Chapter 29: Bedroom Phone
For a second, Kai genuinely thought his brain had stopped working.
He stared at the notification, read it once, then again, and then a third time. The words stubbornly refused to change.
New Device Connected
Bedroom Phone
The notification sat in the corner of his monitor as if it belonged there. As if discovering mysterious phones connected to your Wi-Fi was a normal part of everyday life.
The apartment suddenly felt much smaller.
The glow from his monitors no longer felt comforting. The familiar mess of cables, empty energy drink cans, and half-finished snacks looked different now. Not because anything had changed, but because the bedroom existed.
The realization sounded ridiculous even inside his own head.
His bedroom had existed this entire time.
The problem was that he hadn’t been thinking about it.
Not really.
For hours, his attention had been consumed by the front door, the hallway, the texts, the donations, the livestream, the window, and the impossible security footage. Every strange event had pulled his focus somewhere else.
Everything except the room hidden at the far end of his apartment.
The room he couldn’t currently see.
The room connected to something called Bedroom Phone.
"Kai?"
Luna’s voice cut through the silence.
He realized he hadn’t spoken in nearly thirty seconds.
His throat felt dry.
"There’s a device on my Wi-Fi."
The chat immediately exploded.
GremlinAccountant:
THROW THE WIFI AWAY
CrustySockCEO:
UNPLUG THE INTERNET
ChairViolence:
MOVE TO A DIFFERENT DIMENSION
Kai appreciated the suggestions.
Unfortunately, none of them seemed particularly practical.
"What kind of device?" Luna asked.
His eyes remained glued to the screen.
"It says Bedroom Phone."
Silence.
The kind of silence that immediately made his stomach hurt.
Because Luna was thinking.
And whenever Luna started thinking, reality usually got worse.
The typing indicator appeared in Discord, vanished, then appeared again.
Finally, she spoke.
"Do you have any smart devices in your bedroom?"
"No."
"Old phones?"
"No."
"Tablets?"
"No."
A brief pause.
"Ex-girlfriends hiding under the bed?"
Kai blinked.
"What?"
A tiny laugh escaped her. Soft, brief, gone almost immediately.
The unexpected joke startled him enough that he laughed too.
It lasted less than two seconds.
Then both of them remembered the situation.
The humor died a quick death.
The device remained connected.
Bedroom Phone.
Still online.
Still active.
Still existing.
The viewer count climbed again.
One hundred and forty-seven thousand.
The number made Kai feel sick.
Not because it was low.
Because it was high.
Hours ago, he would’ve celebrated. He would’ve stared at those numbers with excitement and immediately started thinking about clips, highlights, and future opportunities.
Now he couldn’t stop noticing how many people were watching the worst night of his life.
The worst part?
A tiny piece of him still liked it.
That realization settled heavily in his chest.
He hated it.
Almost as much as he hated the fact that Luna would probably understand exactly what he was feeling.
His phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
Again.
The message contained no image. No threat. No joke.
Just three words.
It’s ringing again.
Kai froze.
The blood drained from his face.
Because somewhere inside the apartment, a ringtone started playing.
Faint.
Muffled.
Distant.
The sound drifted from deeper inside the darkness.
From the direction of the bedroom.
The exact same ringtone they’d heard earlier.
The one from the hidden phone.
The one nobody had found.
The apartment instantly felt colder.
The chat lost its mind.
DumpsterWizard:
NOPE
RottenLasagna77:
I WOULD RATHER DIE
TaxFraudEnjoyer:
BRO’S APARTMENT HAS SIDE QUESTS
The ringtone continued.
Steady.
Patient.
Waiting.
Kai slowly stood.
His chair rolled backward across the floor.
Every muscle in his body felt tight. His heart hammered violently against his ribs as he stared down the hallway leading to the bedroom.
Dark.
Silent.
Ordinary.
It looked exactly the same as it had an hour ago. Exactly the same as it had yesterday. Exactly the same as it always had.
And somehow that made it worse.
Ordinary places weren’t supposed to feel like this.
"Kai."
Luna’s voice softened.
"Yeah?"
"Don’t go alone."
The words slipped out so naturally that it took him a second to process them.
Then he laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it wasn’t.
"What does that even mean?"
A tiny pause followed.
Then she replied, "I mean don’t be stupid."
"That’s very different."
"It’s the same thing."
Despite himself, a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
God.
This woman was becoming a problem.
Not because she was scary.
Not because she knew too much.
Not because she occasionally said things that sounded like evidence in a future investigation.
Because she kept making him feel better.
That was the dangerous part.
The apartment felt less empty when she was around.
And Kai wasn’t sure what to do with that.
His phone buzzed again.
Another message.
Different number.
Bedroom. Closet. Top shelf.
His stomach tightened.
Immediately another message arrived from a different sender.
Don’t listen to them.
Then another.
They’re trying to get you there.
The familiar feeling returned.
The factions.
The invisible war happening around him.
People arguing through anonymous numbers.
Competing for his attention.
Competing for control of the narrative.
Competing for him.
The thought made his skin crawl.
The ringtone kept playing.
Not louder.
Not softer.
Just constant.
Like somebody wanted him to follow it.
His eyes drifted toward the hallway, then toward Discord, then toward the viewer count.
One hundred and forty-eight thousand.
Almost one hundred and fifty thousand people.
Watching.
Waiting.
Expecting him to do something.
Expecting content.
Expecting answers.
The pressure sat on his shoulders like a physical weight.
"Kai."
Luna again.
Quiet.
Gentle.
The way she sounded whenever she was worried.
"Can you promise me something?"
He swallowed.
"Depends."
"Don’t let chat decide what you do."
The statement caught him off guard.
His gaze flicked toward the endless stream of messages flying across the screen.
Thousands of opinions.
Thousands of demands.
Thousands of strangers treating his life like an interactive horror game.
A painful realization hit him.
She was right.
Again.
God, she was always right.
The fact irritated him.
A lot.
Because deep down, Kai knew he’d been doing exactly that.
Not intentionally.
But still.
Every reaction.
Every vote.
Every donation.
Every clip.
The audience had become part of his decision-making process.
And tonight, that felt dangerous.
Dangerous in a way he hadn’t fully considered before.
The ringtone stopped.
Instantly.
The silence afterward felt enormous.
Kai froze.
The entire apartment froze.
Even chat seemed to pause.
Then something happened.
The Wi-Fi notification vanished.
The device disconnected.
Bedroom Phone — Offline
For one brief second, relief washed through him.
Then another notification appeared.
His stomach dropped.
Because the device hadn’t disconnected.
It had renamed itself.
Kai’s Phone — Connected
The apartment went completely silent.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Kai stared at the notification while a cold sensation spread through his chest.
Slowly, his eyes lifted toward the dark hallway leading to the bedroom.
The darkness waited for him.
Still.
Quiet.
Patient.
And for the first time all night, Kai wasn’t wondering whether someone was inside his apartment.
He was wondering how long they had been there.
