HIDDEN IN THE FLAMES ; afton kids

chapter 7

"I'm afraid we just can't find your son. We've followed every lead possible. You have our sincerest apologies."

Two officers stood by our door as I crept down the stairs. One was lanky with scruffy - but good - hair and the other was a good looking guy with dirty blond hair and hazel eyes.

Together, they seemed to be announcing the news about the case they were dropping.

Not wanting to deal with any interactions with officers today, I snuck past and into the kitchen were Elizabeth was eating.

She didn't notice as I walked in. The fox mask was in my hands. She didn't know about this either.

The mask felt like the only thing connecting me to Micheal.

I examined it, like I had done for the last couple of days when I was bored.

There was a rip, a small one, in the upper middle of it. The eyes may of been cut out, but the material covering them was well designed to match the look of a regular animatronic. It was a red mask. The only thing on it not resembling the actual animatronic was the absence of the classic eyepatch, although I had seen it on masks like this before.

Elizabeth was across the room, eating. It was an unusual morning in the sense that father had actually cooked for her a meal full of effort.

I placed the mask over my face. The material holding it on made my hair itchy, but I ignored it.

I headed back over to the door and snuck out the room.

Standing to the side I waited for the short girl to come out.

Elizabeth hopped down from her seat.

She placed the bowl into the sink.

She headed towards the door.

Right before she entered the doorway, I jumped out at her.

"RAAR"

At that very moment, Elizabeth started screaming. Although there weren't many, tears were still rolling down her face.

I lifted the mask off, revealing my dark blue eyes.

Elizabeth just stared.

"Why did you do that, meanie?" She asked at last. "That was.. Mean!"

Her green eyes looked away from me at an instant, her arms crossed in an angry manner.

"Sorry Elizabeth," I said. "I just had to try it out."

"Well don't do it again," she demanded. I could feel the heat of the anger in her eyes from the way she looked at me alone.

"I'm sorry," I repeated, sincerely. I had felt bad doing it to her, she didn't deserve any of that.

"Hey uh.. Wanna go to the park nearby later?" I asked. "You know the one Micheal used to take us to when no one was there to tell us to go anywhere else. A place we were kind of free."

Elizabeth looked at me. I couldn't sense whether it was grief or excitement in her big green eyes.

"Sure," she said. "But I think Daddy's taking us for pizza first."

By that, she meant he had to talk to someone, and was going to force us to sit in the diner, where we would subsequently mess about.

I looked at the mask. Maybe the small things would keep Micheal's spirit alive. Maybe the small things can make us feel happy again.

That's when I thought of it.

My own genius idea.

We would overcome our new come fears of the animatronics by facing them head on.