The Fall of the Aftons

175: Michael Afton

Painful, painstakingly slow months passed. Michael was finally discharged from the hospital, but he was still required to live with the Wright family until the doctor cleared him to live on his own.

And he hated every second of it.

He loved the family, but everything reminded him of Noah. It certainly didn't help that Noah's old bedroom became his. And because of his injuries, he couldn't do anything else but lay in bed. It was emotionally agonizing.

One day, as Michael was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, somebody knocked on the bedroom doorframe, interrupting his train of thought. He slowly sat up, spotting one of Noah's sisters, Mikayla, standing in the doorway she adjusted her AutoSyringe insulin pump hooked onto her belt.

"Do you want something, Mikk?" he asked, his voice raspy and strained from lack of use.

"I came to ask if you wanted to open your birthday present," she said quietly, smiling softly. "You could really use it."

"Use what? Something to 'make me smile?'" he asked sarcastically, trying to finger-quote as best as he could with the arm brace on his previously broken arm and the bandages on his previously cut-open one.

"If you open it, you'll find out." She chuckled. "So, would you like to? Or are you still going to put it off?"

He sighed miserably, dragging a hand down his face. "Fine... I guess I'll open it..."

She offered a sad smile. "I'm glad." She stepped over to the dresser by Noah's closet, opened the second-to-top drawer, and dug around until she found Michael's gift. Then she walked over to him and handed him the present. "Would you like me to stay here as you open it? Or would you rather me get someone else or leave you alone?"

Michael carefully patted the spot next to him on the bed before holding the gift close to his chest. He was nervous to open it, afraid of how it would affect him emotionally.

"Do you need help unwrapping it?" Mikk asked.

He hesitantly nodded his head, handing the gift to her.

She carefully ripped off the wrapping paper and tore the tape closing the box off, then handed the present back to him.

"Thank you," he murmured. He shifted the box on his lap and reached inside, pulling out the first thing he felt.

Evan's old Fredbear plush.

The same one William had taken away the day he died.

"Oh my gosh," he whispered. "He found it... He found Fredbear. I thought he was lost forever after William took him away..."

Mikk chuckled. "He was ecstatic when he found that old thing. He couldn't stop talking about how happy you would be when you saw it."

Michael held Fredbear close to his chest, inhaling the oh-so-familiar scent of both the Afton family house and the hospital.

"You know that there's more in there, right?"

"I know, I know. Just... Just..."

"Just, what?" she pressed, her voice softening so as not to scare or agitate him.

"Just... Give me a minute..." he mumbled.

"Okay. That's fine." She chuckled, ruffling his hair. "Would you like me to leave? Or do you want me to stay?"

"Stay."

"Okay. Let me know when you're ready. I gotta go grab my glucometer really quick. I think I took too much insulin with lunch because I'm starting to feel low. I'll be right back, okay?"