The Haunted Phone Number

Belle groggily rubbed his eyes upon waking up. It was already nine in the morning, he had slept way later than he meant to. Liz had probably gone to work already so he didn't rush himself into getting ready. Instead, he took his time to check on his injuries, they were all healed up, not even a scar left. 

"That's good, I wouldn't want my pretty face getting scarred." He chuckles to himself. It was time to consolidate the information he had learned. The first was about the organization that Glenn was a part of, it seemed there were more people in the organization which was something Belle had to look out for. The second thing was the existence of contracts, contracts would allow humans and ghosts to work together and if that organization had a lot of ghosts, they could easily do some damage. Belle decided to push aside the thinking for later and open up the new weapon box he got, it was always better to have good weapons. The system had its usual fanfare and quickly gave him the item [Holy Kusarigama] 

[The Holy Kusarigama is a weapon that judges the hearts of the sinful. If you have good karma then the weapon will pass right through you, but if you have bad karma, the weapon leaves no prisoners. Will pass right through humans but will harm ghosts] 

Belle had no idea what a kusarigama was but a quick search told him it was a weapon with a sickle and a chain, you can use it for both long-range and short-range attacks but mastery over the weapon isn't easy. It seems he wasn't going to be using this weapon any time soon. Belle had also earned himself 150 Ghost Points, there was a lot he could do with that, but he resolved not to spend them all just in case he needed extra points for a mission. Belle wanted to relax today, after the long night he wanted a break. 

-A Few Hours Later-

Belle was bored, he had rewatched one of his favorite dramas, but he had seen it so many times he could say the lines word for word without even looking. There was nothing to do and he didn't want to leave the house. In such a situation the best thing to do was look to the endless entertainment source that is the system. Specifically, the next side mission, [The Haunted Number]

[There was once a suicide hotline operator, this man was a sick person and instead of talking people down from suicide, he would try to convince them to do it. This man's number caused many deaths and the resentment from the people who died bled into the number. Eventually, he stopped getting calls, he wondered what was wrong with the number so he called it himself. When a few days had passed, neighbors called the police due to a strange smell in his apartment, they arrived to find him dead on the floor, blood pouring from his nose and ears. The only thing they found was the audio from the call where the man begged for someone to stop whispering and other strange things. Do you accept this mission?]

[Yes] [No] 

Belle clicked on the [Yes] button, the system immediately gave him the prompt.

[Call this number and survive for the length of the call, at most 5 minutes] 

The number was posted on the side and Belle grabbed the old handheld camera and plopped himself down on the couch. He opened up the system and started the stream, watching as the camera floated up.

"Hello everybody, I know I just did a stream yesterday, but I was bored so I thought I'd do one today. I'm going to be calling a haunted phone number so we'll see what happens." He explains.

{TacosFor_Life donated $10: Two back-to-back streams from my favorite horror streamer, sweet!}

"I'm glad everyone likes my content, ghosts always hold a special place in my heart, I've always been interested in them since I was a child. Without further ado, let's get started." He chirps, dials the number into the phone, and places it on the speakerphone. The phone rings and rings until it finally goes through, but the only noise heard is a subtle beeping.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Over and over again it plays, it was light outside when he made the call, but the shadows in the room warp, covering the windows, and the lights dim, giving the illusion of darkness in the room. The phone screen turns red, the light shining on Belle's face as the beeping gets more ear-splitting, until it gives way to whispering. The sounds are unclear, like the ravings of a madman on his deathbed. The sounds worm their way into Belle's head, making him dizzy, miasma is slowly filtering out of the phone and the air feels denser. It becomes hard to breathe as the whispers get louder until a voice clearly makes its way through the phone. 

"I never want to see you again!" It shrieks, malice in its tone. The voice gives Belle pause, the first sign of actual fear flashing through his eyes. The sound of the voice was his mother. 

"Huff, huff, huff." It becomes harder and harder to breathe and he puts a hand to his chest, trying to regulate his breathing. 

'Breathe, just breathe, we can't be having panic attacks again' 

The voice continues to shriek obscenities and other such things, the beeping has turned into one steady long beep making his ears ring, and the whispering crowds his head, making him unable to think clearly. A drop of liquid falls onto his lips, he brings his hand up to wipe the blood from his nose, and more liquid streams down, this time from his eyes. He even feels liquid running from his ears, Belle has to do something, but he can't move, the voice on the other end of the phone freezes him in place. The most he can do is try and stay calm but it's getting increasingly harder to do. The edge of the room appears black and fuzzy, the furniture seems to elongate. He can feel his vision fading as he tries to keep a grip on his consciousness, but it seems to be too late until the phone call suddenly stops with a beep. The room returns to normal, all the light rushes back, and the only evidence that anything is wrong is the blood that drips onto the floor. Tears leak from Belle's eyes as he takes stock of the situation, taking a moment to breathe and calm himself down.

"U-um, that was a bit intense wasn't it, this is why you probably shouldn't call those numbers, I'm ending the stream here, goodbye." He tries to keep up the positivity as he ends the stream, but as soon as it closes down he ignores all the messages from the system and curls up into a ball. He sits there sobbing for who knows how long, eventually falling asleep and waking up to his shoulder being shaken by someone.

"What?" He questions, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"You fell asleep on the couch, are you okay? There's blood on the floor and your face." Liz informs him, concern edging her voice. 

"Y-yeah, I think so, I mean, I'm not in any pain. I'll clean it up." He moves to grab a wet wipe, but Liz hugs him from behind before he can get up.

"You haven't looked this bad in a while, I'll clean up and get some ice cream, and let's watch a movie, okay?" She mumbles into his shoulder.

"Mhm, thanks, Liz." He agrees.

"No problem." 

[Ghost Index]

[Name: Collective Spirits. Spirit Type: Third-Level. A group of spirits who are all suicide victims, having been led to death by a suicide operator clung to the line that they were on before death. This caused the number to stop working and get infected by the spirits, making anyone who calls this number their victim. Ability: Can You Hear The Trauma]