In the gym locker room, Jack huffed and wiped the sheen of sweat that had formed on his brow. He sat on one of the benches in his workout clothes, the bottle of water in his hand near empty. He’d pushed himself a little harder on the upper body machines, and was now suffering the resulting fatigue that came from a good workout from a body unused to such things.
“Nice work today Jack,” one of the gym’s trainers said as he passed the lightly panting young man, patting him on the shoulder as he passed. “Take it easy for a couple of days though and don’t overdo it. It’s a marathon, not a race.”
“Will do,” Jack said. He’d been coming to the gym consistently for three weeks now, and the staff had finally begun to give him more than pleasant business smiles now that he’d proven his commitment. He hadn’t opted for a personal trainer, but the staff were more than happy to offer advice and tips when he asked. He still didn’t feel things getting any easier, but at least he was starting to feel better about himself.
Idly, Jack pulled out his phone and checked for any messages. As usual, nothing stood out despite a week having passed since his strange interview at 123 4th street. That didn’t stop Jack’s paranoia from getting to him, since clearly something would be coming eventually; like knowing a jump scare in a video game was bound to happen, but not when.
Mentally mocking himself, Jack stowed the phone away, took a quick shower to wash the majority of grime off, and changed into a set of loose clothes to walk home in. As he exited the locker room however, a familiar sound from the entrance of the gym made him frown.
“Oh great,” he grumbled. “Now the rain comes?”
“Yeah,” one of the male trainers at the front desk agreed. “Just started out of no where a few minutes ago. It’s been threatening the last few days, so it was bound to happen at some point. Really is pouring down, isn’t it?” He paused and realized something as he looked at Jack. “Oh buddy, don’t tell me you were planning on walking home?” He winced at Jacks reluctant nod. “Did you at least pack an umbrella?”
“Nope,” Jack sighed. “At least I won’t need to take too long of a shower when I get home, right?”
The trainer shook his head, and then reached behind the counter. “Here, you can borrow this one,” he offered kindly as he pulled out a small portable umbrella with the gym’s logo on it. “We keep a few on hand for people to borrow. I’ll put down a note in your file, and we’ll charge you a little cash if you lose or break it, but as long as you return it no worries.”
“Hey, I appreciate it,” Jack said, gladly accepting the umbrella. “This beats asking for a trash bag. Hopefully I won’t need it again the next time I work out.”
The trainer laughed and fist bumped with Jack before returning to his duties. Jack waited until he was outside before opening up the umbrella and, making sure it was positioned for the best coverage, began the walk home. The rain fell in waves around him as he walked, the wind every once awhile pushing and pulling the rain at an angle that splattered across Jack’s legs as he walked. While he heard no thunder and saw no lightening, Jack still made sure to keep his eyes and ears open for the first sign of them.
As expected for a heavy rain day in Maples, there were far fewer people on the sidewalk as Jack made his way home. Even the somewhat sparse traffic found on this side of the city had dramatically lessoned, thankfully giving less change for puddles of water to be sent crashing Jack’s way as he walked. The young man did his best to keep close the buildings when possible to reduce his chances of getting wet, though the wind mocked his efforts whenever he had to cross an intersection.
At one intersection, however, Jack was surprised as he nearly collided with someone hurrying across the road without an umbrella. The other man clearly hadn’t been watching ahead of him, and seemed to jump out of fear when he realized how close he’d been to Jack.
“Careful,” Jack said as he gracefully avoided the other man. “Pay attention man; I could have been car.” Jack did his best to keep his tone calm, but he couldn’t help a little annoyance slipping in. It would not have been pleasant if he’d ended up on the wet street.
“Sorry,” the other man muttered, pulling his jacket hoodie up slightly. “I wasn’t, yeah.” Jack noticed the way the man seemed to nervously be looking over his shoulder, and frowned. “I, uh, I have to go,” the other man said, but as he turned to leave Jack firmly grasped his arm.
“Hey, are you being followed?” Jack asked, leveling his gaze at the man.
The man smiled awkwardly at him, but couldn’t break free. “Uh, no. Listen, I need to go. Can you let me go? I don’t have any money on me.”
Jack grimaced as he realized how this must look. “I’m not mugging you,” he quickly said. “Look, I had someone jump me a month back. Would you like me to walk with you?” Jack pointed up at his facial scars with his umbrella hand; the line only now starting to fade.
The man swallowed, but nodded. “I, I’d really appreciate it,” he finally managed to stammer with a weak smile. “I, uh, I’m Fred. Fred Jones. God, thank you young man. Thank you so much.”
“Jack,” the younger man introduced himself as he let go of Fred’s arm. “Come on, let’s get off the street. Where are you going?”
“Home,” Fred said as he began walking next to Jack. “I got off of work early and wanted to surprise my girlfriend. It’s our anniversary this weekend. She’s at our condo. I sell insurance, and she, uh, games online. With a camera. But, not like sex stuff, you know?”
“She’s a streamer,” Jack summarized as the other man fumbled over his words. Jack eyed the older man, and couldn’t help but wonder how old his girlfriend was. This wasn’t a time to be judging though. “Hey, when did you notice someone was following you?”
Fred winced and looked around quickly. “It hasn’t been long,” he explained in a whisper, almost a whimper. “I crossed an intersection a few minutes ago, and I swear I could hear something walking in step with me. But, every time I looked back, I didn’t see anyone. I swear, I know it sounds crazy, but I can feel someone watching me.”
“Yeah,” Jack took a breath, “I know what you mean. Something similar happened to, a friend of mine a few weeks ago. It was raining that day too.”
“I knew it,” the other man moaned, his hands writhing together as he walked. “I knew it. The others thought I was crazy.”
“Others?” Jack asked.
“The other agents,” Fred explained. “See, I do mostly life insurance. You know, in case of any accidents. But, a few months ago, I started noticing some, irregularities in the files and claims.”
“Someone was stealing?” Jack raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure I’m supposed to hear this.”
“No no, the opposite,” Fred quickly said. “See, it wasn’t that much, but the money we had on file was less than the money we actually had on hand for covering claims. It was strange, but I didn’t think too much about it. Having more money is good, right?” He chuckled awkwardly. “And it didn’t matter since it didn’t to appear to be anything recent. I would have forgotten about it, but then a few weeks ago, I found the amount had increased slightly. Like, if someone had paid a month over. I looked around for the source, but the transactions were no where to be found. It was like the money magically appeared, like a glitch.”
“That doesn’t sound like something a bank would let happen,” Jack pointed out.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“No, it doesn’t,” Fred agreed. “I called them, and they were confused too, but said it wasn’t anything on their end. It was on ours. So, I did some digging into the older files, and found that all the money had come in the same. Like someone had just begun a policy with a deposit, only they didn’t exist on record.” He coughed. “At least, not the active records. We backstop out data every month in case of breech in data security, and I found them.”
“Who?” Jack asked, intrigued by the man’s story.
“Names of people, going back years,” Fred muttered fearfully. “All their personal information too, but when I went to find them, there wasn’t anything. Nothing, zilch, nada. It was like they had been scrubbed away from everything changeable. I could only find a couple of the names in newspaper archives at the library records, not the online repository.” He shivered. “I tried telling my coworkers and my boss, but they waved me off. They didn’t care, I mean, who really cares about insurance payments if they never claim, right? But, that’s when I started to feel like someone was watching me. It has to be the feds.”
“The, feds?” Jack blinked.
“Yeah,” Fred whispered, “I mean, this has the NRA written all over it. Maybe even the Justice Department. Those people must have been put into witness protection or something, and now that I know I need to be shut up. Or it’s the mod coming after me to help them find people.”
Jack kept a straight face as best he could. Suddenly, Fred’s story wasn’t nearly as interesting or dangerous somehow. Now Jack was feeling nervous for entirely new reasons. He sighed and clicked his tongue.
“You don’t believe me?” Fred asked, jolting Jack out of his thoughts as he realized he’d been supposed to say something.
“Well,” Jack said hesitantly. “I’m not exactly familiar with, um, conspiracies. I just thought someone was trying to mug you. Don’t get me wrong, its bad either way, but that does sound a little far-fetched, don’t you think?”
Fred seemed to slump. “Oh. Yeah, I guess it does.” He shook his head. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s crazy. Maybe I’ve been working too hard.”
“Happens to the best of us,” Jack said.
Fred gave him a weak smile. “True enough, I suppose. Sorry for wasting you time young man. I, uh, must really get going. You don’t need to come with me anymore.”
“You sure?” Jack asked politely. “I don’t mind the extra walk. I do like the rain, as long as it doesn’t get on me.”
“No, no,” the other man waved him off, picking up his pace. “I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you anymore than I already have. The condominium is just around the corner anyway, just a block and half away. Thank you for listening to this old insurance salesman.” With that, Fred was walking swiftly away and back into the rain. Jack slowed down until he came to a dead stop, and watched the older man turn the corner.
Jack shook his head, and turned around to walk back the way they’d come.
[Tap, . . . Tap, . . . Tap . . .]
The sound of something tapping through the puddles made Jack freeze. He’d heard this sound before, the sound of footsteps echoing over the heavy rain. It sent a familiar shiver down his spine, and Jack shut his right eye. The grey world of the veil appeared, and Jack looked around himself quickly.
Nothing moved in the grey haze of the world except the unreflective drops of water that fell through from the sky. Then Jack realized the sound hadn’t been coming towards him; it had been moving away. He felt his heart clench up in understanding.
“Fred!” Jack grimaced, turning and running down after where the other man had turned. The umbrella bounced in his hand as he ran, barely missing the building corner as Jack rounded it and almost slipped. Ahead, Jack didn’t see the older man despite the little time that had passed. Jack cursed, and resumed his run. His eyes locked onto the alley entrance up ahead that seemed to appeared from nowhere out of the rain. Jack slowed down and turned into the alley.
It happened in an instant. Suddenly, the umbrella no longer shook from the rain falling onto it. The grey world of the veil was suddenly gone, replaced by color. Fred, on the ground, hands reaching out desperately to grab on to anything. The dark form wrapped around his leg.
Then Jack blinked.
“HELP ME!” Fred screamed as he was dragged into the darkness of the alley. “PLEASE, HELP ME!”
The umbrella fell to the ground as Jack leaped forward and grabbed Fred’s hand. “I got you! I got you!” Jack yelled.
“DON’T LET ME GO. PLEASE DON’T LET ME GO,” Fred begged.
Jack pulled, but whatever had Fred was stronger than he was. Jack could feel his feet dragging against the ground against his will, helpless to resist the force grasping the other man. With a snarl, Jack pulled his workout bag off his shoulder and threw it at the darkness. The bag disappeared from view for just a moment, before suddenly flying back out and slamming into Jack’s chest with enough force to knock him backwards onto his ass with a cry of surprise. Staggered, Jack took a moment to get his bearings before scrambling back up to his feet.
But it was too late. With shrieking cry of pain and fear, Fred vanished into the darkness of the alley, his desperate face the last Jack saw of him. The sounds vanished abruptly, replaced by the soft crunches of something.
Jack swallowed, moving his hand slightly to move the gym bag off of him. His fingers caught on something, and looking down, he saw five tears in his bag that hadn’t been there before. Shuddering at the realization, Jack tried to summon the veil, but for some reason it wouldn’t appear no matter how long he kept his right eye closed. He couldn’t see what was in front of him; he couldn’t pierce through the darkness.
The sound of crunching, stopped. Silence filled the alley, until Jack heard a low hiss from somewhere ahead of him.
Whatever had taken Fred, it was stronger than Jack, and able to tear through cloth without much care. Jack didn’t have a weapon on him and couldn’t see the threat.
Slowly, Jack backed away towards the entrance of the alley, his eyes never looking away from the darkness. The low hiss continued, but the source didn’t seem to be focused on Jack. That is, until Jack accidently stepped onto the end of the umbrella. It cracked with a crunch that made Jack wince. This low hissing vanished instantly, and an ominous silence replaced it.
Jack felt the pian in his left eye, and he slammed himself to the ground instinctively.
Something burst from the darkness and sailed over his head, flying out into the street. Jack rolled over and scrambled out of the alley with his bag and the umbrella, suddenly confronted with heavy rain that slammed into his face and made him jump in surprise. He almost missed the sound of something screeching away into the distance as he recovered.
He blinked, getting the rain out of his eyes as he moved the umbrella up to cover himself once more, and found that the veil had reappeared. He could see through the world once again. Something was in the street, but it was too far for Jack to make out. It was stumbling however, as if it had just been struck by something. ‘Most likely a car,’ Jack realized. ‘It took a hit, but didn’t go down. What the hell.’
Whatever the thing was, it was large, but still somewhat humanoid. Something was covering up its face and most of its body, but Jack could still see a mouth of white razor-sharp teeth that stood out against the black of its body. Long, gangly arms with equally gangly fingers grasped at pavement as it pushed itself up off the ground. Then its head whipped over to face Jack, and the mouth opened menacingly.
“Oh shit,” Jack groaned.
Faster than he could react to, the thing leaped into the air at Jack, mouth wide open and arms outstretched. Jack felt his life pass before his eyes.
And then an arm materialized out of the air and clenched around the beast’s throat. The monster let out a gurgling cry and tried to fight back, but its attacks did nothing to the suited arm that reached out of the edge of Jack’s vision. He blinked, and suddenly the arm was connected to a tall, suited, faceless man, the same one that had appeared before Jack before. From the tilt of its head, it seemed to be considering the monster in its grasp, as if its vicious swipes and kicks were being ignored. The tall man turned slowly to seemingly look at Jack, who’d fallen to the ground and breathed heavily in fear. The tall man turned to look back at the monster, and then turned around and walked back into the grey, hazy rain. The monster continued to screech and whine and panic, but nothing it did seemed to work. The pair disappeared from Jack’s view, followed by the grey world of the veil as color returned to Jack’s vision. There was no sign of anything in the rain, not even light from a distant car.
Jack breathed heavily as his nerves caught up with him, slowly forcing himself into deep breaths as the stress of the situation faded away. He clutched the umbrella tightly all the while, using it to root himself to reality. Had that, really just happened?
Shaking, Jack got up off the ground, his pants fatally soaked, and forced himself to walk over to the alley.
Except, the alley was no longer there. Only smooth brick remained of the place that Fred Jones had vanished into. Not even the veil showed anything different. A dead end was all that remained of the hapless insurance man. ‘Does that mean Fred has been forgotten too?’ Jack couldn’t help but wonder. ‘Were, were all those missing people also eaten by that, thing?’
He nearly jumped out of his skin when his phone dinged with the arrival of a text message. Gulping, Jack slowly pulled his phone out and looked who had texted.
“Dear Mr. Smith,
A car has been sent to pick you up. Congratulations on passing your interview. Remain where you are, your ride will be there soon. Do not attempt to call the police.
BotUS”
Jack watched the notification for several moments, but when he opened his phone to respond, he found the message had vanished from his phone. There was no record of the text, just like there likely be no record of a man named Fred Jones ever existing.
Jack waited in the pouring rain in silence. The falling drops fell onto his uncovered head as he stared down at the puddles in the road. He remained like that till the headlights of a car shone down on him.