That finale. The whole thing was just… ouch. Seriously, like one gut punch after another right up until the end. And now we have to wait a whole blasted year before we get anymore. Ladies and gentlemen, it is going to be a long wait.

Until then we still have fanfiction at least, eh? I know I have a number of works already in progress, so hopefully I'll be here for quite some time.

Unlike my other stuff, this will be a multi-chapter. I'm still working on where exactly to take it, but I have the start/end result planned out. I just need to figure out how we get there, and just how far to take it.

Without further ado, I bid you join me down the rabbit hole. You're going to quickly discover why I used that particular phrase.

Enjoy.

"Hello?" Ben called out into the empty street.

No answer.

"Hello?" Ben tried again. "Anyone there?"

Where did everybody go? Ben had spent his entire childhood, and the majority of his adult life, here in Bristol Cove, and never had he seen it so empty. Every street was deserted, no lights or power worked anywhere that Ben could tell.

As if the situation could get any creepier, a dense fog had settled over the town. Blanketing everything in its grim pall. Ben could barely see ten feet in front of him. This didn't seem like regular fog either. Just being in it left an ugly sense of foreboding.

Were Ben a superstitious person, he would say the fog's presence was a bad omen.

Every time Ben yelled into the mist, he would be met only with silence. How many hours had he been doing this? Ever since he…

Wait, how long had he been at this?

Not for the first time, Ben struggled to remember how this started. The last thing he could remember clearly was waking up on the floor of his place, and even that was hazy at best. What was he doing before then?

Before Ben could dig deeper into his memory, a lancing bolt of agony shot right through his skull. Like a spike being driven through his temple. Vision swimming, Ben almost blacked out. He would have fallen had he not managed to catch himself on a nearby parked car.

Sitting on the hood, Ben forced himself to remain still until the pain passed.

Evidently, thinking too hard could hurt you, or at least trying to remember too hard. Who would have thought?

Taking a deep breath, Ben stood up from the car, his equilibrium restored. Whatever was going on with Bristol Cove, Ben wasn't going to figure it out by sitting in the street.

An idea came to Ben's mind then, one that made him feel like an idiot for not considering it before.

Whipping out his cell phone, Ben instinctively went to call Maddie. His thumb hesitated over the call button, recalling all too well how their parting had gone. It may not be the best idea to call his… were they even a couple anymore? Did she want to speak with him yet?

What was he thinking? Something terrible happened to Bristol Cove that he couldn't remember, and Ben was seriously worried about personal feelings?

Ben slammed the green button so hard his finger hurt.

"I'm in the middle of Bristol Cove!" Ben groaned, holding the phone aloft. "How the hell do I not have signal!"

Ben resumed his foggy trek through Bristol Cove, watchful of his phone for the tiniest bar of service.

To make matters worse, his car refused to start. There was no rational reason for this either, it was like the car chose not to work. A preposterous notion, but Ben had no other theories that made sense. Unless a miracle occurred, he was stuck walking.

Ben had been alternating between calling out for any people and checking is phone when he noticed something very wrong.

Taking a good, hard look at his phone's screen, Ben saw the time hadn't moved since he last checked. The glowing screen read one-seventeen, exactly like it did ten minutes ago. The fog might be disorienting, but there was no way he had been walking around only a few seconds.

"What on earth…" Ben stopped to watch the screen, counting seconds as he did so. He gave up when his count hit one hundred, the one-seventeen remaining in place.

Thinking the screen was froze, he went into his contacts and text history. After scrolling around for a while to confirm that nothing was frozen, when he returned to the main page, he found the time still unchanged. Not even turning it off and on did anything.

Ben frantically screamed, panic starting to rise. "Somebody, anybody?"

Ben went from a brisk walk, to a full sprint. Checking windows, cars, anything a person could be concealed behind for any sign of his town's residents. There was someone around, there had to be!

There was nothing, only an eerie silence that permeated the whole town.

It was subtle at first, a quiet hum that danced on the edge of Ben's perception. Slowly, it grew in intensity until Ben could hear it more clearly. A quiet melody that Ben felt more than heard. There might have been words behind it, but he couldn't tell, not for sure.

Whatever it was, it was oddly familiar. Familiar, and deeply disturbing, for some odd reason.

Good or bad, it was a sign of life in an otherwise lifeless town. Ben just needed to find it. If he could, it might lead to more people. Hopefully, they would know more than he did at the moment.

"Can you hear me?" Ben's attempt to locate the source of the sound was an abysmal failure. No matter what direction he went, the tune didn't get louder or softer. It was almost as if it was coming from all around at once. "I hear you. Where are you?"

Giving up on that objective, Ben reevaluated his options. Maybe the town had to be quickly evacuated for some reason, and he missed it, somehow.

Maddie might be angry at him still, but surely she would have made some mention of leaving town. Helen, his dad, any of the people Ben knew. Somebody would have called or texted him.

There was also the possibility that nobody had been able to send him a message. They could have left a written on instead for him to find.

A goal in mind to focus his thoughts, Ben took another look at his surroundings. It was difficult to navigate with all the fog, but if Ben read that sign correctly…

Helen's shop should be two blocks over. It was certainly closer than Pownall Seafood, Maddie and Dale's place, or Xander's. As good a place as any to start.

If people were indeed hiding indoors, he might find both Ryn and Helen there. A mermaid and partial mermaid with one stone.

At the thought of Ryn, Ben felt his insides twisting into knots. Ben and Ryn hadn't exactly parted all that well, either. Maddie had left in frustration and anger, Ryn in sorrow and regret. He was the last person they needed to see, but Ben had to try.

At the very least to make sure they were all safe.

Yeah… make sure Ryn was safe, like that line of thinking had served him well in the past. Might be better if he just said screw it and took the extra time to hike to Xander's. At least the two men had reconciled, somewhat.

For the love of… no more second guessing! Ben was going to Helen's first because it was closer, and that was final.

Ben didn't bother sticking to the streets at this point. He cut right though alleyways and backyards, the latter in the hope of being caught and scolded by somebody for trespassing. No such luck.

With every step, Ben felt that sound digging under his skin. The volume never changed, but it was beginning to grate on his nerves. It was so familiar, though. Like a faint recollection buried deep within his mind that he couldn't seem to recall.

"Just shut up, already!" Ben howled into the fog, patience running thin.

Ben didn't know why he thought that might actually do something. It didn't, of course. The song continued on, much to Ben's annoyance. He did his best to shut it out, for now at least.

"H…Helen?" An exhausted Ben called out when he reached Helen's shop. He ran most of the way here, lungs burning with exertion. Fatigue was good, Ben couldn't hear that damn song if he was too tired to do so. "Helen? It's Ben!"

Nothing.

The shop was quieter than a grave, the electricity offline just like everywhere else. It never occurred to Ben how spooky an antique shop could be after hours, if this counted as after hours.

Hoping to find some kind of clue, Ben rummaged about Helen's desk. He made sure not to make too bad of a mess of the papers and small objects. She'd give him an earful later if she found out he trashed her workspace. It wound up being a fruitless search, there were notes, but nothing addressed to him or giving any hint what was going on.

It was a good sign when Ben found the door to Helen's apartment open a crack. Unless she was home, Helen kept the knob securely locked, even while working. She had to be here somewhere.

Turned out, she wasn't. The apartment was every bit as empty as the rest of Bristol Cove. No Helen and Ryn, no message for Ben, just that same blank silence as outside.

Nothing, nothing, and more nothing. Just like everything else in this whole damn town!

"WHERE IS EVERYBODY?" Ben roared at the top of his lungs once he was back out onto the street.

"Hello, Ben."

Shorter than my usual, yes, but I wanted to give something like an intro to set the ball rolling. Some of this I'm making as I go.

As always, reviews/comments are precious. Especially now that the show is on it's between season hiatus. They would be really helpful for keeping me going.