"Damnit Carl." He quietly mumbled to himself as he frantically tried to fumble with the lock seeing if there was anything he could do to open it himself. Hundreds of thoughts rushed through his mind about the whereabouts of the key. What if Carl had had the key on him at the time? What if its not even in the house? How was he supposed to open it? No, he would have given it to him, this seemed too important for him to mess up and leave something like that out. But why would he have not told him where the key was? He had said they were coming, perhaps he didn't want 'them' (whoever them might be) finding the key. He began looking around the room and being overwhelmed at the places he could have hid this key. He killed himself over this, he wouldn't have just up and left it lying around. No he would have hidden like his life depended on it. His life had depended on it.
He began studying the room more closely for a clue as to where it could be. Carl's desk was littered with papers that seemed to be related to all this 'cult' as Jack had deemed it. Jack found a note in the drawer where he had found the locked box that was scrawled very sloppily on a half peice of paper.

'Very few can actually see the 'negative realm' as I've begun calling it for I have no clue what the actual name for this god forsaken place is, but we few who can see the realm, can see others who can see the realm, we can sort them out from the people who can't. We are all tied by this for some reason or another, and they need this book, they need it for getting fully here....'

The rest was was scribbled onto the paper so terribly he couldn't read it, it trailed off the end of the page.

'Here...? Negative realm..?' Jack mumbled to himself. This made even less sense than when he had started trying to figure out what was going on. All of this aside he needed to find a way to open this chest, the book must be inside, it was the only thing in the house that even seemed to be remotely locked up, and he needed to get out of here fast before the people Carl was talking about got here, and he was confronted by these people which more than likely would not be a favorable affair.

He looked around the room again, and was looking for where this key might be. Jack glanced around the room and saw nothing particularly outstanding about where it could be until he looked over at the painting of the old blind man again and noticed a metal plaque right underneath the painting.

'See through the veil'

'The veil? What the hell does that mean?' Jack pondered. He stared blankly at the painting hoping to understand what this ment. The painting was a fairly realistic painting of a older man, in his late 70's or so it looked, in a tattered robe that reminded Jack of what he would imagine a monks robe to be like. He was holding what seemed to be a tree branch that doubled as a walking stick, and standing on a hill that appeared to be littered with dead leaves. He had a cloth wrapped around his his head obstructing his vision.

Jack had no time to fool around. Veil, what could that possibly mean? Was he overthinking this? Was it just some painting he had bought from an art gallery and 'See through the veil' was the title or something?

Or perhaps not. He looked around, what could possibly be a veil. Jack continued studying the painting and noticed the mans hand was pointing at what seemed to be the person who was in front of the painting looking at it. Me? No. Jack turned around and noticed the painting of the enigmatic cultist eye directly in front of the painting of the old man. 'See through the veil.. Through the veil...' Could it be the painting was the veil? It's not like he had any better ideas as to where the key to open this chest could be. Jack quickly dashed to the other side of the room and began trying to unhinge the painting from the wall, it was fairly heavy and Jack had trouble balancing it and set it down on Carls office desk. He quickly looked at the back of the painting hoping to see a key taped to the back of it or something of this nature, reguardless of how cliche it was. No such luck. So what then was the veil it was talking about?

Jack was then back to stage one. He paced the room trying to figure out this puzzle that had been laid before him without his wanting, but he knew it ment something, he needed to figure this out, and he was running out of time. He glared back at the painting on the desk, then his eyes drifted to where the painting was stationed on the wall. Could the painting itself be the veil? Jack had no time to waste, he felt along the back of it, wondering how to see. He hurriedly found his way to the kitchen and scavenged around for a knife, he came upon a set Carl had tucked away under his kitchen island, grabbed one and proceeded back into Carls office. He carefully took the knife to the back of the canvas and sliced it open.

He reached in and felt around for a key, after not being able to find anything in the back of it, he frantically started moving his hand inside as if that was goig to make one magically appear inside of it. He knew him still looking for a key inside of it was doing no good, but he couldn't bring himself to think that he may actually have run out of places, and that this was the end of what Carls dying wish had been for him to do. Jack pushed his back up against the wall behind Carls desk, and started to slide down until he was sitting on the floor, was this really it? Was he really just shit out of luck and couldn't figure this out? Were whoever these people who had cause Carl to spiral into what seemed insanity, going to get this book? He sat in disbelief at the fact he couldn't figure this seemingly vague and cryptic message out, when it finally hit him like a sucker-punch to the stomach knocking all the air out of him.

The fucking wall.

This had to be it, there was nothing else he could possibly think of. The painting was the veil itself, and seeing past it was in the wall. This made sense enough to have been where he would have hidden it. It was well out of reach to keep someone from randomly stumbling upon it, and it was out of sight from someone who was searching for it. He just hoped this was the resting place of the key for this book. Jack looked around the room for something to get the wall open with, his eyes caught a lamp that was in the corner of the room, it was about 5 and a half feet tall and fairly thick at the base, he assumed this would be a decent substitute for a sledge hammer. He picked it up right underneath the lamp shade, made sure he had enough room to swing, and swung it directly where the painting had been. It tore open a rather large hole through the drywall, and there to his suprise, was a shelf built into the structure of the wall, with a little metal box sitting on it, with more of these disturbing runes raised on it. He had hidden it like his life had depended on it. He had also relied on whoever was searching for its puzzle-solving skills. Jacks had been fine-tuned playing Dungeons and Dragons oddly enough, and was suprised it took him as long as it did to figure this out, seeing as he was used to Carls intricate puzzles.

The box opened like the box to a ring, one hinge on the back, and was very heavy considering how small it was, Jack also noticed that the symbols on it almost looked as if they were beginning to create actual words. He had no idea how to explain this, but it seemed as if they were moving and sliding around on the metal box itself to form actual comprehensible words. The box now read

"You have seen through the veil, now keep it from reaching the Skd'gwah"

Skd'gwah? Was that the people who were coming for the book? How the hell could he now read this text that had been in some bizzare language he had never even seen before? Jack didn't care, he could sort all of this out later, he just knew he needed to get the hell out of here and fast. These people could be here at any second. He popped open the metal box and there was a key that resembled something similar to the eye on the painting. it was made out of the same metal it seemed, again seeming much heavier than that amount of something would allow it to be. He quickly turned to the chest he had found in Carls desk, and tried placing the key in the odd keyhole that looked somewhat like a snake wrapping around a hole. It fit perfectly. The chest began emanating green light from between the cracks as Jack slowly edged it open. He finally saw the book this whole ordeal was about. It was incredibly worn and dog-earred. It also smelled like it had been in there for quite some time. It seemed like it was bound with leather, and had that same eye from the painting embossed on the front of it. He grabbed the book and started to stand up until something made his heart stop.

The front door had just turned. He could have swore he heard it. There was no mistaking it.

He put his ear up against the heavy seemingly wooden door, trying to listen if anyone had come in, surely he would be able to hear their voices, or at least them walking around Carls living room.

Nothing.

He kept his head to the door for a little bit longer. He could faintly hear something that sounded like a wind whistling through a small opening. Jack stared at the bottom of the door. Something was rushing through the bottom of it then disappearing. it looked like smoke, but it moved more majestically than smoke ever could. It twisted and turned as it came out then vanished as it continued to pour under the door. Had they set the house on fire...? He slowly put his hand to the door, expecting it to be hot. Yet again, nothing, as he started to take his hand away from the door, he noticed it had started to vibrate. He kept his hand there a little longer not even thinking, and the door began to shake violently. Jack stumbled away from the door, terrified at what might be behind the door. This didn't seem like something could just be shaking it on their own. The hinges on the door started to creak, and pop as the strain on the door became worse.

The door shattered flinging shards of wood everywhere and sending the door knob clear across the room. A thick dark smoke began to fill the room. Within a matter of seconds it had completely filled the living room, Jack had to move fast, if this building was on fire he had to get out. The windows were too high up for him to just jump out and hope for the best, the best in this case being a parapalygic (sp). He started to dash for the door hoping to be able to reach the bottom floor unscathed, but as soon as he reached the doorway he stopped and fell backward is pure terror. What stood before him he did not know. All he knew was it was the single most terrifying thing he had ever seen. It appeared to be a man or something humanoid encased in smoke, it's whole body seemed to be constantly moving, as if the smoke was shaping its body and it didn't have a true solid form. Every part of it's body seemed too long and lanky to be real. It had one large what appeared to be eye in the middle of it's forehead, it was sideways and seemed to gaze straight through him. What in Gods name was this monstrosity?

"What the hell are you?!" Jack yelled as he started scrambling to get to away from the unknown being.

Suddenly Jack heard something, he couldn't hear it, but he knew what it was saying, he knew it was this thing in front of him communicating with him. Like it's thoughts had been projected directly into his mind. Like he could understand it without it actually speaking. He thought he was going mad.
"The.. Book.."

So many things were rushing through Jacks head as he sat dumbfounded on his ass staring at this unworldly ethereal being. Was Carl serious? Was this what was after this book? Why? What did this thing need with this book? More importantly why did Carl have it in the first place?
"The book.. Give.. It"
Jack was in such a state of shock he barely knew what to do, everything that had happened in the past few hours suddenly hit him like a brick. All of this wasn't a fucking joke, or a bullshit cult, or just some ramblings that were written in a bunch of old books and shoved to the back of a dusty shelf to collect dust. This was actually happening. One thing that permeated through this mess of thought was, why would he hand this over to this thing? Carl had tried immensely to keep this hidden from anyone. After all of this he surely wasn't going to hand it over, reguardless of it being human or not.

Jack hastily stood up and held the book tightly in his hands. As he held the book it felt the book shift, as if it was trying to get to the being that still stood in front of him, hovering, waiting, starting at him with that godforsaken eye. Jack looked down at the book and noticed the pages shifting in the book. He quickly opened it, and again the crazed marking that had not made sense to him more than 10 minutes ago were now forming comprehensible words. The same thing was written over and over on the page he flipped to.

Da'kaar Na sha'lak del'ba

Over and over it was written very hurriedly and continued to appear in the book until the page was filled, then began overlapping itself in bigger even more hurried looking letters. Jack muttered the phrase paralysed with fear.
"Da'kaar Na sha'lak del'ba.."

The being immediately made a terribly loud audible screeching sound and seemed to fall down. The room began to clear of the smokey mist that had once filled it. Jack stared at the being still in utter shock and said the phrase louder.
"Da'kaar Na sha'lak del'ba"

The being was now writhing in pain clawing at the ground as it seemed to disappear into thin air.
Jack yelled the phrase at the top of his lungs
"Da'kaar Na sha'lak del'ba!"

The being let out an earshattering scream and had appeared to fade away completely. Jack slumped back against the wall. Sweat poured down his face. His mind rushing.