Fiction logo

The Veil

Dare to lift it?

By Angel DelgadoPublished 2 years ago 17 min read
1
The Veil
Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash

Imagine that you live in a house, and you have been living inside that house since you were born, all windows and doors are sealed. A woman and a man have always taken care of you, you think of them as your parents, but they do everything according to sacred notes that they find in a tube every morning. They have shown you the outside through books and videos but what they have shown you is that the outside is a hostile place full of dangerous creatures and harsh environment.

This is the life of someone we will call Kimi, she is a five-year-old girl and she is starting to learn how to write and read in school. But she goes to school thru tunnels that connects to her house, and she starts meeting other people. Her mother cooks what she is being told by the sacred notes and with the grocery left every morning in her kitchen. Her father works but he does not leave the house, he works from home. After some weeks learning in school, one day her father deviated from one of the items of the note and instead of helping her with her homework that night as the sacred note said, he decided to do something that started changing her life. He whispered to her;

“There is no danger outside, it is safe to go outside. I tried telling your mother. . .”

But before he could finish, they both fell unconscious on the floor.

She woke up and she didn’t see her father anywhere.

“Mom, where is daddy?”

“Oh honey I need to show you something” She started sobbing “I wouldn’t show it to you but is one of the tasks today on the sacred notes.”

The girl was confused and her mother shows her a video of her father outside running and getting killed by the creatures. After he died the creatures left, but the man comes back to life and start running again, it happens over and over again. After it happened five times the girl was in shock and started screaming, then video cuts and shows letters saying that it will continue forever for disobeying the sacred notes.

She was horrified and started crying unconsolably, her mother started to console her;

“I’m sorry honey but this is the way the world works, it is important for you to know that is not safe to go outside and that the notes left for us must be obeyed to the letter. The sacred notes are more important than your parents, your friends or your kids”

“No mom, you are the most important thing to me.”

“No please don’t say that, please understand that the sacred notes are mor e important. Don’t ever forget that.”

At school she was sad and one of her friends asked her:

“Are you ok?”

“No” Then she started crying

“What happened?”

“My father . . .”

The teacher overheard the conversation and said;

“I’m sorry Kimi, I heard what happened to your father. I’m sorry that you had to learn the hard way, that the sacred notes most be obeyed. Let’s all be thankful for the sacred notes and the writer that keep us safe”

After class some of her friends wanted to know what happened, and she told them. They shared their stories of similar situations. Kimi noticed that they have something in common, fear of the outside.

But one of them said that one day he woke up and her mother was gone, but since she obeyed the sacred notes. His father told him that the note says to watch a video on TV, but the video is of his mother in a very beautiful place, totally different from the outside world, the trees are a different color, they have leaves and the creatures are not hostile, the sky looks blue instead of black and she is happy, the video cuts with letters displaying that she passed away obeying the sacred notes, she will be forever happy.

Now Kimi and the other kids learned that there is a reward for obeying the sacred notes and that the note maker only want the best for them.

The next day there is a new man at her home and her mother tell her that he is going to be living there now. He is a man who is obedient to the sacred notes, they continue raising her according to the notes.

“Are you ok Kimi?”

“Yes mommy, but I miss daddy and I’m sad for him.”

“Me too honey but you have to understand. . .”

“Yes, I understand mommy, the sacred notes are more important than you and me.”

“Yes honey, I’m glad you understand, good night.”

“Good night”

A lot of years have passed, and Kimi is now a teenager, one of the kids at school was making a scene, he started asking why can’t they see the note maker, where he was and who he really was. The kid was taken away and one of Kimi’s friend told her;

“You know? Sometimes I ask myself the same thing.”

“Really?”

“Yes, please don’t tell anyone, I don’t want to get in trouble.”

“No, I will keep it a secret.”

They started talking about it and she started having some doubts. Some days later at dinner, she started asking questions at home;

“Mom? Can I ask you something?”

“Sure honey”

“Why can’t we see the note maker?” There was a sudden silence and they stopped eating.

“Honey we do not question the sacred notes or the note maker.”

“But why?”

“Because questions and doubt lead to disobedience and one must refrain from having them.”

“I want to talk to him”

“Of course, honey, you can talk to him whenever you want.”

“Really”

“Of course, we do it every day”

“You do?”

“Yes, we do, it is very important.”

“What does he tell you?”

“Oh no, it doesn’t work that way. We talk, he listens and he answers according to his will on the sacred notes. Sometimes you have to wait a long time for an answer, and sometimes the answer is not what you want, but that is the way he works.”

“I don’t care, where can I go and talk to him?”

“Oh no, you don’t ger to see him, you can only see him in the beautiful place.”

“So, how do I talk to him?

“You close your eyes and whisper anything you want to tell him.”

“But I want to see him, why can’t I?”

“Kimi if you keep questioning him, you will be banished to the outside. He hears everything, please behave.”

“But . . “

“ENOUGH KIMI”

“Sorry mom”

“Not me, you must ask the note maker for forgiveness.”

Kimi does and she started fearing the note maker, she started doing everything she did to please the note maker, no matter how bizarre the notes were. Their parents even show her old notes from her ancestors where they commanded killing others that did not believe in the notes. As long as it was ordered by the notes it was fine.

Kimi started repressing her doubts even hurting herself to stop having them. She turned into an obedient young woman now, she is twenty-five years old.

One day the sacred notes said that she must leave her parents and start a life of her own. Her parents were sad but the notes must be obeyed. She now studied in a different place, now she can visit friends thru the tunnels.

One of her friends, the one that had doubts when she was a kid, accompanied her at the cafeteria for lunch.

“Kimi, long time no see.”

“Yeah, I know, what have you been doing?”

They started talking trying to get up to date with each other and talking about old times.

“Remember the day that kid made a scene at school?”

“Yeah, I was scared”

“Well I started thinking by myself and I think that the notes are not sacred. It is just a way to keep us controlled”

“What are you talking about? Don’t say things like that.”

“Yes, listen, me and some friends are going to sneak in the forbidden tunnel, the one that always says under construction.”

“Why would you do that?”

“ To fing the truth, think about it, why can’t we see him? Is it really that bad outside?” Kimi got mad.

“You are wrong? I f you don’t believe in the notes you are lost and you are not dragging me with you. Bye”

“But Kimi . . .”

“When you come back to your senses we can talk again, and if you go thru that tunnel, you are dead to me.”

Kimi left and she was angry, she started thinking of finding proof that the notes are sacred but couldn’t. She is comforted by knowing that everybody knows the notes are sacred and that is evidence enough. But she was sad because she doesn’t have the answers to what he was talking about, but she found a group of friends that believe in the sacred notes. They started agreeing with her and they all made fun of the one that doesn’t believe. How is it possible that someone doesn’t believe in the notes? They have existed since forever, she started paying attention to those friends more.

Now she is an obedient adult thirty-one years old, when she got home one day in the tube there is a note that reads that she must get a husband.

She talked to her friends, and they agree that if the notes say that, is for the best. She is filled with doubt for the first time, she doesn’t really want a husband, but she does not dares to say that to anyone, so she goes back home concerned and confused.

Time passes and there is another note saying that she must get married, she went back to the tunnels and saw some people sneaking into the forbidden tunnel. She followed them but on the way she saw her unbeliever friend and she turned around, but he saw her.

“Kimi?”

“Oh hi”

“I know you don’t want to talk to me but, if you ever want to learn the truth, meet me in this tunnel.”

She left and told herself that there is no truth other than the notes, she was scared so she went back home. Something tells her to go back to him but by now she knows better. On that night she was in the kitchen and there was a knock from outside the kitchen window and when she got closer, she heard someone from the outside that with a serene voice told her that there is nothing wrong with the outside, that she have been told a lie. The person on the other side sounded like her father, he told her to look thru a hole in her bedroom and the person left. She was scared and went to bed thinking this was a crazy day and she started talking to the note maker to ease her thoughts.

The next day she was curious, she went to the room and started looking for the hole, when she was about to see thru the hole someone knocked on her door. It was one of her friends and she decided it was a signal from the note maker and decided to go out with her They reunited with a group of friends and discussed the doubts they all have. Some of them have heard the calls from outside but all of them agree that those are the creatures trying to make them doubt and disobey. They tell her that everyone is free thanks to the note maker. She can do whatever she want as long as she obeys the notes. She got more and more involved with that group of friends and she met more people that love to obey as she did. She wondered, why are the others living their lives and not paying as much attention to the sacred notes, and people doing things against the notes. She started trying to convince others the importance of obeying the notes.

She went near the tunnel to find her friend and tell him about the real truth, the sacred notes. Now she was more prepared.

She finds him and try to tell him, but he was adamant on needing proof that the notes are sacred.

“Me and countless others feel deep inside that they are sacred. That cannot be a coincidence.”

“Well, me and countless others know that they are not sacred.”

She doesn’t know how to answer to that so she got angry.

“Well at least we are free”

“Here, take this” He gave her one of his notes.

“Rip that apart and throw it in the trash.”

“What? Are you crazy? You know it is forbidden”

“If you are forbidden to rip a simple note in half you are not free at all.”

“The note maker knows better, and he knows why he do the things he do.”

She left angry, thinking that she thought that she was better prepared to face him. She got hoe earlier than usual and there was another note giving her an ultimatum about the husband, then suddenly, she hears a knock on the window. Her heart was about to get out of her chest, there is the same voice from the outside telling her that the outside is fine and told her to go to the room and find a hole. She doesn’t know what to do and she is really nervous and try to calm down. She started asking herself; Why would people be lied to about the notes? Why would the note maker want to keep them there? That idea burned inside her head and she decided to look for the hole.

It was true, there was a hole, she was about she looked thru the hole and there was a video inside. She puts the video in the player and she a video of her friend, the non-believer in the beautiful world but he is tearing everything apart, everything was like some sort of scenery and behind the beautiful world was the outside. He looks at the camera and ask if you really want to know what’s outside to go to the tunnel and the video ends with one of the creatures charging at him. She got scared and headed for the tunnel. When she got to the tunnel she saw that the tunnel was broken and there was and open space but it was like a place under construction it didn’t look like the outside at all. Some people were repairing the tunnel and she sneaked around and saw a house being constructed. Then it hits her . . . there is no outside.

If there is no outside, is there a beautiful world? She kept sneaking around to see if she could find the note maker or the beautiful place. Someone saw her and told her that she was not supposed to be there. She started running but someone grabbed her and took her away it’s her friend

“Do you still believe in the notes?”

“I . . .”

“Surprised? Don’t worry it takes some time for people to get used to this.”

He took her thru another tunnel and she went to an abandoned house and he tells her that she need to see for herself. She went to the attic of the house and the window had a crack and thru the crack she saw a big office space full of cubicles and other people are writing the notes and sending them thru the tubes, the “sacred” notes. She went back down and her friend is waiting but she feels depressed, was everything a lie? He was going to talk to her but she didn’t want to talk and she went back home.

She was lying in her bed trying to make sense of all that, depressed. Month have passed and she lived her life but she started to dig deeper and deeper and found out that there are other note makers with different instructions, there are even notes outside that and say to follow your heart. Other people believe that their notes are the real ones, but the others are fake and vice versa. She was confused and she starts to analyze the facts. She stars studying all notes from everywhere and she got to a conclusion. All notes are made by other people according to the need of the ones that control the population in that area. You already saw outside and there was nothing.

So she decided to look for her nonbeliever friend and tell him about what she found out. They talked for hours. This time instead of thinking that she had the absolute truth, she was open to learning. Her friend told her that the more you learn, the more you notice that there is still much to learn. He took her to his place and show you a studio where they make the videos of the people in the outside and on the beautiful world. There was something written on the wall,

The note maker is everyone that wants to control you. You are the one who decide what you want.

He showed her a door and it leads to de outside and asked her if she wanted to go. She was scared, it was too fast then he opened the door and went through the door. There was the outside, an open round space like a warehouse and there were a lot of small rooms with a single door. She opened one of the doors and she went to a gray empty space. She saw the outside of the houses and she saw her friend knocking on them telling them that the outside is safe. They both laugh and she started doing the same. There is a golden door with a keyhole but he doesn’t know where that leads, he has the key but does not dare open it.

“Let’s go there”

“Oh noo no no.”

“Why? I thought you had the key.”

“I do, but I have seen some people go crazy after they open it and go inside.”

“Don’t they talk after that?”

“None of them have talked after coming back from that door. I guess it’s too much to handle.”

“Wow, I had a hard time getting used to this knowledge, so I’ll wait.”

“Of course, the world is your world now, and now you really are free.”

She started living a life plentifully trying to free others but most of them don’t want to be freed. Most people are happy living as prisoners as she once was.

After a year she went to look for his friend but couldn’t find him. Then she heard a faint cry and it came from his closet, there he was, crying on the floor mumbling something. She tried to talk to him, but he was not listening, he had a key in his hand and she took it. It was the golden key for the golden door, he looks at you and said, “I thought I was ready.”

She stayed with him for a couple of days it looks like his motivation is completely gone. After three days she found him dead, he cut his wrists. She started crying and she got very angry and decided to go thru the door. She had nothing left to loose.

She opened the door and entered, everything went blank for a moment like she passed out and then she opened her eyes, but it was really hard to see. She started seeing creatures, but her vision was blurry, she tried to say hello but she only let out a shriek. Her vision started to get better but all she saw was a bunch of monkeys sleeping in cages with a big weird contraption in their heads. There was nothing out of the ordinary, she wondered why people go crazy with this until she saw a mirror and saw in fact that she was one of those monkeys with a contraption in her head. She tried to talk, but only shrieks came out of her mouth, then a man in a lab coat approaches her and injects her with something and she falls asleep.

She woke up next to the golden door.

Short Story
1

About the Creator

Angel Delgado

Amateur writer, fiction lover. I hope you enjoy what you find here.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.