Techno-Ghost

 “I told you I’m not crazy”

“Still it’s better to consult a psychiatrist, just getting advice…” I hung up my phone, I couldn’t listen any longer, I couldn’t endure that a part of me was starting to accept his words, I mean just two days ago I was fine, completely fine, a little stressed but that was normal. All of a sudden, everything started going downhill, to the point of having my brother telling me to call a… Ah, I don’t even want to remember.

Two days ago,

This morning, my best friend’s flight was going to take off, he was going on his long-awaited vacation, seeing his dark circles and haggard look, it was just the right time to take it easy and relax. I would be driving him to the airport, so here I was, standing in front of the mirror adjusting my suit, and combing my dark brown hair. Well, as plain-looking as I was, it didn’t really matter, but I had a business meeting later, so I had to be extra careful about my look. Yes, on such a perfectly sunny weekend, I still had to work.

<On the way to the airport>

“I told you there’s no need to drive me, Fran, I can just take a taxi.”

“It’s okay Ren, besides I have somewhere to go later, so it didn’t make much difference.”

“You, the one who never leaves his house except for work, going out on a weekend!”

Ren was quite surprised, as unsocial as I am, leaving the house on a weekend was just that strange.

“It is work…” a big sigh escaped me as I recalled my meeting.

“You really need to start looking for another job, they’re working you too hard.” And he kept going on about how stressed I looked, till we reached the airport, I dropped him off saying my goodbyes, then I went to the meeting.

It was already dark when I got back home, I threw myself down on the bed. It’s already been four years since I graduated and joined this company, accounting work can really be tiring. “I really want to wake up normally without any alarms,” such was the wish of my exhausted self, my eyelids closed as I fell into a deep sleep.

The sun was shining brightly through the curtains, I slowly woke up, since it was the weekend there was no need for haste, I just needed to drive Ren to the airport…Drive Ren…airport…WAIT! Didn’t that happen already! I jumped out of bed, looked at the time and the date on my phone…“Damn!” Today was the first day of the week, and I overslept, I couldn’t believe it, I was three whole hours late, was I that tired that I missed the alarm, I hurried to the office but of course, I was still late.

“Frank Robinson! How dare come this late? It’s almost lunchtime didn’t you look at your watch? Who do you think is going to finish all this piled up work…” The director’s lecture went on for a long time, ah, my ears were ringing already… But it was really strange, I remembered setting up my alarm before sleeping, today was another tiring day, “I really want to leave this job,” but I couldn’t afford it now, “should I start looking for another one?” Well, I was not in a hurry, I could take time to think it over carefully. Thankfully, the day passed without any more incidents, I double-checked my alarm and went to sleep.

<rings> I opened my eyes to my alarm ringing, honestly what was wrong with me yesterday, I’m not one to miss alarms, maybe I was tired. I ate breakfast and got out. Today I would be on time, or so I thought till I found out that my car wasn’t starting, “this is so annoying! Just work already!” I would need to call for maintenance again, it was the second time this month, “I just want to disassemble it and assemble it again to know what is wrong with it.” Did I need to change my car along with my job? There was a lot to think about. I called a taxi, being late again was the last thing I wanted.

Upon reaching the office, I felt that the atmosphere was really strange, some of my coworkers were staring at me pitifully, others came up to me saying things like: ‘Tell me if you need help,’ ‘I can offer some help,’ ‘if it’s too much I can help.’ Seriously, what was this ‘help’ thing this early in the morning? As I reached my desk, I was called over by the director.

“I received your resignation this morning, if possible I want you to think it over again.”

“What? Resign?” what was he talking about? I felt the blood drain from my face, was I being forced to resign? But I didn’t make any mistakes in my work.

“I know work’s been too much lately as the company took over many projects, you must have been too stressed to do that, look at your eyes wide open.” My eyes were wide open cause I couldn’t process what was going on…

“I will also give you two days off to rethink carefully, you can go home for today.”

In the end, I couldn’t refuse, so I just went back to my desk to get my things. A coworker who sits at the desk next to me started speaking when he saw me coming back.

“Frank, I know you’re not one to speak up, but if it’s becoming too much you need to say, don’t just send your resignation via e-mail like that…” He continued saying that he can ‘help’ like everyone else, or something like that, I couldn’t hear clearly, my mind was just fixed on the word ‘e-mail’, once he finished speaking, I immediately took out my phone and checked my mail, and it truly was there, ‘my resignation letter’, what was this? How did this happen? I was bewildered, I never sent this, I didn’t deny that the idea of resigning did cross my mind but, but… Only an idea, just that. For now, let’s change the password, and I should consult with Ren later, maybe it’s a hacker or something, he is in software development, he might be of help.

I left my desk and went to the rooftop lounge, I always came up here whenever I needed to calm down, the wind really feels relaxing here. I sat down with a cup of coffee in my hands and recalled what happened, the e-mail aside, I never knew my coworkers cared about me, as unsocial as I am, I am not one to talk much, of course, I never go to gatherings and dinners after work either, remembering their caring words, a small smile formed on my face, as I felt calmer, I left the rooftop and called a taxi to go back home.

As I approached, my house could be seen from a distance, I noticed some strangers in uniforms, they appeared to be maintenance workers of some sort, there was three of them, getting nearer, it was apparent that they were standing around my car, or what looked like my car, the taxi stopped and I got down to a shocking sight. My car was in pieces, the doors, the side mirrors, the engine… Everything was detached, anxiety started to fill me, and my anger grew, I screamed at them: “What are you doing to my car?” The men paused their work and turned in my direction,

“are you the car’s owner?”

“Yes, what is going on?” I was getting perplexed as I waited for their reply.

“There is a lot of work to be done, so I think it will take some time.” I couldn’t suppress my obnoxious feelings, I tried to maintain a calm attitude as I asked:

“What will take time?”

“Completing the request of course.” And he showed me the request to the maintenance company app on his phone, and it clearly stated my name and address and of course, ‘please disassemble my car’, was written on the screen. I couldn’t believe my eyes, I took out my phone in a hurry, my hand was sweating, I really didn’t want to find that request but, it was there, it really was there, I was getting freaked out, but I didn’t want to show that to the workers, so I took a deep breath, and asked them to return the car to how it was, as expected they were angry, and the swearing only stopped when I stated that I would compensate them.

I entered the house, and just let myself fall into the sofa, I didn’t know what is what anymore, was I possessed by some ghost making me do such things? That thought sent goosebumps all over my body, *sigh* what do I do about this? Should I call my brother? With Ren on vacation, I didn’t have anyone else to ask anyway…

After the call with my brother, I laid back on the bed, and just blankly stared at the ceiling, he thought I was crazy, that the stress made me do things without realizing, or made me forgetful, sure I was always prone to stress, but it never surpassed a few nightmares, yet this was a different scale, I was not losing my mind now, was I? “It’s not like people can get a good night message telling them they are crazy, but I really want that to happen,” at least I would know if something was really wrong with me. Before sleeping, I tried calling Ren, there was no answer though, guess he was having his fun, he would be returning tomorrow anyway, so I just turned off my lights and laid on my bed, I didn’t have an appetite after what happened, nor the energy to do anything, so I just stayed still and eventually fell asleep.

“Mr. Frank, I am sorry to inform you that the high level of stress, you were subjected to in the last few days, caused your mental breakdown, you are going crazy.”Said the man in the white coat, looking at me with stern eyes.

“No! That can’t happen, that can’t be true, NOOOO!” As opened my eyes, I saw my bedroom’s ceiling, my body was drenched in sweat, considering the situation I was in, having a nightmare was the most normal thing that happened *sigh*.

I grabbed my phone to look at the time, it was dawn, “huh?”, there was a huge number of missed calls, scrolling through them, they were from almost every contact on my list, some even called a few times, and left messages, my hands trembled, what if it was like yesterday? What if I did something else without realizing it? Getting more and more worried, my mind was filled with all kinds of scary thoughts, I resolved myself and opened the first message: “You are the crazy one!” What? Did my brother tell him? He wouldn’t do that, then I went through the second one: “What is this are you playing a trick?” Then the third: “You crazy xxx…” I still couldn’t understand, the fourth message was from Ren: “What is this Fran? Are you okay? Why did you send such a message to me?” I did? I got a bad feeling about this, I checked the ‘sent messages’ and it was there, of course, it must be there, I read the message that was sent to all my contacts last night: ‘You are crazy’. The silence filled the room, only the sound of my breath could be heard, as I stared at the text in front of me, I felt paralyzed, I didn’t have the energy to take any action, I just stayed still. I didn’t know how much time passed like that, till my phone rang, it was Ren.

“Hi!” I barely managed to squeeze out my voice.

“Fran, are you okay? What is going on ?” I didn’t know how to answer him, I didn’t have any answers, only questions.

“I am not okay Ren, I really am not,” Ren told me that he was already at the airport and that he would be here soon. I got up and washed my face in an attempt to calm down, and waited for Ren.

The doorbell rang, and I opened the door for Ren to invite him in, he was clearly very worried about me, we sat down and I told him everything that happened, and each event made him more and more surprised, of course, he would be, and I was getting more anxious.

“Whoa! Somehow you’ve been through too much.”

“I don’t know why is this happening? Am I getting mentally ill?”

“Calm down! It’s going to be okay, first, pass me your phone, everything that happened was related to it, let me check it out.” I handed him the phone and waited while he examined it.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it,” seeing my face getting paler, he tried changing the subject to calm me down, “by the way how’s the app doing?”

“What app?”

“Seriously! The app I’ve been working on, the one I installed on your phone before my vacation, the life management app…”

“Ah! That! It didn’t work, I tried using it but it looked like something was wrong so I left it alone.”

“Okay, I’ll look at it…Hey Fran! you knew that the AI app takes oral orders too, right?” I kept staring at him wondering what he wanted to say, I had a lot on my plate so I didn’t feel like engaging in a technological conversation now.

“Well, I guess we have solved one problem.” What was solved? I’m in the crisis of my life here, I wasn’t in any position to worry about his app.

“Here take a look at the app’s order list,” and he showed me the phone screen, I gasped as I looked at the clear words in front of my eyes, ‘disable the alarm for tomorrow morning’, ‘sent my resignation to the company’, ‘call maintenance to disassemble car’, ‘send good night text’…