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The Call (1) : An unknown number calls you. Maybe you pick it up, maybe you don’t, but the message is the same–someone on the other line is warning you about something. They seem to have details that give credence to whatever they’re warning you about, but there’s something particularly unbelievable about it all–because, they sound like you. And they know things only you would know. And then, the line drops, and you’re left alone. If you try to call the number back, it’s been disconnected. If it was a prank, it was a good one. But, maybe there was something more to it.
Aloysius could feel it, maybe it was paranoia, maybe it was the fact he knew the changing weather brought unwelcome guests. Tonight he walked back from work, having to stop at the home in the city in order to grab a few compositions off one of the shelves. Thumbing his engagement ring, he kept telling himself that everything was okay, that it was just a breeze, and that there wasn’t someone or something following him.
On edge would put things lightly, it happened every year but he could never get used to it. If anything he’d gotten worse as he got older, each season bringing more things to give him stress. Liam helped, he really did, but he wasn’t here right now as he walked down the sidewalk. From the outside, he looked like someone with places to be who didn’t want to be disturbed, even if inside he was counting the steps until he would be safe inside one of his homes.
The sight of his home eased his worries, that and the fact that nothing had popped up in his trek there. Unlocking the door, it creaked as usual and he stepped inside and out of the cold wind. Gone were the days of him being left-winded after such a fast walk, Liam had helped him get at least a bit better at such things. With the cessation of his smoking habit, he also found himself free of the usual fall respiratory illness. It was odd, being free from something that occurred with such regularity that its absence was more jarring than the usual effects it had on him.
While he’d been lost in thought, gravitating slowly towards the bookshelves filled with sheet music, he felt a vibration in his pocket. It took a moment for him to realize his phone was still on silent from when he was teaching. The odd thing was that the caller ID showed no name and there wasn’t even a number. Picking it up, half expecting to hear a scam or robo call, he offered a confused, “Hello?” in response to the silence on the line.
“Hello, it’s been a while.”
It was wrong, so very wrong, and just hearing an echo of his own voice coming through sent him back to when he’d been stalked by that doppleganger. But could it speak? He didn’t remember that being something it had done back then.
“You’re alone, you know that right? He doesn’t really love you.”
The voice was cold, that same tone he used when he put up that facade to manage a crowd or speak with the public while working. It wasn’t rude, it was just impartial and he didn’t like it.
“Ask him yourself, or do you realize I’m right? He’s just another replacement for the rest that are gone and he knows that.”
Stammering, he shook his head in disagreement even if they couldn’t see him. He wanted to speak up, to deny it, but he didn’t know if that would prompt the thing to appear.
“Would you even know if he was replaced? If he was lying to you? If anyone was lying to you? Always behind that facade, behind those walls.”
It laughed, much colder now as it spoke in his voice, taunting and hurtful words that rang true. Things that had kept him from taking the steps to ask the other to marry him, ideas that left him worried about how the future would go with them in the long term.
Was it real? Or did they pity him since that day they’d found him on the bench? Liam had gained everything from being with him, from entwining themself with his family between him and Melody.
“Watch his face, look for those shadows, and find your answer.”
With one final taunt, the line went dead and Aloysius sank to the floor. Sitting with his back against the shelf he put his head in his hands and tried to shake it off. The number didn’t work when he tried to call back, trying to see if it had been a prank.
It hurt, it was too close, too personal, and he didn’t like any of the words that that doppelganger had said. Had it been right? Was Liam just a replacement for those before? For all those he lost? Would it have mattered who had found him that night?
Shaking his head again he sent a text over to them, he had to see them because he was slipping towards a train of thought that would end up with him back in a bottle.
