The Veils Island: Part Two (rough draft)

“What would you call this place?”

Lang smiled, sitting across from me at a table no bigger than a side table. “Is that really the first thing you wish to ask me, Mr. Eccles?”

His humble apartment is even smaller than the quarters I was given, but there was so much I could explore within it. The way he dressed and looked upon our first meeting suggested he was a carefully placed sort of person. His apartment suggested that he was a man of comfort. His bed was lived in, disheveled. His lone bookshelf was overflowing with banged up spines, dog eared pages, and precariously placed bits of knick knacks and toiletries. By appearances, Lang was even more human than I.

I chuckled, looking down at my notepad which I had painstakingly written out various questions. “This isn’t about me, Lang. I’m here to interview you.” I smiled at him, wearing that perfect face I always did during interviews. I had to wear the mask and play the part, or else everything could fall apart. I had to be perfect, had to appear impartial, or I may not get my answer.

“You’re still part of it.” Lang’s smile was neither nefarious or welcoming. It existed upon his face the same way it did a snake or panther. “And I brought you here, for a very specific reason, Mr. Eccles.”

I didn’t want to give anything away, but that comment made my head turn just slightly.

Lang leaned forward on the tiny table. “That’s the real question, isn’t it?” He pointed a long finger at me. “Why me?” His smile grew and those pale blue eyes sharpened. “Why the son of the man who knowingly killed a Veil first? Why the journalist who supposedly wrote the book on Veils?” He looked me up and down as my heart began to race. “Is it because of those things? Or do I have something a bit more underhanded at play?”

I swallowed. He saw through the mask, no one ever saw through the mask. I was unprepared for this, and I knew better. This wasn’t the usual interview, or even the usual person. Lang was a delicate topic and a volatile person. Even Verge, the Veils rights group, was afraid to touch him.

Lang laughed as he leaned back, throwing one arm over the back of his chair while crossing his long, elegant legs. “It’s nothing underhanded, Mr. Eccles. I am a long time admirer of your work. You and your brother both.”

My stomach churned and I placed both palms upon the table. The topic of my brother was just as sensitive for me. “I see,” I managed to breathe. “It’s nice to hear that.”

Lang watched me, his gaze I now knew was more perceptive than most. “I will answer your question if you ask me the real question, Mr. Eccles. Do me that courtesy.”

I rubbed at my jaw before facing him again. I tried to put back on the mask of the professional journalist, but it just didn’t fit like it should. There was no reason to wear it here anyways, Lang already knew it was fake.

“Why me, Lang?” the stillness of the room and of Lang himself unnerved me. I swallowed before speaking again, trying to keep myself from being the only thing moving in that space.

“Surely there must be others who could have served your purpose better?”

Lang’s head tilted to the side. “And what is my purpose?”

My mouth was open but no words came out.

“I understand how I must be seen by the outside world. I’m sure me and my people are just perfect for the twenty-four hour news cycle. I distract from the real problems facing humanity. I’m a villain they can all come together over. Me and my island, we’re a terrifying bedtime story for children. But that is not my purpose here. Assume everything you want about me, I just ask the Veils I protect to be left out of this.”

“Is that what you think you’re doing?” I asked.

Lang’s stern expression became like ice and it sent chills down my spine. “Are you putting words into my mouth? I know what I am doing, Mr. Eccles. The majority of the time I have been on this earth I have been hunted and hated. I would do anything to make sure my family of Veils never feels that way in their lives.”

“But the Veils...your kind, they’re becoming more and more accepted by the day,” I tried to respond brightly.

Lang slammed his fist down upon the table, and my body was rattled like a bunch of loose marbles. His hand recoiled back to his body while a smile grew on his face.

“Do you really believe that, Mr. Eccles? After what your own father did, do you really believe hatred can dissipate so easily?”

I swallowed, still feeling marbles in my throat. “You like to scare people, don’t you?”

Lang’s soft laugh rumbled through my ears the same way a low snarl would reach a rabbit. “Am I scaring you, Mr. Eccles?”

My throat went dry. “I think we’re getting off track-”

Lang’s brows pinched together. “Did your father scare you? Because he frightened us. Some people never get to see their boogeyman personified. But for us Veils, your father made it very much real. He made it possible for more to become real.”

“So I am here because of my father?”

Lang shook his head. “No. Your father is paying for his crimes, or at least, one of them. You are here because you are a bridge.”

I swallowed again, my throat was still painfully dry. “A bridge?”

“You are seen as trustworthy to both Veils and humans. Because of what your father did, you were able to stand up. But-” he hesitated and every motion of my body ceased.

His eyes went down and up, looking at me in silence before he smiled again. “If it wasn’t for that, would you even be here?”

“I don’t-” I shook my head and tapped my pen against the pad. “I’m afraid I don’t follow you, Lang?”

“Would you be here if your father hadn’t been a crackpot?”

My jaw tensed and my fingers coiled tightly around my pen. “You are trying to get a reaction out of me.”

Lang chuckled. “Why did you come here if you were scared? You can say for the fame, I don’t mind.”

I kept my jaw tight and I swallowed, finally feeling a bit of wetness down my throat. “Partly,” I breathed out slowly. “But I also came because of my own curiosity.”

Lang smiled. “And what is that curiosity?”

“You,” I murmured.

Lang’s smile became genuine and he leaned forward towards me again. “Go on, Mr. Eccles.”

“You are a handsome and charismatic man, Lang.” I wasn’t sure where I was going with this. The past few minutes, possibly hours, had been spent being wrung through. My plans for this interview were out the window, I had to move forward on my own.

“Some people call you a cult leader, others a hero and modern day Robin Hood. You're terrifying in your methods, but you are doing what you believe is right. You appear so well put together and yet your room is-”

“A mess, I know,” Lang laughed.

I nodded along. “Yes. You are a living, breathing villain from a comic. But you are living. You have girls on the internet writing fanfics about you at the same time others are writing conspiracy theories and threatening news articles.”

Lang’s brow furrowed. “Fanfics?”

I felt my strength returning. “You are the man of the hour. Of course I am fascinated by you.”

Lang looked down, turning his hands this way and that before he breathed. “Thank you for the ego boost, Mr. Eccles. I quite enjoyed that. But I do not see myself as anything you said. I am simply a man trying to protect his family.”

“So then,” I breathed, sitting back comfortably in my chair. “Then this place is your home.”

His smile grew. “Did you get your answer, Mr. Eccles?”

“In part.”

Lang placed his hands upon the table and laced his fingers together. “I came out of the Atlantic Ocean twenty years ago,” he murmured. “Back then no one was looking for us so I was able to come into this world unnoticed, unsuspected. I wasn’t the first. I was just one. I was no one, really.”

A distant look came into his eyes as he gazed out over his room. He stared beyond the present, reflecting into his past with a forlorn glint.

Lang rested his hand upon his chest and clutched his fingers. “I only met the person this body once belonged to for a short time. His life was fading, and I could feel the pulses of his body struggling to maintain that life. I like to believe that I gave him comfort in his final moments. As I took hold of him and gave him his final embrace that he understood he was now part of something new and wonderful. I felt such great anguish from him that it lingered inside of me for a while after I came on shore again.”

Lang looked into my eyes and, for a moment, I stopped breathing. “There are those who say us Veils do not have human emotion before we take on a human vessel, but I must tell you, Mr. Eccles, that is not true. That is why we are here now, because we know fear, we know content, and we know something is wrong. We may not express the same way you do, but we feel deeply, so much so sometimes we cannot let go of the emotions in our new bodies. We continue to love someone we’ve never met, we pretend in order to keep their children in our arms because we feel they are ours.”

He tilted his head down and rubbed his chin. “How can people call us monsters while threatening our lives in the same breath, Mr. Eccles?”

I was awed by his confession, I had not expected him to become so open. “I wish I knew the answer to that.” I took a breath to steady myself. His words broke a dam in me that was threatening to flood.

“Fear is the monster,” Lang murmured. “It bites a person and changes them. Some for good, others for...well-” His eyes flicked back up to me. “You’ve seen it.”

I nodded and cleared my throat. I could feel cracks all over my body, and my professionalism had begun fading long ago. I needed to get back on track, or I’d be lost for good.

“That begs me to ask, Lang; why did you come here?”

“Because I was afraid.” His voice was soft and small. “But it wasn’t until I was taken and held against my will that I realized my true purpose here. It wasn’t enough to be afraid anymore. There’s too much fear in this world.”

“What were you afraid of?”

Lang looked into my eyes. “Of you.”

My heart stopped.

Lang then laughed and shook his head. “Humans, of course. Even if we have existed together on this earth since breath was given to it, the unknown is always frightening.”

“Then why walk among us if you were afraid of us?”

“Which is safer, Mr. Eccles?”

I turned the page in my notebook. “I’m not sure where I should go from here,” I murmured. I looked up at him, our eyes locking together. “I’m a bit lost.”

“Sorry about that.” Lang rose from the table and removed his jacket. “Would you like anything to drink?”

“Some water, perhaps.”

Lang walked over to a mini fridge and took out a bottle of water. Peering behind him, I saw several bottles of medication inside as well. I stiffened in my seat as he rose again.

“I should have asked from the beginning.” He placed the cold bottle in front of me. “I do apologize.”

“It’s alright.” The lid crackled as I twisted it. I had been afraid that it wouldn’t make a sound. I took a drink as Lang turned his back again to look at his bookshelf.

“I do not mean to appear slovenly. I live here and I am very busy, of course things will be a bit disheveled.” He removed a book, admiring its cover before he opened it. The worn spine made a hissing sound as the pages fanned out.

“Do you enjoy reading?” I asked.

“Not so much as I used to. I mostly enjoy the comfort of having books around me.” He looked over his shoulder at me with a smile. “Do you read?”

“Often,” I nodded.

“For fun?”

I remained quiet.

“It’s hard, isn’t it?” Lang closed the book but kept it in his hand. He came back to the table and stood close to me. “When you’re busy and trying to be productive, sometimes it’s so hard to focus after the fact. Sometimes existing is hard enough.”

I hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a scent of cologne that wafted through the air, faint until Lang came close to me. It was soft and warm, almost familiar, but mostly I just found it attractive.

“What pleasures do you have in this world, Mr. Eccles?” Lang placed the book upon the table and he began to lean down.

My chest grew warm and I struggled to keep from growing embarrassed. “I treat myself to nice meals often.”

Lang is coming ever closer to me. The scent of his cologne is thick in my head now. My chest is pounding. My ears are ringing. “Food is a necessity though. Surely there must be something else that gets you out of bed aside from your work.”

I screwed up all my courage and I landed it to the sticking place. “I’m not sure what you’re trying to get at, Lang. Why not be more blunt?”

His eyes became lidded and a soft laugh escaped his lips. “Do you have a partner?”

“No,” I breathed. “Why would you want to know that?”

Lang stood back up and returned to his seat. As he did, I took a calming breath and my eyes focused on the book he laid upon the table. It was my first book. My very first book. Not ‘The Unveiling’ but the cheap paperback I published fresh out of college to make ends meet.

“I invited you here because of all I said before. But also because I enjoy your writing.” He laced his fingers together again. “I have for a very long while. Do you mind signing that one?”

My whole body was jolted. “Yes, I uh-sure!” I opened the well worn pages and signed the inner page.

“That was one of the first books I read when I came here. I have a very fond attachment to it.” He watched as I signed then took the book back. “Thank you.”

“I’m kind of shocked,” I chuckled. “I never would have expected.”

Lang read off the inscription inside then closed the pages. “For the longest time I wanted to speak to the author of this book. I wanted to understand and to thank them for helping me understand this new life of mine.” He looked into my eyes. “Would you be shocked if I confessed I also held feelings for that author?”

“I uh-” I wasn’t sure what to say. My mind was rushing, spinning, doing flip flops. Every fiber of my being was freaking out so much I had no absolute clue what was going on. This wasn’t a panic attack, not even an anxiety one. I wouldn’t be able to categorize this feeling again even if I could. But Lang was doing it, he was doing this on purpose, maybe, he’d never let on for sure either way.

“I love this book, it’s a guilty pleasure of mine.” Lang patted the cover lovingly. “I’ve held onto it through everything. Even after I was kidnapped to be experimented on, I somehow kept this book by my side, thanks to your brother.”

The final straw snapped and I threw my hands up into the air. Lang watched me, he knew what he was doing. He knew how he was going to get to me. This was his plan all along. He was going to wind me up as much as he could, then cut at the exact moment to make me fly by spinning.

“How do you keep doing this?” I exhaled as I wrung my fingers through my hair. “My brother? Edmund? You knew Edmund? My Edmund?”

Lang’s cool demeanor was not fitting the spiraling going on in my head. He looked too calm, too casual, how was he not rolling with laughter and yelling ‘got’cha’ in my face.

“He was the doctor who took care of me when I was being held for experiments. I always appreciated him as he seemed to be the only one in that place with any sort of heart.” He looked down at his hands. “Dr. Eccles cared about his work, and when he saw what it was, I saw the disillusionment inside him. My hatred began building because of that.”

“Only then?” I whispered.

Lang was quiet for a long while. His gaze was distant and unfocused as he returned to himself to find what caused it. “Probably not, but I never felt rage until then. Your brother didn’t deserve that. And none of us being held in that place deserved to be there. We would have all died if I hadn't done something.”

My eyes narrowed upon him. “You’re the one who caused the hospital to burn down.”

“I escaped, the fire was something else,” he sighed nonchalantly. “I couldn’t take the smell of death in there anymore. I couldn’t stand Dr. Eccles leaving.” His brows raised suddenly and clicked his tongue. “Your family is quite the focal point, isn’t it?”

I slouched back in my chair, taking a slow, purposeful deep breath that made my lungs ache. I needed a moment, a second, to process everything, or at least the cliff notes of it.  “Okay. Okay.” I smoothed my hands down my face, taking another long pause to plan my words very carefully.

“What else is there? What else could you possibly have for me, Lang? Lay it out now or else I will leave. I feel like you're a cat batting me around to get some sick kick. I’m done with that. Tell me everything now.”

Lang’s pale eyes made my guts churn. It wasn’t just that though, his eyes were just part of it. His cool demeanor and handsome face were also part of the problem.

Lang shook his head.  “That’s pretty much all I have for you, Mr. Eccles.”

I held my head in my hands for a moment before lifting my head and looking sternly at Lang. “Why am I here?” I asked again.

“Because you are a link to all I hold dear with humanity,” Lang answered quietly. “I brought you here to remind me that I am both.” His smile was small and sad and tears began rising to his eyes. “I want to feel something again, Mr. Eccles, if you’ll help me.”

My chest tightened and I leaned towards Lang. “I will need my interview.”

“Of course.” His smile returned and a whiff of his cologne reached my nose. “I always planned to leave you with that.”

I steeled myself for the next question, unsure if I truly wanted the answer or not. “Do you know where my brother is?”

Lang’s expression softened, and he knew already I was uncertain about whatever answer he had to give me. “I do.”

I closed my eyes, hoping to keep the tears at bay, but they came. They started as a slight dampness to the eyes, but the more I tried to speak, the more they came with a fury. “When my sister in law died, I never heard from my brother again. It was like he vanished….He did vanish.” I hiccuped and Lang forced back a peculiar smile. “You hear so many things these days. So many stories and rumors about people like that.” I looked into Lang’s eyes, not saying it, but both of us knew I meant ‘like you’.

I lowered my head and sniffled, mopping up my face with my sleeve. “I always had my sneaking suspicions, my own fears of the matter.” My hands were trembling, so I locked them together to keep them from shaking. “Is he here somewhere? Are both of them here?”

Lang’s eyes darted away from mine and he took a deep breath. As he began to open his mouth to speak, I stood up to stop him.

“Don’t answer that yet,” I whispered. “I’ll help you, but you have to be willing to help me as well. Give me my interview, give me a whole new book to write, and I will help you with...whatever it is you’re trying to find.”

Lang stood up with me. “It’s a deal then, Mr. Eccles.” he held his hand out to me and I took it. His skin was cool to the touch, but his grip was surprisingly gentle.