The Void

2

2
A Familiar Unease

Ring!

The bland ringing of his work phone blares amidst the silence, startling him from his somber mood. Agitated from the noise, he looks over to see who could be calling him at such a late hour. But as his eyes fall upon the green screen of his caller ID his breath hitches in his throat, reading 'EXT. 5450 – Fallon Mara'.

"What the...?" he stammers before hastily picking up the phone. "Hello? Hello?? Fallon!?"

Through the receiver he hears nothing, and once more he calls out for someone to answer him. Pressing the phone against his ear, he focuses his hearing and picks up on a subtle noise. It is the soft whimpering of a woman crying, faint but growing a bit more audible as if the caller was moving towards the source.

Confused, he stays silent, choosing instead to focus on the noise coming through the receiver. Louder the woman's cries grow as the caller moves in closer. The fear in her voice is infectious and nauseating, as if a stranger were approaching too closely towards a child.

A sudden snarl cuts through the phone like a blade and causes the woman to whimper through her hysterical sobbing. Every hair on his body rises, his hand clenches the phone, and he covers his mouth with the other.

There is a click on the line, and the phone goes dead. Quiet seconds pass as he sits frozen with the phone to his ear, his mind still suspended in disbelief. Eventually, he returns the phone to the base and rises from his chair. Worried eyes fall upon his door, and he begins to take slow steps towards it.

"Those cries... There's no way," he thinks to himself, his hand finding the door's handle. It opens with a slight creak, and he peers out towards the labyrinth of support staff cubicles nearby.

"Hello?" he calls out, his voice dissolving in the thick silence.

He exits his office with hesitant steps, scanning the area but finding nothing unusual. To his left, positioned in front of an impressive glass wall, is Fallon's old cubicle. The strange call had come from Fallon's extension and thus, if somebody was here, it should have originated from her phone.

Blackness seems to consume the space as he approaches, the lights overhead and even the ambient lighting of the downtown city life somehow nonexistent. He looks back towards his office, seeing the haven of his lit office grow further away.

The darkness is abnormal, and the silence around him triggers an unwarranted shiver through the back of his neck. From his pocket, he pulls his phone, the screen coming to life and displaying a happy photo of his wife and daughter at play. There is a subtle tremble in his hands as he toggles his phone's flashlight, and he points his light upon the walls of the cubicle space.

A deep breath steadies his nerves. With his phone in hand, he takes a swift step around the walls.

His light investigates the area but finds nothing, only the empty L-shape desk with a computer at both ends and empty chairs pushed in under the surface. Softly, he exhales, feeling that he is the victim of some kind of fucked up joke.

"Alright! You've had your laugh now come out! I don't appreciate this!" he shouts.

Frustrated, he runs his hand through his hair and steps towards the windows. His light reflects off the glass and prevents him from peering out. He lowers his phone, but his eyes are unable to focus on anything outside. A sea of blackness exists on the other side of the glass, looking as if the entire building had been veiled in a thick cloak. Once more a cold tremor rakes across his skin like a prickly vine, the unnatural scene before him settling in his psyche with heavy discomfort.