Calling All Angels

A Short Story

“Hey Dr Moores, it’s Chris Schafer. I’m just calling because at my last appointment we were talking about my smoking, and I just coughed now and I saw some bright red stuff that I thought might be blood in the sink. Obviously I’m a little concerned so if you could give me a-“

Dr Natalie Moores pulled the phone from her ear and hit the call back button on the answering machine. She didn’t panic easily, however she was a little worried because coughing up blood could present a more serious threat to her patient. She thought it best to contact immediately and recommend he go to a hospital as her practice was closed today. It was a Tuesday, and her practice was always closed on Tuesdays. She had been screening the messages at lunch as she regularly did on the off chance there was something important that needed emergency handling. This seemed like just the case.

After three rings Chris answered the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hello? Is this Chris Schafer?”

“Speaking,” replied Chris.

“Hey, Chris, this is Doctor Moores. I just wanted to call you back about the message you left today.”

“I didn’t leave a message today?” Chris said sounding confused.

“You didn’t leave a message today?” the doctor repeated.

“No.”

“The message about coughing up blood?” Natalie continued, puzzled by the development.

“Oh, that message,” Chris confirmed with sudden enlightenment, “I left that last week!”

“Last week?” Natalie asked in shock, “What do you mean I’m looking at the time stamp right now. The voicemail machine says it was recorded twenty minutes ago.”

“That’s so weird,” Chris muttered, “I left that message last week. I remember specifically, it was last week on Tuesday.”

Natalie paused and looked at the calendar.

“Today is Tuesday, Chris.” Dr Moores said, “You’re sure it wasn’t today? What was the date you left the message on?”

“I called on the 13th,” Chris responded, “It really doesn’t matter though.” Natalie’s plucked brows furrowed as she stared at the calendar. It was the 20th today.

“Chris, today is the 20th. Are you telling me you left this message a week ago?”

“Yeah,” he said, “I don’t know why you’re getting it now. It’s really weird.”

“That is weird,” Dr Moores agreed, “Well, look, I’m really sorry about the late response. I’m not sure why the answering machine didn’t have this message until today but I wanted to talk more about what happened.”

“What with the blood from my cough?”

“Yeah, you said there was bright red blood in your phlegm, could you go into a little more detail?”

“Yeah sure,” Chris said, “It’s not really a big deal anymore but I coughed into the sink and there was a bunch of pinkish-red blood in the mucus. It was kinda frothy.”

“This was last week?” Natalie asked.

“Yeah, last Tuesday,” confirmed Chris, “It really doesn’t matter Dr Moores, I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Chris, this could actually be a sign of a more serious underlying problem.” Dr Moores replied, “I think you should go to your closest hospital to the ER because this could be as serious as a pulmonary edema.”

There was a moment of silence that made Natalie uncomfortable.

“Chris?” she asked, “Are you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. You said a pulmonary edema?”

“Yes,” Natalie replied, “I think you should get it checked out.” There was another pause from the other end of the line.

“Yeah, I think that’s what the guy said too,” Chris said finally, “That rings a bell.” Dr Moores was confused.

“What guy?” she asked, with a brief sense of relief, “Chris, have you already seen a medical specialist about this?”

“Yeah, there was a guy here who said that. Pulmonary edema. I’m pretty sure that’s what he said. He was an EMT.” Natalie felt more discombobulated.

“There was an EMT at your house Chris? What happened?”

“Well after I hung up last week I started getting really winded, like, it was hard to breathe.” Natalie felt her concern growing.

“Then I kinda keeled over onto my floor because I couldn’t really breathe properly and I started coughing up more blood.”

“Oh my god, Chris.”

“Yeah it was freaky. Just coughed up a bunch of blood, felt like I was drowning for a bit. It was miserable.”

“Are you ok? Are you in the hospital now?”

“No, I’m back at mine.”

“WHAT?” Dr Moores shouted down the phone, “They discharged you already?”

“What do you mean discharged me?” Chris asked in confusion, “I never went to the hospital.” Natalie was lost.

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, I never made it to the hospital.”

“What are you talking about Chris?”

“I died.”

---

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Natalie froze. She could feel her heart beating at her temples and knew a headache was coming on.

“Huh?” she asked in the utter bewilderment.

“I’m dead.” Chris explained, “I died like ten minutes after I called you. The EMT said there was nothing that could’ve saved me.”

Natalie pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at the receiver. Was this a joke?

“That’s not funny Chris,” she snapped.

“I’m serious doc,” Chris said, his voice sounding sincere, “I died last Tuesday! I don’t know why the message I left got to you today, and I don’t know how you’re calling me now. My apartment is filled with fog, it’s the strangest thing. I haven’t left in a week because of the shadow folk outside.”

“I don’t find this amusing at all Chris,” Natalie said furiously, “This isn’t funny and I don’t appreciate you wasting my time with practical jokes.” With that she hung up the phone.

As Natalie tried to listen to the remainder of the inbox, she felt her attention constantly dragged back to Chris’s claims. How could he mislead her like that? He always seemed so reasonable. She went to her computer feeling frustrated and searched for her patient by his first and last name.

The first search result for Christopher Schafer was an obituary dated five days ago. The cause of death was a pulmonary edema.

The eyes of Dr Natalie Moores were stuck to the screen like a tongue to ice.

“Huh?”

This couldn’t be real. She just kept reading and re-reading the obituary. There were pictures of the funeral, of family and friends consoling each other. At the bottom was a photo with the face of her patient, a soft, round face with large brown eyes and thinning blond hair. She recognized him instantly. She remembered the first time she met him when he walked into her office and shook her hand.

Was the webpage fake? Why would anyone do that?

Natalie felt her world tremble as she turned away from the computer monitor to look down at the answering machine on her desk. The small screen was still flashing from the most recent call.

12:42 Outgoing Call - Christopher Schafer - 3 minutes

She felt her shoulders shaking with tension as she was gripped with doubts about the events of the day. Dr Moores was neither religious nor gullible, but something caused the bottom of her stomach to sink when she considered her next action.

Should she call again?

Her finger hovered hesitantly above the button but try as she might to make a decision, she was utterly paralyzed by the possibilities. Would the phone be answered again? Did she even want that? Was she calling the afterlife?

Finally she could bear the curiosity no longer. She called the number and put the phone to her ear.

After three rings the phone was answered, and all she could hear now was screaming.

© 2025 Sebastian Arends | Sincerely Seb. All Rights Reserved

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