THE HOLLOW FREQUENCY - Chapter 1: The Station That Wasn’t There

Elliot Crane didn’t remember tuning the radio.

That was the first thing that bothered him.

He sat in his dim apartment, the glow of his old desk lamp flickering like it was struggling to stay alive. Outside, Saskatoon’s late-night silence pressed against the windows. Snow drifted sideways in the wind, whispering against the glass.

The radio clicked.

Not turned. Not adjusted.

Clicked.

Elliot froze, his fingers hovering above his keyboard. The device sat on the shelf across the room—an old analogue radio he’d picked up from a thrift shop two weeks ago. It wasn’t even plugged into anything.

Yet it was on.

A low hum seeped into the room. Not static. Not quite sound either.

Something in between.

Then a voice.

“…you shouldn’t be listening.”

Elliot stood slowly, every instinct telling him to leave the room, but curiosity rooted him in place. The voice wasn’t distorted like a typical signal. It was clear.

Too clear.

“Hello?” he said, immediately regretting it.

Silence.

Then—

“We can hear you now.”

The hum deepened. Elliot stepped closer, each footstep feeling heavier than it should. The radio’s dial was spinning on its own, ticking past stations that didn’t exist.

Numbers flickered.

87.3

91.6

103.9

Then it stopped.

66.6

“That’s not a real frequency,” Elliot muttered.

The voice returned, softer now.

“Not for you.”

The light in the room dimmed further. The corners stretched, shadows pooling like liquid.

Elliot reached out.

The moment his fingers brushed the radio—

The apartment disappeared.

Source: Some or all of the content was generated using an AI language model