14#Guidance Counciling.
Tyler sat on the blue love-seat in the school guidance councilor's office, undergoing a session with the councilor. After that episode he had in Math class, Miss Tisher sent him here to talk about it with the school shrink. As if talking to this guy would fix what happened in class earlier. But...here he was about to spill his thoughts. He could get through this, just like he did with Dr. Stiner at the hospital yesterday. All he had to do was leave out seeing Circus Baby and him being the only one that saw her. Easy as eating ice-cream.
"Who's Circus Baby?" Asked Richard Lawson "R.L." Strange, the school guidance councilor, sitting in his black rolling-chair, his hair black and his eyes brown, holding a brown clip-board with papers clipped to it in his left hand and a black pen in his right one.
"Who?" Tyler asked.
"Who is Circus Baby? You mentioned it in Math class. Miss Tisher said you kept referring to it as "her". So...who is her?" Strange said.
"She was an robot in a restaurant." Tyler said.
"Were the two of you good friends?" Strange asked jokingly.
"Yeah, kind of." Tyler answered.
"Lay down on the love-seat." Strange said, followed by Tyler lying on the love-seat on his back, looking up at the ceiling. "You said the two of you kind of were friends. What does that mean?"
"Well, we...we kind of were friends, i guess. I mean...my friend, Lizzie, was friends with her." Tyler said.
"Who's Lizzie?" Strange asked curiously.
"A friend...from back home in Harmony. Her name was Elizabeth Afton. I just called her Lizzie as a nick-name because she always called me Tyrone." Tyler said.
"Oh, i see. Well, where's Lizzie now?" Strange said.
"I don't know. No one does. She disappeared two years ago at Circus Baby's Pizza World. She was only 7." Tyler answered and explained.
"Circus Baby's Pizza World? What's that?" Strange asked, confused.
"A pizza restaurant that was built two years ago. It's mascot was Circus Baby. The place was suppose to open the same year it was built, but...it never did. People said it was because of gas leaks. But i know the truth. The grand opening was canceled because Lizzie had disappeared from there." Tyler said.
"Elizabeth Afton." Strange said, thinking. "Oh! My apologies." He said. "You're talking about the girl who went missing at that pizza restaurant in Utah back in 1982." He realized before Tyler proceeded to sit back up. "Stay down." He said before the 10-year old laid back down on the love-seat. "She wouldn't by any chance be related to that boy who got his head crushed in the mouth of that robot bear at the pizza diner, would she?"
"Yeah, that was her older brother, Evan. Another good friend of mine." Tyler said.
"I see. And do you still have a hard time with her disappearance the way you do with your other friend, Evan's death?" Strange said.
"Sometimes, but...not all the time like i do with Evan." Tyler said.
"Really? How is that?" Strange asked.
"Sometimes i...i get these memories. They're memories of that day, really. I'm always at the Circus Baby pizza place, trying to find her, but...just like in my nightmares of that night on Evan's birthday, when i'm trying to save his life, i can't find her. I keep hoping that one day the cops will be able to find her and bring her home and give her family and me the answers and closure we need. I still can't believe they haven't found her to this day." Tyler explained.
"You do realize that even if the police do manage to find out what happened--given the worse case scenario--it won't change whatever outcome your friend's fate is?" Strange said.
"I know." Tyler said. "But the thing is...even though she's been missing for two years...i can't help but feel like she's still out there somewhere. Seeing Circus Baby makes me feel that way even more now."
"You saw Circus Baby?" Strange asked, confused.
"Uh, i mean..." Tyler began, having caught himself on what he had just said. So much for keeping seeing Circus Baby a secret. "i'm pretty sure it was just, you know, an illusion or something." He said, explaining away what he had mentioned by accident. "Does that sound crazy?" He asked as he looked at Strange.
"Not at all." Strange said.
"It doesn't?" Tyler asked, surprised.
"No. This sort of thing is very common in relatives and friends of missing people. Your friend, Elizabeth, vanished two years ago and was never found. Still you're still holding on to hope that she's still alive and could come home someday." Strange explained.
"I guess that makes sense." Tyler said before looking back up at the ceiling.
"I'll call your Mom and have her come get you early for today. I think you're seeing things because of these memories of your missing friend and these nightmares of your other friend." Strange said. "Just take it easy the rest of the day." He continued. "If you don't feel any improvement by tomorrow, have your parents call your doctor." He finished as Tyler stared at the ceiling.
Circus Baby then appeared on the ceiling above Tyler, making the boy flinch and stare wide-eyed at her with shock, followed by her disappearing. "It's her." He said as he sat up halfway on the love-seat before looking at Strange, only to see Circus Baby standing behind the councilor, towering over him, which made the pre-teen boy stare in shock, eyes wide and mouth open with horror.
"Are you okay?" Strange asked, concerned.
Tyler didn't answer. For he was too shocked, speechless and terrified to answer. Now he was officially creeped out. First he was seeing Evan, now he was seeing an animatronic that only he could see? What in the world was happening to him? Was he going crazy?
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