Tom's: Five Nights at Freddy's

    "Bye dad!" Mia yelled, taking off across the grass field to her mother's house. Mike waved goodbye to his daughter but noticed his ex-wife's husband was walking out of the house and toward his car. Not wanting anything to do with him, Mike rolled up his window and shifted his car into drive. He floored it down the road and out of the wealthy neighborhood. Once he was far away from the house, he slowed down and began driving more carefully. He stopped at a stop sign and turned on the radio. The music was fuzzy but he immediately knew the song playing.

    "I don't wanna live no more, sometimes I hear death knocking at my front door, I'm livin' everyday like a hustle, another drug to juggle, another day another struggle," Everyday Struggle by Notgorious B.I.G - a popular song at the time. Mike felt the lyrics as he listened. Dropping off his daughter at his ex-wife's house put him in a sour mood. It resulted in resounding emptiness and loneliness. Despite the lyrics being dark, the tune was high pitched and not very depressing.

    When Mike got home, he stopped his car just at the curb, not even wanting to park in the driveway. As he took the key out of the ignition, the engine turned off and the car's ambience ceased. All he could hear now was the tapping of raindrops against his windshield. The blue-hour rain seemed to perfectly match his mood. Rather than coming home to a loving wife and daughter, he would now come home to empty furniture topped off with junk food wrappers and beer cans. He stepped out onto the street. Looking both ways, he noticed a car slowly driving through the neighborhood in his direction.

    He pinned himself against his car to let the person drive by. As soon as it passed, he turned around and walked over to the sidewalk. He noticed the accumulation of rainwater passing down the gutter swiftly - rolling into a drain at the end of the street. Mike stretched out before trudging to his house. A slip of paper was taped to his front door. He took it off and held it closer to his eyes to read it carefully. "Eviction Notice" was printed at the top in bold letters. The note stated that Mike had to be out of the house by October 27th. He rolled his eyes, not caring enough to read the rest. Mike tore the note in half. He then tore the two halves into four total pieces and kept nonchalantly ripping it up until it was nothing more than confetti he proceeded to sprinkle onto the porch below.

    "Bullshit," he grumbled. He put the key in the keyhole of his door and turned it. For some reason, he could not turn it the right way. It got jammed halfway through and he had to pull back and forth, fidgeting with it. Anger quickly built up until he finally managed to unlock it. He opened the door and stepped inside. Sure enough, his house was exactly as messy as he left it - not that he expected anything different. Mike threw off his coveralls and laid on the couch. He sighed. He wanted to fall asleep forever.

    Never again would he think about anything of the past few years. He looked at a family photo on the wall. It had been taken just five years prior. His ex-wife looked beautiful. And then he looked at himself in the photo - a happy man in shape who was ready for the world. Finally, he looked at his daughter who was only a newborn when it was taken. He missed her dearly - a lot more than his wife. She was his pride and joy. He spent his days wishing his time with her wasn't relegated to simply Wednesdays and every other weekend.

    Mike turned to look at the time. It was 8:47 PM. He contemplated whether or not he should drink. It had been almost 3 days since he last did. Because he would have the next day off, the ramifications like having a hangover didn't matter. He decided to just go for it. He lazily strolled to the cupboard. There was a large bottle of vodka, still half full. He pulled it out and poured only a cup of it into a nearby glass. The TV was on in the background playing the most recent episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. As the alcohol coursed through Mike's system, he began relaxing. The jokes in the show slowly became more humorous. Even jokes that were unfunny became funny to Mike. He tried to set his bottle of vodka and glass on the table ahead of him but couldn't because it was cluttered with garbage.