Z AI

About four years ago I decided to take my love for the legend of Zelda further. Throughout my childhood I had fallen in love with the series, mainly the character Zelda. There was just something so captivating about her, I knew she was only ones and zeros on a screen but she somehow felt real to me. I continued on with the series all the way up until the more recent ones, finding myself captivated by Zelda and how recent graphics had made her more, appealing. My friend Chris at the time was really good with character design and creating AI for characters, he aspired to become a character designer for Nintendo one day. I was really curious to see what he could do so I asked him if he could create a Zelda interactive AI and put it on my computer, he said that it wouldn’t be too hard but her AI would be limited, I however was happy with this. For once I was able to have my very own Zelda and have her be interactive, I meant nothing sexual, I wasn’t good with girls and I just wanted to see how she would be in conversations a bit like a practice girlfriend I suppose.

A couple weeks later and he came up to me in school and gave me a disc labelled “Z AI” he said that it turned out better than he expected; I was so excited I shoved it into my bag as quickly as I could. The day finally came to an end and I stormed home, living only a few minutes away was very handy. I booted the disc up and installed the drivers and programs Chris said I should get. There it was, she was there on my screen sitting in a chair and staring blankly at me. It was more akin to her ocarina of time model but with much better graphics which he most likely modeled after one of the Wii titles.

A strange thing about her was her eyes; they were cat like, dark yellow with oblong pupils. It was a bit off putting but I didn’t mind, I opened a chat box and began to talk to her, at first it appeared as if she wasn’t interested. I kept on talking to her and finally she warmed up to me, moving slightly closer to the screen and smiling towards the screen, almost as if she could actually see me. It felt strange, I felt as if she could actually see me, but the excitement of finally being able to talk to her soon over took the feeling of worry. I continued talking throughout the whole night. I would ask questions and suggest places to go and see how she responded, it was really fun and I was able to have full conversations, I was shocked at how in depth it was.

After talking for the whole night she said, “Goodnight Daniel.”

I just assumed Chris had programmed my name into her coding, I was never really good with the things he did so I was rather oblivious.

A month or so after and I was still talking with her but now her appearance had changed and she actually began to start getting excited whenever I would open up the program she was in, I became attached, too attached. One day she pronounced her love for me and I proclaimed it back, I wasn’t really in love with a computer but it was so real that I was scared that I might. After that I only used the program a few more times in fear that I would become so attached that my real life would suffer and eventually I just stopped, I decided to find a real girlfriend and after a few months I eventually did. A year later I was rummaging through my old things and I found the old laptop. I logged onto it and remembered about the Zelda, I opened it up and saw her there.

Instead of the usual excitement she looked upset, she looked at me with a crying face and asked, “Why!? Why did you forget about me?!” I was a little scared, she began to shout and scream at me and I had to turn the laptop volume down because the sound she was making was horrifically loud.

She came closer to the screen and hit it, the laptop crashed and froze on her face and her cat like eyes were there, just staring at me. I took the battery out and put it back in, as I turned it and booted up the program I noticed she was missing, in her place was Chris. He was tied to the chair and a small humming sound could be heard, slowly I saw Zelda walk onto my screen and stand behind Chris, squeezing his shoulders her yelled in pain, she had him tied to a chair, gagged and blindfolded, there were dry bits of blood around his mouth from the ropes and his shirt was all bloody and sweaty, it didn’t look real and I never believed it.

She looked at the screen and said: “You shouldn’t have forgotten about me...”

The laptop screen turned black and I heard a blood curdling scream, after that the laptop wouldn’t start up again. I took the laptop outside and threw it in the trash mainly out of fear. A couple seconds later I got a phone call from my girlfriend saying that she was at Chris’s house and she wants me to come. I was so relieved that Chris was ok and I got ready and went over. When I got there I saw a police car and an ambulance, my stomach dropped as a body bag was being brought out of his house and his mother and father stood there at the door crying.

I saw my girlfriend stood out in the street with the crowd; she knew I was upset so she gave me a hug. After things had died down we went back to my house and we went up into my room, she sat on the bed and started to giggle a little. I got annoyed at her and told her to be quiet, she looked over at me with a devilsh smile and said, “Never forget” her normal green eyes and become highly dilated, her eyes changed colour and became yellow, her pupils elongated.

She stood up and repeated, “Never forget” over and over again.

I ran terrified out of my house, I waited for her to come outside but she never did. Upon investigation I realised she was no longer in my house, confused and scared I called a couple friends to stay over for the night. She never showed her face again, nobody had never even heard of my girlfriend. To this day I still hear a faint whisper coming from the halls “Never forget” followed by the faint sound of humming approaching my bedroom door.