The Initiate

Chapter 9

-Jeremy-

Jeremy's dreams that night progressed into ones just as strange and random as they normally were, or at least as normal as they had been before his whole dream-connection thing with Tessa. He imagined he was ice skating on a giant snowflake spiraling as it fell towards the ground, which for some reason was populated by a hoard of dancing gerbits. The little rodents were flashing their fluorescent spines, glowing red and green and a rainbow of other colors at their tips. As Jeremy reached the ground, he realized he was horrible at skating, and the skates turned into bulky boots. He tripped over himself as the snowflake collided into the ground, dispersing into a cascade of iridescent mist. Having fallen prone, Jeremy noticed that the gerbits were now all gathered around him, screaming and turning their spines red. The gerbits extended their claws, baring their fangs as they leaped on him and-

Riiiiiiing ring ring.

Jeremy jolted out of his sleep. The familiar sound of a ringing phone echoed, muffled by the wall separating Jeremy from the main room.

Riiiiiiing ring ring.

Jeremy's mind, bleary from just waking up, tried to sort out what was going on. Is that a phone ringing? Why is someone calling in the middle of the night? Wait, it surely couldn't be-

Jeremy heard a rustling from the bed next to him, and a moment later the sound of the door opening. Bjorn had gotten out of bed to answer the phone.

"Wait, Bjorn, hold on..." Jeremy tried to say, but Bjorn had already reached the other room.

Riiiiiiing ring - Jeremy heard the distinctive note of the phone being taken off its hook, and Bjorn answered, "Hello? This is Bjorn Lewis."

By this point, Jeremy was fully awake, fearing the worst and bolting to the other room. He was keyed into the phone, so although the response was faint, it was distinct nonetheless. "Hello? This is Bjorn Lewis," a tinny voice taunted from the speaker.

"Are you copying me? Why are you calling in the middle of the night?" Bjorn seemed unwilling to put up with any crap at this wie hour of the morning.

"Are you copying me? Why are you-" Jeremy had reached the phone line and promptly pulled the cord out of the wall. "Not this time, you bastard," Jeremy hissed.

"Jeremy, what was that for?" Bjorn wheezed.

"Someone's trying to tap your phone line," Jeremy replied grimly. "This happened to me the other day, but didn't want to bother you about it."

"What? Someone's trying to snoop on you? Why would they want to do that?" Bjorn interrogated.

Jeremy began to reply, but was interrupted by a rough cough from behind Bjorn. Jessica, wiping the sleep from her eyes, was standing in pajamas that she had procured somehow, even though no one had been planning on being stuck at Bjorn's apartment that night.

"Whoever decided that having a party in the middle of the night was a good idea is in trouble," Jessica growled, cracking her knuckles. "Explain yourselves."

"Right... two days ago, I was studying for the standardized exam with Tessa, and someone called. I picked up the phone, and a voice repeated back whatever I said. I hung up, but they called back and after copying me for a bit, it started saying something about identifying me and then started saying my and Tessa's full names and my address." Jeremy heard yet another noise from behind Bjorn, though Bjorn didn't seem to notice. It was Tessa, wrapped in a blanket, walking up to see what was going on. Jeremy assumed she could figure out what he was talking about and didn't want to break his train of thought, so he continued.