Prompt 14: Radio Waves
In the ever-expanding metropolis of Destiny City, there’s always a need for more cell towers. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a problem, except since the last batch went live, some people have been reporting an increase in weird messages to their phones. Strange, nonsensical texts, or voicemails, or even a few shadowy video calls have been reported, but the evidence never lasts. Almost immediately after receiving the message, it disappears. Prank calls–sure. But the weird thing is that some people have been reporting getting weird messages without their phone, like they’re being transmitted directly into their brain. The messages are always in another language and it always feels like someone is yelling at you. If it’s a practical joke, it’s a good one.
Vaylin sat on her couch finishing an essay assignment for her summer classes. She stretched as she finished a paragraph, feeling like she needed a break the young Velencian stood up and walked over to her apartment window. She gazed out over the city, she thought about all the humans going about their daily life beneath her. She wondered if there was anyway her own people would one day be able to go about life on their original home world like this. As she was lost in thought she noticed a new addition to the skyline that was recently put up, a cell tower as the human's called them. Apparently the increase of humans in the city meant more of these towers needed to be built to make their phones function.
As she was thinking about the tower her cell phone went off. As she went to answer it she saw it was a video call, but the other end was shadowy and hard to make out. The figure on the other end of the line began screaming at her but it was not in the English language and she was fairly certain it wasn't any human language. Her translator didn't pick up any of the words before the call ended. She was very confused and more than a little concerned. She didn't know what to make of it, could it have been a wrong number or a prank call. Admittedly her translator was only to programmed to pick the local language of English so it is possible that was some human language she had never heard of or even some gibberish a random human was making up to scare random people. There was also the possibility that this was magical in nature. She tried to put it out of her mind, there was no way she could know the truth of it without more information. So she tried to focus on finishing up her paper.
Over the next few days she continued to receive strange off putting calls as well as text messages and voice mails all in the same unknown language in the same screaming tone, however the most concerning thing that was happening was that she began to hear the voice not just from her phone but from her own mind. She heard the yelling in her mind at random points of the day. That made it definitive in Vaylin's mind, this definitely had to be magical. The only question is what did it mean. Why was some unknown being sending her such loud incomprehensible messages. Was it a cry for help, a threat, or a joke at her expense. She wondered if it was a human doing this or some other alien intruder. It was concerning how whoever this was could enter her mind unabated. She decided even though she didn't have much information on this she should report back to the Vanguard about her experience with this. It might come to nothing but it was better to be safe and report it.
word count: 507
