Avenging Autumn: Seasons Change Book 1 of 4 (3 page)

Walking up to the front door, the gruesome
memories of that night flashed into his mind with every step he
took. Her limp body on the floor. The large pool of blood that
sur-rounded her. Pausing at the door to gather one last bit of
cou-rage, he tore the crime scene tape away, and walked
inside.

A hard breeze blew the leaves around the yard
and Benny heard the old familiar creaks and moans the house always
made, like the long dead branches on an ancient oak tree. He
remembered how those creaks and moans had often made Autumn feel
uneasy in the middle of the night, causing her to move up against
him while they were lying in bed. He remembered the warmth of her
body, and how good it felt to wrap his arms around her, giving her
every assurance that she was safe with him. He knew at that moment,
if he closed his eyes and concentrated hard enough he would be able
to feel the rise and fall of her stomach as she
breathed.

He missed her so much.

He walked upstairs and into their bedroom,
where they had made love on countless occasions. The room where she
was killed. The blood stain on the floor had faded slightly, the
chalk outline, however, had not.

Looking away quickly, he walked toward the
closet. The door was already opened, and the chain to the attic
dan-gled in front of him. He pulled the chain, reached up to catch
the ladder as it slid down, and climbed up to find the beat up old
shoe box that had sat there; untouched for the entire five years
they had lived in the house.

If Autumn would have known about the shoe box
and its contents she would have never approved, though it may have
saved her life that night.

A few minutes later, he was back downstairs
sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the box. Slowly, he pulled
the lid off and set it aside. Pulling some tissue paper aside with
his left hand, he stuck his right hand inside and lifted the
revolver out of its hiding place. The gun felt heavy in his hand,
but it calmed him. This was the remedy for all his pain. He picked
up one bullet and loaded it into the chamber, then put the barrel
to his temple and closed his eyes.

At that moment he heard a sound come from the
front door.

“
Hello?” he said standing up. He
looked down the hallway and saw a shadowy figure silhouetted
against the open front doorway. Suddenly, he felt his stomach turn
and his heart rate increased dramatically.

Thumbing back the hammer on the gun, he asked
with a shaky voice; “Who are you?”

The figure started to walk down the hall.
Benny be-gan to back up.

When the dark figure emerged from the shadows
into the light of the kitchen, the revolver fell from Benny’s hand
and he gaped at her in stunned silence.

Though it was hard to do, he swallowed, and
found the voice to utter one word.

“
Autumn?”

3. Benny’s Quest

It was 1996. Benny was home from school for
Spring break and he and Jack had been dragged to a play at the
Triloville High School. Debbie Hendershot was a girl Jack had had
an on again off again relationship with for the last two years and
it just so happened that her younger sister was in drama class and
had won one of the lead parts in the play. Although the play had
been highly regarded by critics, (at least that was what the
billboard in front of the auditorium said) Benny and Jack still
found it to be painfully boring.

Intermission finally came, much to the relief
of the Writeman brothers, and the two of them went outside with
Debbie so she could smoke.

“
Isn’t it a great play,” Debbie
squealed, “Jenny is doing so well. We’re going to stay for the
second act right?”

“
Gee, I’d really like to,” Jack
answered with fake regret, “but, I have got to get home so Benny
can stick hot safety pins in my pupils in the hopes that the pain
will erase the memory of the last hour and a half of my
life.”

Benny burst out laughing at this, which caused
Deb-bie to give both of them the evil eye. She threw her cigarette
down and stormed back into the auditorium.

“
Man, I have had it with that
bitch,” Jack said.

“
Hey, there is some suspicious
activity going on in the parking lot,” Benny stated, pointing to a
group of teenag-ers who were huddled between two cars. “You want to
go check it out?”

“
Sure!”

The brothers walked across the lot and found
exactly what they had suspected; a circle with two joints being
passed in opposite directions.

“
Mind if we join?” Benny asked.
Every one’s eyes turned to Jack with his neat hair and clean
appearance.

“
Are you a narc?” One of the guys
asked.

“
A narc?” Jack said, clearly
offended at the notion. “I am a weed aficionado my
friend.”

“
I know you,” a girl’s voice spoke
up.

Benny turned and found the lovely face of
Autumn Sanders staring up at him. He couldn’t help the smile that
spread over his lips.

“
Autumn!” he blurted
out.

“
You remembered.”

“
How could I forget? It’s my
favorite time of year.”

“
Who’s the narc?”

“
This is my brother Jack. Despite
his outward ap-pearance I can assure you; he is no narc. As a
matter of fact, he’s probably the biggest pothead I
know.”

“
Please, Benny, your making me
blush,” Jack inter-jected with a sheepish grin. He shook Autumn’s
hand and after introductions were made all around, jack produced a
bag of joints of his own. “Two joints is an appetizer for this
seasoned veteran.”

Soon the two brothers had made fast friends
with everyone in the group, and by the end of the night, with
Deb-bie Hendershot and her little sister’s meandering play
com-pletely forgotten, Benny found himself in the corner of Jack’s
living room getting to know the girl that would eventually become
his wife.

“
Hello, Benny,” the dead girl said
with a smile.

Slowly, Benny reached out and put the palm of
his hand on Autumn’s face. Her ice cold skin told him he wasn’t
dreaming, “Is it really you? Are you really here?”

“
Yes, baby, it’s me.”

Benny then fell to his knees, wrapped his arms
around Autumn’s waist, and began to weep uncontrollably.

“
Shush, it’s alright, sweetie, I’m
back,” Autumn con-soled her husband for a few minutes more, and
then said; “I don’t have a great deal of time and there are some
very important things I have to tell you.”

“
Okay,” Benny said as he stood up
and dried his eyes. “How much time do you have?”

“
We’ll get to that in a moment.
First, I have a very important question to ask you.”

“
What is it?”

“
Did you pick out this
dress?”

Benny looked surprised by this, “I thought you
liked that dress.”

“
Are you kidding? I’ve always hated
this thing.”

“
But, you were always showing it to
anyone that came over and you’d gloat about how your Aunt Clair had
made it for you for Christmas.”

“
That doesn’t mean I like it. It
certainly doesn’t mean I want to be buried in it.”

Benny smiled, “Well, I was going to bury it
anyway, figured I might as well kill two birds with one
stone.”

With that, Autumn threw her head back and
laughed loudly, and just like that, it was as if they had never
been apart.

After the laughter had ceased, Autumn stood on
her tip toes and kissed Benny on the cheek. “Let’s go upstairs,”
she said, “I want to change into something more comfortable.
Besides, this thing got really dirty while I was crawling out of my
grave.”

The oddness of her last sentence struck Benny
with fresh laughter. It didn’t help that he still wasn’t quite down
from the joint he had smoked with Jack earlier.

Man, that was some good shit, Benny thought as
his dead wife led him up the stairs. He also began to wonder if the
weed could have been laced with something else.

Benny sat down on the bed while Autumn
undressed and got into the shower, the whole time wondering if he
was dreaming all this, or if maybe he’d gone completely insane.
Soon, the shower stopped and Autumn stepped out. Benny stared at
her naked, wet body as she toweled off. She was always pale, but
now her skin seemed like it was almost solid white, as if you could
see how cold it would feel to the touch. His eyes followed the
curve of her thigh and up to her large breasts. How he longed to
touch her in those places that only he had known for the past ten
years. His eyes met hers and she smiled at him as she began to
brush her thick black hair and he noticed how much darker they
were, where before she had to apply heavy eye make up to get the
same effect.

Then he saw the ugly wound in her throat like
a se-cret, second mouth that suddenly had the urge to tell the
entire world of its existence. He looked away quickly, his chest
filling with red hot rage and crushing sorrow.

Autumn took notice of this and said; “I’m
sorry. Here, I’ll cover it up.”

She walked across the room to the closet,
pulled out a red and black, plaid scarf, and tied it around her
neck, covering the cut.

“
Better?” she asked.

“
Much. Thank you.”

After pulling on a pair of black, silk panties
and a matching bra, Autumn began to explain why she had arisen from
the grave.

“
I know you want to be with me,
Benny, but killing yourself won’t work.”

“
Then, what can I do?”

“
Well, first things first, you have
to make sure I’m able to rest in peace,” she pulled red and black
striped stock-ings over her legs. Autumn noticed the way Benny was
staring at her. “There will be time for that later, you naughty
boy.

“
Anyway, I guess I’m what you would
call a restless spirit.”

“
So you’re a ghost?” Benny asked
while trying to calm himself.

“
Not exactly, I’m in my own body,
but my body is no longer alive.”

“
Then you’re a zombie.”

“
Kinda, only I’m capable of
coherent thought, and I don’t have a craving for brains or human
flesh, you know?”

“
Do you have a craving for
anything?” Benny in-quired, wondering if she could still
eat.

“
Well, yeah, but like I said, we’ll
have time for that later.”

Benny smiled and felt his pants tighten once
again.

“
Zip me up,” Autumn said after
pulling a lacy, black, dress over her head. Benny zipped her up and
realized her outfit was one of her favorite’s to wear at concerts
and parties.

“
Ah, the ‘Gothic French Maid’
outfit,” he said.

“
Yeah, try to control yourself,”
she sat down beside him on the bed and her look became serious,
“You have to do something for me before I can rest in
peace.”

“
What is it?”

“
You have to avenge me.”

“
Then we can be
together?”

“
When you die I’ll be waiting on
the other side for you, but only if I’m avenged and only if you
wait until it’s your time. No suicide. Will you avenge my
death?”

“
Of course I will,” Benny said
without hesitation.

She leaned in and gave him a long kiss. Her
lips were as cold as an arctic wind.

“
Thank you, Benny.”

“
How long do we have?”

“
Maybe a week,” she said sadly,
“Keep in mind, I am still dead and my body will continue to suffer
the effects of decomposition.”

“
How can I find the man that killed
you within a week?”

“
Actually, there are six people
responsible for my death, and finding them will be easy. I can
sense them.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
Its like a telepathic thing, I
know exactly where they are right at this moment.”

“
Great,” Benny said excitedly,
“I’ll go downstairs, grab my gun, and we’ll go take care of these
rotten fucks right away.”

“
I don’t think it’s going to be
that easy Benny. I can also sense that these guys are extremely
dangerous, and your father probably knows why.”

“
My father?”

“
Yes, we should go see him, but
first we’re going to need help. If you kill these six people many
others will at-tempt to kill you.”

“
Okay, we’ll go see Jack, and then
we’ll go talk to Dad.”

They packed some extra clothes into an old
army nap sack they had bought at a yard sale a few summers before
and, after changing into a pair of cargo pants and an old Mudvayne
shirt, Benny grabbed his gun, piled everything into the Mitsubishi,
and they hit the road. As they drove, Benny thought about what
Autumn had said; about her body being dead, and decomposition
affecting it. Suddenly, the idea of getting intimate with her was
becoming less, and less attractive.