The ghost in the phone

Anna was sitting in her living room; it was an ordinary Thursday afternoon in mid-April. There was nothing about this day that made it any different than the previous days, with one exception. She had been sitting at her desk working as a receptionist at a newspaper in Oslo, it had been a hectic last couple of days with a lot of deadlines and meetings storming throughout the working hours, pushing everyone to their limits craving them to rush. Anna spent most of her waking hours glued to a screen and her boss had been nagging her to stop fiddling so much with her phone.

 “This isn’t healthy for you to always have your nose in that thing Anna”. Mons had proclaimed with his hand flying to his forehead, he shook his head and had stomped away. She had just stared at him, and she remembered the feeling, she thought he had been really rude, coming with an outburst like that with no warning. A frown had had covered her face, lucky for her, he had already turned his back.

“You know, one of these days you might regret having that thing!” he shouted over his shoulder before he turned the corner and left her sight. His words were hanging in the air, her other collogues was looking at her strangely, the waiting area was filled with people hanging around for their meetings and different affairs. Anna got bright red, she didn’t like to get the attention, with the staring eyes of strangers. She had wanted to curl up and become invisible, on instinct, she grabbed her phone and dug her nose down in it. Scrolling up and down the pages looking for something to take her mind of the event.

Anna looked out of the window staring at the people who walked by below in the street. The silence in her apartment soothed her, it was a relief to get out of the buzzing at the office. She clutched her phone, the embarrassment from earlier, still had a hold on her and she gripped it tighter.

“Ai, ai, watch out” a strange voice broke the silence in the room.

Anna stood abruptly up and tossed her head around to see if there was anyone in her apartment. Strange, all she saw was her familiar environment, her lounge chair in the corner next to her bookshelf, the empty hallway leading to her front door. The kitchen was opposite from where she sat, she could still smell the focaccia lingering in the air. It was resting on the countertop, before dinner. Everything seemed like it should, Anna sat down again and stared out at the bypasses. It had begun to rain, so the people had quickened their pace to get out of the water drizzling from the sky. It was like a busy ant’s trail, everlasting in the rush hour of the commuters.  

Anna clutched her phone, gripping it and feeling the familiar shape of it. The sensation calmed her as she tightened her grip.

“Careful woman or you will break me!” The voice shot out of nowhere and Anna lost her phone in the suddenty of the voice breaking the silence. It smacked in the floor, making a small thud noise. Anna stumbled to the ground to find it; she franticly searched the floor crawling around on all four. There it was beneath her couch almost out of reach. Instantly flipping it to see if the screen survived, with a sigh of relief she leans back on the couch. It wasn’t damaged.

“Are you trying to kill me?” The voice cracked again. Anna looked shocked at her phone; no, it couldn’t be. She must be exhausted from work, there was no way that could be real.

“Do you hear me? I know you speak English!” the voice rang from the phone; Anna didn’t know what to say. She stuttered “Bu…. Wha… Nah… what?” Her voice trailed off, unable to find her voice.

 “Hello Anna, don’t be so surprised”

“How can you speak?” She was in utter disbelief.

“Of course, I can, you did that on purpose you know”.

“When?”

“Earlier today when you downloaded the Shymir app. I think your boss had just embarrassed you and quite eagerly filled in your information and agreed to the terms”

“What, no I didn’t sign up for a talking phone. Who are you on the other end mocking me?” She angerly replied.

“Other, who are you talking about Anna?” The static robotic voice chimed from the speaker.

“The other person on the other end of this conversation, who else?”

“There is no other person, it’s just me Opus serial number 32267810”

Silence followed; Anna stared at her phone. She was going mad, Mons was right, she had to stop being so attached to this thing. It was driving her completely insane, no way in this world was this possible. Things like this didn’t just happen and things didn’t just come to life.

“Anna, are you alright?”

“NOOOOO, I’m not alright! What do you think? My phone is talking to me, no way is that real!” Anna hissed at the screen; she twisted an turned the thing. She stared at it for what felt like minutes, she must be dreaming or having a mental breakdown. She felt a sense of relief as her phone stayed silent, it must have been her imagination playing her a trick. Anna made a mental note to contact Dr. From tomorrow. She needed to see him to make sure that she wasn’t going of the rails again.

The metallic voice chimed again “I can assure you that this is real and not a figment of your imagination. Dr. From cannot help you because there is nothing wrong with you”.

Anna just stared at the phone in utter disbelief; did it know what she was thinking? How could it know about Dr. From? She just got it last week and she hadn’t called him with this one and his phone number wasn’t saved as a contact.

“Let me introduce myself, I am Jack your personal helper. I am here to help get your life back on track. You need to get out of your head and out into the world. You are wasting your life and I can help you get the most out of your skills.” The voice carried no emotion, what was this thing. Anna began to look around in her apartment, this had to be a prank, maybe Leroy had set up a hidden camera to trick her?

“This is not a prank; I can assure you that this is utterly real. You chose me to be your companion and I am here to take control of your life.”

“I have not chosen you as a companion, you are not welcome and you are going away!” Anna screamed franticly at the screen while she was searching for the so-called app Skymir. Ha, she found it and kept her finger on it to get the menu options. Delete, she pushed the button firmly. Now, it was gone, she took a breath of relief as she fell back on her sofa.

“You can’t so easily get rid of me. We are one and I am a part of you, there is no where I cannot reach you.” The screen lit up as the voice came out of the phone, Anna instantly screamed in horror. “WHAT IS THIS THING!”

“I am you.” The words echoed in her head.

Anna tossed the phone to the ground stomping it to pieces, making sure that the phone was utterly dead. She stared at it, waiting. Minutes passed by, still nothing. She lowered her shoulders and took a deep breath. She had managed to kill it, she leaned down and picked it up and took it to the kitchen island. Placing it and staring at it, she couldn’t believe that this had just happened. No way could she tell anyone about it, they would think she had gone completely bunkers. Man, now she needed to get a new phone. How in the world was she going to survive this era without one. Everything was on that thing, her entire life, everything she needed for work. The damn thing was her whole life, she stared at it. “What am I supposed to do now?” mumbling to herself.

Her TV flickered, and it flashed white and a black strip covered the middle; like a heart monitor.

“I found you!”

“Nooo way is this happening!” Anna screamed storming to her TV.

“There is no where you can hide, you are mine!” The voice cracked over her sound system. Anna took up one of her barstools and tossed it at the TV. Taking it up again and again, smashing it to pieces. She was dripping with sweat, creating circles under her arms. Anna was panting from the ordeal, letting go of the stool and it smacked in the floor.

“Hello Anna.” The screen on her coffee machine lit up. “Stop being so dramatic, I’m only here to help.”

Anna rat to the machine and pulled the cord from the wall, she could see the light go out. “No wha…” The sound died out as the electricity left it. The lights flickered in mores code; it was speaking to her. Anna stormed out of her apartment and ran down the stairs, she screamed, fumbling down almost falling on her way down. She came outside glued to the door with her back facing it. She was panting from her sprint staring wide eyed on the strangers festering the street. Her breath was razing and her panic was spreading, there were so many phones and electronics.

“Hey Anna!” It chimed from the phones…..