Eternally Afton

There's One of us missing 5/5

I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish a chapter this week, but here we are.

Hope you enjoy!

3rd POV

“Okay, well, I suppose I should start right after Jasmine left,” William grumbles out. “I was sad of course, but it was long before then that I realized that I and Jazmine didn’t fit together as much as we did when we first married. I still loved her, but more as a close friend. So really, when she left, I was saddened that I had lost a friend and the fact that she thought that of me. Her words that night, however, were not what set me over the edge.

“What did set me over the edge was the sound of the children’s laughter. I had a night shift that night, and one of the kids was having a birthday party. They invited all of their friends and whenever I helped them, all I could hear was the sound of the laughter and how it reminded me that I wouldn’t hear any of my kid’s laughter again.

“There was a small part of me then that blamed it all on myself, but the majority of me was angry at those kids. Those kids just kept laughing and smiling even though I had just lost everything and everyone that I loved.

“Eventually, I couldn’t stand the sound of their laughter anymore, that’s when you, know…” He trails off knowing that the room will understand what he is referring to.

The room is quiet, but this time no one is surprised. They all knew what William did, but what they didn’t know about the story was the William was not controlled by Glitchtrap to kill the kids. They didn’t know that William killed them, of his own will.

“I would go over my death but I am afraid that it is very gruesome and it is not something that I would like to discuss with my family, especially when the children are in the room.” William looks down to his lap, almost ashamed. “Besides, I am sure that most of you know how that went.”

Henry nods apathetically somehow caring about William’s feelings now. C.C. smiles, thinking over William’s death, loving the pain that the originals were able to cause him. Elizabeth and Jasmine are seemingly quiet while Michael just frowns, angry that he had to do it this way.

“Alright, now that, William’s dreadful story is over, let’s move onto mine,” Henry says with a smile on his face. Michael snorts. Henry then looks towards him questioningly. “What?” Henry asks.

“It’s just that, you practically just said that you were going to tell you're dreadful story,” Mike responds.

“Well that’s what it’s going to be… did I say something wrong?”

Michael is silent for a moment before he bursts out laughing.

“You- I- so you actually meant it?” He asks incredulously.

“Yes, Michael. I actually meant it.” Henry says in a demeaning tone, looking down at his son, eyebrows raised. Michael just continues to laugh. Henry frowns for a moment only to smile again. “You dork!”

Henry bops Michael on the head with his hand, and buy, does that sure quiet Michael up. Ennard smirks amusingly at the two for their actions while the rest look confused.

“Alright now. Settle down, Michael. No need to be so rowdy.”

Michael starts sniffing trying to cover his laughs.

“Okay, I suppose I should start up then before we get off track.

“My story starts that night, the night of the murders. I had noticed that William was acting off, but I shook it off and blamed it on the fact that he had lost his family. I went back to work that night without a care.

“But not too long after, one of the missing kid’s parents came up to me.” He takes in a big breathe of air for the next sentence. “They said they had not seen their son in a while, and they checked all around the restaurant, except for the employees only area. So they kindly asked me to look for their son, and while I walked towards the back, two more parents told me that they could not find their children either.

“It was odd to me. I tried to think of an idea why these kids would be gone, and the only thing I could think of is that they all wandered off together, thinking it was some adventure to explore the restaurant or something.

“Still, I knew that probably wasn’t the case. From what I had heard from their parents and what I had seen of the kids, they were good kids. The kind of good kids that would also tell their parents where they were going even if it was the bathroom in their own house. So, by now, I was getting worried.”

He pauses again, looks around the room, and continues, noticing the guilting look on William’s face.

“When I finally got to the back of the… back room, all I found was spots of blood. That’s it. After calling the police, we were able to tell that it was the children’s blood, and not only were the three kids from earlier missing, another was from the party also.

“I tried to find William, but he was nowhere, not at his house nor the restaurant. I tried calling him but it went straight to voicemail. Thats’ when I realized. William had to have something done about those kids. The police thought the same. But after weeks and weeks without William showing up, and no clear evidence, they gave up on the case. I continued my search, however, but I didn’t find anything until it was far too late.”

Henry takes a deep breath in and then sighs, closing his eyes only for a second.

“But that’s not what matters. What matters is how that led to my death… right?” He pauses continuing a second later, not expecting anyone to answer his question. “Well, I was devastated that those kids were gone and that I couldn’t save them, just like how Charlie was left out in the rain to die.

“So, I tried to move on, I put myself into my work focusing on that and only that. However, not many people came to the restaurant after the missing kids went, well, missing. So, I found myself losing customers, along with things to do.

Henry pauses and starts to run through in his head how he is going to tell that he gave the offer about ownership to Mike and how he started the fire and all that. This is when he realizes it. He can’t talk about the fires! As far as the rest of them know, the fires were a part of their imaginations, a simulation created by the man they call Mr. Mike Emily. If he were to say that he started the fires and died in them, they would be confused. It might just create enough chaos that Mike’s plan will fall apart! He couldn’t let that happen!

So instead he searches his head for an excuse, but he is at a bit of a blank spot. He looks towards Mike for help but then realizes how happy his son is next to his fiance, and decides not to ask him for help. He then racks his brain again trying to find a pliable excuse.

“One night, I had accidentally left a… newer pizzeria open.” Henry looks around the room at the confusing places. “You all probably wouldn’t know it. I opened it to move past the bad things that happened in the old pizzerias…”

Henry struggles to further his excuse as everyone in the room stares at him.

“They… set the pizzeria on fire! I went to go put it out since help wouldn’t be on the way for a few minutes, and I would have lost the pizzeria otherwise, so I ran straight in… and that’s how I died... So...yeah.”

The room goes quiet. Most aren’t very sure if what Henry said is true, but they aren’t going to question something such as death. Michael smiles under his mask tired yet happy, that his father was able to keep the secret.

“Well, that’s it!” Henry says glad that it’s over. “Did we go over everything? Is there anything else that you would like to go over C.C?”

“Yeah. There’s one thing.” He pauses thinking

“There is one of us missing.”

“Where is Michael?”

Hope you all enjoyed this short but sweet chapter. We are getting close to being done with this section of the book, and then✨Virgil✨. I will try to write two chapters next week, but it depends because I also want to write a chapter of my other book.