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❝ we have the ANSWER to
all your fears, it's short, it's
simple, it's CRYSTAL clear ! ❞

o children, nick cave &
the bad seeds.

A PHONE RINGING suddenly brought finney out of his thoughts. he turned around and gazed at the phone, now extremely confused.

jaelin saw him look at the phone with a puzzle look. she looked between him and the device before seeing him abruptly stand up and face the phone, backing away from it.

"finn? what is it?" she asked, standing up and standing to the side of him. he was breathing heavily as his eyes never left the phone.

jaelin put a hand on his shoulder and shook him, "finn, what's going on?"

he looked at her with furrowed brows, "you can't hear it?"

am i going crazy? he questioned himself.

"hear what? the phone?" she looked at the device and then back at him, "are you sure you're okay..?"

he didn't answer but instead walked towards the ringing phone. jaelin followed him but stood to the side, watching him pick up the receiver and put it to his ear.

finney kept his eyes on the wall whilst jaelin focused on him, having no idea why he picked up the broken phone.

he couldn't be hallucinating..right? if anything, i expected me to start hallucinating first.

"hello..?" finney spoke into the phone. when no one answered, he was about to put it back. however, suddenly he could hear a very faint static noise emit from the phone.

he brought it back up to his ear, "hello?"

there was no answer. he sighed and hanged it up. he turned to jaelin with a frown as she looked at him with raised brows.

"what was that about? what's going on, finn?" she asked, scanning his face to get some sort of hint.

he shook his head, "i..i thought i heard the phone ringing. actually, no. the phone did ring. i don't know how but it did. i swear i'm not crazy aylin."

jaelin looked straight into his eyes and sighed, "i believe you finn. just..tell me if you hear it again, okay? you got me freaked out right then."

he immediately relaxed, knowing jaelin believed him and didn't call him crazy. he nodded, "yeah, i will."

FINNEY AND JAELIN slept lightly for another hour or so after that. neither of them were fully asleep, but they weren't fully awake either.

the sound of creeks made the two teens peek their eyes open. finney was yet again met with the black phone on the wall. it was like it was taunting him.

"stop it." he whispered.

"stop what?" a voice replied unexpectedly. both jaelin and finney jumped in surprise. jaelin pushed herself so she was next to finney on the mattress, both trying to shuffle away from him.

the grabber was sat there with only the bottom half of his mask. he watched the two in amusement, seeing their frightened faces for a second.

the two teens shared a look before focusing back on him. "we're hungry. we need food." finney spoke.

"how are your eyes?" he ignored him.

"they hurt." finney replied sharply.

he then turned to jaelin, "how are your wrists?"

"shitty." she replied with the same tone as finney.

the grabber then put his hands together and made the top bit horizontal, putting them under his chin. he thought for a second before standing up, "well, i cant bring you guys anything to eat. you'll have to wait."

the two teens' eyes followed the grabber as he walked towards the door. "is there someone upstairs who will see you bring us food?" finney asked.

the grabber kept walking, "don't you worry about that."

jaelin scoffed, "if you weren't gonna feed us then why'd you even come down here?"

the grabber reached the door and put his hand on the handle. he turned around and looked directly at finney, "just to look at you. i just wanted to look at you."

he murmured something else before shutting the door behind him. jaelin grimaced at his words as finney backed away towards the wall, feeling both uncomfortable and scared.

the lights switched off and they heard the sound of the grabber locking the door. jaelin turned her head back to finney who kept his gaze on the door.

"what kinda fucking creep.." jaelin whispered more or less to herself. even though the grabber held her captive, she was sure he had a thing for teenage boys.

that made her sick to her stomach.

"YOU'RE GONNA SCARE the poor kid."

"so? we were all scared, and this motherfucker is the only one who can hear the rings. besides, there's nothing fun to do around here."

the baseball player sighed in annoyance. they were supposed to be helping, not scaring the kid off. they finally have a chance of communicating to the other side and one guy wants to fool around instead.

"are you seriously going to scare the only boy that can hear the phone?!"

"shut it, paperboy."

the boy scoffed and leaned against the wall. the two ghosts watched as he made the phone ring with an amused expression. paperboy nudged the baseball player, "counting on you to not scare finney after."

the curly haired boy made his way to make the phone ring when suddenly the baseball player spoke up again. "what would aylin think?" he called out.

the pinball player stopped in his tracks, but didn't make eye contact, "fuck you mean?"

"you know exactly what i mean. she's already stressed and scared. we've seen what she went through, and you're gonna scare the only person she has right now?"

silence engulfed the three ghosts for a moment. then, the pinball player made a 'tch' sound before continuing. living him would've never thought to bring stress and fear upon jaelin, but that wasn't him anymore, unfortunately. the grabber made sure of that.

the baseball player and paperboy watched the curly head with disappointment, hoping it wouldn't scare finney too much.

MEANWHILE, ON THE other side, finney heard the phone ringing again. he looked at it, then back at jaelin, "it's ringing."

she found it weird how he could hear it and not her, but nonetheless nodded, "go answer it."

finney walked over to the phone with jaelin trailing behind. she took her place beside him as normal, waiting to see if anything happens.

he picked up the phone and put it to his ear, "hello?...is somebody there? we need help.."

all he could hear was static. he was glad it wasn't pure silence. "hello..?" he asked again, hoping for whoever was calling to respond.

suddenly, a low voice emitted from the other side, "finney~"

he flinched, immediately hanging up the phone and backing away onto the floor, breathing heavily. he moved away until his back hit the wall opposite the phone.

jaelin's eyes widened as she quickly went to his side and crouched beside him, "finney what happened?! did someone answer?!"

finney steadied his breathing, "someone said my name.."

jaelin was taken back by the information. someone was on the other side- how is that possible, it's broken?!

"do you know who? did you recognise the voice?" she felt bad for bombarding him with questions, but who wouldn't? all of this was very supernatural.

finney abruptly got up again and walked towards the phone. she guessed it was probably ringing again so she got up and followed him towards the unusual device.

she watched him pick up and then hang up the phone. she couldn't blame him, if she heard constant ringing, she'd act the same way. though, the question still stands: why couldn't she hear it?

for finney, the ringing was now continuous. there was no break between each ring. the person calling must be desperate for him to answer because not only was it annoying, but it was very creepy.

he picked up the phone again, seeing jaelin lean against the wall beside the phone. however, this time instead of the creepy voice, it was another one.

"don't hang up."

finney stared blankly at the wall in front of him, "i won't. who is this?"

"i don't remember my name.."

he furrowed his brows, "why not?"

"it's the first thing you lose.."

"first thing you lose when?"

"you know when." the voice replied.

"..how do you know my name?" finney asked.

the baseball player couldn't tell him it was another ghost, because that would freak him out even more, so he just went along with it.

"we met once. your arm is mint. you almost had me."

finney let out a shaky breath and made eye contact with jaelin. she frowned, pushing herself off the wall in concern.

"..bruce? bruce yamada?"

ׅ𖥔 ۫ iloveblondead speaks ! ⋄ 𓍯

AHH THE PHONE CALLS
stop writing this will be so
upsetting .

also YAY we got vance,
bruce & billy featured in
this chapter😁😁 i love
writing in the ghost boys

i didn't write their names
bc i wanna stick to the fact
that they forgot them!!
bc i'm a genius like that😻

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