Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

The Voice Inside the Hum

The radio lights up, screams unintelligible words, sparks violently, then falls silent. Kevin looks at Cathy, swallows nervously, raises his eyebrows, and shrugs his shoulders half-heartedly.

“I—I—it didn’t do that last time, I swear. I—it said your name, a—and told me—” He scrunches his face, clenches his fists, shoves one into his mouth, and bites down hard—too hard—until a thick stream of blood runs down his arm. Cathy grabs him by the back of the head and gently pulls his hand from his mouth. She shakes her head, her smile disapproving.

“Stop. You don’t need to carry on with the charade. I’m here, aren’t I? Do you think it’s because I believed your elaborate story—or that I wanted to spend time with you because I actually liked you?” she says as she slowly leans in to kiss him on the lips.

Kevin’s brow furrows. He pulls away, scrambles back, and stares at Cathy with confusion.
“Y—you don’t believe m—my story?” he stammers in disbelief. “Y—you think I lied a—about the radio coming alive just so I could get y—you alone?”

She stares back at him, equally confused. “W—well yeah, I would’ve never come here if I didn’t think you were trying to trick me into some accidental date situation.”

He leaps to his feet and brushes the dirt and grime from his pants, holding out a hand for her to take. “W—we have to go,” he says quickly.

She stares up at his hand, then into his eyes, and crosses her arms across her chest in an overly dramatic fashion. “I’m not doing anything with you until you tell me what the hell is going on! Do you even like me, or is this some cruel joke? Because I’ll have you know, you can only scorn me once, Kevin Taylor—there never is a second chance at this resort!” she snaps, as she gestures crudely to herself.

His arms drop to his sides, he arches his head to the sky, rolls his eyes, and lets out a groan, followed quickly by an exhausted sigh, before holding out his hand to her once again. “How about you get up first, and I’ll explain everything on the way back to the car!”

“No!” she snaps. “We’re not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell is going—” The radio hisses to life again, interrupting her as it bathes the room in colour.

“We don’t have time for explanations, we’ve got to get out of here now!” Kevin yells as he grabs her by the arms and tries to pull her to her feet.

Cathy grabs handfuls of his hair and digs her heels into the ground, refusing to budge. “No, Kevin! No! Tell me what’s happening!”
“Damn it, Cathy!” he screams as he grabs her by the wrists and wrestles himself free of her grip. He stands over her, dishevelled, with scratches marking his face and a fine layer of sweat on his brow.

The radio’s static whistles and screams, a guttural sound resonating from its speakers. The light intensifies, shifting from blue to red to yellow. Sparks shoot off from inside it like fireworks, popping and hissing.

They both look from the radio, and to each other. “Look, Cathy, I can’t explain it right now. I wish I could. I swear, I wish this was just a stupid way to get you to go on a date with me. I’ve liked you since the moment I saw you, but I never thought—I never dreamed—you’d feel the same way. B-but, if we don’t move now, we won’t make it out of here.”
“W-why did you bring me here, Kevin?” she stammers, her lips trembling as tears well in her eyes.

The radio oozes and hisses, a voice calling out through the static, fragmented and lost in tonal shifts. Slowly, it grows clearer, as if the owner was moving closer to the microphone. “Stay,” it whispers. “Stay, and I’ll show you why he brought you here—why he brought you to me.”

Cathy looks at Kevin, her lips trembling. “Who’s on the other side o-of the r-radio, K-Kevin? W-who did you bring me here to meet?”

“I—I—I—”
“Kevin!” she yells.
“I don’t know! Okay! I don’t fucking know!” he shouts, his voice breaking.

Her brow furrows, and tears stream down her face. “Y-You mean, you just brought me out here in the middle of n-n-nowhere, on the fucking w-whim of someone you’ve never met on the other side of an old busted radio?”

He swallows an awkward mouthful of nothing, tears streaming down his face, before a wicked smile carves itself across his lips. A knife slips from the sleeve of his jacket, and his head tilts to the side as his eyes blaze with wondrous colours. His mouth opens, releasing a torrent of static.