Dead of the Night

The Call

Felicia shot straight up out of bed, screaming and crying. Calming down a little, she looked around and realized she was in her room.

Placing a hand on her forehead to wipe away some sweat, she whispered, "just a bad dream."

She cleared her throat, sat up, and got out of bed. Upon walking into the living room, she noticed that her tv was on, and the same web of colors was surrounding the crack in the middle of the screen just as it had been in her dream. Her phone was still in the floor, where it had landed when she pushed it off the couch. Felicia ran her fingers through her hair and, laughing a little, said, "I'm going crazy."

She picked up her phone and saw there were several missed calls from Mrs. Carson. She redialed her number.

"Felicia, thank God," Mrs. Carson answered, "are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. What's wrong?"

"You called me last night. You sounded so scared... Then you let out the most disturbing scream..."

"Oh, God."

"I gave Sam the spare key to your house and sent him over last night. Have you seen him yet?"

"No, I'm afraid not." Felicia answered, wondering back down the hall towards her spare bedroom. Sam was sprawled out in the center of bed. "Found him."

"Could you wake him up? Goodness, it's almost noon," Mrs. Carson said, then added, "I'd best get off here, I've got some chores to do. Sam can come back whenever he needs to; I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Thanks, I'll talk to you later."

Click.

Felicia made her way back up the hall and to the kitchen. She put a few frozen waffles in the toaster, then called for Sam. When he didn't respond, she went back to his room.

"Sam, get up. I'm making breakfast."

He rolled over to face her, then groaned. His eye was swollen.

"Oh, my God. What happened?" Felicia said, running over to the bed and cupping Sam's face.

He sat up, "You don't remember?"

Felicia gasped, bringing her hands up to her face, "Oh, God, I didn't."

"You did." Sam said, the smirked. "What was up with you?"

"I'm not sure myself."

A loud ding rang through the house.

"Well," Felicia chirped, "that's breakfast. I'll tell you everything up there."

She started out of the room and went to the kitchen to prepare the plates while Sam threw on a shirt and groggily made his way up to the kitchen behind her. They sat across from each other at her four-person dining table. Sam poked at one waffle for a second, then looked up at Felicia.

"So, what's up?"

Felicia stood up, went to the freezer, and got an ice pack for Sam's eye. On her way there and back, she explained what happened. The broken window, the television show, and the hand.

Sam looked over into the living room, "I don't see any broken windows." His focus returned to Felicia, and he took the ice pack and pressed it to his eye.

"Well, at five o'clock in the morning, mom woke me up. She was freaking out about you because apparently you were being attacked. 'Sam, you get over there right now,'", Sam said in a very mocking tone, then continued, "When I got here, you were curled up on the floor, in front of the couch over there, just sobbing. I put a hand on your back, and you screamed and punched me!" He threw his arms up for emphasis, "'Felicia, calm down!' I said, and you just started crying again and hugged me. So I just carried you to your room and put you in your bed."