Many Mini Stories

"... hey Siri"

That the main character wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of Siri answering questions.

 It is a Thursday, the day that's not the middle of the week, but also not the end; the day that everyone wants so desperately to end. After school, I took a ride with my friend to be dropped off at my mother's office, which is on the same route as her house. It was right around three in the afternoon, that the gray sky gave in and it began to pour. The early-winter cold made the atmosphere more murky and the headlights of the cars were the only source of light. The windscreen wipers were in the highest setting, yet the road ahead was still blurry. The rain was too much that my friend's mom suggested it be best to take me to their house and wait for the rain to ease. I agreed. Either way, I had nothing to do in my mother's office so I chose to avoid long hours of boredom. 

The car stopped in front of the house. Someone needed to go out and open the gate in order to enter the car into the garage. Since I'm a "guest," my friend's mother sent her to go open the gate out in the pouring rain. Running to open the gate didn't do anything; she still came into the house all soaked. My friend's mother and I got out of the car once it was parked in the garage. We all went inside. In reality, I've been to their house one to many times and I already knew where to locate the plates and pans. I walked into the kitchen, opened the fridge and took some snacks. The almost-automatic routine. Then I went upstairs to my friends room and waited for her to change out of her soaked clothes while I skimmed through the TV. 

My friend and I like to challenge each other. Recently we had been talking about supernatural things; spirits and ghosts in particular. I don't believe in things unless they are proven to exist or I can see them with my own eyes. My friend on the other hand, trusts the randomness of things and enjoys the theories and blind assumptions. It was already six in the afternoon. The sun had gone down and the rain continued to fall. We had decided to watch any show that has to do with ghost hunting. First, we started with Buzzfeed Unsolved. We got bored, so we switched to the show Ghost Hunters. All the suspense and spook tactics were getting in my head. I suggested we watched Supernatural to ease our imaginations. That was a mistake. Besides the spontaneous horrific scenery and background that they use in the how, seeing the Winchester brothers in action made my fantasies blaze. We had been there for a while. Finally, around nine at night, the rain had eased and my mother came by to pick me up. 

Unlike my friend who is from the city, I live up in the mountains in an isolated neighborhood. Old people occupy the nearby houses. The road we take to go home is narrow; trees enclose it from all sides except for the linear division above that reveals the sky. The pavement is disordered; there are patches of gravel in some parts of the road, which makes the car shake without warning. On our way up, my imagination was active, making me uneasy. I continued to watch my surroundings as if they were purposely looking eerie —I hate mind tricks. We got home late at nine. I was exhausted.

We entered the house, I dropped my bag in my room and took off my uniform, showered as I always do, then put on an extra-large t-shirt with some shorts. I was hungry again so, I went into the kitchen to get a snack. Maybe the reason why I've gained ten pounds is because of all this snaking. After I was done, I kissed my mother good-night and went upstairs into my room. Then, I placed my phone to charge on the nightstand next to my bed.

I love my room. Other than it being my cave where I huddle up and rot, I organized in a neat way to make it look like a comfy city house. The furniture is a set my parents had bought when I was born, so believe me when I say that they have gone through a lot. They all complement each other. In two of the walls, there are large windows that take up most of the space; one points east to see the sunrise over the mountain; the other one points south to where my backyard and my gazebo are at. The back of my bed faces the south window. This way I can just turn over in my bed to see the sunrise. Out the east window lays a mountainous panorama which cover the horizon. The houses are spread out over the panorama to a point where no one can look at the window and see their neighbor. I wouldn't sell the peace it emits for any given price. 

Though I make it sound like a friendly-living area, it has got the whole package. Sometimes gunshots can be heard unexpectedly in the middle of the night. Other nights, you can hear the drunk men screaming on the road— they must be looking to get hit by a car. Tonight, the roads were even darker. There was a drowning silence. Crickets could be heard, along with the sound of some cars driving by. The light posts didn't do a great job at letting me know what is out there. 

It was now ten at night and I was lying down in bed trying to fall asleep. My room was completely dark. I laid under the bed sheets trying to fall asleep. I was having trouble though, because the silence kept making me paranoid, thinking something might come out and jump at me. It was as if something was waiting for me to fall asleep so then it could wake me up with a loud BANG. After a few long minutes, I drifted. There was no movement in the room, except for the ceiling fan above the bed.

Ten, eleven, twelve, one... time passes by in silence and everything was static. Two o'clock came by. I was fast asleep dreaming. Very soon, I began to slowly wake up. I didn't understand what was it that was pulling me out of my sleep. My eyes began to slowly open. I didn't see anything at first— obviously because it was pitch-dark. A noise had woken me up but I wasn't sure what. I turned the light to try and find what made the noise. After I looked around the room a few times and stood still to see if the noise would come again, nothing came up. When I reached to turn off the light, I realized that my phone had activated Siri for some reason. I brushed off the eerie suspicions coming from my imagination and clicked the off button to deactivate Siri. Then turned back into bed to sleep.

Three o'clock came and a noise made me wake up again. This time though, I woke up more alert and aware. I was conscious enough to be able to identify what the noise was. It was a conversation. One end of the conversation to be specific. I hadn't turned on the light yet because everything was so sudden, so I just lay there in bed motionless in the same position as when I was sleeping. All my attention shifted to what was being said:

—"I'm not sure I understand..."

(silence)

—"You'll need to unlock your iPhone first"

(silence)

—"I can't do that"

(Soft murmurs) " There ... n... more ... left for ...u to liv... Death ... ..."

—"Timer set for 24 hours"