Alex never thought he was the type to believe in ghosts, but he got close to believing one was haunting his landline.
It started on the fourth Monday of school when the landline started ringing at one in the morning. It didn't wake Alex at first, just invaded his dreams. He was dreaming of running through some constantly morphing city as the shrill ringing sounded off in the distance. He ran with the sound until it faded out, but then it came back a few minutes later. That time it was enough to rouse him from his sleep. By the time he was firmly back in the waking world, the ringing stopped. Alex rolled over from his back to the side and further entangled himself in his blankets. He sat in his half-awake, fully grumpy state and waited to see if the ringing would continue. Prayed it wouldn't.
There were either no gods or Alex needed to be more specific about which one he talked to if he wanted to get results. Just as he started to drift back to sleep, the ringing started again.
Alex grumbled and untangled himself. As he gained marginally more consciousness, he realized the caller may be trying to reach Matthew. California was about eight hours behind, so to them, it wasn't an absurd time to ring someone. But they had to know it was early for Matthew, right? A bit of panic crept in as the possibility of it being an emergency sprung into his mind. Maybe something had happened to Matthew's parents or even his sister. Alex had been wondering about her since he overheard that conversation about her needing expensive medication.
His newfound fear woke him up enough to get him dashing out of his room to the phone before it stopped ringing. "Hello?" he croaked into the microphone, but no one answered his greeting. "Hello, is someone there?" Still, the only response he got was dead air. Like whoever had called had just wandered away from the phone. Alex listened to the silence for a few more seconds before hanging up.
He didn't think anything of it, at first. He went back to sleep so quickly the event had melded into his dreams. By the time he woke up properly for school that Monday, he wasn't even entirely sure it had happened. So, despite how strange the hazy memory felt, he didn't mention it to Jack. He almost forgot about it by that night. But then Tuesday morning rolled in. At one in the morning, almost on the dot, the phone was ringing again. It woke Alex right away, but he couldn't make it out of his room before it stopped. While the phone still sat silent, he walked down the hallway and into the lounge. He stared down the inactive landline for a whole minute, until the shrill ringing started again. Alex picked it up and held it to his ear before it could finish its first chime.
"Hello?" he said in a hurry, hoping to catch whoever it was before they walked away. But there was nothing again. Not even breathing or background noise. Just cracking silence. Alex hung up the phone and stood guard for a few more minutes. It didn't ring again.
Alex went back to his room and tried to fall asleep, but now he was uneasy. One night of silent calls was probably nothing, but two in a row? It may have just been a prank caller, but how would they have gotten a direct line to his room? It wasn't listed in any phone books, just the student directory that only staff had access to. He supposed someone could just punch in the number randomly, but why not even try to play an actual joke? Why call just to annoy a random stranger with silence at one in the morning?
Alex spent too much time theorizing about who was on the other end of the call and only got about an hour more of sleep before he had to get up. He was pretty sure Jack had noticed how tired he was, but he didn't say anything. And neither did he. As unsettled as he felt, he didn't think it was worth bringing up. Hopefully whoever was doing it would find another random number to bother.
Tuesday night, Alex couldn't get any sleep at all. Every time he closed his eyes, he would hear a phantom ringing in his mind. When his bedside clock blipped past midnight, he sat up in a huff and went to the lounge. He took the novel they were reading in English out of his bookbag and sat in one of the dining chairs right next to the telephone. He would look up at it occasionally, but didn't focus on it until he noticed the kitchen clock past 12:50. Then he put down his book and watched the phone with unwavering focus. Sure enough, at exactly one, it started ringing. Alex shot out of his seat and picked it up.
"Hello?" he practically screamed. "Who's there?" Nothing. "Is anyone there? Hello?" Silence. Alex clenched his jaw and ran through greetings in his other proficient languages. French, Spanish, Mandarin, German, Korean. When that got him nothing still, he threw out a few more he remembered. Japanese. Italian. Russian. Greek. Gaeilge. Still no response.
Alex could feel his hand heating up so much it might melt the phone. He took a deep breath and used the fact that it sounded like no one was listening to freely speak his mind. "Look whoever you are thinking this is funny, find someone else to fuck with at one in the morning. I've enough shit to deal with, alright? My sanity is hanging on by a goddamned thread, the last thing I need is the sleep deprivation you're causing to be the thing that finally makes me snap. So, piss off!" Alex slammed the phone back into the wall mount after his diatribe was met with even louder silence. Just as he was starting to feel guilty for cussing out no one, a voice chimed in from behind him.
"Who the hell were you talking to?"
Alex jumped and spun around to see a very sleepy-looking Matthew standing in the hallway. His eyes were half shut and his hair was standing up in all directions. He was wearing an oversized and faded shirt that must have been from a band, and fuzzy pyjama pants with a vaguely familiar cartoon frog on them. His mouth was set in a frown laced with annoyed confusion.
"Um," Alex started, "how much of that did you hear?"
"Enough," Matthew said with a yawn. He scratched the back of his head and opened his eyes enough to shoot Alex a glare. "Couldn't you wait until later to cuss out your friend?"
"They're not- Have you not been hearing the phone ring?"
"No."
"It's been going off since Monday morning. Every time I answer it no one replies. How did the ringing not wake you but I did?"
"Um, maybe because you were speaking in tongues at the top of your lungs? And just star sixty-nine them."
"... What?"
"Star sixty-nine," Matthew repeated slowly like its meaning was obvious. He rolled his eyes when Alex just blinked at him. "Call return, Conrad."
"Oh." Why didn't you think of that? Idiot. "The code is 1471, here." Matthew crossed the lounge and grabbed the phone without a word, then punched in the call return code. "You have to press three then, too," Alex added.
"Then why not say 14713?" Matthew muttered as he punched in the last digit. He held the speaker up close enough for the both of them to hear the speaker. Alex tried to focus on the line ringing, and not how close Matthew was standing to him.
Unsurprisingly, no one picked up. After a dozen rings, a pre-recorded message picked up. The first line of it made them both stiffen.
"You have reached the Conrad residence," the voice said. Alex recognized it as his mother's assistant, Leilah Miller. "No one is available to take your call right now, but leave a message with your full name, business, and contact information, and someone will get back to you shortly. Thank-"
Alex shot his hand out to the base and pressed down on the hook with his finger before the answering machine could start recording.
"Your family does not know how to use clocks?" Matthew mumbled, putting the phone back.
"I don't..." Alex stammered, his brain feeling like it had been shocked. "I don't know why..."
"They call back," Matthew said, walking back to his room with another yawn, "you let me answer it. I got some shit to scream at them too."
Matthew was gone before Alex could think of a response to that. He wondered if Matthew was too tired to realize how strange it was for a silent caller to be coming from Alex's home. Though he supposed Matthew didn't have a way of knowing how truly odd it was. Because anyone calling from the estate was already a diversion from the norm. He was pretty sure the only person who had ever called his landline asking for him was Mrs. Faraday, to pass along a message from his uncle. So not only was someone breaking that time-honoured tradition of never calling, but they were doing so at one in the morning and then not saying a word. Day after day.
Who could it be? Not Alistair. Not his mother. The only other Conrads even at the estate at the moment were his cousins Victoria and Patrick. The two of them had guilted their parents into having them homeschooled, so they could tag along on about half their globe-trotting plans. But Victoria was too concerned with her beauty sleep to do anything before six in the morning. Patrick might be inclined to mess with Alex, but anti-climactic prank calls didn't seem like his style.
Who else, then? A staff member? Why would any of them bother? He doubted they would waste precious moments of sleep or personal time to do something like this. The only ones likely to even be awake would be Chef Julia and some of the other cooks. Alex knew they had a habit of prepping for breakfast in the early hours. Maybe some of his father's doctors would be
Alex's pondering cut itself off, and he let out a shaky breath when he remembered the resident of the estate he had forgotten. His father. There was a phone in the hallway right outside his bedroom. If whoever was watching over him fell asleep or even stepped away for just a second, he could make it to the phone. All he needed was a quarter of the physical strength he had that day at the pond.
Unfortunately, why he hadn't answered also made sense. It wasn't uncommon for Utkarsh to forget what he was doing in the middle of a task and then leave it unfinished. Alex had been with him a fair number of times when he went to call one of his siblings, only to forget that's what he was doing after he punched in the number. He had to stop his father once or twice from just leaving the still-ringing phone off the hook.
So, there was the who. Alex was fairly confident about that. But why? Utkarsh probably didn't realize the time, but why was he calling so insistently? Was something wrong? Why hadn't anyone told him if something was? Would anyone at the house even think to? Pamela might if they told her. But they were so secretive about Utkarsh's condition. Embarrassed by it. There were so many people in the house who didn't even know the exact nature of his illness.
Now, rather than keeping himself awake worrying about a mystery caller, he was keeping himself awake worrying about his dad. Jack wasn't willing to let his obvious exhaustion go that Wednesday morning at breakfast.
"Have you slept at all these past two days?" Jack asked as he poured too much sugar into his coffee.
"Not really," Alex said, trying not to use his plate of eggs as a pillow.
"Is it Montoya again?"
"No, no. He hasn't done anything petty since before the party. It's been a little eerie, to be honest. I kind of miss his milk thievery and loud music."
"He stole your milk?"
"Yeah. Back in the good old days. When he had enough passion to hate me. Now he's moved on. Only has the capacity for blank disinterest."
"It's concerning how wistful you sound right now, Al."
"He did act a bit strange last night, though."
"What did he do?"
"Nothing bad." Alex frowned. "You sound like you're waiting for an excuse to hit him."
"He irritates me."
"You hardly know him."
"And yet I am still irritated. But what was strange about him last night?"
"Well, the past couple of days I've been getting calls to my room that are just silence on the other end. At one in the morning. Last night I shouted obscenities at the silence and woke him up. He used to call return because I was an idiot who forgot that existed."
"And who was it?"
"It came from the estate."
"Your family's estate?"
"Yes. No one picked up, and we got the machine."
Jack frowned. "That's creepy. Maybe it was a ghost."
"A ghost," Alex repeated, and despite how tired and stressed he was, he couldn't help but smile when Jack nodded like it was a serious possibility.
"That place is old as fuck, dude. And your family is super good at holding on to grudges and shit. Got to be at least a couple of ghosts running around."
That's not the worst way to describe Utkarsh, honestly, AJ observed. A ghost.
Alex swallowed the lump in his throat and looked down at his plate. "I think... I think it was my dad," Alex said like he was admitting to something terrible. Jack immediately changed his demeanour. He knew how touchy Alex got when it came to his dad. Other than Utkarsh's doctors, Jack was the only non-Conrad who knew the truth about his illness. Not even Basil Farrow had been trusted with that secret.
"What makes you say that?" He said, his voice quiet and careful. Like he was worried about spooking a small animal.
"He's done it before. I've seen it. Forget who he was calling or what he was even doing right in the middle of doing it. If no one was around to remind him, he might just walk away."
"Has he ever tried to contact you at the school before?"
"No. He's never been well enough since I started here. You know, I... I thought he might be getting better. He seemed good before I left. There was one day, before Alistair's party when he seemed back to his old self. Still physically weak, but... He was there. My dad was there. For a little bit."
"You should call back," Jack suggested. "Maybe him calling is a good sign. I mean, even if he forgets, he's still thinking of you. Right?"
"What if it's not? What if whatever reason he's calling and forgetting and calling again is... is something bad?"
"You're just going to drive yourself crazy with hypotheticals, Al," Jack pointed out. "Montoya didn't ask any questions when you guys found out where the calls were coming from?"
"No, he seemed mostly sleepy and annoyed. I think he thinks my family is just weird enough for something like that to be normal for us. I'm hoping he doesn't get too curious about it."
Alex told himself that if his father called back the next morning, he would try to ring back at a time when he might be able to speak with someone. He went about his evening and night routine like normal, and then right before one o'clock went out to the lounge. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Matthew was already there, sitting backwards in one of the dining chairs while he stared down the phone. Alex hovered in the hallway, not quite sure what to do. He jumped slightly when Matthew spoke.
"Do you guess as to who's doing it?" he asked without taking his eyes off the phone.
"No," Alex lied instinctively. Explaining why he thought it was his dad was not something he wanted to do.
"Do you think whoever it is is trying to mess with me or you?"
"I don't know."
Alex noticed Matthew's mouth curl up slightly. "You are a bad liar."
"I don't-"
"Why did you torch Argent's money?"
"What?"
"Argent. In Phys Ed. He was trying to psych me out and you torched his money. Why'd you do that?"
"That was weeks ago."
Matthew turned his head to glare at Alex. "And?" He challenged.
"I... It was an accident. I didn't mean to do it. I just..."
"Just what?"
"Wanted him to leave you alone. But I didn't mean to do that."
"Why did you care what he was saying to me?"
"Because it was cruel," Alex said, trying to keep himself from getting too heated. Both emotionally and physically. "He was belittling what Malcolm did to you, just like... Just like my uncle. And I was still angry at him, and that made me angry at Samuel even more. I was... tired of doing nothing."
Matthew's expression remained blank. Unreadable. "But you regret it," Matthew guessed.
"Only because I should have better control over that. I could have hurt you."
"Or Argent."
Fuck him, AJ said. "Yeah," Alex said, unable to keep the apathy out of his voice. "Or Argent."
Matthew's mouth threatened to turn into a genuine smile. "Yeah, you sound like you would have been real broken up if that had happened," he said.
Alex debated if he should try to argue that it would have indeed been bad if he had burned a child, but he was interrupted by the phone ringing. Matthew jumped to his feet and picked it up.
"Hello?" he said as Alex rushed to his side. Alex stopped himself from leaning in close to hear if anyone answered, and Matthew's furrowed brow told him no one did. "Hey, is anyone there? Hello?"
"Can I try?" Alex said.
"Knock yourself out," Matthew said, handing over the phone.
Alex grabbed it and acted on his hunch, trying not to feel too self-conscious about Matthew watching. " Pita ?" he said, hoping Matthew wouldn't know what that word meant. It had been ages since he called his father that. Ages since he spoke any Hindi at all. " Pita, are you there? Can you hear me?"
He got no response at all, just like the other nights. Alex hoped that if this was his father, he was walking away from the phone. That he wasn't just standing there and not responding to the sound of his son's voice. He let out a shaky breath and put the phone back on the hook with a little too much force.
"Don't get a guess who it is, huh?" Matthew said. Alex avoided looking at him. "Fine. Keep your secrets." Matthew reached for the wire connecting the phone to the wall and pulled it out of the machine's port.
"But what if-"
"I'll put it back in the morning," Matthew said, waving him off as he walked back to his room. "You may be willing to play your family's weird games, but I'm not."
Alex looked at the unplugged wire after Matthew left. A part of him was worried it might start ringing again anyway, but it stayed silent like it was supposed to.
The next morning Jack asked about the phone, and Alex told a partial lie and said Matthew unplugged it so it wouldn't ring in the night anymore. He wasn't sure if Jack believed him, but he didn't push it.
Alex couldn't help but feel guilty over Matthew's solution to the problem. Just unplug the phone. Shut him up. Ignore the problem. Ignore your father, the same way you've been ignoring him for almost a decade. Unplug it and forget it. Forget him.
Of course, Alex should have known Utkarsh Joshi was not going to let them get away with that. That same Thursday evening, Alex came back from the library earlier than he usually did. When he was outside the flat's front door, he heard Matthew inside, his voice slightly panicked as it sounded like he was talking to someone. Alex hesitated, not wanting to interrupt an important conversation. But then he caught pieces of what Matthew was saying.
"-don't understand what you're saying, sir," he said. "Do you speak English? ¿Señor, usted habla español? That's all I got."
Alex opened the door to see Matthew standing by the landline, the phone up to his ear. His eyes were wide and a little frantic. He almost looked relieved when Alex walked in.
"Conrad, get over here," he said while covering the phone's microphone. "Maybe this guy is speaking a language you understand. He called a few minutes ago and started monologuing. I can't understand a word but he sounds upset so I didn't want to hang up."
"Here," Alex said, dropping his stuff by the door and crossing the room. He held out his hand and Matthew passed over the phone, then stepped back a few feet and watched Alex with a slightly anxious expression.
As soon as Alex put the speaker up to his ear, he recognized his father's voice. He was speaking Hindi, and his rapid pace combined with Alex's lack of practice made him unable to understand at first. Utkarsh wasn't pausing at all. It sounded like he was barely breathing. Just delivering what sounded like a panicked sermon. Alex tried to forget about Matthew watching him and focused on his father's words.
"-not safe! " He was saying in Hindi. " Where is my son? He needs to come home. He's going to get hurt, just like the others. They can't protect them. They won't protect them! He cares more about himself than those children, he will do nothing! "
"Pita, I'm right here," Alex said in English, but his father talked over him like he hadn't said anything. Alex took a deep breath and tried again in Hindi. " I'm right here, Dad. I'm here. I'm safe. Don't worry, please. "
"He's dead! " His father continued, still not reacting to Alex. " He's dead and they'll do nothing! They'll lie, to save themselves, and then she'll die too. Jonathan! Where is Jonathan? He needs to go home, it's not safe! "
"What about Jack, dad? " Alex asked, his insides going cold. " Dad, did you have a vision? What did you see? "
"Bring him home, it's not safe. That man is arrogant and selfish and doesn't know what he's doing. He doesn't care what he's doing! He's going to get them all killed! My son. He's going to kill my son! "
"Dad, listen to me, please! I'm right here! "
Utkarsh didn't once acknowledge Alex had spoken. As he kept rambling Alex heard some voices in the background. He recognized one of them as his father's primary doctor, Gia Simmons.
"-doing here?" She was asking in a calm voice. "You need your rest, Mr. Joshi."
Utkarsh didn't pause to acknowledge her either, but Alex heard his voice getting more distant.
"Come one, let's get you back to your room," Dr. Simmons said, her voice faint too. Alex realized what she was doing too late.
"Dr. Simmons, wait!" He shouted, hoping she would hear him. But the line went dead before he could even finish. Alex listened to the dial tone for a minute before putting his phone back on its hook.
"Is... everything okay?" Matthew finally asked to break the silence. "Who was that?"
Alex stared at the landline for a second longer before turning his head to look at Matthew. He was wearing a soft and sympathetic expression that was making Alex want to break down and cry.
"No one you need to worry about," Alex whispered, brushing past him to get to his room. Matthew let him go without pressing, and at that moment, Alex felt grateful for that. Once he was in his room, with the door securely shut, Alex let himself fall to pieces. The barely held back tears started flowing; he leaned against the closet door and slid to the floor in a sobbing heap. His father's panicked voice played over and over in his head. With every word he recounted Alex's breathing got even more labored. He had never heard his father so genuinely terrified before. What was he talking about? Who was dead? Or going to die? Why did he mention Jack? Did he see something awful happen to his friend?
Did Utkarsh see Jack die?
Stop, AJ suddenly commanded, though even he sounded shaken. Theorizing about his visions will just drive you mad too.
Maybe I'll be better off going mad, Alex thought back. Because if he didn't focus on deciphering his father's words, all he had left to focus on was the heartbreak of his father not recognizing his voice. Alex had seen his father not recognize loads of people he should. His caretakers. His doctors. Even photographs of his parents or siblings. Sometimes Alex would mention Julia or Laurent or one of his other cousins, and he could tell it took his father a couple of seconds to remember who he was talking about. But even with all that, he had never forgotten Alex. He had not been brought back to the present by the sound of his voice. Until now.
Just as he thought he was on the brink of pulling himself back together, another wave of anguish rolled in and he let out a string of obnoxious sobs. He tried to quiet himself by covering his nose and mouth with his arm, but all that accomplished was decorating his shirt sleeve with snot. He brought it away for a second and noticed a shadow pass through the light that was sleeping under his door.
Matthew.
Alex watched his shadow as it lingered right outside the door for a couple of seconds. He had to hear Alex crying. Like he said, the walls were thin. Was he contemplating coming in? To do what? Question him? Console him? His shadow wobbled like Matthew was shifting his weight. Debating. Hesitating. Alex didn't know what he wanted Matthew to do. He watched his shadow and unintentionally held his breath. He didn't realize that's what he was doing until Matthew's shadow left, and Alex finally released it. By the time he heard Matthew's bedroom door open and close, he wasn't sure if he was still grateful for being left alone.
Alex tried to bring himself to a functional state long enough to get some of his assignments done. Time passed quickly until it didn't when the clock passed midnight and started creeping towards one o'clock. Would his father try to call again? Had Matthew thought to unplug the landline like he had the night before? Alex tried to put it out of his head. Tried to let his exhaustion carry him to what was bound to be a restless sleep. But his clock felt like it was taunting him, and AJ eventually joined in too.
Just forget about him, he said. It's one of the few things you're good at, after all. Just leave the crazy man alone with his crazy ramblings.
"No," Alex said as the clock blipped into 12:55. "Not anymore."
He dragged himself out of his bed and crept into the lounge. Matthew had unplugged the phone, so Alex put it back and then waited. He had his hand on the phone, ready to pull it off the second it made a sound. 12:55 turned into 56. 57. 58. 59.
At one o'clock, the phone barely got off a peep before Alex snatched it off the hook. He didn't say anything at first, just listened for signs of life. He heard nothing.
"Dad?" He said as loud as he dared. "Dad, are you there?"
No response. Alex let out a shaky breath to stop himself from crying again. "Dad, if you're there," he said to the silence, "if you can hear me... I'm coming home." He hadn't expected to say that when he opened his mouth, but as soon as he did, he knew he was making a real promise. "After classes today, I'll take the train out of Brighton. And I'll stay as long as you want me to. I'll ask Jack if he can come too. So, don't worry about us. Don't worry about me. I'll be safe, and we'll be together. Okay?"
There still wasn't any response on the other end, but Alex didn't care that he was the only one who heard his vow. He was going to keep it.
"I'll see you soon, dad," he said in Hindi. "I love you. "
Alex wasn't sure when the last time he told his dad that was. In any language. He had a feeling it was too long. He hung up before he could get his hopes up about hearing it back. Then he went off to his room to dig out his pamphlet on the Brighton train schedule.