THE SCATTERED VOW
His words suddenly dissolved into a harsh, metallic screech of electronic feedback, a sound so piercing and violent it felt like a physical blow to my eardrums.
"Marcus please Can you hear me? Marcus!" I gripped the phone tighter, my knuckles turning bone.white, every muscle in my body locking up as a suffocating wave of dread paralyzed me from the inside out.
The frantic keystrokes on his end abruptly ceased, replaced by a heavy, unnatural silence. It wasn't the silence of a dropped call or a severed connection, it was a breathing, listening stillness, heavy with malicious intent.
Then, the line clicked.