The messages
I woke up to the familiar buzz of my alarm, but something felt different. The room was too quiet, like the air was holding its breath. I grabbed my phone, expecting the usual notifications, but instead there was a single unread message from an unknown number.
“Hi, my name is Aden and this is a story one will never forget…”
I blinked, confused. No link. No follow-up text. Just that one sentence.
At first, I figured it had to be some kind of prank. But then I noticed the timestamp: 3:17 AM. And the weirdest part? My phone had been on airplane mode the whole night.
I sat up, the sheets twisted around my legs. My room looked normal posters on the wall, backpack half-unzipped, the hoodie I never hang up draped over my chair. Everything was the same… except for the message.
I opened it again.
Still just the one sentence.
I tried replying: Who is this?
The text instantly bounced back with a notification: Message failed to send.
Okay, that was creepy.
I got dressed fast and headed downstairs, hoping breakfast would distract me. But even as I poured cereal into a bowl, my brain kept circling around the same thought:
How did a message get through when my phone wasn’t even connected?
I was halfway through eating when my phone buzzed again.
New notification.
Same number.
My stomach tightened.
This time, the message was longer.
“If you’re reading this, something important is about to happen. Meet me after school. I’ll explain everything.”
No location. No details. Nothing.
Just a feeling spreading through me part curiosity, part fear as if my day had already shifted onto a path I hadn’t chosen.
I didn’t know who Aden was.
But I had a feeling that whoever they were…
My life was about to get a whole lot weirder.
