The Bond

Ch 82

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

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

=o^o=

Nightmares always haunt every day when he was in this city.

It was a little different when they were in the town where they lived temporarily after his fight with Mark, the town where they met Lucy. Not every night nightmares torment him, waking him up many times in the wee hours of the night and keeping him awake until the sun slowly illuminates the world from the eastern horizon. He thought that if they lived in different houses, it wouldn't happen.

But in fact?

Here Michael was now, in the kitchen with a cup of hot coffee at half past two in the morning. Smoke billowing from his cup, he blew it slowly. He was sleepy, his eyes were heavy, but he was unwilling to go back to sleep.

His dream this time was about his two younger siblings. The two of them were there, in a white room with no walls or boundaries at all, their pairs of eyes looking at him with a look that couldn't be interpreted at all. A young girl and boy. They stood, just stood, said nothing, made no movement, silently staring at him. Then tightness overcame the recesses of his chest, suffocating him mercilessly until he opened his eyes and woke up from the dream.

Michael gripped his cup tightly, not minding the burning of his fingers on the hot porcelain. "What do you want from me ...?" he muttered under his breath, a low, pitiful voice, sounding weary.

"Had a nightmare?"

He gave a startled gasp and almost knocked over his cup, his head turned to the person who was speaking and he found Ennard standing not far from him with one eyebrow cocked upwards. Michael straightened his lips, his eyes slowly dropping to the black liquid in the glass. For a few moments Michael didn't answer, and Ennard didn't leave either—actually, he was waiting for a reply from the eldest Afton. After a while, the purple-eyed man nodded slowly.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" Michael asked back, slowly lifting his head to look at Ennard. "Usually you'd be asleep or recharging at this hour."

"Who do you think is watching you every night when you have bad dreams? Your father?"

Michael raised his eyebrows—had Ennard just admitted that he takes care of him when he sleeps? But Ennard seemed oblivious to his own words, Michael's small smile formed on his face.

"I saw Elizabeth and Evan this time," Michael said, his shoulders slumped and he took a sip of his coffee.

Nobody spoke for a while.

Michael was a little surprised when Ennard's cable slapped his cheek lightly to snap him out of his reverie, making him look at Ennard who narrowed his eyes at him. "Come with me," Ennard said curtly.

He didn't have time to ask why he had to follow the animatronic in human form because the man had walked away first, so Michael immediately put the cup on the table and followed Ennard who was already on the stairs leading to the second floor. Ennard paused to look behind him, waited for Michael until Michael took the first step, then headed back up the stairs. Michael's footsteps could be heard faster and they were now walking hand in hand.

Michael gave him a confused look, but he didn't care, instead looking up at the ceiling in the middle of the second floor passage. To their right and left were locked rooms, the far end being the laundry room. After guessing how many more steps he had to walk, he stopped. Michael stopped too. Ennard squinted his eyes before reaching up to feel for something on the ceiling, then pressing down on it.

Presumably that made Michael jump in shock because another ladder suddenly appeared from there. It's like in the house they live in in the other town; a secret attic.

He quickly caught up with Ennard again because Ennard again left him, climbing the stairs first. This attic was filled with more stuff, lots of tools that he knew mostly to be circus props. Rows of costumes, circus games, and stuffs needed for the show. Michael suppressed the urge to joke because he saw that Ennard was very serious at the moment.

Ennard was even more indifferent than in that house. Ennard was more careful there, but here—the man didn't care in the least by shoving aside the boxes that got in their way, brusquely. Michael saw various items fall because the Ennard cable did that on purpose, then he looked forward again and was briefly stunned. Ennard's back was broad and straight, perfect posture. Michael averted his eyes nervously. Why did the illusion disc he made make Ennard look so impressive?

Then Ennard stopped suddenly, he almost bumped into him. Michael stuck his head out from behind Ennard to see how Ennard used a safety pin to open a locked door. Then the lock opened and Ennard turned the handle and pushed it out.

Turned out there was a balcony there.

Michael shot out ahead of Ennard because Ennard stepped aside, deliberately opening a path for Michael. With eyes sparkling in amazement, Michael looked up at the sky. There were no clouds then, so the stars were very clear. Thousands of small lights that illuminate the dark night with the dim glow of the crescent moon. He never knew there was a balcony here and how he could see the view from this place.

"How pretty," he muttered happily, his smile wide. "How did you know?"

"Because I'm not blind enough when we observed the house in the first place."

"How cruel."

Michael laughed, he didn't look away at all because he was still dissatisfied with staring at the sky. Too heavenly for him to be enjoyed for a short time. Michael kept the smile on his face, the nightmare had been forgotten, replaced by joy in his heart. Magnificent. He admitted he probably owed Ennard a great deal now, for the happiness he regained at times.

The man turned to Ennard who was standing behind, still looking up. "Thank you, Enn," Michael said sincerely.

Hearing that, Ennard just shrugged and glanced the other way, not bothering to give anything in return other than a soft snort. When in fact, his cheeks warmed up, maybe his face was a bit flushed but he was grateful Michael looked straight back up at the sky after thanking him. Seeing how happy Michael was over simple things, a sense of contentment and calm arose within him. It was as if the happiness had rubbed off on him like a virus.

All the journey he'd been on with Michael had been a real treat, if he was being honest. Unfortunately his high ego wouldn't admit it.

"Gorgeous," he said quietly, absently.

Michael turned his head excitedly. "Indeed gorgeous!" he said enthusiastically. "Ennard is cool to know this place," he continued with a broad grin, looking up again. "I really like the view." Michael's smile was full of meaning, his purple eye glistening under the glitter of a thousand stars. "What do you think? Isn't the sky beautiful?"

The pair of bicolored eyes did not move at all, did not budge, completely fixed.

Not to the sky above.

"You're right, it's beautiful indeed ...."