Heartbeat in the Dark
Heartbeat... thud-thud... It began racing wildly. And... "Mom..." It was clearly So-hee's voice. My body ignited with sudden heat. My breath grew short and ragged. "So-hee! Where are you! Please tell Mom! Where are you?" I asked in desperation. I made a vow in that moment. This time I would never let her slip away, never... So please, just tell me where you are.
"Where are you! Please say something!"
On the side, Hye-seon was pale as a ghost. She still couldn't believe the scene unfolding. A grandchild calling from such a young age... Who could have imagined a real phone call? Yet watching my daughter's reaction, it had to be true, right? Then how was it even possible? What on earth was happening to our little So-hee...
"Is it really? Is it really So-hee? How... how is this even possible? How..." Hye-seon stammered in shock, her words tumbling out.
So-yeon quickly switched the phone to speaker mode with trembling hands and said clearly, "So-hee? Can you tell Mom? Where are you right now?"
Hye-seon covered her mouth with both hands, holding her breath, eyes fixed blankly on the phone. Ah... My heart pounded loud and hard, enough to drown everything out.
Soon enough, the voice came through the speaker. "Mom..."
Hye-seon swallowed air with a startled "Heuk!" and quickly covered her mouth again, her eyes wide as she looked at her daughter. So-yeon's gaze met hers as if confirming her words were true.
"Yes! Mom? It's Mom here! So please tell me where you are..."
"It's cold..." So-hee said weakly, her voice trembling low and faint.
She kept saying she was cold, and both So-yeon and Hye-seon felt their chests collapse. "It's cold? It's really cold, isn't it? Mom's coming. Mom will bring warm clothes. Can you tell me? Even if you don't... Mom's in so much pain... I miss our daughter so much. I can't find you, so it's too painful. Please... tell Mom where our precious So-hee is."
So-yeon pleaded through tears, but the voice returned. "Mom... I'm here... I'm right here..."
"Where? I don't know where you are. Can you give me more details? Mom's coming! Okay?"
"The playground..."
At the word "playground," So-yeon's eyes blazed with sudden fire. She dashed straight to the balcony. From there she saw it—the dim apartment complex playground with streetlights and the small figure of a child standing right in front. From the balcony it was hard to make out clearly, but So-yeon knew without a doubt. This time it was definitely her daughter... and this time she would never, ever let her go.
"Got it! I'm coming! Just don't hang up! Understand? Absolutely never hang up! I'm making you a promise, okay? Mom is rushing out right now to run to our precious So-hee. Just wait a little longer! Just a little... I'll be there soon."
So-yeon ran out in one breath. Meanwhile, Hye-seon stood frozen behind her daughter's vanishing figure, still stunned and horrified. The situation was simply too unbelievable. Especially the voice coming through the phone—it was unmistakably her granddaughter's. She couldn't deny it. So had So-hee finally come home? Where had she been all this time that she could only return now? Yet somehow a chill ran down her spine. The voice was So-hee's, but why did it feel so sinister? Why did it send ice through her veins instead of warmth or relief? Hye-seon's heart hammered with that eerie unease. The whole situation made no sense.
Suddenly she snapped back to reality. Too late she realized So-yeon had gone to find her granddaughter, so Hye-seon chased after her on foot. So-yeon seemed to be descending the stairs, probably too impatient for the slow elevator. From afar, her voice called, "So-So-yeon! Wait for me..."
Hye-seon clutched her throbbing knee and looked at the elevator, but it didn't even think about rising, so she started down the stairs. Her breath hit her throat in minutes. She simply couldn't keep up with her daughter. The voice calling for So-hee grew more distant. Hye-seon panted heavily and finally had to stop. Her knees had been terrible lately anyway... the sharp pinpricks of pain felt like needles stabbing her joints.
"Aigoo..." She couldn't go on. Helpless, she gave up and waited for the elevator. She stood there tapping her foot, the elevator moving at a glacial pace that felt even slower today. Thud-thud-thud... Finally the doors opened and she stepped out to the first floor.
Even on the descent she was on edge. The repeated voice from her daughter's phone—could it really be So-hee's? The doubt refused to leave her. Unsettling fear crept in. Why? Why did the feeling grow stranger by the second? The voice sounded like So-hee, yet it felt wrong, wrong in a way that sent chills. No matter how she thought, everything was off. The sudden disappearance of the grandchild and the sudden call... who was this number even? And why the call restriction? In the smallest details something was wrong. But the strangest part of all was the voice itself. It was like... someone was imitating So-hee's voice...
That eerie, alien feeling refused to fade. She stood tapping her foot, staring at the floor numbers as the elevator descended endlessly. Really... the elevator felt painfully slow today. Ding! Finally we reached the first floor. The doors opened and Hye-seon stepped out, still limping.
"So-yeon! So-yeon!!" In the dim apartment complex she called her daughter's name, voice breaking. But it was odd. No sign of her anywhere. Where had that child gone? She stepped forward again and shouted with all her strength, "So-yeon!" No answer came back. Her heart sank.
"So-yeon, where are you!!" No matter how many times she called, there was no reply. She tapped her foot in frustration. But today the apartment complex felt unnervingly empty and dark, so quiet it sent chills down her spine. Finally she called the police to report her daughter missing... Sadly, after that day, So-yeon never came home again.
//////
Joon-hee had been receiving strange calls lately. No matter how many times he answered, the phone stayed silent. At first he thought it was a prank or ad call gone wrong. The caller ID with no number made it feel even more ominous. That had been going on for days.
After those calls began, he started having nightmares. In the dream he was back at his old house from before the divorce. Every dream started the same way: late nights awake, looking disheveled as he sat in front of the computer. He turned on the power and opened the novel he'd never finished. But... even in the dream he couldn't write a single word. His concentration wouldn't hold. It was always the same. No matter how he struggled... nothing came to mind. The same in dreams as in reality. He sighed heavily and fatigue piled up. Depression followed.
Finally he gave up, opened Instagram or YouTube Shorts for a while, then went to the living room. It was almost time for breakfast and lunch. The house was a mess—kids' toys everywhere, sink overflowing with dishes. Looking at it made him irritable. 'Just do the dishes already...' he muttered gruffly, heading to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and rummaged, eventually boiling a cup of ramyeon and eating it. Leftovers he dumped roughly in the living room and went back to the computer. Just sitting there under the excuse of writing... His head knew he shouldn't, deadlines loomed, yet he couldn't write.
Then suddenly he fell asleep. After that, a voice woke him. "Husband... Husband..."
Joon-hee jolted awake, heart pounding. The voice... that voice was familiar. Too familiar. It was his dead wife. But how could it be? The call was coming from his wife's phone, yet there was no number. The caller ID was blocked. Why was he hearing that voice again? What did it mean?
His breathing quickened. The room felt colder than before. The air around him grew heavy, as if something was watching him from the shadows. But there was no one there. Still, that voice lingered in the silence, calling him again. "Husband..."
He sat up in bed, sweat pouring down his back. The nightmare was fading, but the unease remained. That voice... it was real. Too real. He glanced at his phone on the nightstand. The screen was dark, but the notification light flickered once. A new message. From his wife.
He reached for it with shaking hands. The message was simple: "Come home soon."
But the words felt wrong. They didn't sound like his wife at all. They felt... forced. Artificial. Yet the voice on the phone had been hers. How could that be?
Joon-hee stood up, legs unsteady. He walked to the window and pulled back the curtain. The city lights below flickered coldly. Somewhere out there, his wife was waiting. Or was she?
His hands clenched into fists. He didn't know what was happening. But he knew one thing for certain. He had to get to that phone. He had to answer that voice before it was too late.
Outside, the wind howled faintly, carrying the distant sound of a child's laughter. It was a sound he hadn't heard in years. The sound of his daughter playing in the playground.
And somewhere in the dark, something smiled.