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Evan glanced up when Michael entered his bedroom. His big brother froze in the doorway, staring at what he was doing with an empty expression.
“...what is that?” he asked. Evan looked down at his Foxy plush. The head had been ripped off. His eyes drifted to his right hand, where Foxy’s newly decapitated head was clutched in a tight fist. He looked back up at Michael, whose face was unreadable.
“Um… I think Foxy is broken,” he said. Michael’s expression didn’t change- just the same emotionless nothingness that he’d opened the door with. He walked into the room, kneeling down beside Evan, staring at Foxy.
“...Ev, why did you rip Foxy’s head off?” he asked. Evan shrugged.
“I don’t know,” he said. Michael turned to look at him. Evan squirmed slightly under his gaze. What was his brother thinking? Why was he looking at him like that? Was Michael planning another cruel prank? If so, he wouldn’t catch Evan off guard, not this time.
To Evan’s surprise, Michael held his hand out.
“I’ll sew his head back on,” he said. His voice was empty, his expression blank. Evan had no clue what could possibly be going through Michael’s mind right now. “Hand it over.”
Evan hesitantly did so, watching Michael pick up Foxy’s body and walk off with it and the head. He frowned down at his hand, clenching it into a fist.
Huh… weird.
Why DID he do that?
Foxy was there again- head ripped off, the neat stitches Michael had put into it coming apart in seconds.
This time, Evan tossed the headless body into the closet before his brother could see it. The last thing he needed was for Michael to get angry at him for destroying his handiwork- as if he didn’t have enough problems already.
Circus Baby’s was opening in a week. Evan was getting annoyed with Elizabeth- she wouldn’t stop bragging about how her daddy made the main star just for her. Of all the things for Evan and Michael to agree on, it just HAD to be over how annoying their sister was.
She only got worse when their father refused to let her go near the animatronic. Evan thought that would be the end of it, but no. Now, he was stuck listening to Elizabeth’s constant complaints about not being able to see HER animatronic.
Foxy… well, the poor plush had been on the receiving end of Evan’s annoyance. He just… didn’t see why HE had to be stuck dealing with her complaints. Michael was the older one, why wasn’t HE the one to listen to her? It just wasn’t fair!
He glared at the closet.
It wasn’t fair. Michael wasn’t fair, their father wasn’t fair, Elizabeth wasn’t fair. None of it was fair.
Circus Baby’s had been open for only one day.
Elizabeth was missing now.
Evan opened his closet, bringing his Foxy plush out and setting it down with the rest of his plushies. He dug through the closet for a bit, trying to find Foxy’s head.
It was gone.
He sighed, closing the closet softly. He walked over to his bed and sat down on it, staring at the Foxy plush.
Was he really so annoyed at her only a week before?
Had he really ripped off Foxy’s head over it?
…it had only been a week ago. Amazing, how quickly time flies.
There was no annoyance in him now. He missed her too much for that. He wished he could go back to being annoyed.
The image of Circus Baby rearing back, of something shooting out, of Elizabeth’s scream… it all echoed around in his mind, threatening to tear him to pieces.
He sniffled.
He started crying.
He started crying and he couldn’t stop.
He had been annoyed at her.
He had almost yelled at her.
He had been complaining about how unfair she was.
And now she was gone.
Was it… was it his fault? Had he complained too much? Had he really taken her for granted?
He sniffled once more, eyes moving to his doorway. He walked over to it, peeking out and trying to catch a glimpse of his brother.
Michael was sitting at Elizabeth’s door, holding his Foxy mask.
His eyes were dull, dead. He was staring straight ahead, as if watching something, but there was no one there, nothing to look at. His face was a blank stone, ready for someone to carve.
“M-Michael?” Evan asked. Michael didn’t react to his voice. He was still and lifeless. Evan ducked back into his room, sensing that Michael likely wouldn’t respond to anyone or anything for a while.
In the few seconds before Fredbear’s jaw came down, Evan caught a glance at Michael’s face. He saw his brother’s shoulders shaking with laughter, but it sounded wrong. It sounded… off, looked almost painful.
Michael’s mask hid many things about his brother. But it would never cover up his eyes.
Everything about Michael screamed that he was genuinely enjoying Evan’s terror, his suffering. Evan knew that Michael was always wearing that mask when his horrible pranks and terrifying actions were performed.
He knew that his brother was hiding behind that mask, that he was relying on it to shield the world from the things he couldn’t hide on his own.
Michael had always been the type to pretend that things were alright when they weren’t, to pretend to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The mask was just another way for him to pretend.
But it could never hide his eyes. Evan’s eyes locked onto his, already knowing his fate. Michael couldn’t see it coming, but he could. He knew what would happen.
And he knew that the mask wouldn’t be able to hide this one.
He only wished that he could burn the mask- free his brother from the prison that he had locked himself inside of. He wished that Michael would admit when something was wrong, would finally open up and stop hiding. He wished he had a way of knowing when his brother was doing that, a way to stop him from trapping himself and hiding away from everything that was wrong.
He wished he could pick apart Michael’s lies to himself so he wouldn’t have to hide. He wished-
CRUNCH.
Evan stared at his brother curiously.
Elizabeth had said something. Now, what she said had no impact on the others whatsoever.
But she and Michael both froze after she said it. She began to apologize to their brother, but Michael had waved her off, stating that it was fine.
His posture was relaxed, a warm smile on his face. The others went back to eating, Elizabeth looking away from Michael reluctantly, believing him when he said that it was fine.
But Evan caught a glance at his brother’s eyes. They were bright purple, a sure sign that whatever Elizabeth had said was bothering him more than he was going to let on.
Evan frowned. He still didn’t fully understand the whole situation surrounding his brother’s eyes. But he knew one thing- he was grateful for it.
Because now, Michael could finally start to heal instead of convincing himself that everything was alright.