A shrill cry echoed in the mist.

There was a small, old rural town right outside the city that was surrounded by mountains. Despite the beautiful setting of the town, the people there did not have much but they worked hard for what they had. Although there weren’t many opportunities in that town, they took to the city for work, often choosing lives working in banks, as lawyers, or as doctors.  

One such townsperson was a man who worked as a lawyer in the city. His firm did not treat him well — despite the stress and pressure from working there, he was rewarded with long working hours and low pay.  As a boy, he grew up in the mountains of the nearby town with his parents but wanted to build a better life, so he found a job as a lawyer in the city. He had thought law would be the perfect career, but he always found himself dreaming of a simple farming life back in the countryside.

After the particularly long day of work, he took a train ride back to his house.  He stared out the window at the mountains rolling by, contemplating a happier life. Suddenly, a memory from the past pierced his happy daydreaming. He remembered coming back from school one day as young adult to an empty house. The town searched far and wide for his parents but there was no trace of them.  

The moment he got back home from the ride, he decided to pay a visit to his parent’s graves, hoping for some sort of guidance or comfort.

As he walked to the cemetery, rain came falling from the sky and pattered on his red tie, the same red tie his father used to wear.  Once he arrived at his parents’ grave, he got down on his knees and prayed for them to help him overcome his troubles.  As he prayed, a shrill cry suddenly echoed in the mist.  

He looked up and saw nothing, and so he supposed that it was just a wild animal or bird and ignored it. But as he walked back home the sound kept getting louder and more frequent, until he decided to follow it.  As he followed it, shadowy figures started to appear in front of him. They looked eerily similar to his missing parents….

Confused, he decided to keep following as the shadowy figures led him to a lake.  The figures walked into the lake, while glancing back at him as if beckoning for him to join them. He walked slowly behind them into the lake.

Two Weeks Later

It had been two weeks since he left for the cemetery and no one had seen the man.  There were rumors that he probably ran away from work, or that he followed his parents’ path somehow and disappeared, but no one knew exactly what happened.  The only trace that was left of him was an old red tie, soaked in water, lying on the floor of his house...