The Line is Dead

Foreword: please be aware this story contains body horror and minor elements of suicide to further the plot, if you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide please call 911 or alert a trusted health professional.

12:24 AM  

“Hello, this is Charlottesville Noble Cross Church speaking how can I help you?”  

“Good evening, I am interested in finding [Redacted], could you possibly assist me in retrieving it?”  

“Well miss, you can always contact our lost and found department. If you would like to dial the six on your end of the landline, you will be transferred to a secure line to lost and found.”  

“I will not transfer, you know where [Redacted] is.”  

“Pardon me ma’am, but I do not seem to follow your train of thought.”  

“Under the cross, the third floorboard to the right of the stained-glass window of the rapture, that is where [Redacted] is.”  

“Who is this, how do you know what happened there?”  

“Because I was the girl you murdered beneath your chapel.”  

“I am putting you on hold.”  

3:33 PM  

“I’m done waiting, give it to me.”  

“Where are you, I will give it to you, just please, leave me alone.”  

“Look. At. The. Phone.”  

“Oh god, what is that, is that hair coming out of the receiver? Mm mph! Mmmmmmph!” 

“Time to hang up, dear pastor.”  

Click. 

On August 19th, 2024, local priest and father of three to a now widowed wife was found dead in his office by suicide. The rope, unusual in nature appeared to be made out of the same filament commonly found in human hair, but DNA tests suggest that no living person could produce the three-meter-long rope required to commit the act. One note was found at the site, with a message written in bold red ink” [Redacted] is my body..” . 

5:59 PM 

"Charlie, are you seeing this garbage? The coroner thinks there may be some mysterious foul play going on within the church!" 

"Don't I know it Bill, my wife and I haven't donated to that old shack in years, maybe this is finally its vengeance." 

"Hey, how goes the search for your daughter, any luck?" 

"Honestly man, I wish I had better news, the missus has been holed up in our room with her photo for about a week now, but there's been no sign of her." 

"Shame, poor girl really was quite the pretty one, she had the prettiest hair too." 

"I wonder where she is now...… where are you, sweet Belladonna." 

Click 

I was named after a beautiful flower, and a deadly one at that. Belladonna, Deadly Nightshade, you must have seen it before. I truly had no idea that a name so morbid, and a life built of such confidence, would amount to nothing more than the dust beneath an old chapel. I wonder if my parents cried when I was killed sometimes, and then I remember, they don't know I am dead. They don't know those "holy" clergymen hunted down young girls and boys like me to send to their "Heavenly Father". They think I'm still alive. 

They are wrong 

so. 

very. 

wrong. 

"What's up" 

" Hello Fred." 

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" 

"You did." 

"Ali, if this is about the breakup-." 

"Ali? Oh dear, that's not my name." 

"But....This is her number." 

"Let me tell you something Frederick, when someone is choking to death on their own saliva, it is very easy to pick up their home landline and pose as them." 

"Who the hell are you..." 

"Your name is Frederick Dyles, you are a linebacker for the Charlottesville Snakes, your junior year you went to church late on Sunday and saw someone there. Who was it?" 

"I will hang up." 

"Ahh, but you won't silly, because part of you still wants to know, know if it was real what you saw that day, now answer the question." 

"Fine. She was a girl from my grade, but we never talked. Her name was something like Bella? Her skin was pale, and when she saw me looking out from behind the chapel doors, well she didn't see me, she was dead." 

"Good job Freddy! You got every detail right besides one." 

"What... What do you mean." 

"My name is Belladonna. Tell them all what you saw." 

Click 

It is so easy to erase a body. Bury it, burn it, dissolve it. Or cut it up into itty bitty pieces and stuff it underneath the church's’ wiring system, tangle up the hair into the wires connected to the landlines and lock the bones and flesh into a tight fetal position. Let the corpse, my corpse, rot away, while the same men who cut me to pieces preach, “Thou shalt not kill another.” Funny how it was a doctrine when convenient and a malleable suggestion when it wasn't. I want them all to know, I don't just want to lay here in this unfamiliar ground, I want to go home. 

“Hello this is Zappy Electric company; how can I help you?” 

“Daddy?” 

“Oh god.......Bella?” 

“Did he tell you?” 

“...Yes, Fred told me everything.” 

“Will you please come and get me; I want to come home. I want to be buried in the garden next to Mommy’s room.” 

“...” 

“Daddy, please answer.” 

“I’m sorry Belladonna but I just can't do that. Goodbye sweetheart.” 

“No, Dad please, don't leave me down here, it’s cold and it’s dark and I want to come home.” 

“This was Belladonna’s home, not whatever is left of her.” 

“Stop it” 

“Goodbye.” 

Click 

On January 1st, 2026, the remains of Belladonna Frank were discovered beneath Noble Cross Chapel. Her body, severely mutilated, was combined with the landlines beneath the building. Written in blood on the wall was a supposed message from the late teen. “Listen to the victims” as well as a landline phone with one voicemail with the following message. 

“If you're hearing this you found me, I’m sorry if this is a cop but, I am a murderer. I killed the priest because it was the only way I could get people to listen. I am at peace now that I have been found but know this. If another child is killed and forgotten, you will receive a call, and it will be from death.” 

Click