Veil

by Aaron Overfield

  Beyond hearing his voice and thoughts, Brock could also hear deeper into Hunter’s mind, underneath the surface. He could hear Hunter think to himself how Brock was going to experience driving a car and he could sense how happy that thought made Hunter feel. There were deeper layers of Hunter’s thoughts and emotions that were accessible to Brock, and he began to sense and comprehend them. The more he did so, the easier it became to tap into them.

  But, yes, he snapped out of it, Brock did like it. He liked driving something other than his wheelchair.

  Brock opened his eyes, looked at Hunter, and blinked three times. Then three times again. And then three times again. Hunter laughed and gave Brock the thumbs-up. Brock closed his eyes.

  After driving for approximately half-an-hour, Hunter parked and got out.

  “It’s really hard not to think about what my plans are. But shit, trying not to think about them is a way to think about them and I want everything to be a surprise. I planned today as best I could, but it’s my first time doing this so I couldn’t prepare for everything,” Hunter said into the open air as he walked alone along a gravel path.

  The experience of walking, through Hunter, still felt incredible for Brock. He enjoyed the walk and little by little became better at delving into the various depths of Hunter’s thoughts and emotions, which he slowly discovered were available to him. He could hear Hunter think about Brock and sensed Hunter knew how incredible the Veil was going to be for him. Brock could perceive how hard Hunter tried to take the time to enjoy every little thing so Brock could relish in the experience hours and hours later.

  Take your time, Brock could hear Hunter tell himself, everything you take for granted is something that could mean the world to him.

  Deep in Hunter’s thoughts, deeper than Hunter assumed Brock would be able to plunge, there was no pity for Brock. There was no sense of impatience on Hunter’s part; Brock found absolutely no part of Hunter wanted to get the day over with. Brock realized it wasn’t as if Hunter felt the day was something he should do for Brock, although he didn’t necessarily want to do it. No, Brock sensed, the day wasn’t some inconvenience for Hunter; there was truly nowhere else Hunter would’ve rather been and nothing else he would’ve rather done.

  As Hunter walked on, Brock scoured the depths of Hunter’s mind and found, in a combination of his thoughts and emotions, Hunter wouldn’t rather be doing anything else; he wouldn’t rather be anywhere else; he wouldn’t rather be with anyone else. Brock wondered if he was intruding by listening so deeply; he was listening much deeper than Hunter assumed Brock would be able to listen. However, Brock knew it was all part of what their day together through Veil was supposed to be about in the first place. He knew Hunter didn’t care about some privacy bullshit. Their Veil was about what Hunter wanted to give Brock and what he wanted to do for him.

  On the examining table, Brock opened his eyes and looked at Hunter. Brock’s eyes, whose tears dried since his last bout of emotion, welled up. Hunter noticed Brock’s expression and was somewhat startled, so he glanced at his notebook and pocket watch. He might’ve miscalculated somewhere; Brock shouldn’t be at a sad part. By the time he looked back up, Brock’s eyes were closed and he was smiling.

  Still on their walk, Brock felt the gravel under Hunter’s feet as his muscles moved and responded to the climb. The wind blew against Hunter’s upright body as he walked uphill, and Brock quickly realized where they were headed. He went back there a few times. Early on in Brock’s therapy, they thought maybe it would be good for him to revisit the place.

  Perhaps Hunter didn’t know Brock had gone back there already. Maybe he thought Brock couldn’t have accessed the path or made it up the hill or something. Maybe Hunter thought going back there would be cathartic since, as far as he knew, Brock never went back. Oh well, Brock didn’t mind; he was along for the ride. Years ago, his first time back on the cliff was a difficult experience for him, but only the first time. At least with Hunter, he figured, he got to walk up to the cliff instead of having to navigate that clumsy wheelchair.

  When Hunter got up to the place where, over twenty years before, he and his friend were carefree teenagers one minute and forever changed the next, he stopped. He stopped right before the rock Hunter and Brock and their friends used to all dive off. His toes touched the edge of it.

  “I’m sure you’ve been up here before. I never came with you. You know how I am about that sentimental bullshit. But I imagine, with all the shrinks your mom made you go to back then, a few had the bright idea that it would be good for you to revisit the scene of the crime, as it were. Well, bud,” Hunter finished as he kicked off his shoes and tossed the contents of his pockets onto the ground, “I doubt any of them could ever give you this kind of fucking therapy.”

  Hunter tore off his shirt, took a giant step back, and rushed forward. He lunged into the air and dove off the cliff—head first.

  10

  ANIMA

  In the lab, Hunter watched as, out of both shock and fear, Brock gasped for air, opened his eyes for a split second, and clinched them tightly while he held his breath. He watched intently as Brock experienced—firsthand—the precise moment Hunter was so anxious for him to reach. It was a moment Hunter experienced himself twelve hours earlier.

  Out of everything he planned, Hunter couldn’t decide whether that specific event was a particularly good idea. However, it was possibly the one thing he wanted to give his friend the most. While he nervously watched, Hunter hoped Brock would forgive him for what was happening.

  Brock felt his body dive head first through the air toward the water and rocks where he was paralyzed as a boy. The sensation of diving again, though brief, was vast and abiding. Brock felt each second through the air and then every inch of submersion when the top of Hunter’s head hit the surface, followed by the rush of water on his face, his chest, his nipples, his stomach, his thighs, his knees and finally, his feet. He felt Hunter plunge to the bottom, swim along it, and scrape the rocks with his toes. Hunter headed up, broke the surface, and took a deep breath.

  Brock held his breath throughout the entire dive and the whole time Hunter was underwater. As Hunter broke the surface and took a huge breath, so too, in the lab, did Brock.

  Holy shit.

  HOLY SHIT!

  He opened his eyes and looked at Hunter sitting next to him; Hunter appeared anxious and worried. Once he caught his breath, Brock belted out a laugh with such intensity it startled Hunter, who clapped his hands once and laughed along. Hunter was relieved. Brock’s expression was one of such accomplishment and victory, as though he beat that damn water and those goddamn rocks at every game for all time and for the rest of eternity.

  Fuck—those—rocks.

  If an idea as to what was transpiring between the two men hadn’t already sunk in for Ken, that moment would’ve done it. Although he wasn’t privy to the details of what was happening, he figured that was how it was supposed to be. Whatever was going on between the two of them, whatever they were experiencing, separately and together, was meant only for them. However, it was obviously powerfully moving.

  Before they initiated the Veil, when Hunter asked him to upload Brock’s Witness in realtime, Ken selfishly wondered what the heck he was supposed to do in the lab for all those hours. He figured he’d be bored as heck sitting there, watching Veil deliver Hunter’s experiences to Brock. He couldn’t have been more wrong; he was completely enthralled. He had no idea what was taking place between the two men but what he could see unfolding in front of him was beautiful. He couldn’t take his eyes off them.

  Hunter swam for a while and enjoyed the water. Brock did some water-therapy when he was younger; Hunter knew that for sure, but he understood how the Veil method would be completely different. Hunter gave it a really good swim. He wanted to give Brock a damn dolphin swim. So he did.

  After a while of dolphining around, Hunter mentioned again how they couldn’t waste any time. He swam to shore, got out of the water
, climbed up the rocks, and took another dive. Hunter’s heart raced; Brock’s heart raced. Hunter felt invincible; Brock felt invincible. Hunter felt totally unrestrained, and Brock felt the same.

  Hunter immediately swam to shore after the second dive and climbed back up the rocks to the top of the cliff. He slipped on his shoes, picked up his belongings, and checked his pocket watch. He put everything back in his pockets and ran down the cliff. He ran with his arms in the air and let out a triumphant yell. The triumph lasted all the way down the path until he reached the bottom of the hill. When he got to the bottom, he jogged the path to his car and put on his shirt along the way.

  Hunter approached his rental car and Brock noticed another car parked beside it. The rear passenger’s side door was open. Brock could see a pair of crossed legs casually dangling out. They were a woman’s legs.

  “Right on time!” Hunter shouted.

  The woman, a damn beautiful woman with long, reddish hair and bright green eyes, leaned out of the car, smiled, and stood up.

  “Yep!” she shouted back.

  Hunter jogged to her and although out of breath, didn’t hesitate to grab her by her waist and pull her to him. When their bodies met, Hunter growled seductively as he leaned in and kissed her passionately. Like really, really passionately.

  In the lab, Brock opened his eyes—wide. He looked at Hunter, wide-eyed and shocked. Hunter put his index finger to his lips, as if to say, shhh, and nodded his head forward as if to say, it’s ok.

  “She knows,” Hunter reassured him with a whisper. “She’s ok with it. Relax and enjoy it, bud.”

  Apprehensively aroused, Brock closed his eyes and told himself to relax.

  Relax and enjoy.

  Hunter and the woman kissed passionately for quite some time while he explored her body with his hands. His heart was still racing and his breathing was still labored, but to Brock that seemed to intensify everything. The state of arousal became so intense. It was followed by greater intensity, which was followed by some even greater.

  Without breaking stride, Hunter maneuvered their bodies so they were positioned directly in front of the woman’s open car door. He broke their kiss and embrace long enough to throw her into the backseat. It forced a giggle out of her and he ripped off his shirt before he climbed in on top of her. Hunter’s mouth explored every part of her body, and every part of her body he explored responded to him.

  Hunter’s mouth was on her lips, her neck, her breasts, her belly, her thighs. Everywhere. Her skin felt so soft to Brock. Oh God, she was so soft. She was unbelievably smooth; it was like she didn’t have pores or something. To Brock, it felt like Hunter’s fingers couldn’t quite grasp her skin, as if she were carved out of wet marble.

  When Brock thought their intensity reached its limit, the arousal became so much more intense. Their mutual desire fueled and fed-off each other’s. Brock had never felt anything like it. He didn’t understand it; he just knew it felt good. Brock sensed how Hunter’s mind was so quietly empty but at the same time both his mind and body were so alive and full and throbbing.

  Hunter pulled up the woman’s dress, hooked his fingers over the waistband of her panties, and started to slip them off her. Hunter rose up and leaned back as he tugged at them. She lifted her legs in the air and brought her knees closer together so Hunter could slide the panties off her; panties which turned out to be such a tiny thong that its purpose was completely lost on Brock. After he removed them, he pounced on her and attacked her neck with his mouth. Brock could feel her entire body squirm underneath Hunter while he kissed, bit, licked, and sucked on her neck. By the time Hunter started to undo his pants, she was already moaning.

  Hunter undid his pants and slid them down enough to pull out his fully erect dick. Engorged and pulsating, Brock was amusingly impressed by its size, by its girth. His envy was fleeting and he supposed Hunter’s size might explain, to a degree, why Hunter could be such a cocky bastard. Brock’s attention went back to her. She seemed to enjoy everything Hunter did.

  They kissed as he slowly entered her. Hunter slid inside and Brock quickly learned there was a part of her that was softer than her impossibly smooth skin. That warm, wet, soft part of her that she was sharing with Hunter felt so right when he plunged into her. That was the only word Brock could use to describe it. She felt right.

  The woman’s body was quivering. He tasted her hot breath fill Hunter’s mouth as their lips parted slightly when she let out a long moan. The moan began the moment Hunter entered her and got louder and deeper until he sank in all the way inside her. Hunter held himself still for a moment and completely filled her. She began to grind her body against his. She engulfed and clamped down on every inch of him while they kissed so intensely that their mouths traded steaming lungfuls of each other.

  Brock didn’t know which felt better: the pleasure the woman was giving Hunter’s body or the gratification that came from giving her so much obvious pleasure. The pleasure and gratification were two sides of a coin that kept flipping over and over in Brock’s mind. Back and forth, back and forth; give and get, give and get. As Hunter thrust in and out of her, the pleasure and gratification Brock experienced melded together perfectly and danced in unison.

  In the back seat of that car, Brock lost his virginity and gained an appreciation for carnality. Unlike any of the experiences up to that point, Hunter wasn’t taking his time; he didn’t try to savor the moment and wasn’t taking time to let everything soak in. It was a total-body experience. Raw and physical. Void of thought and deliciously swollen with lust.

  For the first time in his life, Brock experienced what it was like to fuck. Mercilessly, passionately, intensely, spontaneously. Their touches fed off each other; each of Hunter’s movements was meant to create pleasure within her and in response she would move to please him, and then vice-versa. On and on, until Hunter and the woman approached an orgasm that promised to be almost unbearably intense for Brock. She and Hunter moaned and closed their eyes during the rushing wave of climax. Everything faded momentarily into the darkness of Hunter’s closed eyelids, before the orgasm detonated throughout his body, causing Brock’s mind to gush forth a colorful amalgamation of such a blinding intensity that it forced open his eyes.

  Brock felt goose bumps over his entire body.

  From the look on Brock’s face alone, Hunter knew precisely what part of the Veil he was experiencing and what was happening. Oh man, did he know. Brock’s eyes shot open and his mouth was in what Hunter referred to as the “o-face.” Brock’s expression was frozen for about thirty seconds while he was completely lost in an experience that, although it was also Hunter’s, was now his own. After it subsided, he looked at Hunter and mouthed the word “whoa.” Hunter laughed and gave the thumbs-up one more time.

  Hunter was almost jealous. He envied having one’s first sexual experience be something that explosive, without the sex getting ruined by the awkwardness of youth, inexperience, and lack of confidence. Or to not have to spend the first few years learning what you’re actually supposed to be doing. Hell, sometimes the first twenty years. There were so many things he wanted to give his friend, each for their own reasons. The ability to give his friend what he just gave him, through Veil, would have made dying for Veil at the hands of the military worth it—if it had to come to that.

  Brock closed his eyes and felt Hunter’s body return to normal. The explosion of colors was still fading. Hunter pulled himself off the woman and buttoned his pants as she put on her thong and pushed down her dress. They both glistened and smiled. He offered his hand to her, which she took and used it to gracefully pull herself up from the back seat. They looked at each other and grinned playfully. She tilted her head and laughed. Hunter dived into her neck, kissed it and smelled her from her shoulder, up along the nape, all the way to where her hairline began behind her ear.

  Brock never smelled anything like it. It wasn’t perfume, and it wasn’t a body odor; it must have been a whiff of her aura. Something
about it was like smelling her personality. It was fiery and sensual; it was feminine and powerful. Brock doubted it was even a smell. It was the essence of that woman and her molecules somehow entered Hunter through his nose.

  Before Brock could lose himself any further inside that smell, the two kissed delicately on the mouth while they held hands. Hunter kissed her cheek and let go of her hand. He backed away from her. Both were still smiling. Brock swore he could see wisps of dissipating pleasure and satisfaction still emanating from her. He watched pornography before and none of the girls ever looked like that after they got done fucking.

  “So, I’ll see—” she started to say.

  Hunter lunged forward, put his finger over her lips and uttered, “Shhhhhhh … yes.”

  In his mind, Hunter was thinking very loudly, over and over, La la la la la la.

  The woman smiled and looked almost girlishly bashful. She looked Hunter right in the eyes, waved and said, “Hi in there.”

  “Oh, he can’t hear you yet. But he will later,” Hunter laughed.

  She grinned broadly and turned around to get into her car. Hunter leaned on the hood of his rental and watched her get in, pull off, and drive away. They waved at each other.

  “And that, bud, was fucking. Not sex, not making love—fucking,” Hunter said out loud. He pushed himself off the car, picked up his shirt from the ground and shook it off. He stuffed some of the shirt under the waistband of the back of his pants, so it hung out like a tail. He started back up the hill toward the cliff.