Left Unread | Solo
Exhaustion. That was all Effie felt as she trudged up the stairs to her apartment. The fever that had kicked in the night before still hadn’t broke and she was still feeling nauseous, but it was perhaps a little better after confirming that Reed was actually okay. Glimpses of him at the station and having Chris deliver his temporary phone was helpful, but even as she checked her phone to see messages from Reed and Deirdre and whoever else that had come to be a friend, it made her feel absolutely worse. What was she doing entertaining herself like that?
Ring.
She glanced down again as she stuck her key into her apartment door.
Phone call from Eva (AKA THE BEST SISTER EVER HI EFFIE DON’T LEAVE YOUR PHONE ON TABLES XOXOX).
She sent her straight to voicemail, not really feeling in the mood to talk. She still hadn’t opened the last text message from her sister. But as she opened her apartment door and dumped her stuff on her side table, she froze in an instant, the hair on the back of her neck standing up. Something was wrong. Had the gang come back for more?
Her eyes narrowed and she went to go flick on a light. Her heart dropped to her chest as light did not fill the room. Power being out? That’s happened before. She was trying to reason with herself. Sometimes she had to go flip the fusebox downstairs, sometimes she could short circuit something when she didn’t even touch it.
But if something was in her house… Was she about to find a dead dog? They gave Regan a dead chipmunk, didn’t they? Why not give her the body of her dog? Stop that. Her mind was snapping at her and she paused to snatch her phone out of her purse as she took a couple steps into the dark apartment.
“Who’s there?!” Effie snapped. She could make her phone explode. She could make her phone explode, the battery—she had one of those phones, didn’t she? Sure she improved it so it wouldn’t do that, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t make it explode? Right?
Her eyes were adjusted to the dark, and her eyes locked on the window by her couch. Her eyebrows knit together. Why was it open? And it was almost if she could… smell the scent of smoke in the air. The scent of something… Something was wrong and she wasn’t going to--
Time to call the police. Effie whirled on her feet and froze. White eye pierced her own and her mouth opened in shock as the two seemed to stare at each other for just a second before it came forward. Effie let the scream that had caught in her throat out as she jerked backwards, her phone soaring almost through the creature that had startled her. Effie backed up, and made a run for the bedroom, the creature floating behind her in a chase.
Get to the bedroom, she had equipment. She had equipment that was charged. She could do it again. She would do it again. She could do what she did to Azul. Effie launched herself at her own little desk she had in the corner, frantically trying to undo the lock she had on it—
And when she looked up, the thing had followed her, it’s eyes still looking on her. It reached out with it’s alien like finger and Effie screams again.
No! Don’t touch me! You can’t touch m-
And it grazes a finger across her cheek.
It’s gone. The eyes. The smoke seems to float out the window in which it came and the eyes are gone. Effie’s left on the floor, eyes wide in fear and shock.
What the—
She scrambles from the floor, and back out of her bedroom and into the kitchen in pursuit… But it’s gone. It’s gone. And her apartment was a mess with all her running. Was this a side effect of a broken promise? Hallucinations? Her gloved hand touches the spot where the creature grazed her and she was certain that that couldn’t be it.
Ring.
She jerked in surprise—Her phone. Damn it. Effie dropped to the floor and reached for it—it had hidden itself on the way on the couch.
And then it was daylight. And she was standing. She was in a big house with wide open spaces and coordinating. Her iphone 6 was vibrating.
1 new voicemail from Paige/Wifey ;0<3 <3 <3
Ephie felt her heart swell big with love as she slid the screen to listen.
“Babe! Did you forget how to answer your phone again?! Honestly, I’m wondering if I should have bought you a flip phone for Christmas! You have such trouble with that. Our son and I are having just the worst time at the department store. You know, Derek spent all day looking for that lego set he wanted, but not one store had it. But I told him that you would take us both out to dinner to make up for it since you bailed on shopping with us, and then you and I can go spend some quality us time if you know what I mean—“ There’s giggling, and Ephie can feel herself grinning— “anyway I’m running out of time, babe. I’ll see you tonight. I love you!”
And Ephie was laughing, as she opened up their text strand. How cute! At least she knew how to do that.
“Love u 2. See u tonite. ;) Tell our son that I’ll order him hotwheels on amazon.”
Effie’s jaw was open and she blinked, her eyes readjusting to the dark as she stared at her android phone in her hand in confusion as the lights began to flicker back on (likely fueled by her anxiety). Who the hell was Paige and Derek and why was that memory indicating they were somehow important?
1 New Voicemail from Eva (AKA THE BEST SISTER EVER HI EFFIE DON’T LEAVE YOUR PHONE ON TABLES XOXOX).
She swallowed the bile that threatened to rise in her throat.
“Effie. Come on. Answer my messages! I’m just saying that you can have a life if you want. A partner and maybe a kid if you really wanted to. You don’t have to be mom and dad. You don’t have to view yourself as some monster. You’re allowed friends and people who care about you. And you know what? Screw Lin—Ella really married a tool. He sucks. Don’t worry about what’s happened because you can find control. Hiding from the world isn’t going to solve anything at all. Please, just… Just try? Think of how happy you’d be!”
How happy she… was? Had she just imagined it? That creature…. And the love that had pounded in her chest when she had just thought of this Paige and Derek just then. And the gaping hole of nothing when she tried to remember who they even were.
Ring!!!!
Multiple text messages from Eva (AKA THE BEST SISTER EVER HI EFFIE DON’T LEAVE YOUR PHONE ON TABLES XOXOX).
Effie dropped the phone on the couch and went to go vomit.
What the hell is going on?
