Stop ringing!

"The phone has really taken over the world and the mind"

As stated so bluntly by one of Nick's professors whilst she confiscated yet another buzzing phone in class. It shouldn't be that big a deal. Seeing as she also uses her phone in class every now and then so he couldn't see the need for a phone to be confiscated in the first place. But enough about the proceeding of how the class went, it wasn't anything new and it certainly won't be the last of similar events.

As Nick made his way down the halls of the all too familiar building that have stood tall for decades, he couldn't help but keep glancing at the phone in his hands. It had been ringing way too much despite not having received any notifications. He was already pass the point of being excited to get notifications or messages. At this point, he had come to dread it. Now he just stares at the lit screen since he can't distinguish between his real notifications and his malfunctioning phone. He were to have that checked the moment he gets enough funds to pay for the fees. But for now he would have to tolerate the ringing a little longer.

Days passed and he regretted not even bothering to have his phone checked the soonest. But what could he do, his funds were so limited. Eventually he began to question his own sanity.

"Was the phone really ringing?"

"Is it my phone? Isn't it someone else's phone?"

"Maybe someone's just messing with me!"

"No, no! I can't be crazy, I'm sure it's the phone!"

Ever since that phone started ringing Nick could do nothing but jump at the littlest sound that bore any similarities with any kind of ringtone. The paranoia was getting to him. Little by little his grip on reality grew weaker. He was sure he was going insane. That it was the phone. That this must be some unfinished business the previous owner had that was haunting him now but it was too late for that. Maybe robbing that guy was the worst mistake of his life.

He couldn't care less what the phone initially contained as he had reset it as soon as he was back in the dingy apartment he called home. Maybe that was another one of his mistakes. He really couldn't tell anymore. All he knew was that the phone needed to be destroyed.

With a wrench in his grip, he inched near the phone that sat atop his desk. It shouldn't be that heavy a task to destroy a phone. That was the very reason he had to steal one in the first place. As he was about to raise the wrench and go on with his plot, the phone rang once more. It was a video message. At first, he thought it was the front camera activating on its own now but then there was another wrench behind him. He was sure he only owned one. But the moment the video ended, there was a pool of blood on the floor.

"This phone really needs to go."

The phone then started ringing and vibrating loudly, and with such high frequency that being near it would make anybody's ears bleed as much as Nick's did. That was it. Forget the phone. He couldn't live with such a thing anymore. The wrench that would have been used to destroy the phone was now the same wrench Nick was using to simply end the torture. In the end, the video was right. A pool of blood did decorate the floor.

If you've heard of the phantom ring syndrome... maybe that would help make imagining this easier

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