Around Midnight

Chapter 1- The Call

Okay, so to start off, I just want to thank everyone who is reading this! Pleas vote and comment if you like it, thank you. Also, If you find mistakes, please report them to me. Thank you! -Gigi

Chapter 1- The Call

2:08, Elgin, Illinois.

"So give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light

Cause oh they gave me such a fright.

But I will hold as long as you like

Just promise me we'll be alright."

The ringing of a phone disturbed the sleeping house of Rose King, who, like everyone else on the quite street, was fast asleep. As the phone continued ringing, Rose rolled over to look at her alarm clock that read 2:08 in the morning.

"What...Who the hell calls at two in the morning?" Rose groaned sleepily as she rolled out of her warm bed. Once she managed to get up, she grabbed her robe and rushed down the stairs to get the still screaming phone.

Normally her Ivy, her sister, would have gotten it, since they had been living together, but that was before Rose caught her fiancé of two years, James, cheating. Literally caught his cheating. After that, she just couldn't stay in Chicago anymore so she moved to Elgin, a town about forty miles away from Chicago. Not too close for the bad memories but still close enough to her sister.

"Hello?" Rose said after picking up the phone, finally silencing the awfully loud ringer. She listened but heard no response to her greeting. "Hello?" She tried again, slightly annoyed that she had to repeat herself and that she was awaken so early in the morning. Rose was not one others would call an "Early Bird". It was safe to say she wasn't a morning person. Nevertheless, being awoken at two in the morning was ungodly for anyone!

Becoming impatient, Rose was about to hang up the phone when she heard a noise. It started very low but slowly started to become clearer until she could make out the sound of rain on a windowpane. She glances out the closest window and from what she could tell it wasn't raining in Elgin.

A sudden response on the other end surprise Rose enough to make her jump and almost drop the phone. Getting a better grip on both the phone and her nerves, she spoke back, "Hello??" Again there was an answer, a voice, so raspy that Rose couldn't make out what it was trying to tell her or even if it was a woman or a man. But before she could try to calm the frantic voice down, the line went dead. Whoever was on the other end had hung up.

As the dial tone came on, Rose pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it suspiciously. As if it would disappear and she would awake from a strange dream. She waited a few seconds, before the idea that she was still asleep faded. Shaking her head, Rose put the phone back on the receiver on the wall and headed towards the kitchen. She figured she wouldn't be getting back to sleep tonight so she might as well wake up properly and calm her nerves a little bit with a pot of coffee. She waited a few seconds for the coffee pot to begin to fill up before grabbing a cup and walking back into the living room.

Once she was in her small living room, she begin to pace around the floor. Something about the call didn't feel right. The raspy voice on the other end didn't feel right. Rose contemplated her options.

Maybe she should report the call to the police. However, she didn't want to be one of the annoying people who over analyze everything. On the other hand, if someone was hurt on the other end she wanted to help him or her. Making up her mind, she went back to the phone. There was only one way to find out if someone was hurt, she'd just call them back using *69, something she didn't even know existed until she was 16 when her and Ivy had been prank calling people and one of the people they pranked apparently used that to call them back.