Veil

Fernando didn’t kill his son, Adam. But everyone believed he did. He had to clear his name and prove his innocence. He also had to rescue his son. Fernando spent time inside of a maximum-security state prison. 

But tonight was a special night. Fernando’s wife helped him escape prison. Fernando had bruised and bloodied knuckles from knocking the daylights out of a prison guard. Fernando never punched a man before. He fractured a man’s jawline and broke his nose.

A few days ago, Fernando killed the Devil. Since the Devil is a supernatural being, shooting him or stabbing him would silence him only for a little while. The Devil tricked Fernando after a chief military scientist unleashed the evil being on Fernando. He made him believe that he was going back in time to save his son. A top-secret government experiment that went wrong. Fernando also found out that a colleague set him up with the Devil’s help. 

Fernando’s wife, Leona, had connections with a highly advanced and classified military organization. She worked as a counter-terrorist agent for the FBI for eight years and she soon worked her way up through the CIA’s top-secret level divisions. 

Leona tried to save her husband from getting arrested, but the classified military government she worked for apprehended her. They gave her two choices. Allow her husband to be arrested for something he didn’t do or let him get killed by a sniper’s bullet. They forced Leona into choosing to allow the government to frame her husband for the murder of their child. Leona knew who killed their child, but it was a government coverup. A time machine fueled by witchcraft could not be exposed to the public. The military organization arranged a time-traveling mission to look like a crazy father who murdered his only son. 

“Will we get there in time?” Fernando asked his wife through his nervous breath. Inertia pushed Fernando back in his seat whenever his wife would punch the accelerator. It was midnight, and the 5.2-liter V10 engine in his wife’s sports car roared wildly down a lonely highway. 

“We’re gonna make it. My men are at the facility, waiting for my signal.” Leona projected confidence through her gentle voice. She briefly reached over to caress her husband’s hand. But within a second she placed her hand back on the steering wheel, forcing her mid-engine Audi R8 to swerve between two semi-trucks.

The voice of the rap star, Lil Baby, boomed softly out of the sound system in Leona’s sports car. Leona pushed her sports car to its maximum rpm. 

“There are 200 men with automatic rifles guarding the perimeter,” Fernando spoke smoothly while pulling out his gun, reloading new bullets into its magazine clip. “If we get past the armed guards, we’ll need the code to get inside the facility. We must get through the impenetrable vault that’s underground where the Veil is being kept. There are ten guards outside the vault.” Fernando knew that anything was possible, but he feared the worst. He tried to reflect on his wife’s confidence. It was hard since his wife was an army woman and he was a wrongly disqualified military scientist. 

“We’ll make it through,” Leona’s confident words exceeded her anxiety. “Remember, we used to work at the facility before they terminated us. We were a part of the team that created Project Romulus. You helped with the engineering of the Veil. We know how to make our way through that facility, because it's familiar territory for us,” Leona spoke through a precise half-whisper while swerving between cars and punching the accelerator. 

“Is God judging us for using the Veil to bring back our little boy?” Fernando knew his question was absurd, especially when he saw his wife shake her head at him.

“Sweetheart, why would God judge us for using your time machine to save our baby? God knows that our son was kidnapped and murdered. Why would he give us even more pain by judging us? God helped you with the Veil. The Romulus organization funded your project. The Veil was your machine, they just took some of the credit for it. We had a right to use the Veil to save our child.” Leona inserted justification into every word. Leona was right. The Veil was her husband's machine. It used the psyche of a demon spirit to create time traveling missions. Since angels and demons are ancient beings that never really die, they go through time, keeping a track record of every moment in life. Leona helped her husband build a machine that could capture those spiritual track records.

“Every day I think about that serial killer. I think about what he did to our Adam,” Fernando stated. He often thought about how he came close to stopping the masked killer from breaking into their house. He almost stopped the kidnapper from killing the babysitter and abducting their son. But then something happened. Something that Fernando couldn’t explain. Fernando remembered when he first used the Veil to rescue his son. When the Veil activated, a dimensional vortex manifested and a demon was summoned using a witch's spell. The spell forced the demon to keep the vortex open.

“I keep thinking about the killer too.” Leona whispered to her husband, trying to calm her nerves. Leona remembered that day vividly. She remembered witnessing a witch scientist summoning a demon into the Veil and her husband placed a hold on him using a harness with a crucifix attached to it. Her told the demon what period he want to go back to and the witch forced the evil spirit to open a wormhole within the Veil’s quantum stabilizer bars, which kept the demon’s power from destroying the Veil and it also prevented the wormhole from becoming a bomb. Leona thought about how someone set her husband up after he stepped into the wormhole inside the Veil. She wanted to go with him. She wanted to help rescue their son, but he told her to stay behind. After Leona watched her husband step into the Veil, two armed guards approached her and escorted out of the room against her will. “Somebody double-crossed us," Leona told her husband while reflecting on what happened. "Someone lifted the crucifix hold on the demon that created the wormhole you traveled through. I don’t think the witch did it. That demon or possibly the Devil was set free inside the Veil by someone on the engineering team. The demon went into the vortex, possessing our son and attacking you. You tried to kill it, but you accidentally killed our baby.” Leona stopped talking when her husband let out a grieving moan.

“Do you know who did it?” Fernando gritted his teeth. He gripped the handle on his gun which was resting on his knee. Fernando couldn't stop thinking about how close he came to saving their son.

“I think I know,” Leona answered. She effortlessly pushed her German sports car up to 102 mph. “I think it was Chief Commander Gary Bautista. He was the head of Project Romulus. I think he got jealous when you won the Horizon Award for your design of the Veil,” Leona explained her theory. Commander Bautista always envied you." Leona had another explanation behind why her husband was framed. She kept her other explanation to herself. Guilt prevented Leona from telling her husband the true reason he was framed for murder.

A brief silence occurred. Within the silence, Leona thought about her son. She thought about when her baby learned how to walk. Adam followed his mother around the living room after he left his father’s arms. Leona would never forget how Adam giggled while waddling toward her with his miniature arms reaching out to her. When Leona scooped Adam into her arms, she never thought in her wildest dreams that she would hold her baby for the last time. Her husband didn’t know that a serial killer would take the life of his son a week later.

“I keep seeing his face,” Leona broke the silence, bringing up their son. The mother cried so many times over their child’s death that she lost count. 

“I see his face too. I see him every day.” Fernando rumbled out his words through a whispering tone. He gazed at his wife while reaching over to touch her knee. When Fernando reached over to touch his wife’s knee, his fingers bumped into the handle of the 38 caliber pistol strapped to her leg beneath her sparkling blue velvet dress.

“We’re gonna save him this time.” Leona’s British accent and her gentle tone of voice emphasized her words. “God helped you build the Veil so we could save our baby. Nothing's gonna stop us. Not a demon, or the Devil, or an envious lead scientist is gonna stop us from saving our son!” Leona’s silky voice increased in volume. “I want to see my little boy’s eyes again. I want to hold him in my arms before this night ends. We have all the weapons we need to accomplish this mission.” Leona boldly took her eyes off the road to look at her husband. She slowed her sports car down while taking her husband’s hand. Leona and her husband weren’t afraid of dying. Saving their little boy from a serial killer was worth inviting death to their doorstep.

🕠🕕🕢

Night shielded an invisible task force team. A team of men zeroed in on a group of armed guards near a perimeter gate. The armed guards never knew what hit them. An armed guard tried to defend his fellow man, but an unseen force flipped him on his back. The force snatched his machine gun right out of his hands. The armed guard saw nothing. He only heard a deep voice telling him to stay down. When the soldier disobeyed the voice, he paid the hard way. He attempted to rise while reaching for a handgun strapped to his waist, but he fell back down when the unseen force shattered his kneecap. When the armed guard fell back to the ground on his broken leg, he was about to scream out in pain but a serrated knife blade sliced his throat.

This happened to the other armed guards. They’d watch something unseen smoothly disassemble their machine guns while it was still in their hands. Before they could alert their superiors, they would die either by a knife entering their throat or by two hands dislocating their neck. Every armed soldier was getting flipped on his back and executed. Since the soldiers couldn’t see what was attacking them, they felt like the night sky had come down to kill them. 

Not a single armed guard pulled the trigger on his machine gun. They were being silenced by highly skilled invisible ninjas. 

Chief Commander Gary Bautista saw the commotion happening near the perimeter gate on one of his CCTV cameras. He grabbed his gun while stepping out of a watchman chamber inside a vault where the Veil was concealed. A deep, thunderous voice emerged from inside of the Veil, stopping Commander Bautista in his tracks. 

“Someone wants to take your power,” the dark voice echoed out of the mountainous machine. It spoke through a half-whisper, but it still shook Commander Bautista’s eardrums.

“Who wants to take my power?” Commander Bautista asked the voice. He walked up to the Veil after pressing a button on the machine’s door and watching as a metallic shield on the door slid open to reveal a 7-foot tall humanoid monster, that had a bronze harness across his muscle-bound chest, with a crucifix attached to it. The monster had twisted thorns growing out of his forehead. He had long mangled white hair that drenched his broad shoulders. His skin had snake scales and it was pewter gray. His eyes were a hot molten red and his face resembled the appearance of a decaying corpse. 

“You can’t hold power forever. Infinite power will slip between your fingers like sand.” The evil entity leaned forward while giving Commander Bautista a snarling smirk through the Veil’s transparent explosion-proof door.

“But you’re the Devil. You know how to hold on to power,” Commander Bautista spoke back to The Beast almost in a hypnotic trance.

“I’m limited!” The monster roared at the chief military scientist. He tugged on the bronze harness that kept him held down to a bolted seat. “You used a witch to put a hold on me. The spell of a witch and this crucifix keeps me imprisoned inside this stupid machine. I’m not God. He would never subject himself to such torture!” The Beast dug his claws into a concrete wall behind him. “Even I’ve allowed my power to be vulnerable. A puny mortal man like you shouldn’t be able to hold me.” The colossal muscles in the monster’s arms and chest would twitch every time he would speak and growl. 

“I’m sorry, but you’re the battery. You’re the Veil’s power source. Man has always dreamt of being the master of time. Now that dream is a reality.” Commander Bautista was so intrinsically captured in his conversation with Satan that he wasn’t aware of two invisible soldiers lurking behind him. It was a man and a woman. A husband and wife dressed in state-of-the-art military gear. 

“Your dream will end in a few seconds,” The Beast told Commander Bautista through a mocking whisper. He stroked his claws across his chin, knowing that Commander Bautista was about to die. 

One slice across the throat was all it took. Commander Bautista’s sturdy body dropped to the floor. Blood spurted out of his throat, painting his silver beard. 

“That was quick.” The Beast chuckled, tapping his claws on his knee. He shifted his glowing crimson eyes between the woman and the man. “Well, look at this. It’s Adam and Eve.” The Beast threw his head back, releasing a ground rumbling laugh. 

“We need you to open up a timeline!” The woman who was Leona removed her bulletproof helmet while shouting her orders to The Beast. 

“Everyone needs me to do something, now don’t they?” The evil creature’s words and his unrelentingly deep voice sauntered in the air. 

“It’s about our child,” Fernando told the Devil while removing his armored military vest and revealing the tattoos on his bulky chest, that a black tank top partially concealed. “A man killed our son on August 4th. It was on a Friday at 7:15 pm. We need to go back to that date and we need you to send us ten minutes before the time of our son’s death.” Fernando watched as The Beast looked him up and down while chuckling. 

“You forgot to say please.” The Beast folded his massive arms while leaning back in the seat. He waited to hear the word emerge from Fernando’s mouth, but he heard it from Leona’s lips. 

“Please help us.” Leona looked the Devil in his eyes while removing her military vest. She knew The Beast would lust after her as soon as he saw her blue dress hugging her shapely body. 

“For you, my child, I’ll do anything." The Beast flirted with Leona. "I have to help. I'm trapped in this machine and God’s will is always stronger than mine.” The Beast stretched forth his hand, creating a swirling dimensional tunnel within the Veil’s quantum stabilizers. The tunnel looked like a horizontal vortex made of lightning. 

“I’ll stay here and keep watch on him.” Fernando diverted a glance at The Beast. “You rescue our child. You save our Adam and you’ll clear your husband of murder. You’ll change our future.” Fernando gave his wife a timeless kiss, before releasing her hand and watching as she slowly made her way inside the Veil toward the swirling vortex.

Leona entered the Veil, with her gun clutched in her left hand. She gave her husband one last look, and she rolled her eyes at The Beast before entering the vortex. When Leona dived in, she felt every cell in her body pulsate. In an instant, Leona stood in the living room of her home. She terrified the babysitter who was standing in the kitchen holding Adam. The teenage girl couldn’t believe that she saw Leona appear out of thin air. 

“It’s okay, Sweetie!” Leona told the babysitter. She didn’t know that the serial killer was already in the house and was standing right behind her. Leona turned around at the right time and she unloaded every bullet in her gun into the man’s body. After shooting the serial killer multiple times, Leona approached the man’s body. She removed his mask to see that it was Commander Bautista. The chief scientist was still alive and he stared up at Leona with utter shock in his eyes. 

“You’re supposed to be out having dinner with your husband tonight! Tonight’s your marriage anniversary.” Commander Bautista choked out his words. His enormous body convulsed when Leona dropped her knee on his chest.

“Did you think you could kill our baby tonight?” Leona leaned down into the killer’s face with her hands wrapped around his throat. “I didn’t want to be unfaithful to my husband anymore. My husband can't know that I cheated on him with you. You broke into my house and killed my two-year-old baby because I rejected you. My husband kills you in the future. But I’m gonna kill you right here in the past. You die twice.” Leona blew a kiss down at the man she cheated on her husband with before putting a bullet into his skull. While releasing a sigh of relief, Leona slowly rose to her feet after removing the murder weapon from the killer which had her husband’s fingerprints planted on it. Leona turned around to face the babysitter. When she saw her son in the babysitter’s arms, she wanted to hold him. But the vortex was still in the living room, and it sucked Leona back into the future. As Leona traveled back into the Veil, she had the comfort of knowing that she freed her husband, and that she would see her Adam once again.