The text arrived at 11:47 p.m.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: I found your phone.

Ava frowned at the screen. Her phone was in her hand. She turned it over, as if expecting it to disappear.

She typed back: That’s not possible.

The reply came instantly.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: Then why is it ringing in my pocket?

A chill crept up her spine. She called the number.

Across the room, inside her jacket, her phone began to ring.

Ava’s breath caught. Slowly, she reached into the jacket and pulled it out. Same cracked screen. Same faded sticker on the back.

The ringing stopped.

Another buzzed.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: You left it behind tomorrow. I’m at the place where it ends.

Ava stared at the message, heart pounding, when the front door of her apartment creaked open by itself.

From the dark hallway came the sound of footsteps.

And her phone, both of them, started ringing again.

Ava stood frozen as the footsteps crossed the threshold. They weren’t rushed or heavy just deliberate, as if whoever was walking knew exactly where everything was.

“Hello?” Ava called, hating how small her voice sounded.

The footsteps stopped.

A woman stepped into the light.

She looked exactly like Ava, same dark circles under her eyes, same uneven haircut, even the faint scar on the chin from a childhood bike crash. The only difference was the expression. This Ava had full black eyes and an eerie, off smile.

“You left it behind tomorrow,” the woman said quietly, holding up a phone. “I told you.”

Ava backed up until she felt the couch against her legs. “This isn’t funny. How did you-”

The lights flickered

Not once. Not twice. They dimmed and stayed dim, as if the apartment itself were holding its breath.  Ava noticed then that the other woman wasn’t blinking. Her eyes were open too wide, glassy, reflecting shapes that weren’t there a moment ago.

“You left it behind tomorrow,” the woman said repetitively as her head started to tilt.

The lights started to flicker once more, worse than before like they were going to explode.

Ava starts breathing fast. She could hear her heart pounding outside of her body. Her body ran cold. At that moment her eyes instantly rolled back as her head jolted backwards.

Her head and eyes thrust back forwards. She wasn’t in her apartment any longer. She breathes heavily and coughs aggressively trying to regain her breath.

She looks up, sun glaring in her eyes, birds flying in the sky and trees.

Her phone buzzes.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: YOU LEFT IT BEHIND TOMORROW!

Ava throws her phone and fanatically scoots herself backwards. Her hands tremble on the ground as she searches for a rock.

The phone aggressively buzzes non-stop.

She finally picks up a rock and frantically runs over to the phone and smashes it over and over again.

The buzzing stops.

The only sounds left were Mother Nature and her own fearful breaths.

Ava stands up after regaining some strength. She became bewildered looking upon a forest that seemed to have no end and no beginning.

She began to panic and look in circles until she saw the woman, the one that looked like her, again standing right behind her.

Then everything went dark.