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
