Veil

by Aaron Overfield

  What in the hell did he just do? Did he really just shit himself? … And ewww, ahhh man, there’s a bottle of lotion. Fucking sick, dude. Don’t nobody wanna see that. Damn.

  Corl stopped what he was doing and dropped his arms, which fell to his sides with a loud, flappety smack. His shirt was still halfway over his enormous, pale, hairy, varicose-veined belly. His back and shoulders were hunched disturbingly low.

  “Corl Orin? Corl Vaughn Orin?”

  “Yeh-yes…”

  “VPA 9b4-1e5-356-z86?”

  “Yeh—yeh. Yes … wha … what—” Corl started to ask.

  “Your VSA and your VHA haven’t accessed the network in over 240 hours. We represent the Veil World Order, and we’re here to quar—” the man announced until he was interrupted by a frightened shout from the room behind him.

  “He’s got a substitute port! He’s replacing his port! He’s Unveiled! Terminate subject! Terminate! Now!”

  The Veil World Order Guard, who hadn’t taken his eyes off Corl and was still pointing the gun at him, immediately discharged his weapon into Corl’s head. His body fell backwards onto the bed.

  As Corl’s feet flung out from under him, they splattered most of the shit sea across the room and it drenched the Order Guard.

  The Order Guard thanked Almighty Jin for riot gear as a solitary, undigested kernel of corn slid down the plastic that shielded his face from the torrential bombardment of Corl Vaughn Orin’s shit.

  3

  TINY

  His vision tunneled into darkness. He could already hear the screams. The screams seemed to come at him from every direction of his apartment complex. The screams kept going. Veilers just kept screaming. Some screamed “NO” while others simply shrieked.

  Tiny waited as long as possible before he opened his eyes; he knew what it meant. Unveiling came in waves, but none ever hit so close to Veil York City. He wondered exactly how many Veilers that wave just hit. He heard there were entire cities hit before—every Veiler in the city sent straight to vHell all at once—so the entire population would move to the nearest city where they could at least be close to Veilers who hadn’t been hit. There were so many Unveiled that neither Surveil nor the Veil World Order could quarantine or eliminate them.

  He heard the new Unveiled took on much of the Veilers’ work, so the Veilers could continue The Veil as much as possible and therefore, continue to tell the Unveiled what they experienced. It was the only way the Unveiled could experience The Veil anymore. It was the only way for them to experience life anymore. The Veil story time became essential and crucial. New, special jobs were created to organize and facilitate story time, which the Unveiled began to refer to as The Veil Telling sessions.

  Tiny exhaled and finally opened his eyes. Although nothing could surpass the absolute anguish of becoming Unveiled, Tiny could at least take solace in the fact that it hadn’t killed him. There were reports of countless deaths of cabled-in Veilers who were killed as they became Unveiled. They were killed when they were cabled into the vNet and the wave hit. Not many people used vHosts anymore—especially mobile vHosts—and they hadn’t been manufactured for decades. The completely sedentary, isolated life afforded by The Veil rendered vHosts and mobile vHosts useless, which meant almost everyone cabled directly into the network. Still, Unveiling could also be fatal to those who were cabled into vHosts when they were Unveiled.

  Apparently, the Unveiling could be too much of a shock to some brains if they were still cabled-in. Tiny figured the event must short circuit some brains or something. Now that he was Unveiled, Tiny almost envied those poor Unveiled who got to die. He wondered how many died during the wave that just struck him. It would be hard to know; everything was always rumors and speculation. There was no reliable way to share or obtain information or news. The Veil was all they had, but it was all they needed.

  Unveiled still disappeared in great numbers. They vanished. They were taken by the Veil World Order. Tiny heard rumors of huge pits filled with bodies of the Unveiled. Tiny figured it was a feeble attempt to stop the impending Great Unveiling, or at least an attempt to appear like they were doing so. Consensus was that a wave of Unveiling would hit one day, and it would be the last one. It would be the Great Unveiling. Until then, some Unveiled simply disappeared while others inexplicably died or killed themselves. And, that was on top of the many who died because they were cabled into the network when their Unveiling hit them. It wasn’t a good time to be a Veiler. It wasn’t a good time to be alive.

  The Unveiled sought out remaining Veilers and vowed to do everything in their power to support them; to help them carry on; to allow them to Veil as much as possible. The Unveiled promised to help Veilers live out the rest of The Veil uninterrupted—while they still could. The fear was: one day, there would be no more Veiled. One day, there would be one last Veiler and then one day, the last Veiler would become Unveiled. It would be the death of The Veil; it would be the death of life.

  Tiny uncabled himself and rose from his vChair. He reluctantly ambled to his apartment door and opened it. He scanned the hallway. Other newly Unveiled were standing in their doorways as well. Some were wandering the halls. There were some Unveiled who kept screaming. Tony wondered if the Great Unveiling just occurred. Maybe they were all the last of the Veiled. Maybe that was it.

  An elderly, short, obese new Unveiled shuffled up and down the hall.

  Over and over, she asked the other new Unveiled, “What do we do now? What do we do now? What do we do now?”

  No one answered her. The newly Unveiled were still screaming throughout the complex.

  Tiny stepped back into his apartment and slammed the door. He wanted to be gone before the Unveiled elder could make it down to his door and ask him that obvious and unanswerable question.

  Her question wasn’t even the right one to ask.

  The right one to ask, and the one Tiny asked himself was: What is life after Veil?

  He spun around and soaked in the sight of his practically bare apartment.

  As the life of The Veil he lost weighed down on Tiny, he decided to open his mouth and take his turn at screaming.

  Tiny tried to scream, but he found his mouth was already open. Tiny had been screaming ever since he opened his eyes for the first time as a newly Unveiled.

  Tiny screamed so loudly and forcefully that he almost missed his own answer.

  There is no life after Veil.

  PART IV - B.Y.O.T.

  I’m supposed to call this section “ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS” but I like “PROPS” or “SHOUT-OUTS” or “NODS” better. So, I’ll just refrain from naming it. Call it what you want. Accolades or some shit. Call it one great big giant motherfucking round of applause for all these here folks. There you go.

  The biggest thanks to my Veil Sounding Board. I couldn’t have done it without you and I’m not sure what direction the story would’ve taken. The heated arguments about the characters forced me to flesh them out more good and betterer and shit. Suren appreciates you sticking up for her. She would like to bequeath you her big white hat. (Sorry, the sunglasses seem to have walked off. I blame Peyton.) Hunter thinks you’re a nosey, meddlesome bitch and said to tell you to mind your own. He never liked you anyway. He also needs a drink. Thank you for all your support and countless hours and hours of reading, laughing, and crying. Your crying, not mine. I don’t cry. Fuck that.

  Megan, thank you for bringing everything together for the cover. The results were astonishingly perfect and I can only hope you are as proud of my book as I am of your art. Even if no one in the world were to read this crap, writing the whole thing was worth it just for the chance to create something with my doppelgänger. Your makeup is a seamless compliment to my book and I can’t wait to work on the next two with you, Jenna, and Misha. Thank all of you!

  Austin, this is for you. I’m not only proud of you, I’m proud that you’re my son. Every day I’m proud of that. I hope reading this makes you feel even a fraction of the pride I feel
—not proud of me but simply proud that I am your father. There’s no way I could be more proud of you. Well, perhaps if you got really good grades and said you were actually gay. Since neither of those things are ever going to happen, I guess we’ll just never know.

  To all the people whose name I appropriated: I did so because I deeply care for you and because I’m attached to you and because I needed some names and didn’t want to sit around and make the damn things up. Keep in mind, the character with your repurposed name is not a reflection of you. Unless you like the character. In that case, they’re like totally based on you.Mom, even if you don’t remember, you and grandma used to tell me I was going to grow up and write the Great American Novel. I’m going to have to make that the title of one of my books, because that’s the only way it’s going to happen. Still, you filled me with such confidence when I was young and without that I’d have nothing. It’s probably also the reason I’m such a cocky jackass, so that’s all pretty much your fault. Therefore, you must accept my wily ways and decide I’m your favorite child. In fact, you should cut all the other ones out of your life. They’re no good. Not a one of them. Besides, this should score me all the points forever. I love you more than anything, Mom.

  Simone and Rob, I will never be able to express enough gratitude for you bringing me into the fold. I hope this book brings your mother’s artistry to life in a new way and reflects how much your world means to me. I am truly humbled to be a part of it.

  I’m bound to leave out some people, so please be using the following section for yourselfs:

  _______, thank you so much. I couldn’t have done this without your support and encouragement. I constantly rely on your wisdom and guidance. My utmost thanks and appreciation go to you, _______.

  Finally–last but not least whatsoever–Kyle Ivan, you are the source of every bit of love and emotion I pour into my writing. I love you more than Jin loves Suren and more than Hunter loves Ken. If anything were ever to happen to you I’d go more bat shit than that old crazy ass Great Widow Tsay. Without our kind of love, this story wouldn’t have been possible. I will need that love for the next two books and I have a whole stack of five dollar bills with your name on it.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Apparently highly offensive but relatively easy on the eyes. He never named his dick, because he thinks others should name it and he provides ample opportunity for them to do so. He is not greedy. He means everything he says, unless someone takes offense–in which case it was just a joke and perhaps they shouldn’t be so fucking uptight. He has a son, a lover, a mother, a father, sisters, brothers, good friends, a dog, and a foul mouth; therefore, he has all he needs. This is his first book, so he’s not entirely sure what he’s doing, but he gotsa liking for the story and the characters. His only hope is others do as well. If they don’t, fuck them. He never liked them anyway. Don’t make me sic the Great Widow Tsay on your ass. Bitch will have you offed.

  COMING SOON:

  NEW VEIL WORLD - STAGE TWO

  AFTER VEIL

  NEW VEIL WORLD - STAGE THREE

  ONE GREAT REVEIL

  for further information:

  www.newveilworld.com

  www.facebook.com/NewVeilWorld

  @NewVeilWorld

  aaronoverfield@newveilworld.com

  for those who were offended by anything in this book:

  No Hablo Ingles. Sorry we’re closed. Please come again.

  Leave a message after the motherfucking beep.

  beep

  Table of Contents

  JIN

  WITNESS

  CURRENTS

  RECOVER

  WOLF

  BETRAY

  RECIPROCITY

  CONVOKE

  REVEILLE

  ABLUTION

  ANIMA

  ANIMUS

  PLUNGE

  BREACH

  CONTIGUITY

  ENSUE

  WANTON

  IMPART

  KEY

  HARMONIUS

  ONE

  KAIROS

  ETHOS

  PATHOS

  LOGOS

  BATHOS

  DOMINIKA

  CORL

  TINY