Veil 0.1

Date: September 25, 2016Author: Yán Engles Category: extract, short story Tags: fae, featured, horror, veil, weird

Editor’s note.

Continuing the transcript of messages from Veil 0.0.

	Sunday

Sophie came home again last night. she lay beside me on the floor of the living room and told me about the people in the woods.
They are her friends she said, they take care of her, and I must not worry. But she cannot come back to stay until i finish her job.
She was all loving smiles and whispered that the house must never be changed. Nothing fake is allowed, nothing modern.
take away the chemicals, she said, turn off the lights and she would come home again. This house would be the same.
but then she stopped and looked to the stairs. Who is up there? she asked. I told her Janice is here. That was when I woke up.



The lights were on. I sleep with them on now. Sophie was never here, and all i could hear was the sound of Janice brushing her teeth.



Cops just left. DC Khan & a Dr. General questions, where was i? Working with Beano. How did I know Tom? What was he trapping.
That’s where it got weird. No sense that they connected me to it. But Qs about the house. Want to send a health inspector over ASAP.
Dr checked my bites. Said they aren’t infected. But also nothing to do with mice. Too clean
DC Khan left her card. They seem to be under the impression that Tom bled to death, but no idea how. No virus, no intruder.

Janice left. I now intend to spend the evening in the local pub until there’s no evening left.


		@janicewong3 Just past Tom’s. The whole place is blocked off by police. people in hazmat suits. very unnerving. Thanks for everything. X


	Monday
Came home far too late last night. Didn’t want to come home. Damn the alarm clock. Could have slept forever.

What happened last night? I didn’t drink so much I lost my mind, that only happens on tv, but where did all the dry blood come from?
Washed in the kitchen. Only torchlight upstairs. What happened? Washed the blood off my cheek. Have scratches there, not cuts.
When I look at it in the mirror, fresh blood welling up, it looks like a frowning face. Small and perfectly cut in my skin.
Sophie didn’t come back last night. Or maybe she did. But I slept upstairs and the room smelled like Janice.

Can’t be late for work this morning, but police medical team arrived dead on 7am. 3 blokes & a van. just let them in. S would be mad.

		@janicewong3 Had some time to investigate your house. Standard conveyancing checks say it’s an unaltered grade II listed.
Beano’s back. Seems he goes walkabout often. Wondered why DC Khan didn’t draw that connection with S leaving.
		@janicewong3 the date isn’t 1600 like your guy said. A house has been there for considerably longer.
Couldn’t bring myself to tell them what happened to the last lot.

The good side of Beano is he never once asked about the plaster on my face. Unlike the head who witty asked if I cut myself shaving.


	Tuesday
Removed the plaster. Under the kitchen light I can see the marks now. Not deep, bt precise. A frowning face I swear I’m not dreaming.
No Soph. I just slept soundly. All the lights are on downstairs, just as I left them. Ironically received DMs selling lighting!

Checking the traps around the house. Nothing but dust.

We’ve caught something! All the traps empty, but in the second bedroom I can hear noises. Something fluttering.
Leave it to the cops. That room has no lights. Don’t fancy being bitten more. Going to wash.
curiosity. that’s my problem. All the time I was washing (bloody freezing water!) I kept thinking about that thing. I need to see it.
It’s still alive. Some kind of dragonfly, long legs. Crazy wings that flutter too fast to see. And it glows. Didn’t need a torch…




let me back up: wore oven gloves & my duffle coat for protection. Pulled the cords tight just in case. tucked trousers into boots
yes, I felt stupid. looked it 2. bt didn’t want anything crawling up my legs. So there I was, protected, torch in hand, just 2 look.		@janicewong3 Are you crazy?! It that thing killed Tom you had no business messing with it! will try calling you later, found more abt the house.
It was on the floor, scrambling about, wings crazy, and glowing a rippling yellow, maybe red, changing colours. hypnotic almost
emptied a shoe box (the room is still boxed up) and dropped it insider, glue trap as well. Thing was furious, vibrating the box.
duct taped the lid down. used a chopstick to punch some air holes. Should be ok. gotta get to work. leave to the Drcops with a note
Missed the drcops, so left a postit on the door abt the box. Now to the joys of Beano.
		@janicewong3 Churned up some info that might be interesting: there has been a house at that location pretty much always…
Beano read 2 me for the first time today. Slowly, stumbling, bt he read. The head still wants him out though.


		@janicewong3 It’s OLD, as in well before records start. Even the doomsday book mentions ‘þá anbidstówe’ means ‘meeting’ place
		@janicewong3 thing is didn’t that estate agent call it something like that?
sorry, probs here. yes, that guy called it ‘Panstow’. Guess that’s the name you mean. Thought it was the village.		@janicewong3 lol. ‘pants’… but that’s not the village. The house has been there before there was any village within 100 miles
		@janicewong3 that’s the point. Why build such a house so deep in a forest? For the time it would have been major. Why there?
Sorry J, bit distracted here. Just got home. The Dr cops never arrived I. Post-it is gone, but the box is on the table.		@janicewong3 Ok. So is that thing dead? You should send a photo
That’s just it. It didn’t escape. The duct tape was cut on one side, the lid opened, the glue trap cut. someone did this

sorry, the twitter fairy is stealing my tweets! I said. No one entered the house, but the box was opened.		@janicewong3 Funny. Don’t know how you sleep in that house.
Not dead. Gone. The box is empty.
Sophie needs me here. She expects it when she comes back.		@janicewong3 Sophie?! Oh yes. forgot. Listen you be careful there. I’ll speak tomorrow. Okey doke. Don’t worry. things will be fine.
	Wednesday
Talk about nightmares, I dreamt that someone came to me in the dark & said ‘you’ll suffer for what you did to Chantel’
It’s like being in Hackney all over again. Then they held me down and I was paralysed. They did things I couldn’t feel.
No Sophie last night. Just the nightmares. I woke up, heart pounding like I’d been attacked by a gang.
I really need to get the lights fixed upstairs. Washing in moonlight and the glow of a torch isn’t enough

Bad day. Sore & achey like I’m coming down with something. No sign of Drcops, again. Nothing trapped. So not in the mood for Beano
Beano noticed it first. Said I had blood on my shirt. Only now I can see what he meant…
Went to the staff washroom. Seeing myself under bright fluorescent lights for the first time in weeks.

Damn I look a state. Plaster on my face, limp hair, pale skin. Didn’t realise til now, until Beano noticed.
They don’t hurt much, just sore. But they are not random. Feel crazy saying this. I can READ them.
That’s the thing. I can read them in the mirror. Like they have been written backwards on my skin just for me.
They say ‘Ronnie + Chantel’, ‘Channel xx’, ‘unseelie scum’, ‘ha, ha, ha’ & lots of obscenities. It’s like graffiti on flesh


DC Khan called. Said I should move out until the drcops have finished. I told her no. S needs someone at home.		@janicewong3 are you home yet? How are you?
got back an hour ago. Those marks are not at all clear in this light. Maybe I was seeing things. Drcops been & gone. you?		@janicewong3 I’m good. Bt found out something really weird about your house.
Don’t tell me, it was built on an Indian burial ground and all the previous owners died 😉		@janicewong3 actually precisely the opposite. No one has ever died there. No records of any deaths in that house. ever.

So? nothing spooky. told you so.		@janicewong3 No, think about it. Nearly 1000 years and not a single death there. but that’s not the strangest part…
		@janicewong3 the developer? called him. Secretary answered. seems he died before you moved in.
		@janicewong3 the electrician who wired the house? dead. The plumber? dead, it was in the local paper under ‘weird deaths’…
		@janicewong3 …plumber slipped in his own shower. Even the painter died. Basically anyone who has changed that house is dead.
So you’re saying ‘it’s dangerous, you must flee’? Heard it already. It’s nonsense.
		@janicewong3 No What i’m saying is that no one dies there in the house. You want to stay safe? Stay there. Just don’t leave.
Great! Sorted. Look there’s someone at the door. gotta go. Speak tomorrow xxx


	Thursday
Slept downstairs with the lights on last night. No bad dreams.
Actually it was DC Khan at the door last night. Off duty. Wants me to call her Aisha. Stayed far too long.
Thought she would just be a few mins, but coffee became dinner and she talked and talked and talked.
She said all kind of thing about Tom’s death, things I’m not meant to know. But more, she told me about the drcops.
The chief who accompanied her that first day has been missing for days. That’s why they hadn’t come back.
They found him yesterday. The other side of the woods. In his car. Dead. The police have called it suicide. He had personal issues.
Except Khan saw the body 1st. It was locked from the inside. Windows up, engine on, a classical CD playing on repeat.
She said he looked like someone had pushed a electric whisk into his eye. Just one. Very precise. But deep enough to kill him.
She knew it wasn’t suicide. So I told her about the other deaths. Thought she would laugh, but she nodded as if she had an answer.


It took ages for her to get to the point… she wanted to know if I was religious. I said no. This is why she came off duty.
She says its a jinn! Seriously. Knows all about them. Says she has family who’ve seen them in Pakistan. Totally believes.
Wants to bring an imam over to do an exorcism! Wonderful… thought Halloween was last week.



What’s this? A normal work day? Thought I’d fallen down a rabbit hole for a minute there.		@janicewong3 Hey there, read your messages over the last week and realised something… trouble only happens upstairs
Yes. I kinda noticed. In the dark upstairs. That’s why i’m sleeping downstairs with the light on from now on		@janicewong3 Look, I know she means well, but do you really believe what that copper said to you? come on, Jinns? In England?!
Total insanity. Jinns, ghosts, aliens, just depends on what you’re looking 4. Still let’s see. What bad can happen?		@janicewong3 don’t be careless luv, people have died for less. I just don’t know what to make of it. makes no sense on any level.

no worries. I’ll wait for Soph tonight, she’ll know what to do.
		@janicewong3 she’s gone luv x
No. I spoke to her a few days ago. don’t you remember?		@janicewong3 I thought you dreamt that.
no. she came home. i spoke to her.




	Friday
Sophie came home last night as I said she would. She told me she was safe and not to worry.
It took forever. I remained up all night, sitting downstairs with just one light on. It was only when I began to doze that she came
I saw her outside this time. In the garden. It was a clear and very cold night, with a low bright moon, so i could see her
she came to the window and looked inside. Totally silently, but i knew it was her.
I feared i would miss her, but there she was in the garden, just standing amongst the flowers. That’s why she was silent.
normally that path is noisy to the foot. Broken local slate. Better than a door bell, one can hear callers approaching. but not Soph
she just stood there for an age. She looked far too thin and pale, not just because of the moonlight. I don’t think she’s eating.
But despite it all, she was happy, smiling, as if wasting away had given her an euphoria. she walked with me in the garden and spoke
She told me about the hidden people in the woods that take care of her. She said they are good and kind and only want to help me.



But Chantel was angry. She was hurt, and it took a lot of persuasion for her not to take it out on me. She had to make an agreement
Those marks on my body were just a joke. They like to joke, and play games and laugh and laugh so hard they bleed. So Sophie said.
And then she sent me away with a kiss and a smile, saying she would be back soon. Not to worry. Life is good.
But I never told her about DC Khan, or her Imam, or about the people who died. Somehow it all slipped my mind.
All I could hear was Sophie, and how beautiful she was in that garden, with the pale light on her and the chill of winter all around
		@ZakiIslam1 morning. My name is Zaki. Ms Khan asked me to contact you about a problem you have been having. please reply

when you get a chance, please tell me what you think about this guy who contacted me. Would like your advice

		@janicewong3 Sorry it’s taken so long. Work took over, bt I didn’t know what to say. Where has S been? what’s happening with you?
		@janicewong3 three things stand out. All were men. all died violently, often involving blood letting. But the weirdest thing is how
		@janicewong3 Let me start at the beginning. Those people who died associated with your house. Did more digging, old news etc.
		@janicewong3 painter impaled after falling off a ladder, plumber drowned, electrician sliced by fuse wire…
		@janicewong3 a scientist whose brain is scrambled by a whisk? It’s some kind of grand accidental joke.
Thanks Janice. Look I know you think this is stupid, but i’m scared…		@janicewong3 This is not a virus, or mice. If they are linked there is a sick intelligence behind this. All were impossible
In the cold light of day I see the marks on my body, cuts on my arm, face and hands,& i think Soph is half starved.		@janicewong3 So in answer to your question: when you said it, I thought ‘no’. It’s mad. But this IS mad. So yes. do it. please
All I could hear was Sophie, and how beautiful she was in that garden, with the pale light on her and the chill of winter all around
to @ZakiIslam1: Thank you for the message. Sorry for the delay. Yes, I want to go ahead.

continued in Veil 0.2…

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