Someone Calls Your Name in the Middle of the Night

Elders always warn children: if someone calls your name from behind at night, don't answer, and don't turn around.

This sounds ordinary, and many people take it with a grain of salt. But there was a child in one family who just wouldn't listen to advice.

That child was called Xiao Liu, about ten years old, living at the foot of the mountain. One summer, the village was showing a movie, which required walking three or four li of night road. He made an appointment with several children to go together. When they came back, it was already very late. The children talked and laughed on the road, and at the fork in the road, each went to their own home.

Xiao Liu walked forward alone. Beside the road was a small river, the water rushing, the moon hung in the sky, shining unusually bright. As he walked, he heard someone call him from behind: "Xiao Liu."

The voice sounded very familiar, like his mother. He was just about to turn around when he suddenly remembered what his grandmother had said: at night, if someone calls you, don't answer. He forcibly turned his neck back and continued walking forward.

"Xiao Liu." Another call, closer this time, his mother's voice, with a hint of anxiety. He didn't answer. He quickened his pace, and the voice behind him also quickened, following him all the time, a few steps away, neither near nor far.

"Xiao Liu." The third call. This call was right behind his ear, almost touching his neck. All the hairs on his body stood up, and his palms were full of sweat. He gritted his teeth and jogged all the way, finally seeing the light in his home.

He pushed open the courtyard gate, and his mother happened to come out of the house, holding a basin in her hand. Seeing him, she asked: "Why are you back so late?" Xiao Liu threw himself into her arms and said: "Mom, was it you calling me just now?" His mother was stunned and said: "I've been inside the house all along, I didn't go out."

His grandmother came out from the inner room. After listening to everything from beginning to end, she said nothing, but pulled him under the light and carefully examined his shoulders. She said that on a person's two shoulders, there is a lamp each, called yang fire. At night, when something calls you, it wants you to turn around. Once you turn around, the lamp on your shoulder will be blown out, and then it can follow you home.

His grandmother let him sleep in the exact middle of the room that night, placing a bowl of clear water and a pair of scissors at the head of the bed. That night, someone called him several times outside the window. Sometimes it sounded like his mother, sometimes like his grandfather, sometimes like the neighbor's playmate. He covered his head with the quilt and dared not answer.

When dawn came, the sound disappeared. His grandmother picked up the bowl of water by the bed and saw a layer of fine ash floating on the surface. She poured the water outside the courtyard gate and pasted a yellow paper on the door frame.

From then on, the children in the village dared not go out in the middle of the night. The elders said it even more strictly: if it calls you once, don't answer; if it calls you twice, don't answer; if it calls you three times, still don't answer. If it's really family, they will naturally say so during the day; if it insists that you answer at night, it's not family.

#Paranormal #短篇故事 #民间故事