Author : Wild-Melody
Disclaimer : In the previous chapters.
Summary : Just one phone call can change your entire life, especially if that call concerns a death.
SO WEIRD
ALL IS NOT AS IT SEEMS
Chapter 3 : The News
Fiona glanced at the clock for the fifteenth time within as many minutes then glanced at the watch on her wrist, wondering if both were set at the wrong time. Her mother looked at her curiously. "Something wrong Baby?" Molly Phillips asked as she took that's night dinner of roast lamb out of the oven.
The smell of the tender meat wafted through the kitchen, causing Fi's mouth to water. "No…um, yeah, I guess you could say that," Fi answered as she stared at the tempting lamb. She watched as her mother stuck the steaming lamb on the counter and turned to the stove to check on the vegetables. "I was expecting a call, but the person hasn't called yet, and they should have called about an hour ago."
"It's getting kind of late, maybe they just forgot. I wouldn't worry about it." Molly said and turned her attention back to the lamb as the vegetables simmered on the burner. Then she looked up at Fi, "Why don't you give them a call?"
"Yeah," Fi answered as she grabbed the phone and walked into the living room. She quickly dialed Annie's cell phone number and waited for the other girl to pick up. It rang a couple of times then the voice mail picked up. She flopped down on the couch and blew out an exasperated sigh and waited for Annie's voice message to finish.
Hey there, Annie's voice said in its usual perky way, It's Annie, I'm either away or doing something so just leave your message and I'll get back to you ASAP- There was sudden static and a new voice came over the phone. The customer you have called is either out of the area or their phone is turned off, please try again later.
Fi looked at the phone confusedly. "What in the hell?" She said softly, not understanding what that was all about. She clicked the phone off then turned it back on and tried again. The number you have called is experiencing technical difficulties, please try again later.
"Strange," Fi thought and clicked the phone off again.
Then the phone rang, making Fi jump a foot in the air. She quickly grabbed it, "Hello?"
"Fiona?" the voice on the other end asked. She didn't recognize the voice, but the person sounded like they were or had been crying.
"Yes, may I ask who is calling please?" She asked politely, curious about whom the mysterious caller was.
"It's Annie's mom, can I talk with your mother?" Annie's mom sounded upset, very upset.
"Yeah, just a second." Fi got up and walked into the kitchen, handing the phone to her mother. "Here, it's Annie's mom, she sounds pretty upset."
Molly wiped her hands on a towel and took the phone from her daughter. "Hello?" She said into the receiver.
"Hello Molly," Karen Thelen responded.
"It's good to hear from you, Karen. How's Annie doing?" Molly asked politely.
Even Fi standing a few feet from her mother could hear the woman on the other end break into loud sobs. What on earth had happened? Maybe something is wrong with Annie's dad, Fi wondered, but something told her that that wasn't the case.
"Karen? Karen, what happened?" Molly asked, trying to calm the other woman down. There was a brief pause that Fi could only figure was from the other woman talking, but she couldn't really hear what was being said.
"I received a call from an officer…Annie's car went off a cliff. She's dead Molly." Karen's voice was heartbroken and she erupted into sobs again.
"Oh my God, are they sure?" Again there was a pause and Fi watched as a shocked look crossed her mother's face. It was something terrible Fi understood in one heartrending moment.
"They didn't find her body…they think it got washed away with the ocean current." Karen paused. "She was coming to spend Christmas with you guys. She and Fi had it all planned out, it was suppose to be a surprise."
"Oh my God Karen, I'm so sorry. I…I-Fi never said anything…I had no idea. How are you and Eric handling this?"
Fi's heart sank, she knew. Without being told, she knew. Annie! She silently cried, somehow her heart told her this all had to do with Annie.
"Eric still doesn't want to believe it's true. He keeps saying that if they didn't find the body there's a chance she's still alive." Karen paused, crying once more and tried to regain her composure. "She went over a hundred and some foot cliff Molly, there's no way she could've survived that. There's absolutely no way possible…Annie's gone."
"I'm so sorry…are you going to have a funeral?" Fi's eyes widened at the mention of this. Molly made a gesture telling Fi to keep quiet, she'd talk to her in a minute.
"Yes, it's going to be something small, for mainly family and friends. We'd greatly appreciate it if you and your kids could make it. Annie considered you her second family. And the Bell's too, Annie never stopped talking about their boys."
"We'll make it," Molly said. "I'll tell Irene and Ned just as soon as I see them. When will it be?"
"In four days, we're…well, I'm making the arrangements now. I'll call you later with the details and the name of the funeral parlor it'll be held at and of course the address."
"Thank you Karen. Again, I'm sorry. It just doesn't seem right, you're not suppose to outlive your children."
Fi felt tears sting her eyes at this…it couldn't be, but her heart was telling her it was already true. What she was thinking just couldn't be, she had to have heard wrong or misunderstood, something…anything! It just wasn't possible, this feeling had to be wrong. I've already lost my father, you can't possible take one of my best friends from me too! Fi silently screamed up toward the ceiling, hoping against all hope that someone would hear her.
"I know," Karen said quietly and paused briefly. "There's someone at the door, I have to go."
"All right. I'll talk to you later. You'll get through this Karen, both you and Eric. I know it seems hard to believe, but you will get through this."
"Thank you Molly. I'll talk to you later. Bye."
"Bye," Molly said, then there was nothing but the dial tone so Molly clicked the phone off and returned it to its base.
"Mom, what happened?" Fi asked as soon as her mother returned from putting the phone on its base in the kitchen and walked back into the living room.
"Go get your brother Fi," Molly said.
"But Mom," Fi began.
"Fi, please, just go get your brother." Molly sighed, suddenly feeling emotionally drained. She still couldn't believe it, Annie is dead…she is actually dead…
Jack came down with Fi, grumbling about being disturbed when he had studying to do. "This had better be important," he said to his Mom as he and Fi walked into the kitchen.
"Sit down, the both of you," Molly ordered, gesturing toward the kitchen table and chairs.
Jack looked at his Mom, "What's wrong," he asked as he and Fi sat down on the opposite side of the table as their mother. He looked over at Fi, but she said nothing, hadn't really said anything either when she had come up to his room to get him. Nothing other than that Mom wanted to talk to them two of them. Not an inkling of what all of this was about.
Molly directed her attention to Fiona, "You and Annie were planning on surprising us huh?"
Fi realized that her mom was changing the subject, trying to stay away from the real reason for this conversation as long as possible. The reason behind Annie's mother calling…and all the tears.
"Yeah," Fi answered. "It was suppose to be a surprise for Christmas…Mom, what happened?" Take the direct course, Fi told herself. No reason to draw this out any longer than it really needs to be.
"Her Mom received a phone call…" Molly paused, fighting back the tears. It didn't work though, they still spilled down over her cheeks. "Annie drove her car off of a cliff."
"What?" Fi cried.
"How?" Jack asked.
"I don't know the whole story yet…her Mom was really upset." Molly brushed a stray tear off of her cheek. "They haven't found her body yet." There was another pause as she debated on whether or not to tell them what would most likely happen within the near future…what the tabloid magazines would eventually be saying. "The police will be investigating suicide…the reporters will latch onto this as will those tabloid magazines…" Molly stopped talking once she realized that neither of her children were paying her any mind.
"My God," Fi said softly. "I just talked to her about four hours ago…everything seemed fine." The tears were coursing down her cheeks now and she made no attempt to wipe them away.
"It was probably an accident Fi," Molly said. "She probably lost control of her car…" God, she hoped so. She hoped so badly that the suicide theory she new was surely going to pop up would be wrong, so very wrong. Annie wouldn't purposely try to kill herself…would she? NO!! Molly said firmly to herself, No, Annie most definitely would not.
The phone suddenly began to ring again. Molly walked over and picked it up. "Hello?" She said as she watched Fi lay her head on Jack's shoulder, the tears still pouring down over her cheeks. Jack wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him then laid his head gently against hers, silently offering her some of his own strength.
"Molly? Have you seen the news…they aren't talking about our Annie are they?" Irene Bell's voice began babbling over the phone. It was high pitched, a dozen or more emotions evident in the tone of her voice. Fear, hope, sadness, disbelief, guilt, terror and more that Molly couldn't or didn't want to identify at that moment.
"Calm down Irene, what are you talking about?" Fi and Jack were both looking up at her curiously now.
"The news. On the news, it's talking about an accident that happened on the coastline. Annie's with her parents isn't she, they can't be talking about her, can they?"
Annie's with her parents…the question echoed in her mind and she felt the tears threaten once more. Annie's suppose to be with her parents, Molly thought despondently. But fate had planned something entirely different for the young woman.
Molly sighed, she hadn't planned on telling Irene or Ned or even Clu and Carey about what had happened this way, not over the phone at least. "Annie was coming for a visit Irene. She drove her car over a cliff, I don't know much more than that. Her Mom was to upset to tell me much more." She turned her attention to Jack, "Jack, go turn the TV on, would you please?"
Jack carefully pushed his sister away from himself, nodded his head as he got up from his chair and headed into the living room. Turning on the TV he flipped through the channels until he got to one of the local news stations. Already there were pictures of Annie flashing across the screen. Some of her by herself, some with the group, or just Molly. One even flashed across the screen of just him and her. "In National News we have reports that young and upcoming starlet Annie Thelen died in a horrific car accident earlier when she drove her Ford Mustang over a cliff and into the ocean. At the scene of the accident we have reporter Ted Pauling, to you Ted."
Both Fi and Molly walked into the living room just behind Jack. Molly placed her arms around each one of her children's shoulders and pulled them tighter to her. Fi leaned her head against her mother's while Jack just stayed as he was, his eyes not leaving the TV screen.
"Thank you Terry," the man on the TV said, behind him was the barely visible shadow of broken guardrails, just visible in the eerie lights of the portable lights used by the local rescue personnel. "Earlier today, about two hours ago, Annie Thelen drove her car over this cliff. The police are ruling it as an accident, the skid marks left at the accident scene show that she swerved to miss something, probably a deer or other large animal."
Fi began crying once more as the camera tried to zoom in on the skid marks on the road in the near darkness then whipped around to look at the broken and twisted guardrails once more.
"All attempts are being made to retrieve her body, but as such there has been no luck. Authorities are saying that if it's not retrieved within a few hours they probably won't find it. The ocean's current more than likely has carried it out to sea, in which case, the possibility of a recovery is pretty much zero."
"I've heard enough," Fi said, breaking from her mother's embrace and racing to her room. I can't believe this has happened. All the stuff we've been through and a simple car accident has to claim her life? How is this possible?
Simple car accident? The voice in the back of her head asked. You call going off of a cliff a simple accident?
Shut up, would you? Fi snarled to herself. Just let me alone. I need to think.
There has to be more to it than a simple accident.
No there's not! It was an accident. Something ran out in front of her and she swerved…she just swerved the wrong way, that's all.
If you say so, but do you really believe that?
Yes I do, Fi answered the voice. Not everything is related to the supernatural.
What about the mythological? A voice asked out of nowhere.
Fi quickly looked around but saw no one in the room with her. "Now I'm hearing things," she said softly out loud.
But Fi was not alone, outside of her window a pair of blazing red eyes stared at her. The moonlight glinted off of a polished, spiral horn made of pearl. In the blink of an eye the creature was gone, a flash of fiery red light eclipsed her room, making her jump. Fi rubbed her eyes and turned around to look toward the window, but there was nothing there. Strange, she said to herself.
Well, what do you think? Like it, hate it? Let me know in a review. This story is already all planned out so hopefully it won't take me long to write the chapters up. If you are enjoying it, let me know via a review, I greatly appreciate them!