Chapter 17

Joshua carried his limp sister through her bedroom doorway. She'd fallen into a deep sleep in the car, and she'd snored most of the way home. He'd thought she might wake up when he lifted her out of the car, but she was totally out of it.

I guess playing with animatronics is exhausting, Joshua thought as he gently placed Ava in her bed.

He was trying to keep his mood light, but he wasn't really feeling it. The truth was that he was thoroughly frazzled by the night's events.

He pulled Ava's bright red blanket up to her shoulders. He watched her chest rise and fall slowly for a few seconds. Then he turned and started toward her door.

As he passed Ava's desk, his gaze landed on a pile of drawings and Pokémon cards. He hesitated, and then he stepped over to pick them up. He usually didn't pay a lot of attention to what Ava drew. Yes, he'd seen the drawings she'd done that included him, but he hadn't looked at anything she'd drawn lately, nor had he looked at any of her hundreds of cards. Given what had happened at Spriggy's, he had a sudden feeling that he should see what his sister had been up to.

Expecting to see Ava versions of the animatronics at Spriggy's, he flipped through the drawings. And he nearly dropped them. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Ava's drawings had improved a lot over the last year. She was no expert, but what she drew was usually recognizable.

The drawings Joshua held in his hand were clearly recognizable. He knew exactly what he was looking at.

He held in his hand a whole series of drawings of Ava playing with the children from his dream. And one of them…

Joshua pulled the fourth drawing from the pile. Frowning at it, he placed the others back on Ava's desk. He folded up the drawing he'd taken and put it in his pocket.

By the time dinner rolled around, Joshua felt like a limp noodle. After he'd put Ava to bed, he'd tried to sleep himself. Visions of Ava's drawings, however, kept him awake. He was only able to get a few snatches of dreamless sleep. He'd finally given up and tried to jump-start his body with his usual regime of push-ups. The exercise had woken him up enough to be functional, but he'd still dragged all day.

All day, he tried on and off to get a hold of Ann. Why had she flaked out on him? Sure, he hadn't paid her, but it wasn't like her to just ignore him.

Somehow, he made it through the day. He even put together a meal, grilled cheese sandwiches and canned tomato soup. And now, shockingly, Ava was eating it.

Watching her plow through her sandwich, Joshua leaned back in his seat and spun his spoon around and around on the kitchen table. Pleased with his sister's appetite, he inhaled the tang of the soup and the cheddar cheese he'd put in the sandwiches. And he tried to relax. But the thoughts in his brain were too much of a thicket, a thicket with thorns.

Ava finished her sandwich and raised her soup bowl with both hands. She slurped down the soup and put down the bowl. She let out a loud burp.

Giving Joshua a sideways glance, she giggled and said, "'Scuse me."

Joshua put his elbows on the table. "Ava, we need to talk."

Clearly noticing his serious tone, Ava frowned. "I said 'scuse me."

Joshua waved a hand. "Not about that." He leaned forward. "You know what happened last night isn't…normal…right?"

Ava wiped the soup mustache from her face. "I'm not stupid, Josh."

"No, you're not." Joshua chewed the inside of his cheek. How to word this…"So, the machines," he began.

"My friends." Ava corrected.

"Sorry. Your friends." Joshua collected himself. "Uh, are they…?"

"Ghosts?"

Okay, he thought. That was easier than I expected. "Yeah."

Ava tilted her head and gave her brother a "Way to catch on, Captain Obvious" look. "Of course," she said. "How else could they make the robots move?"

Joshua nodded. "So, they're kids, then. Like you?"

Ava nodded, but then shook her head. "They're younger," she clarified.

"And they've explained to you how they got to be the way they are now?" Joshua asked.

Ava dropped her gaze to her empty soup bowl. Her shoulders hunched inward. "They don't like to talk about it." She lifted her head and pushed her bowl toward her brother. "Can I have more soup?"

Almost glad for the distraction, Joshua took the bowl and jumped up. "Sure."

He stepped to the stove. A half-empty pot of soup sat on one of the burners. He knew the soup was cold, so he turned the burner on. He thought he was doing a very good job of acting like he was having a perfectly ordinary conversation with his sister. Doesn't everyone talk about ghosts at the dinner table?

His patient, calm demeanor wasn't genuine as Ava probably thought it was. Inside, his adrenal glands were in overdrive. He had an agenda, but he thought he had to get at it in a round-about way.

He picked up a wooden spoon and stirred the soup as it started to steam a little. "You know we used to have a brother, right?" he asked Ava without turning around. "Sunny. I know I don't talk about him much."

"Neither did Mom or Dad," Ava replied.

Joshua blinked. He was surprised Ava remembered. She never spoke about their parents; she'd only been five or six when their parents had died.

"It was hard for them," Joshua continued. "Hard for me, too." He turned away from the stove and dug into his pocket. He pulled out the folded-up drawing he'd tucked away earlier that day. He handed the folded drawing to Ava. "Can you explain this to me?"

Ava spread open the drawing on the table. She looked down at it. Joshua didn't need to look at it again. He knew it was the drawing of a black car with a blurry-faced child - a child clutching a green toy airplane - in the back window.

Ava looked at Joshua, her face tight. She pressed her lips together and blinked several times. A classic "you caught me" look.

"Do you know what this is?" Joshua retook his seat and pointed at the drawing.

Ava didn't speak. She studied the table.

"I'm not mad at you, Ava," Joshua said. "I just want to know."

Another few seconds passed. Then Ava said, "It's when Sunny got taken."

Joshua leaned forward. Little fireworks of excitement were sizzling through his whole body. "Who told you about this, Ava?"

More silence.

"Was it a little girl with blonde hair?" Joshua pushed.

Ava nodded. "I don't know her name."

"But she's one of your friends?"

"Yes."

"And when did you meet them?"

Before Ava could answer, a spitting fizzle came from the stove. Joshua looked over to see the soup boiling over. He leaped up and shifted the pot to a cold burner. He turned off the stove. He turned back to Ava. She had picked up her napkin and was tearing it into little pieces, clearly upset.

Joshua crouched down next to her. He put a hand on the drawing.

"Ava," he said in the gentlest voice he could muster, "this is very important. Did the blonde girl ever say anything about the person who drove the black car?" He tapped the car in the drawing. "Please think hard."

Ava shook her head. "No. No, she didn't." She looked up and frowned at her brother. He knew he hadn't hidden his disappointment. "But…" Ava went on.

"Yes?"

"Can I ask her?"

Joshua let out a long pent-up breath. This was where he'd been heading all along, and he smiled. "I'd really appreciate it if you would."

Celestine looked at her watch as she let Spriggy's front door clang shut beyond her. It wouldn't be long before Joshua got here.

She glanced around the empty lobby. The walls still had gaping holes, and the poster frames were bare of glass, but the floor had been swept up. Josh was busy last night, she thought.

Her boots thudded on the floor as she strode forward, heading through the archway into the dining room. She looked around and nodded in satisfaction. He'd cleaned up in here, too. She glanced across the room and cocked her head. He'd left the stage curtains open. Strange.

She eyed the animatronics. They were poised in show-ready positions, frozen on the stage as if in mid-performance.

Okay, Celestine thought.

She turned away from the stage, walking slowly toward the dining room's right wall. Her gaze locked on the children's drawings that covered the wall. Actually, her gaze locked on just one of the drawings. It was the one she always had to revisit - the one that called to her like a siren song.

We love Spriggy FazSprig! We love Spriggy FazSprig!

She stepped in front of the central drawing on the wall. She stared at the image of the giant Sprigatito and the five smiling children, feeling the blood drain from her face, as it always had when she looked at this drawing. She shivered as the sounds of screams began to ring in her ears. In her mind. The long, agonized screams of five little children. And through their screams, she could faintly hear something else, something worse. The sound of something sharp - a knife - slicing and cutting through flesh.

How could you?

Joshua's car rattled up next to a familiar-looking black SUV parked in the spot he'd been using, near the pizzeria's front door. He stared at the car and looked at the pizzeria. He frowned. What's she doing here? He wondered.

"Is that woman here?" Ava asked. "Celestine?"

Joshua nodded but didn't respond. He was still wondering why Celestine was here.

"My friends talk about her sometimes," Ava added.

Surprised, Joshua turned around and looked at Ava. "What do they say?"

Ava shrugged. "That she's nice."

Joshua looked back at Celestine's SUV. He liked her, but he wasn't so sure he liked that she was here now. He returned his attention back to his sister. "If I told you to wait in the car, would you?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

Ava rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't."

At least she's honest, Joshua thought. He sighed and opened his car door, but before he could throw a leg out of the car, Ava had flung her door open, bounded out of the car, and was racing for Spriggy's entrance.

"Ava, wait!"

The night sky was a quilt of black and gray so tightly tucked in that the moon couldn't peek out at all. The building's lights were out, so a legion of spirits - or, more accurately, spirits possessing robots - could have been lurking, and Joshua couldn't have seen them.

He hustled to grab Ava's things and his own backpack. He locked up the car and rushed after his sister.

"You can't do that," he huffed when he caught up to her. "It's not safe."

Ava was hopping from one foot to the other in front of the locked door. She threw Joshua a look that made him feel like some fuddy-duddy asshole. He gave in and unlocked the door. As soon as the door was open, Ava brushed past him and ran through the lobby. She scampered toward the archway.

"I'm back!" she called as she breezed into the dining room.

The front door of Spriggy's clanked shut. Joshua, still not happy with Ava cavorting with giant robots…or ghosts…dropped his backpack and Ava's things, and trotted after her.

"Ava, wait up!"

He reached the archway just in time to watch his sister wave at Celestine, who stood near the wall of children's drawings. "Hey, Celestine!" Ava sang out.

Celestine, Joshua noted, didn't look the least bit surprised to see Ava. She waved at her back as Ava darted toward the stage, where the animatronics were clustered as stiff as statues.

Joshua, torn between his need to talk to Celestine and his imperative to keep Ava safe, hesitated in the middle of the dining room. He was, therefore, close enough to see Celestine's reaction when the animatronics stopped being statues and became galumphing furry robots making awkward attempts to play like children.

Ava scrambled up onto the stage to greet her animatronic friends as Celestine ambled over to stand next to Joshua. She said nothing, and neither did he. They both just watched Ava and the animatronics in silence.

Giggling, Ava poked Ducky in the middle of his bib and shouted, "Tag! You're it!" Ducky opened his robotic beak in a big grin and gracelessly doddered off behind the half-open stage curtains. Ava and the other animatronics watched for a few seconds, then started chasing the giant Quaxly.

"I WONDE-ER HOW THE SHOW-OW'S GONN-A-A END-D!" Spriggy said loudly in his typical glitchy voice. His head seemed to twitch a little in between words.

Celestine elbowed Joshua lightly. "Hey, Josh."

Joshua kept his gaze on the animatronic antics on the stage. "Celestine," he replied.

They both continued looking straight ahead. Joshua kept his face blank, primarily because he hadn't decided which of his battling emotions was going to win.

"I guess you've figured it out," Celestine said.

Joshua finally turned to her. He shot her a "ya think?" look.

Celestine was giving him a half-smile, but her gaze was empty. He couldn't tell what she was feeling any more than he could figure out his own emotions.

"You mean, did I figure out that there are ghost children possessing giant robot Pokémon?" he asked. "Yeah, thanks so much for the heads-up on that."

"Technically, they're animatronics. Not robots." Celestine corrected.

A squeal of laughter turned them both back toward the stage. Apparently, the tag game was over. Flamer the Fuecoco was giving Ava a ride on her shoulders. Joshua really wanted to get her away from the giant robot; every protector instinct in his body was screaming, "No!" But Ava was clearly thrilled.

He turned back to Celestine. "What are you doing here?"

Celestine pursed her lips. "I did say I'd check on you." She nodded toward Ava. "So what's she doing here, Josh?"

"Can't reach my babysitter."

Celestine's half-smile had disappeared. She'd replaced it with her serious stare, which was dialed up to an eleven.

"Hey, you guys!" Ava called. "We need help!"