Five Nights at Freddy's

8. Reflection

"It's feeding time for the giraffe." Said the narrator on the television. On screen was the Looney Tunes short 'A Day at the Zoo'. The cartoon zookeeper feeds the giraffe a shovelful of corn, which the giraffe swallows in an almost cartoonish way. Whimsical music starts to play as the food makes its way into its stomach. Abby is too busy drawing to pay attention to the screen but still leaves it on for background noise. Mike approaches her from behind, taking a seat on the couch. He's still figuring out what to say to her despite their lack of communication. "Hey, Abs. What you working on?"

Abby silently sits there, ignoring his response of trying to do small talk. "All right." He says, accepting defeat. "I guess you don't want this, then." Handing his security badge to her, curiosity gets the best of her and she takes it, taking the time to examine the Freddy's logo. "It's cool, huh?"

She hands it back to him, displaying no interest whatsoever, and leaves it on the table as she returns to sketching a pair of blue roller skates. "Okay." Mike responded, his tone soft. Rising from his seat, he makes his way to the drawer next to the dining room, struggling to open it. He tosses the badge inside before slamming it shut. After taking a deep breath to calm himself, he looked back at his sister. "I'm trying my best, Abby. Okay?"

Abby observes him silently as he walks away, capping her marker. She stands up and approaches the same drawer. Glancing back at the hallway to ensure he wasn't returning, she attempted to open the drawer. However, it wouldn't budge. Determined, she exerted more force than intended, causing everything inside to spill onto the floor. The clattering of objects caught Mike's attention, prompting him to check on the situation. "You okay?" He asked, rushing his way into the dining room.

"I made a mess." She replied, looking at the court order their aunt gave Mike a couple of days ago. It was the whole reason why he chose the job, to make sure Abby stayed with him, and not her. But now... she knew. "I'm sorry." She hands it back to him, tears swelling in her eyes. "They're just..." He begins to explain, grabbing the papers from her."...They're just papers, all right?"

"They don't... they don't mean anything." He reassures her, but Abby's not so convinced.

Gazing at him, she then asks, "Then why do you have them?"

"Well, that's complicated." Knowing full well she was going to ask him this someday. "Aunt Jane..."

"I hate her." Abby blurts out, interrupting Mike in the process. "She's mean and she smells like cigarettes."

He chuckled upon hearing that because it was true. As a child, he'd always hated being around his aunt because of the weird smell that always seemed to follow her as she entered the house. Glad someone agreed with him even if it's his own sibling. "It's not funny." Abby wailed.

"You're right, it's not." He acknowledged rather quickly. "It's just, uh... I don't know, it's nice that we can finally agree about something."

Upon hearing this, she softly asks, "Are you gonna give me away?" Her eyes started to water, afraid of what he might say next.

"Abs, no, I..." But before he could say anything else, there was a knock at the door. Gaining both their attention, they turned around to look. But Mike being the only one to answer it, what he didn't expect was to see the police officer he saw last night standing at his front door. "Hey. Vanessa."

"Hey, Mike." She answered back, arms crossed in front of her like she was going to interrogate him for a crime. But before he could ask her why she was here, Abby grabs onto the door and lets her presence known. "And hello."

"Vanessa, this is Abby." Mike announced. "Abby, Vanessa."

"Hi, Abby." Vanessa greets in a cheerful manner. "Mike didn't tell me he had a daughter."