It was a rainy evening, around nine-thirty, when the telephone began ringing in the hallway.
Naomi looked up from the dishes, looking down the hall towards the telephone sitting on the table, near the door. She grabbed a dish towel, drying her hands of the soap and water, and headed towards the ringing device.
Naomi picked up the phone and answered, "Hello?"
Static was the only thing that answered her, so she hung up.
Naomi scowled and began walking away from the phone, only managing to get a few steps before stopping again when the phone began ringing again. She looked back, heaving a sigh, and headed towards it again.
As Naomi's hand hovered over the phone, she noticed the notepad next to the phone had been written on it.
Don't answer...
Naomi sighed, unamused. It must have been her husband playing a prank on her, trying to scare her.
Naomi picked up the phone again. "Jim, knock it off, this isn't funny!" She slammed the phone down, and walked away again towards the sink to finish the dishes.
When Naomi was done with the dishes, she crossed the plush tile and headed up the stairs to begin her shower before bed.
As Naomi began opening the door to the bathroom, gripping her pajamas in her arms, she was startled by the lamp falling over behind her, shattering into pieces.
Naomi ignored it and turned back to the bathroom door, continuing forward to begin her shower. Once the water was running, she stripped and stepped in. She got out a few minutes later, fully cleaned, and headed towards the sink to brush her hair, teeth, and get dressed into her pajamas. She froze, though, when she saw a yellow sticky note pinned to the mirror.
Don't answer...
Naomi jumped slightly as her cellphone next to her began ringing.
Continuing to believe this was her husband playing a prank on her, Naomi picked up the phone.
"I swear, Jim," Naomi said, "this is getting really old. So-" Naomi quickly cut off when she realized no one was on the other end of the line. There was just rhythmic beeping in her ear, almost like a heartbeat.
Naomi hung up and threw the phone aside, only to jump again when it began ringing once again. Naomi, this time, didn't pick up, feeling a small wave of terror run over her. There was no caller ID, and Naomi knew that whenever Jim called it always showed his name on the dim screen. So, if it wasn't Jim calling, who was it?
Naomi let the caller go to voicemail as she went back to getting ready for bed. She slowly brushed her hair, that small pricking in the back of her mind telling her something was wrong, but she continued to ignore it, figuring it was her imagination.
Naomi ignored all the chills running down her spine, and spit out the toothpaste built in her mouth into the sink, rinsing soon after. When she leaned back up, she flinched when seeing a dark figure in the mirror. She turned around, but nothing was behind her, and when she looked back to the mirror, it was gone. She must have been tired and had begun seeing things. Yes, that must have been it.
Naomi quickly got changed into her pajamas, hanging up her towel in the process, and left the bathroom, leaving her cellphone behind on the white counter. She quickly got to her bedroom, shutting the door behind her, and locked it. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, but her anxiety returned when she heard the phone ring right behind her.
Naomi slowly turned her head to look back over her shoulder and saw her cellphone sitting right on the bedside table, ringing. She remembered leaving her phone behind in the bathroom, so there was no way- That's when she heard it. The small, almost unnoticeable, static noise right behind her left ear.
Chills ran up Naomi's spine as the static noise got closer and closer. Fear coursed through her veins as she felt breath tickle the side of her neck. She couldn't get the courage to scream, only stand there in pure, and utter, horror.
When Jim returned home from his late night at work, he was surprised to find his wife dead in their bedroom. Her head had been completely turned around, and a look of absolute terror was left on her face. And in Naomi's wide mouth was a piece of paper, reading:
Don't answer the telephone.
