Regretful Father: A Dark Rebirth FNAF AU Side Story

Chapter 4: Reconciliation

New Harmony, Mar 1994

Henry dreams he's drowning with William. Each of them chained to the seabed by a metal clasp on their ankles. They're drowning but they're drowning together. Henry takes comfort in that. He took comfort in the drowning for a long time. Their backs were turned to one another as Henry meditated on his miserable fate but then, his eyes were soon drawn to a fish with shimmering indigo scales that swam past him and upwards to the warm light of the sun which was so distant...

God he misses the sun. He misses its warmth. Nonetheless, he believes doesn't deserve to go back to the surface. He has to stay by William's side, he doesn't want him to drown alone even if they have betrayed and broken each other. His gaze returns back down towards the plain sands and coral reefs until they rest on a shiny object. There, buried near some seaweed, is a large knife.

He looks at the object which tempts him with freedom, a way to swim to the surface, before he suffocates once more. Then, he looks back at William whose eyes are shut. This man betrayed him, convinced him to share his sins, got him fired from his own workplace that they'd forged out of their passions and twisted it into a money-hungry monster of a business that he no longer recognised...

He's tired of drowning in the cold. He wants the sun's embrace. He wants to breathe again.

Henry takes the knife, carefully and slowly cutting his chain, unsure if William was asleep, dead or faking it.

CHINK

The moment the chain breaks, Henry's freed body begins to float to the surface. However, a cold hand grabs him by the ankle. William is awake, not yet drowned and screams muffled at him, the bubbles escaping his mouth. He wants him to stay, he's crying at Henry to not to leave him behind.

Henry desperately wants him to free him too but he couldn't stay. He was already running out of air and if he stayed, he'd drown and sink to the bottom again with him. Thus, with much regret, he uses his right leg to stomp down hard on William's hand and his former friend screams, retracting it.

Henry tearfully turns away and makes the choice to swim upwards faster, not daring to look back. He swims and swims until finally, he breaks past the water's surface and lets out a large gasp, inhaling in the sea-salted air.

'I'm free! I'm free!'

Henry treads the water with what little energy he has left and looks around panickedly, desperate for a solid surface to hold onto and almost immediately, he sees a pink floating platform to his left.

Out of options and weakened, Henry instinctively climbs onto the platform and catches his breath, breathing in and out rapidly. He doesn't stand or gather his bearings until the world around him stops spinning and eventually, it does and opens his eyes.

He's on the inside of a gigantic open clam and standing in the middle was a nude woman with long, flowing orange hair, her left hand over her heart and close to her round, enormous breasts. Her skin was light and coated in ocean spray, making her appear as though she was made of reflective marble.

Henry recalls the painting Birth of Venus.. She looked exactly like that woman in the seashell: Aphrodite, the Goddess born of sea foam. The beauty senses the stranger's presence and saunters up to him gracefully and Henry finds himself awed as the 8 foot tall divine being close to him and his dark emerald eyes gaze into her light green eyes.

"Hello little man". The goddess smiles at him, "Henry?"

—-

"Henry, Henry?" A sensual voice stirs him from his sleep.