Cell Phones Off - part two
A Boston Public / Ring Crossover
By Monica Edwards
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"Why would you keep that a secret?" Guber said closing the folder. There was nothing in there that could help them with this now.
"Well, there is this thing that goes with the tape: a legend of Samara Morgan. Supposedly she's the girl who is killing everyone. And well, at this time I didn't think it would be wonderful for people to know that I am a descendant of the Morgan family." Sam replied still not making eye contact with either of them. Guber looked at Ronnie to see if she had any opinion on this.
"Well, do you know anything about this Samara that was in your family?" Ronnie asked taking a seat next to Sam.
"I know that she died. And I know about the ranch of my great aunt Anna, and how the horses all died. I know that there is a curse on the family. I know there is a tradition to name all the daughters Samara, in hopes that the memory of her will be carried on and the tapes will stop."
"Really? Do you think I'm buying any of this, Ms. Morgan? Now tell me how you got all the phones to ring!"
"I didn't get all the phones to ring. They did that by themselves! Why would I do that? I'm just as creeped out as the rest of the school!" Sam defended. She looked over at Ronnie, hoping that someone might see that she was innocent in all of this.
"I don't think she had anything to do with this, Scott. She's obviously just as scared as you and I are," Ronnie said as she put a hand on Sam's arm. She didn't know why or how, but Sam was very cold to the touch. Almost as if she were dead. She wanted to pull her hand away but she certainly didn't want to offend the scared girl.
"I'm not scared. I didn't see the tape," Scott replied with a very smug look on his face. Sam clenched her teeth and looked at his desk: as she did this his phone began to ring on all lines, every single one of them lighting up for his attention. Not noticing the icy stare that Sam was giving him he picked up the phone.
"Office of Scott Guber."
"Seven days..." A voice rasped. Scott rolled his eyes and hung up the phone. It rang again, the buttons continuing to flash wildly. He took another deep breath and picked up the phone again.
"Office of Scott Guber."
"Seven days," the voice rasped again. He had to admit he was getting a little spooked, but he hadn't seen the tape so this had to be a prank. He slammed the phone back down and pulled the phone jack from it.
"There! Your prank has been foiled."
"There is no prank! How do you think I can call you if I am sitting right here looking at you?" Sam said, her icy look turned up to look him in the eye. "This isn't a joke! You have to take the curse seriously and listen to me. If--"
"I don't want to hear it! Ronnie get her out of my office," Guber said with out a second thought to the terrified young woman who sat across from his desk. Ronnie gently helped Sam from her chair and walked her to the door slowly. Sam was visibly angry that Scott wasn't listening to her. Before she left the room she turned and glanced at the phone...and it began to ring.
Before Ronnie could even see Scott's reaction to the unplugged phone ringing she ushered Sam out of there.
"Tell me, what do we have to do to save everyone in this school? Assuming the video is real," Ronnie said, feeling like there was a little more to this then Sam was letting on. Sam sighed and started to walk away from Ronnie, down the hallways of the empty school.
"SAM!"
"It's people like him--people who don't care! Until I get an apology, everyone will suffer!" she yelled. Her voice echoed in the hall, and a chill ran through Ronnie's body.
"She just wants to be heard!"
Ronnie suddenly felt alone and scared, like she was trapped in a dark place and no one was going to find her. She backed into the wall and slid down as she brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She closed her eyes to see if that would make a difference...but instead when she opened them she was enclosed in a well.
The water was waist deep. She panicked, trying to claw and scream, doing anything she could to get help. The nail of her index finger snagged on something, probably a jagged part of the wall, and ripped off. But the adrenaline rush was high and she didn't even notice the pain. The smell was horrible--it invaded her nostrils. She could only see a ring of light above her head when she glanced to the sky. Then someone was shaking her.
"Ronnie? Ronnie?" It was Zach. He was crouched by her and his hands were on her shoulders. When she opened her eyes and saw Zach she was so happy. She embraced him quickly.
"You're all wet. What happened here?"
"I don't know. One moment I was fine, and then all of a sudden I was trapped and..."
"It was probably an anxiety attack. With everything that's happening around here everyone is prone to one of those." He stroked her cheek and then noticed something warm slowly oozing its way down the back of his shirt. He moved Ronnie's hand to see if he could figure out what it was and saw that her fingernail had been completely ripped off.
"How the hell did you do that?" Ronnie moved her hand and looked to see blood running down her arm. There was so much of it.
"I...in the dream I..."
"It's not possible to lose your fingernail in a dream, Ronnie.You're just scared--let's get you out of here. You probably slammed it in a door or something," Zach reassured her. He didn't know how to explain why she didn't remember slamming it in a door, but it seemed to calm her down for the moment. Ronnie began to frantically look for her fingernail, almost as if it was some way to prove that imagery and cursed videotapes didn't exist. When she finally did stand up there was no fingernail on the floor.
All that was left was a puddle of water approximately the size of the well in her dream.
END OF PART TWO
