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Rosc disliked this place more with every passing moment. He had felt Sin relax slightly, but he only became more tense, alert. They were approaching the abandoned town now, he was thankful that Sin had more sense than some of their classmates, considering she had chosen the destination over lighthouse or, Jack forbid, the cornfield. Who in their right mind thought that going into a field of anything that could be taller than you was a good idea?
You could so easily get lost or snuck up upon.

He looked down for a moment and frowned a bit. His branch was wavering a bit, its image fading from the gnarled piece of wood it was into a more refined stick, polished and covered in thorns. If he didn't know any better, he'd think that he was using an illusion on it, but that didn't make sense. He could still see fairly well and he wasn't actually trying. How odd...

Something moved off to one side, he thought he saw a glimpse of hair dashing into the fog.
"Anyone else think our FEAR might be acting up?" he asked softly, still frowning at where he had seen the retreating figure. Or... at least thought he'd seen.

Rosc felt Sin's hand leave his and he turned in time to see her vanish into the fog. Disconnected from Alcie and Vivi, they faded away into the fog. And then he heard something that almost made his heart stop.

"Who's Mommy's little charmer? You are!"
No...
Rosc's head snapped to one side as a chill ran through him. No... No, it couldn't...
"Sweetheart, where are you? Mommy doesn't like it when she can't find her Roshy." That voice... Rosc's hand clenched around his branch as he strained to hear and yet everything in him wanted to fight against the call.

"Oh, there you are." A figure emerged from the mists of Rosc's mind, a beautiful demoness with a perfect figure and long dark hair. Her wings were feathered like his, he knew they were black and soft. She would wrap him in them when he was a babe. His heart felt as if someone was squeezing it, harder and harder, there was nothing he could do but take a step towards the vision, his branch falling to the ground with a thunk.

"Mommy missed you, Roshy, my treasure. Why won't you give me a hug?"
"Mommy..." His words were almost inaudible even to his own ears. But when he took a step towards the voice, something flashed through his mind. The vision was cut in half and filled with pain, but he'd seen it. She was lying on her back on the hardwood floor, one arm fallen to one side, eyes wide in the ragged remains of her once beautiful face. Her hair was torn out in places, the rest of it soaked in the sticky red liquid that pooled around her. There were feathers everywhere, one whole wing had been torn clean off and tossed away.

"NO!" Rosc finally shouted, shutting his vision and pressing his hands to his ears. He stepped on something and stooped to pick up the flashlight from his bag that he suddenly realized was no longer on his shoulder.
Clinging to the light as a child might a favorite toy, he could hear other voices in the fog, his aunt singing a sweet lullaby to him, telling him that he couldn't trust anyone, least of all someone that he thought loved him. He heard Sin calling his name, was she really there? Or was she just a product of this damned fog, too?
She was crying his name, Alcie's, Vivi's. She was frantic sounding, he couldn't bear it.
"Sin?!" he called back, bringing his vision back up to look around. He found a few pieces of map when he did so, quickly snatching them up before they were eaten by the fog.

Something ran into him.
Rosc looked down just in time to see Sin hug him, then pulled away to step back. She looked more wild now, less held together than she normally was. Was it really Sin? She looked different... His mind was starting to question everything in this place, even his own companions.
But she was solid... would his mother have been solid if he had tried to touch her? Would she have pulled away from him if he had tried, made him chase her deeper into the fog? Was the the game being play-

Sin had finished talking and his vision caught movement at her side, the arm she held her first aid kit in was moving. Upwards.
Quick as lightning, his free hand latched onto her wrist, firm but with no intent to cause her pain.
"I could forgive you for the earlier accident and when you punched me in confused anger, but if you try and hit me now, you'll find how defensive and unforgiving I really can be, dear Sin." His voice was low, warning thick within as he tried to keep his wavering gaze on her instead of turning away to the sources of sound around him, voices that shouldn't exist or if they did shouldn't be on this island.
"If you're you, I don't want to hurt you, but I'm not sure what's real right now..."

The fog didn't seem as bad when your friends were beside you. They had decided to head towards the Abandoned Town and it seemed like a pretty harmless choice at the time. Alcie's mind felt calmed and relaxed and she would fight back if anything tried to hurt them now. She would have never imagined what happened next.

One moment she was fine and the next moment her head was spinning. What was going on? Alcie felt her let go of Sin's hand and drift off into the fog. You're no good. What kind of daughter are you? Her mother's voice echoed through her head as clear as the fog in front of her. Why do you have to cause some much trouble all of the time? "No..." Alcie shook her head unhappily and tried to shake the horrid voices out of her head. "I'm not a bad daughter." Talking to herself, Alcie tried to reason this out. There was no way that this could be happening. These thoughts had been lurking in the back of her thoughts for a long time but they had never affected her like this before. Nobody will want to be your friend if you act this way. She had friends! Alcie's thoughts were in turmoil and she had no idea how to get rid of them.

Her tone of voice began escalating as the thoughts began to envelope her. "No, no, NO! I'm not alone!"

Alcie had only wandered a few feet away from Sin and Rosc but she couldn't see them through the fog. Curling up on the ground, Alcie was so confused and she had no will or motivation to get up. The voices continued to haunt her thoughts as she sat on the ground. She then realized that the pack that was on her shoulder was gone? Was somebody around her? Paranoia overwhelmed Alcie as she sat trying to get rid of the voices in her head.

"Yeah...I have...but it's okay." She tried to force the grimace of pain into a half smile but Rosc probably knew her too well for her usual facade to work. Then she looked around worried her fingers sweeping the fog. Hadn't Alcie just been there? She had reached for her hand but now...she turned and looked around fearfully.

"ALCIE!" Okay screaming in this horrible place was probably a stupid move, she quickly shut her mouth. Her voice lowered as she looked at Rosc a bare whisper. "Alcie...she's in the fog..." Sin was frantic, if only they could keep sight of one another it wouldn't be so bad...but this. Then a horrible thought occurred to her, what if Alcie wanted to be in the fog? What if she'd escaped them on purpose? What if she was working against them? She stopped calling for her and stood tense before looking ahead, should they just move on? No...no she couldn't leave her friends.

"Sure it is," Rosc muttered a bit with a small shake of his head.
As Sin called out for Alcie, he stooped to pick up his branch... And his empty pack... How it had gotten there, he didn't know and didn't question it. He could do so later when he had time and didn't need to focus on other things.

He stuffed the map pieces and flashlight back into it and slung it over his shoulder. He straightened, tree branch tucked carefully under one arm. Once he was standing again, he grabbed Sin and more or less swept her off her feet, one arm beneath her knees, his other arm and part of the branch at her back.
"We'll find her," he replied, giving her the best possible reassuring smile. Only it wasn't really that great, things were too tense for him to really be able to smile.

"Alcie, if you can hear me, call out! Keep talking!" he called out into the fog. He thought he had heard her voice earlier. This fog seemed intent on separating them.

She began seeing figures moving all around her and Alcie didn't know how to deal with the paranoia. She just wanted to stop and curl up into a ball until the fog cleared... if it would ever clear. The water demon heard the footsteps getting closer to her and something inside of her told her to go towards that sound. Alcie gave an audible sigh of relief as she realized that her gut was right when Sin and Rosc appeared in front of her. "Oh thank goodness. I'm so sorry I keep disappearing. I have no idea what came over me." She didn't want to mention the fact that she was hearing things in case the other two weren't feeling the affects of the abandoned town or else it might alarm Sin.

"This place is weird. I don't like it at all." Her voice was still trembling and she could still see the dark figures moving all around them. Insanity was not a pleasant place and she hated this town. All of her vulnerabilities had been brought to light whether or not there were people around to hear her panic attack. How was she supposed to escape them?