𝚆𝚑𝚒𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚆𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚜 - The Black Phone - Finney Blake

"I pretend I don't hear their screams. But I do. Like a faint hum in the breeze of the air conditioning. I pretend I don't hear their cries for help. But I do. Like the static of a radio just out of range. I hear them in my 𝚆𝚑𝚒𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚆𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚜."

Margaret doesn't know why her father is like this. Why he tears people's lives apart at the seams. But she can't fight it. She can't help them escape. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 can't escape. She knows what happens if she tries. She got curious once, two years ago, wondering why her father was constantly in and out of the basement. Margaret couldn't have prepared herself for what, or rather 𝘸𝘩𝘰, she saw curled up in the corner. 𝘎𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘨. The missing boy from the news. The world seemed to go silent... until she heard a creak in the floorboards and the tall shadow of her father cast down the stairs behind her.

Margaret fought. But it was futile. Her father only made her life more miserable from that day on. Margaret felt hopeless.

Until now.

A new boy in the basement. One who doesn't scream as long as the others. One who she can tell intrigues her father. She doesn't know why, but she feels a spark of hope when she sees 𝘩𝘪𝘮.

𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙮 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙠𝙚.