I wasn't sure which worried me more: the fact that I knew exactly who this 'friend' was that came to speak to me, or that I actually wanted to talk to him. When I reached the booth in the back, Gabriel looked up and smiled at me. He stood and, in a very gentlemanly sort of fashion, gestured for me to sit. I did.

"It's nice to see you again, Marly," he said, taking his seat once more. He took a sip of the dark lager that sat in front of him.

I really wasn't in the mood for any sort of tip-toeing around. "How did you know?" I asked. Really, it was very nearly a demand.

Apparently my tone caught him by surprise. He set his glass back down on the table and folded his hands in front of him. "I understand that this, all of this, will be very difficult, and I respect that fact so I'm not going to play dumb or lead you around with cryptic answers that don't actually give you any information at all. Now, you want to know how I knew you had a brother when you didn't?"

I blinked. I wasn't expecting him to be so forthcoming with information, but still, I kept my guard up. "Yes."

"To be honest, we thought you knew. Dylan is a very close friend of mine. We work together, and recently..." Gabriel's eyes left my face and darted to his hands. "Recently he's gotten into some trouble."

I had no idea what was going on, but I figured there was no way for me to find out without at least following this guy a little way down the rabbit hole. "What kind of trouble? Like police?"

He smirked and shook his head, still looking down. "No, that kind of trouble he could handle. This kind, well, I should say that he's gotten into some trouble that I don't think he can handle on his own. And now here's the rub, Marly. There's a whole lot going on here that I really would not be able to explain to you. It's the kind of shit you have to see to believe, and even then you'll question whether or not you really saw what you think you saw. In any case, I could sit here and try to explain everything until I'm blue in the face, but it wouldn't do a single bit of good. What I can say, and what you'd be able to believe even though it's coming from the mouth of a complete and total stranger, is that your brother is in trouble. He's been my friend for nearly twenty years, and we've been through more hell together than you can imagine. I said earlier that we work together. We work for a small organization that hunts down and eliminates unusual threats within the US."

"Threats?" I interrupted. "You mean like terrorists?"

Gabriel looked back up at me, and his gray eyes seemed almost amused with my question, though his face did not betray it. "Not... well... Sure, we'll go with that. But the types of terrorists we track are not what you see on the evening news. They're very dangerous, and it's one of these threats that I believe has something to do with the trouble your brother's gotten himself into.

"You believe? What about the rest of your organization?"

A tenseness came over his face that he was not fully able to hide, but I could quite read him. He seemed very skilled at hiding his thoughts and emotions from others. "They are not as convinced as I am. And before you ask, the reason I am here and telling you all of this -- the reason that I need your help -- is because you and Dylan are siblings, and there is nothing in these worlds that is stronger than the bond of blood."

I sat very quietly for a moment, and in that silence I suddenly because aware of the sounds of the bar around me. It was as though everything else had faded away while he was speaking, and it just now came flooding back into my perception. "I... I have to get back to work," I said, pushing myself up from the booth. Gabriel stood as well, but didn't move to stop me. "I don't know what it is you expect me to do."

He smiled, and I do have to admit that it lit up our darkened corner of the billiards hall. "Well I sure as hell don't expect you to believe me," he said sincerely. "But I'm hoping that I've at least been persuasive enough so that you'll agree to speak with me again."

"Sure," I said, looking back toward the bar. "Uh, I'm off on Sunday."

"I'm not sure it can wait that long," he said gravely. "Can I meet you tomorrow, before your shift?"

"Yeah, that's fine, whatever." I was pretty much just babbling at this point, hoping to get away and get back to work so that maybe, just maybe, I could process something normal for a little while. "Tomorrow's fine. But now I really have to get back to work." I turned and started to weave my way back toward the front of the building, and my manager who was still currently tending my bar.

"Of course," I heard the strange man say behind me. "I'll see you tomorrow."

My manager, Nathan, tossed the rag he'd been using to wipe down the bar at me as a I came back up to the front. "Everything ok?" he asked.

"Yeah," I muttered. "Just a... family thing. It's all good though."

Apparently that was all the explanation he needed. "Ok, glad to hear it. The woman at the end needs another Bay Breeze and that guy right there needs a Sam Adams.

"Sure, Nate," I said. "No problem." As I scooped the ice into the glass and began pouring the vodka for the Bay Breeze, I tried not to think about the crazy weird guy in the back of Schmengee's, sipping his dark lager. I tried to focus on the vodka, the count of my pour, the grapefruit and pineapple juices that I poured in simultaneously. This was my job. This was what I did, not running off to fight terrorists and pretend that I could somehow rescue the brother I didn't even know I had. I slid the drink down to the woman who nodded her thank you, but I was already popping that cap off the beer and handing it to the guy halfway down the other side of the bar. "There ya go, hon," I said.

"Thanks, baby."
 

"I'm sorry we never told you," she said after a moment. "We thought it would be for the best."

At that moment Johnny walked into the room gave me a quizzical look. Apparently he'd overheard my half of the conversation from the living room where he'd been watching some made-for-TV movie. "Mom, I... I gotta go. Can we talk more about this later?"

A silent hesitation, and then, "Sure, sweetie. Of course. I love you."

"Love you too, Mom." I hung up the phone and stared blankly at it for a time, as though I wasn't sure what I should do with it. Finally Johnny came to stand beside me and took the phone from my hand. I told him the whole story of what had happened the night before, plus the new information I had just learned from the earth-shattering conversation I'd just had with my mother. And he listened to me; listened to every ridiculous, unbelievable word that came out of my mouth. He nodded appropriately and interjected a "what the hell!" every know and then for good measure. I got to the end of the weird tale and wondered aloud, "What should I do?"

Johnny raised an eyebrow at me and ran his hand through his short cropped blond hair. "What's there to do?"

"The man had something to tell me about this brother I didn't even know I had."

"The man was a nut job, Mar."

I wandered into the living room and sat down on the blue and white striped sofa. I immediately sank too far down due to the broken springs on the one side. Johnny came and sat beside me. "It couldn't have just been a coincidence," I said. "Could it?"

He leaned back and draped one arm over the back of the couch behind me. "It had to be. There's really no other explanation, Marly."

No, I suppose there's not... But still, something about the whole thing had me on edge. As I pondered over the whole situation and the likelihood that this was all some twisted cosmic joke, I felt him lean over a kiss me on the cheek.

"Don't worry about it, babe," he said gently. "You'll work all this out with your parents and forget all about that creepy guy in a couple of days. Trust me."

I leaned against him and rested my head on his muscled shoulder. "I hope so."


That night I was back at work, tending the bar at Schmengee's pool hall. Thankfully it was a Friday night and we were particularly busy, so I was able to put a lot of the extraneous thoughts from the afternoon out of my head. Everything was going great until my manager came around the bar and started pouring beers for my customers. "What's going on?" I asked him.

The fit, forty-something man gave me a sort of half-shrug. "You're on break. A friend of your just showed up and said he needed to talk to you. Said it was urgent. And I figured it was about time for your break anyway." He smiled at me and gestured to one of the booths in the back of the place. "He's out back."

As I mumbled a thank you and started weaving my way through the billiards tables and smoke, I was filled with both a nearly overwhelming sense of foreboding and an incredible anticipation.
 

The next day I was still having trouble getting the strange encounter out of my mind. Johnny wasn't much help, as all he said was that I should call the police. "To report what exactly?" I asked him. But he just shrugged and continued reading the newspaper. Later on in the day I spoke with my mother. I guess I must have sounded distracted because she asked me what was the matter.

"Nothing, Mom," I said half-heartedly. "I'm fine."

The voice on the other end of the line sounded pensive. "You sound tired. Rough night at work?"

"Well..." And there it was -- against my better judgement I was telling her everything about leaving with everyone, and Josh hitting on me for the millionth time. About my car not starting, the dead cell phone, and the stranger in the trench coat who just wanted to talk. "The strangest part is," I continued, "that he wouldn't go away until I told him I didn't have a brother. Then he acted all apologetic, like he had me confused with someone else, which is what I'd been trying to tell him the whole time."

There was a small squeak from the phone.

"Mom?"

"Well, honey," she said.

My heart started to beat faster and I sat up just a little bit straighter in my chair. "What?"

I could hear her clearing her throat. "That's not entirely accurate."

I was silent for a long moment, and so was she. Then, "Which part?"

Then it came out in a torrent. "You were just a baby when he disappeared, Marly. You were so young, and we did everything we could to find him. But it was like he just vanished. Eventually we started to lose hope we'd ever find him."

"Are you kidding me? Put Dad on the phone."

"Your father and I tried not to talk about it around you. We didn't want to scare you. Then, a couple of years later we got a phone call and it was him. It was him, Marly. He said he wanted to tell us that he was sorry that he'd worried us so much, but that we shouldn't worry any more because he was safe." I could hear her voice growing tighter as she tried to hold back tears. "He was safe and happy. And he wanted to call so we knew that he was ok, but that he couldn't come home."

The only question I could think to ask was, "Why didn't I know about any of this?"

"We didn't want to hurt you, sweetie. And you were so young. We thought..."

"What's his name?"

"Sweetie, I--"

"Mom, what's his name? I'm twenty three and didn't even know that I had a brother, the least you can do is tell me his goddamned name."

"Dylan."

Dylan. I couldn't help but start to laugh. It was a defense mechanism for whenever things got to serious; I always had to crack a joke. "Dylan and Marlyn... wow, you and Dad really did want your kids to get picked on in school, didn't you?"
 

"Look," he added, "I'm not trying to scare you. I just need to talk to you, Marly. It's about your brother."

I had really had just about enough of this psycho. "Look mister, it's very late and I've had a really long night. I don't know who you are or who you think I am, but I don't know you and I don't have a brother. So if you don't mind, I would really appreciate it if you could leave me alone."

"Oh." Strangely, the man, Gabriel, looked surprised. "Oh dear. I'm sorry to have bothered you."

Really? Could it have been that easy. "Uh... that's alright," I managed to mutter.

"Pop your hood."

"Excuse me?"

Gabriel pointed to the front of my car. "Pop the hood. The least I can do is help you out."

I was still a little weirded out and pretty skeptical of any 'help' this man was going to offer, but I didn't really see any other options at this juncture. If he couldn't fix it, maybe he would at least let me borrow his cellphone to call Johnny. I opened the driver side door and pulled up on the hood release lever. The tall, dark haired man bent over to take a look at the mass of hoses and wires that had baffled me only a few minutes before. I saw him reach in and fiddle with a few things. After only a moment, he stood up again, took a handkerchief out of the inside pocket of his trench coat, and began wiping off his hands as though he'd accomplished something.

"There," he said in a very matter-of-fact tone. "Try that."

Humoring him, I climbed into the car, pressed in the clutch, and turned the key in the ignition. To my complete surprise, it started on the first try. "What the hell?" I set the car in neutral and climbed out again, staring at the man in confusion. "How'd you do that?"

He just shrugged and closed the hood again, returning the handkerchief to his pocket. "I know my way around engines," he said casually.

"Thank you," I offered, still a little baffled by the whole encounter.

"My pleasure, miss." He gave something of a little half bow and started toward the street, walking around the far side of my car. "Have a good night."

"Uh, yeah," I muttered, getting back into the car. "You too." He was gone by the time I pulled out of the parking lot. I couldn't tell you which way he went.

I was so in shock from meeting this guy -- this Gabriel person -- that I even forgot to turn on the radio on the way home. I pulled into the driveway of my apartment, appreciative of its comforting familiarity. I looked up and saw the kitchen light on in the apartment. Looked as though Johnny was asleep, just as the man had said. Though to be fair, it wasn't much of a prediction, since Johnny was almost always asleep when I got home from work. But still... I turned the car off and sat in silence for a while. Who was it exactly that he thought I was? How many other 'Marlyns' could there be in Maine, let alone in Lewiston? What was it that he thought he needed to talk to me about? And why did he sound so surprised when I said I didn't have a brother? Grabbing my purse, I finally got out of the car and headed up the stairs to the second floor of the old apartment building. My key slid easily into the lock and I slid it open, careful not to make more noise than the creaking of the hinges. I turned out the kitchen light on my way to the bedroom. Johnny mumbled something in his sleep while I changed in the dark and climbed into bed beside him. "Love you too, babe," I whispered back.
 

As I closed the hood, I saw a man standing behind my rusted Chevy Corsica. I will admit that I jumped at the stranger's sudden appearance, and it is entirely possible that a squeak escaped my lips. The man seemed to be tall, maybe six three, six four, but thin. His hair looked dark and his face was hidden in shadow from the street light that was behind him, and he wore some sort of long, brownish trench coat. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." The man's voice was deep and pleasant, maybe even a little sexy, given the right set of circumstances. Circumstances which these were not. I nodded and muttered something about it being no problem. "Car trouble?"

At that moment, I was pretty sure I'd seen a horror movie that started that way. Or maybe it was a porno that had started that way. In either case, I didn't want it to start heading in that direction. "Yeah, but it's cool. My boyfriend's on his way," I lied. "Should be hear any minute." I added the last part after a moment, hoping it would be this weird guy be on his way.

"That's good," he said, starting to walk around to the passenger side of the car. I took that as my cue to circle around to the driver side. "I'll wait with you 'till he gets here."

Damn. "No, thank you. That's sweet of you, sir... Really... But I'll be fine until he gets here."

"Sir?" The man began to laugh. He ran his long, thin fingers through his hair. "Do I look that old now?" The question was mumbled, and I got the strange feeling that he wasn't actually asking me. After just a moment he shook his head. "I know, I know," he said quietly. Then he raised his eyes to look at me over the roof of the car. "You're Marlyn, aren't you?"

So neverminding the fact that I hate when people use my full first name, because honestly it sounds like a fish and who names their daughter something like that anyway... but forgetting that for a moment, the fact that this stranger showed up at my work already knowing my name sent a shiver through my blood. It was possible, I tried to rationalize, that he was a customer of Schmengee's and that I'd met him on some previous evening. However, that thought would then mean that he was stalking me, and I wasn't really sure if I preferred the deranged stalker or the psychotic stranger scenario. Neither seemed particularly appealing.

"Marly," I said, offering my preferred appellation. I had my hand on the handle of the door, ready to climb inside and lock this would-be rapist, or whatever he was, outside. Great strategy, I know, but I wasn't sure that I could outrun him, and so it seemed the best like the best option at the time. "Do I know you?"

The man leaned his elbows again the roof of my car, and from this angle, I could finally see his face. He was handsome, with rough, chiseled features and shining light-colored eyes that contrasted dramatically with his dark hair. He smiled. "My name's Gabriel. Do you mind if we talk for a few moments?"

Still unsure of what this man was doing here at this hour talking to me, I shook my head. "No, I don't think so. My boyfriend--"

"Is at home asleep," he interrupted, "since your cell phone doesn't have a charge." He said it in a very soft, diplomatic tone, and yet it still creeped me out.

 

Behind the Veil (working title)

NaNoWriMo 2009 project by Lindsey M. Brounstein


There is a veil that exists between the worlds. Most people don't realize that it's there -- or even that there something to be separated from. Not too long ago, I was one of those unenlightened masses, wandering through life, stumbling along not understanding the full depth of the problem. Ignorance is bliss, right? You're damn right it is. And it's not until that ignorance is yanked away from you, kicking and screaming, that you realize just how true that old saying really is. Once you've learned something, learned the Truth with capital T, you can't unlearn it. It's in your mind and no matter how hard you try, you can never regain the ignorance you lost. Some days, I want nothing more than to forget about the other side of the veil and to just return to my life as it used to be before... Before. It seems like so long ago, really. In truth it has been less than a year since I learned what was really going on in the world. Since I learned that those things that go bump in the night were real, and they don't just bump.

It's a hard thing to explain to the mundanes -- the people who don't know about the veil or about what exists on the other side. I tried that once. I've been single ever since. In any case, if you could just bear with me, I'll explain it to you. The first thing you need to know is that there is a veil that separates the world from the world behind it. And the veil is starting to falter.


For me, this whole thing started about eight months ago, so let me start you off just a little before that. It was the summer of 2008 in the town of Lewiston, Maine. I'd been out of college just over a year already and was looking for an excuse to avoid the 'real world' for just a little longer. I was 23 and in love and unwilling to relinquish myself to the working world. My boyfriend of a year and a half had stayed behind with me after we graduated from Bates College, the little liberal arts school in town. Most of the friends we had met in school left after graduation, going on to bigger a better things: law school in Boston, graphic arts design in New York, a husband and two point five kids in the 'burbs. But I'd fallen in love with the little city and wasn't ready to leave it yet. And Johnny... well Johnny had fallen in love with me and wasn't ready to leave me yet either. That would change soon enough, but that part comes a little later. Anyway, Johnny and I were living in a rundown apartment building on Pine Street in the 'downtown' portion of Lewiston. I'm making little air quotes with my fingers when I say 'downtown' because really all it means is the kind of sketchy part of town along the river where the mills used to be. It looks vacant and rundown, a lot like my apartment, and no one really wants to admit they are from that part of town. I spent my nights bartending at Schmengee's, a billiards hall on Lincoln Street. It wasn't a dream job by any means, but it kept me from being bored and it paid my rent, so I wasn't going to complain. I got great tips working there, as the locals thought my slightly southern drawl was adorable, and my curves were appropriately sexy in the tight jeans and low-cut tops I always wore to work. I've never been really thin, but I carry myself well and have the confidence to pull off just about anything I care to try. It seemed to work well at Schmengee's, and I never left a shift with a shortage of cash.

One particular night in late June, I exited the pool hall with the rest of the staff who were closing that night, and we all crossed the parking lot to our cars together. "You sure you won't come home with me tonight, darlin'?" Josh called as he unlocked the door to his pickup. It was a regular question, the same as any other night. "I swear to Jesus, I will rock your world."

And just like every other night, I smiled and shook my head. "Keep dreaming, Josh." I got into my car and closed the door just as he was saying something else. It didn't matter. There was no chance me and him were going to happen. Ever. I watched him in the rear view mirror for a few moments, making crude, suggestive gestures at me until he finally gave up and got into his truck. The others followed suit and were pulling out of the parking lot as I set my purse on the empty passenger seat and turned the key in the ignition.

Nothing. Not even a groan or a sputter. Just silence as I twisted the damned thing again and again. I looked back into my rear view mirror again. No one was left. I was sitting in the darkened parking lot by the river at two thirty in the morning without another soul in sight. Brilliant. I reached into my purse and pulled out my cell phone. Which was dead. Fucking brilliant! I knew I should have charged the stupid thing last night. I got out of my car as I considered making the long walk back to my apartment. Thankfully it was a nice night, but still I didn't relish the idea of walking through the sketchy part of town at three in the morning. On the off chance that this was one of the few car things I knew about, I popped the hood. Ha, not a chance. Belts seemed to be on their usual tracks and all the hoses and wires appeared to be connected to other hoses and wires. As far as I could tell, everything was a-ok, except that it wouldn't start.