Ice Flower

Chapter 21

"Wake up."

"Yusaku, ten more minutes," Kayla groaned, rolling over.

"You need to wake up now. I must speak with you."

"No you don't. It's too early. What are you doing up already?"

"Humans," The voice muttered. "They are much too lazy. They would never survive as AIs."

Kayla bolted upright. "What did you just say?"

There was no one in her room. She peered around in the darkness for a moment longer before a light switched on.

"Are you alright?" Yusaku asked from the top of the stairs. "I heard you talking to someone."

"I'm fine." Kayla shook her head. "I guess that I talk in my sleep sometimes."

Yusaku nodded and switched off the light, going back to bed. Kayla lay back down, waiting. She got the feeling that the voice wasn't done.

"Will you listen now?" The voice asked a few minutes later. 

"No," She hissed. "Be quiet. Yusaku will start to get worried if he hears us. At least wait until he goes back to sleep."

"But he heard us before and he was asleep then. Who is to say that he won't just wake up again?"

"That's because he hadn't gone to sleep yet. He's been working on a, uh, project since we got home." She decided not to mention that he was trying to hack Glacier's account.

"Oh."

This remark was followed by blissful silence. Kayla closed her eyes, convinced that the voice was gone. She was just about to go back to sleep when-

"There. I checked on security cameras that he put up and he has just shut down his computer and laid down on the couch. Happy now?"

"No. Give him at least thirty minutes."

"Fine then."

"You fell asleep again. Typical."

Kayla jerked awake in alarm. Then she remembered the voice.

"How long was I out?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Exactly thirty minutes and ten seconds." The voice answered promptly.

"I guess that we can talk now." She rummaged around under her pillow before pulling out her phone. "Who are you? What do you want?"

She turned on the light and once again saw no one. Then her phone screen glitched, turning white except for a spot that looked suspiciously like an eye with gold markings around it. She yelped, dropping it onto the floor.

"How rude!" This time she could tell where the voice was coming from. Her phone.

"Are you come kind of virus?" She frowned at it.

"No! But even if I was, that's no way to treat me."

"If you're not a virus, then what are you? Wait... are you some person who decided to hack my phone and pull a prank on me? If so, not funny!"

"I'm not a- hey, what are you doing? Don't put me in your bag! What did I do to deserve this?"

"Waking me up in the middle of the night." She zipped it shut, muffling the sounds of the hacker's cries of protest.

"Yusaku, my phone's being annoying," Kayla said, pulling it out of her pocket. "Can you fix it for me?"