The Story Behind the Story: Intercom

I used to have an intercom system in the first house I owned. Mostly, I just used it to communicate with my wife when we were on different floors. One night, my wife and I were freaked out when a strange voice broke into the intercom system. I couldn’t tell for sure what the other person was saying, but the man on the other end had one of those voices that you hear in horror movies – you know the rugged voice of the backwoods killer who is about to hack a dozen people into pieces. We later tossed the intercom system, but it inspired me to write this story, which was published online in the now defunct Sinister City.
In my story, Mel, my story’s protagonist, buys a home intercom for a present for his wife. All is normal at first until the intercom starts to speak to Mel. Initially, it freaks him out, but it has a mesmerizing quality to it, and he eventually falls into an almost hypnotic state when speaking with the intercom. At first, it gives him good strategy to advance his career, but eventually its advice becomes far more sinister leading up to the intercom trying to convince Mel that he must kill his wife. It was a fun little story for me to write. You can read it at http://www.carlalves.com/blog-post/th...