The Leftover Child

Every evening at exactly 8:14 PM, my phone receives a high-quality photo of myself sitting on my bed, taken from the perspective of the dark, narrow gap between my mattress and the wall.I had tried every possible thing I could do. I told my parents about this but first they ignored me by saying that I could be your friend who is playing games with you, but when I showed them those photos,they had to believe. My dad tried to call on that number, but no one ever picked up. We tried to block that number, but I still got those photos exactly at that time. So, I exchanged my phone from my dad's phone, but all my efforts went in vain. The only option we had, to inform the police. We went to the police station and reported what had been happening. They tried tracking that number,but it showed that that number doesn't exist. My dad suggested to not use my phone at that time, so I did the same.

But,I still got those photos everyday. I was really irritated by all those messages so I decided to solve this problem all by myself. I noticed something in the photos, that they were taken from a narrow gap between my mattress and the wall. I decided to face whatever was under there.

Last night at 8:10 PM..four minutes before the usual text, I grabbed my father's heavy metal flashlight. I pressed my face against the dusty floor and shone the beam directly into the pitch-black gap between my mattress and the wall.

The light cut through the dark, but there was no monster, no hidden camera, and no intruder. The space was completely empty. Relief washed over me for a second, until my watch ticked to 8:13 PM.

Still looking down into the empty gap, my phone buzzed in my hand. It was 8:14 PM. The notification lit up the screen: New Photo Received—----------

But this time, it was quite different. It seemed like someone had clicked that from the ceiling. A cold shiver ran through my veins, my blood went cold and my heart was throbbing like someone was hammering it. But, I had to turn back to see what's behind me.

I took a slow, trying to steady the wild hammering in my chest. Slowly, I tilted my head upward, my eyes tracking the beam of the flashlight as it swept up the wall and onto the ceiling directly above my bed.

There was nothing there. Just the blank, peeling paint of the ceiling.

I looked back down at the phone in my shaking hand, staring at the photo that had just arrived. The perspective was definitely from the ceiling, looking down at the back of my head. But as I zoomed in on the image, I noticed a tiny, horrifying detail that made my breath catch in my throat.

In the photo, the version of me sitting on the bed wasn't looking at the ceiling. The version of me in the photo was staring directly at the phone screen, smiling a wide, distorted smile that I have never made in my life.

Then, a new text message popped up from the unknown number. It didn't have a photo this time. It just said:

"Look down again. I moved.”

I dared not to look in the dark space again, as I had seen in horror movies, that all those were victims of curiosity, so I chose fear to save me. I ran as fast as I could, I screamed in absolute terror.

"It's in my room! It's on the ceiling, it's under the bed, it's everywhere!" pointing wildly down the hall.

My parents got up after hearing my screaming. My dad grabbed a cricket bat from behind the door, his face serious, while my mom held my shaking shoulders. "Stay here," my dad whispered, his face pale but he cautiously walked down the dark corridor toward my bedroom.

My mom and I stood in the living room. The house was dead silent for a few seconds. Then, we heard the door to my room creak open.

A moment later, my dad's footsteps hurried back out. But he wasn't running in fear. He walked into the living room, looking completely confused and a little annoyed. He set the bat down.

"There's nothing there," my dad said, sighing. "But why did you leave your phone on the bed?”

My blood was running cold. "No... I have my phone right here in my hand."

I looked down at the screen of the phone I was holding. It was completely dead. Black.

Suddenly, from the pocket of my dad's actual trousers, a phone began to buzz. My dad reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone. It was my phone—the one I thought I had left in my room.

He looked at the screen, his eyes widening in shock. He slowly turned the screen toward me. A new text had just popped up on my phone, which had been in his pocket the entire time.

It said: "Why did you run away from us, Dad? We were just playing.”

As he saw the text, something hit him..maybe a thought or a memory.. or maybe he remembered something..i dared not to speak anything after that text as I was completely in shock.

Suddenly , my father whispered something in my mother's ear..I couldn't hear that properly. After listening, my mom just grabbed my hand, and rushed to her room. I asked what happened, but she didn't say anything. She just told me to sit in the corner,and warned me to not speak anything. I just did what she told me. She locked me in that room. I heard them saying..”it's just our mistake. We need to fix that.“

I stood alone in my parent’s bedroom, in the hope that everything would be alright. The room was dark, lit by only streetlights filtering through the window curtains.

My parents' sudden departure left a cold, empty feeling in my stomach. His mistake. What mistake? What did my dad do? And why did it mean a presence was hiding in the gaps of my bedroom walls?

I sat on the edge of their bed, pulling my knees tight against my chest. Every tiny sound in the house , scared me. I kept my eyes locked on the bottom of the bedroom door, watching the light from the hallway, terrified.

Then, the absolute silence of the house was broken.

It wasn't a text message this time. From the landline phone sitting on my dad's bedside table, a loud ring cut through the room.

Ring.

I froze. No one used the landline anymore.

Ring.

I crawled across the mattress, my hand shaking as I reached for the receiver. I didn't want to answer it, but the thought of it ringing forever in the dark was worse. I picked it up and held it to my ear, not saying a word.

For a few seconds, there was only a deep silence . Then, a voice spoke. It wasn't the creepy voice of a monster.

It was my dad's voice. But he sounded much younger, like an old tape recording.

"We shouldn't have left it behind in the old house,if it finds out we replaced it with a new family… it will never leave our kids alone."

The line went dead.

After a few seconds,it started ringing again. I dared not to speak a single sentence, but I picked it up again. A child spoke, “ why are you hiding so much, when you know that I'm always behind you. But..now, it's time to replace you, just the way you replaced me at the time of birth…8:14 PM…dont you remember that??!.”

After hearing those creepy words, I just fainted there.

Then a sudden heaviness on my body made me wake up. I couldn't move my hands, not even my legs. I couldn't even speak anything. The only thing I could do was to see through a narrow gap. Yes, I was there, between the gap and the mattress this time .

I saw a shadow of a girl, dressed entirely like me…She moved a little towards me and flashed a light on my face. I tried to scream, but I couldn't.

Then, a complete horror seized me. The face of the girl was entirely like me…but she was smiling looking at me…in a weird way. I was helpless…and still I'm ….the space is gone…maybe that didn't belong to me…

The End..

                                                                         -Roshni