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August 19th, 1978, Afton Household
Michael remembers the day @#$+&* and Elizabeth came home, the two supposedly twins. He remembers this day because he vividly recalled the confusion he felt after getting called by his father to come down to the foyer. There was a baby carriage built for two, with two little babies sat within the carriage, both were wide awake and babbling about like babies do.
There were two things that had made him confused about the whole ordeal. The first being that the babies had looked nothing alike, almost as if they came from two different parents. Michael had thought this due to the fact that the baby on the left had darker skin, akin to Michaels, however without the same spotty freckles covering almost his entire body. The baby also had one light blue eye and one dark brown eye, the hair that was just barely there on the little kids head being visible due to the fact it was as dark as Michaels. Contrast to the baby on the right who was quite pale and had their mothers emerald green eyes and barely visible light red hair that kind of mixed a bit with brown hair, coming out as a strawberry brown color, looking a hell of a lot more like his father and mother combined into a baby.
While Michael was confused at why they looked so different, that didn’t wipe off the almost excited look that dawned upon his 11 year old face. “Father! Can I hold one of them?” He asked, voice laced with anticipation at his fathers answer. William chuckles lightly, ruffling the now eldest child’s hair “Of course, just don’t drop ‘em” he joked. Michaels smile grew even wider, which he didn’t think was possible, before going to pick up the one on the left, that looked kinda like him, minus the freckles. Michael doesn’t know why exactly he felt like this towards one of his younger siblings but he felt like there was some weird unestablished connection between the two.
Michael just brushed it off as him most likely just being fond of this sibling for whatever reason. He held the baby gently in his arms, as if they would shatter if he put even just a little bit of pressure on them. “What they’re names” Michael asks, giggling a bit afterwards at the baby he held so gently in his arms laughing and reaching his tiny arms out for michael face. William sighs contently before answering “Well, the little dude your currently holding’s name is @#$+&* and the little girl in the carriage’s name is Elizabeth.” He says happily “Oh, those are wonderful names father!” He says getting overly excited for just about no reason.
The second thing he was curious about as he put the baby he was holding backing into his side of the carriage was where their mom was. So, like any sensible kid with raging curiosity, he asked. “Hey father? Where is mummy?” This made William tense up and his face turn from one of fondness to one of nervousness. “Let me put your siblings in their cribs first, then I’ll talk to you about this. So please be a dear and wait in the living room for that conversation, [Redacted].” Michael nods with an anxious face and trots over to the living room, sitting on the navy blue couch, deciding to simply fidget as even at the young age of 10 he knew that this was likely a serious talk due to the change of tone in Williams voice after he asked such a question.
Michael waited in there silently for about 30 minutes before his father came from the hall “Apologies, I was having trouble calming down the twins so they could sleep.” Michael simply nodded in understanding while William went to sit dow next to him. William took a deep breath, taking a moment to consider his next choice of words. “You see, [Redacted], something went... wrong after your mother gave birth to your little siblings” the older man states nervously, Michael nodded, his anxiety spiking at the mention of something going wrong. “There were some complications and your mother she, uhm, to put it bluntly, she’s dead.” William says nervously, staring down at his son.
Dread starts tossing itself around the pit of Michaels stomach. An unmanageable amount of grief spilling over onto him, making tears run down his face rapidly. The second he saw Michael start tearing up William had pulled him into a close hug, The younger instantly latched onto his father, sobbing into his chest. William tried calming him down by rubbing circles on his back, while shush-ing him gently.
Michael wasn’t sure why he was crying, his mother wasn’t exactly known for being the best mother ever, especially when she’s dunking his head into almost boiling hot water that ended up giving him slight burns on his face, but none that wouldn’t heal, because he quote “wasn’t pure enough in the eyes of god” or something like that. William and Mrs. Afton would often get into fights about this whole ordeal, partly because Mrs. Afton was the only person who believed in god in that house. However something about loosing the only mother type figure he has ever had left him feeling as though someone had just stabbed him through the heart.
So it was like that for a while, just Michael sat on his fathers lap while crying into his shirt, with William simply just comforting Michael through his tears. Until Michael had eventually fallen asleep in his fathers arms, tears tracks staining his soft freckled cheeks, into a dreamless sleep.
Memory File Ended.