Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The ride back was even more awkward. It took the humans a while to get Anabella up off the ground when it had started to rain after 15 minutes of trying Anabella finally pulled herself up and walked numbly to the bus where she sit on the cot in the very back and stared out the window. Steve sat in back with her watching Little Steve try to make her smile and laugh, even just a little. Anabella didn’t even acknowledge he was there. Steve finally picked up the little doll and plopped him in his pocket. Telling him she wanted to be left alone for now.

Up front The boys were talking with Rabbit, Every now and then Rabbit would explode saying he doesn’t care if she didn’t know better. As well as they were just trying to protect the junk heap just like Petes was.

It was during these loud outbursts that Anabella would flinch Steve was the only one who noticed the dark oil stains that leaked down her eyes and would silently pat her shoulder, whispering that it would be alright .

Once they were home Anabella waited till everyone was off the bus before she even moved. Sliding off the cot in the back she moved quietly through the house. Past the kitchen where VI was having a stern talk with Rabbit and down towards the stairs. If the manor was such a maze. Then maybe it would be easy to get lost in it.

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Abby sighed and logged off the computer. Rabbit seemed to be having more malfunctions again, which would mean another fight to get him down to the lab..fun…

Abby looked over to the other Walter Girls who were concentrating on there own work at there computers. “How has working on Anabella been?” Paige called over looking over from her seat.

“Hard…We can’t figure out what exactly is going on with her…We managed to find a loose wire in her mechanics…but no matter how many times we reconnect it, it always manages to wiggle its self loose…She’s like this huge puzzle piece” Abby sighed.

Brianna stood up and grabbed a clip board from the wall and looked it over.

“They went to go see Delilah today…which means it’s going to be a quite day…”

“You mean a day trying to get Jon and Rabbit out of there hiding spots right?” Paige got up and stretched.

“Pretty much” Paige checked the pages. “I have to get Rabbit down to the lab today for repairs…Peter says his malfunctions have gotten worse over the past week” she tapped her pen against her cheek. “I wonder if it could have anything to do with him falling down the stairs trying to chase Jon…”

“I missed that?!” Abby groaned. She had to take care of her grandmother that the other day.

“Yeah, Jon and Rabbit decided it was a good idea to play around the stairs, it didn’t end well…Rabbit was out for a few seconds but came back on line before Spine could take him back down to the lab.”
“And let me guess Rabbit refused to go down?” Abby asked grabbing her own clip board.

“You know it” Paige laughed.

She flipped through the pages. It was mostly to watch after Anabella and later to get her down to the lab to check on the date.

“Alright girls, I will see you guys around” She waved and headed for the door. Now where did Anabella disappear to?

Heading towards Marshmallow’s room she figured she’d knock out checking to see if the cannibal chair is back. It had always seemed to appear near the Marshmallow’s room then make it’s way around the manor.

Walking down the hallway she spotted Anabella on the ground with her head in her arms. “Anabella? Sweetie?” she walked over to the still robot.

“Hun, you okay?” she knelt down and put a hand on the shoulder. Anabella had powered herself down. “Oh sweetie, it’s not good to sleep here, we have had problems with the walls changing and getting people lost” she reached in back and powered the still robot back on.

Anabella popped back to life and looked around, frowning. “Wh-who are you?”

“My name is Walter Girl Abby, I helped Peter work on you several times, what are you doing up here hun?” she placed her clip board beside her and knelt down on her legs.

“I’m here to ‘c-c-coll-colect dust’ as Rabbit told me to…” She looked away from Abby.

Abby frowned. Rabbit rarely had anger outbursts. “Did you try to steal one of his comic books?” She asked softly.

Anabella shook her head.

“His hat? Goggles? Abby fished again, Anabella still shook her head no. “What did you do hun?”

“I drew on a g-g-g-gravestone….” Her words were merely a whisper. “I didn’t know…I wanted to make them smile. I knew pictures always ma-ma-make people smile…so I thought it would make them happy…”

Abby went silent. “Oh hun…That was Delilah…The first Peter originally built the guys for her…but she took sick and passed away shortly after…nobody told you?”

Anabella shook her head oil was slipping from her eyes. “N-no, everyone told me that I would find out, to just relax…” she sighed.

“Oh I’m sorry Hun….Rabbit usually doesn’t hold grudges for too long….so it should blow over soon” Abby put a hand on Anabella’s shoulder and was startled by VI clearing his throat.

“Abby, the chair is down stairs…can you take care of that please?”

Abby grabbed the clip board and stood up. “y-yeah!” she hurried down stairs.

“Anabella” VI sat beside the bot who looked away. “It was my fault what happened today, I should have told you what was going on today” he sighed they sat in silence for a few minutes before VI spoke up again. “Rabbit is a kind robot…he will come to his senses soon” he said softly. ‘Anyway…come back down to the kitchen, you haven’t had water for a while” he stood back up and smiled. “Everything will be fine” he added.

Later Anabella had been called down to the lab. “Alright…we have a camera that should be able to see on the other side of those pipes…We us usually use it for Jon when he he needs a check up” VI informed her. “Lay down here and we’ll get to work”

Anabella did as she was instructed and her chest panel opened. “Okay…let’s see what we have here” He said to himself He looked through the camera as Abby moved the camera. Once to the spot he frowned.

On the inner workings it said ‘Built in 1900’

That was a couple of years after the robots came into existence.

“Interesting….” he whispered. “Alright Abby. Retract the camera” he instructed

“Apparently you were built a couple of years after the others were built…” He frowned. “Well that’s one mystery that’s solved…” He leaned back. “But opens so many more” he rubbed the back of his head.

Later that day Anabella was curled up in a chair reading a book Spine had loaned her when Rabbit came around the corner.

He stood still for a moment when he spotted her and went to turn around to leave the room. “Wait a minute” Anabella put the book down and stood back up.

“What?” Rabbit kept his back to her.

“I’m sorry about this morning, I didn’t understand what was going on…” She stood a few feet behind Rabbit. “I thought if I drew a smiley face o-on it, you guys would be hap-happy” she played with her fingers and looked at the floor. “I didn’t realizes she meant so much to you guys” she sighed.

Rabbit stayed still for a moment before turning around and in one quick moment, grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her in a hug that would break a humans spine.

“I-I forgive you” Rabbit whispered to her. “A-and I’m S-s-s-orry” he added hugging her tighter.

“R-ra-rabbit your sq-squishing me” she gasped. “I-can feel r-rivets coming l-lo-loose” she joked.

Rabbit released her, all to fast, causing her to fall to the ground. “S-sorry” he laughed and helped her up.

Anabella was glad that finally she and Rabbit made up. Now hopefully it won’t be so awkward when they came across each other in the hallway. The two sat up half the night joking with each other. The next morning Abby found the two sitting together on the coach.

She giggled and quickly snapped a picture. “like brother and sister” she mused. “Always fighting but in the end making up” she laughed and put the camera in her uniform pocket before waking the two up.

One mystery of Anabella down..a thousand to go