CW: A fair warning.

“Do NOT, under ANY circumstances, go hiking tomorrow.“

“Who is this?” 

“Hello?”

Laura pulled the phone away from her ear and confirmed what she already suspected – the call had been disconnected.

The call came from a blocked/ unknown number, so she had no way of dialing it back. Even though the voice sounded familiar, she was unable to place it.

“Who was it?”

“Huh?”

Laura was so deep in thought that she didn’t notice that her friend had come back from the bathroom.

“On the phone. Who called you?” – Sarah clarified.

“I don’t know…” – Laura answered hesitantly, still looking at her phone.

“Well, what did they want?” – Sarah asked.

“They warned me not to go hiking tomorrow.”

“What? Why?”

Laura shrugged.

“Let’s just go back to the hotel. I’m tired” – Laura said and stood up, still unable to figure out whose voice that was.

***

“We’re still going hiking tomorrow, right?” – Sarah asked her friend as they laid in their beds.

“I don’t know. It was eerie” – Laura answered, knowing full well that she was NOT going on that hike the next day.

“Laura, c’mon. It’s someone playing a prank on you.”

“We’ve been backpacking through South America for a few weeks now. I haven’t told anyone about our plans for tomorrow. I haven’t spoken to my family in DAYS.”

“Listen to yourself. We’ve been on a walking adventure for weeks. What are the chances we will be hiking tomorrow?” – Sarah asked with clear sarcasm in her voice.

“Good night” – said Laura and she rolled to her other side, away from Sarah.

“Night” – Sarah answered, rolling her eyes at the ceiling.

***

It was high time for Sarah to return from her hike. She said she would only be gone a couple of hours, leaving right after lunch at 1 pm. It was now 7 o’clock, and Laura was getting annoyed. The two of them were supposed to hang out by the pool for a little while and then go out to a local club.

They were travelling on foot Monday through Friday, but on the weekends, they vacationed. Saturday and Sunday were days when they relaxed and had fun, gathering strength for the next week of walking. Laura didn’t understand why Sarah wanted to do more walking on their day off, but Sarah insisted on seeing the Colca Canyon before they left Chivay, Peru.

“Screw it” – Laura said to herself, switched the TV off and put on the dress she laid out earlier.

It was her hope that Sarah comes in while she was getting ready so that they could still both go out. But Laura did her hair and makeup and Sarah still didn’t return.

“Oh, well” – she said to herself with disappointment as she closed the hotel door behind her.

***

When Laura woke up, she did not know where she was.

Her head was pounding.

As she tried to recall what happened last night, she looked around the room she was in.

Tile floor.

Her purse laid in the opposite corner.

A shiver ran down her spine.

She was cold.

When she looked down, she realized that her dress was torn vertically, leaving her chest exposed.

With some help from the wall, Laura slowly got up to her feet.

A sink.

A toilet.

Bathroom.

She was in a bathroom.

Taking a deep breath, she approached the mirror hanging above the sink.

Her hair was a mess.

Her lipstick smudged.

Her mascara all over her face.

She could still see the paths her tears took as they ran down her cheeks.

Hurting all over, she made her way out of the bathroom into the main room of the night club she went to by herself the previous night.

She remembered sitting at the bar, sipping on a cocktail and checking her phone to see if Sarah was going to message her.

And then…

And then Javier sat down next to her and they started chatting. She told him how angry she was with Sarah and he empathized with her. It was his birthday and his friends didn’t come out to celebrate with him.

He bought her a drink. And then another.

And then…

Laura tried to remember what happened next, but she couldn’t.

Holding her dress together, she walked to the hotel, trying not to pay attention to the people staring at her. Judging her. MIS – judging her.

She wanted to scream.

Now she was even angrier at Sarah. This wouldn’t have happened if she never went on that stupid hike.

To Laura’s surprise, Sarah wasn’t in the hotel room. Nothing seemed disturbed. It was like no one was in the room since Laura left the night before.

She tried to call Sarah, but it went straight to voicemail.

Laura turned the TV on as she took her dress off.

“Authorities have found the body of a woman in her mid twenties. She had no identification on her. Please call the number on the bottom of the screen if you recognize her.”

The remote fell from Laura’s hands.

There was a photo of Sarah on the screen.

A photo of DEAD Sarah.

“Do NOT, under ANY circumstances, go hiking tomorrow.”

She finally knew whose voice it was on the other end of the line.

It was her own.

From the future.

“A random phone call from the future.”
– a prompt for this week’s CW piece.
[Source: @DailyPrompt]

***

P.S. As always, you are more than welcome to use this prompt to inspire your post. If you decide to write something, be sure to pingback to this post, so that I can get an alert and check out your post. (A post on how to do pingbacks can be found here.) If pingbacks are not your thing, feel free to simply leave a link to your piece in the comment section below. The more, the merrier!

Stay golden,

***

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