Radio silence

Maya’s phone sat on her bedside table, vibrating softly. She groggily rose from her slumber, before snapping awake and answering the phone.

…

Just another spam call.

She was getting worried. After helping Camden unpack a couple of weeks ago, Maya had really been looking forward to getting some quality time with her childhood friend. But she never got a call. Never got a text. Never got a message. Just complete radio silence. Maya considered that maybe he was ignoring her. After 9 years of both of them ignoring each other, it wouldn’t exactly be out of the ordinary. But for some reason, it felt different this time.

She had considered going to the old house to see how he was doing, but didn’t want to feel like she was intruding or pushing too much. After all, they’d both gone this long without any contact. Why would it be any different now? She often thought back to the times they used to spend together, and felt slightly guilty for always having been the one to drag him along. And now she felt guilty for not checking in. What was wrong with her?

A couple more minutes passed. Okay, something was definitely wrong.

She got in her car, and made her way to the old house. It looked almost exactly the same as when she’d left it. The same vines crawling up the exterior. The same creaking wood that made up the porch. The doorbell had long since ceased to function, so she resorted to simply knocking.

Knock, knock, knock.

And then she waited. And waited. No response. Was Camden even in there? She was getting nervous.

“Alright. Calm down, Maya.” she said to herself, slowing her breathing. It was entirely possible that he’d just gone for a walk, or maybe he went to visit a café from their childhood or something. But something told Maya that that wasn’t the case. After all, Camden hadn’t exactly been the outdoorsy or activity-y type. The chances of him deciding to go out and do something without prompting were quite low. She knocked again.

Knock, knock, knock. Still no response. Maybe he was asleep, taking a nap? No, he surely wouldn’t be napping with so much to do around the house.

“Hello? Camden, are you in there?” she yelled at the door. And yet there was still no response. She was considering what to do next when she heard the sound of the door unlocking from the inside. It creaked open, though what laid on the other side was not at all who she had been expecting. It was that old automaton that Camden had complained so much about, its metal figure standing in the passageway. Honestly, she didn’t even know it was capable of opening the door.

“Hey. Do you… mind if I come in?” she asked hesitantly. Hopefully it could understand her. The automaton seemed to stare at her for a moment with what passed for its eyes, before moving off to the side, its arms positioned to direct her into the house.

“Oh, thank you.”

The house’s interior was quite similar to how she’d left it last week, the dirt still laid on the flat surfaces, dust particulates still floating in the air. One of Camden’s less essential suitcases was still in the front hall where she’d left it. Odd. But one was open on the hallway’s bench, half emptied, which implied that he at the very least began unpacking.

“Do you know where Camden went?” she asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

The Automaton didn’t respond, cocking its head slightly to one side in confusion.

“Y’know, Camden. Average height, black hair, general sense of aimlessness?”

The automaton appeared to understand immediately, making a 180 degree turn, and moving its way further into the house. Maya closed the front door behind her, and ignoring the strangeness of what was currently going on, followed the automaton. Though it was only a short while before it stopped progressing, and turned back towards Maya.

“What is it?”

Why had they stopped? They hadn’t even made it that far into the house. She looked around for anything of note. And she found it. To her right was the basement door. She looked from the door, to the automaton, then back to the door. The Automaton looked at her expectantly. She hesitantly placed her hand on the doorknob, its metal form cold in her hand as she turned it, opening the door. It was… unlocked? Strange. The dilapidated staircase greeted her on the other side, its wooded form still standing after all these years.

She carefully made her way down the creaking staircase, bracing herself in case she fell through. Maya soon reached the bottom, moving off to the side as her eyes adjusted to the limited brightness of the basement. The single dim light in the middle wasn’t especially helping.

“What the…”

There was definitely evidence that Camden had been here. The blankets still laid on the ground, strewn about in a chaotic manner, the edges of which contained slight char marks. His pillow was thrown off in the corner, an irregular place for a pillow to be. It was a strange sight, no doubt about it. But not as strange as what she focused on next.

Maya’s eyes settled on the sphere in the middle of the room, its form unsettling, yet also somewhat intriguing. She, like Camden, had also wondered what the use of the pipes from the upper floors was, and seeing that they all fed into this room, it was likely that she’d be getting answers eventually.

But there was one thing that was still missing. Or rather, one person. Camden. Had something happened to him? Why else would his bedsheets and pillow be where they were, as if they were thrown around haphazardly?

Maya looked back up the stairs, at the Automaton. “Are you sure he’s down here?” she asked, voice louder to compensate for the distance between them.

The Automaton robotically shook its head back and forth.

“Wait, then what am I down here for?” she asked, frustrated.

Was this just some sort of dumb prank? She doubted the mechanical being understood humor, but she supposed it was always possible that it did. But as far as pranks go, this was pretty lousy. Then, something clicked in her mind.

“Hold on. He was down here.”

The Automaton nodded voicelessly.

This was a step in the right direction, at the very least. So the automaton had seen Camden enter the basement, but never saw him come out. Which meant that either he was still down there, or what? He snuck out? But if he had, where had he gone?

Maya went back up the stairs, deciding to search around the rest of the house for any other evidence. She passed the Automaton, who simply watched her, its head rotating as its gaze followed her location. She first checked the kitchen, coming across Camden’s solitary coffee, which had long since gone bad. Things were certainly getting stranger. If Camden truly had just left to go somewhere, he almost definitely wouldn’t have left his beverage there for so long. And furthermore, if he had done so, and came back, surely he would have disposed of it during the past week. Honestly, Maya would have rather that she didn’t find this clue, as it only made her all the more worried. She then checked the dining room, the living room, and proceeded upstairs to the two bedrooms and the upstairs washroom. Beyond the occasional footstep in the dirty carpet that indicated Camden had at least been there, there wasn’t much other evidence to find. At least she hadn’t come across his dead body or something.

So back to the front hall it was, with the Automaton still standing there, still watching her.

“He’s not anywhere in the house,” she said aloud, both to herself and the mechanised being before her. Though her next question was directed at the Automaton entirely.

“Do you know anything else about where he is?”

The Automaton slowly turned its head back towards the basement. Of course it did. Had she missed something? Some crucial detail that would answer all of her questions? She made her way back down the stairs, a bit faster this time due to the worry. She checked the blankets, the pillow, and yet, nothing new. There had to be something she’d missed. Right. The weird machine-looking thing. Her focus turned to it, as she began to examine it in detail. The dented scrap panels that made up its spherical body. The various tubes and pipes that climbed into the ceiling.

Could this machine be the clue that she needed? After all, she hadn’t the faintest idea what it could possibly be used for. Yes, that was it. She would investigate this machine, figure out what happened to Camden. She would get her friend back. She had to.

And still, the Automaton watched on.