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Ring.; A short story for english class
Topic Started: Oct 27 2008, 04:45 PM (275 Views)
CrestfallenNights
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Riiing. Riiing. Riiing.
Like an alarm clock, the phone went off at exactly 3:15 a.m. Finding the phone among the stack of dark objects wasn’t as hard as the first night. I almost completely missed the first call. I cleared my throat before giving the signal for the heavy breaths to start.
“Hello? Hello?” I asked for the millionth time this week. I already knew the response I’d get. Air being sucked in, blown out. “Elijah. Say something.” A snarl erupted then through the receiver, holding as much fury as a moody two year old, and then the line went dead.
Lately, Elijah had gotten worse.
It all started with his ‘cunning’ version of hide and seek. But no hide and seek game has as far of a range as Mongolia. Or as long of a time-span as four months. Then, it became a daily phone call from different payphones. One call would be from Miami beach, the next from Alaska. There was just no way of predicting when, or where, he would call at first. Back then, we had search parties, satellite tracking, everything and anything one could possibly need to find a missing person. But then they decided Elijah wasn’t missing.
No, he was nonexistent, as they put it. They were able to disregard the phone logs, his voice recordings, the pictures. They were able to throw it all out the window just to save a few thousand dollars.
“You only recorded him speaking once. There’s no way someone can go from Miami to Alaska in under twelve hours.” Excuses, excuses, excuses. It was all their fault anyway. They gave him the instinct to run and hide. They taught him to be hubristic. His personality is the only thing they could be awarded for. If they didn’t make him so smug, there would be no hope of finding him after his hide and seek game.
The sun slowly rose up and I went to sit beside the window while I thought Elijah and the mess he got us into. Soon, Mary would be here. Her and her ridiculous ten-gallon hat would close the windows, lock the sun and all the sound out for the rest of the day.
Outside the window, a group of men in tan clothes started shifting the dirt. Apparently the local paleontologist discovered some great artifact or another. The object was new, but the process was starting to get old. Every few weeks they would find a piece of a skeleton, or a broken pot, and suddenly they’re all over the area.
It was so much harder to hear Elijah when he called once these people started digging. The only times he said anything remotely human was when the drills were working away, too. Whenever that drill started, there would be a call. It didn’t matter where he was or what time it was, Elijah would call. He would yell and curse until he sounded human again. It was impossible to reject his existence when they heard this. But that’s when they brought in Mary. She found a way to make the phone calls stop, to make the drills not so loud. But only when she was here. The moment she left all the sound she pushed back filled the house, made it start to shake at the foundation.
As the workers continued to get setup for the day, the front door opened. Another day of Mary-The-Psychotherapist-Wanna-Be. “How are you today, dear? Would you like to have some breakfast while I lock you into this prison? Are you ready to stop acting like there’s someone calling you everyday?” She always asked the same things. She was one of them. She was the leader, and constantly trying to make the phone calls stop.
Just as Mary stepped in the door and began closing all the blinds and chattering away, the paleontologists began drilling. Right on cue, the phone rang.
Riiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.
Each ring seemed to carry out longer than the last as Mary continued to close the windows and I got up to answer the call. “Hello?” I asked of the phone. No response. Not even the sound of someone breathing. “Hello? Elijah? ... Hello?” No sounds whatsoever. Mary was suddenly looking at me like I was crazy. Well, crazier than she anticipated.
“The phone didn’t ring, dear.” she said with raised eyebrows, taking the phone from me and setting it down.
“It just did. Right when they started drilling.” I responded, pointing towards the covered window.
“Who started drilling? There isn’t anyone out there.” Mary asked, stepping slowly to the window and moving the blinds to show an empty yard.
I shook my head, getting angry. “No. I know what you’re trying to do. Stop acting like it didn’t ring!” I yelled at her, picking up the phone and throwing it at her. The phone hit her ridiculous hat before she had the sense to pin me to the ground. The following was just a blur as she called in others to move me safely from the house. The present is clearer than ever now.
Elijah is here.
He doesn’t need to call.
His voice is as clear as a bell going “Riiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiiing.”
Edited by CrestfallenNights, Oct 27 2008, 04:49 PM.
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+Linden
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awesomesauce
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Oh, creepy. I hope you get a good grade.
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** Death's servant
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Reflection
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that is seriously creepy....now I know what it's like to be schizophrenic.

awsome pros
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CruelBitterMockingLight
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The Companion Cube Will Never Stab U
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Wow...well you really do know how to write eery things. I loved the imagry, the way your wrote things, I loved the line, "Lately, Elijah had gotten worse." just because of it's placement, the character explains so little but yet so much and I just loved the way it was written. CONTINUE?! SEQUAL?! lol.
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Anomy
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Wow. Awesome. Grade-A novel material. You should really expand on this...... wow.... *bowing in awe*
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D. Black
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I'm not breathing, I must be in heaven
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WAIT A MINUTE! I'm confused...
okay, so is Elijah really the narrator in a mental hospital?
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CrestfallenNights
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No, Elijah is not the narrator. When I wrote this, I saw the narrator as a lady who recently lost her husband.
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