EARLY LIFE

In 2007, everyone was happy. Andrew just had a kid, Delilah finally got another one-up on Thomas, and Audrey was born into the world. Her parents took great care of her, and she grew up to be a very smart and diligent child. However, it seemed to come at the cost of her kindness. Audrey Brauer isn't the nicest person, and you can ask anyone about that. Her mother had something to do with it, as she taught Audrey many things about being assertive and to not take shit from anybody. The little girl, taught to take the things that her mother says to heart, possibly took them a little too far. It worked, however, as after an incident at school, no one wanted to mess with her again.

Audrey was very close with her father. Part of the reason was because he'd say yes to almost anything she'd ask for, but most of the reason was because he was so nice to her. Nicer than Delilah was at times. Delilah was strict, constantly pressuring her to do extremely well in school. If she didn't, she'd be forbidden to hang out with friends, or play games. The second one hurt a lot, she loved playing games with her dad. It confused her, honestly. Why was her dad nicer than her mom? Shouldn't they both be the same kind of niceness to her since they're both her parents? This caused her to start keeping secrets from her mom. She would go to her dad about a problem she had before bringing it up to her mom. You'd think that the kindness that her dad showed her would mellow her extremely tough personality out a little, but it didn't. She just decided to be nice to her dad, and if anyone bad-mouthed him while she was in earshot, they would regret it.

That's how she lost her tooth. One day in the first year of middle school, after a certain . . . event, Audrey heard a boy talking about her. It sounded as if he was trying to spread rumors, which warranted talk about her dad as well as her, but she was having none of that; especially not after what had happened. She confronted him in the hallway, demanding that the boy stop speaking slander in her and her father's name. The boy told her that he was going to do whatever he wanted, and that she couldn't stop him. That was his first mistake. Audrey gave him another warning, just to be nice, and told him that she wasn't going to be asking again. The boy still didn't take it seriously, so she swung at him. That's when the fight broke out.

Audrey wasn't expecting the boy to fight back like he did, and he caught Audrey off guard at some point. He was able to punch her in the face hard enough for a tooth to be knocked right out of her mouth. The hallway went silent. The boy thought he had won, but when Audrey got up and turned to look that boy in the eye, he thought he was about to see Jesus. He was almost right, as Audrey lunged at him without a second thought, tackling him to the ground and pinning him there. After that, she just wailed on the boy, assaulting him until she made him bleed, broke his nose, and gave him not one, but two black eyes. The fight had finally been broken up by a teacher, and that boy was missing from school for about a week. No one messed with her after that. It was her proudest moment, even if she did get in very big trouble because of it.

THE INCIDENT

One 2017 day was the worst day of her life. 10 year old Audrey was wondering why her father was taking so long to get home. When she gets home from school, her dad is usually quick to follow. Sometimes he would stay at his workplace for longer than usual, but he would tell her and her mom about it so they didn't worry about him getting home so late. But neither Audrey nor Delilah—as far as she knew—had gotten any kind of contact from Andrew, so Audrey was getting very worried. She'd ask her mom where her dad was, and she'd say that he told her that it was another one of those days where he worked later. Audrey wanted to believe her, but her dad would've told her if he was going to be working late today. If not in person before going to work, then through the group text chat that they shared. That group chat hadn't been active today, but who's to say that Andrew accidentally only sent the text to her mom, thinking that he sent it to the both of them? No... as much of a dumbass as he is, her dad wouldn't make that kind of mistake.

The thought about texting gave her the idea to try and contact him for a change. So, without Delilah knowing, Audrey went up to her room to try and text her dad. There was no immediate response, which wasn't too weird because he was supposed to be at work, but Audrey still continued to worry. She called him this time, hoping that he would answer and say that everything was okay. But he never did. She called again. He didn't answer. She called again. He still didn't answer. This immensely worried the poor girl. Was he just very busy? Did something happen? Was this all just a very mean and elaborate prank that her parents were pulling on her? So many thoughts went through her head—thoughts that a 10 year old girl shouldn't have. The situation was scaring her.

All hope would've been lost for the poor girl if a new thought hadn't come to her mind. Thomas, her uncle, was also working that day, she was sure. She doesn't keep in contact with him as much as her dad, but there was no way Thomas wouldn't be at work. And, even if he wasn't, she could convince him to go check on Andrew! So she sat on the floor, leaning back onto her bed and called her uncle... And he answered. He answered! Oh, she wanted to cry, but she'd never do that in front of her uncle, so she kept her composure as much as possible. She eagerly, yet still with worry in her voice, asked where her dad was. She told him that he wasn't answering her calls or texts and hoped that his phone just died or something or that he was unexpectedly extra busy or—

Wait. Was Thomas... crying? She'd never heard her uncle cry before, especially not in front of her. Any other day, she would poke fun at the man, but this situation was no laughing matter, so she did the thing any normal kid would do and asked what was wrong. It took a little bit for Thomas to gain his composure enough to speak in coherent English, but he eventually got out all of the words he needed. Unfortunately for Audrey, that was hearing that her father had sadly passed away in a minor explosion that happened in their lab. Neither of them knew how or why, but what Thomas did know is that the facility was empty by the time the explosion took place. This was a lot for a 10 year old to take in. She couldn't stop the tears from flowing now. She had to be quiet about it, however, because she didn't want her mother to hear. Thomas told Audrey to not tell anyone that he was alive, and she obliged, no questions asked. Thomas also told Audrey another thing, something she'd never forget and still remembers to this day:

"I'm going to find a way to get your dad back. I promise you."

AFTERMATH

The whole ordeal was a mess. Audrey had to keep a secret from her mom and her aunt, and she liked her aunt. You'd think that keeping a secret from her mom would be difficult since that's the only other person in the house now, but Audrey is a stubborn and resiliant young lady. She would not let Thomas down. It was even easier to keep that secret when one night, while Delilah was asleep, Audrey snuck into the attic. Some few days prior, a mysterious package came to their door by an unknown person. Unknown to Audrey, anyway. Without any warning, a robot was in their house! An entire robot! A big one too, this one was human-sized. Her mother told her that Thomas had dropped it off, but Audrey wasn't buying it. She was also told not to touch it, that it was not a toy and she wasn't supposed to be near it. Well, if she could keep one secret from her mother, it wouldn't be that hard keeping two, so she went into the attic to find this mysterious robot.

It was dusty as hell when she first found it, so she decided to keep it clean. After all, she'd always hear her dad talk very excitedly about a robot that he and Thomas were working on, so this must've been it if Thomas dropping it off was true. She figured that if they were keeping it for a bit, shouldn't she be in better condition? She made it a weekly routine to go up to the attic to dust off her dad and uncle's robot, and try not to accidentally turn her on while doing so, without Delilah ever knowing.

Years went by, 4 to be exact. At this point, she had lost a tooth due to some dumbass kid, and she had been keeping a secret for so long. She had scarce contact with her uncle, as he was trying to keep up the facade that he was dead and didn't need Delilah accidentally finding that out through Audrey's contacts. Not that Delilah was the kind of mom to look through her daughter's phone, but better safe than sorry. After Audrey had gotten home from school one day, she immediately went upstairs to her room, falling onto her bed face-first. The day was exhausting and she just wanted some rest. So when she heard a knock at the front door, she didn't bother going to see who it was. She heard some voices and thought nothing of it. Then there was a knock at her own door and she dreaded having to get up off her bed to open it. She'd never regret it though, because standing in her doorframe, taller than she remembered with threatening tears in his eyes, was her father. Thomas had kept his promise.

With much objection from Delilah, and with much very illegal action, Audrey went to live with her father again. They had also retrieved their robot along with Audrey, who she soon learned had a name! It was Ophelia, but they liked to call her Ophy for short. She had an even more official name, but there was no way Audrey was gonna call her "project inquiry" or whatever, so she stuck with Ophy. Audrey technically became an older sister to Ophelia, and would absolutely brag about her to the other kids at school. Everyone cut off all contact with Delilah. Audrey and Thomas got to talk more and Audrey was finally able to bully him again. She missed it. Her aunt Josephine would visit the Brauer house frequently.

But most importantly, Audrey had her father back.