TW: includes minor cursing

Jamie sat up in bed. It was a beautiful morning, the rich, refreshing aroma of freshly cut grass stimulated his mind with every inhale, the birds outside his window sang in harmony and comforted him like a lullaby, and the sun streamed into his bedroom, enveloping him in a warm hug. It was all so perfect, so heavenly, it made it nearly impossible to leave bed.

Eventually, the empty feeling in Jamie's stomach won over, and he dragged himself out of bed and meandered downstairs. His mother was sitting at the kitchen table staring down at some papers and periodically punching numbers into a calculator, then writing something on a notepad. "Good morning" Jamie mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

His mother's head shot up, and she gave her son a puzzled look as she replied "Jamie, honey, I wasn't expecting you to be up this early"

"It's a Monday, I have to leave for school in half an hour" Jamie furrowed his brow, concerned. He could see redness in her eyes from crying only a couple of minutes ago.

"I didn't really think you would want to go today after..." she trailed off, dropping her gaze to the papers in front of her once more.

"After what?" Jamie paused and waited expectantly for a reply. He looked at the notepad his mom was currently staring at. The top of the page read "Funeral costs". "Oh," Jamie said flatly as most of last night came flooding back. He sat down, suddenly feeling too weak to stand, and the soreness in his back became present once more. As he tried to soak everything in, he yearned to be back in bed, clueless and without the burden of last night filling his mind so much that it began to pound.

"Listen, I already talked to your teachers about what's going on, so you don't have to worry about getting in trouble for missing school," Jamie's mom said, returning her gaze back to her son. Jamie remained silent. "Hey, it...it's going to be okay," she said, a little unsure of herself. She placed her hand on Jamie's and gave it a quick squeeze. Jamie pulled away, abruptly standing up and storming back upstairs. "Sure" he mumbled, slamming his door closed. He hated that she was trying to be positive right now. How were things supposed to be okay? His sister was dead. There was no changing that.


It was 1:30pm. Jamie had been laying in bed all day, ignoring his mom when she knocked on his door. He didn't want to talk about it, if he talked about it then he'd have to accept it. He was nowhere near ready for that. He'd accept it once Emmy's killer was locked up, or better yet, dead. But for now, he stayed in his room, passing the day away just thinking. He finally rolled out of bed and tip-toed downstairs to grab some food, praying that his mother wouldn't hear him. Jamie shoved a sleeve of crackers in his pocket and turned around to make his way back upstairs, but halted when he saw his mother standing there.

"Jamie please-" she began, taking a few steps towards him.

Jamie cut her off, "Just stop, mom! Stop trying to be positive about it, stop telling me it's going to be okay!" He continued, his voice becoming gradually louder the more he spoke, "It's not okay! I don't want it to be 'okay'!" His mother took a deep breath, looking defeated. Jamie made his way towards the front door and threw on his ratty nikes.

As Jamie reached for the handle, his mother asked, "Where are you going?"

"Out," he replied flatly and shut the door before she could say anything else. He hopped on his bike and rode off, feeling the cool fall breeze tingle on his burning skin. He pedaled hard, anger pulsing through his veins.

Jamie arrived at his highschool in record time and waited in the parking lot for the bell to ring. The doors flew open, and a crowd of loud teenagers poured out of it. Jamie spotted his friends in the sea of sweaters and bell bottom pants, and waved them over.

"Jamie, what are ya doin here?" Jason asked, skateboard tucked under his arm.

"Wanna go bowling?"

"Uh, sure I guess," Jason responded, exchanging a confused look with Amanda and Kathryn.

Jamie hopped back on his bike, glanced back as Jason stepped on his skateboard and the girls got on their bikes, then rode off.


"Looks like I won, guess you owe me a coke."

"Jason, you can't win by cheating."

Jason put a hand on his heart and made a melodramatic gasp, "Cheating? Me? How could you say such a thing?"

"You walked all the way down the aisle and kicked the pins over!"

"I think you're just mad because you know you couldn't beat me,"

"Oh yeah? Fine. If you get to cheat, I guess I'll cheat too," Kathryn retorted, walking towards the aisle. She paused to look back at Jason and give him the finger. All Jason did was smirk. Kat took two steps on the aisle, and immediately slipped and fell on her back.

Jason burst out laughing, "You know for someone planning on going to college, you're kinda a dumbass."

"Why are the aisles so freaking slippery?!"

"Uh, the staff greases them. How do you think the ball rolls all the way down so fast?"

"I don't know, I thought it was just gravity!" Kat limped over to the bench. "Wait, then how did you walk all the way down without falling?"

Jason picked up his feet, revealing a layer of carpet glued onto the bottom of his bowling shoes. "Learned from experience, haha. My old man's gonna be pissed when he sees his floor."

"I still won."

"Whatever you say Kat."

"Are you seriously that determined on being right?"

"I'm determined on knowing the truth, and the truth is, I won."

"No you didn't!"

The two began bickering again, roping Amanda into it every once in a while. Jamie suddenly spoke, "I know who killed Emmy."

The entire group fell silent. Jamie hadn't said a word the entire time they were bowling, until now.

He continued, "When I found her...he was in there."

"Who?" Amanda asked.

"William Afton."

Kathryn started, "Wait, Mr. Afton? Like the guy who owns the diner?" Jamie nodded. "No, that guy? Are you sure? He always seemed so nice! He had dinner with my parents!"

"Kat, I'm certain it was him."

"Sorry Kat but I gotta side with Jamie on this one," Amanda said. "Mr. Afton gives me the creeps, and I always liked Mr. Emily better."

"Well, what about that kid that went missing last week? Maybe that was the same guy?"

"What does that have anything to do with this?"

"The last time anyone saw him he was waiting outside the diner for his parents. Everyone just assumed that he went home, but the next morning, he didn't show up to school."

"Wait, when did you say this was again?"

"Last week, it was in the newspaper."

Jamie threw off his bowling shoes and headed for the door. Amanda chased after him, Kathryn and Jason following suit. "Woah, where are you going?" she asked.

"The library, I want to know more about what happened to this kid."

"Uh, I kinda got banned from the library for…" Jason trailed off, smiling a bit as he reflected on the memory. "...well it doesn't matter what I did, what matters is, I can't go with you guys, sorry."

"Oh okay, well, see you tomorrow Jason," Kathryn bid him adieu, her disappointment showing in her voice, regardless of how hard she tried to hide it.

Amanda caught on, "Wait, are you sad he's leaving? I thought you kinda hated him, I mean you guys constantly butt heads."

"I'm not sad!"

"Sure, whatever you say."


The three had stopped at the nearby McDonald's for some food, and were now in the library scanning through all of last week's newspaper editions on the microfilm readers[1].

"Right here," Kathryn pointed at an article on the screen. She read the headline, "10 year old Danny Myers goes missing after birthday party at local restaurant Fredbear's Family Diner."

Jamie continued reading, "His parents, Joe and Linda Myers, say he'd never run away from home, and the neighbors are beginning to wonder if their children are safe right now, with a possible kidnapper on the loose."

Jamie jumped out of his seat, grabbed a large Yellow Pages, and frantically flipped through it.

"Myers, Joe - 122 Elprup Road[2, Badgerview Utah."

"Isn't that your street?" Amanda asked, leaning over to see the address.

"Yeah, it is."

Kathryn glanced at her watch, saying quickly, "Oh wow I didn't realize how late it was, listen I gotta go."

"Sh*t, I should get going too."

Jamie followed them outside and waved them goodbye before biking home. When he arrived home, all the lights were off and the house was silent. Mom was probably already in bed, thank the heavens. He closed the door carefully and crept towards the stairs, wincing at every creak the old wood floors made.

"James Anderson Karim."

Sh*t.

His mother sat at the kitchen table, staring holes through her son who was now frozen at the bottom of the stairs. "Where the hell were you all night? Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

"I...I'm sorry, okay? I didn't realize how late it was."

"Well try harder then. What if something happened to you? And that was the last conversation we ever had?"

"So sorry that I'm not perfect like Emmy. I bet you wish I died instead!"

His mother dropped to a dark tone, "Don't you dare."

"Come on, admit it, you always liked her more, f*ck, everyone does! I'm the *sshole who makes his sister cry and she's the perfect little angel who could never hurt anyone!"

"What, so now I'm a horrible Mom who hates her own son? I love you both just as much and you know that!"

"Well it sure doesn't feel like it!" Jamie shouted as he stormed up the stairs. He slammed his door and kicked his sneakers off so hard they landed on the other side of the room.

Tomorrow is another day.

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A/N: So we got insecurities and mommy issues. Nice.

[1] If you don't know what a Microfilm reader is, they were these really boxy machines that were used to view and store a lot of images in one place, such as past newspaper editions. So like Google Drive except you can't edit the documents, you can only view them.

[2] "Elprup"? That's a weird name for a street...hmm