Tara Pov:
I'm standing in my kitchen texting Amber when the landline rings, 'Fucking landline won't stop ringing' I text her, waiting for her to reply as the landline rings out before ringing again, 'is Wes still bugging u' she asks and I smile at my phone, she's so jealous of Wes. I roll my eyes hearing the landline ringing again, "hello" I say annoyed at whoever is calling "Hello, is Christina there" the mans voice reply's, "No, she's not available may I take a message" I ask picking up a stool a I walk through my kitchen, "Uh yeah well um, I guess I'm sorry I'm a friend of hers from group. oh" The voice says pausing as I place the stool down "from her... um look just uh tell her I'm from group, I'm Charlie, she's got my number" he says to me, I chuckle, standing on the stool to reach the key to the liquor cabinet "Oh she goes to the group" I say curious. "Look I shouldn't have uh, just tell he that Charlie called" He says practically begging.
"Okay I will do exactly that Charlie, once you tell me what kind of group we're talking about, is it that's A-A-N-A" I say talking over him, I look back at my phone texting Amber as she speaks, "Well you sound exactly like she describes you" he says and I pause, sending Amber a message, "Uh she talks about me in group" I ask "Uh look I don't think I can really talk about that" he says but I ignore him, "What does she say about me" I ask mockingly "well she loves you very much" he says as I walk into the kitchen again, "ooh what does she love about me" I ask and he pauses for a second, "Uh she loves that you're creative, you love art, TV and movies" he says his voice changing slightly. "Okay well lot's pf people love movies" I say placing something onto the island in our kitchen "yeah but she says you love scary movies, and that you guys have that in common" he says pausing before speaking again, "She's proud of making a fan out of you" he says and I pause, thinking of my mother being proud. "she is" I ask him "Yeah, she told me the other day she wonders. What's your favourite scary movie" he asks me.
"Uhh, the babadook, it's an amazing meditation on motherhood and grief" he laughs over the phone and I play with the knives in their stand "Isn't that a little fancy pants" he asks mockingly. "Well it's elevated horror" I say smiling as I stir my food "Uh, what does that mean, elevated horror" he asks clearly confused, "you know it's like scary but with complex, emotional and thematic underpinnings, it's not just some schlocky cheeseball nonsense with wall-to-wall jump scares" I explain, "hmm, that sounds kinda boring to me. Have you ever seen stab" he asks me and I think for a second, taking the spoon out of the pot, "once. I think, at a sleepover when I was like 12" I say walking back over to the knives, "You live in Woodsboro and you don't know stab, well your mother loves that movie. She talks about it all the time at group, how well do you know the original" he asks as I play with the knives bored of this conversation. "I don't know, I mean it was like super 90's. It's like really over lit and everyone had weird hair" I say laughing as I take a bowl out of the cabinet, kicking it closed.
"Do you remember the opening" he asks me, "not really" I admit thinking for a minute, I mean they start it with the kill scene right they always started with the kill scene" I ask him, "Yeah, that's right, that's right it's a girl home alone. She answers a wring number and starts talking with the killer, who makes her play a game. Do you wanna play a game. Tara" the voice changes as it asks me. I hang up the landline, placing it roughly on the island, I look around, making sure no one is in my house, I pull out my phone, locking all the doors with an app on my phone. "Systems armed" It says and I text Amber. 'it was some psycho. I'm locking all the doors' I text her, looking out of the window anxiously before closing the curtains, I look down at my phone after Amber responded, 'WTF??? Are u ok' before I answer the landline rings again making me jump.
I look back down, seeing another text from amber saying 'you should answer it' I look at my phone confused, 'how did u know the landline was ringing' I ask her 'Amber' I text after not getting a reply. 'This isn't Amber' it says and I go to the home screen, 'Answer the phone or she dies BITCH' a notification from Amber says at the top of my screen, the landline rings after the message sends. "This isn't fucking funny Amber" I say answering it. "I told you, this isn't Amber" the voice says again, my phone gets a notification and I look down seeing a video, I hesitate before opening it, it's amber being watched "Amber's looking particularly fetching tonight, she really shouldn't leave her phone around for anyone to clone" the voice says on the other side of the phone. "What do you want" I ask the man on the other side of the phone, "I told you I wanna play a game. Stab movie trivia. 3 rounds, you call the cops she dies, you get a question wrong. She dies, her parents aren't home. I can be in that room in 15 seconds" The voice says still showing Amber, fixing her hair.
