Day 10: The Last Broadcast

31 Days of Visual Horror Prompts

There is something about an old radio station that makes my imagination go places it probably shouldn't.

Maybe it's all that outdated equipment, the empty rooms, or the thought of someone sitting alone in the middle of the night talking into a microphone, never really knowing who might be listening.

Or what might be listening.

I remember when radios were everywhere. You had one in the kitchen, one in the car, and probably an alarm clock beside your bed that scared the absolute hell out of you every morning.

Now imagine waking up in the middle of the night because that old radio, the one you haven't plugged in for years, suddenly starts talking.

And it's not playing music.

It's reading names.

Welcome to Day 10 of my 31 Days of Visual Horror Prompts!

Today's image takes us to an abandoned radio station sitting in the middle of a cornfield. The equipment is covered in dust, the microphone is hanging over an empty chair, and the red ON AIR sign is glowing even though the station hasn't broadcast anything in decades.

Which is already enough for me to turn around and head home.

But then there's the woman.

Standing outside the window, with long dark hair and what looks like entirely too many arms.

Nope.

I don't care if she has the winning lottery numbers. I'm not going in there.

What I love about this particular horror idea is the thought of a voice reaching people who have absolutely no way to escape it.

At exactly 2:13 a.m., every radio in town starts broadcasting the same woman's voice. It doesn't matter whether the radio is plugged in, broken, or sitting in a box in someone's attic.

They all turn on.

And she starts reading names.

At first, maybe people think it's some kind of prank. Someone playing a joke, or an old recording the station somehow picked up.

But then the first person dies.

And then the second.

Suddenly, nobody is laughing anymore.

Can you imagine sitting in your kitchen, listening to this woman calmly announce the names of people you know, realizing that every single one of them is going to be dead by morning?

I'd probably be throwing every radio I owned out the nearest window.

Not that I think it would help.

But here's where things get really interesting.

Eventually, she says your name.

Except she doesn't tell you when you're going to die.

She says you're the reason she's here.

Well, shit.

Now we have a whole different problem.

Who is this woman? Is she someone you knew? Someone you hurt? Someone you were supposed to save?

Or is she something that has been waiting for years to find its way back into the world?

I think what makes this kind of horror so unsettling is the idea that the past doesn't always stay in the past. Sometimes the things we've done, or the things we've tried desperately to forget, have a way of finding us again.

Even if they have to crawl out of an abandoned radio station in the middle of a cornfield to do it.

At exactly 2:13 a.m., every radio in town begins broadcasting the same woman's voice.

She's reading the names of people who will die before sunrise.

Then she says your name.

But instead of predicting your death, she whispers:

"You're the reason I'm here."

Who is broadcasting, and what did you do to bring her back?

Take this one wherever your imagination wants to go. Maybe it's a ghost story, a revenge story, or something far stranger.

Personally, I think the creepiest possibility is that the person listening has absolutely no memory of what they did.

But the woman remembers everything.

Happy writing!

And maybe unplug that old radio before bed tonight.

Although, I'm not entirely sure that's going to help.

Savvy Word Slinger