Okay I know this is gonna sound insane but just hear me out.
I recently got a new phone because my old one got smashed so I figured, okay, let’s get a phone case this time. Started trying to find one I liked and ended up on redbubble. This seemed fine, it’s a well known site and the reviews were good and I picked out a design I liked and ordered it. Cool. everything’s normal up to this point.
Well anyway the phone case arrived like a week ago and I loved it. “Loved” being the key word here. It’s a cute pink case with flowers and bees on it. Exactly my style. For the first day I just couldn’t stop picking it up and looking at it. The pattern was just so cute!
And then I started to notice something was off about it. Like it just, something didn’t feel right, y’know? Like have you ever walked past a painting and it’s like the eyes are following you around the room? It felt like that. Every single time I put my phone face down with those cute little bees and their cute little flowers facing upright I just, god. Even with my back turned it’s like something was staring at me.
I’d been trying to ignore it, always placing my phone with the screen facing upright, trying to convince myself I’m just being paranoid. But it just will. not. go. away. It’s gotten to the point where I leave my phone in another room and I can still feel it. Their little compound eyes staring into my goddamn soul through the walls or some shit.
And then there was The Incident. Ugh I feel ridiculous typing this but I need help, advice, someone to tell me I’m not losing my mind? Idk. anyway I was sat at my desk a few days ago and my phone was next to me (case facing down) and I heard it buzz. I figured it was just a message from a friend or something but I checked and there were no notifications. Okay, kinda weird but it happens. And then there was another buzz so I checked again and nothing. This went on for a couple of hours, buzzing every couple of minutes or so, and then I felt the sting. I don’t know what the hell caused it but it hurt like hell. And then a few minutes later it happened again. And then again. I tried taking to case off but it’s like it’s stuck on with something? I don’t remember it having any adhesive when I got it.
So I figured okay maybe I’m allergic to the ink they use on the case or something. I’m pretty sure that can happen and yeah it’d be kinda weird to just suddenly be allergic to it but hey that’s gotta be a better explanation than “the cartoon bees on my phone case are attacking me”. That’s it. Mystery solved, right? No. no it isn’t. Because of course it just had to get weirder.
That night I went to bed and idk if my phone was glitching out or what but I just couldn’t get it to stop randomly buzzing. I can’t even touch the case without gloves now so that’s already an inconvenience but now it’s keeping me awake even after I set it to Do Not Disturb. I guess the stress of it started getting to me because when I did finally get to sleep I had this fucking weird dream about being covered in bees. Like y’know when you have one of those dreams where there’s a bunch of tetris pieces because you played tetris too much that day? Like that but with bees and they’re everywhere and there’s no organizational skills or stacking involved.
When I woke up the next morning I noticed there was like, sticky stuff around the charging port and headphone jack. So that’s kinda weird and I thought maybe the battery had started leaking or something but apparently battery acid is white and burns you and this was more yellow-y and didn’t do that but then I realized that with the whole bee situation it sounds like I’m being like “oh god there was honey coming out of my phone! What the hell” and that’s ridiculous so I’m guessing I probably just spilled something on my phone and didn’t realize. But anyway yeah I tried to just ignore it but like, I wet wiped it off and then a few hours later I noticed more of the stuff and I have no idea where it’s coming from because I know for a fact that I didn’t spill anything that time.
And then the thing that’s finally tipped me over the edge and made my write this post was when I went out with a friend yesterday and we were sat in this café chatting about stuff and I mentioned everything that’d happened so she was like “can I take a look at it?” and it stung her too but she says she’s had redbubble phone cases before and never been allergic to the ink so it probably isn’t that. So then we were like “okay let’s try looking at the artist’s profile” and when I looked at my order history there was nothing there? Like the phone case just doesn’t show up and I can’t find the pattern when I search it. I’m really confused and freaked out and my friend is convinced it’s like, haunted by ghost bees or something. I think maybe I’m starting to believe her but that feels so silly.
I just, has anyone else had an experience like this? My friend says she’s never had a phone case that attacked her but surely this is just a weird production fault or something, right? I just really want some kind of answer or solution because the case itself is really cute and plus it’s kinda stuck to the phone and I don’t want to have to buy another new phone when this one’s perfectly good except for the weird thing where it’s kind of acting like it’s haunted by bees.
Edit: I got bored on the bus to work yesterday and ended up googling stuff about beekeeping because nothing else has worked and I noticed while I was looking at those smoke thingies beekeepers use the phone started buzzing less so I set a photo of one as my lockscreen and I think it’s helping? I don’t really know what to make of this but hey it’s something!
Edit 2: I figured if the smoke thingy works I probably need to like, give the phonecase bees some other stuff that bees need? So I googled more stuff and put like, a photo of some honeycomb as my wallpaper and I’ve been taking photos of flowers because I guess they need pollen or whatever bees eat. Every few days there’s a random jpeg of a honey jar in my camera roll so I guess they’re happy. Still not sure what to make of all this but I think I’m befriending them so maybe I can use my phone properly without getting stung every time I try to make a call.