Night (chapter three)

Silence. Horrible, awful silence that is somehow still filled with sound. Just not the sound Falena wanted to hear. No answer to her question, just a quiet line, save for the heavy exhale on the other side. Rain pelted the window hard, making her feel like she was in one of the books she would read. What a dreadful thing it would be to be in a book.
Her mind was pulled back to reality when the person on the phone cleared his throat.
“Well?” she demanded. She couldn't help but notice her voice was shaking now.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he growled.
“Answer the damn question. Why do you have her phone?” she hissed back.
“Are the monsters still there, Falena?”
“...wh- what?”
Then, the call ended.
A shiver crawled up her spine. She sat there for a moment, staring at the blank screen, wondering how in the hell her life turned out this way. When she was nine, she was certain she would be famous by now, with friends and family and more than twenty-six dollars in the bank. But she was alone, only half her family was even alive, she only had two friends, and she lived in a crappy apartment she hated. And she wanted to forget that she hadn't slept in nearly a week because she was haunted by bits of theoretical reality that couldn't slither into the real world without her letting them. And now, a stranger knew that and used her dead sister’s phone to mess with her. She hoped he was messing with her. She laughed. Dry and anxious and quickly changing to tears. But she would cry over this. It was probably just a prank. Or Dan. It could have been Dan, her sister’s husband. But he would have said something. He wasn't cruel.
Falena sat there for a minute, her mind filled with thousands of swirling thoughts that matched the storm outside in a lovely, terrifying compliment. But then the storm died down. And then she was calling Mac again. Still no answer. She checked the time at the top of the screen. Then she dialed another number. The phone only rang twice before he picked up.
“Hey, Lena. you ok?” Sam's voice was tired, but it didn't sound like he’d been asleep.
“Where are you?” she asked. She couldn't stop her voice from shaking, though she tried desperately to. Damn voice
“At my parent’s house still. Everything ok?” he sounded concerned. There was rustling from his end, then a thud, then a distant-sounding curse. He dropped his phone. She couldn’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, all good…um…can we grab breakfast or something tomorrow? I need to talk to you about the ‘dream thing’”
“Yeah…” Sam sighed. “You know, you scared me. You don’t ever call. Anyway, good-”
He was cut off by a rogue strike of thunder that seemed to have stolen her breath. The thunder must have invited all the anxious thoughts back in. She tried to force air back into her lungs.
“Lena? You.. you wanna talk for a bit?” Sam asked, his voice softening. He knew how to solve her problems, and it made her angry. But she needed it. It used to be Amara, her sister, to pull her out, but it had been years since she died. Then, it was her mother. But she was gone now, too. Sam adapted to that, too, though.
If it weren't for Sam, the monsters would have broken through. She could feel reality shattering, the same as it always did. She could hear them begging her to let them go, begging her to just go to sleep. To free them.
It wouldn't happen.