EPISODE 5 — THE VOICE INSIDE LEAH
1746 Words
Every phone in the station rang at once.
Nora couldn’t see anything.
The lights had gone out.
People screamed around them.
Someone knocked over a chair.
A child began crying.
Then, through all the noise, Nora heard one sound.
Leah screaming.
“Get it out!”
Nora reached for her.
“Leah!”
“GET IT OUT!”
Nora grabbed her friend’s shoulders.
“What’s happening?”
Leah’s body suddenly went rigid.
Her eyes rolled upward.
Then she stopped moving.
“Leah?”
Nothing.
Nora slapped her cheek gently.
“Leah, wake up.”
Leah slowly opened her eyes.
But the expression on her face wasn’t hers.
She smiled.
Nora stepped backward.
“Leah?”
Leah tilted her head.
“Hello, Nora.”
Nora froze.
It wasn’t Leah’s voice.
It was an old woman’s voice.
A voice full of exhaustion.
“You shouldn’t have answered the phone.”
Nora’s blood ran cold.
“Who are you?”
Leah smiled.
“You know me.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
The station lights flickered back on.
Leah blinked.
Her face returned to normal.
She looked around, confused.
“Nora?”
Nora stared at her.
“Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“The voice.”
“What voice?”
Nora didn’t answer.
The little boy was gone.
The station was almost empty.
People were rushing outside.
A security guard shouted for everyone to leave.
Nora grabbed Leah’s hand.
“Come on.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere private.”
They ran into the station bathroom.
Nora locked the door.
Leah leaned against the wall.
“What is happening?”
Nora stared at her.
“I think something is inside you.”
Leah laughed nervously.
“That’s not funny.”
“I’m serious.”
“I know.”
“You don’t remember what happened?”
“No.”
“You screamed.”
“What did I say?”
Nora hesitated.
“You told me to get it out.”
Leah’s face changed.
“I said that?”
“Yes.”
Leah covered her mouth.
Then she whispered:
“I heard someone.”
“Who?”
“My mother.”
Nora’s heart stopped.
“What did she say?”
“She told me to wake up.”
“Did she say anything else?”
Leah closed her eyes.
“She said…”
She stopped.
“What?”
“She said you’re the reason she disappeared.”
Nora stepped backward.
“Me?”
Leah opened her eyes.
“I don’t know what she meant.”
The old phone in Nora’s pocket vibrated.
Nora pulled it out.
One new message.
SHE’S LYING.
Another appeared.
YOUR MOTHER NEVER DISAPPEARED.
Nora’s stomach tightened.
She showed Leah.
Leah stared.
“Then where is she?”
The phone vibrated again.
A photograph appeared.
Nora recognized the room immediately.
The basement from the earlier picture.
But this time, the chair wasn’t empty.
A woman was sitting in it.
Her head was bowed.
Her hands were tied.
Leah stepped closer.
“That’s her.”
Nora zoomed in.
The woman lifted her head.
Her eyes looked directly at the camera.
Then the photograph changed.
A second person appeared behind her.
A little girl.
Nora.
Nora’s blood ran cold.
She dropped the phone.
Leah picked it up.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re in the picture.”
“I’ve never been there.”
“You’re a child.”
“I know.”
Leah stared at her.
“Maybe you don’t remember.”
Nora felt a familiar chill.
The same words.
You don’t remember.
She picked up the phone.
The image changed again.
Now there were two children.
Nora.
And another little girl.
The second girl was holding a red balloon.
Nora stared.
“I know her.”
Leah whispered:
“Who?”
“The boy from the station.”
“What boy?”
“The little boy who showed us the phone.”
Leah looked confused.
“There was no boy.”
Nora’s stomach dropped.
“Yes, there was.”
“No.”
“He was standing right in front of us.”
Leah shook her head.
“Nora, nobody was there.”
Nora stared at her.
“You didn’t see him?”
“No.”
The old phone rang.
Nora didn’t answer.
It rang again.
Then again.
Leah whispered:
“Maybe we should.”
Nora looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because maybe it’s my mother.”
Nora shook her head.
“You heard what the future me said.”
“The future you also said you were going to die tonight.”
Nora went silent.
Leah looked at the phone.
“Maybe she’s trying to scare us.”
The ringing stopped.
A message appeared.
LEAH IS RIGHT.
Another:
ANSWER.
Nora stared.
Then she pressed the call button.
“Hello?”
Silence.
She waited.
“Who is this?”
A breath.
Then a woman’s voice.
“Nora.”
Nora recognized it.
Her mother.
She almost dropped the phone.
“Mum?”
Leah stared at her.
Nora’s eyes filled with tears.
“Where are you?”
Her mother’s voice whispered:
“Don’t trust Leah.”
Nora looked at her friend.
“Why?”
“Because she isn’t alone.”
Leah’s face changed.
“What did she say?”
Nora didn’t answer.
Her mother continued.
“She brought it back.”
“Brought what?”
“The thing that lives between the calls.”
Nora’s skin prickled.
“What is it?”
Her mother began crying.
“The thing that wears people’s voices.”
Leah suddenly grabbed the phone.
“Mum?”
Silence.
Then her mother’s voice answered.
“Leah.”
Leah froze.
“Where are you?”
“Inside.”
“Inside where?”
“Inside you.”
The call ended.
Leah dropped the phone.
“No.”
Nora stepped toward her.
“Leah…”
“No.”
Leah backed away.
“My mother wouldn’t say that.”
The phone rang again.
This time, Leah answered.
“Mum?”
A child’s voice whispered:
“Hello, Leah.”
Leah’s eyes widened.
“Who are you?”
The child giggled.
“I’m the girl you left.”
Leah began shaking.
“I didn’t leave anyone.”
“You did.”
“Who?”
The voice whispered:
“Me.”
Leah’s face went white.
Nora watched her.
“Leah?”
Leah looked at Nora.
Tears were running down her face.
“I remember.”
“What?”
“My sister.”
The voice on the phone giggled again.
“She remembers.”
Nora stepped closer.
“What happened to your sister?”
Leah whispered:
“She didn’t die.”
Nora felt cold.
“She was taken.”
“By the house?”
Leah nodded.
“She was the first.”
Nora’s heart began pounding.
“The first what?”
Leah looked directly into Nora’s eyes.
“The first girl who answered the phone.”
The call ended.
Then every screen in the bathroom turned on.
Nora’s phone.
Leah’s phone.
The emergency display.
Even the tiny digital clock above the sink.
All showed the same time.
2:13.
The mirror began fogging.
Letters appeared across it.
Slowly.
As if an invisible finger was writing.
ONE ANSWERED.
Another line appeared.
ONE WAS TAKEN.
Then:
ONE CAME BACK.
Nora stared.
“What does that mean?”
Leah shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
The final words appeared.
AND ONE OF YOU IS NOT HUMAN.
Leah screamed.
The bathroom door slammed shut.
Nora tried the handle.
Locked.
“Open!”
Nothing.
Leah began crying.
“Nora…”
“What?”
“Look at the mirror.”
Nora turned.
Their reflections were standing side by side.
But there was something wrong.
Nora’s reflection was crying.
Leah’s reflection was smiling.
Then Leah’s reflection slowly raised its hand.
Leah didn’t.
The reflection pressed one finger against its lips.
Shhh.
Nora stepped backward.
“Leah…”
“What?”
“Don’t move.”
Leah froze.
Her reflection smiled wider.
Then the reflection whispered without moving its mouth:
“She still doesn’t know.”
Nora stared.
“Know what?”
The reflection pointed toward Leah.
Then toward Nora.
Then toward the floor.
A dark c***k appeared beneath them.
From inside it came the sound of a telephone ringing.
Nora whispered:
“There’s a phone under the floor.”
Leah shook her head.
“No.”
The ringing grew louder.
Nora looked down.
The tiles began lifting one by one.
Underneath them was darkness.
Then a hand slowly reached upward.
A woman’s hand.
Leah screamed.
The hand grabbed her ankle.
Nora pulled her away.
“Run!”
The bathroom door suddenly opened.
They rushed into the hallway.
The station was empty.
No passengers.
No guards.
No noise.
The entire building looked abandoned.
Nora looked at the clock.
2:13 a.m.
Leah stared at her.
“But it was morning.”
Nora’s phone vibrated.
A message appeared.
TIME DOESN’T MATTER HERE.
Another message followed.
ONLY ANSWERS DO.
Then the station announcement system crackled.
A woman’s voice spoke.
“Passenger Nora Bell…”
Nora froze.
Her full name.
“Please report to platform three.”
Leah grabbed her hand.
“Don’t go.”
The announcement repeated.
“Passenger Nora Bell…”
Then the voice changed.
It became Nora’s own voice.
“Your mother is waiting.”
Nora stared down the dark corridor.
At the end of it was a staircase.
Above the staircase was a sign:
PLATFORM 3
Leah whispered:
“We have to leave.”
Nora nodded.
But before they could move, a phone began ringing at the bottom of the stairs.
One ring.
Then another.
Nora looked at Leah.
Leah was crying.
“That’s my mother’s ringtone.”
The ringing stopped.
A voice rose from the darkness.
“Leah…”
Leah stepped toward the stairs.
Nora grabbed her.
“Don’t.”
The voice came again.
“Leah, sweetheart…”
Leah whispered:
“Mum?”
Nora tightened her grip.
“No.”
Then the voice said something that made both of them freeze.
Something only Leah’s mother could possibly know.
“Your sister isn’t dead.”
Leah slowly turned toward Nora.
The darkness beneath the stairs moved.
And a little girl stepped into the light.
She was holding a red balloon.
She looked at Leah.
Then at Nora.
And smiled.
“Finally.”
The balloon popped.
The station went dark.
And when the lights returned…
Leah was gone.
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