My Ghostly Husband Is Haunting My Phone

The eerie voice continued, “It is two minutes past midnight, and You, are all alone. You tuned into this radio channel, perhaps out of curiosity or some other reason. It’s not important, now. What matters is that you heard the introduction by me, the host, and naturally, You’re feeling a little spooked. So, you wrapped yourself up with your blanket in the corner of the bed.”

The feeling that she was being watched from all sides was unbearable. Despite the growing sense of fear that gripped her heart, Tang Tian took a deep breath and sprinted out of her room. She returned with a knife from the kitchen in her hands, which she brandished at the mobile phone on her bed, and masked her fear by hollering, “Stop playing games! Show yourself!” 

From her previous experiences, she noticed that she mustn’t show fear. If she did, she would feel weaker and whatever supernatural forces out there would take advantage of it. 

So, she must not cower in fear!

 The child seemed unfazed by her threat as the voice continued to weave the story nonchalantly, “You hear the thump of footsteps on floorboards, coming from somewhere above you…” 

Tang Tian jumped upon hearing faint footsteps from the floor above her, just as the voice had predicted. It sounded like a child ran across the room. 

“…Followed by the sound of marbles falling onto the floor. Tap. Tap. Tap.” 

While the host spoke, Tang Tian slowly stepped backward until her back was against the wall. She gritted her teeth to stop herself from shivering with fear, her hands tightening around the hilt of the knife. The slightest sounds seemed to become eerily amplified as they echoed against the walls in the middle of the night. 

The floorboards are making that sound because of the joists expanding and contracting in reaction to changes in temperatures. Just a normal scientific phenomenon… Tang Tian frantically explained to herself in her mind. 

“You try to convince yourself that this is a normal scientific phenomenon.” The child laughed shrilly, “But then, you hear the sound of wind chimes ringing. Jingle jangle, jingle jangle. Loud and clear.” 

Jingle jingle jingle.

The colour drained from Tang Tian’s face. When she first stepped into this apartment, she had noticed the old wind chime hanging by the balcony. It had been silent all this while, because it had lost its bells. She had even thought of borrowing a ladder from a neighbour to take it down, but she had forgotten all about it. And yet, now…

“What a nice sounding bell, isn’t it?” The child asked with an innocent voice laced with malice. “But it is a curse that foretells your death!” 

“Along with the sweet ringing sounds, you hear the sound of footsteps approaching. They get closer and closer…” 

Creaaak

Tang Tian’s breath was caught in her throat. One of the floorboards outside her room creaked loudly. Her senses were heightened as she strained her ears to catch the slightest sound. 

Then, another creak was heard, and another.

She heard the footsteps entering the master bedroom, then growing fainter, seemingly turning back to the living room. There was a brief silence, as though the presence beyond the door was trying to guess her location, Suddenly, the sound of loud, heavy footsteps landing on the floorboards could be heard, getting louder as they neared the bedroom where she was in before stopping just outside. 

Tang Tian held her breath as she cautiously put her weight against the door, knife clutched tightly in her hands.

“You’re hiding behind the door, and you seem… terrified. I can hear how fast your heart is beating. Ba-dump, ba-dump.” The child giggled. 

There was a moment of suffocating silence before the child spoke again through the mobile phone, “Your head is leaning against the door, and so is mine.” Then the child sang a line that was seemingly out of a nursery rhyme, “Such good friends are we, leaning on each other in harmony.” 

Tang Tian immediately jerked backward, her legs wobbly with fear. She felt the growing dread in her chest suffocating her as she stared at the door with wide-open eyes. 

She had already locked the door, and there was no peephole either. There was no explanation for how the host of the radio channel knew exactly what was going on, which inevitably led her to a horrifying thought:

A ghost is watching me through that thin wooden door, like a predator stalking its prey. 

Tang Tian felt her blood run cold, causing her to shiver violently. 

Suddenly, the mobile phone switched to playing static , while the voice of a child came from behind the door. “Big Sister! I am here to play with you! Please open the door!” The child knocked on the door twice while he spoke in an innocently ecstatic tone.

“Go away!” Tang Tian growled, suppressing the urge to scream. She shifted her pose, brandishing the knife toward the direction of the door. 

This ghost seemed dangerous. It made her feel the same terror she had felt when she first met Chen Xu. Although Chen Xu was unlikely to harm her, she could not say the same for this child ghost outside her room.

“Big Sister!” The child ghost kept knocking on the door. 

Knock, knock, knock.

“Fate has brought you to me, to this radio channel. It is the result of your fortune and misfortune. So please keep me company, I feel so very lonely.” 

Suddenly, the ghost quickened its knocking, each knock sounding louder than the last. With each knock, the ghostly voice grew more insistent, as though it was leading Tang Tian closer to death with every second. “Big Sister! Big Sister!”

 Thwack, thwack, thwack.

“Open up! Come play with me!” The voice was now earsplittingly shrill. Tang Tian could no longer differentiate whether the voice was coming from beyond the door or the mobile phone, or everywhere all at once. The sound was discordant, like sharp nails clawing at her eardrums, causing her head to throb painfully. 

Tang Tian tried hard to think. She struggled to stand straight as she shouted, “What happens if I play with you? What else do you want me to do? Or rather, what are you going to do with me?”

I need to buy myself some time! Maybe find out more about this ghost. Anything to stop it from coming in and for me to take control of the situation!