“Watch out!” screamed Johnny as he gripped the dashboard of the squad, readying himself for impact.
Roy slammed on the brakes as the squad came to a screeching halt on the dark, deserted side road. With his heart pounding against his chest, he pried his hands off the steering wheel and stared out into the utter darkness before him. He glanced over at his partner, who was leaning forward in his seat studying the eery landscape that strectched out beyond the windsheild. “Where did they go?” He asked slowly.
Johnny darted his head around in all directions trying to get a better picture of their surroundings. His heart was beating rapidly, and he could feel the sweat running down his back. The sudden adrenilin rush was taking it’s toll on him as he leaned out his open window to look for the two bodies. “They...were just here...” he stammered in an excited voice. “Where did they go?”
Roy flushed as the image of two bodies lying torn and brusied under the squad crept into his mind. He quickly grabbed the door handle and rushed out of the squad. Johnny climbed out the other side and joined Roy at the front of the vehicle. Roy pointed to the ground and the two men dropped to their knees and searched under the squad for the two bodies. They looked at each other from their prone positions with shock and confusion. Nothing but empty space occupied the area under the squad. Roy hoisted himself upright while Johnny remained on the ground bewildered.
Spinning around on the spot, Roy tried to find the two bodies that had been standing in this exact spot on the road just moments ago. “They were right here!” he exclaimed with concern pointing at the ground.
Johnny stood up and began his own spinning survey of the area. His effort came up empty. He was still shaking from the after shock of the adrenlin rush, and it was visisble in his voice as he tilted the helmet off his forehead and looked at Roy with uncertainty. “So it’s not just me?” he started. “You saw them too?” He asked, his eyes wide with apprehension.
“Yeah,” replied Roy, still trying to find the two bodies somewhere on the road. “There was a woman and a little girl standing right here!” He exclaimed as he pointed to the gravel at his feet again. “They were right here!”
“I saw them too, Roy,” replied Johnny rubbing his hands vigorously down his face. A sudden chill ran through his blood as he gripped Roy’s arm tightly. He looked into his partner’s eyes as a sudden awareness sprang into his mind. “Did you feel the impact?” He asked slowly, not sure which answer he wanted to hear.
“No,” replied Roy scratching his temple. “I don’t think so...I was concentrating on stopping the squad I don’t think I noticed.”
“This...this isn’t good,” stammered Johnny. “They have to be here somewhere! Let’s look around.” he suggested, as he slapped Roy on the shoulder and jogged around the side of the squad.
Roy took a deep breath and decided to check the side of the road. There was a chance the two bodies had been thrown to the side upon impact. It was a bit of a long shot, but there didn’t seem to be any evidence of them anywhere else. He pulled the pen light out of his pocket and used it as a flashlight as he surveyed the ground. There were no streetlights in this area and the earlier rains had caused a thick fog to roll in. His penlight was not producing much illumination, so he decided to retrieve the real flashlight from the squad. He turned around to head back when he realized he was all alone. The mixture of fog and nightfall had made it impossible to see further than an arm’s length away. “Johnny!” he called into the eery night.
“Yeah!” came back his muffled voice. Roy started walking in the direction of Johnny’s voice until he could see the squad again. With a sigh of relief he approached the open door of the vehicle and leanded in to find the flashlight.
“Looking for this?” asked Johnny, sneaking up behind him and flashing the bright light into his eyes.
Roy nearly jumped out of his skin. “Don’t you ever do that again!” he yelled excitedly as he grabbed the flashlight from Johnny’s hand.
“Sorry,” Johnny laughed as he surrendered the object. “Any luck?” he asked leaning against the side of the squad.
“No, and you?”
Johnny just shook his head. “This is weird,” he started. “I know they were there, but why aren’t they here now?”
Roy just shrugged. He was just as confused as his partner and he didn’t know exactly what to say. He was sure there had been two bodies standing in the middle of the road, but now there was no evidence that they ever existed. With a new idea, Roy made a silent gesture to Johnny to stay put and swung around to the front of the squad. Never one to take his partner’s advise, Johnny followed and found him examining the ground inches from the front bumper. “What are you thinking?” he asked nervously.
“There’s nothing here,” he answered looking up at Johnny.
“I know that.”
“No,” started Roy as he stode up. “I mean there’s nothing here.” He pointed to the ground waving his hand over the general area of the supposed accident. “There’s no dent...no blood...no indication that anyone was even here.” Roy’s voice was shaky as enunciated his startling conclusion.
“What about those?” Johnny asked, pointing to the mess of footprints on the gravel
“Those are ours.”
“How can you be so sure? They could be someone else’s?”
“Do you see anyone else here?!” Roy exclaimed as he brushed past his partner on route back to the squad door. He sat down and retreived the radio from the dashboard. “LA, this is squad51...”
“What are you doing?” asked Johnny, joining him at the door.
“I’m reporting the accident...” he started, then realized the pointlessness to it. What was he going to say?...LA, we just ran over two civilians...no,no injuries...and no bodies either! He shook his head and replaced the radio. It just didn’t make any sense. They were returning from a late night run out at farm house and were driving along when all of a sudden two bodies, one woman and one child, appeared in the middle of the road immediately in front of the squad. Roy was sure he had hit them, but couldn’t figure out why he or Johnny couldn’t find them anywhere. The situation was starting to scare him a little. The road they were on was dark and deserted, and the fog was making it feel all the more spookey. Most of the houses and farms in this area were a good distance from the road, which added isolation to the already eerie predicament. “Well,” started Roy feeling helpless. “I guess we should...”
“Hey wait,” whispered Johnny grabbing his arm. “I think I hear something,” he said as he pushed off from the squad and stepped towards the side of the road.
Roy leaned forward and listened intensly for any break in the sheer silence. He put his foot on the ground and the gravel shifted under his footfall.
“Shhh!” urged Johnny waving his hand at him from behind his back. Roy threw him an irritated glance and craned forward to listen again. “Hello!” called Johhny into the bleak night. “Is anyone out there?”
Then Roy heard it too. He could hear heavy breathing coming closer to their position. He stood up slowly and approached his partner who was leaning with his ear pointed in the dirction of the sound. The panting became louder and Roy couldn’t help but place a hand on Johnny’s shoulder. The motion startled Johnny, but he quickly regained composure. The two of them stood there in utter silence squinting into the fog, waiting anxiously to see what would be accompanying the heavy panting. Roy was aware of himself holding his breath, and he was pretty sure his partner was too. The panting grew louder and more rapid as the two firefighters stood frozen like statues on the road.
Then it appeared. Just a few feet in front of them a small child came to a rearing halt, panting and waving her arms. Roy and Johnny jumped back out of reflex action and grabbed their chests. They had had no idea what was going to emerge out of the thick fog, and in the few seconds from when the panting had begun Roy had had strange and fearsome images run rampant through his mind. He let out the breath he was holding as he laughed at himself for overreacting. He bent down and put a hand on the small girl who had been the cause of his unwarranted stress, and smiled at her. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Help...you have to come quickly...” the girl panted, trying to catch her breath.
“What happened?” he asked reaching for her other shoulder.
The girl finally caught her breath and was able to articulate her dilema. “It’s my mother,” she cried. “She’s asleep and I can’t wake her up!”
“It’s alright,” soothed Roy. “Where is she? We’re paramedics with the Los Angeles Fire Department, we can help her.” He glanced back over his shoulder to introduce his partner and found him still standing in the same position, grasping his chest and staring blankly into the fog. “Hey!” shouted Roy, slapping Johnny on the leg. “Johnny!”
Johnny jumped and blinked back at his partner stunned. Finally comprehension crept over him and he gained composure. Roy pointed back at the squad and told him to collect their gear, they were going to help this little girl’s mother. Johnny complied and returned moments later with the drug box, and bio-phone. They followed the girl into the fog, wondering how in the world she had found them in this mess. But she seemed to know where she was going so the two paramedics followed closely behind. Neither one wanted to lose sight of the other for fear of being lost. Johnny leaned in close to Roy so the girl holding his hand wouldn’t hear. “Hey,” he whispered. “Can I ask you something?”
“Yeah,” whispered Roy.
“You know when we were listening to the girl approaching?” he asked skeptically.
“Yeah, how could I forget?” responded Roy with a smirk.
“You heard her breathing real hard like right?...Like she was running real fast right?”
Roy thought about this a moment and nodded slowly, not sure where Johnny was going with this.
Johnny swallowed hard as he tried to continue. “Did you hear her footsteps?”
Roy almost stopped dead in his tracks. No, I didn’t, he thought to himself. He quickly picked up the pace, giving the little girl a tug on the arm to get her moving faster. “There must have been footsteps,” he whispered to Johnny. “We just didn’t hear them.” he finally answered, more for his own benefit than Johnny’s.
“Yeah,” Johnny answered, but didn’t quite except it. He looked down at his feet as they stepped one after the other through the thick mud the earlier rain had created. “But why is it so loud now?” he asked as his foot made another loud sloshing noise in the mud.
Roy didn’t have an answer this time. His partner was right. They were making a considerable amount of noise trudging through the mud, and he couldn’t understand why they hadn’t heard the little girl running through it earlier. There was a lot of things he wasn’t understanding at this time. He just wanted to get to the farm house, treat the mother and get the hell back to the station. Their situation was becoming all to surreal.
“Mister,” said the small girl startling him. “Can we hurry? My mother needs help.”
Roy picked up the pace again. They had been walking through the pea soup for over five minutes and they had yet to reach the house. How far back is it? He thought to himself. He looked down at the girl clinging to his hand. “Was she just involved in a car accident?” he asked curiously. He didn’t know why the idea hadn’t come to him earlier. This was probably the girl who had been on the road along with her mother when he had come to a screaching halt. He laughed to himself for once again letting his imagination get away from him.
“Accident?” asked the girl surprised. “There was no accident was there?”
Roy looked at his partner skeptically, who just shrugged his shoulders. Now Roy was definite he wanted to get this night over with as soon as humanly possible.
*** *** ***
The fog let up a bit as they entered a clearing. A huge, looming structure was standing in the middle of an emense field surrounded by dense trees. It stood three stories high and looked to be at least the size of a small warehouse. It was dark and ominous with ivy creeping across the first two floors and winding it’s way around the sides. A chimney jutted out of the right corner of the roof, sihouetted by thick fog. There was a large oak door situated smack dab in the middle of the mansion’s face with a small entrance light that gave next to no illumination. The house appeared to be older than dirt and slightly out of place for farmland. Johnny noticed two windows on the second floor had lights on, and in one of the windows he could make out the figure of a person watching them. He gulped and tried to shake the eerie feeling that was creeping down his spine. The wind had suddenly picked up causing the trees to wave their long creaking branches, straining them against their rooted structures. Sudden thoughts of white washed butlers dragging chains, and quirkly little men with strange accents crept into his imagination. Why me? He thought to himself. Why not Chet Kelly?
The girl dropped Roy’s hand and ran for the front door. When Roy and Johnny caught up with her she pushed the heavy, auspicious door open for them. Then she ran deeper into the heart of the house, disappearing into the darkness. Johnny stepped into the hallway after pushing Roy in first, and placed the drug box on the floor. “Hello,” he called quietly. Part of him was afraid to hear a response.
“Hello!” called Roy more loudly. “Little girl?!”
A gust of wind rushed past them and the front door slammed shut, it’s thud echoing throughout the house. Roy and Johnny dropped their remaining equipment and raced for the door. Their first insticnt was to get out. Maybe the woman was just napping and would wake up on her own? thought Johnny as he tried unsuccessfully to turn the giant door knob. Roy was right behind him apparantly sharing the same idea. They were fighting for the door knob when a hand grabbed Johnny by the shoulder and spun him around. He couldn’t help but scream as he spun around he came face to face with an elderly gentleman wearing an old style English tuxedo. His mouth went dry and he was about to plead for their safety when the grey haired, sullen faced man spoke up. “She is in the parlour.” he said with perfect enunciation.
“Parlour?” croaked Roy, returning the vase he had procured from a nearby table. He had grabbed it out of reflex fear. Now as he placed it back on its perch he felt slightly embarrassed.
“Yes,” continued the gentleman. “Mrs. Whittler is in the parlour. You are the two paramedics Miss Sarah brought from the road, are you not?”
“Yeah,” started Johnny pulling himself together. He stood as tall as he could, portraying a man of no fear...even though he wasn’t. “Yeah, we’re the paramedics.”
“Follow me,” replied the man in a deadpan voice. Johnny and Roy collected their gear in silence. Neither one wanted to admit to their recent outburst, so they figured if it remained unmentioned... it never happened.
The parlour was located off to the right of the great hallway, and Johnny and Roy were relieved when they entered and saw the little girl. She was kneeling beside an unconcious woman lying on a velvet couch in the middle of the room. At the far end of the room was a fireplace burning brightly between two large windows. A man was leaning against the mantle smoking a pipe and wearing a navy blue smoking jacket. He resembled an old matinee idol Johnny had seen in one of Roy’s classic late night movies. Behind the couch was another woman of considerable age, wringing a delicate hankerchief between her gaudily enjeweled hands. “Mother,” said the girl in a quiet voice. “I have brought help.” She gestured to Roy and Johnny with her small hand. “Please wake up mother..” she pleaded as she buried her head in the pillow beside her mother’s head.
Roy and Johnny switched modes. This was something they could handle...an emergency. The ominous building, the strange accident, the odd assortment of people all retreated to the recesses of their minds as they set about to help the woman. Johnny gently moved the girl called Sarah away from the couch so Roy could check her vitals. He then proceeded to a desk under one of the windows and pulled open the bio-phone and set up to transmitt. Part of him was anxious beyond belief to hear a familair voice from Rampart. He would even put up with Dr. Morton’s bad bedside manner right now if it would bring any sense of normality to the situation.
Roy shook the woman gently trying to arose her with no result. He wrapped the BP cuff around her arm and turned to Johnny. “Have you got Rampart on the phone yet?” he asked, just as anxious to hear a familiar voice.
Johnny kept the reciever to his ear as he played with the dials on the bio-phone. He was getting no reception, not even static. He called into the phone knowing he would get no response, but felt better doing it. Giving up, he held the phone out and furrowed his brow. “I’m not getting anything,” he pronounced dumbfounded.
“Nothing at all?” asked Roy removing the cuff and checking the patient’s pulse.
“Nothing.”
“The magnetic static from the lightening must be causing interference,” offered the man leaning on the mantle. “It has knocked down all the power lines in the area and left us rather stranded I must say.” he said matter-of-factly as he took another puff on his pipe.
Johnny thought about that a moment, it seemed reasonable. Then he shook his head. “What lightening?” he asked, both confused and slightly irratated. “There is no...” He was suddenly interupted by a loud clap of thunder followed by a blinding flash of light that lit up the entire room. Johnny stood there speechless as torrential rain began to beat against the windows. “Oh that storm,” he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He quickly closed up the useless bio-phone and crossed the room to join Roy. He knelt down beside him and examined the sleeping woman with feigned concern. “Looks good to me,” he said and stood to leave. “Let’s go.”
Roy wanted to agree with his partner and get the hell out of there, but the woman was still unconcious and needed their attention. “Just relax pal,” he said looking up at an anxious Johnny. “Let’s just check her out and then we can get going.” He pulled out his pen light and examined her eyes.
“How does she look?” asked Johnny as he knelt down. This time he actually meant it.
“She looks asleep,” he reported. He realized he was still wearing his helmet so he unstrapped it and placed it on the floor beside him. “How did this happen?” he asked no one in particular, as he scanned the room.
“He is trying to kill her!” cried the elderly woman, speaking for the first time since they had arrived. She pointed a knobby finger in the direction of the fireplace and began cursing vehnememtly at the man.
“Oh, be quiet you old hag,” sighed the unfrazzled man. “You always think I’m trying to kill her.”
“You are trying to kill her!” she cried again. “My daughter is going to die!” The woman behind the couch began shaking and crying as she threw her head back dramaticlly. Johnny rushed to her side and ushered her to a nearby chair. “Now hold on a sec,” he started. “Nobody is going to kill anyone. My partner just said the woman is fine.” He looked over to Roy for assurance.
“He’s right,” said Roy, rising from his squatting position. “Everything seems normal. She must of just fainted, there is nothing to worry about. Her vitals all read normal.”
The woman sitting in the chair fanned herself with her hankerchief and leaned back to rest her head. Feeling confident that she was alright Johnny joined his partner back at the couch. Roy seemed distraught and slightly agitated as he began searching for some smelling salts in the drug box. Johnny was not the only one who wanted to get out of here. He quickly found what he was looking for and waved them under the woman’s nose. Slowly she came around and started moaning, calling for her daughter. Roy moved away to let Sarah in and picked up his helmet. “I think everything is under control here,” he said looking at Johnny. “I think we should be leaving.”
“You can’t leave us here like this!” cried the old woman bolting upright in her chair.
Watch us, mused Roy under his breath, but he didn’t dare say it out loud. “We really have to get back to the station.”
“Yeah,” chimed Johnny. “The guys will be wondering what happened to us.”
“Can’t you do anything about the power?” asked the little girl concerned.
Roy found it hard to look into her bright green eyes and refuse. This sudden urge to help overcame him and he found himself complying with her plea. “I’ll take a look, but I can’t promise anything.” he said grinning at the girl.
In a blink of an eye Johnny was right beside him urging him to change his mind. Roy shrugged and gave his partner a thoughful glance. “It can’t hurt to take a look,” he offered.
“Fine,” stated Johnny holding his hands up in mock surrender. “You look around, I’m going back to the squad to try the radio there. We just left it out on the road you know. I’ll go get it and meet you out front.” He was more than ready to get out of this house and back on the road.
“Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!” cried the distinguished man at the mantle. He stepped to the window in a dramatic gesture and turned to his intended audience...the storm. “You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!” He finished his perfomance with a bow and crooked smile. Then he turned to his guests waiting for their graduitous applause.
Johnny took two back steps towards the door staring strangely at the obscure man. “Now that, is a strange man,” he whispered in Roy’s direction.
“It was Shakespeare!” proclaimed the gentleman. “Don’t you know anything?” he asked irritably.
“It was a wonderful rendition sweetheart,” cooed the mother from the couch. She looked adoringly at her husband and offered her hand for him to join her on the couch. That was enough to convince Johnny that something was rotten in the state of Denmark! He turned on his heel and headed straight to the front door.
Roy followed his partner out into the dark hall and gave him a last piece of advice before he started back to the squad. “Be careful out there,” he said in a hushed tone. “Don’t get lost.”
“Don’t worry about me pal,” smiled Johnny. “You’re the one staying behind with the Addams family.” With that he turned and began a slow trot toward the road. After a few steps his gentle gait turned into a full throttle sprint.
Roy laughed and turned back to the situation at hand...the power. He returned to the parlour to find the once sleeping woman sitting up, lighting a cigarette. The elderly woman had joined her on the couch and was fussing over her decision to light up. The distinguished younger man had returned to his vigil at the fireplace while the girl, Sarah, had found something to play with over in the corner. He couldn’t figure this family out. A second ago the man was spouting Shakespeare, and moments before that he was being accused of attempted murder. Now they seemed like one big happy family. It looked to him like a case of collective schizophrenia. He was begining to think Johnny had had the right idea...but he had promised the girl. He decided to check on the woman before going off in search off the fuse box.
“Are you feeling better?” he asked.
“Yes, thank-you,” she returned taking a long drag of the cigarette. “I get excited very easily and I tend to pass out. I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
“It’s alright,” answered Roy. Since she seemed to be all right, and he had no inclinations to find out what had scared her...that seemed obvious to him from his perspective, he decided to hurry. But one thing bothered him. “I was just wondering one thing...” he added, scratching his head. “How did you know we were out there on the road? I mean, it seemed like Sarah knew where we would be. She just came running out of the fog like she expected to see us?”
Sarah turned her attention away from object she found so interesting in the corner and gave Roy a mischievious smile. “I didn’t know you would be there,” she said in a sweet innocent voice. “I just went running for help when I couldn’t wake up mother.” She batted her long lashes at Roy and grinned. “I guess I was just lucky you were there.”
“Yeah, lucky,” replied Roy swallowing hard. He turned around to face the butler, or at least he pressumed he was the butler, and gestured towards the door. “Can you show me where the fuse box is?”
“Right this way.” The butler gestured into the hallway and Roy followed.
Just as he was about to disappear around the corner he looked back into the room. “I don’t suppose any of you know anything about a car accident do you?” he asked, already knowing the answer. The occupanats of the room just stared back at him curiously, like he had just grown a second nose. “Never mind,” he said shaking his head. He went after the butler and was led through the dark hallway to a door underneath the staircase. It was a small door and he had to lower his head as he crossed the threshold.
“Is there anyone else in the house?” asked Roy turning back to the butler.
“No,” the butler replied sourly, then passed him a flashlight from a shelf at the top of the stairs and pointed down the spiral staircase. Roy took the light and began his slow decent. It wasn’t until he was halfway down that he realized he was alone. He flashed his light back up the stairs to find nothing but empty steps. He shook his head. Great, he muttered. Now watch me get lost.
And lost he was. He had been wondering around in the labrynth of a basement for the past ten minutes trying to find the fuse box. He had turned so many corners and ran into so many dead ends he was about to give up and go back to the parlour. The strong musty smell of the dungeon, that’s what he was calling it at this point: a dungeon, was making him nauseous, and he was getting sick of bumping into things in the dark. He only hoped someone had put new batteries in the flashlight he was using, because if it went out, he was sure people would find his dead, rotted bodies years from now in some small, bleak corner covered in cobwebs. The image sent shivers down his spine as he finally decided to call it quits. Now... if only he could find the staircase again.
After another ten minutes he found one. It was a staircase, but he wasn’t sure if it was the same one he climbed down. Either way, it was up and that was the direction he wanted. He started his ascent, taking each step carefully as he trudged one foot after the other up the winding staircase. Each step creaked and moaned under his foot as he continued to climb. It seemed longer going up than it did going down. He was sure he had climbed at least two stories when he finally came across a landing. He opened the door and peered out into an abandoned hallway. He had no idea where he was, but he was sure he wasn’t in the front hallway. He stepped out and scanned the area with his flashlight. He appeared to be in some sort of hallway which ran off in two different directions. “Hello!” he called, hoping to hear some sort of response he could follow back. “I’m lost!” he called again when he got no answer.
Damn, he thought and started down the hallway. He had no intention of going back to the basement now that he had finally found a way out, so he decided to find another staircase. He walked down the hall bouncing the light of his flashlight off the walls. There were numerous doors, but all were locked when he tried to open them. He could hear branches scrapping against a window at the end of the hall and quickly picked up his pace. Suddenly a loud clap of thunder resounded throughout the old house and another flash of lightening lit up the entire hall. He caught a quick glimpse of a familiar young woman standing in front of the window at the end of the hall. She disappeared just as quickly as she had appeared. He flashed his light where the woman had been standing but couldn’t see her anymore. His heart quickened and he ran towards where she had once been. He tried both doors at the end of the hallway and found one that was open. He stepped in gingerly, peeking his head in first. To his surprise a light was on. Upon closer examination he noticed it was a candle burning under a homemade light shade. It seemed extremely careless and hazardous and he felt compelled to put it out. He crossed the room careful not to trip, and as he blew it out he suddenly felt a sudden chill. Aside from the light of his flashlight, he was once again in darkness.
“Why did you do that?” asked a small voice from behind him.
Roy spun around and aimed his flashlight in the direction of the voice. A woman in a light chiffon nightgown was standing in the corner looking at him with dismay. Roy took in a deep breath when he recognized the woman from the road earlier. “I didn’t know you were there...” was all he could muster to say in his sudden state of fear and shock. The butler had informed him that no one else was in the house, and as far as he was concerned, this woman constituted a someone.
“I wish you hadn’t done that,” she continued in her soft voice. “I don’t have any matches to relight it.”
Roy didn’t know what to say. His mind was racing with possible options and the one most prevelent was GET OUT! Finally he decided to say something logical. “It’s not a good idea to leave a burning candle under fabric like that,” he said, his voice quivering slightly. “It’s a fire hazard.” He looked back at the extinguished flame and noticed that it had suddenly sprang back to life. He shuddered and jerked his head back to the woman in the corner. She was gone. He spun around the room aiming his flashlight everywhere trying to find the woman. His search came up empty. With his heart trying very successfully to pound it’s way out of his ribcage he gave the candle one more blow and darted for the door before it relit itself again.
This was it for Roy. He ran down the hallway as fast as he could, power or nor power he was leaving this place. He ran past the open doorway where the staircase to the basement was and paused before shaking his head and continuing further down the hall. He came to a screaching halt as the wall to his right suddenly opened up and revealed a staircase. Without thinking he bounded down the stairs and found himself back where he started. The front hallway of the house. With a sigh of relief he jogged towards the front door with every intention of contiuing out into the night and back to the squad. He threw open the door as a crash of thunder filled his ears and lightening lit up the front doorway. He saw a tall figure standing in the rain wearing a long coat and ominous hat. The figure reached for Roy suddenly and he jumped back and slammed the door shut. He stumbled backwards trying to aim the flashlight back at the door. He watched in horror as the knob turned slowly and the door creaked open. Roy stood there frozen with fear as the figure of the man in the overcoat standing in the rain framed the dark berth.
“What the hell are you doing, Roy?” asked the figure as it stepped in from the rain.
“Johnny?”
“Yeah, it’s Johnny. Who did you expect the Boogie Man?” he retorted shaking the rain from his turnout coat. He had gotten soaked running back to the squad and decided to put on some extra layers to keep warm before driving back.
“At this point I wouldn’t have been surprised,” replied Roy, brushing past Johnny on his way out the door. He continued out into the rain a few steps before looking back. “Where are you going?” he asked shading his head with his hands from the down pour when he noticed Johnny wasn’t following him.
“I thought you were going to fix the power problem?” Johnny yelled back. He looked around the hallway and noticed that the lights had not been restored. “Aren’t you going to fix it?!” he called after his friend who had started down the front lawn toward the parked squad.
“Forget it!” Roy yelled back. “I’ve had enough of this place. Let’s get out of here!”
“What about the equipment?!”
“You get it! I’ll wait in the squad!” Roy exclaimed as he threw open the door and climbed into the driver’s seat. He quickly locked the door behind him and started up the engine.
Johnny just shrugged. “All right,” he muttered to himself as he headed down the hallway. When he got to the parlour he found the fire still burning, but no one was there. Their equipment was packed neatly by the desk ready to go. Hesitantly Johnny walked over to retrieve it. The room had grown very cold even though the fire was still burning strong in the fireplace. He noticed the pipe the man had been smoking earlier resting on the mantle giving off a slight trickle of smoke. It was still lit, but there was no one around to smoke it. Johnny didn’t take the time to figure out where everyone had gone. He grabbed the equipment and ran for the door. As he rounded the corner out into the hall he could swear he heard a small, childlike laugh emanating from the walls. Without another thought he warped to the front door and ran out to the squad afraid to look back.
When he got the equipment stowed away he jumped into his seat and slammed the door shut. He pushed down the lock and let out a sigh of relief. As he turned to look at his partner he caught a glimpse out Roy’s window. “Uh Roy,” he stammered, his mouth suddenly dry and uncoroporative. “Drive....Don’t look, just drive” he said as he stared unblinking out Roy’s window.
Unable to resist the urge, Roy whipped his head around to look out his window to see what had suddenly caused his partner’s face to turn whiter than snow. He was fixated at what he saw and found it very hard to convince his muscles to move. “Drive!” screamed Johnny, jolting him back to reality. Roy flinched and threw the squad into drive. He pressed on the gas causing the tires to kick up dirt behind them as they sped across the lawn. Driveway or no driveway, he didn’t care. He just wanted to get out of there.
Johnny kept staring at his sideview mirror in utter shock. The view he could see was empty. There was no ominous house with ivy creeping across it’s structure. There was no man smoking a pipe in a blue smoking jacket. There was no butler waving good-bye. Only a large empty clearing slowly being comsumed by the thick fog rolling across the landscape.
“There’s nothing there, is there?” asked Roy keeping his eyes glued forward.
“Nope,” replied Johnny joining his partner in his stare out the front windshield. “Nothing.”
“I won’t say anything if you don’t?”
“Just drive Roy...just drive.”
