The Vanishing Caller

It was a nice sunny day near the end of the school year. John Moon was walking home from school. It was finals week, so he was graduating in a few days. The sun was bright and so was his future. His back pack was mounted on his back and he was heading toward the mailbox to collect the mail. He reached in and looked over it, then closed the mailbox and headed inside. As soon as he entered he saw the new dog, a pug. He looked at John for only a moment and then he darted out of sight. John stepped over the gate that blocked the puppy from leaving the vicinity of the living room. He sat down in the tan-colored recliner and looked at the usually boring or taxing envelopes more in-depth.

"Crap. Crap. Crap." he said. He went over until he got to a Pizza Hut coupon. "That sounds really good right about now."

He put the mail down and went into the kitchen for a snack. He grabbed a Gatorade from the fridge and a few Dorritos from the pantry and sat down to do his Geometry homework. He was getting really fed up with it and after a while he calmed back down and then the doorbell rang.

He sighed and said, "I'd better go get that." He stood up and headed to the door.

There was a little boy with a very heavy-looking bag draped over his shoulders. He was wearing a bright yellow shirt and his hair was pushed up in the front.

"Sir," he said. "We're selling these cards called Save-a-lot cards. You purchase items from it and you end up saving a lot of money."

"Hmm...I'm not really interested, but thank you." John replied.

"Okay, the little boy said. "Goodbye." He waved and went on his way.

"Goodbye."

John stepped back inside and dived back into his fun-filled Geometry assignment. "You just plug in the numbers and-" He was cut off by the ringing of the phone. He stood up and walked to the phone and answered it. "Hello?"

There was heavy breathing on the other side. It was hoarse and deep.

"Who is this?" John asked.

No answer.

"Helloooo?" John said again.

"Goodbye!" the voice said in a southern-sounding tone. He hung up.

"What in the world!" John hung up. "That was a little weeird." He tapped the antena on his chin and then sat down to finish his homework. He finally finished it, to the best of his ability, and went out to the trampoline to jump. It was kind of a stress reliever for John. Kind of a way to relax. When he saw fit to get off, he did and went back into the house to watch a little TV. He flipped it on and watched until the phone rang again.

"It'd better not be that guy again!" John said. He grabbed the phone and answered it.

"Hi John, it's me." a woman's voice said.

"Oh, hi Mom," John replied.

"It seems that I'm going to be a little late tonight. I should be home around six or seven. That means that you're going to have to fix something yourself."

"Alright that's fine."

"Well, I've gotta go," she chimed. "See you later!"

"Bye Mom." John set the phone down on the endtable, sat back and continued being lazy and watching one of his favorite shows. When it was over he headed upstarirs to play a video game. He pushed a little gray button to activate the disk tray. Then he inserted the disc, pressed power and then played for a little while. After some time went by, the phone rang once more. John picked up the phone and answered, hesitently.

More heavy breathing from the mysterious voice. "I'm closer now, Johnny!"

"Who is this?" John demanded. "Why are you doing this to me? Stop calling me!"

The man laughed a very strange laugh and hung up.

"Hello? Hello? Dammit!" John threw the phone down and put his headphones on and headed out the door and out of the house. He pressed the button to listen to his music. He was heading to Maple Woods, the local woods that he and some of his buddies like to hike through every once and a while. They were beautiful during the warm months of the year and they still looked nice during the colder ones.

He walked up the mountainous hills of the woods to get to a secluded spot where he got great ispiration for his writing. It was a place where he could think, where he could get in touch with his inner being. It was also where one of his friends was seriously injured...but that's another story...

He sat there for a while until he heard his name whispered in the wind.

"What?" he asked. "Who's there?"

Silence.

"Oh, whatever..." he sighed. He stood up and headed up the hill some more. After ten or fifteen minutes went by, he was in an area of the woods where it was very bare. There were a lot of trees on the sides of the area but none had leaves. He was walking a dirt path and finally he came upon a pinkish rock. He sat down and relaxed for few short moments until his voice was called again. This time, louder and clearer than the last.

"Ooooooohhhhhhhh...Joooooohhhhhhnnnnyyyyyyyy..." It called. "I'm in the woods with you!"

"NO!" John screamed. "Get away!" He got up and sprinted out of the woods and back home. When he got home he headed inside to make himself some dinner. It was a simple dinner; it consisted of mustard, ketchup, and a hotdog. He sat down and ate it rather quickly then sat down on the green couch and decided to take a nap. Once he finally fell asleep, he was having a dream. He was asleep in the dream. He woke up in his dream and felt a very strong draft coming from his closet. He got up to inspect it and found an open door leading to what looked like some attic space. He had never seen inside before, because his dad had always told him to never open it. But now, it was just open. He saw a board with some scrawled, faded white letters on it. They read: DO NOT OPEN!!

Well, John, being a very curious person, opened it. Underneath, was a crumpled up old-looking piece of paper. He grabbed it and turned around. The wind blew it out of his hands so he had to chase it out of the closet and back into his room. He picked it up and read it. "Dear Johnny,"

The phone rang.

"Hehh!" How long was I alseep?" John aksed himself. "Hmm, I don't know..."

The phone was ringing even after he woke up.

"Gosh darnit!" John sneered. He stoop up, stretched and walked over to the phone. He sat there and let it ring. He stood there and idled because he was hoping that the guy would leave him alone. The answering machine picked up. After the beep, the guy left a message.

"Johnny! Why aren't you answering the phone? I know you're there...I'm very near now, not much longer Johnny, not much longer to wait at all..."

John was starting to get really scared. He picked up the phone and dialed 911. He walked back into the living room with the phone to his ear.

"911 operator; what's your emergency?" a man with a brittish accent answered.

"Yes, someone keeps calling me...I don't know if they're just prank-calling or if they've got something...much worse planned...please help me!"

"Okay, at this point in the situation, there is not a whole lot we can do, unless we know the number that called. Then we can track it." the man replied.

"Well, the number that I saw on the screen was 582-3832," John said.

"Okay, we'll search for that now."

"Thank you."

-A few minutes later-

"Umm, Sir." the man said. "We weren't able to find records of that number calling you today, or anyday for that matter. Are you sure that was the right number?"

"Yes, yes!" John said. "I'm sure!" John looked at the caller ID and saw no records on there either of the strange man calling. "What?! The number's not on my caller ID!"

"I'm not sure what to do for you Sir; if you don't give me the right number, then I can't help you," the man said.

"But that was the right num-" John began but was cut off by the double click the phone makes when someone hangs up on you.

"What?!" John cried. "He hung up on me!!" He hung his phone up and set it down and held his head up with his hands. He sat there for a second until he decided to stand up and put the phone back on the reciever. He walked away from the hung up phone a little ways. The phone then jumped off of the reciever and clammered to the floor. It began to ring.

"What the?" John cried. He stared down at the phone as it began moving closer toward him. John was freaked out as the phone was literally chasing him after a few steps. The phone chased him into the living room and out the door. The chase ended when John tripped, and plummeted to the ground. The phone continued to ring until John picked it up finally and answered.

"Hello?"

"I'm almost there, Johnny! Get ready!!" the voice said.

John sighed, sprang up and ran back into the house. He spun around, once inside, and barricaded any visitors out, especially the guy. He stormed into the living room, slammed the phone down on the coffee table and headed into the kitchen to fix the phone so it wouldn't be able to sing anymore. He unplugged a couple of cords and then let out a sigh of relief.

"There! Now that maniac can't call...ever again! But wait! Mom will be home soon, and she'll want the phone plugged in and then...he...can call! But, If he does call, I can tell Mom, and she can take care of it! Yeah! Yeah." John smiled in a sort of crazed way. He wandered back into the living room and sat down. He nervously shook the phone and tapped his foot. He wasn't sure what was going to happen, but he just sat there. The phone began ringing once again even though the line was torn out.

John spun around, facing the impossible rings coming from the reciever in the kitchen and hearing them also come from the phone in his hand.

"No!!" he yelled. You're freaking unplugged!! Why are you ringing?! Why are you ringing?!"

"ANSWER THE PHONE, JOHN!! NOW!!"

"No!" John screamed. "You can't make me!" Unfourtunately, the caller was somehow forcing him to lift up the phone to his ear. John was forced to answer it. "He-hello?"

"I'm here Johnny!" the voice said. "I'm finally here, and here's your reward for waiting sooo long..."

John was looking at the huge monsterous mass of what had been bothering him for the past hour and a half. He dropped the phone and stiffly backed up into the green couch. He was on his rump now and then he went limp. His heart literally exploded; he had died of fright! His skin had turned a very pale color and his eyes were quite glassy.

All that was needed now was a white blizzard; snow, the symbol of death...

That night at Detective Andrews' House:

Det. Andrews was looking over the case of John's death at some late hour of the night, 3:27 to be exact.

"I just don't understand how this could have happened," he said to himself. "I've gone over the evidence several times. He didn't commit suicide; the autopsy proved that off the bat. It proved that he died of fright, but fright of what. There was nothing at the crime scene. The only thing was a phone that he had apparently dropped when he died." John opened up a chocolate cupcake and took a bite. "Another thing is what about the calls he was apparently getting before his death? He told the operator when he called 911 that someone had been calling him, but he gave them a number that they had no records for. And he said the number that he aledgedly saw was not on his caller ID. Maybe it was the phone; someone called. That couldn't have been enough to scare someone that bad. The only thing that I can think of is that maybe he saw something that wasn't there...I don't know..." He leaned back in his chair. He sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Wow!" he said. "It's already 3:30!" He turned to the computer and typed in some stuff involving John's death.

Several minutes went by, and Andrews' cell phone lit up next to him and began ringing. He picked it up and examined the number.

582-3832

He opened it and pressed it to his face. "Hello?"