Cell Phone

Cell Phone

A short story by Shawn Baxter









The two teenagers ran at full speed down the deserted street, with no intention of stopping. At a little past midnight, it was no surprise that the seemingly endless street was completely empty of life. The boys had been running side by side for the last half a mile, and the heavy bag at his shoulders made Ryan wince in pain with every stride he took. Ryan wasn’t nearly as athletic as his friend Jimmy, making keeping up with him more and more difficult. It seemed to Ryan like they had been running for days, when in reality it had only been 10 minutes since they shot at the boy’s house with a dozen or so paintballs.
Ryan and Jimmy lived in a small town where if someone knew a secret or said something about another person, everyone in the town new within 20 minutes. During school, it had gotten around that an upperclassman had a problem with Jimmy’s attitude. Jimmy had done what all 16 year olds guys do to prove they’re tough; talked about his mother, boasted about how much stronger he was then the upperclassman, and said that if the two fought he would win easily. Jimmy also had the bright idea to send a message to the upperclassman the only way he knew how, by decorating his house with a fresh coat of paint.
And so the two boys were running down the street, fleeing from the upperclassman, the police, or whoever might be chasing them due to the criminal act they had just taken part in. “Jimmy……..please……lets take a break already….nobody’s chasing us,” Ryan said taking sharp breathes. Jimmy seemed to agree, and slowed to a walk to catch his breath. The street had no lights, and the darkness was so overwhelming that to Ryan, Jimmy looked like a shadow in the middle of a black hole, barely recognizable in the shadow of the trees surrounding the street. “ Yeah, that’ll show that meathead that Jimmy Ames is more then just a sophomore loser” said Jimmy, almost as if he had envy for himself. Ryan agreed with a quiet mhm. Ryan always went along with what Jimmy said. He had never had many friends in his life, and Jimmy was the first real best friend he had ever had. To everyone else around him, Ryan was just Jimmy’s sidekick, and Ryan was completely fine with that. Ryan had no urge to paintball anyone’s house, and he had no problem with the upperclassman who’s house they just decorated. But Jimmy always came to Ryan first, and as long as Ryan went along with what Jimmy said and did, he knew he’d still be Jimmy’s sidekick.
“Hey man check out this new phone that I got,” Jimmy said, pulling a brand new, overly expensive cell phone out of his jean pocket. Ryan took it, careful not to drop it or break it and face an epic beating from Jimmy himself. “Pretty cool, is it the same number as your old phone?” Ryan asked. Ryan could just make out a low grunt and the faint shape of a head nodding in the darkness. They continued walking down the street, talking about what they were doing this weekend, what would happen if the police caught them, and if Jimmy really thought he could beat the upperclassman. “Hell yeah I can beat that guy, and I probably will if he makes me mad enough.” Ryan nodded and agreed with Jimmy, even though in his mind he was laughing at the mental image of the Incredible Hulk beating Jimmy all over the school. They were finally towards the end of the street that they had been walking for what had seemed like an eternity. As they turned the corner to the next street, a series of red and blue flashing lights came into view. The street was barricaded by a group of police cars, with at least 20 policemen shuffling about between the cars. “This can’t be because of what we did, right?” asked Ryan nervously, now regretting he had ever left his house on this Friday night. The police looked very busy and irritated to be doing a busy job at this hour. None of the policemen seemed to notice the two boys were standing there watching. “ Hey how about we go the opposite way,” said Ryan trying to convince Jimmy that staring at the police after they just shot paintballs at a house was not a bright idea. Jimmy seemed to agree as he turned around with a nod and prepared to break into a jog. “Hey you kids come over here,” screamed one of the policemen. Ryan and Jimmy looked at each other, sharing frightened and shocked looks with each other. “Come on Ryan; let’s get the hell out of here.” Jimmy broke into a full run towards the large patch of woods on the side of the street. Ryan hesitated, but like always gave into what Jimmy said. Ryan new he would never disobey what Jimmy said, but if he knew what would happen this night, he might have reconsidered. “No kids stay away from the woods, go anywhere but the woods,” screamed the policeman. There was a deep fear in the voice of the officer, but neither boy could hear as they ran deeper and deeper into the woods.


Ryan was in the same position for the second time on the same night. Trailing slowly behind Jimmy was not his favorite situation, be he pushed the overwhelming pain from his stomach to the back of his mind and continued to follow as fast as possible. After a ten minute run, Jimmy was satisfied with the distance between them and the police officers and decided to slow his pace. “well that was a close one, I thought we were caught for a second. That stupid jock must have called every cop in the county to come and get us, what a sissy,” Jimmy said laughing to himself, his ego getting larger with every second. “Yeah, Jimmy, I doubt all of those police were for just shooting paintballs at a house. It looked like there was something a lot more important going on around here.” As much as Ryan could try to reason with Jimmy, he knew from experience that none of it would get through to him, so he left it at this simple comment and continued to follow Jimmy on what seemed like a path through the woods. “I’ve been on this path tons of times, it comes out right near the back of my house,” Jimmy said confidently. Ryan hoped that Jimmy was telling the truth and that he knew where he was going, because the woods were one of the last places Ryan preferred to be around midnight. In his past, Ryan had decided to go exploring in the woods one day and got lost. He was in those woods for the entire night and was found by the police the next day. Since that incident Ryan always felt uncomfortable around the woods.
The path was a thin clearing between the immense trees of the woods. Tall ancient looking trees surrounded them, gnarled branches making haunting shapes in the overwhelming darkness of the night. Ryan could never have done this if Jimmy wasn’t with him, and even with him right at his side, he still had the impulse to run back the other way before they got any deeper into the thick woods. The surrounding area seemed to be completely lifeless, there was not a sound made besides the thick breathing and the heavy footsteps of the two teenagers making their way through the woods. “Don’t you find this a little creepy? I mean I know it’s dark and I know we’re making a lot of noise but there is nothing else living in this forest right now,” said Ryan, getting more and more worried with each passing second. “Why don’t you just suck it up for a minute ok Ryan? Jesus your always crying and moaning about something, why did you come then? Just don’t bother next time. I mean what would make you feel better, monkeys swinging through the trees? Animals sleep too so instead of whining again lets just keep walking until we get out of these woods and back to my house.” Jimmy was never very compassionate and was known to have a short temper, but Ryan was a little taken aback by what Jimmy just said to him. Jimmy had snapped at him before but never with that much intensity. Maybe, Ryan thought, Jimmy was just as afraid as Ryan was. Maybe Ryan’s thoughts were making Jimmy uncomfortable because they were true. Either way Ryan and Jimmy agreed on one thing, they should just be quiet and get the hell out of these woods as fast as possible. The pace started to quicken and the comfort started to wane.
The boys trudged along on the path for a few minutes without incident. Ryan was starting to become more and more comfortable as the minutes dragged on, getting used to the silence and the peace that had settled on the wooded area. A million things were racing through his mind as they walked without saying a word to each other. “Where does this path really go? How much longer are we going to be in these woods? What were all those policemen doing on the street? Were they looking for us because of what we did? Ryan had just started thinking deeply into all of these questions when he heard the first sound he had heard all night in these woods. Instantly Ryan stopped in his tracks, to terrified to continue walking along side Jimmy. Jimmy noticed that he was walking alone after he walked a few feet, and he turned to see what the hold-up was. “Why are you just standing there? Come on we have to get to my house, then we can rest. What are you scared or something?” The truth was Ryan was scared. He wasn’t scared of how sudden the noise came, or how loud the sound was. The truth was it wasn’t very loud at all, apparently only loud enough for Ryan himself to hear. He was scared about what the noise had said. He didn’t hear an owl hooting, or a toad croaking. He heard a human voice whisper very softly so that only Ryan would hear,” You kids better run.” All at once, memories of horror movies flooded his mind like a tidal wave. There were countless movies made of campers near the woods who were hunted down and axe-murdered one by one. Ryan came to his senses and looked at Jimmy. Now even he was looking worried and a little afraid. “Maybe it was all in my mind,” thought Ryan. ”No reason to tell Jimmy and get him freaked out, lets just get out of here as soon as we can.” Ryan took a moment to clear his throat and become calm again. “Sorry Jimmy. Cramp in my leg. Nothing big lets just get out of here.” Jimmy looked aggravated from the way he rolled his eyes, but agreed with Ryan and continued to walk along the path. Ryan jogged slowly and caught up with him, trying to push what he thought he heard out of his mind. “It was all my imagination,” Ryan concluded. As hard as he tried to push what he heard out of his mind, it was all he could think of as he walked alongside Jimmy.
The two continued to walk for another five minutes with no incident. Ryan was now certain that what he had heard was just his mind playing tricks on him and that he and Jimmy were the only two people in the forest. Jimmy wasn’t talking at all ever since Ryan thought he had heard someone in the forest, which Ryan thought meant that Jimmy was also uncomfortable about the situation they were in. Ryan looked around the forest they had been trudging through for the past half hour, staring at the surrounding trees. It looked stunning at night, eerie yet peaceful at the same time. There was barely any wind to blow through the trees, and there was no animal sounds to be heard.
Soon they came to a very small clearing with an ancient looking tree in the middle. Ryan stared at it, thinking to himself that the tree looked as if it had been around since the dawn of time. It was tall, taller then any other tree in the woods they were traveling in. It looked as if the eons of time the tree had seen had made it hard and resilient to nature itself. It had many large branches jetting out from the trunk. Ryan noticed that Jimmy had also taken an interest in the tree, thinking deep thoughts just as Ryan was.
Ryan was jolted back to reality as a sound could be heard in the forest, breaking the silence that Ryan had finally become comfortable with. He wheeled around on his heels, his reflexes kicking in, and stared out into the forest all around them. He glanced at Jimmy, seeing that he too had the fear on his face that Ryan felt this entire night. He listend intently for the sound that he couldn't even place. Then suddenly, the sound filled Ryan's ears, which in turn sent chills down through every part of his body. Laughter. The sound of laughter coming from the forest. The laughter of something that did not come from a joke, or from the thought of a past event that a person had experienced, but the twisted and sick howling of a person who didn't sound like a friend.
Ryan dashed out of the clearing as fast as his legs would carry him. He heard Jimmy following close behind. Ryan had never experienced fear like he had just experienced, and he never wanted to return to the woods again. Within two minutes they had exited the forest and finally stopped to aknowledge each other. "What the hell was that?" asked Ryan."You heard that didn't you?" Jimmy replied "Yeah. This is just way to much Im just going to call my mom for a ride home."Jimmy felt in his pockets, moving from the right side to the left side. Suddenly a shocked expression appeared over Jimmy's face. " Oh shit. I must have dropped the phone near that tree when we ran off. We have to go back and get it or my mom will kill me."Ryan immediately refused, not wanting to go back into the forest for anything. "Come on Ry, it was just our immagination, lets just go get the phone and get out and then we never have to come back again." Ryan finally gave in, and the two jogged back to the clearing and the tree they had just been so eager to get away from. Ryan was completely alert.
Jimmy was on his hands and knees, looking for the phone as quickly as possible. "Come on where is it. Im sure I dropped it right over here," said Jimmy."Why don't you just call it then? Here."Ryan tossed his phone to Jimmy, who dialed his numbers and pressed the call button. Ryan and Jimmy froze instantly, chills running up their spines. It couldn't be they, they both thought. Ryan looked at Jimmy, then looked to where the ringing was coming from. Ryan slowly looked up at the tree branches high above them. There was the phone, in the hands of a person. The blue screen illuminated the man's features. A look of pure insanity was on his face, his long greesy hair waving slowly back and forth. Scars masked his face sporadically, but the look in his eyes was the most disturbing feature of all. The look of a man who had gone mad searching for something, and who had finally found what he was questing for after all this time. The man dropped the cellphone to the ground with a thud, while Ryan and Jimmy stood there in disbelief. The man stood on the treelimb, and pulled out a sharp object from his pants pocket. Te last thing Ryan and Jimmy saw was the image of the man jumping from the tree to the ground, knife in hand.



The chief of police was approached by an officer. "Im sorry sir. We searched and searched for the patient but we just can't find him in the dark like this. We'll have to wait until morning to find him." The chief of police nodded in agreement and walked back to his cruiser, hoping that the two boys he had seen running into the woods had not encountered John Pike, the mental patient that had escaped that night looking for one more kill before he died alone in the institution.




THE END