Behind the Bleeding Veil

Regina walked through the field. She didn't know where this field was or how she got here only that she was walking forward. Her body picked up no sensory data, no feeling of temperature, no feeling of grass or dirt beneath her feet, no feeling of wind or moisture, not even sound. The only external stimuli she had was visual.

And what visuals they were.

The grass was too green. The patches of dirt were too brown. The rocks scattered here and there were too grey. In fact all the greens were the same green, all the browns, the same brown. It was like a child's drawing of a field done with only a base set of crayons. The only exception was the sky. The sky phased from a dark maroon to a blood orange with steel grey and purple clouds in the sky. There was no sun as she could see so she assumed it was behind her. No matter, she kept moving forward, emotionless. She wasn't scared or curious or frightened or anything; she just simply moved forward.

Out of no where a hill appeared. Thus far the terrain had been relatively flat, giving her a fairly long range and unobstructed view of everything before her. At no time before had she seen this hill, it was just there all of a sudden. Still she felt nothing at seeing this impossible hill now before her. She simply started walking up it.

At the top was both an image she was quite familiar with but was also quite bizarre. It was Christ on the cross but instead of a cross of wood, it was made out of two intersecting penises. Now she had never seen a penis before, not in real life or in pictures, yet she knew that's what they were. The vertical one stuck out of the earth like a proud erection. The horizontal one had a head at each end. The nails holding Christ to this cock-cross were also penises and the wounds on his hands and feet were bleeding vaginas. Christ was looking to the side but he turned to look down at her. He opened his mouth and out flowed a river of shit and maggots. Regina Turned to brace herself from the oncoming flood and that's when she woke up.

Regina was in the passengers seat of her mother's car. She had fallen asleep during the drive to the college she would be attending. Regina was homeschooled by her hyper religious mother. By the age of five, she could recite the Bible from memory. Anything remotely worldly or of the flesh was kept from her. She had no interactions with anyone else but her mother for the first twelve years of her life. Her father (or at least the man she assumed was her father), would show up about once a week with food and other groceries, exchange pleasantries, ask her mother how she was doing, and then leave.

When Regina turned seventeen, her mother told her it would soon be her time to enter the world. That she was to go out as a sheep amongst wolves and bring the light of Christ to all she would meet. Her mother went into great detail as to how vile and deranged the world of man was. It was sick, violent, lustful; full of murders, rapists, and Devil worshippers. Regina asked why she had to go out in such a horrid place then. Her mother responded simply that it was their Christian duty. The first place she would go would be a particularly hedonistic place called college.

And, so here she was, in her mother's car, being driven to a place full of drunkards and sodomites to spread the Word. She quickly repented and asked for forgiveness for her most blasphemous dream and prayed she would not have it again. Most of her dreams had always been of Heaven or Jesus. Just her and him, flying around the clouds and laughing. Since being told she would be going to college she had been having new dreams. Most benign, (her as a fisherman on a boat with Christ bringing souls in), but, occasionally, there were others. Not as graphic as the one she just had, but still disquieting.

The main one was a shadow. Like this dream, it was in a field, but this field was more natural, beautiful, with a bright, blue sky. In the distance was a shadow. A pure black shadow in the shape of a woman. It just stood there. It never moved, never said anything. Regina could tell it was looking at her, waiting for her. In each dream, the shadow was a little bit closer. In the final dream, she stood within arms reach of it. Out of the blackness of the form, a pale, milky white breast emerged, blood dripping from the nipple. Regina knew it wanted her to drink from it. She went to scream but woke up and never had the shadow dream again.

Regina told her mother about her dreams and who she thought was her father was called in. He assured her that it was only the Devil trying to scare her off from her mission and that she was protected by God and had nothing to worry about. After that, the dreams had stopped until today, until just now. It was scary but she wouldn't allow them to make her back down. She was eighteen now and on a mission from God and nothing would stop her.

Regina was dropped off in front of the building where orientation for the new students was being held. Her mother was never a sentimental person, so she simply said bye to Regina as she got out of the car and told her to remember to always put God first. As soon as Regina had gotten her suitcase out of the trunk, her mother drove off. She was alone now, for the first time in her life. No, she corrected herself, not alone, she still had God; she was just without her mother for the first time.

She walked into the building and saw the registration table. Two girls dressed in what she would consider harlot clothes sat behind a desk, chattering away. She slowly walked up to them and shyly asked if this was where she was to sign in at. The two looked up at her with some slight annoyance at being interrupted, but were friendly enough overall.

"Depends," said the one girl with golden blonde hair that was cut shoulder length and olive eyes. Her skin was tanned a few shades darker than seemed healthy. She had on a white t-shirt that was so thin, Regina could see the blue bra the girl had on underneath. "What's you're last name?"

"Maxwell. Regina Maxwell," Regina replied timidly.

"Ok, cool; you're at the right table then," the other girl said in much friendlier manner. This girl had long, straight, brown hair which she wore in a pony tail, green eyes, and freckles. She had on a sleeveless, button up, black shirt which the top three buttons were undone, exposing a little bit of the girl's cleavage. Regina blushed at having noticed it.

"I'm Patty and this is Nat," the brown haired girl continued. "Here, find your name on this paper and sign in. Once you do that, we have a welcome package for you. It's a map of the school, a history, um, class schedule, dorm assignment, and all that. Once you get that, you can go inside. The dean has a speech he gives all the freshmen, then everyone breaks into groups for a tour of the campus. No biggie. We all went through it."

"Thank you," Regina said and nodded her head. She then walked inside the auditorium and took a seat.

Regina looked around and was shocked by how everyone was dressed. It was all so lose and disgusting. Even the most modestly dressed girl looked like a prostitute while the boys looked like slobs. She had to fight back tears as she thought about how lost everyone was. These people were in true need of the Light.

The lights went down soon and a rather large man in a suit that was half a size too small waddled on stage, He was the dean and gave the standard welcome speech. So glad you're here, we're lucky to have you, you're lucky to be here, history of the school, expectations, and all that. After what seemed like hours, he wrapped up and the auditorium was split up into groups based on alphabetical order and were shown around campus just as Patty had said.

Finally the students were allowed to go to their new dorms. Regina looked at her paper and saw the name of the building with her dorm number. She walked in, showed her ID and was allowed in. Her dorm was on the second floor, room 214. She saw that she would be sharing the room with a junior named Fluttershy. What a strange name, Regina thought to herself. She must be from California.

Regina lightly knocked on the door and a voice that sounded like it had just been interrupted from the most important thing ever shouted back, "It's open!"

Regina took a deep breath. This Fluttershy sounded absolutely fearsome. Still, she had God on her side, so she recited one of the Psalms to herself, opened the door, and walked in.