The Call

A man gets a call from a not-so-sane woman

The clock read 3:05 a.m.  Ethan, exhausted from working his fourteen hour shift at the packaging factory, made his way over to broken down, yet extremely comfortable bed.  As soon as his worn out body hit the mattress, he was out.

His cheap cellphone went off, playing its default ring-tone, meaning it was from someone that wasn't on his contacts list.  Using all the strength he could muster, he lifted his head up and, through squinted eyes, glared at the clock.  It now read 3:51.  “You kidding me right now?” he groaned before rolling back over.

There was no way he was moving from his comfortable spot to answer a call from some random person, especially not this late.

The ringing eventually stopped.  A few seconds after, the missed call indicator went off.  He decided he'd wait until he was actually up and moving to check who the caller was.

That same caller, however, saw things another way.  The phone's default ring-tone started up once again.  This time, an aggravated Ethan exhaled sharply and climbed out of the bed, swearing to himself.

“Hello,” he said, not even trying to mask his anger.

“Hi,” a girl's sweet and cheery voice seemed to completely miss his tone.  “Is this Ethan Webb?”

“Uh, yes?” he cleared his throat, as if trying to wake his voice up.

“Hello, my name is Mary, I'm calling to see if you're happy with your current phone plan.  I'm here to offer you a three month--”

“Listen, Mary was it, it's almost four in the morning.  I'm very happy with my plan, and I don't mean to sound like a dick, but I'm really, really tired.  Thank you.  Goodbye,” he hung up without a second thought.

All he could think about was how much he hated telemarketers, and other such spam callers.  He more than understood that they had to make a living too, but at the moment, he couldn't care less.  He collapsed on his warm bed, welcoming any z's that wanted to head his way.

As his mind finally started to go blank to let the dreams come out to play, his phone went off' the same default ring-tone crept out of the speaker.  “Come on!”

He clambered out of bed and grabbed the phone, feeling he could crush it into a million pieces if he didn't actually need it.  “Hello?” his voice sounded scary even to him.

“Hello, my name is Mary, I'm calling to see if you're happy with your current phone plan.”

“Mary, I thought we had an understanding here.  I'm happy with my plan, please quit calling me.  I don't have enough energy for this.”

He hung up the phone, and moved his finger over the power button.

To his surprise, the phone rang again, almost instantly, causing him to jump.  His nostrils flared as he pushed the answer button.  “What?!” he growled.

“Hello, my name is Mary, and if you hang up on me one more time, everyone you know and love will die,” her voice was grim.

“What, what did you say?”

“I said everyone close to you will die a slow and agonizing death if you hang up.”

“Who is this?”

“Mary, but that's really not important right now.  Let's just say you don't know me, but I sure know you.  Ethan Webb, age: 24, height: 5'11, weight: 145.”

As freaked out as he was, he couldn't help but assume it had to be some sort of prank caller.  Maybe some teenager that scoped him out or something.  “If this is a joke, I'm not laughing.  It wasn't funny back in the day and it isn't funny now.”

“I agree.  There isn't anything funny about that at all.  The only thing I find funny is the way you're trembling right now as you look around like a frantic little child.  Do you honestly expect to see me out of that dirty window you're peering out of?  Let me assure you, you won't.”

His eyes widened.  “Who is this?”

“I already told you countless times.  I'm Mary.”

“Well listen, Mary, I don't know what the hell's wrong with you, but I'm hanging up and calling the cops.  Crazy b***h,” he mumbled pulling the phone away from his ear.

“Ah, ah, ah, I wouldn't do that.  Remember my little warning?”

For whatever reason, he couldn't bring himself to hang up.  What if she was telling the truth?  What if she wasn't?  He was already losing it.

He put the phone back up to his now sweaty face.  “Why are you doing this, what do you want?” he realized he wasn't as scared as he was furious.

“In due time.  But about what you just said, I don't like that kind of language.  And neither does your mother.  Do you, Loraine?”

“What?”

“I must admit, I'd assumed she'd raised you better than that.  Hm, guess I was wrong,” her voice somehow managed to sound sincere.  “Apologize.  Now.”

“Is my mom really there with you?”

“Your whole family is with me.  Apologize.”

“Where are you?” his anger was showing itself in full force.

“I'll tell you, in..due..time.  Apologize,” her voice didn't change.  “Apologize or I'll cut her fingers off, one by one.”

He could just tell she had a smile plastered on her face as she spoke.

“Sorry,” he blurted out.

“Like you mean it!” she yelled, changing her tone for the first time.  He could hear what sounded like his mother pleading before letting a bloodcurdling scream.

  

“There goes her index finger.  Probably the same one you used to hold on to when you were just a pathetic little infant,” she mused, ever so coldly.

“His eyes were watering.  “Oh my God, I'm sorry, Mary, I'm so sorry!  Please just don't hurt her anymore!”

In seconds, he had reverted into a whimpering child-like version of himself.

Mary just let out a small chuckle.  That's more like it, Ethan.  I'm glad we finally see eye to eye.  Now, get up off of your knees you poor, pathetic man.”

He looked down and was surprised to see that he had, in fact, dropped to his knees as he pleaded for his mother's life.  He quickly climbed to his feet.  “Okay.  What now?  Why did you call me?  What do you need from me?” he was pacing like mad.

She couldn't hide her eerie bliss.  “Ah, now THIS is where things get interesting."

Author's Note

Just a story that popped in my head one day, and as you can probably tell, I just wrote it as it came to me so it's not really that good, but I'd still like to hear what you think. I have no clue where I would even take this story if I were to actually continue it. Either way, enjoy.

Reviews

[Marie]

This is really good. And you might stop it there, unless you can plan something even better for its continuance.

[CowboyAustin]

Thank you, that means a whole lot to me, and I've actually been trying to think of where it could go from here, but I just keep coming up with absolutely nothing. Only time will tell though, I suppose.