It Won't Be That Bad

Ch 12

So, Jeremy really did come back from the dead, in the sense that his soul was resurrected by accident after the second location was rebuilt by his father.

Michael often stared at the man in front of him who was talking while smiling faintly. It had been a long time since he saw his old friend. They used to be so close, he had almost forgotten how he once had feelings for him too, but that was in the past. Now, the feeling of longing he has now was only limited to longing for a friend. Like how he used to miss his three friends (maybe Mark not so much). His love has ended in his husband, so he didn't want any misunderstandings between the two of them. He could talk to Ennard again later.

They had been classmates for two years, in their sophomore and junior years, but they only started talking in their senior year of high school. Even after graduating, they still had time to see each other—well at that time he also had no one apart from his father's best friend, so having Jeremy continue to be with him made him quite happy in his lonely times.

Then the tragedy occurred in 1987.

He really felt hopeless at that time, he felt he was only bringing bad luck to the people around him and he didn't want his father's best friend to also suffer the consequences. So he decided to move to his old house again even though it was painful, even though he occasionally stayed at Emily's place. The memory of Jeremy always haunted him for a whole year, along with the memory of his two younger siblings. When he and Jeremy spent time together or just had lunch together, then joked with each other, all those memories flashed through his head for a whole year without stopping.

Until he was killed at the rental place, the first time he met his current husband. Therefore he finally died and lived with the animatronic without a complete unit, everything about Jeremy suddenly evaporated, replaced by final stage hatred and annoyance towards Ennard. He immediately forgot that Jeremy had ever been in his life, which seemed to make him grimace silently in guilt. Maybe he really did have very serious mental problems.

He didn't complain about that, by the way.

Michael still had his trademark smile looking at Jeremy who was now staring at his digital drawing tool with interest. "So, you slept like you were in a coma for decades?" he asked again, wanting to be sure about this.

The man with golden blonde hair beside him nodded. "Yep, like a coma, everything went black after I died," Jeremy answered casually. "You still like drawing, huh?" He pulled the corners of his lips upwards while looking at him meaningfully, then he glared back at the laptop screen. "You've always liked drawing, and it turns out you've continued to do it—you're really good at it now." Jeremy chuckled, Michael laughed softly as well. "All I can do is make stick men."

"No need to be so humble," Michael replied as he rolled his eyes playfully, he took the stylus from Jeremy's hand. "You once won a city-level drawing competition. If you do it again like that I will bury you."

"Bury me where?" Jeremy raised an eyebrow and smiled. "My own grave? Or in your heart?"

Michael blinked for a moment when he heard that, his brain processed Jeremy's words and he seemed dazed for a few moments before bursting out laughing. "How could you say something like that!" his laughter was so loud that he bent his body slightly, Jeremy chuckled after him. "That's a good joke," Michael said then, giggling as his laughter subsided, not realizing that Jeremy's gaze was now completely meaningless—but there was a faint disappointment when Michael called it a joke.

However, Jeremy quickly replaced this expression with an amused expression. He shrugged his shoulders and took the stylus from Michael's hand again to draw. His hands moved quickly to sketch a man; slowly it began to become clear whose silhouette it was, Michael. "Hm," he mumbled incoherently and raised his eyebrows. "Not bad, what do you think? Does it look like you?"