Rosy cheeks, a corset, and shiny metal

Ribbons

Elizabeth sat on her bed, her fingers quivering, her hands shaking, her body shaking, shaking, shaking, contracting, shaking, panting, breathing, red, bleeding, her palms, bleeding, shaking, quivering, shaking, panting, breathing, hurting, bleeding, pale, her pale hands, and her fingernails causing the bleeding from her palms. Digging in, just how daddy's fingernails must have dug into Charlie's neck.

Why did she push her out? Why did she do it? Why did Cassidy encourage her? That stupid kid, that stupid kid, Cassidy's fault, that one's fault, never Elizabeth's fault. Stupid, stupid, was Elizabeth stupid, (yes), she wasn't, (yes she was), no, no.

Curled up, nose buried in her knees, curled up, breathing heavily. She clenched her teeth, biting into her bottom lip, and oh, glorious blood, trickling down her chin. And then, she heard a knock, a knock, knock knock knock. Elizabeth looked back, looking at her palms. She wiped her hands off and her lip off with the back of her hand, before getting up and twisting the handle of the door.

"Yes?" she asked, looking up at her father. "Elizabeth," he said, leaning down. "There's something I'd like to show you." he says, his hand lightly on her shoulder as he guides her down the stairs, and to the basement door. "Down there," he says, motioning with his hand, "is somewhere where you cannot go, understand?" he said. She nodded. She knew this. What was the point of this?

"Yes, good, good. And, she's down there." he said, looking down into the depths.

Charlie? Elizabeth thought. I need to see if it's her. She thought silently to herself, before her father carefully guided her back into her room, and she laid down. She couldn't stop the thoughts about Charlie. About goddamn Cassidy. The Cassidy whose fault it was. She knew it was Cassidy's fault. It was. Not hers, not her father's, Cassidy Liu's fault. Be̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ s̶h̶e̶ c̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ n̶o̶t̶ a̶d̶m̶i̶t̶ a̶ a̶f̶t̶o̶n̶ w̶a̶s̶ a̶t̶ f̶a̶u̶l̶t̶.

***

Lying awake in her bed, Elizabeth looked at the ceiling, and she threw the blanket off. She could simply not take this anymore. She would not. She refused to. She was an Afton, and Aftons didn't bloody give up.

She walked down the hall, facing towards the basement's door. She glanced around for a moment, left and right, before she opened the door. She closed it behind her, walking down the creaky steps, creak, creak, creak, and she finally felt the cold of the basement floor grace her feet.

She looked around, until she noticed two things;

1: a jar

2: a beautiful animatronic

Looking at the jar first, she stared holes into it. Glowing, a silvery color. She grazed her fingertip over the glass, and she couldn't even bring herself to speak. It had to be Charlie, right? Her best friend, her best friend, the only one who actually cared, and she felt herself choke up. But obviously, that was ridiculous, this wasn't Charlie. She looked back over to the other thing, the beautiful animatronic, and she stared.

She looked at it. It wasn't complete. She decided to walk back upstairs, creak, creak.

Back into bed. Sleeping, tucked away, confined, safely. Elizabeth woke up the next day, and the next, and the next and the next and the next and the next. Days dragging on and on, and Elizabeth didn't even care what was even going on. Until, one day....

––—————

Her father had his hand resting on her shoulder, overlooking Circus Baby's. He looked at her and grinned, "this," he said, "is the Circus, my girl." She looked at it and smiled too, for the first time, in a long while.

But for some reason, for some weird reason, her dad didn't let her see Baby.

"Daddy, why won't you let me play with her?"

She begged, groveled at his feet to let her see the animatronic. The beautiful, red, clown animatronic. Elizabeth loved her exaggerated red hair, (it was kinda like Elizabeth's) her sea-blue eyes, (bright like Elizabeth's green ones) her red painted face. She was beautiful, and she was just like Elizabeth, a̶n̶d̶ E̶l̶i̶z̶a̶b̶e̶t̶h̶ r̶e̶a̶l̶i̶z̶e̶d̶ s̶h̶e̶ w̶a̶s̶ j̶u̶s̶t̶ a̶s̶ m̶u̶c̶h̶ o̶f̶ a̶ c̶l̶o̶w̶n̶ a̶s̶ B̶a̶b̶y̶ w̶a̶s̶, and Elizabeth loved Baby.

"Daddy, you let the other children go see her, why won't you let me go?"

But for some reason, her dad didn't let her see the glorious animatronic. He let every other stupid, useless, child go see her, but not Elizabeth, the special girl, the birthday girl, the one she was goddamn made for. Why wouldn't he let her go?

"Daddy just once let me go play with her, she's so pretty and shiny!"

"Didn't you make her just for me?"

"Daddy, she can make balloons, have you seen her make balloons? Oh, daddy, let me go to her!"

Elizabeth Afton could not take it any longer. She had to see Baby.

"Daddy isn't watching."

Approaching the stage, she looked up at the shiny, metallic girl. Big, red pigtails, carefully painted, so pretty, so pretty, and she was jealous. But she also loved Baby, more than she could ever love herself or Charlie or maybe even her daddy, and she hated that. She had to satiate her urge, it was for her daddy, it really was!

"Don't tell daddy that I'm here."

He couldn't know. He wouldn't understand she had to satiate for urge, that it really was for him. In the long term.

"I wanted to watch your show too."

She just wanted to see. To see it, finally, to understand it, finally. Why her daddy loved Baby more than her.

"I don't know why he won't let me come see you, you're wonderful!"

Smiling, grinning, giggling, as a cone of vanilla ice-cream was discharged from Baby. Just as Elizabeth was about to grab it though, she noticed something.

"Where did the other children go?"

This experience was special, for her though, so it must be that she was so special, so good, that nobody else was allowed to see.

But then, she felt metal closing around her waist, grasping her, and she couldn't even open her mouth to scream in the moment, because she was smashed and crushed inside of Baby, and it was cold. Metallic cold. Blood trickled out from various places –her head, her knees, her elbows– too, too many to count, in all honesty, and that wasn't the only thing trickling.

Tears as well, and she hurt so much, and she couldn't breath, and she felt herself being confined, and constricted and hell it hurt, and she could only breath shortly, before she couldn't breath any longer. She couldn't breathe any longer and her blood had run dry. She couldn't breathe any longer and her tears had finally ended.

But green eyes opened once more.

END

hey, congrats! you made it to the [[END OF EXISTENCE]]!

uh, hope you enjoyed this dogshit. i tried. yup. that's all.