"Hey." Charlotte turned to Zack rubbing the back of his head behind her. "You need a ride over to the station? We can drop you off if you give me like five minutes to throw some clothe on."
"No, it's only a mile away. I'll walk, it's good for me. Plus, something tells me Victoria wants you to stay as far away from it as possible."
"Oh, okay." Zack looked mildly disappointed as he glanced down on the floor. "What time will you be home then?"
"My shift ends at four. With any luck, I'll be back by four-thirty. Now seriously, stay safe, Zack. I don't want any calls coming in about you or Kevin."
"You still worry too much." He shook his head smirking. "But I promise you, I will stay out of trouble. You take care too, don't want any more patients assaulting you."
Assuring Zack she would stay safe, Charlotte ran out the door and paused to look at the spot where the grisly accident took place. The firemen meticulously cleaned up the corner and the utility company promptly repaired the pole overnight, as if nothing ever took place there. People were going about their daily lives, oblivious to the death of a man who they probably knew well. The entire town seemed strange, much like Kevin mentioned the other day, with the citizens acting like robots, devoid of any human emotions. Not even a single flower was left in the spot where the accident happened. In Seattle, there would be a memorial erected on the spot within the hour and stay up for weeks until someone finally cleaned it up, but there was no such momento here.
Unsettled from the events of the previous night, and the behavior of the people outside, she looked at the island differently as she walked to the station, making note of anything out of the ordinary. Besides the seven crows following her, Charlotte noticed that Autumn Falls citizens were not as friendly as they appeared at first glance. This was a small island, and like any small town, everyone knew each other, but here, although they smiled and waved at one another, no one appeared to be on friendly terms.
Their greetings seemed rehearsed, more like those of strangers than old friends, and that made her uneasy. Everyone behaved perfectly, like they were reading from a script—unless they were cutting their feet off or shooting themselves with a speargun—every person on the island appeared to be a model citizen who dared not stray from the ordinary. Disturbed, she noticed something else, their hungry stares when she was near, they knew who she was and why she was on the island, and that made her nervous enough to pick up her pace.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“I swear from the bottom of my heart I want to be healed. I want to be like other men, not this outcast whom nobody wants.”—E.M. Forster, Maurice
J ogging to the station house to escape from the looks of the people outside, Charlotte went in and found it to be unusually quiet. Thinking back to her first day, she recalled it was always a bit odd. The building had a calmness to it, not the friendly calmness of the employees hanging around, talking with each other until a call came in. No, this was the still calmness of a funeral parlor, somber and heavy. Footfalls of firemen rumbled above her head, but there was no perkiness in their steps. They were not enjoying the company they were in, they were waiting for something, almost like they knew another accident would take place soon.
Walking up the stairs to the third floor, she found Charles right where she expected him to be, in the break room, sitting with his feet on the coffee table, sipping coffee from a blue mug. Spotting her through the glass, he smiled and waved her over to join him. Something told her she had a bit of time to kill before the next call came in, and she went inside to wait. Grabbing a white mug from the pantry, she filled it up with the fresh coffee, which got done brewing a moment earlier, and went over to the sofa to sit beside Chuck.
"I see you got my message."
"Well, good morning to you too sunshine." Chuck regarded her with a smirk, removed his feet from the table, and slid over to allow her room to sit down. "I take it things are going great between you and Mr. Paranormal. After all, you moved out of the hotel to be with him."
"Just for now, to see where things go. He and Kevin want to bond with one another, and I can't stand in their way. Although," she glanced down at her distorted reflection in the coffee, "I don't want to get Kevin's hopes up. You know, in case things don't work out."
"Yeah... something tells me that won't be an issue. You still care a lot about the guy, and from what I've seen of the way he looked at you the other day, he feels the same. So why not be honest with me Char, what's really stopping you from getting back together with him?"
"I..." she paused to reflect on the nagging sensation eating away at her, "I don't want to be background noise again."
"Background noise?"
"Yes." Charlotte continued to peer at the coffee in her mug. "When I found out I was pregnant with Kevin, many people shunned me and lashed out at me. They said I was being selfish by keeping him, and that I should consider Zack's future. His sister even told me how it would be rude of me to ruin what he had going for him and to stay away from him if I knew what was good for me. I had people physically assault me, throw things at me, break windows at my house, and I even had the word 'slut' spray-painted on my locker. And you know what the worst part of all that was?"
"What?"
"Not one person, aside from my mother, not one goddamned person stood up for up. All these friends I thought I had vanished without a trace. They left me to fend for myself, and some of the people I considered friends even joined in on the bullying. That was when I realized that no one care about Charlotte as a person. I was just an extension of Zack. The only reason any of those people were nice to me was because they wanted to get on his good side and spend time with him, not me. And with him finally out of the picture, no one felt the need to be nice to me anymore, I became a nobody overnight. And—"
"You are afraid that if you gave him a second chance, things would go back to being how they were in high school, especially now that he's famous. You think you would lose your identity and become just a tumor growing off his side again."
"Yes. A tumor..." Charlotte snickered at the accuracy of the reference. "I'd also be the heartless bitch who hid his kid from him for nine years. The same people who made me keep my mouth shut will be the same ones who will slander me for being a selfish bitch for not telling him he had a son."
"But none of them matter Char, especially not to Campbell. You are the only person whose approval he wishes to earn. So, I say fuck them all to hell and go be happy for once. You actually think that many people will buy into the bullshit rumors those idiots he doesn't even talk to anymore would spread? And, even if they do, you have enough people who will stand up and fight for you this time, including Zack."
"Him and who else?"
"Me and Iris for one. We consider you our friend, and we won't let anyone talk shit about you. And what of all the people you helped save in your years as a medic? You have touched so many lives, and those people will not listen to the rumors of the feeble mined because they know better. Do what makes you happy and screw the rest of the world and what they think."
"I suppose you have a point." She smiled at him. "But there is no reason to not be cautious."
"True, just know I got your back when you do finally decide to go back to him."
"You say that like it's a sure-fire thing."
"Oh, it is, even if you don't want to admit it yet. And I want an invitation to the wedding by the way."
"Fine. I promise to invite you if I ever get married." Charlotte pushed Chuck over, causing him to laugh. "So. Anything new today?"
"Nope, but I hear you had one hell of a night. Cyrus mentioned something about a nasty accident outside the house Campbell is renting."
"Oh... that. Yeah, some guy drove into a telephone pole and went through the windshield of his car. He had to have been doing at least sixty, he was dead before I even got to him."
"Did he do that thing..." Chuck lowered his voice. "You know, like the rest of them."
"Yes."
"What this one say?"
"Something about some deal and how someone had to pay."
"That sounds a bit... ominous." Chuck put down his coffee mug. "Do you have any idea what he was talking about?"
"Not a clue. But Zack says he plans on investigating the old hospital soon. The one pigman wants me to go to. I figured I'd go with him, and maybe I can uncover the mystery of this place before it's too late."
Charlotte looked over at Chuck, who looked ashen. She knew what was going through his mind because it was going through hers too. The feeling she got from the place, the magnetic pull of it, he must have felt it too. She wanted to ask him if it wanted him the way it wanted her, but she never got the chance as the door opened and Iris stepped inside to join them. The girl shook and fiddled with her thumbs, and her eyes filled with worry as they darted between Charlotte and her partner.
"Iris, is everything all right?"
"No, I... I don't know how to say this, but there has been an accident at the school."
"What?" Charlotte jumped to her feet, her heart dropping into her stomach. "What kind of accident?"
"I... I don't know. It's not any of the kids, I know that. The only thing I know is that someone fell and got seriously hurt, and that the ambulance should get there right away. I know your son goes to the school and I don't know if they are keeping the kids away or anything, but you may want to have his father pick him up."
"Thanks, I'll consider that." A breath of relief escaped her. At least Kevin was not hurt. "All right, Chuck, your turn to drive."
"Let's roll and see how bad this one is."
Grabbing the keys from the table, Charles ran out the door and Charlotte followed him down the stairs. Hopping in their ambulance they raced towards the scene of the accident, wondering what they would find. Neither one of them said it, but they wondered if this one would be dead or alive, all while trying to imagine what horrible things it would say to them. Rounding the corner onto School Street, Charlotte's heart once again sank, and her stomach twisted as she saw a crowd of children gathering in the street. Iris was right in her concern. The school seemed to be letting the children take in the grisly scene instead of keeping them inside, where it was safe.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“There are horrors beyond life's edge that we do not suspect, and once in a while man's evil prying calls them just within our range.”—H.P. Lovecraft, The Thing on the Doorstep
C huck honked the horn and Charlotte watched the children move aside in two perfectly straight lines, revealing the horror they concealed. Hanging from the spires of the wrought-iron fence was a young man in a black leather jacket with his jeans hanging loosely over his hips. A dark spire stuck out from the top of his head, parting his green mohawk caked in dark purple stains. A stream of fresh blood steadily flowed down the metal bar, pooling beneath his body.
"Good Lord." Chuck gasped. "How the hell do you think that happened?"
"I don't even want to guess. That fence has to be at least six feet tall. Let's jump out and assess him before we try to figure out what we should do. I'll try to find Kevin as well. He must be terrified. I don't know why they are letting the kids just stand there and soak up the sight."
Jumping out from the ambulance, Charlotte walked past the children who were still looking at the man impaled on the fence with amazement. Upon closer inspection, the spire poked through the skin of his lower jaw and out the top of his skull as if someone slammed him straight down onto it. She figured there was no way of surviving a brain injury like that, but his fingers twitched, and she reached out for a pulse which simply was not there. The body on the fence was ice-cold and turning a shade of blue. He was also no longer breathing and judging by the stickiness of the blood under her feet and the dark stains on his lime-green hair, he'd been hanging around for a while before the call to assist him came in.
"Mom! Thank God you're finally here."
Pushing through the crowd of other children who seemed intent on keeping him back, Kevin ran up and flung his arms around her. The boy trembled, his backpack still on. The accident, if you could call it that happened shortly after he got to school. A woman in a long, powder-pink dress with a high collar glanced over at the two of them with a scowl. Her gray hair was rolled up tight in a perfect donut on top of her head without so much as a hair out of place. Watching her thin lips form a sinister smile, Charlotte trailed her eyes past her long, hooked nose to the two beady eyes that were as cold as ice, making her shudder.
"All right, children," the woman's voice was sharp and harsh as she pushed the kids past the gate, "in you go. Let the paramedics do their job now. Come on, Kevin, let's go inside, you have work to do."
"No." Charlotte snapped and drew her son behind her back. "Kevin is going home with his dad."
"I was not aware the boy had a father. At least not one who chose to be in the picture."
"Well, he does, and I'm calling him to come pick him up."
"Really Miss, there is no need to overreact. He'll be fine, it's just a dead body, he has to get used to the idea of death, eventually."
"I don't care what you think. You letting the kids stand, and look at a scene like this is unacceptable. I'm calling his father to come grab him, and I'm unenrolling him from school."
"Is that so?" The woman scowled at Charlotte as she continued to sneer. "I will have a talk with your supervisor about this. What do you say to that?"
"Go ahead. She has no say in how I raise my son, and frankly, neither do you."
"We shall see about that, Miss. Briggs."
The teacher snorted, turned, and walked back into the building. Standing in her spot shaking and growing hot from the confrontation, Charlotte wondered if she looked as terrified as she felt. She always hated getting in scuffles with people. Even if it was a mild disagreement, she preferred to not rock the boat, but this time she could not avoid it, and to make matters worse, she did it in front of her son, which made her even more self-conscious.
"Meeeooow," Chuck approached them, "look at them claws coming out. I didn't think you had it in you, partner."
"Guess I lost my cool when it came down to protecting my son."
"Hey, I ain't blaming you. I like this new side of you." Looking over at the body, he muttered something under his breath. "Is he?"
"Yup, he is no longer part of the living. You'll have to call it in to the hospital, and then you'll need to call the fireman. We need someone to come cut the fence, so we can get him down, and they are the only ones with the tools. Can you go do that, so I can call Zack to come grab Kevin?"
"Sure thing, not like our patient is going anywhere."
Chuck walked off, talking on his radio, leaving Charlotte alone with her son to dial the phone. Zack picked up after the first ring, his voice filled with worry, wondering if something happened to her.
"I'm fine, but you need to come to the school, and pick up Kevin... I'd rather not say it over the phone, you'll see when you come here... all right, I'll see you in a bit, just hurry."
Hanging up the phone, she got the odd sensation of someone watching her. The eyes seemed to burn a hole in her skull, and she cranked her head over her shoulder to steal a look. Behind her, through a slightly drawn back curtain, was the teacher, glaring at her with her dark, hateful eyes. Something about the woman made Charlotte agitated, and she swallowed hard, knowing she was watching her, even as the curtain fell closed. She could tell the teacher was still glaring at her, her faint outline observed them through the sheer panel. Pushing Kevin away from the building, she spotted Zack's Range Rover approaching, taking an unseen burden off her shoulders. She watched as he pulled up beside the ambulance, hopped out, and ran over to her, his eyes still filled with worry.
"Damn..." he froze and glanced over at the body with revulsion, "that just isn't right. What the hell happened here?"
"It happened a minute after you left dad. I was walking into the building when that guy was skateboarding past on the sidewalk," Kevin p
ointed to a broken board leaning against a fence, "he was just approaching the school when he hit something no one could see. Then, he flew through the air as if someone was holding him and landed like that."
"And you witnessed all this?" Charlotte gasped.
"Yes..." Kevin nodded and turned away from his mother. "I wanted to go inside mom, I really did, but the teacher insisted we watch the miracle of death. I think we stood staring at him twitch for a good twenty minutes before she finally went inside to call you. I'm sorry mom, I know I should have called you the second it happened."
"Don't be sorry, Kev, you had no idea what these people were going to do. You go home with dad now and try to forget what you saw. I'll deal with the rest."
"Yeah, you can help me do some research, and after we can hang out and watch movies and stuff."
"Really? You'd let me help you do book research?"
"Absolutely kid. I could use a partner in crime while I'm here." Zack smiled. "We'll hit up the local library first and see what we can dig up. Go hop in the truck, we'll even grab some snacks on the way."
Squealing with excitement, Kevin ran and clambered into the car, forgetting all about the dead man in the prospect of spending time helping his father. Walking around the ambulance, Charles gave them a nod of his head, turning to the back and giving Charlotte some time alone with Zack. Looking over at him, his silence hit her hard. Knowing what was on his mind, she smiled and did her best to maintain her composure despite how scared she was.
"Thanks for coming to grab him."
"No problem, I'm actually glad I'll be able to spend more time with him. You sure you'll be all right here?"
"Yeah, I can handle this, just a normal day on the job." She forced a laugh, trying to downplay the severity of the situation. "I'll see you tonight for that dinner you promised to cook me. You just stay safe and keep our boy out of trouble." Charlotte stole a glance behind her shoulder where the crack in the curtain hid the beak nose of the woman still staring at her. "There is something not right with the people on this island."
Autumn Falls Page 13
