Intimate Stranger (Editing)

Chapter 20: Fiona

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Part Twenty

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Fiona

At the sound of the phone ringing suddenly in the middle of the night, both Fiona and Adrian shot into sitting position's on the pull-out bed. Fiona's ears were alert and her mind in a frenzy. Who would be calling at 3:00am? She asked herself. What if it's Katie?

Rubbing his eyes irritatingly, Fiona looked at Adrian, who said, "Who could that be?"

Fiona swung her legs over the side of the bed, saying out loud, "What if something is wrong?"

She heard Adrian groan and she looked over her shoulder at him, as he said, "Just hurry up and answer the phone so we can go back to sleep."

As the ringing echoed throughout the living room, Fiona stood up and made her way across the room to the phone, as she mumbled, "You mean so you can."

Rushing, Fiona quickly made it to the table with the phone. She reached out to grab it, and soon had it in the palm of her hand, where she saw that her hand was shaking. She took a deep breath, pressed "talk" and brought the phone to her right ear. "Hello?" She questioned.

Fiona's eyes widened when she heard the voice on the other end, confirming her suspicion's that it was her daughter on the phone, "Hi mom."

Fiona smiled, forgetting about her fears that something was wrong, only excited to hear her daughter's voice. "Hi, sweetie!" Fiona exclaimed.

Fiona heard Adrian's voice, "Is that Katie?" Then he began to get out of the bed.

Fiona waved Adrian away when he started to come up behind her, "Shush, Adrian, I'm having a conversation with our daughter."

"M-m-mom listen," Fiona heard her daughter say. She was stuttering nervously and Fiona wondered why.

"Katie, honey, how is everything? Are you guys having fun? Are you calling because you can't sleep? I hope you're not excluding your sister," Fiona started with her barrage of questions.

Katelyn cut her off abruptly, in an almost panicky manner, "MOM!" Katie barked, "Listen to me."

Fiona's heart stopped when she suddenly heard a man's voice on Katie's end. "Katelyn, who's there? Who's talking to you?" Fiona asked.

"There's a man here," Katelyn said, "and he wants money."

Fiona's heart felt like it was falling down into her stomach. Her jaw dropped as she gasped for air. She couldn't breathe.

Then the phone fell from her grasp and cluttered to the floor. Fiona was frozen. Frozen in fear and confusion.

Quickly, Fiona's parents clambered down the stairs, wondering what was going on. Fiona's mother turned on the light, then the three people in the room stared at Fiona in wonder. "What's wrong?" Adrian asked his wife.

Our daughter's are in trouble, was the only thing that reverberated through Fiona's mind. She snapped out of it, bending down to pick up the phone. Fluidly, she pressed the speaker button on the phone, then placed it on the dock so it would sit dormant.