The Call
1437 Words
Chapter 6: The Call
Zara stared at the phone in her hand long after the call had ended.
I know where you are.
Five words.
Only five.
Yet they had managed to tear through years of carefully constructed peace.
Her breathing became shallow.
She looked around her office.
People were moving through the hallway. Phones were ringing. Someone was laughing in the next room. A printer hummed somewhere behind her.
Everything looked normal.
But Zara didn't feel normal.
She felt as though the past had reached through the walls and grabbed her by the throat.
She quickly locked her phone and placed it face down on the desk.
No.
It couldn't be.
Maybe it was a wrong number.
Maybe someone was playing a cruel joke.
Maybe—
Her phone vibrated again.
Zara jumped.
She stared at it.
It was a message from Kai.
Kai: Still happening tonight?
She closed her eyes.
Dinner.
She had almost forgotten.
Before the call, she had been looking forward to seeing him.
Now the thought of sitting across from him made her stomach twist.
She couldn't tell him.
Not yet.
Perhaps never.
Zara picked up the phone and typed.
Zara: I'm sorry. Something came up.
She stared at the message before sending it.
A few seconds later, Kai replied.
Kai: Are you okay?
She swallowed.
Zara: Yes.
The response came almost immediately.
Kai: You don't sound okay.
Zara's fingers froze.
How did he always know?
Zara: I'm just tired.
There was a pause.
Then:
Kai: I'll come to you.
Zara's heart jumped.
Zara: No.
She deleted it.
Typed again.
Zara: Please don't.
She sent it.
Kai didn't reply immediately.
When his response finally came, it was short.
Kai: Okay.
Zara stared at that single word.
She hated herself for hurting him.
But she couldn't let him get closer.
Not now.
Not when someone from her past had found her.
She put the phone away and tried to return to work.
She couldn't concentrate.
Every few minutes, she looked toward the door.
She half expected someone to walk through it.
Someone carrying the face of a memory she had tried to forget.
By the time she left work, the sky had darkened.
Zara walked quickly toward her car.
She looked over her shoulder twice before unlocking it.
Nothing.
No one.
She got inside and locked the doors immediately.
Her hands remained on the steering wheel.
She didn't start the engine.
Instead, she sat there in silence.
A tear rolled down her cheek.
“Why now?”
Her voice broke.
“Why?”
She wiped the tear away angrily.
She had promised herself she would never cry over the past again.
She had promised herself she was done being that frightened girl.
But promises were easy to make when the past stayed buried.
Now it was awake.
And it was looking for her.
Kai sat alone in his apartment that evening.
He looked at his phone again.
No new messages from Zara.
He had spent the entire afternoon trying to convince himself that her sudden cancellation meant nothing.
But something was wrong.
He knew it.
Zara had been different since yesterday.
She had been distant before, but there was a difference between being guarded and being afraid.
Yesterday, when he had asked about her past, he had seen something in her eyes.
Fear.
Real fear.
And now she was avoiding him.
Kai stood and walked toward the window.
The city stretched beneath him, bright and restless.
He wondered what Zara was hiding.
Then he remembered his own past.
For a moment, his expression hardened.
There were things he hadn't told Zara either.
Things he had never told anyone.
Perhaps he had no right to expect her to reveal her secrets when he was carrying secrets of his own.
His phone rang.
Kai looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then a man's voice.
“Kai.”
His expression changed.
“Who is this?”
“You really don't remember me?”
Kai's jaw tightened.
“I don't have time for games.”
“You should make time.”
The call ended.
Kai stared at the phone.
A cold feeling settled in his chest.
That voice.
He knew it.
He hadn't heard it in years.
But he remembered.
And suddenly, Zara's strange behavior didn't seem like a coincidence anymore.
That night, Zara barely slept.
Every sound outside her apartment made her sit up.
A car stopping.
Footsteps in the hallway.
The elevator opening.
She eventually turned on the bedside lamp and sat upright.
Her phone lay beside her.
She picked it up.
There were no messages from Kai.
She felt strangely disappointed.
She had asked him to stay away.
He was respecting her wishes.
So why did it hurt?
She opened their conversation.
Her thumb hovered over his name.
She typed:
I'm sorry.
Then deleted it.
She typed:
Can I see you tomorrow?
Deleted.
Finally, she put the phone down.
She couldn't pull Kai into this.
She couldn't allow him to become another casualty of her past.
Zara got out of bed and walked to the window.
She pulled the curtain back slightly.
The street below was almost empty.
Then she saw it.
A black car parked across the road.
Her heart stopped.
The car hadn't been there earlier.
She stared at it.
The windows were dark.
She couldn't see the driver.
Zara stepped away from the window.
Her phone vibrated.
She nearly dropped it.
A message.
Unknown number.
Unknown: You shouldn't have come here.
Zara's blood ran cold.
She looked toward the window again.
The black car was still there.
Another message appeared.
Unknown: You can't run forever.
Her hand began shaking.
She backed away from the window.
Then she heard a sound from outside her apartment.
A faint knock.
Zara froze.
Knock.
Knock.
Her heart pounded.
She didn't move.
Another knock.
“Zara?”
She recognized the voice.
Kai.
She rushed to the door but stopped before opening it.
“How did you know I was here?”
“I called you. You didn't answer.”
She looked at the phone.
There were three missed calls from him.
“Kai, you need to leave.”
“Why?”
“Please.”
“Zara, open the door.”
She pressed her forehead against the door.
“You shouldn't be here.”
His voice softened.
“Something happened.”
“What?”
“I received a strange call tonight.”
Zara's eyes widened.
“What did they say?”
There was silence.
Then Kai answered.
“They knew my name.”
Zara closed her eyes.
It was happening.
The two worlds she had fought so hard to keep separate were beginning to collide.
“Kai…”
“Zara, what are you hiding?”
She couldn't answer.
“Please,” he said. “Whatever it is, tell me.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
She wanted to.
God, she wanted to.
But fear held her silent.
Finally, she whispered through the door.
“If you care about me…”
Kai waited.
“Stay away from me.”
Silence.
She could almost feel his hurt on the other side.
“Is that what you really want?”
Zara's lips trembled.
“No.”
She closed her eyes.
“But it's what I need.”
Kai didn't answer.
After several seconds, she heard his footsteps moving away.
Zara opened the door slightly.
The hallway was empty.
She stepped outside.
“Kai?”
Nothing.
She looked toward the elevator.
The doors were already closing.
She stood there, tears falling freely now.
She had pushed him away.
Exactly as she had promised herself she would.
But for the first time, Zara realized something she had been refusing to admit.
Running from her past was one thing.
Running from Kai was another.
And she wasn't sure she had the strength to do both.
She returned to her apartment and locked the door.
Then she walked to the window.
The black car was gone.
But on the pavement beneath her window, something had been left behind.
A small envelope.
Zara's heart stopped.
She knew before she opened it that whatever was inside would change everything.
She walked downstairs.
Picked up the envelope.
And saw her name written across the front.
ZARA.
Her hands trembled as she opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
A photograph from years ago.
A photograph she had believed was destroyed.
Zara stared at it.
Then she whispered the name she had spent years trying not to remember.
“Daniel…”
And suddenly, the past wasn't just coming back.
It had come for her.
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