Nighttime.

Two things were running through Felicity’s mind as the word, cold and vacant, addressed her ear. These were those things: who and ow. Ow, as her collected stump met the cold of the varnished wooden table leg. And who.

                ‘Who?’ she asked, timidly, as if speaking for the first time.

                ‘Wyler residence, who is this?’ it was a woman. Wyler. Felicity knew the name, she knew it well, but once again: who?

                ‘Feh-Fuh-‘

                ‘Hello?’

                ‘Felicity,’

                There was a long, cold pause. The whine of the phone was thick and obtrusive. ‘Felicity?’

                ‘Yes, who�"’

                ‘Oh my God�"sorry, gosh, how are you? How long’s it been, you could’ve called sooner.’ Her voice turned cold and snarly, ‘Much sooner. Where’ve you been? What have you been doing? Are you still down south? On business, you said. How’s it going? Why haven’t you called sooner? Oh,’ the sound quietened, the woman seemed to have leaned away from her phone. ‘Yes, its Felicity, I’ll pass her on soon, don’t worry�"’

                Who? Ow

                ‘Yes, hello? Felicity, still there?’

                ‘Yes, uh, sorry,’ she didn’t know what to say, and who she was saying it to. This made conversation rousing difficult, but she did know the voice. Somewhere in her mind if sparked. A connection as made. The voice and the name: Wyler.

                ‘Felicity?’ asked the phone.

                ‘I’m so sorry,’ Felicity said gravely, ‘I’m terrible with names…’

                ‘Felicity? It’s me… It’s me Felicity?’

                Who?

                ‘I’m sorry, just---’ Kroll was snarling a long, thin smile in the light of the staircase. As if she could hear ever word.

                ‘Are you in trouble? Just say yes or no.’

                She paused. It felt like the longest pause of her life. Everything flashed in her mind at once, the long long day, the Voice, Madam Kroll. The drugs. What would the Voice say? What do you need? Is probably what it would say. She needed drugs, she needed to understand what was happening, and she needed to escape. She could say yes, and say Kroll could hear everyword- what happens then? Kroll would fall on her like the Devil itself. She hadn’t been vengeful before, though. At least as far as memory served her.

                Kroll began to whistle a chirpy, whimsical tune.

                How could she hear? She even said, she didn’t like being the silent third party. Silent.

                But still, the look in her eye, the smile wound up her cheek. Sinister and knowing. Felicity was breathing into the telephone, and maybe that was answer enough.

                ‘Just say yes or no, are you in trouble?’

                What do you need what do you need what do you f*****g need?! Yes I’ll wait here and yu phone your momma and we’ll make a matress fort and grab some munchies maybe momma will let us use the tv after she heads up to bed which is around 10pm and-and th-then…

               

                ‘Yes, phone the police!’ Felicity swung the wheel and she scraped left, ‘I’m in a house, a manor, in Redoak, Jessabelle, its big, wood, long driveway, Candice Kroll,’ she was belting with her arm, the phone dropped from the table and split on impact, all she could do was wheel as fast as she could, in vein.

                ‘You f**k�"’ Kroll leaped and struck the phone’s cradle with a spare foot, it ground across the floor, Felicity with one arm managed to fall backwards against the chain-locked door where she fumbled furiously at the lock. The chain came undone, but the handle didn’t budge. Kroll laughed.

                ‘Are you serious?’ she asked, still laughing. Felicity leaned forward, as if to barge the door open with her only functioning part, and slid right off the chair. Her legs screamed, her stump struck the floor furiously and her other leg didn’t leave its place. A strange and quick euphoric ease came over her in that moment, and that too, like all else, was replaced by immense, brutal pain. She fainted.