I thought I told the Great Old Ones not to call my home number.

This morning, I had the weirdest string of phone calls. It was a number in my area code, but one that I didn't recognize. I didn't answer, because I usually don't when I don't know the number. When the machine picks up, I'll answer if it's somebody I know, and if it's not I won't. So, I waited until the call went to the answering machine. It was just measured beeping, for as long as it would record.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

On and on like that, until finally the answering machine would cut it off. And then, between forty-five seconds and two minutes later, the same number would appear. Over, and over, and over again. A couple times I picked up and tried to see if someone would come on, but that ear-piercing beep just continued. I put it on speakerphone hoping that would make waiting it out easier, but nobody ever came on. Two solid minutes of that beeping. Even when I attempted to call someone, they would call back again so quickly all I ever got was them.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

I tried looking up the number, but got no information on it.

It just wouldn't stop. It actually started to get kind of scary. Every room I went to, I'd just hear them calling back again and again, with more of that meaningless, repetitive, ear-piercing beeping. Given that I've been on a bit of a creepypasta kick lately, it made it that much worse. I was beginning to feel like I was in one. Was I going to find the phone cord cut? Were the calls coming from inside the house? Were they coming from...somewhere else? Amazing how when you're home alone even during the day, your imagination can run wild. Rationally, I knew that there was nothing otherworldly or malevolent to it, just a really annoying, persistent caller. The relentlessness and the pointlessness of the calls made them seem like something they weren't.

Hell, even when I finally managed to make a phone call, they were still beeping in on the call waiting. I was fully expecting thick static and garbled human voices at this point. Possibly some tortured screaming. Rest assured that if that's what I got, I'd have chucked the phone out the window.

I remember once getting nothing but staticy beeps and vague voices from a number marked only as "Out of Area". Yeah. "Out of Area" indeed. Out of the area of sanity.

As for this caller, it only ended when I unplugged the phone for a few hours. Who knows how long it would have lasted if I didn't. I really don't want to know.