FicWad

“I think we should talk to this little girl.” Mikey told me while we were sitting on the sidewalk.
“I don’t know.” I replied “She seemed really angry.”
“So? She says she’s got proof. She might know something that we don’t!”
“Forget it Mikey!” I snapped. I stood up and walked back into the house. The phone was ringing.
I picked it up “Hello?”
“Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
“Hello? Is anyone there?”
“A… Ishist…”
A breathy whisper was coming down the phone. Gerard pressed the phone closer to his ear. “Can you speak up please sir? Or miss, I’m sorry I can’t hear you.”
The whisper came again but this time Gerard just about heard it “Vanished….”
I was more angry than afraid for some reason “Who are you? Why are you calling?”
But the phone suddenly went dead.
I started breathing heavily and slowly, panting for breath. Vanished? I knew what that meant and I didn’t like it.
“Gerard?” My Mom walked into the room “Are you okay? Did someone call?”
“Yeah. Didn’t you hear it.”
“I was in the garden doing some gardening. Who was it?”
I couldn’t tell her the truth. She already thought I was crazy for believing in Bert and everything. I decided to tell lie.
“Sales call. Told them to leave us alone.”
“Are you sure Gerard? You look very pale.”
I went through every excuse in my head “I’m tired.” I said, which wasn’t exactly a lie “I need to go to bed for a bit.” I hurried upstairs to my room before she could protest any further. I lay on my bed and couldn’t think of anything better to do, so I went to sleep.

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Something was going off, seeming louder than it probably was because I was so tired. I rolled over and checked my clock. It was 3AM. Too early surely?
What was that noise? It took me a few minutes to realise that it was just the phone. I sighed realising that no-one else seemed to hear the phone ring. I rolled out of bed to answer it.
I tip-toed down the hall and picked it up “Hello?” I whispered down the phone, wondering who could be calling so late.
“A isht.” The whispered voice said “A…. Isht…”
It didn’t sound like vanished anymore. I listened harder. “A isht…”
Damaged? No, that’s further off.
“A isht…”
My heart started beating faster. I heard it. What they were trying to tell me. The word, the one word they were trying to say…
Famished!
I hung up the phone as quick as I could and resolved in my head never to answer it ever again. I thought back to the doll house, back to when I was a little boy with my Grandpa.
The hungry eyes in the closet. The ones that wanted me, the ones that my Grandpa gave his to.
Those hungry eyes. After me.