The phone call
Leandra woke with a start, her heart racing. The room was still dark, the faint glow of early dawn barely beginning to seep through the curtains. For a moment, she wasn't sure what had woken her. She lay there, her breath coming in shallow gasps, her eyes scanning the room.
Everything was quiet.
But then she heard it: soft footsteps outside her window.
Her heart leaped into her throat, and she sat up quickly, her pulse thundering in her ears. The sound was unmistakable now—someone was out there.
She threw back the covers, grabbed her knife from under her pillow, and scrambled out of bed, her feet hitting the cold floor with a soft thud. The room spun for a few seconds after quickly hopping out of bed. She paused, waiting for her equilibrium to catch up. Slowly, cautiously, she crept toward the window, her fingers trembling as she reached for the curtain.
She hesitated, her hand hovering over the fabric and the other gripping the knife, her mind racing. "What if someone is out there? What if it's him?" She asked herself.
Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself and peeked between the curtains.
The window revealed nothing but the quiet street, the faint orange glow of the streetlight casting long shadows across the ground. There was no one there.
She let out a long breath, her body sagging with relief, but the unease remained. She stood there for a moment, staring out at the empty street, her eyes searching the shadows for any sign of movement. But everything was still.
Finally, she let the curtain fall back into place and turned away from the window, her mind still racing as she returned to bed to place the knife back under the pillow and make up her bed as she started her day.
The rest of the morning passed in a blur. Leandra couldn't shake the lingering sense of unease that had followed her from the night before. Even as she moved through her usual routine of showering, getting dressed, and making tea, she couldn't escape the feeling that something was off.
Then, just as she was about to head out the door for another shift at the hospital, her phone buzzed on the counter.
She glanced at the screen and frowned—unknown number.
Typically, she would have ignored it as she hated entertaining spam calls, but something compelled her to pick it up.
"Hello?" she answered, her voice thick with uncertainty.
There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment. Then, a
deep voice, smooth as butter and unnervingly calm, spoke.
"Hello, mate"
The words sent a chill down her spine, freezing her in place.
"Who is this?" she whispered. She tried to sound as unnerved as the mysterious caller, but her throat was dry, and her question came out cracked.
"You'll find out soon enough," the voice replied, almost amused. "But for now... be careful. The world is not what you think it is."
Before she could respond, the line went dead.
She stood there, the phone still pressed to her ear, her mind a jumbled mess of confused thoughts. "Who was that? What did they want?" She wondered.
Her hands trembled as she lowered the phone, her pulse racing.
"Who was that man, and what does he mean ?"