The Glitch in the Call

Late one night, Mira sat alone at her desk, the hum of her computer the only sound in the room. This was the kind of silence that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, a silence so heavy and suffocating it seemed to weigh upon her skin. She had just dialed into a video call with her friend Sam, who was out of town visiting family. Mira had hoped the call would brighten her evening, but as she picked up the call, something felt... off.

Sam's face appeared on the screen, but he looked different. His face was pale, his expression blank, as if he were staring right through her. The familiar warmth and cheerfulness she associated with Sam was missing. Panic began to bubble within her.

"Sam?" she whispered, her voice trembling. "Are you okay?"

A faint, distorted crackle filled the speakers. Then, Sam's voice, low and cold, barely audible, drifted through the static. "I'm here."

Mira's heart was racing. She leaned forward, straining to see if she could pick up any indication of her friend's usual self in the picture. But the more she looked, the more ominous it became. Sam's eyes looked sunken, shadowed by something that lurked just beyond the light of his webcam. The connection seemed to waver, as if something were interfering with it.

And now, the lights in her room started flickering out of control, flashing the entire walls with erratically colored beams of light. Mira's screen began to flash as the pixels distorted into what couldn't be recognized any further. Sam's face pulled into a grinning shape that almost resembled something a human being could own—an almost-human grin from out of nowhere. Their dark pits of eyes shone hollow and lifeless, with nothing inside them at all. And their wide and split mouth seemed out of proportion, stretching too large to fit on what now looked like a dead thing—a grimace that should cause such a chill down Mira's spine.

"Let me in," it whispered, inching closer and closer to the camera until all she could see were those empty, ghostly eyes. The voice was a grotesque mockery of Sam's, venomously laced with malice and something primeval.

Mira's breathing was fast as she, in a reflexive motion, stretched out to hit the mouse to disconnect the call. But her fingers fumbled with it, and the button refused to respond. Waves of fear washed over her, as if she were a hostage to the device that was supposed to bring the outside world closer to her. She frantically pulled the plug from her computer, plunging the room into darkness.

She gasped, trying to shake the fear out of her head. It was just a glitch, she kept telling herself. The screen had gone wrong, and Sam was probably okay. But as her eyes adjusted to the dark, the silence became unbearable around her.

And then, in the stillness of her room, she heard a soft, familiar whisper.

From behind her.

"I'm here."

Mira froze. Her heart hammered in her chest as she slowly swiveled to face Sam's voice. It was undoubtedly his, yet it sounded slightly wrong—terribly wrong to be running icily in her veins. She felt she half-expected him to stand up there and turn out that the corner of the room was sucking up into a shadow like the darkness consumed everything that wasn't solid."Yes?"Her voice trembled. "Sam?

No response came, only the reverberation of her voice as it echoed back. She dug her fingers into the edge of her desk, and her knuckles turned white. The whisper had sounded almost within touching distance, almost within breathing distance. Mira glanced around, half hoping she could see a figure pop into existence from the dark. And then she remembered. Sam said he'd come back the next day. He wasn't supposed to be here.

Mira thought and stretched out to find her phone for some much-needed light. She turned it on, casting weak illumination around her small room. Shadows seemed to dance down walls that were so still and stoic all day. All those familiar objects—the books, photographs—were foreign territory now; remnants of a life she did not know at all. "Hello?" she called again, her voice into the silence.

This had hardly crept in. Just at that time, when she tried to reassure herself that maybe it was just all this fuss in her mind, came that buzzing noise in her pocket. It was from Sam: "I am coming back tomorrow. You alright?" A sea of blood drooled off from Mira's face, and questions came storming into the surface—then who the heck said these words inside that lonely head?

The room temperature dropped; she could see her breath as misty vapor rose before her. Panic hit her bloodstream as she whirled around, racing heart thudding against the cage of her chest. Darkness was behind her; it pulsed and thrived on some unseen force.

"Get out!" she yelled into the darkness, but it felt like words from another life. She was alone and not alone in this living nightmare where the barriers between reality seemed to dissolve.

Trembling, she reached out toward the door, her fingers almost closing on the handle. The lights flickered on just as she touched the doorknob, and her computer snapped to life with a shuddering whir. The screen flickered and erupted into a grainy, grotesque image of the contorted face once again. "Let me in," it echoed, its voice dripping with malice.

Mira slammed the door shut, her breath quickening. Her mind was racing for an exit. She needed to get out of the house, out of that place, away from the force that seemed clawing through the very fabric of her reality.

The whisper came again, but louder, more insistent: "I'm here."

Leave me alone!" she shouted, her voice cracked, pounding her fists onto the door. She heard evil laughter resonating from behind that door—a terrifying noise that made her goosebumps tingle.

She dialed 911 on her phone, desperate. Her fingers danced over the keypad as if they had a mind of their own. The ringing filled the silence, but her heart went down as she realized the call was not going through. A low hum filled the air, humming within her bones in the static.

Then came the thud, loud from the other side of the door, and eerie silence after it. Hairs stood on end up and down her arms as she stepped back and then stepped again, all this happening as her brain flashed wildly at what would be coming.

She grabbed a chair from the room and jammed it under the doorknob as if that flimsy barricade could keep the darkness back. "You can't have me!" she shouted at the top of her voice, her voice wavering between anger and fear. And then, from the shadows, she heard it again, the whisper, but now dripping with amusement: "But I'm already here, Mira. Just open the door.".

A chill, cold dread ran down her as she listened to the sound. She knew she was battling something beyond her understanding—a power that fed on fear and confusion. She glanced about the room, looking for something to give her an idea, but her surroundings felt as if they were closing in around her, the walls seeming to pulse with life of their own.

In a burst of clarity, she remembered that little talisman that her grandmother had given her when she left home. It is one type of protection talisman that repels evil spirits. She searched and retrieved it from the drawer in her nightstand. Gaining enough strength, Mira sprinted toward the nightstand and searched the drawers as though finding what she's searching for, which is an engraved worn stone with magical signs protecting the inside and outer aspects of it.

Holding the talisman, she turned to the door. "You can't have me!" she shouted once more, holding the stone close to her heart.

The whisper turned into a roar, the laughter growing louder and more menacing. "You think that little rock can save you?"

She could feel the shadows vibrating with fury but stood firm, sensing her lineage behind her. "I am not afraid!" she screamed, the words coming forth from her mouth full of newfound strength.

The door rattled violently; the impact of the slamming shook her makeshift barricade. But Mira stood firm, feeling the talisman's power surge through her. With a last, desperate scream, she hurled the stone at the door.

It struck as it should—a searing bright light that repelled darkness like a wave. The dark maledictions faded; the cacophonous screams being thrown echoing through the walls. Shading recoiled and began to dissolve into light; silence fell.

Mira fell down on her knees, and the room fell silent besides the humming of her computer; the lights came back as she took in her surroundings through pounding eyes, realizing that fear had left her.

Feeling very shaken, she checked on her phone again. A message from Sam was on it still, and her fingers rapidly typed a reply back to him. "Something was here. I'm okay now.".

And there, waiting for his reaction, Mira felt all exhaustion weigh upon her. A nightmare had passed before her face, and she survived to recall the chilling reminder that she had in the back of her mind: the shadows will whisper her name anytime because the darkness can return to her.