Aftermath of Agony

Chapter 1: The Rest of the Day

Time passed by without notice from Michael. His head felt full of cotton. He was still in shock from witnessing his younger brother's head be crushed between faux animatronic teeth.

The moment replayed over and over in his mind. He could only stand before the carnage. People screamed, but he stayed silent, his jaw gaping open. He felt a firm hand on his shoulder. It turned him away from the bloody sight, it was his dad.

Michael knew he made a mistake, and he knew that his father hates mistakes. The boy expected to see fury in his father's eyes, but when they made eye contact, none was found. For a moment, Michael saw only pride instead of any wrath. But he could have been mistaken. Whatever it was that he saw, it felt out of place to the kid.

Without much haste, William moved past Michael. Perhaps he was in shock as well. No one knew. With little grace, he removed his child from the animatronic maw. More blood spilled to the floor, some spurted onto the robot's fabric. Next, one of Evan's eyes fell to the floor. His skull had collapsed into itself, leaving him near unrecognizable.

Someone called 911 and an ambulance came. Despite William's protests, the paramedics separated him from the boy. Then the police arrived, asking questions William answered for his son. His father seemed to know what to say because they were not questioned for long. Finally, Evan was carried off to the hospital by ambulance. Now, Michael sat in the passenger seat of his father's car as they drove home.

The gravity of what happened had not hit him yet.

"Michael," his father firmly spoke. "Don't feel bad, I know it was an accident, it was bound to happen."

No malice could be found in his words.

"It'll be okay; everything will be alright."

To comfort the boy, he removed one of his hands from the steering wheel and placed it on his son's shoulder.

"We can even go get ice cream if you'd like."

Mike stepped out of his haze and replied. "I'm not really hungry."

"Really? You haven't even had supper yet."

Michael stayed silent, before his dad spoke again.

"Well, we might as well go home and get cleaned up. Red never really suited our family." He chuckled to himself and removed his hand from Mike's shoulder.

Mike took a moment to figure what his father meant by the word red. He looked down at his shirt and realized what it meant: blood.

Mike did not want to think about anything, but he could not stop thinking about what he did. The rest of the car ride home was silent, save for William occasionally humming to the tunes that played on the radio. Mike watched the scenery whiz past his car window. He felt hollow inside. He felt dead.

They got home and Mike stepped out of the car with legs that felt like heavy lead. A sensation in his head crept upon him and it grew greater with each movement he made. It finally hit him all at once. His hands shook, his knees grew weak, and he ran as fast as he could to the bathroom to puke the little contents in his stomach he had.

Michael retched into the toilet bowl, he felt so sick. He could not stop shaking. For a moment he would think he would be able to stop gagging, but then he would remember how mangled his brother's face was. It was a joke. It was only supposed to be a joke. Then he would remember the wet cracking sound after the metal jaws of the animatronic snapped down. He would retch until nothing came up anymore, it was a horrible sound. William heard Mike's commotion and came to check if the boy had made a mess. He saw his son clinging to the toilet, dry heaving into the bowl. Mike had not taken off the mask he was wearing. William assumed that he just forgot it was on. The mask was a complete mess now.