Alessa

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Alessa walked for what felt like hours, through thick fog that hid everything but the shadowy figures of dragons she once knew. They stood stiff as death, faces blotted out with a dark, undecipherable haze but their forlorn stares were piercing. She was not afraid but sad. She wanted to take their hands and lead them away from the nothing she ran from but knew better than to try. She walked on. The abyss began to wane into familiarity.

Back home again.

The flickering sign of Morning Gate Motel glowed brightly against the stark blackness of night and mist, dainty dusty moths fluttering about the light. Alessa sighed as she made her way to the motel's entrance, her heels softly clicking against the cracked pavement. How many times has she tried to leave only to find the roads cutting off into sheer cliffs or simply engulfed in fog as if they weren't there at all. Sometimes she felt like she wasn't trying to leave at all, simply walking into the void just to disappear, even for but a moment. But, the void always spat her back out at the mouth of the town's main road, the bars that held closed this prison.

She had a business to run after all, for all those customers she never gets. Of course, however, she had to be there for the occasional random traveler who unwittingly stumbled into the town limits, drawn by whatever sin the residents would accuse them of. "Don't take it personally," she'd say and offer a hot cup of tea before her guest would inevitably leave and face the trials of the town. It was rare she'd see them come back.

Alessa unlocked the door to the lobby and turned, peering into the woods that lined the road. A deer - maybe - watched from the tall grass, glowing red hands gripping its throat and raking its skin. She nodded with a smile and it did the same in a sort of painful bow that buckled its joints, eyes unwavering from hers.

You are loved, she mouthed before going inside, locking the door behind her.