The Bond

EXTRA 9

-2011-

He heard a knock on his door—not exactly his house, to be honest. The house that the three of them had lived together before ... it all happened. He placed the half-finished white mask on his desk, tools strewn across the floor. Then he stepped outside, pulling the hood of his jacket over his head. He paused in the corridor when his reflection caught the eye.

Ah, his body was getting damaged by all this rot, even his artificial supporting endoskeleton couldn't slow it down.

He walked towards the door as it continued to be knocked on, that person seemed like they had no patience at all. He opened half of the door, peeked through the opening and found someone he knew, looking gleeful.

"Michael!"

It was his father's friend, he nodded and opened the door wider and stepped aside—a gesture to let Henry in. He looked right and left outside the house for a while, grateful that it was quite quiet around the house, so he closed the door tightly. Henry looked at him happily, but he could only pull out a hint of a meaningless smile. Henry's gaze dimmed after that, knowing how difficult their lives had been recently.

"How are you, Mike?" Henry asked, starting the pleasantries as they walked into the living room and sat facing each other. "It was pretty hard to find your new address ... turned out it's only a few blocks from your own house." He laughed softly.

He chuckled too, Henry just wasn't very good at reading addresses sometimes. "I'm fine." He touched his throat, his voice fading.

The brown-eyed man in front of him raised his eyebrows, looking concerned. "Oh, Michael ...."

He just turned his face the other way.

"Are you really alright?" Henry threw another question in worry, he nodded.

"Don't worry," he replied. "I still have spare parts left from Ennard while he was still ... here." He shrugged his shoulders while glancing away from Henry. "I will repair my body support again using his spare parts."

Henry could only nod, not wanting to bring up the matter too much with Michael knowing how Michael felt about this. After that Henry took a deep breath and put a magazine on the living room table. "Michael, they're rebuilding the restaurant." He glanced at Michael briefly, saw how Michael tensed his shoulders. "As a horror attraction."

Michael shook his head slowly. "That's impossible ... they closed it for good."

"Those people are greedy people, Michael." Henry smiled sadly after replying, looking at the headlines regarding the abandoned restaurant's newest attraction. Then he lifted his gaze, meeting it with Michael.

For a moment Michael was confused, but Henry's gaze was sure, before long he widened his eyes. "Don't say that you think ..."

"Yes, your father may be there."

=o^o=

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

He couldn't continue like this. The weather was bad, if there was another storm or strong wind or another dry day, his body would no longer be able to endure. Not even if he took cover in the sewers though. He would be destroyed by nature itself.

He dragged himself to his destination, back to that place again, which he thought was a prison until he met the eldest Afton. This wasn't what he wanted, this wasn't in his plans when he asked his mentor to kill him. He gritted his teeth and jumped into the vent. Everything still looked the same here, he can do it quickly, without interruption.

Even though the child's distinctive laughter made him stop, but to hell with her minions.

He nudged the vent cover with such force that it fell and clanged loudly on the floor, he jumped down before glancing around. No sign of the ballerina here, they were probably on the main stage.

So he walked towards the performance hall and stopped right in front of the stage; just as he had expected, they were all here ... almost all of them.

He turned back, a pair of bright green eyes looking at him in wrath.

"Long time no see, Circus Baby."