PRANK CALL

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟓: 𝐏𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐊 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋

Eric stood there with the phone by his ear, cold sweats fell from his forehead as he processed his thoughts...

"I'm being told that I'm gonna die. It's one thing to be told that you're going to die, it's another to be told that you won't exist anywhere in any way."

"There are so many things wrong with that, I don't want to believe any of it but I feel...like I should."

"No, I refuse to let it go like this, it could still just be a very convincing prank caller, I'll take my chances with the police if there's no other way." Eric had finally concluded his thoughts.

Almost as if he noticed his thoughts being concluded, Unknown asked, "Have you finally decided to follow my words?"

"No, not yet. I'd like to try a last resort of mine first." Eric said with a hint of confidence that was expressed in his tone.

Unknown noticed his confident tone, and thus decided to hear him out, after all, there was still some time before Eric's end.

"So what exactly did you have in mind?" he asked.

Eric paused before saying, "...The police."

"Excuse me?" Unknown was surprised, not at the suggestion but at the fact that this version of Eric took this long to come to the idea of using getting help from the police.

It was still a bad idea though, "You really want to get the police involved?"

"Why not, unless everything you just mentioned was just a bunch of bullsh#t?" Eric said, taunting Unknown for his own words.

Unknown sighed, "Fine..."

"What?" Eric gasped, he didn't expect Unknown to agree.

Unknown confirmed, "I said 'Fine', do what you want. It doesn't change anything, but remember these words of mine..."

"What words?"

Unknown paused for a while, Eric kept waiting on his response but, "Hello?"

"Ah... Sorry about that, I was just looking through your timeline." Unknown nonchalantly said.

"My timeline...? Ok, so what about it?" Eric asked.

Unknown typed away, reading through the minute by predictions that would occur if Eric called the police...

"Oh, nothing changes really, but if you do call the police for help, it won't end well."

"What do you mean?"

"The reason is as simple as a four-worded sentence."

"And what would that sentence be?" Eric asked.

Unknown calmly said, "Don't prank the police."

"'Don't prank the police'? What does that have to do with anything?" Eric stood there confused at the statement, he began to think that Unknown was making a mockery of him.

"Are you mocking me right now?" he asked in an unimpressed tone.

Unknown giggled, "Oh, ho, ho, no! No, I'm not. I'm just stating the fact that'll be revealed in the next chapter/episode."

"After all, It's not like you're going to believe me either way. So just call them on your battery-less smartphone and see what happens?" Unknown insisted.

Eric hesitated for a moment, I mean, did he need to figure out any more truths? There wasn't a doubt in his mind that Unknown wasn't lying to him. And let's be honest, just having this weird phone call with Unknown on Eric's battery-less phone was evidence enough.

Even with all those thoughts in mind, he still took the initiative to call the police, albeit hesitantly, "Huh... I guess I will call the police."

Eric proceeded to end the call due to the fact that he needed to use his phone to make the call to the police.

However, before he proceeded to cut the call Unknown had something to add, "But before you do, let me warn you that they won't be able to trace any of our conversations or find any calls from me to you. After all, I don't exist in your timeframe."

Eric mumbled in curiosity, "...Timeframe?"

"And if you want more proof to see that I'm not lying, then... give me a second." Unknown abruptly ends the call.

"Huh?" The ended calm surprised Eric, he wasn't sure what to do next...

"I could...call the police now... Yeah, but what if I was just being pranked?"

"That could be the case, but he was very convincing with his whole time and space explanation."

Eric was in deep thought for a while but due to the prolonged minutes without a single call or anything from Unknown, he proceeded to continue with his desk work.

He laid his smartphone by his side and proceeded to type away thinking, "He probably won't be calling again, might have actually been a prank call."

Under his work monitor's bright screen light, he yawned, "Back to work, I guess."

Five whole minutes had passed and Unknown was yet to call Eric. How did he know five minutes had passed, you ask? Well, Eric was anxiously watching and counting the minutes of the digital clock in the bottom corner of his monitor's screen.

"Hmm, he hasn't called back... Was it really just a prank?" Eric asked himself.

For a moment, there was a sense of dread and relief that washed over Eric. The dread was from the ever-present silence that flooded him as he waited for another call from Unknown while the relief was from the ignorant hope that all this might have just been a prank and his life was not in any danger.

He felt overwhelmed with such complicated emotions.

"💢AH..!! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" he angrily banged his fist into his keyboard in a fit of rage. A few keys from the keyboard burst out from the impact.

"This is just too much! He suddenly leaves a call that may be vital to my survival and goes M.I.A! What the hell!? Is this a prank or not!" Eric groaned, holding his head in lament.

He couldn't focus on his work anymore, so he stood up from his office chair, walked towards the glass window, sat on the floor, and rested his back and head on the window.

A rainstorm began, and a small drizzle of rain fell. The sounds of the drizzle felt therapeutic to him, it relaxed him.

Just when he started to feel a sense of calm, his smartphone that was left on his desk began to ring from a call.

It was from Unknown.

𝐓𝐨 𝐁𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐝...