"This is just ridiculous." You complained, restarting the TV for the third time.
"Ma'am, is anything different happening?" The man on the phone asked. You huffed and crossed your arms, starring at the upright phone positioned several feet away from you on the counter. You had put it on speaker-phone to work on the TV as he spoke to you.
"No. Nothing's changing." You said, turning on the box to see the same static screen, "It just keeps blaring this stupid high pitch ringing and the screen's still static.
"Hmm.. That is very strange. If you'd like to get it fixed, I can have someone come over and check it out tomorrow."
"For how much?" You asked, staring at the screen in confusion. You asked him immediately, knowing the childish games that companies liked to play on their customers.
"It'll be $20 for an initial walk through, on top of the cost of whatever may be happening with your TV." He replied. You mentally groaned, trying your hardest to not be rude.
"Thank you for your time, sir. But I won't be needing any services tomorrow. Have a good night." You said, not letting him reply before you pressed the end call button on the phone and put it back on it's charger before returning to the TV.
Least to say, you were frustrated, but as long as you shut it off when you went to bed, it wouldn't cost any more electricity. You didn't need a TV, so you decided to just leave it as it was.
The receptionist downstairs had given you the TV company's phone number to take care of it yourself, but you didn't seem to get any luck. Then again, there was no way that you were going to head down there for a second time to ask her.
You went into your room after shutting off the TV and put your phone on charge. You sat at the edge of the bed, looking at yourself in the mirror.
'I can do this.' You mentally told yourself as you were currently drowning in your own stress.
It wasn't that your life was incredibly difficult at the moment, it was just the stress of the unknown. Panophobia was what it was called. Now, it's not crippling, but you were stressed about your degree. Is this really what you wanted to do? And what if you ended up never using it ever again in your life? It's simply tens of thousands of dollars down the drain, depending on how long you go to school for.
It was an incredible amount of stress to bare, but you were going to suck it up and deal with it, like a normal adult. Take everyday one baby step at a time, and you'll eventually reach your goal.
You took a deep breath in and out before getting up from your bed and heading to the bathroom to perform your nightly routine.
Once you had returned, you turned off the lights to your room and turned on your fan before plopping into your bed and snuggling into your covers, allowing you to slowly drift off to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"S-Stay away from me." You croaked, backing into a cold wall behind you. Before you, a dark, male figure approached. He began to say something at his distance, but a high-pitched ringing covered up his voice. You held your hands up to your ears as you slowly crumpled to the ground, the wet concrete chilling your knees and ankles. Your teeth chattered from the cold and the unbearable sound coming from the person who seemed to be following you.1
"W-What do you want from me?.." You asked weakly. The figure stood directly above you, looming over your form.
"..."
A painful, dull shock resonates from your neck. You groaned out in pain as the man lifted you up to his level, careful as to not choke you with his strength.
You grasped onto the arm that held your face forcefully, yet with delicacy. His fingers were ice cold to the touch, making the burning sensation on your face worse the longer he held his grip. You tried to pull away, but neither the wall, nor the man in front of you were willing to back down. Though, in the dark streets of the night, you still couldn't see his face.
You continued to grasp at his arm, the pain becoming more severe by the moment. The ringing got louder, causing you to yell out in pain.
Amidst the ringing, you could now hear a audible chuckle come from the man. You tensed up more in response, your body desperately tried to run away. Some part of his tone sounded vaguely familiar, but it was nothing that you could pinpoint.
"What I want..?" The figure asked in a three-pronged voice, bringing his face closer to yours, but slowly. You turned your head away, but it didn't stop him from jerking it back into place.
All sound focused on his voice, making the ringing noise seem like a background. He got so close, that you just decided to close your eyes and hope for the best.
You felt a soft sensation on your cheek, and you opened your eyes to see that his lips had gently made contact with the side of your face. You stood still, frozen to his action.
He pulled away, and now you could see what looked like a smirk on his person, but still no face.
"Why.. I just wanted to finally see you." He replied. He let go of your face, the cold feeling slowly fading. You cocked your head to the side at the stranger, but the ringing noise soon returned stronger, causing your train of thought to be interrupted. The figure walked off as you shouted and screamed in pain, fearing that your ears would soon burst.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quickly, you sat up in your bed, breathing heavily from your nightmare. You looked around your room frantically to see where you were. When you saw that it was still your own room with nothing amiss, you laid back down in relief. Though, there was a soft noise coming from the living room.
It didn't sound like anything threatening, so you just grabbed your phone to turn on its flashlight. You so happened to look at the phone's time: It read 2:23 AM.
'Great.' You said to yourself, rolling your eyes.
After you turned on the phone's light you hesitantly walked into the living room, which was still dark. You did see a faint light to the left of you, but when you looked, your heart dropped.
Your TV was back on, and the same ringing noise - from yesterday and your dream - played loud and clear.
'Well. I guess if this was on while I was sleeping, it could be that the sound transferred to my dream. But that still doesn't explain why it's on..'
Suddenly, scream rang out from the apartment next to yours. Now fearing for the worst and your body reacting, you took a knife from the kitchen and ran out your apartment door. You quickly ran to the apartment next to yours: 2D.
You banged on it with all of your might. Although it was just one scream, it sounded painful, alerting the caring side of your humanity.
"Hello!? Is someone in there?!" You yelled. After waiting for a couple more moments in silence, you pounded on it again.
"I heard a scream! Are you okay?!" You yelled, hoping to let them know that you were here to help, not attack. After, yet again, receiving no response, you took a trip down the staircase to the main lobby. Luckily, there would be another receptionist working besides Mallory, so you didn't have to worry about that.
You ran on the tiled floor to the desk where a young girl, about your age with short brown hair and red lipstick stood, a look of worry on her face.
"Ma'am? Are you okay?-"
"I was sleeping just a minute ago and then I had a nightmare I woke up and I heard a scream and I ran over there to see what had happened but no one answered I-"
"Please. Please. Calm down, miss. I can assure you that nothing has happened." She said calmly.
".. What do you mean?" You asked her, suspicious as to why she wasn't freaking out at this news. She sighed and began typing on the computer at the desk and took a long look at it.
"Yep. Just as I thought, you're 5C." She announced - no new information to you.
"What does that have to do with anything?" You asked, knife still in hand.
"Your neighbor in 5D has been known to be quite the entertainment since he's moved here. I've been warned that you've recently moved in. Although I cannot give out the tenant's information - confidential - I can tell you that this happens a lot, which is why no one lives anywhere near him. But every time we see him, he's fine." She assured you. You held the grip on your knife tighter, confused.
"But.. That scream.. It sounded so pained. Are you sure nothing's wrong?" You asked, scared for the unknown behind your neighbor's door. She nodded in response.
"Call him." You demanded, not satisfied with her answer. She seemed taken aback by your request, but did so anyways.
She put the phone up to her ear and dialed the man's number. A few moments passed in silence before the woman's voice greeted:
"Hello? This is the front desk. I had a young lady approach me to ask if you were okay. She heard a scream come from your room?.."
A few more moments passed, and the woman's demeanor grew uneasy. She gulped after something the person on the other line said. She nodded her head.
"Yes, sir. I'll be sure to let her know. Thank you. I apologize for disturbing you."
She placed the phone back down on the desk and smiled at you with tension showing in her action.
"He said that everything is fine, but he appreciates your concern. He'll make sure that he doesn't disturb your sleep any more." She said, eyebrow slightly twitching.
You raised your eyebrow at her behavior.
"Ma'am, I would really appreciate it if you put the knife back in your apartment." She commented, becoming more shaky as she pointed at the object in your hand. You looked down to where she was pointing, and suddenly, her behavior became justified. You did seem fairly threatening with the weapon clenched so tightly in your hand. You loosened your grip and apologized for your unnecessary attitude before going back up to your room, putting down the knife, turning off the TV, and going back to bed, your nightmares no more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So, sticking up for yourself now?" You asked, sipping from a juice box that you got from one of the food courts in the university. Mark thought for a moment as he walked alongside you.
"I usually don't deal with them outside of class, except for Amy." He commented, running his hand through his hair.
"Amy?" You asked, not recognizing her name.
"She was the one that was arguing with you yesterday. She's a little bit of a crazy ex." He admitted, opening the door to the history classroom, allowing you to walk in. You thanked him before continuing your conversation as you walked down the steps.
"You acted so weird yesterday. What made you have a change of heart?" You asked, curious. He shrugged.
"I thought that it was kind of rude of me to be so mean." He explained.
"Well, I mean, it is your life. If you don't want to talk to people, you don't have to. You always have a choice." Mark stopped walking, making you turn back to him to see what he was doing. But, unlike Jack who usually had to take a phone call at times, he just stood there, staring at the ground.
"You really think that's how it is?" He asked, his question genuine and gentle. You smiled before tugging on his shirt sleeve to follow you.
"Of course I do. If we didn't have choices, we wouldn't be human." You countered. Mark chuckled at your answer, then rubbed the back of his head.
"Oh, that's right." He joked. You didn't understand what he meant, so you just ignored his comment.
You sat at your normal seat, and Mark sat next to you. You were surprised when, earlier, he requested to sit next to you. It was a welcome change from being solely a future target for Amy and her girls, so of course you accepted.
"You still need my number?" He asked you, holding up his phone. You looked at him in disbelief before quickly retrieving several items out of your bag for class.
"I don't want to be intrusive, so you get to decide that." You said, earning a nod from the boy.
"Since I already have my phone out, just give me your number. I'll text you later." He requested. So, you responded with your phone number and he quickly typed it into his phone just before the professor walked in, and class started.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Maybe you were right about the whole 'haunted' thing.." You said to Alvin, "The stuff that happened last night was super weird."
Alvin sat, frozen at the table. You had told him everything that happened the night before, and he couldn't help but allow his face to go pale - paler than usual.
You waved your hand in front of his face, snapping him out of his daze.
"Did you even hear anything that I said?" You asked. Once it seemed that you had grabbed his attention, you leaned back in the chair and continued to eat your quesadilla.
Just as he promised, Alvin invited you to come with him to the Mexican restaurant down the street for brunch. Since there was no psychology class today, you decided that it would be fine, and you'd have plenty of time to complete the rest of your history packet.
"I-I heard. That sounds pretty terrifying.." Jack said, feeling a bit of warmth come back to his face. You smirked at him and dipped another chip into the cheesy mixture before throwing it in your mouth.
"Someone sounds like a wuss." You said, flipping your hair for dramatic effect. Alvin smiled and dipped into the queso as well.
"You have more balls than I do. I would've left there as soon as I could." He admitted, popping the chip in his mouth. You chuckled, holding your hand over your mouth as to not spit out any bits of chips.
"You're not wrong." You joked, making the both of you laugh.
"Wanna come back to the dorm? I want to go ahead and start doing the assignments our psych. professor posted." He suggested.
"Sure. As long as I can study for history too." You countered. He nodded in agreement.
"Deal."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The two of you finished your brunch and Alvin so courteously paid for the both of you. Knowing the hard time he had with money, you told him that he really didn't have to pay for your meal. He shrugged, saying that as long as you'd help him study, he'd consider it a favor. You agreed of course, your moral conscience gnawing at you.
As the two of you got up from the table, you felt you phone vibrate. Thinking that it was your mother texting you, you stopped in your tracks to answer. She got worried if you didn't reply fast.
Instead, you saw that an unnamed number had texted you.
*This is Mark from history. This is (F/n), right?*
You smiled and texted him back.
*Correct. What's up, Markimoo?*
You laughed at the sudden inspiration for his new nickname and watched as three little dots popped up on the other side of the messages.
...
*Interesting choice. I suppose that I could live with that. I have a couple of questions on the packet we got. I was just wondering if you knew what it was. Could you help a guy out?*
You replied:
*Sure. I'll text you back when I have my packet in front of me.*
He replied:
*Cool. I appreciate it. :)*
"Who's that?" Alvin asked, peering over your shoulder a little. You turned back around to slap him playfully
"Rude. Snooping through a girl's phone is not allowed!" You announced, making him laugh as the two of you walked out of the restaurant and back towards the university.
"Is everything okay?"
He gestured towards your phone. You smiled and put it back in your jean's back pocket.
"Yep. Another student needed my help to study. Nothing big."