The Bond

Ch 25

"Bold."/"Bold italic" : animatronic is talking/animatronic is talking in mind

"Normal."/"Normal italic." : human is talking/human is talking in mind

=o^o=

This house is beautiful, but abandoned.

Michael walked down the hall slowly as he looked around. Cream-colored walls that now look dull, dusty furniture, moss in the corners of the room, leaky ceilings. If the wooden floors were polished again, Michael was sure they would be shinier than they are now. Even so, everything is neat and symmetrical.

He stopped halfway to look out the window, the view slightly obscured by curtains and dirty glass, but Michael could see a white swing in the backyard. The vines covered the swing post, the colour faded. He didn't know how long this house had not been occupied.

Michael wondered how Ennard knew the place, he wanted to ask but the animatronic was filling his energy—deactivating himself in the room.

Then Michael thought back to what Ennard had said a few days ago; he still couldn't believe that Ennard had said that to him. Michael felt his feelings warm and he smirked, Ennard probably wasn't as bad as he thought. His thought of Ennard had gradually changed, since they had more and more conversations (or rather quarrels).

Well even though Michael was still annoyed when Ennard told him to go on a pilgrimage, he decided not to dwell too much on what had happened in the past.

"Making peace with myself, huh," Michael muttered under his breath, his fingers running over the dusty window sill. He would never forgive himself for what had happened to his youngest brother, but now that he thought about it, forcing himself with the aim of tormenting himself so as not to recall traumatic memories was not the right thing to do.

Michael immediately stepped into the backyard quickly, he wasn't that worried if people saw a quarter of the skin on his face rotting because the fence around the house was very high. Michael is still curious about the swing.

The eldest Afton opened the door to the back of the house, Michael was taken aback for a moment—if this house had not been neglected perhaps the garden which had now been damaged by pests and many dried flowers must have looked very beautiful. Tall weeds grew there, the grass wet with the morning dew. Michael walked around the courtyard, looking at the wild plants growing in the yard. He really wanted to clean this house.

Michael arrived at the garden swing. He gripped the swing post carefully, then moved it—unpleasant voice, Michael shuddered. Even the swing bearings were worn and damaged, which was definitely unfit to sit on.

"Afton."

Michael jumped in surprise, he immediately looked back and found Ennard standing right at the back door. Michael thought it would take Ennard a long time to charge. "You really like to jumpscare me, don't you?" said Michael irritably.

But Ennard just shrugged his shoulders. "What are you doing here?"

"Take a look," Michael replied casually, leaning closer to Ennard as he looked around with a small smile. "This house is great."

"Has been abandoned for years."

Michael raised his eyebrows at Ennard's words. The animatronic with the incomplete unit snorted and turned, walking away from Michael. "Wait!" Michael said loudly, quickly catching up with Ennard. "How did you know?"

He could hear Ennard snorting again. "Isn't it obvious from its condition? Are you fucking imbecile?" Ennard reproached.

"Geez you're so rude," Michael grumbled, Ennard indifferent to him. "We're out of town, aren't we? How did you know this place?"

"Coincidentally."

Michael's brow furrowed, the answer still didn't satisfy him at all, but Ennard didn't look like he wanted to explain any further, so Michael decided not to push him. "You brought my things here, didn't you? It wouldn't be funny if you left it."

Ennard nodded slightly, Michael smiled happily at the answer. "It's in the living room."

Michael quickly walked past Ennard and headed to the living room. The condition of the living room is not too bad, just dusty. If he sweeps the floor and cleans the furniture with a duster, the living room will be clean. Then Michael found his backpack sitting on the sofa, unzipped the bag and looked inside; still as it was before Mark came to his house.

Surprisingly there was money in the inside of the bag.

"Money?" Michael said confused. "Where did you get it from?" he asked Ennard who had just arrived in the living room.

Ennard leaned his iron body against the wall carefully so as not to scratch the surface of the wall. "I stole it."

His answer, which sounded very relaxed, made Michael's jaw drop.

"You stole it!?"

"Do you really think how I can take you to another city? On foot? Don't be an idiot. I took the bus after stealing money from passersby in the crowd."

"Unbelievable," replied Michael sweatdropped, shaking his head slightly at Ennard's words. "But, oh well," Michael grinned. "I can use some of it to buy cleaning supplies," he continued cheerfully.

Ennard was silent for a moment, squinting at Michael. "I thought you were going to buy a device for your endoskeleton," Ennard said quietly.

The eldest Afton glanced. "That's right," he replied. "But I'm going to use the rest of your stolen money on cleaning supplies, because," Michael paused as he walked over to the table opposite the sofa and picked up the dusty photo frame, "this house is too beautiful to be abandoned."

Silence ruled the room, and without a sound Ennard stepped over to Michael to look at the photo as well.

The blonde-haired woman looked absolutely gorgeous.