The Fall of the Aftons

057: Michael Afton

Michael was awoken by the sound of Evan's weeping on the baby monitor on his desk. He sighed and got out of bed, unintentionally keeping his Fredbear plush in his hand, and left his bedroom. He walked down the hall to Evan's bedroom and opened its door. He frowned when he saw Evan standing on the mattress in his crib, shaking the guardrail bars as he wailed. Michael walked over to the cage-like bed and climbed over the bars, then dropped himself down and bounced gently next to his new little brother. He sat down with his legs crossed and dragged Evan onto his lap.

"Don't cry, Evan," he whispered soothingly as he wiped tears from his brother's eyes with his index finger. "You're okay, buddy. Don't cry..."

Felicity wasn't kidding when she said that Evan had constant nightmares. The little boy barely slept during the night--and he wouldn't let William, Terrance, or Henry comfort him. He relied on Michael to make him feel better, which meant that he didn't get any sleep, either.

Evan's crying started to settle down. Michael sighed, relieved, though his sigh morphed into a yawn. He was exhausted from the scarce sleep he was getting and from playing with Noah all day. Spring break had just started, so the two were spending a lot more time together than they usually did.

Evan slowly fell asleep in Michael's arms. Right now, his sleep was peaceful. Michael sighed again, but not because he was relieved. He hated how Evan always woke up if Michael moved him too early.

Since he had nothing else to do, Michael leaned his head against the bars of the crib. He quickly fell asleep against his will. But it didn't feel like his sleep lasted very long after he was awoken by being shaken gently. His eyes drowsily fluttered open to find his little brother still sound asleep in his arms. Terrance was peering over the crib, his hand on Michael's shoulder.

"Rise and shine, sleepy head," Terrance said quietly. "Noah's here if you want to leave Evan with me." He chuckled as he moved Evan off of Michael's lap. He lifted Michael out of the crib and set him on the floor. "If I need you to calm him down, I'll come and get you, okay?"

Michael nodded his head and ambled out of his brother's bedroom. He rubbed the drowsiness from his eyes as he made his way to his bedroom. As soon as his tired body made it to his room, he went straight to his closet and opened its door, then pulled out a random shirt and a matching pair of shorts from his dresser.

A creak in the floorboards sounded throughout the room.

He completely stopped moving. His heart rate quadrupled and his breathing quickened as he rushed to remember where he set the knife he took with him last night. Unfortunately, he'd left it on his nightstand. His nightstand was on the other side of the room. Shit.

Every muscle in Michael's body tensed in terror. How could he have forgotten to look around his room? It was like he was subconsciously trying to get himself killed or something of that nature. He didn't want to die. He wanted to live. He was still so young--why would the kidnapper want to take that from somebody?

Why did the kidnapper take that from Khael?

Suddenly, the kidnapper grabbed his wrist.

He needed to fight back.

He wanted to fight back.

Why couldn't he move? Why was he so paralyzed in fear?

He had to get out of there.

He had to get away.

But he couldn't move.

"Mikey? Are you okay?"

Partially free of his horror-induced paralysis, he whipped his head around when he recognized the voice. The relief he experienced when he saw Noah instead of the kidnapper was immeasurable. He took a long deep breath to calm his bouncing, anxious nerves.

"Mikey?" Noah repeated, a bit of worry in his voice.

"Sorry. I'm sorry. What did you say?" Michael asked as he chuckled nervously.

"I asked if you're okay. You froze and wouldn't move," he mumbled. His forehead creased with worry. "Did I trigger that memory again? I'm sorry."

"U-Um... Yeah, you did... But it's okay now. I'm fine," Michael promised as he gave his closest friend a sad smile.

Noah gave him a small grin in return. "Would you like to go outside?" he asked. He frowned when Michael shook his head. "Why not?"

"Evan is still asleep. If wakes up from a nightmare, I have to be the one to calm him down."

"Why?"

Michael shrugged. "I have no idea. He only calms down when I'm there. We're still trying to figure out why." He chuckled. "But we can go outside after he wakes up! How does that sound?"