The Things I Can't Take Back [Michael Afton x F! Reader]

Bonus Chapter 1 ~ In Another Life [Michael x Reader]

A/N: The first bonus chapter!! As promised, this is the alternate ending where you and Michael end up together 🙄 in this ending you never moved out of town with El and Scarlet, and therefore never ended up meeting Alex so NO YOU DID NOT BREAK UP WITH HIM FOR MICHAEL 😡 so no more Alex slander or I'm DELETING THE WHOLE BOOK /srs

...

     A gasp tore from your throat as you shot up in bed, skin covered in a thin sheet of sweat. Your heart was hammering in your chest, feeling like it was beating against your rib cage. You struggled to catch your breath, almost like you were being suffocated.

     You had awoken from a horrible nightmare; images of Michael and his friends lifting Evan up towards the mouth of some sort of beast flashed through your mind. In a way, the monster in your dream seemed almost... familiar? Where had you seen that creature before?

     "Woah, woah," you heard the voice of the male beside you, gasping awake as he sat up beside you, "w-what happened?"

     You turned your startled gaze over towards your fiancé, seeing that he looked just as alarmed as you were. Michael's wide, frantic eyes searched you for any signs of injury, wondering what might have happened to startle you awake so suddenly.

"Michael..." you breathed out, feeling a wave of relief wash over you when you realized that it really had just been a dream. Michael was here, and everyone was safe. "I-I'm sorry, I just... I just had a bad dream..."

"Well... are you okay..?" He asked softly, carefully leaning over closer as he kept himself propped up with one arm, his other hand reaching out to gently brush the loose strands of hair from your face, "you've never jumped awake like that before... was it really that bad?"

"I-It was... It..." you found the words getting caught in your throat, and you averted your gaze away from him. How could you explain that your nightmare had been about him? Especially when it was of him doing something so awful to his own younger brother?

"Hey, it's alright..." he reassured you softly, moving his hand to gently cup your cheek, as he turned your face towards him once again, "if you're not ready to talk about it, we don't have to. Or if you just don't want to talk about it at all, that's fine too. But just know that I would never let anything bad happen to you."

"I-I know... but it wasn't about me," you admitted, causing him to quirk an eyebrow up in confusion, "it was... it was about you..."

"Me?" He repeated, and you slowly nodded in reply, "I... D-Did I get hurt, or something?"

"N-No, you... you hurt someone..."

Dead silence filled the room as soon as those words slipped out of your mouth. Michael stared at you, dumbfounded, as he tried to process what you had just told him. You had dreamt of him... hurting someone.

"I... What?"

"I-I don't know, I just... I-I just saw you a-and your friends; Eli, Dom, and Vincent," you began scrambling to explain the dream, hoping that you hadn't angered him, "I-It was you three, all as teenagers, lifting Evan, as a little boy, into the mouth of some... some animal-like creature..."

By the time you had finished your explanation, Michael's mouth was hanging open, as he stared at you in silence. He blinked a few times, almost as if he was waiting for you to say that you were joking. However, you never did. Your own lips were pressed into a thin line, and you stared at him as you awaited his response.