Hey, thanks for the feedback.
The game saves the number of shells in the gun when entering the level. So if your shotgun is empty when restarting, you probably entered the level when it was empty. Or it's a bug that I thought I had already fixed.
This game was very rushed due to a lack of motivation, so you are absolutely right about some of the bad design choices, especially regarding the lacking horror aspect of the game.
But I'm glad you enjoyed it to at least some extent.