It was a sinner's suicide for anyone to work at Coopers Incorporation. It was no surprise that people aimed to stray far from the Devil known as Mr Elijah Cooper.
Cold, demanding, and rough, he ruled over everything with an iron grip and a calculati...
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Nora's P.O.V
White noise trailed after the voice and I sat rigid in my bed, heart palpitating and chills spilling down my back. I hesitated as a gut-wrenching feeling told me to end the call straight away, but I decided to take the risk and reply.
“Hello, yes?”
A moment later static overtook the call and I peered at the phone, confused that the person had hung up. ‘What on earth? Was this a prank call?’ I debated. I was probably experiencing paranoia right now as it settled over my body but after that call and the strange driver from ages ago warning me to quit the job or something terrible would happen, I didn’t feel like that was just a prank call.
I sat up in bed, pulling the duvet over my legs and clenching my knees to my chest. I kept whipping my head to the phone on the nightstand constantly waiting for the beeping to trumpet its way through the silence. I expected that stranger to call again. My body shivered and I glanced towards the clock, I felt the strain of my muscles pulling beneath my skin and I realised that I’d been sat there for two hours. Convincing myself that after all this time the strange voice had left me alone, I stopped stressing and fell onto the bed sheets. My body protested at first until it relaxed. Darkness started to flicker as my eyes shut and sleep finally overtook me, but it wasn’t the usual tranquil dreams. This one bordered on taunting nightmares and whispering voices.
Darkness was everywhere and I couldn’t see anything, almost like a blindfold was wrapped against my eyes. I tried to move, tried to stand tall and carry myself somewhere or anywhere but no matter how much I thrashed, screamed, begged, and cried, some invisible chain was tangled around me and interlocked in my bones. All echoing sounds evaporated, and my throat constricted in pain and anguish. I was unable to speak.
Once I’d stopped fighting, the voices appeared. Starting from small inaudible whispers the words made no sense until gradually they became louder. My disorientated mind focused on those voices, like a life ring I clung to them. They crawled closer, they became louder, and the voices tickled my skin making me shiver in disgust. They were warning me, I realised, warning me to stay away from the Coopers. I jolted awake after that scene and with ragged breathing and a horrendous stubbornness, I curled myself into the foetal position and forced my body to stop shaking, to re-enter a sleeping state. Suffice it to say, the night wasn’t peaceful or enjoyable.
Finally, my alarm blared, and I groaned as I moved around under the duvet, feeling water beads dribble off my skin into the sheets. I was pretty sure the room was stuffy and filled with the lingering sweat of my anxiety induced sleep, but I left my bed and opened the window, allowing fresh air to intertwine with the stench. Outside, the day was bright and sunny. I sighed in relief staring at the garden that was vast in front of me. It was heaven compared to the constricting room I was suffocating in.
