Chapter Text
BEEP!
"Hey, Michael. I haven't seen you at school for a while. Has it really been three weeks? I'm sorry to hear about your sister. Lizzie was a sweet girl. I don't wanna speak out of turn here, but I think there's still a chance she could be found. Don't lose hope, Michael. Anyways, I hope you're okay. I'll see you around."
Michael sat still on his plaid bed sheets, letting warm tears roll down his face as the answering machine beeped one more time to indicate that the caller had said her piece. A tear slid down his soft, pale skin and onto the corner of his lip, where the salty taste reminded him of his presence in his own body.
He had zoned out when his friend's message came through and felt like he was out-of-body, acting as an observer. In this state, he was thinking about the words she was saying, not wanting to believe any of them. Everyone said they were sorry, and everyone assured him that Elizabeth was still out there. Michael himself believed that his sister was somewhere, waiting to be found. But he knew that everyone else's well wishes were just lies to make themselves feel better. If anyone else truly believed that Elizabeth was still alive, they would be searching.
Not even Michael's father, William, was searching for Elizabeth. It was strange because he had always seemed to love her far above his two sons; Yet, now that Elizabeth had apparently disappeared, his interests didn't lie in finding her. William's interests instead lay in protecting himself and the image of his business.
Michael tried to shake these thoughts, knowing there was little he could do now that the investigation was over. Just as he stood up and wiped the tears from his face, preparing to call his friend back, his father walked in suddenly.
Michael jumped back, a reflex developed by many harsh surprise visits from his father before.
"Sorry, Michael," William said, noticing his son's reaction. "I knocked, but I think you were on the phone. Must have not heard me."
"No, no, it's fine," Michael stuttered, "That was just Celia on the answering machine. It, uh, works great, by the way. Thanks for making that for me." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"Right..." William sneered, "Although, I do recall telling you I didn't want that girl calling here. She makes you soft, and right now, I need a strong son more than ever."
Michael looked up at his father with a confused expression. "What do you mean?"
"Your mother is a wreck, Evan is distant, and little Elizabeth is... gone. I'm trying to hold everything together but I have my own business to deal with at the restaurants." William sighed and rubbed his eyes in an exhausted manner, saying, "Some of my animatronics aren't working exactly as expected. I've already had to retire Circus Baby due to malfunctions."
"I thought you had to retire Baby because of Elizabeth," Michael said.
William froze and his tired expression was replaced by a horrified stare. "What?" he asked in a shaky voice.
"Because you designed her to look like Lizzy. I thought you just couldn't bear to have her on stage anymore."
The static overtaking William's head began to fade, and he looked at his son, placing a hand on his shoulder, "No, nothing like that. She's just been... finicky. I'm ironing out the details on what to do with her. Anyways, I know that Evan loves the animatronics, but with the recent unreliability of them, I don't want him anywhere near those things."
"Oh... well, that's fine," Michael said, "But what does it have to do with me being tough?"
William gave Michael's shoulder a light squeeze, saying, "Well, you'll have to help me keep Evan safe while I focus on work. I thought that if Evan were scared of the animatronics, then he may not try to go near them unsupervised. Could you help me with that?"
Michael felt sick at the thought of what his father was proposing. He didn't seem stable. He was always a little strange and always terribly mean. But the idea of taunting Evan was unusually cruel. Couldn't he just order Evan not to go near the animatronics?
"I can see you're hesitating," William said, irritation in his voice. "Let me put it this way: You will be helping me with this. I'm not losing another one of my children. Use one of those prototype masks I gave you last month. You can even get some of the big kids around town to help you. Elizabeth is gone. This is how things are now."
He let go of his son's shoulder and walked towards the door before Michael stopped him, saying, "What about me?"
"What about you?" William retorted.
"I meant... what about losing me?"
William chuckled and shook his head, walking out the door and closing it behind him.