Luke's POV:
Aggressively unraveling the white bandage covering the strange mark on my right hand, I threw it to the ground. Vic's tying work had become better since the beginning of the school year. The bandage used to fall off halfway through the day, to which it would promptly be replaced by Vic. I didn't see a need to hide my hand, though, it's who I was.
I threw my book bag to the floor, spilling a whole pile of unfinished assignments from various classes. I genuinely didn't care about any of it. This school year I was in the seventh grade. There was only one school for the next three towns, so I was forced to attend Ely's pride and joy, Rockwell Junior Senior High School. I know Vic went there, but she never really talked about her experience. Dad never yelled at her for her grades, so I don't see why she feels the need to do that to me.
At the beginning of the school year, I did put a little bit of effort into my studies. My best class was history. I can't remember the last time anything was assigned in that class, due to the fact the teacher, Mrs. Pearce, was on a pregnancy leave. The school hadn't assigned anyone in her place yet. As far as my other classes went, I never paid attention. There were much better things to focus on than learning about algebra.
The students at Rockwell Junior Senior High were no better than the classes. In fact, there was a group of guys, mostly all eighth graders, who thought it was fun to pick on me. Andrew Setter, Marc Nowack, Mike Makeer, and Jason Smith. The four of them were notorious for singling out anyone younger than them, and giving them a run for their money. I hated all of them. In fact, I wouldn't be too mad if they just disappeared off the face of the planet. Mr. Sanchez, the school janitor, was always quick to step in if a fist fight got too heated. I didn't have any school friends, so I relied solely on my other friends to help me out. In fact, they were very insistent I wait 'till they come back before dealing with the bullies. Thinking about what they had in store for Andrew's gang made the wait worthwhile.
"Luke?" I heard a voice say from the front of my room. I jumped slightly, returning from my distracted thoughts.
"Oh, Tito," I replied, obviously faking a smile.
"You came back here so quickly, I just wanted to make sure you're alright," The turtle spoke.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered, returning to picking up the scattered papers off my floor.
"Any homework?" Tito then asked, watching me.
"No," I replied.
"That's not what that looks like," Tito laughed, pointing to my stack of papers. They're all so nosy.
"Yeah, well it's not like any of my teachers care," I shrugged.
"Vic seems to care,"
"Vic is an idiot,"
Tito looked taken back by that statement. He should be. Every single one of those robots has completely sucked up to Vic. They were supposed to be for Jerry, and Vic ruined it.
"That is not nice, you shouldn't speak that way about your sister," Tito replied sternly.
"It's not like she's listening," I shrugged again.
"I'll leave you alone, it sounds like you need some time to relax," Tito spoke, going back out my door. I shut the door behind him, watching him reenter the house. After complaining about sleeping in the same room as Vic enough, everyone got annoyed with me. I was hoping for that, as Nick was quick to move me into the outdoor shed. It was about twenty feet from the house itself, but was big enough for my bed, and some other things I needed to hide from everyone else. I wished it was a little bigger, but anything was better than sleeping next to Willy and Vic.
During the first week of living here with everyone, I was completely convinced they were all crazy. My opinion hasn't changed, as no one seems to realize how weird it is to be living with sentient robots, and in Vic's case, being in an extremely weird relationship with one, that both of them currently deny. I did put in some attempt to befriend Tito, trying to convince myself he'd be like Carlos. No matter how hard I tried, it just wasn't the same. Carlos was someone who lost someone he was close with, and so had I. Tito...we didn't have anything in common. He'd lived his entire life in a restaurant, and I lived mine outside. Tito really liked to learn about Hispanic culture from my history textbook, while I couldn't care less about anything I learned at school. I found it hard to speak to any of the animatronics, because every time I did, it reminded me of the unfair way they've gotten away with countless murders. It amazed me how Vic was somehow okay with that. I guess Vic has always been in trouble with the law, so it makes sense how she'd side with the animatronics over her own brother. The school was quick to hire her on, and didn't even do a background check. She was placed in one of the worst classes to teach, which was fine by me. She deserved it. I found it annoying that all the people I knew seemed to think Vic was attractive. It was no secret that Vic was the youngest, newest teacher at the school, and everyone wanted to jump on the opportunity to get with an older girl. Vic was not having that, and neither was Willy. I hated it too, because I was always the one to be associated with the 'hot English teacher'. Vic didn't really care that everyone knew we were related, but I did. There was nothing worse than being asked if Vic was my mom, and me having to explain to them that Vic and I were distant siblings. I've given out Vic's number more times than I remember for a couple dollars each. I guess that's one thing the other kids liked me for. Other than that, they thought of me as completely useless. I was an outcast. The one who spent their lunch time sitting in the back corner of the library shuffling through books about the art of dark magic. People made fun of me for being alone. Every time I brought it up to Vic, she told me I was just being an emotional teen. She didn't understand, even though I thought she was the one person who could relate to being an outcast of society. Whatever. We'll see who's laughing by the time I'm done with them.
Vic's POV:
I pressed the buttons on Liv's graphing calculator carefully, doing my best to not give up. Surrounded by the animatronics watching every move I made was more than enough pressure to keep me motivated to find the answer. There was a strong dislike of math that bled through the Halifax family, and I was no exception. I scribbled the input to several equations on the eraser-crinkled paper, crossing my fingers that with the push of a button, I'd have the right answer.
"The first five terms should be -3, ½, ⅔, -½, and -⅛," I proudly concluded. Liv began to laugh, much to my dismay.
"You're way off, Vic, it's a good thing you're teaching English," She joked. I rolled my eyes, smiling.
"At least she got answers," Sara laughed in reply. After being asked to join in the struggle to solve Liv's calculus homework, I figured the animatronics would have gotten at least some sort of answer. Instead, they presented a variety of strange graphs and a great drawing of Gus.
"I'll never need to use this stuff," I snickered, handing Liv her homework.
"It's stupid, honestly, I don't even need it for my major," Liv shrugged back.
"Hola, amigos," Tito spoke, entering the house.
"Any words from him?" Cammy asked, as everyone turned their attention to him.
"He is acting the same as yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before that," Tito sighed. Tito had been persistent about trying to help Luke out. It was no secret he was becoming progressively upset, but no one knew the answer as to why.
"At least he let you talk, the last time I tried to go in there he slammed the door in my face," I replied.
"There's no need for him to be actin' like that. Ya' gotta discipline him, Vic," Arty spoke, punching my shoulder.
"I don't want to hurt him. I need to sit down and have a chat with him," I replied, knowing very well that wouldn't work either.
"You've tried that. Maybe he just needs some stimulation," Ozzie added. Liv and I gave him a strange look, "Like a party or somethin',"
"Yeah, that always makes kiddos happy, doesn't it?" Willy spoke.
"It's crazy enough to actually work," Liv shrugged, "We're coming up on the one-year anniversary of our victory at Walmart,"
"Aye, that's right!" Arty spoke.
"That also means it's almost the two of you chickens' birthdays!" Gus added happily.
"I nearly forgot about that," I scoffed.
"It sounds like a good idea, Nick will be more than happy to help when he gets home," Liv smiled.
"Don't tell Luke, we'll keep it a surprise," I added.
"Didn't ya' do that last year for him?" Willy asked. I thought for a moment.
"You're right," I laughed, "How'd you know about that?"
"We listened to your entire conversation from the moment you two walked in," Willy replied.
"It doesn't even seem like that long ago, time really flies," I smiled back.
"Great, it's settled then. We'll have a party tomorrow night," Ozzie spoke happily.
"A party? We haven't commenced any celebrations since we left our homelands," Knighty spoke.
"I don't even remember that stupid song we had to pretend to sing," Arty scoffed.
"Wait, y'all didn't actually sing?" I asked, turning to face Arty.
"Of course not, they played that dumb song over the loudspeaker and we were supposably 'programmed' to dance to it or whateva'," Arty replied.
"So, y'all can't sing?" Liv asked.
"It's your birthday, and we want-" Gus started.
"Now I remember, ugh, I don't want to remember it anymore," Arty groaned.
"C'mon, it's not like we weren't forced to listen to it five times a day since 1984," Ozzie retorted.
"Y'all are that old?" I mocked.
"Haven't you seen the advertisements?" Willy mocked back, "There is a very obvious statement about us 'proudly servin' families since 1984,"
"You guys are old," Liv laughed loudly.
"At least we don't age, I don't look a day over factory disbursement," Sara smiled.
"Ah, Luke!" Tito called, obviously trying to get us to turn our attention towards Luke, who had finally entered the house, "We missed you,"
"I'm sure, don't worry, I know," Luke replied, rummaging through the pantry.
"Want to join us? We were just gettin' ready to-" Gus began to asked, playing with a Scrabble game board.
"Vic, I need you to sign something for school," Luke interrupted, completely disregarding Gus. I glanced at Luke as he handed me a crumpled form from his hands, "Just sign it,"
I opened the paper, which Luke had obviously not wanted me to do. I gasped, reading over the information.
"Luke, why didn't you tell me about this? Do you realize how bad this makes me look?" I asked.
"I don't know, forgot," Luke shrugged, not seeming to care about the severity of the situation.
"How many papers have been sent for me to sign?" I asked.
"It says two papers on there," Luke replied. I read over the paper again. Mrs. Bonstance had apparently sent out a required meeting request between she and I, to which Luke had to have a paper signed for. Luke had failed to bring me two papers to sign for the meeting, and this third paper was an expulsion warning.
"Luke, you need to bring me this stuff when you get it," I spoke, using Liv's pen to sign my name.
"It's not like you don't work at the same school," Luke grumbled back.
"I'm serious," I replied, looking at him, "You're close to being kicked out of the school, so the least you can do at this point is try to care,"
"I don't need school," Luke spoke. I stared at him for a second.
"We'll talk about this later,"
I handed him back the paper, not breaking eye contact. Luke trudged back out of the house, as I tried to calm myself back down.
"I can't keep doing this," I groaned quietly, running my hands over my face, "He's acting like he runs the world, and everyone is supposed to bow to his command,"
"You're doing the best you can. Luke is just going through a bit of a phase, he'll grow out of it soon," Liv comforted, joining me on the couch.
"I thought this would stop months ago," I continued.
"He's still trying to adjust. I'd wait and see what the principal has to say about his schoolwork," Liv replied.
"You're right, but I doubt he's been keeping up with his schoolwork," I added.
"Is he learning the material?" Liv asked.
"I don't even know. I can't remember the last time he talked about school," I replied.
"Don't worry about it yet, you've still got until the meeting tomorrow," Arty comforted. I scoffed, considering any other options I had. Aside from disappearing to another state and reinventing myself completely, there didn't seem to be a better alternative than to stay here and stick it out until Luke grows a backbone.
"Do you guys wanna play?" Gus asked, finishing setting up the Scrabble game board.
"I'm sorry Luke has been such a jerk to y'all, I know it's hard to be patient with him, so thanks for holding out for me," I smiled at Gus.
"Eh, it's no biggie, we've dealt with kids much worse than Luke," Arty replied, "I'm on Gus's team,"
"Scrabble is so stupid, I don't understand how any of you find entertainment in making words match up," Ozzie scoffed, "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to find the pinball machine,"
"I'm going to try and get Luke out here, it'd be good for him to join us," Sara spoke, beginning to walk down towards Luke's room.
"I'm gonna sit this one one, I won last time," Cammy spoke, sitting on the couch.
"You only won 'cause you cheated," Arty teased.
"Did not, I know many more words than you," Cammy replied.
"Whadya' say, Vic? Wanna team up?" Willy asked.
"Hell yeah," I smiled, inching towards Willy on the couch.
"You're supposed to teach kids words, that isn't fair," Arty scoffed. I was about to respond, when I heard Sara moving towards us, followed by Luke's footsteps. I was slightly relieved she managed to convince him to join us, as game nights often were spent without him.
"You can play the first word, Luke," Sara smiled, motioning for the game board. Luke knelt near the board, sighing. Fiddling with his letter cards, he formed the word 'PLAY'. Gus was next. With help from Arty, they formed the word 'LIKE'. The animatronics had gotten pretty good at using their hands for usual tasks. The first time we attempted to play Scrabble as a group, the game board ended up on the other side of the room and we counted twenty six less letter pieces than what we started with, courtesy of Ozzie.
"Alright Vic, knock 'em out with a good one," Willy encouraged.
"You're supposed to help me, duh," I replied, glaring at my letter pieces.
"How about 'hi'," Willy suggested.
"That's a lame word, I have game standards to uphold. It's gotta top the last word," I sneered.
"Fine then, how about 'KILL'," Willy suggested.
"Eh, good enough," I replied. I noticed Luke's reaction change as I placed down the letter tiles. He kept his eyes locked on the word, which was unsettling to say the least. I wasn't the only one who noticed, as Tito instantly went to distract Luke by talking.
"You could've gone for 'KLIMAX', Vic," Tito said.
"That's not how you spell it. That's the name of a band," I replied, silently wishing I had played my 'X' tile.
"I distinctly recall it being spelled with a 'K'," Tito argued, as Luke became distracted by our conversation.
"Back me up, someone, it's definitely spelt with a 'C'," I snickered.
"Vic is right, it's spelt with a 'C'," Liv smiled at Tito.
"Arty? Sara?" Tito asked.
"Don't ask us, I've never used the word in my life," Arty scoffed. Sara shook her head.
"Cammy? Willy? Gus?" Tito continued, "Luke?"
"Here's the official dictionary," Gus spoke, picking up the dictionary from the ground.
"It's not like you can read. The word is spelled with a 'C'," Willy added.
"I do say, I hereby decree it is spelt with a 'C'," Knighty continued. I glanced at Luke, who looked bored again.
"I think it's spelled with a 'C'," He mumbled.
"Well, all three of you are in school, so you're severely outnumbered, Tito," Ozzie teased.
"Oh whatever, at least Liv and I have a good word," Tito replied, placing down 'CITE'.
"Cite?" Liv asked, laughing.
"Kite," Tito corrected.
"That's why you wanted Vic to play the 'K'," She smiled, "It's pronounced cite, the 'C' is silent,"
Tito paused for a moment.
"The English language is so confusing,"
It took another hour or so before the game was finished. Most of that time was spent looking through a dictionary to decide if Ozzie's made up words were real. Not surprisingly, Willy and I ended up winning. Luke and Sara ended up with the least amount of points, because Sara put Luke in charge of coming up with the words. Nick had gotten home in the middle of our game, to which I went to help him with dinner. His tacos were some of the best I'd ever had. Luke ate quickly and quietly, before returning to his room. As expected. Liv had taken the opportunity to explain the surprise party for Luke the next day, to which Nick was more than happy to help. I hadn't heard him speak since coming to live with him, but that didn't bother me. I had learned to read his physical and emotional cues from his face.
"I feel like tonight is gonna be rough," I mumbled, watching Willy pace across the floor in my room.
"Sleep-wise?" Willy joked.
"Yes, sleep-wise," I scoffed, "Every time Luke acts like this I have nightmares,"
"I know about those," Willy sighed.
"I hate them. I haven't had night terrors like these since I was little," I replied, putting my hands behind my head.
"Ya' want some Nyquil or somethin'?" He offered, tossing me another blanket.
"That won't help. These night terrors are somethin' else," I groaned, running my hand over my face.
"Wasn't your last one a week ago from today?"
"Somethin' like that. I stopped keeping track. I think I might need therapy more than Luke,"
"I'll give ya' all the therapy you need," Willy grunted, stretching his left arm. I snickered, cozying deeper into the bed. "Plus, I'll be up all night anyways, so I'll be right here when you wake up,"
"Thanks," I smiled, closing my eyes. I thought my night terrors would have stopped by now. It's been years since they were this bad. They all seem to revolve around Jerry, which is strange. I'd find myself having them when Luke acted a certain way. I always knew what nights were going to be bad based on Luke's behaviors. I considered that both a good and bad thing. I'd rather just avoid the bad dreams all together and not wake up as a screaming, sweaty, shaking, mess. Willy had been the blunt end of most of my nightly panic attacks, which he seemed to take pretty well. The both of us found it beneficial to have extra blankets around the bed, just in case I accidentally flung myself out of bed. I'd sustained at least two concussions from hitting my head on the side of the nightstand. Willy often stayed on the right side of the bed, which prevented me from flinging myself into the wall. I had no intention of damaging Nick's house or his belongings, which is why I took the extra precautions to line the floors with blankets.
"Everything looks alright?" Willy asked.
"Yeah, it's all fine," I replied, my eyes still shut.
"I'll be right here if ya' need me," Willy spoke, as I felt the mattress shift to the right.
"Thank you," I smiled, feeling Willy's arm over my waist. I had kept the night terrors a secret from everyone, with the exception of Willy, of course. The last thing I wanted was to draw unnecessary attention to bad happenings, especially since everyone seems so happy right now. There was no need for me to bring up Jerry any more than needed, especially with Luke around. Due to that, I made the decision several months ago to keep it between Willy and I, in vain hopes that someday soon they'd let me be.
Jerry's POV:
If there was one thing I hated more than Vic, it was being inside her mind. The thoughts of a teenage girl's, especially Vic's, weren't ones I ever wanted to know about again. However, seeing her tormented was something that made knowing way too much about Willy worthwhile. Ever since those three dingbats ruined my plan, and so foolishly at that, my cult has been spending our uncounted days swimming in absolute chaos. Not the good kind, either. There was a light at the end of this tunnel, though, a light that was being carried by none other than little Luke Halifax. I hadn't thought he would still have the drive to be part of my cult since the whole 'Robbie' event, but that boy is desperate for a family. What he doesn't realize is that magic always comes with a cost. As long as he's easily manipulatable, I can get him to do whatever I want. So far, it's been an easy task. With his given circumstances, I've been able to convince Luke that he doesn't need school, that Vic and Liv don't want him to be happy, the animatronics need to be brought to justice, and he needs to start learning dark magic. The sooner we get out of Hell, the sooner we can get back to doing what we do best: making lives miserable. And we'll be starting with Vic. I'm not about to let her slip through my fingers a third time, no, I'll make sure she suffers more than all of us combined.
"Jerry," I heard Sasha groan, trying to pry herself from the pile of raging children. I was growing tired of hearing all their complaining, but I knew that's what the goal of this place was.
"Behind you," Sasha spoke again. Before I had a chance to react, I was thrown to the sharp ground, and immediately tackled. There was no point in trying to escape, as I knew very well how powerful Willy was. Multiply that by at least twenty, and you've got yourself a complete army. I felt the weight on my body increase, as more Willy look-alikes crushed me to the ground. They prodded and scratched at me, leaving ghastly marks and cuts. I couldn't wait for Vic to suffer like this. Thinking about it almost made me laugh. Right behind her, Nick and Liv would follow. I'd make sure they got their deserving punishments as well. As for Luke, he'd have to learn the hard way what being part of a cult was like. There's no backing out for him now. Right after he gets us out of Hell, the initiation can continue, and Luke's soul will be permanently tied to ours. Where we go, he goes. That's the best part of manipulation: you do it enough, and they start believing it's normal.