Beyond the Veil

The Draw

"You are on my last nerve," I grumbled at my baby cousin. I yanked my sleeve from Sam's hold and huffed. "It's not like I'm going to sneak into her house or egg it, Sam Sam."

"Miss Rose is touchy," Sam said. Behind him, Eddie nodded with eyes wide and filled with fright. "Only Daddy's supposed to go over there."

"Why do you want to go over there so much, Jennifer?" Penny asked.

Her tone was even, but she had that look she got when she was thinking about something outside the normal. It was an expression I'd seen more and more often after befriending Lils earlier in the school year, but this was the first time I'd seen it directed at me. Did she think I was under some spell or something?

"I don't know." I shrugged. "I don't remember ever coming here before, but something about it feels familiar. I just want to place it, so that feeling will stop bugging me."

Penny's expression shifted. That same "this is weird" expression was there, but it was tinged with suspicion and concern too. She fidgeted with that weird bracelet of hers.

"Has Miss Rose done something to frighten you boys?" Penny asked the twins.

The two looked at one another, uncertainty and fear clear in the way they held themselves. That was weird. Sam and Eddie were usually rowdy little terrors, or they had been the last time I saw them two years ago. Sure they were older, but they were still just eight. Worry about my cousins began to dampen my irritating curiosity as the two held a silent conversation in the way twins have.

"Can we go back inside?" Sam asked. He shifted from one foot to the other, casting worried glances toward Miss Rose's house. "I really don't wanna talk out here."

Eddie nodded. He grabbed Penny's hand and started tugging, trying to pull her toward the house. "Yeah, let's go inside to talk," he said. "I want cocoa. Please, Jenn."

I still really wanted to figure out what it was about that house that called to me, but Aunt Angela had asked me to babysit these two while she was in the hospital. Sam and Eddie were little kids, and taking good care of them meant keeping them from being scared as much as it was just keeping them fed and out of trouble. So, I put my wants to the side and agreed to go back inside and make the cocoa.

The boys seemed to agree they'd only talk once we were all at the table with cocoa, so I made that while Penny continued trying to cajole them into opening up. Pretty much all that seemed to do was make them more anxious. Eddie was twisting the hem of his shirt, stretching it out past all hope of repair, and Sam was hugging himself and rocking in his chair by the time I set the mugs in front of them.

"You're not gonna believe us," Sam said as I joined them at the table. He laughed, and it sounded kinda hysterical. "I barely believe it, and I saw it."

"You'll be surprised what I'd believe, Sam Sam," I said.

He looked up at me with those great big, brown doe eyes, and the look of desperate hope in them about broke my heart.

"Miss Rose ain't human."

His voice was so quiet, I almost didn't understand him. If I hadn't been listening and watching him for the smallest thing, I wouldn't have.

"How do you mean?" Penny asked.

"I mean, she looks human," Sam answered. His eyes teared up, and he dropped his gaze to the cocoa. His arms were still crossed over his torso, fingers gripping onto his arms so tight the knuckles blanched. "Most of the time, anyway, but I saw her change. Late one night, there was a party in her garden, and I saw her change.

"Change into what, Sam Sam?" I asked.

I leaned forward and laid a reassuring hand over his. Sam's jaw clenched and unclenched a few times as he worked up the courage to keep going.

"I think she's a pixie."