A CALL FROM HELL
Prologue: You know what people do when they are all alone? They scream, they run, they hide. Why? Because they are scared. Scared of the things that might happen when you are all alone. Bad things. Very bad thing!
--+--
"Miss you, dear! Anyway, got to go now! Behave and be a good girl! Bye!"
"Of course, mama! Love you!"
"Love you too, honey!"
Then she hanged up the phone.
A Fifteen-year-old girl turned around and walked out of the hallway with an impatient pace.
"Was that your mom?" asked the brunet who is standing right next to her.
"Yah!" the girl replied cheerfully.
"Weren't you supposed to be in bed?" the brunet faced the girl. "You are not well. Anyway, I already told your adviser that you cannot come to school today, because Doctor told you to do so..."
"Haay…I'm tired here in this house… in fact I'm fine! Why do I need to stick in this house forever?!" she asked irritably with an unease feeling.
"Ahhh… because that was the doctor says… "
"Doctor?? I'm not sick!!!"
"Just obey what the doctor said. Anyway, I need to go to the market right now. I'll buy the pumpkin that you wish for…"
"Pumpkin??? Naaa… you are the one who likes it! Not me! Can I go with you?"
"No! Stay in the house… okay! And oh! Didn't I tell you to get rid of that thing! Why do you still carry it around?"
The brunet was pointing a rattling finger in the direction of a wary tattered doll, clutched safely against the girl's breast.
"Kanata~" she said lovingly, "Don't start it all over again! I thought we already discussed this matter. And I don't want you to keep this away from me."
"But look at him! It's not even look like a doll or a barbie, for heaven's sake!" the brunet protested, "You've been carrying that around for almost a year. And mind you are reaching sixteen and I am sure that this certainly not a great exhibition of maturity."
The girl pouted and frowned. She caressed and held the doll against her tightly.
"Okay, just keep that awful thing!" he cried with unintentional volume. "And also don't even think of attending any phone calls 'cause I locked my room. I am getting straight back as soon as possible. Stay in your room, okay. I am locking the door from the outside! I'm going now, senorita!" then he hurriedly went outside the house.
"Senorita!?! I told you to call me Miyu!" she retorted.
"Haay… Okay then, Miyu! Bye!"
"Bye Kanata! Take care of yourself and come back quick!" she made a big waved of goodbye to her beloved Kanata-kun.
--+--
Miyu went inside her room and sat in her futon. She rolled her eyes then looked at her little doll and smile. Suddenly in the midst of silence the telephone rang.
KRIING KRIING KRIING… she picked up the phone.
"Moshi Moshi! Saionji Residence may I help you?" she greeted nicely.
But nobody reply.
"Hello!?" she greeted again.
"HELLO!!!" she shouted.
Due to annoyance, she slammed and hanged up the phone.
Then after a couple of seconds… the phone rang again.
She quickly picked up the phone and drawled irritably, "HELL-LOW!"
"Hi!" the cold voice said.
Then she asked, "Who's this?"
"Someone."
"May I know your name please?" she spoke reluctantly.
"Oh no, I'm sorry I have no name."
"WHAT! Listen!" she barked, "If you are one of those silly thugs scrolling down the street. I tell you, go back to your house and sleep 'cause I've got a lot of things to deal with! Okay!"
Miyu slammed the phone back. But before she leave, the phone rang again.
Regaining her poise, she hovered over the telephone and picked the receiver.
"HELLO!" She shouted.
"Temper...Temper… little girl. I don't want to watch that floppy little tongue of yours. You don't want me to be angry, right? Sweetie?"
"Tch! You again!?!? GO TO HELL!"
"Oh, lord. We have an attitude problem here. Bad, bad, bad. Tch, tch. All wrong. Poor little girl with a big swollen head. Too bad. But we would like the head to remain. Wouldn't we, dearest?"
"O.k., have it your way, bastard. Are you threatening me or what? Maybe I should remind you again that I'm busy today and I have no time to play on your stupid calls. GOT IT!?"
"HAHAHAHA! Nice. Very nice. Good, good, good. OH good thing the little girl knows how to play the game… well… what are we waiting for… Let's play!"
Click
TOOOT TOOOT TOOOT
The phone was hanged again.
"What the!" she murmured and returned back to her room. But before she entered to her room she heard the telephone bark again.
She picked again the receiver and said, "H-hullo!" she stammered.
"It's me again sweetie. Anyway, we don't want us to be all tired and sweaty before we play, right? So, can we start it now?"
"CURSE YOU!" she screamed, exploiting the pitch but paused as something bothered her knowledge, "H-how did y-you know our number...?"
"Oh, pretty please." the voice returned lovingly, "Poor little girl, all alone in a big house. All alone. It's not a good thing to be all alone, right my dear? Or should I call you, Miyu?"
Miyu felt as if a hand had groped for her insides and now firmly held her knotted heart and throat. At a loss for words, she maintained silence.
"You know what people do when they are all alone? They scream, they run, they hide, Miyu. Know why, Miyu? Because they are scared. Scared of the things that happen when you are all alone. Bad things. Very bad things."
She tried to scream but she can't. With a crack and nervous voice she said, "Who are you? What do you want!?"
"I told you I have no name and all I what is to play. But I want to tell you something, Miyu. You are never alone, because I am always there. In that dark dirty corner of the kitchen, in the dusty attic where mommy won't let little boys and girls roam around, inside that big closet where you always hide.... Yes little Miyu, I am always there. Know where I am right now? Somewhere very near, Miyu. So hide. Cause I am coming out to play."
"SHOUT UP!"
With a tear escaping from her beautiful eyes, she slammed the phone lifeless and hurried in the hallway. Picking another phone, she hastily punched 911.
"The number you have dialed, does not exist." a recording spoke mechanically into her ear.
"What the hell..." Miyu exhaled in disbelief but redeeming her composure, she redialed.
"The number you have dialed, does not exist."
She redialed.
"The number you have dialed, does not exist."
She redialed.
"The number you have dialed, does not exist, Miyu."
Miyu was shocked. Her index finger shakes. She stood frozen.
"Dear, dear, dear. Miyu, I thought you want to play? So why dialing 911? Tch Tch Tch! And I notice you are not hiding, Miyu. If you won't hide sweetest, then I will find you. And you certainly don't want to loose the game. Believe me, Miyu. You wouldn't like to loose the game."
Miyu released the phone. She can't breath. Her legs were paralyzed. Her body can't move but she tried to step backwards. Gradually, she felt her hand reach and quietly pick up her doll. Then she ran.
She dashed through the hall, and went to the other room. She bolted the door behind her and sat on the floor. For a few moments she analyzed the place, trying to translate her location. Vainly seeking the comfort of company, she pressed the doll close against her chest, thickly moaning, "Lord... please save me… I'm scared. Kanata where are you? Come back quick, Please!" she moaned and shot her eyes off.
Then she found her again sitting right next to the phone. Her eyes narrowed in fear. Then in a few seconds…
It had rung again.
Miyu screamed. Her whole body jerked wildly almost steering her back at the wall. She held her ears and said, "Please don't call… don't call! I don't want to play! I don't want!"
Sweat took rained down her body. She looked blindly at the equipment.
Her eyes unfocused, her vision faint, damped by a fluent stream of tears.
And then almost abruptly, without thinking she got up and picked up the phone.
"Hello, Miyu."
"YOU BASTARD!!!! IF YOU DARE TO CALL ME AGAIN ONE MORE TIME, I'LL CALL COPS AND I AM PERSONALLY GOING TO GET YOU IN YOUR BOX AND SKIN YOU ALIVE! NOW GO TO HELL!!!!"
Miyu didn't think on the words that she said, instead she displayed her grandest aggression even if it is foul to hear.
"YOUNG LADY! How dare you speak that word like that!" a weak voice had yelped from the other end.
"Kanata…"
"Where in the world did you learn that kind of language!? I always knew that you weren't keeping the right company but this is simply absurd! Was it -"
"Kanata! Kanata! It's that you?" she shouted nervously. "There is someone in here, Kanata! He's saying things and he knows our number! And he knows my name! Kanata, are you listening... Kanata!"
"Excuse me… what are you saying?"
"Kanata, someone is in here!"
"What do you mean?"
"SOMEONE IS IN THE GODDAM HOUSE!" she shrieked.
"Oh! I see."
"KANATA! I'm not fooling you…SOMEONE-IS-IN-THE-HOUSE" she screamed raising her pitch, the words struggling past her throat and scattering into the mouthpiece.
"Oh pooh! It's nothing to sweat about…"
Miyu's jaw dropped.
"He just wants to play with you. Are you hiding well enough, Miyu?"
"What..."
"Are you hiding very very nice? Because I can see you, Miyu." a voice spoke like singing syllables. "Poor little Miyu. All alone in the house. All alone. Or is she?"
Her heart jump as she heard a big Bang at the other room. She turned around and looked at the inviting blankness of the room. Her eyes roaming, swerving, unsettlingly revisiting the infinitely familiar sights.
"Hello, Miyu. Tell you what, I caught you!" the voice scratched with muted mild satisfaction, "Now come out and let's finish the game."
Then suddenly, she saw someone is slowly but steadily crawling in the ground like an infant dragging its body across the floor.
Miyu screamed at the top of her lungs. Then she heard a knock against the door. She looked at the door and turned her look again to the crawling creature. It's gone.
"Oh now! Don't be a spoil sport!" the voice said, "O.k., know what we'll do? We will change turns. Now I will hide and you, seek!"
"NOOOO!!!" she threw the phone and ran away.
She needs to get out of there. She had to! She had to! Somehow, but she had to!
"Miyu. I can see you! I am comin' out to getcha!" the voice in the phone echoed the whole house.
Miyu screamed and ran at the door. Reaching it, she tried to slide the door open but the door didn't budge. Quietly something dropped in her mind, the door is locked from the outside! Kanata locked it from the outside! From the outside! FROM THE OUTSIDE!
She turned and heard the sound clamoring beside her, somewhere in the dried gloom.
She screamed again, still pulling the handle on the side.
And then the door slide opened.
Miyu wanted to rush outside but instead she was hit straight into...
"KANATA!" she screamed. Then she felt her body became heavy and then she fainted.
--+--
The room was contained in dim quiet except for the two voices that disturbed its drawn intensity.
"Doctor, I just came from market and when I return I heard her scream. I..." stammered the brunet, "I just couldn't... I just rushed and opened the door and... there she stood...screaming and just fainted there on the porch." he dug his face in his hands, hiding the lone tear that is trying to escaped from his eyes.
The doctor sat beside him and spoke patiently, "Did you talk to her about what happened?"
The brunet looked up and said, "After she woke up, she started screaming again. She said that someone was calling her and scaring her and saying ... bad things. She seemed to be so scared. She said he knew the number of the phone in her room and the one in the hall and..."
The doctor straightened and peered at her with a concerned eye.
"I know that it's a hard situation for you and as a guardian you have done a lot, but you shouldn't be weak now. You must be patient with her."
"Tell me how can I?" he snapped, "SHE KEEPS CALLING ME KANATA! This morning she said that she was talking to her mother on the phone. Yesterday she wanted me to call her senorita! Today she wanted me to call her MIYU! I don't understand it! And I don't understand the medical stuff that you tell me! And I don't like lying to her each and every day! I..."
The doctor interrupted and said, "I am sorry, Mr. Deerfield but she is too young to be isolated in an asylum. And she seems to be quite a strange case."
"I don't know doctor… It's just started on the day when she found out that her crush, Kanata proposed its true feeling on her friend Miyu. She was out of mind when I saw her sitting in her room looking far away. She was shattered from the insides. It's just she was so broken ever since that proposal thing happened."
"Well Mr. Deerfield, I shouldn't call it multiple personality but yes, a confirmed personality disorder. Everyday she wakes up to be a different feeling the same person but a whole new personality. She wants to be like her classmate Miyu. She dreamed to become like her. She wants to be like her that is very close to her crush, Kanata. Of course, she doesn't remember anything that upsets her memory. Just happy thoughts like talking and sitting with her friends or simple ones like staying in the house of her crush. Sometimes her personality responds only to happiness. Sometimes sorrow and today it was fear. All she needed was a hint to accelerate it into fear. Did you mention anything at all about telephones or calls to her?"
"I - I might have but...but why did Christine keep attending the calls?" Mr. Deerfield replied.
The doctor relaxed on the couch with a finger twitching his chin and then spoke thoughtfully, "As I see it, she invented this fear inside her. It was like a jigsaw puzzle and each piece mattered. In short, she wanted to be scared. But that is not what I am worried about. You see, Christine always has lived these things inside her, like she only heard the phone calls and never actually did see anyone. Anyway..."
"What, doctor?"
"How many phones do you have?" the doctor spoke testily.
There was a pause as his eyes averted from his.
"One."
"And where is this phone?"
"I put it inside my room." escaped his lips.
"And you had kept the room open?"
"No, I had locked it" he sighed heavily.
--+--
Inside the white room, Christine sat cross-legged upon the sprawled bed sheets, eyeing her doll with an immense unfurled comfort settled inside her.
"What do we do now, Ruu?" Christine said foolishly.
Suddenly the doll sat upright. Its smile widened and then through its carved mouth it spoke,
"Daaa... Mama!"
--+--
Ahvs: This is my idea if Christine continued her craziness on Kanata-kun. Sorry Christine fans… PEACE!
And also I would like to thank my friends here in who is really close to me, namely (alphabetically):
Akira Kijoyu, 'aShiya016', chocolatefudgecake, , Kanata Saionji, Miyu Kozuki, Princess2902, warrior81491. Because of them I'm still here continuing my new passion – writing. And also to my upcoming friends… thank you so much! Hehehe!
Again thanks for reading my fic. Comments are very much welcome, even if it is boon or bane.