...You'll float too...
"Say that again?" Henry said to himself.
Jesus Christ, it was late!
Well past three a.m. by now!
He was glad Hushell had brought the girls to the motel though, Henry was just too engrossed in his work these days. And now wasn't an exception.
Wonder where Elizabeth Afton had gone.
Supposedly went with her mother to live with family in another country, but why would they leave Vinnie with William?
To make sure William wouldn't completely lose it?
He had Henry though…
Hmmm...
Henry pushed those questions away, glad he knew Charlie was in that cute little Elmore town, safe and asleep. He was glad she'd stopped screaming for Sammy.
And he hoped for Vinnie's safety as well, wherever he was.
Poor kid was blamed for the accedent, and some even claimed they'd seen him snatch Charlie's twin brother, Sammy.
Henry knew Vinnie wouldn't have.
He was a good older brother, even if he wasn't full related to his exotic looking siblings.
Was that okay to say?
And besides, Vinnie hadn't even been in the area, anyone there would've known that.
But William?
William had.
Trying to forget about dark topics that made him question things, Henry turned to his little teevee monitor in hopes he could change the channel, turning away from the endoskeleton...
Wolfie strutted up the halls, looking for the way out.
It had been HOURS since they split up.
She'd even had time to take a cat nap!
At this point, she could've just slept through the night and wait until early morning employees showed up and let them out.
How many times had she passed this ugly Bonnie statue?
And this kid's doodle of a yellow rabbit?
And this poster of Freddy ripping his head off?
WaitWHAT?
Wolfie double-took and saw it was just the classic poster of Freddy singing with his slogan, 'Are YOU Ready?' written around him.
Just corporate heebie-jeebies, nothing to worry about...
...Funtime Freddy turned from the monitors and control panel, satisfied at the placement of the vent blocks.
Just on time.
"Hey birthday girl, you look so nice," He crooned, "In your pretty li'l dress with your pretty black eyes."
"Hello Mister Wolf, what a surprise," Dollface answered in the security office's doorway, "To find you here so deep in the night."
Mike remembered working in a similarly dim office like this at some point, but didn't care to remember.
"How 'bout dinner, just the two of us?" He reached a long arm over to the tiny little Lolita.
"Oh Mister Wolf, you want me to stay?" Dollface looked at him, black eyes scared as she recoiled away, "but I believe you'll regret this someday."
Mike tried to pull her closer, but she stepped back, away from his long reach. He frowned.
"My dear little girl, just a bite?" Mike said as pink petals spilled from his flapping jaws, kneeling down on a knee, as if talking to a small child, "And soon, you'll be consumed with delight."
Dollface's dark eyes followed his blue gloved hand into his white suit jacket's breast pocket. He relished in the fear dancing in the girl's eyes.
He pulled out a lollipop and a handful of Sword Gladiolus petals.
A Funtom Lollipop.
She looked at it with darting black eyes, shoulders releasing coiled tension.
"Yes Mister Wolf, my hunger is real, but they say there's more than a meal."
He tried to offer it to her. She clenched a tiny fist and he smiled.
"Well, why can't we?"
"Michael, stop it!"
Well, well, well, the little slut thought she could fight back.
Let's humor her, shall we?
Dollface panted, trying to breath into her constricting lungs.
"No wonder Raina left you in the dust!" She snapped at him.
"Hey now, don't talk t'yer uncle Mikey like thaaaat!" The bear-man oozed, "I'm your Papa-Bear, babe'girl!"
"Shaddup!"
Mike looked at her.
Not bad.
"I know you did it." Dollface said, all too loud, "I know what you did in the dark."
"There ain't some lil creep behind ol' Papa Bear again, right babe'girl?" He smiled. "You'd tell me if that bad, bad man was there, right?"
Dollface recoiled, angry at his fake pity, then said with more edge in her voice, "I know you did it!"
"Did what?" Mike asked. He rubbed two big fingers against his latex forehead.
Patchy really got 'em that one time with the axe. Why hadn't Mike thought of that?
Oh well, one last chance to settle a score.
"I don't know, actually…"
Mike let out a laugh that was stolen from Funtime Freddy's showtapes, one too shrill and tinny for a big, heavyweight ex-Marine like him.
"You don't know?" He laughed, expansive chest rising then collapsing through the complex system of metal plates and hydraulics, "Let's calm down here. Spend the night with me and we can…." Mike leered closer to the painted whore's overly painted face, "Talk."
"No."
"Why not?"
She looked at him. "It's not right."
Something deep inside, the memory of a memory tried to force itself into a memory. Mike ignored the sunny summer days spent in a backyard with so many children running around him.
"You're disgustin'!" Dollface snarled, "You're my cousin!"
"So?"
"You're a wretched old man, and ya know what?"
"What?" He asked, biting his lip to burst out in more sharp laughter. Memories of Marine toy drives vaguely drifted past his mind's eye, but was soon pushed away like hanging suits of fur.
"You're a loser."
What?
Mike blinked his mechanical blue eyes.
"You're a loser." She crossed her skinny bare arms. "A creep, and a loser, and an asshole."
Funtime Freddy stared at her.
"You're a worthless meanie and can't even take care of your dyin' wife." Dollface said with a 'humph'.
"Ya DUMMKOPF!"." She said. "And a real fatass too."
"Well hey now babe'gurl!" He said, summer memories running over him, remembering being the best uncle in Elmore to at least Dollface, String Bean, and String Bean's little brother, Matt.
Remembering golden afternoons at his brother's house, horsing around in the backyard with his brother's kids, working at some arcade and keeping a group of feral girls safe and telling Jeremy to stop zoning out.
Wait, where was Jeremy, anyway?
He was a slacker, but he would be here, right?
Mike glanced his baby blues over at a moldy box full of old dismantled toys.
The little toy dog was sitting on top, brown eyes glassy and pink moth gaping at the water-stained ceiling, as grotesque as a real puppy's corpse on the side of the interstate highway that always whizzed past them.
Mike blinked at Dollface.
She slammed a steel-toed boot in ih face, punching out his lights as he remembered why he had even been put in this situation in the first place.
To protect the children.
He grabbed Dollface, not quite remembering where he was and holding onto her, needing to be grounded.
"What the HELL are ya doin'?!" She shouted harshly at him, trying to wrestle away, "I ain't yo mama, ya snivelin' baby!"
Dollface tried to fight away from the sensation of touch, no longer scared but pissed as he sobbed and tried to rock her and rub her back. As if she was the useless human being crumpling in hysterics.
Fucking loser.
Feeling weighed down by a fucking man-baby, Dollface kicked him.
She kicked him good and hard.
"Don't touch me, asshole!"
And then he looked up at her with the ugliest face she'd ever seen.
He was a sobbing shell of a man, fat and red eyed and rotting from the inside-out in a stained blue uniform, drenched in stinking ink. She finally got her skinny arms free and shoved his bulk away, where he clung to her like an incessant toddler, wailing like a synthetic banshee.
And finally the security guard exploded into a ball of delicate pink petals.
Dollface's small hands gave out under the pressure she was using, and grabbed fistfuls of flowers. She threw them with distaste into the air like confetti and stomped away, pulling her hat over her eyes.
What a loser.