A Retelling of A Ghost Story

Chapter 4: Friends

William picked up Elizabeth from school a little while later, and they got ice cream on the way back. Michael got a small cone of rocky road while Elizabeth asked about his adventures at Fredbear's. Michael recounted the day in detail, except for the part about the puppet. When they finally arrived back home, Michael went to his room and tried to get his mind off of what happened. This week was too much for him.

Brian stopped by the house around 5:00 to give Michael the work that he missed and wished him well. Michael looked down solemnly as Brian handed Michael the work. The work itself wasn't that big of a deal, but Michael felt that it would take at least forty-five minutes to complete. He took the work to his desk, passing his father silently. At about 6:00, when Michael was most of the way done, William knocked on the door and said, "if you get done before seven, I'll take you to go see your brother.'' He didn't wait for a response.

William then went past the living room where Elizabeth was playing and into the garage. In the back corner there was a door, barely visible from the entrance of the garage. William walked in and sat down in an office chair next to an unfinished animatronic endoskeleton. William's work room was spacious and as organized as it could be. There were cabinets of every screw and bolt size imaginable. Every piece of metal was sorted by size and every project was lined neatly on the left wall, sorted by priority. There was a desk next to the door that had multiple monitors all showing different areas of the house and select areas outside the house. He wasn't interested in that; however, he did keep an eye on the camera that showed Michael's room.

He sat down at the desk and pulled out a piece of paper, a pencil from a cup on the right corner of the desk, and the blueprints for the puppet. William comprised a list of notes on the blank sheet of paper and titled it: recent abnormalities. He listed all of the things that Michael told him about the puppet. When he was done, William then listed all the theories that could possibly make sense of the situation. The last part he wrote about was the hypotheses and how he could prove them. It was about 6:25 when he noticed that Michael left his room. William then organized his stuff and left his work room.

Michael wandered around the house trying to find his father. He asked Elizabeth where William was. "Garage," she replied curtly, shooting Michael a glance that he knew all too well - William did not want to be disturbed. Michael began wandering around the house again. He eventually found himself in front of Evan's room. Michael stared into the room through one doorway. The room was fairly small and barren, only fitting a twin bed on the left side of the room, a dresser on the right side, and in the far-right corner of the room there was a pile of stuffed animals of the Fredbear crew. Michael solemnly walked around the room. A thin layer of dust coated every piece of furniture in the room. The room was only lit by the lazily receding sunlight, contrasting the royal blue wallpaper, and making the unlit areas darker. Michael sat down with his knees curled up to his face on the floor next to the bed and just sat there for a couple of minutes and did nothing.

Michael lifted his head to his father who knocked on the door frame three times in rapid succession. "You're done with your homework, I presume?" William deadpanned. "Yes, can we go now?" Michael replied duly. "Elizabeth is already in the car." William and Michael joined Elizabeth and they began the drive to the hospital. The drive to the hospital was not a long one. Elizabeth brought some toys to play with in the waiting room and Michael's favorite thing to do with Evan is drawing with him. He liked the peace that came with it, but he knew that he couldn't escape the fact that he created that "peace". They arrived at the hospital and got permission to visit Evan. William and Elizabeth stayed behind while Michael entered room 235.

The hospital room was pure white. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, the furniture, everything; the lights didn't help either, every time Michael came in here, his eyes were subjected to the torture of pure white light. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust and when they did, he saw that the room wasn't pure white. It had some furniture that was a light shade of beige. Then there was the bed. The bed was positioned in the center of the left wall of the room. It was a regular hospital bed, but the point of interest was obviously not the bed itself, but the child resting in the bed.