The Riddle in My Pocket

Maya's iPhone buzzed with a text from an unknown number: riddle me this, what has eyes but cannot see?

"Ugh, spam," she muttered, thumb hovering over delete. But then her camera light flickered.

Weird.

She'd been feeling off all week. Like someone was watching her TikToks before she even posted them. When she complained at lunch, her friend Priya just laughed. "Girl, you're not that important. Not everything's a conspiracy."

But the texts kept coming. Ancient riddles. What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, three in the evening?

Maya rolled her eyes. "A human, obviously. I'm not stupid."

reply: then why are you being one? check your settings.

Her stomach dropped. She dug through her phone—screen time, sharing, location—until she found it. An old iPad from her dad's office, still logged into her family sharing account. And someone had installed a spy app.

Her brother. The same one who'd made her do his Sphinx presentation sophomore year because he was "too busy" with Fortnite.

The next riddle appeared: I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with the wind.

An echo. She'd learned that from his project.

Maya screenshot everything, marched into his room, and tossed her phone onto his bed. "Seriously? You're monitoring my texts?"

He looked up from his computer, guilty as hell. "Mom wanted to make sure you weren't—you know—talking to creeps online."

"I'm fourteen, not four. And since when do you care about my safety?"

"Since you almost got catfished last month, genius. You're welcome."

She stood there, processing. He was being annoying, but... kinda protective? In his own terrible way.

"Next time just tell me, okay? Don't go all secret agent on my ass."

"Deal. But you're still doing my history fair project."

"No way. That was a one-time favor."

"Fine. But I'm unblocking TikTok."

"Wait—you had it blocked?!"

Maya grabbed her phone and stormed out, but she was smiling. Being watched sucked, but having someone in her corner? That didn't suck so much.