4 4. The psychopath

"Welcome home, Helene." The black circle speaker on my table turned towards me and spoke. You can not find which is its face until it gets on and the blue line of light blinks twice before it speaks. This is the only family that welcomes me.

"Hey, circle," I said. Yeah, I named it circle because it is in a form of a circle, so why not.

"Your voice seems tired. How was your day?" Now it begins its daily questions and usual talk. It has a sensor mode that can recognize the tone of my voice and speech. As well as it knows everything about me. My likes, my hobbies, my allergies, my favourite food even the things that I dislike.

"Nothing much. Just a usual tiring day." I said while closing my eyes.

"Any mails for me?" I then asked.

"For whom?" Circle asked to confirm.

"For Helene," I said. Circle then began to read the list of useless emails that fill out inbox to thousands.

"Hold on," I said and Circle abruptly halted its process. "Sort the ones that are from college, friends, and my blog page, read it then," I said.

Circle then started the mails from the blog. It goes in alphabetical order.

"You have got twenty-four new comments on our last blog post." Was the first thing that circle read. I then recalled what was my last blog that I wrote.

"Aaahh...." I said recalling it. It was on the latest crime that held in our city. My blog page is completely on the news. I do make a little money with it. But more importantly, it helps me in my work.

"What about the mails of hell?" I asked.

"Password please." A voice echoed from the circle.

I scoffed a laugh at it. 'Oh yeah, password.' I thought.

"This is hell," I said my password. Yes, it is my password. A life as hell, alone and lonely. Ignoring the thought, I focus on the words of Circle. "Unlock successfully." It said and my other account, a secret account gets unlock. A continuous pinging sound caused, which continued for two minutes then stops. "You have sixteen new mails." Circle said.

"Woah! It's more than usual." I said. "Read it." I then commanded to circle. It began to read the emails one after another.

"I heard that you are as dangerous as hell. I would like to play with you. Come to the East Street once you get this mail." Circle read it.

I scorn at his words. This was some kind of brainless, lusty creature who always drunk, I thought. "Block it," I said. "On command." Circle said and began to read the next mail. When I am logged in with this secret account, Circle obeys me like a master. And when I am out of this account to the usual one. It acts informal, like a family. I love Circle. It's is my family.

"Hi! I want to scare my husband. I asked him to buy me a diamond necklace. He refuses. I want to scare him, If he disagrees, hell will come for you." The voice of a female said. By the voice, it sounded like she's a woman in her 30's. Probably, married for around five years.

"What rubbish is this. I am not supposed to do such things." I said out loud.

"Block her too Circle. She's spam to her husband too." I said.

"On your command." Circle said.

"Hey." The next voice took my attention. The voice sounded like an elderly man.

"I heard that you are pretty strong." The voice continued. The messages were in one mail after another. It was not one continuous mail.

"I have a pretty good deal for you."

I straightened into a sitting position to hear attentively what the voice was telling.

"If you agree. You will get a decent amount."

"I heard you take orders on amounts."

"The deal can not be said as a voice message. Reply to me if you are interested."

After those lines, it does took my interest. I decided to reply to him.

"Circle reply him. What is the work about?" My reply goes as a text message. I don't answer with my voice. When the message was sent, an immediate reply was sent from the person.

"Good to know that you are interested." The message came in the same voice, the next moment the recording got deleted automatically.

I waited for a couple of minutes for him to give me information about the job. When there was no reply from his side, I decided to log off from my account. Not too soon, a sound of an incoming message occurred from the speaker.

"Well, this might be a dangerous job. I want you to kill five people. They have a huge amount of money. You will get thirty percent of..." My mind was out of focus from his words.

"What? kill? " I murmured and focused on his words. "After killing you need to find...." The voice goes on. My concentration on the message broke after hearing the word kill again.

"Circle block him." The said swiftly, the moment I confirmed he was asking for killing.

Circle obeyed my command and blocked the user. Even after blocking, there came another message from the same user. "Blocking me wouldn't stop me. Now that I found you..."

"Circle logout," I said.

Circle logged out of my account. "That was actually insane," I said. Then I thought of changing my location every time I log in to my account. That way no one can detect my location.

"Circle take the command. Every time you login into my secret account, change the location before doing so." Instead of typing the command into it. I programmed it to take the command directly through the voice. A virtual keyboard and screen projected on the table. And then a programming studio opens up. I wrote the command in computer understanding language and set the location to random. The moment I saved my program. It automatically says "location change mode activates."

"No wait, circle. You don't have to change now. Only before I log in." I said.

Wait did I wrote an incorrect program. I again opened the studio to check but before I could re-read the program, it says again. "Location change mode activates." Circle continues to repeat the command and a random location assigned to it. Then I was logged into my account.

A ping sound echoed and the message played automatically. "I told you, you can't run..." The signals cracked and I was logged out.

'Oh my goodness. Is he hacking?' I thought. "Circle, activate anti-malware software," I said. But instead, again location changing command gets activated. "You have to do my work.. you can't..." The message began to speak up.

"Oh shit." I cursed then press and hold the power button of the circle. When it was off, I removed the battery and kept it shut.

"This was a psychopath," I said and went to the fridge to get a bottle of water. The cold sip of water calmed me. I then sat on the sofa and laid my head back. "I'll not go to work today." I murderer and closed my eyes.

The next day when I woke up, I found myself sleeping on the couch. I massaged my neck which was jammed by the inappropriate position that I took during the sleep. I looked at my phone, it displayed the time 6:58. I was awake two minutes before the alarm. I went to the fridge to give my growling stomach something so that it could keep quiet. A great thing is that I can't cook. I took out the cup of instant noodles and on the kettle for hot water. Till the water was boiling, I went to get fresh. After a quick shower, I wrapped the bath gown and brushed my teeth. I then came out and switched off the kettle. The water already reached its boiling stage. I unwrapped the towel off my hair and sat at the stool of the counter table. The cover of the cup came out easily which usually takes a lot of effort. I then poured the hot water in it and smelled the marvelous smell of instant cup noodles. The counter on the top was pretty close. My hand could reach there while sitting on the stool. I opened the counter flap and pulled out a mug and a jar of coffee. While my noodles were getting soft by the hot water, I prepared my black coffee. A spoon full of coffee powered with hot water in a mug, that's it. No sugar, no milk. When my breakfast meal was ready, I quickly had it and got ready for college.

Standing in front of the mirror, I examined my look once before leaving my room. A pair of black pants with a cream shirt and a sleeveless blazer. My wavy hair was dried until I ate. I just comb them and tugged them into a messy ponytail. Lastly, I took my tablet, a book, and a pen and came out after putting on my formal shoes. I locked the door of my house and inhaled a deep breath of free and fresh air.

....

H. LOCKHART.