It was dusk as I made the turn onto Stonybrook Court, the sleepy cul-de-sac where my brother and his family lived. I had just driven an hour through traffic after a harried day at work because while they were on vacation on the other side of the world, he gets a notification from his alarm company saying there was motion detected in their family room. He called the alarm company and they said it was probably a false alarm, but they couldn’t reset the alarm remotely.

Hence, why I just drove fifty miles for my dumb brother. Oh, just to make sure we’re on the same page, I was hangry and I had to pee.

“Annie’s sister drove by at lunch and didn’t see anything out of place,” he told me earlier. “Still, are you sure you can’t get there any sooner?”

“Darren, I’m at work. I have to, you know, work. Annie’s sister lives the next block over – why can’t she reset it?”

“She doesn’t have a key.”

I thought for a moment about how that put my sibling relationship with him up a level from Annie and her sister, but that didn’t matter – I knew the drive ahead was going to suck. “Fine,” I sighed heavily. “I’ll leave right after work.”

“Thanks.”

“Yeah…”

And that’s why, in the fading light I pulled into the driveway of my stupid brother’s house.

I took the flashlight out of my trunk and shone it around the outside of the house – just as Annie’s sister had reported, nothing out of place that I could see.

I let myself in through the front door and immediately saw a red error flashing on the alarm system panel just inside. “Motion detected – Main room,” whatever that meant. I went into the main room and other than the ceiling fan whirring overhead, everything seemed fine. I systematically checked every room, window, and door and nearly shit myself when out of the darkness of my nephew’s room floated a red helium balloon he’d gotten for his birthday just before they left.

“That’s some serious ‘It’ vibes,” I said, trying to catch my breath. I tied it to the small desk chair in his room to make sure that thing wasn’t responsible for any alarm sensor mischief.

Other than that, though, nothing– everything was secure.

I pulled out my cell and dialed my brother. “I’m here. Everything’s fine.” I read him the error on the alarm panel, told him about the balloon – maybe that was the cause… He walked me through resetting the alarm, everything went green, and a warning chime beeped indicating the system was successfully arming.

I locked the door and started for my car. “Looks like it armed successfully,” he said as I pictured him staring at the alarm app on his phone. “Thanks, sis.”

“Yeah,” I said grumpily. “I’m going to find some food and go home.”

“I appreciate it.”

“I know,” I said and clicked off. I know he did, and I know I was being a little petulant. But did I mention “hangry?” Yeah…

Twenty minutes later, I was halfway home, parked in an In-N-Out dipping my fries into my vanilla shake when my brother calls. “It went off again.”

“You’re shitting me?”

His pause told me he didn’t want to ask, but then he continued, “You don’t think you could go back, do you?”

“Darren, your serious right now?” I asked.

“Please, Cilly,” he said using the name he called me when we were little. He was pulling out the big guns there.

I sighed the world’s biggest sigh. “You owe me, D.”

“I know.”

Twenty minutes later I was back at Stonybrook Court, my headlights shining onto the non-descript garage of my brother’s house. Same drill – checked outside, checked inside, nothing. That damn balloon got loose, though, which was weird… So, I popped it. I mean, okay, it was my nephew’s balloon, but it was going to be out of helium and on the ground by the time they got back next Friday. I was just putting it out of its misery early. And he’s six, he won’t notice.

I called Darren. “Everything is tighter than a frog’s butt,” I said.

“I called the alarm company,” he started. “They said it could just be a malfunctioning motion sensor.”

“Okay, what does that mean for the time being?”

“I don’t know. Arm it again. If it goes off again… I don’t know, I guess we’ll just live with it.”

Yeah, no duh you’ll live with it, I thought. I’m not making a third trip. But, tummy full of In-N-Out, I had regained my patience for my dumb brother and said “Sounds good to me.”

I walked to the panel and the same ““Motion detected – Main room,” message flashed on the panel. I raised my hand to the keypad to arm the alarm and the panel went dark. What’s more, the lights throughout the house switched off one by one until just the front hallway light where I stood remained lit.

“What the hell?” I said aloud to keep myself from freaking the hell out.

Words appeared on the alarm panel. “Please don’t go. I’m lonely.”

“Umm, you’re lonely?” I said, then thought I was an idiot for speaking to the alarm panel.

The words disappeared.

Then another message appeared: “Yes. Please stay and play with me.”

Suddenly, their Alexa speaker began playing some kind of demented slowed-down version of Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” at full volume.

I turned towards the door and the red balloon hovered between me and the door as I heard the deadbolt click locked.