MadPat

The door to the bedroom opens and Lucas rolls his eyes.

“No,” he speaks firmly. His back may be to the door but he doesn’t need to see to know who it is.

“You don’t know what I’m going to say yet.”

Lucas turns. Stood in front of the door, leaning back against it is his twin brother, Dirk.

“I know exactly what you’re going to say and I’m telling you, it’s not happening.”

“Four people, Lucas.” Dirk pushes away from the door having enough sense to keep back. “All missing, and their last known location was Drew Studios.”

“Probably locked up for sticking their nose where it wasn’t wanted.” Lucas snarks, snatching a black tie from his dresser. Another part of the uniform and honestly one he could do without. Still for this internship he’ll deal with it.

“You don’t have to stick anything anywhere, just,” Dirk gestures as he searches for the words, “keep an eye out.”

“Great! I’ll start by not sticking my nose up your ass just to make you happy!”

Dirk barely blinks at the insult, focused instead on his brother’s fingers. They’re fumbling and getting frustrated isn’t helping things. Lucas has never been all that great with ties. Dirk steps forward reaching for the tie.

“Here, let me-”

“Look!” Lucas slaps the hand away, scowling as he snaps at his brother, “You know how much I had to beg Mom and Dad to get them on board with this. If anything goes even slightly wrong they’ll never trust me again, so fuck your mystery and shove it!”

By the end Lucas is shouting. He’s sick of having this conversation every time he gets ready for work. He just wants to go, learn what they have to teach him and move on with his life. Hopefully into a job where he’ll never have to wear a fucking tie! He barely remembers which bit goes where and is two seconds from just tossing the stupid piece of fabric on the floor when Dirk takes it from his fingers.

Dirk wears ties a lot, in fact he’s wearing a navy one now. They’re a regular part of his wardrobe. He’s a firm believer in dressing for the job you want and it’s no secret that Dirk has big plans for his future. As he adjusts the tie, Lucas watches; frowning but silent. When they stand next to each other like this the slight differences are more noticeable. Dirk’s taller by about an inch, while Lucas’s hair is always in a mess.

Dirk’s popular; people actually like him. He’s got this friendly approachableness  that draws you in and makes you want to be his friend. His teachers all love him and are falling over each other to write him letters of recommendation. His grades are immaculate, his permanent record sparkles, and everyone is sure he’s destined for great things.

Lucas on the other hand…

Though every bit as intelligent as his brother, he’s always been what their parents call a ‘difficult child’. Coursework is excellent, but he doesn’t test well. Constantly questions, calls out, and undermines his teachers; and his less than usual viewpoints have made him somewhat of an easy target for bullies over the years. If Dirk’s permanent record is a dentist’s office, Lucas’s is coal mine. Clogged, dirty, weighed down with several fights, countless detentions, and multiple suspensions. Top it off with mom and dad sending him to a different ‘correctional camp’ every summer and despite their similarities, the two of them really couldn’t be more different.

“I can’t risk proving everyone right about me.” Lucas mutters.

“I know.” Dirk pulls the tie to his brother’s throat, brushing it down before stepping back to check his work with a soft smile. “Forget I said anything.”

Lucas looks down to his perfectly tied tie before looking up again.

“How do I look?”

Dirk smirks. “Almost human.”

“Lucas!”

BANG BANG BANG BANG

“Two minutes!”

BANG BANG BANG

“Up!”

BANG

Lucas lets out a long tired groan as he hears his mother stomp down the hallway; same as she does every single morning. Always with the banging; that woman does not have a low volume. Within a few minutes Lucas is dressed and clothed, his bedding packed up and his bed folded and tucked away into the corner of the craft room.

A few years ago his mother had sold their old house, choosing to downsize to a cozy two-bed apartment. At the time it made sense, what with her ex-husband missing in the wind and an empty nest after her twin boys left to find their own way in the world. The second bedroom was turned into a hobbies room filled with books and various arts and crafts supplies, complete with a fold out table, and a little reading nook. After over 20 years living for the men in her life, it was high time she spent time getting to know herself.

Then Lucas lost his job. Apparently the company he’d been working for was discovered ass-deep in some less-than-legal proceedings and as a desperate cost saving measure, in anticipation of the various lawsuits they were expecting, a lot of ‘dead weight’ was shed from the payroll. Some moron decided that that included the entire IT department.

No one was officially fired, that would look far too suspicious in any investigation. I think the official line was ‘indefinite unpaid furlough’, so they could enforce the no-competition clause written into everyone’s contract should anyone choose to quit. It was essentially a Schroedinger situation. Still employed but with none of the benefits, and the only way out is by jumping ship to a far lower-paying job in an industry you likely have no experience in.

So it was, with no income and no sign of any in the near future, Lucas lost his lease, sold his car and most of his furniture, placed what he could afford to keep into storage, and moved back in with mother dearest. She wasn’t happy of course, but to be fair, neither was Lucas.

“There he is,” Mrs Patrick says as he enters the kitchen. She’s ready for her day at the office, her usual suit jacket over a white shirt with a knee length skirt, long brown hair tied up in a ponytail, simple makeup applied, and her meticulously manicured nails clutched around a knife as she spreads strawberry jam on half a slice of bread, “His royal highness has risen before noon. Alert the peasantry.”

“Don’t start.” he snips.

See, she will claim to anyone and everyone that she loves her boys equally but Lucas isn’t an idiot. Dirk is, and always has been, the favourite; mommy’s sweetheart; mr can-do-no-wrong-no-matter-what. When Lucas became the youngest person to work for the IT department at a billion-dollar company, literally right out of high school, she told him that he needed a better job. When Dirk became the youngest detective ever in his city, she’d bought him an expensive yellow leather jacket and told him she’d never been so proud. Lucas had called him Mom’s Golden Boy and gotten himself kicked out of Thanksgiving dinner.

“I told Janice to call about the job going at her office, I don’t care if you think it’s beneath you,” she wraps the sandwich and places it in her lunch tub.

“Yes mother.”

There’s a loud BANG as she slams the tub down on the sideboard.

“You do not use that tone with me.” Picking up the tub she tosses it into her large handbag which she picks up and hoists over her shoulder while glaring at her son. “I will not have you disrespect me in my own home.”

Her heeled shoes click against the floor as she walks towards the doorway, detouring slightly to place a small kiss on Lucas’s cheek while he looks the other way. He listens to her continue to click down the hall and out the door, which slams closed behind her. Lucas lets out the breath he’s been holding.

She’s not all that bad, she can be a good mother but they received word last week that Dirk is missing and, well it can’t be easy having your 20-something year old son go missing less than a year into his job as a detective, while your other 20-something year old son has to move in with you because of his shitty luck. Lucas knows it’s not easy to be her right now. It doesn’t mean she can just take things out on him, but Lucas is willing to let some shit slide for now.

The day passes much as it usually does. Most of the morning is spent searching for jobs, anything and everything, before editing his CV for each listing and sending it off. He’s not holding out any hope. Practically no companies want to touch him right now. Even though he had no hand in whatever his company did, more than one rejection have named his employment with them as the reason they don’t want him.

It’s 2pm when the phone rings and, midway through an application for yet another mail position, Lucas leaves it ringing. It’s probably just Janice and he really doesn’t want to talk to her. All loud and nasally and so sure she knows everything when actually she frequently gets lost on the way to her own kitchen. After an age, the machine finally picks up.

“Um, hi?” says a confused male voice. Lucas frowns. What man would be calling his mother? “This is Sebastian from Freddy Fazbear’s.” Lucas leaps to his feet and all but throws himself across the room. This could be it. This could be it! “I’m calling for Mr Patrick about his job app-”

“I’m him!” he nearly shouts at the receiver as he picks it up, cutting the machine out, “I’m Mr Patrick! Hello!”

“Oh hi! Well I’m calling about your application.”

“Yes?”

“I’m really sorry but-” the guy keeps talking, launching into what sounds like a well-rehearsed speech but the words just wash over Lucas.

They’re rejecting him…

Fazbears is rejecting him...

“You have got to be fucking KIDDING ME!” Lucas’s quiet rage quickly boils over and he practically roars down the phone. “I know for a FACT that your company hires literally ANYONE! Murderers! Thieves! Felons! People who should never be within 500 yards of kids! AND YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO-!”

“I KNOW!” the guy manages to shout back over him, “I’m sorry! But the decision came from so far above my head, I’ve still got a freaking crick in my neck! I absolutely CANNOT go against it!”

Lucas slides down the wall, his hand pressed harshly against his face as he fights the urge to just break down. Fazbears was his hail mary. It would have been a shitty ass job but it would at least pay him money, and he’d probably be able to tinker with the animatronics that always look on the verge of collapse. It’d be bum-ass pay for shitty-ass hours but he’d have some kind of fucking control back and a chance to start saving and getting out of his fucking mother’s house. It was guaranteed! They hire everyone! Except Lucas apparently.

“Look I’m sorry,” the guy on the other side of the phone’s voice is low, almost like he’s whispering, “It sucks that I can’t give you the job but I can give you some free pizza if you come in. It won’t pay your bills but it’s the best I can do.”

Lucas’s stomach gurgles. He’d skipped lunch, he usually does, and while cheap crappy children’s restaurant pizza won’t solve all his problems, he could at least trash the bathrooms, maybe sneak into the kitchens and steal something. It wouldn’t get him a job but it’d sure as fuck make him feel less like crap.