By: Jennifer Zhou

The package sat patiently at the door, sealed with tape and her name and address written on it. Nora peeked at the package, pulling back the a corner of the tape, before dragging it inside. After microwaving the leftovers from last night, she sat down to open the package.

Inside was a brand new phone, complete with a case and charger.

I didn’t order a phone, they must have delivered it wrong. But the package had clearly been addressed to her. Even more confusing, the phone was from a brand that she had never heard of, Aclors.

But the phone was beautiful, with a large screen and many cameras, so, after some debating, Nora decided to keep the mysteriously gifted item and downloaded everything from her other phone, including her most precious texts from her ex-boyfriend, Carlos.

Well, technically, Carlos wasn’t really her ex, since the last time she had talked to him, they were still together. Just a few years ago, Carlos was involved in a terrible car accident. Every night, Nora would look through their texts and couldn’t help herself from feeling ever so guilty. She still remembered that rainy, stormy night, when she texted Carlos to come pick her up. She couldn’t help wondering, what if she hadn’t text him that, would he still be here with her?

Eventually, Nora got over him but still she refused to date anyone else, despite the many pleas from boys she knew.

After dinner, Nora watched her favorite television show before heading to bed. After an exhausting day at work, she fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

The next day, she was awoken by a loud and annoying “ding!” coming from her new phone. She checked her clock and jumped out of bed when she realized she was late. Without even bothering to eat, she raced out of the house while trying to fix the disaster on her head. She called an Uber and finally settled down. Only now, did she have the had time to check the text message she had received.

“Your coworker, Adam Skylouse will lose all of your important paperwork when the printer malfunctions.” An unknown number read. “Your boss will fire him on the spot.”

Nora stared at the text and decided to ignore it. It was obviously some kind of sick prank by some of her lazy coworkers. Yet, after she got off the Uber, and started to work, the strange text remained in her brain.

Moments later, a scream echoed through the entire building. Nora jumped up to investigate and found her coworker Adam sitting on the floor with a numb expression on his face.

“What’s wrong?” She asked strangely. Adam was usually a very calm and composed person, very different from the bewildered man sitting in front of her.

“T-t-the printer, our work, all g-g-gone…”Adam started trembling. Nora checked the printer, it was quite old and looked like it had finally come to its last days. Ink was all over the most precious documents in the office, Nora couldn’t help gaping too.

Moments later, Mr. Hylaya, certainly the strictest manager Nora ever knew, stomped into the room. Nora could already tell he was having a bad day thanks to his messy hair and the horrible scowl on his face. As soon as he saw the paperwork and Adam, he started screaming and shouting.

“You fool! I can’t believe I trusted you with all this work! Oh, this company is ruined, ruined you hear me?!” After several minutes of yelling, and Nora and some other employees dragging Mr. Hylaya back, he finally came to the end of his speech. “Get out of this building immediately! I never want to see your dumb face again!” Then, he stormed off.

Adam instantly turned white, and ran after him, begging for forgiveness. Meanwhile, Nora stood there, shook. The text had predicted exactly what had happened. She didn’t believe in magical future telling, but this would be possible if someone made the printer malfunction. And, they must have known Mr. Hylaya was in a bad mood by simply looking at him.

So one by one, Nora confronted her employees, but all of them pleaded innocence, and showed them their numbers, which were all different than the number Nora had received the text from.

Still shaken, Nora decided to go and get some groceries before heading home. Then, her phone rang again.

“Don’t go to the grocery store.” It was the same text as that morning. Nora stared at it and then shook her head.

“Ridiculous,” she grumbled. “I am not letting some prank stop me from doing anything.”

Still, she was cautious at the grocery store, and after picking up all of her needs, she scoffed. “Please, nothing’s happening.”

However, just as the last word came out of her mouth, an enormous explosion erupted from the back. This explosion blasted Nora straight out of the door, shattering glass along the way. After passing out for a while, she found herself in the hospital.

A nurse came in and assured her that her injuries were minor, and that she would be healed in no time. Before she left Nora quickly sat up and winced in pain.

“What happened?” She couldn’t help thinking about the text she read.

“Oh, an explosion! It was huge! Almost everyone there was injured. The police are still investigating the matter. But don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll find out what happened soon.” The nurse assured her. But Nora couldn’t help feeling that there was more to the story than that.

“That is weird.” She mumbled to herself.

As the days went on, she got similar text messages from the same number, warning her about things that would happen, and each time, they were correct. If it warned her to go to a friend’s house, it was because there was a fire happening, and they were still asleep. Each incident was more horrifying than the last, and Nora couldn’t help thinking that there was something big planned.

However, in a few days, she stopped receiving texts. Breathing a sigh of relief, she hoped that the whole thing was over, and she could refer to it as a mere coincidence. However, she soon heard another familiar “ding!”

“Same mistake as before, another loved one, dead in between cars. Watch out for Brynn.” Brynn was Nora’s 12-year-old younger sister and her favorite person ever. And after reading the message, she felt a shiver up her spine. Loved one, dead between cars, could they be referring to Brynn, suffering the same fate as Carlos?

For days Nora remained conflicted, trying to reassure herself that Brynn was safe with her parents. But what if something happened? She couldn’t live with herself if something happened to Brynn that she knew was going to happen. So, she decided to pack her bags and fly to her family in New Jersey.

After getting there, she was relieved to see Brynn greet her at the gate, safe and sound. Her parents also hurried over to her, delighted.

“Oh, Nora! So glad you came to visit!” Her mom squished her into a giant bear hug.

“Yeah! We missed you!” Her dad quickly joined the hug, followed by Brynn. Soon, they were all happily wrapped in a group hug, momentarily helping Nora forget her troubles.

But soon, Nora remembered what she came here for, and explained the whole situation to her family. Both parents eyed her dubiously.

“Nora, I know you’re smart, but that just sounds ridiculous.” Her mom said carefully.

Nora rolled her eyes. “Here, I’ll show you.” But she just couldn’t find her phone where she swore she left it.

Her mother shook her head at her. “Come on, let’s go home.”

Nora still couldn’t help being paranoid. And when Brynn mentioned going to a party at night, she did everything she could to stop her from going. But her parents were convinced it was a good chance for Brynn to “grow up” and let her go.

But as soon as it started storming, Nora started having flashbacks of the night when Carlos died. So, she went to the address and followed Brynn as soon as she left the party. Soon, they were almost home, and Nora started to convince herself that everything would be alright.

That’s when suddenly, a car ran a red light and screeched as it headed directly towards Brynn, another car, going normally, suddenly noticed. Both cars couldn’t stop due to the slippery road after it had rained, and Brynn stood frozen in the middle, with eyes full of fear.

Without even a moment of hesitation, Nora jumped in and narrowly escaped getting hit. Brynn was crying in her lap, bloody and scraped all over. In the distance they could hear police sirens slowly nearing them.

Nora closed her eyes and tried to breathe, when she heard a familiar “ding!” She pulled her phone out of her pocket, shaking and now covered in blood, a text read.

“Don’t meddle with fate Nora. Goodbye, I love you.” And then the phone shut down, and never opened again.