《100 Short Scary Stories》9. 911
Advertisement
Enjoy, vote and comment:)
***
This took place when I was about 10 years old. My mom had rather quickly filed for divorce, but she only had a part-time job and made very little money, so finding a place to stay that was affordable and available immediately was tough. A friend of hers told her that she and her husband had a little mobile home that was currently sitting empty and we could rent it practically for free 'til we figured out something else.
I immediately didn't like the house. Part of this I'm sure was due to my parents' abrupt divorce and having my life turned upside down, but it was also just the house itself. We lived in a mountain town, and this mobile home was way up a steep mile-long driveway. Beautiful pine trees surrounded it, but the house itself looked abandoned and out of place. It had two bedrooms and two bathrooms, so my brother and I shared a room and my mom took the bedroom with the attached bathroom. It was a very '70s home, with wood paneling and dated fixtures. There were also areas that showed strange damage, like holes in the wall that were badly patched up. For whatever reason, I immediately refused to use the hallway bathroom. I wouldn't even step into it. My mom never really asked me why or questioned it, but let me use her bathroom.
Anyway, my mom was gone a lot trying to find whatever work she could, so I would be home alone a lot after school and on the weekends. Each time I received the 911 call, I was by myself.
My mom always told us not to answer the door, but we should always answer the phone in case it was her. So when the phone rang one afternoon, I figured it would be my mom since no one else really had our number yet. There was a woman on the phone who sounded very concerned.
Advertisement
"Hello, this is 911, returning your call. We received your call, but we got disconnected," the woman said.
I immediately got a sick feeling. I told her that I did not call 911, and she asked me if there was anyone else in the house who might have called. I said I was home alone, but I started to get really worried that maybe I wasn't. She said she would dispatch police to our address just to make sure everything was okay.
At that point, I was terrified to be in the house, so I sat outside and nervously waited for the police, who showed up in about 15-20 minutes. The officer asked me if I had called 911, and I said "no," but they claimed I had called them. The officer just sort of shrugged, and said, "This kind of thing sometimes happens. They say that it can't, that the numbers can't get mixed up, but it happens." He did a cursory glance around the outside of the house and left.
I tried to convince myself that the officer was right. It was just a mixed-up phone call, and hopefully whoever did actually call got the help they needed.
About a month later, the same thing happened. I got another phone call from 911, saying they had received a phone call from my number. I told them again that it must have been a mistake. The woman on the phone scolded me a bit, telling me that 911 wasn't something to play around with and I was preventing people from getting help. She didn't dispatch any police this time. Again, I was really worried someone was in the house, so I cautiously checked and made sure all the doors were still locked.
I don't know why, but I always kept the hallway bathroom door closed. Maybe because of the eerie feeling I got from it. As I was checking the house, I just knew someone was in that bathroom. I was terrified. Part of me felt like I needed to open the door to check, maybe to prove myself wrong, but I was too afraid. So I just sat in the living room, watching that door. It was so quiet in the house, that after a few minutes I swore I started to hear faint little sounds coming from inside, like a kind of shuffling noise. I asked my mom to check the bathroom when she got home and she quickly looked inside. She made me come and look to see that it was empty and I was letting my imagination get the better of me.
Advertisement
The 911 calls happened three more times over the coming months, and only when I was home alone. The fourth time the dispatcher told me I could face criminal charges for what I was doing and they would contact my parents. I hung up the phone sobbing and terrified. I had that feeling like someone was in the house again, but if I called 911, they probably wouldn't even show up. I felt like the girl who cried wolf, only it wasn't me. It was like someone was playing a horrible, twisted joke on me. I sat and watched the bathroom door again, hearing noises like someone dragging their fingers across the door.
I decided my mom was right, and I was probably just letting my imagination get away. I decided to try and leave the bathroom door open so I wouldn't get so freaked out by the thought that someone was in there. Then I got the fifth 911 call. This time though, after I hung up the phone with the dispatcher, the bathroom door slammed shut.
I ran. I ran all the way down our steep driveway and found a place to wait till my mom pulled into the drive. When she arrived, she was angry with me for leaving the house, but she saw how upset I was. I think maybe she thought I was acting out due to the stress of the divorce. I refused to be alone in the house again though, so we worked it out so I would stay later at school or go to a nearby friend's house till she got off work. Not long after this, we got a notice from my mom's friend that we needed to move out of the house because she her mom needed a place to stay. I was so grateful to be moving out. I told my mom she needed to tell her friend that someone was wrong with the house, but my mom thought that was a ridiculous way to pay back someone's generosity.
I moved around a lot the next few years and tried to forget about that house. It wasn't until I was older that I really thought about it. I witnessed an accident and had to call 911 and the fear and paranoia all came flooding back. I decided to do some research, which honestly, I wish I had never done. A few years before we moved in, a woman was killed in that house in some kind of "domestic dispute." It was days, though, before she was found, shut up in the bathroom.
Are any of y'all scared of the dark? Let me know in the comments.
Advertisement
- In Serial136 Chapters
New Earth
Kade Evans got handed a bad hand in life, being left with little and nobody he can count on. Having experienced betrayal he finds himself living alone and with nothing to live for. A newly launched fulldive game: 'New Earth' offers him something he is looking for, whether that is a goal, a chance to start over, or a way to escape the past. Will he be able to find a new beginning and live in peace as he hopes, or will the past find him before he is strong enough to handle it? [Participant of the April 2021 Royal Road Writathon challenge].
8 116 - In Serial99 Chapters
The Mortal Acts
The Mortal Acts is an epic progression fantasy with a lower focus on training aspects and a great focus on discovering new ways of using powers intelligently. I've always been drawn to stories where characters use their powers creatively to overcome opponents and obstacles, and I think all the possibilities can provide a great playground for twists and turns. It's inspired by a variety of media, including Will Wight's Cradle, Hunter x Hunter, and Bioshock, so if you like the creative power use elements from those, come check it out. This is my first serial, and please feel free to leave comments and feedback. For backstory, behind-the-scenes, and other fun stuff, come chat on my discord! Become a patron to read up to 20 chapters ahead here! Blurb: Riven Morell cuts short his regular life at school and home when his mother falls terminally ill. Desperate to find a cure, he travels to Severance Frontier, a desolate land haunted by hordes of ghosts, witches, and demons collectively called the Deathless. But a miraculous cure doesn’t magically fall into his hands. Things are worse in Severance Frontier than Riven had assumed. Ghosts are banding together into armies, demons are kidnapping anyone who strays out of settlements, and witches are enslaving everyone left and right. Riven, of course, gets embroiled in the mess. Missions to curb the Deathless activity are one thing, but when it starts to look like this is just the beginning of a war that extends beyond the mortal realm, Riven has a hard time focusing on why he came to Severance Frontier in the first place. His mother is inching towards death with every passing day, but if he doesn’t face down the Deathless, what little civilization the Frontier holds will be overrun and destroyed. Thankfully, it looked like the Deathless might just hold the secret of the elusive cure.
8 257 - In Serial58 Chapters
Hero Scout
Powerful criminals are to become villains and bring catastrophe. All 18 are sent into a Fantasy world using a Quantum machine called the Medusa. Yet one dies prematurely, his corpse turned to stone. Kenji, the cunning gamer, is brought in to replace him. A master of strategy, quick thinking, and quicker with his silver tongue, Kenji the gamer is set into the death-game a tad confused. With nothing but his ability at gaming up his sleeve, Kenji is expected to out-think his enemy and prove them fools through his fantastical schemes. All 17 crime lords are given powerful starting abilities, hellish and heavenly, designed to unleash destruction upon the people of this new world. Yet Kenji alone is singled out, and after some quick thinking, attains a new title. Instead of being a new villain of this fantastical world, he'll scout out and protect budding heroes from the crime lords wrath. Kenji will become... The Hero Scout!
8 402 - In Serial12 Chapters
Unaccompanied Minor
David is thirteen. He's on his way to see his grandparents in Bent Fork, a one-horse community in northern British Columbia. David is ambivalent about the trip. He's expecting little more than a week of cheek pinching from Nana's neighbours. Yet, his brothers both made the same trip when they turned thirteen. And they seemed to have come back... well, different. Upon his arrival, he receives a package in the mail. It's marked only with his name, followed by the words "Bent Fork." He doesn't recognize the language nor the currency of the postage stamps. David is about to discover there is much more than he had imagined to Bent Fork, its residents and his own history. https://unaccompaniedminor.substack.com/about
8 197 - In Serial16 Chapters
Brave Realm Odyssey - Adventurer Resolution
Grinding, farming, sleeping. Brave Realm Odyssey was everything Astre's life revolved around for the last two years. All of his actions focused on achieving a single goal. Saving enough money to save his sister. To not fail again. As the time limit crawled closer, he sees his final chance. Brave Realm Odyssey's greatest tournament and it's first place reward.[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] *** Hello there. It's just my rambling here, so nothing exciting. I have been writing quite a bit since the last time I posted on this site. Honestly, I wanted to get rid of that failure of mine, but I keep it up both to embarrass and motivate myself. I keep thinking to myself that one day I will go and fix it. Something more, well, this is an excuse, but English is not my first language. It will never be, and I think it will always hold me back in some way or form. That said, don't fear to berate me and to criticize my work or being toxic. I think I can take that. I somehow want that. Any attention is better than none, isn't it? That's all! I hope you will enjoy this work.
8 189 - In Serial20 Chapters
It's Not Over
Four years after letting Annalise go, Rosie moves to Seattle seeking treatment and reconciliation with the woman now known as Lieutenant Andrea Herrera, bringing her past to light in the process.
8 80

