Wrong number?

Juliet stared at the curser on the screen. It was in the text box where it had been for the last 30 minutes while she sat there, dumbfounded. She tried to will her fingers to move, but she couldn’t overcome the icy cold she felt in her whole body. The taste and smell of bile in her throat and nose from where she’d barely kept down the contents of her stomach. She was staring at the screen. The phone number was right, as was the profile picture and the way the person typed. It was exactly like her friend, Maxine. But that was impossible because Maxine had been dead for 6 months.
The text read:
“Oi, slut, happy 20th birthday, hope you have a great time. OLC.”
It was the OLC sign off that had chilled her. Maxine and Juliet had been the only two members of the old lady’s club or OLC. So called because they had both been gifted names, they considered to be those of ladies far older than themselves. The sign off had been their secret and they had told no one else about it.
In the 30 minutes since the notification had come through on her phone. She’d opened WhatsApp on reflex and almost replied, before she’d actually read the message. The chain of messages leading up to the latest was as Juliet remembered it. The usual faux insults, talk of boys, university and more memes than was probably healthy.
Juliet didn’t know much about her friend’s death. They’d been talking as usual on their regular Friday coffee date. They’d said goodbye, gone home and, as far as Juliet knew, slept. The next day, she’d had a visit from a police officer who told her that her friend had been found dead in her bead. No signs of any struggles or self-harm. The coroner’s report had shown no alcohol or overdose, no underlying illness. If anything, she was a picture of perfect health, aside from being dead.
“Thanks, but who is this?” Juliet managed to type
“It’s Maxine, silly. It’s only been 6 months, you can’t have forgotten me yet? OLC”
Juliet’s heart was in her throat, but she’d got the momentum now and she knew if she stopped talking, she wouldn’t start again.
“No, but you can’t be her, she’s…” She paused not able to say dead “… Not here anymore”
“Oh, but I am here. Part of the deal was me and someone I couldn’t live without. I’ve chosen you! OLC”
“What do you mean you’ve chosen me!? What deal!?”
“Oh, that doesn’t matter. All will be revealed soon enough. But you have one chance to survive. Answer my question, in three tries or less and you get to live. OLC”
Juliet was shaking, and she didn’t know with what. Fear and anger were fighting for top spot and it was making thinking hard.
“Look, I don’t know who you are, or how you got Maxine’s phone. But if you don’t stop I’ll call the police.”
“If you call the police, you’ll be dead before they get here. You either play and maybe live or don’t and die at midnight. OLC”
Juliet was crying now. She didn’t want to make whoever it was using Maxine’s phone angry. So she decided to try to stall for time.
“Fine, I’ll play.”
“Good, I hoped you would. All you need to do is answer one question. Where am I? You have three guesses. Pick wisely. OLC”
“Well, Maxine is, well, gone. Heaven?”
“Wrong. That’s one guess gone, but you can have a hint. It’s a physical place. OLC”
“Erm, Maxine’s ashes are still at her parent’s house. So there?”
“Wrong. One guess remaining. OLC”
“Her body was taken to St. Benedict’s hospital, there?”
“Wrong. OLC”
That last message was followed by a picture that almost stopped Juliet’s hear there and then. The picture was a smiling Maxine, looking exactly as she did when Juliet last saw her. Down to the t shirt she was wearing that she’d bought earlier that day, outside her house. She could see the tv in her room through the window in the picture.
The picture had been taken then. Right now.
Juliet screamed and threw the phone away from her, not caring where it went and ran, shaking to the window. She looked out to see a full moon illuminating the otherwise dark street. It was after 11 pm and the lights had been turned off on some green initiative by the local council. There was no one out there.
There were, however, two dents in the shape of footprints on the grass where Juliet thought the picture was taken.
Her TV screamed behind her. It was a scream so ear shattering that there’s no way anything living could have made it. It sounded like compete and certain demise made sonic.
The TV static disappeared and was replaced with what looked like CCTV footage. It was of a crossroads in a forest. It wasn’t anywhere Juliet recognised. But she did recognise the person standing there, chanting. It was Maxine. She was walking in a deliberate circle, chanting in time with her steps. Juliet didn’t recognise the language. She collapsed into her chair, unable to look away or stand any longer.
The TV Maxine suddenly stopped and turned to a figure that Juliet could swear just materialised out of thin air in the middle of the crossroads. That was, of course, impossible. Juliet must have just missed him walking on. But she wasn’t sure how as the crossroads were front and centre of the video.
The figure was well dressed in a Victorian era three-piece suit, complete with cane, top hat and pocket watch and chain. The figures eyes were hidden behind dark, circular spectacles and the smile seemed to be too wide for the face, with too many teeth.
“Hello dear, you seem a little … lost.”
The voice was that of a male, but oddly high pitched and it didn’t seem to come from the figure. More around the general area of him.
“No, I’m here of my own free will. I’ve summoned you wi…”
“You, little girl, are playing with forces that have defied the explanation of mankind’s greatest minds for centuries. I am not a toy nor a pet for summoning. Choose your next words VERY carefully” The figure spat.
“I, I’m sorry. I just. My Dad’s ill, and I heard you could help. They’ve said he’s terminal. I don’t know what else to do, I can’t live without him.” Maxine started heaving and crying as she fell to her knees in front of the figure.
“Yes, I know his condition. It’s his time. Changing things like that have consequences that reach far and wide. Are you willing to accept them?”
“Yes.”
“But, little girl, you don’t know what my terms are. And they are… Steep.”
“I don’t care, I can’t lose my Dad. I’ll do anything”
“Then we have a deal, shake?”
She took the figures hand and at that instant the figure pulled her in close and whispered, yet was somehow still heard clearly by Juliet.
“The price is your life and that of your dearest friend. This is binding and I will collect. You have a year and a day from now. Your friend has 6 months more.”
The screen went black.
An eternity that was condensed into a few seconds passed.
Juliet was in shock. She couldn’t believe what she’d just seen.
Then the face appeared on the screen. The face of the figure, bespectacled eyes somehow looking into Juliet.
She screamed and ran out of her room, only to run back into her room. She looked around and the corridor was right there. She tried again and somehow ran back into her room. Only this time something was different.
The figure stood there, smile too wide, teeth too numerous and Maxine knelt in front of him, head bowed.
“Hello, dear. You have no idea how hard this one fought to get you out of our little bargain. She almost succeeded too. Not many people get the chance at a question. Fewer get it right. Alas, you are mine now.”
“No.” Juliet started to say. She got as far as the “N…” before a wave of the hand of the figure cut her off.
“You’re lucky you have a friend like this one. She’s been particularly good to me in an effort to help you. I reward my subjects. This one’s reward is that you get to die peacefully.”
Another casual wave and Juliet was in her bed.
The last thing she ever saw, were a pair of dark spectacles, and a smile that was too wide, with too many teeth.