Why Is My Smoke Detector Blinking Red Novels & Stories

Until a strange smell made me frown. Smoke. The kitchen. Shit, the popcorn! I pulled the pan off the heat, and as I lifted the lid, another wave of smoke poured into the air. Then, a deafening beep pierced my ears. Beep. Beep. Beep. A red light blinked on the ceiling. The fire alarm. “No, no, no, no!” I yelled, waving my hands as if that would magically make the smoke go away. I ran to open all the windows and the apartment door, trying to ventilate the disaster. But the alarm kept screaming like the building was about to explode.

“What? But we’ve Adrien turned sharply, the scanner rising as he followed the signal across the room. The tone grew louder near the ceiling high, piercing. Ryan followed his gaze upward. The smoke detector. Adrien’s expression went cold. He climbed onto the table, reaching up. Ryan steadied him instinctively. “Careful.” Adrien twisted the device free. The red light on its edge blinked once then again. The scanner in his hand started screaming. “Ryan, step back!”

And that pisses me off. As soon as this is over, I’ll try to figure out why that is. Reed is none the wiser to what is actually going on. I can see that he has a lot of questions. He just knows that now isn’t the right time to ask them. “Yes!” Kristina’s victory scream has me returning my eyes back to the computer screen. I see one footage of the door. Where, sure enough, nothing is amiss. More video feeds start appearing too. It was after the fifth that we noticed smoke in some places.

It was a small mansion by the edge of town made of cream-colored brick and elegantly tall windows. As I reached the front door of my house, I noticed a keypad by the door. I frowned, “That wasn’t there before.” At first, I thought of putting in some random combination of numbers just to see. Like my birthday—Denied. Okay, Curtis’ birthday—Denied. Alright, then maybe our wedding anniversary—Denied yet again. The system suddenly began flashing red, and the alarm was tripped off. I could hear it from the inside. I muttered a curse, frustrated at the new development.

The words written on the back of the index card burned into my retinas, sharp and unforgiving, and the air in the dorm room suddenly felt too thin to breathe. He can't protect you through a screen, Jules, but I can see you right now. My heart slammed against my ribs with such violent force that my vision actually swam with black spots. I slowly, agonizingly, lifted my gaze from the card to the ceiling. Right above my bed, nestled in the cheap white plastic of the smoke detector, was a tiny, faint red LED light. It was blinking.

“Now.” “What's wrong?” I asked. He gestured at the ceiling where a red light was steadily blinking. “That wasn’t there when we came in.” Evan swore, checking his device. “Security has rebooted. Someone’s hacking it.” “We’re locked in?” Jace asked. “Worse,” Evan said. “We’ve pretty much triggered every silent alarm in this building.” The power went out and we were in total darkness.

I make sandwiches for the workers because I don’t know what else to do with myself. By the time they’re done, it’s almost four. “We have to go,” Ronan says reluctantly. “We have a meeting in Geneva, and…baby, we would reschedule if we could. But we…” “It’s fine,” I tell him with a smile. “I’ll be okay.” He doesn’t look convinced. Malachi pulls me aside, shows me the app on my phone one more time. “Green means everything’s fine. Yellow means motion detected. Red means alarm triggered. You see red, you press a panic button and call 911. Understand?”

She looked at my hand and inspected the gadget as her face made a cure serious thinking face as she was trying to understand what was I holding up and showing her. “This is a high tech motion detector.” As I spoke I didn’t leave my eyes off of her face. Her eyes meet mine as she listened to me carefully what I was explaining to her. “I am placing these gadgets around the cabin, as a security measure just in case.” She nodded her head as I continued on. “So as I set them up and chose their settings as I have to connect to devices, they will in case of danger as someone coming to the house, they will send a warning about the intruder and that way we will know if anyone is outside the house or

, I screamed, tears beginning to slip out from my eyes in realization that no one was coming for me, the fire had surrounded me, crackling and hissing and the smoke detector had gone off. I slid down to the ground trying to breathe in proper as the smoke choked and crowded my lungs. Of all days to forget my phone, I chided myself, my vision becoming grainy as the temperature in the room sweltered and I succumbed to the darkness. Beep beep beep The beeping sounds registered in my mind, catapulting me awake as I opened my eyes groggily as my eyes took in the white walls. The equipment covering my nose and mouth pushing air into my nose even though I could breath by myself.

The motel door slammed behind us and it felt louder than it should’ve. Like a gunshot. Like the end of something. I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. I didn’t want to see the stupid smoke detector one more time. Didn’t want to imagine that tiny red light blinking at the empty room like it was disappointed we left. Didn’t want to think about the mirror. Or the bed. Or how it probably still smelled like us. Julian walked too fast. Like he wasn’t bleeding.