So about a couple months ago I was taking the T home (I commute to work) and I left my phone behind on my seat. I was especially exhausted and didn’t even notice until the next day because I fell asleep right when I got home. When I woke up the sun was beaming in on my face, my cat lounging in the stream of sunlight on the corner of my bed.
“Oh fuck me.” It’s always dark out when I leave for work. When I wake up my cat is usually snuggled in the crook of my knees because I sleep on my side. I instinctively reach for my phone wondering why the alarm didn’t go off and it isn’t on the nightstand. I jump up and look through my work bag and jacket, no phone. I groan and get dressed, gargle some mouth wash and take the next train to work.
When I get to work, I use my work computer to connect to the Find My Phone app and see it’s nowhere near my job or home. I’ll just get a new one. I log into my social medias to change my passwords and right when I am about to log out of my all of my emails, my curiosity got the best of me. I go to my browser history and who could’ve guessed the last thing searched,
“Local pawn shops”
I’m kicking my past naive self for never making a code to log into my phone. Whatever, what can I do now? I log out of all of my emails, but kept my spare email logged in because why not. On the walk back to the train I stopped at the Best Buy on my way and bought the cheapest smart phone I could find. Yes, I added a passcode this time.
On the ride home I check if the location has moved at all since I was last logged in. Yup, a pawn shop. I chuckle and don’t think about it again for a couple of days.
Saturday rolled around and I was doing nothing of note. Checking on work emails, ordering take out and giving Sir Cuteness the Third belly rubs and play hunting fake prey. That night while I’m lying around in bed watching Community through a fourth time, I remember the phone. Out of boredom I check the location and it moved, looks like to an apartment building a few blocks away from the pawn shop. I go to the search history and roll my eyes when I realize they haven’t logged out of my email.
“wine delivery”
“Thai food delivery”
“how do you know if you talk in your sleep”
“sleep tracking app”
Glad to know someone else is also having a splendid night. Maybe I should download a sleep tracking app just for fun. Nahhh. I doze off shortly after with my Cutie purring on my belly.
Sunday holds the same eventfulness. I check back in on my new friend and the location hadn’t moved. When I opened the search history it had two new searches,
“how do you know if you sleepwalk”
“tripod amazon”
I smile and shake my head, that app must’ve revealed something of curiosity and they’re pursuing it like I am to them. I named them Jordan in my head since it was a gender neutral name and decided to check on them regularly.
Basic searches for a few days but then there were two searches that stuck out,
“is it normal to shower when sleepwalking”
“waterproof go pro amazon”
Holy shit, they do sleepwalk. What doesn’t make sense though is if they are showering while they sleep, wouldn’t they notice it the next day? Unless they shower before they sleep and change back into their same clothes after, or maybe they are oblivious to the fact that they changed. Jordan you are an interesting one.
The next week’s searches made my skin crawl, I really wish I logged out of my email.
“are you legally responsible for your actions when sleepwalking”
“punishments for murder in my state”
“how serial killers get caught”
Before I let my thoughts run rampant, logic came to save the day… for a few minutes. This has to be a joke, maybe Jordan noticed I didn’t log out of my email and thought it would be funny to mess with whoever’s email it was. I continued to read,
“what do police officers need to get a warrant”
“how to completely erase search history”
Oh fuck, they certainly noticed now. The next search is what caused me to have a full-blown panic attack; it was my address.
Once I calmed myself down, I immediately went to log out of my email… until I remembered they had my address and what that could possibly mean. I hesitantly check the location, it’s moving. Now it’s on the highway in the direction of my apartment.
I call 911 and they kept rhetorically asking, “Did they threaten you in anyway?” in a nasally voice like Roz from Monsters Inc. I already told them they have my old phone, read out the search history and that they were on their way to my house. They said I could file a restraining order and to call back if they threaten to harm me or if they try breaking in. Well obviously, I wasn’t sticking around to find out.
Fucking hell. I know, I know. The system doesn’t care about preventing actual crimes, just cleaning up after. I thought it was worth a shot. I googled their address to mine and saw at this time a day it would take them about an hour and a half to get here and 20 minutes had already passed. I left my sister a voicemail saying I need to stay at her place for a while. I scooped up Sir Cuteness the Third and put him in his cat carrier with a few treats, my sister is going to have to put up with cat hair until I can figure out my living situation because I’m not going back there.
I finally found an apartment that’s closer to my job, rent is a little pricier but as long as I’m alive who gives a fuck at this point. I looked at the location of the phone and it was in town at a motel a few miles from here. I was able to get a U-Haul to pack all of my shit before the location moved again. When I arrived, I noticed pieces of paper scattered across my doorstep.
It was my mail.
Needless to say, I’m always going to be in fear for my life unless I change my identity because as of right now, they have my full name. It’s been a whole month since they were on their way to my place, so they could’ve already scoped out all of my social medias to see what I look like, who my family and friends are and my work. I should’ve just minded my own business and logged out of all of my accounts.