So we were all at Kaia’s house dressed up like Alice in Wonderland: I was Alice (of course), Kaia was the Cheshire Cat, Bella was the White Rabbit, and Carly was the Queen of Hearts.
We had just finished Scream, and then Kaia smirked. “Y’all know what time it is?”
“For what?” I asked.
“Oh no,” Carly said. “Two weeks ago, you said that and had that smile, and we ended up in a haunted corn maze, and Lilith dislocated her ankle,” Carly said, pointing to my brace.
“It’s fine,” I lied, trying to keep Kaia and Carly from fighting. Kaia may be a foot and a half taller than Carly and definitely meaner, but Carly could still mess her up.
“Oh, this is a lot safer… but Bella won’t like it,” Kaia said before laughing.
Bella shivered and pulled her knees up to the bangs of her wavy blonde hair. She’s the sweetest person I know but very naive, so I knew that if she wouldn’t like what we were doing, we were going to risk getting in serious trouble.
“Can’t we just keep watching scary movies?” Bella timidly asked. I raised my eyebrow. If Bella wanted more blood and gore, she definitely didn’t want whatever Kaia had planned.
Kaia stood tall, tucking her red hair behind her ear. “But that last horror movie is what inspired me! We’re going to prank call random people and give them a Halloween scare.”
I groaned. “That’s lame.”
“No, it’ll be fun!” Kaia said. “Besides, it’s my house and my phone, and it’s not like you can stop me.”
Carly and I looked at each other and sighed. “Fine,” Carly said. “Three calls, then we get back to movies.”
Kaia squealed loudly with delight. “Let’s start with that super dumb quarterback—what’s his name?”
“James,” Bella said quietly.
“Yeah, James. Anyone got his number?”
She looked straight at me because she knew I was a manager for football. I groaned. “Fine. But you aren’t calling from my phone.”
Kaia got out her phone and dialed the number from my contacts. I looked outside and saw a thunderstorm building. I shuddered—I hate thunder and lightning.
The phone rang for a bit before James answered. “Uh, hello? Who is this?”
Kaia smiled and put on a British accent. “’Ello, mate. I’m from the London City Police. You have been implicated in a grisly murder at the Café Le Cordon Bleu. Where were you on October 28th?”
James started laughing. “Yeah, right. Kaia, I know that’s you. That’s the worst fake accent I’ve ever heard. Hey, are Lilith and Bella with you?”
“Yeah,” I said in my flirtiest voice. “Carly’s here too. What are you boys doing tonight?”
Kaia groaned and hung up before he could respond as the rest of us laughed. “You’re right—this is fun,” Carly said.
“Maybe it’d work better if you called people you don’t know,” Bella said.
Kaia started smiling again. “What a great idea.” She then shoved her phone into Bella’s chest. “That’s such a good idea that you should make the next call.”
I thought that this would start another fight, but Carly encouraged her. “Yeah, do it.” And–more surprisingly–Bella smiled and started hitting random numbers.
Over the next hour, we called dozens of random people. Bella sweetly asked for people that weren’t there with funny names like Seymore Buttz and Amanda Huggenkiss. Carly pretended to be a telemarketer selling obscene and embarrassing products. I accused every bewildered caller of stealing my boyfriend (even the guys), but Kaia… she was on another level. She would say cruel things and pretend that she was going to murder the people on the other end of the phone.
It was Kaia’s turn when I took the pizza out of the oven and started serving slices to Bella and Carly. Kaia hushed us as she put the phone on speaker so we could all listen.
We expected the caller to answer with a hello, but instead, we heard a scream. I jumped as a bad feeling came over me.
“Who is this?” a scruffy voice asked.
“I know who you are,” Kaia said. “I’ve been watching you for weeks. I’ve been in your house—I know your secret.”
Kaia muffled a laugh as we heard a growl through the phone. “Oh, really?” Another scream, this one louder, punctuated the background. “We’ll see about that, little girl.” Then the line went dead.
Kaia started cackling as the rest of us were frozen in shock. “That was the best one! I think he actually believed I was stalking him.”
Carly shook her head. “No, that was too freaky.”
Kaia rolled her eyes. “What, the screaming? It’s Halloween. He was probably watching a scary movie.”
“Whatever,” Carly said. “But that’s the last one. Okay?”
Kaia sighed. “Fine.”
At 3 a.m., Kaia and I were the last ones awake. Bella dropped out at Pet Sematary, and Carly drifted off during Sleepaway Camp.
“I’m tapping out,” I said as the credits rolled. I grabbed my pillow and was about to close my eyes when I heard a phone buzz. I grunted. “Uh, is that my phone.”
Kaia yawned. “No, it’s mine.” She shuffled her blankets around like she was in slow motion. “Hey, help me find it.”
I crawled over and started patting down her bedding. “Who’s calling you this late?” I asked.
She finally traced her charger cord under her bed and found her phone. “Hello?” she groggily asked the phone.
“Remember me?”
I shot up, suddenly awake as if I had been splashed with cold water. Kaia, though, seemed unfazed.
“What? Wait—is this the guy I called earlier?”
“Yes,” the voice growled. “You did call me earlier, Kaia.”
Now Kaia was suddenly alert. “How do you know my name?”
The gruff voice made a hacking noise I guessed was a laugh. “I looked up your number online. You weren’t very hard to find. Phone number, address, Instagram… the internet is a wonderful thing, Red.” In the darkness, I could make out a single tear rolling down Kaia’s cheek. “You said that you were in my house? You were watching me? Well, now I’m watching you.”
Kaia gulped. “What?”
The voice laughed again. “I’m looking right at you. And your friend, who I’m guessing is… Lilith Barnes.” My jaw dropped when I heard my name. “Tell her I liked her Alice costume. The blonde in the green pajamas is clearly sweet little Bella Romero. I can’t really make out who’s in the corner, but I bet that’s Miss Carly Knight.”
I ran over to turn on the light. I flipped the switch, and nothing happened. I tried the lamp. Nada—the power had been cut.
“What—what do you want?” Kaia stammered as I ran over to Carly and shook her awake.
“You said you know my secrets. Secrets I really want to keep.”
“What’s going on?” Bella asked through a yawn as I woke her up.
“Get up! We need to get out of here,” I whispered.
“I don’t know anything!” Kaia cried. “I lied! It was a prank call—we were just having fun!”
The voice on the phone clicked his tongue. “That’s too bad. Even if you are telling the truth, I can’t risk my secrets getting out. Do you know what they say about secrets, Red?”
“Hang up,” Carly said. “Hang up and call the police.”
“W-what?” Kaia asked the voice.
“Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.”
Suddenly, every single one of our phones buzzed. I picked mine up and saw I was sent a text. I opened it and froze: it was a picture of a missing poster, the kind the police put out with an Amber Alert.
It had my name and photo.
I looked at Carly’s phone. She got a poster with her name on it. So did Bella. And Kaia? I didn’t get a chance to check before she went running out of the room.
Carly, Bella, and I chased after Kaia. She was in the kitchen grabbing four knives. “Here,” she said, handing us each one. Carly called the police, and until they arrived, we sat huddled together crying in Kaia’s kitchen pantry.
It’s been a month now. The police searched the entire house but found nothing. A search of the caller’s phone number came back empty. We all got lectured for prank calling people, but all four of us were fine with being grounded. We would be at home with our parents where it was safe. We couldn’t see what might be sent to our phones.
Carly thinks it was all a revenge prank—James or his buddies getting Kaia back. Bella has gone super conspiracy theory, connecting murders in the area stretching back to 1980 to what happened to us. Kaia doesn’t really say much anymore—she’s become completely withdrawn and jumps at the slightest noise.
And me? I don’t know what to think. What Carly says makes a lot of sense—after all, nothing has happened to any of us since Halloween night. But he said he saw us. He described who was in the room—what we were wearing. Ever since that night, I haven’t stopped looking over my shoulder everywhere I go, and I don’t think I ever will.
