He was very concerned, but ignored his slight fear and apprehension to watch another movie. It wasn’t good, but he liked to laugh at it.

In the middle of a very awkward kiss scene, his phone buzzed.

What? Most of the apps on his phone needed an internet connection, and others didn’t have notifications. How strange.

He looked at his phone, and there it was. A text from an unknown number.

‘is this the right number?’

He went to block it, but it was unexpected enough to take his interest. No one else had texted him, not even his parents, who had promised to text every day with updates and pictures from their trip.

‘I don’t know. Is it?’

He sent it, expecting for the number to be replaced with “Wrong Number”, but it didn’t.

The text sent.

‘well i guess it is’

‘How did you get this number?’

‘typed in random ones. wanted to know. wrong numbers? that implies theres a right one yknow? was losin hope after the 30th but idk. nothin else to do’

‘Huh. It’s nice to talk to someone else today’

‘same ig.’

‘wait why? you stay home?’

‘My car wouldn’t work’

‘hold on i’m trying mine’

He waited with bated breath. The day had been strange, mostly because of the car and the wrong numbers, but he wanted to know if someone could potentially reach him! ...Even though he didn’t know them and they could be a serial killer or something.

‘doesnt word’

‘Work’

‘yea yea’

Well, at least he could talk to someone.

He finished the movie without any more texts, and he busied himself with chores he never had time to do. Most of his work was online, and the paper sheets were mostly done, so there wasn’t much to do. It was rather boring, honestly.

Soon enough, he retired to his room at 7 after a day of mindless work, as he had woken up extremely early. He figured it was best to do it sooner rather than later, anyway. He checked for more texts as he closed the door, but realized he wanted to check what food he had left. He figured it wouldn’t hurt, so he went to open the door again.

It didn’t open.

“Oh,” he breathed, turning the knob again and again, progressively harder and harder until he just gave up.

He put his phone to charge and flopped onto his bed. He’d wait until morning to deal with that, and he would just sleep for now, as it took considerable effort to keep his eyes open and his movements had turned sluggish and clumsy.

He closed his eyes, and the next time he opened them, the first thing he saw was the clock.

9:00 PM.

Yup, he was going back to sleep. The generator was still humming and his car likely hadn’t fixed itself, so he should get more shut-eye. More than two hours, at least. Sleep schedules should have been planned, he thought, as it was hard to sleep early when you usually stay up late to ridiculously late. He slept whenever he could, usually, because he would get homework and activities and schedule friend hangouts and play games and sleeping wasn’t really important.

He stared at the ceiling, suddenly not tired. His windows had blinds down, but not the curtains, so he could see the fading evening light shining through out of the corner of his eye.

A silhouette flew past, unnaturally long arms holding something that he could make out. He jumped to the window and tried to open the blinds, but they wouldn’t open. The curtains wouldn’t close either, and strange shadow shapes taunted and frightened him.

He tucked himself back into bed and closed his eyes, refusing to acknowledge them for the rest of the night. Another morning problem!