Veil's Seduction - Chapter One

“You ready, chica?” Murphie asked as she clicked her monitor off. In the ugly blue cubicle behind her came Kelly’s reply, “Let me just clock out.” Murphie came around to stand and wait. Kelly picked up her purse and flipped her light out and turned in Murphie’s direction. They headed out of the room and down the hall to the side door that led to the stairwell on the two story building in downtown Tampa. “Oh, and last night Steven couldn’t put down that damn vampire romance you gave him to read, I’m feeling neglected and you’re to blame,” whined Kelly as they started down the stairs. Murphie just laughed and as she hit the turn in between floors she reached out and touched the cement wall and kept walking, but out of the corner of her eye she watched Kelly do the same. They both laugh because Kelly actually did it. Murphie believes that one day that she will go to touch the wall and her hand will go through it to some other place, another world or some such unbelievable crap like that. They walk out still in conversation and head to their cars. “See you in the morning,” Kelly tells Murphie. “Only if you’re lucky,” Murphie jokes back. 1

Kelly backed out of the parking lot and glanced in the mirror. Her straight and fly-away tawny hair had grown mid-way down her back in the last year and her green eyes held no sparkle for all the stress she was having. She was broke and constantly had to juggle money to pay the bills. She picks up the phone and dials Steven. “What?” he bellows into the line making her flinch. “Ew,” and scrunches her petite nose, “I want to go to Tijuana Flats for dinner, meet me there, ok?” she basically demanded. She was hungry and she was craving a burrito. This was her comfort food for the stress. “I’m not really hungry, you go ahead and I’ll see you back at the house,” Steven complained. This did not brighten her mood and brought the more personal issues to the forefront. She was really getting tired of his non-working ass lying around her house and reading and watching tv all damn day while she busted hers to support them both. “Fine, whatever,” she said and hung up. 2

She went home. 3

Her cell phone beeps. Beeps and beeps some more. She rolls to the edge of the bed and reaches for it on the side table. She cracks her eye open and looks at the clock. She was late again. She looks at the phone and sees that Murphie has texted her. Probably asking where the hell she was. She opens it, “calld n – call ltr” it read. Bitch! She didn’t have a choice to go in, she already missed so many days and she was always late. Besides that, she always seems to get into trouble at lunch when Murphie wasn’t there. 4

Kelly rolled over Stevens limp body and made her way to the bathroom. Still in a fog, she flipped the lights on and blinks repeatedly at the harsh bulb and groans as she looks in the mirror. She really hates that mirror. Too much there going on looking back at her that she would like to forget. She goes about her morning ritual, you know, the toilet, shower, teeth and hair thing. She smiles thinking of her birthday gift that she received from Steven, her pink chi. More or less a hair straightener. Murphie was teasing her the other day that she could have gotten a straightener for $10 bucks, but then again Murphie is cheap when it comes to things that are needs, but if its books or Starbucks, she’ll spend any amount. 5

Flipping the light back off when she was done, she stepped into her walk-in closet and picked out her clothes, dressed and gave Steven a kiss on the cheek and left for work. 6

“Hey Debra, do you have any payments to post?” Kelly sighed in disgust of her boredom. She could only play the bubble game on the internet for so long, then she would just switch to mahjongg. “Not very many, I was going to do them myself,” Debra crooned in her soft and lilting voice. Not giving her a chance at denying her Kelly resorted to begging, “please?” Debra gave a tinkle of a laugh and nodded ok. “Where’s Murphie, is she sick?” Debra questioned. Kelly gave her a raised eyebrow in slight irritation and whined, “No, she called in, said she would call me later.” Debra said that she was glad Murphie wasn’t sick and went to get the payments for Kelly. 7

After posting the payments which took all of an hour, Kelly was back playing the bubble game. Looking at the clock she noticed it was near lunchtime and decided to run to the bank. You know, the juggling money thing. Packing up her phone and keys she picked up her purse and headed to the stairwell. 8

Well, Murphie wasn’t here but she still had to touch that cement wall. Nodding her head as she descended the stairs she reached out and placed her hand against the wall and her foot stepped out of her flip flop so she leaned into the wall to bend over to slide her shoe back in place, then felt herself falling sideways, and not toward the bottom stairs. 9

What the hell? Kelly thought. She blinked and looked around. She was not in the stairwell at work. She was on the ground, she gathered. Looking around all she could see was a mist or fog . She couldn’t see anything anywhere and could just make out her own form. Her palms were wet and slightly scratched as she pushed herself up to stand again. The air felt damp and she just stood there, not sure what to do next. Her next step would be worse. What the hell, she thought again. 10

What the hell? was the thought he was picking up inside the veil. But he couldn’t place the voice. He didn’t think he had ever heard it before. So he followed it. Most thoughts came from outside the veil. Ones that were in distress and pain. Those are the ones he heeded. It took very little time to gain the area. West coast of Florida. Then he could see clearly and stalled. A human woman and she had breached the veil. Now he was thinking, what the hell? 11

Long tawny hair, with strands of delicate curls slipped loose from her tie. Not too tall, not too short, she would probably come to just under his nose. She was wearing some black rubber shoes that shined in the mist, Capri pants and a black sleeveless top. She wore a mood ring shaped like a flip flop and had a gold chain with a floating heart around her slender neck. 12

“I’m going to kill Murphie,” she was mumbling walking around in a circle not sure what to do. Her thoughts were an absolute mess because of her confusion and finally she just stopped. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth to scream, he heard that intention. 13

He stepped forward and made a noise right before. 14

She jerked around and peered into the fog, listening intently. “Anyone there?” she whispered. She saw him then. He was at least 5’10” and had short, choppy blonde hair that just brushed his shoulders with darker highlights, anyway that is what it seemed to her in this barely lit crap. He was wearing blue jeans and a black tee, black biker boots and his muscles were nicely tanned. Basically he was built like a brick shithouse. 15

She took a deep breath and a shiver went through her. Not one of fear, but one of, well she wasn’t quite sure. She would figure that out later when she got out of here. 16

He had been watching her size him up and cocked a grin. He was taken by her strength and she was kind of cute, too. He waited, ready for the answers to the questions she had already formed in her head. 17

“Where am I?” she started with18

“The Lake of Illusion,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders.19

“Can I get back, you know, to, I guess work, where I just was?” she sighed with complete hope. 20

“Yes,” he said simply.21

“Who are you?” she finally ask. 22

He knew this question was coming and still hadn’t decided how to answer, but then he looked into her moist green eyes, heard just a barely audible sob, caught the smell of the slight fear and desperation and he caved, he whispered, “Savitri.” 23