Seven straight days; an entire week.

Fog didn't last that long, did it? It was funny how something as simple as fog made me question my sanity.

The fog that blanketed my hometown was like a nagging fly. Except instead of the buzzing of wings, this silently hummed in the background, surrounding us like a thousand, invisible eyes.

The silence that permeated along with the misty void was otherworldly, like the fog itself absorbed sound. Even the summer bugs stopped buzzing. Which was probably the most obvious sign that the fog wasn't natural, as it was cicada season. Which meant every night up until a week ago had been filled with the insects chittering their mating calls all through the night.

Now, it was nothing. Silence. And fog.

Sometimes, when standing on my front porch, I wondered if I had gone deaf -– if I breathed quietly enough, I literally heard nothing. It would be the sudden squirrel scurrying on tree bark, or the random car driving by that would reinvigorate my heart to remind myself that I could still hear, but for some reason...everything was silent.

I say for some reason, because no one in my small hometown of Kessington, New York could remember what had happened, or how this first developed.

All we knew was that one morning, we all woke up to this fog...and its appearance.

"You heading home?" Leon asked, placing a hand on his gun belt. He was the town's sheriff and slept every night next to the Eye.

I sniffed and scratched my nose. "Yup. Gotta go pretend like things are somewhat normal for the evening. Might even have a glass of wine," I said, feeling its presence to my left, but daring not to look.

Instead, I glanced the other way, eyeing the playground of Jackson Elementary where I used to play as a kid. Whereas I used to be able to see the school in the background, all I could see today was the swing set, blanketed by a wispy veil, never able to see more further than fifty feet.

We were at the elementary school on the seventh day because that was simply where the Eye appeared, right in the soccer field. Everyone crowded around like a bunch of desperate groupies, waiting for anything to be different.

I looked back at Leon, who pursed his thin lips. Whenever he did that, it looked like he had no lips at all. I eyed his weary face. Years of being a sheriff deepened the lines on his forehead, his mustache peppered with salty hairs.

His brown eyes reflected a man with too many responsibilities, and not enough time. "You be careful, Andrea. Buck would kill me if something happened to you."

I smiled, thinking of my dad. He left Kessington eight days ago for a fishing trip, just before the Eye appeared. I tried calling him, of course, but as soon as the fog took over, all communications failed. We couldn't even use it to call or text each other inside the town. Our phones were basically useless flashlights.

We both glanced over to my right when a truck rolled up, crunching gravel underneath their tires.

"You don't worry about that, Leon," I said, looking back to the sheriff, who was also my dad's long-time friend. "We need to figure out whatever the hell is going on first."

"Did you bring the camera!" someone shouted from near the Eye, which was just over fifty feet away to my left. Leon rarely left the range of being able to keep his eye on it. I found that ironic. Keeping an eye on an eye.

The joke didn't make me smile today, still plagued by an unknown certainty that nagged at my brain since waking up this morning.

Mike Donovan exited his truck and yelled into the misty void. "Got Sheryl's equipment right here! And my construction lights!"

A few people hooted and hollered from the Eye.

I sighed. Everyone always got excited at twilight, ready to bring out their new plans that would surely catch whatever happened to the Eye. 

We were all terrified, deep down. We tried sleeping next to the damned thing to watch it vanish, which it always did around three in the morning.  But like clockwork, we'd all wake up at sunrise and the Eye would be gone, ready for us to find it at another location.

No matter what we were doing, at three in the morning, we'd just black out. One of us even tried dancing through the night, certain that they could fall asleep if their heart was pumping, only to wake up on the floor in their sweaty dance clothes.

So, tonight, we would try cameras.

As Mike Donovan waved to us while he walked by, grinning ear to ear with his wife's camera equipment, I momentarily stole glance at the Eye, jerking my gaze back to Leon when I caught the glowing red. I'm not ready to stare at it yet. Something feels off and I don't know what it is.

I looked at the ground, not really looking forward to going home alone that night. Leon quietly said, "Hey, it's alright."

"You still haven't heard from anyone? The military?" I asked, looking back up at him. "No organization? Hell, aliens? Something?"

We both gave a light chuckle at the mention of an extraterrestrial influence, but the humor quickly fell. Leon looked in the Eye's direction, and I looked back at Mike's black Ford. The joke had been funny the first night it happened.

But not on the seventh. Not now. Not after we couldn't seem to leave this damned town, always wandering into a foggy void, only to wind right back up where we started. It was like being stuck in a maze that someone had removed the exit to.

Something horrible was happening to all of us, and none of us could figure it out.

All the while, the stupid Eye just sat there and glowed red.

Leon gave a defeated sigh and ran his fingers over his mustache. "We haven't heard from anyone. No matter what we do. We can't seem to leave. We got the third stranger to wander in, and just like the rest, they lost all memory once they came in. I mean, no matter what, something is happening. Whatever the Eye is, it's a technology I haven't seen before. And if it's something occult, like Jessie keeps saying it id, then I don't fucking know what to do at that point. The teenagers are ironically the most helpful, after years of playing their stupid zombie and horror games. They've been working the hardest to crack this case."

I shook my head with a chuckle that didn't reach my eyes, crossing my arms, using my shoe to toy with a larger pebble. "I just don't get it, Leon. This thing appears, and it moves every night, but nothing happens. Like no death, no zombies, no aliens, no witches, no demons, no robots. It's just the Eye, and then the fog. You'd think something would have happened by now. Someone would have disappeared, I don't know...we don't know even know if this is happening to others or not."

He placed a hand on my shoulder.

I spoke, my voice nearly a whisper. "I hope...I just don't like saying it out loud, but I hope nothing happened to my dad."

Leon squeezed my shoulder; he had never been a hugger. "Do you need anything, Andrea? Like a coffee before you go home? Mary keeps the doughnut shop open twenty-four seven. You could grab one of them. You old man loves the boston creme pie."

I laughed this time. "Oh, come on, Leon. The world is basically ending and you're still getting coffee and doughnuts?"

He looked around and shrugged, the corner of his lips curling into a smile. "Hey, I always wanted to be a cop just for those perks alone."

Our gazes connected, and we smiled at each other, although, annoyingly enough, it almost made me want to cry. I wondered if this was what it was like to be on the Titanic once they knew it was sinking -– the weight of the situation becoming so heavy that nothing could be normal. Not even jokes.

I nodded. "Alright, well I'm gonna head home. I don't need one tonight, but might grab a doughnut in the morning. I'll see you at the park at nine, yeah?"

We always met at the town's park at nine in the morning to discuss if anyone knew where the Eye had moved to. Our town was small, with just under two thousand people, but without phones, Leon mandated that everyone report in at the same place every morning. So far, everyone complied, and not a single person had gone missing. Yet.

He dropped his hand. "I'll be there bright and early. You know, I wish you'd come stay with Trish and me. We got the barn outfitted for people to sleep in. More show up every day. There's no shame in being afraid, or just wanting to be close to others while we ride this out."

I took in a deep breath. "I know. I just...it's my house. I worry that dad will come home and have no idea what happened. I mean, I suppose I could always leave a note...I don't know. Maybe tomorrow, alright?"

"Get some sleep, Andrea," he said with a nod, turning around to head towards the Eye for his seventh night of sleeping next to it.

It was tempting to steal a glance of the glowing monstrosity, but I had been near it all morning and day. For some reason, as soon as I woke, and especially once I got here, something kept sending chills down my spine, like feeling an imaginary bug crawling on my skin.

Today the Eye just creeped me out more than it used to, like I could feel its energy or something. But I knew that was just me probably getting a terrible night's sleep, so I ignored it and headed over to my Dodge pickup. Well, it was dad's, but while he was gone, I was drove it over my small Honda. I just felt safer in the bigger vehicle.

Once inside, the smell of dad's air freshener made me feel at home. And like a damned kid again. I was twenty-three years old and a whole year into my master's program, and yet all I wanted was my dad to sit next to me like I was a kid afraid of the dark.

For a moment, I didn't even drive anywhere, and rather just sat there with closed eyes, trying to imagine what normal looked like again. To think to my professors, and what they would say about my absence. It was summer break, but with my thesis, I was in close contact with Dr. Greene.

My vision became red and my eyes shot open, my pulse quickening.

Frantically looking around me, I nodded as if it confirm that I was okay. Everything around was fine. No red light. No statue.

It was just my mind.

I groaned, not sure how much longer this town could take of this before someone started to worship the stupid Eye, with how much it messed with us. The town was already splitting up into different perspectives on how to handle the situation, and I knew it would only get worse. Humans tended to do that when they panicked; it's how the Witch Trials took off during the Salem era. Could it be the Europeans just picked crappy land, and that's why their crops failed? No, it's obviously withches and the devil.

But in a way, I could kind of see how they jumped to that conclusion now.

No matter how much anyone tried, we couldn't figure anything out. It seemed the longer the mystery eluded us, the more we couldn't get it out of our minds. It was consuming some of us, many appearing progressively disheveled.

Just limke a stupid fly that buzzes around all of our ears.

Annoyed and frustrated -– and safely in my dad's truck –- I glanced out the window to look at the Eye before leaving.

I shivered and grimaced when all I saw, through the fog, was the permeating red. "Fuck this," I said and put my truck into park and drove home.

It's not that I hadn't stared at it before, as of course it mesmerized me when it first appeared. But after the way I felt this morning, I couldn't shake how much it bothered me. It seemed to grow worse with each passing hour. Especially since it was so weird. It was a monolithic, heavy crystal base with the eye Horus hovering in the front. It looked like a CGI creation that came to life, honestly. Especially with the way the eye itself glowed a burning red, like a beacon of energy reminding us all that whatever it was, it was very much alive.

They said that the Eye was made of of metal or stone. I don't know, though. I never got that close to it.

The roads were mostly empty, and I drove slowly so as not to hit anything in case something darted through the fog. I lived near the school so it didn't take long to get home. After parking the truck and stepping out into the eerie silence once more, I looked at the only place that brought me comfort. Mom left me when I was around eight, and so my dad became my father, my friend, my mister-mom, and my confidant.

Now, it was empty, and I had no idea where he was, or if he even knew what happened. Or what if this plagued every town? What if he was stuck on a fishing boat--

I shut the truck door, not willing to let that haunt me to. I couldn't do anything about it, so it was useless to worry. I headed inside to grab the glass of wine that I promised to drink. My friend Arlene was watching over the statue tonight with thirty others, or else she'd be here drinking wine with me too. I had already chatted with her before running into Leon on my way home from my shift. She too said that I shouldn't be staying here alone.

Hopefully Mike catches something on his camera. I'm not much use here as a history major, otherwise.

I placed my phone on the laminate countertop. Even though it was useless, I still carried it, hoping that maybe it would ring one day.

Once it neared nine, it was dark enough outside that I could see the streetlamps glowing through the fog and I shut the blinds, hating to keep the windows open. I shut the front door and locked it as well, placing dad's shotgun on the kitchen table in case I'd need it. Leon was right -– I needed to go stay with someone. Arlene stayed with her mom, or else she'd stay here with me on the nights she wasn't on her shift. Tomorrow. I'll go with either Arlene or Leon tomorrow.

I went to bed early that night, as no television or radio worked, and reading books felt pointless when my reality was so twisted that I couldn't even escape even in my imagination. Despite the fear, I fell asleep around ten with ease, morning arriving with the ringing of the alarm clock I had used since I was a kid. In a fluid motion, I turned off the alarm and placed my bare feet on the cold hardwood, shivering as I neared my bedroom window to peak outside: fog.

With a roll of my eyes and a shake of my head, I put on my robe and slippers, not sure why I expected for one of these mornings to reveal that the fog had lifted. It was like being a kid and checking to see if it had snowed when the weatherman promised a foot of snow through the night.

But rather than a snow day, I just wanted normalcy to return. To hear the cicadas, or see the golden sun shining on the morning dew, or to see my dad leaving to go to his mechanic's shop, always a pop-tart in his mouth. To get back to work on my paper, to go to University and sit in the library again.

My yawn turned into a frown at reliving those days, tucking my shoulder length brown hair behind my ears as I went make coffee. After that, I'd dress and head to the park. I should probably pack too. I can't keep staying here, alone. I opened my door and froze, my grip on the doorknob tightening as I blankly stared at the couch ahead of me.

Red.

Soft, red light gently touched the furniture in the living room. I breathed heavier, as all of the curtains were drawn back, too.

No. I shut those last night.

I instantly felt sick, my breathing turning into a nervous pant. My face scrunched with frustration as I shook the door with anger. No...no, it can't be outside my house. Why is there red light outside my house?

I stepped out of my room, jaw trembling. Like a wave sweeping me off of my feet, my entire demeanor changed as I dropped to my knees. My dismay was so grand that I became paralyzed rather than afraid, like the small moment before impact, knowing that you couldn't stop what was about to happen.

My lips parted as I blankly stared at the open front door.

Yes, the front door was open, even though I know I locked it.

Now, only the screen door separated this home from the outside world.

And on my porch, not but a foot away from the the entry, was the Eye...facing directly into my home.