#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 it.

turns his attention to the door and reaches for

Ring Ring.

throwing my back

deepens. “What’s in the closet, Evelyn?” he asks. “Do you have

I murmur, my eyes darting around the room for

the door, Evelyn,” he says, his

pleading on my own. “Please,

Ring. It doesn’t

in there that you don’t want me to see, Evelyn?” he asks, putting a firm hand on my shoulder and giving me a nudge. It’s a request, really, not

back harder against my

say, “if you love me,

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

against him as he carries me over to the bed and deposits me there, not ungently. As soon as he puts me down I scramble back up, heading

Ring Ring.

But he’s already there.

strength 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 walks into the closet

the little rotary phone sitting in a cleared space on the floor – what the hell – I know that I buried it under a pile of clothes and shoes

Ring Ring.

down and lifts the receiver to

voice on the other side of the line. It’s

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

is this?” Victor asks, turning his face up to frown at Evelyn. He wonders, passively, if it actually is his therapist – but

the phone, reaching for it, trying to

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

about your little tragedy tonight,” the voice says, its tones mocking. Victor goes very still,

voice to keep talking, not wanting to give

hot at your house tonight,” the voice replies. “So hot that you lost everything. But I can’t say that you didn’t deserve it. You’re

is likely the one

it’s plugged into the wall.

hard and staticky. “Don’t you recognize the voice of your therapist?” Victor analyzes the voice

he says quickly, glancing down at the phone. “I can tell by the rhythms of

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