Santa's Secret Transfic Anthology Vol. 2 / Everyday Sweets #4
Shattered Veil
by Blittsen
Horror; eldritch nightmares/visions/beings. Schizophrenia analogies/references
For my entire life, I’ve been dealing with them. I don’t think I can remember a time when they weren’t somewhere, stalking me. Sometimes they’re in a dark corner of my room, appearing only when all light has been snuffed out, other times they’re crushing my chest, staring into my eyes with their own dead, transparent oculars as I awake from my nightmares. Every time I scream, or try and get a clear look at them, they’re gone. They vanish without a sight, I’m the only person who’s seen them. No one believes me, no one believes that they’ve been making my life a living hell for years.
Aspen thought as they lay in their bed, staring at the analog on their bedroom wall, the hands jumping to different numbers with each heavy blink
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Time was only a concept and had no real value. Just something made up by fellow man. Each value was just assigned arbitrarily, without thought on anyone else. At least, that’s how it felt to them now. It’s been three days since Aspen actually had what could be considered a decent rest. Every time they closed their eyes and attempted to drift away into the sandman’s realm, they were violently awoken by them.
Though, finally. Aspen took a deep breath and attempted to slumber for a final time in desperation as weariness overpowered them. All they could hear was the constant ticking of the clock as they stayed wrapped in their woolen blanket and kept warm by the insulated heating pad. Things were going right, for once. They finally were spared by the entity’s assaults, they finally felt safe in their own home; their own bed.
That was until an ungodly heat roared at their feet and the scent of sulfur filled the air. Aspen forced their eyes opened and peered south, where a glow grew brighter. From what appeared to be their heating pad, a fire erupted and started to burn the blanket they were encased in.
In fear, they tried to scream, though no words came out, they tried to get out yet they couldn’t They were trapped as the heat seared into their skin and traveled up, inching closer to their face with each tick of the clock, the fire spreading every other. Soon, their entire room was covered in the burning orange flames. Aspen was burning, the world was melting around them. Far, yet somehow close, a jackal’s laugh echoed over the destruction.
“Are you listening to me?” A voice rang out, causing the world around Aspen to melt into what appeared to be an office-like environment, their bed turning into a couch they laid upon while the flames quelled and dissipated from nothing.
“Aspen?” The female voice rang out once again.
“Huh? What? Sorry.” Aspen responded, rubbing and their eyes as they sat up from the couch, then putting a hand to their knee as they realized they weren’t aflame.
“I asked you a question, and you didn’t answer.”
“Can you repeat it, Ms. Rina?”
“I asked about what you see in these nightmares you claim to have and what this being you keep saying you see looks like, then provided different reasons these things may happen. I then, in addition, asked if you had any type of family history with any mental illness that might be relevant to your current situation.”
Aspen put a hand up to their head, taking a moment to think, then responded with a shake.
“I can’t say that I know anything about our family history of mental problems.”
Do I tell them what I just saw? How I was just burned alive in their office? How did think I was still in bed?
How did I even get to this place?
When did I get here?
“I. I just see them in the corner of my eye, I never could get a good look at them to get an exact appearance.” Aspen yawned before continuing, taking one of their hands and rubbing at the bags once more. “And the nightmares depend on the night. Sometimes I’m in the woods, camping, and have a man rush me with a knife. Sometimes I’m being burned alive….”
Ms. Rina just nodded along, taking notes of what Aspen said.
“Ever kept a dream journal?”
“Use too.”
“What happened to it?”
“They burned it.”
“Who’s ‘they?’”
“The entity.”
“Right.”
A sense of disbelief was evident in the woman’s words, shaking her head as she set down the notebook on her desk.
“You sure you don’t know any type of history? Personality disorders? Schizophrenia? Anything of that sort?”
“I can assure you I have neither.”
The woman shook her head at that, muttering to herself about how that’s what they all say in these earlier stages.
“Well the first stage is to accept that you have a problem, and since you don’t, perhaps we’ll try again another time when you’re ready.”
I didn’t have to deal with this. She never was helpful. She always treated me like there was a problem like I was someone who was sick. Not like a person. Every single session usually ended with her telling me that I have to accept and identity that I have some type of problem. I don’t have a problem.
It’s like some Alcoholics Anonymous bullshit.
“I don’t need to deal with this.” Aspen bluntly said, grabbing their bag and standing up from the couch they don’t remember being at. Despite the protest of the therapist, Aspen shook their head and didn’t listen. They went straight for the door and walked out of her office than out of the building.
- - -
The streets of the city were as unremarkable as the creativity of the man who named the city, someone who clearly took some type of inspiration from Saturday morning cartoons. Cityville. Who in their right mind would name a place that?
Colorful cars drove by the rough asphalt streets, contrasting greatly with the melancholic grays of the tight-knit buildings that towered above the cracked sidewalks. One could get lost in the maze of the city, with everything being so dreadfully uncreative and boring- nothing stood out to help direct anyone besides the simple and bland street signs. At least Aspen knew where they were heading: Home. Sidestreet 258, Residential Complex 24, Floor 3, Apartment 3D.
Why does no one understand what I go through? Why does everyone insist that this entity isn’t real and instead is only me and that it’s all in my head? Surely it isn’t. I’ve even gone through the process of researching this type of behavior. Granted, I should trust what I read with a grain of salt…but everything that I experience is far too real to just be a figment of my imagination. The events I suffer through are just far too realistic, far too graphic, hell, even physical evidence has been shown. I know for a fact it’s not me.
I’m not crazy.
I’m not crazy.
I’m not crazy.
I’m no-
“ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?” A voice screams at Aspen.
Looking around as they reconnected with reality, Aspen noticed that they were inside a pharmacy, being screamed at by some self-diagnosed asshole that they were blocking the aisle from.
“S-sorry.” Aspen stuttered, shaking their head then combing their long black hair out of their eyes. “I don’t kno-”
“I told you to fucking move five times.”
“Sorry.” Aspen responded again, walking away and out of the building.
When did I get there? How long was I there?
Aspen signed and put their hands in their pocket, finding that they were only a block away from home. The sun was now blocked out by the high rises now, instead of directly overhead.
It wasn’t until they got home and threw their bags down that Aspen broke down, collapsing onto their bed and crying. Minutes felt like hours, hours felt like days. Before Aspen knew it, they were grudgingly dragging themselves to the refrigerator and popping open a bottle of fresh wine. They didn’t even remember where it came from. One drink because three, three because five. Five became twelve.
Aspen stared in the mirror, one hand grasping at their pale, reddened, tear-covered face while the other sloppily held onto the wine bottle.
“W-why is this happening to me?”
“Whhyy mee?”
Swig.
Sniffle.
Cough.
“This can’t be happening.” They started to repeat as they stared into the eyes of their reflection, the world soon twisting and collapsing on the other side. Their face started to morph, their oculars turning a cruel shade of red. The reflection betrayed its master, becoming independent, its jaw unhinging and opening wide into an endless void while their long black locks turned into snakes with sharp fangs, ready to pounce, their lenses glowing a malevolent yellow.
The room started to rebuild, no longer as it was that of their bedroom, it transformed to a form akin to rotting mahogany with dirt coming through holes artifice by termites. Yet, Aspen didn’t pull away. They couldn’t pull away. They were forced to stare as the sudden psychomanteum took place. The creature in the mirror grew taller and taller, their arms and legs becoming inhumanely long. Long, black-clawed, fingernails reached out and ran against the mirror.
Tap.
Tap.
CRACK.
The mirror cracked where the creature tapped, a horrid predatory grin appeared on its face, revealing its many rows of teeth that appeared almost endless in the void. A horrid laugh echoed throughout the room, causing more and more of the mirror to crack open until eventually.
Spsh.
The glass shattered, yet the visual remained as the elongated fingers grasped at the frame of the mirror and it pulled itself out, staring Aspen down the entire time. It was easily a seven-foot-tall monstrosity of creation.
Obsidian, predatory, viper hair.
Dead, gray skin.
Long, black talons on elongated fingers.
A gaping maw, with rows of intimidating razor-sharp teeth.
Crimson, blood-stained eyes.
They only wore tatters of clothing of the exact same sweater and jeans that Aspen wore.
A gravelly, breathless, voice emitted from the creature’s maw as it contorted to look directly down on their fear-frozen prey.
“And so we finally meet.” Their voice sounded in Aspen’s head, deafening loud.
Frozen in fear, Aspen only stared into the eyes of the creature. It was the first time that they had ever finally been able to actually meet their tormenter face-to-face, no longer was it hiding.
The being reached forward with one of their talons, each viper hissing as they spoke again. “You’re no longer useful.” The Stygian unguis incised the pale flesh, letting crimson stream flow down their cheek. The being laughed, and so did the ominous ophidians who looked ready to strike as Aspen’s flesh was stained, their tongues flicking in the cool air for the rustic scent. Aspen stood helpless, at the mercy of the entity and their serpents.
Frozen like Nora Fries, stuck in what felt like an entirety in a cryostasis as they stared their nightmare in the eyes. Crazed, insomnia, and the fear-fueled scrawling of the beast in the razed journals didn’t even compare to what it felt like to stare the being down. The air of the room chilled to the point of Aspen’s fearful, shuddering breaths began to crystalize. The little pigment in their skin drained and their eyes opened wide as the fanged maw of the beast opened as it prepared to feast.
- - -
That was the moment that Aspen’s life flashed before their pale eyes, reliving every moment they had experienced - and will experience. All twenty-two years that they had spent on Earth, and the next fifty-four they will spend on Earth they felt within the few seconds eye contact had been made on the flesh-craving cacodemon.
From Aspen spending time in their Kindergarten classroom, scribbling away within one of their many notebooks to them at the last moments of their life, peacefully watching over a sunset, they saw everything in each gritty detail. Each scrape they felt, each moment of passion, every pain, every sorrow, every love, everything. It all rushed through them, the cuts appearing on their body than healing.
There was only one minute detail, though.
Aspen didn’t appear as they did in the current realm of existence. Their hair was longer, their eyes and skin grew brighter, their face was more kept, their clothing was chosen with care, not haphazardly picked from whatever they saw first in the closet. The most notable, though, was the fact that Aspen was never referred to as they had in reality, they were called by feminine terms. They were a female.
The end of their life never came, as they were watching the sunset. Like a shattered mirror that reality started to collapse around them, revealing the bedroom beneath. In a surge, the two realities started to merge together in a violent whirlwind and shattering. Objects, people, every atom in existence shattered suddenly shattered and merged into others. The two realities were one.
- - -
Aspen blinked, breaking eye contact with the entity for a moment as it atomized into the other reality. In front of them was the blue-green spectral form of a hippie woman, wearing what appeared to be a tie-dye shirt. Below the knees, however, ended in a swirl and dissipated into the air. Their viper hair turned to a black bob with yellow highlights.
They looked down at themselves, their chest was clearly larger.
“What did you do?” They asked in shock and fear, their voice higher pitched.
“I…don’t…know...” Spoke the apparition, her voice echoing through the chilled air as they looked down at their new body as well. They lived what felt like five hundred and sixty years trapped in the hellscape of limbo, forced to wander the dreaded Earth hopping body after body, feeding off their primal fear of their existence, only to have them be left as a cold-cased missing person report when they finally had finished their deed.
Moments of deafening silence passed as the two stared at each other and their new forms, Aspen’s voice was the only thing that saved them from the quiet.
“Are you okay?” Why did I ask that? This was the thing that was crawled out of my mirror and was amount to consume me, this was the thing that has been tormenting me my entire life. Why do I care about it? It certainly doesn’t care about me.
“I was about to ask the same thing.” It replied back, casting its eyes away from itself and towards Aspen.
“Why do you care?”
“Because I don’t want to hurt you…”
“Bull.”
“Not anymore.”
“I didn’t want to hurt you, you know. That wasn’t who I was.” They motioned over their phantasmal body for a moment before staring down at their hands again. “This is me. Or, at least I believe it’s me. It’s different than what I remember. Just…I was…”
“Not a girl?”
“...precisely.”
“You experienced what I did, didn’t you?” Aspen inquired as she kicked away the shattered glass on the floor.
“What do you mean?”
Aspen started to walk around her room, investigating what might have also been caught up in the reality merge and changed.
“You saw life again, how you were born and how you died before we got these bodies, didn’t you?”
“Admittedly, it’s…strange not feeling freaked out about all that. I just feel comfortable. Like this is the way I’ve always been.”
“It does feel pretty groovy. I know this wasn’t me, but this is me? You understand that right?”
Aspen nodded, looking back at her for a moment before continuing to look around their apartment. The only major change that had been made was that Aspen’s closet had much more feminine clothes than what she normally had and everything referring to her was swapped to feminine pronouns. Everything else, however, was exactly the same as it had been before.
Suddenly, the spirit started to dissipate, fading away in front of Aspen as she watched on. As the being spoke, their voice sounded more frail and distant.
“I…I think that’s it for me, Aspen. I think I found my purpose in life. I think I can finally move on…”
“Your purpose?” Aspen asked in confusion, thinking for a moment before it finally clicked in their head.
“Is that why you haunted me for all these years? To finally come to realise something about yourself?”
The retreating spirit nodded as it continued to fade from existence.
“I believe so Assspeeeennn…I believe so~”
“Hopefullllyyy you can realiseee something abouttt yourseelf tooo~”
“I’m sorrryyy I did thaaa~”…”
And just like that, as quickly as they entered Aspen’s life and began their torment, as quickly as they were able to flee from her view, as quickly as they pulled themselves from the shattered mirror and break their vessel from their drunken stupor, as quickly as the reality surge happened.
They were gone.
- - -
Sitting on their purple-sheeted bed, Aspen sat deep in thought about what had happened. Was this all just a figment of her imagination? Had a dream gone rogue and was now holding them hostage in their own bed? Will they ever wake up?
Or was it all real?
Aspen laid back and sighed, holding a hand to their head as they became to succumb to their mattress and eventually faded away into a peaceful, rejuvenating, slumber. A zizz they’ve never experienced since they were a kid. They were unhaunted, no longer did they suffer from the persistent night terrors. Only good dreams about how lovely life could be, relieving the young woman from the constant dread she felt with each passing day.
Slowly waking up, they stared at the analog on their bedroom wall, the hands jumping to different numbers with each heavy blink
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Time was only a concept and had no real value. Just something made up by fellow man. Each value was just assigned arbitrarily, without thought on anyone else. At least, that’s how it felt to them now. It’s been only a couple of hours since Aspen actually had what could be considered a decent rest. Every time they closed their eyes and attempted to drift away into the sandman’s realm, they were had to stop themselves from falling into his trap.
Aspen took a deep breath and attempted to get out of bed and escape the comfort that dared to overpower them. The melodic ticking of the clock kept them from drifting off into their woolen blanket, kept warm by the insulated heating pad that lay by their feet. Things were going right, as they always do. They were spared from visitation from the entity that had once tormented them. They finally felt safe in their own home and their own bed…
“Time for a new day,” Aspen spoke with a smile, walking towards their window and looking at the midday sun.
“I suppose I should probably get in contact with my therapist, shouldn’t I? Probably should tell them that everything is alright with me now. I’m not haunted anymore, not by the spirit, or myself...”
Thanks for reading; I don't write/publish stuff enough to plug anything to find more - sorry!
— Blittsen
This was seriously cool!
Oh this was an interesting journey to go on! Thanks for letting me take that trip ^^