HIDDEN IN THE FLAMES ; afton kids

chapter 2

Saturday came as if it had always been here. The day of excitement and happiness had begun.

Elizabeth came running into my room the second she got the chance. Through my insomnia, Lizzy had realised if she ever woke up early, she could guarantee I'd already have been awake long enough for her to come in without any consequences.

The door didn't even get a chance to creek before she was already sitting next to me, her new teddy in hand.

"I can't wait until Daddy gets up! I really really really want to go see the real Baby!" she exclaimed.

It was hard not to smile. Seeing that cheerful look in Elizabeth's eyes as she talked about the place she just knew she was going to love.

After rambling for a few minutes, Lizzy decided to wake Micheal up, and the three of us had breakfast together like we usually did.

I think if I knew anything about what would happen in the hours after this moment or because of it, I would've treasured it. But, because I was oblivious enough to miss the possibility, I enjoyed the circumstance the way I would usually.

Lizzy was eating her cereal, the Baby teddy still resting in the middle of her palm just like how it had been the last time I saw it.

The blue eyes of the stuffed teddy stared directly at me. It was oddly creepy, despite the fact it was a teddy for kids younger than me.

The hours ticked by, moving rapidly in the wind. It wasn't long until I was helping Lizzy tie her laces so she wouldn't miss the grand opening of Circus Baby's Pizza World.

Outside the restaurant looked the way father's restaurants always did; childish with a mix of good design choices. It was safe to say this place was going to have kids coming inside often.

The inside had many similar types of design choices as the outside. Checkered floor boards where scattered around the entrance, the pattern almost identical to the shoes I was wearing. The walls styled in wallpaper and paint, along with a couple of drawing Lizzy had done to help the restaurant looked loved by many, even though it was only the opening day.

Father has immediately went off to satisfy the audience of reporters outside. There was already children racing to be the first to see the attractions and enjoy the setting..

But I couldn't just set back and enjoy it. Being so close to the company name made me feel targeted by the diner and yet, it wasn't a positive feeling.

In my complete and utter honest opinion, I would the majority of animatronics creepy. From close up, it seemed like they were things you'd find exclusively in your nightmares in the flesh.

Even if the pizzerias where my comfort places and I love them a lot, I could never shift the slight feeling of horror hidden within the layers of paint and doodles. It would never be just a harmless pizzeria to me. Even before the nightmare truely began.

At this point, ignoring the taunting was easy enough. It was like some people were scared of clowns, I was scared of robots. It wasn't like they could do something to me.

I followed Elizabeth and Micheal through the hallways. Lizzy kept on stopping at every attraction, no matter how important or not. Every room and every game and every animatronic must've been within close view that day.

That was until we got to Circus Baby. The main event, the main attraction. The one that Elizabeth had been dying to see since she first found out that the beautiful, robot girl was in the process of being created.

"Come on! We have to go see her!" Elizabeth shouted, attempting to pull Micheal into the room with her.

We were about to walk in when father came over, the look on his face slighter sharper and more annoyed than usual, though it was hard to tell.

"You can't go in there!" he snapped almost immediately after he was in front of us. "I forbid you."

"But daddy," Liz pleaded. "You let all the other kids go see her. Why not me?"

I could see a tear beginning to roll down her face as she fully began to understand what out father had said.

"Elizabeth I said no! Don't you dare disobey me." He continued.

It was clearly Lizzy wanted to argue back at him. Tell him that it was the only reason she actually wanted to be here and he can't take that away from.

Instead, she just started to cry. Most likely because she knew the type of punishment father would give her for messing with his most prized possessions. If Lizzy pushed her luck to much chances were she'd end up with something that would hurt her, such as having a couple of her toys broken, and is was clear she didn't want to push it and see what that would be.

After father instructed us not to go in, we walked away from Circus Baby's area.

As I watched my siblings play games and look around, I began to wonder about why Father didn't want us to see Baby. Surely he must of had a reason but nothing was adding up.

The unease I felt here wasn't reassuring me. What if it was intentional? I didn't want to believe it but what if something bad was happening and Baby was involved?

At the time, nine year old me was able to just simply Oudh the thought out of my mind. To me young brain, I was just overthinking it. If I wasn't, Micheal and maybe even Elizabeth would've pointed it out by now. It was best just to ignore the theory and move on.

Besides, we were at a newly opened pizzeria with access to all areas except one! We deserved to take advantage of that.

Shrugging the absurd theory aside, I continued to mess around.

It was too bad I was right.

❣︎ ☠︎ ❣︎