“I'll make the popcorn if you wanna get the show pulled up. That'll be your consolation,” Shayna said while suddenly sitting up on the couch.
“Oh my consolation prize for agreeing to watch trash TV with you?” Kyle asked with a smirk.
Shayna flashed a smug smirk of her own. “Exactly.”
“Deal.”
As Shayna made her way to the kitchen Kyle began pointing the remote at the TV hung on the wall opposite the couch.
“What's it called again? ‘The Hos of Soho'? ‘The Baddies of Bedford-Stuyvesant’?
Shayna poked her head around the corner from the kitchen and gave Kyle a look.
“You just think you're so funny. Any more New York City neighborhood jokes or are you done?”
“Nah I'm finished,” Kyle said beaming.
“It's called ‘The Tri-Beccas’.”
“Oh that's clever I couldn't have thought of that,” Kyle replied in a slightly sarcastic tone as he began typing the title in the search bar on the screen.
“That's because you -think- you're a comedian but you're really just a bartender.”
Shayna stuck her tongue out at Kyle before returning to the microwave with a bag of popcorn she had retrieved from a box atop their refrigerator.
“I'll have you know we're one of the top ten highest-rated establishments on Trip Advisor!” Kyle called out playfully.
A few minutes later Shayna returned with a bowl of popcorn and drinks.
Kyle pointed the remote at the TV and paused the show's introduction from playing.
“Oh I see so let me guess. It's a bunch of drama, sex, and scandals and then there's what, some fancy loft apartments and stock footage of New York City thrown in for good measure?”
“Okay so-” Shayna began, “it's about these three women all named Rebecca who - I think they met as kids at a summer camp or something - anyways, they grew up together and decided to open a real estate firm in Tribeca so the show just kinda follows their day to day lives selling real estate to rich clients, and sometimes the buyers are celebrities. But yeah, there's drama and stuff of course.”
Kyle nodded and clicked the remote once more, resuming the show's intro music.
“It's just wild to me that people make so much money from stuff like this. Like, yeah sure it's ‘reality’ TV,” Kyle said while using air quotes between handfuls of popcorn, “but so much of it isn't actually reality.”
“Okay thanks for the philosophy lesson babe,” Shayna said with a condescending pat on Kyle's shoulder.
Kyle chuckled to himself before allowing silence to settle in between them as they both began focusing on the screen.
“I gotta pee, can you pause it?” Kyle asked after watching for about twenty minutes.
Shayna turned her head slightly to give Kyle a look of surprise. “Well look who's invested in my trashy show all of a sudden.”
“Mmmhmm, it's not so bad.”
Kyle hopped up from the couch while Shayna paused the show. As Kyle made his way down the hall to the bathroom, Shayna reached for her phone to check for any missed notifications.
The still image of a blonde woman wearing sunglasses sitting behind the wheel of a Cadillac Escalade with the digital billboards of Times Square visible in the rear windshield remained frozen on the TV screen.
After a few moments of sliding her thumb between various apps on her phone, Shayna noticed in her peripheral vision that the TV screen had changed. Glancing up, she observed the still image of the show was no longer on the screen but rather a dimly lit image of what appeared to be a kitchen with a small table and chairs in the background.
Assuming she had inadvertently changed the channel from sitting on the remote, she turned to find the remote remained untouched on the couch cushion next to her. Shayna grabbed the remote and attempted to hit the home button, channel up, channel down buttons, and yet nothing on the screen changed. Even the volume controls were unresponsive.
“That's weird,” Shayna said aloud to herself while rising from the couch.
“Maybe the batteries are dead.”
Shayna opened the back of the remote and removed the batteries and reinserted them a moment later. She began to inch closer to the TV, decreasing the distance between the remote control and the receiver in the lower right corner of the TV while pressing various buttons.
“What's up?” Kyle asked upon reentering the living room.
“I'm not sure exactly. While you were in the bathroom the channel changed I guess, and I can't get it back. I just took the batt-”
“Wait,” Kyle interrupted. Kyle then took a step closer to the TV, his eyes moving up and down slightly as he examined the image on the screen.
“Is that…Ryan and Gabby's house?”
Shayna suddenly realized the image on the screen looked vaguely familiar to her, even in the dim lighting.
“Uh, maybe? I mean it kinda looks like it but how would it get on our TV?”
Shayna stared at the image on the screen another moment trying to recreate an image in her mind of their friends’ kitchen while comparing it to the image on the screen. Although she had never seen the room from the far corner of the ceiling where the image was seemingly being broadcast from, she believed Kyle was right.
“Ya know, I wonder if they have a camera. They must have a home security camera and it's somehow…” Kyle trailed off in his explanation.
“What, broadcasting the feed onto our TV?” Shayna offered.
“I guess so, but how would-”
Kyle stopped short as the image on the screen suddenly became brighter as a light in the kitchen appeared to be turned on and approaching footsteps became audible. Only then did they both realize they were not looking at a still image but rather a video. A woman appearing to be Gabby dressed in pajamas entered the frame and filled a glass with water from the dispenser in the refrigerator door.
Shayna began laughing while exchanging looks of disbelief with Kyle. “Holy shit, is this live? Like is this happening right now?”
Kyle formed a bewildered smile on his face while slightly shaking his head and continuing to watch the screen.
“I have to text her! This is too funny!” Shayna turned around to grab her phone off the end table next to the couch.
“Screw that, just call her!” Kyle exclaimed with amusement.
Shayna quickly found the group chat between the four friends and pushed the call icon on her screen next to Gabby's name.
As Shayna placed the call on speaker phone and Kyle could clearly hear the dial tone from several feet away, the two continued watching Gabby as she stopped in her tracks and retrieved what appeared to be her phone from her back pocket.
Kyle could faintly hear the buzzing sound of Gabby's phone vibrating through the TV speakers.
“This is so crazy. We’re spying on her in real time!” Kyle said with a laugh.
Shayna and Kyle watched Gabby answer the call and raise the phone to her ear on their TV screen. At the exact moment Gabby said “Hello,” the image on the TV suddenly changed back to the show they had been watching except now the volume was at the maximum level.
Shayna and Kyle both jolted from the unexpected volume of the dialogue of ‘The Tri-Beccas.’
“Jesus Christ! Kyle, turn that down!”
Kyle and Shayna scrambled for the remote to hit the mute button while a confused Gabby remained on the line.
“Shayna? Can you hear me? Are you there?”
Shayna and Kyle let out a sigh of relief upon muting the TV.
Shayna finally responded to Gabby on the phone. “Sorry! Yes I had to tell you something. The weirdest thing just happened!”
“I thought you had butt-dialed me or something, I just heard a lot of noise. What happened?”
“You’re not gonna believe this Gabby, but Kyle and I could see you on our TV!”
After a brief moment of silence, Gabby responded. “What do you mean you saw me on TV?”
“No, not on TV, I mean you were on -our- TV. Just ours. Well, at least I think so. Like just now before you answered the phone we could see you standing in your kitchen and getting water and then as soon as you answered the phone it went away.”
“Shayna, are you okay? Are you and Kyle tipsy or something?”
“What? No, no, listen. I know it sounds super weird but we were watching a show and then all of a sudden we could see into your kitchen on our TV screen. How we got your security camera feed on our TV I have no idea but you guys must have a Ring camera or a uh, oh what’s it called, a Nest camera or something, right? It looked like it was kinda above where the breakfast nook is at the end of your kitchen. Where the doorway would be that leads to your guys’ living room.”
Gabby didn’t speak for several seconds. Shayna and Kyle looked at each other with a mix of disappointment and confusion at Gabby’s underwhelmed response.
“Gabby, are you still there?” Shayna asked.
“Yeah. I’m here but Shayna, we don’t have a camera in our kitchen. We only have the doorbell one and one on the corner of the roof that Ryan put up last year. It points into our backyard. It’s nowhere near the kitchen. It’s on the opposite end of the roofline.”
Shayna and Kyle turned towards each other to exchange confused glances.
“Oh, well, okay. I um, I guess I don’t know what that was then. It was definitely your kitchen though. I mean Kyle and I both saw you enter the room and get water and I even saw you put your phone up to your ear. How is that even possible?”
Gabby let out a perplexed sigh. “I don’t know Shayna but listen, I have to get up for work early so I’m heading to bed. Text me tomorrow okay?”
Shayna said goodnight and apologized for calling. After ending the call, Shayna and Kyle exchanged confused glances once more with each other, unable to process what they had just witnessed on their TV screen.
Gabby put her phone back in her pajama pocket and shut the light off in the kitchen and made her way into the darkened bedroom. Ryan stirred slightly as Gabby slid into bed next to him.
“What was that all about?” Ryan mumbled in a partially awake stupor.
“I…don’t know exactly. Shayna just called me.”
Ryan rubbed his eyes and sat up slightly.
“What did she want?”
“Shayna wasn’t making sense. I answered the phone but all I heard was noise in the background I’m guessing from their TV because she was yelling at Kyle to turn it down and then she told me something really weird that I just…I don’t think I understand.”
Ryan reached for the lamp on his bedside table and turned it on. The light illuminated an expression of concern on Gabby’s face.
“She told me that she could see me on their TV.”
Ryan gave Gabby an incredulous look. “What do you mean she said she could see you on their TV?”
“That’s what she said, I don’t know what that means. She said her and Kyle were watching TV and then they saw me in the kitchen. They saw me filling my glass of water at the refrigerator and that was when they called me. She said they saw me answer the phone - my phone, on their TV screen and were asking me about our cameras and-”
Ryan began to let out a quiet laugh that slowly grew increasingly louder.
“What? What’s so funny?” Gabby asked, slightly annoyed at Ryan’s dismissal.
“I think I know what’s going on here,” Ryan said, nodding confidently.
“Tell me, what?”
“I think Shayna and Kyle finally decided to try those edibles we gave them.”
Gabby put her face in her hands and began laughing in unison with Ryan.
Gabby lifted her face out of her hands after a moment still grinning. “Oh Jesus, I forgot all about that. We gave them those gummies like a month ago.”
Ryan stood at the edge of the screen pool wearing his swim trunks. The electric water consisting of millions of pixel droplets shimmered before him. Ryan dove head first making a splash that rippled to the four corners of the pool creating red, green, and blue flashes of color. Ryan practiced his backstroke while the screen pool displayed various images. Images Ryan leisurely divided as he swam through them making his way from one end of the pool to the other.
The vibrant colors and sounds of the water gave Ryan a dopamine high from which he never wanted to come down. Ryan stopped and allowed himself to float on his back. He slowly floated on and between the various app icons, text threads, images, video clips, loading wheels, faces, places, and things that illuminated the electric water that held Ryan’s limp body like an altar displaying a sacrificial offering to an unknown deity. Ryan lifted the back of his head out of the pixels to look around. The boundaries of the screen pool were no longer visible.
Ryan felt his heart begin to race as his eyes searched in all directions for the edges. Suddenly finding himself floating alone in a vast sea of nothing, he began to panic. Peering into the water, Ryan saw only a chasm below him. Dark, deep, and widening by the second. It began to pull the pixel water down into it along with Ryan.
As the black hole continued flushing the pixel water downward, Ryan was unable to stay afloat. The tiny red, green, and blue pixels found their way into Ryan’s ears, nose, and mouth. He began to drown. Unable to breathe, Ryan screamed under the surface of the electric water and saw the red, green, and blue pixels float in front of his eyes like the pixels of the TV screen in his childhood bedroom he studied until his mother told him not to sit so closely or else he would burn his eyes out.
Ryan sat up suddenly in the darkness, instantly relieved the only water he found himself in were the beads of sweat on his forehead. The only screen visible was the digits of his bedside alarm clock.
3:19AM
Gabby rolled over slightly and mumbled.
“You okay babe? Did you have a bad dream or something?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine though. You can go back to sleep.”
The next morning Ryan and Gabby made their way to the kitchen. As Ryan began pulling a stainless steel pan out of one of the bottom cabinets, Gabby interrupted and placed her hand on his.
“Hey, hey, hey, no,” Gabby began.
“You've got a big day, let me cook.”
“It's just a health inspection, they usually have no issues.” Ryan said with a pleasant smile.
“I know but you cook all the time for work, maybe I want to treat you sometimes. I feel kinda bad anyways.”
“For what?” Ryan asked with a confused look on his face.
“Well, I know you wanted to go to bed early and then Shayna called, not to mention the bad dream. I feel a little responsible. Like I triggered your nightmare or something.
Ryan affectionately placed his hands on Gabby's shoulders. “C’mon, you didn't make me have a nightmare Gabbs.”
“Go shower and I'll whip up some eggs.”
Ryan watched the steam float around him like a cloud. The hot water hitting his skin evoked a flash of a memory. The images from the nightmare surfaced in Ryan's mind like flashes of light lasting no more than a second each. Ryan felt his chest tightening. The glass enclosure of the shower began to feel small, like a snake’s cage on the shelf of a pet store.
Ryan's perception changed and he suddenly no longer felt alone. His eyes scanned the shower enclosure around him but found nothing that would indicate he was being watched. Even still, the feeling persisted. As he stepped out and dried himself off with the towel, Ryan looked at the mirror above the sink completely covered in steam. His silhouette was visible through the fog on the mirror appearing as a faceless and vague version of himself.
Ryan felt hesitant to grab the hand towel and wipe the mirror clean as he usually did. He couldn't explain it, but nonetheless he felt he would discover something frightening upon wiping the fog on the mirror away. As if it could be a one-way mirror with leering eyes behind it that would become apparent if he leaned in for a closer look. Rather than allowing his imagination to run wild, Ryan shook off his fixation and dressed himself in casual shorts and a t-shirt before making his way back to the living room where Gabby was already seated on the couch in front of the TV eating the breakfast she prepared for the both of them.
“Thanks, this looks good,” Ryan commented as he sat down next to her and pulled the TV tray closer to him.
Gabby nodded and grinned with a mouthful of toast as the TV played commercial after commercial.
“What're you watching?” Ryan asked, as he began to dig his fork into the scrambled eggs on the plate in front of him.
“Good Morning Miami,” Gabby said without taking her eyes off the screen.
The bright and colorful title cards of the show flashed on the screen, eventually revealing two well-dressed hosts seated next to each other in oversized upholstered chairs with a coffee table in front of them.
“Good morning Miami! Welcome to the show. As always, I’m your host John Landry joined by my lovely cohost Kimberly Espinoza. How’re you doing, Kimberly?”
“Just wonderful John. It’s Tuesday and we’ve got a big show for you all today,” Kimberly said beaming into the camera as John took a sip of coffee from his mug bearing the show’s logo. Both spoke with the forced cheerful enthusiasm only a morning talk show host could muster.
“That’s right Kimberly. Those of you who were making your way home on I-95 last night probably didn’t arrive until much later than you wanted. That’s because of an overturned semi that…”
Ryan zoned out studying his breakfast and enjoying the simplicity of the scrambled eggs, bacon, and fruit Gabby had prepared for him. He appreciated the symmetry created from the design on the plate and how it appeared complemented by the placement of the food. Ryan’s concentration broke upon hearing the host mention the area of the city he worked.
“...a new restaurant in the Brickell neighborhood is making a splash.”
Gabby glanced over at Ryan. “Sounds like you have some competition.”
Ryan listened intently as the host continued.
“Deep Blue specializing in seafood, tapas, and cocktails…”
Ryan’s eyes lit up as his restaurant’s name was read by the host and turned to Gabby.
“Whoa! This is great! I had no idea they were going to mention us on TV! No one reached out to me about this,” Ryan said pleasantly surprised.
“This is awesome babe, I’m so proud of you!” Gabby exclaimed, matching his excitement.
The host continued. “...but behind every restaurant is of course a restauranteur, so let’s check in with them now shall we, Kimberly?”
“There they are John, let’s bring them up for our viewers to see,” replied Kimberly.
At that moment, a picture-in-picture square appeared on the right side of the screen alongside the cohosts in the studio. The image made Ryan and Gabby freeze.
“What the hell?” Ryan said a low voice just above a whisper.
“Now for the folks at home watching, just remember we can’t hear what they’re saying but we can obviously see them and we assume they can hear and see us since they’re tuned in. Why don’t you give us a wave guys?”
Ryan and Gabby sat stunned upon seeing the image of themselves staring back from the screen.
“Anything guys? A wave, a smile? You’re on TV!” Kimberly added with a pleasant laugh.
“Ryan what the hell is happening right now?” Gabby said with panic creeping into her tone.
“I…I…I don’t know.” Ryan stammered, unable to figure out how he and Gabby were suddenly watching themselves on TV seated on their couch with their side by side TV trays and half eaten breakfasts in front of them. The picture quality was so impeccable Ryan could see his hair still slick from the shower.
“Why…why are we on live TV?” Ryan said, feeling alarmed at watching his lips moving silently in real time on the screen.
“That’s okay, Ryan and Gabby, you just sit back and watch with the rest of us. Let’s take a look at what we have - oh here we go,” John said with a playful tone. “Looks like something went bump in the night for ya Ryan, huh buddy?”
At that moment the image on the side of the screen changed to reveal what appeared to be night vision footage of Ryan and Gabby asleep in their bed only to be interrupted by Ryan jolting awake from his nightmare.
“Looks like somebody could use some help from today’s sponsor: Disocietal…”
“Is this from last night?” Ryan said, suddenly rising to his feet and nearly knocking the TV tray and plate of food over.
“Ask your doctor today about prescription strength Disocietal. For when you need to disassociate from yourself, society, or life in general, reach for Disocietal. Anyways, Kimberly it looks like Ryan's getting a little…shall we say jumpy, so let's look at another clip from just this morning.”
The footage in the small picture-in-picture screen changed to what appeared to be Ryan stepping out of the shower only minutes before the show began. Ryan went white with shock seeing his uncensored nude body in the privacy of his bathroom on display.
“Wow, Ryan really giving our viewers quite the show there,” Kimberly added with a cheeky tone.
Ryan’s nostrils flared and his hand twitched with rage. Bolting from the living room, Ryan began running up the stairs to the master bathroom while Gabby remained frozen in shock and unable to take her eyes off the screen. Ryan barreled into the bathroom and saw that the mirror was still covered in steam. Ryan yanked the hand towel from the ring on the wall and began frantically wiping the mirror clean. Upon revealing nothing other than Ryan’s wide-eyed reflection, he began yanking at the mirror.
After several seconds of being unable to remove the mirror affixed to the wall, Ryan curled his fingers into a fist and punched the mirror as hard as he could. Ryan barely felt any pain as he continued launching his fist into the mirror repeatedly and his knuckles became increasingly bloodied from glass fragments. Panting frantically as the blood from his hand dripped onto the counter, sink, and floor, Ryan saw only cracked drywall behind the mirror. Ryan flinched at Gabby frantically yelling his name from downstairs in the living room. As he reentered the living room, Ryan saw his secret on live TV.
“What’re they talking about Ryan?” Gabby asked with an accusatory tone. The image on the TV showed Ryan and Shayna lip-locked in the kitchen of his restaurant before Shayna opened the door of the walk-in cooler. As Shayna led Ryan into the walk-in cooler and shut the door behind them, Kimberly commented “Wow Ryan, I bet our viewers would really love to know how you and Shayna keep warm in the walk-in cooler there although, some of them might take issue with you having an affair with your business partner’s wife.”
“That’s right Kimberly, from what we know Shayna is actually his business partner Kyle Downing's wife of four years,” John added.
“This can’t be happening,” Ryan said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Is this real?” Gabby asked, turning towards Ryan.
“How…how did they get this footage?” Ryan asked aloud.
“So that’s a yes then,” Gabby said flatly.
Ryan ran towards the TV and began frantically reaching behind the entertainment center for the plug. His heart sank upon hearing the jovial voices of the cohosts continue despite the cord now dangling in his hand. Rising to his feet and facing the TV once again, Ryan was at a loss for words seeing a view counter now displayed in the corner of the screen as the broadcast continued on.
“Let’s see here folks my producer is telling me we’re getting some preliminary numbers now and-oh wow would you look at the Kimberly! It just keeps climbing.”
“No kidding John, I think we might have a new record!”
Ryan stared in hopeless disbelief at the small icon resembling an eye depicted in the corner of the screen next to a number skyrocketing by the second.
“One thousand twenty-two, one thousand, forty-five, one thousand fifty-seven…” John commented in his relentlessly cheerful tone.
Ryan stood in the living room feeling stunned, helpless, and ashamed. Gabby remained sitting on the couch though she couldn’t bear to look at the screen anymore. Her eyes lowered to the floor. She felt overcome with feelings of betrayal and detachment, and hadn’t even noticed that Ryan had begun to lift their fifty-inch TV off its stand and was now slowly making his way out of the room.
She called out to him. “Where the hell are you going?”
Ryan was well into the kitchen now near the sliding glass door. She couldn't hear a response even if he had given her one over the sounds of the cohosts’ voices continuing their upbeat commentary despite there being no power to the set. Ryan rested the TV against the wall only momentarily to unlock the sliding glass door. Gabby now stood in the doorway on the opposite end of the kitchen.
“Ryan,” she began through clenched teeth, “what the hell are you doing?”
“Putting a stop to this.”
Ryan flung open the sliding glass door and resumed his bearhug around the TV. As he made his way onto the pool deck, he could still hear the cohosts continuing their banter from the screen pressed into his torso. “You never know what'll happen Kimberly, maybe we'll get Shayna and Kyle on the show next week or even as soon as tomorrow to give our viewers their perspective.”
Ryan stood for a moment catching his reflection on the surface of the inground pool. The water was still, allowing Ryan to see his distressed expression as he struggled to grip the awkwardly large shape and size of the TV in his arms.
Gabby now stood watching Ryan with his back to her from the open sliding glass door only a few feet away. Gabby opened her mouth to call out to him at the very moment he hurled the TV towards the water. What Ryan didn't notice was the power cord dangling from the back of the TV had mysteriously wrapped itself around his right ankle as a snake would constrict its prey. Gabby would frantically tell the 911 operator moments later that it all happened so fast. She would tell that to the police and paramedics that eventually responded and add that she couldn’t understand how it was even possible.
As Ryan threw the TV into the pool with the power cord still attached to the back of the TV and the other end firmly wrapped around his ankle, the weight of the TV yanked him off his feet pulling him into the water but not before his skull smacked into the pool deck and made a sound Gabby would never forget. She couldn’t understand despite being unplugged from the wall and being fully submerged in a swimming pool, how their TV was able to continue operating. She felt tears well up in her eyes as she recalled the sight of Ryan’s blood releasing from the back of his head under the water like a ruby red cloud illuminated by the glow of the screen. The cohosts on the screen continued their laughter as the TV along with Ryan, sank to the bottom of the pool.
