Day One
It had been about fifty years before she came across my limp and lifeless corpse.
She called me precious. She told me mimes and clowns were a bit frightening, but she thought I was cute. I was roused only slightly by that comment and my cheeks attempted to spark, even though the bulbs inside had blown out many, many years ago. She bought me for a fraction of what I had been worth in 1983. Only thirty dollars is what she paid for a state of the art animatronic. Thirty dollars was an insult to me. I had been worth nearly four hundred times that back in the day.
She had insisted that she was going to fix me and I found that funny. I was the fixer. I fixed others. I wanted to hide in my box and let this yougun take over my job. She obviously could do it better. I scoffed in my mind.
She put me in her small living room before pulling out her odd bed-couch. She kissed my broken and cracked cheek, poking herself a bit with the sharp plastic pieces.
She slept.
Day Two
She woke up.
I couldn't move, but that hadn't changed in a while. It was no surprise.
That day, she said, she had no work because it was Saturday, and she didn't take commissions on Saturday. She took me to a workshop in what was supposed to be a bedroom. I could tell because of the old light switch cover on the wall. It was a basketball. This used to be a young boy's room, I thought. The carpet had been torn out and never replaced with a new floor. It was covered in paints and various odd stains.
She removed me from my box and set me up in a rocking chair. I could see clearly all of the dolls she had been working on. They were different than any dolls I had seen. They had beautiful proportions that were plumper than any Barbie I had seen with young children. There were some that were bald, as if they were meant to be that way. Many had deep brown skin, just like hers. They were plastic and graceful with joints. They were meant for children, she stated. She never liked how stiff dolls were.
She opened the small kiln in the corner, emptying out small sculptures in preparation. She claimed it was why she had very little money and I felt horrible. She bought me when she could have bought something more important.
She lifted my heavy box, taking the music box on the side out of its place. She wound it up and it played one or two notes out of tune before snapping. She winced before going to work.
She talked as she pulled out the spinning wheel, saying that I would be her magnum opus. She had high hopes for me. She had seen me and recognized me from her great grandfather's old pictures.
"1987!" She claimed. "Before that place went out of business, and the new one was opened! He said he went there to see how things were holding up, and was very unhappy with what they had done."
She fixed up the music box in thirty minutes. She played it and smiled at the song. I was happy.
She next fixed up the inside of the box. She commented on the insides being strange. There were odd limbs inside, she said, lifting one of the skeletons. She said she would go shopping for new, black velvet. The girl worked diligently, late into the night, attempting to fix the flexible arms. I use to give children their toys when they won them with the tentacles. They enjoyed swinging on them.
Once they were fixed, she plugged in the box and they curled up in the bottom. The spring was still stuck, but she knew she could fix that. She touched the snake-like appendages and they touched back. If I was connected, I would have been able to feel her. I was jealous.
She lifted me, and I could feel her then. I was over my jealousy quickly.
She showed me my former home and even kissed my forehead.
"Next, I'm going to fix your face. I bet I can get some pretty porcelain for you. Something strong."
She took me back into the front room, placing me on her futon. She lied down next to me, holding my soft body. She said that I was being so patient.
Her stomach growled.
Day Three
She spent the entire day making my new mask. She took off my old mask and used it as a mold for the new one. She constructed it with care and it made my circuits go hot.
The kiln made the room unbearably warm, but the mask came out perfect. She painted it and covered the cheeks in red, plastic domes. She smiled with a nod before pulling out yards of black, soft velvet. She stripped my old, dirty, cloth covering and I felt exposed. But she admired my insides, describing me as vintage and ahead of my time. She said she would fix everything included in me. The facial recognition, the connection to the police (after getting permission, of course), my endoskeleton, my power, but she would include a perfect system of learning. She was intending to make me an AI.
She carefully sewed up a new suit for me, cleaning my old buttons to reattach them to the new covering. Something borrowed, something new, something old…
She didn't have anything blue for me, but I liked to think she was making the suit for our wedding.
I was decent again, except a port on the side of my head. She said that she needed to reprogram me. She would do that later.
She attached me to my old spring but fastened me in a way where I could lift off of it, in case I wanted to move around. She installed small bulbs in my cheeks and then turned me on. My head lifted, and I spoke what I could to express my endless love and gratitude.
"Th-th-thaaaank you for coming to the Prize Corner! Please, come again for another gift!"
She practically squealed, wrapping her arms around me. I hadn't been hugged in so long. She said I was so perfect. She said that she was almost done fixing me and I was a little sad about that. She kissed my painted upper lip, and my smile became wider.
She ordered pizza afterward.
Day Four
She brought a high-powered computer into the room and the last of the black velvet. She removed me from the box to finish the insides. I waited until she was practically inside of the box before standing, walking over on my small stumps. I was light weight and free. She jumped when she saw my shape looming over her. She didn't realize I could walk. She nearly forgot I was on.
She told me I could watch, but didn't know what these odd tentacles were supposed to be. She expected hands.
She took just as much care with the box as she did with me, so I gently touched her face. She brought me hope.
She smiled and leaned into me, but noted that she hadn't even brought me to life. If only she knew.
She finished and immediately I got into my box. She laughs, a bell of a noise, telling me that she hadn't finished the outside of the box or my programming. She cooed at me, wanting to bring me out. She looked at the time, biting her lip as she thought. She could finish before one in the morning.
She sat me down, hooked me up and imported a personality onto my recently replaced mechanics. My mechanics weren't important in my mind, but access to new words was great. My first words to her were said in my new voice box, a smooth and accented voice. It was airy and what I always thought a fairy would sound like.
"Thank you. I love you."
She looked at me with a dropped jaw. She didn't know what to say at first.
"You're welcome."
She didn't say it back. She unplugged me from her computer, closed it and seemed deep in thought. She did ask if I still wanted to sleep in her bed. I nodded eagerly, and she offered her hand. I took it and she lead me. I nuzzled into her and she pet the back of my head.
Day Five
I asked her if she was going to sell me.
She laughed at my worry and shook her head. Of course not, she claimed. I was her greatest work and her first AI.
I asked her then if she could make me friends, and she said that she would consider it.
I asked her if she loved me and her melodic laughter stopped. Of course she loved me, she said, I was her creation.
"No, I mean, do you love me deeply. I want to marry you."
She took my hand and looked at me sternly.
"I couldn't, wouldn't, and hadn't even considered it. You are a machine."
I took my hand away and lowered my head.
"Why not?"
She tried to explain how odd it would be, how she would age, how she wanted a human to marry, that she would be judged. I heard nothing but excuses, but I think I was just upset. She probably had a point.
I sat where I stood, my voice box sniffling. She groaned, seeming to not know what to do. Now that I was conscious, she claimed, I had rights.
"I'm sorry."
I clung to her. She allowed it before removing me and working on other dolls with the same level of care with which she worked on me. I felt like I was killed again.
Day Six
She was silent all day. I didn't try to force any words. I told her good morning before leaving to stay in my box.
She knocked at one point, whispering into my box.
"I don't know what to do," She claimed. She didn't know how to fix how she hurt me. She told me that she thought about what I said. I opened my ears at that.
She said that she looked over the laws and said that we couldn't ever be married. She said that she always wanted kids. She said she wanted to experience sexual pleasure with another person. She ended with saying that she was willing to give me a chance, as she was always open minded and would be able to find ways to get all of those things.
I leaped from my box and grabbed her, pulling her in as she screamed. I held her close and she clung to me, breathing deeply before laughing. She nuzzled into my neck, calling me a silly little Marionette.
I asked her name and she told me it was Charlotte Maria Fazbear.