The Bond

Ch 28

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

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

=o^o=

Desperately Michael placed the two separate endo frames on the table, leaning his back against the headboard of the sofa. He uses the living room as a place to assemble now, because there is no basement in this house.

He still didn't really understand the concept of the endoskeleton, or maybe it was because he had made the blueprints himself. If it was from his father's blueprint, Michael was sure he could follow the directions, but since his father had never built a framework to support and replace human parts, Michael had to make it himself.

Even so he felt he was smart for having invested in this idea (Ennard never stopped calling him idiot though but he doesn't care).

Michael sighed, still feeling hopeless. He was sure that if he stayed like this he would get bored, so Michael decided to take a break. Michael discovered a ladder hidden in the ceiling a few days ago, if the rope was pulled it would appear. Looks like it's headed for the attic.

He immediately got up and went to the place of the stairs; halfway down the hall to the kitchen. Michael looked up, then saw a dull rope stuck to the ceiling, there was a small rectangular gap there too. Michael jumped up to grab the rope—he was cursing inwardly why he wasn't taller.

Managed to get the rope, Michael quickly pulled it. It was true that there was a ladder that appeared as he pulled the rope down, it was very dark up there when Michael looked up. But that was no big deal, Michael immediately went up to the attic.

Dust everywhere, Michael noted mentally to sweep this place up later. Then, lots of boxes were placed here, as if the owner was planning to move house but it didn't happen and the house ended up being abandoned. He opened one of the boxes closest to him, Michael had to squint first to see what was inside; turns out it was just a pile of books.

Michael opened another box that was right next to him, but there was nothing there, empty. Opening the third box, again he found only old books and notes, then a doctor's letter whose paper had turned yellow. Nothing exciting, but Michael was a little hopeful there was something of value here.

About to open another pack again, his attention was distracted when the light hit his eyes. Michael turned his head to find the dim light that had made it into the attic through the perforated curtains reflected in the glass—or perhaps the see-through mirror used to cover photos in frames. Michael stepped closer curiously, wanting to get a better look at the photo.

From afar he could already see the same blonde-haired woman in the portrait, Michael was always in awe of hers—that woman was absolutely beautiful, he thought personally. Michael raised his eyebrows after realizing there was another, smaller figure sitting on the woman's lap in the portrait.

A little boy, pale skinned, blonde hair, the eyes were—

Ennard's hand that appeared from behind him immediately closed the photo and positioned it upside down from their view, not long after that the photo fell forward.

Michael seemed to be getting used to Ennard's sudden presence. He glanced at Ennard who was staring straight at him, saying nothing. Michael looked back at the fallen picture, he hadn't finished looking at the portrait at all.

"Why?" Michael finally spoke and breaking the silence, he asked the animatronic.

"Privacy."

Ennard had a point, Michael nodded in understanding. "You're right, I shouldn't be looking through their personal stuff." Michael saw Ennard start to turn around and head for the stairs, so he followed Ennard from behind. "But it looks like the lady who owned this house had a son," Michael said as he trails after Ennard down from the attic. "Then why the house is not taken care of? Do you know anything?"

"... Why are you asking me?" Ennard scowled at him. "I know nothing."

Michael shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps you found something here," he replied casually. "Like I found the stairs to the attic a few days ago, and because I was bored, I decided to go up to the attic. Nothing interesting, lots of books and empty boxes. Then I saw the photo and when I wanted to take a closer look, you just appeared like that, like a bad demon."

For a moment Ennard glanced at Michael, the eldest Afton was always talking a lot sometimes. "Aren't you continuing your toy in the living room?"

Then Michael realized. "Right," he said innocently. "But I don't know anything! I'm stuck, Enn! I only brought the blueprint and I left my father's notes at home," Michael agonized, he wanted to bang his head on something. "I'm such a fool."

"You just realized that?"

Michael's eyebrows dipped into each other in annoyance and Michael puffed out his cheeks, then his wish came true; he accidentally hit his head with Ennard's iron back.

For a moment Michael wanted to curse at him, but it turned out that Ennard was looking at the blueprint he had made.

Ennard turned to him, Michael flinched—Ennard did that very quickly, only seconds after the animatronic had read the blueprint. "Are you really William Afton's son?" Ennard's tone sounded disbelieving and disappointed at the same time.

"Hey—what's with that voice?!" Michael gritted his teeth in annoyance, feeling very offended. "I am me, my father is my father, I'm not him and he's not me. We are different."

"Right, he can't be as stupid as you. Did he pick you up off the street?"

The corner of Michael's eyes twitched. "Imbecile."

Michael frowned as Ennard sat down on the floor—of course the couch would be worse if he sat there—while his cords moved to retrieve the pen that was tucked away in Michael's jacket pocket.

Ennard glared at him. "Sit down."

Reluctantly, Michael did as Ennard said—sat down across from the animatronic. Michael noticed what Ennard was doing; scribble the blueprint quickly, even filling the page. Michael wanted to protest, but Ennard spoke first.

"You put it wrong in some parts, that's why you keep failing. If you want to build an endoskeleton, start at this step."

Michael was astonished, immediately noticing Ennard making a rough outline and small notes, and Ennard continued to speak. Michael didn't want to miss the opportunity and immediately grabbed a notebook to add to the important things Ennard had to say.

That day Ennard helped him refine the blueprint he had made to completion.