Joey stood at the barrier, this time alone, no one but the rising sun to keep him company.
With no one whom he felt the need to impress or interact with he was completely free to tamper with the wall as much as he liked, after all, daddy only passed out drunk in the bath once a week or so.
He stared at the periwinkle mist, confusion in his squinted eyes. He wiped his sweaty palms on his suspenders before re-tucking his stained off-white button up into his scratchy wool trousers.
He grimaced embitterly; he hated the galled pelobage britches his family forced him and his brothers to wear-- part of him would have rather worn a dress especially in the summer months;he could almost feel the light and airy cotton whipping around his legs as he walked, but instead he wore the remmanents of malnourished sheep around his calves. The small pieces that stuck out from the ugly article of clothing practically pinned his flesh as if they were needles.
He did not understand why they couldn't wear denim. He had seen Abe wearing overalls many times as he spied on him from the deer stand. They looked softer and more worn down, not to mention they were stained with blood and various colors of ink-- Joey had never been allowed to do anything artistic, as his father claimed it was "too messy."
And, he would never be allowed to wear denim because he needed to "Be grateful" because his family "paid good money for that wool." and they didn't want him wearing the clothes of the grave kids.
Joey rolled his eyes vehemently. If it wasn't for his siblings he would have ditched the house years ago, but he had to protect his siblings. He could tell dad was getting worse and he wasn't about to let him get away with taking it out on any of the children. Joey didn't know why he felt as if his siblings' safety was his responsibility, after all, his mother was such a force to be reckoned with-- even Mr.BarClay was terrified of her.
Vibrant ginger hair that waterfalled down to her back and encapsulated her figure like an aura of fire that bounced around her shoulders, Joey had parts of his mother in his physical appearance. His hair was ginger, like hers but slightly paler as if more bleached by the harsh work he had grown up doing in the sun, not to mention it was flat, dead straight and usually somewhat greasy, sticking to his chin with sweat.
He shook himself from his thoughts, rubbing his sweaty forehead with his shirt, he nearly missed the warm tingling sensation in his elbow as he ran his fingers through his hair.
He twisted around curiously before his heart fell down to his ankles. His thin chapped lips parted, releasing a small terrified squeal.
His elbow had pierced the barrier, leaving about an inch of his bony joint on the other side of the veil. He quickly snatched his arm back to himself, causing a sharp pain in his bones for a slight second, then gripped his wrist against his chest using his other hand to keep it pressed against himself-- and as far away from the barrier as possible--, as if that would undo the fatal mistake.
The wind seemed to pick up slightly, blowing a few leaves through the barrier and causing the tears in Joey's eyes to grow colder against his skin. His throat seemingly clogged, for he had choked on his own saliva briefly before.
He slowly sank to his knees to examine the arm that had been mistakenly placed in the forbidden place.
The wrinkly discolored skin on his elbow seemed to be growing farther and farther from its natural ghost white and red apricot pigment and more into a light and soothing sort of periwinkle, just like the veil itself.
"No,no,no,no,no this can't be happening oh no, oh go-" he interrupted himself with his own swelling throat once again choking on his own spit, he let a wad drip from his bottom lip onto the grass watching with helpless green eyes as the liquid seeped into the earth below him.
A million thoughts circled through his head before he finally gathered himself long enough to stumble away from the dome. Just as he was about to dart towards the house in search of some method of hiding this new cursed evidence of his disobedience, he caught sight of a familiar fluffy haired blur zip behind one of the trees on the other side of the dome.
Joey gulped before taking a few shaky steps closer to the dome.
Was it possible to get through the dome? He knew it was forbidden; he knew it was wrong, he knew it was selfish and he knew he could never go back but that shameful spark in his mind continued to flicker. He had grown so tired of dumping bucket after bucket of water on the damn thing hoping to god one day he could put it out but it never would, it hadn't even dimmed, not even after all these years.
Abrem stepped out from behind the tree, this time his demeanor much less bubbly.
Joey stammered for words his mind still stunned from his experiences.
"There's no need to explain why your here, there's nothin' wrong with wantin' friends ya know." he seemed to mumble the words on autopilot as if he had scripted them into his moral and was obliged to remind anyone who seemed to doubt what he saw as fact. But still, the affirmation gave Joey a small happy tingle in the very pits of his gut, even if it had been delivered in an apathetic manner.
Joey took a half a step backwards by reflex when Abrem halted to a stop, again mere inches from the barrier. His eyebrows furrowed and his face was riddled with worry and longing while also somehow reminding Joey of the apathetic numbness of the last moments of life - the demeanor every animal he had ever shot displayed before they took their last breaths.
"Well why are you here then?" Joey grunted as he said this, pushing his feet into the dry dirt and clenching his pale fists next to his boney hips. He did his very best to hide his complex emotions in this moment. Was it happiness at seeing his new and only friend again? Was it fear of betraying his father? Was it the guilt of his disobedience finally sinking in? He couldn't tell nor did he want to.
"Well if would put ya at peace to know, I have somethin' I need to figure out."
"Oh?" Joey raised a sarcastic eyebrow, his forehead now gleaming with sweat.
"And what's that mystery man?"
Abrem furrowed his eyebrows before responding.
"I already told ya my name's Abrem, and I ain't no mystery man." barely managing to restrain his temper, he crossed his arms tightly against his chest.
"Well you sure as hell ain't easy to understand either."
Abe rolled his eyes before taking a few graceful steps closer to Joey. The barrier distorted everything on the other side slightly, yet Joey could still make out the familiar smirk that seemed to illuminate the boys entire face.
"I swear if you don't find a way to hobble that damn lip of yours I'm leavin." The red headed boy seemed stiff as he said this, almost as if he had tied himself up into one grumpy position with an invisible rope to keep himself from growing more fond of this inevitable new friend.
Abrem chuckled at this, a singular lock of his thick black cotton candy hair falling into his eyes.
He plucked a singular shiny green leaf off a branch of a tree whose trunk stood on the edge of Joey's side of the barrier, and whose branches protruded through the lavender mist slightly as if taunting both parties.
Joey gawked silently as Abrem fiddled with the leaf for a moment.
His deep, heather eyes still glued to the tiny plant fragment, Abe snickered before breaking the silence.
"I'm curious to know if you've caught onto your fathers delusions yet."
Joey bit his lip so hard he could feel the pressure of his top canines directly against his bottom, and a faint rusted aftertaste flooded his mouth.
Abrem tossed the leaf over his shoulder before turning his gaze directly into Joey's.
Joey gulped, clenching his fists against his hips, his eyebrows furrowed so hard his head began to ache.
"There's no need to become defensive I ain't sayin nothin that ain't true."
Joey took a shaky yet firm breath, his pale sunburnt forearms now pressed against the bottom of his scrawny chest.
"I know he's messed up, the hell are you plannin on doin with that?"
"Well…" Abrem took yet another step closer, his smooth caramel skin now mere inches from the barrier.
"I'm sure you know about the spirits, the ones that live in my part of the dome."
"I've heard about em." Joey paused for a moment to think, his eyebrows yet again furrowed.
"What's that got anything to do with my father? He ain't in that part of the dome and he never has been, hell, he even takes a special path to get outside when he goes huntin."
Abrem's face shifted into a less mischievous demeanor as he realized the severity of what this hot headed ginger didn't know.
"Well the spirits made the dome; I reckoned you'd be smart enough to know they aint restricted by it."
Joey's eyes became vacant and he felt his stomach drop slightly. He would never tell a soul, but the existence of the spirits had always terrified him, it was part of the reason he had never pushed his father to tell him about them like he had the other forbidden things that had so interested him as a child. So many nights he had spent in his musty off-white cot while his little siblings, scattered in similar feeble beds around him, slept oblivious to his silent crying.
The thing that scared him the most was their invisible manipulative nature-- their tendency to take the form of the things he trusted, seeping their way so deep into the things he loved, that he wouldn't know till it was too late.
The only thing that had comforted him was the assurance that he was safe behind that perriwinkle bubble in the distance.
Abrem seemed to see into his head. He did his best to hide his pity.
"I know you've been wantin' in here since we was five. We could find a way to hide the mark I'm sure of it, but the spirits won't go away until we break the bu-"