Chapter 28: Incoming Call
Kai stared at his phone.
The ringtone continued echoing through the apartment.
A normal ringtone. A completely ordinary sound.
Which somehow made it worse.
Everything else tonight had been dramatic. The texts. The photos. The impossible timing. The mysterious messages from strangers who seemed to know things they shouldn’t.
This felt personal.
Because his phone wasn’t displaying a number.
It wasn’t displaying "Unknown Caller."
It wasn’t displaying a username.
The screen simply said:
Kai
His own name.
Calling him.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
The security camera feed remained on the television. The dark hallway outside his apartment stretched across the screen in grainy black and white. At the far end, the figure still stood there.
Watching.
Holding a phone.
Waiting.
The chat absolutely lost its mind.
DumpsterWizard:
THAT IS NOT HOW PHONES WORK
ChairViolence:
DECLINE YOURSELF
GoblinMortgage:
ANSWER IT
DO NOT ANSWER IT
ANSWER IT
Kai rubbed his face.
"I’m so tired."
The statement came out somewhere between a laugh and a cry.
The phone kept ringing.
His pulse hammered against his ribs.
The weird thing wasn’t the caller ID.
The weird thing was how badly he wanted to answer.
Curiosity had carried him through most of his career. Every bad decision, every rabbit hole, every stream idea that should’ve stayed inside his brain had started with the same thought:
I wonder what happens if I click this.
Tonight had simply weaponized that flaw.
"Kai."
Luna’s voice was soft.
Too soft.
The kind of voice people used around injured animals.
"Yeah?"
"Don’t answer it."
His eyes stayed fixed on the screen.
"That’s becoming your favorite sentence."
"I’m serious."
The reply came immediately.
No hesitation.
No humor.
Just concern.
Kai swallowed.
The ringtone continued.
The figure on the television remained motionless.
One hundred and forty thousand viewers watched him hesitate.
The attention felt physical now. Like thousands of people were standing behind him, waiting to see what he’d do. Waiting to see if he’d make the smart choice.
Unfortunately, Kai had never built a career on smart choices.
His thumb hovered over the screen.
Then stopped.
Something bothered him.
Something small.
Something wrong.
He leaned forward slightly.
The caller ID still displayed his name.
But underneath it—
His stomach dropped.
A second line of text had appeared.
Incoming call from Kai Mercer
The apartment suddenly felt colder.
That wasn’t how caller ID worked.
That wasn’t even how names were displayed.
The screen looked less like a phone call and more like somebody manually typing information into a form.
Like somebody was pretending to be him.
The realization made his skin crawl.
The phone stopped ringing.
Silence flooded the apartment.
Nobody breathed.
Then the television crackled.
The figure at the end of the hallway finally moved.
Not much.
Just enough.
They lifted the phone higher.
And Kai’s phone immediately began ringing again.
The exact same ringtone.
The exact same caller ID.
The exact same name.
"Kai."
Luna sounded different now.
More focused.
"What?"
"Look at the timestamp."
He frowned.
"The timestamp where?"
"On the security feed."
His gaze shifted toward the television.
The grainy numbers sat in the upper-right corner.
Hours.
Minutes.
Seconds.
Everything looked normal.
Then he noticed it.
The seconds weren’t moving.
The timestamp read:
2:47:11 AM
And remained there.
Frozen.
His pulse quickened.
The figure moved again.
The timestamp didn’t.
A chill crawled down his spine.
"That’s not live."
The realization escaped before he could stop it.
"No."
Luna sounded very certain.
"It isn’t."
The chat caught on instantly.
TaxFraudEnjoyer:
WAIT WHAT
RottenLasagna77:
THEN WHO TURNED IT ON
CertifiedFailure:
I PREFERRED THE OTHER THEORY
Kai stared at the screen.
If the feed wasn’t live, then somebody wanted him to think it was.
Which meant the figure might not even be there anymore.
Or worse.
The figure might be somewhere else.
His phone buzzed.
The ringing stopped.
A voicemail notification appeared.
Nobody spoke.
Not even chat.
Slowly, Kai tapped it.
The voicemail contained no caller information.
No number.
No duration.
Just a play button.
His finger hovered.
"Kai."
Luna again.
"I’m asking you not to."
He closed his eyes.
God.
Why did she always sound like that?
Not controlling.
Not demanding.
Just worried.
Genuinely worried.
It would’ve been easier if she sounded manipulative.
It would’ve been easier if she sounded crazy.
Instead she sounded like somebody who cared.
Which made ignoring her feel terrible.
His thumb lowered anyway.
The voicemail began playing.
Static filled the apartment.
Loud enough that chat immediately started complaining.
MicrowaveBandit:
MY EARS
GoblinMortgage:
WHY IS EVERY DEVICE POSSESSED
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Just static.
Then breathing.
Very faint.
Very slow.
Kai’s stomach tightened.
The breathing continued.
Then a voice spoke.
Not distorted.
Not robotic.
Not threatening.
Just normal.
A man’s voice.
Calm.
Tired.
Almost sad.
"You should’ve left earlier."
The voicemail ended.
The apartment fell silent.
Kai stared at his phone.
The words echoed in his head.
Not because they were scary.
Because they sounded sincere.
Like advice.
Like regret.
The chat moved slower now.
People were processing.
Trying to figure out whether they had just listened to a threat or a warning.
Kai wasn’t sure either.
Discord pinged.
MoonlightGarden.
Another message.
His pulse immediately spiked.
The message contained a single photograph.
Kai opened it.
Then froze.
The image showed his apartment building.
Taken from across the street.
Recent.
Very recent.
The windows matched.
The lighting matched.
Even the stream glow from his room was visible.
But that wasn’t what made his blood run cold.
At the bottom corner of the photo stood a person.
Looking upward.
Looking directly at his window.
Looking directly at him.
A second message appeared.
He’s not watching your apartment.
Kai frowned.
Then the third message arrived.
He’s watching you.
For a moment, the distinction didn’t make sense.
Then it did.
And he wished it hadn’t.
Because apartments stayed in one place.
People moved.
People traveled.
People streamed from different locations.
People left.
People changed routines.
Somebody watching an apartment was interested in a place.
Somebody watching a person...
was interested in them.
The realization settled heavily inside his chest.
The chat had gone unusually quiet.
Even Luna hadn’t spoken.
Kai looked toward Discord.
Her typing indicator appeared.
Vanished.
Appeared again.
Then finally a message arrived.
Not spoken aloud.
Not in the call.
A private message.
Only for him.
Kai, I think somebody has been following you for a very long time.
He stared at the words.
A knot formed in his stomach.
Because Luna wasn’t the type of person who panicked.
She wasn’t the type of person who guessed.
If she was worried...
There was probably a reason.
Before he could reply, another notification appeared.
Not a text.
Not Discord.
Not a donation.
A new device had connected to his apartment Wi-Fi.
Kai’s blood turned to ice.
Because the device name was visible.
And it read:
Bedroom Phone
