Awaken

Breaking News - Final

Meanwhile...

In a modern yet old-fashioned single-family household, a caretaker and its regressing owner could be seen sleeping peacefully in separate rooms on the second floor of the house.

Until the landline downstairs suddenly went off, awakening the caretaker from her wonderful sleep as the rhythmic sounds of an alarm rang throughout the once-silent house like the chimes of a bell in the morning.

"Hmm... just what is it now?" Aunt May muttered with a frown as she yawned as she got out of bed and walked downstairs to go pick up the landline.

Creak. Creak. Creak.

"What is it now, Andrew?" Aunt May asked with a sigh as she glanced at the person trying to sneak past her and go downstairs.

"Oh, um... well, I heard something ringing so I just wanted to check it out to make sure, it wasn't another prank call, Betty," Andrew answered innocently with a nervous smile as he stopped dead in his tracks and glanced at her as she just shook her head in disbelief at his childish antics.

'Even at such a big age, he still acts the same as when he was 24,' Aunt May or Betty some of her friends call her, thought as she giggled, 'Yet, with his condition gradually getting worse and the brain tumor, they just recently found... maybe it's for the best, he died deranged and confused rather than awake and sound.'

"Well come on then... as I know you won't be able to go back to sleep anytime soon, buddy," Betty said as she began walking downstairs to go pick up the phone, which was still ringing surprisingly as most would have ended the call by now.

Unless it was for something important such as...

"You are damn sure I won't, Angeles! So how about we get out of here and go down to that amusement park on 44th?" Andrew exclaimed as he suddenly grabbed Betty's hand and spun her around like a ballet dancer before she could stop him as she did not expect he'd still have this much strength and energy at his age.

...

Back at the hospital...

"Tsk, just what is taking them so long to answer, hasn't someone realized the phone's been ringing for the past 10 minutes straight? Forget it, I will just leave them a voicemail," Ruth signed as she hung up the phone and called someone to move the patient's body to the hospital's mortuary, where it will be kept until the family of the deceased chooses a funeral home to come to collect the body.

Considering that Ruth's shift is about to end.  So she could only inform the next nurse to continue trying to reach the family of the patient to inform them of the breaking news.

...

Swoosh.

"Hey! Just what do you..." exclaimed Betty as she accidentally hit Andrew in the face.

"Oh, sorry about that I thought you were my date for a moment there as you have some beautiful eyes just like her miss," said Andrew sweetly as he apologized for his actions and let go of Betty's hand.

"..." Betty, "I'm sorry as well as I~"

Beep! Bop. [Phone number... has disconnected leaving behind one new voicemail!]

"Hmm, so they finally hung up, huh? That is strange, I thought..." Betty muttered before waiting a couple of minutes for the person to call again yet no one did, and it was like that for the rest of the night.

So, Betty just pushed the matter to the back of her mind and went back to sleep, after finally managing to get Andrew to go to bed as well. Not aware that the following morning the same number would call again, and she would receive the shock of her life.