Derek Schneider - Avenging Autumn

Avenging Autumn

Seasons Change Series: Book 1 of 4

By

Derek A. Schneider

Smashwords Edition

• Copyright 2008 Derek A. Schneider. All rightsreserved

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ISBN:978-1-4343-7522-3 (sc)

Library of Congress Control Number:2008903457

1. Autumn Leaves

October, 2006

Autumn Writeman was leaving work late onceagain.

She stepped through the double doors of theWrite-man Bank building and into the cool night air. Fall hadfinally come to Indiana with the suddenness of a snapping twigunder silent footfalls, in an October that had been unusually warmup to that point. It was less than two weeks until Halloween and ithad been so warm that the leaves were late in turning. This nighthowever, the trees were bright and colorful even in the dark andthe bank parking lot was littered with foliage that sped across thepavement making a scraping sound that might make some cringe, butAutumn found it beautiful.

A smile touched her lips at the thought of theim-pending holiday, and her husbands childlike excitement as thenight of tricks and treats approached. Benjamin Writeman (Benny tohis friends) not only loved Halloween, he was also very fond of thetime of year. He even managed to find a girl named Autumn tomarry.

Multi-colored leaves raced around her feet inthe breeze and she was suddenly hit with a parade of childhoodmemories. Jumping in a pile of leaves her father had just raked up,helping her mother carve a jack-o-lantern, going trick or treatdressed as Princess Lea, or Casper the friendly ghost, or Draculasbride. She supposed that she loved fall just as much asBenny.

Standing next to her car door, Autumn beganthe nightly ritual of digging through her purse in search of herkeys. Benny often made fun of her inability to throw things out,though she often complained that he threw out too much.

Just as her hand closed around her keys astrange feeling came over her, as if just for a moment, it was wellinto winter rather than mid fall. She shivered hard and suddenly, arapid flapping sound forced a slight scream from her throat.Turning quickly she scanned the area and saw nothing but the emptyparking spaces behind her. Moving faster now, she slid the key intothe door of the little black pickup and got behind the wheel,quickly closing and locking the door behind her. Autumn hatedleaving work at night. The parking lot (and the building too, nowthat she thought about it) always gave her a creepy feeling thatshe couldnt explain. However, working late was a common occurrencethis time of year, with Christ-mas shopping right around thecorner. Of course that wouldnt be a problem had she not beendemoted two months ago, but the bills had to be paid and Bennyhadnt sold any paintings lately.

The truck belonged to Benny, a littleMitsubishi thats been through hell but just keeps on runninganyway. Her car, which was only three years old, was in the shoponce again. And of course, every time she did have a problem withher car, he would say the same thing; I told you not to buyAmerican. He had told her this, but for some reason she couldntremember, she hadnt listened.

She keyed the ignition, threw the transmissioninto drive, and pulled out of the parking lot. Soon afterward,Au-tumn had forgotten about the strange feeling that came over herand began singing loudly with the Dead Poetic CD Benny had left inthe stereo. In their younger days, Benny and Au-tumn were what somepeople would call Gothic, and al-though their taste in musichasnt changed a lot, the way they dressed and the way they thoughtabout the world had changed immensely. After all, you cant wearblack eye makeup and lipstick along with buckle covered clothing ifyoure going to be a Financial Assistant for a major bank andloan.

She kept the black hair, though the clothingand make up were reserved for concerts and parties. Benny, for themost part, didnt change much over the years. He kept the blackhair as well, and wore it shoulder length, often hiding most of hisface to give people the impression he was a brooding artist. Intruth, he was a kind hearted joker that liked to keep his romanticside just between them.

She pulled into the driveway of their old, twostory house and shifted the little black truck into park. Gettingout she smiled again as she looked out at the Halloweendecora-tions that Benny had put on the front lawn at the beginningof October (the indoor decorations were put out in lateAugust).

There was the white sheet stuffed with oldclothes and tied to a tree to resemble a floating ghost. There wasthe plastic skeleton lounging in a lawn chair and looking as ifhed had a few too many martinis. As she stepped onto the porch shenoticed the shadowy ghoul that stood by the tree andstopping inher tracks, she stared at the dark figure in confusion.

That wasnt there before, shesaid softly to herself. She opened the door and started to callinside for Benny, then remembered he was out shooting pool with hisbrother.

She looked back at the dark ghoul for a momentand wondered if Benny had gone out and bought more decora-tions.Turning to walk into the house, her attention was imme-diatelyreturned to the dark figure when she noticed movement out of thecorner of her eye.

The ghoul was now walking towardher.

Autumn ran inside the house and locked thedoor behind her. Her heavy breathing was the only sound in thechilly darkness of the home. After a few minutes, Autumn edgedtoward the window and peeked through the curtain. The ghoul wasgone. Was he ever really there at all?

She was tired, very tired, and coming home toan empty house always made her feel a little jumpy anyhow. She tooka few calming breaths and then walked down the hall to the kitchen.Flipping the light switch up, she began to step toward the fridgebefore she realized the light hadnt come on. She tried the switchagain, and twice more after that. Still no lights.

Looking around the room she noticed themicrowave clock was dark, and the absence of that familiarrefrigerator hum made the entire house seem as quiet as a graveyardat midnight.

Movement caught her eye from the doorway tothe dining room on the opposite side of the kitchen. It was thedark figure from the front lawn, the ghoul with the red eyesshining out from his deeply shadowed face. Had she noticed his eyesbefore? She couldnt remember, at that moment eve-rything seemeddreamlike and hazy.

Autumn turned and took two steps toward thedoor but froze when she saw that the man had somehow moved fastenough through the living room to block her escape. Withoutthinking, she darted up the stairs, ran down the hallway and lockedherself in her room. As she ducked behind the bed, she reachedbeneath it and almost immediately found the wooden baseball batthat Benny kept there for just this type of situation.

She laid there for a long moment with the batheld tight against her chest, listening for any sound from outsideher door, but no sound came. Slowly, she got to her feet and peeredout the window. There was no movement on the lawn, besides theHalloween decorations blowing slightly in the wind. She could seethe Mitsubishi sitting in the driveway like a distant beacon ofhope that seems impossibly out of reach. Oh, how she longed to bein that truck right now. She won-dered if she could drop from thewindow without breaking a limb, and if so could she make it to thetruck without being seen, or at least caught by thestranger?