#cloud horror

It’s the damnedest thing.

If I hadn’t just watched it happen, I would swear it wasn’t possible. But I just did.

I first noticed things were… off this morning.

There was a dog. It walked through the fog… and then.. Nothing.

No, I don’t mean I couldn’t see it through the fog. I mean the thing never showed back up. I was watching from my porch as the shepherd mix that had been sniffing around the last couple of days walked its way down into the little dip that forms at the foot of the hill we lived on. It wasn’t uncommon for fog to pool down there this time of year, though this year it seemed particularly thick. It was like I was looking at a solid sheet of white. Like the world had just glitched out in that one stretch of road.

But no matter how long I waited, the dog just never showed back up. And this isn’t a big patch of fog, maybe about as wide as a house. The little valley sits lower than the surrounding hills, resulting in a kind of corridor effect. Just enough that when it rains it basically becomes a shallow pond… or a weird cauldron of fog.

I played it off. Figured the dog had just laid down somewhere in that mess for whatever dog reasons it had. After all, why would I dwell on the odd habit of the local mutt when I had a week off to enjoy? Work had died down for the season, and I’d decided on burning through some saved-up vacation time. I told my dad I already had plans when he called. That was easier than explaining why I didn’t want to be near him anymore.

I wasted the morning with coffee and getting mad at my TV screen as kids half my age repeatedly tanked my KDR. It was after about the fifth round of the same kid talking about my mother while teabagging my corpse that I gave up and decided a nice trek would be in order. Sue me, I like my walks, and the mountains make a nice background.

Throwing on my boots and grabbing my pack, I stepped outside. The fog had cleared by then, and the same boring patch of road and rocky terrain was visible. Trekking my way down, I kept my eye open for the pooch, figuring he’d follow me for a while like usual before losing interest, but… he never showed. Not in the entire walk from the rocky shrubland that was my neighborhood to the local forest with that wonderful, almost cinnamon smell coming off the trees.

It was beautiful out.

Only a single cloud in the sky overhead.

I should’ve thought something about it then. Should’ve noticed that cloud had been floating over me since I left my house.

I spent hours just walking, taking in the sights and smells of the woods I’d probably walked a thousand times by now without issue. I made my way up the well-walked path that led to a nice little cliff edge where I could sit and rest.

That’s when I really noticed it.

As I left the woodline, I realized the little rounded cloud I’d seen what must’ve been a mile or so away still seemed to be directly overhead… and maybe even bigger. Was it sitting so low in the sky that my rise in elevation had actually brought me close enough to make it seem that way?

Still, who would pay any attention to that?

I didn’t think anything of it and went ahead to my usual spot under the lone tree, where a large stone just flat enough to act as a stool rested. I sat down and began eating the basic ham-and-cheese sandwich I’d packed. Earbuds in, audiobook playing, I took in the sights until I saw movement.

A deer.

I admit it, I got a little too excited, giddy to see what seemed to be a lone doe cautiously making her way into the clearing, apparently wholly unaware of my presence. After a couple of minutes of watching her munch away at a small bush, I decided spooking her would be worth a laugh.

I put my fingers to my lips and blew hard. The whistle was obnoxiously loud.

I could already feel the laugh building as I saw her body tighten and her head shoot up to look directly at me.

Then nothing.

Well, not nothing. Just… white.

Like a smoke bomb had gone off, the area where the deer had been standing was blanketed in a thick wall of white. The only sound was a muffled fall, like cloth being dropped over your head.

I sat there and watched. Watched the fog.

Fog that slowly rose up from the ground after only a minute or so of having touched down.

Fog does not just drop like that… right?

The deer was gone. That was made clear as the last wispy streaks of white floated slowly up and away. My eyes naturally fell on the treeline, trying to figure out where it had gone, but it was still. Not a single rustled branch, or the normal crashing and rustling of leaves you’d expect from a decent-sized animal fleeing from a predator.

Just quiet.

I slowly got up, confused, and hesitantly approached the patch of grass not twenty feet away where the deer had been.

The grass had been pushed down. Not necessarily crushed, but definitely disturbed.

My foot knocked against something. A small black lump.

I knelt over and picked it up. It had a small white caterpillar on it, with a little fluffy, silk-like attachment on its rear. I gently brushed it off, watching it fall to the ground and start spazzing out, flopping back and forth like a fish out of water. Once it was out of the way, I looked at what I was holding.

The texture was odd. Smooth. Hollow. It felt almost like plastic.

And then it dawned on me.

This was a hoof. Part of one, at least.

I looked back up at the still-rising cloud of white… and saw something float up past my face.

A little white puffball that rose to join the greater whole above me.

A white mass that sat there.

Not moving with the wind. Not billowing or shifting.

Static.

Waiting.

So I ran. Ran into the treeline, down the path. Legs pumping, lungs burning, by God, I ran. I don’t even really remember being scared, just a strong sense of needing to put as much distance between myself and that place as possible.

By the time I’d gotten two-thirds of the way home, my clothes were soaked. I was coughing, taking rough, gasping breaths. And somewhere in there, I found myself laughing. Not hard, just a short, breathless chuckle.

What was I running from? A damn cloud.

I stopped to catch my breath, just for a moment. Leaned against a sign that marked the edge of town. And looked back.

And there it was. Moving calmly, almost imperceptibly. It had to be moving- how else could it still be there? It wasn’t fast. But it was definitely following me.

And that’s where I am now. Sitting in my home, cloud overhead, with not a single damn idea who to call.

Pest control? A priest? The police?