Chapter Text
“Cass.”
…
“Cassidy!”
…
“Cassie!!”
…
The bus ride from work, as usual, sucked.
You already have a migraine from dealing with the children, and now this again.
You look up to see him, then you look away in shame.
This has been the way things have worked for years.
‘Nobody else can see him, so he probably doesn’t really exist.’
That’s what she tells herself.
But that doesn’t stop him from torturing you. Whether it’s through your eyes or your ears, he’s always there. Always calling out. He’s been doing that since they were kids.
He was always horrible with being alone; it makes sense that he would always hang around with you.
Evan Afton.
Your best friend up until the 7th grade.
It wasn’t like they had a falling out or anything, or as he moved.
It wasn’t anything normal.
Murder.
It was his birthday, and things went downhill quickly.
He was murdered by his older brother.
The news covered it like an accident. The company said it was a malfunction of the animatronic and would replace it, and his brother was getting placed under heavy surveillance, which was ironic because he ran away one night and never returned.
She still remembers the event, even well into her teen years. It probably doesn’t help when she averts her eyes to her purple vest with ridiculous cartoon faces patterned over it.
She wanted to tear this uniform off…but she couldn’t. She desperately needed the job, and that was the only place that would’ve hired her while being manageable. (Plus she couldn’t afford a new one…)
“Sis?”
With a short hiccup of air, Cassidy was forced out of her daze, her eyes focusing on the real voice that called out to her.
“…What’s up?” She tiredly asked, rubbing her heavy eyes to pay better attention.
“… What's for dinner?”
“Dinner…? Did you not eat enough at Freddy’s?”
“Sis, this would be the 8th time having pizza for dinner. I couldn’t stomach it again.”
“…You couldn’t stomach it? As in you threw up…?”
“No…I just didn’t eat.”
Cassidy badly wanted to chastise her younger brother. really badly, actually. But deep down, she knew she had no right to. She stopped eating ‘dinner’ since Wednesday for the same reason.
A part of her wondered if it was selfish to force Andrew to eat those cheap pizzas for dinner almost every day. Maybe she could lower her pride once more and ask one of her friends or co-workers to do her another solid….
The thought alone stung her already sinking heart, but she tried to ignore it.
“…Well, since you didn’t eat, I’ll make you something when we get home,” she smiled, patting the young male on the shoulders as she went back to staring into outer space
…
The brisk air slapped both Cassidy and her younger brother Andrew hard as they walked down the street, the only one who didn’t seem cold was the…thing…hanging around her. He never usually showed any signs of such stuff, though.
He never seemed to get cold. Nor hot for that matter.
She’s watched cars run him over, and he’d be perfectly fine. Then again, no duh. Obviously, a figment of her imagination wouldn’t be affected by cars running him over.
It hurt her heart to have to watch him from the corner of her eyes; she would sneak a glance at the invisible creature whenever he wasn’t paying attention.
Anything to prove to herself that she was or wasn’t wrong about it.
The brother and sister duo made their way up the patio, Cassidy unzipping her uniform pockets and pulling out her dingy keys.
“Open the door for me?” She asked, passing the old pair of keys they had to Andrew, doing so to allow herself to keep watch of the transparent being who was enjoying the look of the twilight sky.
Since they were kids, Evan had a habit of spacing out, his eyes usually drifting to the sky, especially if thick fog sat in the skies calmly. And if he wasn't doing that, he’d be talking about his sister. (maybe that's why she’s so protective of Andrew nowadays…)
He told her once before he passed on that he always wished to be a cloud.
“They look so peaceful, like they have nothing to worry about.” He would say, only being dragged out of his daze by Cassidy’s boisterous force.
She let out a silent chuckle to herself, remembering how nice it was in the past.
The sound of the door creaking open woke her up. Reminding her to follow behind Andrew as he beelined to the fridge.
“Alright, Andy, look through the fridge and let me know what you want,” Cassidy said, departing to explore the house.
They couldn’t afford heating, so days like these in the winter forced Cassidy to make sure every possible window or crack was sealed closed.
Andrew getting sick again would just be an unfortunate pain neither would want to deal with.
After checking the living room and all of the upstairs, the girl sighed in relief before turning around to go downstairs.
But something stopped her.
She tries hard not to lock eyes with the thing; if she does, she only feels validated to believe he still exists.
She doesn’t want that.
But unfortunately, her guard was down.
And now she’s locking eyes with him again.
It’s so unfair, he never has to worry about his short stature anymore, since he can just meet eyes with her from levitating.
She wished he stuck to the ground more often. His levitating really only makes him seem more like a cloud…she didn’t like it.
It made it hard to ignore him. She’s always been taller than him; she always needed to look down to see him. He always had to look up.
But now he can just pop up anywhere.
It made her heart tear in pieces.
He sent her a wave.
He acknowledged that she couldn’t just look past him as if he weren’t there.
She wished she could.
She averted her eyes again, desperately fighting not to see what kind of facial expression he made this time.
Andrew’s voice beckoned to her as it echoed through the halls.
“Sis!”
Moving through the false person in front of her, Cassidy climbed down the stairs, her clammy palms sliding down the armrail as she clutched tightly for some kind of stability.
“Can you help me cut this apple?” He asked. The apple was small and green; it looked old and pretty bad.
She swallowed in dismay, holding back her disgust.
“Uhh…how about we look for something else?” She replied, trying to hold a sympathetic smile as she gently took the apple from the young man and threw it away.
“That was all we had, though.” He replied skeptically.
With a grimace, she dipped her head into the unlit fridge, and honestly, he was right.
There was a bottle of water with an A on the wrapping, an almost fully drunk half-gallon of milk, a canister of mustard, and 3 slabs of Kraft Cheese squares.
She sighed out loud, her head lowering in a mix of defeat and pessimism.
“Well…do you want some Chinese food?” Her voice strained, her finances already so weak she worried if they could pay for it.
She expected Andrew to lighten up at the prospect of Chinese food; he loved the little pan-fried dumplings and extra fortune cookies the ma and pa would give them.
“No thanks…I…don’t think I’m very hungry anymore.” He smiled, his face telling so many lies as he slowly walked upstairs to his room.
You watch as he holds his stomach whilst moving up the stairs. Tears prickling your eyes as you feel an overwhelming sense of disappointment within yourself
You remember the promise you made to Andrew after your mother left; that no matter what…you’d make sure he’s okay.
He calls you big sister when you’re not even full-blood siblings…
Andrew’s only your half-brother; his father was an alcoholic who was insufferable to be around. According to Andy, the man wasn’t physically abusive or anything, just loud and disrespectful.
Although…the disrespect must’ve been enough…because Andrew’s mom committed. leaving just him and his father. Years later, when he was 8, and Cassidy was 15, his father eloped with Cassidy’s mother and disappeared when the two were at school.
Their parents occasionally sent them money under a different name each time, making her and Andrew’s dad untraceable in her eyes.
Then again, she didn’t want to track them down anyway.
It would only exacerbate both Andrew’s and her anger issues…
She still can’t believe it…
Why is this the life she’s given? And even worse, why does Andrew have to be involved…
Ugh…..
She rubbed her temple in stress, her migraine from earlier worsening.
“I need a smoke…”
…..
Of course, her lighter ran out.
Of course it did
Of-fucking-course it did.
She gritted her teeth hard and slammed the useless metal down to the floor with as much power as she could muster with her malnourished body.
She so badly wanted to scream.
But she was already expressing her anger by kicking and stomping at the busted lighter that was sprawled into pieces on the floor.
Her body was doing this all on its own, her mind long shut off due to anger.
She clenched her teeth hard, resisting the urge to gnaw at the metal in primal frustration. Only stopping once she worried if Andrew could hear her.
The girl fell back onto the hard brick walls of her home, her body slumping down to the floor as she held her legs close to her body. Her cigarette stayed dry as no flame was able to light it.
After locking away her feral rage back into her cramped bottle of emotions, the girl looks to the sky, watching the clouds depart as nightfall begins.
“What would things be like if you were still here with me?” She whispered, talking out loud only because she secretly hoped the transparent person sitting next to her would open his mouth and answer.
She waited patiently, waited for something, anything.
But nothing happened
Clenching her eyes and teeth, she reeled back, fighting her tears.
She remembered the last time she felt like this.
She was in a white office, screaming at her mother and the doctors.
Pointing her hands at who she confidently believed was still Evan.
The doctors gave her sympathetic and pitying looks.
She begged and begged for them to acknowledge him. She clung to his presence to help convince herself that he was going to stay around her.
At the time, she cared…she cared a lot for everyone to see him. For him not to be some imaginary result of her lack of coping with his death.
But now even she wonders…
She turned her head, her hair swinging along with her face as she looked at the…’ghost’.
Its green eyes were tilted up toward the skies. One of its translucent arms pointed up toward the skies.
It opened its mouth and tried to say something.
Something…
Something…!
Anything…!?
But there was no sound.
She looked back down at the floor, her broken heart crying to itself.
…..
Waking up to a migraine,
It’s not something that should be normal.
But to some it is.
6:15 am
A new day. A new opportunity. That’s what she told herself to keep herself optimistic.
She learned that from someone else; she remembers him giving her a refreshed smile every new morning. If it helped him during his time alive, it could help her.
The young lady threw the covers off her, the cold air prickling into her bare feet as she slid out of bed.
Walking outside her door and across the hall, she knocked on Andrew’s door.
“Andy! Time to go to school!”
“5 more minutes…” a voice echoed from behind the door.
“You better not have been up again late last night drawing!” Cassidy chastised, “Fine, but be downstairs soon! AND YOU BETTER NOT MAKE YOURSELF LATE FOR SCHOOL AGAIN!”
“Mmmmmgh!” He groaned loudly in annoyance, a non-verbal way of saying ‘Leave me alone, I’m trying to sleep!’
“Don’t sass me, young man!” Cassidy chuckled.
Before he was able to respond, Cassidy walked downstairs, pulling out a chair that surrounded the small table, reading an old newspaper.
It was the best way to distract herself from her hunger.
The hustle and bustle from upstairs played nicely in her ears, and the lively movements of her only family gave her the satisfaction she needed. It always told her that things were all right.
She looked at the time again,
6:20 am
She needed to bathe…
She got extraordinarily lucky; the water bill was the only thing her mother consistently paid for.
….
“Andy, let’s go! I told you not to make yourself late!”
The boy sulked downstairs, the bags under his eyes highly pronounced as he clutched his stomach in uncomfortable pain.
He said no words.
Looks like he’s too tired to banter back.
This only happens when he’s in no proper mood to go to school for the day.
So like the reasonable woman she was, Cassidy silently decided he wouldn’t have to.
“Let’s go.” She smiled, opening the door for him, as she exited behind him.
“Good morning, Andy! Cassie!” One of their older neighbors said, her voice traveling from her porch to theirs with kindness and tons of energy.
‘Only people well off enough can afford to be that happy in the mornings,’ she bitterly thought, holding her tongue back as she smiled back and waved. Placing her hand on the boy’s shoulder and gently incentivizing him to say good morning back.
“Good morning.”
…
The pair stopped in a nearby deli, treating themselves to a bagel and an orange juice, which they would share 70/30, as well as a small pack of crackers and a large bag of Andrew’s favorite candy for later.
“Seventeen times two?”
“Uh…thirty-four?”
“Good, twenty times three?”
“Sixty.”
“Good, one-hundred times three-thousand”
“Uh…”
“Remember what I told you about zeros.”
“I know, I know….”
Whenever Cassidy allowed Andrew not to go to school, she would take it upon herself to teach him things she knew as a high-school graduate.
It was easy since he was a smart kid, but she also did it for herself.
She no longer could afford to continue her schooling, nor was she in a place where she could buy things like textbooks or teach herself a new curriculum, so she resorted to using her old notebooks to stay on top of the things she should already know.
She was really averse to feeling stupid and even more against anyone considering Andrew stupid. So she kept him on his toes with questions.
It was also her way of hinting to Andrew that he wouldn’t be going to school today. Seeing his face light up once he figured it out always put a smile on her face.
It seemed he was too focused on counting the zeros in his numbers to realize today.
“Thirty thousand?”
“Close! It’s three hundred thousand.”
“Ugh…”
“Cheer up, bud, we’re at the station anyway. Can you go tell me when the next bus will show up?”
She watched as Andrew walked over to the pole and skimmed over the information box until he found the proper answer.
“It’s coming in five minutes or so.”
“Alright, let’s sit down and wait.”
Time passed slowly; it felt like forever for the bus to pull into its station. By the time it made it, Cassidy had already quizzed Andrew on most of his school subjects. He needed to work on history.
The bus doors opened for the pair, and as they got on, Cassidy whispered a plea to be allowed on. Maybe the bus driver recognized her somewhere, or maybe she was just lucky since that rarely ever works, but he sighed and motioned for her to move onto the bus.
Cassidy smiled, all things considered, so far her day’s been perfect.
Now they just have to wait until they reach Freddy’s and she can begin work for the day.