We all look at one another. What an awful, boastful message to send. It's not funny at all. I really hope that this 'HH' did not really kill a little boy and his parents just because he wanted to give us some fun?!

Jonni stuffs his phone back into his pocket. "Well...we have no choice anymore, Spence. Let's just call the number...can't get any worse, can it?"

I notice Tyler biting his lip, trying to hold back a response to him. I take it from his facial expression that things very well could get worse. We were just beginning after all and who knew when the hacker was going to release us or if he was even going to ever release us...and that was scaring me half to death. I knew I should have listened to my conscious and not really dared to take the challenge on.

"I'll..." I blurt suddenly blurt out, cutting the eerie silence. "I volunteer to call the number on the paper. And I swear Jonni Kokkonen, if you do not let me do this...I'll call the number from that pay phone down the street." I point in the direction, hopeful that they'd allow me to do it. After all, I feel the guilt crawling around my insides. It's because of me we are in this mess, because my ego blinded my conscious.

"That's actually not a bad idea...it'll be tougher to track and safer for sure, just in case," Tyler pipes up.

"Yeah, and you did start all of this madness, young man," Spencer half-scolds with a sharp nod of his head. "We'll all head to the payphone with you."

"What about all this?" Jonni inquiries, gesturing to the box and the contents around it.

"We'll call the cops and have them come and collect this evidence. Just in case. They can determine whether its a legit case to pursue or not. We can do that while Radim makes the call."

Jonni nods at him. "Sounds like a plan, Finnykins."

"Are we bringing it with us too? What if the 'HH' person comes and takes it?" Tyler questions.

Spencer turns to him. "Good point, Kats. I guess we'll call the cops first and then head to the payphone."

"I'll call 'em," Tyler comments, pulling his phone out. He proceeds to immediately type in the number 9-1-1 to his phone's keypad. He then puts his phone up to his ear, awaiting someone to pick up on the other end.

I watch him as he begins to pace back and forth, lifting his eyes up to the sky.

Finally, he appears to get through as he says, "Hi, my name is Tyler Katalin, I'm on the corner, outside the far south end of the War Memorial Arena. Someone sent us here to open a mystery box and inside we found some items that seem to belong to a young male kid. We're not sure..." He cuts off and lowers the phone from his ear with a puzzled look.

"Why'd you stop?" Spencer asks him, raising an eyebrow up.

Tyler, stunned and speechless, staring at his phone screen, replies with, "They hung up on me or it was just an animated set up response. Either way, I couldn't go on because the call dropped...now I'm freaking out."

"I wanna be back home in the REAL busy, noisy, warm Syracuse," Fabien whines, stomping his foot in irritation and pouting his lips. "I don't like this. You guys all know that I do NOT do horror or anything similar!"

"Fabs, please," Spencer says.

"Look, let's just go make the phone call. This isn't in our control anymore. We got all we needed from it. It's gotta obviously be fake," I remark, wanting to believe my own words as I say them. I begin to head for the crosswalk that leads across the road that runs parallel to the hockey arena.

Spencer sighs and motions the others to follow behind me. "He's right. Come on."

We cross the empty, silent road, heading away from the creepy box and the contents and head down the sidewalk on the other side of the street. We pass by the parking garage and a private lot, before reaching a bus stop.

Inside of the rectangular waiting bench for the bus, there is a small rectangular box with a public pay phone resting on its hook. There is a thick metallic wire that attaches to the box from the bottom of the phone. At the top of the object, it says the word, 'Phone'.

I step toward it and grab the phone, pulling it back, off the mounted receiver. I glance back to my four friends and then punch in the numbers of the phone number we were told to call on the paper to the keypad. Thankfully, we don't have to pay for calls past a certain time and in the mock world Syracuse. I then draw in a deep breath and put the phone up to my ear, hoping the number would work.

There are a few eerie old timer sounding rings that echo into my ears, before someone finally picks up and breathes into the phone on the other end. Then there is a silent pause, before a deep voice whispers out, "It is time. Dead Individuals." Then there is a click as the phone is hung up on the other end.

I hold the phone away from me and eye it with interest. Who the heck was that, for one? And for another, what was 'Dead Individuals'? Also, WHAT was time?

I finally turn my head to look at my friends as Spencer says, "Well...what did you hear?"

I shake my head, snapping from the puzzlement and hang the phone back up on the hook. "I...well..."

"Spit it out, Radimiekins," Jonni snarls, rubbing his hands together, gleefully. Great, his uncalled for excitement is back again.

"A voice just breathed into the phone and then whispered, 'It is time. Dead Individuals' and then just hung up," I tell him, sitting down on the bench. "I don't understand that." A chill trickles gradually down my spine.

"What if I look up the number...maybe it'll link us to the person and we can figure things out from there?" Tyler suggests.

"Just don't go to any weird websites," Fabien warns, putting his hands on Tyler's arms. "I don't want to lose you." His eyes shimmer with dreaminess and concern.

"Fabikins, space, bro," Jonni chuckles. "Katzykins will be perfectly okay."

Tyler pulls his phone back out, shaking Fabien off of him with a questioning, disgusted look. He pulls up the Safari app on his phone and types the number into the search engine. At once, the search results show a name attached to the phone number.

"This is NOT good," Tyler says, glancing up at them. "The number is attached to that infamous serial killer, Hannibal Hacker. He's been in the news a lot lately..."

Spencer gasps. "Are you serious?"

Tyler thrusts his phone out to show him. "Look for yourself, Cap."

Spencer blinks and shakes his head and then looks back at me. "What have you done...?"

I look down at my feet. "I thought it was harmless...I had no idea. Spence, I'm so sorry. We're in the mad game of this serial killer...with no escape and he'll play us until he's satisfied and then he'll kill us!"

"But what if we can outhwart him somehow? We can play along, but we have the edge in knowing now," Tyler says.

"What makes no sense, actually, is that in the news, they said nothing about Hannibal Hacker knowing anything about computers. The 'hacker' is relative to his murdering style and not so much his digital skills," Spencer points out.

"So, the computer hacking can't be linked to him, this is just a nice game twist scare for us," Jonni tacks on with a chuckle. "Nicely played, sir!" He starts to slowly clap in a sarcastic manner.

"Okay, so what about 'Dead Individuals'?" I inquire, folding my arms as I sit on the bench.

Spencer looks back at Tyler. "Maybe type that in and see what comes up, huh?"

Tyler nods and types the words into the search engine now. The app thinks before spewing out a few results, including one from a Reddit post thread. He taps on that to pull it up and reads out:

"I was just curiously scrolling around the web one day and came across a bizarre website called 'Dead Individuals'. This site, how I can only best describe it, deals with various people, who are shown in photos with a dead person beside them. It mentions the type of weapon that was used in the slaying, the stats of the killer involved, how many kills they've committed, masters in knife, guns, what have you. Disturbing crap. Like a strange bio site for serial killers and murderers."

I cock one eyebrow, looking at him. Thoughts race through my head. Why did this sick bastard whisper this website name?

"Okay, look," Spencer says. "The cops called Ty back and are gonna meet us at the curb where the box is. So I suggest we go there ASAP."