The Bond

Ch 6

"Bold." : animatronic is talking

"Normal." : human is talking

=o^o=

What had happened last week made a deep impression on Michael's heart, sparking a tinge of anger every time he heard Ennard's voice or looked at him. The last few days Michael chose to avoid the animatronic, intending to cool his head considering he was stuck with Ennard forever.

So Michael spent time in his father's private office, reading through old files and blueprints on the basic framework of animatronics. He had never studied anything related to this and it turned out to be very complicated.

Several times Michael found photos tucked in paper reports that had yellowed with age, he was not interested in looking because most of them were photos of William with his co-workers, but Michael put the portraits aside in one place.

Michael closes an old dusty folder, containing plans to build Circus Baby's Pizza World before being turned into a rental place in the case of the disappearance of a little girl there.

Michael's little sister.

His head was throbbing in pain, Michael let out a tired breath and threw the folder into another pile of folders, he intended to take the paper that covered an endoskeleton. There were scribbles on some of the papers, Michael ignored them and started reading.

A faint sound sounded, as if someone was opening something from the ceiling. Michael turned his head slightly, finding the air duct cover dangling down and no one there, so he decided to focus back on his reading. Moments later, Michael's eyes glanced in the same direction and found an eye glowing brightly from inside the vent. Michael decided to pretend not to know.

His hand moved to open a new sheet to read after the previous sheet only explained what an endoskeleton was. Michael bit his lip, he suddenly felt like he couldn't focus on the writing. Either because of the many doodles and additional notes or because of an animatronic that is now stalking him from the ceiling of the room. He read the same line over and over again because he didn't understand, Michael's knuckles turned white from being pressed too hard against the paper, shaking a little.

He knows, and he knows too.

They both know.

Michael is aware of Ennard's existence, and Ennard knows that Michael is aware of him.

Still, neither of them wanted to speak up. Not even Michael could tell Ennard to leave him alone and let him focus on what he was doing now. Michael wanted to, but he couldn't. While Ennard was there, whatever the animatronic was thinking he wouldn't know. There was no emotion in his robotic eyes as he stared at Michael's back from a distance.

Michael wanted to open his mouth and shoo him away, but failed; he shuts his mouth again. The memory of last week came back to haunt him, of Ennard telling him to buy flowers and visit his youngest brother's grave. Michael was restless, now his mind seemed to be branching; death and disappearance. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, then rubbed his face.

"What ..." Michael started to raise his voice, though his voice was a little broken. He suddenly shook his head, finally deciding to turn towards the air duct. "Do you mind if I tell you to get out of here?"

There was no answer, but those flaming eye only blinked at Michael once or twice.

A snort came from Michael, taking Ennard's silence as yes. Michael tried not to care, though he was a little upset at least Michael got his focus back; it was true that he had to talk to Ennard about 'Ennard's activities spying on Michael and Michael was uncomfortable'.

Michael's eyes moved quickly to follow the direction of the line of sentences, he didn't care that he was skipping some parts, yet Michael could reread it another time. Until the sound of metal clinking was heard softly. Michael didn't look back, not at all, even though Ennard was standing far behind him.

There was a prolonged silence, oddly enough Michael was now more relaxed—as if he was used to it, and felt undisturbed.

"What are you reading?"

The question came suddenly from Ennard, for some reason Ennard seemed interested in the papers in Michael's hand. Meanwhile, Michael muttered incoherently, glancing briefly at the animatronic. He could answer that he was studying the endoskeleton, as an additional answer might threaten Ennard so that Ennard wouldn't bother him again or Michael would disassemble all of Ennard's endoskeleton.

That's a stupid thought.

Michael ended up not replying, or yet. He continued his speed reading, impatient to finally jump over some of the papers to the end of the page. And his eyes were glued to a few lines of sentences. Even though a dozen minutes had passed, Ennard was still there, probably really waiting for Michael's answer.

"Benedict, what paper do you have in your hand?"

Once again Ennard asked, Michael pressed his lips together. A sudden sense of suppressed joy rose within Michael, causing Michael to hold back a smile with the idea that came to his head.

"About endoskeleton," Michael replied, then in the next sentence Michael's tone softened. "An endoskeleton that can support the human body ...."