>>5882471What you get is an incredibly loud noise. It's the sound of a fax machine dial tone blaring out from the speaker. You know it is a fax machine dial tone because your grandfather's business still uses faxes on a regular basis with certain customers. You have to pull the phone away from your ear quickly as the familiar ear-piercing chirps and whistles blast away.
Then the cell phone goes silent.
"Hail Japan. Land of the fax machine. May it ever rule." You sarcastically mutter and hang up.
Wait a second. You put this damn thing in airplane mode. There is no way a call can be received in the first place. In addition, that ringtone bothers you more than it should. It's at the edge of your mind why it bothers you so much... Well, other than the other fact, you received a call somehow.
You stare hard at the phone and double-check the settings when it starts ringing again.
The retro ringing sound of a bell, the sort you find in the old-style rotary phones of the past. It's a standard ringtone; any phone can just put it on for incoming calls. But there's a reason why it bothers you so much. It sounds too real.... It feels too real. The air reverberates as though an actual bell is ringing; you can feel the jittery shake and the metallic ring of it. It is this subtle, off-putting sensation that triggered your unease earlier. It doesn't feel digital at all.
You are much slower this time to accept the call, yet what else can you do? You don't want to miss out on a call that can help you out of this situation.
"Hello?" You try to remain calm; it's difficult. A long silence stretches on as you patiently wait for an answer; you sense there's someone on the other end.
"Poor lost child, gone widdershin, I saw you crying," a soft feminine voice whispers. You don't recognize the voice at all, and there's something horrible about the voice. She sounded as though she enjoyed watching you cry. Wait, someone saw you crying?!
Before you can say anything, there's an audible click. Whoever it was, she had just hung up. The long beeps signifying someone hanging up on the phone is retro-sounding too.
What the fuck?!