A Particular Night in Venice 5

"This fog is insane!!! Where the hell did it come from?? I can't see shit!"'

A young man of barely 25, is struggling to navigate a bicycle in fog thick as cotton. The small electric headlight struggles to shine ahead of the bike. The rolling of the tires and crank of the chain are amplified in the damp air.

"Victor get your shit together!" he barks at himself. Frustrated he veers to the curb, stopping to gain composure and try to regain some orientation. "Wait...where am I?". He rubs his eyes, it feels like he looked over a boiling spaghetti pot. His ears snap up as the sound of a car appears out of nowhere. The headlamps burst light in every direction and yet illumimate nothing. He swears he hears horse hooves in gallop. He peers all around looking for the animal. This is Venice Beach. It wouldn't be that particularly strange to see a horse. The bar for strange in this place is set pretty high. But why can't he see it?

"What's your name?" a playful voice pierces his bubble and he lets out a startled shout.

"Oh, I sure am sorry sir, I didn't mean to give you a fright." says a tall person in a playful white dress with a trim of deep black. A black matching the wet pair of Chuck Taylors.

He replies still laughing off the startle, "no that's ok. I just can't see very well in this fog".

The figure was not quite in full view but the converse sneakers could be seen bouncing. "What is your name I asked?"

"Yes, you did, I'm Victor. Hi." he replies hesitantly.

"You are a visitor." She says in a giggle innocent yet chilling. Victor notices hairs standing on end.

"No... no actually I live here. Somewhere. I am a little turned around. Is this Main St?"

"I don't know. I'm lost. I'm lost too. I'm lost, just like you." She stops bouncing. Pauses a brief moment before stepping out from the fog. Victor reacts like he took a shock to the chest as the person emerges forward with jagged finlike ears on a green mask that looks uncomfortably real. "Come be lost with me... come be lost too..."

Victor pulls the bike away pumping his legs with no intention of quitting. He cannot see his nose in front of his face but needs distance between him and that nonsense. Is that the galloping again?

The horse burst through the fog so close Victor could see up its nose. He cranked the handlebars fast enough to avoid the head-to-head collision, but the shoulder of the horse blasted him right out of the bicycle seat.

"Out of the way dimwit!!!" a voice cries in an accent from another time.

In a pile of pain Victor gasps for air and struggles to his feet. No bicycle in sight, no air in the lungs, and lightning bolts informing him of various impact points. "I knew I heard a horse", he gasps. Making himself laugh was not a good idea, "ow ow ow!!". He hears hooves again, no longer in a gallop.

"You boy!" the rider shouts sounding like a character from A Christmas Carol. "Are you in one piece? You should have your head examined riding that contraption in the fog!".

The horse emerges from the fog with a rider in costume right out of a Dickens novel. A rounded helmet and a dark uniform of some sort. The fog clings to the man as he rides closer. "A visitor no less. Well I have no interest in this matter. You did not see a ghastly creature prancing about by chance did you Visitor?".

Breath has returned, pain has not left. "I am not a visitor I live right... did you say CREATURE?... you know what?? Nevermind! Yes, the ghastly creature is dancing up the street. Saying they are lost."

"Get home boy, best not to be out when the lost children wander". He tilts his helmet, a salute goodbye, and rides off with purpose, leaving Victor with a gaping mouth and bent eyes.

"What in hell is happening?" Victor shouts. The echo drowns out the fading hooves clacking. A few dead still moments of silence pass as Victor's mind gives up trying to make sense of it all. The silence is interrupted with the familiar sound of Chuck Taylors skipping. Victor is no longer hesitating, there is craziness afoot tonight.

To be continued....