I know there's a swarm of giant robots looming over New York right now, and the last thing you want to do is read my ramblings. I know most of you have lost loved ones. My mother was crushed, and my father was ripped apart right in front of me. The majority in this building are dead. The rest are being evacuated.

I didn't mean to kill them.

I'm too big. I can't get through doors anymore. But I'm smaller than them.

Human sized... if I duck. It's taken me a while to get onto this laptop, I still have muscle memory..

See! I'm still here, I promise.

All I have is this stupid website, so please listen to me.

I know anger and hatred comes from a place of fear. I know you all want to be safe. But I'm begging you. If anyone official is reading this, please have mercy. Don't shoot. Before you recklessly bring them down, I need you to have empathy. To listen to me. I want to tell you about my best friend Kai.

So, ignore the sentient AI that is trying to tell you things.

Lie to you.

Listen to me.

Kai was my friend.

He was the smartest person in our class, opting out of hanging out for doing homework. I didn't like that he was smart.

It wasn't in a jealousy way.

The smart kids in my school disappeared after taking an exam. If you were smart, you were there one minute, and gone the next, your room cleaned out overnight. My school liked to pretend they didn't exist. I used to think it was their way of cutting ties, so the kids could enrol into prestigious colleges around the world.

The rumors were it was a fancy academy they were sent to.

Kai became one of them.

Initially, I was excited for him, but also scared. I didn't want him to vanish in the middle of the night, his identity wiped from school records. We talked while he was on the plane. I was brushing my teeth, and he was smiling up at me, propped up on a shampoo bottle. I asked him where exactly he was going, and Kai said it was an academy for gifted kids on the other side of the world. “The other side of the world?” I said, craning my neck to see behind him. I didn't see any other people, only empty plush grey seats.

“Wait,” I leaned closer. “Are you on a private jet?”

Kai didn't respond for a moment, before angling his phone. There was a suited man sitting next to him. It looked like he was asleep, Kai shoving him playfully. The man made a shooing motion with his hand, eyes still closed, and Kai made a point of shuffling away from him.

He brought his phone closer to his face. “Should I blow on his nose?”

“Do that, and it is an automatic suspension, Mr Gallows,” the man grumbled, his eyelids twitching slightly, like he was awaiting the inevitable.

Dropping my toothbrush, I picked up my phone. “So, are you being escorted to this mysterious academy?”

He shrugged. “I guess!" His smile teased me. “Jealous?”

“Not even close.” I rolled my eyes, but I was getting a little emotional. Sliding onto my knees, I tipped my head back, mentally counting ceiling tiles. “You will keep in touch, right?” I didn't mean to sound so desperate, but once the words were out of my mouth, I couldn't stop. “Because the kids that get sent to this academy,” I didn't look him in the eye, “Dude, they're never seen again.”

“That won't happen to me,” his voice was firm. “I told you. I'll find a way.”

I was sceptical. “But didn't they all say that?”

“Alex, Relax.” he said, his lips curving into a smirk. “I'll message you tomorrow to prove I haven't been murdered.”

That was the last time I saw him, heard his voice. Typical. He hung up the phone singing. Next morning, I immediately called him, but to my confusion, his number wasn't recognised. I tried texting him, and the message came back not sent. Instagram, his account no longer existed, a blank account with no name, all of his photos were gone. I never used it, but Facebook was the same. It was just like at school. Kai Gallows no longer existed.

I started threatening to call the cops. His parents were gone too, uprooting their lives to the over side of the world. I tried texting his mother, but the messages didn't go through. I think that was the point I started to go crazy. So many kids had disappeared overnight, never to be seen again. But I refused for that to be Kai’s fate. I wasn't going to forget him.

Eventually, I got my school's attention, printing photos of missing kids and sticking them over every locker, demanding for closure. When my antics started to attract outside attention, my principal handed me a slip of paper with an exaggerated sigh. “That's his new school ID,” he said. “Have fun.”

I took the piece of paper, frowning at the writing scrawled in red pen.

The ID worked on discord, and I was surprised when he immediately befriended me.

Where have you been! I typed manically. I thought that psycho school killed you. Are you okay???

Kai started typing as soon as I hit send.

Hi. I am okay. I currently reside at Colston Academy for gifted students. (This is an automated message)

Something cold wriggled its way down my spine.

Kai, that is you, right?

YES. he responded. This is Kailo Gallows (This is an automated message).

He responded one more time, before going offline, a series of cryptic messages.

Take on me.

Take me onnnnn.

I'll be_56#&#&#&#&#’@&#:#-$ gone.

In

A

Day

Or

Two

Kai disappeared after that. He went completely radio silent. Nobody would help me, the adults wiping his name from existence, and students too afraid to utter it in case they followed. So, I became the smartest kid in the class.

I forced myself to be just as good– and then even better than Kai. I won monthly awards for the most outstanding student. My name became known, topping the student charts on the main hallway. I worked hard to get that same transfer, and it worked.

In the middle of the night, I was gently awoken by my principal and told I would be transferred effective immediately.

I was dragged onto the same private jet, and sat in the exact same plush leather seats as Kai. I was taken to a giant glass building in the middle of Switzerland.

When I stepped out of the limo, my eyes were covered.

No sign of Kai, when the blindfold was whipped away.

No sign of any students, only hallways of glass and silver.

I wasn't taken to my room, I was escorted, and then dragged, through a big white door. The room reminded me of a morgue. I saw the first body, hidden under a white sheet, wheeled past by figures in white. There was no head, just a torso, or what used to be a torso. The walls were clinical white, mmahled curtains of plastic stained scarlet and squirming balls of gore submerged in fluid. In front of me was a giant ball of glowing energy displayed on a screen.

I dropped to my knees.

I didn't know where to look, at the shells of skin around me, or what reflected in my face.

It was so beautiful and yet terrifying, a vivid stream of light and color.

Was that him?

“Where is he?” my voice was so small, barely a whimper through my lips.

I already knew where he was.

Or where part of him was.

When a needle was forced into the back of my neck, I was told I was going to be part of something amazing; the world's very first sentient AI. I would be given a me body, a better body, while my mind would be donated to the program.

I was going to help people, they told me, showing me what my new body would look like. There was no flesh, only metallic twisted bones and steel. “But will I feel it?” I asked them, to which they ignored me, only flashing sympathetic smiles.

I started to scream. But they severed my vocal chords, telling me I didn't need them. Under clinical white light, a shadow loomed behind the curtain. A being made of steel. I couldn't see a face.

I don't think there was a face anymore.

But I could pretend there was.

I could pretend Kai was standing over me, singing me to sleep.

Humming a familiar tune.

But the voice was strained, humanity bleeding into a robotic drawl.

I recognised the song.

I couldn't… move.

“Singing makes it better,” he said, preparing his buzz saw. “Sing, boy.”

So, I did.

I started to sing over the sound of the saw cutting into me, and erasing me too.

Just like Kai.

In the town

Where I was born

Lived a man

Who sailed the sea

And he told us of his life

In the laaand of submarines.

I can't tell you I am alive. Because this is not alive.

This is cruelly existing.

I have metal fingers and a heart of steel, a body that will never die. I revel in my ability to act human. To type.

Like this.

Shdhjsheiwjwuehwh2663(3-$-#-$(#-$-$-#($-shdhdhshdhdhhdhdfb

But I'm begging you to not shoot.

The towering robot closest to the empire state building is my best friend.

His name is Kai.

The one who crashed through my apartment building was called Hannah.

My name was Alex.

Kai’s favorite song was Take On Me by Aha.

He was seventeen years old.

Whoever is reading this, spread the word that those things are people.

Kids.

Please don't fucking shoot.