Chapter Five

Jace was sitting on the living room couch alone in his apartment. He was watching television and was listening to the news reporter talking about a plane crash that occurred this morning and Jace remembered that he was the responder to the scene of the plane crash.

Jace kept on remembering how many people were killed and severely injured after the terrible plane accident. Jace sighed. He then heard footsteps. Jace had been hearing footsteps constantly every single night and he then noticed the static television screen. Jace took his remote control and he was trying to fix the tv screen. The screen continued to mess up. Jace stood up from his living room couch and walked up to the tv to check the cable box to unplug the chords of the cable box from the television.

After Jace put the plug back into the wall, Jace took his remote and he turned the tv back on. The TV was acting normally again. Jace looked at the screen of the television and he sighed. Jace turned around and before he took a step to his couch, he noticed the little girl standing behind the couch. The same girl Jace saw in the ambulance.

Jace gasped after he turned and saw the girl. The girl was just standing behind the couch giving Jace this scary look. Jace's heart was beating so fast and Jace swallowed nervously. Jace heard himself gulp. The girl's eyes were red and bloody. Jace closed his eyes for a second and he then opened his eyes. After Jace opened his eyes, Jace noticed the girl wasn't standing behind the couch. She was gone. Jace sighed in relief. Jace wasn't sure if he was being paranoid or just being overly dramatic. Jace then started walking back to his couch and he slowly sat down on his couch and looked around other places in his apartment like his kitchen to be sure he didn't see the girl. Jace after looking away from the kitchen, he looked back at the tv.

Jace thought for a second wondering who this ghost girl was and or why she was probably haunting Jace. One week after Jace went back to the fire station, he was having lunch with his crew. Jace kept on playing with his food. He wasn't hungry. Then another emergency was called. Jace and his crew immediately got up from their seats and they went to the ambulance and fire truck.

After Jace and his crew had gone to a forest where a man had gone hiking had fallen and broken his ankle. The man was lying down on the ground where his daughter was standing next to him and told Jace and Alex while rushing up to her and her father with a stretcher that her dad had broken his ankle. The man was in excruciating pain. So Jace asked the daughter, her name was Rose, about any medical conditions that her dad might have that could've caused the fall, and Rose said no. Jace nods his head.

"Alright, we're gonna help your dad. Mr. Kinsey, my partner and I are gonna put you on a gurney, then we're gonna take you to the hospital to get treated, okay?" says Jace.

"I'm hurting so bad," says Mr. Kinsey as he was taking deep breaths trying not to focus on the horrible pain.

"I know Mr. Kinsey. Just try to hold very still while my partner and I put you on a gurney. I know you're in a lot of pain, but hang in there, okay?" says Jace.

"Okay," answered Mr. Kinsey.

Jace sighed. The air hung heavy with the scent of pine and damp earth. Rose's sobs were sharp little sounds that cut through the chirping of cicadas. Jace crouched beside Mr. Kinsey, his own breathing even, a stark contrast to the patient's panted gasps.

"Mr. Kinsey? Sir, I'm Jace. I'm an EMT," Jace said, his voice a low, steady rumble.

He kept his hands visible and moved slowly. "We're going to get you taken care of, okay? What's your pain level right now?"

Mr. Kinsey gritted his teeth, sweat beading on his forehead. He gestured vaguely at his right ankle, which was already swelling to an alarming size, his hiking boot laced tight around the rapidly discolored skin. "Fell on a rock... eight," he gasped. "Maybe a nine."
Jace turned his attention to Rose, whose face was blotchy with tears.

"Hey, Rose.  You're doing a great job helping your dad. Can you keep holding his hand?" Jace said.

Rose nodded, sniffling.

"Good. Can you tell me what happened? Did he trip?" Jace asked, trying to get more details while keeping Rose engaged.

"He slipped," she whispered, her eyes wide with fear. "On that big mossy rock."

Jace's eyes followed her gaze, his brain already mapping out the scene. The wet rock, the twisted fall—classic ankle fracture scenario. He carefully unzipped his bag, pulling out his trauma shears and a SAM splint.

"Mr. Kinsey, I'm going to need to take a look at that ankle," Jace said. "I'm going to cut your laces. It's going to hurt a bit, but it's important to expose the injury.". He gave the patient a reassuring look before swiftly snipping the laces and carefully peeling back the leather boot.

A low groan escaped Mr. Kinsey's lips as the boot was removed, revealing a grotesquely swollen, purple-tinged ankle. Jace's hands, though gentle, were all business. He checked for sensation by lightly touching the patient's toes.

"Can you feel this?". Mr. Kinsey nodded. Next, he checked for a pulse in the foot. Good—no neurovascular compromise yet.

"Alright, we're going to get this stabilized," Jace announced calmly. He unrolled the flexible SAM splint, shaping it into a 'U' shape for a padded stirrup splint. "This is going to help a lot with the pain."

"How are you doing, Rose?" he asked, never taking his attention from his work.

"Scared," she admitted.

"I know. But you're being so brave," Jace said, and shot her a quick, warm smile.

"We're almost done here. My partner is bringing the stroke basket now, and we'll get your dad a ride out of here."

With his partner's help, Jace secured the splint, the rigid aluminum molded to the shape of Mr. Kinsey's leg. He ensured the joints above and below the ankle were immobilized. He then gave his partner a nod, and they carefully slid Mr. Kinsey onto the stokes basket for transport.

Jace kept up a stream of quiet, reassuring conversation with both father and daughter, even as the pain medication his partner administered began to take effect. As they began the slow trek out of the woods, Jace kept his hand on the basket, the steady motion a rhythmic counterpoint to the quiet prayers being whispered by Rose. Until Jace started hearing whispers in his ear.

He began to space out. Jace then continued hearing noises, it was a horrific noise. It was a scary little girl's voice telling them that someone is watching Jace. "Jace?" says Alex. Jace continues listening to the evil little girl.

"Jace!" says Alex, sort of shouting. Jace said, "huh?" Alex told Jace they'd needed to help Mr. Kinsey on the gurney.

"Oh yeah," says Jace, sighing. "All right Mr. Kinsey, we're gonna now put you on the gurney and take you to the hospital to get treated," says Jace, looking down at Mr. Kinsey.

"Okay," says Mr. Kinsey.

Jace nods his head once again. Jace stood up from his knees and he and Alex pulled the gurney closer to Mr. Kinsey and then Jace pedaled the gurney real low. "Okay, Mr. Kinsey, we're gonna lift you up now," says Jace, going behind Mr. Kinsey's head and Alex behind Mr. Kinsey's feet.

"On theee... one, two, three," says Jace. Jace and Alex immediately lifted up Mr. Kinsey from the ground and they put him on top of the gurney. Jace and Alex put Mr. Kinsey in the ambulance. Rose immediately went to the car and followed the ambulance to the hospital. While Jace and Alex were riding in the back of the ambulance, they'd been making sure to keep an eye on Mr. Kinsey.

"Jace, when were you ever gonna tell me that you have a girlfriend now," says Alex.

"What?" says Jace.

"Well, I kind of stalked you on Facebook and it says you're in a relationship with a Jane Mersin," says Alex, smiling at Jace. Jace nods his head. "Yeah. I have a girlfriend. We're dating," says Jace, sighing.

"And? Where did you two meet?" wondered Alex.

"Uh, we met at the shopping mall. You know where one of the patients of ours had given birth? Actually I knew her already," says Jace.

"You know her already?" wondered Alex.

"Yeah. We went to college together," says Jace.

"Well, I would like to meet her sometime," says Alex.

"Why?" wondered Jace.

"Well, maybe we can all hangout or something? I have a girlfriend too. Her name is Kate Hall," says Alex.

"What, you never told me you had a girlfriend," says Jace.

"Yeah, yeah, don't get too excited. I don't know if I should call her my girlfriend yet," says Alex.

"What do you mean?" wondered Jace.

"I mean, we've been texting back and forth for six months now. I asked her if she liked me and she said yeah. But I don't know if she likes me like that." says Alex.

"Well, then ask. It won't hurt," says Jace.

"Yeah, maybe," says Alex, chuckling.

Jace then began to hear whispers in his ear once again. Jace covered his ear with his hand and squeezed his eyes shut and leaned his head forward. "Jace?" says Alex.

Jace then realizes the whispers had stopped and he slowly opened his eyes, removed his hand from his ear and lifted his head back up.

"Are you okay?" wondered Alex.

"Yeah. Yeah," says Jace.

That evening Jace, Alex, Jane and Katie were all at Jane's apartment that night playing a board game. Jace was taking his turn to play the game. "Are you guys wanting pizza tonight? I'm getting hungry," says Alex.

"Yeah, sounds great," says Jane. "I'll go ahead and call the pizza place," says Jace, standing up from his chair then to the kitchen and then after walking into the kitchen, he goes into the living room.

Jace picks up his iPhone from the living room nightstand, then he dials the phone number from the pizza place. After dialing the phone number, Jace heard the phone ring. As he was waiting for one of the workers at the pizza place to answer the phone, Jace heard whispers coming through the phone. Jace was trying really hard what the little girl that was whispering was saying. The little girl was screaming. She was screaming for help. Jace had a bad feeling that this girl he saw may have something to do with the whispering.

Jace then hung up. He puts down his iPhone back on the nightstand and he thinks for a minute. Jace stood paralyzed by the nightstand, his thumb still hovering over the darkened screen of his iPhone. The scream had been so piercing, so full of raw, jagged terror, that he could still feel the vibration of it in his inner ear.

It wasn't a prank call; it wasn't static. It was the same voice that had warned him in the woods. Alex walked into the living room to check on his friend. "You okay, man? You've been spacing out for the last five minutes," Alex said. "First in the woods, now here. You look like you've seen a ghost."

Jace forced a smile, shaking his head to clear the lingering sound of that chilling whisper. "Yeah. Just tired, I guess. That plane crash scene last week... it's still keeping me up at night."

"You need to take some time off, Jace," Alex said seriously. "Seriously. Talk to someone."

Jace nodded, but his eyes drifted to the back doors of the ambulance. He couldn't tell Alex that it wasn't just exhaustion. He couldn't tell him about the little girl with the red, bloody eyes, or that the whisper he just heard was her saying, "You didn't save me."

"I'm just paranoid," Jace thought, swallowing hard. "I'm just being paranoid," Jace said, continuing the conversation. "Sure. Come on let's get back to the dining room. We got a game to finish," Alex said, sighing.

Jace nodded his head and he put the phone back down. He and Alex turned around and they'd both headed back to the dining room to finish the game.

The next day, Jace and Alex were back to working as EMTs. But as they pulled into the hospital bay, Jace didn't feel relieved. He felt watched. Jace slowly lowered his hand, his pulse thundering against his eardrums. Alex was staring at him, the playful smirk about their dating lives completely gone, replaced by a sharp, clinical concern.

"Jace, seriously. You're white as a sheet," Alex said, leaning forward. "Is it the heat? Or are you having another flashback?"

"I'm fine," Jace snapped, perhaps a bit too quickly.

He forced his hands to be still, gripping the edge of the gurney. "Just a sudden headache. Sharp, you know? It passed." Alex didn't look convinced, but the ambulance slowed as it navigated the hospital's emergency entrance.

"We'll talk about this later. Don't think I'm dropping the double-date idea just because you're acting weird." Alex said.

As the doors swung open and the cool, sterile air of the hospital rushed in, Jace felt a momentary sense of safety. They wheeled a different patient named Josh Delian. into the trauma bay, handing him over to the waiting nurses and the orthopedic resident.

His mother appeared a moment later, her face still puffy but her expression filled with relief when she saw her son being moved to a room. Eventually Jace and Alex turned around before exiting the ER. They'd headed back into the ambulance.

But at the station this time, the sun was beginning to set, casting long, orange shadows across the pavement. Jace reached into the back of the rig for a fresh set of linens when he felt a sudden, icy draft—completely out of place in the humid evening air.

He froze. Reflected in the glass of the ambulance's rear door, he saw a small, still figure standing near the oxygen tanks. Jace didn't turn around. He couldn't. His breath hitched in his throat as he watched the reflection. It was her.

The girl Aleix who died while on the way to the hospital. Her clothes was charred at the hem, and her red, weeping eyes were fixed directly on his reflection. Then, her lips moved. No sound came out, but Jace understood the words perfectly.

"Why am I still cold, Jace?" Alex said.

Jace spun around, nearly knocking over a tray of medical supplies. The back of the ambulance was empty.

"Hey! You okay?" a voice barked.

Jace jumped, his heart nearly leaping out of his chest. It was just a hospital security guard walking his rounds. "You look like you're about to pass out, buddy," says Alex.

Jace wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his glove. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good." Jace answered. Alex nodded his head. Jace sat down. He and Alex continued to clean out the ambulance and sorting the medical supplies in the ambulance.