Bring, bring. I see an unknown number coming in. I pick it up thinking it might be someone I know, but I was wrong

I lay in my bed, with chills running down my spine. I get the weird feeling that someone is watching over me as I doze off into a deep sleep. The trees hit against my window, and sounds of rain drops splat against the house. My eyes slowly close and I drift off into a vivid dream. The storm gets heavier and heavier as the thunder shakes my house. A huge bang whistles through my ears and I wake up with a tall man in front of me. My eyes are still blurry from being abruptly woken up but I still see a strange man staring down at me. I rub my eyes to see if I can gain back any sight, and the figure in front of me disappears. I figure that I am still just seeing things, so I wrap myself back in my blanket and close my eyes.

I look at her picture, admiring every inch of her beautiful face. That shiny complexion and those beautiful eyes. I need to find this girl, and have her for myself. She is the definition of perfect. I scroll through her recent Instagram pictures and print them out one by one. They lay beautifully on my wall and hung from my ceiling, so I can admire her every day before I find her for real. I have studied her for a year now. I scroll through the information I have found on her, her address, her school, and the people she admires. I have taken some trips to her school and watched her from afar. She is even more beautiful in person. Her house is a beautiful shade of blue on the end of abbey crescent. She lives with both her parents and her dog. One of her recent posts included a picture of her and her dog Lily. She captioned it “my love,” which will soon be the caption she puts on photos of us. It was so nice to see her last night sleeping soundly in her room. She posted her phone number last week so I have been calling her just to hear that beautiful voice, and then I hang up. I try calling her again this morning.

Bring, bring. I see an unknown number coming in. I pick it up thinking it might be someone I know, but I was wrong.

“Hello?”

All that’s happening on the other end is a bunch of sounds.

“Hello? Please say something.”

I start to get frustrated as the person on the other end does not answer. I am about to hang up when suddenly I hear a voice. Not a normal tone that someone speaks in when they talk on the phone, but almost like a soft creepy whisper.

“I can’t wait to see you.”

Before I can answer them, I hear the phone disconnect. Tyler’s just being an idiot prank calling me again; he thinks he’s so funny. He even pulled off the whole creepy guy thing this time, he’s getting good. I put my phone away and head to class. I see Tyler in his seat and I go over to him and give him a nudge on the arm.

“Stop calling me like that Tyler. You know, it’s not funny sometimes.”

“What are you talking about Amanda, I never called you.”

He lets out a laugh thinking that I’m just joking around. I let it go because obviously he just wants to be proud of himself for thinking he fooled me.

“Whatever,” I say.

“Leave me alone Tyler, it’s way too early for this.”

“You looked beautiful in those pink pajamas,” the stranger on the phone replied.

It was that same soft whisper as the first phone call.

“Is this some kind of sick joke, who are you?”

Phone disconnects.

“The chocolate cake is delicious,” he says to me with a creepy look on his face.

“I’m gonna go with these thanks for your help though.”

I grab a box of chocolate chip cookies and get away from him as fast as possible. I make my way to the front cash as I see him down aisle one staring across at me. The cashier greets me, but I’m all distracted from the strange man staring at me.

“Oh sorry hello,” I say to the cashier.

“That will be $10.59 please.”

I hand the cashier the money and I quickly grab the bag to leave the store as I don’t see him anymore. I grab my keys out of my purse and unlock my blue Jetta. When I turn around to get in my car I see him in the car beside me staring out at me. His big brown eyes open wide. How did he get out here? How did he know where I was parked? Who is this creep? I quickly put my keys in the accelerator and drive away. I watch behind me to see if he follows and surely enough he was creeping up slowly behind me. I continue to speed up faster and faster and my heart starts to beat faster. I turn on random streets so he won’t know where I live, but every turn I make he follows. Finally, I pull into a random driveway and sit there and go on my phone. He slowly drives by me and I see him turn down the next road. I gasp for air.

“Phew.”

“Hello?”

I grab my phone and hang up as quickly as possible. I call Tyler because now I know it can’t be him anymore.

“Tyler, someone keeps phoning me and I don’t know who it is. I’m really scared babe, he followed me today from the grocery store and now he’s calling me telling me he knows where I live.”

“We will go to the police right away, don’t worry everythings going to be okay. Did you get a good look at him to give a description?”

“Yeah I got a good enough look. I’m going to drive home I’ll text you when I’m home.”

I’m on the street next to mine when I notice a similar truck to the one that he was driving, along with a man that looks very similar to him. I start to panic and I lose control of the wheel and spin out onto the curb. All I feel is my car spinning and spinning as I slowly have no control over what’s going to happen next.

When I noticed who got out of the truck I realized that it wasn’t who I thought it was. They park on the side of the road and run over to my car to make sure everything is okay. My head was cut quite a bit from hitting the steering wheel and I feel like I am going to pass out. I can see the man on his phone as he runs toward me.

“I called 911, they will be here shortly. Everything is going to be okay.”

His face looks like nothing but a pale figure as do all my surroundings.

“Thank you so much.”

He waits beside me as we both hear sirens in the distance coming towards us. I look ahead as my vision starts to become more visible and I see a man standing behind the bush across the road. We make eye contact, but as I quickly blink again he’s gone. It’s him again. How will I ever escape this? I can’t help myself from breaking into tears of fear and pain. I don’t understand what this guy wants from me. Just leave me alone. The guy beside me doesn’t know how to help me, but luckily a paramedic is there soon enough.
I’m now free to leave the hospital. The police want to talk to me about what happened and what caused my accident. This is the perfect opportunity to explain the danger to them that I believe I am in. Tyler picks me up at the entrance of the hospital and drives me to the police station. Officer Daniels welcomes us in and we take a seat in his office.

“So can you please explain to me what happened at the time of the accident?” The officer asks.

“Well lately I have been being followed by a strange man. I have had weird phone calls at different times of the day and there is always just a one sentence response usually being I can’t wait to see you or something about what I am wearing. I was at the grocery store the other day and he followed me around the store and followed me in my car as I was driving home. When I finally lost him I thought I saw him again in his truck a street away from where I live. When I saw the truck I completely panicked and lost control of my car, and that’s how I ended up on the curb.”

“Would you be able to give a detailed description of him?”

“Yes I could,” I reply.

“We will look into this and make sure he doesn’t bother you anymore. In the meantime be careful and leave your house as least as possible. The last thing you want to do is allow him to continue to follow you especially if you are alone and helpless.”

“Thank you officer, I will follow your advice.”

Tyler and I leave the police station and he drives me home.

“Surprise! Happy Birthday!” he yells.

I look at him with a dirty look as he knows that I am fearful of this strange man who is after me.

“Sorry babe, I wanted to surprise you since we couldn’t go out.”

He hands me a cupcake that had happy birthday written on it in pink icing.

“It’s okay, thanks for coming that was really sweet of you,” I reply.

I eat my cupcake and he hands me the gift he bought me for my birthday. In this beautifully wrapped blue bag there is a black box. I open the black box and see a Pandora bracelet with an A charm and a soccer ball charm on it.

“This is beautiful Tyler, thank you so much.”

He leans in to give me a kiss.

“No problem babe.”

We lay on my bed and I continue to work on my essay. Tyler begins to doze off and soon enough he is asleep. I start to fall asleep on my work too, so I pack up my essay and decide to go on my phone. I scroll through my Instagram timeline and upload the picture of the bracelet that Tyler bought me. I hear the front door open and look at the time. I don’t worry because it’s exactly midnight when my parents said they would be home from their party.

“Hey mom and dad,” I yell down to them.

No one answers so I assume they are just too drunk to reply. I watch the likes roll in on my picture and I wait for my parents to come up the stairs so I can ask them about their night. I hear them coming up the stairs. They hit the really loud creak in the floor outside my bedroom and I can see one of them start to walk into my room. As they get closer I start to make out the face, and it definitely isn’t either of my parents. The appearance of the person became more visible and it was a man with dark hair and dark brown eyes. Is this a dream? This really is him now. Before I can let out a scream he runs towards me and covers my face with a cloth. I try to breathe in but all I feel is my lungs inhaling thick air. My vision begins to blur and I see double of the man in front of me. He picks me up, but I don’t have the energy to fight back. As he takes me down the stairs my head spins and the whole house is a blur. The last thing I remember is being on my stairs.
I wake up confused. My eyes start to gain sight back as I try to open them wider. My surroundings start to become not such a blur. I view myself in a dark room filled with pictures on the walls, pictures that look somewhat similar to me. More pictures are hung from a string on the ceiling. What is this place? I feel my hands tied behind my back and a cloth over my face. I start to hyperventilate as my fear of claustrophobia sets in. I struggle and shake myself in order to try to remove the cloth over my face. Where am I? How did this happen? A million thoughts are running through my mind and I have no idea what to think. The last thing I remember is being in my room on twitter and Instagram with Tyler sleeping beside me. I was having a normal day, it was my birthday and Tyler surprised me. Then we had cake and went to bed. Nothing seemed strange at all. Wait, did Tyler leave the front door open when he came in? Did he make it easy for someone to just come right in? Where is Tyler? I hope he’s safe. I don’t understand why this is happening to me. I hear a creak coming from somewhere in the room. Footsteps get closer and closer to me as my breathing gets heavier and heavier. I feel someone grab the cloth on my face and start to untie it. I gently turn around and see a man staring directly at me.
He rubs my hair and tells me how shiny and beautiful it is. My body shakes as he continues to touch me.

“Who are you?” I say as my voice quivers.

“Whoever you want me to be.”

“Well I don’t want you to be anyone, let me go you creep!”

“Honey, calm down.”

My face shows a look of disgust as he looks at me with that creepy face.

“I am not your honey,” I scream.

He squeezes my arm and starts to get angry at me. I try to resist, but his strength is too much for me. I decide that it is probably best to go along with it, so I get out of here alive. My parents must be worried sick.

“Sorry, please don’t be mad at me.”

He walks away angry. As he heads upstairs I finish the job that he started and untie my hands. As I start to get up I feel a lump in my back pocket. To my luck I pull out my white iPhone with the pink sparkly case. I had never been happier to see my phone before. As I go into the conversation I had open with Tyler, I hear him coming down the stairs. My phone drops in front of me and I’m scrambling to pick it up before he gets to me. Before I know it he’s standing right there in front of me.

He pulls my arms up and drags me to my feet. I look at my arms marked with red scars from his force. Tears run down my face and one drips onto his hand. He releases my arm and wipes the tears from my face, staring at me while he does it. He continues to rub my face.

“Your face is so soft and beautiful,” he says.

My body shakes as the feeling of his hands on my face disgust me.

“If I’m so beautiful to you, then why do you want to hurt me?”

“I’m not here to hurt you; I just wanted you all for myself. We’re perfect for each other.”

I don’t know how to react. I have no idea who he is, but yet he knows all about me. How does he know so much?

“How did you find me?” I ask.

“I have been watching you for quite some time now. I stumbled across your Instagram page one day and your beauty astounded me. I started to want to know more and more about you and that’s exactly what I did. I’m so glad I finally found you so we can be together,” he replies.

I think of the plan I made to pretend I’m enjoying being here, so I can get out of here alive.

“I’m glad you found me too.”

I’m lucky that I had time to quickly throw my phone underneath my leg and back into my pocket before he noticed. That will be my only way to get out. I need to get a hold of Tyler as soon as possible. He grabs my hand and intertwines his fingers with mine. As he pulls me to the upper floor of the mysterious building we are in, I hear a loud scream.

“Let her go!” I scream.

He continues to hold her so I run towards him and grab her arms to try and free her. He gets a hold of me with his hand and forcefully pushes me. I trip over a nail sticking out of the wood of the floor and fall backwards. I hit my head off the wall behind me. I grab the back of my head and my hand is stained red from the blood rushing out. I hear a voice as my vision starts to become blurry and my head feels heavier than usual.

“Do you want to see who this is Amanda? I can get rid of her so no one will be in the way of us ever again,” he says.

“Let her go whoever it is!” I scream.

As he removes the pillowcase from her head, my legs start to get weak and I feel as if I am falling asleep. I slowly feel my body falling over. The girl screams as I fall, but I can’t make out who it is.

“Amanda!”
I wake up with him sitting right beside me. I grab my throbbing head and try to recall what got me into this situation. The last thing I remember is seeing him with a girl and her screaming my name. He notices I am awake.

“Hello, sweetie. Feeling better?” he says to me.

“Where is she?” I reply.

“Upstairs, where she belongs.” He says.

I get up and throw the towel off my head that was used to stop my head from bleeding. I head up the stairs quickly before he catches up to me. As I get to the top I see a girl tied up to a chair, her arms, hands, legs everything tied. She has marks on her face and arms from struggling to get free from him.

“Amanda!” she says to me.

I start to make out who it is. When I do tears stream down my face and I run over to her.

“Abbey!”

“What are you doing? Leave her tied,” he demands.

“Let her go, why is she even here it’s me you want!”

“I don’t want anyone that’s important to you in your life anymore. I want you to only care about me,” he replies.

“Let her go now!”

“I can’t let her go now, knowing what she knows. She will tell people where we are living and ruin our relationship together. She has to go.”

I pulled up to the end of the driveway where the GPS located her cell phone. I turned my high beams on to try and get a further look down the lane. Darkness and mystery was all that was visible. I slowly began to press on the gas and drive down the lane. As I moved forward the outlines of an old shed could be seen. No lights or sign of greeting from anyone; only a cold and unknown sign to turn around and leave. As I open my door the sound of the car startles me. The lights had been left on causing the annoying beeping sound to begin. I turn off the lights to cancel the sound then close the car door. The shed looks abandoned and broken like a dead bunch of roses. The sounds around me are dim nothing seems to be of life out here. I can see my breath from the cold misty air as I walk toward the shed. A door begins to appear to the naked eye. The police have told me to find a safe way into the shed so he doesn’t notice that I get in. They’re hiding in the bushes and will attack when I give the cue. As I approach the rusted broken down shed, I notice a little hole near the bottom that I believe I could squeeze through. I kneel down on the muddy grass and squeeze my feet through first. They hang down and I fall farther into the hole. I notice a bar beside me as I slide down so I grab onto that and find myself in the shed. All I see is darkness around me. I try and feel myself around the room.

“Amanda?” I whisper.

I continue to whisper Amanda’s name but I get no response. I accidentally run into a shovel in the corner of the room and make a loud bang. I hear a sound from up above me once the shovel hits the ground. I see a crack of light down the stairs, because a door was opened from upstairs. I hear footsteps coming down the rickety stairs, so I quickly try to find somewhere to hide. As I feel around, a doorknob catches my hand and I quickly try to shove myself into the space behind the doorknob. I feel a lump behind me as I fall into the closet.

“Ouch!” Amanda yells.

I try to make out the familiar voice I heard beside me. The person beside me turns on their phone and looks at me.

“Amanda! I’m so glad you’re okay!” I yell.

She reaches out and hugs me tighter than she ever has before.

“I’m so happy to see you. Thank you for finding me.”

As we are hugging, the footsteps come closer and closer to us. I hold Amanda tighter as the doorknob shakes and the door starts to creak open.

“Let Tyler go!” Amanda screams.

“Amanda, you know you love me. If he goes we can be together just us two.”

“I don’t want you! I never wanted you!”

He starts to get angrier as Amanda rejects his love. I finally get a good grip on the gun and I point it at the back of the shed. I shoot it, hoping that the police will come and quickly save us. He releases the knife off of my neck and throws me to the ground. The knife in the air coming closer to me. My heart is beating fast and I’m praying that the police will come. Amanda tries to shove him off of me but she can’t budge him. The knife begins to pierce through my side and all I feel is a sharp shooting pain. Blood rushes out as the police knock down the door. I don’t remember anything else from that point on.
I have been thinking for weeks what it would be like if Tyler didn’t wake up from his coma. I can’t picture my life without him. I sit on the hospital bed with him and refuse to move until he opens those beautiful blue eyes.

I wake up in my bed with the sun shining in on my face. Mom must have taken me home because I don’t remember ever leaving. Mom barges in my room and tells me it’s the doctor. I pick up the phone.