Phone Call

Remy is awoken to the sound of a phone ringing. He finds his phone next to his bed but realizes that it's not his that's ringing. He looks across the room on his desk where Landon's phone sat. He dashed out of bed and picked the phone up, holding it carefully as if some erratic move would press "answer." Renee was calling. Before Remy can even think about picking up, the call ends as he was too late. Renee quickly calls again, and before he knows what he's doing, Remy answers the call.

"Hello?" He asks, as if he doesn't know who's on the other line.

"Landon! I was so worried. You haven't answered my texts. What happened?" Renee frantically whispers, like someone's near her and she can't speak too loud or they'll hear.

"I... uhm. This isn't Landon. He's okay though! Well, maybe. You should probably find him though. He's in rough shape."

"What?" She says slightly louder, alarmed. "Who are you?"

"Well... I uhh..." Remy hangs up, unable to continue the conversation, although he feels good about telling her Landon's okay. Except she might be freaking out because someone has her boyfriend's phone and they just implied that they know what happened that night. Oh, shit.

Regardless of that, Remy feels a tad better. After trying a different code again and getting locked out again, he gets back into bed, his heart still pounding from the anxiety-inducing phone call. Seeing that it's 2 AM and he was only asleep for a few hours before being woken up, Remy tries to go to sleep again. And though it takes a long time, he succeeds, because when he wakes up next, it's after noon.

He thankfully had a dreamless sleep, so that terrible night had not followed him into his nightmares. But now that he was awake, it all came rushing back. His eyes felt heavy, and even though he got in a good chunk of sleep, he still felt tired. He lay there in his bed, trying to shut his eyes and go back to sleep, but his mind was very much awake now, and he couldn't shut it off. The weight of that night rested heavily on his heart, and even though he could breathe perfectly fine, it felt like something was interfering with the rise and fall of his chest. Remy recognized this feeling, where he felt that there was something he needed to do, but at the same time, there was nothing he could do.

He stayed in bed for about 20 minutes, clenching his eyes shut, but the bliss of sleep was long gone and his only option was to get up. The first thing he did was try a new password to get into Landon's phone. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't the correct one.

He went downstairs into the kitchen. There was a note from his parents saying that they'd gone out for a long run and wouldn't be back until about 4. Who wastes a Saturday -- one of your only days off -- on running? Remy scoffed at his parents' decision, fully knowing that watching TV for hours on end was no better. But at least it was easier.

However, things were different this morning, and though Remy had turned on the television, he wasn't really watching it. He was only staring at the screen, feeling restless. He kept checking the time to see when he could try to unlock the phone again, and the TV wasn't enough of a distraction.

Remy kept failing the password over and over, but luckily, he had the same type of phone so he could at least charge it. As he was waiting, he couldn't help but wonder if Landon and Renee had met up with each other yet. He wondered if they had left the state already like they said they would. Or maybe they planned on staying in town a little while longer to avoid suspicion. Whatever the case, Remy hopes to meet them again. Or for the first time, since they never formally met. He feels this strange connection to Landon, maybe because they now shared the trauma of witnessing a terrible act together... even if Landon perpetrated that act. Landon might have been broken by what he did, but Remy was scarred from it too. And he felt like he could help Landon, because if he feels as bad as he looked when Remy saw him last night, so terrified and traumatized by his own actions, then he could use all the assistance he could get.

And maybe that's why Remy is still trying to break into his phone. He assumes that he'll be able to get some information about his life, and it just might be the key to contacting him.

Hours later, after his parents have come home, Remy feels a desperate need to get out of the house. He goes for a walk to clear his head, and it does the trick, until he has to come back and face this insane situation that he can't force himself to step away from. He knows that he could just get rid of the phone and be done with this whole thing, but just like at the festival when he made the decision to follow Landon, he feels a weird compulsion to go deeper. He just doesn't know how far he's going to go before he can't turn back, before he's so invested in these strangers' lives that he becomes a part of them.