Haunt

Autumn Fills Out Paperwork (An Autumn & Kelsie Story) Part 2 of 2

Weekend One, Saturday Night, Continued

September 17, 2022

POV: Seven Wonders Park

The relative darkness obscured her vision as much as the pounding of blood through her head. The Overlord's figure hovered – staff in one hand, something bony and white in the other.

When he was close enough for her to make out his features, her vision cleared, and she saw him for what he was: a notably tall young man with a rather large nose and sweaty hair. In his hand, he held a jackal skull mask. His voice was slightly higher than she expected when he said, "Hey, Kelsie, do you know what time it is?"

"Too-goddamn-late-for-this," joked Kelsie, making the Overlord chuckle. "It's four-thirty."

"My girlfriend's gonna kill me." Overlord groaned. He noticed Autumn and acknowledged her with a friendly "Hey" before he swooped away in billowing burgundy silk.

Autumn felt on the verge of collapse. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Was that the Overlord?"

"Yeah, that's Skyler." Kelsie was not paying attention, looking instead to the dispersing crowd of yellowshirts.

"The Overlord's name is Skyler?" Autumn asked. Her hands were shaking. How could she feel cold when it was this warm outside?

Kelsie's mother Kim was on the hillside, wrangling people, as usual. Seeing her daughter, she called, "Kels, I'll be a few! Just wait there!"

"Will do!" Kelsie shouted back. Good shouters in that family; their voices probably carried clear into the parking lot. Kelsie finally found the face she sought and used that same shout to get his attention. "Bryan! Bryan, over here! No, now!"

As far as Autumn knew, Kelsie was nobody's manager and had no authority, but of course, there was "authority," and then there was "authority," and no one had told Kelsie that she wasn't the boss. An exasperated Bryan stomped over. Despite looking like he'd been awake for a week, Kelsie braced her hands on her hips and lit into him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, telling this woman that she's responsible for Mary going missing?" She jerked her head toward Autumn. "She's been out here feeling like crap, thinking she got someone killed. You know goddamn well that this kind of shit happens here! Is that how you treat junior yellowshirts on their first weekend of Haunt!"

Bryan looked mystified and more than a little abashed. "No, I didn't mean it that way. Autumn, I never said it was your fault."

Autumn had not expected to become the subject of a conversation. Now, she felt a mixture of mortification and vindication. Words escaped her.

Didn't matter. Kelsie had plenty. "You sure as hell implied it, though. Some bullshit about yellowshirts and not sending people off alone? Now get your head out of your ass and tell her that she didn't do anything wrong!"

To Autumn's shock, Bryan put his arm around Kelsie and gave her an affectionate squeeze. "Fine, Kelsie. She's right, Autumn. Whatever I said, I was just freaking out. It wasn't your fault. It's never a good idea to be alone near Rick Rickshaw's. But you were taking care of patrons, and that's the most important thing."

This was nice to hear, Autumn supposed, but wasn't everyone missing the point? "What about Mary, though?" she asked. "She disappeared doing a favor for me."

"Yeah, still not your fault. And we don't know exactly what happened." He leaned closer. His face was tired, but his recognizable winking humor had returned. "In here, words like 'dead' and 'disappeared' don't mean quite the same thing they do in the civilian world, you know? Also, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I heard someone say that Tom says that the Overlord is working it out."