chapter 5

Afterwards the two of them prepare to head to bed, After sophia finally convinced olivia that she needed her energy if she wanted to make it through the interview that she now had for tomorrow

The night passes through without worry, though this was one of the first times Olivia had gotten good sleep, normally she would have trouble even remotely falling asleep,

due to how much she'd work herself, and just of her insomnia she developed over the years. Though with Sophia there, it helped Olivia feel more comfortable, enough to get her some good and much needed rest.

Once morning rolls around, Sophia is the first to get up, with Olivia still asleep, Sophia makes breakfast for the both of them. The smell is enough to slowly wake Olivia up as a small groan falls out of her mouth, she stretches before finally sitting up on her couch.

Olivia reaches for her phone which was currently plugged in, she reads the time and is happy knowing it's not too late, its only 12 pm right now, which meant she had some time to clean out her work room and get mentally and physically prepared for this interview

"oh, you're up, i just finished us some breakfast, so come get yourself some food"

Sophias voice can be heard in the distance as Olivia raises her head, a smile grows on her face when food was mentioned, her stomach could agree as a soft growling could be heard from Olivia's stomach

Olivia slowly gets off of the couch and makes her way over to the kitchen, once she enters the kitchen a big aroma of the food fills her nose, a truly relaxing scent to Olivia.

Olivia looks on her counter and sees eggs, bacon, toast, and sausages. Olivia's mouth waters as she sees all of this food.

"Are you trying to butter me up? Is there something you want from me?"

Olivia asks in a snarky, joking tone as she looked over to sophia, Sophia lets out a laugh as she shakes her head

"No i'm not trying to butter you up for something, i just thought since this is the first interview for your investigation, i thought a great breakfast is a good start to your day"

A smile grew to Sophia's face as she exited the kitchen, letting Olivia get her food, once she does she walked back to her living room where Sophia currently was

As the two of them ate, silence filled the room, this made Sophia a little uncomfortable so she spoke up as she looked in Olivia's direction.

"So...Got any ideas of what you want to ask during the interview, other than just getting his story"

Sophia asks as she continues eating.

Olivia thought about this, she definitely did want his story, but she did want to ask some questions as well

"I'll ask questions based on the story i hear, it's not something i usually prepare ahead of time....since every story is usually different, well when i did past interviews anyways"

Olivia says with a hum as she eats her breakfast as well

Once the pair was finished eating the both decided to work together to clean Olivia's office

It's not like she never used it so it wasn't too cluttered

She just had past papers in there with a lot of trash everywhere, though some boxes were in there, some with magazines and others with newspaper articles and tapes, Olivia was someone who was really dedicated to her job

And now that she found something to devote herself into, it made her excited, though she had to admit, these things did make her nervous as well.

it takes them only about an hour to clean since there wasn't as much as they thought there was, only her desk was the messiest

Once it felt more cleaned out Olivia smiled

"It's going to be nice to finally use this room again"

Olivia says as she sits down in her desk chair

Sophia nods her head as she walked to the door

"I'll be heading back to my shop today, though text me what you get out of this interview, i'll go to the library today as well to see if i find anything interesting there"

Sophia says as olivia nods her head

With that Sophia leaves and now Olivia is alone once again

Though Olivia knew that Sophia wouldn't be staying with her forever, it felt kind of weird not having her here, but Olivia couldn't focus on that right now

She had to prepare herself for this interview

Olivia boots up her computer, setting up her webcam and everything, while also bringing out a notebook beside her

She wrote down the information that the male had given her last night

Name:Elijah Johnson

Age: 24 years old

Gender: male

Resides in minnesota

One of the things Olivia needed to confirm is that if this Elijah guy was the victim or not, but thinking about it now, if he was the victim, would he really be alive right now?

That was a question she'd definitely have to ask, she hoped to at least learn something new from this interview

Once Olivia is done preparing for the interview she gets onto Zoom and creates a meeting, once she creates it she sends a link to it to Elijah, hoping he was still going to go through with this interview

Thankfully she hears a ding, notifying that he had entered the waiting room in order to join

Once she allows him into the room he gets everything set up

Once she sees his face she can immediately see he was an uneasy looking man, it almost looked like he was paranoid, like a person you would see in a psych ward, though thankfully he wasn't acting that crazy

Olivia gives the man a wave with a gentle smile

"Hello, it's nice to finally meet you Elijah, I'm Olivia, and I'll be interviewing you today... Do you mind if I record this session?"

The males head perks up but he slowly shook his head

"I don't mind...as long as this doesn't go out to the public,,,,"

Elijah's voice seemed soft and a bit shaky, something was definitely keeping him on edge and Olivia wanted to find out what it was

"Don't worry, it wont, the most i would do it explain a little in words, but if i feel it's not something to say to the public, i will not share it"

Olivia points out to the male as he slowly nodded his head

"Alright, are you ready to begin?"

Olivia asks as she hits the record button, she had a paid subscription so she was able to record for a long time on Zoom.

Once again the male nods his head, Olivia didn't mind that he didn't speak a whole lot

"Alright, so you informed me that you had a story relating to the phenomenon... Are you the victim?"

The male slowly shakes his head, olivia writes this down as she looked back up at the screen

"So if you're not the victim, then who is?"

Olivia asks with curiosity in her tone

The male finally speaks up

"My friend....Were were close....we almost felt like brothers"

Olivia nods her head and writes this information down, 'so he had lost a close friend, must have been hard for him'

Olivia thinks to herself

"That must have been hard for you, can you tell me what happened?"

The males eyes widen as he looked from side to side before shakily speaking once more, rubbing his arm in the process

"He died of something that wasn't human....i should have helped him....he gave me so many warnings... so many messages.."

Olivia tilts her head to the side confused, his friend was warning him? Giving him messages before his death? Now this interested her

"When did he start to give you these messages?"

The male looks down, noticeably pulling out his phone

"A-about two weeks before he died....They started off pretty mild so i didn't think much of it...to be fair we joked a lot with each other, so i thought that this was the same case at first...."

Olivia nods her head, this seemed like normal behavior between males, as they often liked joking with each other

Though depending on the messages, would Olivia see it the same way as Elijah saw it?

"Can you read those messages to me?"

Olivia asks as the male visibly gulps but nods his head

"Y-yeah i can do that"

After a bit of scrolling the male clears his throat to begin reading out the friends messages

—---------------------------------------------------------

Victim: Do you ever get that feeling that someone's calling your name but you turn around and no ones there?

Victim: i also get this ringing in my ears, it feels like someone is ringing bells right next to my ears

Elijah: dude you're making it

sound like you're in a horror movie XD

Victim: This time i'm serious dude, like i'm started to get major headaches, and this is not helping my paranoia, it was already bad enough after i lost my brother

Elijah: Dude chill out, im sure its not as bad as you're making it out to be,

maybe you're stressing yourself too much at work again, just go to the doctors and rest

Victim: Alright I'll try too, you know it's hard to support me and my mom, but I'll go to the doctors...Happy?

Elijah: Mostly, i'll be happy once you

are stress free, get back to me

After you go to the doctors

Victim: Alright, see you :)

—---------------------------------------------------------

A week later

—---------------------------------------------------------

Victim: Yo the doctors just got back to me

Elijah: and?

Victim: and they found nothing wrong with me, no signs of stress nor anything causing the ringing in my ears

Victim: but they did spot the paranoia i was feeling, they told me i might be having PTSD ever since witnessing my brothers death

Elijah: that sounds logical,

anybody would feel that way

if they ever witnessed

their own little brothers death

Elijah: Did they give you any

medication for it?

Victim: Yeah, something at least, and they told me to rest and not to overwork myself

Victim: i just hope i get better, because i really don't need this

Elijah: Yeah i understand,

i'm here for you,

just text me when you

need something from me

—---------------------------------------------------------

The male stops speaking as he looked up into the camera at Olivia

"The weird thing was, is that he stopped hanging out with me during this time, like he gradually grew distant, i knew his paranoia was bad after losing his brother, but i didn't think it would cause our friendship to slowly break"

The male says as Olivia nods her head with a hum, So far the conversation seemed normal, but she was interested in one thing

The ringing in the victims ears, was it the same ringing she heard in those tapes she watched? That might be a connection

"I can imagine how much stress that might have put on him, did he text you anything else?"

Olivia asks the male curiously as the male nods, reading the last of the messages

—---------------------------------------------------------

Week of victims death

—---------------------------------------------------------

Victim: I need your help, i feel like something is following me and i don't know what 

Elijah: what?! Are you seriously

walking home alone late again?

I told you to be careful!

Victim: i know i know....i just needed the extra money....i have no idea what to do...im freaking out here man....

Elijah: im seriously going to

kill you if this is a joke

Elijah: What do you hear exactly?

Victim: twigs breaking...the ringing of bells.... And.... oh god..

Elijah: OH GOD WHAT?! WHAT'S WRONG?

Victim: i.....can...hear...my dead...brother's voice...he's calling out for me....

Victim: crap im recording this....

Victim: [1 video attachment]

Elijah: What?! What the actual

hell is going on?

I'm calling 911, you need to hide..

Elijah: Hello? The police are

on their way, where are you?

Please tell me youre okay

Elijah: hello?!

—---------------------------------------------------------

Once again the male finished reading the messages

The male looked sad as he slowly looked up at the camera

"He didn't text me anymore after that..... I got a call from the police a week later after they finally traced where the video was taken..... He was found dead.... I rushed to the scene and....oh god his body...it was torn to shreds.....no sane animal nor human would do something like that"

Olivia was stunned by this, this sounded all too familiar, the tape with the kid ....wasn't the kid's body torn up as well?

So there was a connection between this killing and the killing from long ago

"How long ago exactly did this happen?"

The males body went tense as he look dead center into the camera

"It happened last year...."

Olivia is shocked as her breath caught in her throat

This thing is still alive?! And still roaming it seems, but how.... It seemed no matter what info she got, it only left her with more questions

"This must have been hard for you to deal with"

Olivia says sympathetically

The male nods his head, the same nervous and scared look on his face

"It has.....promise me you'll be careful though....it's still out there...i know it is because it's after me now.....i know too much... and its toying with me now....i boarded up my entire house.....oh but i can hear the soft ringing of bells.....and my dead friends voice...beckoning for me to save him.....just....don't take this phenomenon too lightly....this thing...it's not to be taken lightly..."

Olivia grew nervous with this statement, if this man was telling the truth, then that means the creature is still out there hunting

"Okay...make sure to reach out to me if you need to talk again"

The male nods his head frantically

"Oh and if you don't mind, can you send me that video your friend sent you?"

The male once again nods his head, the two of them wave goodbye to one another, she then ends the recording session and the zoom call overall

This is more than what she thought she would receive, and to say she was nervous was only the half of it

This interview made Olivia uneasy, it made a cold chill run down her spine