Random Short Stories

Random Short Story 3: The Call

At twelve midnight, Ryle found himself asleep in front of his computer. He's still in his office, programming some kind of application that he assumed will give him the biggest break on his entire programming history.

It was somekind of a portal designed to teleport you to another dimension. This was crazy. Of course,he knew he was crazy, because everybody else told him he was. And he believed them. It was true.

He spent all his hours in front of his computer, probably typing his way to death. Under eyes were those dark circles, his skin was dry and he looked extremely dehydrated.

Working on this project for three days straight, he deprived himself of food and even water.

Half-awake, he focused on typing and typing codes nobody else could decipher, the sound of his typewriting dominating the quiet and dim-lit office.

His phone buzzed, an unregistered number calling.

Eyebrows furrowed, he stared at the number on his screen.

6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6

Ryle was puzzled at this. Who would call him at midnight for no reason? and with this unknown number?

Nevertheless, he picked it up and answered in a low, irritated voice.

"Yes, hello, this is Ryle speaking."

"Listen," a manly voice said on the other end, "don't pick up the phone."

He stopped for a split second, bewildered.

"Too late for that, don't you think?... oh." The unknown caller had hung up.

That was very weird. Ryle placed the phone back on the desk. He would have expected this kind of disturbing prank call at home, but past midnight at work? How did this psycho even get his phone number? Dumb luck, Ryle guessed. He went back to his business.

This was the crucial part. He was glad that little prank was out of the way, for even the slightest distraction could cause three days' work to go to trash. Focus was everything he needed all this time. A slight mistype can cause the program to malfunction.

He reread the lengthy page full of codes and about to run the program by pressing the 'enter' key. Soon, he thought, he will know whether he'd made the ultimate invention of the century... or if he was just an insane programmer like what everybody, including himself, believed.

 This time his landline phone started ringing . Anger washed over him. Of all the possible times, did it have to be now? With reserved rage, he carefully let go of the 'enter key' and moved away inches from his desktop. After he was sure things were still functioning appropriately, he swung for the phone.

 "Listen here, you god damn --"

He accidentally bumped his table's leg. His elbow landing on his keyboard, pressing the 'enter' key accidentally.. Suddenly, he felt himself being lifted away by an unknown force, pulling him inside the computer, slowly into darkness, and everything went black. 

Oh, no. No, no, no. He was playing with incredible energies and the repercussions of any mistake were literally unimaginable. 

What was going on?

 Had he died? 

All he could see every which way was darkness. 

He could hear a hollow wind blowing, but that was it. That was all it was.

"Hello?" he called. "Hello?!" he shouted. 

No answer.

 He started walking slowly. After a few minutes, he started panicking. He was running now. What is this vast emptiness? Was he ever going to make it out?

 Even he, who considered himself as genius, doesn't have any idea of what in the world is going on.

He stopped to catch his breath. He must have been running for more than half an hour. "HELLO?!" he shouted once more. Nothing. No one answered.

Suddenly,  a thought sparked his mind. He took out his cellphone. He had reception! But it was almost out of juice! He made the quick decision to call his office's landline phone.

Luckily, on the first ring, somebody picked up the phone instantly and answered.

His eyes grew big as he realized.....

"Yes, hello, this is Ryle speaking."