by Amy Cross
***
“Okay, okay!” Doctor Burns shouted as he hurried down the stairs. “I'm coming!”
Tying the belt of his dressing gown around his waist, he made his way to the nightstand and grabbed the keys to the front door. As the island's only doctor, he was used to being woken in the middle of the night by people needing medical treatment, so the sudden pounding on the door wasn't exactly unprecedented. Still, as he fumbled to find the right key, he couldn't shake the feeling that something else was wrong this time, that this wasn't a normal night. It was almost as if something was reaching out and tugging at the very edge of his mind.
“What's wrong?” he asked as he pulled the door open. “What -”
He stopped speaking as soon as he saw the ghostly, pale-skinned young man staring back at him. With eyes that seemed to be set a little too deep in his skull, the man had an unsettling countenance, looking less like he was standing and more like he was being held up by an absent-minded puppeteer. Also, the fact that Doctor Burns had never seen this particular individual before meant that there could be only one explanation: he had to be one of Edgar Le Compte's men, and that realization instantly brought a host of worries.
“I've been sent to fetch you,” the man said solemnly. “You must come immediately.”
“Come where?”
“Baron Le Compte requires your services.”
“I...” By this point in the conversation, Doctor Burns would usually have already grabbed the emergency medical bag he kept by the door, but tonight something was holding him back. “What's wrong? Is Le Compte sick?”
“You must come to the house,” the man replied. “Please, there's no time to waste. It's a matter of the utmost urgency.”
Realizing that he had no choice, the doctor turned and picked up his medical bag before stepping out into the cool night air. As soon as he saw the motor vehicle parked nearby, he paused for a moment, still unable to shake the feeling that something about the whole situation felt very wrong. In the distance, the lights of the Le Compte mansion burned high above the town, as if the house itself was keeping watch.
“What's wrong with Baron Le Compte?” he asked, turning to the man. “I need to know the basics, in case I should bring any different equipment.”
“It's not Baron Le Compte who requires your attention,” the man replied. “It's one of the other residents.”