Beach Vacey [On Hold]

Rock Bottom I54I Part 2

            I quickly slipped my phone out of my pocket—almost dropping it as it jumped from my hand—releasing Zelda's interlocked hands. It was so sudden... My heart began to race instantly. Not only did I think I had a moment, I didn't expect to... get a response so quickly... What do they want?! They want to help desperately, but...

Zelda's eyes widened, concerned by my reaction. "What's wrong?"

My heart jumped to my throat. I read the message, blindly, hearing her soft, echoing voice—nothing but a sound.

The black, etched, text words:

You have left the hospital and returned home, correct?

Are you available now? I'd like to meet you.

My teeth clenched, and my eyes stared at the words that had seemed to design a stretched pain of fear onto my nerves. I grasped a breath, and my grip on my phone tightened with a wrinkle forming on my forehead. My eyes wavered over the words—befuddled. How could they know that... I returned home... and... this person... They KNEW I was at the hospital! How do I... not know who this is? Has Vio been talking to someone? Ray? The only other person Vio knows is Ray... No... Ray... He doesn't talk like THIS! Am I... being stalked? Is this what this is? I mean, this person hacked the messaging system... I can't respond back! It's suspicious!

"LINK!" Zelda collected my wavering, wide-eyes, and I blinked, frightened by her voice for a moment.

I shook my head, lowering my phone down beside me, and I tried to cool my breath to make it look not so obvious, but, there was no way to fix that. She was concerned already, and she had plans to get to the bottom of this...

I swallowed, though, trying to push it all away to disguise my discomfort. "Sorry..."

Her eyes became sharp, glaring, and her cheeks flushed. "Link... In the car... all you were doing was fiddling with your phone, and... you know, it's rather concerning... I mean, I..." She drew a breath, glancing away to fix the jewelry on her hands. "I tried to have a conversation in the car, but, you worrying about your phone was... like—" She scoffed, breaking her tone off.

I recollected myself, raising my phone to catch one, uneasy glimpse of it. I can't win this with her... I have to tell her... I took a deep breath. "Zelda..." My head looked away as soon as I had collected her eyes, but I resisted the hesitation. "I... There's a person..." My words stumbled—I didn't know what to say—so, with brief thought, I showed my phone to her—where her immediate response was to hover, take the phone, and read the messages.

I cleared my mind and continued as she read thoroughly—half her mind set on the text in her hands, and the other half with her engaged, glancing eyes to listen to me with full ears. "This person..." I rephrased. "They contacted me, claiming they can help me, but I... I don't know who they are..." I was able to end the trembling—I cooled down slightly. "They know Vio, though, and that's... concerning to me, and..."

Her brows rose, twitching, "And, they want to meet you?"

I fussed to her words for a moment, but my lips did the talking as I thought. "Yeah... and I don't know where... uh... specifically, but... I-I can't respond back to them. Somehow they got my number, used this anonymous number that... makes it fixed... so I can't respond back..." Now that I think about it... they're probably not even using a phone to contact me. A computer of some sort, probably...

Zelda, for one, wasn't pleased by this. Her brows furrowed, darkening her face, and she almost threw my phone back at me. "Who is this?! This isn't safe! I mean... WHO IS THIS?! An acquaintance of Vio?! I mean, if you don't already trust Vio, then..."