I find myself at the entrance of the small town of Quarya at 7:00 PM, slightly behind schedule. This hardly matters though, as my boss doesn't expect me to get any work done immediately after my arrival anyway.

"Go a day early! It'll be good to be rested when you work, rather than waking at 5:00 AM and forcing yourself to get the job done running on a cup or two of coffee!" He said.

Well, at least he promised to pay me for an extra day of work.

To be quite honest, I'd much rather do my work whilst tired and fueled by coffee than spend an extra day away from my home. If not for the pay, I'd be at home, getting comfortable in my big red chair with a hot cup of tea and a good book in hand.

But instead, I am exiting a taxi at dusk in this strange, small town.

Over the past two weeks, at least a dozen residents of this town have called the small newspaper business I work for, speaking of what they could only describe as 'paranormal experiences'.

My boss, ever the opportunist, immediately scheduled a stay for me at a local inn and got in contact with some of the callers who were willing to do an interview.

I'm not much of a believer in paranormal sorts of things, but I don't have to be for this job. All I need to do is listen to the local's accounts, take the key details of each person's experiences, and weave them together in a way that will create intrigue, and far more importantly, a catchy headline for next week's paper.

According to my boss, he booked the best place in town available for me to stay, though considering the town's size, it would not surprise me if it were the only place available.

The dim street lights flicker slowly as I walk down the quiet streets.

Jeez, I know it's a small town, but the infrastructure is in horrible condition! It's fine now because the streets are lit by the last bit of light from the setting sun, but in a few hours this place will be too dark to see two feet in front of you!

I suppose that rules out the option of going for a drink, I'd much rather not walk these unfamiliar streets in the darkness of night. I'm sure nothing would happen, this town is far too small to have any criminals more vicious than mere convenience store thieves, but as I am a cautious man I will still not dare take the risk.

Just as I begin to think of all the ways a late-night walk could go wrong, my eyes are pulled towards the sign on the building beside me.

'fort inn' eh? I surely wouldn't call such a shabby building a fort, but it's probably the closest this town has to one.

I step inside and am immediately greeted by the strong scent of citrus.

The door squeaks loudly behind me as it shuts, and I hear someone get up from a wooden chair in another room, most likely alerted to my presence by the sound of the door.

A large man comes through a small doorway, smiling brightly as soon as he sees me.

"Welcome sir!" He speaks softly with a slight Canadian accent.

"Good evening. I'm with the Fornbuth weekly, I believe a room here should be reserved under that name."

"Of course sir. One moment!" He pulls an almost comically small notepad from his shirt pocket and flips through the first few pages.

"Ah, here!" He says, tapping one of his fingers on the paper, "your room is the first on floor two. Please enjoy your stay, sir!"

He hands me a key, which also looks tiny when held in his ginormous hands.

"Thank you, have a good rest of your evening." I say as I pocket the key and begin to walk towards the stairs.

The smell of citrus does not fade as I ascend the stairs, in fact, it almost seems to strengthen.

Had it been any other smell, I might have been upset, but I am actually very fond of this smell. It reminds me of a certain drink my mother used to make me when I was young.

As I finish my ascent and step into the hallway of floor two, a smile forces its way onto my face from my reminiscing.

The smile quickly fades however, as I step into my room to see it is even more shabby than the exterior of the building.

If this was a larger city, I would cancel my stay immediately and find somewhere else, but I know I won't find much better in a place like this.

I sigh heavily as I set my heavy leather bag next to the small desk and take out the pair of clothes I packed for sleeping in.

I'll try to fall asleep as soon as I can, I'd much rather spend my stay in this sorry excuse for a room asleep than awake. It is in times like this that I am incredibly thankful to be as easily able to fall asleep as I am.

The bed isn't comfortable at all. With both layers of blankets, it's slightly too hot, and with just the bottom layer, it's slightly too cold. I would get out of bed and rearrange the sheets so I could use just the top layer, as I think that might solve my problem, but the day's exhaustion has just hit me and I don't think I'd be able to stand.

Whatever, I'm sure my body will eventually allow itself to fall asleep even in this uncomfortable bed.

...

...

But the sleep has not yet come.

I don't know what time it is, my watch is on the desk so I can't check, but I believe it to be 1:00 AM at least.

Apparently I thought wrong, this bed is far too uncomfortable to sleep in. At this rate, I'll get no sleep at all unless I do something to make it more bearable.

I slide the covers off of me and slowly plant my feet on the ground, standing up.

Now, how am I going to do this in the dark? Do I have anything I could use as a light?

Just as I begin to think, I notice a strange smell.

Lavender?

Did that Canadian man change the candles he was using?

No, it's incredibly late. There's no way he's still awake.

Was the candle changed while I wasn't paying attention to the scent?

That seems odd, I feel I would have noticed such a stark change.

Either way, how irritating. I dislike the scent of lavender. It gives me a headache.

While I think of the smell, I wrangle the sheets of the bed until they are in what I believe will be a comfortable position.

There, now I can finally get some rest.

I lay down in the bed, pulling the blanket over me. It's still not great, but it's better than before.

I begin to drift off to sleep, when suddenly I hear a dog barking somewhere outside.

Seriously? What kind of idiot takes their dog for a walk this late at night?

When the barking finally stops, I once again get comfortable and try to go to sleep.

Once more, right as I'm on the verge of falling asleep, I'm woken by a loud louse outside. This time, it's a cop car's siren.

What on earth could possibly be happening in a town as small as this to warrant the cops? I'm slightly surprised there's even a police force in this town!

...

...

I still can't sleep.

Every time I get close, another sound happens outside and wakes me up! Most of these sounds don't even make any sense!

About ten minutes after the first cop car noise, a second happened. Will I wake up to news of a serial killer on the loose? No, I won't, because I can't 'wake up' to anything if I can't fall asleep in the first place!

And even worse than the cop cars, there was even the sound of birds chirping! I nearly thought I had actually stayed up all night when I heard them!

Seriously, nothing makes sense! What the hell is wrong with this town?

Whatever, for now, the only thing that's certain is the fact that I won't get any sleep if this continues. I must find a way to block out the noises outside if I am to get any sleep tonight.

Is there anything around that I could use as earplugs?

My spare clothes?

No, it'd be hard to stuff anything I have into my ears.

Did I bring anything else?

...

No.

Then what about covering my ears?

Pillows would work, but I sleep on my back so they'd fall over pretty easily.

Is there anything around that could keep them situated upright?

...

My clothes?

If I tie my clothes into a loop, I could use it as a sort of strap to keep the pillows stuck to my head.

It's a stupid solution, but it's the only solution I can think of.

I slowly get out of bed and stumble towards my small suitcase.

I clumsily feel through the contents until I find a shirt and a pair of pants.

This will probably be enough.

I tie one end of each together and head back to the bed.

Hopefully this works...

I rest the tied clothes beneath my head and then bring one of the pillows up to my ear.

While holding that pillow in place, I bring the other pillow to my other ear, and slowly grab both ends of the clothes.

This isn't comfortable... but it blocks out the noise.

I tie the ends of the clothes loop above my head, securing the pillows in place.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Hopefully that's secure. I'm definitely not going to test it to see if it is.

Unfortunately, the bed only has two pillows. My neck is going to kill me in the morning...

...

...

And it is.

Luckily, the pillow ear muffs worked. Unluckily, I only got four hours of sleep, and those were the most uncomfortable four hours of sleep I've ever had.

Whatever, it's in the past now. I just have to power through it and get my job done so I can go home.

But... where are my pants?

I've completely looked through my suitcase, but I can only find the pair of comfortable pants I wore to bed, and the spare pair of comfortable pants I packed just in case.

Wait, it can't be...

I look towards my bed, and see the pair of black dress pants that I packed for the interviews, tied to a shirt and extremely wrinkled.

This trip just keeps getting worse and worse.

I can't be any later than I already am, I'm just going to have to deal with wrinkled pants. nobody will be looking at my pants anyway, right?

...

I knock on the door of the first house of the day. Small, wooden, and as poorly maintained as every other building in this town. I pity the people of this town, I can only hope the citizens have better beds than the inn.

A young boy opens the door cautiously and looks me up and down.

"Are you the newspaper man?" He asks, his eyes wide.

"Newspap- y-yes, I am."

A child? Perhaps the adult I'm here to see is bedridden?

"So, is your... mother here?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm here to ask her some questions about something she saw."

"But she didn't see it?"

"Excuse me?"

"I'm the one who saw the ghost!"

Oh for crying out loud. A child?

"So mister, what do you want to know?"

The boy runs around the room before nearly tripping on a rug.

"Er... just tell me what it looked like for now."

"Alright!" The boy sits down at what I assume to be the dining table.

I sit down as well, and pull out my notebook.

"Go ahead." I say.

"Ok, so, umm..."

This sucks.

"What color was it?"

"Well, uh, it was mostly see through I guess, but kinda purply?"

I sigh, and write 'clear but kinda purply' in my notes.

"Anything else?"

"Umm... oh yeah! It was blocking the way to my house, and when I looked through it my house wasn't there!"

"What do you mean?"

"Instead of my house, there was a huuuuge mansion! I heard laughing and birds!"

"I... see. Anything else?"

"Before I saw it, I heard this weird noise. It kinda sounded like this."

The boy clears his throat.

"Aaaaaah ooooh aaaaaah."

"Oookay, that's enough kid, thank you for your time."

I put my notes away and begin to walk to the door.

"Bye mister!"

"Buh bye."

The door closes behind me, and I collapse onto the stairs of the house.

Once I look around to make sure nobody sees the embarrassing state I'm about to be in, I clasp my head in my hands and groan.

Why did my boss send me here? It's bullshit! Just a kid seeing things! If the next two witnesses are children or old people, I'm out of here instantly. I'm here for a nail-biting story of a town haunted by a mysterious phantom, not a case study on mass hysteria!

I breathe a deep breath, and stand up.

Alright, let's get this over with. The sooner I confirm that this is a whole lot of nothing, the sooner I can get the hell out of here.

...

I arrive at the next address I was given.

Are you kidding me?

There's no way, this is way too on the nose!

I rub my temple and pace in front of the dilapidated building's entrance.

A nursing home... The second witness lives in a nursing home...

It's over... I should just go home at this point.

The door opens, and a kind looking young man with glasses steps out.

"Hello, are you the person with the newspaper?"

Ah, too late.

"Yes, I am."

"Great! Come in, I'll show you the way."

I follow the man in, and I'm immediately hit by the strong, sterile smell of a nursing home.

This is worse than the smell of lavender at the inn.

"She's in here." The man says, stopping in front of a door and opening it.

"Thank you."

"Of course. I'll be waiting outside."

I step inside, where there is an old woman laying on a bed.

"Took you long enough! Hurry up and sit down!"

First it was an actual child, now I have to deal with a grouchy old woman? This could not get any worse.

"A-alright. Could you please describe what you saw."

"Well, at first I didn't see the damn thing. I was at my sister's house, having lunch. You see, her husband just bought her a brand new set of cutlery, and she wanted to try it out with me. It was pretty fancy, but it wasn't my type of thing. I don't think it would go well wit-"

I begin to tune out, imagining my home. The rich smell of coffee coming from the kitchen, my cat Oscar sitting on my red chair waiting for me to sit down with him. Ahh, I wish I was home.

"-but anyway, as I was saying, it was late at night and I was walking back here. Suddenly, I hear this terrifying, hellish moaning from right behind me!"

Tuning back into the conversation (if you can even call it that), I grab my notebook and begin writing.

"I turn around, and I see this wispy thing floating through the air. Ah, the moaning stopped when I saw the thing, by the way. So I see the wispy thing, and I'm thinking, 'what is that thing? Did someone's nightgown fly off their clothesline?'"

I force myself to not get distracted, despite the woman's awful storytelling.

"'no way, that's way too see-through to be a nightgown!' but that's when I notice, the sky on the other side of the thing is red, but not the normal red of sunset. It was crimson red, and the clouds were black as the night sky! I walked closer, and the thing floated a bit closer to the ground. On the other side of the thing, the streets were cracked and the town was burning! I immediately ran to contact the firemen, but they didn't believe me! I didn't see that strange thing ever again after that."

"I see. Was the view on the other side tinted in any way? The last witness noticed something like that."

"Ehhh... I can't remember."

Great.

"Well then, that'll be all miss. Thank you for your time."

I step out of the room before she gets the chance to start speaking again, and greet the man in the hall.

"Ready to go?"

"Yessir."

"Alright."

He guides me back to the front door, and sends me off.

"Have a good day!" He shouts as I walk away from the building.

"Haha, I'll try my best!"

Now, what's next?

I check the paper I was given. The next address is the last one.

I can't believe he sent me out here just for three people. At least the last address is close.

...

As soon as I turn the street corner, my eyes are drawn to the house. It's white, and obviously has been taken care of well, unlike every other building in the town. Vibrant green vines with light yellow flowers creep up the walls of the house, but it's obvious they've been allowed to grow there with supervision.

This seems to be the place.

I walk up to the door and knock twice.

The door opens, and a woman steps out.

"Hello. I assume you're the reporter?"

"Yes, may I come in?"

"Of course! Make yourself at home."

The woman opens the door wider and steps back inside.

I walk inside and immediately take notice of the floral theming of the home decor. Hanging flowers in pots, framed art of fields of flowers, even the wallpaper has a floral pattern.

She leads me down the bright, narrow hallway, until we reach a living room area. The room is very bright with natural light because of the back wall, which is more window than wall.

"Have a seat," she gestures towards the couch, "would you like tea or coffee?"

"Oh no, you don't have to make me anything."

"No please, I wouldn't feel right unless you felt as comfortable as in your own home."

"Well, if you insist. I'd like... tea, please."

"Of course, I'll be right back."

She walks into another room, and I hear the noise of what I assume to be her taking out a teapot and starting the stove.

I wouldn't usually choose tea over coffee. In fact, I'd say I like coffee far more than the average man. But for some reason, I feel like the tea this woman makes will be far better than the coffee.

...

After a few minutes, she walks back into the room holding a teapot and two cups.

"Here you go." She says, placing a cup in front of me and filling it up.

"Thank you."

After both cups have been poured, she walks into the hallway and opens a door, reaches inside, and pulls out a record.

She walks back into the room and places it on the record player that sits between the couch I sit on and the chair. A quiet, slow song begins to play. The delicate noise of the piano adds to the peaceful atmosphere of the room, and I swear the scent of the tea strengthens slightly as the other instruments of the song fade in.

She sits down, and takes a sip of her tea.

I take out my notepad and pen as she sets down her cup and clears her throat.

"Let's begin." She says, smiling.

"Right. So, where were you when the encounter happened?"

"Well, I was on my way home from buying groceries, when all of the sudden I heard a sort of strange, almost angelic choir from around the corner in front of me. I dropped the groceries and cautiously turned the corner to see what it was, and I saw a strange, almost completely transparent veil floating in the air right in front of me. As soon as I spotted it, the noise stopped."

I write down everything as she says it, underlining the important details.

"Interesting. What could you see on the other side of it?"

"Well, I said it was transparent, but rather than seeing the street behind it, I saw a beautiful field of flowers."

"That's nice. Was it tinted in any sort of way? One of the previous witnesses mentioned something of the sort."

"I noticed the colors didn't seem to be quite right. Perhaps it was... I don't know, maybe some kind of shade of blue?"

"That's pretty close to what the other witness saw."

She smiles slightly as she takes another sip of tea.

"That's slightly reassuring," she says, "to be honest, I was only half convinced that what I had seen was actually real."

"Ha, I'm still barely half convinced it's real."

"I don't blame you, I probably wouldn't believe me if I were you to be honest. Do you have any other questions?"

"No, I think that's about it. I'll get out of your hair now, have a good day."

"Thank you."

She walks me to the door, and waves as I walk back to the inn.

"Come by for tea if you're ever in town!" She yells as I turn the corner.

Finally done. Now, I just have to pack up and go home. Maybe I should start writing the segment on the ride home.

I walk in the door to the inn, and begin walking up the stairs when the owner stops me.

"A letter came for you."

He hands me a small white envelope.

"Ah, thank you."

I open the letter as I walk up the stairs.

'Apologies for the delayed notice, but I've booked you for another night at the inn.'

What?

'I figure that three witnesses won't be enough, so I want you to stay in town for the rest of the night and the morning tomorrow. That way, you might encounter what those witnesses saw! Good luck, enclosed is some money as an apolo-'

I crumple up the letter and throw it away.

I don't need to read the rest of this. That asshole, forcing me to stay in this shithole for another night.

I take the money out of the envelope. It's more than I expected, but not enough to calm my frustration.

Does the owner know I'm staying here again? I should probably go talk to him regardless.

I head down the stairs, yawning as the day's exhaustion begins to set in.

The inn's owner greets me as I walk into the lobby.

"Hello!"

"Hi. It seems I'm staying here one more night."

"Yes, I know. There was another letter from your boss addressed to me."

He pulls a small envelope from his shirt pocket and shows it to me.

"I see. Have a good night then."

I begin to walk towards the stairs, stopping right as I reach them.

"Oh, and could you please not use whatever smelled like lavender last night again? It gave me an awful headache."

"Lavender? What do you mean?"

"Didn't you replace the citrus scent with a lavender one last night?"

"No? I only have citrus scented candles, nothing else."

"That's... odd. Never mind then. Goodnight."

I begin walking up the stairs slowly, my mind preoccupied with questions about what it was I smelled last night.

I definitely smelled lavender, no doubt about it. Did it come from outside? Perhaps something outside smells like lavender, and the citrus smell from the inn owner's candles simply overpowers it until he puts them out. Now that I think about it, the lavender wasn't the only strange occurrence last night. Those cop cars I heard... I should have asked the inn owner about it. In a town like this, news of any incident involving two cop cars would probably spread like wildfire. It's strange...

I get into bed, preparing a similar contraption as last night in case the outside noises are once again too loud to sleep.

...

Five minutes in, no noises yet. It seems like it'll be easier to sleep tonight

The citrus smell fades away, and is replaced by a strange, unidentifiable scent. It smells like many different things, yet I can't quite bring to words what any of those things are.

The building creaks.

I hear a noise from the hallway.

It's like a strange muttering in a language I feel I recognize, but don't understand.

What the hell is that?

I slowly get out of the bed, straining my eyes to look around the room for any kind of item that could be used as a weapon.

The muttering reaches the door and quiets to a whisper, then fades away entirely.

Unable to find anything to defend myself, I slowly creep over to the door and put my ear against it.

I hear a faint noise, unlike anything I've heard before.

It's like a choir of strange voices, uncannily human-sounding yet definitely not human.

Underneath that noise, I hear a groaning, like a large structure under strain due to a storm.

My head drifts towards the peephole of the door.

What could it possibly be? Is it hostile? Does it know I'm here? Do I want to know what it is?

I don't.

I push myself away from the door and hurry quietly towards the bed.

I crawl under the sheets as slowly as I'm able, freezing whenever I mistakenly make a noise.

Once I am laying down under the sheets, I force my body to stay completely still.

...

I don't know how long it's been.

Twenty minutes? Two hours? I don't know.

The fear of what is right behind the door has messed with my perception of time.

This cannot go on anymore.

I need to face that thing.

I get up and walk over to the door, no longer cautious of the noise I make.

I put my ear to the door, confirming it's still there when I hear the otherworldly noises coming from it.

I breathe in, preparing myself for what I'm about to see. Whatever it is, I'm sure it's better than the horrific beings the fear has caused me to think of.

Fear is caused by a lack of knowledge.

If I find out what the thing behind this door is, the fear should lessen at the very least.

Now, there is nothing left to do but take a look.

I bring my eye to the peephole and peer through it.

Oh... my... it's...

"Amazing..." absentmindedly, I think aloud.

I stand there staring.

...

How long have I been looking at it?

Twenty minutes? Two hours? I don't care.

But I'm getting tired. Too tired to even keep my eyes open.

I yawn, causing my eyes to force themselves shut.

When I look out the peephole again, it's gone.

That was... strange, to say the least.

I need to get some sleep.

...

The morning came surprisingly quickly, and when it did, I got out of town as fast as possible. I returned to the city, and gave my boss a rundown of what had happened. He was pleased, and told me to get to writing. Although I was tired from traveling, I knew the story had to be out by the next day, so I reluctantly sat down and got to writing.

~

The next day, the morning paper contained a strange story about the small town of Quarya. An excerpt reads:

"Mass hysteria or monster?

Residents of the small town of Quarya have recently reported sightings of what they describe as a thin, nearly invisible veil, tinted slightly purple, which reveals strange visions to those who look through it. We sent one of our own reporters to check it out, and he was lucky enough to see it himself. Reports differ as to what was on the other side of the veil, some saying they saw giant mansions, others saying they saw fields of flowers. But all the witnesses could agree on one thing:

It could be anything!"