🎬 Season 1, Episode 7 - "The Call That Changed Everything"

 "In Love with an Occultist"

The fading light of the evening filtered through the tinted windows as I stirred awake in the car, the driver was patient enough to wait for me to wake up. I paid him off. My heart was racing. The dream still lingered at the edge of my mind, wrapping around me like invisible vines. The mark I thought I saw on my hand had vanished but I wasn’t entirely convinced it had ever been a dream in the first place.

Just as I leaned forward to start the car and head home, my phone rang.

The number was foreign unknown, long, and unusual. I stared at it for a moment, debating whether to answer.
Curiosity won.

"Hi sweedy, I missed you."
The voice was unmistakable.

Axel.

My chest tightened. So many thoughts flooded my mind at once his disappearance, the dream, the mystery surrounding him... and now this casual, almost playful tone.

"I had to rush into an emergency business trip, so I couldn’t hit you up," he continued.

I scoffed, half in disbelief.
“For Christ’s sake, it’s been two days, Axel. You disappeared without a word. I went to your house, I even tried to see your parents. Nobody knew where you were. And now you're here, ‘sweedying’ me like nothing happened?”

There was silence on the other end for a second. Then came a soft laugh.

"Come on, it was impromptu. Never intentional. You know I wouldn’t leave you like that."

His voice was calm… too calm.
It disarmed me.

Despite everything I’d been through, the mental chaos, the nightmares, the unanswered questions, his voice made me sober. I didn’t want it to, but it did. For a second, I forgot the horror of the dream, the glowing red eyes, the snake coiled around his neck.

"What do you want me to get for you when I return?" he asked gently.

I didn’t know what to say.

I swallowed hard and tried to compose myself. “Just… let me know when you’re back.”

"Haha, we’re already sounding like a couple,” he teased.
"I don’t remember us dating, yet you went looking for me.”

There it was that flirtatious confidence that annoyed and charmed me all at once.

I snapped back.
“I don’t remember us dating either. So why do call me ‘sweedy.’”

But he only laughed again, this time more softly.

"I told you I loved you from the moment we met. I think you feel the same... or you wouldn’t have come looking for me."

My chest tightened. His words burrowed into me, unsettling in a way I couldn't explain.
Was he right?

I stayed quiet.

Finally, I broke the silence.
“Have a safe trip back.”

"Always. I’ll see you soon."

The line went dead.

I stared at the screen for a long moment, the soft glow of the phone illuminating my face in the now-dark car.

Something about Axel’s return felt too calculated. Too timely.
And his voice soothing as it was felt like a spell.

Was he watching me?

Was the dream just a warning? Or… something more?

I headed back home again with more questions than answers.

But one thing was certain

Axel wasn’t just a man I met at a beach party.

And I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be free of him again.

To be continued...
©2024