Prompt by StoriesUndiscovered:
You're sitting at work one day and receive a text message from an unrecognized number. The text says, " I have the money and hid the body."
You think this is a practical joke from a friend, so you play along at first. But the more texts you receive, the more you realize that it isn't a joke.
Write the text conversation you have with this unknown texter.
Leila stared at the screen in front of her eyes burning, when she suddenly heard the notification sound on her phone go off. Relieved, that she could finally take a break she sighed and stretched herself a bit.
After that she checked her phone. The text message seemed to come from an unknown number.
Unknown number:
I have the money and hid the body
Thinking, that this was a joke from her good friend Joe to take her mind off of things, she just smiled and decided to play along.
Ok. Where are you right now?
At the park near his house. Where we agreed to meet.
Just when I was about to respond I got a text from Joe.
Wanna watch a movie tonight?
Didn't you change your number?
No, why would I?
Weren't you pulling a prank on me?!
No... Are you alright?
Just then I got another text from the unknown number.
Hello?! Are you here? If you called the cops... I swear I'll find you.
No! No I didn't. But I think that you have the wrong number.
Are you kidding me?! You can't just quit now!
Seriously, you have the wrong number!
You're lying to me... I did this last request for you, and this is how you thank me?!
...
I leave the money here, I will sent you the location and if it still here tomorrow, I will find you, you know I will!
Leila stared at her phone screen in shock. With quivering hands she closed her computer and stood up. He had sent her the location, it wasn't far away.
Leila didn't know why, but she decided to follow the directions to the park. The main reason was probably, that she didn't want to be the reason for another persons death.
They had probably deserved it, if they had asked another person to kill someone. But she couldn't live with the knowledge, that she could have stopped another person from being killed, but hadn't done anything.
She parked a few blocks away from the park bought a black hat and scarf and put them over her head. Luckily it was winter, so nobody bat an eye at her appearance.
She made her way to the park without any disruptions. Her heart was beating fast and her palms were sweating in her jacket pockets.
She took her handy out and checked again the location. It was very near, the closer she came to it, the more nervous she got.
She looked again at the text she got from Joe. And after a moment of hesitation she tapped out
I hope so
Leila felt like she was being watched, but she didn't know if that was true or if she just felt like that because of the situation she was in.
It seemed that the money was here somewhere here. Leila looked around, on one side of the road was only grass and on the other was a bench a tree and a couple of bushes.
She looked around, but there didn't seem to be anyone around. She looked if there was anything in the bushes, but she couldn't see anything. She took out her handy flashlight and tried to look between the branches.
There!
She kneeled down and crawled into the bushes. The thorns left lots of little cuts on her skin and her coat got caught in them, but in the end she found a shoebox.
She opened it and there was a lot of money inside.
She crawled out of the bushes, making sure that nobody would see her face. She put the box inside her coat and walked towards the exit of the park.
She took many detours to make sure, that nobody was fallowing her. Then she got rid of the hat and the scarf and went back to her car.
When she arrived home she had three missed calls and two messages from Joe. She opened her text messages and read the texts.
Leila?!
If you don't answer in the next ten minutes I'm calling the police!
Leila called Joe to tell him that everything was fine and asked him if he could come over. He agreed and Leila put the shoebox in a corner in the garage, since she didn't want to have to look at it.
When Joe came she told him everything that had happened and he comforted her. They decided to forget about it for the moment and just watch a film. They wanted to go to the police station in the morning.
Unbeknownst to them the box would remain in the same place for the next forty years when Leila's granddaughter would find it while cleaning out the garage.
