Amirah woke up at 3:00 AM when her phone alarm sounded. She sat on the edge of the bed, and tapped the home button on her phone, after which the screen’s bright light blinded her for a moment. Still half-asleep, head throbbing faintly, she saw the missed calls and scrolled to the call log: ‘Unknown Caller.’ Her eyes widened as she noticed the glowing voicemail icon: seventeen voicemails from a stranger.

For the past few weeks Amirah has been hard at work, with back-to-back company meetings for the new merger taking place in a matter of weeks. Some days she would stay late to get her presentation done before the next meeting. So much so, she didn’t have time for herself, her cat named Molly, or to clean. She’s been so busy that take out boxes began piling up.

The company merger was finished by the end of the week. And so, her best friend Victoria insisted that they should go out to celebrate at the new nightclub, and let loose. The thought of going out that very night after work seemed exhausting, but after Victoria begged and pleaded for her and Amirah to go out. And just like that Amirah gave into her demands and decided to go out and have fun. Because what’s the worst that could happen?

Later that evening, she took a shower and took out her night out sleek black dress with the slit going up a quarter way up her thigh. She straightened her hair and put on her best jewelry and her caramel vanilla scented perfume and slid on her five inch black heels. She walked over to the mirror to study her reflection and admired her figure. She then ordered the rideshare before texting Victoria. Admiring her reflection, she snapped a quick selfie and sent a photo to Victoria for a second opinion. “OMG!!! You look amazing, babe.” Victoria instantly replied. Amirah texted back, “Sure, I look ok?” Before the rideshare arrived. “Girl. Yes!” Just as the rideshare arrived she sent Victoria a text of her arrival time. Once she arrived outside the club Victoria ran to her and gave her hug and then grabbed her hand and headed inside. Standing at the bar deciding what to drink, Victoria ordered a round of celebratory drinks. After three shots, Victoria grabbed Amirah’s hand and dragged her out onto the dance floor, stumbling and laughing. Once on the floor Amirah began swaying to the loud music. As the music played Amirah closed her eyes and swayed her hips to the music and once the song ended she opened her eyes and realized that she lost sight of Victoria in the crowd. 

Confused, she stumbled towards the bar, as her balance began to fail and fell into someone and spilled their drink on the floor. “Oh my God! I am so, so sorry, here let me buy you another drink, please?” The man waved his hand brushing it off and said, “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” He smiled, “James.” With hazy eyes she noticed his light brown eyes and opened her mouth to speak, but she noticed that she wasn’t saying anything and then, “My name is…my name is…Amirah.” She reached out her hand to him and offered to buy him a new drink. They continued to converse until James took her by the hand and headed to the dance floor and danced until the end of the night. When the club closed around midnight, they walked together and stood in front of the club. She took out her phone and ordered a rideshare home. After which she decided that they should both exchange phone numbers and gave each other a hug and said that they will message each other later on, since she was ready to end the night and head home after having a fantastic time.

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 After remembering what she did before she woke up, she scrolled through the voicemails and noticed each message was around one minute long. She tapped the play button for the first voicemail. “You have 17 new voicemails..first voicemail.” said the automated system. As the first message played she thought something was wrong as she couldn’t hear a sound and tapped the volume up button on her phone and held it closer to her ear. Then she heard faint breathing for most of the message and right before the message ended the voice whispered, “Hello.” The sound of the mysterious voice sent chills down her spine and gave her goosebumps. Feeling uneasy, she deleted the first message. She sat staring at the phone trying to figure out if she knew the voice on the phone and hesitated on playing the next message. As the second message played, the breathing sounded heavier and then right before it ended the voice came through the speaker, “You looked pretty tonight.” This time the message made her skin crawl like insects covering her body. She sat the phone down and reached out to her night stand, hands shaking, and grabbed a glass of water and took a sip. She took a deep breath before playing the next message. And like the first two messages the next few messages also ended with an eerie message, such as “I want you, I need you, We could be together.” 

Afraid that the stranger could be the man she met at the club, she went to view the call log again and noticed that his number was saved as, “Dreamy eyes.” And then she heard a loud thud near her front door. She turned towards the sound and froze in place like a statue waiting to see if the sound was real or in her imagination. A few seconds later she found herself able to move again and headed towards her bedroom door, as she got closer to the door the sound ended as quickly as it began.

Frantic and afraid, her hands were shaking as she sent an S.O.S. text to Victoria. She then began pacing around the room, willing the reply from Victoria since she sent the message 5 minutes ago and she usually answers back pretty quickly. It’s now been 15 minutes and still no response. At that moment, she heard Molly at the door scratching and meowing, and so she opened the door to let her in. She slammed the door shut and turned the lock on the door, but then she heard the heavy breathing coming from the phone as it rested on her bed. Molly's paw happened to tap her phone. But something was different about this message. The heavy breathing grew excited, “Why didn’t you answer the door?” She turned her head towards the phone located on her bed. Her eyes widened in fear and her body shivered as she stood there. She then walked towards the bed. Suddenly, the loud thud started again, bang! Bang! A pause. And then the banging began to rapidly increase near her door. The loud thud, made her jump and let out a scream, “Who’s there! What do you want!” But no response came from the other side of the door. The cat hissed, and ran towards her cat post in the corner. Now trembling, she picked up the phone to see if Victoria had replied to her text. But to no avail she sent another frantic message and dialed 911. She held the phone to her ear and heard the dial tone. And then she heard the phone pick up, but no sound was coming through and then the 17th voicemail began….”I want you! Answer the door and let me in. Pretty please!” The voice begged. But when she looked at the time of the voicemail; the time read 1:15 AM and it was now 3:45 AM. Frightened, she threw her phone onto the floor. But quickly realized her mistake and picked up the phone. Tears began to run down her cheeks as she crawled onto her bed, with her knees to her chest under her blanket. She grabbed Molly to be next to her and stared at her phone once more, trying to figure why this was happening and why this stranger was torturing her. 

Her phone vibrated as a text was coming through on her phone. The message was from Dreamy Eyes, James. “Hey! I had a great time tonight. So are you free tomorrow for lunch? I wanted to see you’re up to getting coffee together.” For a moment, she felt relieved and cracked a half hearted smile in an attempt to calm her nerves. But at that moment–she heard heavy breathing again, not coming from her phone, but coming from behind her. She then felt the sting of the strangers breath behind her ear, as the strangers hand pressed against her shoulder. Her skin crawled and her hair stood on the back of her neck and the deep voice whispered, “You’re mine now.” And she screamed, but no one could hear her.