r/shortscarystories
2 mo. ago
gumptionwastaken
I Heard Myself Dıe
The town’s last phone booth stood like a relic in a dust-clogged field
behind the defunct gas station. No phone book. No dial tone. Just
glass streaked with sun-rot and someone’s greasy handprint on the
inside.
Mason, a 19-year-old community college dropout, discovered it.
He opened the booth. Dust curled out like breath. The phone, weirdly,
was intact. Cord tangled. Cracked receiver. But it was there.
And it rang.
He stared at it, goosebumps rising under his flannel. Who was calling a
đeađ booth?
It rang again.
He picked it up.
Static.
Then: “Döñ’t co͡me høme.”
He pulled the phone away, stared at it like it had teeth. His heart
hiccupped in his chest. Then, a voice—his own—came through the
line, trembling.
“They got me. Or… will get͏ me.
This is hard to explain.”
Mason laughed, half-hollow. “Okay. Who is this?”
“It’s you. But not yet. Listen to me. You dıe tonight. Around 3:17 a.m.
Gasoline. Screaming. Bones snapping. I thought maybe this would
change something. Maybe if I warned myself—”
Click.
The line went đeađ.
He drove home anyway.
By 2:41 a.m., Mason had convinced himself it was a prank.
At 3:10 a.m., someone knocked on the front door.
Hard. Frantic.
He opened it. No one there.
Except the smell.
Gasoline.
His living room light blinked. Once. Twice. Then fa!led.
The house groaned.
He turned to run.
The phone in his pocket—silent all night—buzzed.
Caller ID: Unknown
He answered.
His own voice, whispering: “You didn’t listen.”
Then a cracking sound.