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"United in Grief" -Kendrick Lamar ╳
My legs carried me back into the building, eyes trained on everything at once. My overactive mind nearly wanted to explode is I let myself stand in front of the animatronic bear, seemingly looking down at me.
The fur was spotless—I knew that. But I couldn't help but almost imagine the blood and brain matter spilling out on the golden surface. My mind seemed to replace the scent of cleaning chemicals with the foul odor of Joseph's body.
I couldn't help but fall to my knees, the grief and traumatic images puppeteering my perception of how I saw things—strings of reality forming Joseph's face in front of me, his frontal lobe torn to bits and shreds.
It felt like a tear in time, his small hand reaching out to me, tingling my skin through my uniform. My shaky breath could only hold so long as my eyes never left his hazy face.
His small, feeble voice said my name so quiet, I almost couldn't convince myself he said it.
"Do it."
A plethora of morphed whispers hid behind Jospeh's own voice, almost drowned out by the rest of them.
"Kill him."
A flash, my environment disappearing around me as I felt my eyes training on a very hazy memory.
It's not my memory.
My bare feet slid against the wooden floor as i watched the tall silhouette of a man standing, towering over the much smaller silhouette.
The shaky movements of lifting a bottle, glass shattering in a toxic, unhealthy household of souls. Hazy, distant screaming haunted my ears as I could only watch as it happened in slow motion, the jagged movements of the man letting out a fit of rage. It felt like reliving a memory tucked back in someone's mind, certain portions of it gone from the suppressing.
The tile floors came back to me, reality nearly pushing into me like a bullet train.
"Kill him"
The child let go of my shoulder, his translucent figure seemingly morphing into the golden fur of the animatronic bear.
I allowed myself to shakily stand back up, eyes landing on a pair in the dark, a face coming into the light of the moon.
Emotions bubbled up inside of me, itching to be let out, or else I'd explode from the bottling up.
"You.. you fucking MONSTER."
My body hurled into the blind spot, grasping onto the silhouette of him, my vision blurring, every movement feeling jagged and almost lagging behind as I allowed myself to finally let out every pent up emotion Joseph seemed to transfer to me.
I didn't care about the pain I knew he was inflicting on me, every punch, every scratch, it didn't phase me as my adrenaline gave me that second layer of protection.
His hands wrapped around my neck as he flipped me over, the tile floors beneath me. My adrenaline could only take me so far as I clawed and scratched at him, his heavy breathing matching mine as I kicked him in the gut, sending him backwards.
"Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you." The curses beneath my breath let out like venom, the blood pooling out of his mouth through every punch and every feeling of agony.
I have him right where I want him, vulnerable.
"You're showing weakness, Afton." My words barely left my mouth as the two of us struggled against the floor, his eyes screaming at me.
"Only around you." His low voice paired with his fist to my chest, the breath being knocked out of my lungs. I let out a wheeze as I fumbled, trying to get up as quickly as possible.
"Stop kidding yourself, you sorry excuse for a father." His hands grasped at my arms, gripping so hard, I knew it would leave bruises. His face was mere inches from mine, barely able to see him in the dark hallway.
"You think I want to do this?"
I shoved my knee into his chest, giving me a window of mere seconds to get back.
"I know you do, there's no way in hell there's any kind of remorse behind those eyes, Afton."
"Oh, you'd like to know, wouldn't you?" He wiped away a trail of blood from his mouth, staining his hands before approaching me.
The sound of footsteps sent a shock reaction through me, feeling myself being quietly shoved against a wall—large hand on my mouth.
He knew that this could cost us both of our jobs if the wrong person was looking.
The beam of a flashlight barely missed us, my heart almost beating through my chest. I could barely hear my own thoughts as I stared into his sharp eyes, his tall figure towering over my own.
The sounds of footsteps leaving paired with him retracting his hand from my face, slowly backing away.
"Hey, Will? I heard some noises, do you know what that was?" I couldn't tell if Henry's voice terrified me or relieved me in that moment.
"Yeah, it was just but a rodent. It's dead."
"We'd best get an inspector, yeah?"
"No, there was only one." Will's eyes landed onto me, the smallest smile forming on his lips as he walked back into the light.
Henry's chuckle got farther away as Will followed after him.
