Never Giving You UP

Chapter 5

I answered, not recognizing the number calling.

“Hello?” I asked politely.

“I know who you are.” The voice was very deep and low, the voice sounded muffled also. I knew it was a man talking to me. Chills ran down my spine.

“Who is this?” I asked, my voice quivering. Camille mouthed for me to put it on speaker. I turned it on low so my parents couldn’t hear the voice.

“Who is this?” The voice mocked. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that I know exactly who you are, Scarlett Raine.”

Arrogance rose up in my voice as the anger boiled inside me. “Look whoever this is, I need you to get through your little twisted mind that I’m not your small dick, so don’t play with me. I don’t know why you’re trying to prank me, but for whatever reason it is, I suggest you stop before I have to track you down and do it myself.” I felt the anger easing up in my voice. Shockingly, Camille snatched the phone from me.

“Yeah, this is her girl right here and you not going to disrespect her like that?” Camille faked an accent that made her sound like she was from New Jersey. I was impressed. “If you don’t have anything else to do with your life, how about you go sleep under a moving car?”

Whoever was on the other line, started to laugh. “You girls are cute,” He managed to say through his laughter. “I’m not intimidated by your speeches. And to the comment about my monster, it’s a five dollar foot long. So taste the rainbow.” And with that he hung up.

Camille and I started laughing, not convinced that it was something serious. It was simply just somebody from school prank calling us. I already knew there were apps that disguise your voice and number. I would know since I had one.

It wasn’t until tomorrow afternoon until I was fully awake. I woke up 10:00am, but I wasn’t energetic until now. Camille and I were dressed, waiting for my mom to finish doing her hair, which took a long time. As we sat down in the kitchen watching TV, she finally came downstairs. She threw on her casual clothing, her hair styled as if she was a celebrity. I hope she knew we were on going to a buffet. I didn’t remind her because I didn’t want to make her mad, so I kept my opinions to myself.

“Let’s go,” She said, motioning her arm to the door.

Camille and I ate about four plates. We had a very fast metabolism, which meant we could eat a lot of food but not gain weight. And if we did, it was easily gone the next day. It was more good than bad, so I didn’t complain about it. We didn’t do anything silly, because my mother was stricter than my dad, and I didn’t want to embarrass her.

We just acted like civilized children. It was much harder to do in public than I had recently thought. I felt my insanity weakening. Made me feel like I had to take my shoe off and throw it at the toddler picking a booger out of his nose. Of course I wouldn’t do that though, I had to be civilized.

In the corner of my eye, I’ve seen someone with all black on. His hoodie was covering his face, so all I could see was a shadow where I should’ve saw his face.

“Check it out,” I nudged Camille so she would look the way I nodded my head. “Let’s go see what his problem is.”

Camille and I walked calmly over to the man, I supposed. He didn’t look up; he continued to look at the table. The weird thing was there was nothing there.

“What are you, the Grim Reaper?” Camille said, approaching the man first.

The man didn’t speak. He didn’t move at all, like he was dead.

“Cat got your tongue?” I said, instigating myself in. “Oh that’s right, you don’t have a face.”

The man, stood up slowly, and walked out the door. He moved so swiftly he looked as if he was floating.

“It’s some weird people in this world, huh?” I stated.

“What if that was the same guy that called?” Camille’s eyes widened, mocking fear.

I laughed. “Let’s tell my mom we ready to go.”

“Do you think we’re mean?” Camille asked, softly as we were in the car already on our way back home. Our mom was too busy talking on the phone to listen to what we were talking about anyway.

“Today we were with that man, but we were just having fun,” I said convincingly.

She nodded her head, unsure of what I said was true or not.

“Besides, I don’t think we’re necessarily mean, but nobody should try to mess with us.” I said, smirking. “The way I put it as, we won’t start the fire, but it will be spread.” It made more since that way anyway.

Camille smiled, which made me feel like my job of convincing her was over. She sometimes worried about things until it paranoid her. I did the same thing, but hers was more severe sometimes.

“Hey, can Camille and I stay outside?” I asked my mom as we gotten out the driveway. My mom shot me a warning look. She was very protective with me. She didn’t like to give me freedom when it came to being outside. I blamed the news, since she watched that and mystery shows all the time. It didn’t do anything but fill her head up with lies that you can’t have fun outside anymore. I mean, the world is dangerous, but locking me inside won’t change anything from being different.

She hesitated. “Sure, but when it gets dark, I want you two in the house.” She said to me more than both of us.

I saluted her and looked at Camille as my mom closed the front door. “Let’s go to my friend’s house?”

Camille looked at me. “I think your mom wouldn’t approve of that.”  

“She’s right up the street, everything will be okay. Stop worrying for once, okay?” I told Camille. She looked as though she was about to fuss, but instead she closed her mouth.

I walked up the street, ignoring her protests of staying home. Eventually, I could hear her trudging slowly behind me, muttering insults too quiet for me to comprehend.

I looked up at the sky. It felt like it’s been an hour already, because the clouds were darkening and I already saw the moon out. I started walking faster so I would be able to make it to the house in time. The air felt very heavy, like it was weighing down on my shoulders like a bag of change. I looked behind me, expecting Camille to still be in my eye distance. To my surprise, I didn’t see her.

“Camille?” I asked, trying to not be loud, as I didn’t want to cause attention to myself. My neighborhood was very dangerous to me, too many people in one place.

“Camille!” I repeated, getting louder than I wanted to. I walked back in forth, side to side, looking everywhere for her. It was hard enough for it to start to darken up, but now I wouldn’t be able to get to the house, and it was eight houses away!

I saw a shadow behind me, and I was relieved to know that I finally found Camille. I turned around, about to argue with her, but instead I saw a Caucasian teenager about my age. I was about to ask for his name, when I saw his fist violently swing in the air and into the side of my face.

I fell abruptly to the cement ground. My body felt motionless. My eyelids closed slowly, everything turning into complete darkness.