Crow (NoochZahHutt)

Part Three

"I have a question for you," Choco proposed as we walked back down the stairs.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"I know you have amnesia, but...do you have any idea where that necklace came from?" Choco pointed at my chest, where the red orb rested. I looked down at it. I didn't know where it came from, but it felt like I should. It felt like it was important.

"No," I answered honestly. "It seems important though."

We reached the bottom of the stairs and Choco turned to me. He put his hand down the front of his hoodie and pulled out a necklace incredibly similar to mine, other than the color; his was a bright sky blue.

"Whoa," I said.

"Yeah, I know," Choco said. "I don't know how, but this necklace is somehow connected to my sixth sense thing. Preston has one too, but his is orange."

"Are you saying I have some kind of superhuman power?!" I asked, shocked. Choco let go of his necklace.

"Yeah," he said simply. "Do you have any idea what it could be?"

I had a brief flashback to when the piston activated seemingly for no reason back at the flower stand. But...that couldn't be related, could it?

"No..." I said.

"I didn't expect you to," Choco sighed. "Just...never take that necklace off. Never ever. Okay?"

"Why...?"

"Just trust me on this. Preston would tell you the same thing. And one more thing..."

"Yeah?"

"The basement is off-limits. If the boss ever finds out you've been down there, he'll probably kill you. Literally."

~~~

"Preston, what's in the basement?" I asked about an hour later. We were just sitting and hanging out in the living room area.

"Nothing. There is nothing in the basement," Preston answered oddly quickly and seriously.

"If there's nothing down there, then why is it off-limits?" I pressed.

"Well there's not nothing down there..." Preston confessed. "But if I tell you you're gonna get curious and then we'll both get it trouble."

"The boss doesn't have to know," I coaxed.

Preston paused and sighed. "Trust me when I say this: the boss will find out."

And then, an odd coincidence happened: the boss walked into the room and announced that he was leaving.

"I'm going out for a bit," were his exact words, "don't set the house on fire. That was mainly a warning for Preston."

And then he left. I gave Preston a sly look.

"No," Preston said. "I know what you're thinking and..."

It was too late, I was already walking towards the basement stairs and Preston couldn't stop me.

I opened the water-damaged wooden door and was faced with a flight of stairs descending into pitch darkness. The smells of old cardboard and dust hit my nose. Without further hesitation, as I knew Preston would be on my back at any moment, I began walking down the stairs.

I kept one hand on the left wall at all times, searching for a lightswitch. I didn't find one until it was so dark it seemed like I was closing my eyes. I flipped it on and squinted as my eyes had gotten used to the darkness.

"It's just cardboard boxes," I heard Preston yell at me from the top of the stairs. "Storage. Nothing more. Now come back up here."

I ignored him and looked into the room: sure enough, there were cardboard boxes stacked up everywhere, as well as two rolled-up carpets and a pile of christmas lights. There has to be something more, though, I thought. Otherwise, why would it be off-limits?

I entered the basement and began looking around, behind boxes and around corners. The light was comfortably dim but made a weird buzzing noise.

"There's nothing here!" Preston persisted, closer behind me.

"Then why is it off-limits?" I asked. I was answered by satisfying silence.

I continued to look around the room, behind the old carpets, and even in a few loose boxes before I turned around to face Preston, who was standing in the doorway to the stairs.

"I told you," he shrugged.

"Please, enlighten me," I began, "why the hell is the basement off-limits if it's just a normal basement?"

"There shall be no enlightenment for you today, good sir!" Preston replied in a rather silly voice. He walked towards me and reached to grab my wrist, but he was reaching for my (now bandaged) burned one and I stepped back.

I noticed I was standing close to a stack of boxes placed conveniently in the center of the room. "I guess you won't mind if I 'rearrange' this stack of boxes, then..."

Preston's mouth began to form the word "no", but before he could get it out, I elbowed one of the boxes and the stack came crashing down. I honestly did not expect anything to be under the boxes, I had just intended to annoy Preston. But it was at that moment that I found out why the basement was off-limits.

Under the stack of boxes was a robot. A fucking robot.

"Okay, what the fuck," I said.

"I'm dead. I am so dead," Preston sighed.

"Why are you hiding a robot in your basement!?" I asked.

"It doesn't work anymore," Preston explained.

"That doesn't explain why you had it to begin with!"

"It stopped working and now we keep it in the basement. In storage. Let's leave now."

"No," I knelt down to get a better look at the machine. "Let's not."

"Please," Preston pleaded. I ignored him again.

The robot was humanlike and sitting down, with some parts of it colored red and some parts silver. Its joints were rusted. I felt drawn to it in a way I'll never really be able to explain. It was something about the inner workings of the machine, something about the redstone.

I reached out and touched its shoulder.

And it turned on.

~~~

And so it begins.

Ciao!

~Lia