The Last Veilborn

Chapter 2 - The Girl Who Saw the Veil

I was already thinking about going home when I stepped outside the building. It had been a long day and all I wanted was to get something to eat and rest. I checked my phone for messages while standing near the entrance barely paying attention to the people passing by.

Then I noticed someone across the street.

It was standing near the side of a building not moving like the people around it. I looked at it for a few seconds before putting my phone away. I knew that shape. I'd seen things like it before, usually from the corner of my eye, sometimes in places where there shouldn't have been anyone.

I tried to ignore it.

I had gotten used to doing that there was no point telling people because they never saw what I was seeing. Even when I tried explaining it, I couldn't describe it properly. So I stopped bringing it up and learned to carry on with my day.

But this time, the figure wasn't disappearing.

I looked across the street again. It was still there, and now it seemed to be looking directly at me. I couldn't make out its face. Every time I tried to focus, the details seemed wrong, like something was keeping me from seeing it clearly.

I took my phone out again, mostly to give myself something else to look at. Maybe I was tired. Maybe I just needed to stop staring at things that weren't supposed to be there.

Then it called me by a name.

I looked up so quickly that my phone nearly slipped from my hand. The voice came from across the street, but the name meant nothing to me. I had never heard anyone call me that before. I checked behind me, thinking it might have been meant for someone else.

Nobody was there.

"Did you just call me?" I asked.

The figure tilted its head I couldn't tell if it was trying to answer or simply looking at me. The people around it kept walking, completely unaware of what was standing there.

I felt uncomfortable more than that, I was getting scared, and I hated that I couldn't explain why. I wanted to go back inside, but I also wanted to know what it had called me.

A car passed between us, when it was gone the figure was no longer standing in the same place.

I stepped away from the road.

"Okay, that's enough," I muttered to myself.

I turned toward the entrance, but before I could reach it, a man approached me. He looked like he had been watching the street his attention moved from me to the place where the figure had been.

"Did you see someone standing across the street?" I asked him.

He looked at me for a moment. "What did it look like?"

That wasn't the answer I expected. I studied his face, trying to figure out whether he was asking because he had seen it too or because he thought I was talking about an ordinary person.

"I couldn't see its face It was just standing there, watching me then it called me by a name I've never heard before, you saw it, didn't you?" I glanced toward the street again.

He didn't answer right away.

"Don't go back out there alone," he said.

I frowned. "Why? What was that thing?"

"Not here."

I let out a frustrated breath. "You can't just say that and expect me to be okay with it, I've been seeing things like that for years nobody else seems to notice them, and whenever I try to ask someone, I get nothing. Now you're standing here acting like you know what it is, but you won't tell me anything."

He looked toward the road again. I was starting to lose patience. I didn't know him, and I didn't know if I should trust him, but he was the first person who hadn't looked at me like I was making things up.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Caelan."

"That's your whole answer?"

"For now."

I almost asked him to leave me alone, but I still had one question I couldn't let go of.

"Why did it call me that name?"

He looked at me, and I could tell he wasn't going to explain everything. Whatever he knew, he was keeping it to himself.

-

I hadn't expected the creature to show itself there.

I was across the street when I noticed it standing near the building. At first, I thought it was watching the people passing by, but then a woman stepped outside and its attention shifted to her.

I knew that creature I had encountered similar ones during previous assignments, and I knew better than to approach without watching what it did first. It wasn't something ordinary people could see. Most wouldn't even notice it standing in the middle of a busy street.

The woman did.

I watched her look directly at it she even spoke to it, which made me pay closer attention. Whatever was happening, she wasn't imagining the figure. She could actually see it.

Then the creature called out to her.

I couldn't hear the name clearly from where I stood, but I saw the woman's reaction. She looked confused, checked behind her, then faced the creature again. It was looking for her. There was no reason for it to call out unless it wanted her attention.

I started crossing the street.

The creature noticed me before I reached the other side. Its head turned in my direction, but it didn't move. I kept walking, watching it until a passing car blocked my view for a moment.

When I could see the other side again, it was gone.

The woman had already moved toward the entrance. I went after her, still trying to understand why that thing had approached her in the first place. I didn't know her name, and I had no idea what connection she might have to the Veil. But an ordinary person shouldn't have been able to see it.

When I reached her, she was already asking questions.

I didn't blame her. She had seen something most people couldn't, and it had called her by a name she didn't recognize. But I couldn't explain everything in the middle of a crowded street, especially when I wasn't even sure what the creature wanted.

She kept looking at me, waiting for an answer. I could see that she was frightened, though she was trying not to show it. She was also annoyed with me, and honestly, I didn't have the patience to deal with a long conversation right there.

"Listen, if you see it again, don't approach it don't follow it, and don't answer if it calls you." I said, keeping my voice low.

"You're still not explaining anything."

"I know."

"Then why should I listen to you?"

I didn't have a good answer for that she had no reason to trust me, and I wasn't going to pretend otherwise. But leaving her there without saying anything wasn't an option either.

"Because I know what that thing is, and it shouldn't be looking for you."

She went quiet. Her expression changed, and I could tell that was the first answer she had taken seriously.

"What does it want from me?"

"I don't know yet."

That was the truth. I didn't know why it had called her by that name, or why it had noticed her in the first place. I only knew that it had been looking directly at her, and that she could see it.

She glanced back toward the street. I did the same, but the creature was nowhere to be seen.

I looked at her again I needed to know who she was, but asking too many questions now wouldn't help. She was already suspicious of me, and I couldn't blame her.

For now, I had one thing to be certain of.

The creature hadn't approached her by chance.