AUTHOR'S NOTE- PLEASE READ

Hah, I was writing this, and like the moron I am, I closed the tab as I was about to save. |D Oh, me, you really get on my nerves when you do stuff like that.

ANYHOO.
This is where my OCs and the general setting are established. I don't describe my OC the chapter is told from, so you could find her eference on my deviantART account (which is nukathefox, by the way), and if you want to see all of my OCs, they're on there, too, just not Intel yet. But I do have one reference which is vague and sketchy but it encomapsses all of them. But beware- there are spoilers in the Artist's Comments.
Now, this chapter is where tehs tory starts getting creepy. If you listen to music wathcing this, I suggest listening to some ncie movie score at first, then gradually start listening to scary music (classic horror movie themes are the best, I listened to the Nightmare on Elm Street theme while typing the creepy part of this chapter, along with soem songs from The Birtdhay Massacre, but whatever.).

Now, then, onto the second chapter...

Slowly, the sun inched up over the horizon, painting the sky a lustrous gradient of pink, purple, and orange. I watched the picturesque sunrise through the window, and thought to myself, At least there is some beauty left in the world.

For two years now, nobody had been happy. After our wonderful Mistress suddenly left us, the house had fallen into a deep depression. But it gave me a certain warm joy to watch the sunrise every morning. It sort of became a habit. I wonder if anyone does this as well?

I rubbed my tired eyes as my throat forced out a huge yawn. I supposed I shouldn't be up so early just to watch a sunrise. But I couldn't help myself. This was one of the very few pleasures I still had. Now that I was unable to serve my purpose as an appliance, I didn't have very much to live for. I could have ended my life long ago. An appliance has no life unless they are used… but I still didn't. We found ways to cope with the hopelessness.

"'Mornin', Ostera" said a drowsy voice from behind me. I looked behind me and saw Java rubbing her eyes tiredly. Java was a blue-and-green lava lamp with bicolor eyes and a cheery smile. She was almost always happy, full of life and eager to begin a new day. She helped to keep the house stable and everyone feeling better after the Mistress left. She had also helped me stop from totally going off the deep end after… it happened.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah. Watching that sunrise again, I see," Java said with a grin.

"Obviously. I can't help it, the need to get up and watch it every single morning is wired into my brain."

"Sure it is."

"Hey, maybe you could get up and watch it with me some day. You never know, you just might enjoy it," I said casually.

"What? Get up at three in the morning to watch a bunch of pretty colors in the sky?"

"Well, I don't mind it."

"That's you, Ostera; maybe I don't."

"How do you know if you never try it, hm?"

"Nope. Not gonna do it."

This was usually how conversations around the house went. The kind of banter you would listen in on if you were at, oh, say, a coffee shop. Nothing unusual, just everyday talk. But it wasn't like that a while ago. You should know why by now.

Then again, before our current commander took over, we weren't allowed to do anything short of serving our Mistress in her everyday needs. Life was strict, and many appliances were killed. It wasn't a very good system, but nobody said anything, too afraid of being electrocuted or drowned. The ruler then, a self-righteous lamp by the name of Elight, was utterly homicidal, on the edge of clinical insanity. But then, when Intel, a wise lady computer, came along, the house was no longer a fearful place, and we were able to do whatever we pleased, aside form the basic Unspoken Rules of appliances, every household machine's code of conduct. It was truly the good life.

But soon, that was going to change.

As Java and I retreated downstairs, still softly arguing about why me watching the sunrise was crazy, the house started to awaken. The other residents began to stir and yawned themselves awake. Gradually we all gathered near the center of the living room, waiting for Intel to come downstairs and give us our morning run-down. Though there was nothing much to do anymore, we filled up our daily schedules with keeping the house clean and orderly, playing games, and other such things. I did miss warming up a piece of toast or two, but sometimes within the fun, I would forget such thoughts.

Intel knew how to push sadness into the back of everyone's mind. That was why she became leader; she had a certain charisma about her that made people charmed to her command. Unlike Elight, who ruled by fear and death, Intel ran the program with compassion to everyone and let the household have the vote.

I didn't realize how very lucky we were that Intel was so strong and was able to push Elight out of power and into the shadows.

Java started waving to the other side of the room, and saw Toni, our television friend, meander toward us with a grin. Toni was a fairly large silver TV, who didn't walk around just by herself, but with the whole entertainment system and cabinet along for the ride. She communicated by a personification on the screen, a female reporter with short, elegant black hair and a fancy blue suit. Like Java, she was good at making people happy, but that was her job; she let everyone watch old movies the Mistress left behind on her.

"Hey, y'all," she beamed. "Ready for the day, or what?"

"Sure, all depends on whether or not you choose to put on MTV or paid programming," I said with a smirk.

"Hey, now! It's not like I can help it if we get limited reception out here and that's the only thing that's on in the morning!" Toni stuck out her lower lip in a fake pout.

"Good point, but after hearing the same advertisement for a 'great new diet program' for the fifth time and hearing some dumb rap star's newest smash hit, we want a little variety," Java added.

"Did somebody say 'variety'?" a high voice said form behind us. "Because I know for sure Toni has none of that!"

I turned around and grinned. "Oh, and you do, Lennoxx?" Lennoxx was a black alarm-clock radio with bright green fiberoptic numbers that doubled as eyes, and a thin dial to the side of her screen. She didn't have an apparent mouth, but rather, she spoke through the tiny speakers embedded inside her. She was the comedian of the house… literally. She devised her own talk shows with herself to entertain everyone in the house, and played music when someone felt like listening to music. She was the soul of the home, and was the reason none of us completely lost ourselves in thoughts of uselessness and grief. She knew exactly how to make people laugh, and always made that extra effort to make everyone happy.

"But of course!" she countered. "I can access every station in the nation, even out here in the booniest of boonies- what more do you want from me?"

"Oh, I don't know, try connecting to all the stations in the world, then I'll say you have some variety," Java challenged with a smirk.

"Yeah." Lennoxx rolled her eyes. "Because German talk shows about… lederhosen and schnitzels… come in lots of handy when you live in America."

"All right, everyone!" Intel's voice boomed through the throng that had gathered around the couch. "Quiet down, we'll begin the start off today's activities."

The chatter and snippets of conversation that floated around the room gradually died down. We all stared intently up at the computer seated upon the leather couch, smiling warmly. She then spoke out in her loud but sweet voice, "Today is a new day, a day that we are all together and well. So let us make good use of this new day. But, before we begin today's activities, does anybody have any announcements to make?"

Everyone unconsciously looked around to see if someone would raise their cord. I definitely didn't expect anyone to, the days were mundane but satisfying, and nobody really had announced anything in previous meetings. But, much to everyone's surprise, a single shaky cord inched up from the crowd, and I heard Stereo's voice say sheepishly, "U-uhm… I have an announcement…"

Intel raised an eyebrow in question. "Really? Well, then, let's hear it."

Stereo shifted her weight a bit and said, "W-well… Blender and I woke up this morning, and we both noticed that Mr. Coffee was gone. And I know he was here last night. So I really don't know where he went… does anyone else know?"

Nobody said anything. Java and I exchanged incredulous looks. That was strange, nobody wakes up not in their designated place. At least nobody that we knew of.

Intel looked slightly worried, but not panicked. Blender was almost in tears at the notion of her close friend going missing, babbling and prattling mindlessly, shaking like a bare tree in the wind. A quiet murmuring swept through the crowd.

"Mr. Coffee isn't like that," Lennoxx said restlessly. "He's the uptight and punctual guy in he house, he doesn't just get up and walk out in the middle of the night, much less miss our morning gathering."

"Seriously," Java added. "And I don't know what Blender will do without him."

"Well, where would he go randomly in the middle of the night?" I asked.

That made all of us quiet.

"Everyone, please, calm down!" Intel cried over the din. The talking ceased. "I'm sad to say that we may have to postpone our plans from now to noon- we have to find Mr. Coffee. Split up into pairs of two or three and look in as many places as you can, we'll find him eventually if we all look together."

Quickly all the appliances in the house got into groups and set off in their own direction. Toni and Lennoxx got together and went out the front door to examine the front yard. That was very brave of them, too, because they were risking breaking one of the Unspoken Rules- never reveal yourself to a human. Java looked down at me and said, "Well, where do you want to start looking?"

"…Maybe… the back yard?"

"That sounds good, I didn't see anyone go out that way."

So we opened the back yard door and stepped out onto the dewy overgrown grass. It was exhilarating- neither of us had really been outside before, besides a few incidents of some appliances falling out the kitchen window and into the rosebushes by accident. So being able to walk around in the grass was an experience in and of itself.

We checked in the rose bushes beneath the window, everywhere in the tall grass, the shed that was slowly falling apart, and within the nooks and crannies of the trees and their roots. Nothing. No Mr. Coffee anywhere.

"Hey, Mr. Coffee!" Java shouted, attempting to get his attention, wherever he was. "Blender's about to have a nervous breakdown; c'mon, buddy, come back!" Still nothing.

"Mr. Coffee, please, come out!" I cried. "Everyone's worried about you!"

I sighed as my echo returned my call. "Gosh, he could be anywhere… I wonder if he heard me, and he's just hiding?"

"Why would he do that?" Java asked.

I shrugged and shook my head. "I really don't know." As I looked around, I noticed the two steel doors near the living room that led to the basement were propped open. I stared in awe. Nobody went down in the basement, at least not anyone with any common sense. It was much too dark for anyone to walk around in, and nobody really knew what kind of things were lurking down there. Even the Mistress was scared to go inside when she had to fetch supplies to do yard work. As I wondered what might have been beyond those old rusty doors, I heard Java walk away form me, saying something about the garden, but I was too engulfed in my thoughts to hear her correctly.

I found myself slowly stepping through the overgrown jungle of grass toward the basement. Some undeniable force within me was making my legs move and direct me toward the forbidding darkness beyond the old stairwell.

I paused before I began the descent down to the murky blackness, turning toward the garden to see Java meandering through the dying stalks and weeds calling out to Mr. Coffee. I hated to just leave her, but Intel did say to search wherever we could.

I took a step onto the first rotting wooden step, which gave a tiny squeak as I lay my weight onto it, and took a deep breath. Why, oh why, am I doing this? I wondered.

As I walked, step by careful step, down into the depths of the basement, not only did a sour, moist smell fog my senses, but I could hear voices echoing through the darkness- shouting voices, brutal voices, screaming voices. When I finally reached the concrete flooring, I noticed that a few old light bulbs were switched on, giving the basement a feeble, flickering yellow light that was very eerie and disorienting. I still couldn't make out anything the shouting and screaming were saying, but I could feel somebody was very afraid and that somebody was trying to hurt the person who was screaming. I gulped and kept walking, wishing I would have just stayed with Java.

The lights may have been dim, but once my eyes adjusted to the gloom, a ghastly scene unfolded around me. The concrete floor was patched and splattered with not only water and mold, but oil and grease. Oil and grease was the essential lifeblood of all machines, and the sight of the dark puddles that lay scattered about the floor made me nauseous. Against the walls, boxes upon boxes upon boxes were stacked in piles up to the ceiling, most moist and decaying with the mildew and mold infecting the cardboard. But not only were there boxes that were stacked in unkempt piles. I cringed in horror and swallowed down bile as I made out the dark forms of dead and broken appliances and machines that lay strewn in between the towers of cardboard boxes. Some just lay on the floor as if they were just carelessly thrown there, but then I became even more horrified as I saw a few hanging form the pipe works that protruded from the walls by their necks by old extension cords. Most of them had gashes engraved into their enamel or chrome, dark, crusted over with oil or grease, and crawling with insects. Some just lay in an eternal coma, bodies splayed out and their eyes rolled back into their faces.

I wanted to run back up the stairs and away from this gruesome slaughterhouse-like hallway, but again, some brave force within me kept me going through the carnage and toward the voices.

The voices were getting clearer, and I could pick out what they were saying now.

"Please, no! I beg of you, please! I didn't do anything!" a voice with a thick French accent screamed.

"Shut up!" a high, scratchy female voice snapped. I heard a slapping sound, metal against metal. "Shut up and stay quiet, you disgusting lowlife! Like your kind have any excuse to even grace the planet with your caffeine-filled presence!"

It was then I realized who was screaming.

Mr. Coffee, the coffee maker everyone in the house was looking for. Apparently, somebody was keeping him down here, saying and doing terrible things to him, enough to make him plead for mercy in that hysterical tone. That wasn't like Mr. Coffee at all. He was a sophisticated and dignified kind of machine, one who never raised his voice.

But who was the second voice from?

I noticed the carnage and boxes were thinning as I walked still farther down the hallway. It was then I was the edge of a bathtub, and a crowd gathered around it, consisting almost entirely of lamps. They were all deathly silent as they watched the bathtub, apparently waiting for something. I crept a bit farther sideways, and saw Mr. Coffee, trembling, eyes wide and crazy with fear, poised on the edge of the bathtub, hooked up to an extension cord that plugged into a socket in the wall.

Behind him stood someone I thought none of us would ever see again.

Elight.

The homicidal, cruel former ruler of the house stood behind Mr. Coffee, a grinning morbidly with her cord grasping Mr. Coffee, ready to push him off the edge and into the water of the bathtub.

That, right there, is any appliance's worst nightmare: falling into water while plugged in.

And Mr. Coffee was just one step away from a horrible, frightening death.

Elight was a tall lamp with a silver head, a black base, neck, and cord, with startling green eyes that seemed to glow with an eerie light, that were a very stark contrast to the rest of her body because of the dark circles that were underneath them. Her default expression was usually one of anger or spite, but now she grinned with malice, her eyes wild as she stared into the crowd that seemed to be awaiting Mr. Coffee's death.

But… why?

I was going to find out soon enough.

I snuck behind an old box and observed the scene from there, careful not to be seen by anyone.

"P-p-please!" Mr. Coffee cried, squeezing his eyes shut. "Don't kill me! Blender simply won't survive without me! Please!"

"I said shut up, you waste of plastic!" Elight snarled. "Unless you really want the knife treatment…"

Mr. Coffee didn't say anything, only sobbed and continued to shake in fear.

"Now, then." She cleared her throat, and raised her voice to address the silent crowd. "As we all know, most of our punishments have been ones of failure. Some of our victims have gotten away and back into Intel's fractured idea of society. But recently, all our victims have been successfully stored in the prison and ready for the mass execution we have been devising."

Mass…. execution? I shuddered. What was she doing?

"Last night, we captured this victim-" she shook Mr. Coffee as if to make a point "-to start the first execution of many. Today, you shall see justice reborn once again, and our glory will be restored to everything it once was!"

A cheering rose up from the crowd. I gulped down the bile rising in my throat and expected the worst.

"Begone, vile impurity!" Elight shouted with homicidal delight. "For we shall take the world without you!"

And with that, Mr. Coffee was shoved brutally off the edge and into the water.

I cringed and simply stared in horror as Mr. Coffee was electrocuted. The room was cast in a bluish light from the sparks and volts shooting through the room. He writhed and flailed about, splashing water everywhere in the process, screaming so agonizingly I thought I could feel his pain. Elight was chuckling madly, staring at the dying coffee maker with such malice, it made me scared to even look at her.

I turned around quickly so as not to see the sickening execution that was taking place in front of me. I had to get out. I started to run, but my cord got caught in a nick in the ground. I heard Mr. Coffee go silent, something splashing, then a sharp thud as metal hit the concrete. I could only assume Elight had taken him out and thrown him aside. Elight just laughed even more wildly, and my stomach turned at the horrid sound of her shrill laughter. I almost started to hyperventilate as I tugged at my cord, wishing I could just be back above ground already, away from this mess.

Finally, my cord came loose, but the force of the dislodging was so powerful I flew backward, straight into a tower of boxes and dead machines. The tower quivered, then fell forward, scattering wet cardboard and various junk all over the floor, the corpses around me being crushed under the weight of everything.

Elight's laughter stopped abruptly. "Intruder!" she shrieked. "Catch them, quickly!"

At her command, two lamps from the crowd broke off and ran toward the pile of boxes I had created. I hastily tried to get out from the tangle of box and corpse, but it was no use- in seconds, they had me secured in their grip with my hands bound behind my back and my mouth covered.

Elight was walking toward me with a sickly sweet grin, her fluorescent green eyes flashing. I squirmed in the lamps' grasp, but to no avail. I just looked back at her with wide, perhaps fearful, eyes, expecting the worst.

"Ostera, my dear," Elight crooned. "Such a long time since I last saw your pretty little face. I've missed you and your whining."

I tried to talk back, but Elight put one of her prongs on my lips. "Don't talk, love. It won't do you any good now. You're lucky I've spared your life after all that you've seen."

She suddenly braced a kitchen knife to my neck. Not a butter knife, either- I mean a sharp, cutting knife. It was stained with years of oil. I held my breath and wondered if Elight would slit my throat. But she didn't. "Now, listen closely, Princess." She inched her face close to mine, so close I could feel her warm breath. Her eyes were narrowed and her head was tilted downward, so that her green eyes were just neon slits on her face. "Once you go back up to that hellhole you call home, I don't want you to mention any of this to anyone. Not your friends, not Intel, nobody. Should word get around, I will personally bring you back down here, take away everything you hold sacred, beat you to within an inch of your life, and force you… to live. Have I made myself clear?"

Helplessly, I nodded. What else was I supposed to do?

She grinned. "Good then. Let her go."

The henchmen obliged, pushing me away as they did so. I stumbled a bit, and looked back up into the dark face of Elight. "It's been wonderful talking to you again, Ostera," she sneered. "Now, get lost, before I send you to the prison."

I didn't waste any time as I turned my back to her and fled, as fast as I could, through the carnage-filled hallway and up the stairs. When I reached fresh air and the still-moist grass, I quickly slammed the doors shut and lay against them, panting from my descent and growing horror. What Elight was doing was crazy. Though I still had no idea why our former ruler was killing innocent appliances like Mr. Coffee, I was still appalled. The image of Mr. Coffee being electrocuted, screaming and writhing in the water, flashed before me yet again, and I swallowed hard, fighting back nausea.

"The first execution of many" Elight had said… that meant anyone who lived in the house was next on their list.

Including me.

Soon, Java decided Mr. Coffee wasn't in the garden and found me by the basement.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I… I had a run-in with a rat," I lied. "I didn't find Mr. Coffee down there, though." I lied again.

"Thank goodness," Java sighed. "We would really think he was losing it if he was hiding down there, huh?"

"Y-yeah…"

She walked with me back into the house to find that nobody else had found him, which I knew would happen. Blender broke down, sobbing and saying it was all her fault that he wasn't to be found, Stereo all the while trying to comfort her friend in vain. I didn't say anything, remembering Elight's threat, which did not sound hollow at all, judging by her past acts of violence.

"We will have to accept the fact that a good friend has been lost," Intel unnecessarily.

Ha, more than you know, I thought.

"But we will go on with our lives. Though it is saddening indeed, we won't let something like this stop us from living." Don't be so quick to say something like that, I thought. Who knows what Blender will do now without her confidant.

Throughout the day I couldn't stop thinking about the execution and Elight's words. Apparently, there would be more deaths, and slowly the population up here would decline until nobody would be left but Elight and her lackeys. But one question bobbed about in my mind…

Why?

Well, I would soon get my answer.

From a very unexpected source.

Okay, then; first off, I apologize for not describing Intel's physical traits at all besides she was a computer, I couldn't find a good place to squeeze in a description. :( Hope you can forgvie me for that.
Secondly, I didn't say exactly what Elight's plan was, because there's no point in repeating it to her followers who already know the whole dealio, and I wanted you guys to guess. |D Go ahead, guess.
Thirdly... who else can imagine Elight going 'THIS IS SPARTAAAAA!" and kicking Mr. Coffee into the water? xDDDDDDDDD (Thank you, Kage, for that wonderful joke.)
Uh... yeah. That's all I got.

Reveiws are appreciated, ocne again. ^^ C'mon people, I don't bite. :3

Cheers,
~UltraVioletSpectrum (aka Mo)