Karmas bitter but so am I (S.A.M.S.)

Chapter 22 - "Can you hold me? Please."

(Narrator POV)

Veil woke up to the sound of softly buzzing lights and a blanket draped over him. It's comforting, almost, if it weren't for the fact that he was still adjusting to the environment and the faces that still scowl whenever he enters a room. Ironically, the one face that doesn't scowl is the one he wishes not to see.

His creator.

It isn't out of distaste for Eclipse now, as those feelings faded after only a few hours with him. Now, as much as he hates to admit it, it's out of guilt. It gnaws at him every time Eclipse comes into view, breaking him down from the inside out- and, before long, he has to excuse himself to prevent the unwanted feelings from consuming him whole. He hates it. He can't even get an apology out before he begins to feel sick with the memories that crowd his head.

It's only been a few days, but it is still as debilitating as the first time it happened. It hasn't gotten easier...and Veil doubts it ever will.

Shame claws it's way up his throat, forcing itself out in the form of a grim frown that settles plainly on his face. He wishes he hadn't been so brash. Hadn't been so desperate to prove himself, when obviously he wasn't wanted in the first place.

His ragged, sharp claws come up to grace the scar that splits his faceplate in two, mended only by the unbearable heat of the soldering tool and the hands of the animatronic he once killed. It made no sense to him. It was all so wrong.

But that didn't matter. They wanted him now, right? They wouldn't throw him out again now that they've gone through the trouble of repairing him...right?

The idea of being sent back to that graveyard of steel and rancid smells sends a shiver through Veil's still-mending body.

However, he isn't allowed to further dwell on it as the door clicks softly open to reveal-

Eclipse.

Oh no.

Veil instinctively shrinks back under his blanket, reduced to nothing more than small orange dots amongst the shadows beneath his sanctuary.

Eclipse closes the door behind him, gazing curiously at the trembling bundle beside his bed, before he begins to make his way over to the desk that sits in the opposite corner of the room.

He closed the door. He's gonna kill me.

Veil whimpers, making Eclipse pause in his shuffling of papers and blueprints.

"What seems to be the issue, puppy dog?" He asks nonchalantly, turning over one of the blueprints in his hands.

"I'm not a dog." Veil snaps back hastily, curling further into himself.

"You sure as hell whine like one."

Veil lets out a snarl, but it doesn't seem to phase Eclipse, of whom seems more amused than anything. So, Veil stops, instead opting to pout his way through the mockery. Sure, he could retaliate, but what good would that do him? It would probably only get him killed faster.

Eclipse shifts a few more papers, then organizes them into piles that he neatly stacks against the wall- most likely to keep them as far out of Blood Moon's reach as possible.

Another shiver wracks through Veil's body.

The beast with savage claws and rabid teeth that bite, bite, bite, tear, tear, tear, until-

His breath catches in his vents. His claws sink deeper into the fabric of his blanket. His eyes grow wider, filled with a terror only the past can provide.

Suddenly, a book is dropped in front of him. He flinches back- shifting, despite the pain that rattles through his limbs.

Until his back collides with something that isn't the wall his makeshift bed is situated against. He stiffens, panic tightening his chest into knots that make it hard to breathe, hard to see, hard to imagine anything other than those horrifying red eyes that burn with insurmountable rage, bearing down on him relentlessly.