Behind The Veil

[Jack Gryphon]

It had taken Jack a while to get onto the roof. It had taken him longer to track down the original blueprints at city hall last week. Jack was pleased to find that Will's home had a fireplace. Jack was too big to fit down the chimney, but that wouldn't stop him from playing Santa Claus.

Jack looped a rope around the chimney and attached his fall harness to it. Then, jack pulled the fiver optic camera and telescoping rod out of his pack. He dropped the camera down the chimney and examined the grainy, bluish image on the monitor strapped to his wrist. Jack poked the flue with the pole, easing it open. Then the camera went down further. The building records didn't show any renovation permits boarding the chimney over. The camera showed... wallpaper. Had someone really wallpapered over a fireplace? Jack extended the pole further and twisted a knob on the end to extend a hook.

Jack deftly worked the pole to poke through the wallpaper from behind. He then vigorously worked the pole up and down, tearing out a section of the covering wallpaper.

Jack twisted the snake cam's control and saw... a cat. Jack aimed the camera higher up and saw a Will. Jack immediately dropped a small metal cylinder down the chimney and plugged the attached wire into a jack on the side of the monitor on his wrist. "Oy," said Jack, "Test, test." An LED lit, indicating that his throat mic was on and transmitting to the speaker he'd dropped down the chimney. "Merry Christmas, Will. It's Santa Claus! I'm too fat to fit down your damn chimney! Look out!" And with that, Jack started dropping parcels down the chimney.

[Will Kilmartin]

For the first time in days, Will was actually sleeping not well mind you, but he was getting some sort of rest, which was good enough for him, face down on his mattress on the floor he was almost comfortable that was until there was a hell of a commotion in the living-room

He was starting to really regret getting Maria that damn cat. "You manky puss...th'th hell you up to?" The hermit was just annoyed enough for a moment that he was nearly yelling over his stutter as he got up and put on some ungodly tacky holiday sweater that his wife had left out for him. He didn't quite fancy or participate in Christmas, but it was a nice gesture.

At least he guessed it was.

Will stepped out only to watch with the same confused expression as the kitten as the wallpaper started to get torn off the wall from the inside. "T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-the F-fu-fuck?" It seemed that the little white cat seemed to look at him with the same sentiment as he nudged her off. "J-jack?"

"This--this is a rental...r-r-e-r-ental f-f-f-flat a-are y-you mental?!" His anger was more of an amused annoyance as he squated down to get a better look at what the old crazy was up to. Saint Nick eh? "W-wuh-whacha doing n-n-n-n-n-knockin' bout up t-t-t-there?" Soon enough little things were dropping down the hole, a chimney? Well who the hell knew? He sure as hell hadn't. But his reaction time being what it was, the first two nearly hit him face on before he pulled back cursing as he grabbed the offending parcels before they started to pile up.

[Jack Gryphon]

Jack dropped the parcels one by one, aiming for Will's face until the young man pulled his head out of the fireplace. Two DVD's of what the man at the sex shop had assued him was some of the most aeinous gay porn ever made, a couple of supernatural erotica paperbacks, some DVDs for Jack and Will's next movie night - To Wong Foo and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert for the 'Drag Queens on Roadtrips' themed evening - and a small USB hard drive containing a collection ow scanned books that Jack thought might be of help, or at least of interest, to his reclusive young friend.

“Hey," called Jack, "You may have guessed that I'm not... Fuck, what do you peopLe call him? You people Brits, not you people queers. Father Christmas? I'm not Father Chritmas. Although, I'mepretty sure he's real. Not who and what people think he is, but very real. It's Jack. Can I come in? My testicles are getting cold, and it would appear that at my age, my scrotum lacks the ability to suck them up into the body cavity for warmth."