Oh. My. Gosh. Ruth's mother and father were robots. Robots that apparently had feelings.

My only question now was...were they always robots? Or did they replace Ruth's real mom and dad and have them locked up somewhere? That could be answered later. What was important now was to warn Ruth and keep her away from the house. The plan would have been simple if not for Ruth.

Speaking of yours truly, guess who arrived home at that very moment?

"Mom! Dad! I am home! We need to sit and discuss some things."

"Dang it. The brat is back," the robot mom hissed. "Hold on. What time is it?"

The robot dad glanced at his wristwatch. "The afternoon just began."

"That makes her arrival even worse! Her school is not supposed to end until later in the afternoon."

"Uh, dear? May I remind you that the school here in Forlot is on a different time schedule than that of your average school. It always ends early."

She slapped her forehead. "You are correct. I think that I forgot because that dumb robot..." She pointed a finger at the small robot. "...messed with my memory drive."

"He will fix it later. We need to meet with Ruth before she grows suspicious and discovers what is truly in the basement."

The robot man slid his robotic hand into hers and helped her off her table. They were coming my way because the cardboard boxes were by the stairs. Nobody deserved to have robot parents who could care less about their human child, not even Ruth. And hearing how rude her robot mother was, it became clear where Ruth was getting the behavior from.

Ruth had to know the truth before the robots snapped. I had to reach her first and came up with a clever idea. As they inched close to the stairs, I stuck out my leg and braced myself for the impact.

It worked! Those robots tripped over my leg and fell on their stomachs. I pumped my fists in the air, and then quickly climbed to my feet and scrambled up the stairs. I was a couple steps from the top when I heard the robots talking.

"Ruth? Is that you?" the robot mom said.

"That is not Ruth!" the robot dad exclaimed with fury. "It is that farmer girl that Ruth keeps having problems with it. We must capture her at once."

I slammed the door behind me and was planning on locking it. Unfortunately, there was no lock on the basement door.

"Son of a—" I was cut off by none other than Ruth.

"Robin?! How hard is it for you to stay out of my life?! Are you stalking me? Is that it?!" She eyed her necklace in my grasp. "My necklace! So I was right. You did steal it!"

"Would you shut up and give me a few minutes to explain?"

"Why would I? You are a liar and a murderer and a thief."

"I am not any of those things, Ruth." We heard a bang on the other side of the basement door, and I let out a yelp and scurried up to her. "We need to leave and get to a safe place."

She cackled. Cackled like a witch. "Me and you together in the same place? You really are losing your mind."

"Ruth, your necklace was on the bathroom floor. I found it by accident and visited your house to give it back to you. I did not want to, but I had to because I am a good person."

"You were not a good person when you wanted me to drop dead."

"I did not say that I was perfect. I mean, I am sorry."

She rested her feet on the kitchen table where she was sitting at and leaned back in the chair. "I am not going to forgive you. That is, unless you promise to be my obedient slave for the rest of your life."

I growled in frustration. "I am not about to be your slave. I do not care if you do not forgive me. If you want to make it out of this house alive, you will trust me for once and come with me."

"Do you believe that you spotted a monster in my basement?" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Or are you horribly playing a prank on me?"

I would have corrected her that robots were in the basement and not a monster, but what was the use? If your enemy told you that your mom and dad were actual robots, would you believe him or her? Of course not. It sounds absurd. I needed to prove to her that we were in danger. But how?

The hinges on the basement door squeaked as the black door swung open all the way. Coming into the room were the robots disguised as Ruth's lawyers. I mean, parents. They both had creepy smiles plastered on their faces as they took their sweet time to join us.

"Welcome home, sweetheart," the dad said in a tone that made my skin crawl. "Robin was looking for you."

"I know," Ruth replied. "She stole my precious necklace."

"Were you not listening to me?" I said. "You lost it. It was on the bathroom floor."

"Would you like your father and I to represent you in your lawsuit?" the mom asked her daughter.

"Now you are talking, Mom. I want to sue Robin and her family and Mario and his family for causing me so much suffering and drama."

I wanted to tell her that she was the one who had been making me and Mario suffer through her drama, but there was no time for a heated argument. I had to show her who her folks really were. I searched through the kitchen drawers and found a bunch of knives. I picked one up, scrambled to the dad robot, and jammed the knife into his eye.