Neighborly

[Blue]

Kyoung Ho's thoughts wandered during the silent ride into town, revolving around his work and the sensation of his stomach eating itself in his ravenous state and--mostly--around a certain somebody who worked at the pharmacy in town. Maybe he could stop by. He was a smart man (though not so much after more than 24 hours without sleep). He could make up an excuse for being there...

That was so pathetic. It was almost as pathetic as when, back in university, he manufactured reasons to be at approximately the same places that Tori was, at the same times. Kyoung Ho wondered if Tori ever knew how hard he actually worked to appear effortlessly coincidental in some of their meetings. (Or if he knew and never said anything to avoid embarrassing Kyoung Ho.)

He was so absorbed in his thoughts, in fact, that he half-started when Wen spoke. Left? Kyoung Ho blinked. Almost missed that turn! He quickly changed lanes and made the correct turn to get himself to the gas station in town. "Thanks," he said, glancing swiftly at Wen. Kyoung Ho didn't know if the silence made him uncomfortable, the way it did to other people. He was fine with it himself, but he was often told that that was unnatural and 'weird.'

"Almost there." There, he tried to make some kind of conversation.

[Jiang Wen]

Yes, he knew they were almost there. Maybe Kyoung Ho didn't know he knew that so he made a small sound in the back of his throat to indicate he'd heard him. Wen had learned late in life that people disliked it when he left the silence stretching too long, so he expected Kyoung Ho to be much the same. However, that strange oppressive air that usually hung between himself and others wasn't there. There was no real tension, just a strange predicament, two people thrown together by the toss of fate's die.

He let the silence sink in since Kyoung Ho also didn't feel the need to fill it. Really, it was kind of a companionable silence, in which they both were no longer forcing out words just because they couldn't stand the sound of nothing. There were other sounds, anyway. The wet pavement under the tires, the rain against the glass.

The gas station was mostly abandoned, save for a pickup truck. The front door, which was normally propped open, was closed, but the open sign was hanging and the lights were on inside. There was a man behind the counter, looking up at what was probably the security camera feed. It seemed like the gas station was on another grid as well, since the power was still running.

"Be back," Wen said belatedly, after he'd already opened the door and stepped out of the car. It was common sense that he'd be back... unless he wanted to walk all the way back up the mountain on his own.

[Blue]

"I'll go with you," Kyoung Ho said as he undid the seatbelt and let it slide back into place, reaching for the door handle. He saw the bored-looking clerk inside through the fog. He also saw racks of convenience store junk food and he... he was so hungry that he'd risk a bag of chips. Just one bag, to tide him over until he could get some real food.

Outside, a stiff wind picked up and he hurried towards the convenience store. The attendant inside gave him a bit of a strange look--probably because he was dressed in an expensive coat, with a pair of silly pajama bottoms underneath--but Kyoung Ho was far past the point of self-consciousness. Besides, what did he care if a convenience store/gas station attendant judged him?

He bought a bag of chips and some dried fruits and nuts and wandered outside to check up on Wen. Presumably he had money on him. "Everything all right?" He asked as he approached, mildly frowning at the dense fog crowding in around them. For a second, he could have sworn that he saw something moving in the fog, but when he blinked, it was gone. Kyoung Ho shook his head lightly. Must be the hunger getting to him. And the lack of sleep.

[Jiang Wen]

"Yes."

He'd procured the gas he needed without much issue. Now he turned his gaze toward whatever Kyoung Ho was looking at. It wasn't a long look and by the time Wen turned, whatever it was had vanished. After paying for his purchase, Wen pulled the can of gas over to the car, waited until the trunk was opened, and then gently set it inside before closing the trunk. It was then that he realized that Kyoung Ho had what looked like some snacks in his hands.

He said nothing about it, but as he opened the passenger's side door to get into the car, he heard the sudden wail of human anguish from inside the gas station's shop.

"What...?"

He straightened up and turned back to the shop. He didn't see the clerk anymore.

"Did you see anything?"

[Blue]

That sound...

Kyoung Ho couldn't pinpoint it at first; the fog was so dense that it even distorted most sounds. He looked around a little wildly to find the source of the noise as the hair stood on end at the back of his neck. Idly, Kyoung Ho rubbed at the area; it prickled uncomfortably with the sensation at the back of his mind that something wasn't quite right here.

"I thought there was a shadow just now," he said slowly, not wanting to give in to idle speculation but unable to help the goosebumps that rose along his arms. When he looked inside the convenience store, the guy inside was gone. Briefly it looked like there was a distortion where he used to stand just behind the counter. Like the air shimmered slightly, the way it might during an intense heat wave. It wasn't hot, though--it was ice cold.

"...come on. I'll drive you back."

[Jiang Wen]

"Maybe it was just the clerk."

He saw it, too, though. Something... something definitely felt off. Suddenly, he regretted ever leaving his house. He should have stayed holed up there for the duration of the storm but at the same time... It had been driving him crazy. The darkness didn't bother him. The lack of being able to do anything mechanical at all--that bothered him. In the dark, he'd painted to wile away the time but it just hadn't been enough.

Staring through the windows of the gas station store, he tried to understand what he saw but there was nothing. Nothing at all. The man that was there had probably gone in the back room or perhaps some employee only lounge. Wen turned away and got into the car, closing the door--and locking it. Just in case.

As they left the store behind, he looked back once, and he could have sworn he saw something shifting within the fog around the store. But when he blinked, everything appeared normal again.

"...I've never seen such thick fog."

[Blue]

Wen beat him to it; Kyoung Ho also reached for the tab on the side of the door to lock the car doors. He wasn't the type to be easily spooked--he was very practical and not at all superstitious--but that prickle down the back of his neck, all the way to his tailbone, couldn't be ignored. Kyoung Ho, however, didn't look back at the convenience store. He was too busy pulling away from the gas station.

Out on the road, he felt better, and mentally chided himself for acting like a nervous kid. Really, it was just... a trick of the light. The fog playing tricks on him, swirling and moving the way it always did and appearing as though something lurked within. Kyoung Ho let out a low sigh and eased up on the gas pedal. Maybe monsters weren't real but cops were.

"They say it'll lift soon," he said doubtfully. Couldn't even see ten feet in front of him on the road; he had to pay attention to anything that looked like the lights of a car, to avoid plowing into somebody. "But it doesn't look like it will, does it?" He didn't dare take his eyes off the road so he didn't look over at Wen. "Are you going to be okay up on the mountain by yourself?"

[Jiang Wen]

When did it become this foggy? Was it because they were up on the mountain? Wen shivered slightly and watched the road ahead of them. He wasn't even sure how Kyoung Ho was managing to drive through it--that was how close the fog crawled around them.

Wen shook his head; it didn't look like this fog was lifting any time soon. Who was they, anyway? The news? Wen didn't have a television in his home. It seemed superfluous when he was usually focused on other tasks and didn't need the buzz of background sound the way some people might have. Today, however, he was becoming increasingly unsettled. There was something inherently wrong about the fog and he had no idea why he thought so. Staring out into it, he tried to use his witch's sight to see beyond the veil...

It was definitely magic in nature. But it was Old magic. Older than Wen could manage and he couldn't see beyond it. Letting out a gasp--he saw something staring at him--he turned toward Kyoung Ho with uncharacteristically owlish eyes.

"No." The word was stark, unusual. Always preferring to be alone with his work, with his projects, he found that tonight, he didn't want to be left alone up on the mountain. Not with whatever was out there lurking. If it came for him, nobody would even notice he was gone. The thought made his heart throb, lonely, realizing just how deeply he'd buried himself in his hole.

"Please," he said, "If you don't mind, I..."

[Blue]

For some reason--though he asked it first--Kyoung Ho expected Wen to decline. Maybe it was that aloof air about him, or the fact that he lived alone up in the mountains, that intimated a certain reluctance for company. Kyoung Ho wasn't overly social himself; people seemed to find him intimidating.

Not Wen, it seemed. Although he didn't take his eyes off the road, Kyoung Ho nodded. "Sure. It's probably not a good idea to keep running the generator all night anyway." One, it was a waste of gas and two, he didn't want Wen overwhelmed by fumes. Depending on how efficient his generator was, it might just do more harm than good. Besides, Kyoung Ho had electricity--Wen didn't. Just because he wasn't social didn't mean that he was pitiless.

"Bax will keep you company. I'm in the middle of a big case so I might have to disappear for a little while." Baxter was good company, though; he wasn't one of those frantic dogs that tore around with frenetic energy. They began the long ascent up the mountain and the car slowed to a near-crawl. Kyoung Ho didn't want to risk plunging off a cliff, or rounding a sharp corner too quickly.

"I ordered pizza before you got here," he remarked, mostly to himself. "The delivery guy's probably not even there yet."

[Jiang Wen]

Bax? The dog? Wen recalled the large, intimidating dog that had greeted him at the door. While it seemed well-mannered and hadn't jumped on him or dismissed his master's orders, Wen still found himself nervous at the prospect of being around such a large dog. Still, beggars could hardly be choosers. Part of him wished that he could just go back home. Now that he had the gasoline, he could start up the generator and get back to work. But it wouldn't hurt to spend just one evening away from work.

It was the fog. It was putting him into a strange mood. Wen was always apprehensive around people but now he felt almost... threatened by what he felt. He could feel something was off in the weather but he hadn't felt it nearly as strongly as he did when they were closer to the town proper. What did that even mean? Looking over at Kyoung Ho while the car slowed down because of the lack of visibility, he started.

Pizza...? Delivery guy?

"...do you think he's still coming?"

[Blue]

"He'd better be, I'm starving. I haven't eaten for over a day," Kyoung Ho grumbled as they climbed up the path with all the speed of an aging turtle. The snacks that he had bought earlier at the convenience store had already been consumed and they staved off the hunger pangs briefly, but they wouldn't tide him over for the rest of the night.

There was probably food in the fridge at home, but Kyoung Ho was no great cook. In fact, he was pretty terrible. In university he ate out or counted on certain willing individuals to feed him and look after him (shamelessly using the heavy law school curriculum as an excuse). In retrospect, maybe he should have picked up some basic cooking skills but it was too late now.

"I can barely make out the houses from the road." He craned his neck forward to get a better look at the buildings on either side. Was his house close, or did they still have a ways to go? The fog obscured any visual cues that he could have used to find his way back home. Still, they should have been close, and it wasn't like the path ran forward indefinitely. The road ended in a cul-de-sac a little ways ahead, so if he hit that, he'd know that he had gone too far.

"I think that's the one." Kyoung Ho turned into a driveway that he hoped was his.

[Jiang Wen]

It seemed like a dangerous time to be a delivery driver. How many would be out in this weather? Wen thought most would probably have a legal obligation to keep their workers safe. If that was so, wouldn't Kyoung Ho receive a call? They would have said they couldn't deliver if they couldn't.... Unless something else was going on. Wen tucked a stray hair behind his ear and lightly shook his head at himself. No, no. There was nothing more going on under the surface. The drivers were probably prepared to drive in fog, perhaps. Wen wouldn't know; he hadn't lived here long.

With his Sight, he looked out past the fog, at the houses. Then he nodded. Kyoung Ho was correct. They were driving into the right driveway--though they had almost turned into the wrong one for a second there. After they rolled to a stop, Wen got out of the car and closed the door behind him. The gas could stay in the car for the time being. He didn't need it here.

He looked up at the large, modern style home and he felt a strange little tinge of an unreliable emotion in his gut. Wrapping his arms around himself, he waited on Kyoung Ho. Behind the front door, he could hear the dog barking to either greet them or scare them away.

"Does it usually... linger long?" he asked, looking at the fog that enveloped them.

[Blue]

"...no idea," Kyoung Ho muttered distractedly as he searched for his door keys. It was so hard to see anything in the damned fog. "Down Bax!" he called, and the scratching stopped. Kyoung Ho slid the key into the lock and opened the door, and Baxter leapt on him, both paws on his shoulders. He wobbled around for a bit while trying to calm his dog down.

"You okay, Bax?" It wasn't like him to jump on people--even Kyoung Ho. Absently patting Baxter's head, he looked inside. A funny kind of shiver in the air attracted his attention, right by the entryway leading into the downstairs family room. "Hey... that's..." It looked eerily similar to what he saw back at the gas station, come to think of it. Kyoung Ho walked inside and turned on the lights, bathing the entryway in a warm, golden glow.

When he looked at the shimmery something again, it was gone. Kyoung Ho toed off his shoes, mystified. Maybe he was so hungry that his vision was starting to go. "I think... I'm going to lay down for a little while. I'm starting to see things."

[Jiang Wen]

Wen kept his gaze on the dog, still nervous around a creature his size. If that thing decided to leap on him like that, he wouldn't be responsible for whatever happened next. However, the dog seemed to stay near its master and Wen lightly rubbed his arms, despite the fact that they were inside a house and he wore a sweater. It wasn't the cold that made him do it; it was a gut reaction to whatever quivered in the air around them. Not between them--something outside them. Like the air. The fog.

Wen did his best not to look back, instead, trying to focus on the interior of his neighbor's house.

Kyoung Ho had a pretty nice place. It was actually well kept up and a far cry from the place Wen called home. Wen kept things in what he thought of as controlled chaos. To the naked eye, things might seem like a mess but he knew where everything was in his home.

"Ah." He cautiously removed his shoes, but stood awkwardly near the entrance. If Kyoung Ho was going to lie down then... "Where should I... go?"

[Blue]

Kyoung Ho massaged his temple; he had a raging headache now and he didn't even know what brought it on. Maybe still hunger, although maybe it was also that weird thick fog. Maybe it was the shiver that ran up his spine just now as he gazed out of the window, only to see a wall of gray.

"Ah. Yes, sorry." It was probably not a good idea to let a stranger loose around the house, but Bax would keep an eye on him. It felt rude to just leave Wen to his own devices, though.

"We have a theater room upstairs. How about some movies?" Baxter nosed around Wen's legs and feet, then gave a soft bark. His tail wagged expectantly, for a head pat or some kind of recognition.