← All confessions · First Time 2026-09-25

Dead at the Worst Moment

The battery died at the exact worst possible moment. She said a word she'd never said out loud.

How it started

It was my first week with my first toy and I was still learning everything about it, including, evidently, how long the battery lasted. One evening, at the most inconvenient moment imaginable, it simply stopped. No warning, no blinking light, nothing. Just silence. I said a word I'd never said out loud before. Possibly a word I invented. I lay there staring at the ceiling, betrayed by a lithium-ion battery. I'd been warned about a lot of things. Nobody warned me about this. Without even a polite fade-out, the whole mood just vanished in a silent second. I pressed every button. I shook it. I begged.

Then it happened

I now charge it religiously after every use. The cable has its own little drawer, and I treat it like a family heirloom. My friends think it's hilarious. I bought a spare cable, just in case. I also bought a second toy, purely as backup, because I've learned the value of redundancy. My flatmate calls it my disaster recovery plan. I call it peace of mind.

The morning after

The spare cable, the backup toy and the charging ritual have become a running joke among her friends. Her flatmate gifted her a power bank for her birthday, wrapped with a card saying 'never again'. It's now her most treasured possession.