The call came at 2:13 a.m.
The woman was alone in her apartment when her phone began vibrating on the nightstand.
She reached for it.
Then stopped.
The caller ID displayed her own name.
For several seconds, she simply stared at the screen.
She assumed it was a software glitch.
A duplicated contact.
Some kind of technical error.
Then another phone began ringing.
The sound came from the living room.
The woman slowly walked toward the doorway.
Her own phone was still in her hand.
The second phone was sitting on the coffee table.
It was vibrating.
Its screen was illuminated.
And the call appeared to be coming from the same number.
Both phones were connected.
Neither call could be explained.
The woman moved closer to the second phone.
Then the phone in her hand began producing another sound.
Footsteps.
Slow footsteps.
The sound appeared to be coming through the phone speaker.
But the woman immediately realized something was wrong.
The footsteps were not coming from the phone.
They were coming from somewhere behind her.
She turned around.
The hallway was empty.
The apartment door was locked.
The windows were closed.
She ran toward the front door.
The second phone stopped ringing.
Then another phone began ringing from the hallway.
The recording ended.
Police later arrived at the apartment after a neighbor reported hearing repeated ringing and loud movement inside.
The woman was found outside the building.
She refused to go back inside.
Investigators searched the apartment.
They found only one phone belonging to the woman.
The second phone from the living room was gone.
The phone call was examined.
According to the fictional case file, the call appeared in the device’s history but contained no identifiable incoming number.
The most confusing detail was the audio.
The recording appeared to contain footsteps.
Some investigators believed the sound was caused by interference.
Others believed the phone had accidentally played audio from another application.
But the woman insisted that the footsteps had been real.
She said they had started behind her.
And she said they had continued after she left the apartment.
A security camera in the hallway showed the woman leaving her apartment alone.
No one followed her.
No one entered the apartment afterward.
But when investigators reviewed the audio recorded by the building’s security system, they noticed something unusual.
A phone could be heard ringing inside the apartment several seconds after the woman had left.
The apartment was empty.
The front door was locked.
And the second phone was never found.
The final unanswered question is simple:
Who was calling her phone from inside an apartment where she was supposed to be alone?
And if the phone was really inside the apartment…
Who answered the call?
