What is the Meaning of Life

What is the Meaning of Life is a scary story about a married couple who see an ad in the newspaper claiming to provide an answer to the eternal question.

It all started when my husband and I were sitting in front of the TV one evening. My husband was leafing through the newspaper and he came across a strange advertisement. It was placed in the “Occult Services” section, under various other ads like, “How to Remove a Curse”, “Let Me Predict Your Future”, “A Charm That Cures Incurable Illnesses”.

The ad that caught his eye contained only the title, “An Answer to the Eternal Question: What is the Meaning of Life?” and beneath it was a phone number. It immediately captured our interest and my husband decided to call and ask what kind of service was available.

He picked up the phone and dialed the number. On the other end of the line, there was a beeping noise and then someone picked up the phone. My husband said, “Hello,” but nobody answered. There was a prolonged silence on the other end and then a loud crash. My husband winced and hung up the phone.

We were baffled, but that night, when we asleep in bed, the phone started ringing. It was around 2 o’clock in the morning. My husband got up and grabbed the phone. It was from the same number he had called earlier. When he anwsered, there was a female voice on the other end of the line. I didn’t hear what she said to him.

My husband looked at me with a startled expression on his face. All he told me was that it was probably some kind of joke and he was going to check it out. He quickly got dressed and left the apartment. I didn’t even get a chance to ask him anything more.

He didn’t come back. I waited for hours and, in the morning, when my husband still hadn’t returned, I went to the police and reported him missing. They told me they couldn’t do anything until he had been missing for 48 hours.

I called our relatives, friends and acquaintances. I called hospitals and morgues. I couldn’t find him anywhere. I tried to dial the number from the ad, but the phone just rang and rang and nobody picked up.

At night, I lay awake wondering what could have happened and thinking about what to do next. Even though the thought filled me with dread, somewhere deep inside I was hoping that, in the middle of the night, the telephone would start ringing again. At 2 o’clock in the morning, it actually did ring. I almost jumped out of my skin.

When I picked up the phone, I recognized the voice on the other end of the line. It was my husband. I heard him mutter, “I’m not alone,” and all at once, there was a terrible crash and the line went dead. I hung up and tried calling the number again, but there was no answer.

A month has passed since the disappearance of my husband. The police searched and searched, but as yet, the searches have not yielded any results. The police told me that they traced the phone number and it led them to an old, abandoned house where nobody has lived for decades.

This morning, I opened today’s newspaper and found a similar advertisement. It was titled: “An Answer to the Age-Old Question: What is the Meaning of Life” and there was a different phone number underneath it. I think I’m going to call it.

Even though everything inside me tells me that this will be the biggest mistake of my entire life, I have to call it. I’m very scared, but I need to know what happened to my husband. Maybe this way, we’ll both discover the meaning of life…