The Twentieth Post

Wow. Post 20. I don't know if I ever expected to write 20 posts on this. I've been cut-and-pasting all the posts into a Word doc as well, and it's to 30 pages. I don't know if I'm impressed about writing this much, or basking in a fabulous waste of space. I also haven't figured out the point I'm trying to make. Is the Mist inherently bad? No. Not really. It's basically a glorified neighborhood watch with legal permission to -- shall we say -- handle the problem.

One might be tempted to ask why the police can't just handle the legal issues and why anyone would need to create extraneous organizations. Well, consider how the legal system actually operates and the horror stories that go along with it. A classic would be from The Godfather -- Bonasera's story from the beginning. His daughter was beaten by some boys that she would not let take advantage of her, but the boys got a suspended three year sentence, so he went to the Godfather for justice.

Now consider what the Mist would do in this exact situation. They have someone in the police department that would intercept an issue like that and forward it to The Mist to actually handle. The judge would never see it, and justice would be served, but not with violence. Maybe their bank account would suddenly lose its balance. Maybe their grades would plummet. Maybe their car wouldn't work properly. But they would know they were getting what they deserved for what they had done.

What they try to report it? What proof would they have? The person who sent the first report on would report the second and whatever damage was done would be repaired before the detectives got there. They would swear the father of the girl did it, but he knows nothing of the Mist or its activites, so he is off the hook, and it looks like the boys are trying to get someone in trouble.

You might be wondering, though, what the father would think that his report seemed lost in the system. Well, that's the beauty of how they work. The father's paperwork is still there, but delayed until enough fuss is raised to make them look like the bad boys they are, and force the eventual decision to be less lenient. After all, these troublemakers are falsifying police reports to get an old man in trouble knowing they would be reported, when it turns out his original report was there before theirs.

I know that reads kind of confusing, but it's technological sabotage that they specialize in. Whatever the technology is or was, they can mess with it and put it back at the drop of a hat. Even if they can't restore it, they can't prove who did it to them.

Sometimes, however, they just make people disappear. It depends on what they've done, and I don't know what happens to those who have disappeared, but people will vanish into thin air. The vanishing is so complete, that it appears that they never existed. Imagine no records whatsoever on someone who's been around for thirty years. You would expect tax records, DMV records, an email account, a birth certificate, even, but they're just gone. This is why I suspect this blog will be gone before I will. I'm surprised they haven't gotten to it yet.

Anyway, that's a long intro to this part of the story, and I want to try and keep the lengths readable if I can, so I'd best move on. All this will become apparent as we move on. A lot of it isn't known to most of the members, and this meeting I found myself in turned out to be little more than a memorial service for Tara.

He said she'd been a part of them her whole life, and recently moved into being an operative before she found herself infatuated with a mark. I can't help but wonder why he called me a mark. I thought that was a term for someone to be killed. Maybe it's inclusive of anyone being watched. He said it was believed that her mark killed her, though, which I know is untrue. It was all I could not to say something, but to do so would give me away.

They had decided not to pick me up yet, but see what my next moves would be. He said my every move would be watched, which was exceptionally strange to me, since if I were watched, I would have been intercepted before coming in here. I guess bosses lie too. If only they knew...well, I was actually glad they didn't know.

He said information about me would be disemminated among them very soon and the other members within the week. I couldn't help but wonder how many other members there were. There weren't a lot of people there. Was this people who knew her? The thought of this made me wonder about the conversation with the guard. Did he have a list? Did he know the charm, and just let me in? Was I actually being watched and they were just waiting?

Patience is in their nature and part of their way. It is not unheard of for them to allow someone to get themselves completely ensconced in something they weren't supposed to get into, and then spring the trap. I didn't know that, of course, at the time, but was thinking that I needed to leave as quickly as possible. I wasn't quite quick enough. Mack spoke up...

"And now to tell you all exactly what happened to her, and what he did, her mark, Mr. [Atari 2600]."

Everyone turned to look at me, and I knew I was screwed.