Unsent Messages Novels & Stories

I was about to close it when I noticed the date. Months ago. My breath caught. I scrolled. There was another one. Hi. Then another. And another. Same sender. Same single word. Spread out over weeks. Sometimes days. Sometimes months. All of them sitting quietly in my junk folder, unnoticed, waiting. A strange chill ran down my spine. Who sends messages like that? And why keep sending them when there’s no reply? I clicked on the sender’s email address. It wasn’t familiar. No name I recognized. Just a string of letters and numbers that meant nothing to me.

I scrolled further and some messages are sent and received two to three years back. "What's this?!" I mumbled while biting my lower lip. "One, two, three, four, five....." My attention was caught by an odd message from someone named Kassy. Alyana, I curse your whole family and your generation to come mvhsjabxhejsajnsjxbxhssjs That's harsh. Where are those words rooted at? I showed a wince after reading several unopened messages. I've been scrolling for already thirty minutes without realizing that those messages are sorted neatly on the black list.

The screen loaded slowly, the old operating system taking its time, and we sat in the quiet of my room and waited. The three saved numbers appeared first. Then the one sent a message to the contact D that I’d already read. Then the notification icon appeared. A new message. Received six minutes ago. From an unsaved number. I opened it. Four words. No greeting, no signature, no context. Gregory is in K. Pack. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Tapping on the first notification, Snarlchat opens and I smile as I see his first message. Uriel: Hey werebear. Uriel: That was my stupid way of trying to make you remember me. Uriel: Why can’t I unsend messages here? Uriel: You would think Snarlchat would understand that sometimes, we need to texts. Uriel: Can I get my messages to disappear after I send them like the Snarls do? Uriel: Let me try again. Uriel: Hey! I was thinking about you. Uriel: LAME. That’s how that sounded. Let me try one more time.

Sitting at the top of her call log like they had been there long enough that her phone had long since settled them in like permanent residents and stopped asking questions. My hand stayed frozen on the screen. My breathing went shallow. The numbers blurred, and I blinked them back into focus. I went to her messages. Found my messages. Checked for drafts. Nothing. Not even a single unsent message. No half-typed response she'd abandoned. No "I'm okay" or "thank you" that she'd started and stopped herself from sending. If she'd tried to reply even once and changed her mind, there'd be something. There was nothing.

I… I'm going to be the supervisor? I looked at him and gave a slight nod. "You deserve this." In the nearby apartment building, several older women who had been leaning over their balconies to watch the scene were now frantically trying to delete the filthy messages they had posted in the residents' group chat earlier. But the system's flat notification kept chiming again and again. "This message was sent more than two minutes ago and can't be recalled."

Jayden comforted her and said, "It's getting late. Many people have already fallen asleep. There must be some people who haven't seen Aunt Mia's messages. Don't worry." Silvia retorted, "The cat is out of the bag, and it's too late to recall the messages. So what if the others don't see it now?!" Jayden answered, "I have already asked my technicians to delete the messages. I can't delete the memories of the people who have seen the messages, but people who have yet to open the messages would not see it." Silvia rubbed her head. "Since when did the app have such a magical function? Why haven't I heard of it?"

What was I supposed to say to that? ‘Hi? Good evening, Professor? Can't stop thinking about me too?’..... That was ridiculous. Before I could even type anything, the message disappeared. He deleted it. I blinked. “He just unsent it.” Ela, who was sprawled on her bed painting her nails, immediately perked up. “Wait, what? Show me!” We both stared at the screen. The typing bubble appeared again. It stayed there. And stayed. For almost thirty minutes, the three little dots kept bouncing while Ela and I refreshed the chat like it was the Super Bowl.

Immediately, I stepped into my room, shut the door behind me and let out a sharp breath. I plopped on my bed and reached for my phone. There were unread notifications. “The unknown user wants to send you a message.” I wondered who could be trying to contact me on this account. Even back then, I hardly messaged people with this account. Maybe it was a spam message. I tapped on the notification, and it loaded the message. The WiFi was a bit slow, so I waited in anticipation. Finally, it loaded completely. “You've refused to keep to your end of the deal, Tanya, that's not fair, now is it?”

I scroll over the received messages and I see an unknown number and I tap on it before I can help it. Hide for as long as you want, just be ready when I come calling gatita. Sent 12:03 pm 18th January I swallow hard before dropping my phone down. Fuck me!