Behind The Scenes (Completed) ✔️

2• Sam

Colby woke up the next morning to his phone buzzing on his nightstand.

At first, he decided to ignore it, hoping whoever was trying to contact him would end the call, but unfortunately he wasn't so lucky. After three long and frustrating minutes, he reluctantly threw his blanket off his torso, noticing as he did so that he was still wearing a shirt, which was rather unusual, and that the bed he was lying in wasn't his own; he grabbed the annoying device and blindly pressed the red button, then dragged down the notification bar and pressed mute. He then rubbed his blurry eyes and unlocked the screen, revealing nine missed calls from his friend Corey.

"Wow", he mumbled. What does he want ?

His brain finally catching up with his awakened body, he started thinking about what had happened the previous day. He remembered the terrifying call from the stranger. He hadn't left his room since. He hadn't even left Sam's bed. He had spent the whole evening meditating, trying to get rid of his panic. It had been very hard to concentrate, and when he had finally succeeded he had fallen asleep.

Speaking of Sam, he suddenly realized that the latter had never come back home from the gym the previous day.

He checked his phone again to see if his roommate had called or texted, and seeing that he hadn't, he started freaking out. He immediately opened Contacts to call him, and as if on cue, the rattling of a key against the lock of the front door broke the silence, followed by the familiar sound of his roommate throwing off his shoes, then walking towards the bedroom.

Colby sighed in relief, but the feeling was short lived as the sight that appeared before him made his heart drop again. Sam looked terrible. His clothes were dirty, his hair was messy, his face was paler than ever, and his eyes had the darkest circles under them. It was obvious that he hadn't slept.

"Oh my God", Colby managed to say after a few unsuccessful tries. "Sam, what happened to you ? Where have you been ?"

"Somewhere", Sam mumbled.

"You're not even gonna talk to me ? I was worried about you", Colby said. "And I'm still worried about you", he added as his friend ignored him, instead walking towards the closet and beginning to take out some clothes. "Did you see yourself ? You look terrible !"

Sam turned his head to glance at him.

"I could say the same about you", he retorted.

Colby realized too late that Sam could be right. Or most likely, was right. He hadn't even looked at himself since the previous evening, and he had spent the major part of it trying to hold in his tears, and the major part of his night in insomnia. He should have guessed that he probably looked just as terrible as his friend.

"I'm gonna go take a shower, and then we can talk," Sam said, before disappearing into the bathroom.

While waiting for his friend, Colby went to the kitchen. Glancing across the shelves, he debated on whether to make an actual breakfast or not. He hadn't eaten since the previous morning and it would probably be unhealthy to spend another day on an empty stomach, but in the same time he was feeling nauseous. He finally decided to just make some coffee, taking out two mugs for Sam and himself.

Twenty minutes later, Sam was out of the bathroom, sipping on the hot coffee Colby had just handed him. They both went to sit on their respective beds.

"So," Sam started after an awkward silence. "What happened to you ?"

"I think I should ask you first," said Colby. " You're the one who left yesterday for your usual two hour workout, spent the night outside and came back looking worse than a homeless man."

"Okay, I'm going to tell you... But I have a feeling what happened to me happened to you too".

"What do you mean ?"

"The man behind the black screen."

Colby's heart stopped. So the bastard had gone after his best friend too ! He couldn't believe it. How dare they ?

But thinking about it again, it did make sense, and Colby couldn't believe he hadn't guessed it himself.

But still, what do they actually want with us ?

"So he did contact you."

Colby realized he had zoned out for a few seconds. That had been all the confirmation Sam needed.

"Tell me what happened."

Not seeing the point in hiding anything anymore, Colby complied. He told his friend everything that had happened.

"I'm so sorry about you date", Sam said as Colby was done talking. "We're going to find a way out of this. I'm certain of it."

"Don't apologize, dude, it wasn't your fault".

"Well stop feeling guilty, it wasn't yours either", Sam said. "Didn't Samantha come over after that ?" He asked.

"No. I never gave her my address, remember."

"Oh, true."

"But enough about me. What about you ? What did the stranger tell you ?"

"The same thing they did you. Exactly the same. The only difference is that they only used my phone. I was at the gym taking a break and had gone to check my phone when I received the call. I told them I would never join them just like you did, but apparently it was more of an information than an offer. And with the death threats and all, I got so scared that I didn't want to come home. I didn't know how to tell you. I just walked around aimlessly the whole evening, and when my legs couldn't carry me anymore I collapsed right where I was."

Colby remained silent.

"They said... They said that they are the Illuminati," he said after a while. "Do you believe that ?"

"I don't know. I mean it could easily be a troll... All they did so far was hack into our devices and threaten us. Any hacker could do that".

"But that's the point ! They threatened us. With death treaths. And this means that we will literally have to do whatever they want us to do, if we want to stay alive.

"Starting with the ceremony. Tonight..."

.