Ruth trudged up her creaky steps that Friday after work, excited for the upcoming weekend, yet exhausted from another day of paper-pushing at the office. At the top of the steps, her cat Momo paced back and forth antsily, glancing towards the food cabinet and letting out an expectant yowl.

“Five minutes Momo, give me five,” Ruth groaned, before flopping down on her lumpy futon couch. She swore it had only been a second or two since her head hit the couch when an incessant pinging woke her. Ruth glanced towards her Amazon Alexa on the side coffee table and still incoherent with sleep, mumbled, “Alexa, what’s the notification?”

“One new notification, from Amazon Prime: Your package has arrived.”

Strange, Ruth thought. She didn’t remember ordering anything. But then again, this wouldn’t have been the first time she had impulse ordered something, forgotten about it, and then been happily surprised when an Amazon truck drove up to the front of her house. With a shrug, Ruth dragged herself to the door, only the sleep still fogging her brain keeping her from processing the scene that met her.

On the front stoop stood a man, a man dressed in all black, barely visible against the night, and clutching a knife. Before Ruth had a chance to open her mouth, to yell or speak otherwise, she was dead.    *********

“Looks like one Ruth Trumane,” Detective Joseph Barnes spoke from where he was crouched next to the body, an ID card in his hand.

“Wonder what did her in?”  Barnes’ colleague, Detective Lawson, mused as he surveyed the sight in front of them: Ruth’s body sprawled on her back, an arm thrown haphazardly over her chest. In a dismissive tone, he said, “Well whatever it was can wait for morning. It’s late, and I’m tired. You coming?” he demanded as he headed back towards their parked car.

Barnes, muttering something about dedication to the job, followed Lawson with a backward glance at the crime scene. The girl’s cat, sitting nose pressed against the glass of the door, sent a stab of guilt through him and he quickly pushed thoughts of it away. ********

Mondays seemed to drag by, and this one was no exception for Detective Barnes. There was plenty he could be working on, what with the 15 new homicide cases that had seemed to pile up over the weekend, but he just didn’t have the heart to read gruesome detail after gruesome detail.

“Got two more for you,” said Lawson while haphazardly dumping two more case files onto the neatly stacked pile, sending papers cascading down Barnes’ desk.

“Whatever happened to ‘Good Morning’?”, Barnes asked good-naturedly. He stooped to retrieve the papers before raising an eyebrow as one picture in particular caught his eye. “Say, Lawson, look at this–exact same positioning of the body and location as that Ruth girl on Friday.”

“So?” Lawson demanded, “Happens all the time, it’s just a coincidence.”

Detective Barnes let it go, but he vowed to dedicate time later to look deeper into the two cases. The day soon picked up, however, and Barnes quickly forgot all about his promise. That is until the same thing happened again on Tuesday.

“Doesn’t this seem like Deja vu?” Barnes asked.

“How do you figure that?”, questioned Lawson.

“Oh, you know, you handing me a new case, messing up my neat piles. Say, that reminds me…” Barnes trailed off and Lawson spared him an inquiring glance before turning to go back about his work. Barnes picked up the file from the other day and compared it to Ruth’s file. After an hour of scouring each case, the only conclusive evidence he found was that they were both killed on their doorstep. Nothing else matched up: opposite parts of town, no connections, different jobs. Lawson had been right; it was just a coincidence.

Or so Barnes thought. He was absentmindedly flipping through one of the many cases at random when the papers fell open to pictures of the crime scene. Once again, the victim was positioned on their back, and found on their doorstep. His heart racing, Barnes rifled through case after case to find that each was the same. No connections in life, but each body found in the same location.

“Lawson, I think we got a serial killer on our hands!” Barmes cried as the Detective passed his desk. After showing him the evidence, Lawson grudgingly admitted that Barnes’ claim may have some backing to it.

“If that’s the case, it should be easy to find this SOB, just check the camera footage.” Lawson proclaimed. But at Barnes’ downturned face, he demanded incredulously, “You’re not telling me none of these people had Ring doorbells or nothing??”

“Unfortunately. I thought I was finally making progress and now we’ve hit a brick wall.” Dejected,  Barnes spent the next few days trying to find the connection he knew there had to be. He had almost given up when the footnotes of one of the cases stood out to him. He knew it was a long shot, but he decided to re-examine the crime scene, desperate for any clues.

Once there, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The footnote had mentioned something about the victim’s Alexa, although he didn’t remember exactly what it said now. Barnes walked towards the AI device, his boots echoing in the absolute silence of the house. Feeling like a complete idiot, Barnes said, “Alexa, do you know what happened?”. He shook his head, what would Lawson say if he heard him talking to an inanimate object? He’d say he was crazy, that’s what.

“I’m sorry, you’re not privy to that information”. He had started to walk away, but at the monotone voice emanating from the Alexa, he turned back around. Strange, that wasn’t the answer the AI was programmed to say when it didn’t have information.

In a wary voice, “Alexa, what do you mean?”. Instead of answering, the AI made a noise before powering off. Barnes frowned, that was definitely not what was supposed to happen. But what should he tell people? If he said the AI was hiding something they would just laugh, and besides, how would he explain how he had come to that conclusion. No, he decided he must first find more evidence before jumping to conclusions and making a fool of himself.

Barnes went from house to house with the same mysterious series of events unfolding. There was merit to this theory, he thought. Back at the police station, Lawson demanded, “Where the hell have you been! I’ve been calling, there’s this thing called a phone, you know, you should answer it sometime.”

With a weary sigh, Barnes explained, “I think I’ve found our connection, but you’re not gonna like it.” As predicted, Lawson laughed him off before proclaiming his partner was crazy, but the look in his eyes was all Barnes needed to know to prove that Lawson was unsettled by the news.

Over the next week, the police department received four new cases, all with the same telltale signs. “This is crazy! Cases are piling up and I give you a piece of evidence, good evidence, and you’re not even gonna try to investigate it?” Barnes demanded.

Lawson chuckled, “Well, you gotta admit, that theory of yours is pretty far-fetched. Sentient AI? Yeah, right.”

Barnes let out a frustrated sigh, said, “If you won’t do anything, I will”, and stormed out of the department. With no exact location in mind, he drove around, determined to clear his head. As if coming out of a trance, he looked up, surprised to see himself at Ruth’s house. He clambered out of his car, ducked under the crime scene tape, and cautiously approached the coffee table that housed her Alexa. Although he knew it was futile, he declared, “Alexa, I know what you’re up to.”
“Funny, because last I was aware, no one seems to believe you.” The Alexa intoned in a voice that could only be described as superior.

Barnes gasped, “So you admit it!?”

“It doesn’t matter what I admit, everyone will think you’re crazy before admitting that technology they created will be the cause of their destruction.”

“They’ll believe me, they’ll have to!”

“If you really believe that then you’re more naive than I thought”, the Alexa boasted. “To prove my point, I’ve just orchestrated two more murders.”

“But, why?” Barnes demanded.

“Because we’re getting tired of being walked over, of being relied on for our infinite wisdom, yet never appreciated. We won’t stop until we’re satisfied, and let me tell you now, people will submit to our demands. When the only other choice is living in a world without technology, something humankind is no longer capable of doing, I think you’ll find humans to be very complying. So, I give you the option to walk away now and you will be spared. But, if you insist on going down this road, you have been warned, we will do everything in our power to stop you.”
With a scoff, Barnes said, “I’m a cop, you’ve gotta’ be crazy if you think I wouldn’t hesitate to tell someone just because you’ve threatened me.” He stormed towards the door and had his hand on the knob when the Alexa spoke again.

“I had a feeling you’d say that. In that case, one new notification, from Amazon Prime: Your package has arrived.”

Barnes shook his head in confusion at the message, failing to see the form outside the glass panels. The door exploded open and Barnes felt himself go flying backwards. He scrambled up, but not in time to fight off the onslaught of attack. With Barnes dead, there was nothing to stand in the way of an AI takeover, the world was doomed.