Downloaded - Disturbingly Utilitarian and Proliferating Technology

Downloaded

Disturbingly Utilitarian and Proliferating Technology

“But, there’s this laptop on you, always!”, she screeched, an exasperated wife.

“Yeah of course, I’m working. I don’t actually see the point of this argument you’re making.”, he said, a confused husband.

“Oh! You will never get it! Go marry your laptop. Have kids with it!”, she cried.

‘1 New Notification- 1 message- It says, “I don’t want this marriage.”’, came in the voice from the device on the man's lap.

“What?! What does that mean? Who has this message come from? So that’s it! You’ve been cheating on me! It’s your girlfriend! She doesn’t want a marriage, is that it? You two just want to have the fun, but you will not leave me as well, because I’m what, your maid?”, she cried.

“Will you just shut up? It’s my sister, the voicemail. She must be disinterested in the marriage proposal that came for her and wanting me to talk to mom and dad, against it. And, I don’t have any girlfriends. Now, go do your work and let me work as well.”

“Oh! Fine, go carry on with your so important ‘Work’.” she left the room uttering.

‘Downloaded!’, the device added.

And as she went, rolled down the dog from underneath the couch, swirling his tail licking his man’s feet.

Just a few minutes later, the wife came in running, “What?! What was that?! I just heard the bark. The dog! What’s going on? It was growling in a quite bizarre manner.”

Quite lazily, the husband rose, shaking his head, “I don’t know. I’m not sure I heard it bark. Is my hot water ready? I need to have a proper bath, after having listened to your non-sense, back then.”

“Are you even inside this little house of ours? How can someone not hear such a ferocious growl of a German shepherd, being in the very same room that is?”

“How’re you so sure it was a German Shepherd?”, he asked, with an unsettling look, skimming her head to toe.

“How? What “How”? Well, he is our dog, I know it. What do you even mean, by asking that question?”, she began, “What’s wro…”,

Before she could complete, “what do you mean by ‘OUR DOG’?!”, he yelled at the top of his voice, “He’s not yours! Only mine, and my sister’s. NOT YOURS!”. He seemed alarming, with his eyes flaring, and a solid standing posture, and a heavy grim on his face.

Seeing all this, she said “okay, okay, I got it. He’s your dog alright.”, trying to calm the situation, meanwhile having a glance all over him, as such a behaviour of his seemed a bit unusual and doing so, she noticed something and asked, “By the way, what’s wrong with your thighs? They seem a bit swollen.”

To which, the reply was pretty non-participating, as he just shook his head and let it be.

“Okay, fine, leave it. I’ll go get your hot water ready to bathe.”, and she leaves to the bathroom.

As she walks, she hears another bark, ignoring it this time however, recalling the experience from a couple of minutes erstwhile. But then the bark doesn’t stop this time. She keeps hearing them, until she reaches the bathroom door.

And as she’s about to open it, she couldn’t resist the urge to go and see what it is, that is happening around. So, she turns back, and as she was about to take a step, she looks at the kitchen which is on the way back, and finds a dog there. She was about to see what’s wrong with it. However, she realised that it wasn’t a German Shepherd at all. It was a Labrador.

It was a troublingly confusing moment for her when a few seconds later she realised that the dog she was seeing was actually not the one barking, in spite of the growl coming from the very same direction.

She gathered some courage, and took a few steps, towards the course. And, as she approached the dog, she found that it was unusually and dreadfully calm for a Labrador. So, she tried to maintain a distance from him, as she was already quivering of what all was happening around.

And as she just tried to look around, she found a man lying down there. She ran towards him out of concern, by when she heard “I asked you if the hot water is ready for my bath.”, her husband’s voice, coming from his room.

She, didn’t understand what this all was. Petrified, she went close to the man lying down whom she finally recognized to actually be none other than her husband. And the worst case she expected had actually materialized. Her husband was lying dead on the floor.

It was established that her husband somehow had died. She began grieving for him when she suddenly realised that that’s not all. There are certain inexplicable things happening around and her life maybe in danger as well.

She got up and turned around. And as she did, she found her husband standing right next to her staring right into her eyes, “I asked you to get my hot water ready, honey, did you do it?”, smiling down at her.

She rushed away from him, as he said, “Oh! Who's that down there? You need to call the police or you know, someone, at least our neighbours? I think you should make a call. And also tell them about the dog we never had”, grinning, “or dog’s’.”

She, being scared stiff, did the only thing she actually could and was even literally asked for. She took out her phone and called the nearest police station.

As she dialled and put the phone to her ear, she heard, “Dial 1 for a ringtone, 2 for recharge options and 3 for other services. Downloaded.”, and the call continued.

After a few seconds, the ring actually went and the police lifted up the call and she explained what happened to her. So, they started off from the police station listening to it and arrived at the house.

As they came, she opened the door and guided them to the kitchen and asked them to proceed by themselves as she was too afraid to go there herself. And so, the three policemen entered the kitchen.

When they reached the spot, they found the couple dead in the kitchen with three dogs, also dead. A German Shepherd, a Labrador, and a Pug.

As they turned back in disbelief, there was no one else in the house except for themselves and the bodies on the floor.

The couple and the dogs seemed physically, perfectly fine on the outside, except of course, being dead.

The police as well was forced to believe it to have been an incident that had an involvement of a paranormal element because of it being the most unforgettably terrible incident those three policemen had ever experienced in their lives, or for as much of it was left.

The policemen started to examine the scene and the constable took out his tablet device to commence the necessary protocols. The initial message went to the chief at the station that he saw coming in, ‘Downloaded’ to his desktop.

The next morning the milkman and a neighbour found the five bodies and three dogs in the living room seated on the couch. They were completely traumatized witnessing such a scene and the neighbour took a picture and posted it in the society’s group chat. Everyone looked at their phones as the picture ‘Downloaded’ into each one of them and gathered around the house and one of them called the police station to the commissioner.

And the case file was hence, ‘Downloaded’, to the police database.

- M. P. Raghav