In a new, eerie home filled with unsettling secrets, a seemingly innocent 12-year-old girl named Sash and her family embark on a chilling journey into the unknown. As they unpack their belongings and adjust to their surroundings, they can't help but feel an inexplicable sense of unease.
Sash's playful innocence soon takes a sinister turn when she begins to communicate with an otherworldly presence through a mysterious Ouija board. Messages from the beyond claim to be from her father, but what lurks in the shadows may be far more malevolent than they ever imagined.
With each passing night, the family becomes entangled in a web of paranormal phenomena, unable to escape the growing darkness that envelopes them. Sash's behavior becomes increasingly bizarre, and her family suspects she may be the key to understanding the malevolent force that has taken hold of their lives.
As terrifying events escalate, her family is driven to the brink of despair, forced to confront the unimaginable. The house reveals its secrets in a hidden basement shrine, and they come face to face with a malevolent entity that has possessed their once-innocent daughter.
In a battle between light and darkness, the family must fight for their lives against an ancient evil that knows no bounds. Will they survive the relentless horrors that threaten to consume them, or will they become mere pawns in a sinister game orchestrated by forces beyond their comprehension?
"When They Call, You Aren't Supposed to Answer" is a bone-chilling tale of innocence lost, darkness found, and a home transformed into a nightmarish realm where answering the call of the unknown leads to unspeakable horrors.
Antique store owner Liz brings home a Victorian taxidermy hound from auction, unwittingly unleashing dark forces on her wife and son.
*****
Nat Loman has finally married the love of her life, Liz, and is getting used to her role as stepmother to Liz's 5-year-old son, Liam. The Loman family runs a bustling antique business so they attend a sale where a striking, black taxidermied hound is up for auction. Liz picks it up for the business, but it ends up being stored in their home, where Nat notices strange things occurring. She quickly discovers the past residents had died violently. Then she hears from a friend about the myth of "the devil's dog", a hound that perches in the shadows, tearing families apart from the inside. Soon, people around the Lomans are dying, and Liz is changing, darkening. It's up to Nat to save the woman she loves from the darkness closing in, and to save Liam from danger no matter what she has to sacrifice.
[[Winner of the 2018 Wattys "Hidden Gems" category]]
[[word count: 60,000-70,000 words]]