The Call
Chapter Two
Officer Jacob Adams sighed and rubbed at his tired eyes as he read the police report in front of him. Why do I always get stuck with these right before my shift ends?
He had been called to the scene of the accident shortly after 9 PM and by the time he got there the owner of the newly wreaked vehicle had already been loaded and hauled off and he had yet to hear any news about the man, so he knew that his report would have to remain incomplete for the time being. He had gathered as much information as he could from the first officer to arrive on the scene, but there wasn't much information to gain. The officer had told him that the accident was called in by the victim's brother, who was too distraught to give any real information other than the fact that his brother had called him after he had had the accident and he was the one who found him. The vic's brother had left with the ambulance before he could be questioned any further.
There was nothing spectacular about the accident itself, hell he'd probably been to three others this week that were similar. It was mind numbing having to write this junk over and over every day. He put his pen down as he finish up; his eyes drew back to the top of the page and he scanned over what he had written.
Motor Vehicular Accident Report
July 18th, 2006 Approximate time of accident between 8:00 and 8:30 PM
Male victim, Caucasian, 30 years of age. Name: Charles E. Eppes
Accident involves one vehicle: a blue 2005 Honda Accord
Condition: totaled
Accident description:
Upon arrival, vehicle was not in sight of the road. The road was covered in fresh skid marks, tire debris and glass. Broken glass bottles have been identified as the initial cause of the accident. The glass shards shredded both front and back passenger tires causing the vehicle to swerve out of control. The vehicle careened sharply to the left and into a wooded area whereupon driving over and through forest growth before coming to a hard stop against a large tree.
Basic overview of victim gathered from officers on the scene:
Victim had head trauma with bleeding gash across left side of the head near the hair line, possible internal injuries, right arm broken. Official report not yet available.
Officer Adams looked at his watch and groaned, it was getting late and if he didn't leave soon he would miss his favorite late night show. He glanced at the report and without further thought threw it on top of a growing stack of papers on his desk, it wasn't perfect but it would do for now, besides he couldn't finish it until he had all the rest of the information regarding the victim. He happily grabbed his jacket and car keys and left the office as fast as he could before he had any more work shoved on him.
-------------------------------------
Both Alan and Don Eppes were exhausted. Who knew sitting in a waiting room could be so tiring? Of course, they had both done their fair share of waiting in similar rooms during the last few months of Margret's illness, but it had never been quite so sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat tense that it was now. Both father and son feared that any moment a doctor would come walking through those doors to tell them the horrible news.
Don was positive it would be bad; he had seen Charlie with his own eyes and it was a sight he knew would cause him nightmares for months to come, possibly years depending on what news the doctor brought them.
His exhaustion won the battle of wills against his need to stay awake incase something happened and Don's heavy eyelids slid closed on their own account.
His world was solid black for a moment, but the more he looked around, the lighter it became until he could finally make out his surroundings in the darkness. Everything around him remained a dull gray and the utter stillness that surrounded him sent a chill down his spine.
He wondered why he was standing in the middle of an empty road and it took him a moment to realize he was back at the scene of the accident.
A sense of dread filled him and against his will his feet started to pull him forward toward the broken tree line. He tried to stop; he didn't want to see what he knew was in the forest just up ahead, but his body wouldn't listen and a moment later the wrecked heap came into view.
The car was badly damaged and most of the windows were shattered, which made it easier to see the top of somebody's head leaning back against the headrest. Of course that wasn't just anybody sitting in the driver's seat, and as much as Don wished it was someone else, he knew that it was his little brother sitting there.
He continued forward, although this time it was of his own doing, and he walked slowly towards the driver side door. He could hear a faint song coming from the car, presumably the radio and he wondered why he hadn't noticed it before. Now that he had he couldn't ignore it, it was the only other noise in the area besides his harsh breathing and it buzzed in his ear like an annoying insect.
Finally he was standing beside the driver's side door, but he wasn't sure if he could bring himself to look in. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths to try and tame the growing panic welling up within him. He took some time to steel himself for the gruesome sight he was about to face and opened his eyes. All the time in the world couldn't have prepared him to see his brother this way and the air was forced out of his lungs in shock.
Charlie's eyes were closed and he would have almost looked peaceful if it weren't for the blood running down the side of his face. The blood on his brother stood out the worst because while everything else was a lifeless gray, the blood was a deep red color and Don could see every place that had a drop of the life giving liquid on it because it stood out like a neon sign in the night.
The moment of stunned stillness passed and he quickly tried to yank the door open; it took several tries before the badly dented door creaked open and Don kneeled next to his brother, his first aid training kicking in.
He didn't have to look hard to see that his brother wasn't breathing and he reached two shaking fingers to his brother's throat to check his pulse. Charlie's skin was cold to the touch and he almost drew his fingers back, but he had to know for sure, so he continued onward and held his fingers to Charlie's throat for a long moment, but the gentle thumping of a pulse never came.
His vision suddenly blurred and it took him a moment to realize he was crying. He quickly backed away from the car; he couldn't stand being there any longer and he immediately turned around to run away, but upon doing so he was no longer in the woods and the abrupt change in scenery drew him to a halt.
He was now standing alone inside a chapel, rows of empty pews lined up in front of him. Where the woods had been gray, the inside of the chapel was brightly colored and it felt to Don that the happy colors were mocking his grief.
He took a step forward and found himself on the other side of the room, standing in front of a closed casket. He really didn't want to see who was inside, but the decision wasn't his and the lid was slowly opened by a ghostly force.
He only had a moment to look at his brother inside before he was roughly brought out of his sleep.
It took Don a moment to get his bearings and completely wake up. He looked around to see that he was still in the hospital waiting room and finally looked to his father who was watching him intently with concern.
"Good you're awake, for a moment there I thought I was going to have to splash some water on you. You looked like you were having a bad dream, want to talk about it?" Having sat in the silence for so long with his thoughts, Alan would have gladly listened to anything to distract himself.
"Sorry dad, I didn't mean to fall asleep and no, I don't want to talk about it" Don knew that Alan didn't have complete details about the accident and he had enough to worry about right now besides Don's vivid dream which was basically all the details of the wreck, only multiplied and made a hundred times worse.
"Donnie…" Whatever Alan was going to say was interrupted when a doctor walked into the room.
"Eppes family?"
Don and Alan looked at each other, this was the news they had been waiting for, good or bad, they were about to find out. They both took deep, calming breaths before getting up and walking over to the doctor.
"Hi, I'm Doctor Joseph Williams, I handled Charles case, if you'll just follow me to my office, we'll talk there."
TBC…
Author's note: Ok guys, I hoped you liked the story so far. I really had only intended this to be a one shot, but I put myself in your shoes and I realized that I would probably like to know what happened to Charlie. I did it like that because I hate to kill Charlie off, so I just implied it and sometimes different peoples' imagination can come up with all kinds of different endings, I know I certainly thought of a few when I was trying to decide how to continue this story and give y'all some closure.
I want to apologize to anybody who might have actually knowledge of accident scenes and police reports, because I'm certainly no expert by any means, so I tried to describe it as best I could. I was trying to give two different perspectives of what happened, a more professional one and Don's more emotional one.
The next chapter will be the epilogue. Thanks sooo much for all the great review, cyberhugs for everybody. )
Taura Callisto