The Phone Call

I was awakened by the ringing of the phone in my ear. I jumped up, clutching my chest. I had to remind myself not to put the phone so close to my bed, especially across from my pillow.

I hoped that the ringing wouldn’t wake my family. My parents had gone to my brother’s piano recital, while I stayed home to finish up a project. I went to bed before they came home, so I assumed that they came back while I was asleep.

I glared quickly at the glowing alarm clock. It was 3 in the morning. Who would call so early in the morning?, I thought to myself. Nonetheless, I picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“We have your family,” stated a husky, male voice. “If you do not retrieve them, we will slaughter them and mail you their bodies, bit by bit.”

I was in complete shock, though because the words were too horrible to be true, I assumed it was a prank call.

“Excuse me, is this a joke? I’m sorry to ruin your fun but this isn’t funny - ”

“You little punk!” shouted the stranger. “I have your family here! Do you not understand me? If you don’t follow my instructions, they will die!”

I gulped down hard, my stomach feeling queasy. Just when I thought I couldn’t feel more terrified, my fear worsened. I heard the piercing screams of my mother, father and little brother in the background of the phone call.

“Do you believe me now?” questioned the stranger, while the screams grew louder.

“Yes, yes I do,” I responded. “What do I have to do so my family isn’t hurt?”

“You have something that I want.”

“W-w-well what is it?” I asked. Those screams... oh those screams... “I’ll give you anything! Money, jewellery - ”

“I want you.”

“Huh? What’s so special about me? If you could kidnap my family, why couldn’t you kidnap me?”

“You have to come to me willingly, or else the spell won’t work.”

My eyes bulged out of my head. “Spell? Are you a sorcerer or something?”

“You can say that.”

“Who are you, Harry Potter? - ”

“Do not play games with me!” The fury in his voice was unmistakable. “I need you to walk into the fireplace with a fire in it.”

“W-Won’t I get burned?”

“Not if you say the words ‘la erton sis iht’. Once you say those words, you’ll be instantly brought to me. Do you understand?”

“Y-yes...”

“Then I suggest you don’t keep me waiting.”

The caller hung up, and I ran down the stairs to the living room. I threw wood into the fireplace as quickly as possible, there was no time to lose. I got a large fire going, and I stared into the licking flames. This fire better work, I thought to myself. I took a step forward. I didn’t go far however, because a woman was holding me back.

I turned around and stared at the strange woman behind me, grabbing my pyjamas. “Who are you?” I questioned.

The woman stared at me in shock. “Your mother, of course! Sheryl, what are you doing?”

What was happening? I thought to myself. I had never seen this woman before! “I don’t know who you are, but I have to help my family!”

“Oh dear, you’re acting up again. Jerry, come down here!”

A man rushed down the stairs, and at the sight of the woman and I, rushed to the fireplace and helped the woman pull me away from the fire.

“What are you doing? Who are you?”

“My goodness, Ellie, this is the worst she’s ever been!” mumbled Jerry. “I knew we shouldn’t have left her alone at home.”

“I don’t know who you people think you are, pretending to be my family!” I shouted, trying my hardest to pull away from them. I glared into the burning fireplace and recalled what the stranger said. I could not let him hurt my family.

They tugged me away from the fireplace and pinned me to the floor. There was no use tearing away from them, they were too strong. I screamed my lungs out, hoping that someone - a neighbour, a friend, anybody - would come and rescue me, but in the back of my mind I knew this wasn’t true. I could hear the man yelling at someone upstairs to use the phone, but all the while I was thinking, How could I get out of this?

Soon afterwards, a white van pulled up onto the driveway. Men in white suits jumped out of the van and burst through the front door. They stared at the two who were holding me down on the floor.

“Is this your daughter?” one of the men asked, pointing to me.

“For the last time, you are NOT my parents!”

“Boys, strap her.”

One of the men pulled out a straight jacket. I tried to struggle away, explaining how this was all a mistake, but none of them listened to me. They wrestled the jacket onto me, picked me up and brought me outside, where they strapped me onto a stretcher. Tears streamed down my face. Was this all a nightmare? I wanted to pinch myself to check if I was dreaming, but the straight jacket prevented this.

They rolled the stretcher into the van and slammed the door shut. A couple of the men in white stayed in the back of the van with me and tried to calm me down.

“Relax, take a deep breath,” said one of them. “Everything will be all right soon.”

“It won’t,” I muttered, weeping. “If only you could please help me - ”

“Calm down,” said the other man. “Your family isn’t in trouble. They were in the house, and now they’re coming to the hospital with you.”

“That wasn’t my family! I swear, I’ve never seen them in my life. And I don’t need to go to the hospital!”

“Relax, kid, just relax.”

I stared at the back of the van and sighed deeply. What was the use of trying to explain? No one believed me. I almost started to not believe myself, but the memory of my family’s screams reassured me that I wasn’t dreaming.

In a few minutes the van stopped, and the two men rolled me out of the van and into the large building in front of us. I read a sign as the men brought me inside. It read: “St. Brutus Psychiatric Hospital”. So they think I’m crazy, I thought to myself. This night is getting better and better...

I closed my eyes for the rest of the way, and only opened them when the men picked me up and laid me in a hospital bed. They strapped onto me cuffs attached to the bed, and before I knew it I felt the pain of something piercing through my arm. I turned around and saw one of the men pressing a needle into me. I didn’t have enough time to react, because in seconds my eyes rolled back and I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, I was surrounded by my family and a doctor taking notes on a clipboard. I stared groggily at them, and wondered where I was. I had no recollection of what had happened before I shut my eyes. My father was holding onto my mother’s shoulders, her head laid on his. My little brother held onto my mother’s hands tightly, fear in his eyes. After becoming fully-awake, the doctor explained to me that the night before, I had been having another one of my schizophrenic attacks.

Author’s Note: The use of schizophrenia was used only for plot, and it was the only idea that came to me at the time I wrote this. I hope no one finds its use offensive, it’s not intended to ridicule those who have it. By the way, the words ‘la erton sis iht’ are “this is not real” backwards.