The Veil Between

By Walter Rice

On Halloween night a young woman named Traci heads out into a storm to find her escaped black cat. Her husband, Jeremy, is also gone when she comes home from work. Figuring that he’s also out looking for little Carlisle, she forces herself into a howling wind for a house-to-house search.

Moving along the street with one disappointment after another, Traci eventually arrives at a strange and unfamiliar old house where the grandmotherly Millie says she has Carlisle. And there he is.

Ready to take her cat home immediately, Traci is persuaded that the task will be difficult and even foolish because of the storm and distance. Millie proposes that her husband, Big Jim, make a carrier so Carlisle can ride safely in her car.

But trick or treating comes first, and Big Jim delights in serving the children. Standing six feet six with an odd face and eccentric manner, he dresses as a bullfighter to hand out Halloween candy.

With growing misgivings about Millie and Big Jim, Traci wants to leave the house with her cat as soon as possible, but Millie thwarts her while dismissing reasonable ideas. Before long, Traci considers herself and her cat to be prisoners.

Eventually Traci devises a way to gain the confidence of Big Jim and get a peek outside. The storm has tapered off, and Traci learns something unreal but also helpful about Big Jim. Soon Traci wraps up her cat and makes a bizarre and frantic run into the dark.

Before the night is over she’s back home safe with her problems apparently solved, but she can’t help wondering where she’s been and how she brought back something surreal from a house that shouldn’t have been there.

Words: 8,300

• Language: English
• Publisher: Walter Rice
• Release date: Sep 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463339602

Walter Rice

WALTER RICE is the author of several works of crime fiction and is a former newspaper editor and reporter in the Pacific Northwest. He also paints, often digitally, and plays the piano and writes music. He lives near Seattle with his wife and pets.

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