A Brother's Sorrow [REWRITE]

Chapter 1

(The original story was written by Eris345 so check out their profile!)

Chris was trapped on his bed, strapped down by his own covers as nightmarish apparitions drifted throughout his subconscious. Part of him knew that he should be dead, and yet he wasn't. He had a massive migraine, which he attributed to the last moments of consciousness he had. Being tossed into the mechanical monster's gaping maw, struggling to escape his own demise. Then an audible chomp, followed by excruciating pain as the mechanisms holding the mouth open failed and crushed his skull, nearly shattering it.

He could see his plush friend Fredbear on the nightstand, a flashlight resting between his stuffed arms. The batteries had long since died, leaving the boy trapped within the darkness of his worst fears. Every creak, every distorted laugh, every echo had the boy quaking in terror. It wasn't about the jumpscare, after all.

It was the knowledge of his imminent demise at the hands of the cartoony characters he'd once deemed friends. The ones he had so lovingly clung to when he was alone with no one to talk to. They had been his friends once, the only voices he'd ever gotten to hear speak to him.
Everyone at his school ignored him, his brother was never around, always with his father since Elizabeth had died.

Died, everyone said she had disappeared. They didn't watch in terror as that clown freak offered his older sister a creamy treat of death. They hadn't cowered in fear, helpless as they claw latched onto her stomach and dragged her in. There had been some of her left over too. A leg, lying beside the robot. Blood and guts splattered onto its freshly polished chrome exoskeleton. And a bow. The pink ribbon that Elizabeth had wore in her strawberry blonde hair. Chris had picked it up, attached it to his Fredbear plush in an effort to never forget the truth.

It had disappeared the next morning. The bear's factory-made bowtie was back in place. It was like Elizabeth had never existed.

Chris dug his sweaty palms into the cold sheets he had grown accustomed to. He knew this was a dream, he was aware of the heart monitor beeping behind his bedside table. And Elizabeth's bow was back in its rightful place on the Fredbear plush. It gave the boy some level of comfort, knowing that his sister was always beside him while battling these night terrors.

She was the reason he kept fighting.

Chris was growing more agitated, and then it clicked. This was HIS dream, his subconscious. He didn't have to suffer like this. With a loud yelp, he watched as his flashlight elongated into a lightsaber, just like the ones he and Mikey had played with a year ago. He charged the closet, slashing at the fox that had been about to strike. He swung his blade, slicing apart the bear that had been sneaking up from behind. He then imagined locks on both the doors leading to his room, wondering why he had never done that before. This was his mind, correct?

Chris, for the first time in his life, felt alive. Ironically, he only felt this way on the brink of death, yet nonetheless he still persisted. He refused to succumb to his darkest fears. He wouldn't let himself be consumed by paranoia and tears, after all that was what led to this predicament in the first place.

The room began to dissolve, almost as if this had been a test. Chris, for the first time in years, beamed as he watched his torture cell wither away into the darkness. Now, he felt safe in the dark, the familiar black void reminding him of the only peace he had felt. His head wasn't usually filled with these nightmares, in fact the void of sleep had been his escape from reality. The world outside of his head was scary enough.

Chris closed his figurative eyes, only opening them when he heard a familiar, soothing voice.

His golden Fredbear plush had materialized before the child, a chunk of its head having been ripped off messily by what appeared to be sharpened jaws. It stared deeply into the boy's deep, brown eyes, almost as if it were watching to protect him. Or to watch for a reaction.