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The Voicemail from My Empty House | Psychological Horror · MYSTERY & HORROR STORIES

• 0:00
  At 11 .47, the telephone rang. Front desk, I
• 0:06
  said. Woman whispered. Please tell the man outside
• 0:11
  my room to stop knocking. Are you in? Six. I
• 0:20
  looked at the key rec. One, two, three, four,
• 0:24
  five, seven. There was no six. I think you had
• 0:30
  the wrong number. Three knocks sounded through
• 0:34
  the receiver. Then the woman said my name. Daniel,
• 0:39
  please. It was my first night at the Bellwether
• 0:43
  Motel. I had not told her my name. The owner,
• 0:49
  Mr. Vale, had hired me that afternoon cash wages
• 0:52
  midnight. He barely looked at my application.
• 0:57
  Before leaving, he showed me the register. If
• 1:03
  someone calls from room six, hang up. Laughed,
• 1:11
  he took the receiver from my hand and placed
• 1:13
  it firmly on its cradle. Whatever they say. Now
• 1:19
  I understood that he had not been joking. I disconnected
• 1:23
  the call. Beyond the office window, blurred the
• 1:29
  empty parking lot. Five cars, 12 rooms, a venting
• 1:33
  machine flickering beside the stairs. I counted
• 1:37
  the doors. One through five. Then seven. Between
• 1:45
  five and seven stood a wide brick wall. The telephone
• 1:49
  rang again. I let it ring. On the fourth ring,
• 1:56
  the security monitor just switched on. Six camera
• 2:00
  views appeared. The last showed a narrow corridor
• 2:05
  with peeling wallpaper. At its far end stood
• 2:09
  a woman in a pale coat. She was facing a door.
• 2:16
  Below the image white letters room six I checked
• 2:23
  the cables behind the monitor only five camera
• 2:27
  inputs When I look back my mother and dead for
• 2:37
  nine years there she stood same pale coat Same
• 2:46
  dark hair she raised her hand toward the camera
• 2:54
  the telephone stopped ringing Someone knocked
• 2:58
  on the office door three slow knocks. I ducked
• 3:05
  beneath the counter the glass above me familiar
• 3:09
  voice said My mother was the only person who
• 3:16
  called me that. I missed the last bus. I pressed
• 3:24
  my hands over my mouth. The doorknob turned once,
• 3:31
  then her voice changed. I know you can hear me.
• 3:38
  A car passed on the highway. For a moment, headlights
• 3:42
  opened across the office. The shadow outside
• 3:45
  the door stretched backward across the parking
• 3:48
  lot. It had too many arms. I stayed beneath the
• 3:55
  counter, but the footsteps moved away. He answered
• 4:06
  before the first ring finished. Did you speak
• 4:10
  to it? Did you open anything? Go to supply cupboard
• 4:26
  bottom shelf. There is an old register. The cupboard
• 4:35
  smelled of bleach and wet cardboard. Beneath
• 4:39
  a stack of towels lay a leather book. Every page
• 4:43
  contained the same six columns. Name arrival
• 4:48
  room payment departure signature. I found my
• 4:53
  name near the back. The arrival date was tomorrow.
• 5:02
  Room 6. Under payment. Someone had written. The
• 5:17
  signature was mine. Not similar. Even the small
• 5:27
  break in the final letter. Pen always skipped.
• 5:36
  How was this year? Mr. Vail breathed heavily
• 5:43
  into the phone. Listened carefully at midnight.
• 5:49
  There will be a door between 5 and 7.