»Of Godhuman Nature« [Five Nights At Freddy's]

Chapter X - Echoing

________

Burst into fragments
& drift into silence
No more dazzling stars on the horizon
Eyes in the sky weeping dust of the ages
No more gravity to hold on to the pages of time.

LOR3L3I - Starnova

________

Lily awoke at sunrise, opening her slumber-stained eyes when the first gentle sunbeams grazed the city of Hurricane; like hands eager to provide its citizens comfort after last night's violent storm. From her bed she could see a bright red sky expanding from one corner of the horizon to the other, cloudless & radiant, revealing the perfect circle of gold that was the sun as it ascended from behind the mountains. She had not closed the blinds last night in hopes of a better, more welcoming view the next morning, & she was anything but disappointed. Little did she care that she had just been burdened with a total of four hours of sleep at best, if not less than that - thanks to her falling in & out of sleep due to returning nightmares; the moment her eyes settled on the sun's blazing countenance & the sound of numerous birds singing enthusiastically to greet the newborn day reached her ears Lily literally jumped out of the bed & ran toward the window, pulling it wide open like she hadn't seen any daylight in weeks.

The air was crisp & crystal-clear, the sunbeams still of feeble nature yet warm enough to tickle her skin. A flock of birds departed from a nearby tree - probably startled by her opening the window with such diligence - circling the tree several times before taking off in the city's direction. A soft breeze touched her face & drew across the room, causing the maroon-coloured curtains to engage in a slow dance. All felt peaceful & tranquil, though she knew too well that looks could be deceiving; as soon as her eyes shifted away from the horizon out into the streets of Hurricane, the full extent of the storm became dishearteningly apparent. Many trees had either fallen or been demolished beyond recognition, their branches split & broken like dry bones, the tree trunks torn open resembling empty rib-cages. Entire fences had been ripped apart, streets lamps had tipped over & shattered on the concrete sidewalk while others had crushed the windshields of cars. In the far distance she could hear the faint cries of sirens, & not just from one but several locations scattered all around town. Most likely there had been sirens all night long, although drowned out by the howling winds & heavy rain.

Not wanting to see more destruction than necessary Lily stepped away from the window & closed it with a heavy sigh.

Hopefully I can even get back home.

With all of Hurricane looking like this, the chances that the roads were still blocked were fairly high.

I don't think I should stay here any longer. Not after what happened last night... 

The buzzing of her phone on the nightstand pulled her out of her swirling thoughts, the dark screen flashing to life in response to an incoming message. Lily immediately walked back over & picked it up to read. The sender's identity was no longer a mystery, considering that they'd been sending messages back & forth the previous night until, eventually, Lily ended up surrendering to sleep around 3 in the morning:

Hey Lily, are you awake yet?
I'm asking because my shift ends soon. I could come pick you up if you want. Right now I can't tell what it looks like out there, but I'm sure I'll manage to be there in an half an hour ~

As you can probably tell, I'm super optimistic...

Lily flashed a smile at her phone.
Talking to Mike after last night's events had without an ounce of doubt been the one thing that had helped her keep her emotions under control & gain a sense of normality, the latter being the main reason why she'd managed to get some sleep at all. Neither had she told him anything about the unsettling encounters with Afton's supposedly living animatronics, nor mentioned any of their bizarre - & at times questionable - exchanges with Mr. Afton himself, had in fact hardly scratched the surface of the whole story... Nevertheless he had provided her with plenty of comforting words during the most vicious phase of the storm & successfully lightened the mood with his perceptive, sensitive nature.
She truly regretted knowing so very little about him. Besides Jessica, he seemed to be one of the very few reasonable people in this town.