A couple hours later, Adalyn slowly awoke, already feeling even better than when she'd woken up that morning. When she glanced at the clock and saw how long she'd been asleep, she was surprised that Brahms hadn't come to wake her up, considering how clingy he was and the fact that she'd told him to wake her up after the machine had stopped.

She eased herself out of bed and headed downstairs. Her stomach growled and it occurred to her that she probably should've made Brahms lunch before she'd taken her nap.

Adalyn didn't know where he was now, but she decided to go ahead and take the laundry out of the washer and hang everything up outside. The faster she got the man into clean clothes, the better it would be for everyone.

When she opened the washer, she smelled one of the shirts to make sure that Brahms had run another cycle like she'd asked him to. It seemed to be clean, so she guessed that he had. She hauled the load up into her arms and went outside to the gardens where she carefully draped everything over the few empty lines left.

She then turned around to go back inside and jumped when she saw Brahms standing in the doorway watching her. "You've got to start making some kind of noise when you're nearby so you stop scaring the crap out of me."

No answer.

"Well, I'm hungry. Do you want some lunch?"

Brahms nodded.

Adalyn walked inside and went back to the kitchen. "How about some sandwiches?"

He nodded again.

She opened the refrigerator and found to her delight that there was a little bit of ham and cheese inside. She quickly smelled it to make sure it was still good, and fortunately, it seemed it was.

Adalyn pulled a jar of peanut butter out of one of the cabinets then turned to Brahms. "Peanut butter and jelly or ham and cheese?"

Brahms pointed to the peanut butter jar.

"All right, so PB&J for you, ham and cheese for me."

She quickly pulled out four slices of bread and made the two sandwiches, then she put them both on a plate and placed them onto the kitchen table along with two glasses of water. Brahms sat down but he made no move to begin eating.

Adalyn quickly ate her sandwich, downed the glass of water, and stood up. "I'm going to wash my dishes in the sink. I promise I won't turn around until you hand me your empty plate."

She turned the kitchen sink on and slowly ran her plate and glass under the water. She took her time washing and rinsing off the two dishes in order to give Brahms plenty of time to eat his sandwich, assuming he even was going to eat it with her standing right there. A part of her was tempted to turn around and see, but she'd rather not risk the consequences of doing that. And besides, she'd promised.

After only a couple minutes, the chair scraped against the floor and Brahms placed his plate and glass next to the sink.

"Did you eat all of it?"

Brahms nodded.

Adalyn looked at him skeptically. "Do you promise?"

"Promise," Brahms answered.

She smiled a little. The childlike voice had really creeped her out at first, but now it just seemed kind of amusing that that voice could come out of such a broad adult man.

Adalyn took the two dishes and washed it with the others then put them all back in their respective places in the cabinets.

"Now that that's done, I was thinking we could change the sheets on some of the beds. I don't really want to sleep on sick sheets tonight. Can you show me where you keep clean sheets here? Is there some kind of linen closet somewhere?"

Brahms didn't move.

"Okay, I'm going to take that as you not knowing where the sheets are. Well, then I guess I'll just have to find them myself."

Adalyn wandered throughout the halls, opening random doors here and there to see if she could find absolutely any clean sheets. Her main priority was changing the sheets on her bed and on Brahms's bed in his childhood room. If he let her change the sheets in his room inside the walls, she'd gladly do that too, but it seemed like he was more interested in sleeping in the tiny bed while she was here. She was fairly certain that was because he wanted to keep a close eye on her.

Finally, on the third floor of the mansion, she found a tiny closet with several pairs of sheets. Unfortunately, she couldn't tell what size any of them were just by looking at them so she just grabbed several pairs and hoped that at least one of them fit the two beds she needed sheets for.

She returned to the master bedroom and set the piles of sheets down on the stool in front of the vanity. Then she took off the thick blanket and rested it on one of the chairs before stripping the bed of the top and bottom sheet.

The entire time she did this, Brahms just stood in the doorway staring at her.

Adalyn picked up one of the blue sets of sheets and unfolded the bottom one, then tossed it up and down over the mattress. It appeared to be the right size, but she wouldn't know for sure until she tucked the corners on.

She looked over at Brahms. "Want to help? Go to that corner and fold the sheet over the mattress like this." She demonstrated it on the bottom left corner of the bed.

Brahms walked up to the top right corner and repeated her action.

"Okay, good, these sheets will fit. Do the same for that corner."

While he got the bottom right, she got the top left.

"Thank you."

He very clearly liked that she was asking for his help more and more.

Adalyn then took the top sheet from the stack and tossed it onto the bed. Following that, she put the blanket back on. Lastly, she replaced the pillowcases with the matching blue ones and set the pillows at the head of the bed.

"All right, that's one bed taken care of. Now let's do the one in your room."

She picked up the pile of sheets and moved across the hall to Brahms's tiny room and tiny bed.

"Do you want me to fix up this bed or fix the one in your space behind the walls? I could do both of them if you want me to."

Brahms firmly pointed to the tiny bed in the room.

"Fine, this bed it is."

After finding a set of sheets that would fit, Adalyn did the same thing with Brahms helping her put the bottom sheet on. Then she made up the bed and tossed the sheets into the pile of the other ones she'd taken off.

"That looks much better, doesn't it? I bet it will feel better tonight too."

Adalyn picked up the pile of sheets and began making her way downstairs.

"I need to wash these too, but I'll just do that tomorrow since I don't have anywhere to hang them up right now."

After she'd deposited the sheets in the laundry room, Adalyn went inside the reading room and collapsed onto the couch.

"Even after that nap, I'm still exhausted. We're probably going to have to go to bed a little earlier tonight, okay? That way, I'll be nice and rested and I'll be able to do the whole schedule with you tomorrow."

Brahms put a record onto the record player and allowed soft opera music to fill the room. He stepped towards the couch and Adalyn started to sit up, but Brahms gently pushed on her shoulder to make her stay lying down. Then he picked up her legs and sat down on the end of the couch before resting her legs onto his lap. He softly began to rub his hand over one of her jean-covered shins.

Adalyn was kind of weirded out by this, but she couldn't deny that this position was pretty comfortable when she felt as worn out as she did. It seemed ridiculous that doing laundry and changing sheets had exhausted her so much, but she had just dealt with a massive cold yesterday so she tried to cut herself some slack.

With the soft music playing from the record player, she closed her eyes but made a conscious decision to not fall asleep like this. She'd rather not be in such a vulnerable position around Brahms now that a fever wasn't helping her make poor choices or in some ways protecting her from him.

She wasn't sure how long she stayed like that with Brahms just sitting on one end rubbing her leg, but eventually, she opened her eyes again and realized that the sun had started to go down.

How had it gotten so late already?

"The clothes outside are probably dry by now," she said. "I'm going to go check on them."

Brahms reluctantly let her get up off the couch and followed her out to the garden.

Adalyn rubbed her hand over the first round of clothes she'd hung up and thankfully, they were ready to be taken back inside.

She slipped the first load off the lines and hauled everything up in her arms then walked back inside to the parlor.

"Here, I'll show you how to fold up your clothes. First, we'll do the pants."

Adalyn picked one of the pairs of pants and Brahms did the same. Then Adalyn slowly showed him how to fold them and he carefully copied every single one of her movements.

After they'd folded all the pants, she moved on to his shirts and then his sweaters. When all of the clothes were properly folded, she placed all of them in the bucket he'd used to bring everything down before.

"And now…we do the same for the second load."

She and Brahms repeated the process for the rest of the clothes hanging up outside until everything was folded and placed into the bucket.

Adalyn picked up the bucket and handed it to him. "And here you are. Nice clean clothes. You can put them back into either room you want to keep them in. And after you do that, go ahead and pick out what you want to eat for dinner so I can heat it up."

Brahms took the bucket from her and left the room. At least he didn't seem so uneasy about leaving her side anymore. Whether that was a good or bad thing, she didn't really know. It was good that he trusted her a little more, but if he trusted that she wouldn't leave, did that also mean that he believed he could now do whatever he wanted to her?

Adalyn shook her head. No need to get worked up yet. She was fine. She would be fine.

Brahms returned with one of the containers from the freezer, so Adalyn quickly prepared dinner for the both of them.

After they'd eaten and she'd washed the dishes they'd used, she tried to get Brahms to take a bath on his own so he could put on the washed clothes, but like she'd guessed would happen, he forced her to help him. He retrieved a pair of pants, a shirt, and a sweater and then stepped into the bathroom.

Adalyn reluctantly helped him bathe again, and then she let him dry himself off and put on his clothes.

"Doesn't that feel so much better?" she asked.

Brahms nodded and rubbed his hands over his sweater.

"Come on, it's time for bed."

Adalyn headed towards Brahms's bedroom, but he moved away from her and started to walk into the master bedroom.

"No, no, no, you need to sleep in here tonight," she told him.

Brahms tilted his head.

"If I need you, I'll call for you, okay?"

Like that'll ever happen.

Brahms somewhat relented and slowly made his way inside his own bedroom.

Adalyn gently tucked him into the too-small-bed then placed a quick kiss onto the porcelain forehead. "Good night, Brahms."

"Good night, Adalyn."

Adalyn turned off the light and closed the door behind her. She sighed heavily as she returned to the master bedroom, congratulating herself for surviving another day.

She retrieved a different pair of pajamas and brought them into the bathroom with her, then took a very quick shower. The last thing she needed was Brahms hearing the shower running and getting out of bed to sneak a peek.

After she'd put the pajamas on and brushed her wet hair, Adalyn set the alarm on the clock on the nightstand for 6:30 AM. Best to keep Brahms happy, and that meant following the schedule perfectly tomorrow.

Brahms sat on the floor with his back against the wall, hugging his knees to his chest as he watched Adalyn sleep.

She was even pretty while she was sleeping.

It was hard to believe, but he'd already come to like her more than Greta.

She was nicer than Greta. Greta had been scared of him. Adalyn wasn't. At least, not anymore it seemed. She'd been scared at first, but that was understandable considering that she'd had three bad men chasing her.

And when he helped her, she didn't get mad like Greta had.

When that bad man had come for Greta and tried to take her away from him, he could still remember her tearful voice pleading for his help so she wouldn't have to leave.

So he'd helped.

Of course, Brahms hadn't planned on revealing himself so soon. He'd planned on waiting until Greta was more comfortable with the routine and then very slowly making her realize that the doll wasn't haunted like she believed but that it was someone very human making all of the seemingly supernatural things happen. Brahms could be patient when he needed to be.

But then that man, Cole, showed up and ruined everything. He'd made pretty Greta cry. Brahms had been ready to kill the man right then and there, but he had managed to restrain himself for Greta's sake. It hadn't been time yet. So he had used rat blood to try to scare Cole into leaving.

Instead, it had just made Cole angry, and he had blamed Greta for doing it. And then he'd shattered the doll.

That had been the final straw. Brahms hadn't cared about hiding anymore, Cole had needed to go. So he'd broken the mirror, revealed himself, and helped Greta, just as she'd asked, by killing Cole.

But immediately, he'd seen that Greta was scared of him and he knew that he had revealed himself too early.

He'd tried to make her understand, tried to tell her that he'd be good, that she didn't have to be scared, he'd even restrained himself from killing Malcom, but she'd still stabbed him with a screwdriver and left him to die alone.

Fortunately, he'd been able to crudely stitch up the wound, but he'd still found himself completely alone in the large mansion for the first time in his life. No mother, no father, no Greta.

He hadn't known what he was going to do…until Adalyn showed up pleading for someone to let her inside.

He was already several steps ahead with Adalyn because she'd known about his existence almost immediately. He hadn't had to waste time getting her to bond with that doll first. He'd been able to touch her and hold her already. She'd been scared when she'd first seen him, but that was okay. Strangers were scary, and he knew that he was a lot bigger than her which made him seem even more intimidating to someone as tiny as her. That was the whole reason he'd wanted to wait to reveal himself to Greta. So that when he finally showed her who he really was, he wouldn't be a stranger and she wouldn't be scared of him.

It would've worked too if it wasn't for stupid Cole.

But that didn't matter anymore. Now Adalyn was here, and he liked her even more. The moment he'd realized how scared she was of him and that she thought he would hurt her like the other bad men, he'd been patient whenever she flinched and tried to make her more comfortable in the house and around him. He'd even given her one of his old teddy bears to hold which she must've liked because it was currently sitting next to her while she was sleeping.

She was already so much more comfortable with him now that she'd told him a secret she hadn't told anyone else and then said that he was a good listener.

Brahms smiled again as he remembered the compliment, but then his face darkened when he recalled one of her questions: if his parents loved him.

Brahms thought they had. They'd protected him by hiding him in the walls and making sure that he still had everything he needed to survive. They'd given him everything he'd ever asked for.

But if they had loved him…why had they left him? Why had they said in their letter that they couldn't live with themselves? What was so wrong with him?

Brahms looked back up at Adalyn.

She wouldn't leave him. She wouldn't hurt him. She liked him. She said herself that they were friends.

Very soon, he would show her that he was more than that.