ON YOUR LAST BREATH | Mike Schmidt ✔️

chapter four .. finding inner peace

CHAPTER FOUR —    " finding inner peace "

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          NOT EVEN AN HOUR OF SITTING ALONE with his thoughts had passed before Mike had to come to terms with his restlessness and mind-buzzing headache — how could there be no proof?

Truth was never before had they had the need to prove the paranormal to anyone else, since Afton remained perpetually a step ahead of them in the wild goose chase that ensued after those dreadful five nights spent at Freddy's. They have been tracking a path of bloodshed that no cops have managed to sniff as interconnected crimes, rather than just unfortunate isolated cases. Haley Anne Reed was the first lead they took off course from that path laid by Afton, the first they reached before it was too late.

All that pacing around the room faded into driving to pick up Abby, in a complete tunnel-vision and silence that concerned her, but was obviously nothing but a continuation of his mind's rapid swings over how exactly he would go about explaining himself. Every once in a while, he would look at the clock, but it was not until he finished reheating yesterday's pasta dinner for Abby and he sat down at the kitchen table with her, right knee bouncing up and down in quiet taps of the heel to the creaking floor, that Mike finally remembered — he wasn't alone in this mess.

"Who are you calling?" Abby toyed with her fork through her plate, watching as her brother definitely cursed under his breath, trying a fourth time to get past the voicemail.

"Eat your pasta," Mike ordered absently, too busy dialing again to even acknowledge that he's been acting incredibly weird in Abby's eyes and she was definitely not that dumb of a kid to not put two and two together — he picked her up instead of Haley, he was home instead of at work, he was calling desperately someone who wasn't picking up.

Her heart dropped and with it, the fork too hit the plate.

"Did you break up with Haley?" Abby's quiet, already mourning question took Mike off guard while he was met with yet another 'This is Vanessa. Please leave a message after the beep'.

"What?" Mike looked up, perplexed by the conclusion his sister came to.

Abby crossed her arms at her chest and looked down, "We talked at school and my friends told me that if you don't get married, you're definitely going to break up."

"Abby, that's nonsense," he rolled his eyes, leaning back. "Haley and I are not breaking up, alright? Do you even know what that means?"

Ignoring his last question, Abby countered, "Then where is she?"

By readying himself to answer, Mike cast a fugitive glance upwards, one that instantly turned into a wide eyed stare, forming a dangerous observation: it was pitch black outside. "Oh, no no...," his denial repeated the words on and on again, his sight descending on the time shown by the clock mounted on the wall behind Abby. 6 PM.

Within the second, Mike rushed to his feet, "Take the plate and the fork with you, come on, we need to go!" No way in Hell was he going to leave Abby alone by herself with those murderous ghosts in town, he thought, hurrying her beanie on her head and taking her winter jacket along too since he remember the car heating had been acting up since November rolled around, as things in general tend to do — break when it would be most expensive to replace them.