Autumn’s Calling:
The Outbreak
By Michelle Weese
Prologue
Staring into my rear view mirror, I watched my old life disappear in the distance. The rain was pouring and the clouds above my sleepy hometown were dark and eerie. I caught sight of my emerald green eyes in the mirror as a passing car’s headlights flashed by. Seeing the bruise below my right eye showing its ugly self made my blood boil with anger.
“I can’t believe that bastard had the nerve to hit me, after all I’ve done for him,” I said out loud, even though the only one to hear me was my trusty sidekick and best friend, Daisy. She’s my golden retriever, and she stared at me from the passenger seat of my old yellow ‘69 Camaro like I was a crazy person.
Not only had he hurt me, he hurt Daisy also. Besides her, the only other thing in the car were two garbage bags of my belongings I could grab quickly after “the bastard” decided to come home drunk and in a rage. The bastard in question is... was, my fiancé, Luke Davis. We’ve been dating since my first year of college and planned to get married in the Spring. He’s always been one to have a few drinks then become the emotional, touchy feely guy I grew to know and love.
But tonight something felt different. Tonight he acted the complete opposite of his usual self. As if possessed by an evil side of himself that I’ve never seen. And frankly, hope to never see again. That’s why I’m hitting the open road to find something better. I must get away from him. So he can never hurt us again. Leaving this town is like tearing out a piece of me that I’m not sure I can live without. But hopefully I can replace it with something I don’t realize I have.
My name is Autumn Reed, and this is my story...
Chapter 1
“Girl, you’re still here? Don’t you ever leave this place?” asked my friend and fellow nurse, Jess, as she came out of one of the ER patient rooms, checking off her list for the doctors.
“Not for much longer…I’m finishing up what feels like a week long shift,” I grumbled, shuffling in my nursing Crocs like a zombie back to my station. Pulling a double shift for the last couple of days, I couldn’t be sure what day of the week it was anymore.
I plopped down in my chair and rested my head in my hands. Sleep deprived to the point that I could easily snooze standing up at a heavy metal concert, in the middle of thousands of screaming idiots mosh pitting. Thankfully, I was due for a four day off stretch, and planned to catch up on some much needed beauty rest.
Looking up from my hands, the picture of Luke and I at the beach caught my sight. Luke is my fiancé of two years now. We met at the community college here in my tiny hometown, Cottage Grove, Washington. His curly chestnut brown hair and striking blue eyes are one of the many features that drew me to him.
As I studied for my degree in nursing, he continued working his way to a business degree. He wanted to become an accounts manager for the largest local credit union. I know, completely boring, but it’s what his sights are set on. So I do my best to act intrigued while he rambles on about number charts and other nonsense that I have absolutely no clue about.
He needed another year before graduating with his masters, so for now I got him a job with my Uncle John selling used cars here in town. It helps pay the bills and keep his tuition caught up.
Our picture brought a tired smile to my face. “That was such a nice weekend at the beach. We’re about due for another road trip…” I mumbled to myself as I packed my tote bag with all of my belongings, which seemed to pile up on my desk over the last couple of days.
“Call me later, Jess,” I called to her as I clicked the power button on my computer screen off.
“I will. Us girls are going out for drinks later if you want to come,” she replied over her shoulder, while she grabbed her tray of little medicine cups and headed for my station.
“I’ll try my best but I’m not sure that when I get home I won’t collapse in the doorway before ever reaching the bed.”
She laughed at me and gave me a one armed hug so she didn’t spill her tray. “I know you’re tired when you won’t come out for drinks. Plus you look like you could use a hot shower and a nap. Your hair is a hot mess by the way,” she chuckled, as she batted her baby blues at me.
My bottom lip stuck out in a pout and I gave her the steely gaze I knew my green eyes were so good at. But I couldn’t hold it for long, her standing there with crazy pink hair and baby blues, giggling like the mad hatter. She always has a different color of the rainbow on her hair every week. I shook my head and smiled starting for the elevators. “I’ll have a couple drinks for you,” she shouted as the elevator door opened.
“Sounds good to me, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” I stepped into the elevator and heard her chuckling again. As the doors whooshed close, I breathed a sigh of relief, leaning up against the elevator wall. 'Finally…’ I thought to myself. All I could think about was getting these damn shoes off, taking a long bubble bath and curling up beside Luke and Daisy on the sofa with my favorite book.
Daisy is my dog, but don’t tell her that, she doesn’t know she’s a dog. She’s actually a beautiful golden retriever that I rescued, when she was just a pup, in my senior year of high school. She’s my animal soulmate and I can’t go anywhere, besides work, without her. She is so protective of me… which Luke couldn’t seem to understand.
He loved to pick at me and wrestle but Daisy just won’t have any of it. Thinking of the way she bares her teeth and growls like a big bad wolf, when he tickles me to the point of screaming or play slaps me on the leg, made me smile. She’s never bit him, or anyone else for that matter. Daisy wouldn’t hurt a fly, but she wants everyone to know that I am hers and she will protect me at all costs. It felt good to know that.
As I walked across the somewhat empty parking garage to my old yellow Camaro, I dug around in my tote bag for my keys. The night was crisp and cool. I could feel the dampness of rain in the air. It smelled like evergreens showered by the clean mountain water that trickled throughout the hills. I took a deep breath in and closed my eyes for just a moment to enjoy being away from the disinfectant smell of the hospital.
I unlocked the car door and tossed my bag in the back seat then sat down behind the wheel. Before pulling the door shut, something caught my eye. There was a man standing in the far corner of the parking garage, staring out at me. He looked homeless with his ratty old plaid jacket and torn blue jeans. I couldn’t tell for sure, but his face looked bruised and his skin appeared a sickly gray. He stood there gazing at me like he had been waiting for me all night. “Are you okay, sir?” I questioned his way, and still he never flinched or blinked an eye. “Probably drunk or high on something,” I mumbled.
A few bums around town periodically made their rounds at the hospital, shaking their little Styrofoam coffee cups at us asking for change, but I don’t recall ever seeing this guy. I shrugged, pulling the door shut and started the engine. Before backing out, I texted Luke to tell him I was on my way home, then tossed the phone in the passenger seat and put the car in reverse.
I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw that the homeless man was gone now; just like he’d disappeared into thin air. I scowled and shook my head, “Maybe I’m losing it.” Backing out of the parking spot bathed in fluorescent brightness of the garage, I eased my way out into the stormy night.
Chapter 2
I pulled into my driveway around one o’clock in the morning, my headlights the only thing illuminating the front of my humble little house. No other cars were in the drive… Hmm, I guess Luke wasn’t home yet. That’s weird. Going in the front door, I was greeted by Miss Daisy, her tail fanning back and forth with
her tongue hanging out in a goofy lopsided smile. “Well, at least someone’s happy to see me,” I said to her in that squeaky cartoon baby voice that all sane people use with their pets.
Every light was off in the house except our living room night light that stays on for when I work late nights at the hospital, like tonight. I dropped my bag and pushed my way out of the shoes that have been glued to my feet for days. Daisy took off to the front yard to do her doggy business in the rain, while I went to the bathroom to start that bubble bath I so desperately needed.
Afterwards, I checked my phone to see if Luke responded to my earlier text, but nothing. I tried calling him and it went straight to voicemail, which puzzled me. This wasn’t like Luke to not answer my call or messages. But I was too exhausted to worry about it much, so I poured myself a big glass of wine and headed for the front door to let Daisy back in.
At the exact moment I turned the handle, Luke was turning it from the outside and coming through the door. “Hey babe, I was beginning to worry about you,” I told him. “You didn’t answer my text and you never stay out this late…” but he completely ignored me like I was invisible and headed straight for the kitchen, leaving a trail of wet tracks on the wood floors from his soaked clothing and shoes. I turned and looked out the door to see that his car wasn’t in the driveway, then opened it for Daisy to come through. She, oddly enough, made a beeline for the kitchen also.
“Where’s your car at Luke? How did you even get home? Did you walk?” I asked turning the corner into the kitchen to find him in the fridge rummaging for only God knows what at this hour. Daisy sat a few feet away from him and kept looking at us with serious concern in her golden brown eyes. She started whining and paced nervously back and forth between Luke and me. He still hadn’t uttered a word to me, and came away from the fridge with a bloody rare steak I laid out for dinner the previous night, in his hands.
“So you’re just going to eat and not tell me what’s going on? Luke please talk to me,” my voice cracking from the beginnings of anger forming deep inside me.
“I’m starving, Autumn. I’m so hungry, it hurts,” he confessed in a breathless voice that sounded nothing like the Luke I know. His brown hair pasted itself to his forehead by the rain; blue eyes wild and bloodshot.
“What hurts, Luke? Tell me what’s wrong,” I pleaded. Daisy walked over to him and started that low growl she usually saves for when he’s picking at me. She sensed something that I was just too stupid to catch.
Then he did something that I would have never dreamed he would do. He kicked her. My fiancé, the man I planned to marry, kicked my sweet loving Daisy in the ribs. She yelped loudly and took off running, with her tail tucked, down the hallway to our bedroom.
That’s it! I lost my patience then. With every ounce of energy that remained in my body, I stormed over to him and slapped him across the face. “How dare you kick my dog, you bastard!” I screamed. He stood there for a long moment and looked at me. Then I saw his eyes go dark and something took over him. He dropped the bloody piece of meat he pulled from the fridge onto the floor and grabbed me by both arms. He raised me up at least a foot off the ground, growling like a madman, as he threw me into the side of the island in the center of the kitchen.
Completely stunned by what he’d just done, and the pain in my back, I sat there staring up at him. For a moment I thought to myself, ‘This can’t be happening, I have to be in a nightmare. Wake up, Autumn.’ But then everything started to happen really fast. I stood up to face him, because my daddy taught me to never back down from a fight. With my fists clenched tight, my body thrumming with energy now, I walked over to face him. My mind switched to self-defense mode and I drew back to hit him. Then he landed a blow on my right cheekbone so quickly, I never saw it coming.
‘Where the hell did he get this kind of speed and strength?’ I thought, as I fell back into the wall. Before I could recover and stand up straight, he twisted his hand in my long auburn hair. The next thing I saw were his once beautiful blue eyes, darkened to what seemed as black as the night sky to me. With raindrops still rolling down his face, he spoke in a low raspy voice, “Don’t you ever touch me again, or I will kill you.”
Breathless and dumbfounded, I couldn’t wrap my head around what was happening. This man never laid a finger on me in all the time I’d known him. He is always so laid back and in-tune to my feelings. This is not the Luke I know and love so much. I didn’t know what to say to him. I was terrified. My eyes burned with unshed tears from the pain in my back, my face and most of all, my heart. How could he do something like this to us?
He finally untangled his fingers from my hair and stepped back from me. Breathing heavily, he walked over to the piece of meat he dropped on the floor, picked it up and took off out the back door disappearing into the darkness.
Chapter 3
Left there against the wall, my hands trembled and mind reeled from what he’d just done. I didn’t know if I should cry and scream, call the police or go after him and try to kill him. Instead, I numbly walked to my bedroom to check on Daisy. She hid in my closet shaking all over. I cried when I saw her. The tears that threatened to spill over finally rolling down my cheeks. Nothing he could do to me would ever hurt as much as seeing her like that.
“I’m so sorry Daisy, I don’t know what’s gotten into him,” I whispered, as I knelt by her, petting her soft fur. “I’ll never let him touch you again. He’ll never touch either one of us again for that matter.” That’s when something clicked inside my mind.
I had to get out of here. Get away from him so he could never touch us again. I could feel it in my gut that something was wrong with him. A small piece of me screamed, “Find him! He needs your help!” But before I could give myself the second it would take to reconsider leaving, I jumped up and started pulling things from my closet.
In the kitchen, I checked the back door to ensure it was locked, and grabbed the trash bags from underneath the sink. The bath water I started almost overflowed before I shut it off. Everything I could think of that would get me by, for at least a couple of days, I stuffed into the bags. Then I grabbed Daisy’s leash and started down the hallway with her and two trash bags in tow.
Stepping into the shoes I took off only moments ago, I glanced up and saw the large portrait of Luke and I, on the cruise we took last year to Alaska, hanging over the fireplace. My heart shattered into pieces, and my breathing grew shallow from the sobs building up in my throat. It devastated me to think that my life changed so drastically in just a few short minutes. I grabbed everything my hands could carry and flew out the door with Daisy trailing after me.
We hopped in the car as I threw my bags in the backseat and took off faster than a bat out of hell. My tires screeching on the wet roads, I drove through the pouring down rain with only one thing on my mind. Get out of here and don’t look back.
Making my way through town to the main highway, I looked around at the place that shaped me into the person I had become. Everything I knew was here. My house, my job, my life. My heart told me to stay. But my gut instinct, that never failed me, told me to run. So I’m running.
Chapter 4
My eyes weighed heavy after driving all night. The sun broke through the dense fog over the mountains to my left. I planned to go as far south as I could get before my mind and body could give out on me from exhaustion. It rained the entire night but finally stopped about an hour ago. Daisy slept most of way, only waking once when we stopped for gas, to relieve herself. We both needed some food and a comfy place to lay our heads.
I watched the signs on the side of the highway to see if there was a motel coming up soon. Only fourteen miles ahead, in a town called Springsville, was a B&B. We took that exit and drove through a winding hillside for a couple more miles. The trees were starting to turn those gorgeous colors only Fall can give us, before everything died for the winter. Dark red, bright orange and golden yellow all clustered together. It was late September and my favorite time
of year, my mom’s also, that’s why she named me Autumn.
We came to an aging wooden sign that read Old Colonial Inn. Pulling up the gravel drive, we parked around the side of the large colonial style home. It was surrounded by an apple orchard and a small pond with a rickety old bridge across it. Morning dew clung to the blades of grass, glistening in the growing sunlight like diamonds. An antique pickup truck, the color of a spring sky, sat around back of the house. It held wooden crates, full of bright red apples, stacked up in the bed. The scene resembled a beautiful painting and was breathtaking. A newer black sedan, I parked beside, remained the only other vehicle.
I grabbed Daisy’s leash and my bag as I stepped out onto the gravel, my knees a little wobbly from the long drive. We walked around the big white house to the front entrance and climbed the stairs to a large porch lined by towering stone columns and a few wooden rocking chairs. Large cement pots with different colored mums sat on each side of the open entry door.
We stepped through the doorway and were greeted by a dainty older lady with a perfect gray, no-nonsense, bun on the top of her head. She wore a yellow cotton dress with long skirts and a white apron. “Good morning Miss, welcome to the Colonial Inn. Would you like a room?” she offered in a sweet-as-pie voice that sounded too southern to be a Washington accent. A gentle smile lit up her face that looked sincere and not practiced, like she loved being here in this big beautiful home every day greeting newcomers. Her smile faltered for a moment when she made eye contact with me, but she recovered it quickly. Her eyes mirrored the color of pistachios, a pale green with a golden brown starburst around the pupil. I’m sure the bruise under my eye is what she noticed, a look of sympathy peeking out from underneath that smile.
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