Friday, 6:40 pm

As usually Lily Card and Maddox Lane sat in Lily's bedroom like they did every Friday night after school. Unless they went out for food they would stay here for the rest of the weekend.

Their other best friend, Sage Martin, was currently downstairs in the kitchen rummaging through all of the cabinets for something eatable even though Lily had told her there was nothing down there that was actual food.

" 'This is a game for the mind. Are you strong enough to make it out alive? Resist the temps and you'll be just fine but if the temps consume you, you'll be all mine'. I'm not doing it." Maddox determined after reading off the disclaimer.

"Just call it," Lily said as she rolled her eyes. Her head hung off the bed while her blonde hair barely scraped the floorboards.

"No, this one is too creepy," Maddox decided from the other side of the room in a beanbag chair. A laptop lay on his lap while he scrolled through some random website filled with those haunted phone numbers. "I'm not trying to die over one of your stupid ideas."

"You've called way scarier numbers than this one and nothing happened. How is this one any different?"

"This is run by murderous demons!" Maddox yelled but Lily only rolled her eyes playfully.

"I looked it up earlier during lunch, this one doesn't kill anyone."

"Did you even read any of the comments? A person named Maven Bram literally said they almost died when they were drawn to a weird light in an abandoned building."

"It's fake, Maddox. This person is just making everything up for five seconds of spotlight."

"How do you know though?" He asked after finally tearing his gaze away from the endless comments about the experiences people had with this number that probably was fake and wouldn't even ring.

"Because it's a creepypasta! It literally exists for no other reason but to scare you for three seconds before no one picks up the phone and leaves you feeling utterly disappointed."

"Then you call it!" He yelled playfully while ripping his black beanie off his head and throwing it at Lily's face.

"No, I'm a wimp. I'll make Sage do it when she gets up here."

"Make Sage do what?" Sage asked as she slammed Lily's bedroom door open before closing it again and plopping down on the bed next to Lily. "Also, there is literally nothing in your kitchen that you can actually consume."

"Lily is trying to kill you," Maddox stated simply without looking up from his laptop. Sage only scoffed and shoved Lily's shoulder roughly.

"I am not. I just want you to call one of those creepy numbers that are all fake or a stupid answering machine."

"Which one is it?" Maddox waved her over to his laptop and let her scroll through the website for herself.

" 'I almost lost the game. I almost died. Play the game and all you can do is hope you make it out alive'," Sage read with a deep frown.

" 'Please don't call this number. It's not safe. Turn back while you can'. 'This was the last number that called my best friend the night she murdered. Save yourself and don't play'.

"You want me to call something that has killed people? Wow, I can feel the love from here."

"It's fake," Lily yelled again with a smile on her face to hopefully sell her statement.

"I'm not doing it. You want it done? You do it." Lily groaned loudly before flipping onto her stomach and pulling her phone out of her back pocket.

"I hate you both," she said as she quickly typed the number into her phone.

Chills went down her arms and back as her thumb hovered over the call button. She took one last deep breath before letting her thumb rest on the button before putting the phone on speaker.

Sage and Maddox watched her with a strange look in their eyes.

At first, nothing happened. Just the normal ringing of the phone that they had all grown accustom to ever since they started playing with these stupid numbers at the beginning of the school year.

One the last ring Lily was seconds away from saying I told you so but her breath caught in her throat when she watched the screen change from dialing to the amount of seconds they had been on the call.

Nothing but heavy breathing came through the speaker. Deep in the background, there was a whisper that was almost silent.

Lily strained her ears and was able to make the whisper into an eerie hum. It sang a tune that even in Lily's extensive knowledge of music couldn't tell what song it was humming.

The sound made the hair on the back of all of their necks stand up while Sage felt something watching them closely from the nonexistent shadows of the well-lit room.

For a while, there was nothing but the humming and breathing. While they were both creepy and eerie in their own way after a few minutes it becomes boring.

"I told you," Lily started, scaring both of her friends at her suddenness and loud voice. "Just an answering machine that keeps repeating until you hang up."

Lily rolled her eyes at her friend's former scared state as she goes to end the call, but something stops her. A sudden automated machine-like voice drifted through the phone speaker.

"This is a game for the mind," it said. Its voice lacked intelligence as if someone had typed it into Google Translate and let it say everything for them. "Are you strong enough to make it out alive? Resist the temps and you'll be just fine, but let the temps consume you and you'll be all mine."

When the sentence cut off the deep, heavy breathing picked up like it never ended. The humming seemed to be louder now as if the person humming stepped closer to the phone to see what was going on.

"You chose the game," the voice said again. "Now you'll play it our way. Game on." With that the line went dead, leaving the three friends to wonder what just happened.

"Well that was freaky," Lily admitted yet she acted like she hadn't just called a paranormal being and was now being forced to play a game with it. She tried to brush off the sickening feeling that had settled in her stomach and act as normal as possible.

"Let's go get something to eat. I'm starving." Maddox says, trying to play along and pretend they never did this.

"Yeah sounds good to me."

"Are you two serious right now?" Sage asked as she stared at them like they were insane. "That was really freaky and you two are going to act like it never happened?"

Lily smiled and picked her coat up from the floor and looked at Maddox again. "I was thinking buffalo chicken."

Her legs shook as she stood but she hoped her friends couldn't see how much the call had scared her.

"No, I hate that shit and you know it. We're getting pepperoni." He said as he picked his beanie up from where he threw it at Lily earlier.

"You're unbelievable," Sage says as she goes to follow them out of the room.

"I know, who likes buffalo chicken on pizza?"

"Not that dumbass," Sage said rudely before hitting Maddox on the back of the head. "You can't just act like we didn't just call a demon from hell and now have play some sick demon game."

"As opposed to a demon from Heaven?" Lily asked with a smirk before going back to dropping the conversation. "What movie do you guys want to watch tonight when we get back?"

"I hate the both of you."

"I don't think I have that movie but I'll check when we get back," Lily said sarcastically with a smug smile.

Sage only rolled her eyes and let the conversation about the demon drop and let the other pull her into a more light-hearted topic.

Still, something in the back of her mind told her that this call wasn't just some dumb answering machine. Something was going to happen, and it wasn't going to be good.

Little did they know of the true evil they had summoned tonight. They would look back at this years from now when someone asked 'what would you change in your life if you could?'

Every time they remembered this night a chill would run back before desperately trying to push the thought from their mind and they began spiraling.

Well, the ones that survived would do those things. Sadly in a group of three, there was always the odd one out. It would be fun to see who it was going to be in this group.