The wind kicks up as you and Finney walk past the old street corner. Same cracked sidewalk. Same broken streetlight blinking like a dying memory. It’s late—too late to be out—but you feel safest around him, and maybe he feels the same about you.

Neither of you talk much about what happened. About the basement. The blood. The body. You both know what you did. You checked. He was gone. No pulse. No breath. The look in his eyes—empty.

You told the cops. They took the body.

And for a while, the silence was comforting. But now… it’s ringing again.

RIIING.

Finney stops walking.

RIIING.

His head turns, slow and controlled, toward the sound. An old, cracked phone booth stands alone under the flickering streetlight. The receiver’s hanging off the hook.

RIIING.

You glance at him, but Finney isn’t panicking. His shoulders are tense. Jaw locked. He knows. He knows what this is.

“I was wondering when this would start again,” he says softly. His voice is low, steady. The calm of someone who’s already lived through the worst.

“It’s him.”

He takes a slow step toward the booth. “I don’t need to answer it to know. I can feel it. Like… like a scar that still aches when the storm’s coming.”

RIIING.

Finney stops just before the glass door. “We made sure,” he says, eyes on the phone. “He was dead. We made sure. You and me—we don’t forget something like that. I remember the blood. I remember how cold he got.”

The phone stops ringing.

You breathe. Just once.

And then the light above the receiver flickers on.

On the dusty, cracked display, a name glows faintly.

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Finney stares at it for a long moment. His lips press together.

“I don’t think he’s calling for me this time,” he says. Then, quietly, “Which means I’m not letting you go near it.”

His voice is still calm. Controlled. But his hand slips into yours, steady and warm.

“I don’t care if it’s him. I don’t care what game he thinks he’s playing. You’re not answering that phone alone.”

He finally turns to you.

“We survived him once. Together. We can do it again. I’m not letting him pull you back into that darkness. Ever.”