The Strange Call Across Time and Space

Year 2022, writer's POV.

I had been raising this dog for the last two years but had never heard it bark so fiercely.

Thinking that a thief had broken into the house, I stormed out to check. However, all I saw was the dog barking wildly at the locked door of the east room when I pushed open the door.

I slept in the west room. The east room was big, and I planned to use it as the place for my creations.

If the dog barked at the door of the east room, then the thief had to be inside.

I was not scared either. After all, I was tall and strong. I was not afraid of any thief! I pushed the door open and was about to curse when I found that there was no one in the room at all!

Moreover, there was no furniture in the room, so there was no place for thieves to hide. Why did the dog bark at the room, then?

I was puzzled but did not think much of it. I just assumed that the dog had not adapted to the new environment and squatted down to touch its head. Sure enough, it quieted down.

I felt a bit hungry. Only then did I remember that not only had I not eaten the whole day, but neither had the dog. The dog might have barked because it was hungry.

Therefore, I went to the kitchen, gave a few sausages to the dog, and cooked a meal for myself. Just as the food was ready and I took out a knife, my dog ​​suddenly whined.

Dogs usually made this sound when they were frightened.

I looked at the dog. It had stopped eating its sausages and was staring at the knife in my hand with fear. I turned to glance at the knife and was horrified to see blood stains on it. I dropped it in shock!

Looking again, I saw two pieces of sausage on the knife.

The kitchen light was an old incandescent one. I had not had time to replace it, so the light was dim. I thought I might have been confused and mistook the sausage for blood.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and chuckled to myself. "And I said I didn't believe in ghosts, yet two pieces of sausage scared me into such a state."

I hid the knife, and the dog quieted down. I soothed it again.

After finishing my food, I returned to my room to rest for a while when I heard the dog barking again. I went outside and saw it still barking at the east room.

Today was truly bizarre! I remembered what the villager had said earlier and felt a genuine fear!

I quickly pulled out my phone and searched for the news from 20 years ago.

What shocked me was that a murder had indeed occurred in this very house!

Even more frightening was that it had happened 20 years ago today. A deranged mother had murdered her nine-year-old daughter! The murder was brutal—the mother drove a steel nail into the girl's skull!

Recalling the two phone calls I received that afternoon, I trembled all over. If the call was from the murdered little girl, there was only one possibility—the call was from 20 years ago!

I could not believe the inference myself.

To verify, I checked my call history and called back. After two beeps, the call was connected.

I quickly asked, "What year is it over there?"

"What do you mean?" The little girl's puzzled voice echoed from the other end of the line.

I quickly changed my tone, asking, "What year is it now?"

"It's 2002," she replied.

My guess was correct! I remembered the girl's mother had killed her exactly 20 years ago today, so I asked again, "Today is July 3rd, right?"

"Yes," the little girl said.

The date was the same!

The internet said the little girl was killed at 10:00 pm, and it was currently 9:00 pm, so she still had a chance to escape!

"Run! Don't trust your mother! She's really going to kill you!" I said hurriedly.