「4」Who Did I Talk To?

LEON

THE next day, Alynna barraged me with questions.

“Are you all right, Leon? Why aren’t you responding to my messages? I understand you don’t like chatting, but I messaged you before it was too late in the evening. I was so worried about you,” Alynna said when she approached me.

Her words made me frown. “Messages? What are the messages?” I inquired, completely unaware of what she was attempting to say.

She clicked her tongue, then yanked out her phone and handed it to me. “You just read it all. Everything,” she emphasized angrily.

It shocked me to see it, and I read them all before defending myself. “Alynna, look, I slept right away—” I halted and returned my attention to Alynna’s messages. When I noticed something suspicious, I was horrified. “Derrick came to my dressing room yesterday, Alynna. He didn’t come inside, but he told me you were looking for me,” I told Alynna, and her jaw dropped. “I also turned off my phone before going to bed last night. When you sent all those messages, I was already asleep. And my phone was turned off when I woke up this morning.” This time, it was my gaping mouth caused by shock.

“Please tell me you’re making a terrible joke right now,” she begged. Her hands trembled, and she appeared to want to throw away her phone.

“Why would I make a sick joke about something like this?” I told her, and she burst into tears of disbelief.

“All right,” she sniffed, calming herself. “I’ll speak with Derrick about it. We need to hear his point of view on this. We can’t make too many assumptions, Leon,” she said.

“All right,” I agreed with a nod.

Following that, we parted ways. I tried to appear normal in front of everyone. Director Kim’s unanswered message no longer captivated me. I concentrated on our scene for the day and tried not to think about the messages Alynna had sent me.

I did well, but I couldn’t hide my irritation. I just hoped no one noticed except Alynna and Derrick.

━━━━━━ ◦ ◦ ━━━━━━

“I SWEAR there was no one in your room when I went in there yesterday!” Derrick yelled. When we told him about the messages and the incident that he and I had yesterday, he was perplexed!

“How certain are you?” Alynna was curious.

Derrick exclaimed in an inaudible shock. “Do you honestly believe I’m lying?”

“No, Derrick,” I stepped in. “It’s just that I recall speaking with you yesterday. I swear we talked,” I added.

“What exactly did I say? Because I called you several times and received no response. I stood there for an entire minute in front of your effin’ dressing room, Leon. But not a single word came from you,” he retaliated.

“You said Alynna was looking for me,” I said.

“That’s correct. She was looking for you... As usual,” Derrick agreed.

“You asked if I was okay,” I continued.

“I did, but as I previously stated—”

“Oh, Derrick, will you please let Leon finish speaking first? Stop reacting to every single thing he says!” Alynna stepped in, irritated by Derrick’s heightened emotions. And then the guy immediately behaved himself.

I felt bad for Derrick, but he was overreacting, so Alynna had no choice but to silence him.

“Derrick, did you say anything else to me yesterday?” I inquired of him. He paused for a moment before speaking. The more he refused to speak up, the more irritated Alynna became, so he took a deep breath before clearing his throat.

“Well… You were acting a little strange yesterday, Leon,” he said, staring at me as if I had done something to frighten him. “You appeared to be... I’m not sure... as if you were afraid of something?”

“What’s the big deal? He’s asking if there’s anything else you said to him in the locker room,” Alynna cut in.

“Actually…” Derrick was sweating this time, as if he was nervous about something. “It was really weak, but I think you said something to me yesterday,” he said, and Alynna and I both braced ourselves for what Derrick was about to say. “Keep your distance from me.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Is it possible that I misheard what he said? No.

“Keep your distance…? Why? Are you certain it was Leon who said that?” Alynna inquired repeatedly. She, too, was perplexed by these.

Derrick insisted, “It was really Leon. Do you know how many times I’ve heard his voice?” He exclaimed, “All the time! I can hear his voice repeatedly during the shooting, breaks, and even when the scenes I’ve filmed are being edited. I’m so used to it by this point! It’s actually creepy because I can sometimes hear his voice at my house!”

Alynna and I were both terrified. What caused this to happen? I just wanted to clear things up and clear up any confusion that I may have caused some people. What caused the deterioration?

“I have goosebumps. Seriously…” Alynna agreed.

“I’m with you,” Derrick said emphatically.

“Guys, about the messages, it’s not just Alynna that I ignored even though I saw their messages on our chats,” I said, taking a deep breath.

“What exactly do you mean, Leon?” Alynna inquired. I could tell she was getting scared.

“The same thing happened with Director Kim,” I explained. “Remember how I almost passed out the other day?” I inquired, and they both nodded in unison. “Later that night, he texted me, asking if I was okay and had arrived home safely.”

“Are you sure you didn’t just read it?” I just stared at Alynna as she guessed. She realized it was my way of saying ‘yes’, which complicated matters even more.

Derrick and Alynna’s faces were filled with confusion and frustration. Why did it happen now? I needed to concentrate on the movie.

“I don’t want to pass judgment, but does Sheldon…” Alynna had second thoughts about hurling an accusation at my boyfriend right now. I had a feeling she was about to say something about Sheldon and the seen messages.

She respected our relationship from the start and never asked why I was dating a guy. Unlike Derrick, Alynna was much more mature and reasonable when it came to discussing my problems. But I had the impression that she was biased against Sheldon at times. My boyfriend was a shy person to begin with, so he rarely spoke with my friends.

“Are you questioning Sheldon?” I inquired directly of her. Alynna didn’t want to admit it, but she nodded faintly. “Sheldon was not with me when the incident involving your messages occurred, Alynna,” I clarified calmly, but I guess she saw right through me. My hurtful looks at her revealed my true feelings.

“I’m sorry, Leon,” she said sincerely.

Derrick, who couldn’t read the mood, occasionally averted his gaze from me and Alynna. “Guys?” he asked innocently, looking like a clueless idiot.

“I’ll have my phone checked this weekend,” I said, breaking the awkward silence between us. “If we continue to treat this as a mystery, nothing will happen,” I added.

“I understand that your phone is broken, but I don’t think that—whoever it was—dude who sounded exactly like you was something you could ignore,” Derrick said. “Man, I don’t believe in the supernatural... paranormal, whatever you want to call that shit, but I think I do now,” he exclaimed, terrified.

He was correct, and Alynna agreed. So, if I didn’t talk to Derrick yesterday, who did I talk to? We didn’t see each other, which made it even more suspicious. And what did “Keep your distance from me.” mean if Derrick heard me speak in a weak voice?

[Should I discuss this with Sheldon? Is he going to believe me?] I was arguing with myself.

━━━━━━ ◦ ◦ ━━━━━━

ANOTHER day ended with so much going on. As days passed by, weird things began haunting me.

“I wonder if it has something to do with my dreams, as well?” I helplessly thought while staring at the ceiling of my room.

Everything around me seemed to warp as I stared at the ceiling for a few moments. I knew it was weird, but I didn’t move an inch or speak a word. My eyes were fixated on the nothingness of the concrete hovering over me. The longer I stared at it, the more it appeared to close in on me.

I felt fear and soon realized that I couldn’t control my body anymore. What was happening to me?!

“Why are you leaving me, (.....)?”

[That voice again!] I exclaimed inside my mind.

“You said you loved me.”

“Why are you doing this, (.....)? Please, come back!”

I could feel the intensity of his feelings inside my mind. It was so overwhelming that I felt like my head was going to split into two.

“I won’t forgive you for leaving me behind, (.....). I will find you… AND I WILL KILL—!”

I finally went back to my senses and I shrieked like hell. “Fuck!” I cussed, and covered my face with my hands while trembling so badly. That was the scariest moment of my life. What did all of those mean?

[I’m scared! I’m scared! I’m scared!] As I coiled in fear, I thought to myself.

After that, I didn’t get to sleep a wink. I was so lost in my hurdling thoughts that I no longer noticed Sheldon was calling my phone multiple times. I did not put it in silent mode, but I never once heard it ring the whole time.

to be continued