Be Right Back

A seemingly innocent msn conversation between friends.

The screen made the familiar and insistent chirp to let Angela know that she had received a new instant message. It was from Claudia, letting her know that someone was at the door; she�d be right back. Angela took the break as an opportunity to fix herself something to eat but she started to get concerned when ten minutes later Claudia still hadn�t returned. The computer clock read 20:10; her last message had been received at 19:50, twenty minutes ago. That was definitely worrying.

Angela chewed her lip momentarily, a nervous habit she had had since she was a child. She didn�t want to bother Claudia if she was busy doing something important: on the other hand it had been a rather long time since she got her last message and knowing her friend as well as she did she knew it was entirely possible that Claudia had forgotten they were talking. She clicked the button to send a nudge and her screen shook momentarily just as she knew Claudia�s would.

�Hey! Are you still there?� she typed.
A few more moments passed but then Angela�s reply appeared:
�Yeah, still here. Just got a bit tied up there.�
�Oh good, I was starting to think you had been murdered horribly! Lol�
�HAH! No, just had to do something. So what are you wearing?�
Angela smiled to herself, Claudia had always been fashion mad. It was one of the very few things they didn�t have in common She didn�t mind indulging her best friend though, they were as close as two people who had never actually met could be. They had been talking to each other like this for months now and everyday they were surprised to find more and more things they had in common, a love of horror films, and a similar taste in music, books, and films. Conversation had always been easy and flowing between them, rarely any pauses that lasted more than a few seconds and each girl knew they could tell the other anything without fear of ridicule. But something seemed different that day, Claudia�s end of the conversation seemed halting and strained. There was surely something different about her long distance friend but Angela could not put her finger on what it was.

After half an hour Angela decided to just come out and ask if anything was wrong. Claudia denied it typing back:

�Just busy, I�m working on a little project and it�s kind of messy lol�
�What kind of project?�
�Oh nothing really, sort of an art project you could say.�
�Oh cool! Post me a picture when it�s done�
�Sure, will do! Well I hate to do this but I have to go now! See you soon�

Something about Claudia�s last message troubled Angela long after she had said her goodbye, it was that �See you soon�. They always signed off �talk to you soon� as they would not actually see each other. She tried to dismiss it as nothing, a slip of the tongue-or in this case the hand. But she could not shake the feeling that something was just not right.

The next night the phone rang, it was for Angela.

�Hello?�
�Hello�.� The woman on the other end of the phone�s voice was unfamiliar, more so by the fact that she seemed to be trying not to cry, �is this Angela Caswell?�
�Um, yes, who is this?�
�I am Claudia�s mother, I know you girls were close so I just thought someone should�someone should tell you, Claudia is d-dead.�

The world seemed to stop as Angela slowly sank to the floor, the phone held tight like a talisman against what she had just heard. Her thoughts were spinning round so fast she couldn�t make sense of them. Claudia was dead. She was gone forever. Claudia was dead. She wasn�t coming back. Claudia was dead. She would never talk to her best friend again.

She sat there crying for a few moments, Angela�s mother didn�t hang up, after a few moments Claudia managed to choke out two words �When? How?�

She listened in shock as she heard how Angela had been killed�murdered�a little before 8pm the previous day. The police thought the killer had surprised her when she answered the door. Angela could not comprehend why anyone would possibly want to kill Claudia. By the time Claudia�s mother told her fingerprints had been found on the computer keyboard Angela was too numb to really realise what was being said.

Dazedly she thanked Claudia�s mother for telling her and hung up the phone. She sat on the floor in the dark for a long time going over what had just been said, what she had been told. After a while something peculiar struck her, Claudia had died a little before 8 the previous evening, so who had Angela been talking to until around 9?

Like a ghost, numb and unseeing she slowly walked towards her computer and checked her e-mail. She had one new message. From Claudia. Timed from this morning. The subject simply said �The Art Project�. Without thinking Angela opened the message, at the top were 3 words �See you soon� then slowly a picture appeared as more of the image of red mixed with pieces of the face of her best friend came up Angela screamed.

She screamed so loudly she didn�t even hear someone walk in the front door.

Reviews

[Susan S.]

Oh my! That is one of the better pieces of writing I've seen on this site. You have a way of drawing people into the story that is very hard to come by. Most people can't seem to learn it. For your age this is amazing. Heck, for my age (57) it's pretty darn good! I think you may have had a spelling error in there but after about the fourth line I wasn't really paying attention to grammar and spelling.

Good Job!
Susan S

[Kimberly]

Ooh, that's creepy. I like it.