Editor’s note:
All of the following messages are presented unedited.
Saturday |
||
| Nothing. I waited up all night for Sophie. Wanted to walk in the garden, but the week’s exhaustion just overwhelmed me. | ||
| This morning it was too late. walked in the garden as dawn kept up. A nasty winter mist in the air nearly soaked me to the skin. | ||
| even called her name, but felt foolish. I know she’s not in earshot. If she was she would have spoken. | ||
| So I came inside, dripping wet from the mist. But as i walked along the path, crunching loudly, i’m sure i heard giggling. | @ZakiIslam1 That is very good. I think Sunday evening I can come to you. Ms Khan will come too and we can talk. | |
| tiny laughter in an empty garden.
|
||
| thank you. yes, sunday evening is good. see you then. | ||
|
|
@ZakiIslam1 Pls read tinyurl.com/cvuuuk7 | |
|
|
||
|
|
||
| Going to visit mum and dad today. If I sit here thinking about this insanity i’ll go mad. |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
| Dad’s in his shed. Mum fussing over something. Tv is on the food channel. Life seems normal again. Luckily the don’t even own a PC. | ||
|
|
||
| So the tension is rising on some cookery programme, and they play the theme from ‘the exorcist’! | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| Leaving mum and dad’s. smelling of TCP (mum’s speciality) on my face and hand. Didn’t show her the rest of me. back to unreality |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
Sunday
|
||
| Yesterday marked a change in my thinking. came home with a couple of extension leads & 500w lights from dad | ||
| So slept last night in a room lit like an airport runway. Used a blindfold and after an uncomfortable time slept soundly | ||
| Also took mum’s reader’s digest books to find out about mice and the like. seems they do hate light, so it all makes sense. | ||
| half a mind to cancel the jinn nonsense. But we’ll see. Had a good sleep. just dreading the electricity bill! | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| Good news! I’m not possessed! Bad news: our toilet probably is. |
|
|
| Z wandered the house, little bro in tow, ‘feeling the nature of the beast’ so to speak. Seems the signs are there already. | ||
| from what Aisha told him, Z is convinced that the house is home to a whole family of jinn. she totally believes. | ||
| z says this will take several days. first there is tat-heer al-qalb, what he calls ‘cleansing the heart’. In this case the house. | ||
|
|
||
| I was scared he’d take one look at me and say I was possessed, but it’s not like that. Luckily. He could beat it out of me | ||
| Z must explore the house and grounds, find all the ‘dirty places’ (his words) where they lurk, and seek out these things. | ||
| I get the feeling that Aisha has told him a lot more than she told me. He knows all about the deaths, and has totally ruled me out | ||
| If this got any more surreal i’d be tweeting this on a lobster phone. |
|
|
|
|
||
| sitting in our kitchen, with a cop, a red bearded imam and a little boy and talking about X-Factor, Strictly and Jinn. | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| between bites of pizza he says ‘Do you know anyone who has been touched by jinn in this house?’ |
|
|
| I should lie. But he knows. I’m sure he does. The marks on my skin, my face is obvious, and Sophie. of course Sophie. |
|
|
| ‘When your partner comes back, then I can help cleanse her. But for now we must concentrate on this house.’ |
|
|
| I have strict instructions, but can only carry them out in daylight, when the jinn are in hiding. |
|
|
| Meanwhile he is teaching me special words to say on entering a room, sleeping or leaving. Meant to protect me as much as anything |
|
|
| The thing is his manner is so calm, so peaceful and so convincing that I am starting to believe. But we’ll see. proof of the pud. | ||
| and all the while his little bro eats pizza, and DC Khan (off duty) avoids eye contact. | ||
|
|
||
| nightmares, strange noises, marks on the skin, weird stuff… all say jinn are on the lose. So i said goodbye to Aisha, Z & kid | ||
|
|
||
| The child seemed very interested in the garden on the way out, but was told to get into the car. |
|
|
|
|
||
| As I turned away & a child shouted ‘Where are you going?’ as if it was throwing a tantrum. But the garden was empty, the car gone. |
|
|
| I must say my prayers whenever I move in this house. tomorrow I must prepare to clean my mind & the rooms. Sleeping with lights on. |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
Monday
|
||
| @janicewong3 early start today. Just thinking of you. saw what you said. pls be careful x | ||
| restless night J. Sleeping in the light should have brought some peace, but all the time my head was filled with words | ||
| not the things i’m meant to say on entering a room or closing a door. I put those on post-its around the house. something else. | ||
| ‘Where are you going to my pretty maid?’ Round and round and round in my head until I could hear the words. | ||
| I googled it, but not happy with what I found. There’s children’s words, but that’s not what i heard at all. | ||
| take a look at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen…, or children’s rhymes. That’s not it. | ||
| There are some US versions claiming it’s only 100 years old. But it’s not. chivalry.com/cantaria/lyric…. just want to get it out of my head | ||
| Her boots were black and her stockings white And her buckles shone like silver… |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| She had a dark and a roving eye And her ear-rings tipped her shoulder… | @janicewong3 are you working today? | |
| yes yes, of course. Z says I need to put all the sharp things into a box first and hide them. | @janicewong3 excuse me? | |
| Before the house can be cleansed I need to hide anything sharp away from jinn eyes. For protection. | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| Beano’s back, with a social worker and the police. Welcome to a cold morning in the village. | ||
|
|
||
| Temperature has dropped. A constant mist has descended on the village so the street lights are on |
|
|
|
|
||
| Came home an hour ago. weather has really moved in. Heavy fog. Khan (off duty), Imam Zaki and little Janaid were waiting for me. |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
| As requested all the ‘sharps’ were bagged up in plastic and locked in the boot of the car. exorcising jinn is like airport security |
|
|
|
|
||
| If anything Zaki’s beard is more hennaed & luxuriant than ever. He has come here 2 cleanse the house, bt it will take several tries. |
|
|
| right now he’s reading verses in each room, addressing the jinn hidden there. All jinn will listen when he speaks with authority | where are you going¶ my sweet and pretty fair maid?¶ With your red rosy cheeks¶ and your curly black hair?¶ | |
| @janicewong3 what are you saying? | ||
| I’m sorry. Janaid has gone missing. He was standing eating crisps one minute, and nowhere the next. | ||
| found him. He was in the garden. Soaked to the skin. just went outside because we told him to. except we didn’t. | @janicewong3 that song. what was that. still in your head? | |
| Aisha looks visibly shaken. Is mumbling in her own language. Z is taking it calmly, like he’s seen it before. | ¶What is your father, my pretty maid?¶ | |
|
|
@janicewong3 is someone else tweeting for you? You’re not making sense. | |
|
|
||
| Z says he is done for now. He will try the garden tomorrow, in better weather. Said no sounds were heard. all good. | ||
|
|
||
| They’re gone. J you need to see this : http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=hes&p=1506 That song is much older than they say. | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| It’s called ‘dabbling in the dew’, or for the older one, ‘rolling in the dew’ from 1700’s. God knows where I heard it | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
Tuesday |
||
| Aisha Khan called me late last night. Said the moment she drove away, Janaid had a screaming fit saying he had to come back. | ||
| Z held him down the whole way, calming him with apt verses. I slept with the lights on again. No night terrors here. | ||
| Aisha says they will bring the boy tonight. He is calm. Wants to come. Wants to hear the jinnis sing. | ||
| Sitting in the longest meeting and all I can hear in my head is Sophie singing ‘where are you going my dear pretty maid…’ | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| Not going home straight. Need to eat out. No knives or forks at home any more |
|
|
| @janicewong3 I know you’re busy, but found something odd in the surveyor’s report about your house. have a look page 15, para 4. | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| @janicewong3 says that he detected metal ‘inside’ the beams of the house, totally at odds with the age. the house it lined in it. | ||
| sorry. standing shivering in the garden. Zaki, Aisha (off duty) and Janaid were waiting, already walking the garden. | @janicewong3 That would be crazy in any house, but one that old? It makes no sense. It makes it a virtual cage. | |
| Same old same old. but Janaid is very calm. Not eating, just staring around the garden, like he’s looking for something. | ||
| Aisha is standing by the wall. looking cold in all ways. she’s virtually silent when Imam Zaki is casting out jinn. | ||
| Janaid has gone missing again. This time I’m sure he was with us, literally standing beside me, then I blinked. | ||
| Zaki is still in the garden, walking amongst the plants, saying his words at the top of his lungs. He says this is the jinn at work. | ||
| Aisha and I are searching the grounds, the house is locked, and I have the key, so he couldn’t have gone far. | ||
|
|
||
| Walked down to the road. No sign of him. going back to the garden to walk the path into the woods. | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| Now I’m worried. Got that burning feeling in the pit of my stomach. walked so far we can’t hear Z. Nothing. No Janaid. | ||
|
|
||
| Can’t risk getting disorientated. Bad idea to start searching in the dark. Aisha’s already calling her station for help. | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| This forest is so silent. No insects. No sounds save our own breathing. |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
| Found him! How did he walk so far without us noticing? we turned back & he was behind us, sitting under a tree quite happily! kids! | ||
| Aisha tried to take him by the hand, but he suddenly threw a tantrum, screaming and kicking at her until she backed off. | ||
| Oh god, he’s singing ‘Shall I go along with you, my sweet and pretty fair maid, with your red rosy cheeks and your curly black hair’ | ||
| It’s that bloody song. stuck in my head all day. ‘Supposing I should jump overboard, my sweet and pretty fair maid’ | ||
| ‘Then the Devil would jump after you, Kind sir, she answered me…’ at that point Aisha hit him so hard I felt it myself. | ||
| Not sure if that was anger or training. The boy started crying. she hugged him tight. Now we’re taking him back to the house. | ||
|
|
||
| But he says the hidden people will not like that we’ve stolen him back. When they find him they’ll be mad. | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
Wednesday
|
||
| All night I could hear that song in my head until I thought someone was singing it for real. I took off my blindfold and looked. | ||
| But all I could see was the blinding light of dad’s security lights. The house is empty. It is always empty, but that song still… | ||
| I could hear it, I swear, not just in my head, but really hear it. The faintest whisper in the air, like memory of sound. | ||
| I searched every room, put on every light until the house was blinding, but it was only when I stopped and looked outside that I saw | ||
| Sophie was in the garden. whispering that song ‘oh where are you going to my pretty maid…’ She was walking through the plants. | ||
| I watched her and went to open the door and let her in, but hesitated. Somehow the light was safe. I know that. But Sophie… | ||
| I love her so much, bt she looked like a waif, starved, with nothing bt moonlight for food. If I should go out I would leave forever | ||
| So I remained inside, and watched her wander carelessly back into the woods. I stared and stared into the night until dawn | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| So I remained inside, and watched her wander carelessly back into the woods. I stared and stared into the night until dawn | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| But I understand what you mean about the house Janice. It is a cage. not as something to trap things inside. This house is safety. | ||
| It’s like a cage divers use to see sharks. Not to keep you in, but to keep something out. So deep in the woods. Far too deep. | ||
| Like a deep water diver, protected by metal so I can observe what is outside and not be bitten. I am safe inside. | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| The head’s on the rampage. Finally sorted out all the paperwork to have Beano thrown out. Shame the boy’s been good of late. | ||
| ¶oh where are you going to my little maid, ¶with your curly black hair ¶and eyes of blue? ¶ | ||
| ¶To the strawberry fields my little man ¶
|
||
|
|
||
|
¶For strawberry leaves ¶make a maiden fair.¶
|
||
|
|
||
| Came home early, with supermarket sandwiches and soup. No need to cut anything. Just needed 2 get home before Zaki’s madness begins. | ||
| Instead I’ve been on the laptop researching that song. so many versions, words keep changing. www.folkinfo. org/songs/displaysong.php?songid=110 | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| They arrived at 7 on the dot, never late. Tonight was going to be about the final cleansing, but things have changed | ||
| Janaid didn’t go to school today. (guess I should be appalled). They kept him home to exorcise the jinns from him. | ||
| Aisha has been on duty all day. But Z has been working on the child, to no avail it seems. That’s why he’s brought him here. | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| He believes the only place to remove the jinns from him is in the place where they took him. I thought he meant the woods, but no | ||
| Z believes the house will do (it’s MUCH warmer, so i’m relieved). He says this is all good, since it means the jinns are scared. | ||
| Not as scared as me. Z’s calm belies a craziness that frightens me, but more than that, the boy is totally, er, normal. | ||
| Nothing seems to say he has anything weird. He’s eating crisps again, and seems oblivious to what Z is planning. He trusts him. | ||
| Z calls this ruqiyah. It’s nothing like what I thought an exorcism would be. No weird magic, just his knowledge of the right words. | ||
| For safety Aisha is tying the boy to a chair with straps she’s brought specially. She’s kind to him though. He is not afraid. | ||
| Z is simply reciting his verses. He pauses now and then and out of habit strokes his beard, before regaining his composure. | ||
| The child is talking. I can barely hear him over Z’s shouting. I swear he plans to should the jinn out of the boy. | ||
| The boy is just talking normally. no strange ethereal voices. Just a little boy tied to a chair in my living room. | ||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| the boy says ‘the hidden people are lovely. They will not harm me. They are kind and good. They sing me songs’. | ||
| and he sings a song, the words I cannot say, but the tune… the tune has burned itself into my thoughts for days. | ||
| ‘Pa le er ew why moaz môz vean whêg, Gen alaz thêg hagaz blèu melyn?’ He sings like he knows the words | ||
| Z is refusing to speak, so I asked the boy anyway. ‘What is that song Janaid?’ -‘It’s their wedding song,’ he says. | ||
| ‘They wanted me to marry. I said I was too young, but they laughed and said I was old.’ And Z shakes him and shouts and shouts. | ||
| I open the door as instructed. And when I do I see Sophie. Far away, in the shadows on the edge of the garden. But it’s her | ||
| I know that dress. That summer dress. She just looks at me… not me, the house, but does not approach. Just stares sadly. | ||
| And I stare so hard I don’t notice her gone, just the pale outline of her burned into my eyes. A seared memory. | ||
| Aisha holds my hand, i’m not sure which of us needs comfort more. And as Z shouts, the boy says, | ‘Chantel will be mad.’ | |
|
|
Continued in Veil 0.3…
Yán Engels 