Urban Legend "A Call From Empty Room"

A Call From Empty Room

It's been six months since I started my job as a Guest Relation Officer in a villa in Bali. This happened at May 2nd.

A day before, I welcomed a group of Chinese guests, three guys and two girls. They booked two villas, and they were the only group guests we had that week.

At May 2nd, they were gone pretty early, picked up by diving company at 7AM. I did my job for the day and since it was low season, by noon I've pretty much out of job to do. I retired to my office upstairs for lunch and rest, etc.

Around 2:30PM, my head butler called my office, saying a guest wanted to speak to me. He didn't say the villa name, so I had no clue about it. He asked about afternoon tea and all, so I suggested he took a look at our menu and when he had decided what he wanted, he could give me a call back. Then I asked his villa name. We'll just call it Villa A for discretion's sake. The villa was located next to our restaurant. After making sure he was the group guests that checked in the day before, I hung up.

Fifteen minutes later and still no call back, so I took the initiative to call his villa. No answer. Two more calls in ten minutes, still no answer. I called the other villa, no answer either. Then it struck me that the guests were supposedly out.

I called our reception, asking them to check the keys. In our villa, guests who go out must leave the key in the reception (it's quite big and heavy and we want to make sure they don't lose it). First shock. The keys were all still in the reception, meaning they hadn't been back yet.

Oh well, I thought maybe one of them was feeling unwell and left alone, but the head butler reacted with something akin to fear, so I went down and proceeded to check the villas.

I knocked many times, but no one opened the door. Then two housekeeping staffs happened to pass, so I asked if they had cleaned the rooms. They confirmed they had just did turn-down service for those two villas, and they were empty.

Second shock.

In the end, I took both keys and entered the villas to check myself. Empty. Not a soul.

Now, when guests call us in the reception, our phone will show the extension number, letting us know which guest is giving a call. This is important so we can greet them by name to create a familiar feeling. Besides, we are small villas here, our complex only consists of nineteen villas altogether

My head butler confirmed that the call was coming from inside, from Villa A, not from outside or other villas.

Just to make sure, I called the other Chinese guests, but none of them made that call. I was sure of this because the voice who gave me that call was heavy and very masculine. One guest had very light voice, the other were still at out spa doing massage, and the other was in the restaurant.

Now, it couldn't be our guests because they all went out, five of them. It couldn't be my friend playing some stupid pranks on me because he spoke Chinese. I was the only Chinese speaking staff. It couldn't be another guest entering the wrong room because the gate was locked and the key was kept in our reception. It couldn't be the telephone machine messed up because he clearly said where he was.

My head butler was so afraid that day, because just a few weeks ago other guests also experienced something very strange in that room, like the safety deposit box was unlocked by itself, and a presence hovering nearby when they slept.

Until now I'm still baffled by this. Who the hell gave me a call from that empty room?