The Bond

Ch 117

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

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

=o^o=

His eyes opened quickly and he immediately woke up from the nightmare; the sound of the loud explosion in his dream felt so real, it made his head throb in pain. Michael panted—what just happened? He only remembered himself going with Ennard to save Lucy ...

... was it just a dream?

He pushed aside the blanket quickly and got out of bed, he rushed out of the room and down the stairs. Ennard wasn't with him when he woke up, maybe he was in the living room.

"Michael! You're finally awake."

There was only Henry in the living room. Michael looked at him confusedly and let Henry hug him tightly, he returned the hug a little hesitantly. He still felt dazed, maybe because of how quickly he got out of bed and headed straight downstairs. His gaze was fixated on Henry who smiled in relief, what exactly happened? His ears felt ringing.

"Where's Ennard?"

Now Henry's smile faded slowly, making his chest begin to ripple in fear. He peeked over Henry's shoulder and saw the living room table cluttered with spare parts and tools. He glared at Henry again, this time looking worried. "Where's Ennard, Uncle?"

"You don't have to worry too much." Henry patted his shoulder lightly and motioned for him to follow him. "He's almost finished."

"Almost finished?"

Henry just nodded, he opened the door at the bottom of the stairs—Michael knew where they were going; Henry's private office. His father also had the same private office, right through the door at the bottom of the stairs and into the dark basement of the house. He rarely went there, after all it didn't really matter to him back then. Henry flipped on the switch so they could take the stairs carefully, they went down as Michael was still wondering what Henry meant.

Slowly his eyes widened looking at Ennard deactivating in a corner of the basement. "What happened to him?" he asked as he preceded Henry to approach Ennard.

"He's fine, I just fixed a few broken parts of him." Henry pulled the chair closest to him and sat down, staring at Michael who was now showing very obvious concern. "The debris that was thrown away by the explosion injured him, but luckily you're okay."

Michael turned to Henry in disbelief. "Explosion ...?"

The Emily's eyebrows raised, then intertwined with each other. Henry stood up again and approached the eldest Afton. "You two jumped from the third floor and the bomb went off, remember?"

Michael's lips parted slightly, his fingers began to tremble. Last night's dream ...

"You passed out since four days ago, Michael."

... was real?

So, everything wasn't just a dream. The ambush they set up in the lab, their fight with Alice, and the explosion—it was all real.

Everything?

"Lucy ...?"

Henry's gaze dimmed, he averted his eyes from him. "Sorry, Mike."

He knew what that meant.

Lucy was gone, she didn't survive, he failed to save her. His eyes heated up, his vision was started to blur, the narrow basement was increasingly stifling his chest. He pursed his lips together, before his feet carried him away from the place.

Henry watched Michael leave in somber, he heard a loud bang on the door. He could understand Michael's current feelings, losing someone he cared about was never easy, moreover—Michael almost lost everyone. He let out a heavy breath, then approached the deactivated Ennard. His hand reached behind the animatronic's neck, pressed a button, and then he backed away. The robotic blue eyes moved, Henry stared at him with his eyebrows interlocked.

"Is he awake now?"

"Yes." Henry folded his arms across his chest. "He just left from here."

Ennard glanced at Henry intently. It seemed Henry had told him about their friend and the brown-haired man didn't take it well. He quite understood why, considering Lucy and Michael's closeness it was no surprise that this was a heavy blow to Michael. Henry glared back at him, he just nodded and left from there. He opened the door and the first thing he heard was Michael's sobs coming from the living room.

He was silent for a few moments while standing behind Michael—at least he had to prepare a few words to calm Michael even though he felt helpless and awkward, kind of clueless on what he had to say soon. His eyes closing for a moment, he changed to his humanoid form. He stepped slowly toward Michael.

Michael hid his face between his knees which he lifted onto the sofa and was pulled up to his chest, his whole body trembling, his cries a bit muffled. He moved his hand to pat Michael on the shoulder, causing Michael to taken aback and turned his head to him. Finding Ennard standing there with a faint smile and a look that seemed guilty, his tears fell more and more and he immediately hugged Ennard tightly.

"Lucy ...."

"I know, Michael, I know. I'm sorry we couldn't save her, but I'm here now." 

Ennard stroked his brown hair gently, hugging him no less tightly but gently, while he cried into Ennard's chest.

He didn't want to lose Ennard either.