Based on this prompt: "it's night and i'm walking home alone and there's this guy following me and he's starting to gain on me and i found a phone booth with a lock on the door and i tried to call my best friend but i accidentally dialed the wrong number and i don't even know you but help me"

There is someone following me.

About 3 blocks back I felt like I was being watched. When I looked around, I saw a large man walking about 20 feet behind me. This wouldn't of bothered me at all if it weren't for the fact that it was 12:30am and literally no one else was on the street. I tested the suspicion I had about him and proceeded to cross the street and turn the corner.

Sure enough, he did the exact same thing.

It's not like I wanted to be walking millions of blocks back home super late on a cold December night. I went and visited Perry in the hospital- she broke her leg really badly after slipping on her freshly-mopped floor and was going to have to stay in the hospital for a little while and get surgery on it, so being the kind friend that I was, I spent the entire day with her and LaFontaine while we calmed her nerves. By the time we left the hospital, it was almost midnight. LaF walked home because their apartment was about two blocks away from the hospital. I was going to take the bus back, since I lived basically on the other side of town, but because of the snowy weather conditions and how late at night it was, the next bus was coming in 3 hours. There was no way I was waiting that long. I couldn't call a friend or a cab, because my phone died and I didn't have anyone's number memorized except for LaF's, but I didn't want to bother them after the long day we had. It's not like there were many pay phones around here anyway. So I began my long trek across town.

And now, there's a creepy guy following me.

I look behind me briefly, and to my horror he's beginning to pick up the pace. I do too, but just one of his steps is like 3 of mine and he's gaining on me so quickly. I break into a run, panicking. I don't even dare look back to see if he's running, too. What in the name of hell or Hogwarts am I supposed to do?!

I remembered my earlier thought about pay phones. There may not be many around but I was going to try and find one. I had to call LaF before I get inevitably murdered.

I whip my head around, trying to spot one. No luck. I keep sprinting, now running on full adrenaline, crossing the street to the next block. I can hear his heavy footsteps behind me. Why is he trying to follow me?

Bingo. There's one about 30 feet in front of me. I can see it faintly illuminated by the orange street light. I pick up my pace, my heart nearly bursting out of my chest, and fling open the door, shutting it behind me quickly. To my relief there is a little lock on the booth's door. I slide it into place.

When I pick up the phone I can hear him yelling some sort of strange foreign language at me through the door. He even starts pounding on the booth, making my blood turn to ice.

I grab the last of my spare change from my pocket and throw it into the slot. It's dark, but I can faintly see the numbers on the keys so I punch in LaF's phone number with shaky hands.

"Please pick up, please pick up…" I mutter to myself, trying to block out the noise outside. I should have walked down a more populated street towards my house, one where there would be other people on the sidewalks.

To my glorious relief, I hear a voice. "Hello?"

"LaFontaine!" I almost scream. "There's this insane guy trying to attack me! I locked myself in a phone booth and my cell is dead, you've gotta help! I'm not too far away from your-"

"Woah, slow down," the voice on the other line says. "Who is this?"

I pause. "This… this isn't LaFontaine, is it?"

"Nope," the voice says. "Sorry."

Crap! I thought. I must've dialed the wrong number!

The girl lets out a sigh. By the sound of her deeper, relaxed voice, she sounds like someone who deals with crap like this all of the time, like this is no big deal. "But is seems like you got yourself into a pretty sketchy situation, and it's your lucky day; I'm actually feeling generous. So I'm gonna help you out."

I sigh a sigh of absolute relief. "Thank you," I say.

The man starts knocking and yelling again, which makes me jump. "I-I have no idea what to do. He won't go away!"

"Why did he start following you?" she questions. "Do you know him?"

"No!" I exclaim. "He just started following me for no reason at all. I think he's crazy."

"Hm," the girl grunts. "Well, I would just wait it out for a little bit. Just ignore him and see if he'll go away. Don't worry. You said you locked yourself in a phone booth, yeah? Those things are pretty strong, especially if you hold them closed yourself."

I smile. "Thank you," I say for the second time, warily looking out of the clear door. He was still standing there, a crazed expression on his face. "I really appreciate this."

"Don't mention it," the fuzzy voice said into my ear. "How'd you get into this situation anyway?"

I sigh. "I was visiting my friend in the hospital. I took the bus over and I planned on taking it back but because of the weather it was running extremely late, so I just started walking."

"And then he started following you."

"Yeah."

"Wow. That sucks."

I laugh.

There's another pause, but it's a comfortable one. For some reason I can't explain, I smile. "Hey," she begins suddenly. "Don't pay phones usually have a time limit? How much longer do you have on this call?"

My stomach drops. "Oh, crap, I didn't even think about that! I only had enough change for this one call! Umm, I probably don't have much time!"

"Hey, don't freak out," she says. "He's bound to get bored and go away soon. How far are you from where you live?"

I groan. "Like, at least two or three miles away."

"Jesus," she says.

I look outside again, expecting to see the man staring me down. But to my surprise, I can see him walking away.

I grin. "Hey! He's leaving!"

A soft chuckle sounded through the phone. "Told you."

A weight lifts off of my chest. "Thank you for being so calm and helpful. I couldn't of done it without you."

"No problem, cupcake," the voice says. "What's your name, anyway?"

Cupcake?! I think. "Uh, Laura," I respond, not even thinking of giving her a fake name. I guess I just trust her. "You?"

"It's Carmilla," she responds.

I smile. "That's a really cool name. I've never heard it before."

I can almost hear her shrug over the phone. "Yeah, it's okay."

Then I hear a muffled noise, like a door closing, followed by someone talking loudly and possibly angrily in the background. Carmilla sighs into the phone, sounding frustrated. "William! What in God's name are you-" This was followed by a crashing noise. "Oh, fuck," Carmilla groans. "Hey, cupcake, look, I gotta go soon so I can control my idiot brother. It was nice talking to you, though. Gave my night a little bit of excitement. Hope that guy doesn't come back and murder you or something."

I find the remark a little morbid and weird, but I don't say anything. "Oh, uh, yeah, okay," I say awkwardly. I'll admit; I'm a little upset. Something about her voice sort of... draws me in. "Um, thanks again. Sorry I accidentally called you."

"Hey, it's cool," Carmilla says. "And if you ever wanna, y'know, accidentally call me again, my number is 555-4127."

I get a funny feeling in my stomach. She's telling me her number? She must really want me to call her again… I thought. I secretly wonder what the expression on her face looks like in this very moment.

"Thanks," I say, trying to sound casual. It never works. "I'll remember that, since it's just one number off from my best friend's, theirs is 4124 instead of-"

A loud beep cuts me off mid-sentence, followed by an automated voice that says 'We're sorry, but you've run out of time! Please insert more change to extend your call.'

I sigh. What a weird, freaky night, I think, hanging up the phone and unlocking the payphone door. But maybe I made a new friend out of it. I quickly take the pen I always carry around in my pocket and write down her number, just in case.

"So he was just chasing you for no reason, and then you tried to call me but you dialed the wrong number, and then the girl you accidentally called started flirting with you and gave you her number?" LaFontaine said, a hint of disbelief and amusement in their eyes.

My face goes red. "I never said she was flirting!" I exclaim.

LaF gives me a look and shrugs. "Well, from what you just told me… kinda sounded like she was flirting."

I jokingly roll my eyes at them and stir the spoon in my tea around a little. "She could just be a naturally flirty person or something. Besides, she doesn't even know me. Why would she flirt with me?"

LaF shrugs. "Hey, with some people, you can tell if they're cute just by hearing their voice. Maybe she thought that about you."

I laugh, thinking that's a ridiculous claim, and then look around the cafe we're sitting in and sigh. LaF and I love coming to this little cafe (the Lustig Cafe) when we don't have classes or we're upset and wanna talk. We have lots of memories in this place. And since winter break started recently, LaF and I have already been spending tons of time in here.

LaF grins mischievously. " Sooo…" they drawl. "When are you gonna call her again?

I shrug. "I dunno."

LaF looks smug. "Do you want to call her again?"

I blush a little. "Shut up!" I respond, hitting them playfully on the arm.

"Admit it, Laura," they say. "You totally have a crush on phone girl." They draw out the word 'crush'.

"A crush? On a stranger I've talked to on the phone for like 5 minutes? Are you 12?" I give them a look. "Be real, LaFontaine."

LaF smirks. "Okay, Laura, whatever you say…" They stand up, grabbing their cup.

"Where are you going?" I ask.

LaF grunts. "I promised this guy in my Marine Bio class from last semester that we'd go to the marine mammal centre and see if we can get our hands on anything cool," they say. "I'll be back around 8 or something."

I groan. "That's like 10 hours from now! What am I supposed to do 'til then?"

LaF laughs. "I don't know, get a life? Get some other friends?" they joke. "Call your new girlfriend?"

I throw my head back and grunt loudly. "You're making way too big of a deal out of this."

"Eh, I like messing with you," they laugh, grabbing their bag. "Alright, I'm off. See you later, nerd."

I wave goodbye and watch them walk out the door. I gather my stuff and do the same, heading back to my apartment.

It's nice having the apartment all to myself. Betty, my roommate, is off to Maine to stay with her family for the whole break. As for me, I'm staying here. My only family is my dad, really, and sadly he's away on an important business trip in Austria for a while, so he told me it wasn't really worth it to come home. I was a little disappointed, but honestly it was nice not having to take the long flight to get back home. Besides, the weather's been so terrible that I probably would've never been able to make it out of here. Betty made it out just before the storm hit.

I lay down on my bed, my cell in my hands. I glance at the clock; it's 5pm.

It's not a weird time to call her, right?

I dial her number, listening to it ring. On one of the last rings, she picks up.

"Mmmhello," I hear her respond. It's sounds extremely muffled, like she's eating something, maybe?

I start to sweat nervously. What if this was a bad idea? What if it was totally weird that I was calling her? But she gave you her number for a reason, dummy, I thought.

"Hellooo?" I hear her say again.

"Um, hi!" I reply, finally. "It's Laura, from last night."

"Oh, hey, it's Wrong Number Girl," she says. "Glad to hear you didn't get murdered."

I can hear her voice so much clearer on my cell than I could last night on that old payphone. Her voice sends shivers up my spine and I have no idea why.

"Yeah!" I say. "Just thought I'd, um, call you again. I'm pretty bored."

"Oh yeah?" she says. "Don't have any friends or something?"

I laugh. "They're all either currently busy or gone for winter break."

"Ahh so you're in college, are you?" she asks. I can hear her doing other things on the line, sounds like things clattering together and her voice getting muffled by crunching sounds.

"Yeah. Are… are you?" I wonder. She definitely sounds like she could be young enough.

"Nah, but I used to be. I graduated last year from Silas University."

My eyes light up. "Hey, that's where I go!" I laugh. "I'm a senior this year. I doubt we've ever seen each other, though. Silas is, like, the largest school in the country."

"True that," she says. I can still hear her eating something. It's incredibly loud.

"What in the world are you eating, a bowl of nails?" I scoff. "I've never heard such loud chewing in my life."

"Breakfast," she simply responds.

I give a confused look without thinking about the fact that she can't even see me. "It's 5 in the afternoon."

"Mmhm. A.K.A, the time I wake up. Therefore, when I eat breakfast."

"You wake up at 5pm?!"

"Yup. Usually go to sleep around 6 or 7am, depends on the day. I like to get full ten hours, since I love to sleep."

"Don't you have a job?" I ask.

"I have a night job."

I whistle. "Wow. You weren't kidding when you said you were a night owl."

"I like night time. I feel so much more alive in the dark than I do in the sun."

I chuckle. "What, are you a vampire or something?"

"Honestly, at this point, pretty much," she replies with amusement.

I laugh. It comes out light and bubbly. I think she enjoys it, because I can hear her chuckling a bit through the phone.

"I really like talking with you," I say. I didn't really mean to say it; it sort of just slipped out randomly, and I kind of felt embarrassed after I said it.

But Carmilla only chuckles once again. "You too, cupcake. And that's saying something, coming from me; I usually hate interacting with other people."

I laugh. "Oh, I see. Let me guess- you're one of those girls with lots of eyeliner who listens to punk music and hates everyone. Or some sort of variation of that."

"Pretty much. But I don't like labels."

"Oh yeah? And what other labels do you not like?"

"Well, gosh, where's my mile long list?" she laughs. "Rude, monster, asshole. Just to name a few."

"People have called you those things? What for?" I ask curiously.

"Oh, various reasons. I guess you could say I'm not exactly a people person."

I'm about to ask her to explain when I hear a noise in the background and a groan come from Carmilla. The noise is loud and and sounds like something falling over, mixed with yelling.

"Sorry, sundance, I gotta go," she sighs. "Once again, I've gotta take care of my talking walnut for a brother. It's impossible to keep him out of the liquor cabinet."

"O-okay," I say. "Nice talking to you!"

There were more strange sounds, followed by Carmilla yelling. "Damn it Will, if I see you touching my precious camera one more time I swear I'm gonna take your eyeballs and-"

Then there was a beep and the call ended.

I smile. She called me sundance.

"Hollis, you've got it bad, don't you?"

I laugh at LaFontaine's comment. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't even pretend to not know what I'm talking about. I see you smiling about nothing in particular. You're totally crushing on phone girl again. It's been like 3 days since you first accidentally called her, how many times have you guys talked?"

I sigh, not even trying to hide the fact that I was thinking about her. "Twice now. It's weird, not knowing very well who she is, or knowing at all what she looks like. But… I don't know. It's like we have a connection or something. I can't explain it."

LaF makes over-exaggerated swooning noises, teasing me. I hit them on the arm playfully.

"Hey, so there's this party that's happening at my neighbour's apartment tonight," LaF says, changing the subject. "She has a really cool place. It's on the ground floor so it even has a cool little outside porch area that she decorated with string lights. This time of year with all of the snow, it's breathtaking. She told me I could invite someone, and Perry is obviously still in the hospital, so do you wanna come?"

I smile. "Yeah, sure, a party sounds fun."

LaF grins. "Awesome. Meet me at my apartment at 7."

I wrote and finished this fanfic a couple weeks ago, thought I'd see if people liked it or not. It turned out to be a lot longer than I expected! This is part 1 of 6. If you'd like me to continue updating, please follow/review/etc. and give me feedback. If I get enough support I'll post the next chapter this Thursday, when Act III drops. Thanks. :)