it, doesn’t fear anything. But it knows what feeds it.”

She drew in a deep breath. “Does it know there’s nothing left to feed on now that everyone is gone? It’s getting closer. And restless.” She turned the locket around and around in her hand. She’d been thinking about this moment, this question, for the last several weeks.

“It knows I will take care of it.”

“Are you sure of that?”

“Of course I am.”

“Then you won’t mind if I just…”

She opened the door. They were at the top of the ferris wheel. One hundred and seventy-five feet above the ground with a stunning view of Niagara Falls, if it weren’t nighttime and the power was long gone.

He yanked her back, thinking she was intending to jump.

She let the locket drop.

They heard it clank, glass against metal, until it hit the hard ground below. It shattered. She imagined the mist, smoke, or whatever that was, dissipate, leaving them vulnerable.

She looked at him then.

She saw his fear.

“What did you do?” he cried.

They were suspended so high in the air.

She was pretty sure he could do a lot of things, but flying wasn’t one of them.

She just hoped she’d be taken first so she wouldn’t have to witness The End.