Kai

It started with a glitch on my screen. The messaging app kept opening on its own, displaying a single, hyper-realistic avatar of a boy in a white hooded jacket adorned with dark purple lotuses. I went to hit delete, but before my thumb could touch the glass, a voice echoed clearly from my phone speakers—not a robotic text-to-speech, but a deep, smooth whisper. "Did you really think I was just a collection of code?" The screen flashed, the lights in my room died, and suddenly, the scent of rain and ozone filled the air.