Veil of Madness

Clara didn’t know what she was looking at exactly. The scene that played out before her made her skin crawl, and she wanted to run, but fear locked her in place. Out of the fear responses that she could have, of course it had to be freeze. All she could do was pray to the gods that whoever, or whatever she was staring at wouldn’t notice her lurking in the background.

There were three figures that emerged from a disheveled metal conex box hidden deep within the woods. Only one of them appeared to be human, but using the word human seemed wrong to Clara. There was something very dark radiating off of him, and his eyes were completely black with red glowing pupils. Next to the man stood a pillar of flesh that towered at least eight feet tall. The creature was covered in pulsing veins and appeared to have a sweaty gleam. There was only one small green eye in the middle of its body.

Looking into the creature's eye, Clara could sense a deep pain lying deep within it, and she couldn’t help but wonder why. Then it dawned on her, that thing used to be human. What could’ve possibly caused such a grotesque change in a person's physical appearance. Was it even scientifically possible? Was she just looking at some sort of experiment? Does it even matter?

She had no idea why she was bothering to take the time to think about the origins of this monster rather than trying to muster up the courage to move her feet, but the more she tried to stop thinking about it, the more thoughts came flooding in.

Then it made eye contact with her. Clara immediately thought that she was going to die. Then, sadness washed over the creature and created a connection to her, deepening her theory that this thing used to be human. But nothing happened, and they started walking away, clearly with intent.

Clara needed to know where they were going, but she didn’t know why. She didn’t even know how she was going to possibly get her legs to move. It’s not as if she could just think about them moving and it would happen, but then it did. Before she knew it she caught up to them, making sure she stayed far enough away to not be noticed again. Just because nothing happened to her the first time, doesn’t mean her luck will be the same a second time around, although Clara was noticeably lucky to everyone around her.

Through the rain and leaves Clara could see that the pair was meeting up with a third member who was most definitely a human man this time. Desperation was emanating off of him and he seemed empty. His eyes were widened so far they appeared to be tearing in the corners and small tears mixed with blood were occasionally streaming down his face. The man appeared to be pleading with the other “man”, but Clara was too far away to hear anything.

Silent and slow, Clara creeped closer until she was within hearing distance of what they were saying without being spotted. She missed the first half of the conversation, but she caught the end

“....I promise I’ll do anything. Whatever you want. Even if you want me to kill someone. I don’t care anymore. Nothing matters, unless you can help me”.

“ This could change who you are as a person, and not just on the inside. Your physical appearance will change and you will no longer appear human. Everyone's form is different depending on the severity of how far they fall into madness. It is your choice in the end though, how you turn out I mean. Although, there are not many who can resist the temptation of darkness once they have tasted it, even if it begins with a selfless act to help another”.

“I don’t care, just tell me what you need me to do”.

The next thing Clara knew, she was awake in the woods. Then panic set in. What had happened last night. More importantly, how did she fall unconscious without realizing it? The last thing she remembered was a conversation by the two men, but how did it end? She was determined to find out, but didn’t even know where to start, let alone how she got all the way out here.

After pulling herself together, emotionally and physically, Clara pushed her way towards an opening that she saw in the distance.

Once she got closer to the tree line, she realized that the forest where everything had taken place was in her backyard. It didn’t seem possible to her though. Clara had explored the back of her house for hours growing up and never came across a connex box before, or anyone else for that matter.

When Clara entered the house, nobody was home which was odd, but then she noticed the time. Shit! It was already 9 am and Clara had an 8 o’clock psychology class.

She rushed to clean herself up, get ready, and head to class. Once there there was no point in sneaking in when the lecture was already halfway over, so she decided to look for Emet in his usual hiding place, the library.

In the library, Clara found Emet immediately and started blurting out the events from the previous night.

“Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?” asked Emet.

“I’m positive. Nothing about that felt like a dream or looked like a dream. I always know the difference. Plus I’ve never slept walked before” Clara said.

Emet countered with, “Yeah but you don’t remember going out there or falling asleep. Did your parents say anything?”.

“They weren’t home when I got inside this morning. I’m going back out there to figure this out. Do you want to come with me?” Clara knew what was going to come out of Emets mouth next, so she didn't know why she bothered to ask him.

“Sorry I can’t, I have to study. Try to stay grounded in reality, okay? It was just a dream.”

With Emets deep blue eyes, dimples, and half smile, she almost believed it when he said it.“Yeah…Okay”. She just thought that if anyone was going to believe her it was going to be him, so she couldn’t help being a little disappointed.

Clara didn’t hesitate to go searching as soon as she got home, the only problem was that the sun was starting to set. Darkness would be falling soon and that sent a chill down Claras back. She thought about bringing a flashlight, but she didn’t want to have anything that could draw attention to herself.

Before she knew it, the voices from the night before carried in the wind.

“He’s going to be here soon, and no he has no idea. Infact, he wanted to come”.

The first voice was the man, then came the voice of the man who seemed more demonic than anything, “After he’s dead, we’ll join you”.

Dead!? Clara thought, what's going on here?

Slowly Clara moved towards their voices until she saw them standing in a small clearing about 50 feet away. The flesh creature was with them too, but there was something else there too.

It appeared to be a shrine of some sort with an empty coffin displayed on top in the center, surrounded by at least 100 candles. There didn’t seem to be anything else noticeable about it though, other than the fact that the coffin was empty.

As Clara was scanning the area, she made contact with the flesh creature again. This time was different though, a scene played out before her eyes.

The man looked well put together, and Clara could tell by the way that everyone reacted to him that he was popular and well liked. So it surprised her when he walked up to the most antisocial, awkward looking person that she had ever seen before and asked,

“Hey Rob, do you want to hang out tonight?”

The man looked up like he was expecting to get hit the second he lifted his head and managed to force out a quiet, “With me? Are you for real?”

As the scene faded from Claras mind, she noticed movement along the edge of the clearing.

Rob was walking over to the man seemingly unbothered, but he seemed really nervous.

“Hey, what's going on ma-”.

The man struck Rob so fast and hard over the head that he crumpled to the ground on impact.

The events that followed happened so fast that the only thing Clara could do was squat there frozen in fear with her hand covering her mouth to muffle any sound that she could make while tears streamed down her face.

The man dragged Rob's lifeless body into the shrine's coffin where he continued to bludgeon his body with a metal bar. Each blow was followed by a squelching sound and blood was scattered all around the clearing. About a minute after the man started his “ritual”, the other two came back and joined. They all took turns inflicting unnecessary damage to an already dead man's body until it was unrecognizable.

Clara was going to be sick. The murder wasn’t even the worst part though, it was the joy that they all reveled in as they took part in their sadistic ritual.

Their manic laughter will forever be an echo in the back of Claras mind.

Underneath the coffin, a pool of blood began to form a perfect circle that was pitch black.

Claras attention was drawn away from the mysterious void ,to the man, who started crying out in agony.

His body rippled and contorted into something resembling an early stage of the flesh creature.

“Clara! Clara! Honey it’s going to be okay, shhhh”.

Clara's eyes shot open to the sound of someone screaming and her mothers voice. She quickly realized by the rawness of her throat that she was the one screaming. As awareness flooded her she also realized that she was at the edge of the woods, now facing her house. How did she wander back this far without any recollection? What happened out there after the ritual? Why does this keep happening? Then the memories of Rob's murder flooded back.

“MOM WE NEED TO CALL THE POLICE! SOMEONE WAS MURDERED! SOMETHING ISN’T RIGHT! THERE ARE MONSTERS OUT THERE!”

The police found nothing. Nobody believed Clara, not even Emet. Her mother even started pushing therapy because Clara hadn’t been able to sleep in following weeks and stopped showing up to her classes

Clara was willing to give therapy a try in the hopes that the images and noises from that night would stop flooding her mind. After her first few sessions though, she was disheartened. Nothing the therapist said or suggested seemed to help. Talking about what happened brought Clara nothing but disappointment thinking about how she is the only one who knows the truth.

“You think you’re right about all of this and it's true, correct?”

Somehow Claras therapist always knew what she was thinking, regardless, she responded with an irritated, “Yes, that is correct”

“ How about we try a little hypnosis”

“Yeah, sure”

The last thing that Clara remembered before she closed her eyes was her therapist's eyes flashing all black with a glowing red pupil.

When she woke up she was clearly in the hospital and tied to a bed. Clara was eerily calm as she looked around noticing flowers and get well cards covering the shelf next to her bed. Her head was hazy, but she still remembered everything.