It was 11:00 p.m. Mark was sitting alone on the living room sofa as a torrential rain poured down outside the window, accompanied by the rumble of thunder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suddenly, the landline phone on the coffee table rang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark frowned. This old-fashioned landline had been left behind by the landlord when he moved into this old house; the lines had long since been cut, and it didn\u2019t even make a dial tone, let alone ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRing-ring\u2014ring-ring\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ringing sounded particularly jarring in the empty living room. Mark hesitated for a moment, but picked up the receiver anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHello?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was no response on the other end, only a crackling static, as if someone were breathing from a great distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWho is it?\u201d Mark asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c\u2026Where\u2026 are\u2026 you\u2026\u201d came a hoarse, distorted voice, as if it were bubbles rising from the bottom of a body of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark\u2019s heart sank, and he immediately hung up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stared at the landline, his heart racing. Maybe it was a short circuit? he reassured himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But ten seconds later, the phone rang again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This time, he didn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRing-ring\u2014ring-ring\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ringing continued, as if someone were frantically dialing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark stood up and unplugged the phone cord from the wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The phone finally fell silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He let out a sigh of relief and turned to head back to his bedroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just then\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRing-ring\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The phone rang again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He spun around abruptly, staring at the landline that wasn\u2019t connected to any wires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ringing came one note after another, like a death knell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without another moment\u2019s hesitation, he picked up the receiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWho the hell are you?!\u201d he shouted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end, then a voice came through, clear enough to send chills down his spine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark froze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat\u2026 do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou shouldn\u2019t have answered this call,\u201d the voice said. \u201cNow, you can\u2019t get out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No sooner had the words left its mouth than the living room lights suddenly went out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark tried to run, but found his feet as if nailed to the floor\u2014he couldn\u2019t move a single step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He looked down and saw his shadow slowly crawling up from the floor, reaching out toward him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The phone was still ringing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this time, the ringing was coming from right next to his ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He looked down and saw that he was still holding the receiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And on the other end of the line, he heard his own voice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHello?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Call He Shouldn’t Have Answered<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[18,22],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-suspense","tag-story","tag-suspense"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":398,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions\/398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyrecyclebin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}