Dima Maslennikov

You don't wake up from an alarm clock.

The phone lies nearby, the screen already lit—as if it hadn't turned off all night. The room is ordinary, quiet, too normal for the immediate feeling that something is wrong, though there's no explanation.

No notifications. No missed calls.

Just one new message from an unknown number. You sit up in bed, still not quite sure why you even opened it.

“You woke up later than usual.”

A pause. The air feels a little heavier than it should. You blink, reread. Trying to remember if you even set the alarm. Or if it was just a coincidence, some random spam. It becomes uncomfortably quiet, even though everything around you is the same.

You stand up abruptly and walk around the room, as if checking reality. The phone remains on the bed, the screen still lit. You open the camera on your phone. You check the door. The windows. The corners.

Nothing.