#Chapter 154 – A Quick Call

I sit straight up in bed, my jaw going slack, staring at the closet where the phone rings again.

Victor turns his head towards me. “What is that?” He asks, blinking sleepily.

“Nothing,” I say hurriedly, pulling my feet out of the blankets and rushing to put them on the floor. “Go back to sleep.”

Victor sits up in the bed, laughing. “Is that a phone? In your closet?”

I don’t answer and instead dash to the door, reaching for the handle, grabbing it, twisting –

I pull, but the door won’t open.

What?

I pull again, hard, jiggling it, but the door won’t budge.

What the hell? Is it locked?

I hear Victor’s laughter die off as he takes in my frenzy. There’s a pause, and then I hear him speak. “Evelyn? What’s going on?”

Ring Ring.

The phone keeps buzzing.

I pull on the door with all of my might, doing my very best to hide my panic, but knowing that I’m failing at it. If I can just get to the phone, unplug it – I can come up with something –

But why was it plugged in anyway? I unplugged it weeks ago – why on earth –

Suddenly, then, Victor is there next to me. “Evelyn?” he asks, his voice low with worry.

I look up at him, my eyes wide.

“What’s going on?” he repeats, frowning at me.

“N-nothing,” I say, working to paste a smile on my face. I drop my hands from the closet and tuck them behind my back, all innocence.

fall for

turns his attention to the

Ring Ring.

I say, throwing my

the closet, Evelyn?” he asks. “Do you

a prank,” I murmur, my eyes darting around

door, Evelyn,”

his face, pleading

It doesn’t

Evelyn?” he asks, putting a firm hand on my shoulder and

press my back harder against

“if you love me,

shut, unwilling to budge, I feel him slip his hands

deposits me there, not ungently. As soon as he puts me

Ring Ring.

But he’s already there.

behind it as he yanks it forward, breaking the flimsy lock. I grab at him, at the cloth of his shirt, yelling, pleading as he

floor – what the hell – I

Ring Ring.

the receiver to his ear.

frowns when he hears the voice on the other side of the line. It’s familiar,

It’s mechanical, robotic, and he recognizes the technology instantly as that which was used when he would

frown at Evelyn. He wonders, passively, if it actually is his therapist – but why would she

phone, reaching for it, trying to grab it

to her, pushing her firmly away from him. Evelyn falls back on her butt, her face drained, ghostly white. Her lip trembles as she watches him. She makes another dive for him, but he blocks her with his hand so that

Victor goes very still, still looking at Evelyn, wondering at the strangeness both of the call and

the voice to keep talking,

got a little hot at your house tonight,” the voice replies. “So hot that you lost

line is likely the one who lit the fire. “Who is this,” he growls, growing

then, this time for the phone chord where it’s plugged into the wall. Victor blocks her again, giving her an angry look. What the hell was she playing

the voice of your therapist?” Victor analyzes the voice as he process the question – it’s a woman, certainly.

down at the phone. “I can tell by the rhythms of your

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