🩸 "The Last Call"
656 Words
Chapter 1: The Call Center
That Never Died
In the foggy hill station of Kalapathar, there’s an old building no one visits — Block C, of the defunct telecom office. It was shut down in 2004, after a mysterious fire killed seven call center agents on night shift. Their bodies were never found. Locals say their souls are still trapped in that building, bound to the last numbers they dialed.
Every year, on the same night in December, one of those phones rings again — somewhere in town. Whoever answers… is never seen again.
Chapter 2: The Stranger
Rhea Kapoor, a Mumbai journalist with a taste for unsolved mysteries, arrives in Kalapathar after hearing whispers of this local legend. She books a room in the quiet Blue Hill Lodge, where the innkeeper, Mrs. D'Souza, gives her a grim warning:
“Don’t answer unknown numbers after midnight. Especially if the screen just says: UNKNOWN LINE.”
Rhea laughs it off. Urban legends were her bread and butter.
But that night, at 12:33 AM, her phone vibrates.
No number.
Just:
UNKNOWN LINE CALLING...
Chapter 3: The Voice on the Line
She answers.
Static.
Then… a voice. Female. Soft.
“Help… I can’t see… it’s so dark here.”
Rhea’s breath catches.
“Who is this?”
“They took my eyes. They want yours now.”
Click.
The line goes dead.
The next morning, she checks her call logs.
Nothing.
No record of any call.
Chapter 4: The Others
At the local tea stall, she meets Suman, a former telecom worker.
He admits: “I worked in that call center the night it burned. I swapped shifts with my friend Meera… she died instead.”
He shows Rhea a photo of the seven agents.
She freezes.
One of them is the woman whose voice she heard last night.
“She’s calling from inside the exchange,” Suman whispers. “But that place… it’s sealed.”
Rhea insists on visiting it.
Suman warns her: “You can go. But if the phone rings while you're inside… never answer.”
Chapter 5: Inside Block C
The building is half-burnt, moss-covered, and stinks of rust and decay. Rhea enters with a flashlight, camera rolling.
Desks are frozen in time — phones melted, coffee mugs still on tables. Papers lie scattered.
Then she hears it.
A phone ringing.
Tring. Tring.
One desk. One handset. Intact. Ringing.
Her hand trembles.
She picks it up.
“You answered.”
All the phones start ringing at once.
Then silence.
The door slams shut.
And she sees them — seven burned silhouettes slowly rising from the chairs.
Eyes hollow. Mouths sewn shut.
Chapter 6: The Trade
Rhea backs away, but the floor collapses beneath her. She lands in the basement.
The switchboard room.
A phone glows in the dark.
It rings.
This time, a man answers on the other end.
“Hello? Who is this?”
She screams: “Help! Please get me out!”
“Who is this?” he repeats.
Then she realizes — the man sounds like her father.
“Papa?”
But she never gave him this number.
The voice laughs. Not her father.
“We called you. Now you call someone. That’s the deal.”
“Call who?!”
“Someone you love. Trade them in. Or stay here… forever.”
Chapter 7: Final Choice
She refuses.
“No. I won’t do this.”
The line goes quiet.
Then… applause.
The seven figures appear again. This time, clearer. Human-like.
Meera steps forward. She smiles.
“You broke the loop.”
They vanish. The phone shatters.
The doors unlock.
Rhea escapes — breathless, sobbing.
Epilogue:
Back in Mumbai, Rhea publishes her story: “The Last Call”. The video goes viral. She’s hailed as a brave reporter.
But one night, while editing her podcast…
Her phone rings.
No number.
Just:
BLOCK C CALLING...
She stares.
Then answers.
Click.
The End
- Writer
