Chapter Seven
What Did I Do?
Sun lay on his back and held Bonnie above himself. With the TV battery out of charge and the book long since memorized front to back, and back to front, and the entire room memorized, there wasn't much to really do. So, Sun mumbled to himself and played with Bonnie. The purple bunny blocked out the light.
Footsteps.
Sun shoved himself so he sat up straight. Sun looked around the blank room. Upon checking to see if anything at all magically appeared in the last five minutes, and failing to see anything new, he pulled up his knees and hid behind them.
The door opened.
Sun knew who was there. It had to be Briana and John's partner. He heard her shoes tap the soft ground as she approached, and he faintly smelled perfume. He tightened his grip on himself when she approached.
As always, Briana stayed a few feet away, out of reach of the animatronic should he lash out for whatever reason. Sun would never hurt anyone, though. She had nothing to worry about.
"Eyes up."
Sun inwardly flinched and raised his head so that he peeked out from behind his knees.
"You have been doing poorly on your testing. You need to work harder. What is that?" She pointed at the plush beside Sun.
"Bonnie."
She held out her hand. "Give it to me."
Sun's head snapped up. "What? He-he's mine!"
Sun yelped at the sudden shock.
"Give the toy to me," she stated more forcefully.
John's partner glared daggers at her but said nothing.
Sun picked up Bonnie. However, he couldn't reach out to her. He couldn't. Bonnie was his toy. She could hurt him. What if she hurt him? What if she broke him? Bonnie was Sun's toy. Sun took good care of Bonnie. Bonnie was going to be okay. He wouldn't let Bonnie get–
Another shock.
Sun dropped the toy in his lap and immediately picked it up again. "Bonnie's okay. Bonnie can stay with me. He'll be okay. He's mine."
"Hand over the rabbit. Now. I'm not asking."
Sun whipped his head back and forth and hugged the plushie tight to his chest. "N-no, no, no! No, no, no, no, no, no…"
Briana stalked forward a couple of steps. "You can't tell me no. Bot, hand over the toy rabbit or I'll deactivate you and take it from you then. I might not remember to activate you again."
Sun forced himself to hold out the toy. His shaky hands barely got past his knees.
She snatched the toy.
He squeaked and immediately reached for it.
His fingers twitched and his arm stopped as he was shocked again.
Briana looked over the toy, which she held by one of its arms. "See? How hard was that? Now, bots don't have things. You are a bot. You are not a child. You will look after the children. You will not act like one. This toy is not yours."
"John gave it to us!" Sun blurted out and cringed.
Briana's free hand twitched but didn't move any closer to herself. "And he was wrong. We have some more tapes for you to watch. I will be back tomorrow."
"N-no! No, no, no!" Sun jumped to his feet as Briana walked away. "What about Bonnie? No, no, no–!"
Sun had never actually been shocked while standing. While sitting, he seized up and would twitch a little bit. However, while standing, he seized up and his fingers and head twitched, and he lost his balance and fell on his face.
Briana stopped and looked back. "I told you: this doesn't belong to you. Stop acting like a child. You do not have toys. John was not supposed to give you a toy. That book and that TV do not belong to you and can be taken at any time. However, they are valuable learning devices. This–" She shook the toy. "–is not."
"No, no! You'll hurt him! Please don't–please give him back!" Sun got back to his feet but dare not attempt to approach her again. Instead, he wrung his hands.
For the second time since they met him, John's partner spoke up, "Ma'am, are you sure? They seem really attached to the thing."
"Again, it's a robot. They don't get attached to objects."
"Ma'am–"
"Come."
John's partner looked back at Sun but followed her anyway. The door shut.
Sun shook his head. "No, no, no! What did I do wrong?! I did what she asked! Why did she take Bonnie away?"
"She is cruel, that is why."
Sun grasped at his spokes and yanked them down. "But she's never done that before!" he wailed.
"I understand, but–"
"I never did anything to her. Bonnie's okay. Bonnie's okay. He was mine. Why would she take him?! He's mine! What if she hurts him?" He paced fiercely back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. The metal of his spokes started to whine under the pressure.
"Sun, let go! You will hurt yourself!"
Sun shook his head wildly. "No, no, no, he was mine. He was mine! Why would she take him? He's mine!" Their cooling fans whirred as they kicked in hard.
"Sun, stop! You are hurting yourself!"
Sun shook his head again. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"
The light turned off.
Sun convulsed and twitched. His spokes retracted into his head. Red and yellow stripes turned to navy blue with yellow stars.
Moon could feel Sun's panic and heartbreak as violent and loud as if Sun was still in control. In fact, he could barely begin to process anything with Sun being so loud.
He quietly sat down at his place. His eye lights went out. He started to sing aloud.
"The other night dear, as I lay sleeping,
"I dreamed I held you in my arms.
"When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken,
"And I hung my head and cried."
Sun's deranged whimpering slowed down.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
"You make me happy when skies are grey.
"You'll never know dear, how much I love you.
"Please don't take my sunshine away."
Moon could think properly again.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
"You make me happy when skies are grey.
"You'll never know dear, how much I love you.
"Please don't take my sunshine away."
Sun stopped his panicked internal fight.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
"You make me happy when skies are grey.
"You'll never know dear, how much I love you.
"Please don't take my sunshine away."
Moon waited in the silence and darkness.
…
Can you hear me?
"Yes." Sun's voice was so small.
You are okay. We will find a way to bring him back, okay?
"Why?"
She is a cruel person. I do not know why she does what she does.
Moon couldn't put down his anger, simply put. By now, the question of "Why?" no longer bothered him. Now he could only imagine what would need to be done to take her out of their lives forever.
"Please don't be mean."
I am not going to be mean.
"If you're mean to her, she'll just do something bad. She'll do something worse."
Moon, sensing Sun was about to go back into his not-so-happy-place again, got up and walked to the TV. He put in a disk, sat down, and then used the remote to flip through a few screens. Children's games popped up on the screen.
Moon put in the new disks when asked. Instructional videos on what to do and what not to do around children showed on screen.
He fought to control his thoughts to the point where he barely paid any attention to the TV. Sun watched and listened with rapt attention.
Briana's next visit was short. She barely even mentioned the new tapes. Rather, she quite rudely asked about Sun's "mental state" and then ordered John's partner to shut him down.
Sun looked around the room. It was different, at least from when he shut down. A wrongness tainted familiar neutrality. Scattered over the soft checkered floor were objects. Toys.
Sun cocked his head a little. Staring at the mess was not fun. He stood up and approached the toys. He knelt before the cluster and picked up the one closest. It was a plushie toy. He recognized this one. Freddy. He held it up and looked it over. It was a nice toy. There was a toy close to it. That one was a yellow chicken. Chica. Near that was an alphabet cube. "A" stared up at the ceiling. A second alphabet cube, "D", sat near it. He looked at the wall. Another addition to their room were a few baskets. Labels in giant letters stamped across the fronts. "PLUSHIE", "SIMPLE", "DOLL", and "MACHINE". A small stack of soft mats, probably used in lieu of beds, was stacked near them as well as a few blankets and a hairbrush.
Sun looked down at the toy in his hand and then the bunny that was once beside it. "Maybe they want us to put it away? Or did they not tell us anything? I do not think they told me anything. Do you know?"
"No."
"Did they tell you anything?"
"No. I have been inactive."
Sun got up and put the Freddy toy in the basket. Some… thing… came in reaction. He liked the reaction. So, he picked up the yellow chicken and set it next to the bear. The room was different. It was better. He put away all the various plush toys–none of them were the same; they were all animatronics from past and present–and then inspected the room. There were no more plushies. The next box was "SIMPLE" so obviously the cubes were next, as well as a few balls and odd shapes. There were quite a few alphabet cubes, as well as cubes with numbers or symbols instead of letters and blocks that were formed into different shapes.
"Which one should we pick up next?"
"You are the one picking up the toys."
Sun let his hands slip. Oh. Right. They always rebooted while it was light. Most of their training was done when it was light. Sun automatically did this chore without really asking Moon.
"It is okay, Sun. You did not offend me. Dolls. We can pick up the dolls."
Sun thought for a moment and shook his head. "I was being rude. I'm sorry." He looked up at the camera.
It stared right back.
"Cut the lights," Sun stated.
…
The light turned off.
Sun's spokes retracted, replaced by the blue and yellow nightcap. Red and yellow stripes became navy blue with yellow stars.
Pick up the dolls first.
"Yeah! That sounds like fun!"
Moon walked around the darkness, plucking various dolls from the ground. He had just picked up the last of the dolls, most of them now being in the "DOLLS" basket, when the light turned back on.
He dropped the toys and convulsed.
The blue animatronic became yellow.
Sun looked around, dazed. "What… happened? Why did the light turn on?"
"I am unsure?"
Sun looked at the camera.
The camera stared right back.
The camera had previously been scanning the room, barely following Moon, especially when Moon's back or head was turned and his arms empty.
"It can't see in the dark."
Sun cocked his head. Really?
"It tried to watch me but had trouble. It gave up and turned the light back on."
Oh.
Sun put a finger to his chin. That was silly, though. Surely cameras could see in the dark. Maybe it just couldn't see them when they weren't looking? After all, it was stationed in a place where they would have a hard time hiding.
Well, right now the place was still messy, and they dropped the dolls!
Sun picked up the dolls and then went around picking up the machines. He picked them up one at a time. Rather than putting them away, he sat down and inspected them.
"This is a car," he said to himself. He recognized it. There was a story with a car in it. It had four wheels and a metal frame and shell with shiny windows. He turned it over in his hands. This car, however, was large and blocky and not quite… what he would expect a real car to be like. The windows were painted and dull rather than plastic and there were no side-view mirrors. The wheels were simple. He set it on the ground and poked it.
The car rolled forward.
Sun cocked his head. Huh. He poked it again, this time from the front. The car rolled back. He reached out to pick up another car quite different from the blocky wooden one. This one was sleek and plastic and shiny. The back wheels stuck. When he set it on the ground and tapped it, the car moved forward a little, but not nearly as far as the first. When he poked it from the front, it went back a little and then rolled forward.
…it… rolled forward? When he pushed it back?
Sun tried to push it back further, but the wheels locked, and the car skipped. He pressed down on the car to keep it from skipping and pulled it back. It creaked as he pulled it back. When he released it, the car zoomed off. It bounced over the uneven ground and ended up flipping over. "Why did it do that?"
"I am unsure."
"Do wheels work differently on plastic cars?"
"Perhaps."
Sun plucked the nearest plastic car from the pile and pushed it down and pulled it back. When he let go, the car did nothing. He prodded the back. It rolled forward. He poked the front. It rolled back.
"It's just that car," Sun stated simply. Still, when he looked around at the machines scattered about, that bad feeling came back. He got up and put away the rest of the toys.