Murmurs in the Haze

**Title: Murmurs in the Fog**

The night draped weighty over the little seaside town of Havenbrook. The fog came in from the ocean, twisting like spooky fingers around the light posts and the old Victorian houses that lined the cobbled roads. It was a calm evening, save for an intermittent cry of a far off seagull or the delicate lap of waves against the rough shore. Be that as it may, something different waited in the air — something cold, something… disrupted.

Sophie had never enjoyed the haze. Experiencing childhood in Havenbrook, she had consistently heard the old legends of the Dark Woman, a ghost said to meander the precipices, looking for something — or somebody — lost quite a while in the past. The more seasoned people swore they had seen her, a pale figure floating through the fog, her voice scarcely a murmur carried on the breeze.

"Senseless notions," Sophie murmured to herself, shaking off the uncomfortable inclination as she secured her little book shop for the evening. She pulled her jacket more tight around her, the chill in the air gnawing more than expected. Her boots clicked against the cobblestone as she advanced home, the haze gulping the light from the streetlights, making them seem to be faint circles drifting in the ether.

As she strolled, Sophie couldn't shake the impression that she was being watched. It was a ridiculous thought, she told herself. The roads were unfilled, and nobody would be out on a night like this. Yet at the same time, she looked behind her. Nothing. Simply the thick, whirling mist. When she arrived at the edge of town, where the precipices started, Sophie's heart was dashing. Her home stood just past the edge, a desolate house that ignored the sea. Regularly, the view was amazing, yet this evening, the ocean appeared to loosen up into a limitless dark pit. The breeze wailed as it whipped against the bluffs, and briefly, Sophie thought she heard a voice — delicate and far off, similar to a supplication.

"Help me… "

She froze, the blood depleting from her face. It was incomprehensible. Nobody was around here. Once more, in any case, there it was, scarcely perceptible over the breeze.

"Help me… "

Sophie's hands shuddered as she bungled with her keys, frantic to get inside. The entryway squeaked open, and she rushed in, closing it behind her. She squeezed her back against the entryway, heart beating, attempting to consistent her relaxing. It was only her creative mind. The haze pulled pranks on the brain, isn't that so? In any case, where it counts, she understood what she had heard.

Sophie moved to the window, her fingers shudder as she separated the drapes simply a break. The haze had thickened, twirling like something living, and through it, she saw a shadow — a figure remaining on the edge of the bluff.

It was a lady, wearing what had all the earmarks of being a dated outfit, the texture streaming unnaturally in the windless evening. Her face was moved in the direction of the ocean, her long hair tangled in the fog. Sophie's breath trapped in her throat. It couldn't be.

The Dark Woman.

The accounts had consistently said she was genuine, yet nobody in Havenbrook had seen her in years. Some guaranteed she experienced at last tracked down harmony, yet others murmured that she was all the while looking for her lost love, who had died in a wreck some time in the past.

Sophie watched, frozen completely still, as the figure gradually moved in the direction of the house. The Dim Woman's face was pale, her eyes empty and dim. Her lips moved, however no sound emerged, something like none that Sophie could hear. However at that point, similar to a weak reverberation conveyed by the breeze, Sophie heard it once more.

"Help me… "

The haze thickened, the consider dissolving along with the fog as though she had never been there. Sophie moved in an opposite direction from the window, her heartbeat dashing. Her heart beat in her chest as the murmur reverberated to her, again and again.

"Help me… "

That evening, Sophie lay conscious in her bed, gazing at the roof, the heaviness of the haze squeezing against the windows. She realized she could always be unable to fail to remember the manner in which the Dim Woman's eyes had locked onto hers, arguing, tormenting.

What's more, as the hours ticked by, Sophie acknowledged with a chill that the murmurs in the haze weren't blurring.

They were becoming stronger.