Autumn Falls

by A. R. Kingston

  "Are you trying to say Char saw a ghost ambulance?" Charles leaned in between the seats and tapped Charlotte's shoulder. "You don't mind if I call you Char for short, right?"

  "Sure. As long as you don't mind me calling you Chuck."

  "Fine by me. I actually kind of like that nickname. Now," he turned to face Cyrus, "about that ghost ambulance. Was that thing for real?"

  "It was as real as you or me, but it was no ghost..." Cyrus glanced in his rearview mirror with a soft scowl, "no, that was more of an echo."

  "An echo?" Iris mumbled from the back seat and stole a glance over her shoulder. "What's the difference, if you don't mind me asking?"

  "A ghost is the spirit of a deceased person; one you can interact with. They are sentient beings who understand they are dead and are sticking around because they have unfinished business to attend to. An echo on the other hand is an imprint on the environment, like a photograph or a film reel. It happens when an event is so traumatic it burns itself into the fabric of reality and keeps playing itself repeatedly, on a loop. You can't interact with it, and you can't change it, just watch it run its course."

  "So..." Charlotte paused. "We just keep seeing a glimpse of it making its last run, is that right?"

  "Correct, Miss. Briggs. It got t-boned by a truck and went off a cliff less than a mile up the road. By the time the auxiliary crew got to the scene, both of the medics and the patient they were transporting perished."

  "That's so sad." Charlotte glanced down at the hands on her lap. "Did any of them have children?"

  "Just Sinclair. His partner was a single guy at the time. Yup," Cyrus nodded and stared out beyond the glass of his windshield, "it was a dark day for the first responders of Autumn Falls. We lost our two medics in the morning. Then ten firefighters died that afternoon in an explosion over at the fish processing plant. And that night, one of our officers died in a hit-and-run up on Ocean Avenue."

  "How horrible... for everyone involved. I can only imagine what it was like for their children having to deal with losing their parents like that. Not that I would know, since I lost my father when I was still a baby, far too young to even remember what he looked like. Still..." Charlotte glanced out her window and held back a tear, "I constantly worry about what would happen to Kevin if he lost me. I'm all he has."

  "What happened to his dad?" Iris said in a half whisper while avoiding Charlotte's gaze. "If you don't mind me asking, that is."

  "Oh, well..." Charlotte studied the leaves fluttering in the trees and pondered how she should phrase the next part of her sentence. "You see, his dad doesn't exactly know about him."

  "What?" Chuck yelled, leaning in closer to her as if he was suddenly interested in their conversation. "You mean to say that never told the guy he was a father?"

  "Not a word."

  "Damn girl," he shook his head, "that's just cold."

  "Enough, Charles!" Iris glared at him and whacked his shoulder with the back of her hand. "I'm sure Charlotte had a good reason for not telling him. We shouldn't pry into her life like that. I'm sorry I even asked, this is my fault really."

  "No, it's no big deal. Don't feel bad. It’s truly a non-issue, I promise."

  Iris did not reply, she turned her head away with downcast eyes, and Charles sat looking out his window, still rubbing the spot on his shoulder where she hit. An awkward silence befell the Jeep as no one dared speak more on the subject of Kevin, or his father. Even Cyrus kept his mouth shut the rest of the way to the station house. It wasn't until they reached the small brick building with Mullioned windows that he broke the silence as he parked in the small parking area at the back.

  "Well, here we are. The station contains all the emergency services for the island. Let's go meet Miss. Owens. I saw her waiting for us upfront."

  Grabbing her bag, Charlotte trailed behind the others as they rounded the corner of the building and walked past the two large garage bay doors where six crows had gathered to watch. Pacing by the glass entryway was a tall woman wearing a fine, navy-blue Italian suit. Her raven hair was wound tightly in a neat bun, and she stopped to push the sleeve of her jacket and steal a glance at the watch on her slender wrist. Turning on the stiletto heels of her black leather boots, she spotted them approach. Pursing her thin cranberry lips, she narrowed her blue eyes and stormed towards them, her heels clicking rhythmically on the stone.

  "You're late." She hissed.

  "Sorry ma'am," Cyrus tipped his hat to her, "but Miss. Briggs wished to grab her bag, and then we got stuck at some lights."

  "Fine. I shall accept that excuse, but only for today. Just see to it that it won't happen again."

  "Yes ma'am, of course. I'll deliver them to you on time from now on." Turning to leave, Cyrus waved at Charlotte and her companions. "Off you go kids, follow your new supervisor, Victoria Owens. I'll be back to pick you up at four. You have fun now."

  Watching him leave, a sickening sense of dread filled Charlotte and as she turned to shake the woman's cold, lifeless hand she felt a chill rake through her spine. There was something about her new boss she simply did not like. Perhaps it was her haughty, upper-class attitude, or the ice in her voice and the dark glint in her eyes, but she was on edge while she was around her. The others seemed to not notice something off about the woman, or the station house while they gleefully introduced themselves to their supervisor, and Charlotte was left clutching her bag while all her instincts were screaming at her to get away.

  Chapter Eight

  “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” ― H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature

  S ix crows had gathered on the eve above the door to the station and twisted their heads down to peer at Charlotte. One of the black birds ruffled its feathers, blinked, and let out a cry which reverberated through the street. The luster in the bird's eyes appeared cold and ominous, causing a shiver to creep down her spine and a rock-hard lump to form in her stomach. Turning her gaze to Victoria, she noted the woman's face crinkle as she glanced up at the birds and hissed for them to scram. Seemingly listening to the command, the birds flapped their feathers and took off, settling back down on a striped awning of a candy shop across the street. There was something not right about the whole thing, a primitive fear she could not explain crept up inside her.

  "All right you three, enough lollygagging." Victoria ignored the birds, and Charlotte's tension as she turned and waved her hand. "Come now, follow me. Let me give you a brief tour. Then, since you two have your bags, you can go out on your first run and get to know each other as partners while I give Miss. Chapman a break down on how we do things around here."

  Flinging the glass doors open, Victoria led the trio inside the three-story building's warm reception room. The polished herringbone oak floor led the eyes to an antique reception desk crafted of cherry, and speckled with the morning sun. A young blonde in a cream blouse with a tight French twist looked up past the thick black rims of her glasses. Twisting her lip into a partial smile, she adjusted the neatly done bow on her neck and went back to typing on her keyboard without saying a word.

  "As you can see," Victoria continued, "the bottom floor is our reception area. To the left, you have the stairwell and the vehicle bay. "We have a total of four fire trucks and three ambulances here. You two will drive number thirty-six fifty-five, which is parked upfront. I will let you load it up as soon as we get done here and you can go explore the town."

  "What's on the right?" Charlotte stole a glanced towards a solid oak door at the other end.

  "Oh, that is our police department and jail. You will probably have little dealings with them. We don't have the type of violence you have grown accustomed to in the city. Our boys in blue are just here to deal with obnoxious teenagers making our life a living hell. Now," Victoria nudged open another solid door and held it open for them, "how about we check out the rest of the building?"

  Nodding silen
tly, Charlotte shuffled in behind Chuck and Iris into a narrow concrete stairwell where a fluorescent bulb flickered and hummed above their heads. The bulb did little to illuminate the dim space, and if it wasn't for the metal door with a small window leading to the parking lot out back, the area would feel suffocating. Walking around past the door, Victoria ushered them to follow her up the stairs to the next floor. Charlotte waited for everyone else to go and hearing the echo of heels clicking in the hall, she trailed up behind them. After two flights of stairs, Victoria opened another door, and they stepped into an open area with two more doors in front of them and a line of vending machines to their left.

  "We reserved this floor for emergency medical services. The fire department is on the same floor behind us, but they have access through the garage bay, so you won't have to worry about them lingering here. The dispatcher's office is the door on the left. This is where Iris will handle most of the emergency calls for me. The door to the right is the locker room, bathroom, and showers. Your lockers have your name on them, so feel free to put anything you'd like in there, like a change of clothing if you wish to take your showers here. I have also put your uniforms in them, so do change before you go out on patrol." Victoria opened the door again and motioned her head into the stairwell. "Let's go check out the common break area before I let you loose."

  Returning to the stairwell, they followed their boss up another two flights of stairs to the last floor of the station. On the other side of the lone oak door was a short hallway filled with pictures and newspaper clippings. Following the Arenberg parquet floor, Charlotte peered through the picture windows into the break room. The space reminded her of a fishbowl as she watched the two firemen playing at a Foosball table. Beside them, on the blue striped sofa, a man sat cross-legged in a blue officer's uniform with his face buried in the morning paper as he sipped coffee from his Styrofoam cup.

  "This is the common break room." Victoria continued, not moving. "Inside we have a TV, a Foosball table, and a fully stocked kitchen. Use it on your off time, which I am sure you will have plenty of. Officer Johnson over there makes the best pot of coffee around, so I suggest grabbing some first thing in the morning, before it's all gone."

  Half listening, Charlotte bobbed her head in acknowledgment as she ambled alongside the wall, studying the framed prints that hung on its burgundy walls. Stopping at one section, her eyes trailed up and lingered on a small pine frame with a photograph of four paramedics standing arm in arm behind the glass. The young man in the middle caught her attention, and she could not look away from him. He was oddly familiar with his dark curly hair and a bright smile on his face. Leaning closer, she squinted to make out the name tag on his jumper, C. Sinclair, she mumbled to herself. She knew him, despite never having seen him before, and she felt compelled to reach out and touch him, getting a shiver down her spine as if remembering something she had long forgotten.

  "Who are the men in this photograph?"

  "Oh, them." Victoria answered coldly. "That was the original crew from twenty-five years ago. They took this photo when they first started working here, six years before that horrible accident that took the lives of Sinclair and his partner, Neewer. The other two men still work the night shift, though they are getting ready to retire. But that is ancient history, one we don't much care to talk about it. Let us go to work now, Iris will come with me to learn the ropes, and you two go change and grab your ambulance to explore the town."

  Not willing to press the issue of the lost medics further, Charlotte followed the rest of the group downstairs. Watching Victoria guide Iris into the dispatcher room, she shuffled into the locker room where Chuck was already half naked. Pocking his head from behind his metal door, he smiled at her, and she responded with an awkward wave as she opened the locker with her name on it. There was something unsettling about the metal box, and she ran her finger across the ancient tape marks on the door as her partner continues to strip down behind her.

  "All right, Char, I'm going to go take a quick shower before we head out. That okay with you?"

  "Yeah, sure." Charlotte broke away from the familiarity of the blue painted steel. "Take your time. I'll go stock the bus and meet you downstairs."

  "Thanks, partner."

  Waiting for Charles to head into the shower room, Charlotte donned on her blue uniform and shut the locker door. Heading through the door to head downstairs, she paused in the stairwell, consumed by fear. The bulb above her pulsated, and she thought she saw movement in the shadows coming from the top floor. She tried convincing herself she was being hysterical, but as a low moan floated from the top and reverberated around her; she let out a yelp and dashed down the stairs. With her heart galloping in her chest, she flew down three steps at a time and burst through the door into the garage bay without ever trying to glance behind her to see what could be following her.

  Chapter Nine

  “Just when you think you've hit rock bottom, you realize you're standing on another trapdoor.”—Marisha Pessl, Night Film

  L eaping through the jamb, Charlotte startled a fireman who was hanging up equipment on the rack opposite of her. The man with the salt and pepper hair turned around as the door slammed behind her with a frown, and she tried to downplay it by saying that the door got stuck. Nodding his head while she laughed nervously, the man simply said it happens and returned to work. Red hot from the embarrassment of letting her nerves get to her, she tracked down her ambulance—a shiny white bus with red and gold lettering that read 'Autumn Falls EMS'—and opened the back doors to step inside.

  Just as the outside appeared brand new, the inside was a state-of-the-art model with all the bells and whistles that were not even on all city ambulances. This town, despite claiming to be a safe haven far removed from the life she had known, spared no expense when it came to its emergency services. Pulling open a clear navy-blue door of one of the cabinets, she noted it was fully stocked with everything a medic would need, including all the optional equipment. She was wondering what they could possibly ever need half of it for when a bang on the metal door caused her to jump and shriek in surprise as she whirled around and spotted Chuck standing behind her, leaning on one of the doors.

  "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. You all right?"

  "Yes. I'm fine. It's just this place. It got me all freaked out for no good reason."

  "I hear you there, partner." Chuck handed her his bag, stole a glance over his shoulder, and dropped his voice to a whisper. "That stairwell makes me feel uneasy, as if someone is watching me."

  "I got the same notion in there just now, and our hotel isn't any better."

  "You noticed that too, huh? Yeah, I hate that place, feels so oppressive despite how luxurious it is. But..." Charles cocked his head to peer at the group of firefighters gathered at the back, "perhaps we should talk more about this elsewhere. Ready to ride?"

  "Yeah, let us get the hell out of here. I'll drive first and grab our first call if it comes in, since you know, seniority and all."

  "Fine by me. Shall we go hunt down a cup of coffee?"

  "Sure. I saw a cute little café not far from here. We can see what they offer."

  Jumping out from the back of the ambulance, Charlotte shut the door behind her and got in the truck's cab. There was something unsettling about the firemen who stood cross-armed at the far wall, burning a hole in the back of her head with their glares. Ignoring the nagging feeling that something was wrong in this ideal town, she started the engine and drove out of the bay, heading for the Jumping Java Café that they passed before turning onto Ocean Avenue. In the passenger seat, Chuck fidgeted with his thumbs and stared out the window into the rear view mirror. Once away from the station, he turned and looked straight at her.

  "Hey, I'm sorry about making that comment about your kid's father. It's just, I guess I'd want to know if I was him. I didn't mean to step on your toes or anything."

  "I know. And I don't blame you for reacting the way you did. Truth is, I wanted
to tell him, I really did."

  "So, why didn't you?"

  "We were so young back then, just kids ourselves. He was going off to college to live his dream on this big football scholarship. He was going to be a journalist, you see. Everyone around me was telling me how selfish I was being for wanting him to know. His sister told me it was my decision to have a baby, but I shouldn't drag him into it, and his mother told me to not ruin her son's life because I was a whore who couldn't keep her legs closed. After a few weeks of this, and some extensive bullying from his family and friends, I figured he didn't need to know, at least not while he was in school."

  "Why didn't you tell him after he graduated?"

  "I had moved on by then. I was living with a guy who I thought was a great man, and who at first treated Kevin as his own son. Little did I know that as soon as we moved to Seattle, things would change. Once he isolated me from my support system, he couldn't care less about Kevin, and he enjoyed controlling the hell out of me. By the time I escaped that nightmare, Kevin's father had become a famous guy with loads of money and probably the same amount of women begging to be by his side. And well..."

  "You just didn't want him to think you were some gold-digger after his fortune."

  "Precisely. Plus, I couldn't expect him to accept responsibility for a kid he was not aware of for nine years, right? I mean, what kind of guy would want that?"

  "I guess you have a point. But as a guy, I'd like to think that I'd want to know. Still, what you do with your life if your choice, Char.

  Smiling at her partner, Charlotte pulled over and went inside to grab their coffee. This was the first time she opened up to anyone, and it was great to unload the things eating away at her off her chest. She trusted Chuck more so than she trusted her previous partners, like there was an unspoken bond between them, and for the first time since setting foot on the island, she felt relieved. Bringing out their complimentary coffee and pastries back to the ambulance, she climbed in and asked him where he wished to go. He didn't have a clear destination in mind, and they drove down Ocean Avenue, enjoying the sites until they pulled up to a red light.