"Now that's a cool beat soldier" Skipper complemented. "Thanks Skipper" I replied, happy that he already approved my choice of sound. Eager to share the news with our two other comrades, he called for Kowalski and Rico who were nearby. "Hey Kowalski, Rico, come over here a second, listen to this tune, it's catchy. Alright Private, cue the catchy jingle." He said, pointing his flipper to my phone.

I pressed the play button seemingly unaware that I had accidentally played the "The Devil's Ringtone." Everyone fell silent as it started playing. While listening to it, instead of hearing a seemingly metal/rock type of tune as what was to be expected to be found in it's suggested name, what instead came out is the creepy sound of a choking woman screaming for help while a man with a terrifyingly demonic voice was laughing in the background, as if enjoying the desperate woman's agony. The duration of the ringtone was exactly two minutes and after even a minute of listening to it, the screaming brings to a halt, and the man with a low, raspy voice suddenly says, "You thought I wasn't real ha?" Then it ends in a fading demonic laugh, at last it just stopped.

Now I was really terrified and confused, did we just witness a murder via ringtone or was it just a prank?. If it was a prank, then I can breath a sigh of relief, but if it was real, it could be used as possible evidence for a crime scene. Regardless, I didn't want to know either way, and I felt another chill run down my spine.

"What the deuce soldier? that wasn't the one that I heard before" said Skipper, seemingly wanting a reply from me. "Sorry Sir, I accidentally push the "Devil's ringtone, but don't worry I'll delete it right away" I replied.

I muster the courage to delete the 'Devil's Ringtone", hoping to never hear it again. Oh what trouble have I gotten myself into.

"Scary sound isn't it guys. We just witnessed someone being choked to death" I said, still frightened about the whole incident just thinking about it.

But Kowalski who had an explanation for everything, refused to believe it and added, "Private, private, private, don't believe everything you hear, I can explain, it's probably just some harmless prank, conjured up by pranksters to scare people like you thinking it was real. There's no evidence linking it to an actual murder". But I retorted to Kowalski's statement, "It almost sounds real to me, you all heard it"

But Kowalski added "Woah, woah, Private relax, it's not real, like what I said, it's just a prank, just don't believe everything you hear, right Rico?", "Yup" Rico said.

Well Kowalski is right I can't prove that something is real just by just listening to it. Needless to say, I was just being paranoid like Skipper.

Pretty soon, our focus of attention changed when Skipper intervenes to talk about the whole situation as if to announce something important "Everybody relax, ok listen, whatever happened here tonight stays here, we don't speak to anyone about this incident especially to high mighty king himself Julien, we can't risk this going out of hand in the whole zoo. I trust all of you to keep your beaks shut...like this never happened. Tomorrow morning I don't want to hear anything about evil ringtone murders, got it?"

Me, Kowalski and Rico nod our heads up and down to affirm and promise that this whole incident shall be forgotten tomorrow morning.

"Ok men it's late, time to prepare for bed. Oh and Private, relax ok? It's not real" said Skipper, patting his flippers softly on my back.

"Thanks for the advice" I replied happily with a grin on my face.

It felt comforting to know that the guys were always there to protect me when I needed it and it gave me a sense of relief. Although I still can't help but imagine that creepy tune was still lingering in my mind. This puzzled me a lot, but I was too tired to think of it too much and eventually I covered myself up with my blanket and dozed off to the silent hours of the night.

But it didn't end there, no it didn't, the evil ringtone continued to haunt me even in my sleep. I have never experienced a more frightening dream than this before, but once was enough for me.

I was in a hallway of rooms somewhere in a hotel. All I could see were these doors right in front of me, each with a hotel number engraved on it, and in my mind I asked myself what am I doing here. So I yelled out Skipper, Rico and Kowalski names hoping that they would hear and come to my rescue. But to no avail, the place was dead silent as if no one could hear my scream. In a haste I scoured every room, looking from door to door...I saw nothing nor heard anyone. Then while I was checking every room I heard a chattering of laughter echo behind me, it sounded like they were approaching from the darkened side of the corridor.

Obviously this was enough to frighten me so I quickly went inside the nearest door to my left and locked myself in there. I wasn't interested in finding out what it wanted from me.

The echos continued to advance and I could hear scratches near the doorway as if they were trying to claw their way in.

After about five minutes of what seemed like an eternity, it stopped. I felt a sigh of relief but still sat nearly frozen in fear.

"I guess it stopped" I muttered to myself quietly.

The room I locked myself in was almost pitch black, I could not see anything in front of me. I walked around waving my flippers back and forth in the dark hoping to find some sort of light source. Luckily I did find an old lava lamp that still works, I twisted the knob that turned it on, thus lighting the whole room. Finally I was about to scour the whole place without further complications. When I surveyed the room, I found out that I had entered a child's playroom, with toys scattered around in piles.

To help defend myself from any incoming enemy, my weapon of choice was a simple baseball bat. I was willing to use it to knock to my opponents in the head and render them unconscious, long enough to give me time to escape, or wherever safe spot I can cling to, despite it going against my belief that 'violence begets more violence.'

Contrary to my personality of a being a pacifist I never wanted to be this violent, I was always a man, (or a penguin in this case) of peace, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And If I ever wanted to get out of here alive, I was willing to do everything I can to survive. I already felt prepared that I can defend myself well completely.

But what I wasn't prepared for was the one that was about to come...