The Veil

Chapter Thirty-Two

Start of October

The pills hadn't worked, as much as I'd wanted them to, the nightmares were still there, getting more and more vivid and confusing. 

The headaches and nose bleeds had kept up too.

I'd not stopped imagining things either, things kept appearing in my peripheral vision, I was scared to be alone in the house, I'd not told anyone this though, they'd just worry about me needlessly, so Tom thought everything was ok, that I was just tired. 

I'd gone back to Dr Shumur on that Thursday, Tom had to work so I'd gone alone, he'd said my blood work was completely normal, not even a cold, so I'd lied and said the tablets had made everything better, that I was sleeping and everything else had stopped. 

If my blood work was fine there wasn't anything else that Dr Shumur could do for me. 

Lindsay's suggestion to go back home was seeming more and more like something I should try, I hadn't mentioned it to Tom yet, I knew he'd come with me and support me no matter what, but I didn't know what I wanted to do, could going home make everything worse? 

Jade still didn't know about the strange stuff and I was planning on keeping it that way, she already had enough to worry about. 

I hadn't seen a lot of her during that week, I'd been picking up extra hours at the tattoo parlour, despite protests from Emma that I was working too much, I just didn't want to be in the house alone.


"What do you want to do for your birthday this year?" Jade asked, I could see her out the corner of my eye jumping in her seat excitedly. 

I turned my attention away from the baking showed she'd had on for the last twenty minutes. 

I hadn't been paying attention to it, I hadn't been paying attention to anything really. 

All I could think about was the pain in my head and trying to wish it away. I'd had enough Aspirin for the day that if I took anymore I'd risk overdosing on the stuff. 

I turned slowly to look at her and thought about what she'd asked. "Um, I really don't think I want to do anything, you know I'm not big on birthdays." I smiled kindly at her. 

For the last three years I'd begged them not to make a big deal out of my birthday, of course they'd never listened, they'd never done anything extreme, but they'd decorated the house, made cake, made me leave the house for 'fun' but it just made me sad. 

My parents always made my birthday magical. 

They'd given me Sky on my birthday. 

I was born on halloween so mom and dad always went overboard with my parties and celebrations. 

Without them my birthday had just felt wrong. I used to love my birthday, love halloween, but I couldn't muster up enough enthusiasm for the day without them. It felt like I was betraying them celebrating a day they always loved and made so special for me.

Jade however just thought I didn't want the attention, so she never listened when I said I didn't want to do anything. 

I knew that year wouldn't be any different. 

"Oh so we're still sticking with this I see." She rolled her eyes and shook her head in a way that said she'd be planning something anyway. 

I sighed and turned back to the TV, there was no point in putting up a fight anymore. 

"What are you sighing at?" Andrew asked as he walked into the living room, just getting home from work, he brought the smell of coffee with him.