After spending the night in the ER, waiting for a doctor to look at my busted foot, I sure am glad I decided to share these unpublished Flasher stories to the blog. Luckily, all I have is a sprain, but I’m tired and sore, and grateful that this month’s short story is already written and ready to go.
This one is inspired by a bit of day-to-day life. My husband and I both have our own unique hearing difficulties, which leads to a lot of “Did you call me?”, “What was that?”, and other assorted questions. I wanted to play around with that concept for a horror story. What if neither one of us said anything?
Another Room
“What was that?” she called over her shoulder. There was no answer from her husband. “Babe, did you call me?”
Still nothing. She shrugged her shoulders and returned to her book.
After getting through only a page and a half, she heard it again. A muffled voice calling her name from the den – her husband’s gaming room.
“Babe? You okay?”
“…here.”
She sat up and put her book down on the coffee table.
“What did you say?”
“Come here.” She had to strain to hear it, but she caught the words this time.
“Okay, give me a sec.”
“Please hurry,” he said a little louder, but without any urgency, as she got up off the couch.
“Yeah, in a second.”
“What’s up?”
The sound of her husband’s voice coming from behind her now made her jump.
“Jeez, you almost gave me a heart attack! How did you get in here so fast?”
“What do you mean?” he said, smiling over the fact that he managed to startle her.
“Weren’t you just calling me from your gaming room?”
“No, I was upstairs. I finally put away that laundry you’ve been bugging me about,” he added jokingly, but his wife didn’t smile.
“But I’m sure I heard…” she turned in the direction of the den just as her husband’s voice called out again.
“Please, come here. Hurry.”
Wide eyed, she spun around to face her husband. His smile was gone.
“That… wasn’t me,” he said quietly.
They both looked towards the den.
“Please,” said the voice again.
She turned to her husband. “Then, who is it?”