The Caller

Six

A few hours earlier

‘This is stupid,’ Tanya Kaitlin said with a jittery giggle. ‘Give me a second and I’ll get her number for you.’

‘I gave you five,’ the demonic voice replied. ‘And those five seconds are up.

‘You wanted to know what happens when you give me a wrong answer... watch this.’

All of a sudden and to Tanya’s surprise, the person standing behind Karen’s chair grabbed hold of the leather gag around Karen’s mouth and, in one violent movement, yanked it down and off her lips so hard, it tore a gash to the right side of her bottom lip. Speckles of blood flew up into the air.

Tanya’s eyes were filled with shock as she struggled to understand what was really going on.

Before Karen could let go of a scream that must’ve been locked inside her throat for God-knows-how-long, Tanya saw her assailant place a gloved hand on the back of her head. A split second later, she heard a crushing noise as Karen’s head and face were firmly pushed forward and slammed down against something that had been previously placed in front of her.

Tanya couldn’t quite see what it was.

‘Oh my God!’ she screamed, her own head jerking back in horror. Despite how spooked she was, she never let go of her phone. ‘What are you doing? What the hell are you doing?’ Her tone lifted with a mixture of anxiety and fear.

The same gloved hand grabbed Karen by the hair and brought her head back up to its starting position. As her face filled the small screen on Tanya’s phone again, Tanya felt vomit travel up from her stomach and stand fast at the base of her throat.

Three large shards of glass had embedded themselves on to Karen’s face. The first one, about three inches long, had sliced through Karen’s left cheek. Its tip, which was now sitting inside Karen’s mouth, had also severed a small section of her tongue. The second piece of glass, this one much smaller than the one in her left cheek, had penetrated Karen’s right nostril, ripping a whole at the top of her nose. The third and last piece, which was about one and a half inches long, was protruding from her bloody forehead.

Tanya was no expert, but she was sure that the glass had hit bone. ‘Oh, my God, no... what the hell are you doing?’ Tanya’s words were drowning on tears. ‘Karen... no...’

‘Look...’ the demonic voice said threateningly, moving Karen’s face from left to right ever so slightly to better display the extent of her injuries. ‘Look...’

Tanya was staring straight at the camera in her phone.

‘Look...’ the demon said again.

‘I am looking...’ Tanya’s voice squealed with agony, as if she could physically feel her friend’s pain. ‘Oh, my God, Karen...’ With her left hand, she desperately began wiping tears from her eyes and cheeks.

‘She’s your best friend, Tanya,’ the demonic voice came back. ‘She has been so for many years. You should know her number by heart. What kind of friend are you, really?’

‘I know... I know...’ Tanya could do nothing but sob. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘You don’t need to be sorry. What you need to do is answer me. You have five seconds.’

‘No... ple-... please don’t do that.’

‘Five... four... three...’

Tanya sobbed as her fingers ferociously attacked her touchscreen. ‘I’ll get it. Just give me a moment. I’ll get it.’ Tears blurred her vision. Fear made her hands unsteady.

‘Two...’

‘Please... Don’t.’

‘One...’

In her panic, Tanya dropped her phone. It fell down on to her bed with the screen facing down.

‘Oh no, no, no.’

‘Time’s up.’

SLAM.

As she fumbled for her phone, Tanya heard the same crushing noise as before, only louder. She flipped the phone over just in time to see the gloved hand bring Karen’s head back up again.

Tanya froze.

Karen’s face was utterly unrecognizable. The new head-smash had caused several new shards of glass, big and small, to lodge themselves into her flesh, shredding her face into a horror mask. But what brought Tanya to a hair away from fainting was the new piece of glass that had punctured Karen’s left eye, eviscerating her ocular globe. A viscous substance had begun oozing from it, but the glass piece hadn’t traveled deep enough to reach her brain. Tanya could tell that Karen was still conscious.

‘Her number,’ the demon demanded yet again, but Tanya’s nerves had turned to mush. Her fingers were trembling uncontrollably. Her vision was blurred by a barrage of never-ending tears. Her breathing had become labored and erratic. She tried to speak but her voice got caught somewhere between her throat and her lips.

The countdown began again. Tanya didn’t even hear it get from five to one. All she heard was — ‘time’s up’ — then...

SLAM.

SLAM.

SLAM.

Three times in quick succession, each harder than the previous one. The last crunch noise was followed by a faint gasp from Karen.

The gloved hand brought Karen’s head back up, and everything went silent for a while. Her lips had been so severely sliced they were hanging off to one side awkwardly. Her nose had been slashed from the bottom up, rupturing most of its cartilage. Its tip was now held in place only by a thin piece of skin. Her right eye had now also been punctured. Blood seeped out of it in wide sheets. The three head slams had driven the piece of glass that had penetrated Karen’s left eye deeper into her eye socket.

Though Tanya felt faint, she found herself unable to look away, her eyes paralyzed by the grotesque images.

On the screen, Karen convulsed twice. With the second one, her head went completely limp. The gloved hand held it in place for another twenty seconds before finally letting go of her hair.

Her lifeless body slumped forward one final time.

‘I guess this game was exciting after all,’ the demon said. ‘And just look at what you’ve done, Tanya. You’ve killed your friend. Congratulations.’

‘Nooooooo!’ Tanya’s scream came out as an undecipherable shriek.

‘You can now go back to your pathetic life.’

The demon moved from behind the chair and reached for Karen’s smartphone to end the call, but as he grabbed it, the phone panned upwards just enough.

Tanya’s body went rigid.

For a second, she was given a glimpse of the demon’s face, and what she saw made vomit explode from her mouth.