Chapter 18

So, Joshua, what are your plans for the evening? Joshua thought. Well, I'm gonna build a fort with my sister, a former cop, and four giant fuzzy animatronics.

He shook his head at the absurdity of…everything…as he stood with the animatronics and Celestine. They were clustered in a circle on the stage, and they were all looking down at Ava, who was scribbling on her drawing pad. Under the headline fort, she was sketching a rudimentary structure.

"It needs to be big," Ava said as her pencil skimmed over the paper, "so we can all fit inside."

Joshua couldn't take it anymore. "Wait," he said. "Hold on. I know this is very exciting and new, Ava, but I think we need to set some ground rules, okay? I mean, these things," he gestured at the behemoth animatronics who stood with him, "are big and are probably dangerous, so…" He turned toward Celestine, who stood next to Flamer. "What do you think?"

"I think some of the tables and chairs are probably still strong enough to use for the fort," Celestine responded.

Ava turned to look at the pile of furniture Joshua had left at one side of the dining room, and smiled. "Everyone, follow me!" She jumped up and leaped off the stage. As she ran toward the table-and-chair pile, Joshua met Celestine's gaze. She grinned at him, shrugging.

The animatronics were already stomping across the stage to follow Ava. Why not? Joshua thought as he and Celestine trailed after them.

For the next several minutes, Ava went from being Ava the little girl to Ava the construction foreman. Waving her hands and pointing her finger and standing with her fists on her hips while she waited for her orders to be fulfilled, she set the animatronics, and Joshua and Celestine, to work untangling the pile of broken and battered furniture.

The animatronics were uncommonly strong. Joshua wasn't sure if that strength was robotic or ghostly, and he didn't want to think about it. Therefore, it didn't take much time for them to extract several tables and chairs that were, though beaten up by the vandals, structurally sound.

Once these materials were gathered, Ava directed Joshua and Celestine and the robots in the assembly of a wacky-looking, four-sided structure. The arrangement of tables and chairs would not have passed any building code on the planet, but it was unexpectedly fun to build.

Joshua surprised himself when he began laughing along with Ava and Celestine as they worked with the animatronics. He even contributed his own ideas to the structure, tapping into his old enjoyment of building things. He came up with a way to interweave the chairs that helped everything be more stable.

Of course, the big animatronics were intimidating, but they were capable of acting goofy, too. Spriggy, for instance, staggered around with a chair balanced on his pink nose, and Captain Fluffy pretended to use the table as a pirate ship. The animatronic Eevee's pantomime of riding ocean waves was so convincing that he called out, "AVA-AST YE LANDLUB-BBERS-S!" This earned him a big smile from Celestine, and an eruption of giggles from Ava. Watching everything go down, Joshua couldn't honestly remember the last time he'd had such a good time.

When they'd managed to stack the tables three-high and get them linked together with chairs well enough to be relatively stable, Ava stepped back and assessed their work. "It needs to be higher," she decreed.

Joshua, Celestine, and the animatronics exchanged looks. Joshua knew he was getting used to the big metal beasts when he easily read skepticism in their expressions.

When no one moved, Ava said, "Come on, guys! More tables!"

"You heard the boss," Joshua said to the animatronics. He tried to ignore the flutter of fear in his belly when they all turned and flashed their big teeth his way.

Without the use of a crane, Joshua didn't know how they'd stack more tables on the already tall structure, but he'd figured he'd humor his sister. Once they'd gathered the tables, she'd see it was a futile endeavor, and she'd give up.

Or so he thought.

He had underestimated the animatronics, both their devotion to Ava and their teamwork. A few minutes later, he was watching in awe as Flamer and Spriggy, each gripping two legs of a table, rode on Ducky's and Captain Fluffy's shoulders. Thus elevated, they managed to lift the table to the top of the stack. If they could get it to balance in place, it would extend the now-much-taller fort almost to the dining room ceiling.

Joshua took Ava's hand and drew her back away from the fort as they watched Spriggy and Flamer set the table in place. Celestine joined Joshua and Ava, and all three of them looked on, breath collectively held, as the two massive animatronics let go of the table.

The table-and-chair skyscraper wobbled like a giant, unsteady tower. Joshua was sure it was going to come tumbling down. But it didn't.

Ava broke free of Joshua's grasp. She threw two triumphant fists above her head. "Yes!" she shouted.

"I'll be…" Joshua said. Who knew his sister had architectural talent? She might have a career ahead of her.

Ava skipped toward the animatronics. "You did it!" she trilled.

Spriggy and Flamer, still on Ducky's and Captain Fluffy's shoulders, gave each other a high-five. Ducky, getting in the spirit, threw out his arms in celebration. "I KNEW-EW IT WA-A-AS GON-NA HOLD-D-D-D!" the animatronic Quaxly said.

Oops, Joshua thought.

He saw the cascade effect in his mind before it unfolded. Ducky's movement threw off the equilibrium that was holding Flamer and Spriggy aloft. Both animatronics ended up losing their balance. Ducky stumbled one way, and Captain Fluffy reeled the other. And then there was an animatronic blur of all four metal and fur Pokémon tumbled to the dining room floor.

They hit the linoleum with a whomp that would have been bone-cracking if they hadn't been made of metal. The entire dining room rattled and rolled like it was caught up in an earthquake. Joshua and Celestine had to widen their stances to stay upright, and Joshua managed to grab Ava before the ripple effect of the concussion knocked her off her feet.

As soon as the tremors stopped, Ava shouted, "Guys!" She dashed over to the upended animatronics.

Celestine was close on Ava's heels. Joshua, irrationally concerned about the animatronics, hurried after Celestine, even though he had no idea what he could do for the robots if they were "hurt."

Ava reached the heap of fur and metal. "Are you okay?" she asked.

A few seconds of squirming robotic limbs and more thuds on the floor. Then four fuzzy thumbs shot up through the convulsing bundle. "WE'RE-E DOI-N-NG A-A OKAY-Y!" Flamer's voice rang out, now glitchier than ever.

Joshua couldn't help himself. He burst out laughing. Celestine and Ava joined him.

After that, Joshua pretty much forgot that the animatronics were animatronics, so much so that when they all crawled inside of their completed fort, he had no problem lying on his back next to Captain Fluffy. He did prefer, however, the warmth of Celestine, who was pressed up against his other side.

He thought the completed fort was incredibly well-structured once it was done. After the animatronics had righted themselves, everyone had worked together to fill in the gaps in their edifice with more chairs. The result was a structure that had remarkable symmetry - an equal number of chairs tucked between the legs of each table - and even a semblance of style. He thought the combination of chrome tables and plastic chairs created a pretty cool modernistic design.

And as soon as he had that thought, he snorted inwardly. What was happening to him? He'd just built a fort with possessed animatronics and now he was getting all artsy-fartsy.

"I like it in here," Celestine said.

"Me too," Ava replied.

The four animatronics reached their thumbs into the air again. The repeated gesture made Joshua smile.

"But I think," Ava went on, "that it's gonna rain soon." She sat up. "And my friends can't get wet because they're made of electricity."

"Sounds like we need a roof," Celestine replied before Joshua could pooh-pooh his sister's critique of what they'd built.

Celestine's knuckles grazed Joshua's head. He liked the feel of her skin against his. "Josh," she said, "why don't we see what we can find?"

Joshua trailed Celestine down the back hallway. Dusty, musty, and even darker than the front hallway, this part of Spriggy's wasn't his favorite.

"What are we looking for, exactly?" he asked.

"Tablecloths. They used to keep them back here" - Celestine gestured down the hall - "for big events."

Joshua shot a look at her. She had an awful lot of knowledge about this place. It was one thing, he thought, to know the building's layout and its history, but she knew about tablecloths and where they're kept? What was up with that?

Joshua eyed her back as she stepped out ahead of him and opened a closed door. She disappeared through the doorway.

"Remind me of how you know stuff like that?" he called after her.

Silence came from behind the door. He frowned. The mystery of Celestine was starting to really trouble him. He clamped his teeth together and went after her.

Right, he thought, remembering his tour of the building as he stepped into an even mustier space. This was the main storage room. Cluttered with stacks of collapsing boxes and decorated with cobwebs, the storage room was stuffed with several rows of floor-to-ceiling metal shelves. The shelves, and everything else in the same as it had been the last time he'd been in here.

Midway along the outermost row of dust-laden shelving, a smaller door gaped open. It was the entrance to the boiler room. From the scraping and tapping within that room, Joshua could tell Celestine was in there. He stepped forward and looked through the door. Sure enough, Celestine was off to one side of the boiler, rummaging in a semi-crushed cardboard box on the top of a leaning stack of similar boxes.

Joshua wrinkled his nose. The boiler room smelled like rotten eggs. He knew the smell came from sulfur gas, which emanated from the growth of bacteria encouraged by the warm, moist enclosed space in the boiler. He hated that smell.

He backed away from the boiler and left Celestine to her tablecloth hunt. He moved farther into the storage room. Just to amuse himself, he started scanning the shelves. He hadn't looked around much when he'd been in here before.

He reached the end of one row, which contained nothing but empty shelves or shelves stacked with pizza pans. He started to turn to go up the next row, which held a tangle of kitchen utensils and janitorial supplies, but then his gaze landed on…

His steps faltered. He stopped and stared.

Sitting on the ground, leaning against the gray cement blocks of the storage room's back wall, a small - about three feet tall - clearly decommissioned animatronic sat with its legs stretched out. It looked like an Amoonguss, the evolved form of the Foongus doll he'd seen before. This animatronic, which was actually more doll-like than robot-like, had rosy cheeks and a sweetly smiling doll face. The Amoonguss' chest was hinged open, and the metal cavity was bordered by a gruesome cage of severe-looking steel ribs. The contrast of the Amoonguss face and the shiny metal spoke-like protrusions was borderline sinister.

What are you? Joshua thought. Intrigued in spite of himself, he dropped to his heels and started extending a hand toward the lethal-looking tip of one of the ribs.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Celestine's voice so startled Joshua that he fell back onto his ass. He looked up.

She gestured at the metal ribs. "Those old mechanisms you see there are dangerous. A lot of the older animatronic models have them." Her irises did the light-purple to dark-purple thing again, and Joshua saw the familiar muscle twitch at her jawline.

She took a step back and foraged through the junk on the shelves. She pulled out a broom.

"These inner mechanical parts were designed to keep the animatronic parts locked in place so a person could safely wear the suit." She stepped forward in a flash and jabbed the handle of the broom into the animatronic's chest cavity.

A loud series of mechanical snaps clapped out a swift, almost hip-hop-sounding rhythm. The ribs sprang closed. The broom's wood handle cracked in half. "They're unstable," she said unnecessarily.

Joshua knew his mouth was hanging open. He inched away from the animatronic and then looked up at Celestine. "People wore those?" He returned his gaze to the metal parts. "You'd have to be suicidal to-"

"Like I said. Unstable."

He looked back at Celestine. Her eyes had turned an even deeper purple, blue-violet now. Almost black. Her chin was lifted, and her eyes were slit nearly closed.

Who is this woman? Joshua asked himself. He was almost afraid to move, afraid that she would…do something bad to him.

A muffled burst of rock music reached into the storage room. Joshua's head whipped in that direction. What now?

"It's just the show music," Celestine explained. "The animatronics are probably putting on a performance for Ava."

Her voice was flat. And she wasn't smiling.

Joshua stood and brushed himself off. "Yeah," he said, "and Ava is probably dancing with them." His tone was light, and he smiled. He wanted to shift the mood, which was desolate. He could almost feel waves of despondency radiating from Celestine.

"Anything else you want to let me in on?" he asked. "Killer clowns? Fire-breathing Dragon-type Pokémon?"

Celestine's expression didn't change.

"I'm just curious," Joshua went on, "since you somehow seem to know everything else about this place."

Celestine turned away.

That angered Joshua. He took a step toward her and raised his voice. "What if Ava had come in here?" he shouted. "What if she'd found that thing?" He pointed at the Amoonguss, even though Celestine wasn't looking at him.

Then, she spun back toward Joshua, her expression now changed. Her eyes were almost spitting sparks, her irises turning more red than purple. "You brought her, Joshua! Not me!"

Joshua had no response for that.

The coals of her eyes cooled…just a little. "What I still can't wrap my head around is why. Honestly. Why'd you bring her?"

Joshua thought about lying, but maybe he and Celestine should stop that shit. "I think…the kids know who took my brother," he said.

Celestine's brows rose nearly to her hairline. Her anger was gone. Seeing this, Joshua rushed to explain. "I think…that they're connected somehow. It's hard to explain, but when I'm here, I feel closer to Sunny. My dreams are more…vivid. Almost like I can-"

"Change what happened?" Celestine filled in.

How does she know? Joshua asked himself.

"Have you asked them about this?" Celestine persisted.

"One of them. He seems to speak for the others."

"Blonde-haired girl?"

He nodded. "I don't think she likes me very much. But she likes Ava."

"And you figure if she won't tell you, she'll tell her."

Joshua shrugged.

Celestine put her hands on her hips. She sneered at him. "How stupid can you be?"

Joshua bristled at both her posture and her expression, but he said evenly, "I'm sorry?"

"Josh, you need to stop."

His bristles turned into spikes. "Honestly," he threw at her, "I don't really see how it's any of your business!"

Celestine - as if transporting herself through the spaces between them - was in his face. She grabbed him by his shirt collar. Her breath smelled sharp, even bitter. When she spoke, she nearly sounded like she was growling.

"I'm telling you to let. Him. Go."

Joshua couldn't have been any more taken aback if he'd been nose-to-muzzle with a snarling Pyroar. And maybe his reaction was plastered to his face, because Celestine once again moved in a flash. This time, she whipped back, ending up three feet away from him. She seemed to shrink into herself. Her face was bright red, and she dropped her gaze to the floor.

Joshua didn't take pity on her shame. Instead, he blurted the question that wouldn't leave his head. "Who the fuck are you?!"

Celestine pulled in her shoulders. She didn't look up. "I'm…someone," she said in an almost little-girl voice, "someone who's trying to help you." She raised her gaze directly into Joshua's eyes. "You fucking idiot."

The last was said with a little more strength, but at least she didn't growl at him again. And apparently, she was done. She strode away. Joshua heard a rustling of papers. Footsteps. And a slammed door.