»Of Godhuman Nature« [Five Nights At Freddy's]

Chapter XIX - Phantom Guilt

________

" I am the one to absolve you
from every shade of winter
in their eyes. "

[ Draconian - Burial Fields ]

_________

!Trigger warning: violence against children!

_________

           By the time Lily left the house - which was about five minutes before Mike's official pick-up time - the temperatures had already significantly dropped & the winds picked up yet again; harbingers of another storm on the verge of being unleashed to terrorize a helpless, oblivious city. The air was crisp, the skies buried underneath a thick blanket of grey clouds that suffocated the sun until only remnants of her once golden beams grazed the cold pavement of Hurricane in a futile attempt to keep the night at bay.

She couldn't explain why, but for some reason the sunsets in this town were a different, more challenging kind of depressing...

             Briefly touching her braided hair to reassure herself that everything was in place after all Lily walked the small distance from her front door to the sidewalk, enjoying the clutches of the freezing winds as they grabbed & started tugging at her vintage dress. The cold was more than welcome, as it so happened to ease the pain caused by the wound on the inside of her thigh despite being hidden under multiple layers of thick mull.
As requested by Mr. Afton she had consulted her doctor right away & spent a total of two hours in the waiting room to not only be rewarded with a prescription for antibiotics & strong pain killers, but an upcoming appointment for a small surgery at the local clinic as well. To replace the damaged tissue & speed up the natural healing process, so she had been told.

          All I did was accidentally drop the soldering iron for a total of three seconds... How could things get so out of hand?

Her eyes travelled out into the suburban streets where little to no cars could be spotted at this hour, & even the citizens had made themselves rather scarce at the imminent fall of night. She didn't mind that though, at all. The less people, the better. She hadn't spent over a decade in an isolated little village between the fjords for nothing.

             A certain black Honda rolling down the hill behind the adjacent bakery caught her attention & she took a step forward into the street so Mike definitely couldn't miss her, one hand already up in the air to wave at him from afar.
A small but tangible knot manifested itself into existence right in the pits of her stomach upon seeing him approach.

There they were at last. The infamous first date jitters. Something she hadn't exactly been too stoked about since Mr. Afton's passive aggressive vocalized thoughts on the matter...

She could still hear the venom dripping from each word seconds before his departure; words that hadn't stopped re-echoing in her head ever since:

             ' ... he's one of the good kind. Attentive, caring, warm-hearted. So I've been told... '

Had his words been solely out of mockery & spite towards Mike?

Before she could dedicate too much of her mind to this particular matter Mike pulled up right in front of her & smiled his sheepish genuine smile through the open window of the passenger seat.
" Hey, you. Sorry for the delay, Milady. I missed the exit & ended up circling the block like an idiot ~ "

          " Delay? ", Lily arched a brow & planted a questioning look on the digital clock of his car.
" It's only three minutes past half. "