Unbounded

Dodging the busy evening traffic Andy dived across the road, his bag bouncing against his side. When he saw the traffic like this it made him appreciate that fact he didn’t need to drive to work. Nothing had annoyed him more than sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for hours on end. Now walking home from his job, all he had to worry about was not getting hit by the increasingly irritated drivers. The light turned green just as he reached the other curb and thus virtual safety, as long as no one decided to take a little cross country journey. Luckily on his path home there were only three almost suicidal roads that he had to cross, two down and one to go.

It was one of those afternoons where the end of the day couldn’t have come sooner. Continually watching the clock hadn’t helped at all, in fact in hindsight Andy decided it had made his afternoon significantly worse. Just when he thought at least half an hour had passed by, he would look at the clock and realise that it had only been fifteen minutes. Every time he looked at the clock he had suffered a small disappointment that it wasn’t later than it was. So after the many small disappointments and the bigger one of realised that despite tomorrow being his scheduled day off, he had been rostered on, Andy finally got to lock the doors to the shop ,brave the traffic and go home.

Once over the last of the suicidal crossings home finally loomed, or rather the old building in which he and eight other tenants rented small apartments. Three flights of stairs later and Andy reached the door. One handed he rummaged through the canvas bag at his side, attempting to find the large set of keys, like always this took longer to do than should have been physically possible. It was almost as though the bag suddenly became a large void and they key always managed to stay just out of reach. When realistically the bag wasn’t much bigger than an A3 piece of paper and the keys couldn’t get that far away. With a little bit of skill, he pulled the door handle toward him and at the same time shoved the key in and unlocked the deadlock.

Andy pushed the door open, ignoring the fact it almost got stuck halfway, before shutting it with a slam behind him. The apartment smelt of banana...Rotten banana to be precise which didn’t smell half as bad as it sounded. Stepping over the neatly tied garbage bags in the doorway, from where the smell was emanating, Andy dumped his bag on the kitchen bench and reached over to press play on the answering machine.

“You have one message.”

Andy sighed. It was probably his mother. It seemed like she was the only person who ever called him anymore.

The robotic voice went through its usual monotone list of specifications. “New message; recorded at zero nine thirty .Tuesday the seventh of June.”

The recording crackled, “Anthony? Anthony are you home? “She always asked this, despite the fact she knew he worked five days a week, nine till five.

“I just wanted to make sure you’re alright. I haven’t heard from you in a few days.” Three days to be precise.

“Come down for dinner on Sunday night. We’re having your favourite, Apricot Chicken!” In fact it hadn’t been his favourite for a few years, she just hadn’t realised it yet.

“Call me back Anthony. I love you sweetie.”

“End of messages.” The recording ended.

Andy walked away from the machine; he would call her back later once he had time to de-stress from his day at work. Kicking off his shoes near the kitchen bench the young man head toward and flopped down onto his couch with a long sigh. Sometimes the couch was the greatest place in the world. He grabbed the remote control and switched on the TV. Early evening television shows were unfortunately limited to such things at game shows and horrible reality TV shows where people always seemed to be crying. Not exactly the sort of thing Andy really wanted to watch after a long day at work. There was only one choice, to resume watching that amazingly tragic B-grade horror movie he had been making his way through the night before player.

Of course he could have read a book, watched the news, and finished his university application or one of many other much more profitable pursuits. That would have required some interest in reality though, or at least some sort of dedication, two things which Andy lacked on many levels. Instead loosing himself in the absurdity of a bad horror movie was his choice. It didn’t require thinking or planning, it was just something you could switch off and watch, letting the world pass you by.

Andy did that a lot, let the world pass him by. In fact the world had been passing him by for a few good years. Despite graduating high school at the top of his class, he hadn’t exactly excelled to great heights as many people had assumed he would. Instead, Andy had sort of milled along in mediocrity for the past four years. After taking a year off to work before heading to university, somehow Andy never got back into the student mind set. He couldn’t decided what he wanted to study and when he made any head way in a decision, he’d suddenly changed his mind when something more interesting had come up. Three times he had forgotten to even hand the application in.

None of this bothered Andy. He was content to sit there, wasting his Tuesday evening in the same way he wasted every other evening. There was something almost hypnotic about watching so many movies. Something that just drew you away from reality, making everything around you seem shallow and colourless. Life could never compare to movies, Andy had learnt that a long time ago.

His stomach grumbled loudly and he looked up at the old clock which hung crookedly on the wall. Seven o’clock already, where had his day gone?

“Time for food I suppose.” Andy mumbled to himself. He’d gotten into the habit of talking to himself occasionally, it made the apartment not seem so empty. Standing up from the couch, which made a reluctant creaking sound, Andy switched the from the DVD to a random TV station. Only while making something to eat would he watch the news, it was a futile attempt to make sure he knew what was going on in the world.

His cupboards were mostly empty. A few cans of tuna, a bottle of chocolate sauce and some weird rice things his mother had brought with her on her last visit. The fridge was similar, the freezer too, which resigned Andy to have tuna on toast for the third time in as many days. “I should go shopping at some point.” Andy said, once again speaking to no one but his self.

The television chattered in the background as the young man watched his toaster burn his toast. The stupid machine seemed to have only two settings, off and burnt. It was a real skill to be able to get decent toast out of it, but with a little concentration Andy had it down pact.

Abruptly the television turned off.

Andy looked up from the toaster and at the television. “Aww...Don’t tell me....” Andy whined jumping to the logical conclusion that his precious TV had just died. Forgetting about his meal he walked around the breakfast bar and over to the TV, turning the power point on and then off again in some hope that it perhaps had just frozen. No luck.

“Shit.” Andy cursed, glaring at the black box with some hope that his expression would suddenly make it repair itself. It didn’t of course. The television just sat there, dark and silent.

The acrid smell of burning toast brought Andy back to reality. “Oh! Shit!” Andy cursed again leaping over a pile of strewn clothing and diving toward the toaster, just in time to see the charcoal squares pop out of the machine. “Wonderful....” Andy grumbled, tossing the solid, black and smoking bits of toast into the garbage bin. Andy turned to the freezer, hoping to find more bread hidden in there somewhere.

The television turned on, just as abruptly as it had turned off.

Andy looked around the freezer door, over at the television. Strange; appliances never usually fixed themselves. Well at least his evening wasn’t completely ruined then. Rummaging through the freezer Andy found a microwaveable dinner, success! Tonight he wouldn’t starve, that was always a relief. Opening the microwave he shoved the little plastic dish inside, closing the door behind it and jabbing at the timer buttons. The microwave ignored him.

“Huh?”

Andy pressed the buttons again, attempting to make the microwave do something, even beep. It did nothing. The small digital screen stated the time, which still dedicatedly clicked over, but nothing Andy could do would make the appliance work. Was it ‘National Appliance Rebellion Day’ or something?

As he had done with the television, Andy turned off the power point, hoping to reset the microwave. The digital screen showing the time dimmed, but didn’t turn off. Very strange...Maybe the microwave was still drawing power somehow? Andy pulled the power plug from the socket. There was no way that microwave clock should still be working. Yet it was.

Andy took a step back, away from the microwave. It had to be his imagination, a reflection of light on the digital numbers. Something obvious like that, had to be. As if this feat wasn’t already enough, the microwave suddenly hummed alive, randomly deciding now as a good time to begin heating the instant meal inside. Andy took another step back away from the appliance, bumping into the breakfast bar behind him. His microwave was cooking his dinner....And it wasn’t plugged in...That was not right, things like this did not happen in real life.

Taking a side step Andy moved away from the microwave and back into the main area of the apartment, his hazel eyes wide, still locked on the microwave. A part of him was waiting for it to do something else, maybe levitate or talk. After all it was operating without being plugged in who knew what else it would do! One thing was sure; he wanted to move as far away from the demonic appliance as possible!

The answer machine clicked. Andy startled not realising for now that there was a world beyond the microwave. Turning to look at the answering machine, while at the same time attempting to keep his eyes on the happily humming microwave, Andy noticed the ‘new message’ light was flashing. If this had happened any other time in his day, the young man might have merely muttered, ‘strange’ then pressed the ‘play’ button. But not right now, not with the independently powering microwave. He hadn’t heard the phone ring, or the answering machine pick up, yet there was still a new message. Was it possible that he’d been so wound up that he hadn’t hear them? And why did he have the horrible feeling that this wasn’t the case?

Tentatively, all his attention on the answering machine now, Andy reached out and pressed the ‘play’ button.

“You have one message.” Andy took a deep breath...

“New message; recorded at nineteen twenty-three .Tuesday the seventh of June.” The time on the answering machine must have changed. It wasn’t even twenty past yet...

The recording began to play. At first there appeared to be no sound, but then as Andy shuffled a little closer he realised he could hear talking. The words were soft and muffled, almost as though he was listening to a conversation through a closed door. Andy moved a little closer, now curious to hear what the strange voices on his answering machine were talking about. There were no options to increase the sound level, so he grabbed the little machine and brought the speaker to his ear. The words were louder but no clearer, almost as though it wasn’t an English conversation that he was over hearing. The conversation stopped, giving Andy the oddest feeling that the voices in the recording knew someone was overhearing them; though that was impossible...Right?

One voice muttered something, it didn’t sound particularly polite even if it wasn’t in English. A strange humming sound that had begun softly in the background suddenly grew louder, making what Andy could hear of the strange voices even more confused. It was almost like a vibration, a steady hum that rose and fell almost like someone taking a breath. More than a little weirded out by the entire turn of events, Andy moved the speaker away from his ear. Just in time too as a sudden and ear piercingly loud crackle amplified through.

Andy dropped the answering machine and leapt backward away from it, his heart hammering in his chest. The machine monotonically reported, “End of messages.”

Without warning there was a terrifyingly, loud sound from above. His eyes now feeling so wide, that if they had popped out of his skull he wouldn’t have been surprised, Andy gaped up at the ceiling. Too much was happening all at once, one thing was for sure it could hardly be a random coincidence. Still staring at the ceiling the young man became slowly aware of the gentle thrumming, a soft almost melodic vibration he could feel emanating from the ceiling. It rose and fell almost as though someone were taking a breath. Andy paused; it was just like the sound he had heard over the answering machine only moments before... and it was coming from the ceiling.

Andy gulped, drawing his eyes away from the ceiling, looking from the television, the answering machine and the microwave (which had finished cooking the instant meal a fair time ago). This was not real. There was no possible way that things like this happened in real life, no matter how often he wished that they would. Maybe that was it! Maybe he had watched far too many movies and had finally gone insane! That seemed a more likely explanation. Being insane wasn’t bad, he could deal with that.

The breath like vibrations ceased. An almost eerie silence followed, the night became suddenly devoid of the normal sounds of traffic and trains. It was as though time had suddenly stopped everywhere but inside his apartment. Andy released a deep breath that he didn’t know he had been holding. He felt like he was waiting. Though what for, he hadn’t a clue.

Then, almost as though nothing at all had happened, the city noise could be heard again. Andy shivered unable to ignore the creepy feeling that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to rise. Without thinking, for if he had his brain may have imploded at this point, Andy moved toward the door leading out of his apartment. Despite the jitters he was feeling, his curiosity was demanding to know what exactly had made that strange sound. Andy realise that if his life were a horror movie, as it seemed to be having some remarkable similarities right now, then this would be the point where the antagonist made her or his first kill.

With that reassuring thought running through his mind, Andy opened the front door as soundlessly as he possibly could. Which ultimately failed, the door typically got stuck halfway and needed to be yanked completely open, dragging along the floor all the way. Cautiously he stepped out of the doorway, looking up as he did so, once again recounting in his great knowledge of horror movies, that the bad things always liked to appear from the tops of buildings. Nothing leapt from the darkness and tore out his throat, it was a good start.