The Fall of the Aftons

004: Michael Song

Michael's breaths quickly became shaky and uneven, the sharp pain in his back still lingering. He looked up at the man holding him, the one Miss Allie called "Afton," with desperate eyes. Afton looked at him and smiled sadly. "Don't worry, Michael, your leg and back will feel better soon," he told him kindly.

Michael watched as Afton turned towards the one he had called Henry earlier, the ginger with freckles on his cheeks and pale gray thick-rimmed glasses, and sighed. "Fine. Henry, you can pay for my groceries," he said begrudgingly. "I'll meet you at Fredbear's. You can drop the food off at my house."

"Okay," Henry responded with a wide smile. "See ya'."

"Bye, Allie. See you back at Fredbear's, Henry."

Afton walked away, stepping out of the store and into the overly cold autumn air. Within a few minutes, the man had reached the clinic. He set Michael down in a chair, but when the man started to leave, Michael cried aloud, not wanting to be left alone. Not after what went down at the store however long ago. Afton chuckled and turned around. 

"Michael, I won't be gone forever. I'm just going to check you in for the walk-in care service. I'll be right back." He started to walk away again but stopped midway, then sighed, turned back, and walked back over to Michael. He lifted Michael onto his hip and walked over to the short line for the walk-in care. Michael giggled happily, then leaned his head on Afton's shoulder.

In about twenty minutes, Michael was called to the exam rooms. Afton told him it would be best if he went back there alone because he wasn't his legal guardian. But when he tried to stand up and failed miserably, Afton hesitantly went back with him. Now he and Afton were sitting back in Exam Room 5, along with a doctor named Minn Schmidt. 

"Name?" Dr. Schmidt asked kindly, a wide smile on his face.

"His name is Michael Song," Afton answered for him. Michael nodded his head in approval.  

"I'm sorry, sir, but I need to hear it from the patient."

"He, uh... He doesn't really seem to talk," he explained, resting his hand on the back of his neck.

"Seem to? Ah, yes, the nurses told me this was going to be an odd one." He laughed to himself. "You're not his legal guardian, are you?"

He shook his head. "No, sir. I'm just here to help. I found him injured, all by himself in the store."

Dr. Schmidt turned to Michael. "Are you okay with this man--this stranger, even--watching you?"

Michael nodded his head, a slight smile on his face. This man had willingly come to help him. There had been others--some who had even witnessed the man injure him and take his brother--that he'd seen. But they didn't even bother to ask if he was okay. Sure, he was probably putting too much faith in this stranger. But he couldn't help it!

"Where are your actual guardians, Michael?" Dr. Schmidt asked, his voice curious and a little worried. "Elenor and Avery Song. Do you know where their whereabouts are?"

"Dead," Michael whispered. His voice was so quiet that he wasn't even sure that he had said it. But he continued anyway. "My mom died giving birth to me. My father died of cancer last year. And my older brother died today in a car accident on the way to the store."

"What about your twin Maxwell? It says that you have one on here. You were conjoined at first, your lungs connected, but you were able to be surgically removed from each other when you two were five months old. Maxwell Khael Song. What about him? Where is he?"

Michael shuddered, remembering the incident at the store. How the man grabbed Khael without him even noticing. How the man then grabbed him and threw him against the shelves like he weighed nothing. How the man took his twin away from him, probably forever. He felt Dr. Schmidt's and Afton's stares on him, so he pulled up his hood. He didn't like all of the attention he was receiving today. Yes, it was good he was being treated, but he didn't like that they wanted to know his life story. That was private! Family matters stayed within the family, never out of it. His eyes burned with tears at the thought of his family, and his voice caught in his throat.

"Michael?" Afton asked worriedly as he stood from his chair.

"Gone." Michael flinched at his own word. He fought to keep the tears at bay. Gosh, he was three years old and his whole family was gone! No mother, no father, no brothers. Nobody!

"What do you mean?" Dr. Schmidt asked. Afton sat next to Michael on the bed intended for the patients and wrapped his long jacketed arm around his skinny shoulders.

Michael whimpered against his will. "At the store, there was some weird man. He was watching us for over an hour, I pointed him out to Khael. But the man was gone. Khael was gone, too," he muttered. He kicked it out his leg slightly, holding it up and staring at it as the memory played in his mind. "When I found the man, he had my brother. I tried to get him back, but the man, he..." The tears he'd been doing so well to hold back started to fall from his eyes. "He threw me against the shelves!" he shouted, then realized what he did. He cupped his hands over his mouth immediately, afraid of what he'd done.

Dr. Schmidt and Afton shared a sad, nervous glance. Then they looked at Michael, scrutinizing him. He still had his hands over his mouth, not quite done crying yet.

Dr. Schmidt asked Michael questions--which Michael begrudgingly answered on his own--and examined his back, which turned out to be badly bruised. Henry, the ginger from earlier, was right. Michael did have a fever. A pretty high one, too. They also took an x-ray of Michael's leg and found a fracture. They put his leg in a cast. He hated how heavy it was and how he couldn't walk on his own until it was healed.

But then Afton and Dr. Schmidt left the examining room, leaving Michael alone.