Elizabeth Dies And William Doesn't Know How To Cope With The Loss Of A Child, HIS Child, So He Keeps

Elizabeth dies and William doesn't know how to cope with the loss of a child, HIS child, so he keeps her room untouched like it's a shrine to her life, like a slice of time in which she was still alive forever preserved.

He coldly demeans Mike and Ev whenever he catches them in her room, grieving her. William doesn't want to act like Liz is dead, yet he simultaneously berates them for not being able to let Liz go. Sometimes he'll notice that some of Liz's toys or clothes or ribbons are gone, and he'll stalk into the boys' rooms with a scowl, rip the item back, scold them for touching Liz's things, and return the item to the lifeless shrine.

Mike catches on. Evan does not. Mike stops going into Liz's room. Evan does not. Mike gets pissed at Evan for making William mad enough to take his anger out on the both of them. Mike harasses and torments Evan as retribution for him constantly making William's anger (and therefore William’s abuse) harder to deal with, as well as for constantly reminding Mike that Liz is dead when he runs off to grieve their sister.

Then Evan dies.

William tries giving Evan's room the same treatment as Liz's.

But Mike can't stay out of Evan's room. He keeps finding himself in Evan’s room, curled up in Evan’s sheets, hugging Evan’s toys, looking at Evan’s favorite shirts and sweaters. And Mike finally lets himself go inti Liz's room and does the same with her things, too.

William tries locking Evan's and Liz's bedroom doors shut.

Mike sneaks around and finds the keys and goes inside the rooms when he thinks William won't notice.

William does.

William gets angrier and angrier.

One day, Mike comes home from school and finds that William completely emptied out Liz and Evan’s rooms. All of their stuff is completely gone and disposed of, as surely as if neither of his siblings ever existed.

Michael rages. Michael cries. Michael grieves. But mostly, Michael just feels hopeless and lost and... empty. Hollow. Numb.

Then Michael goes into his own room, and finds that William emptied Mike's room, too. Just like his siblings' rooms, there isn't any clothes or a dresser or posters or matress or bed frame. Michael’s room is just as empty as his dead siblings'.

Michael is just as dead as they are.

That night, Michael sleeps on the cold hard ground, no blanket or pillow or pajamas, just the clothes he wore to school that day, curled up in a corner.

William doesn't buy Michael any clothes or bedding or furniture to replace what he threw away. Anything that Mike puts in his room, Mike has to buy or find for himself.

And every so often, William will come into Mike’s room and throw everything away again and leave Mike with nothing.

When he first came home and found his siblings' rooms empty, Mike would dumpster dive around town, desperate to find any of his siblings' things that Will threw away.

He did find a couple of things scattered in dumpsters where Will threw them away. It was after William found some of these things in Mike's barren room that he first threw away what little furniture and clothes Mike managed to scrounge up. Mike thinks maybe he deserved it. Maybe he brought this on himself.

Maybe it's all his fault.