Messages from the Breathless: Young Writers Contest Winner

“One new message from Hunter …”
I shut my phone. I knew Hunter was really 
texting me, but there was no use trying to 
show anyone. If Hunter had survived the
crash, none of this would have happened. 
If only he hadn’t been buried with his phone. 
The text was one of several. I knew if I
tried to show anyone, the message would 
just disappear. It always did. If only I could 
find some way to prove he was really
texting me, to prove I was really getting… 
Messages from the Breathless. 

Alicia realizes something is wrong when she gets 
a text message from her dead boyfriend, Hunter. 
He was buried with his phone, but she knows the 
messages can’t be coming from him. Can they? 
She can’t help reading them over and over. The 
worst part is that no one believes her, and the 
messages vanish whenever she tries to show 
anyone. Could she really be getting messages
from Hunter? Or is she insane?