Protectors of the Veil

by Dawn Matthews

  “Then we grabbed him and brought him inside,” Nicolas said. “We weren’t sure if there would be more of them or not. Otherwise we would have taken him right to the hospital.”

  Jason spoke in his mind, trying to send a message to Mork. “Mork, see if they buy this and let me know.”

  “Okay,” Mork thought into Jason’s head.

  “Don’t even worry about it, he would have died anyway. Look, can we trust you guys to keep a secret?” Jason said.

  “Yeah,” said Tayllor.

  “Sure,” Nicolas said.

  “Look, nobody will believe you anyway, so keep your mouths shut,” Jason gave them a stern look to drive the point home. “These things were an experiment. They went berserk, and we lost control of them. That guy,” Jason motioned to Danny’s body, “was an agent. He gave his life to protect us all. You guys helped, too. We thank you for your help, and that is the only reason I’m telling you this. There aren’t any more of them, so you don’t have to worry. Keep it quiet or we’ll have to pay you another visit. This shit is classified.”

  “Woah!” Tayllor said. “We were involved in something classified, that’s so cool!”

  “Yeah,” Nicolas said, “too bad we can’t use it to get girls.”

  “They buy it,” Mork said into Jason’s head, “hook, line, and sinker. I’ve always wanted to say that.”

  “We’ve got to get going,” Jason said. “We’ll take that body for you.”

  Mork lifted the body and they left the cabin to a very relieved Tayllor and Nicolas. Mork placed the body in the trunk. Jason drove away from the cabin a few miles, and once they were out of sight, he pushed the button taking them back to the garage.

  “You did good, Mork,” Jason said.

  “OH, THANK YOU, JASON!” Mork said. “That was the best case I’ve been on so far!”

  “It was a good case. I hope we get to work together again soon,” Jason said.

  “Me too,” Mork said. “Have a great evening!”

  “You, too, Mork,” Jason got out of the car. He wasn’t sure what happened to bodies that they brought back, but they always seemed to be taken care of by someone. He went back to the office. He could hear the elevator ding.

  CHAPTER 12: THE STONED MEN

  Bertha rushed out of the elevator, “Clinton Trapp!” She handed him the paper and ran back into the elevator.

  “Duty calls,” Clinton said.

  Clinton made his way to the garage, swiped his finger, and typed in the case number.

  “Good evening, Agent Clinton Trapp. Here is the story of your case…:”

  “ABDUCTION”

  Three men were laying on a rooftop smoking Domiana at night. “Dude, this is grade A shit,” Brandon Reynolds said.

  “Yeah, it is,” Joe Craven said. “I don’t think I can move.”

  “Hey, what is that?” Jonathon Trujillo asked. He pointed to a triangle-shaped craft in the sky.

  “Dafuck is that?” Joe said.

  “Is that thing real or did we just smoke too much?” Brandon said.

  “Where’s my phone?” Jonathon said. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and fumbled around a minute before he remembered how to work it. “I got it.” He turned on the record button to take a video.

  “What if it’s real and they take us for experiments?” Brandon said.

  “ANAL PROBES!” Joe said.

  “They’re not touching my ass!” Brandon said. “I’m going to get my swords!” He swung down from the roof and into an open window. He grabbed one sword, looked at the clock which read 2:00 am, then grabbed another sword. He looked in the mirror to fix his ass-length blonde rock and roll hair before heading back to the window. He swung back up with a sword in each hand. “Come at me, you bitches!”

  Eventually, Brandon sat down and just observed. They blinked and the craft was gone and the sun was coming up.

  “What the hell just happened?” Jonathon said.

  “I just looked at the clock when I got my swords, it’s only two o’clock in the morning. The sun can’t be rising,” Brandon said.

  “Either we were abducted or we fell asleep,” Joe said.

  “We didn’t fall asleep,” Jonathon said. “Look where my phone is, I was taking video over there. There is no way I fell asleep and walked over here.”

  “Go see what’s on the video,” Joe said.

  Jonathon walked over and picked up the phone. He walked back to his friends before pushing the button. He took a deep breath, wondering what he was going to see. Then he pushed play. The video showed the three men suspended in a bright light, floating up to the triangular ship. Then the ship disappeared. The video shut off before they returned.

  “What the fuck?!” Brandon said.

  “OUR ANUSES HAVE BEEN PROBED!” Joe said.

  For the past three nights, they’ve gotten high on that rooftop and seen the ship. They weren’t abducted again, as far as they know.

  END.

  “Your job, Agent Trapp, is to convince the men that it was nothing more than a hallucination from their drug use. Mork will be your partner, because he keeps volunteering.”

  Clinton got in the car and Mork appeared, overly enthusiastic as usual.

  “Hi, Clinton!” Mork said. “I am very excited about this assignment!”

  “I bet,” Clinton said. “How’s it going, Mork?”

  “I am well,” he said, “how are you?”

  “I’m good, thanks,” Clinton said. He pushed the button and they were suddenly in front of the trailer. “We have to get to the roof.”

  “No problem,” Mork said. He took Clinton’s arm and Clinton felt like he was spinning. Next thing he knew, they were on the rooftop.

  “Dude!” Brandon said, “It’s the Interdimensional and Veil Affairs!”

  “I heard you boys thought you saw something,” Clinton said.

  “I am erasing the video off his phone,” Mork said into Clinton’s head.

  “It happened! We got video!” Jonathon said.

  “Okay, then,” Clinton said, “show me.”

  Jonathon fumbled through his phone looking for the video. “NO WAY! WHAT HAPPENED?”

  “What’s wrong, man?” Brandon said.

  “The video is gone!” Jonathon said.

  “They had to have erased it!” Joe said, motioning to Mork and Clinton.

  “We just got here,” Clinton said, “how could we erase his phone? We never touched it, it’s been in his pocket.”

  “He has a point,” Jonathon said. “Okay, when it gets dark, the UFO shows up.”

  “You’re sure all of this is happening and it’s not just a drug-addled hallucination?” Clinton said.

  “I was sure,” Brandon said, “now that there’s no video I’m not as sure.”

  “How about we’ll wait on the roof with you. If the UFO shows up, then you’re right about everything. If not, then it was just a hallucination,” Mork said.

  “What if it only comes because we’re all high?” Joe said.

  “Well,” Mork said as he whipped out a big bag of weed, “I guess we’ll have to get high too, and see what happens.”

  “I am a dedicated man,” Clinton said, “I will do research for my job.”

  Clinton and Mork proceeded to get completely baked. They spent the entire night getting high and joking. The UFO never showed up. The men fell asleep and slept most of the day on the roof in the hot sun.

  When Joe, Brandon, and Jonathon awoke, the Interdimensional and Veil Affairs were gone.

  “Okay, what the hell?” Joe said, “was that a hallucination, too?”

  “I don’t know,” Brandon said, “Jon, check your phone. Is there any video?”

  “No,” Jonathon said. “It’s gone. Either we smoked up one hell of a shared hallucination, or it all happened and the IVAs left before we woke up.”

  “Well,” Joe said, “it is three in the afternoon. I guess we’ll never know unless it happens again.”

  “So, I gues
s we’re meeting up here at the usual time?” Brandon said.

  “Hell yeah,” Joe and Jonathon said in unison.

  CHAPTER 13: MY GODDESS IS BETTER THAN YOURS

  Bertha got in the elevator with her folder and Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” came on as she stepped in. “Are you trying to tell me I’m going crazy, elevator?” she asked it. “You’re probably right, I feel like I’m going insane.”

  The elevator stopped on the twentieth floor, and Mason Shandy stepped inside. “I know I’m going insane elevator, thank you for the reminder,” he said. “How are you, Bertha?”

  “I’m not sure if that song was just for me or for both of us,” she said.

  “This elevator is evil; I’m certain it was for both of us. It seems to know things we are clueless about,” Mason said.

  “True,” she said.

  Normally the two would have joked around or danced, but they were both feeling somber. They spent the ride down with the song as the only sound. They both got out as soon as the doors opened.

  Bertha shouted, “Anna Hellstrom!”

  Anna jumped up from her desk and ran over to Bertha. Bertha handed her the folder and immediately turned and walked back into the elevator. Anna grabbed her coat and hat and headed to the garage.

  Anna placed her index finger on the fingerprint reader and the robotic female voice came on. “Good morning, Agent Hellstrom. Here is the back story to your assignment:”

  “HEX”

  In a quaint town in Michigan lived Jen Ingersoll. Jen was a strong outspoken woman, she wasn’t one to keep her opinions to herself or pretend she liked you if you were an ass. Such honesty is usually not appreciated, especially in today’s climate of political correctness. One of her neighbors, she called herself Isis Moonbeam, was a special snowflake kind of person. If you weren’t politically correct then she thought you were fascist, racist, etc. Jen was none of those things, and didn’t appreciate the name calling. The two women were at such opposite ends of the political spectrum that they despised each other. Isis was Wiccan and believed herself to have great power. She ran her own “coven” out of her home.

  One day, Jen found a strange object laying on her porch. There was also a drawing of a strange symbol in black chalk or something underneath the object. Understanding that this was some sort of curse or hex from Isis, she started laughing and threw the object into the road. She went about her day without another thought of the object or the chalk drawing. Later that night, she scrubbed it off her porch before the sun set.

  That night she had strange dreams. The weird part was that she remembered them all vividly the next day, and in fact, she never did forget them. They were different entities telling her she was hexed, and how to unhex herself. She didn’t give the dreams much thought…until much later. She dressed and went out to do some errands. Within five minutes of leaving the house, she narrowly missed hitting a large buck. She slammed on the brakes and took a deep breath before going forward again. Then, as she was driving, a buck rammed the passenger side of her car. “Shit, shit, shit! I do not have time for this!” she said. She decided to go and get her stuff done and then deal with the car.

  Something happened at every stop she made. It was nothing big, just small things: longer waits in line, someone spilled a drink all over her clothes, a big thunderstorm came out of nowhere, etc. Finally, she was done and took the car in to the mechanic to have it fixed. It was a three hour wait and cost a deductible of $700. At least, by this time, her clothes were dry but stained.

  After eating a late dinner and changing into comfy pajamas, she started thinking about those dreams she had the night before. The name Nephthys was echoing through her mind. As soon as she really thought about the name, she saw in her mind piercing bright green eyes that were like goats’ eyes or octopus’ eyes. She heard a woman’s voice whisper “You are one of us, seek me in the woods.” Jen saw directions in her mind of where to find her. She was also saw an image of herself dressed in a black hooded cape she had bought for Halloween two years ago.

  Jen jumped out of her chair and got dressed, nothing fancy just a pair of jeans, and a snug t-shirt. She grabbed the cape, put some socks and shoes on, grabbed her keys and got in the car. She was worried that she would have to struggle to remember the instructions, but every turn popped into her mind at exactly the right time. It took her thirty-six minutes before the “stop” instruction came. Nothing hit her car, she saw no animals in the road, no cars in the road, it was like she was the only person that existed on this dimension. She knew she wasn’t, but she also knew Nephthys cleared a path for her to combat the hex.

  The hex worked by using Murphy’s Law, anything that can happen will happen (in this case that anything is a bad thing). Nephthys eliminated the possibility of anything bad happening.

  Jen grabbed the cape, got out of the car, and locked it. She put the keys in her front pocket and headed into the woods. She walked through the thick forest for about twenty minutes when a rock path appeared. She heard a whisper: “this is where I was worshiped long ago…and now.”

  Jen walked another twenty minutes before reaching a pyramid-shaped stone building. It had steps that lead to the top of the structure. It looked much like a Mayan or Aztec temple. She looked up in awe for a good three minutes before mounting the steps. As she climbed the steps, she wondered how this colossal structure had never been seen or discovered. At that thought, she heard the female voice laugh and instantly understood that it was protected by Nephthys. Nobody unworthy would ever be able to find it.

  When Jen reached the top of the building, she turned around to see how far she could see. It was amazing, she could see her car, and probably her house if her eyesight had been superhuman. She could see several lakes nearby, more forests, and a bunch of towns. After taking in the scenery, she turned to enter the temple. It was lit with torches. Was it lit before? Was it lit when she turned around to look at the scenery? She couldn’t be sure, but she didn’t think so.

  She unfolded the hooded black cape and put it on, pulling the hood over her head. The temple had a really strange feeling, it almost felt as if it were alive. There were paintings of Nephthys on the walls. A big statue sat on an altar. There was a stone table directly in front of the statue. On the table was a ceremonial knife; the handle looked like it was made of bone. She touched the handle and could feel the energy coming off it. The female voice said, “Use the blade to cut yourself. You must dedicate yourself to me so I can remove the hex. Use the blood from your arm to write a dedication to me using the quill and paper in front of you.”

  As she had been instructed, Jen sliced her arm open. There was a small bowl where she dumped in her own blood. Then she wrote the following:

  “I, Jen Ingersoll, dedicate myself fully to Nephthys. May you guide me on this path of Chaos. Protect me from my enemies and use me to further your intentions. I align with you, Nephthys. My enemies are your enemies, and your enemies are my enemies. My spirit from this day forward is yours.

  Signed: Jen Ingersoll”“

  She held the paper into a nearby torch and set it on fire. She held onto it as long as she could and set the flaming paper on the stone table.

  “Good,” the female voice whispered into her mind, “there is a buck behind you, slit its throat and collect the blood in the bowl with your blood.”

  As she moved toward the deer with the bowl in one hand and the knife in the other, she wondered why ritual sacrifice wasn’t mentioned BEFORE she signed the paper. She was not scared or upset in any way, but she knew almost everyone she had ever met would be. Then she realized that this might be one of the reasons Nephthys chose her. She slit the large buck’s throat and the liquid came gushing out. The animal never even flinched. He went limp and she saw the life flow out of him. She filled the bowl and took it back to the altar table. She sat the bowl of blood and the knife on the stone table and took a step back.

  “I offer you this blood, from myself and from a creature of the fo
rest. In return, I want Isis Moonbeam cursed to the greatest extent. May she pay for her hatred and her feeble attempt to destroy me. My Goddess, the great Nephthys, is more powerful than hers. Show her your might! I HEX YOU, ISIS MOONBEAM, IN THE NAME OF NEPHTHYS! MAY YOU ROT IN YOUR VERSION OF HELL!”

  She felt a shift in the air as something definitely happened. It was done. Now she just had to wait. “I thank you, my Goddess.” She bowed in respect toward the statue of Nephthys. Then she turned and walked outside. She left the deer carcass and considered it part of the offering. She took a deep breath outside the door. Every part of her relaxed. She felt both at ease and exhilarated at the same time. She could feel Nephthys’ power coursing through her. Somehow, she seemed to have even more confidence. She removed and refolded the cape, now her designated ritual cape. She tucked it under her arm and descended the steps.

  The 40-minute walk felt like nothing, even through the dense forest where there was no path. She drove back home and found herself in the best mood she remembered ever have experienced.

  Jen had a shower to rinse the blood off herself. The cut had healed a lot, but she put some antibiotic ointment on it and wrapped a bandage around it. She went to bed and had the best sleep ever.

  Jen went about her day as usual. Unlike the day before, her day was stellar. Everything went her way. When she got home, Isis Moonbeam was outside her door. Before Jen even got her car parked in the garage, the woman stomped over to her.

  “WHAT DID YOU DO?” she screamed. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!!”

  Jen got out of her car and got a closer look at the woman; she looked horrible. Her hair had fallen out in large clumps, her eyes had black circles around them and were sunken.

  “I don’t know what you mean, but I think you need to go to a doctor,” Jen said.

  “This is a hex! It’s not something a doctor can help! WHEN DID YOU BECOME A WITCH?! WHO ARE YOU WORKING WITH?” Isis screeched.

  “What’s the matter? Is my Goddess stronger than yours? I thought you were all powerful?” Jen said with a smirk.