Blacken

  Blacken

  Blacken

  Alandra Rankin

  Copyright © 2020 Alandra Rankin

  Photo by Alyssa Goltz

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 9798672796499

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Epilogue

  PROLOGUE

  I travelled here willingly… at least, I think that’s the case.

  As I ask around, the people that also moved into this small town all share the same story; that they just had to. It was almost as if a compulsion; an all mighty force caused them to uproot the monotonous comfort of their everyday life, just to travel out of cities and away from families. They would drive for hours, days, weeks; until inevitably, the pressure lifted, and they arrived inside Blacken’s town line.

  But my occurrence is a bit different.

  I have always been told that I have a Guardian Angel on my shoulder. The night I heard the call of Blacken, I think they tried to stop me on route.

  Whatever wanted me here, however, won.

  CHAPTER 1

  It was barely outside of Blacken city limits where the accident occurred. The front of a small blue car crashed against a tree, causing the timber to split and collapse backwards from the impact. Fumes and smoke billowed out of the ruined engine, illuminated by the orange lights flashing from the ambulance nearby.

  “Vitals are stable,” the female paramedic stated, glancing at her watch.

  “She’s a little banged up. Concussed, for sure,” the male counterpart added, waving a pin flashlight back and forth across the unconscious female’s pupils, “we still can’t rule out possible internal trauma, let’s get an IV in her and get her in asap.”

  His colleague nodded, fastening a bandage, before they lifted the patient into the back of the ambulance.

  Sirens wailed in the small hours of the morning, cutting a direct path through the woods and into the small city, the female paramedic thumbed through the wallet that previously was in the patient’s windbreaker.

  “Any ID in there, Rachel?”

  “Yes, Avie Conrad. Twenty-six years old. Not a donor.” She held up the ID, inspecting it closely, “You’re a long way from home, Avie.” Rachel replaced the ID in the wallet and placed them aside for her to gather later.

  “Do you think she’s another one?” The male scratched at his salt and pepper facial hair with the back of his hand, promptly replacing his gloves while hooking up the intravenous.

  “I don’t know, Dale. Maybe she is. She came up a little shy getting into town all by herself, though,” Rachel laughed, her kind brown eyes tracing over the unconscious face. "Welcome to Blacken, Avie.”

  A dull throbbing caught her attention. Avie couldn’t focus on anything else, it continued to rouse her from her slumber. The sensation sharpened, feeling it coming from her eyes and nose, as though she had been hit, the aftereffects causing pain to radiate throughout the sockets and nasal cavity.

  The buzz caused her to shift, no longer in the fleetingness of unconsciousness but becoming more aware of the space beyond her eyelids. Avie felt odd, an ache spread throughout her body, a beeping noise caught her attention, she felt out of place. She didn’t feel correct.

  Her consciousness finally came in, causing her eyes to flutter open. The brightness of the room stung, making her wince and need to rapidly blink away the excess tears. In her swimming vision, she noticed her arms splotched with a few bruises, laying neatly outside the tautly tucked blankets. The material was an ugly pale green, the kind she saw in infirmaries, and her forearms were attached to a few wires and tubes. She followed their trail to find the source of the beeping: a heart rate monitor.

  The hospital? Why was she here?

  Her bed was already on a slight incline, yet she felt so weak and sore in her movements, it produced a struggle to even sit up. The beeping rose in pace, and by the end of it, she was a little out of breath.

  “Hello?” she had called out, her voice dry and croaky, and only leading her to cough. She tried again, louder, “Hello?!”

  A nurse came in seconds later.

  “Oh! You’re awake, Miss…” Her finger leads over her clipboard, searching, “Ah, Miss. Conrad, how are you feeling? You’ve been unconscious for a while, must be hungry at this point.”

  She walked over and examined the monitors as she spoke with idle conversation pleasantries. Her dark complexion caught Avie’s eye against the washed-out navy blue of her uniform, a mocha bob bouncing as she walked.

  “I’m in a bit of pain, but I don’t understand what happened, why am I here?”

  The nurse stopped what she was doing, turning to face the bruised woman with a concerned look on her face. Avie was able to see her badge, seeing her name was Caroline Ericson.

  “You were in a car accident, what’s the last thing you do remember?” Caroline checked the contractions of her pupils, the light hurting and causing her to squint.

  “That I was driving, and it was nighttime. I guess that doesn’t help… Was anybody else hurt?” Her eyes trailed after the nurse’s finger, back and forth, up and down.

  “No, the paramedics said you had hit a tree. Do you know where you are?”

  “Of course, Pace Medical.”

  Caroline’s thin eyebrows raised, her motions stopping to gaze seriously down at her, “Miss. Conrad, you’re at Berridge General. In Blacken, British Columbia.”

  “What?”

  The woman was flabbergasted. How the hell did she end up all the way out here, of all places? Her mind raced; she was just driving around running errands at home. How could she have gotten somewhere that took possibly days to drive to?

  “Is there anyone you can call? Family or friends that might help jog your memory?”

  She shook her head, “No, I don’t know. I don’t know… I’ve been by myself for a while.”

  “It’s alright, these things happen. At least you got to walk away with just a few bumps and scratches! We’re going to get neurology to look at you just in case it is anything more serious, but short-term memory loss can happen after a bump on the head. Your wallet and notebook were turned in as well, how about I grab them for you, Avie?” Caroline smiled gently at her, her purple lips splitting to reveal a perfect smile, Avie couldn’t help but reciprocate one back.

  “Yes, thank you, Nurse Ericson. I’d appreciate that.”

  “Call me Caroline if you’d like, I’ll be back in a little while.”

  After the nurse left, an exasperated sigh escaped. Both hands came up to comb through her ginger locks, finding a few spots tender and covered with a bandage. She grimaced. Just how bad was the damage?

  Spotting the bathroom, the redhead took her time to shimmy to the side of the bed, adjusting her legs inch by inch before finally resting the shaking appendages on the cold flooring. She was in a hospital gown, the top of her knees poked out and revealed a dark bruise on the left, wrapping from the top and down the side of her knee cap.

  Avie almost couldn’t help herself from touching the green and purple discolouration
, wincing before laughing at her terrible decision.

  It took her a few times to try and stay up on quivering muscles, feeling a rush of dizziness. Yet she managed and was stable enough to limp to the small enclosed bathroom. The young woman leaned onto the IV that wheeled with her, happy to have some stability from the cool metal as the door swung open for her with a push.

  Flicking on the light, the dim wattage allowed her to see the damage. In the mirror across her, the woman saw the aquiline bridge of her nose covered with gauze and a strip of tape. It was split skin, she figured, not broken to her relief. Her eyes were swollen and dark, both able to open and close without pain at least, only when she strained it would cause discomfort. A bandage was wrapped around her crown, a couple thicker dressings rested on her forehead and a small cut traced vertically on her bottom lip.

  “Jesus,” she told her reflection, “you look like you’ve had better days,” she laughed once, turning in the door frame to lean up against it. Avie huffed, letting her eyes fall closed.

  What the hell was she doing out here? She thought back to the last thing she remembered.

  An opened drawer. Out of tape. Picking up tape from the drug store and developed photos across the street. Drive thru. Driving home. Road was closed. Detour. And then…

  Her eyes opened.

  “The vibration.”

  It came on suddenly, no onset warning to prepare for such an unusual experience.

  Taking the recommended detour leading into an unknown part of the city, she promptly got lost.

  “Damn it. Everything looks so different at night, where am I even going?” The woman turned onto a street that she was positive led back to the main road. That was when it hit her.

  It was the most surreal experience; an almost vibrating commotion emanated from her body, causing her to exhale from shock, winded, and unable to inhale again.

  Avie pulled over, needing to park, taking gasps of precious air while panic rose in her chest. This was not normal. The sensation that washed over her felt almost on par to the bass at a music concert—the music pumped up so loudly that deep tones hit right through to the core.

  It was an itch that made her squirm, should she go to the hospital? The feeling had her wanting to do something, a compulsion to just move.

  With a few shaky breaths, she calmed herself down enough to start driving again, becoming entranced; driving in various directions, finding that it caused the feeling to lessen. It felt better, if only a fraction. But the compulsion kept on.

  The young woman continued to drive, the feeling a compass of sorts to her. If she turned one way, it came back to its initial intensity, if she continued down the ‘correct’ path, it reduced. All of it very peculiar. Still, Avie pressed on with driving for what felt like hours.

  The further she travelled, the better it felt.

  The redhead had no idea what she was being led to, but she didn’t want to stop, the curiosity burning through her veins.

  Even though the vibrating sensation decreased as she advanced, her apprehension grew. She was only stopping to rest at motels or inside her own car, the need for an answer taking over. What exactly was she being led to? Or rather, would it even have an end?

  She was too far to stop now. Avie pressed on with her body reverberating akin to a tuning fork.

  The forest surrounding her made the woman uneasy. The mountainous area she drove into made her feel small and watched in the darkness, paranoia growing as it seemed to stretch on forever into the unknown. Mentally, she kicked herself for not stopping at the last town about an hour or so back to rest up for the night. She yawned.

  Just how much further was it until the next town?

  It may have been that she ran over something. It may have been that her tires were overdue for an inspection. It could have been anything really, even what some may call a form of Divine Intervention. However, in that moment, the front tire on her small punch bug blew out, causing her to lose control, swerve, and overcorrect, all before colliding head on with a tree.

  Forcefully, the airbags deployed, knocking the wind out of her while the car came to a sudden halt, her small stature receiving more damage from its power.

  And then darkness…

  Avie thought over the memory a few times, staggering back to the comfort of her bed. How could she have forgotten such an experience? A million questions rang through her mind, but the one that was prevalent was the issue on how she was found in the first place.

  The woman was all alone in the middle of the woods.

  Was it possible that someone just so happened to also be travelling at that time? Was there a concerned passerby that called into the nearest town for her? If so, she hoped they left their identity so she could personally thank them.

  A knock at the door took her out of her thoughts, a tall man in his late forties or fifties came in swiftly after. His hair was swept back and away from his face, she regarded him quite handsome, he fit the term of ‘silver fox’ especially in the way that he smiled, revealing twin dimples below high cheekbones.

  “Hello there, Miss. Conrad! I’m Dr. Marshall and I’m just gonna take a look over you. I understand you have a bit of memory loss and confusion?” He walked over to where she sat, starting the same regiment that Nurse Caroline did.

  “Well yes, initially, but I remember the accident now and pretty much everything up until then. I think I was still in a bit of shock.”

  “So, a pretty short short-term memory loss, huh?” he drawled, laughing at his own joke, “Well I’d say that’s a good sign! We can set you up a lil’ later today to run a few tests, just to rule everything out, but it sounds like nothin’s taking a toll.”

  “Good, I’m so glad. I feel like I’ve been pretty lucky.”

  The doctor chuckled again, “You must’ve had someone lookin’ out for you, Miss. Conrad.”

  She may very well have.

  As the doctor left, Avie kept herself occupied with the small tube television mounted on the wall across her, waiting the few hours for him to return for her testing. After only two hours filled with a mix of news stations and cartoons, Nurse Caroline came back to escort her to another section of the hospital.

  She sat in the small room with the oblong machine, seeing the doctor enter shortly after, a glint in his smile and another friendly greeting.

  “Dr. Marshall, I was hoping to know who I could ask about how I was found in the middle of the woods?” The redhead sat on the MRI machine, fiddling with a ring on her pinky before having to take it off and place it in a bin.

  “Tell you what, Dale’s a good friend of mine and your first responder. An’ he told me that you crashed into a spruce a little outside of ol’ Blacken here. You almost made it into town, assuming you meant to arrive here?”

  She thought back, not remembering seeing a sign for the town, but if she really was as close as he said, a few concerned citizens must have heard her crash or had seen any smoke.

  “I think so, I wasn’t looking for a particular destination. I feel a lot better since I’ve been here, more or less,” she laughed, pointing to her face and outlining the predicaments.

  The comment caught the neurologist’s attention, looking back up at his patient, “How do you mean by that?”

  The woman in question looked down, embarrassed, smiling and laughing quietly from nerves. She didn’t know how to bring it up without sounding strange, not even sure if there was a term for it or if she could do the explanation justice. Was it worth even talking about, especially since it stopped?

  “I had the strangest sensation start up a few days ago,” she began, nervously trying to go back to fiddle with the pinky ring that was no longer there, “like I was quivering or having some sort of high intensity vibrating from inside of my whole body. I know it sounds weird and I don’t really know how to describe it properly, but it seems completely gone at this point!” she spoke fast, trying to get her thought process out before she was judged by the doctor too harshly.
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br />   He only chuckled, giving her a light pat on the shoulder, “S’alright, nothin’ I haven’t heard before. Now why don’t ’cha lie down and remember to stay as still as you can while you’re in there.”

  Avie cocked her head, confused to what he had meant, “Wait, do you know other people that felt like that? Or what it even was?”

  Dr. Marshall started to walk away, “I’m sure you’re gonna find a lotta interestin’ people in this town, Miss. Conrad. Now, let’s start the test.”

  A matter of hours later, results were in from the MRI and CT scans.

  The woman asked for more information on the town, if they could provide her with a map or anything she could research. Her interest peaking full blown after Dr. Marshall’s comment, Avie couldn’t get more information out of him, him simply explaining that he couldn’t, and that other residents could more than likely help answer some of her burning questions much better than he could.

  The young woman was studying a map of the small town, finding some points of interests, intending to explore and ask around after getting out of the hospital. She also circled two motels to look at while she stayed. Finishing a circle around the library’s icon, Caroline knocked and came in with her results.

  “I’ve got good news! Nothing concerning was found, and even with your memory back, it looks like we can discharge you today, Miss. Conrad.”

  She sighed with relief, “That’s wonderful news! I’ve been itching to get to know your town, is the Gala Motel any better than the Rare Bird one?” The red pen tapped a few times on the glossy paper, her fingers expressing eager energy.

  “Better to stick with Rare Bird, it’s newer. The doctor also gave you a prescription for your pain and the chills you’ve been having, you can pick them up at the pharmacy,” Caroline pointed its location on Avie’s map, “nice and close to the motel too.”

  She returned Caroline’s smile, “Thank you, I’ll make them my first stop. I’m also really, really hoping to find a good restaurant. I’m really sorry but the cafeteria here is…”