Whisper

By Tom Lin

Concentrating on his work, Jeff worked on his website design furiously. His deadline was up soon, and if he wanted to get paid, he’d have to make it on time, and at the rate he was going, he didn’t seem likely to.

It had been three years since he finished college with an arts and design degree, but with the shrinking economy overshadowing the population, he was stuck doing freelance jobs with his degree, and a full time job as a waiter in a popular restaurant chain.

Before he knew it, the swish sound of email arriving in his mailbox distracted him from the otherwise empty room.

Curious, and needing an excuse for a break, Jeff reached his mouse over and clicked on the little mail icon.

“You got mail!” The familiar voice greeted him as he opened up his mailbox.

And that was when he was stunned by what he saw.

“The hell?” he uttered, before knowing he had done so unconsciously.

The email sender was himself, from the address he was checking his email from.

What was more astounding though, was the date that it was sent.

It was three days in the future.

Unsure whether it was a prank or a hacking of his email screen name, Jeff clicked the email in curiosity.

And as he did so, his computer started to download something from the net.

The mail itself was empty, nothing written on it.

When the attachment stopped downloading, media player started up on its own and started to play.

The video quality was shoddy, as if filmed on the worst and cheapest camera it could be found. The frames were slow, and everything had an eerie delayed motion to it.

The camera swung around, as if still unable to find the target of its lenses.

And that was when he saw it.

The target of the lenses was himself.

But he didn’t film this at all.

His words stuck in his mouth, Jeff opened them but were unable to utter anything but a frightened breath.

When did he shoot this?

How did he shoot it?

His image started to talk in the video, the audio quality full of static, in as poor a quality as the video itself.

“I know you won’t believe what you’re seeing,” the Jeff in the video spoke, his lips barely synching with the voice in its delayed state. “But trust me, believe every word I’m about to say.

“You will be visited by her today.” The image continued. “And believe me, you don’t need to know who she is, or why you should be beware of her. Just know this part. Run.” The voice paused. “Run. As far away as you can right now. Don’t think about it until later. Don’t think about it until you’re away from here.

“You may not understand it. But it may be better that way. Trust me. If this message reaches you, that means that I have already done all that I could to save your life.

“Don’t make it a waste.”

And just like that, the camera swung again, and before he knew it, the whole thing ended.

He didn’t know what to think, he didn’t know what to say.

“It must be a prank.” Jeff said it to himself, as if to reassure himself from the other crazy thoughts that were running around his head at the moment. “It must be a prank.” He repeated again.

            “I must have recorded this somewhere before.” He mumbled, as he got up from his chair, in such a hurry that he almost fell. “Someone must have gotten the footage before and then-“

            And as he was reaching for the camera stored in his closet, he heard the loud ping of an incoming AIM message.

            He looked back, as the sound surprised him in his disarrayed state.

            “Hello” the sender wrote.

            Jeff couldn’t believe his eyes. He didn’t want to, as he walked back closer and closer towards his computer screen, staring at the screen name on the screen, his breathing becoming heavier and heavier.

            “Hello” the message flashed again, the ping louder in his ears, ringing again.

            His hands shaking, he tried to steady himself as he typed on the keyboard.

            His body felt paralyzed, as fear held him stiff, so much that he wasn’t able to sit down on his chair, sure that he would only fall on the floor for trying.

            “Hello” the message flashed again.

            With shaky hands, he typed slowly into the AIM.

            “Who are you?” his screen name replied.

            “*Giggle*” was the reply from the other side. “You know who I am, silly.”

            Breathing harder, Jeff typed on the keyboards hard. “How did you get this screen name?” He typed again, faster, errors popping up in his writing yet he didn’t care. “Why Do youu hav e this scree n na me ? !”

            Almost instantaneously, the sender replied. “Because it’s mine, honey.”

            “Because I love you.”

            “STOP HACKING INTO OTHER PEOPLE’S ACCOUNT!!!” Jeff typed back furiously as he yelled at the computer screen. “It’s not funny anymore! Stop fucking with other people’s lives!”

            “:(” returned the reply. “Why won’t you believe that it’s mine?”

            Ping.

“Why won’t you believe it’s me, Jeff?”

“Because she’s dead!” replied Jeff. “Because she’s been dead for over eight years!!1”

The AIM was silent for a minute or so, before the other sender replied.

“Is it really that hard for you to believe that there’s life after death?”

Jeff’s eyes popped open in surprise.

And that was when the memory of her flashed back, back when they were dating, back when they were still alive.

“Is it really that hard for you to believe that there’s love after death?” She had said in her timid low voice, the voice he had fallen in love with, the voice that still cuddles him in his sleep.

“No.” Jeff said to himself, his eyes unable to believe the words. “No.”

“I’m still here, Jeff.” The AIM returned.

“I’m still in love with you.”

“Stop it.”

Jeff was shuddering, not with anger anymore, but with a deep sadness, something flowing through his body, something flowing through his heart.

“Stop it.” He said in an even lower voice.

“Just wait for me, love.” The AIM replied.

“I’ll see you.” It continued.

“Just wait for me.”

The messages stopped coming. And he broke down and cried. As softly as he could. As violently as he could. The memories just flashed back. The face that he had almost forgot. The smile that had almost become blank.

She was almost gone.

The AIM window remained on the screen.

Beckoning him.

Out of the corner of his eyes, the camera caught his attention again.

He looked at it, remembering his conviction before.

“This is all just a prank.” He said to himself. “This has got to be just a fucking cruel prank.”

Reaching for the camera, he began looking at the playbacks, looking for something that could reassure him of his conviction. “It’s got to be here.” He said to himself, as he flipped through the footages in the video. “It’s got to be.” He repeated to himself. “I got to have filmed that ridiculous video message before. Someone must have used it to fool me. To hack into my own account, just as easily as they hacked into hers.”

Flashes of her face through his mind.

As someone knocked on the door.

Stunned, surprised, scared, Jeff looked at the door with fearful eyes.

“Who is it?” He yelled after it, venturing beyond his fear.

His heart thumping harder and harder in his chest.

There was no response. There was no sounds.

“Hello?” Jeff asked again, only to be answered by the knocking on the door again.

Thump, thump, thump.

Shutting off the camera playback, he started towards the door. “Hello?” He asked again. “Somebody there?”

The camera weighted tons in his shaky hands.

There was no answer once again, the silence permeating the living room.

Setting the camera down on the coffee table at the middle of the room, he slowly headed towards the door. “Hello?” He asked again.

Peeking through the window besides the door, he could see clearly that there was nobody there.

Kids playing a prank on his door? He wondered, as he reached for the door, and opened it up to see if there was anybody else on the hallway.

And as he did so, she appeared.

Standing there on the doorway.

As if she had been there the whole time.

Head down, hair covering her eyes and part of her face.

She stood there in the sunlight as if there was nothing to it.

With a surprised scream, Jeff jumped backwards, instinctively.

His camera lenses were on, but nobody showed on the screen.

Tripping on his own foot, Jeff fell down onto the carpeted floor, his own weak knees shaking at the sight.

Her mouth didn’t move. She didn’t change her expression.

The ping of the AIM window sounded again in his room, the message from the AIM sender came again from the other side.

“Jeff” The message said, as Jeff crawled backwards, trying to scale away from the sight.

“Do you believe in love after life?” The message flashed on his monitor, back in his room.

Jeff tried to scream again, but nothing came out of his throat, nothing came out of his mouth.

“I’ve been so lonely in there.” The messages flashed.

“I’ve been so lonely without you.”

And before he knew it, Jeff felt a tug at his hand. When he looked down, he saw a red thread tied to his wrist, the line going towards the apparition, the line tied to her wrist.

“Help me love again.”

She pulled at his wrist, the strength so hard that Jeff felt as if his arm was going to be pulled out of its socket. In that one strong tug, she dragged him towards her, so close that he could smell her perfume.

Rose cream.

“I missed you.” Was the last thing that flashed on his AIM screen, as Jeff looked upwards toward the face, towards that something that got closer and closer.

She bend downwards, her face towards him, ready for their kiss.

*   *   *   *   *

The rooms were empty, the only thing alive being the soft glow of the monitor screen.

The video that Jeff had downloaded before played again.

His face in the eerie delay of the low quality capture.

“I know you won’t believe what you’re seeing,” the recording repeated itself. “But trust me, believe every word I’m about to say.”

END

09/02/2006 04:18AM