The Last Podcast

By Arpita Kapila

Arya used to be this famous podcaster everyone was obsessed with. But then, out of nowhere, she just disappeared. No one knew where she went. Her millions of fans were left hanging, waiting for new episodes that never came.

Then one night, something strange happened. A new episode showed up online—no title, no description, just a file full of static. Weird, right?

Raj was one of Arya’s biggest fans. He found the episode by chance and decided to listen. At first, it was just noise, but then he heard a faint whisper: “Find the signal…”

That line got stuck in his head.

Raj started digging through all of Arya’s old episodes, looking for clues. After hours, he noticed weird Morse code hidden under her voice—like a secret message. When he decoded it, it gave him a location on the edge of the city.

Even though it freaked him out, Raj decided to check it out.

He packed a bag and went to the place—a broken-down radio tower covered in vines. The place looked creepy as hell.

As he got closer, his phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number: “They erased me. But the broadcast never ended.”

Raj’s heart skipped a beat.

He messed around with the old radio equipment, and suddenly his phone screen lit up. It was a live video feed of Arya—but her face was glitchy, like a bad signal. She looked scared.

“Raj,” she said, voice shaking, “If you’re hearing this, it means they didn’t win. The network controls everything—what you hear, what you see. They want to keep the truth hidden.”

Her face started flickering like a broken TV.

“They tried to erase me… but I’m trapped in the signal. You have to finish this. Expose them.”

Then the video cut out.

Raj’s phone died.

He heard footsteps behind him. He spun around to see a dark figure in a hoodie.

“You shouldn’t be here,” the figure said. Their voice was cold.

Raj panicked and ran.

He made it home and locked every door.

For days, he tried to find Arya again but nothing worked. His computer flashed a new message in code: “Trust no one. Find the source.”

Raj followed the digital trail and found a secret underground server farm—the place where they control all the information people get.

He was ready to go live and tell the world.

Right before he did, the power went out.

A voice in the dark said, “You can’t stop this. Join us or be erased.”

Raj said no.

Then everything went black.

When the cops found him days later, he was mumbling about “the signal never ending” and “Arya’s voice stuck in the wires.”

On his phone was one last audio file—Arya’s voice, faint and crackling:

“They control the world through silence. But silence is not the end.”

By Arpita Kapila