I answer the phone at night. It's a lonely job, but someone's gotta do it.

I saw an ad for it in an old book. At the bottom corner of the last page, someone had written in pen: *Looking for someone to man night hotline. Ten dollars an hour, 11PM-6AM. Call 1800COMEFEAR.* I rubbed the ink with my finger. The numbers were smudged. “How long did you have this thing?” I asked the shopkeeper. “Fuck if I know, I don’t keep track. Probably longer than you’ve been alive.” He smiled. I took the book home, folded the corner of the last page, and put it on top of my stack of tomes from the same shop. By the time I came back to it, I had forgotten all about the job. Still, my finger drifted across the written numbers as I read the blurb on the back of the cover. “Fuck it.” I dialed the number. The woman picked up with a curt “Hello?” “Hi. You posted an ad for a night hotline job in this really old book. Is it still open?” I said, reading the title. There was a pause. “Yes. When can you start?” “Tonight?” “You know how to get here?” I hesitated. “No.” She gave me an address. I wrote it down as best I could. When I hung up, I realized I had never asked what agency the hotline was for, or what kind of training I would need. I sighed and shoved the paper with the address into my pocket, hoping I’d be able to find the place. It turned out I didn’t have to. As I walked out the door, a car pulled up to the sidewalk. The passenger door opened and a woman poked her head out. It was the same voice as the one on the phone. “Ready to begin?” I nodded. “Good.” She motioned to the driver. “Take us to the warehouse.” The drive was silent. When we arrived, I saw a small, glass door with a single word etched into it: HOUSE. The woman motioned me toward it. “Open it.” I did. The door led to a flight of stairs. I descended, noting a single window at the top of the wall that allowed me to see the underside of the sidewalk. At the bottom, there was another door. The woman motioned again. I opened it, and stepped through. It was a large room, filled with rows of desks and chairs. Each of the desks had a small black phone sitting atop it. A figure in a white jumpsuit was slouched across one. A name tag sat on his desk. It read “Jacob.” Jacob looked up at me. “Thank the lord. I’m ready to go home.” The woman nodded. “Here, take this.” Jacob handed me the name tag. I accepted it, and pinned it to my shirt. Then I sat down in his chair. Jacob got up and walked to the door. The woman called after him. “Jacob.” He turned. “Tell her what she needs to know,” the woman said, tilting her head toward me. Jacob looked me up and down. “She’ll probably quit in a night,” he said. The woman frowned. “Tell her anyway.” “Alright. Listen...the calls you get here aren’t normal. I mean, it’s not like people are doing crank or anything. But...have you ever been driving and just felt a voice behind you? Or woken up in the middle of the night and thought you heard your name?” I nodded. “That’s the kind of calls you get here. I think...I don’t know, it sounds crazy, okay? But I think this city is alive. And it talks to people. Sometimes it needs help.” I nodded again, unsure of how to respond. “How do I give it help?” I asked. Jacob shrugged. “Depends on the call.” The woman interrupted. “I think that will be all, Jacob. You may go.” Jacob nodded and walked out. The woman turned to me. “You have your training. I will be back in the morning to see how you’ve held up.” She followed Jacob out the door. After a moment, I called out. “Hey! What’s my name?” She poked her head back through the doorway. “You have your tag. Now stop speaking my name.” I frowned as she shut the door. My tag...I read it again. *Jacob.* *Yeah, thanks.* She was already gone, however. I sat back and looked at the phone. It was an old model, with a slot for coins in the top and a dial on the front. There was no one to call to test it. I sighed and read the books in my bag until I fell asleep. The ring shook me awake. I blinked and lifted the receiver up. “Hello?” There was a pause on the other end. “Hello?” I said again. “Jacob, is that you?” I recognized the voice. It was my mom. “Mom! It’s...yeah, it’s me. What are you doing up?” “I was worried about you. Where are you?” “I’m working a job. I’ll be home in the morning,” I said. I didn’t know why, but I felt like I was lying. “You said you’d be home two nights ago! I haven’t seen you since then. What’s going on?” I felt a creeping sense of dread. What was she talking about? Had I really been here that long? “Mom...I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. She was quiet. “Mom?” More silence. “Hello?” I heard a voice behind me. “Hang up.” I turned to see the woman standing there. I tried to argue, but she reached across and took the receiver from me, slamming it down. “That wasn’t a customer,” she said. “When was my last shift?” I asked. “Last night.” I frowned. “No...my mom just said it’s been two nights since she’s seen me.” The woman cocked an eyebrow. “Your mom? Who’s that?” I felt my creeping sense of dread turn to outright panic. “My mother. She’s the one who called.” “What did she say?” The woman spoke in a monotone. “She said it’s been two days since she’s seen me.” The woman nodded. “You have been here for two days.” I shook my head. “No, I just started tonight.” The woman chuckled. “No. You started two nights ago.” I was starting to get angry. “I did not! You recruited me yourself.” She laughed again. “Stop it,” I said. “This isn’t funny.” The woman’s expression turned cold. I shrunk away as she walked closer. “I don’t think you know where you are,” she said quietly. “This isn’t your city. Your city is gone. This is the city...apart. We need someone to answer calls.” “Why can’t you?” I asked. “I don’t know. Maybe no one’s here to man the phones. Maybe we’re just too busy to man them ourselves.” I frowned again. “Who’s ‘we’?” The woman smiled. “You know, the people in the city. The ones who can’t call for help themselves.” I thought back to Jacob’s words. *I think this city is alive. And it talks to people.* “All right,” I said. “I’ll answer the calls.” The woman nodded. “Good.” I sat back in my chair, noting that the sun was starting to rise outside. I decided to explore while I had the chance. The room the woman had left me in was actually the central area of the building. There were three corridors branching off from it: one to my left, one to my right, and one behind me. The woman had disappeared down the one behind me. I decided to follow her. The hall was short, with two doors at the end. One was unlabeled. The other said “Supply Closet: No Entry Without Permission.” I opened the unlabeled door, hoping it wasn’t the supply closet. It wasn’t. Inside, I found a massive room filled with rows of offices. Each office was small, with a desk in the center of it and a door that looked out onto the room I was in. I walked along the wall, looking for the woman, until I reached the corner of the room. There, I saw her. She was sitting in an office in the center of the wall, facing me. The door to her office was open. I approached her. “Ma’am?” She didn’t move. I stepped inside. She still hadn’t moved. I reached a hand out to her shoulder. She was cold, and I could see her chest wasn’t moving. I stepped back, gasping. Despite the initial shock, I wasn’t really that surprised. I had figured she was dead as soon as she told me I’d been here for two nights. I stepped backward out of the office. I’d see what the other corridors had to offer. As I walked back to the central room, I heard a voice. “I know you’re down there.” I turned around. “Hello?” “I saw you in my office.” I squinted into the gloom. A figure stepped out of the shadows. I recognized the voice and the face instantly. It was the woman. “Who...who are you?” I asked. “I’m the manager,” she said. I tilted my head. “The manager?” “Yes. Did I not say that?” I shook my head. “No. You never did.” The manager frowned. “I must have. Well, in any case, that’s who I am. You are Jacob, the

I answer the phone at night. It's a lonely job, but someone's gotta do it.

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