Signal Lost, Connection Found

CONTAINS: Profanity & Gore 

As the locker door opens, a letter and a box thud on the ground. She bends down grabbing the box and letter, setting them on the shelf in her locker. 

Rowan, Daphne’s tall, charming boyfriend snuck up behind her, covering her eyes. “Guess who?” 

Daphne sighed, “Hmm… early 2000’s Chad Micheal Murray?” 

Rowan rolled his eyes jokingly, uncovering her eyes. “You’re a bit off, and by a bit, I mean completely.” 

Daphne giggled, “Yeah, I’m just messing with ya.”

Daphne grabbed her schoolbag, packing her books inside. “So, whatcha wanna do? It‘s finally the weekend!” She smiled as she spoke. 

Rowan put his arm around Daphne’s shoulders, “You could come over to my house and we could hang out and chill…” Daphne smiled wider, “Sure! I’ll just have to tell Noah we can’t hang out this weekend.” 

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, why do you even hang out with him anyways? He’s such a douchebag…” 

“Says you- Besides, Noah is so nice! You guys would be really good friends if you just put aside your differences, or whatever you have.” Daphne crossed her arms. 

Rowan scoffed, “As if I would ever want to be friends with him. He can go fuck off.” 

“Jeez, that’s intense. What did he even do to you?” Daphne said. 

He tried to steal my fucking girlfriend? What does she think? Rowan thought to himself. “He didn’t do anything, you just hang out with him a lot…” 

“Oh? Is someone jealous of him?” Daphne joked. 

“Hell no, why would I be jealous?” He replied, speaking quickly. 

“Okay then, jeez.” Daphne moved his arm off of her, “Anyways, I’ll see you later!” She started walking away, waving goodbye. 

Rowan waved back, turning away and scoffing.

8:03pm-The next evening…

Daphne knocked on Rowan’s front door, Rowan swinging the door open. 

“Hey!” Daphne smiled widely, Rowan moving out of the way. “Wassup?” Rowan said in a toneless voice. 

“Nothing much, nothing much. What about you? How’s your weekend been?” Daphne took her shoes off in the foyer. Rowan ran a hand through his hair, “It’s been fine…I guess?” “Okay then…” Daphne looked around awkwardly. Suddenly, her phone started ringing. “Shoot- I forgot to tell Noah we weren’t hanging out. One second…” Daphne stepped away, answering the call. 

Rowan sighs, annoyed. It’s always about him, and she doesn’t even care to think about me? He thought to himself. 

Daphne put the phone to her ear, “Hello?” 

“Oh thank god you’re okay, where are you? Did something happen?” Noah asked, worried. 

“Aww, you’re asking if I’m okay? That’s so sweet!” She teased him. 

Noah chuckled, “Why, can I not ask how you’re doing?” 

“What if I said you can’t?” She giggled, blissfully twirling her hair with her finger. 

Rowan stared at Daphne, biting the inside of his cheek. 

Daphne glanced at Rowan, “Well, it was nice talking to you! I gotta go, I’m with Rowan right now.” 

Noah complained, muttering: “Come on, Daph. I thought you said you were gonna break up with him…”

Although muffled, Rowan could still hear Noah’s voice, his eyes went wide, grabbing Daphne’s phone. “The hell did you just say?” 

Noah scoffed, “You heard me. She wants to break up. It’s not like you two are exactly made for each other.” Noah hung up, the line clicking.

Rowan clutched the phone, throwing it across the room, cracking the screen.

“What the actual hell?! You just broke my phone!” Daphne raised her voice, “Seriously?” She walked over, picking up the phone. “My phone screen is completely broken…” 

“It’s fine, just go grab some tape or something.” He crossed his arms. 

Daphne looked confused, “Are you serious right now? You just broke my phone screen and you don’t even care?”

“It’s just a phone. If you really care, I think I might have some tools or something upstairs in my room from when I did woodworking.” 

Daphne set her phone down, rushing up the stairs.

She opened the door to his bedroom, flicking on the light. Daphne looked around his room, seeing the scattered Post-It notes and candid photos of her. Daphne looked around in fear, muttering under her breath, “What the fuck?” She quietly turned off the light, shutting the door. 

“I couldn’t find anything up there, sorry. Can you go look for me? Pleaseee?” Daphne went down the stairs.

“Seriously? Did you even fucking look for it?” Rowan sighed, annoyed. “Fine…” He went upstairs. 

Rowan opened the door to his bedroom, turning the light on. He looked around, “Oh shit-“ He ran back down the stairs, running to the kitchen. Daphne turned around quickly, already holding a knife at him. 

“Are you fucking insane?” Rowan yelled.

“ You’re the insane one! You broke my phone and you have practically all my information on fucking Post-it notes in your room! What sounds insane to you!?” Daphne trembled while speaking.

“Okay- I can have my things. Let’s just calm down and set the knife down…” Rowan slowly approached her, taking the knife from her.

Daphne relaxed, “Okay…I think I just might be a bit anxious or whatever.” 

“Yeah, you're right…” Rowan said quietly. He quickly put his hand around her neck, pulling her closer and stabbing her right side.

Daphne groaned out loudly in pain, holding her side and collapsing to the floor. “Wha…what the fuck?” She stammered out, gasping for air.

“Oh come on. You’re actually surprised? Everything is always Noah this and Noah that and never about me? Can guys not be jealous either?” Rowan waved the knife around as he spoke.

“There's a difference,” Daphne sat up slumping against the drawers, “between jealous and a psychopath…” 

“I’m not a psychopath.” Rowan stabbed the knife’s blade into the counter. Daphne winced in between quiet sobs, her eyes slowly shutting and her arm going limp. 

“Aww, little Daphne can’t survive a little old scrape?” He bent down, putting his hand on her chin, turning her head. “Pathetic.” He said under his breath, standing up and walking away. “See you in a minute, ‘Daph.’” He mocked Noah’s voice. 

Daphne opened her eyes slowly after Rowan was out of sight, helping herself up by holding onto the counter. She pressed onto her wound tightly, grabbing her phone and rushing out of the front door silently. Daphne limped, hiding underneath shrubbery in Rowan’s front yard. She clutched her gash, slowly dialing 911 as her fingers were poked by the broken screen. She held the phone to her ear, whispering and crying softly, “Please, please please…”  

“911, what is your emergency?” The operator said in a kind tone.

“Please, my boyfriend, he’s a psychopath…I just got stabbed. Please, help me…” Daphne’s voice trembled. 

“Ma’am, what is your name and what is the address?” The operator clicked on their keyboard, asking. 

“Daphne, and I'm at…” She peeked through the bushes, “27 Hollywell Circle… I think.”

“Alright Daphne, help will be arriving in around three minutes. Is anyone with you?”

“No, it’s just me.” 

“I’ll be staying on the line with you, is that alright?” The operator asked again.

“Yeah, please stay on the call…” Daphne looked around again, the front door creaking open. She covered her mouth, turning the phone’s volume down. 

11:49pm—A few minutes later, the police arrived …

Daphne held onto her wound, slowly getting up and limping to the police cars. She gradually slowed, collapsing in the front yard. As she blacked out, the only thing she heard was police officers yelling and a door slamming. 

12:32 am–At the hospital…

Daphne slowly opened her eyes, looking around the room. Her eyes grew wide as she noticed Noah at the side of her bed. 

Noah spoke softly, “You’re finally awake…” He said, looking at her with tears in his eyes. 

Daphne sat up carefully, holding onto her right side. “Yeah…wait, why are you here? I mean that nicely, but why? It’s like midnight.” 

“Technically, it’s 12:33am. You were close enough. Anyways, I’m here because I was worried about you after you weren’t answering my calls earlier. I just knew something wasn’t right, you know?” Noah brushed hair out of Daphne’s face. 

“Yeah, like a gut feeling? I definitely felt that after I had walked into his house, it just felt different.” Daphne held onto his hand. 

Daphne and Noah made eye contact for a moment, making Daphne look away quickly out of tentativeness. 

Noah chuckled, looking at Daphne admiringly. “Oh, by the way, I saw your phone was like- completely destroyed. I got it fixed for you!” He handed Daphne her phone, repaired and with a new phone case. “Right- I had to get you a new phone case because the people who repaired your phone just threw it out.

Daphne turned her phone to look at her phone case, a clear phone case containing a photo of them. 

“I chose that photo because it’s one of my favorite times we hung out. I remember us laughing for like an hour straight, and my stomach was so sore afterwards…” 

Daphne smiled widely, “That’s so sweet! I don’t even remember why we were laughing so hard.” 

“I’m pretty sure that’s when you dropped the whole bag of flour while we were trying to make cookies. You always manage to make me laugh no matter how my day went…” Noah said, looking her in the eyes.

Daphne giggled, “I’m glad to hear that I make you happy.” 

“Yeah…anyways, you should probably get some rest, it’ll help your recovery.” Noah tucked her in, turning the lights off on his way out. “Goodnight, Daph.” 

10 days later-at Daphne’s bedroom

Daphne looked around at all of her hospital gifts, admiring the beautiful flowers Noah gave her. Each day she was in the hospital, Noah visited her with a special present and something that reminds him of her. Daphne heard a knock on her door, getting up and limping towards the door. 

“Knock knock!” Noah said, smiling softly.

“Hey, what's up!” She mirrored his emotions. 

“You’re meant to say who’s there.” Noah chuckled.

“But I know you’re here? You don’t sound like anyone else.” Daphne said dryly.

“Well- whatever. Can I come in?” 

“Mmm, nuh uh.” She said jokingly.

“Come on, I literally brought you a present!” Noah teased her in a playful way. 

“Well in that case, drop it off!” She said with sarcastic enthusiasm. She moved out of the doorframe.

“Okay-” He started walking into the room, dropping a large bag of flour onto the floor, flour exploding everywhere and covering him. Noah paused, rubbing his eyes and looking at Daphne. Daphne stood shocked for a moment, then bursting into loud laughter. Noah started laughing with her, dusting off his shirt.

“You just got flour all over the floor! My dad’s gonna ground me!” She said, still giggling. 

“It happened just like it did last time…” He said, wiping flour off of his face and wiping it onto her face.

“Ew-” She tried wiping the flour off, instead smearing it onto her cheek.

“Anyways,” He said with a soft smile, “We should probably clean this up…”

“Yeah, let me just grab my phone real quick!” She stepped back into her room, grabbing her phone and looking at the polaroid in the case. Sometimes life has to break you so you can feel whole again. She smiled to herself, turning towards her new life.