HIDDEN IN THE FLAMES ; afton kids

chapter 6

It had been a week since Micheal's death. An intense one at that.

The house had begun to feel empty without him. There were times I would come down and go to say something like "good morning" to him, just to realise he wasn't here.

Elizabeth and I had to try figure out how to make our own meals. I already had learnt a bit of Micheal but it wasn't enough for all three meals.

The majority of our days were spent in the diner, as usual. It was the source of most our food, drinks and entertainment. Especially since Micheal was now gone.

We'd also been in contact with the police a couple of times since Micheal had "disappeared".

I believe they were clsssing it as a run away.

Father had distinctly told us that the police may be getting involved after a teacher from Micheal's high school had contacted him over the unusual anount of abstinences.

He was originally just going to say that my brother was a drop out. That was until Elizabeth spilt the detail about us having not seen him for days that the lies began to get messy.

After people worked iut he wasn't with any friends, many believed it was something to do with what happened with our mother last year. Bottled up emotions coming to the surface.

God it was weird knowing the truth about the situation.

In mine and Elizabeth's school situation, we didn't have one until the Wednesday that week were father said that our mourning period was over and that we should try get back to normal life.

For my sister, I believed this helped. Kindergarteners wouldn't understand what she was going through.

Nobody could even understand what having a missing brother would feel like at that age and that wasn't even the full truth.

However, for me it was harder. People already knew what that meant and no longer had the abilities to be hushed by adults. In other words, I was harrassed with questions from my peers.

Arriving home everyday was the best moment. School felt hard to get through. Not only because of the questions but because since that day, studies were the last thing on my mind. I had lost motivation. My grades were slipping.

The diner was haunted with memories. Seeing those robots gave me PTSD, but I couldn't do anything about it.

Since that fatal day, I had been having nightmares about robots coming to kill me. I knew that something similar had been happening to Elizabeth, because every few nights she'd wake up in a cold sweat amd run into my room.

There were other nights were I'd have nightmares about Micheal to. But they were usually throughout the nights where my sleeping pills wouldn't kick in and I couldn't fall asleep for long anyway.

The ones about Micheal were usually more mentally manipulative than the ones that didn't involve him.

He would look at me and ask; 'why didn't you save me?' or other questions along the lines of that.

It had been less than a week since that fatal die when I heard a knock at the door.

Father wasn't in. He was at some form of buisness meeting that was probably discussing the events of the that day and what they could do about it.

Well that and him trying to keep his mouth shit about his son's death.

But he seemed good enough moving on. And Micheal was his favourite.

I got to my feet and made my way downstairs towards the door, closing the door to my room behind.

I noticed Elizabeth in Micheal's room behind me. Her way of handling the grief of loosing a sibling was to look at everything they owner. Become one with the person. Know who they are. That kind of stuff.

However, I was the opposite. I would do anything in my power to stay away from Micheal's room.

Ever since father announced to us that he was dead, only the day after we had witnessed the tragic event that made him bite the big one, I hadn't stepped foot in his room.

Anything that I even thought belonged to him once, I distanced myself from.

I hurried downstairs, turning around to face away from what used to be Micheal's room thinking, let's get this over with.

Probably becuase I thought it was probably a neighbour or a parents who had heard about the incident.

Boy was I wrong.

It was one of Micheal's friends.

He was stood with something in his hand I couldn't quite make out from the position he was holding it in and the dim weather.

I looked up. I didn't want to say a word. Already, I felt like this lie had went to far.

"Hey uh," the boy began. It must've been an uncomfortable moment for the both of us.

"You're Micheal's brother - right?" He asked.

I felt like all I could do was nod and make smell gestures with my body to say my replies. Saying it allowed made it feel too real. I didn't want any of this to be real. Besides, it would make it less awkward.

"Look I'm sorry about what happened to him." The boy held the back of his neck, an awkward expression crossing his face.

"Here," he said, handing a red mask with fox ears on it and a small crack on the side to me.

"I was going to give it back to your brother," he began to explain. "But given the circumstances it's not like I can. I thought bringing it to his house was the next best idea."

He smiled politely as I examined the mask.

"Anyway uh - gotta bounce? My friend's and I are going to the park. I hope nothing bad has happened to your brother." He said, keeping the nice tone and not moving from my doorstep.

The boy had a weirdly calming eroma. He managed to seem approachable in every situation while stressing his emotions through to you. I found that I idealised this trait for many years.

Another thing is, he seemed to have a similar looking mask that was still in his hand, but with the face of a different animatronic on it. I believe it was Freddy, since his light hair was easily distinguishable from the brown colour of the bear.

I looked at the mask.

Micheal sometimes had used it to tease amd Elizabeth and I. Usually as jokes.

But I had a different idea of how to use it.

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