00:00Welcome to English practice stories.
00:08Hello, my dear friends. How are you?
00:12Let's start the story.
00:14I had heard a knock on the door.
00:17But when I opened it, no one was there.
00:21I looked around. Nothing.
00:25Then I looked down and saw it.
00:29Lying there on the doorstep was an old cell phone with a cracked screen.
00:36I picked it up and clicked the home button.
00:40It opened without a passcode, revealing a home screen with only one app.
00:47Rebecca?
00:49I called out to my 18-year-old daughter as I stepped back inside and closed the door behind me.
00:58You know anything about the cell phone I just found on the doorstep?
01:03On the doorstep?
01:05She called back from the living room, likely scrolling away on her own phone.
01:12Yeah, with a big crack in it?
01:16Nope. I guess I'll just throw it out then.
01:20Wait. I want to see.
01:24As she cried out, her curiosity peaked as she made her way over to the kitchen.
01:32I held it up for her to see.
01:35EW. Looks old.
01:38Like from when you and mom were growing up.
01:42When your mom and I were growing up, there were no cell phones, Becca.
01:48Sounds boring.
01:50Yeah, it was. Perfectly boring. In the best way possible.
01:57Now look at what's become of the world.
02:01Yeah, yeah, let me see it.
02:04She said she was snatching the old, cracked cell phone out of my hand.
02:11What's the passcode?
02:13There isn't one.
02:16She opened it. Just one app?
02:19This phone is so mid. Mid.
02:23I asked, unfamiliar with her Gen Z slang.
02:29It means mediocre, dad.
02:32Where'd you find this thing, anyway?
02:35I told you on the doorstep.
02:38Someone knocked and ran away.
02:42So, it's some sort of prank.
02:45If it is, it's a pretty mid prank.
02:49I replied, giving her the same smug look I always did when I landed a dad joke.
02:58Weird jokes are not funny, dad.
03:01Anyways, I'm going to see what's in the app.
03:05Rebecca said as she scurried off back to the living room
03:11and proceeded to scroll away on the cracked old phone.
03:16Cool. Let me know what you find, Becca.
03:20I said it casually as I sat back down at the dinner table and continued reading my newspaper.
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03:34and hear more stories like this an hour or so later.
03:39My wife, Erica, returned home from work, and we had dinner.
03:44Rebecca, it's dinner time.
03:48Erica called out from the kitchen, but my daughter didn't reply.
03:54Becca? I added.
03:57But again, Rebecca ignored us.
04:01My wife and I both looked at each other and rolled our eyes.
04:07Your loss. Food'll be cold again.
04:12Erica said, referring to the countless other times our social media-obsessed teen
04:20had foregone dinner so long that the meal had become cold.
04:25Kids. I muttered under my breath.
04:30So how was work, honey?
04:34A few hours later, my wife and I decided to go upstairs for the night,
04:41and seeing that Rebecca was still scrolling away on the couch,
04:47I reminded her that her dinner was on the table.
04:51Once again, our daughter just ignored us as she continued to scroll away on her phone,
05:00something that, after raising an 18-year-old daughter, I was very used to.
05:08But this time, something was different.
05:12This time, she was scrolling on a different phone.
05:17The old, cracked phone I had found on the doorstep, to be precise.
05:24She's still using that old thing.
05:27I wonder what app was on there.
05:30It must be some game or social media thing.
05:34I thought to myself,
05:37Just remember to turn the lights out before you go to bed, Becca.
05:42My wife called down before we retired to our bedroom, to no reply.
05:49But the next morning, not only did we find the lights on,
05:56but we also found Rebecca still sitting there,
06:00sure enough, scrolling away on the old, cracked phone.
06:06Rebecca, my wife called out,
06:10Did you even sleep last night?
06:13Yeah, Becca, you really shouldn't be pulling all-nighters like that.
06:20I added it as I went to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee.
06:26But before I could make it that far,
06:29something caught my eye on the kitchen table.
06:33To my disbelief, there was Rebecca's dinner,
06:37still sitting there, completely untouched.
06:42That's when I knew that something was very wrong.
06:47By the time my wife and I were able to pry the old,
06:52cracked cell phone out of our daughter's hands,
06:56Rebecca had gone into a sudden fit of rage.
07:00Give it back!
07:02She screamed, her eyes cold and lifeless.
07:07I tossed the phone to Erica behind me while I stood between her and our daughter.
07:14I said, Give it back!
07:17Rebecca screamed again, in a threatening fashion.
07:23Becca, what's gotten into you?
07:26It's just an old phone, and a cracked one at that.
07:31I began,
07:33But before I could continue,
07:36my innocent daughter, who had never laid a finger on a soul her entire life,
07:43suddenly lunged at me, swung her arm, and ran her nails across my face,
07:51tearing the flesh from my skin and causing blood to pour down my neck.
07:58Rebecca, I yelled, raising my voice.
08:03But it was too late.
08:06She had already hopped over me and chased my wife into the kitchen.
08:13When I finally caught up to her at the entrance to the kitchen,
08:18I saw my daughter standing there with a steak knife on one side of the kitchen table
08:25while my wife stood on the other, shaking in fear,
08:30as she held the old, cracked phone in her hand.
08:35What was on that app?
08:37I asked hypothetically out loud,
08:41realizing that whatever my daughter had discovered on the phone
08:46must have been the cause of her 14-hour doom scroll and subsequent fit of rage.
08:54But Erica must have taken me literally,
08:58immediately opening the phone and going to the app.
09:03I saw a perplexed look wash over my wife's face as she took her finger,
09:10placed it on the phone's cracked surface, and started to scroll.
09:16No. Erica, stop.
09:20I cried out as I ran over to her and ripped the phone from her hand.
09:27But before I could even process what had happened,
09:31I heard the steak knife that my daughter was holding fall to the kitchen floor
09:37before she too collapsed to the ground.
09:41Becca? I asked, confused by her sudden change of disposition but,
09:49at the same time, relieved that her fit of rage had ceased.
09:56That's when I heard a growl behind me as my daughter's rage had somehow shifted to my wife
10:04and Erica picked up the knife from the floor.
10:08Give.
10:10Back.
10:12My wife screamed, her eyes now cold and lifeless.
10:18I looked down at my daughter, who looked as if she had just awoken from a trance.
10:25That's when I realized that whatever curse had been bestowed upon the old,
10:31cracked phone's app seemed to only affect the last person who used it.
10:38I took my day's daughter by the hand and led her out of the kitchen,
10:44out of the house, and to the driveway as my wife followed, still wielding the knife.
10:52Get in.
10:54I insisted as I opened my car door, and Rebecca hopped inside before I used my key fob to lock her inside.
11:04Give me the phone.
11:06My wife cried from behind me as she swung the knife at me.
11:12I stepped aside and watched its blade pierce the hood of my car.
11:19I thought to call out my wife's name in an attempt to snap her out of it,
11:24but I immediately realized that there was only one way to snap her out of her trance.
11:32As she struggled to pull the blade out of the car,
11:36I seized the opportunity to run back into the house and turn on the sink in the first floor bathroom.
11:46Eventually, my wife came back inside looking for me and, sure enough, headed for the source of the running water.
11:57And when she stepped inside, I hopped out from behind the kitchen island,
12:03slamming the door behind her before dragging a nearby bookshelf against the door
12:11and reinforcing it with a few other heavy objects.
12:16Give me the phone.
12:18I heard her cry out from inside the bathroom as I looked at the old, cracked cell phone that I was still gripping in my hand and knew what I had to do.
12:31Thirty minutes later, the deed was done.
12:36The old, cracked cell phone was left on a random neighbor's doorstep in the next town over,
12:44where I hoped no one would recognize me.
12:48When I got back to the car, my daughter was just sitting there in the passenger seat,
12:55still traumatized and speechless from what she had just gone through.
13:01We drove home in silence, and when we finally got back,
13:07we waited by the barricaded bathroom door as my wife continued to scream.
13:15And waited. And waited.
13:18Until eventually, she stopped.
13:23I slid the heavy objects and bookshelf aside and opened the bathroom door,
13:29only to find Erica just standing there, as if waking from a bad dream,
13:36with the same exhausted expression on her face that I'd seen previously on my daughter.
13:44It had worked.
13:46My wife was no longer possessed by the vile device.
13:51Erica walked over and hugged me.
13:55I looked over at my daughter.
13:58She smiled.
14:00I smiled back.
14:02In that moment, two things became clear.
14:06Someone else had been possessed by the phone prior to leaving it on my doorstep.
14:13Two, someone new is possessed by it now.
14:18But all that mattered to me in that moment was that my family was okay.
14:25I wish I could say that after the dust settled,
14:28my daughter swore off cell phones, social media, and apps altogether.
14:36But the truth is, it only took a day before she was back to doom-scrolling on her own phone.
14:45Now, every time she does, and her dinner gets cold,
14:50I can't help but fear that she's been possessed again.
14:55But then I realize, she's just a teenager.
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15:07and hear more stories like this.
15:10Thank you for listening to this story.
15:13Bye for now.
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