Late Night Pizza

“Hey, this is Pizza Hut, how can I help you?” Summer chirped. The phone was cradled between her shoulder and ear, her hand swatting away the black cat that was perched near the drive-through window, “Hello? This is Pizza Hut, what’s your order?”

“Is this Summer Whitfield?” A hoarse voice echoed on the other end of the phone. A few gasps and jagged breathing were heard, combined with what seemed like nails being dragged against the walls. Summer took the phone in her hand, pulling it away from her ear before responding,

“Hello? Who is this?”

“It’s me, it’s me, Summer!” The voice bellowed. The woman rolled her eyes, hanging up within a few seconds before diverting her attention back to the black cat. It hissed at her as she drew closer, an arm in the air waiting to attack. The phone rang again, this time louder than before and as Summer glanced over her shoulder to see who it was, the cat had jumped out the window and scampered into the dark, abysmal night. 

“Well, that’s one problem gone,” Summer muttered under her breath, then turned back to the phone that seemed to dance against the countertop. She grumbled under her breath, swiftly bringing it back to her ear, “Hey, this is Pizza Hut. What’s your order?”

“Summer, please! Please, listen to me! It’s me!” The voice cried out. Summer nearly tossed the phone onto the wall beside her, but she bit her lower lip and silently let the other end ramble on, “You’ve got to listen to me! Do not deliver your final order, please, I’m begging you!”

“Who even is this? Is this Johnny? Johnny, is this one of your stupid pranks! I swear, man, this isn’t funny anymore,” she groaned, taking off her apron. 

“No, this isn’t Johnny. It’s me, Summer. I’m Summer! I’m you in the future!” 

“Okay, now I know this is Johnny. Hang up, jerk or else I’ll call the police on you.”

“No, Summer please, please! Don’t do it, please! You can’t do this! I’m… oh my god, I’m so scared, I’m so scared right now. Please don’t do this to yourself, don't do this to us!” The voice started to sob and was often interrupted by static noises. After a few seconds, the voice seemed to die down and all that was left was the buzz of a TV running in the background. Summer looked down at her phone, finding this whole situation odd and more so, stupid. These were the kinds of pranks that made her leave Johnny in the first place, and the jerk was still trying to get back at her for breaking up with him in front of everyone at his Halloween spectacular last year.

Summer placed the last pizza box in her bag. It was incredibly hot and she unknowingly burned herself against the cardboard more times than she would’ve liked to admit. She left a little note on the cashier to her boss, letting him know that she would come back shortly. He was already knee deep in alcohol. From what she gathered, he was going through a very tough divorce. She slipped outside of the store, swinging the car keys in her hands as she walked across the parking lot. There wasn’t much to look forward to on this particular delivery, especially since she felt like this was going to be a big prank on her. If Johnny was so insistent that she shouldn’t make the final delivery, she knew he probably had something up his sleeve to try and scare her. Well, he was an idiot and she was determined to prove him wrong. Turning on the car engine, she envisioned his surprised face if she chose to launch the pizza right at him. She snickered to herself, enjoying the image in her mind. 

When Summer arrived at the address given to her, she was taken aback at how beautiful the house looked like from the outside. A freshly trimmed lawn, a circular door and glass-stained windows that reminded her of a cathedral. Whoever ordered the pizza had to have been making a fortune, and Summer was excited to see if she would get some extra tips. She stalked over the cobblestone pathway, marching to the front door with a smile on her face as she rang the doorbell.

No response.

She rang the doorbell again.

Still no response. 

“Hello? Is anyone there, I have your pizza!” Summer called out, electing to knock on the door. She saw the flickering of some lights from the windows above, along with a shadow that slid down the staircase. Her eyes snapped down back to the door when she noticed it creak open, only to reveal a sweet woman probably in her late 20’s.

“Hey! Is this my pizza?” The woman questioned, stepping forward. 

“Sure is! It’s extra hot, ma’am! It’ll be 17 dollars and 56 cents,” Summer exclaimed, but her smile faded when she noticed the woman shake her head.

“That much for just one pizza? You’re all trying to rob me,” The woman giggled, “I don’t have that much money on me right now, I’ll have to go find some change. Why don’t you come inside and make yourself comfortable while I go and try to find a few more dollars?” 

Summer nodded her head, entering the new abode with fascination that couldn’t even be rendered with words. She sat down on a leather white couch just opposite the large television, leaning back to close her eyes and get some rest. It was late at night after all, it wouldn’t hurt to catch just a few minutes of sleep. She heard the woman go up the stairs, her coins jingling with each step that she took. She could hear the rummaging of some drawers, the opening of bedroom doors and then the deep silence that flooded the house within seconds.

Summer opened her eyes, finding it strange that she couldn’t hear anything more. She looked over to where the base of the staircase was and saw no shadow. In fact, all the lights had just been turned off randomly. 

And then the TV flickered on. The remote was near the kitchen, which was a good 10 feet from where she was sitting. On the screen, Summer saw a reflection of herself on the couch. She leaned closer, staring at the screen intently before she heard a loud crash upstairs. 

“Hello?” Summer called out, “Ma’am, a-are you there?” 

The silence was so overbearing, Summer decided enough was enough and she headed towards the front door to get back to her car. Who cares if the woman couldn’t pay for her pizza, she could go and get it some other time. She latched onto the handle and pulled; it wouldn’t budge. She tugged and tugged, and with each tug of the handle, her voice began to betray her.

“No, no, no, no, come on… come on, open the door, please open the door,” She whined, banging on the door. She kicked, clawed and even tried to smash the windows but nothing seemed to move. She fell backwards onto the ground with a thud, scampering towards a corner near the kitchen. Her breathing was jagged, her eyes darting around. Something wasn’t right, the air seemed too still for her and she almost felt as if the house would swallow her whole. 

Directly above her, the coins spilled onto the ground, clamoring against the tiled floor. Summer sat where she was, pulling herself into a fetal position for just a second before her curiosity got the best of her. She slowly crawled to where the coins had collected together and noticed in the dim light that they were covered by some liquid. With shaky hands, she pulled out her phone and shone a light onto them; it was a pool of blood, being dropped from something above. She gulped, and in a very slow pace decided to shine the light to the ceiling. The light traveled from the coins, to the leather couch now a shade of deep red, the chandelier hanging on the side of the wall and lastly to the corpse of the woman whose body was impaled with nails.

Summer let out a guttural scream, running to the front door again before banging and pulling the handle as much as she could. She had no idea what to do, and she couldn’t stop the erratic beating of her heart. She whipped out her phone and decided to call her boss, even though he was drunk he could probably get some sense knocked to him. It was 1:55 at night, which meant that Justin would come in at 2:00 to start his shift. He always liked to come in earlier than usual, she prayed that she could grab a hold of him too.

“Hello? Hello?” Summer screamed, cornering herself near the front door.

“Hey, this is Pizza Hut! How can I help you?” The voice on the other end chirped. Summer’s breath hitched in her throat. The voice sounded exactly like hers. 

“I-Is this S-Summer Whitfield?” She asked, bringing the phone closer to her. She brought her phone down to take a glimpse of the time - it was 12:50 a.m. Time had gone back. 

“Who is this?” Her past self inquired, and Summer felt the strong urge to claw her eyes out, she should’ve listened. She should’ve listened to what the voice from earlier had told her, and now she was frantically trying to make her past self understand.

“It’s me! It’s me, Summer!” She exclaimed, feeling the tears cascade down her cheeks. This was pointless, there was nothing that she could do to make her understand. By the time her past self hung up the call, Summer screamed in frustration, kicking and thrashing from where she sat. She took a deep breath in, trying to calm herself down when she heard another thud. She looked up to find the corpse missing, and looked down to find it sitting across from her.

The pizza was now cold.