Hello Annabelle

The tires of the ambulance screamed through the intersection burning black onto the pavement below as it turned down another road taking Annabelle Lee further and further away from something she couldn’t escape. The screams from her throat matched the screams of the tires and the people in the town could probably hear her before the siren or the screeching tires.

“He’s following me! He’s catching up! I can see him!” She cried out as the EMT’s tried holding her down to the gurney.

“You’re okay Annabelle! He can’t get you in here, everything’s going to be okay now.”

“No it’s not! He’s coming after me! He’s going to kill me just like he killed my parents! He told me himself!” She looked down at her blood soaked clothes and let out another scream half sobbing.

“There was noone there when we arrived sweetheart! He had already left. He won’t find you now. Don’t worry you’re going to be fine. Lay your head back and rest now, Annabelle. You’re going to be okay now.”

“I saw him!” She cried out, barely able to breathe, let alone speak. “I watched him butcher them! I watched him do to them exactly what he wants to do to me! He’s coming for me! Why don’t you believe me!?” The Medics grabbed her all over strapping down each arm first, then her legs, then her waist, then her neck. Not being able to move at all she let out a louder longer scream this time, making the EMT’s ears ring. The man to her left put his hands over her mouth to muffle the sound. The woman on her right held her arm tight as she pulled out a large syringe and stuck her with it. Before she could scream again her eyelids fell heavy like cinder blocks, unable to keep them open she quickly drifted away. As she peeled her drowsy eyes open a crack she found there was no more piercing light above her face to disturb her tired sight. She could feel her blood stained sweatshirt clinging to her cold skin. Her jeans were stiff and cold like her shirt. Still restrained by the straps on the gurney, she scanned her surroundings. It was too dark to see but she could feel that she was now laying on her side and no longer on her back. When she looked up as far as the straps would allow she could see sunlight coming through a tiny crack in the door. The door was sideways too. She was still in the ambulance.

“Hello? Is anyone there!? “ She whispered. No one answered. After a few moments of silence she let out a hoarse terrified half scream half cry.

“Hello? Can anyone hear me?” More silence.

“Please help me!” She sobbed. She lay there crying and unable to move for a few minutes, shivering violently. She began to wail and scream and thrash. Vigorously she began to rock the table trying to shake free from the hold of the straps, but it was no use. They were too tight and the more she resisted and tried to break free the more she could feel her wrists and ankles getting more friction burnt. She  became enraged wondering why she was left alone there in the dark. While there was the feeling of complete anger and rage there was a feeling of terrible tragedy and heartbreak as she remembers the last memory of her parents strung up on the walls in pieces, her little brother submerged in a tub filled with his own blood. Sounds were coming out of her now that she wasn’t even meaning to make, grunts and moans, screams and sobs. Her head was cold and wet too, she could feel it now as warm liquid ran down her forehead and saturating her eyebrow. Not knowing what else to do she again began violently shaking and pulling and rocking hoping to break some part of herself free.

The door to the ambulance flew open and slammed against the exterior of the vehicle. Straining her neck to see up behind her head, she can vaguely make out the silhouette of what looks like a man standing in the door.

“Please help me!” She manages to get out feeling light headed and relieved. The man didn’t move. He just stood there looking at her, breathing heavily. A chill flitted from her cold wet head into her spine down to her toes filling every empty space in her being. She was so scared she couldn’t make a sound. Her eyes moved slowly from the heaving slumped shoulders of the man standing behind her down his arm to the dripping gardening tool in his hand.

“M-M-M-Mr. Sedgwick?” She said trembling uncontrollably. The man stayed completely still except for the slight tilt of his large misshapen head.

“Please don’t hurt me.” she pleaded and sobbed feeling chilled and paralyzed.  

“Hello, Annabelle.” The man’s deep gravely voice crawled through the air and sank

into the young girl’s heart. He jumped up into the ambulance and slammed the door behind him. The scream that fell from her throat burned in her eyes and her nose and saturated the air with a blood curdling ring that lingered far longer than it needed to.