Excerpt: The Veil of Maya

“Maia?” Micheal asked the room, hoping she might answer. What kind of game was this now? Had she hidden herself somewhere? He walked around the room. Maybe she was playing hide and seek. “Maia,” he called out again. He set his hand on possible hiding places as he walked, as if his hand would cause her to jump out. “There's no need to hide, Charlie and I just had a little argument, but it is okay now.” He said it slowly, like he was talking to a child. And he felt like he was searching for a child, a little frightened kid who might be worried that the adults were upset.

“Maia?” he called. “Are you here?” He had finished searching the living room. Was it possible she had wandered up to his bedroom? He called up the stairs. “Maia, come down here, I want to talk to you.” There was a creak from upstairs. He had her.

He started walking up the wooden stairs, which bent and creaked under his weight. What was she doing up there? He walked up slowly so that he wouldn't startle her when he came into the room. “Maia,” he said softly. “Are you here? I heard you moving around.”

There was a brush in the darkness. Was she in the closet with the coats? He walked over to the closet and opened the door. Nothing. She wasn't in there.

“I'm over here,” she said. She was sitting on the window sill.

“Maia,” said Micheal. Maia winced but said nothing, staring at him. “What are you doing up here?”

Maia stood up. Something about the way she moved was different. She was more confident, there was intelligence in her motion. She wasn't the same person. But that was silly, just a trick of his mind. It was not possible for a person to move intelligently. But somehow that childishness that had characterized her before was gone, replaced by a sort of robotic preciseness that frightened him.

He couldn't help himself from commenting. “Maia, there's something different about you.”

She smiled. “Micheal,” she said. Her voice wasn't the childlike crooning of an old woman, but a clear and strong voice. “You should stay away from Charlie. He isn't a good person.” There was definite menace there, not fear like there had been when she had said it earlier.

“What are you talking about Maia? Come back down stairs and I can start making dinner for you. Doesn't that sound good?”

Maia shook her head. “I don't think you understand, Micheal.” She was definitely different. Had she been lying to him the whole time? Pretending to be a defenseless old lady, and now showing herself to be... she even seemed younger. Ten years younger, even. How old was she?

“What don't I understand?” asked Micheal, raising an eyebrow.

Maia came closer to him, but Micheal was backing up. She laughed. “You think you're in control of me, don't you, Micheal? You think I'm a poor child who needs rescuing, trapped inside the body of an old woman. How old do you think I am, Micheal?”

Micheal shook his head, bewildered. “I don't know.”

She frowned, her eyes wide. “I'm as old as human beings, Micheal. I'm as old as time and space, I am force. I am destruction. I wrestled with God! I can tear you apart with my one hand.” Maia smiled again. She had Micheal pinned up against the wall, and she was creeping ever closer. “You think I don't know that you have bad intentions. You're just like Charlie. You think I'm a little bitch to push around. You think I'm someone you can play with like a dog.”

“No,” said Micheal as she came closer. He felt the wall behind him and knew he couldn't go any further. “I promise, I would never do that.”

“That's why you talk to me like a child, like I'm a fool, it shows your superiority to me. Your control. But you don't have control, that's the fun part.” She touched him on the arm and he jerked it back.

“I don't need to be protected by you,” she said. “You need to be protected from me.” She snorted with a disdainful laugh. “But I'm going to let you go. I don't care what you do, you haven't hurt me.”

“What are you going to do to Charlie?”

“That's none of your business,” she said casually. “Even if I told you, you wouldn't stop me. You're weak. Charlie is strong, that's why he hurt me.”

“You're wrong, I can stop you,” said Micheal, now standing back from the wall and trying to appear tougher. “You're just an old lady. And what are you going to do, kill me? Then you'll go to jail, I'm a respected person with a lot of money. You think people won't notice I'm gone right away? I'm expecting a call in an hour, what do you think will happen if I don't pick up?”

“So you think you can rely on other people to save you? Anyway, I'll ignore that slight because Maia never heard it. If you hurt her though, you will face me, and I will kill you without a thought. And the best part? There will be no reason to assume the little old harmless Maia. Does she know some guy named Micheal? Her fingerprints were never found on the crime scene. Far more likely to blame, say, one of the underlings at work who you boss around.” She showed her brown teeth that betrayed her age.

“Who are you,” asked Micheal. “How the hell do you know anything about me? What do you know about my life?”

“You live in an upscale apartment, completely alone. You told Charlie to leave, and then felt good about it, so good that you needed to come to me and boss me around. I know your entire life, Micheal, pitiful Micheal.”

“Get out of my house,” said Micheal firmly.

“I was just about to. I was merely warning you to stay away from Charlie. Your proximity to him might make Maia confused and upset, and then I might have to kill you.”

“You are Maia, damn it,” said Micheal angrily. “You're the same damn person. Anything I say to you, I say to Maia. Wake up!”

“Hum,” said Maia, and then she turned and walked away, down the stairs. Micheal watched her go, mute. She was right. He wasn't going to stop her. Should he call the police? It seemed like the right thing to do... but then Maia would get hurt... he didn't know what to do. He ran down the stairs after her.

“Maia,” he shouted. “Wait. Don't go.”

Her retreating figure did not react. What was that name she had used over and over again, for her protector?

“Jacob?” he said.

She turned. “Do not call me by my name, idiot.”

“Listen, you're not Jacob, you're Maia.”

“You've seen too many movies,” she said, and then she left the house. Micheal ran down the stairs and after her, but by the time he reached the doorway, she was gone. She must have ran off as soon as she had gotten outside, but where had she found the strength? He closed the door.

He looked around the room. He was completely alone, just as he had been yesterday. Just as he had been his entire life. Once again, he was overwhelmed by the feeling of loneliness. He sat on the piano bench that had so recently had fingers running over them, like the fingers on his skin last night, they were the fingers that had held the beer in the bar as Charlie told him that he intended to kill himself.

Then he remembered how Charlie had walked out of the room, looking so dejected, and Micheal had had the audacity to feel happy about it. He played a note on the piano. It sounded hollow. What if he killed himself? What if Maia killed him? He didn't know what to do, he felt completely out of his depth and overwhelmed. He didn't know if he could handle it. He played another note, a minor third from the first. It seemed to sing with his angst, it felt right somehow, good.

He shut the dusty lid, and sat down on the couch, exhausted. He couldn't deal with it, it was all too much. He wanted it all to go away. He took his cell phone from his pocket and stared at it. Could he call the police? No, he was too weak to do that. He threw the phone from himself. He could barely think full sentences, he was growing tired. His head ached and he longed for sleep. He looked at the clock. Somehow hours had passed. It was seven o'clock. He didn't have the energy to make anything, only sleep. Soon he gave in to the forces sucking away his energy, and he fell asleep.

Outside Jacob had continued his vigil over Charlie, waiting. Maia was nowhere to be found, all traces of her had been placed elsewhere. Jacob was alone and watching, ready to take vengeance. The sun had set and the streetlights illuminated the street Charlie was walking down. Where was he going, wondered Jacob. Micheal had brought him here, his car was far away. Perhaps he was going to kill himself, Jacob couldn't have that. It wouldn't work.

Charlie turned a corner into a large park and Jacob walked on after him. He turned the corner, and Charlie was gone. Jacob looked around in dismay, realizing that he had lost Charlie. He started walking through the park, hoping that he would find him. The darkness was perfect here, if only he could find Charlie he would have no trouble killing him in peace. He headed down a particularly dark path, when Charlie jumped out of a bush, his arm outstretched.

“What the hell are you doing, following me?” he shouted. “I should kill you right here, no one would know.”

The shock caused Jacob to fall backwards. “You think you can kill me?” asked Jacob once he'd recovered, smirking.

Charlie immediately jumped backwards. “Jesus, you can talk normally?”

“Don't talk to me about Jesus, you fucking bastard,” said Jacob. “Let me tell you about what you did to Maia. You...”

There was a thunderous noise from above, like a foghorn, which rattled through the street and expanded through the town. “What the hell was that?” said Charlie aloud.

Jacob and Charlie stared at the sky. Lights flashed from the clouds that covered the gloomy Pittsburgh night. They flashed neon, fast like lightning, but they outlined ribbon shapes like Christmas tree lights. The shapes twisted and turned, four of them. One moment they formed a square, then an ex, then they twisted around each other like a spiral. Jacob and Charlie stared at them, hypnotized.

“What is that,” said Jacob. “What the hell is that?”

“I don't fucking know,” said Charlie. Suddenly in the sky was something else, a bright light that he mistook for a star. Then he could see it was blinking and coming in fast. “Look at that...” he muttered.

Micheal heard the foghorn sound and sat up. He ran outside. He saw the four ribbons off in the distance. What the hell were those things? People had started pouring out of their houses to look up into the skies. There was something about them that he felt he identified with somehow. He felt an overpowering need to run to them, and so he did. No one else moved, they watched the twisting figures they made in the sky, now a fractal, now a polygon. Micheal alone was running towards them.

Jacob and Charlie stared at the point of light flying towards the ribbon. After watching it they realized it had multiple lights, one on the front and one beneath that was blinking. A whirring sound pierced the echoing of the foghorn. “I think it's...” started Charlie.

“A helicopter?” Jacob finished.

Micheal watched the helicopter nearing the four twisting shapes. He knew he had to get to them before the helicopter did. He charged onward with renewed vigor. He had no idea why he was running, he just knew he had to get there. He had to get there.

He found the park where Jacob and Charlie were, and he ran into it. He'd be nearly under them. How big were they? He couldn't tell. He didn't know how close they were or how far away. He couldn't tell how fast they were moving. All he knew was that they were right over the park. How he knew he couldn't say either, he had a feeling that drove him onward.

He heard talking.

“I don't care about this,” he heard Jacob saying. “I've come to kill you, Charlie.”

Charlie seemed to suddenly realize that only moments ago he'd been arguing with Jacob. “What?” he said, surprised. He stared up at the sky again.

There was a bright flash from above them. The sky turned red and a cloud of smoke poured from one of the ribbons. “Damn it,” shouted Jacob, “You will not get away from me because of them,” he spat. He pulled a gun from his pocket.

“No!” shouted Micheal. Charlie looked over at him. Jacob turned to follow his gaze. Micheal charged at Jacob with all his power and knocked him over into a nearby ditch. Another flash from above.

“The helicopter is trying to shoot it down,” said Charlie. “What the hell is going on?”

Jacob tried to aim the gun at Micheal, Micheal punched him in the face. They grappled, Jacob trying to force the gun to fire at one of the two men.

“You damn fag,” said Jacob, “Get the hell off of me. Protecting your gay lover.”

“I will kill you,” said Micheal, his eyes filled with rage. He punched Jacob again, blood came out his mouth.

“You're hurting Maia!” he shouted. “If you kill me you kill her.”

“Guys,” said Charlie urgently. “They're shooting it down!”

The helicopter shot another missile into the ribbon. It hit one of the lights on the side of the ship which exploded, showering the ground with shimmering glass.

Micheal didn't notice, Jacob rolled him onto his back and the glass dug into his side. “Get off of me!” Jacob growled. The sky shrieked with the sound of tearing metal and a terrible organic sound like a scream.

There was a shot. Jacob's gun smoked.

The ribbon fell from the sky, whipping as it went down. The helicopter exploded. Charlie felt his chest where the bullet had passed through. He stared up at the sky, as the ribbon's lights flashed for the last time. It was beautiful, he thought to himself. So beautiful. “Oh god,” shouted Micheal. The ribbon was falling towards them. There was a tremendous impact as it hit, spraying dirt. Micheal and Jacob were sent flying. Micheal saw the dirt explode around him and then he remembered no more.