I used to have a friend, her name was Veta.
I lost contact with her–we all did–on November 5th, 2021, and feel the need to share my thoughts about it.
It started with a video.
A new video, that is, as Veta had always shown an interest in vlogging since we first met in LA back in 2018. She was an actor–well, she was a waitress who loved acting, and like many in town, wished to pay the bills with it.
In early 2020, I sort of fell out of touch with Veta, but I could tell that the times had hit her especially hard. She lost her job, stopped getting acting gigs, and we mostly stopped speaking aside from the occasional text or two. It wasn’t personal, it was that way with most of my friends and I–connecting with people was always difficult for me, and the isolation just made it that much harder.
September 18th, 2021:
~WELCOME TO MY CHANNEL!!!~
It had been six months since we’d last spoken, and I could tell she was hurting. I had asked her if she wanted to grab a drink sometime–something I myself had to work up the courage to do–but she said no: she was busy working on a new project. A way to be “seen” after a rough year.
“Rough for us all,” I told her, but she wasn’t interested in hearing about the past, or maybe just mine; her focus was solely on the future.
Then I saw the video. “WELCOME TO MY CHANNEL!!!” it was titled, quite blatantly. And upon watching it, proved amateurish to say the least. That being said, I was proud that she was making an effort. And I told her so much over the phone. I wouldn’t have guessed at the time that a makeup vlog would be her new outlet, but Veta told me that she wanted to try something new–something actually pretty common, I cynically thought to myself–but I was happy for her. In the video, she did some kind of goth look with makeup. It was fairly half-assed, but hey, she still looked great.
September 20th, 2021:
~Tips for the Perfect Glow Up~
There was already something off about this second video; it was amateurish, but in a different–almost intentional–way. Like she knew it wasn’t ready to post, but she did so anyway. I didn’t talk with her about this video; to be honest, I was a little embarrassed for her at the time, and thought that maybe we were already seeing the end to her short-lived dive into vlogging. She was rambling, like a self-help guru on coke. Nothing useful to gain from it, but her confidence was palpable nevertheless. And she wore a necklace with a sort of “w” inside it–remember that.
September 22nd, 2021:
~Meet @ FitnessFanatic!~
This is when Logan entered the picture, and I’ll admit it: I hated this guy.
Veta had mentioned Logan a couple times when we had hung out previously, and it was no secret that his (somewhat) success he found online making fitness videos had inspired Veta to take her own stab at it. Logan was an old friend of hers from college and–for lack of better term–a douchebag, evident from his channel, though it’s long been taken down–we’ll get to the reasons later.
This third video was a video call between Veta and Logan and–at no fault to Veta–basically acted as an advertisement for him and his splendid, backyard pool, but it was the ending where Logan ragged on Veta for being a waitress, that really pissed me off. I called her–I had to–to express as much, and she appreciated my letting her know that she was great, with or without the fame or dream job.
“Fuck Logan,” I said. Maybe I took it too far.
September 25th, 2021:
~CRAZY!! TESTING OUT NEW STYLES!!!~
This is when I became concerned. Veta’s fourth video had a similar, neurotic energy like her second one, but this time she rambled on about a dream she had that inspired this new “look,” consisting mainly of her speckling her face with green paint, gold highlights, and black streaks zig-zagging vertically down her face. This dream of hers, she said, was of her swimming in water of great depths, surrounded by “creatures” which she oddly seemed to backtrack on as soon as it slipped out. Above all, though, she insisted that she felt “safe.”
September 26th, 2021:
~So about my last episode… :/~
Veta quickly published an apology video for the post from the day before. She was on minimal sleep, she said–I noticed an empty wine bottle in the background–and well, frankly, she looked like a hungover mess. I called her; no response. She spent the majority of the brief video cleaning off the green-ish makeup from before, which I guess she hadn’t bothered to take off before going to sleep? She promised to do better moving forward.
September 28th, 2021:
~MAKEUP and WORK OUT with @ FitnessFanatic!~
It had been a couple days, and Veta looked to be her regular, bubbly self. I was relieved to see her feeling better–until I saw that she was hosting another video call with Logan. Yeah, the same workout-guru Logan who had previously berated her for waiting tables. On her own show.
Logan, however, was off the rails. He manically worked-out at his “command center”–a section of his backyard with various workout equipment–without ever giving Veta a chance to get a single word in. Strangest of all was the ending, where upon taking off his shirt, Logan revealed himself to be wearing Veta’s necklace I had seen in one of her earlier videos. It was obviously an uncomfortable moment–given the implication of how it got there–and Veta quickly cut the interview short. I was disappointed to say the least, and hoped that my saying of “Fuck Logan” wasn’t taken as a suggestion.
September 30th, 2021:
~I woke up like this.~
Covered in a messy smear of shiny, green and turquoise makeup, Veta started a new video with a statement: she woke up looking like this. She had no memory of putting on the makeup, however she did have a similar dream as the one she mentioned before–which was now recurring. She was deep underwater, with things around her “breathing” and “luring” her in. She said it should have been scary from the way she recounts it, but it wasn’t. It was inviting. And then she woke up.
October 2nd, 2021:
~Giving My Roommate a Confidence Makeover~
I called Veta the day after she woke up covered in makeup, but again, I got no response. By this point, her makeup vlog was starting to seem like less makeup and more vlog, which I found refreshingly honest at the time, if not a bit strange, all things considered.
On October 2nd, Veta introduced the world to her roommate, Jamie. I had met Jamie once on a night out in 2019; she seemed very down-to-earth, and a bit shy. I liked Jamie–certainly more than I did Logan–and she sounded more interesting than her timidness let on. Veta had mentioned that Jamie was a talented painter, but had recently been dissuaded from the arts by the need to make a living. It was an unfortunate, common situation in LA that Veta certainly shared with her.
In this vlog entry, Veta applied makeup to Jamie–who often looked more uncomfortable than pleased–but by the end, it was apparent that Veta was actually gaining some skill. Jamie admitted that she looked good, which is when Veta added a “finishing touch”: her necklace–I guess returned from Logan? Then Veta ran to her closet to gather a suitable outfit for Jamie, but Jamie, alone with the necklace, looked very… well I’m honestly not sure of the word, but she didn’t look “right,” like she was suddenly overcome with deep thought.
October 3rd, 2021:
~About last night…~
This is when a clear distinction became apparent in Veta’s vlog; a clear (and disturbing) separation between her previous videos and the ones to come.
The video started off in complete darkness–followed by screams. As the camera suddenly moved, I could tell that Veta was running through her apartment to check on the screaming, coming from Jamie. Veta opened the door to Jamie’s room to find her in some kind of sleep paralysis, her hand extended above her head as her voice croaked in pain. Veta put the camera down and we could see her comforting Jamie, who thankfully, woke up. Jamie immediately started recounting a dream she was stuck in: she was drowning. Then Veta noticed that Jamie was still wearing her necklace, but something else caught her eye from the corner of the room: the beginnings of a painting. Veta picked up the camera to show us viewers, and we could just barely make out some kind of ocean landscape on the canvas, with a bright moon shining above. It looked like the moon “had a mustache” one person commented–I thought it looked more like a “w.”
October 4th, 2021:
~PAUSE THE MAKEUP!!! Too weird to ignore…~
I texted Veta immediately after seeing her video of Jamie, and was relieved to get a response, simple as it was:
“We’re fine, thanks.”
I wasn’t convinced however, as the video posted the next day had her pausing her makeup looks to focus on her necklace instead. I found this to be quite a paranoid move, but to be honest, it certainly piqued my interest more than the makeup ever did. She talked about how she had bought the necklace years ago in Italy, at some random market stand, but had put it away and forgotten about it until recently. There was another part of the video that Veta rightfully pointed out as strange: in the corner of Jamie’s painting (where a signature might be) were the words, “G’YLRAH SOMNIA AETERNAE.” She googled it; no results.
October 7th, 2021:
~@ FitnessFanatic lives up to his name!~
Veta was back a few days later with a new video, and while she hadn’t found any new info regarding her necklace, she had planned another video with Logan–much to my dismay. Once Logan signed on, however, my dismay was quickly replaced with apprehension: Logan clearly was unwell.
He began ranting just like in his last appearance, but this time from within a dark garage, and instead of his usual workout-genius bullshit, he spoke nonsensically of pushing the body to its absolute limits. It was uncomfortable to say the least, but it became downright creepy when he demanded that Veta come over to his place. She sternly said no, but he kept pushing. He asked her to bring the necklace. Veta hung up. A wasted call, it seemed, and cemented Logan as the asshole I had suspected him of being, but something about his demeanor made me feel literally sick. I wanted to call Veta that night, but more than that, I had the urge to just forget about her and her channel.
October 9th, 2021:
~IS THIS NECKLACE TWO THOUSAND YEARS OLD???~
Veta made it clear that Logan would no longer be a part of her life, much less her vlog. A healthy decision; the comments backed it up. Then she mentioned that she had reached out to the host family in Italy who she stayed with years ago–she had stayed in contact with the daughter of the family, and was hoping to find more information about her necklace. The daughter got back to Veta, and she shared some information from the email she received that I found equally implausible as it was fascinating: the seller at the market had recently been “evaluated” having been found selling ancient antiquities considered to be of historic value. Some dated as far back as 150 B.C. Could Veta’s necklace be two-thousand years old, she asked? Doubtful, I thought. Very doubtful.
Veta then ended the video with a quick, subtle makeup look while talking about the importance of makeup and jewelry and how they were connected? It was rushed, and clearly her thoughts were somewhere else.
October 11th, 2021:
~My deep dive into the cult of G’YLRAH~
Veta had gone off the deep-end. In a follow-up video, she made it clear that makeup looks were no longer the focus of her channel. What exactly was the focus was still unclear at this point, but it was increasingly looking more like that of a conspiracy theory. Veta dissected some amateur website she had found, that she claimed talked about the symbol and the words featured in her roommate, Jamie’s, painting. That so-called “symbol” looked more or less like a regular, rounded “w” to me, but this pivot from makeup content was–unexpectedly–starting to get me hooked. So I kept watching.
“G’YLRAH” was a god, Veta said, referring to the first word in Jamie’s painting. At least according to some janky website that looked like it was from the pre-Flash days. It was a god of creativity and art, and had inspired the creation of an entire cult that worshiped it thousands of years ago. Allegedly. The “w” was all over the website, and I must say that I was legitimately surprised when Veta announced that she’d be interviewing the creator of the website.
Veta called the man, by the name of Duncan Carter, who claimed to have been an ex-professor at USC (I wonder why the “ex”…). He claimed that the cult had too many doubters to be taken seriously, hence himself being the utmost expert on the topic–actually in the process of writing a book on it. When the phone call reception became spotty, Veta vowed to continue the interview–in person.
October 14th, 2021:
~Interview with Prof. Carter does NOT go as planned…~
I told Veta this was a bad idea: to visit a stranger in his home, who claimed to be an expert regarding a long-lost cult? A very bad idea. But Veta was persistent. And I must admit, her enthusiasm for this was much more apparent than that of her makeup aspirations. She had to do this. She had to find out more.
Veta filmed the whole interaction. Professor Carter (using “professor” with a grain of salt) was actually much more pleasant and seemingly normal than I had expected. His house, covered in strange trinkets and unique antiquities, was clearly not set up to be photographed, but he let Veta enter and film in his home regardless. Veta got straight to the point, asking about the word (or god?) “G’YLRAH.” Carter spoke at length about it and the cult–the details too unwieldy to fully divulge–but one thing struck me as particularly interesting: apparently the cult, of great artistic aspirations, would hide it’s “w” symbol within its works of art as a means of “transmitting information.” Professor Carter likened it to that of an “occult thumbdrive.” These works of art could be anything from pottery to paintings, plays, etc. They also believed in a “collective subconscious”; a dreamscape accessible by all in which G’Ylrah (as written) resided. As far as visual depictions of G’Ylrah go, Carter had in his possession a massive, overflowing binder of research he had collected on the subject, featuring multiple illustrations of the cult and its god, or what more accurately looked like a cuttlefish. Upon closer inspection of the cuttlefish, its pupils look like that of a “w.”
The more Veta probed, the more Carter became excited, yet nervous, and when Veta asked about the cult’s rituals, he became especially animated, exclaiming that the cult hoped to cause a Chernobyl-like event, starting with its members physically changing into creatures with horrid, contorted limbs–something that may mirror the physicality of the god they worshiped. Veta then asked more about their art, specifically their jewelry, and showed him a picture of her necklace. Carter’s demeanor changed immediately, and had an apparent loss of words.
“Who are you!?!” he suddenly yelled.
It was tense–I could feel it just by watching. He yelled again and stood up, prompting Veta to stand as well. Carter grabbed a hefty candlestick and raised it, threatening to bash Veta over the head with it if she didn’t leave–which thankfully, she did. And quickly at that. I was terrified watching her run from his home and straight to her car, where she gave a tearful admission that she may have been dabbling too far into things she didn’t understand. Merely watching this unfold from the safety of my home, I felt the same.
October 17th, 2021:
~What’s Going On With @ FitnessFanatic?!?!~
Logan was back. Veta started a new video seemingly with a return to normal–no mention of her tense encounter with Professor Carter–and did a simple makeup look focusing on the lips. But she had to talk about Logan. He was making new videos–weird videos–and with everything going on in her life, she had to share them. Despite how he had treated Veta, she was still concerned for him. Despite my initial feelings towards him, after seeing these videos, I was concerned too.
In his videos, Logan again spoke of pushing his body to the limit–but this time proving it. He did push-ups over lit candles until his chest sizzled like bacon and he collapsed. By the light of those very same candles, he did sit-ups on a sheet of broken glass. Veta shared her reaction to these videos, and it was excruciating to say the least. Disgusting and inexplicable however, was the fact that when Logan turned around after the broken glass sit-ups, his back bled freely from the cuts, which happened to form a “w.” Horrified, Veta stopped the video, and looked as though she was going to stop her own, until she suddenly received an email–from Logan. It had an attachment–a video–and she decided to play it live. In the video, Logan ranted as usual, begging for Veta to come over and “bring what I need.”
“He needs help,” Veta commented, to which Logan shockingly replied, “I DON’T NEED HELP I NEED THE FUCKING NECKLACE!”
Veta almost fell out of her chair. The video was pre-recorded. She played that section of it back. Holding back tears, Veta pleaded to her camera–to Logan–to get help. He needed it.
October 18th, 2021:
~Getting Those Perfect Eyes!~
By this point, my calls to Veta would go to her voicemail, my texts were going unanswered. My only route of communication was the same as the rest of her viewers–which I could see were gaining in size. I didn’t dare comment on her videos though, not because it felt desperate (it did), but because I had some odd feeling of fear holding me back from doing so. I didn’t want to be connected to her that way.
The day after Logan’s latest video, Veta posted another in which she focused on her eyes. The framing was different; she used a macro lens so that her eyes filled the screen–beautiful might I add, but admittedly too close for comfort–like she was staring back at me. As someone with little interest in makeup, I actually found this all-makeup, no-occult vlog refreshing–I wonder why. That is until the end.
As Veta applied deep strokes of specular turquoise around her eyes, she seemed to be getting droopy, almost losing consciousness at one point. Until suddenly, it seemed she did lose consciousness, as her head dropped from frame with a thunk as it must have hit her desk. Behind her, deeply out-of-focus was someone standing. The person started to walk towards the camera, and it became clear that it was Jamie. Once Jamie was close enough to see the necklace–that necklace–around her neck, her head dropped into frame, showing off her eyes, covered in strange speckles encircling her pupils, which were no longer circular but rather a disturbing “w” shape which seemed to contract as they were exposed to the bright camera light. The video ended.
October 19th, 2021:
~SHOULD I QUIT?!?~
Veta started the video holding back tears–quite unsuccessfully. It was clear that there would be no makeup present for this one, her tear-streaked face preventing it even if she wanted to. Veta had no explanation for the previous video. Jamie was gone without a trace. Veta admitted to obsessing over this “w” symbol, present in her necklace, Professor Carter’s research, Jamie’s paintings, and now–Jamie’s eyes? It couldn’t be possible, but she had the videos to prove it.
Manically scrambling through Carter’s research and her own videos, Veta suddenly froze on her fourth vlog entry, where she covered her face in green makeup and black streaks, which now in context, seemed to form a “w” on her face. In shock, she compared it to an illustration from one of Carter’s books, of a cultist mask–it was eerily similar. Utterly broken, Veta announced that she was ending her channel.
I thought that would be the last time I would ever see Veta; I didn’t dare visit her in person out of my own, shameful fear.
October 24th, 2021:
~@ FitnessFanatic’s Final Appearance~
The video started unlike any other. Hovering above Veta while she slept, it was as if the camera was floating near her ceiling. The camera light shone on her like a voyeuristic spotlight, and eerily shifted to a turquoise color before falling on her as she slept. Naturally, she awoke.
Now, we were seeing Veta not from her phone camera, but from the webcam of her laptop which sat on the desk where she usually filmed her vlogs. Veta sat up in bed, the glitchy stream showing her on a phone call with someone: Logan. He sounded unexpectedly lucid and clear-minded, apologizing for his recent actions and appearance, and against my own (and I’m sure most viewers) desire, she actually agreed to meet with him when he proposed it. He needed help, Logan said, and he had something to show her.
Veta drove to Logan’s house, filming from her phone as she did so. Arriving at his house–in the middle of the night–his lights were out, and no one answered the door when she knocked. Veta went around the back through a gate, passing his workout equipment strewn across the backyard, partially lit by a strange, turquoise glow emanating from his pool. She creaked open the back door to his garage–it was open.
“Don’t go in,” I’m sure we–the viewers–all thought in unison.
She did. And after stumbling in the dark for a moment, her phone light landed on a table covered in anatomical diagrams and old illustrations, modified, presumably by Logan, to include unnatural, tentacle-like appendages. “HEAD-FOOT” was written on one of the diagrams. “G’YLRAH SOMNIA AETERNAE” on another. This made Veta jump back, but she took another step into the garage, and almost tripped on something: a foot–or was it a tentacle? It looked like both, together, and as she scanned upwards with her camera, it became clear that there was some kind of body lying on the ground. Suddenly a ring of candles lit with a whoosh, encircling the body which could be seen clearly upon pausing the video: a man’s–no, a squid’s body–with a man’s arms and legs where the “head” should be? It was hard to distinguish, even when staring at it, and I couldn’t for long. Neither could Veta, as she sprinted out of the garage and back to her car.
Veta called 9-1-1, leaving the video recording. The emergency dispatcher asked the usual, preliminary questions, as Veta did her best to answer, clearly under emotional distress–she did better than I could have in that situation. Then something odd happened: the dispatcher asked if Logan was in his backyard or his garage.
Veta told him, “the garage,” to which he followed up with, “Now to the best of your knowledge, will this incident affect your future episodes? Because I want to be clear that we will do everything we can to preserve the chemistry that you two have…”
Veta hung up before he could go any further. It seemed as though her vlog had reached wider audiences than she could have ever hoped for.
October 24th, 2021:
~WHAT HAVE I DONE.~
Another video posted mere hours later. The sun rising, Veta appeared to have spent the night sleeping in her car, the camera still rolling when she woke up. Upon waking, she immediately began driving–myself, watching in anticipation of where she would end up.
Parking then grabbing her phone, it appeared that Professor Carter’s house was the first place she thought of to go, and when running up to his door, we could see that it was covered in chalk symbols, or maybe ancient runes? Veta banged on Carter’s door violently, demanding that he open up. After a few knocks, the door swung open with Carter, disheveled, demanding that she leave. Now. Veta stood her ground until Carter threatened to get his gun–that made her go back to her car. Utterly out of options, Veta cried in her car. Then her phone rang–it was Professor Carter. Surprisingly, he apologized for yelling, and Veta begged him for any knowledge he may have as to how to stop whatever was happening. Carter replied negatively, though with one, optimistic note:
“Perhaps if you isolate yourself from everyone, it may be contained that way…” but Veta told him it was too late:
“I already shared the necklace with someone,” she said through tears.
“With who?!” Carter replied.
“Someone on my show,” Veta said sobbingly.
“Your show?!”
Carter sounded scared. Veta said she’d send him the link. From the phone, we could hear Carter start to watch one of Veta’s videos. He started to whimper, even weep. “Oh god,” was the last thing I heard Carter say before a gunshot rang out from outside Veta’s car, the sound echoing loudly through her phone. Veta’s eyes darted to the side window, towards Carter’s house, her body frozen in shock. Then she quickly put her car in gear and stopped the video.
October 31st, 2021:
~G’YLRAH SOMNIA AETERNAE~
Another video, the camera floating above Veta as she slept, like before. The stream glitched, and Veta was suddenly drawing on her upper arm. Another glitch, and it was morning, the camera still floating above, Veta’s arm now bleeding from the incessant drawing of a “w,” having broken the skin. The camera suddenly dropped on Veta, and she awoke with a scream–most likely not from the phone hitting her but from her pain and surprise at the bloody mark on her arm.
Veta sat at her desk, gripping her arm in pain. Then she pleaded, to the camera–or something else:
“What do you want?!”
I’ll admit, I had a hard time watching. This was someone who I considered a friend, and seeing her pain was palpable. But I had to keep watching. And Veta kept pleading. Until she broke:
“I will do it,” she said sternly.
Veta started applying makeup. Layer after layer, shade after shade, with a pain and anger in her face that seemed to subside with every stroke. I thought she might rub the skin off of her nose at one point, but the violent application seemed to soothe her as she went on.
The stream would glitch, as if she had spotty service, and with each reconnection, it was clear that she was making progress towards something; a look, maybe, one that I now think she had been subconsciously working towards since the very beginning. I have to say, it was beautiful. What started off as ugly smears of paint was now turning into a work of blue and green art. Veta looked like a goddess–an aquatic one at that–and I couldn’t help but to think that if she just pushed through this dark chapter of her life she might actually have a career at this.
But as she went on, and the makeup progressed, she was looking less like herself–on the inside. Something had taken hold of her, making the strokes for her, guiding her hand with its every move. She started adding black to her turquoise masterpiece, and it dripped down her face in droplets like the ink of a squid. It was a giant, black “w” that covered her face. Veta was complete. She looked into the camera–into herself–and took a moment to admire what she had created. A noise, at first low, like audio feedback began, until it became almost deafening. It was impossible to discern where it came from, but just as I was about to turn off the video, Veta’s eyes rolled back–all white–and the video froze. Then it ended.
November 5th, 2021:
~gYd%056hlp\^8911me-*7error_upld1.mov~
Nearly a week had gone by since Veta’s last video. I was convinced that was the end of what was certainly the strangest vlog I had seen, to say the least, but more depressingly, I was convinced that that was the end of a friend. I didn’t want to reach out to her, I didn’t want to know what had happened. Like Veta, I had had enough.
On November 5th, she posted again. A live video this time–her first. Speaking directly to camera–looking quite normal might I add–Veta thanked us, the viewers, for watching her vlog. She said that this would be her last video. She had said this before, but I could feel that this was in fact the end. I have to stress how normal she looked and sounded–she was her usual, bubbly self without any indication of the prior events, which I found to be oddly unsettling. Veta talked about how important making this vlog was, and that she was simply ready to move on to other things in life. It was time. At one point she raised her hands, and I could see in that brief moment that her arm was bandaged where she had marked it previously.
Saying thanks again, she seemed about to sign-off, when I could all of a sudden hear garbled noises in the background. Veta heard them too. She looked behind herself towards the door leading to Jamie’s room. Veta picked up the camera and walked it towards the door–the noises, screams(?) became louder. Veta walked into the hallway and the noise subsided.
Entering Jamie’s room, I saw the windows covered with sheets. In the corner of the room was Jamie’s painting, which had progressed. Veta walked towards it, and with every step, the horrifying details came into clarity. It was still an ocean landscape, but now the beach at the bottom of the frame was covered in grotesque creatures–I was immediately reminded of Logan’s mangled body in his garage. Rising high from the ocean was a kind of anthropomorphic cuttlefish, and I instinctively knew what I was looking at: the clearest depiction yet of G’Ylrah. Hanging from the corner of the canvas was Veta’s necklace.
Veta took it, cautiously, and as she held it up to the camera, a strange, “slopping” noise could be heard, and Veta fell down. Recovering her phone, it showed something suddenly moving behind Jamie’s bed. Something wet and bulbous with Jamie’s head, surrounded by her arms and legs almost sprouting from her neck, alongside a mass of wriggling tentacles. “Jamie”–as we’ll call it–grabbed Veta’s phone, pulling Veta in close as she held onto it. Jamie’s face was stuck in pure anguish, and her sloppy appendages flapped about viciously, trying to take hold of Veta as she fought back valiantly, though screaming in terror. Finally Veta managed to break free of Jamie’s grasp, and threw herself across the room towards the door. Veta ran into the hallway and out of her apartment. I–and the other shocked viewers–watched on in realtime, white-knuckle anticipation of what could possibly happen next. Veta ran out of her building and almost made it to her car when a young man approached her.
“Veta!? Oh my god is that you?!”
Veta got inside her car and slammed the door.
“I don’t know you! Get away from me!” she yelled at him.
His face was almost pressed to her window in gleeful surprise at meeting his idol–this must have been an avid fan.
Veta put her phone on the dashboard mount, giving us a view of herself as she drove away–where to, none of us had a clue–including Veta, I assume. As she sped down the highway, the stream started to glitch–this was nothing new, but inexplicably, pieces of her prior videos seemed to cut in and out. It was as if the livestream was fighting itself.
Over the radio, an emergency broadcast tone suddenly rang out, followed by a storm warning–admittedly odd for a November afternoon in LA. The broadcast encouraged people to stay inside and to use extreme caution when outdoors. Veta listened in to the warning, though it seemed less of a concern to her than staying the fuck out of her apartment. Traffic in LA is typically bad, but suddenly it came to a halt–it sounded like there was a police stop ahead. Probably something to do with the apparently impending storm. Veta angrily punched her steering wheel, and when it became clear that she wouldn’t be moving anytime soon, she got out of the car, taking her phone with her, and ran.
She was by the beach now–Santa Monica, I assume–and I watched intently as her feet stamped through the sand. Veta made it to the edge of the water, and sure enough, the sky was quickly darkening in the sign that a storm was fast approaching. Veta pulled her necklace from her pocket, and triumphantly threw it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she turned the camera to herself.
She broke down in tears, apologizing profusely for everything.
“I just wanted to be authentic, to be someone,” she choked out.
“I just wanted to contribute!”
It was unclear exactly what she meant, but it was certainly heartfelt.
A siren–like that of an air raid–echoed across the beach, as Veta continued her woeful apology. It was dark now, very dark, and I was worried for Veta’s safety in more ways than one.
“I just wanted to be the real me,” she said as she almost fell to the sand.
But something kept her standing; her attention snapped to something over her shoulder, towards the ocean. I’ll never forget the look of fear on her face at that moment. She spun the camera around, and there it was:
G’YLRAH, SOMNIA AETERNAE.
It towered above the ocean waves, a halo of birds and storm clouds encircling it as it blocked out the setting sun. Veta stared back into the camera, unable to face it. She seemed to let out one final word–or possibly a scream–before the livestream froze for a few seconds and then crashed.
The videos are still online. Don’t look at them. Out of respect for Veta at the very least, if not out of caution having read this written record. I want the videos taken down, which is mainly why I’m writing this.
Just know that It watches, regardless.