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Elizabeth Afton sat in her room, replaying the moments in her head over and over.
The moment her older brother, and longest best friend, died. The moment her other best friend, Susie, had been reported missing. The moment Mama had slammed the door in Daddy's face last week. She still hadn't come back. Why hadn't she come back?
Why did all these bad things happen to her? She was a good kid!
She did her homework and got all A's. She didn't yell at other kids who made her mad. She only pouted to get her way once in a while. She didn't understand.
She had asked Michael about it. He hugged her tightly and sobbed, apologizing profusely about what happened to Evan. She had started crying too. They had both cried until they fell asleep, Elizabeth's small arms wrapped around Michael as far as they could go, and Michael's big strong arms completely encasing his younger sister.
Elizabeth rarely saw Michael now. He was always out somewhere, and when he wasn't, he was in his room. Sometimes, he would come home when she was sitting in the living room, and he would hug her and asked her about her day before getting food and going up to his room. Sometimes he would still be home when she was getting ready for school. He would do her hair while they listened to his music and talk about whatever was going on at their schools. Those were Elizabeth's favorite mornings.
But today wasn't one of those days. Today was a very bad day. First, one of the girls at her school had made her cry by undoing the hair do she had worked so hard to get right. It wasn't her fault that she couldn't do them like Mama and Mike could, but she was trying so hard! Susie would have known just the right ways to ignore them, but Susie wasn't there, and it made her cry even more.
Then she had fallen off the monkey bars and skinned her knee and her elbow. After that, Daddy took her to the diner. One of the new employees had gotten mad at her for trying to go and see her dad, who was working in the back. She had started crying again.
And now she had just woken up from a stupid nightmare about her brother's death. Only this time, they were all there. Evan, Susie, Mama, Daddy, Michael. Everyone was there. This time, it wasn't Michael putting Evan into that stupid bear, it was her.
Evan was wailing, kicking at her, but she shoved him into Fredbear's mouth anyway, and then those springlocks went off. All was silent for only a moment.
Then everything was loud.
"You're such a fuck up, Lizzie, you killed our brother!"
"I can't even live in the same house as that evil, horrid little girl!"
"Elizabeth, what have you done?!"
"We can't be friends anymore, Lizbeth, what if you do that to me too?"
Susie started fading out of existence. Mama had slammed the diner door, leaving her again. Michael kept popping up everywhere, going in and out. Daddy stood there, horrified, looking at his middle child's brain matte bleed through the animatronic's faux teeth.
But then the worst part of happened. Evan had climbed out of the suit's head, and walked over to her. She was so happy, he was coming back to her! She went to hug him, and then-
He pushed her onto the ground, the force of the shove making her land on her back. It hurt so bad. But not as bad as the words Evan spoke.
"I hate you, Lizzie. You should have been the one in Fredbear's mouth!"
Elizabeth woke up gasping for air, hot tears pouring down her face. She let the dream settle in for a moment. Then she immediately turned around and screamed loudly into her pillow, following it up with sobs.
She heard footsteps coming up the stairs, turning away from the and hiding in the corner that her bed was up against. Her door creaked open slowly, quietly, and Daddy stepped inside.
"Elizabeth, sweetheart, what's wrong? Why are you crying, little one?"
"Nightmare."
William scooped her up into his arms, her small ones immediately wrapping around his neck as she hid her face in his shoulder and began to sob loudly again. He patted her back, hushing her quietly.
"I want Mama back! And I want Susie to come home and go to school with me again, and have sleepovers and play dolls! And I want Evan to come home, too! I don't want to have to visit him in the graveyard anymore! He should be here, Daddy, not there!"
William sighed. Elizabeth knew that meant he could do nothing, but was trying to come up with something to ease her pain.
"I know, sweetheart. Do you want to tell me about your dream?"
Elizabeth shook her head. Right now, that was the last thing she wanted. She wanted to forget that her dream had ever happened at bury it in the back of her mind forever, just like they had buried Evan. She shuddered.
"Alright. How about we go make you some warm milk, and I can sing you a lullaby until you fall back asleep, ok?"
She contemplated it for a moment. She wasn't a baby. But then again, she was having a horrible night and just wanted to go back to bed.
She nodded into her father's shoulder.
"Ok, come in, sweetheart. Do you want honey in it or not?"
"Yes please, Daddy."
He hugged her tightly, not as tight as Michael, but still tightly.
"And Daddy?"
"Yes, my dove?"
"Thank you."
William smiled and kissed her forehead.
"Anything, my dove."
So what if her Dad was busy a lot? At least he was still here, and he loved her and her brother more than anything.