Silent fog drifts across the graveyard, worn headstones of the long dead vanishing into the cloud. Silhouettes of leafless trees shadow a solitary visitor, hiding its condition from the watching crows. Softly blowing wind tickles its fragile fingertips. With hollow eyes, it stares past frozen limbs with icicles clawing down from the branches.
Low beam headlights pierce the misty night air. A lost mother turns into the graveyard, pulling out her phone to look up directions, but there’s no service. Furious windshield wipers fail to clear the foggy glass, worrying the already anxious driver. Her baby daughter wails in the backseat, spitting out her pacifier and throwing it into the footwell.
Frustrated, the woman reaches over the center console to find the binky, but her hands don’t locate it. She looks back, not seeing the deer in the middle of the road as it emerges from the fog.
The car slams into it.
She screams and steers the smoking car off the asphalt, trampling aged headstones. Lights flicker as the car hits a tree and the phone tumbles to the floor. The headlights land on a skeletal figure under a tree. The baby stops crying when her mother opens the door.
“Hello? How do I get to Staunton?”
Silent fog drifts into the car as the lonely visitor turns its head.