The Bond

Ch 24

"Bold."/"Bold italic" : animatronic is talking/animatronic is talking in mind

"Normal."/"Normal italic." : human is talking/human is talking in mind

=o^o=

"Ugh ... where am I?"

"Definitely not heaven."

Michael regretted his decision to get out of bed right away as he was instantly knocked backwards by dizziness and blurred vision. Michael groaned in pain, he closed his eyes tightly for a moment before opening them slowly and his vision starting to clear.

This place was certainly very unfamiliar to him.

Ennard was across the room where he was still sitting right now, clasping his hands in front of his chest as he stared intently at him.

"Where are we?" Michael asked quietly, he was still trying to relieve the dizziness. "What happened?"

Ennard snorted as he stepped toward the window to pull back the curtains, the bright sunlight instantly lit up the room and Michael closed his eyes once again in the dazzle. "The person you thought was a friend barged into your house and you guys argued," Ennard said after that.

Trying to remember what happened yesterday made Michael bite his lower lip hard. Now he remembered it clearly; Mark tries to persuade him and blames himself for Evan's death. Bad memories came to him for so many times, when people around him also blamed him and branded him a murderer. Even though it was just old bad memories, Mark managed to make him feel bad, scared, and guilty, again.

"I don't remember anything after he ..." Michael paused and shook his head vigorously for a moment, pushing away unpleasant memories from the past. "After he pushed me down."

"Because you almost fainted and I took over your body." Michael turned to Ennard, Ennard looked away. "I think your fight with him put you under a lot of pressure and your body can't keep up with the emotional changes that were going too fast."

Michael ignored Ennard's last sentence because he knew that too. "You took over my body?" he said in disbelief.

"Yes," said Ennard. "Are you expecting me to ask permission first? Don't be a git," Ennard snarled in annoyance, Michael clearly more offended at him controlling his host's body than he was blaming his mental deteriorating all of a sudden.

"What did you do after that?"

"Nothing."

"What did you do."

Ennard chuckled. "I might just ... threw that bastard against the wall," Ennard said dubiously, but he sounded satisfied. "Oh looks like your wall was broken because of that, sorry, I should have held back because you're poor."

Hearing that Michael immediately dropped his jaw and looked at Ennard in shock. "You—what? What if you hurt him?!"

"I heard that his spine is fractured, is that bad?"

"Ennard!" Michael said in disbelief. "You can't just do that!"

"Then what do you want me to do?!"

Ennard shouted back at him causing Michael to flinch slightly in surprise, he suddenly shuddered as Ennard glared at him and the LED light in his eyes flickered between red and white. Ennard was really angry, Michael felt bitter. The eldest Afton gasped as Ennard pulled him to his feet and forced their gazes to meet. Ennard's wires slowly wrapped tightly around his arms to his chest, somehow because the animatronic was so irritated that he couldn't stop the wires from choking him.

"What do you want me to do, Afton?" Once again Ennard repeated his words, he let out a low growl. "You want me to just let him go? You want me to do that? Huh?"

Michael gulped nervously. "It's better than ..."

"You really are a fool!"

Ennard's scream cut him off, making Michael jump in surprise. Now Ennard gripped both of his upper arms tightly, creating a painful sensation from the tight grip of the animatronic. Michael knitted his brows together and pursed his lips together, staring at Ennard with a look that couldn't be interpreted at all.

"Listen," Ennard hissed angrily. "You can't change what had happened. Therefore, you have two options; always feeling down about the past and stuck there forever, or living your present life while making peace with yourself and making the past an evaluation of your future. But never." Ennard tightened his grip even more, and this was the first time Michael had seen Ennard lower his head to look at him. "Never let others trample on you and humiliate you like trash. There is no option to stay silent and let them bring you down. There never was."

Michael was taken aback, his lips parted slightly and he felt ... relieved. No one had ever said that to him, then hearing it from Ennard seemed to make half of the burden he had disappeared. Michael felt more relaxed, though Ennard said it in a deep voice and if he could be honest Ennard looked really scary. However, there was something he could understand about the animatronic's rage at this point.

They were silent for a few minutes, the atmosphere in the room—surprisingly—not too tense. Michael raised both eyebrows seeing Ennard suddenly gasp, as if realizing something. Then Michael caught the gesture; an awkward gesture from Ennard, who immediately let go of his grip on his arm roughly.

"Why would I tell you such a stupid thing," Ennard grumbled and looked away, without another word and walked away leaving him alone. Michael just watched Ennard leave the room.

If this could be compared without involving reality then his chest seemed to be pounding so fast.