“Tom?”
He had a strange look in his eyes, one Gina had never seen before, and she promptly got up to see if he was okay. He looked around him anxiously, his eyes darting from side to side in a mechanical fashion, his movements almost machine-like.
“Tom, what's wrong?”
He continued looking from side to side, at one wall, then the ceiling, then behind Gina. He turned around and started walking towards the front door. There was something strange about how he walked. He seemed to be walking like a tin man, his normal fluid movements replaced with jolting unnatural motions. Gina's jaw dropped in horror as she realised that he too looked robotic. She called after him again, but he never responded, he just opened the front door and started to walk. He hurried into a jog before trying to go into a full sprint, but due to his robotic movements was unable to, instead wobbling and jostling side to side like his joints were made of metal. Gina began to run after him, worried he was going to get run down in his haste to get away, all the while calling his name. Suddenly Tom stopped and shook from side to side and began to start emitting a sound, a crackling static sound that snapped harshly in Gina's ears. What was this? Tom was shaking more and more violently. Gina couldn't get any closer, as with each step the static sound got more deafening, like it was trying to break free from Tom's robotic torso and grab Gina. With an ever more savage shudder, Tom's body seemed to break up and dissolve into frequencies of sound. Gina jumped back in fright as the frequency formally known as Tom rippled and gave off high-pitched crackling pulses that seemed to be hitting Gina in her face. She let out an almighty scream as the freaky frequency fluttered out of sight into a puncture in reality a short distance away.
Still screaming, having no idea what was happening and with no processing power left in her brain to comprehend any of this, she darted back towards the house and slammed the door shut behind her. She took a quick glance out of the window and could see no sign of Tom or the punctured reality. She took panicked breaths, almost hyper-ventilating. She had to call the police, tell someone what happened to Tom, but how could she explain it? She couldn't explain it, but she had to do something. She ran to the telephone that Tom had thrown on the floor and tried calling the police, but the phone just crackled again. Was there still a problem on the line? Why did it have to be now? She tried again and again, the static crackle continuing. She threw the phone down and ran to her mobile, automatically dialling the emergency number. There was no ring tone, but there was still some kind of static, although very faint in the background. What was going on? She was getting ever more disorientated; she had no frame of reference for any of these events. She flicked through her contacts and dialled the first name her thumb landed on, Mariam. It rang, thank god she thought. Mariam appeared on the other end, sounding relaxed like she always did.
“Mariam, you've got to help, Tom's disappeared, and he turned into some kind of sound form and was then taken away. I know it sounds crazy but please, can you call the cops? I can't get through”
Mariam started to answer her on the other end but Gina couldn't quite catch what she was saying, it was if Mariam's voice was turning into static. It was like the static was talking to her, taking Mariam's words and crackling them back at Gina. The static voice got louder and the noise began to thud inside Gina's brain, as if it was popping brain cells left, right and centre like bubble wrap. It hurt so much that Gina started to cry out desperately, she hoped Mariam could still hear her. The static voice started to sound more fearsome, it sounded like it was moving out of the telephone signal and into Gina. She screamed more, trying to drop the phone, but the static reached through the receiver with flickering blue pulsing veins and grabbed her. She tried to pull away, but every pull in the opposite direction seemed to drag her back to her phone. The blue tentacles started to spin, enveloping her, moulding them to her. Gina was now unable to scream. Her lungs were out of air and the static was vibrating her cells, squeezing her tighter and tighter until she was pulled sideways. Then she was flattened out into an endless sliver of static-emitting blue pulses and was sucked from her room into her mobile phone, which transformed itself into a vacuum in space. The vacuum quickly vanished, and the phone dropped to the floor. The room was now empty, with just the TV playing away to itself. Then the room rippled and flickered, as if someone had changed the channel on reality.
MARIAM AND MATEO’S House
Mariam was sat on the couch with her laptop, flicking through articles about the latest research in genetics. Advances were made every week, so it was important to keep on top of things. Mateo was in his study, reading and researching new advanced coding methods, it was all very complex, even for him. He could understand it after a couple of re-reads, but it took some doing. This was real cutting edge, and it excited him to be involved in how it was evolving. The benefits for mankind were going to be astonishing one day. Mariam's mobile rang and she picked it up without looking who it was,
