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"I'm not leaving." William crosses his arms over his chest, using his height to his advantage as he looks down at Henry.
"I've already told you, you're out. Don't make me drag you outside. I don't want you here anymore."
"We started this buisness together! You're really going to kick me out if it because of the investigation? They stopped it! They let me go! There wasn't enough evidence to convict me of anything." William talks with his hands, shoulders shaking as he paces in front of his ex-friend's desk.
Henry rubs his temples, fed up. "When you saw the parents of the Missing Five crying, you started laughing. You were the last person seen with the kids on security cameras. You broke my computer in a fit of rage the last time I brought up Charlie. Hell, when I first let you know you were being kicked from the company, you hit me. Even now, you keep showing up here again and again to pout and get mad and threaten me like that's going to change my mind." Henry shakes his head. "It's through, Will."
"You've been my best friend since college, Henry, you can't just..." William sniffles.
"No, don't do that, Will. Don't you start with the crocodile tears. You're not getting any empathy from me."
"It's not crocodile tears, Henry, I just-" He hiccups. "You're all I have left!"
"This isn't going to work on me. Not anymore. You looks ridiculous, crying like a child. I tried to get you help. I tried everything and I did all I could to help you. If you keep this up I'm going to have to get a restraining order. Don't make me do that."
The tears stop as suddenly as they came. William scowls and balls his hands into fists. "You didn't do anything for me. I thought that we would be closer once Charlie was gone, that once that little brat out of my way, I'd be all you needed. I want to be all you need, I can be the only thing you need. I tried mimicking your ex wife's mannerisms, I tried to act like her, and it didn't work. I tried acting like Charlie, and it didn't work, I've tried being like everyone you like, and it hasn't worked! Who do you want me to be?!"
Henry doesn't answer, fixated on his counts about Charlie. "What... Once Charlie was gone... What the hell does that mean?!" Anger slowly builds in him, gritting his teeth as he looks up at his old friend.
"You always liked her better than me. She was a bitch and she deserved what she got."
"Of course I liked her better than you, she was my ten year old daughter! What the hell is wrong with you? Are you even hearing yourself?! You were there when she was born! You tucked her in when you had to babysit! You were her godfather!" Henry stares at William with such intensity and hatred that William almost backs off a bit. Almost.
"I hated her! I still hate her! Don't you see, Henry, she was in the way of us!"
"There is no us!" Henry snaps. "There never was!"
Now, real tears are threatening to spill over in William's gray eyes. He exhales shakily and grits his teeth. "Charlie cried for her daddy when she died."
All at once, Henry seems to deflate. "What?"
"She cried for you." William repeats. "'Daddy, help me! Uncle Will what are you doing?'" He mimicks, lips turning up into a forced smile. "She was so happy to see me. You should've seen the look on her face when I grabbed her by the throat and-"
Henry takes a swing, striking William right on the nose.
William staggers back, hands flying up to his face in shock. He's bleeding. His smile widens, a harsh laugh escaping him.
"Shut up!" Henry yells, throwing another punch at William. "I'll kill you, William, I swear to God I'm going to kill you-"
"Oh? Then make it hurt," He purrs, unable to contain a giggle. Tears are freely flowing now, but he does not sob. Instead, he laughs, reveling in the pain. He deserves it, he knows. He puts up with it only because it's Henry that's hurting him. "She was wearing a ribbon in her hair. I took it. I have it still, sometimes I wear it around my wrist as a bracelet. Or in my own hair. I can be your Charlie, Henry."
"Goddamnit, William!" He lunges forward to strike William again as his office door opens, a few concerned employees trying to see why he's yelling.
William only watches, still giggling like a madman as Henry is quickly restrained. "I don't think I've ever seen you this mad. It's fascinating, really." He beams, further agitating Henry.
"You bastard, you fucking bastard-" Henry glares.
"Someone get him out of here!" Someone says.
William doesn't resist as he's quite roughly grabbed and escorted out of the office. He's led out to the door, laughing a bit more at the concerned looks parents and patrons give his way once seeing his bruised and bloody face.
"Don't come back." The door slams, leaving William outside in the Utah heat.
He walks to his car, coming down from his high of aggravating Henry. He unlocks the door and sits down on the old faux leather seats. As the giddiness subsides, a dull feeling overcomes him. A bleakness that seems to wash out all the color from his world until all that remains is old sad shades of black and white, like the old television he used to busy himself watching when he was young.
He sighs and reaches out, grasping the wheel to still his shaking hands. A deep breath in, a deep breath out. He doesn't feel as satisfied as he hoped he would.
The tears that has started earlier are still flowing down his cheeks. He's just noticing them now, but he doesn't wipe them away. He just stares through the windshield and tries to come to terms with that just happened.
He'll call down during the drive, he decides.
He reaches out and starts his car. He feels like a bystander of his own life, disconnected and apathetic. He's far away, eyes empty and void of any kind of life and joy as he drives the all too familiar road back to his house.
Back to Michael.
It always leads back to Michael, doesn't it?
He sits in the driveway for a long while, putting off having to see his remaining children. Mike and Lizzie. Their house feels so empty now that it's just them. So hollow and dead.
He mechanically opens the car door and walks up the steps to his front door. He moves like an automaton, like one of the bots he slaves away making in his office. He steps inside, and he hears Michael call out something to him, though he doesn't pay attention to what is being said.
Michael emerges from the laundry room. "Lizzie just finished with lunch, so I let her go off to the neighbors house for a little while. I didn't expect you to he home so early today-" He pauses once he sees William's face. "Father, what happened? Are you alright?"
William scowls. Michael may look just like him, but he's acting more and more like his mother, running around doing housework, cooking all the meals, and serving the role as a second parent to Elizabeth. He knows it's what he's trained Michael to do, but it irritates him nevertheless. "I'm fine."
"Do you want me to bandage you up? I wouldn't mind."
"No, just get me a drink and leave me to work in my office."
Michael nods dutifully and hurries to the kitchen.
William staggers like a zombie to his office. The corporate feel to the room offers his some strange solace. The impersonal grays and black leather office chair remind him of Fazbear's. He takes a seat and pulls out some blueprints from his desk drawer. He was making these new animatronics for Fazbear's, but now that he's been booted from the company, he might as well start up something entirely new with them.
He curses at himself for letting Henry establish the company in his name.
The door opens and Michael sets down a beer bottle and an opener on the desk. "Here you are, Father." In his other hand is a damp washcloth. He gingerly wipes some of the dried blood on Williams face.
"I told you to bring me a drink and leave me." William reiterates, already reaching for the bottle.
"Of course." Michael kisses his cheek and then takes his leave, shutting the door behind him.
William takes a long drink and slouches down in his chair. Mike really is acting like his mother, he thinks. It's fine, he misses his wife anyways. If Mike is going to take her place then he'll gladly let him.
William looks down at one of his blueprints. A clown character, modeled to have Elizabeth's firey hair and rosy cheeks. Circus Baby.
As he looks at the sketch of her, a devious idea comes into his head, something vile and sick. She will be seven feet tall, big enough to hide someone in. He thinks back to the springlocks in the old animatronics, how they would crush whoever was inside them.
And he has a breakthrough.
He takes out a fresh piece of paper and starts sketching a claw, sharp and strong and deadly. A chest cavity, something to hide a body in, something to hide a child in.
He laughs out loud when he finishes the sketch. Circus Baby using a claw to kill a child. His eyes scan over to scrapped parts along the floor of his office, and he knows it's doable.
With minor alterations, he can build these things to kill.