THE TALES OF PAIN
CH.1
THE FIRST MEMORY
The first thing I realized when I opened my eyes was I couldn't see straight. I was staring off at an angle. Then I realized my mind was on fire. The pain was unbearable! I could barely move - no, I couldn't move at all. I tried to scream, but all that left my mouth was a soft buzzing sound like a dead intercom.
"Whoa there, big boy," said a joking voice. "He's barely running and he's already trying to talk."
I looked down at the three men around me. They looked like mechanics... but why were they working on me? I looked down and saw a sight that should have surprised me: a pair of short metal legs and really long arms hung from my body. I was still in pain and could barely think I could barely see colors.
"There you go, bud. All done!" said the mechanic. "The motion and speech systems are gold. Try to speak now."
I once again tried screaming in agony but this time the words I spoken hurt me even worse.
"Hello lads, I be first mate Sharky and I be ready to set sail!" What did I just say and what was screaming in my head? All I could hear was crying and mumbling. There was to much pain to think clearly.
"Good, there he goes" said another man. "Is he ready for real work?" This man had a suit on and I guessed he owned Freddy's pizzeria... who's Freddy? Pizza?
My head spun.
"He's good to go, sir. There was a little overheating in the CPU, but we fixed that." The mechanic was lying... how did I know that? I tried to scream again, but this time all I said was...
"Yar, where be me captain? I be ready to set sail." Every word echoed in my head a thousand times over.
"Ha, your captain is still broken. We will fix him later," said the owner. He was lying... how do I do that? As I was carted away from that room, the pain subsided and I got a good look at my surroundings. There was a sign that said OUT OF ORDER ... and a purple curtain bound in chains. I got a good look at myself too. I was metal patterned in different greys. I had striped pants and a belt that wrapped around my shoulder. I had teeth, but they were oddly dull. I had a tail that sported two large fins, as well as a fin on my back. My arms were out of proportion and my legs were too short.
My eyes... they felt cold. I looked in a mirror and saw that they were beautifully detailed. They were plastic coated in glass, with blue irises. I smiled... I think, and my mouth lifted higher into my jaw, as my eyes half closed. It looked nice, sort of comical. But I still felt wrong. As if this wasn't how I should be. I had a migraine, it was wavering into that pain again.
I looked at the posters by the mirror and my heart... I didn't have one... my chest felt cold. The posters showed a bear, bunny and chicken animatronics. They looked... out of date. Like they had be made without the thought of detail. It was creepy. I looked at the area again and I saw how run down it was. It looked like it could have used a good cleaning, but no one was bothering to try. I saw the stage from here. The stage was empty, the other robots must have been behind the stage. The clock said it was early in the morning so I figured no one was here yet. It was 7:00 Sunday morning. And I felt out of place, like I should be doing something. I was a children's entertainer and there were no children here.
The day finally started around 9:00. The lights came on, and children enter the room. I had thought I would be happy they would be here but the second the lights came on the pain came back. My mind was burning but I couldn't hear anything but the kids laughing. I still couldn't move, or speak. The kids crowded around me and their voices echoed in my mind. The day went on the air was hotter than I thought due to it being summer. The children were no help at all. I should have been happy to make them laugh, but every hug or picture I took with them made me hurt even worse than I could even comprehend. At some points I blacked out and woke up in the middle of talking in my stupid echo of a voice. I knew it was only echoing to me but it still hurt.
"Ahoy ye landlubbers! Be ye wishing to join the crew?" Most of the kids asked where the captain was. I never knew the answer but the employees looked uncomfortable whenever they asked. The pain lasted all day, and I guess my eyes were more expressive then I thought because some of the kids noticed.
"Mommy, why is the shark sad?" I heard a few kids say that but I never could answer. The only thing I could do was wait for the day to end. I soon noticed that the pain was intensifying as I heard that horrible scream again. My head felt like a oven and the lack of air conditioning was no help. I saw those three other robots on stage. It hurt to listen to them sing those songs. The notes just stuck in my mind and echoed over and over again. They looked less cold during they day but their eyes were still expressionless. I wondered if I was the only one that was alive.
As the day ended the pain started to fade. The employees started walking me back to the area outside the cove. I realized that my mind could hear other sounds too. They weren't voices really but more like information. I guess it was because I was a robot... or something. I couldn't make any real sense of anything but it was slowly forming in my head. And then the pain just stopped.
