About fifteen minutes ago, Coulson's squad had left Adela's home by car, intending to investigate the home of the fifth witness. This witness was not American, but a Canadian living in a small town near Niagara Falls.
So, Coulson and his squad prepared their identification for customs check. The process went smoothly. The Canadian Customs hardly stopped Americans. Coulson showed his identification, didn't even have to stop his vehicle, and was allowed to pass through.
While on the road, Coulson thought about the process that Adela had told him of her encounter with the Guest in the Fog.
Years of dealing with supernatural events prompted Coulson to speculate about the conditions of the Fog Guest's appearance. Could it be reaching a certain speed with the vehicle? Could it be at a certain intersection? Or even after fueling at a specific gas station?
It sounded absurd, but the Mysticism was just that absurd. For many years, S.H.I.E.L.D. had not perfectly resolved any event, most of them were just pacifying influences, because many supernatural phenomena occurred irrationally.
It might suddenly appear, cause disaster, and then never appear again, and nothing would allow the human race to explore its pattern or prepare for it.
This job often made Coulson feel the insignificance of the human race, the last time he perfectly handled a supernatural event was the hammer that fell in New Mexico, but it wasn't really perfect, as the owner of the hammer solved it, not him.
Coulson was lost in thought. When he snapped back to reality, he noticed that fog was starting to form around them.
Simmons reached out from behind him, patting his shoulder. Coulson turned to look at her, nodding his head, but everyone silently refrained from speaking.
Coulson knew what he had to do. He slowly stopped the car, rolled down the windows but did not open the doors or get out. It was apparent he was mimicking what Adela had done.
He fiddled with the satellite positioning device and found no signal as expected. Replacing his foot on the accelerator, the car sped off.
But this time, Coulson consciously noted the distance he had covered. He realized that Adela's perception was indeed not very accurate, and the judgment of the two scientists behind him was more precise. He had driven nearly 200 kilometers before the car ran out of fuel.
A 200-kilometer ride wasn't short, and it should have felt very long, but it seemed to pass quickly for them.
Finally, when the fuel was exhausted, the car slowly stopped. Coulson didn't rush to get out, instead he quietly stared into the dense fog in front of him.
As expected, a faint figure appeared at the end of the fog.
Now Coulson completely understood the sight Adela had described, it seemed like a person, but it wasn't a physical human being, but the shadow of the fog.
No, that wasn't quite accurate either, Coulson thought, he wasn't the shadow of the fog, rather a mysterious guest emanating from it.
The other three in the car each opened their doors and got out; Coulson could definitely feel some mysterious force affecting them. Was it the fog?
Or perhaps they were the actual guests in the fog, and the figure was the master of it.
Coulson swallowed slightly, uncertain about whether he should start a conversation with the figure. Despite his judgment telling him it would be futile, he nevertheless stepped slightly forward and spoke up, "Who are you? What do you want?"
No response.
He stood there silently, watching everything unfold, making it clear he was intently observing the surroundings, wanting to say something, but his presence felt as elusive and silent as the fog.
Coulson took a deep breath, stepped back, and told the others, "Get ready with the adrenaline, we need to observe how the fog dissolves, it may be hiding the secrets of this mysterious Fog Guest."
Yes, Coulson intended to outwait the Fog Guest.
As Adela had said, her emotional state was unstable at the time; she broke down and fell asleep sobbing in the car after the encounter. When she woke up, she found herself already gone.
But Coulson was a professional agent, his squad battle-hardened, they didn't think what was happening now was a disaster, it was just another part of their job. So there wouldn't be any emotional fluctuations.
That being the case, they could just stay here, record the time, and see when the dense fog dissipates. Then by comparing the time they entered the fog, they might find the pattern of its appearance and disappearance.
Coulson nodded, "Return to the car, take turns keeping watch, let's see who the fog is really appearing for."
This was another test, because so far, all the witness reports were single-person ones. There were only photographs of multiple people with the Fog Guest in the same scene. To clarify the conditions of the Fog Guest's appearance, they had to change the number of people.
Coulson quickly arranged the watch shifts, he was the first, so the others went back into the car.
According to Adela, from the time she started crying until she fell asleep, she felt it was about 40 minutes; thus, the first watch was set for an hour. The second watch was extended a bit longer, with each shift lasting two hours, and so on.
When Coulson was on the first shift, he didn't notice any symptoms, and the Shadow didn't show any changes, but when it was time to change shifts, the moment Coulson opened the car door his hand froze.
In the reflection on the car window, he saw the sky where dense fog gradually formed the shape of an enormous eye.
Coulson took a deep breath, and gently knocked on the car door. His assistant May, having heard the agreed signal, pushed open the door to exit the vehicle.
But Coulson didn't return to the vehicle as agreed by the time the second shift ended, he just stood dumbfounded by the car door as if he had seen something.
May cautiously came over and was startled as soon she glanced at the car window. She too saw that enormous eye, and in just a matter of several dozen seconds, it had already begun to take shape.
"No..." Coulson whispered: "Something is not right about this place."
The fog surrounding them was getting denser, Coulson looked around and his visibility was less than ten meters, completely engulfed by dense fog, as if submerged in an ocean of fog, fully enveloped, with no space left.
After a brief pause, Coulson began to frantically knock on the back seat window, calling out the remaining two, extending both hands, and saying: "Change in tactics, we need to try ways to leave. I have a bad feeling about this."
As Coulson spoke these words, the other two also saw from the reflections in the car windows that in the fog-filled sky, more and more giant eyes were opening.
The eyes were growing bigger and getting denser, and in the end, the entire sky was filled with countless giant eyes, all staring down at them.
Coulson once again looked towards the fog, he realized with some horror that the figure in the fog seemed to be getting closer to them.
It was no illusion, absolutely no illusion, Coulson didn't know if he had voiced this out loud, he thought he might have, because fear quickly appeared on the faces of his companions.
The expression on Simmons' face suddenly changed, she pointed behind Coulson, he spun around, to see a wide-open mouth.
It was a void surrounded by fog, with teeth formed out of fog. Past the fog was not the clear view of the road that should have been there, but countless chaotic scenes.
Then, with a blink of the enormous eye in the sky, everyone's vision went dark for a moment, along with the mouth opening for a moment, everyone's mouths opened too.
They felt as if some words were about to burst out of them, but Coulson's extensive experience and highly keen instinct saved him, he knew he must not utter those words, or else he would be trapped in the fog forever.
"Get in the car!!!"
As Coulson roared, he swung open the car door and got in the driver's seat. By now, the fog was substantial and started to seep in through the gaps in the doors, and those eyes and mouths were crowding the car windows, as if desperately trying to get closer to them.
The main reason was that they had handled many supernatural phenomena before, none of which was more terrifying than this.
Because there were no physical monsters, no enemies, nothing tactile. They could see, hear, and feel things, but as a matter of fact, they had not seen, heard, or felt anything at all.
Coulson managed to keep some of his sanity, that he even found time to glance at his watch. At shift change, he had called the next shift a minute early, so it was precisely an hour now.
Coulson had no other options, he slammed straight to the accelerator pedal, surprisingly the car, which was supposed to be out of gas, started up, and charged straight at the open road ahead.
But this was not a good sign, because at the end of the road, deep in the fog, stood a mysterious figure.
The moment the speeding car brushed past the figure, Coulson finally got a clearer look.
A man in classical attire, a black cloak, top hat, all like a gentleman who had time-traveled from the Victorian Era, seemingly standing from another era behind the fog.
He stood across the road, watching Coulson's speeding car go by, still ethereal and silent.
In the fleeting moment of Coulson's bewildering gaze with the Fog Guest, once he came to, his body was suddenly pulled back against the seat, instinctively he hit the brakes, and all were thrown forward in the car.
Coulson was panting heavily over the steering wheel, his forehead had been cut open, blood trickling down his cheek.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Coulson turned his head, only to find policemen in uniforms knocking on his car window, "Hello, do you need help?"
Coulson was stunned, his occupational instincts moved him to touch his forehead wound, he began to doubt if the Canadian police were visually impaired- didn't they see they were all bleeding from their heads? Why were they reacting like this?
However, he didn't feel any pain when he touched, he slumped to the side and looked at the rearview mirror to find he didn't even have any wounds.
Everyone in the car exchanged glances, apparently they all carried the same previous memory, it seemed to be the first witnessed group incident.
The now paramount task is to figure out where they are, Coulson looked up and found he was parked by the road. He rolled down the window and asked the officer, "Where are we now?"
"Maple Avenue." said the officer with a Canadian accent: "Oh, that's what you tourists call it, but the maple leaf season is nearly over."
"No, we're okay. We just received some bad news about our colleague." To ease the tension, Coulson made a somber expression.
May at his side immediately tightened her lips and gave a bitter smile to the officer, who instantly understood, placed his hand on the car window and said: "A tough day, huh? But don't worry, a view of the great Niagara Falls will heal all sorrow."
"Much appreciated, officer, we'll be on our way now."
Coulson bid the officer goodbye, stepped on the gas, and the car started up smoothly, indicating there was still some fuel. Everyone in the car wanted to discuss the recent event, but knew now was not the time.
They soon reached the town by Lake Niagara, they checked into a motel. Just as they were about to return to their rooms to discuss the event, they overheard the motel receptionist discussing the fog issue at Niagara Falls with a colleague.
Coulson listened in, then found out the continuous dense fog was severely impacting the profits of the final tourist season at Niagara Falls. The mayor of the town, where the tourism industry was the primary source of income, was currently recruiting professionals to solve the problem.
Professionals? Coulson thought, wasn't he a professional himself? Or were there other professionals with more understanding of this dense fog?
As soon as he thought of this, the front door of the motel was pushed open again. Coulson turned back down the stairs, only to see a man in a circular hat, wearing a black double-breasted woolen coat, glasses, talking to the receptionist.
As Coulson descended the steps, the man looked up at the sound of his footsteps, and Coulson saw a pair of light brown eyes.