It was close to nine o’clock in the morning when Conrad stumbled off the couch, and the television was showing static and hummed at a low volume.

“Ugh, must’ve dozed off…” Conrad said while rubbing his forehead. He stood between the couch and the coffee table; it was a typical bachelor’s apartment with used furniture and some thrift store paintings on the wall. A giant house fern stood at the head of the couch. He walked towards the kitchen and started to make some coffee when he got to the percolator. While the coffee was percolating, he leaned back against the kitchen counter, which was light green tiled, and the cupboards were white and wooden. When he noticed the coffee was almost done being made, he grabbed a coffee cup out of the top cupboard and got a tablespoon from the drawer.

“Ahh, that’s the stuff…” He said while taking a sip of his coffee. He stood there as the clock nearby ticked loudly. The smell of coffee wafted through the air as the sun rise started to light the room up. He turned on the radio on the counter, which just blared static; the sounds of his neighbor dragging something on the floor above made Conrad turn off the radio when he couldn’t find a working station. The sounds of his neighbor dragging something stopped. He knew the situations faced with apartment living with loud neighbors; he didn’t want any problems. He went to the large window at the other end of the room, past the couch and television.

He gazed out the window at the thick fog clouds that formed in the streets. He could barely see across to the commercial buildings that housed the local businesses and shops. He sipped his coffee and continued to scan into the foggy area, just the sun’s light lit up the area and made it feel a bit calm. He turned back around when he heard the front door click.

“Huh? Is someone there?” He exclaimed. He put the coffee cup on the windowsill and went to the front door. He opened the door and poked his head out into the hallway to look around.

“Well, time to go to work anyway…” He mumbled to himself. He grabbed the nearby dark blue jacket that was hanging on the coat rack and put it on. It was strange that the door clicked as if it were locked, as he left his apartment door unlocked all the time. The apartment building was very safe, and the landlord never gave him a key to the apartment anyway.

He arrived at the front doors and opened them to go out to the foggy street. He worked at the local corner grocery store a couple of blocks down as a manager. When he crossed the street, he saw an old woman standing there.

“Sir!” the old woman called out to Conrad. He stopped and started to approach the old woman. She was wearing a burgundy shawl on her shoulders, had a tiny gothic-like black hat on her head, with a yellow cream dress covering her body, and was carrying a large purse. “Can you please spare some food? I’ve been trying to get into the grocery store all week, and it’s always closed. Sometimes I can’t even find the damn thing in this fog.” She said in a raspy voice. “I’ll bring something back for you,” he said. “Just wait here.” The old woman nodded. He hurried to the store.

When he got through the front doors of the corner grocery by unlocking the doors with the key he had as a manager, he started gathering up non-perishables. Conrad filled a large grocery bag that he grabbed from the front aisles and started to pack up the food without realizing that just a few steps away was the rotting produce section. Thinking he could just return to work after this, as it was almost time to open the store anyway. He hurriedly went back to the old woman with the food, not realizing that the fog was getting thicker.

“Hello? Anyone there?!” he exclaimed. A raspy voice called back, “Here…!” He walked forward and saw the old woman from before. “What is your name, by the way?” He asked her. “Agatha.” She said, “Thank you so much. It’s been a week, and I’ve run low on food. I live in the apartments too, and strange things have been happening. The fog is filled with many entities, and even the fog feels alive…” Agatha showed him a card that read “The Tower” before showing the pentagram on the back. “Please be careful, young man…” He handed the grocery bag full of food over. Thinking of how he had to return to work to really open the grocery store up for the day. “Haha, alright Agatha, I hope you have a great rest of your day, but I have to go open the store for business.” She bowed her head and walked back to the apartments. He went to walk towards the corner grocery store, but while doing so, he heard something scratching against the concrete. Like as if the fog wanted him to see what it was, the fog slowly dissipated in front of him to see a corpse in a clear plastic body bag being dragged by something invisible.

He gasped and stared in horror, his feet planted firmly as the body was dragged into the fog, leaving a bloody trail. “What the hell?” he walked forward and followed the trail of blood through the fog. The trail of blood continued to the grocery store doors, which he pushed open, and he continued to see the trail going down the side by the produce aisle. When he walked close to the aisle, the smell of rotting produce filled his nostrils, causing him to wretch. He pulled his shirt up to guard his mouth and nose while looking at the flies buzzing around the rotting produce. He continued after the trail of blood, the lights of the produce flickered on and off while highlighting the flies buzzing about on the rotting produce.

He finally got to the back of the store and saw the trail led into the meat locker freezer. The atmosphere in there was always fairly dark as the fluorescent lights had frosted to make it dim. He pushed open the meat freezer doors and walked in. He looked down, then saw a rat scurry and squeak past his brown shoes. He looked up and saw it, bleeding and rotten slabs of meat with pig and cow heads. The eyes following him from the dead, rotting animal meat on hooks, were eerie as he continued to follow the trail of blood. He saw the body leaving a trail of blood go through the back door and into the foggy alley. He wretched and continued into the alley to follow the body. There he saw it, a large tarot card lying face down on the ground. He knew it was one because there was a pentagram on the back like the one Agatha showed him.

Though before he could reach it, when he took a step forward, he felt himself fall. His vision turned dark as he looked up, and he made a large splash into the sewer of water. However, when he went to the ladder, an arm appeared to grab him.

“Wha…?!” he exclaimed. He looked around, saw with the limited light from the open hole above that there were floating faceless human bodies, not just an arm. “Holy shit!” he yelled out as the bodies almost felt like they were moving on their own in the waist-deep water towards him. The water level increased, and slowly he was being submerged into the water filled with bloody bodies. Something seemed to weigh him down while he kicked and yelled for help. The last thing he saw was the light above from the open hole before blacking out.