"You have one new message, received this morning at 1:13AM."
The Message
By
Darkstone57
Sunset groaned, her eyes straining to open, at the sound of her phone’s ringtone going off on the desk, on the other side of her bedroom.
After the day she’d had, it was last thing she needed. Her hair a mess and her purple nighty sliding off her left shoulder; she tossed her bed quilt off of her with force and dragged her legs out of bed.
As her feet touched her carpet floor, the ringtone stopped, to which Sunset merely rubbed her eyes and tried to gain her senses, now that she was woken up.
She decided to ignore her phone and head to the kitchen to get a drink.
With an long and contagious yawn, she trekked across her apartment into her kitchen, turned on its light, picked up one of her glasses left on the drying rack, filled it with cold water and the tap off lazily.
Sunset took one big gulp of the glass of water before deciding to take the glass with back to the bedroom, turning the light off as she left the kitchen.
On the way back she decided to take it slow, the softness of the apartments carpets she had fitted were soft and comfortable, with every step she relished the softness as it cushioned her feet, step after step.
Eventually, she made it back to her bed and placed the glass of water down on her night stand. As she began to get into bed, Sunset heard the phone vibrate on her bedroom desk.
She looked at the phone incredulously as she thought, ‘Who on earth would leave a voicemail at this time of night?’
Deciding to get it over with, Sunset got off her bed and wandered over the desk, swiping the phone up, glaring at the bright screen as it said; ‘Voicemail; 1 New Message’.
Sunset rolled her eyes as she began to input her keycode, ‘Probably some cold caller from overseas, wasting everyone’s time...’
Placing the phone to her right ear, folding her left arm around her waist, Sunset waited.
“Welcome to your EE Voicemail,” The female automated voice began, “You have one new message, received this morning at 1:13AM.”
‘Go on then, who is-‘
“Hello, Sunset...” Her thoughts were cut short as a deep distorted voice spoke to her.
“How’ve you been? It’s been a long time.” The voice spoke to her calmly. Sunset became concerned, she couldn’t ascertain as whether the voice was male or female.
“I’ve heard a lot has happened to you, Sunset,” The voice sounded genuinely impressed as they went on, “Head of the science department at Canterlot University, eh?” They chuckled lightly, sending a chill down her spine.
“I wonder....” The voice took a moment to consider something, “Do you still wear that biker jacket? After all these years?” Sunset was beginning to get scared...
“But, I also wonder, do you remember what you did back then...?” The voice’s tone lowered before it asked, “Do you remember... what you did to me?”
Sunset began to tighten her grip on her nighty as she continued to listen.
“Let me tell you... It took me a long time to get over what you did to me.” The voice was strained but angry before going silent for a long... but few... seconds...
“It wasn’t all bad after our last... meeting...” The voice began to sound more calm, “Took me a while, but, I decided to give life another chance. Became an investment banker, man, all those hours memorising numbers... And then, through that job, wouldn't you know it, I met the love of my life.”
Sunset began feel the fear crawl up her as the voice chuckled happily, “You two would’ve got on so well with each other...”
“Not long after that, we got married and had a beautiful little boy.” The voice reminisced with a content sigh, “I suppose we both got our happily ever afters, eh?”
She didn’t like where this was going...
“But,” The voice’s tone became dark, “We both know that in the real word; happily ever after never lasts at all...”
“God...” The voice became strained as they tried to speak, “To think... it’s been a year since that crash...”
Sunset gasped, placing her left hand over mouth in shock.
“I woke up to find... nothing was left for me...” The voice was saddened, as they painfully recollected those events, “No partner, no little boy, no life... Nothing...”
The voice gave a heavy sigh, “Do you know what that’s like; to literally lose it all? And, have nothing to help you get through the day?”
Sunset said nothing as she sat down, still shaken.
“All I have now... is pain, Sunset.” The voice was starting to get angry.
“The pain of the loss of everything I had worked so hard for... And...”
Sunset gulped,
“The pain of what you put me through...” The voice said with venom.
She began to shake in fear as the voice continued, “For the longest time, I couldn’t go a day without that picture flashing through my mind, the pictures of what you did and the image of your face...” The voice took a deep breath, “Eventually, they went away. But, now, those images are coupled together with their faces...” The voice strained as they yelled down the phone, “And I can’t stand the sight of it anymore!”
She listened intently as the voice took deep ragged breaths before inhaling a long one, “There is only one thing left for me to do now... I’m going to come find you...”
Sunset's mouth hung open as it said darkly; “I’m going to come find you...”
“To listen to the message again, press-“
Sunset hung up and dropped the phone in place.
She began to shiver more erratically, trying to process it all.
Suddenly, her thoughts were cut off as a bright light seeped in through her blindfold and swayed to and fro for a minute before it stopped.
Taking a long deep breath, Sunset apprehensively stood up and pushed two of her fingers through the blinds gap and separated a pair apart to see outside.
She gasped fearfully at the sight.
There... across the street, under the light, was a figure clad in black, their face covered by the hood of their jacket, who was waving at her window, methodically, with a phone in their hand. They stopped... And pressed down on the screen of their phone...
Seconds later, Sunset’s vibrated to life by her foot, which made her jump.
Tentatively, she reached down for the phone that was facing down and brought it up to her. She turned it over and froze at the sight of what was on her screen.
A message sent about 10 seconds ago, saying; “See you soon.”
Quickly, she grasped the blindfold handle and forced it to shoot up so she could see outside. But, she only felt her heart sink in her chest.
The figure across the street; was already gone...