Vying For Attention

Bread was bored. Really bored… Or was he nervous?

He had been kicking at loose rocks, thinking that would help satiate his unending boredom. Why was he always pushed to the back? Did Val not trust him? Well, it did make sense. The last time they had gone together, he’d made a big fuss about what she’d done.

He couldn’t help it. She had hurt somebody. But was he really okay with it now? If that had happened again… He thought he’d come to terms with himself, but he couldn’t really tell what he was feeling in the first place. He just wanted to be useful. He didn’t just want to be deadweight…

But he couldn’t take it! It was so boring. He wanted to do something new. See something amazing! Anything to distract himself!

Bread looked up at the mansion. It was huge! So big… He wondered what it looked like from the inside. Was it just as large and amazing? He looked around; nobody was there. Just flowers and a faulty water fountain that seemed to struggle to spit water out. Nobody would mind if he explored just a little, right?

He placed one leg up on the windowsill and climbed inside. His leg got caught by the edge. He pulled hard; it broke free and slammed into the counter inside. Utensils clattered to the floor. He caught his breath. Did anyone hear that?

Silence.

He let out a deep breath. It was dark, and the pans clinked together like awful wind chimes. From a nearby hallway, light dimly spilled into the kitchen. He made his way towards the source, and he poked his head out into the empty corridors. To his left was a stairway, but to his right…

Light.

It was coming from another room. The doors were slightly ajar. Bread wondered what was there. Maybe Val was secretly hacking into a big safe! His records told him that was what thieves did. But as he got closer, he heard voices. Unfamiliar ones…

“Mommy, when’s daddy coming home?”

“Soon, sweetheart. Soon.” The voice was soft-spoken, gentle.

“I thought he was coming Monday?”

“I thought so too. But maybe he’s a little busy.”

He peeked through the opening between the two doors. There were two figures—a woman and a little girl smaller than him. A window-like widescreen like the one he had back in that white room stared him back. And an animated fire pit flickered on the screen. It was oddly soothing.

The two figures sat on the carpeted floor together watching the fake fire burn quietly. They softly rocked back and forth, head leaning on each others’ shoulders.

A mild pensiveness started to permeate Bread’s mood. He didn’t really know why, but watching them, he kind of missed Dad… He leaned in a little more. Just so he could be closer… He wanted to be a part of that. That kind of closeness…

Then he slipped. He crashed head first into the ground.

“What was that?” The same soft voice but with an anxious twist.

“Mommy?”

They locked eyes—him and the girl. Then the mom. He stared for what seemed like an eternity. Their gaze transformed from shocked to sudden flickers of fear and rage.

“Who are you?!” It was the mom. “How did you get in?!” She grabbed a picture frame and held it threateningly above her shoulders. “Securi—”

Something whooshed past him. A figure faster than wind. And in quick succession, the figure knocked the mom down and incapacitated her.

It was Val.

She clasped her hand over the mom’s mouth and locked her other arm around her neck. The mom tried to yell, but no voice escaped. The girl looked between him and Val; terror started trickling down her face. Then she began to cry.

“Bread!” Val whispered as loud as she could. She nodded towards the girl.

“W-what?”

“Zap her! Get her quiet!” She gestured to a device on the ceiling. “The alarms are autonomous. It’ll turn back on if she keeps crying like that!”

“Z-zap her?” The thing he used on Coach? “I can’t—”

“You can.” She glared daggers. “Do it! You’re not hurting anyone. Just a quick zap. You promised to help, and I need your help now!”

He couldn’t. How could he? No… He couldn’t. He couldn’t do that to her.

“Bread!” She whispered through her teeth.

“I—” No, he had to. He’d promised. He’d promised he’d help. He wouldn’t be deadweight. Not anymore.

He took the first, small step towards the girl. She crawled back until she hit the white, marble wall behind her. The mom screamed through Val’s hands, clawing at her attacker’s arms with sharp, polished nails. She was slowly choking, turning blue like the sky.

The girl covered her ears, cowering in the corner. Her fearful eyes… It reminded him of Dad. When he was yelling, screaming at the top of his lungs. And her trembling body… He was like that too. Just like that. Scared, crying… The same white walls encompassing his eyes…

Is this really okay?

He knelt down beside her and gently placed his hands on her shoulders. “I-it won’t hurt… I think…”

“Bread, hurry up!”

“I… I’m sorry.” He had no choice. He had to do it. Closing his eyes, he concentrated. Let the electricity generate throughout his body. Let it slide down his arms like hot, freezing ice cubes…

Then the girl screamed. And with it, images in his head—

He saw a slideshow of figures. A teddy bear, mom… and the back of some well-dressed man in blue. The father? He couldn’t see his face. Then he started to feel something. A longing feeling of wistfulness mixed with… hatred? Anger? Were these her emotions? Emotions for her father? And then there was something else—an intense yearning welling up, drowning her deep in that hungering sensation. For a father that never looked her in the eyes, never gave her the attention she had always craved…

When Bread finally opened his eyes, the girl was resting in his arms, unconscious but still breathing. He gently placed her head onto the soft carpeted floor.

He hated it. The memories, the scenes still playing in his mind—it reminded him of Dad. It reminded him of everything he didn’t want to remember.

Conflict started to brew within his mind. Something he hadn’t ever expected. He had wanted an escape. He had wanted to run wild and free… But for just a moment, he thought of what it’d feel like to go back. To that suffocating, white room. At least in there, he didn’t have to do any of this. He didn’t have to hurt anyone like he was doing now. And he thought—

Maybe it was better there. Locked up and confined. Doing the things he had always wanted to do—cook, explore the city with Dad. Just the two of them… And if he still had the option to reset—

Maybe he’d rather forget.