Chapter 16.

The music only grew louder as time went on and my heart rate was slightly elevated now. It was only natural, spooky music was known to be the basis of building atmosphere. My mind told me to run for the hills, but my body wouldn’t listen as the curiosity only rose in my heart. I really wished it was just a twisted joke and my coworkers would jump out from the surrounding rooms and scream out “you got punked boy,” but it never happened. Instead, the music just got creepier and creepier the longer it played.

Against my instincts to flee, I moved my eye into the gap to peek inside the room, but I failed to discover anyone hiding inside. The only thing that stood out was Rick’s smartphone on the table vibrating as it played the creepy music. I stared at it until the music suddenly stopped and I heard the expected voicemail prompt from my phone.

“Hi, this is Rick, I’m sorry I couldn’t catch your call. Please leave a message after the beep and I’ll return your call as soon as possible.”

However, strangely enough, the beep didn’t come. It went on in silence for a few more seconds before I heard an unsettling, but extremely quiet, and drawn-out whisper from the recording.

“Rick will never be able to return your call.”

I was startled out of my mind as chills ran down my back. I dropped my phone and backed up to the wall staring on in abject horror towards the door.

“Dude, Rick! Stop messing around man! This isn’t a joke anymore! I’m serious! I’ll call the police if you don’t answer soon.”

Naturally, despite my pleas, there was no response from anyone behind the door. I really wasn’t joking when I said that I’d call the cops, so I crawled over to my phone and started to dial 911. Just as I was about to press the call button, my phone abruptly powered off from a low battery. I hadn’t charged it since yesterday, but I was certain I still had at least 20% battery life before I called him. Could it be off because I haven’t calibrated it in over a year now? Maybe it was from the fall just now. Was it damaged?

I refused to believe something unscientific like a ghost drained my battery. Maybe it’s still on but my present state of mind is just deceiving me into thinking it appears off? I pressed down on the home button, but there wasn’t any vibration, which left me a bit more convinced that it likely was really dead after all. Of course, that’s under the assumption that my brain isn’t playing tricks with my sense of touch as well.

I really needed a therapist ASAP.

No matter what, I didn’t want to go into the room so I ran down the hall back towards the staircase. I burst through the door into the stairwell and stumbled to my feet upon entering. When I looked back up, what I saw next left me deeply shaken. In front of me, rather than stairs, was the inside of a room. The smartphone I’d previously seen on the table inside Rick’s room was directly in front of me.

When I looked to the left and right, I confirmed it was definitely the inside of Rick’s unit. There was a kitchen to my right, washroom to my left, and the door to his bedroom directly in front of me. His living room was towards the far right corner of the unit while his bedroom was at the far left, towards the back.

I fell backward onto my bottom as I crab-walked in reverse out of the room and turned around only to see the exact same scenery I had been staring at. When I did another 180 it was once again the exact same. I couldn’t return to the hallway no matter what I did and I was a trapped rat with no path to escape.

I stumbled over to Rick’s phone and pressed the power button five times in rapid succession and tried to make an emergency call, but I found that when the call connected there was no ring tone. There was only the sound of static on the line.

“Ghosts aren’t real. Ghosts aren’t real. Ghosts aren’t real. There is a logical reason for everything. I’m just insane. I must be. I’ve only ever been involved with insane women my entire life. Surely my sanity has gone down the drain thanks to that.”

An unexpected response in the form of a ghastly whisper was mixed into the static noise emitted from the other end of the phone call I made with Rick’s phone.

“You’re not insane, you just belong to me now.”

Without another thought, I tossed his phone far away through the opening of his living room area into the rightmost corner, the furthest away from me. I didn’t want to be anywhere near his haunted phone from hell.

I burst through the bedroom door praying my coworker would be there, but there really was nobody home after all. I checked the closet in his bedroom before I moved to the bathroom to check the tub. When I thought back to my dream the night before, I was a bit concerned as to whether he experienced something similar to what I had. Thankfully I didn’t find any dead bodies, which was a huge weight off my mind.

I searched through his entire place in hopes of locating some trace of him, but I didn’t find anything in the end. When I exited the bathroom and turned to the unit’s entrance, I realized the hallway had finally returned.

With freedom in sight and the realization my coworker definitely was nowhere to be found at home, I tossed my thoughts of him to the back of my mind and fled for my life. It was only for a short time, but I’d definitely had enough of this bizarre looping twilight world for today.

I closed the door behind me and escaped at the fastest speeds known to man, down the staircase, directly out of the building with my tail tucked between my legs. I surely would have given Usain Bolt a run for his money.

With a lingering fear hanging over my neck, I immediately drove back to my apartment to gather some things to sleep in my car for a few days. I couldn’t stay at hotels or my own room in peace, but surely nothing spooky would happen while staying out in my car in a parking lot, right?

Ugh. Sure, there are definitely stories about haunted cars; but my car is new, it’s not a classic or anything. In the unlikely event that a ghost had really haunted me, there was no way the ghost would be interested in a new car like mine, right? Right?! What were they going to do? Mess with my bluetooth? Interfere with the heated seats and make them cold seats instead?

In all honesty, I’d much rather take my chances with my car over my apartment or a hotel room right now.