Close As Strangers // Calum Hood

Chapter 18 - Nightmare pt2

Calum's Point of View

I laughed when Michael tried to shoot the fotboll towards my goal and missed. "Man, you suck at fifa." I said between my laughter.

Michael pushed me down in the sofa and kept on playing. "Maybe I'm just letting you win all the time."

I straightened up just as my phone rang. I paused the game to Michael's protests and hauled up my phone from my front jeans pocket. My mouth fell open when I saw the caller ID on the display.

"What's happening? You look like you've seen a..." Michael stopped in the middle of his sentence when he leaned over towards me and looked on my phone's display. "..ghost." He continued. "Why is Ivy calling you? I thought you didn't talk to her anymore."

I shook my head slowly. "I don't. I haven't talked to her in months."

We both kept on staring down at my phone's display which showed Ivy's name and number.

"Then why is she calling you?" Michael asked.

"I don't know!" I raised my voice a bit too much and then mumbled "Sorry."

"Then answer it, maybe it's imortant." Michael said and leaned back in the sofa.

I nodded, stood up and then answered my phone. I hadn't time to say anything before Ivy started talking. "Calum. Please. I didn't know who else to call." Her voice was hoarse and very quiet. I could hear her every breath like it was a big effort to say even one word.

"Ivy, what is it? Have something happened?" I felt my jaw clench. If that Theo guy had hurt Ivy, things would not get pretty.

I heard her draw in a shaky breath. "Please, I need you. I'm..." She took a break to swallow. " I'm at Theo's, 22nd marble street..." Her voice died away and the other end got quiet.

"Ivy!? Ivy, are you there?" I yelled into the phone but the line was dead.

Michael had walked up to me without me noticing and now I stood eye to eye with his worried expression. "What's happening?" He asked.

I ran a hand through my black hair and said. "Ivy needs my help. Something has happened to her."

"Then let's go." Michael took a few steps towards his front door.

I shook my head. "You don't..." Michael interrupted me before I could finish the sentence.

"We don't know what this is about, so I'm coming with you whether you want me or not." He said firmly.

I nodded. "Okay, thanks." I took my hoodie and we both hurried out the door. I wrote the address Ivy had given me into my dad's car's GPS and then I drove like mad. My jaw was clenched together tightly during the whole ride and my heart was beating fast.

We made it to Theo's apartment in 25 minutes and we only had to stop twice. The first time was by the red light were I, only a couple of hours ago, had seen Ivy in her car. My thoughts after that stop made it hard for me to concentrate on the road ahead of me. Maybe I could have stopped her, maybe I could have prevented this from happening. I'm sure I could have done something but instead I just drove away like a coward.

When we stopped outside Theo's apartment my jaw had been clenched so tight that it now was hurting and my knuckles was white as snow because I had been gripping the steering wheel so hard, all because of my nervousness for Ivy and what had happened to her.

"This neighbourhood don't look so friendly." Michael said but I barely heard him when I hurried inside the big grey building to find the right floor.

After I had found Theo's name in the list of the building's inhabitants, I could finally storm inside his apartment on the fourth floor. The apartment was cold, tiny and there was a hint of smoke in the air. I barely had time to call out Ivy's name before I found her on the floor, lying curled up in a ball beside, I think, her own vomit.