"Beep beep beep-voicemail!"
The Capture Styler, with its built-in vibration function, rang inside the bedside drawer, the noise particularly piercing in the silence of the night.
"Tch-"
Woken yet again, Tong Hua felt a little irritated. He narrowed his eyes and reached out to retrieve the Capture Styler.
Still half asleep, he pressed the button to answer the call.
"Hello? Who is this?"
His mind still foggy, Tong Hua asked groggily.
To his surprise, someone actually responded on the other end, but all that came through was a burst of broken, garbled noise.
"This is-the-east-now-back to-top floor-meet-"
"What did you say? I can't hear you-
The reception on this phone is terrible-" Tong Hua struggled to make out the fragmented words, his sleepiness gradually fading.
Only then did he suddenly realize that he wasn't on Earth. Where would he have gotten a phone?
Tong Hua snapped fully awake and stared at the Capture Styler in his hand, which was still emitting static.
"Come to the hotel-hurry outside-"
Tong Hua was just about to question the caller when the connection abruptly cut out.
The Capture Styler's screen flickered a few times before going completely dark. Silence immediately fell over the room, broken only by the faint chirping of insects outside the window.
"Cin?" Woken by the noise, Cinccino rubbed against Tong Hua's arm in confusion. The two Celebi woke up too, looking puzzled.
"What was that supposed to be-a midnight horror call?"
After that inexplicable voicemail, Tong Hua couldn't get back to sleep at all.
And judging by the information revealed in those few brief sentences, the caller seemed to be the Capture Styler's original owner.
"It sounded like they wanted to meet on the top floor of some hotel? And told me to go outside or something-
What exactly did