Disclaimer: The story is a work of imagination and is fictitious.
Every minute felt like an hour to her as she stood by the window waiting for her food order. She was careful while ordering food online and always chose a contactless delivery.
She saw the delivery man was coming in with a brown packet. She moved from the window and went to stand near the door. As soon as she heard the doorbell, she waited for some time and then unlocked the door.
The order was delivered, and the friendly delivery man turned back to give her a friendly wave. She saw him wearing a mask from the time he entered the building. She believed that the restaurant maintained every safety measure, and there's no chance the virus would be sitting on the top of the box.
But lately, she developed the fear of getting infected. She wasn't like that before the pandemic. The lockdown somehow instilled fear in her.
She took the box inside. She set the box on a table, washed her hands, applied sanitizer, and then put on disposable latex gloves before opening the box. She carefully took out the fries, removed the paper from the sandwich, and put them on a plate.
She took the box, put the wrappers in the box, removed the gloves, and tossed them all in the dustbin. She washed her hands with soap, wiped her hands, and applied sanitizer. She then took the plate to her workstation, came back, and sterilized the table that the food box was sitting on.
She sat down, started to eat with one hand, and tapped the keyboard with the other. The computer screen came out of sleep mode, and a message board appeared. She discovered this new messaging and discussion board where strangers or friends can chat, create rooms and talk to each other over some topic.
She wasn't comfortable talking to strangers or debating on something, so she stuck to chats only.
The message board had a few messages and posts that she kept reading eagerly. She would respond to a "hi" once in a while but rarely got engaged in an interesting chat.
She finished reading all the new chats and posts.
She leaned back while chewing on the sandwich and hearing nothing except the AC sound and the clock ticking. She felt isolated and lonely, but it became common after the lockdown.
She looked at the screen and was waiting for a new message as if that was the only interesting thing left in her life.
She remembered how she went to the website just out of curiosity after many of her friends suggested saying that it's easier to open up with a stranger. But she realized that it was not anything interesting, and the topics of debates are usually on politics, the pandemic, or some nerd stuff. Her friends said that it's just to stay connected.
While lost in her own thoughts, she heard the sound of a notification. She literally jumped forward and clicked on the refresh button. It took some time to reload the page, and she could see the post after some time.
"I am all alone."
She saw the words and believed that it was a terrible pickup line. However, she scrolled down out of mild curiosity. The second line read -
"Are you lonely too?"
She was shaking her head, thinking of it as a spam post. She was sure that once she responds, there would be other posts saying how she could be a millionaire working from home or how some housewife became a billionaire working from home, or how some wonder drug can light up a dull marriage life!
She could see herself making a face. However, her disgusted expression slowly wore off. She thought, what if it's real and someone is actually reaching out? Actors and CEOs have been killing themselves, and people encourage others to reach out. What if it's just a depressed human being on the other side?
She looked away as she was thinking about it. She turned to the computer screen as if she came to a decision. She typed a reply hesitantly -
"Yes, I am."
The moment she pressed "enter," she felt embarrassed imagining what if the other person thinks of her as easy? She got up from the chair and was walking in circles. She could see that her message was seen by the other person.
She opened the fridge, took out the water bottle, and while drinking, she saw herself in the mirror. She helplessly gave away a weak smile, which was a weird mixture of amusement and exasperation.
She realized that her profile name was real, and there's no way the other person can guess if "warrior weed" is a man or a woman. She thought that she was overthinking.
She knew that she should also work instead of chatting with strangers. She was working from home due to the pandemic. She opened her work email inbox and started to prioritize work inside her mind. She intended to finish some of her office work. She was distracted almost immediately by a notification that she received a reply to her message.
She knew that her office work was urgent and she should ignore the message for now. But that feeling passed quickly, and she changed tabs to read the reply.
"You don't have to be alone."
She looked disappointed, and it seemed that she was right about this being a desperate attempt to hook up. She closed the chat window and went back to her work emails. As she started to work, her mind was still working on that reply.
What if the person was just suggesting an online friendship? What if the person just needs someone who could listen to him or her?
She exhaled and realized that her work is going to suffer more. She told herself that she was just a good person, that's all! She then went back to the message board.
She saw no new message was posted. She then noticed that the early post had an image file attached.
It was a picture of a hand. It didn't seem like a photograph. The hands were stretched out and weren't pressed together. Without realizing she reached out and placed her hand over the hand on the screen.
It was a strange and poignant moment where she wanted to imagine the warmth of the screen as a person's hand. She felt emotions build up, and she wasn't thinking of it as a desperate effort for a hookup. She took away her hand but slowly realized that it was not real.
She noticed that her eyes were wet. Feeling stupid, she wiped her eyes and returned to work. She felt stupid getting emotional over a message.
It was almost two hours that she was working. She finished her pending work and was ready to start the current project. She thought she deserves a break now, stretching her arms over her head. As she got up, she felt her body a little sore, and her neck was hurting. She stood straight, rubbing the neck with her hands and thinking of making some coffee. She went to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee.
"Hi"
She shrieked and spun around. She quickly scanned the kitchen and outside. There was nobody. She held out the pan as a makeshift weapon. She quietly went room by room. She gradually convinced herself that she probably imagined it, or maybe her ears picked a snippet of her neighbors' conversation. The walls of her rooms aren't as thick as the landlord claimed while handing her the keys.
She went back to the kitchen and started to prepare a cup of coffee. She was thinking about the pandemic and how lockdown changed people's behavior. Her neck was still hurting, and her body still felt sore from prolonged sitting before the laptop.
"Hello"
She heard the same voice. She dropped the coffee and the cup on the floor. There was nobody, and the door was still locked from inside. The sudden jolt made the neck pain worse. She thought it was a new symptom that was yet to be declared on news channels. She went to the bathroom. She washed her face, thinking she was just too tired.
As she looked into the mirror, she noticed there was a long scar on her neck. The scar ran from under the left ear to her shoulder. She was sure that she had no scar on her neck before.
She gasped in fear when she saw the scar was getting thick and was separating from the middle. She clenched her fists so tight that it started to hurt. The flesh opened and revealed a gap. Soon pointed teeth appeared on the sides of the gap. Blood came trickling down her shoulder.
"Hello, please don't be scared."
She noticed the words were coming out of the mouth on her neck. She screamed so hard that her throat felt it. She screamed till she fell out of breath. She gasped and started to wheeze.
"It's okay. I understand you are shocked. I didn't mean to frighten you. Let me help you." The mouth said.
She looked in the mirror and saw thin tendrils were moving from the edges of the mouth towards the back of her neck. She couldn't see where the tendrils were going as they moved towards the back.
"It'd just hurt for a second," The mouth warned.
She opened her mouth, but before she could say something, she felt an intense pain inside her skull. She screamed hard, and then she realized her neck was no longer hurting.
"I drilled through your skull to find the source of the pain, and I fixed it. Are you okay now?"
She started sobbing out of fear. Her fear started to fade, and she seemed to be okay now. She felt comfortable now and didn't mind the possibility of the tendrils controlling her brain to make her feel relaxed. She was now just staring at the mirror as she saw another tendril slithering down her shoulder to her left hand.
She saw a lump bulging out of her wrist, taking the form of a hand with long fingers. Blood came gushing out, but she felt no pain. Slowly the fingers intertwined with hers as if it was holding her hand in a comforting way.
"You'll never be alone again," the mouth said.
Another tendril was moving down her back, and she wasn't afraid anymore. It felt as if the tendril encircled her waist as if it was an embrace. She strangely felt good and loved. She teared up and felt as if a thousand tendrils were now moving everywhere inside her, and she didn't care. She no longer felt alone.
"There are so many out there who are lonely," the mouth said
"I know," she replied
"Let's help them," the mouth said in an encouraging voice.
She turned away from the mirror and went to the laptop. As she sat down, she looked at the message board and placed her fingers on the keyboard. She was creating a new post.
She typed, "I am all alone. Are you lonely too?"
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