Page 22 of Hot Ghost Summer

The container drops and splatters on the floor.

Theo’s startled, “What the fuck?” is loud.

Good, I think to myself. But things can’t stay like this; I’ll go mad. I can’t live forever in my phone. What happens when the battery runs out?

I check the display: thirty-one percent.

I need to find a way out of this device.

Theo returns to his seat, happily tucking into a…

I manually focus the camera lens.

A crisp sandwich. Made from two slices of unbuttered white bread, that he eats one-handed while scrolling on his phone.

Determined to level-up and leave this electronic prison, I set about mastering my movement through the circuitry in the hope of finding an exit, but when there aren’t any open networks in range, my frustration mounts. Does nobody in this building have an unsecured router or hotspot?

I don’t have capacity for this.

Thwarted and aggravated, I trigger my alarm.

Theo jumps, then presses his hand to his chest. “Jesus.” He reaches for me, murmuring, “Maybe you didn’t survive unscathed.” He turns me over a couple more times. “Of course! You idiot.”

Standing, Theo carries me to his small bathroom.

No, no, no. I do not need to see whatever is about to happen. Christ, why’d he take someone else’s phone into the bathroom with him? That’s not normal.

Theo props me against the wall by the sink, where the sound of running water is loud through the mic. From my reclined angle, I watch as he reads the label on a bottle of face wash.

“This doesn’t say anything about radiation either. Only exfoliating and minimising pores.” He pumps two squirts onto his hand. “Maybe blackheads and radiation are the same kind o’ thing?”

Sheer dread and panic surge through my neural network. Is he… going to wash me with soap and water?

There’s nothing I can do. I can’t even hold my breath. White and green stripes fill the screen. If Theo kills me twice in one day, I’ll be so angry that I’ll haunt him for the rest of his life!

A soap bubble blurs the camera lens and paints everything in a faint rainbow hue.

I want to set off every noisy app I can access, but I’m now staring straight down at a sink filled with water, and I’m terrified that if I frighten him, he’ll drop me, and I’ll… drown?

Agonising seconds tick by.

With more care and consideration than I’d anticipated, he rinses me off and then pats me dry with a towel.

Yawning widely, he stares at himself in the mirror. “What a fucking day.”

Still in the towel, he sets me on the toilet seat and picks up his toothbrush.

I watch Theo’s reflection in the mirror, astounded by his stupidity, but mostly terrified that this is my life now.

Somehow, despite this ordeal, I coordinate myself enough to display another message on my screen.

I know what you did.

Theo blanches, choking on his toothbrush. “Okay, creepy, possessed doll phone. That’s enough from you. I’m tired.”

He wipes his mouth, turns out the light, and leaves me alone in the bathroom.

I check my battery. Twenty-seven percent.