Sunday 2:34 am
The humming is louder this time to the point where it's not even background noise. It's as if someone is humming lowly into the speaker rather than humming loudly far away.
Just as the three were expecting the automated voice to start talking a scream cut through the air, silencing the humming and sending it back into the farthest corner of whatever room they were in.
"A scream for me, a scream for you," it said, a bit of malice attached to the words. "A simple scream is how all this will end. A scream for me and a scream for you. 6-88-777-3-33-777, 555-666-7777-8, 8-2-55-33-66."
The line goes dead after the numbers repeat and the three friends look at each other, a new chill set down their spine.
At first, they were silent, not really knowing what to say until Maddox finally broke the silence.
"What do those numbers mean?" Sage only shrugged while Lily rolled her eyes.
"How are we supposed to know? It's not like any of us were gone at any point today to get extra information on what stupid numbers mean," she said as she raised her arm to show how they have all been connected today in a literal way.
"Well, they have to mean something. They wouldn't just give them to us if we didn't need them. You both read that comment. Hints don't come around often with this game, we need to take advantage of it."
"You know," Sage began. "It kinda reminds me of my first phone. When you had to press the button however many times until you got to the letter you wanted. Maybe that's how the code works." The last sentence was more of a thought said out loud as she reached over to the nightstand and grabbed her phone even though she couldn't quite reach it.
"I don't think any of us are going back to sleep tonight," Sage pointed out. "So can we please take these stupid cuffs off?"
I'm sure several people would have loved to be a fly on the wall for the next few minutes of their lives. Their minutes were spent making getting off a bed way more complicated than it needed to be.
Sage had had the brilliant idea to keep the key on the other side of the room so no one could just reach over the others to get the key then leave. It was a very smart idea at the time but now that the idea had to be prosecuted it was so no worth it.
Every other word out of Lily was a cuss word while Sage tended to forget one of her hands was connected to someone else. Maddox had seemed to get the short end of the stick when he agreed to sleep in the middle. His arms were being pulled in both directions every three seconds and neither girl seemed to care about how hard they pulled as they tried to get up.
"We're never doing this again." Maddox decides when his wrists are finally free and raw.
"Agreed," Sage said as she attempted to catch her breath while looking for a pen and piece of paper.
For a while, nothing but the sound of a pen writing on a piece of paper followed by a small stretch of silence could be heard.
"Well," She said after a few minutes, her voice full of discomfort. "I have the words but I'm not sure you're going to like any of them. They aren't exactly pleasant words considering our situation."
"What are they?"
"Well, the first one is murder if that tells you anything about the list. The second one is lost and the last is taken."
"Murder?" Lily repeats, making sure she heard her friend correctly. "As in killing someone murder?"
"No Lily," Maddox began sarcastically. "As in poking someone with a chicken leg until they laugh. What other kind of murder is there?"
"There's no need to be rude." Lily huffed as she folded her arms and lay back onto her bed.
"And you don't need to be a fucking dumbass." Sage flinched at Maddox's words even though they weren't directed to her.
While Maddox cussed a lot he very rarely ever cussed at them. His cussing was mostly used to emphasize things, only really ever cussing at someone when he was royally pissed at them.
Sage knew what this must have meant even though she didn't want to say it out loud. Whatever was making them play the game was affecting him the same way it was affecting her.
It was trying to get them angry so they would leave the group and lose the game.
"Maddox," Sage began, "you need to calm down. She's a blonde, you know it takes them longer to process things." She laughed at the end hoping to make everyone calm down while still lightening the mood.
"We need to be focusing on the words anyway."
Maddox rolled his eyes but sat down on his beanbag chair like he always did when they were in Lily's room.
"What does it even matter?" He asked as he looked over the list several times. "It's probably nothing. And even if it was something do any of us want to know what they mean by murder? We could murder someone because of this or could get murdered. Should we really be digging for answers like this?"
"I personally would like to know if I was getting murdered anytime soon," Sage said with a small eye roll.
"Well I've got good news for you then," Lily piped up. "Now you know you're going to get murdered. Congratulations."
"Gee, thanks."
"No problem babe," she said with a smile and a wink.
"Then what do you suggest we do?"
"There's nothing we can do," Maddox reminds her. "Those words mean nothing to us. As long as we stay together they won't matter anyway."
"Do you think we should just sit here and do nothing?" She asked, trying to control her anger. "Just sit here until the game is over?"
"That's the only thing we can do, Sage." Lily tried to convince her. "We'll just have to wait it out."
Sage frowned before walking over to Lily's TV and turning it to a random channel.
She couldn't help but feel the rising anxiety in her chest. She tried to push it down but every time she tried more and more built up.
The feeling of something about to happen was getting too strong at this point making her mind up for her. Tomorrow, something was going to happen and it wasn't going to be pretty.