A Ghost’s Whisper

by eggz_benedict

Summary:

Following the canon (game) events of FNAF to the best of my ability, but Michael has some help from a deceased family member helping him along the way.

Rather, he thought this person was helping.

——

For ppl who know me on TikTok, my username on there is @itsme.coz

Notes:

This chapter is a summarization of the first 10 or so years after William and Henry met and it does not have much dialogue. The chapters following this will have lots more dialogue.

Chapter 1

One of the only times William has been grateful for anything in his life was meeting his best friend, Henry Emily, at the ripe age of eighteen. William had moved to America at seventeen and soon started college that next year when he turned eighteen. He was a complete outcast in that school being that he was from halfway across the world. He was bullied horrendously for it, and throughout high school he had earned the title of ‘The weird British kid’.

That’s when his gaze suddenly fell on Henry, the (also outcasted) weird, nerdy kid. The kid who never talks to anyone because he’s afraid of what they’d think of him. The kid who could never relate to anyone else his age because he didn’t like the things that they did. The kid who gets bullied by his peers because he was different. 

William decided to introduce himself to him, just for the hell of it, which Henry thought he had been dared to do at first. But once his honey brown eyes met William’s silver-gray eyes, he knew that William was genuine. The two instantly clicked and were by each other’s side every single day, even though they found out they were polar opposites from each other. 

Of course, nothing could happen as William planned, and that next year they were approached by two women, both about their age. The two of them happened to be sisters, but at first glance no one could tell they were related. One had blonde, slightly wavy hair, deep sea blue eyes and had fair skin, her name was Heather. The other had brunette straight hair, dark green colored eyes, light freckles on her face and tanner skin than her sister, her name was Evelyn.

They both had started hanging around them often, which annoyed William because he had just wanted to be alone with Henry, but he didn’t want to say anything because he didn’t want to come off as rude (and give his family a bad name like he did back in England) especially upon those first few meetings.

Then during their third year at the college, Heather confessed her love for Henry and Evelyn confessed her love for William. Both were surprised, to say the least, being that they were both outcasts. The week after the confessions were made, Henry confessed his love for Heather, which William was shocked he had confessed because he had never heard him say anything about it.

What the fuck?! William thought. He thought it was just going to be him and Henry for college, but these two random women who they had never seen before came up and confessed their love for them, and now Henry was together with Heather. Henry assured William he’d still stick around, and he stuck to his word thank God, but Evelyn kept following William around like a persistent puppy, like she wanted him to love her back. William desperately tried to ignore her, but he couldn’t. He had tried for months on end to get her to stop bugging him about it, and nothing seemed to work. He didn’t love her, or even like her for that matter. 

William eventually decided to fake a confession of love to her thinking it would work and she’d stop being persistent. That didn’t work out as well as he thought, and the two eventually got together. William decided to stay with her just to see how it goes, and he found she wasn’t as bad as he thought, but he wasn’t in a relationship he wanted to be in. He wanted to genuinely love, to genuinely care about someone but he couldn’t quite feel anything when he was with Evelyn.

He had tried everything, even convincing and forcing himself to love her back, but nothing seemed to work. But William decided to stay with Evelyn because of two reasons. First, because he could see Evelyn genuinely loved him and didn’t want her nagging him again. Secondly, because Henry and Heather were madly in love with each other, and since Evelyn was Heather’s sister she would probably try to prevent him from seeing Henry because she would see him as untrustworthy, which he couldn’t stand the thought of. 

That last year of college was the strangest William had ever experienced. Not school-wise, but relationship-wise. 

That next year after William and Henry got out of college, they both scraped up enough money to get themselves places to live. Of course, Henry was going to ask Heather to live with him since the two seemed like they couldn’t stand to be apart for more than a week. But alas, William decided to do the same with Evelyn. He wasn’t sure it was what he wanted, but he decided to do it anyway out of spite.

He wanted to prove his parents wrong. He wanted to prove to them that he can live a ‘normal’ life. Granted, his father had died earlier that year and took the last name William hated, Miller, with him. William had to admit that he was joyful for his father’s death, but his mother didn’t treat him any better than he did.

She was always calling him a disappointment, that God had somehow made a mistake with him, an embarrassment to her or some other insult she made up just to make his life miserable. He hated her. The only difference between his father and mother was that his father would hit him with anything he could find if William did something he didn’t like. 

The two women excitedly accepted the offer to live with them, since they also wanted to get out of their house with their little brother who’s five years younger than they were. Soon, Heather was living with Henry in his apartment and Evelyn was living with William in his apartment. 

Those next few years after that seemed to fly by in front of William’s face. At first it was pretty slow, and Henry asked him to work as a partnership on this restaurant he had dreamed of opening since they met. William agreed and they both got the legal phases down in no time and were now starting to work on animatronic mascots (they were both very much into mechanics, but Henry had it as more of a passion than William being that William was more of a business person, and they both decided William would handle the business aspects of this diner) and the restaurant Henry’s always wanted to own was being built. 

After it was finally built and one animatronic mascot was finished (complete with spring locks, which was William’s pitched idea to save money) Henry ended up proposing to Heather, and she said yes. William never thought that their relationship would go that far, but William decided that since he didn’t want to go looking for another partner, that he would do the same to Evelyn in that same year which she excitedly said yes to. 

But, both Henry’s and William’s engagements were different. Henry and Heather were treating each other like any normal engaged couple would, while William ended up getting Evelyn pregnant a month before they were married. William, of course, didn’t know until after he was officially married to Evelyn. William never meant for it to happen; he didn’t want to start a family so soon. If anything, this was the result of merely being drunk.

One night while he was home a week after after he was officially married to Evelyn and she left for bed, he fiddled with a vial of a strange substance he had for years. He had no idea what it was and didn’t dare tell anyone about it, but his attention was drawn to the television screen when he saw something that had never appeared before. He thought he was going crazy since he was half asleep on the couch, but he rubbed his eyes and it was still there. 

The television suddenly went static, and William could barely make it out, but he saw a face. Not just any face though, the face of Evelyn’s father. She had only mentioned him once or twice, and told him he died of suicide their first year of college while he was away on a business trip. William was frightened to say the least, but he knew what he saw was real. He couldn’t believe it. He didn’t want to believe it. 

---

William and Henry used to live close to one another so they would see each other often. But what Henry had at home were two siblings and his mother. One older sister and one younger brother.

One day during the summer the youngest had gone with his mother to run errands, but he was kidnapped, taken to a dark alleyway and killed.

Henry and his younger brother were close as can be, despite their age difference. They were always there for each other, shared interests and really the only person the other trusted. When Henry learned that he died he fell into a state of depression and often refused to take care of himself. He would  vent to William and bring himself to the point of tears and William hated seeing Henry this upset. William knew that he had to get revenge on this person, even if it killed him and nothing was going to stand in his way. He was going to make sure of it.

As crazy as William was, he found out where the man was staying, and it just so happened that it was Evelyn’s father who had did this crime. It turned out that her father was in their town for a business trip, so he was staying alone. William eventually found a way to sneak into where her father was staying and killed him without mercy, he had no sympathy towards him or his family and he was never caught for the killing of this man. William, at the mere age of twenty, had committed his first murder. Not for himself, but for Henry.

---

William eventually got up the courage to walk over to the television set, but he got frightened by the volume of the static being turned up suddenly, but he dropped  the vial on the set and was so angry that he kicked it, but the screen shattered. He figured that it would be alright because he had enough money to replace it. 

“Aren’t so scary now, are you Mr. Schmidt?” he said. William laughed and went to bed. 

But what he now knew he had was an irrational fear of the paranormal. 

---

Months passed, and soon William was pacing all around the smoke-filled waiting room. Evelyn was at the hospital finally giving birth but, since it was 1969, William wasn’t allowed in. Heather was in the room with Evelyn since she was allowed to call her female friends and relatives to help her, but no males were allowed. 

William sat back down and could hear the screams of pain from both his wife and the other mothers, which gave him flashbacks of Evelyn’s father. He shuddered at the thought as he took the cigarette out of his mouth to exhale the smoke. 

He felt Henry put a hand on his shoulder when he put the cigarette back in his mouth. He had called Henry so he wouldn’t be alone in the hospital waiting room (William hated hospitals) but Henry seemed more disturbed from the screams than William, even though his wife wasn’t giving birth. 

“Scared of a couple screams?” William asked Henry teasingly. 

“No! You are!” Henry said as he took his hand off William’s shoulder, which he realized he was squeezing tighter than he thought. William laughed and offered Henry a cigarette, which he took. They both waited anxiously for any news about Evelyn or her pregnancy, and after what felt like hours they saw Heather come into the room. Henry smiled as she came over to them. 

Great. I have a kid now, William thought. 

A while later William was able to see Michael, but only from behind a nursery window along with the rest of the newborns. He was in the back, but William only recognized him by his last name, Afton. William saw that he looked strangely like him, almost identical, but he thought he was just seeing things. 

A week later, William, Evelyn and baby Michael went back to the apartment. It was then William realized he wasn’t seeing things, Michael looked almost exactly like him but smaller. He had wavy, dark brown hair (almost black) like William’s, the same face shape as William’s, and gray eyes, like William’s. The only noticeable differences between them was that his eyes were tinted with a sky blue, and he had many tiny, dull freckles scattered on his face which were inherited from his mother. Michael’s tiny, curious eyes would dart around, making sure he got a good look at everything since he knew he wasn’t in the hospital anymore. 

Within weeks, Michael would find his voice and babble and make noise almost nonstop, which William was not prepared for in the slightest. After babbling for months, he learned to talk. The simple words mainly, ones that many toddlers could say. When he was almost a year old, he started walking and learning to run. 

A few days before Michael’s first birthday, the diner had opened for business. The one Henry’s been dreaming about since he was young. The one William was asked to own in a 50/50 partnership with Henry. They were both proud of what they accomplished, and they both felt like genuinely proud parents. Within months it was already a huge success, even though the diner was fairly small.

The two decided to call the diner ‘Fredbear’s Family Diner’ after Henry’s decided name for the bear animatronic. William decided to name the rabbit animatronic Springbonnie because it was a springlock animatronic, and because when he was a child he always called rabbits ‘bonnies’ before he could say it correctly. Both the rabbit and the bear represented them as a partnership, both so different but had eventually come together by fate. 

As little Michael got older, William and Evelyn learned that he was very extroverted and would talk almost 24/7, even to himself. He would play and make messes with anything he could reach and his parents constantly had to tell him not to. Although, Evelyn was usually a lot more calm when telling him; she would say something along the lines of ‘Mike, don’t do that please.’ and Michael would listen.

William, on the other hand, was very easy to piss off and would yell at him. Evelyn would almost constantly have to stop her husband from hitting their four year old and Michael was more scared of his father than his mother, but regardless he still looked up to his father. Michael would sometimes watch William silently when he worked, which annoyed William but he would be so invested in his work that he barely seemed to notice him. 

Henry and Heather would come around often since Heather and Evelyn were sisters, but what William learned is that both of them loved kids. He noticed that whenever they were around Michael, they would care for him like they were also his parents and Michael was happy around them. 

When William got Evelyn pregnant a second time, Michael would stay at the Emily’s (who had just gotten married a few months prior), where Henry introduced Michael to drawing. Michael immediately loved it. Henry would teach him how to draw simple shapes since he was young and Michael quickly caught on. Even though he wasn’t the best at his young age, he wouldn’t let that stop him from trying. He was as happy as ever at the Emily’s, but he knew all good things couldn’t last forever.

He knew he would have to go back sometime. But there will also be a new person in their family which Michael wasn’t ready for. He’s gotten used to being an only child for four (almost five) years already, so he didn’t know what to expect. 

Once William and Evelyn brought baby Evan home, he wasn’t as bad as Michael initially thought. He noticed that baby Evan looked like a weird mix of his parents: light brown hair from Evelyn, he ended up getting bright blue eyes with no hints of gray from William and of course, Evelyn’s dull freckles.

The only thing that Michael couldn’t stand was his crying, not just when he was a baby but even as he got older; he cried whenever he felt scared, which was often. The only time he wouldn’t cry is when either William or Evelyn was with him and he knew he was safe. Michael soon caught on to this and would simply hide behind doors and jump out at him and yelled ‘boo!’. Evan would get scared and run to his parents crying while Michael would laugh at how easily he got scared. 

When Evan was three and Michael was seven (almost eight) William ended up getting Evelyn pregnant a third time. Every time he got her pregnant he would rant to Henry that it was an accident or he didn’t mean to get another kid. Henry usually assured him that it would all be fine, that he will still get through this, that he is strong enough and he would still be there every step of the way.

William always knew Henry was telling the truth whenever he said those things and that they weren’t just some rehearsed dialogue. Whenever he says that he would still be with him every step of the way, for a brief moment he actually feels safe and protected which he never usually does. Every time, William can’t help but smile at Henry. 

Nine months later, Michael and Evan were at the Emily’s house again (both the Afton’s and the Emily’s got their own houses around the time Evan was born, only a couple miles apart from each other). But this time was different. Usually, the Emily’s didn’t have them around for about a week, a few hours to a night at most. Michael was a lot more hectic this time and loved seeing how badly he could scare Evan. They would constantly have to tell him to stop and eventually resorted to threatening to take things away. Michael seemed to calm down after that and go off to draw pictures Henry. 

What a lot of people didn’t know is that he had started scaring Evan because it’s what his father would have done if he had a younger sibling. Michael just wanted his approval, even at his young age and for his father to notice him. He only scared his brother because William saw Evan as weak, being that he always needed to be around them, so he did as well.

William had noticed Michael was a lot like him in many ways. Sure, the looks were one thing, but Michael has taken interest in a fox animatronic blueprint his father had in his office recently. His father had noticed that Michael had taken interest in it, just like how he had taken interest in Springbonnie. 

William’s plan for his son to follow in his footsteps was coming along nicely. 

When William and Evelyn came back a week later with baby Elizabeth, the two boys noticed she looked very different from them. She looked almost like Evelyn, bright green eyes and the freckles all of the Afton kids got, but she had bright red hair which none of their parents had. Even if the boys thought it was strange that she had red hair, both William and Evelyn knew it was because William’s mother had red hair as did Evelyn’s mother. 

“When are you going to settle down and have a couple of your own?” William asked Henry one day, a little teasingly. He really didn’t want him to, but he knew Henry had a soft spot for children. 

“Kids?” Henry asked. 

“Yes kids! What did you think I meant? I know that you want them.”

“I do, we both do. But uh, I don’t know.”

What William didn’t know is that Henry and Heather have tried a couple times after they got married, but each time Heather has had miscarriages very early on in the pregnancy. They were both devastated that they failed to have the family they always dreamed of having together many times, but were determined. 

A few months after that conversation, Henry learned that Heather was pregnant with twins and they were both strong enough to live. Henry told William excitedly but William felt his heart drop, he was just joking around with him before, but now Henry and Heather were starting their family, so where does that leave him?

When the twins Charlotte and Samuel were born, William noticed Henry started acting differently. Henry started devoting all of his attention towards his children (especially Charlotte). Sure, they saw each other at work but it was different. They were in a professional setting at work and it wasn’t the same as being off of work on their own time.

Henry only spent a lot of time with his children because he didn’t want to be like the father William was. William was neglectful, almost always threatening to hit his own kids when they made him angry and his kids were constantly trying to get approval from him just to make him proud of them. He didn’t want to end up like him, he wanted his children to see him as a father who will care for them and make time for them. He wanted them to know  he was there for them the rest of his days, he believed that’s what children needed and that was his job now as a parent. 

Henry decided to risk it and bring all of it up to William, just to tell him to be a better father and that his kids will probably cut him off if he kept up the way he was acting towards them. William lied straight to Henry’s face and said that he will try, but once he got to the privacy of his own home he found a pen and took out his journal that he hasn’t written in for months that was starting to collect dust.

He flipped to the next empty page, most of the pages were filled with him ranting about the kids or obsessing over Henry, which wasn’t any different than it had been for the last several years. He took out his pen and started writing in his same messy but readable handwriting. 

‘Henry said that he wants me to be a better father, but I know that’s never going to happen. I haven’t changed for years, what was he expecting?! I think Henry thought I was being selfish even if he was being nice and said he didn’t think so, but just because he’s had three of his unborn kids die and I haven’t. If Evelyn would allow me to have him adopt them instead, I would. But, as much as I don’t want to admit it, I want to keep them now that I have them. I want to show Henry that I am their father, not him. Hell, while I'm at it, the whole reason I married Evelyn was to show him and my parents that I could be with her! I only got together with her in college because Henry decided to fall in love with Heather! Granted, I did love Evelyn at first, but it quickly died out and the only reason I stayed with her was because Henry was with Heather, and I wanted to show him I can be her husband. I didn’t want to be with Evelyn. But if I broke up with her when my love for her died out, Henry would probably think I was a total loser or some type of sick in the head like everyone else did in England, and I couldn’t afford that. But who knows how long I can keep this lovey-dovey act up. I’ve already done it for what, more than ten years? I’m tired of pretending. But I want to see how long it takes before I’ve fully decided I’ve had enough. That probably won’t be long.’

Chapter 2

Summary:

All is hell in the Afton family.

“Shut up Ev! You too Liz!” Michael said late one night a few years later to his siblings. They were spying on William and Evelyn as they were yelling at each other again which they seemed to do on a daily basis now, but this time seemed different.

It was too late for Michael to call Henry to tell them they were yelling again (He was the one who usually took them to his house to get away from their screaming parents). It was way past midnight anyway, but William and Evelyn had woken their children up with their shouting. 

“What are they fighting about?” Elizabeth asked. 

“You’re too young to understand,” Michael said. 

They peered back down at William and Evelyn. 

“So what?! You just don’t care about your own family?!” Evelyn asked aggressively. Every time she had asked him to do something for the family, he had answered with an ‘I can’t’ or ‘I’m too busy’, but this time was different. She had asked him to help with Michael’s failing grades since he had a more flexible work schedule than her, and he had answered ‘No. So what if he’s failing?!’.

“When’s the last time you’ve seen me care?! It’s goddamn grades woman! If he’s failing, that’s his own bloody fault!”

“I’d just think you’d want to be a good father for the kids and be a part of the family!”

“Well, you thought wrong!”

Evan gasped out of shock he’d actually say something like that. “Shut up, they might hear you! This is getting good,” Michael whispered to Evan. 

“What the hell do you mean by that?!” Evelyn asked, obviously very angry with William. He decided to come clean. 

“I mean, do you really think I wanted kids and that I’ve loved you all these years?! Guess who deserves an Oscar then!”

“You mean you were acting this whole time?!”

“Guess I was! I was so good that I tolerated you for, what, twelve years?! Guess those acting classes I took in high school taught me something!”

“What, am I not good enough for you?!” Evelyn asked, her voice breaking. 

“That’s kind of the point!”

“If not me, who?!”

William stayed silent for a while, unsure how to answer at first. “I…look, doesn’t matter anyway!” William said, wanting to steer away from this subject. 

“But still, you were acting this whole time we’ve been married and didn’t even bother to tell me anything?!”

“You didn’t need to know!”

“I needed to know that I am not good enough for you, then you wouldn’t have had to deal with me or the kids a long time ago! Or were you just using me for sex because you couldn’t get pregnant?!”

“What?! No!”

“You were, weren’t you?! That’s the only reason you kept me around!”

“I wasn’t!”

“Then what?!” William stayed as quiet as a mouse. He didn’t know how to answer without her telling everyone she knew that he only stayed with her because Henry was married to her sister. “I cannot believe you. So all this time I was just your little sex doll?!” William, again, stayed silent. “You were using me! I cannot believe you!” Evelyn said with tears streaming down her face. She took off her wedding ring and threw it at William who caught it. “We’re done. I cannot handle you.”

“Really?! Where do you plan on going?!”

“I don’t know! But I sure as hell know that I’m not sleeping with you tonight! Have fun not having a wife or kids here first thing in the morning!” Evelyn shouted and she angrily slammed the front door and went outside to her car. Her plan was to sleep in there and take the kids and herself to Henry and Heather’s house when the sun came up since her mother lived too far away. 

“So…what’s gonna happen?” Evan asked while silently crying. 

“I…I don’t know,” Michael said. 

“Is Mummy…gone?” Elizabeth asked, her voice starting to break and tears streaming down her face. 

“Hopefully not,” Michael quickly wiped the tears building up in his eyes. 

William turned around and angrily cussed Evelyn out under his breath. He started going up the stairs when he saw Michael, Evan and Elizabeth peering down at him from behind the railing. “You little shits! What do you think you’re doing?!” William angrily yelled at them and he started going up the stairs two at a time. 

“Oh no. Go, go, go!” Michael said as he and his siblings took off running down the hallway. 

They turned to the closest room that wasn’t William’s, which was Elizabeth’s and Michael herded them inside. Once they were all in Michael slammed the door behind him and locked it. He took one of Elizabeth’s chairs in her room and propped it against the door, barricading them in although he was sure that it wouldn’t help.

It only took about three seconds before they heard William rattling the doorknob and angrily pounding on the door. Elizabeth and Evan were crying and hugging each other in the corner and Michael stayed near the door like he could fight William if he came through, even though he was only eleven years old.

After a while, they heard William give the door one final pound and he walked off, more angry than ever and cussing under his breath. He went to his own room and angrily slammed his door. 

“Oh my God,” Michael said under his breath. Sure, he’s seen William angry at them many times before, but never that angry. He snapped back to reality when he heard his little siblings still crying from fright. “Hey, guys, he’s not gonna get you here,” Michael said even though he wasn’t the best at comforting people, especially if they were sobbing. Michael looked back behind him and walked back to open the bedroom door when Evan got up and blocked his way “Ev, move,” he said coldly.

“But what if he’s still out there?!”

“He’s not. I heard him slam his door.”

“Still! I don’t want him to do anything bad!”

“I’m just gonna go to the front door and see if Mum’s still out there.”

“But she might not be and you’ll be out there with him!”

“D’you really think she’d leave us?! She cares more about us than Father!”

“But I don’t want to risk him doing anything bad!”

“He’s not gonna. Now move,” Michael huffed and he pushed Evan out of the way.

He unlocked the door and cautiously looked up and down the hallway, scanning for William. He was nowhere in sight, but his door was open which meant he was no longer in his room and somewhere in the house.

He inhaled sharply but decided to risk it. Michael ran down the hallway and down the stairs when he found William in the kitchen, drinking. His back was turned to Michael and he cautiously sneaked around him to the front door and opened it as silently as he could, but it still made some noise but thankfully William got himself too drunk to notice. He opened it to find his mother’s car still in the driveway and her in the driver's seat, awake and sobbing her eyes out. 

She didn’t notice him peek his head out the front door, so he closed the door behind him, went to her window and tapped on it. She looked up and was surprised to see her son standing outside and waving to her, and she motioned that he could sit in the passenger’s seat. Michael went over and sat in the passenger’s seat and closed the door after him. 

“What are you doing up? It’s late!” Evelyn said. 

“I know. But you and father were kind of loud and woke us all up.”

“Oh. So you heard all that?” Michael nodded and Evelyn hugged him. “And the others did too?” Michael nodded again. 

“What’s gonna happen now?” Michael asked. 

“I…don’t know. Hopefully when we wake up, we can get Ev and Liz and drive over to Uncle Henry’s for a little bit. Then…I don’t know. Go over to your grandma’s after that. But she’s very old and my brother’s helping to take care of her for what seems like her final days, so we might just end up moving somewhere else, but that will take a very long time.” Michael nodded. “How did your father handle it?” 

“Not too well. He looked very angry after you left, then he saw us at the top of the stairs and he chased us down the hallway. We escaped into Liz’s room, but he was pounding on the door and Ev and Liz were crying. I just passed him in the kitchen while I snuck away because I was the only one brave enough to go downstairs.”

“I’m sorry Mikey. He gets like that when he’s angry, although never usually to that extent.” 

“Can I stay in here with you tonight?”

“Why? You have a bed!” she exclaimed as she stopped hugging him. 

“I want to keep you company, and I don’t want to sneak back in the house.”

Evelyn smiled, sighed and wiped her tears. “Alright, just for tonight.”

Michael nodded, smiled and a while later fell asleep in the passenger’s seat of the car while Evelyn slept in the driver’s seat. 

---

When the sun just went up in the morning, Michael was still sound asleep in the seat next to Evelyn. She snuck back in the house and thankfully, William was nowhere to be found. She went upstairs and woke up Evan and Elizabeth, who were both in Elizabeth’s room from earlier that morning.

Elizabeth was in her bed but Evan was curled up in a ball on the floor, scared to go out to his own room. She woke them both up and brought them to her car, with Elizabeth in her arms and Evan sleepily walking. She put them in the backseat of the car and decided to go back inside to call the Emily’s using the telephone in the house. She didn’t know if Heather would be up, but Henry might since he was an early bird. 

The telephone rang five times before she heard Henry’s voice. “Hello?” 

“Hey Henry! Do you mind if me and the kids go over to your place? It’s kind of an emergency,” she whispered, making sure her voice was quiet enough to not wake William but loud enough for Henry to hear. 

“Of course you can! Is it just you four?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. Sure. Heather’s not awake yet but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind since you’re her sister.”

“Thanks a million Henry!”

“No problem. See you in a few.”

“See you then,” she hung up the telephone and snuck back outside to her car. She breathed deeply and looked back at Michael, Evan and Elizabeth who were all sound asleep, started up the car and drove to the Emily’s house while battling tears from streaking her makeup again. 

She drove into their driveway and sat in the car for a few minutes. She could feel another wave of tears building up in her eyes and calmed herself down to keep them from flowing down her face again. She went up to the door and knocked, and within a few seconds Henry answered the door. 

“Hey Eve! Are you okay?” he asked, a little concerned. 

“I’ll explain later. Can you help me get the kids out?” 

Henry nodded and they went over to her car and he picked up Evan while Evelyn picked up Elizabeth. They set them down on some blankets Henry had in one of the twin’s rooms and let them sleep; Henry had moved the twins into the same room beforehand since they were only babies and they could share a room temporarily. They went back outside and since they both couldn’t pick up Michael, they woke him up. 

“Huh?” Michael asked sleepily. 

“We’re at Uncle Henry’s. Do you want to sleep in Sammy’s room or on the couch?”

“Is the room okay? I don’t wanna hear you guys talking while I’m sleeping, since I know you’ll gossip about last night or something.”

Henry smiled at Michael’s witty remark. “There’s only a couple blankets and a spare pillow I found. I moved Sammy into Charlie's room so it’ll just be you three in there,” Henry said. 

“Good enough for me,” Michael said and sleepily walked into Henry’s house and up to Sammy’s room. Henry and Evelyn went into the house after him and Henry closed the door behind Evelyn. 

“Can I get you anything? Coffee, are you hungry?” Henry asked Evelyn once the kids were away. 

“Do you have any coffee?” 

“Just made it.”

“Can you spare a cup?”

“Of course!”

Evelyn went to the couch and held her head, almost in disbelief about everything that happened that previous night. Henry went into the kitchen and poured Evelyn a cup of coffee and he didn’t know what she liked in it, so he poured milk in it and took it back to her. “I didn’t know what you liked in it so I just put milk in it. I hope that’s okay.” Henry said as he placed the cup on the coffee table. 

“That’s perfect, thank you,” Evelyn said as she carefully took it. 

“So, what was this emergency? What happened?”

“Well, long story short, I don’t think I want to be married to William anymore.”

“I’m so sorry. What happened?”

“He…he kid of admitted he was using me.”

“Using you? That’s not the William I know.”

“I don’t know. I feel like he wasn’t at first, then something…happened to him. I don’t know what, and he just…changed. That isn’t the man I married, although from what he said it seems like he has always been that way.”

“Well, uh, can I tell you something?” Evelyn nodded. “A couple months ago, Will admitted to me that he never really…liked you. I just didn’t think to tell you because I thought it’d be better if you heard it from him and not me.”

“I figured he never did anyway. He told me that this whole time we’ve been married I’m just…not good enough for him,” Evelyn said as she felt the lump in her throat yet again.

“So I’m guessing you and Will are done?” 

“Yes, we are. I hate to admit it because I truly loved him, but I guess he didn’t feel the same.”

“If he was like that to you, then he wasn’t the one you were meant to be with. You’re worth so much more than him.”

Evelyn smiled. “He even scared the kids. They were spying on us, like usual when we argued, but they saw everything. All three of them. And from what Mike told me, he didn’t handle seeing them very well.”

“What did Mike say?”

“He said that William chased the three of them down the hallway and they escaped to Liz’s room. Mike locked the door behind them but William pounded on the door and William scared the little ones to tears.”

“Oh my God. I have to talk with Will about that.”

“Are you guys gossiping? Boring!” Michael said from the top of the stairs and Henry turned around in surprise. 

“How much of that did you hear?”

“I don’t know. I just heard you guys talking about Father and it sounded like those girls who always gossip at school and complain.”

“I mean, how long were you there?”

“Uh…a little while.”

“Let your mom do all the talking to Aunt Heather about this.”

“Why?”

“It’s her story to tell.”

“I can’t say anything?”

“Uh…” Henry looked around. “I’ll give you candy if you let your mom do the talking.” 

“Deal.” 

---

“Will,” Henry said one day when he passed his office the next day at work. William was sitting at his desk and had his long, thick hair back in a ponytail and had his glasses on that he only wears when reading.

“Yeah?” he answered as he took off his glasses. 

“I need to talk to you.” Henry stepped in his office and closed the door behind him. “So, I heard what happened on Saturday.” 

“What?! From where?!”

Henry didn’t want to mention that he was housing Evelyn and the kids, otherwise William might go looking for them. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is that I heard it.”

“What, you heard about the fight that Evelyn and I got in?!”

“Yes. And I heard what happened with the kids.”

“Really?! What would that be?!”

“You chased them down the hallway and pounded on the door?!” Henry yelled.

“They were getting on my nerves!”

“Still! You could have told them and not chased them down!”

“They deserved it!”

“The youngest is four years old and the oldest is eleven! How the hell did they deserve it?!”

“They were disobeying what I explicitly told them not to do!”

“They’re just kids Will! They’re going to break the rules! It’s what kids do!”

“I don’t care! At least Michael would’ve known better and told the others not to!”

“He’s at that age where he starts rebelling against the rules a little!”

“So?!”

“So, I heard that you even scared the two little ones to tears!”

“That one was unintentional. I didn’t even know!”

“They’re four and six years old, so you should’ve seen it coming! Will, don’t you see yourself?! You’re turning into your father!”

William stayed silent in shock that he would make that comparison. “Don’t you dare compare me to that man,” William said a little more threateningly than he meant. 

“Do you want them to see you the same way you see him?”

“I don’t know how they see me so why should I care?” 

“Because Will, they’ll either love you and want to spend time with you or hate you and won’t want you anywhere near them.”

“Whatever.”

“Whatever?!”

“Yes. I don’t like kids anyway. If I could get them to piss off, then fine by me.”

“Will…” Henry sighed. 

“What?”

“So you actually don’t care?!”

“I do!” he lied. 

“Then start acting like it!”

“Fine,” he lied, “but stop acting like you’re my parent.”

---

The days came and went, when one day Evelyn got the day off of work and she dropped off her kids at school. All the kids somewhat knew what was going on, even though Michael tried to explain everything to Elizabeth and Evan in the nicest way he possibly could since they didn’t understand fully. 

She and William were going to have their custody battle that day. When she got to the courthouse, she said a mini prayer that she would be able to see her kids and got out of her car. She ran into William as she was going inside. 

“Fancy seeing you,” he said. 

“Sure,” she replied sarcastically. “But those kids? They’re mine.”

“We’ll see about that,” he said. 

Once they got inside, the battle began right when the clock struck 10. 

“Do you both swear to tell the truth under penalty of jury?” the judge asked. 

“I swear,” they both said as they held up their right hand. 

“I understand that this is a custody battle for your three kids, Michael Terrance Afton, Evan Christopher Afton and Elizabeth Donna Afton?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“Your honor, if I may…” William started. The judge nodded. “I do believe that Evelyn is a threat to the kids.”

What?! Evelyn thought. 

“Why would that be so?”

“She harms them mentally and emotionally, and for this reason I do believe she is a threat.”

“Ms. Schmidt, care to defend yourself?”

“Yes your honor, I do believe William is lying.”

“You both have taken the oath to tell the truth, so I do not believe he is lying.”

“I have never harmed any of my kids. I would never do anything to hurt them!”

“Ms. Schmidt, are you aware that lying in the court of law is punishable by jail time?”

Evelyn looked over at William who smirked evilly as she was shooting daggers at him. 

“Yes your honor.”

“Mr. Afton, where did you hear this information that Ms. Schmidt is mentally and emotionally harming your children?”

“Michael has told me, and I would often find the other kids crying after an encounter with her.”

William and Evelyn seemed to go back and forth for thirty minutes, but then William mentioned that he was more financially able to take care of the kids than Evelyn was. The judge was convinced and finally ruled. 

“I hereby find Evelyn Ann Schmidt a threat to her three kids, and find that they would be safer under custody of their father, William David Afton. Dismissed.”

“What?!” Evelyn said under her breath. 

Once they were both outside, Evelyn punched William in the arm once he was near his car.

“Woah! We’re at a court of law!” he said as he rubbed his arm because it actually kind of hurt. 

“I don’t know what kind of stunt you were trying to pull back there, but we both know those kids would be safer with me!”

William smiled evilly. “Maybe. But now you’re going to have to tell them that they’re staying with me. Not you. Me.”

“I have a right to turn you in!”

“And you realize that lying about such a thing would be enough to get you jail time? So if I were you, I would keep my mouth shut.”

“You were the one lying! If anything you should be getting jail time!”

“Over the years, I found I could be very persuasive. So, it probably won’t work since they were stupid enough to believe me.”

“Why do you even want them anyway?! I thought you hated kids!”

“I do, but once they grow older, I was hoping they’d learn a thing or two from me. But for now, I’m just going to have to deal with them until they grow older.”

“We could’ve still split the custody then! Why did you have to take them from me, their mother?!”

“I wouldn’t want them to tell you anything then since it’s, how do I put this, top secret. I couldn’t risk it.”

“And why would you be afraid of that?! I’m still their mother, I wouldn’t say anything!”

“I just said it’s top secret. No one else can know.”

“And what’s so ‘top secret’ that you had to hide from everyone?!”

“Let’s just say I’ve been doing a little…experimenting recently.”

“Experimenting?! With what?!”

“Oh Evelyn, I can’t tell you that. Like I said, it’s top secret. Unless, of course, I can tell you, but then I’d have to kill you in case you tell anyone.”

“Please! You wouldn’t!”

“You really think so?”

Evelyn saw the look in his eyes that told her he wasn’t kidding, like he was the predator and she was the prey. His ice cold glare locked on her, which looked even more frightening as his back was towards the sun and his eyes were in his shadow. “Would you?” she asked. William just smirked evilly and she had a look of fear in her eyes. 

“So, I expect I should be getting the kids later this evening?” 

Evelyn noticed the monstrous glare he had on her was gone. “I suppose you will. But I’ll be picking them up from school, just to say my final goodbyes to them.”

“Fair enough. See you then princess,” he said smugly and got in his car as Evelyn walked to her car and got inside. 

Once she was inside, she cried for almost ten minutes straight out of both anger and sadness. How could William lie to a judge, then take her kids away from her?! She was probably never going to see them again, and she couldn’t bear the thought of that.

She loved her kids. She cared for them, she gave them whatever they needed, and now that’s all going to go away all because William said he needed them for his ‘experiments’ when they were older?! That didn’t make any sense to Evelyn. 

When Evelyn got back to Heather and Henry’s house, her face was a total mess with her makeup streaming down her face from her tears. 

“Eve, what happened?” Heather asked once she opened the door and let her inside. 

“William won…but he’s taking full custody of them.”

“Are you going to see them ever again?”

“With the way William is…probably not.”

Evelyn broke down again and Heather hugged her. 

“Eve, it’s okay…”

“No, it’s n-not okay! I loved them and he…just took them from me…”

“I’m sure we can work this out.”

“How?!”

“I…I don’t know. Maybe you can see them secretly.”

“Knowing him…that’s never going to work out.”

“There has to be some way you can see them.”

Evelyn suddenly got an idea. “He’ll see. I’ll go back over tonight, and I’ll show him who he’s taking my kids away from.”

Chapter 3

Summary:

Michael witnesses something traumatic that he immediately regrets seeing.

Late that night, William had sent the kids off to bed. They didn’t talk all that much the whole evening because they missed their mother, but they knew they were too young to do anything about it. William was on the couch drinking and watching television after the kids went to bed when he heard a knock at the door. 

Who the hell would be knocking at my door at this hour?! he thought. He turned off the television, set his drink down and he finally got up to answer the door, and who should he find but Evelyn on his front doorstep. “What do you want?” he asked, annoyed. 

“I don’t know who you think you are trying to take my kids away from me, but those kids are mine.”

“Not anymore they aren’t. They’re under my custody now. Not yours, not split custody, mine. If anything now you’re just some single woman with no kids who’s trying to take them away from me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m trying to spend the night alone in peace.” He tried to close the door in her face but she was strong enough to keep it open. Evelyn eventually lost her temper, pushed the door  open and it hit William in the face. It was then William realized she was way stronger than he initially thought. “Jesus Christ woman! What the bloody hell was that for?!” he shouted at her as he put a hand on the left side of his face.

“For lying to get the kids,” she said as she went inside and shut the door behind her.

“So it’s those mama bear instincts, innit?”

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear another word from you until you agree to give me custody of my kids, because we both know they would be a lot safer with me than you and admit you lied to the judge.”

“Hah! In your dreams! I told you, I need them to follow in my footsteps, and they can’t do that in your custody.”

She got so fed up with William refusing to admit that he is a liar and slapped him as hard as she could, which William had to admit, actually kind of hurt. “You only said you wanted them for your stupid little science experiments! What the hell could possibly be so important that you decided to tear them away from me, the one who had to go through the pain to give birth to them?!” she shouted.

“If I told you, I said that I’d probably kill you.”

“Please! You wouldn’t!”

“You really think so?”

“I know so!”

“Alright then. Follow me,” he went into the kitchen where he was sure no one would see him and Evelyn followed him, thinking that he only wanted to tell her secretly. “One question, why would you agree to such a thing like this if you knew I was being serious?”

“You have to be lying. Again.”

“And if I wasn’t?”

“You wouldn’t actually do something like that. Murder is illegal, and you don’t seem like the type of guy to do that. Plus blatantly lying to people happens to be your specialty.”

“What if, hypothetically, I did do it?”

“Then…I don’t know.”

William smiled. “Perfect,” he said. He took the kitchen knife and held it intertwined within his fingers. He grabbed her shoulders and slammed her back against the wall, and he held onto her shoulders so tightly she couldn’t escape his grasp. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with,” he whispered and tears of fear filled her eyes. 

“Then…what did you want with them? Why did you want them?!” she asked. 

“Like you said, my stupid little science experiments. And, as promised, those stupid little science experiments can be a scientific breakthrough and the secret to human life.”

“That doesn’t tell me why you need to kill me.”

“Well, let’s just say…I needed a test subject,” he said as he tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. 

“Fuck you,” she replied. He chuckled softly. 

“Can I tell you something?”

“What?”

“You know your ‘dear old dad’ who mysteriously died because of suicide all those years ago?”

“Yes?”

“Well, let’s just say…” he got closer to her ear, almost resting his head on her shoulder and whispered almost inaudibly, “I was the one who killed that son of a bitch.” 

Evelyn’s eyes suddenly got wider with fear. William gripped the knife firmly and mustered up all his strength to pierce through the skin on her chest. William lifted his head away as she was crying and blood was starting to gush out around the knife. 

“Good night princess,” he said and he took the knife out and she fell to the floor. She went through several minutes of agonizing pain until William saw her body go limp. He kicked her to make sure she was lifeless, put her body in a garbage bag he had and threw it in the back of his car. Even though she was dead, he actually did still need her for his ‘stupid little science experiments’. 

He then went back inside to throw out his shirt and clean up the excess blood in the kitchen. When he finally cleaned up the mess after what seemed like hours and there was no trace of her blood anywhere, he went upstairs to throw out his shirt and get a new one. 

Little did he know, Michael was at the top of the stairs, silently watching. No one else was there, it was just him since Evan and Elizabeth were asleep. But Michael, however, couldn’t sleep since he had a horrible stomach ache, a terrible feeling that something bad was going to happen that night and had suddenly gotten chills (like he’s seen in movies when there was a ghost around) before he went out of his room. He watched as his father murdered his mother, horrified as tears filled his eyes. He kept his own mouth covered in fear he might scream and his father might do something horrible to him. He ran to his room before William saw him and locked the door. 

He heard his father’s threatening, evenly spaced footsteps passing as he sat silently in a corner until he couldn’t hear them anymore, and then cried silently as any frightened eleven (almost twelve) year old would do. He cried harder than he has in years, or ever for that matter. His mother was gone, because of his father. Who could he tell that would actually believe him? He couldn’t tell his siblings, they were too young to understand. He couldn’t tell Henry or Heather, they’ve known him too long to believe that sort of thing. He couldn’t tell his mother’s family, they lived too far away. He couldn’t tell the police, who’d believe an eleven year old?! If anything, people would probably brush it off as ‘oh, he’s making up stories again like he always does’ or compare him to ‘The Boy who Cried Wolf’.

He couldn’t tell anyone who could do anything about what he just saw, he felt like he was trapped. There was no one for him to turn to. All he could do was cry his eyes out. 

To make matters worse, there was school the next day.

---

“Come on! Why won’t this work?!” William said angrily to himself later that night. He was alone in an underground facility no one knew about since he couldn’t risk his three kids finding their dead mother next to him. He was working for many hours when finally, he extracted a strange, purple kind of liquid that emitted a very dim light he liked to call ‘remnant’. It was only a little bit, way less than he thought, but that was all that he could get (even though he tried to extract more until the sun came peering over the hills). 

He has tried to extract the remnant on animals when he first found out about this strange substance, although he was sure he’d seen this substance somewhere else before. Most of them were failed attempts, but if his acting days in high school taught him anything, it was to try again until you achieve. He has finally succeeded after many attempts but it was still risky to inject it into himself. He needed to test it on something else, something non-living. 

William has been creating something. More animatronics, but without the help of Henry. He had asked, but Henry refused. He said  ‘it'd be a lot to handle’ or ‘I’m a father to twins now’ (which seemed as though he used it as an excuse for almost everything nowadays). So William has decided to make his own separate company (along with running Fredbear’s) called Afton Robotics LLC. 

He had been working on these new animatronics for over two years and had finally finished two of them, with the help of several other mechanics that he had hired.

He had decided to make animatronics based on the Afton family, since the place was called Afton Robotics after all. So far, he had only gotten a fox, which he based off Michael because his friends had recently given him a fox mask that Michael used constantly to scare Evan, and a ballerina animatronic based off Evelyn since she loved ballet which he thought would be a perfect vessel for her. 

He brought the animatronic, which he decided to call Ballora, into a room. A room that is much too dangerous for humans to be in while the machine inside was active, but since it was powered off it was completely safe. The machine of William’s invention was strong enough to completely tear through skin, and he told the mechanics that it was to repair the animatronics if they ever broke down. What they didn’t know is that it also doubled as a remnant injector because injecting remnant manually into metal would be a lot of extra work. He called this mechanism the Scalable Creation of Ulterior Presence, or S.C.U.P, or simply as most of the mechanics would call it, the Scooper (since it looked like a giant ice cream scooper). 

He positioned Ballora in front of the Scooper and placed the little bit of remnant he got from Evelyn inside the reservoir. He went out of the room and into the control room for the Scooper and he turned it on, praying that it would work even though he’s not religious in the slightest. He heard the alarm blare four times, just to alert anyone who was in the room to move away since he was instructed to add a safety precaution for something so dangerous. He watched from behind the window the arm of the Scooper extend out with such force and speed that it created sparks when it finally hit Ballora. Almost as quick as it started, it was finished. He pressed a button that allowed him to talk on the loudspeaker in the room while still being able to hear everything. 

“Hello?” he said. All he heard was silence. “Hello?” 

“Hello?” he heard faintly. The voice sounded a bit like Evelyn, but was more faint and monotone. 

It worked. It actually worked, he thought. He cleared his throat. “Do you know who you are?” he asked. He waited for a few seconds. 

“I do not know if you are referring to someone else. I only know that I am Ballora,” he heard. 

“Do you remember even a glimpse of your past life?”

“I can only remember the last name of Afton. I do not know why, I have no connection to the name.”

He wrote down his findings in a brand new journal he had. “Do you remember how you died?” 

“No.”

He wrote down his findings. 

‘Subject 1: Ballora

Previously Evelyn Schmidt 

The remnant was difficult to extract and very little was able to be extracted. 

Subject doesn’t know who she is. She says that she only knows that she’s Ballora. 

She remembers almost nothing. Only remembers my last name but not her own. 

Maybe it has to do with the amount of remnant that I was able to extract. 

Should try on a younger target to see if age has anything to do with it.’

He expected her to not remember a lot, being that he got so little remnant from her. She was almost no use. He went back into the scooping room and took Ballora back to her room which he called Ballora Gallery. Ballora Gallery was a big, empty room with almost nothing but a stage. All Ballora could do to move around her room was to dance or crawl around on all fours. Her crawling made her look like a spider, which William hated and he kind of regretted that design, but it was too late now. 

He went back to the room where Evelyn’s body still was and stuffed her back inside the garbage bag. He had chosen a garbage bag on purpose for the disposal, and took it back to the surface to his car. He drove to an alleyway of a restaurant across town that looked almost abandoned and dumped the garbage bag in their dumpster. No one saw him as it was still very early in the morning and he drove away back to his house across town. 

---

Michael was still in his bed but too scared to fall asleep. He knew he was tired, but he couldn’t fall asleep after what he saw; he kept replaying it in his head every time he closed his eyes. He heard his father walk into the house, heard his footsteps go to his own room and the lights turned off. His father had gone to sleep, like he didn’t actually care that he had just killed his ex wife or that he killed his kids’ mother. He didn’t care that he killed a daughter or a sister or that he killed a friend. 

Michael felt another wave of tears coming on and sobbed until his alarm said 6:00 am. He finally felt himself fall asleep for what seemed like ten minutes and his alarm went off. “Shit,” he whispered to himself and turned the alarm off. He got up groggily and looked in his closet for something to wear for school since he was sure he wouldn’t be able to skip today. He found a black sweatshirt and jeans to wear since it was windy outside that day, and once he got to the kitchen table his siblings were already there.

“Hi Mikey!” Evan said. 

“Mikey! Are you okay?” Elizabeth asked as she noticed dark circles under his eyes. 

“Uh…yeah. Just tired,” Michael replied as he got himself some cereal. His siblings brushed it off since it was a school day and continued eating their breakfast. Once they all finished their breakfast, they heard Henry honk his horn letting them know he was there to drive them to school. 

“Hello guys!” Henry said once they all got inside and he started driving.

“Morning Uncle Henry,” they all replied. 

“Is father coming later or something?” Michael asked. 

“No. He called in earlier today. Said he felt like he was coming down with something.” Typical of William to lie, just like Evelyn said. Michael knew he wasn’t sick, but since he got back late he probably wanted to just sleep. “Mike, are you okay? Usually you’re a lot more talkative than this,” Henry asked after several minutes as Michael jolted awake after falling half asleep looking out the car window. 

“Uh-” he started. 

“He says he’s tired,” Elizabeth interjected. 

“Yeah…what Liz said.” 

When Henry dropped Michael off at his school, he found his best friend, Jeremy Fitzgerald waiting for him. Jeremy’s face lit up when he saw Michael since they had been friends since early elementary school and have been glued at the hip ever since. 

“Mike!” Jeremy called out to Michael happily. Michael smiled as he ran over to Jeremy. 

“Where are the other two?” Michael asked once he got to him. 

“I dunno. Haven’t seen ‘em.” Michael stayed silent as he looked for them and Jeremy noticed dark circles under Michael’s eyes. “Mike, are you okay? You look tired.”

“Uh…yeah. I didn’t get much sleep. If I’m lucky, I’ll sleep in class.”

“Doubtful. Ms. P probably won’t allow it.”

“Yeah, but that’s only for, what, an hour? The others wouldn’t give a shit.”

“Got me there.”

“I see them! Rich! Nick! Over here!” Michael called out to his two other friends, Richard and Nicolas. 

Richard and Nicolas were brothers and they always stayed glued at the hip, but they were the two most malicious bullies in the entire school. Everyone in the school knew to stay away from Richard and Nicolas unless they wanted the taunting of their life.

Michael and Jeremy had met them only the year prior, but Richard and Nicolas had only become friends with them because of Michael’s features to scare other kids in a fight, but they had started dragging them along to bully their peers with them. They wanted Michael along with them because he had a history of taunting his brother and thought he could do the same to other kids, and he was very muscular which could help them scare people in a fight. Jeremy just tagged along, trying his best to be a bully so that he and Michael wouldn’t separate. 

Jeremy wasn’t the same as Michael. He wasn’t muscular like him, he was very skinny with almost no visible muscles on his arms (which he was a little self conscious about, but Michael helped assure him that he’ll get there someday) and he had no idea what he was doing half the time. Michael, on the other hand, didn’t really want to bully other kids he didn’t know, but thought it was the only way to get his father to think better of him. 

Richard and Nicolas went over to them. “Hey guys!” they said together as they greeted each other. 

“So Mike, still making your brother cry?” Richard asked. 

“Can you blame me?”

“Fair. I mean if my brother was like that-”

“You’re talking about the big crybaby?” Nicolas interrupted. 

“Yes.”

“He’s annoying as hell!”

“Well, he’s only six,” Jeremy muttered. 

“Defending him, Fitzgerald?” Richard said. 

“N-no! I’m just saying he’s only six, so it makes sense why he’s a bother.”

“You have a point.”

Just then the bell rang. “We should probably get going,” Michael said. 

“Catch you two later!” Richard said as they went separate ways, but Michael and Nicolas had the same first class so they walked together. As they walked, Michael was tired from getting almost no sleep the previous night and let out a yawn. 

“Is wittle Mikey tiwed?” Nicolas teased. 

“Shut up! I got almost no sleep.”

“Bet you’re gonna sleep in class.”

“Hopefully. That class is so boring.”

“Can’t blame ya. I sleep in that class almost every day.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“You noticed?!”

“When you sit in the back, you see everything.”

“Damn you.”

Michael laughed as they went into the classroom. 

---

At the end of class as everyone else was packing up their things, Michael felt Nicolas trying to shake him awake as he was told to by his teacher. “Hey wittle Mikey,” he said teasingly as he shook him by the shoulders. 

“Just five more minutes,” Michael said sleepily. 

“You actually slept back here?! You never sleep in class!”

“Things change.”

“Well, the bell's ‘bout to ring so I think now's a good time to start packing up.”

“Wow, thanks Sherlock,” Michael started packing up his things when he felt Nicolas hit him on the back of the head. “Ow! What the bloody hell was that for?!”

“To make sure you’re awake.”

“I’m no genius but I think it worked.”

“Glad I could be of service. And hey, can I tell ya something?”

“What?”

Nicolas bent down so he was able to whisper to Michael. 

“You see that group of girls over there?” Nicolas whispered. 

“Yeah.”

“I think one of them likes you.”

“Me?! No way. I don’t even know them.”

“I’m telling ya dude! She keeps staring at you!”

“That can just be because she’s looking at me or something.”

“No, I don’t think it is. She’s doing it on purpose. Even today as you were sleeping, she kept staring at you!”

“Uh…” Michael didn’t know how to handle this kind of information. 

“Whaddya gonna say if she finally comes clean about it?”

“I’m gonna say I don’t like her like that and go about my day.”

“Seriously?! You’re gonna turn her down?!”

“Yes…because I don’t like her.”

“Why man?! She’s actually kinda cute.”

“…because I don’t like her. I just went over this.”

“Then who do you like?”

“I dunno. Haven’t really thought about it.”

Just then the bell rang and Michael was thankful to get out of that conversation. 

---

At lunchtime, all the boys were sitting outside like they usually did. 

“I couldn’t find anyone to steal lunch money from today,” Nicolas said as he sat back down. 

“Not even a couple dollars?” Richard asked. 

“Nope.”

“A dollar?” Michael asked. 

“Nuh-uh.”

“A few cents?” Jeremy asked. 

“Actually, I found four pennies on the ground,” He said as he took them out of his pocket and put them on the table. All four boys took one because one cent was better than nothing. 

“Hey Mike, there she is. D’you think she’s gonna confess?” Nicolas asked, bringing up the topic again. Michael rolled his eyes. 

“Wait, what?” Jeremy asked. 

“This girl in our first class has a crush on Mike.”

“He’s being annoying about it too,” Michael said to Jeremy and Nicolas lightly punched Michael’s arm. 

“Ooh! What are ya gonna say to her Mike?” Richard asked. 

“What I told Nick before. I don’t like her like that,” Michael said, slightly annoyed. 

“C’mon Mike! Why would you let a cute girl like her down?” Nicolas asked. 

“I dunno. Have you ever thought that it was because I don’t like her? She looks cool as a friend, but I couldn’t see myself getting together with her. Plus, I don’t even know her!”

Michael looked over at the friend group Nicolas pointed out and saw the group of girls giggling and whispering to each other around the girl who was in his first period class, who he assumed liked him. He looked away since he couldn’t deal with that since he was still trying to forget about what he saw his father do the previous night. He was snapped out of his trance when he felt Jeremy tap him on the arm and he looked up. 

“She’s coming over,” he whispered. 

“Shit, really?!” Michael said as he turned around. Jeremy was right. 

“Um, hi! I’m Amy!” she said as she got over to their table.  

“I’m Michael,” he replied. 

“I just wanted to get something off my chest. First off, you’re really cute! Second off, I think I…like you.”

Nicolas was right. Michael heard the girls giggling behind him. Michael could feel Richard, Nicolas and Jeremy watching him, waiting for his response. 

“Uh…” Michael trailed off. 

“It’s okay if you don’t like me back. I just wanted to tell you.”

“No, it’s fine. But uh…I don’t think I like you like that. Sorry.” 

“Oh. Okay, um, bye I guess!” Amy said and she walked away. 

“Well that was easy,” Michael said. 

“How could you actually let her down man?!” Nicolas said. 

“I said I would.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you’d actually let a cute girl like her down!”

“If you like her so much, go tell her you like her.”

“No!”

“So don’t complain to me.”

“Stop pressuring me to go tell her!”

“Then you should shut up about this topic. I already told you what I would say and I’m a man of my word.”

Nicolas crossed his arms and thankfully Jeremy changed the subject to if they believe pineapple should be on pizza. 

---

Later that day, Henry picked Michael up from school before his siblings since they were in elementary school. 

“How was it today?” Henry asked when Michael got inside and Henry started driving. 

“It was fine. Except I found out someone likes me.”

“Oh? Who?”

“A girl.”

“Well, what happened?”

“She confessed to me today but I turned her down since I don’t like her like that.”

“If you didn’t like her, then that’s the only thing you can do, right?”

“Yeah. Although Nick kept pushing me to say that I like her when I don’t even know her that well. Plus, I never saw myself ever getting together with her.”

“Then just tell him to not bring up the subject anymore.”

“I did. I told him to shut up.”

Henry softly chuckled.  

“Um, can I tell you something?” Henry asked monotony. 

“Uh…yeah?” Michael said, confused. Usually Henry was bright and bubbly. They pulled into the elementary school parking lot while they waited for Evan and Elizabeth to get out of school. 

“I didn’t wanna tell your siblings because they’re so young and I didn’t wanna scare them, but thought you could handle it. I found out today that…your mother’s dead.”

Michael had to pretend like he didn’t already know. “Mum’s…dead?”

“She was murdered, I guess last night,” he replied. Even though Michael witnessed his mother being murdered, he was still upset. He was upset that he couldn’t do anything since he was young in fear his father might do something horrible to him. He was upset that he couldn’t tell Henry that William did it since Henry would never believe him. He felt tears building up in his eyes and tried to wipe them away quickly. “Hey, it’s okay to cry. You don’t always have to pretend to be big and strong.” 

“You noticed?”

“Of course I did. I’m your Uncle Henry. But, it’s gonna be okay. I’m still right here.”

Michael smiled and hugged him as he tried to stop himself from crying into Henry’s shoulder. Henry felt himself tearing up as well as Michael was hugging him, being that Evelyn was his friend. At Henry’s house, Heather was losing it because she had just lost her sister who had been there for her for her whole life. 

Michael stopped hugging Henry after a while. “Who’s gonna tell them?” he asked. 

“I don’t know. I was hoping maybe your father.”

“That wouldn’t really work. I don’t  think he’d care about the aftermath, then I’ll have to take care of them.”

“You’re right. I guess I’ll have to tell them.”

They heard the school bell ring and kids started coming out the doors. “Get ready for another round of tears from them,” Michael joked and he saw Henry smile.

Michael and Henry got out of the car and went to the sidewalk to wait for Evan and Elizabeth. When they finally saw them, Evan and Elizabeth ran up to each of them and hugged them, which left Michael embarrassed but Henry could care less. They all walked back to the car together and drove off to their house. 

“Hey kids, can I talk to you for a minute?” Henry asked and Evan and Elizabeth both nodded. “It’s uh…it’s about your mother.” 

Here we go. Bring on the tears, Michael thought. 

“What happened?” Evan asked. 

“Is she okay?” Elizabeth asked. 

“The short answer is no, she’s not okay.”

“What happened?!”

“Uh…” Henry started. He didn’t know how to word it to two young kids. “Mike, help me out here!” he whispered. Michael nodded. 

“She’s dead, idiots.”

Henry rolled his eyes and sighed as he continued driving. They were both quiet in the backseat for a while. “M…mum’s dead?” Evan said in the back, his voice breaking. 

“Yes. I just learned today,” Henry said. 

“She’s not alive anymore?” Elizabeth asked, tears in her eyes. 

“No, she’s not alive.”

“N-no!” Evan said as he and Elizabeth cried. 

“Told ya,” Michael said to Henry as they pulled into their driveway. 

“At least we got it over with now. I know Will hates crying children.”

“Well, so do I!”

“Yeah, but you’re a little more tolerant than him.”

“You have a point.” Michael and Henry got out to comfort the kids in the backseat. Henry picked up Elizabeth as she cried into his shoulder and he tried to calm her down. Michael tried his best to calm down Evan, or rather stop him from crying. “Ev, it’s okay.” 

“No! It’s not okay!”

“She’s dead, what’s done is done. We can’t do anything about it.”

“But…she was still our mum!”

“I know…and it hurts me too, but we can’t do anything about it,” he said. Evan continued sobbing. Michael knew how tough it was to get him to stop crying, but he knew he had to get him to stop sobbing somehow. “If you stop crying, I won’t bring out the mask for the rest of the night,” Michael said, slightly annoyed but Evan calmed down since he hated Michael’s fox mask. “Better?” Michael asked and Evan nodded as he got out of the car. 

“How did you get him to calm down so quickly?” Henry asked as Elizabeth was still crying in his arms. 

“I uh, I have my ways,” Michael went over to Henry as Evan followed him. 

“If you stop crying, I’ll give you ice cream before dinner,” Michael whispered to her.

“Really?” she asked. 

“Really.”

She smiled slightly and stopped crying as Henry carried her to the front door and knocked. “Really Mike? That’s how you get them? Bribing?” Henry whispered to him. 

“What, is there something wrong with that?”

Henry thought about it. “In most cases, yes. But this time I’ll let it slide.”

Michael smiled and the door opened right then. “Hey Hen! Thanks for bringing them.” William said as they went inside. 

“I had to leave work a little early, but since you said you were feeling sick and grieving for your wife I made arrangements. By the way, are you gonna be at work tomorrow?”

“Yes, I’m feeling better. Must’ve been a bug going around.”

“And I see you got a new car. A pretty nice one too.”

“I had the money so I thought, ‘why not?’”

“Is…is this your way of coping?”

“Uh…yes,” William lied. He really only wanted the car so he could get rid of the rotting dead body smell that was left over. “How’s Heather handling it?”

“She’s a little shaken up right now since we got the news of Evelyn, but other than that she’s fine from what I can tell. But she said having the twins around was a great help.”

Of course they were, William thought. 

---

Later that evening, William noticed that Michael was a lot quieter than usual and seemed more distraught around him than he usually was. He knew they all knew about their mother, but Evan and Elizabeth were acting somewhat normal, maybe still shaken up but they were talking unlike Michael. 

“Kids, go upstairs,” William told them and they all got up and went to the stairs. “Not you Michael. I need to talk to you.”

Michael gulped. He didn’t know what he did so he had no idea what his father wanted. “Ooh!” both of his siblings harmonized. 

“Shut up!” he whispered to them.

“What did you do?” Elizabeth asked. 

“I don’t know! But don’t go spying on us either!”

“Or what?” Evan asked. 

“Or…I’ll bring out the mask,” He turned to Elizabeth. “And I’ll hide the ice cream!”

“Hey! That’s not fair!” Elizabeth said. 

“Then don’t spy on us then I won’t have to hide it.”

“But you said you wouldn’t bring out the mask,” Evan said. 

“I can,” he said threateningly. Evan looked petrified and ran up the stairs and Elizabeth followed him. That was easy, he thought.

“Michael,” William said sternly. Michael forgot he was there and he walked glumly over to his father. 

“Yes?” he said softly. 

“Do you know what you did?” Michael shook his head. “Last night? Don’t even think for a second I didn’t see you!” William lightly pushed Michael by his shoulders, emphasizing the fact that he had seen him.

Michael widened his eyes. He didn’t think anyone saw him. “I’m sorry,” Michael said softly. 

“Do you know the severity of what you’ve done?! What could’ve happened?!”

“No.”

“Did you tell anyone?”

“N-no.”

“Good. Keep it that way.” He squatted down to Michael’s height and grabbed his shoulders. “Or you’d be lucky to ever see your family again,” William added on and let go of him as he stood up. Michael stayed silent, afraid to even speak and William took a cigarette out of his pocket and went outside, leaving Michael alone in the room. So Michael did what any scared little kid would do, and he ran upstairs to his room and cried out of fear. 

Chapter 4

Summary:

An accident with the springlocks…

CW: hospitalization

Some time went by and William was angry. He wanted things to go back to the way they used to be before kids, even before Heather and Evelyn, when it was he and Henry against the world. William thought, was the type to take out  his anger physically and he could only take his frustration out on his kids. He would yell at them aggressively whenever they ticked him off even slightly, or sometimes even resort to smacking them on the back of the head, and afterwards he would ignore them for a few hours while he would smoke in the backyard. 

Elizabeth however, would know that something was wrong with her father. She would often try to draw pictures for him, but he’d usually blow them off by saying ‘that's nice Liz’ without hesitation. She had to admit, she was upset since all she wanted was her father’s attention for once, but didn’t want to say anything to him in fear that she’d get on her father’s bad side. 

Michael was different from Elizabeth. He did in fact notice there was something wrong with his father, but since he rarely got attention as it is, he took the opportunity off next to no attention and used it to scare and bully Evan almost constantly. He would use a fox mask often and hide behind or under wherever he could fit, which included behind the television and under Evan’s bed. Every time Michael would scare Evan, he would cry and Michael would laugh at him and call him names for it. 

Michael would often hang around his friends, which Evan made the mistake of going by most of the time. They would scare him or prank him in any way they could, from slamming doors in his face to pouring ice cold water on him to just outright scaring him. Every time they scared him, pranked him or just bullied him, they would all wear their masks which Evan hated. Their masks would scare him even more and they would all laugh in his face when he cried and would call him names. 

It was a living hell for Evan.

Evan would cling to his father almost every time he saw them since he knew they wouldn’t get him while his father was around (all of them didn’t like Michael’s father being that he would get ticked off easily). William never wanted Evan clinging to him and tried to ignore him, and William saw Evan as weak being that he couldn’t handle Michael and his friends by himself and needed him to, but it gave William an idea for a new animatronic. 

William eventually got so fed up with Michael scaring Evan all the time that William made a plush for Evan with a built-in camera and speaker so he could spy on Evan from his office in the basement, which no one else was allowed in. When William would speak to Evan through the plush, he would have to make his voice higher and try his best attempt at an American accent. 

One day, Evan went into Elizabeth’s room, partially to see what she was doing and partially to get away from Michael since their father was in the basement for what seemed like the hundredth time that week. 

“Hey Liz!” Evan said. 

“Oh! Hey Ev!”

“What are you doing?” he asked as he sat next to her and sat the Fredbear plush in front of him. 

“Making a drawing! Isn’t it pretty?” she asked as she held up the drawing. 

“Another one? You know he doesn’t really look at those.”

“I know, but I still wanted to make one!”

“What is it anyway?”

“A clown! I’m not like Mike and I don’t think clowns are scary! They’re cool!”

Evan held up the drawing. “It looks sort of like you,” he said as he gave her the drawing back. 

“You think so?” 

“Sort of.”

Elizabeth gasped in excitement. She wanted something to look like her so her father might pay attention to it a little more. “Wanna help me finish it?” Elizabeth asked and Evan nodded. Elizabeth gave Evan some crayons to start coloring while she worked on the rest of the drawing. That’s when Michael burst through the door. 

“Boo!” he said while wearing his fox mask. Evan jumped back in fright but held back his tears since Elizabeth was there with him. 

“Mike, stop,” Elizabeth said. 

Michael ignored her and went up to Evan as he pushed his mask up. “Aw, the little crybaby won’t cry. What a shame.”

“I am not a crybaby.” 

“You are too! Have you ever met yourself?!”

“Stop calling him a crybaby. It’s not nice,” Elizabeth said. 

“Shut up! I’ll call him a crybaby if I want.”

Michael saw Evan’s Fredbear plush which fell down on the floor when he jumped back and picked it up as Evan reached for it. “Give it back!” Evan exclaimed.

“Why do you still use this thing? This is for little crybabies! I thought you said you weren’t one!”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Why? Stop speaking the truth?”

“Give it!” Michael held the plush above his head and Evan stood up as he tried to reach for it. 

“How about no?”

“Give it back Mike!” Elizabeth said as she stood up as well, defending her brother. 

“No. I thought I told you to shut up already, brat,” Michael said and ran away with the Fredbear plush. Evan and Elizabeth looked at each other and both ran after Michael. 

“Give it back to him!” Elizabeth yelled as Michael ran down the stairs. 

“Nuh-uh! He can come and get it himself!” 

Michael ran to the bottom of the stairs and into the unoccupied living room as he laughed and Evan and Elizabeth chased after him. He looked around and hid behind the television. 

“Michael,” he heard the plush say. 

“What do you want?!”

“Can’t you see Evan wants the plush back?”

“You think I don’t notice?! Of course I do.”

“Give the plush back, they’ll keep looking for it.”

“No. Why should I listen to you? You’re just some stupid stuffed bear!”

“Give it.”

“Or what?!”

“Your father will find out.”

Michael heard Evan and Elizabeth in the room. Shit, he thought. “You’re no fun, you know that?” he whispered. He put his mask over his face and jumped out from behind the television. “Boo!” Evan and Elizabeth jumped back in fright and tears started streaming down Evan’s face as Michael laughed. “Here crybaby,” Michael said as he threw the plush at Evan and took off his mask. Michael went up to his room, taking  the stairs two at a time and started reading a comic book he stole from the library with his friends. 

Down in the basement, William was busy designing a new animatronic for the new pizzeria he was planning. This one was going to represent him and Evan, since he decided to combine two in one. He always saw Evan as dependent on him, but also small and could do next to nothing by himself. But he knew that he wanted to keep up the theme of a bear and a rabbit. 

---

The next day at work, William passed Henry with his family. Henry was smiling and he looked like he was having a great time with his kids and wife who brought them, but especially Charlotte. He hated that he gave them more attention than him, but also that Henry didn’t even notice him when he passed and he had to physically go up to him. 

“Oh! Hey Will!” Henry said when he came into view. Heather smiled at him as he smiled back. 

“Hey, uh, we have to go to the back to get the suits on,” William said awkwardly. 

“Uncle!” both Samuel and Charlotte said together. William just smiled at them. He was trying his best to be nice, but in reality he hated them. 

“Are we scheduled already?” Henry asked and William nodded. Henry put Charlotte down on the chair next to him and got up and both he and William went to the back. 

As they were putting on the suits, Henry noticed William was quieter than usual. “Will? Everything okay?” Henry asked.

“Oh yeah. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“You’re very…quiet. You’ve been quieter ever since the twins were born. Everything okay?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“You don’t sound fine-”

“Hen, I said I’m fucking fine,” William interrupted him, sounding very annoyed. Henry stayed silent, but still concerned for William. He knew that outbursts were a sign that not everything was okay, but William was refusing to answer him. 

“If this is about the twins, just tell me,” Henry said quietly but William stayed silent, refusing to look up at him. “Is it me?”

“It’s…it’s not you.”

“Is something going on with your kids?” William shook his head. “Then what’s going on? We can talk about it.”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

William put the Springbonnie head on and Henry finished with Fredbear. They both went out of the room and did their usual tasks, went on stage and went into the dining area. Henry noticed that William always seemed like a completely different person when he put on Springbonnie, he seemed much more lively than he did out of the suit. Henry wasn’t completely sure why. 

After the hour that they were out, they went back to the back room to take off the suits. As soon as they both went inside, Henry noticed that it was very humid inside, which made sense since it was a very warm day and it has been raining the last couple of days. 

“Will, make sure you take it off quickly. It’s very humid today,” Henry said as he took off the Fredbear head and William nodded. Henry followed his own instructions and took the suit off quickly and cranked the spring locks back up. William, however, took a little longer, he always had a little difficulty taking it off since he had to reach behind him. He took off the Springbonnie head and started to take off the suit, when he suddenly felt a bead of sweat on the back of his neck since it was very humid and warm. 

Oh shit, he thought as he tried to quickly take it off. 

Henry turned back since he always waited for him so they could go back out to the main dining room together, but Henry heard the spring locks snap on William and they tore through his flesh, heard him let out a yell of agonizing pain and saw him fall to the ground. Henry went wide eyed and felt the fear flowing throughout his body.

“Will!” Henry yelled as he ran over to him, but all he could bear to speak was yells of pain every time he moved. Henry grabbed the crank and quickly tried to get the suit off of William, who was now starting to lose consciousness from blood loss and his peripheral vision went black. “Will, stay with me. You’re going to be okay,” Henry said reassuringly, but he had no idea if he should even believe himself. William was trying his best to not lose consciousness as Henry said since he refused to die this way, and Henry noticed two other employees come into the room to check that everything was alright since they heard a lot of noise. 

“Oh my God…” the older of them two trailed off when William came into view. 

“One of you! Come help me take the rest off!” Henry yelled, worried and not caring how loud his voice projected. The older of the two nodded and went to help him. “Go call the paramedics! Hurry!” he told the other. He nodded and ran out the room to the closest telephone and called them. 

Henry and the other employee were quickly taking off the rest of the suit and finally got it off William. When they lifted the chest plate, they saw he was almost covered in his own blood, but Henry still held him with his arm around his shoulders, letting William’s head rest on his arm as he was about to lose consciousness. Henry checked his pulse and felt his heart beating, but slowly. 

“They’re sending an ambulance right away.” The employee said when he came back to the room. Henry nodded. 

“Will…please stay with me. I-I can’t lose you. You’re like a brother to me…just like how Oli was,” Henry said with tears building up in his eyes. William looked up at him and smiled weakly, but right then he lost consciousness and Henry felt his head fall onto his chest. “Will! No, no, no…” Henry said as he worryingly checked his pulse again. His heart was still beating, but a little slower than before.

Henry heard the ambulance sirens outside and the employees went out to guide them to where William was. They came in and loaded him onto the stretcher as they rushed him to the ambulance and he watched them drive off almost in a daze. The front of Henry’s flannel was almost covered in William’s blood, which he knew he had to throw out. It looked like he had committed a murder. 

“What happened?” Heather said behind him. He had forgotten she and his kids were still there. He saw the twins sitting at a booth together where Heather put them as she went to go talk to Henry. 

“William…spring locks…snapped…” Henry managed to get out, but barely since his voice kept breaking. Heather hugged him as he held her tightly and sobbed into her shoulder. 

“Do you think he’ll make it?” Heather asked. 

“I-I don’t know. I hope so…but if he does live I’d be surprised if he can ever walk again.”

“He will make it. I know he will. I mean, the only similarity he and Evelyn had was that they weren’t willing to go down without a fight.”

---

Meanwhile in the ambulance that was rushing to the hospital, William was completely out of consciousness and had a couple of the paramedics doing anything to keep him alive. When they got to the hospital, William was rushed into the emergency room and after a while of being in surgery, (since the spring locks were everywhere but his head) by some miracle his pulse was still there and he was still alive. None of the doctors had a direct reason as to how he was able to survive, to them it was like he was blessed he was able to survive something he should have died from, or something wanted to keep him alive but they had no explanation why whatever it was wanted to keep him alive. 

William was hooked up to a heart rate monitor, had multiple IV’s and he was connected to a breathing tube since he was still having trouble breathing. He was almost covered in gauze to cover up his wounds, still fresh from that morning. 

---

The diner had to close early that day, and Henry was thankful that a few employees closed it up after the one who called the paramedics told the other employees what had happened. Henry went home with Heather, changed into a new flannel and threw the other one out and tried to get some work done, but had a hard time staying focused because he kept having memories of that morning and was worried for William. He kept moving around the room, still very much on edge and kept having flashbacks. He remembered the blood on his hands and William going limp in his arms.

It only made him think about his past, when he and his family found his little brother murdered in an alleyway all those years ago; Henry was the first to go up to him even though he got blood on his hands and he was limp and cold when he touched him. It was so bad that the police had to physically drag Henry and his mother away because they would refuse to leave his side.

Henry has cried and had multiple breakdowns over the hour and Heather had to go and calm him down every so often. Heather looked at the time and saw that it was almost time for school to be let out for the Afton kids. She saw what kind of state Henry was in and offered to pick up them up from school, but Henry assured her he was fine. Henry drove in silence and picked up William’s kids from school, but as they drove to Henry’s house Michael noticed Henry didn’t talk as often as he always did, and this wasn’t the way to his house.

“Uncle Henry? Are you okay?” Michael asked.

Henry let out a deep sigh. “No, I’m not,” he replied. 

“What happened?” Evan chimed in. 

“Your dad…he…got very hurt. He won’t be back for a while.”

“Daddy got hurt?” Elizabeth asked. 

“Yes. Very hurt.”

“Like, how hurt?” Michael asked. 

“I don’t know if he’ll make it out alive kind of hurt.” 

Michael hated his father so it didn’t affect him as much, but he knew he and Henry were close so he understood why Henry was acting the way he was. 

But what he didn’t want to mention to Henry is that he knew something happened. He had suddenly felt very woozy in his math class, exactly when it happened. He didn’t know it had to do with the spring locks, but it was almost like someone or something was telling him something life changing would happen, whether it was in his life or the life of someone he knows. The last time he felt like that was with his mother, but the only difference was that she had died so he had an almost unbearable stomach ache along with the dizziness he felt. 

“So, what’s going to happen?” Michael asked. 

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll just take you guys back to my place, but I don’t know what’ll happen from there.”

“Wouldn't it be very cramped there?”

“Yes, but I don’t know what else to do. I hate that it will be very cramped with you guys there, but I don’t think I have a choice. Will doesn’t have any siblings so you don’t have aunts or uncles on his side and Lord knows his mother wouldn’t be safe for you three, your mother’s brother is living across the country so I guess staying at my place would be the only option.”

“Wouldn’t we all have to share a room then?” Evan asked. 

“That’s the way it’ll have to be. Charlie and Sammy can share a room since they’re only one and a half, but you three will have to, unless you’re fine staying with toddlers.” 

All of them shook their heads. 

---

No one was allowed to see William for weeks due to the bad shape he was in. Henry spent almost every day at home and work, pacing since he got no word from the hospital. He called them what seemed like several times a day, asking for an update on William and every time he got an answer of ‘he’s fine’ or ‘he’s stable’.

He could barely focus on work for weeks and kept having mini breakdowns in his office, worried that his friend wouldn’t make it. When he got home every single day, the twins would always check on him since they knew something was wrong and they would both hug him to try and make him feel better, and Henry would hug his wife tightly every night when they went to bed to give him a sense of security.

William was in fact, somewhat fine. He was just out of consciousness for a couple of weeks and his heart kept beating irregularly or completely stopped for a few seconds. The doctors and nurses finally got his heart to keep beating somewhat regularly as it neared the end of the week and allowed visitors into his room. Henry, of course, was the first one to visit William since he was able to talk his way into it after an hour.

No one but families were allowed in, and Henry said the only family he had around the area were his kids and William was like a brother to him. He had eventually convinced the hospital staff to let him see William with his own eyes, but he could only visit him for a limited amount of time every day. Henry didn’t mind, he at least got to see William and knew he needed rest. 

That first day Henry went to visit him, the nurse led him to William’s room where Henry found him unconscious in one of the hospital beds. Bandages were wrapped around him almost everywhere but his head and he was connected to a breathing tube and had many other tubes were connected to him that Henry didn’t know what they were for. William was connected to a heart rate monitor that showed his heart was beating and to Henry’s reassurance, he was alive. 

Henry sat down next to William’s bedside as he worriedly checked the monitor and back at him several times.  “I don’t know if you can hear me right now, but I’m so happy you survived. The doctors said that they didn’t know if you’d make it, but here you are,” Henry said with tears building up in his eyes. William was still out so there was no response. 

It was strange to Henry, it was like he was talking to a brick wall. But he knew William was there, but he didn’t even know if he could hear him. Henry sat next to William for what seemed like hours, being grateful that he still had his best friend in his life. That’s when he saw William’s fingers move slightly, but weakly. Henry was surprised and gasped slightly.

“Will? Are you there?” Henry asked. He saw William try his best to open his eyes, which wasn’t much, and saw Henry for the first time in what William’s mind seemed like years. His eyes looked like he was tired even though he had just woken up for the first time in weeks. “Will! Oh my God!” he said through his voice breaking as he wiped the tears building up in his eyes. “I was afraid you’d never wake up again. I didn’t wanna lose you.”

William tried to smile slightly, but could only get out a weak, barely noticeable smile, which told Henry that his muscles were very weak. William was happy that the attention from Henry was focused on him and not Charlotte and Samuel. Although it wasn’t in his best state, he was still happy. 

He then tried to move his eyes slowly to look around since that was all he could do, and saw that he was connected to many machines that he didn’t know what they did and a heart rate monitor. He looked down at himself and saw that he was covered in gauze from his neck down. 

“Do you remember what happened at all?” Henry asked a few minutes later and William looked back at him. William looked at himself and back at Henry as if to say ‘yes’ since he couldn’t move his head. “I thought it would have been so traumatic that maybe you tried to forget. I know I keep saying it, but I’m so happy you survived, even more than I can put into words.

“Well uh, I guess I should update you since you’ve been out for a couple weeks. First off, your kids, they’re completely fine. Although they had to stay over at my place which they weren’t too happy about. We’re all a little cramped in there since there are five kids in my three bedroom house, but we manage. All three of your kids have to share one room, which they hate but no one wants to share with two toddlers. Mike has even chosen to even sleep on the couch sometimes.”

He had to admit, he found it a little humorous that he expected Michael to choose something like that in this situation. ‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’ as they say.

“All three of your kids and Charlie have been getting along extremely well despite the age difference. Sammy’s one of the quieter ones though, as he always is.” William didn’t look like it, but he was listening to every word Henry said. “Uh, at work it’s been going well. Although, it is pretty strange to not have you there. To be honest, I kinda miss seeing you when I get to work every day.”

William smiled weakly even though it hurt. 

“Unfortunately, we had to put Springbonnie out of service for a while after your accident. We couldn’t risk it.” William went slightly wide-eyed from worry and didn’t care that it hurt. “Don’t worry! Bonnie’s only out for repairs and maintenance. And to see if there’s extra cleaning needed. It’ll be back when you get back to work.”

William relaxed his face. 

“I think that since you’re awake, the nurses will try to get you moving.” William looked away as if he was disappointed. “Look, I know it sucks, but you have to get moving again.” William knew, but he hated having to relearn everything just because of the spring locks at work. “Don’t you wanna be able to talk to me again?” Henry asked. William looked back at Henry as if to say ‘yes’. 

Henry talked to William for a while, telling him about work, both of their kids, or random things that popped in his head that made William smile. William got tired halfway through, but forced himself to stay awake because Henry was there. After the hour was up, the nurse told him that his time to visit for the day was up and Henry said his goodbyes to William and left. 

Henry drove home since Heather went to go pick up the kids from school, but he was happy. Happy that his friend had survived something he should’ve died from. It was nothing short of a miracle, or like the doctors told him, something wanted to keep him alive.  

---

Henry went to visit William almost every day talking about work, how his kids are doing, or random things or funny things he saw that made William smile. He didn’t want to start bringing the kids yet since he seemed happier when it was just them two, which he definitely was. William was also too weak to speak to any of them yet so it would be difficult for the little ones. 

Several months later of rehabilitation therapies as well as visits from Henry and occasionally the kids as well, William was eating solid food again and talking, but it was very raspy like he had a really bad sore throat, which he did. He was able to sit up on his own, but slowly and was able to walk again but with help. He was given a pair of crutches so he didn’t have to rely on anyone, but the only downside is that he hated them because they hurt. 

After that, he was discharged. He was finally out of that room, or what he called his ‘prison cell’, but he couldn’t drive for several weeks until he could properly move his legs again which William wasn’t too happy about because he loved his car. Henry was the one who drove him home and William was finally able to see his house again after all these months. 

“Well Will, ready to go?” Henry asked as they both got in his car. 

“Yes. I’m ready to never see this damn place again,” William replied. Henry snickered as he drove away. 

“We have to go to my house to pick up the kids first. They’ll be happy to have their own rooms again.”

“Right. I have kids.”

“Yeah, you do. But it’d be nice for me instead of Heather and I raising five kids, the oldest being almost  thirteen and the youngest being two.”

“So you’re worn out I’m guessing?”

“Yep. I haven’t gotten more than five hours of sleep since you’ve been gone,” Henry said as he tried to hold back a yawn. 

“That damn sweat on my neck.”

“That’s what it was this whole time?”

“Yes.”

“So…sweat took you out?”

“In my defense it was very warm in those things.”

“Oh! By the way, Springbonnie is back, but I have to lay you off of it for a while.”

“What?! Why?!”

“I don’t want you getting hurt again. Especially not now since you have to keep the bandages on for a while.”

“You got a point. I just love the damn thing, but you have Fredbear!”

“I do, but I’m laying myself off of it as well. If something happens, I don’t want to leave Heather alone taking care of two kids.”

“I guess you have a point. D’you have a cigarette?”

“Yes, but you can’t have one.”

“Why?!”

“The doctor said you’re not allowed to have them for a while. I already told Mike so if you try anything, he’ll tell me,” William crossed his arms and slumped in the seat for a few minutes until Henry drove into his driveway. “Well, here’s my house. I’ll get the kids and be right back.”

Henry went inside his house and faintly heard all of the kids' voices coming from the top of the stairs since they were all playing with Charlotte’s dolls together. Michael was uninterested though because he was only up there because he was supposed to keep an eye on them while Heather was in another room. Heather came downstairs a few minutes later because she heard the door open. 

“Hey hon!” Henry said as he went up to her and kissed her. 

“Hey! Why are you back so early?” she asked. 

“I was getting Will from the hospital. He’s finally back!”

“That’s great! But, he won’t be able to work for a while will he?”

“I don’t think so. He still needs crutches to get around, and according to him they hurt so he hates them.” Heather giggled. “I’ll get the kids.” Henry went to the bottom of the stairway. “Mike! Ev! Liz! Get your things! We’re leaving!” Henry shouted up to them. Michael came running to the railing and his two younger siblings followed after him.

“We’re finally getting our rooms back?” Evan asked and Henry nodded.

“Yes!” Michael exclaimed and ran back to the room, followed by his two younger siblings. 

“Why’re you so happy? I thought you hated staying at home!” Elizabeth said to Michael. 

“I do, but then I won’t have to share a room with you jerks.”

“Hey!”

Once they got their things, Michael scared Evan with his mask and he came running down the stairs followed by Elizabeth. He walked down behind them, laughing. 

“Mike, stop scaring your brother!” Heather said. 

“Jeez, sorry,” he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice and they both rolled their eyes.

They all got in the car and drove back to the Afton’s house and once they were inside all the kids sprinted up the stairs to their own rooms. “Do you need anything before I leave? Food, or I don’t think you can get up stairs that easily with those, so anything from your room?” Henry asked when they were both inside. 

“I guess so. Those little brats need to eat something. And don’t worry I’ll sleep on the sofa or something.” Henry nodded and went to the kitchen where he just decided on something simple. “By the way, how long before I have to go back to work?” William asked while he was in the kitchen. Henry thought about his answer for a minute. 

“I guess I’ll let you off the hook for another two weeks, three tops. But I’ll still come by everyday since there’s no other adult here.”

William smiled, relieved that Henry still agreed to let him off the hook for a while after he had not been at work for several months already. Henry called the kids downstairs to tell them that food was ready, and they all said their goodbyes to each other and Henry left. 

Henry drove to his house, happy to be in silence. When he got to his house, he found Heather on the couch with Charlotte and Samuel playing with  toys in front of her. He went over to her and kissed her as he slumped down next to her. 

“They’re at their own house?” Heather asked and Henry nodded. “So now we don’t have to raise five kids anymore?” Henry nodded again. 

“I don’t think I can handle any more kids than what we have,” Henry said. 

“So we’re done with kids?”

“Yes. Two’s enough.”

Chapter 5

Summary:

Oh no what happened to Evan?

After some time, William noticed that Henry acted the exact same way he did before. He only paid attention to his kids, but specifically Charlotte. He hated it. He wanted the attention again, just like he did while he still had the bandages on or still had the crutches, which he had gotten rid of already. He went through depressive episodes often, alone in his office or in the bathroom at his house. He hated the feeling of being abandoned by his best friend and couldn’t help being angry at him. 

Henry would play with his children, talk nonsense to them while they talked nonsense back to him, help them with homework or school projects and they would draw him pictures that he loved although they were mostly scribbled up pictures. Along with that, he also paid more attention to William’s kids than him. He would help them with their homework if they needed it, talk to them, or overall treat them the way fathers were supposed to treat children since they never get that treatment from their actual father. When Henry wasn’t with the kids, he was with his wife. William could tell that he truly loved Heather, unlike he did with Evelyn, but now Henry treated him like he was nothing since he made no time for William. He was jealous of all of them. He and Henry have been through it all together since they were eighteen, and now he felt as if Henry left him in the dust. 

William was sitting alone in his office one day (on Evan’s birthday) sorting through paperwork and reviewing the blueprints for the other animatronics for the new location he was planning. He was alone in his office until he heard a knock on the door. 

“It’s open,” he said monotony as he hid the blueprints under random papers on his desk and Henry walked in and closed the door behind him. “What is it this time?” William asked angrily when he noticed him. Henry most often went into William’s office when he wanted him to help clean something. 

“Will, you seem like something’s wrong. D’you wanna talk about it?” he asked as he crossed his arms. 

“You mean you’re not asking me to mop the floor this time?” 

“No. Just tell me what’s wrong. You’re barely talking to me anymore.”

“Have you ever thought it was you who’s not talking to me?!”

“What?”

“You heard me! You don’t care about me anymore! You only care about the damn kids!” William slammed his fist on the desk as he stood up. 

“Will, that’s not true-”

“Yes, it is! Ever since I healed, you don’t pay attention to me anymore! You only care about the kids, even my own!” 

“That’s because they need attention! They need help sometimes and you can’t just brush it off! And it’s even harder with five kids!”

“Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean that you have to give all of your attention to them! Do I not mean anything to you anymore?!”

“Will, are you saying you’re jealous?!” Henry tried to back up slightly as William was now getting in his personal space. 

“Yes! That’s exactly what I’m saying! We’ve been friends since we were eighteen! We’re both thirty seven now, but you don’t care, we've been through it all together! We’ve gone to college together, we’ve gotten together with Heather and Evelyn with each other by our sides, we’ve seen each other get married, we’ve seen each other have kids with our wives! And now you’ve just left me on the side of the road like roadkill!”

“Will, I’m sorry! I guess I didn’t realize you would be jealous of some kids!”

“Well, I am! Just admit it! You don’t care about me!”

“I do! We’ve been by each other’s side for nineteen years, I do care!”

“Rubbish!”

William and Henry kept going back and forth for a while and Michael and his friends watched them from across the restaurant. The door was closed, but they could see through the small window on the door that they were yelling at each other like an old married couple. 

“What d’you think they’re fighting about?” Nicolas asked Michael. 

“Beats me. But they look like my parents before my mum died,” Michael never told them that William was responsible for her death in fear his father might do something horrible to him. He just told them she died because of food poisoning. 

“They look like my parents as well. They’re always yelling at each other,” Jeremy said. 

“Yeah. They both seem pretty pissed off with each other,” Richard added in. 

“Maybe it’s because I see Henry as more of a father than him,” Michael suggested. 

“So he’s not that great I’m guessing?” Jeremy asked. 

“He’s not. He failed as a parent, honestly.” 

All the other boys laughed. “It must suck to have a dad like that,” Nicolas said. 

Michael saw Evan hiding from the corner of his eye under the table, hugging his plush. He didn’t know where Elizabeth went. She was with him a few minutes ago, but he got an idea. He whispered his idea to Nicholas who was right beside him, who passed the message to Jeremy, who had a look of uncertainty on his face but passed the message onto Richard. They all nodded in agreement and put their masks on and they went over to Evan. Michael only wanted to see if he got William’s attention, which he probably wouldn’t anyway. 

As everyone stood up and headed over to Evan, Michael trailed behind and held onto the corner of the table they were sitting at as he suddenly got lightheaded as well as dizzy. He felt sick to his stomach for some odd reason and he pushed his mask up. 

“Hey man, you okay?” Jeremy asked as he pushed up his mask. He had noticed Michael holding onto the table for balance. 

“Uh…yeah. I’m fine,” Michael replied as the feeling went away and he pulled his mask over his face as did Jeremy. “Hey birthday boy!” Michael said when they all squatted down to where Evan was under the table. Evan jumped back in fright from the sight of their masks. 

“Leave me alone,” he said. 

“Why are you down here by yourself? Too much of a baby to go out there?”

“No Mike. Stop calling me that.”

“What? Crybaby?”

“Stop it.”

“You seem like one to me,” Richard said.

“Yeah. You still need that stupid plush all the time,” Nicolas said. 

“He’s nice to me!” Evan said. 

“He’s nice to you? Does he speak to you to make you believe he’s nice?” Jeremy asked, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice as he was trying to make fun of him just as Michael was. 

“He does!”

They all laughed and Michael grabbed the plush and threw it on a separate empty table. 

“No! I need it!” Evan said as he started crying. 

“Aw, crying on your birthday, aren’t you crybaby?” Nicolas said. 

“Stop it!”

They pulled him out from under the table and stood up while Evan seemed to be backing away from the animatronics on stage and tried to get out of Michael’s grip. 

“Aw, are you a scaredy-cat Ev? Scared they’re gonna bite ya?” Nicolas teased and all the boys laughed. 

“No! Stop it! Let me go Mike!” he said while still sobbing. 

“Wow, your brother’s kind of a baby, isn’t he?” Jeremy asked Michael. 

“It’s hilarious. Why don’t we help him get a closer look? He’ll love it!” Michael said. 

“No! Please!” Evan sobbed while still trying to get out of Michael’s grip. 

“C’mon guys! Let’s give this little man a lift! He wants to get up close and personal!” he said as he and his friends lifted him up. Together, their combined strength was strong enough to hold him up where his feet couldn’t reach the ground. 

“Please guys, put me down! I don’t wanna go!” Evan wailed while still struggling. 

“You heard the little man! He wants to get even closer!” All the boys laughed in agreement and they got even closer to the stage. “Hey guys, I think the little man said he wants to give Fredbear a big kiss. On three!” 

“Please, no!” 

The boys ignored him completely. 

“One…two…”

The boys all counted to three and lifted him up and put Evan’s head in Fredbear’s mouth. Evan cried and tried to get out since his head got stuck and all the boys laughed as he struggled. 

That’s when Michael heard the spring locks (they were meant to be open in Fredbear’s jaw to make it move) go off from Evan’s tears and before he could even move, Fredbear’s jaw went down with such force that it crushed Evan’s skull and his blood splattered the boys while Evan went limp in Fredbear’s jaws. All the boys stood in shock like deer in headlights and they all took their masks off in disbelief. Michael felt tears building up in his eyes and felt sick to his stomach, but he didn’t care. 

They all heard people screaming and they started gathering around them as they were careful not to get too close to Fredbear or the bullies. Parents with young children guided them out the door while the older teenagers and other adults gathered around in disbelief. Jeremy, Nicolas and Richard all took a few steps back since they didn’t want to believe they might’ve killed him, but Michael stood paralyzed in shock and prayed to no one in particular that he wasn’t dead. 

“What’s happening out there?” Henry said as he stopped the fight between him and William when he heard screaming. He looked out the window, and it didn’t take long before he saw over the crowd of people, Fredbear with a little boy in his jaws, limp and Fredbear was oozing blood from his mouth. Henry noticed that the little boy was wearing the same striped collared shirt as Evan, the only child who wore that kind of shirt that day. “Shit, I think that’s Evan, Will!” William and Henry quickly followed each other out of the office and pushed their way through the crowd and William saw, it was Evan. 

---

One of the previous days before when the restaurant was closed, William went behind Henry’s back, tinkering with the current spring lock mechanisms that were put in. He knew Henry had retired the suit completely and rigged the spring locks to go back to their original state quicker and a lot stronger than before. He was originally planning to have that suit to catch more victims since he saw what the spring locks could do without any extra tampering. With this instance now happening it seemed as though Fredbear and Springbonnie didn’t have long before they were scrapped. 

---

Henry tried to get everyone in the building further away or completely out so they would stop staring. William saw Michael in front of Fredbear who had refused to go with the rest of the crowd paralyzed in shock with his friends behind him, the only ones covered in blood in shock as well. 

“You. Did you guys do this?!” William yelled angrily at them. 

“I-it was Mike’s idea…” Richard stuttered. 

“Don’t just throw him under the bus like that!” Jeremy snapped at him. “We all agreed to it. We’re sorry Mr. Afton. We didn’t know this would happen,” William glared at all the three boys and went over to Michael and shook him by the shoulders. 

“Michael!” he yelled and Michael got out of his trance. “Why the hell would you think this was okay?!”

“I-I’m sorry!”

“I’m going to need way more than an apology from you!” 

Michael’s eyes filled with tears of fear as he tried to not start bawling for what seemed like the fifth time that day. Henry came running back over after he got everybody else out.

“The paramedics should be here any minute,” Henry said as he went to the back to get the crank and go onstage to try to pry Fredbear’s mouth open. 

“Oh my-what happened to Evan?!” Elizabeth asked.

“Where the hell did you come from?!” Nicolas asked. 

“It’s none of your damn business!” Michael yelled at her. 

“Well maybe I just want to know what happened to my brother!”

“Well maybe you should look with your eyes!”

“Stop fighting! We’re in a serious situation right now!” Henry yelled while he tried to pry the jaws open. He finally got Fredbear’s mouth open and saw that Evan’s head had been split open. “Oh my God…it’s worse than I thought.” Henry whispered to himself and Michael felt tears streaming down his face.

Henry heard the paramedics sirens and them coming in to take Evan on a stretcher to the hospital, and they almost ran to put him in the ambulance since he was in critical condition and sped off. Michael watched them speed off while tears flooded out of his eyes and Henry went to comfort him.

“Mike, look at me,” Henry said calmly and Michael looked at him as he wiped his tears. “It’s going to be okay.” 

“B-but, that was my brother! I might’ve killed him!”

“It was an accident. You didn’t know this would happen.”

“I should’ve been a better brother. Why did I have to be so stupid?!”

“You’re not stupid.”

“Yes I am! I-I came up with the idea and I encouraged them into it and I know how dangerous those things are! I-it’s all my fault!” Michael said as his voice broke and cracked. He hugged Henry and sobbed into his shoulder since he didn’t know who else to turn to. 

“Boys, go clean up yourselves. I’ll handle the rest,” Henry said to the other three as he told William to grab paper towels from the storage closet since Michael wasn’t leaving Henry’s side. All the boys nodded and practically ran to the bathroom. 

“Mike, it’s okay,” Henry said again after William came back and Michael was wiping the blood off of his hands. 

“No, it’s not!”

Henry looked up at William, who was holding Elizabeth as she cried into his shoulder. “Look, maybe you’ll feel a little better if we get away from this mess,” Henry said. Michael nodded and they both followed William out to the front door. 

The boys in the bathroom were busy washing the blood off their faces and hands. Nicolas and Richard were acting as if nothing had just happened, but they were making fun of Michael and how he was crying just like his brother used to. They were calling him names, but Jeremy blocked them out completely as he stood in front of the sink in silence. Every time he looked in the mirror, he saw himself covered in blood even though his face and hands were cleaned off to the best of his ability. He kept remembering what happened and tried to stop tears coming out of his eyes. He was guilty, he saw himself as a murderer. He didn’t even know Evan that well, but he still knew he was most likely dead and it pained him to live with himself knowing that.

Of course, the other two didn’t care. Nicolas and Richard blamed Michael because it was his idea in the first place. They did not see themselves as murderers as Jeremy did, but rather involved in a prank gone wrong. 

The other three boys got out of the bathroom together, cleaned up as best they could when they saw Michael walking outside with Henry. 

“C’mon guys, let’s go see if we could help Mike,” Jeremy said. 

“No way!” Richard scolded. 

“What?! Why not?!”

“Don’t you see the mess he’s made?! He’s a goddamn murderer!” 

“Yeah! It’s all his fault so why should we care?!” Nicolas said. 

“Because he’s still our friend! Don’t you see how traumatized he is or are you two blind?! He needs our help!”

“That’s what therapy’s for! That’s not our job!”

“Whatever. I’m going to be a good friend and comfort Mike, and you two can do whatever the hell you do when you blatantly agreed to do this, so you two are just as guilty as the rest of us!” Jeremy yelled at them as he walked away to Michael. The other boys shrugged and ran out the front door. They only lived about a mile away so they just walked back to their house. 

As Jeremy went towards Michael, he noticed the plush still on the table. He grabbed it and ran back over to Michael. 

“Mike!” he yelled as they were about to go outside. Michael looked back at him and Henry stopped since he was walking with him. “Mike, you’re not alone. I feel just as guilty as you do, even though he’s not my brother and I’ll still be with you every step of the way. I don’t think you’re a monster for this.”

Michael smiled and wiped his tears. “R…really?” he asked softly.

“Yes. You’re not a monster, I know this was just an accident.” He looked at the plush in his hands. “Also…I got this. I found him still on the table, I thought you might still want him,” Jeremy added on as he handed him the Fredbear plush. Michael nearly broke down again as he took it and hugged Jeremy. 

“Thank you,” he said quietly. Jeremy couldn’t help but smile. 

Chapter 6

Summary:

Michael finally realizes a couple of his ‘friends’ are assholes.

Michael, Elizabeth and William all went home that day in silence. Once they got back to their house, Elizabeth sprinted up to her room and sobbed. She was upset about her brother being possibly dead, but she was also angry at Michael. He was being rude to her and yelled at her when she just asked what happened. Maybe he was taking his anger and sadness out on her, but it still hurt. 

Michael and William walked inside, and Michael felt William put his hand on his shoulder. He tensed up. What was his father going to do to him? Extra chores? Ground him? Hit him? Lock him in his room like Michael has done several times to Evan?

“I’m sorry,” Michael said quietly. William said nothing but went around to face him. 

“I’m proud of you Michael,” William said. 

“What?”

“I’m proud of you.”

“Why?! I might’ve killed him! That was an accident!”

William chuckled softly. “You’re following in my footsteps, just like I wanted you to. You really are just like me, aren’t you?” Michael remembered what William did to his mother and froze up again. He didn’t want to become his father. Not in a million years. “So tell me Michael, why did you do it?”

“I-it was an accident. I didn’t mean to.”

“It didn’t look like an accident. You know how dangerous the spring locks are. For example, they almost killed me if Henry wasn’t there.”

“I didn’t think about it. I’m sorry.”

William scoffed at him. “You’re damn lucky that tomorrow’s Sunday. We’ll go see if he’s still alive then,” he said and he walked away as he got a cigarette from his pocket. 

Michael ran up to his room and locked himself in while he threw his mask in the closet. He sat on his bed while hugging the Fredbear plush and cried (as he was still in shock) for the rest of the night. 

---

The next day, they all went to the hospital to see Evan, who was still barely pulling through. Michael hoped that he would still live a full life and he didn’t accidentally kill him, even if he needed help and care from others for the rest of his life. They all were in the room, with William who was standing off to the side with Elizabeth next to him, and Michael was sitting right beside Evan’s bedside. Evan had a breathing tube, several IV’s connected to him that Michael didn’t know what they were all for, and a bandage around his head which was almost soaked through with blood. The doctors had done emergency surgery on him the night previous, but it was still unclear to anyone if he would make it. 

“Can you hear me? I don’t know if you can hear me, but…I’m sorry. I never wanted to hurt you,” Michael said to an unconscious Evan. 

“Do you think he’ll get better at all?” Elizabeth asked Michael. 

“I…I don’t know. I hope so.” 

Michael sat in silence for a while as he kept worryingly checking Evan’s heart rate monitor. After a while of Michael trying not to start sobbing, he got a bad feeling in his gut like something terrible was going to happen, which felt almost like an upset stomach. When Michael looked up at the monitor again he heard the monitor flatline. He looked at it with fear and tears in his eyes as he stepped back, almost falling. 

“No, no, no…” he said shakily and he dropped to his knees. “NO!” he yelled with tears streaming down his face. 

Doctors came rushing in as they tried to do anything to bring back Evan, but whatever they did nothing worked. One of the doctors shook his head to William who nodded. The doctors wheeled Evan out of the room and William picked up Elizabeth as she sobbed into his shoulder. He tried to make Michael stand up, but he refused. 

“Michael! Get up!” William yelled. 

“I killed him! I-it’s all my fault!” Michael yelled through his sniffing. 

“He’s dead!”

“But he was still my brother! I-it was an accident!” 

William tried to pull him up by his arm as he yelled at him and Michael finally stood up after a while. William pulled Michael from his arm out of the hospital to the car since Michael refused to walk. Once they were all in the car, Michael and Elizabeth calmed down slightly, and they all drove back in silence as Michael refused to look at William in the driver’s seat and stared out the window at the passing cars or the trees planted next to the sidewalks. Elizabeth fiddled with her hands and dared not to speak, upset that no one even cared how she felt. It was her brother too, not just Michael’s. 

Once they got to their house Michael ran up the stairs, locked himself in his room for several hours and hugged the Fredbear plush while repeating ‘I'm sorry’. He refused to eat anything that entire day being that he was still in denial that he had murdered his brother. 

Elizabeth kept knocking on his door, checking on him but every time she got a response of ‘Go away’ in his breaking voice, trying his hardest not to cry. Elizabeth was grief-stricken as all she wanted was to check that her brother was okay, but he had already shut the world out. No one cared about her feelings, not even her father who had tolerated her a tad more than the boys. She felt like she was nothing to Michael or her father as she walked away. 

That night, Michael couldn’t get to sleep until midnight. Even when he got to sleep, he kept having strange dreams. In the one that stood out to him the most, he was in his room with all of Evan’s toys but saw nothing else out of the ordinary as he looked around. All he could do was sit and wait for his consciousness to wake up, but after a while he heard a Grandfather Clock chime and he jumped in fright. It sounded like something was going to kill him, but he didn’t know what, especially since they didn’t own a Grandfather Clock. 

He looked around and shined the flashlight he had in his hand but still saw nothing. He went up to one of the open doors out of boredom and before he could shine the light, he heard something breathing.

What the fuck?! he thought and quickly closed the door. Whatever was out there was trying to get him, but he didn’t even know what it was. He heard heavy footsteps leaving down the hall and shined the light as he cautiously opened the door, to where he saw a broken, frightening rabbit animatronic with many sharp teeth that looked like could kill him with ease. It was much taller than he expected and he slammed the door out of fright. This is going to be a long night. 

He eventually saw a chicken animatronic in the same damaged and horrific state as the rabbit out of the door across the room. After a while he saw a bear animatronic in the same state appear behind him with along with three miniature versions of that same animatronic. He learned quickly that light helped to keep them away, but it didn’t work if they were close and he would have to slam the door on them, otherwise it would be too late. 

After a while he realized something. The state in which these strange animatronics were was how Evan saw him, Jeremy, Nicolas and Richard; he had constant nightmares about all of them (but Michael would only have this type of nightmare once). So that meant if he had found three, he was just missing one more: himself.

He noticed the closet door moving and figured that’s where the last one was, since he typically hid in a closet when jumping out at Evan. He cautiously went over to it and shined the light inside when he saw the last damaged  and daunting fox animatronic. He slammed the closet door and kept it closed until he heard no noise from the closet. He decided to risk it and opened the closet door and he shined the light in, expecting a slash across the chest or across the face from its abnormally large hook. He instead saw the animatronic was replaced by one of Evan’s plushie’s, a fox one that Michael had accidentally ripped the head off of.

After a while of fending these animatronics off, all of them disappeared and he was just as confused as ever. He looked around and shined the flashlight everywhere he could think something would be hiding and found nothing. He looked around and heard a laugh from the hallway and he gulped as he went over. He shined the flashlight down that hallway and saw a run-down and fearsome Fredbear with many sharp teeth and two mouths, one where it should be on its face and one on its stomach. Michael quickly slammed the door out of fright as he was breathing more rapidly and shaking more than he was before and starting to get lightheaded. 

---

Michael would toss and turn in his sleep and keep sleep-talking to himself saying ‘Get back!’ or ‘Get away!’ When he finally fended off the strange entities after hours, he heard an alarm blare and he jolted awake in a cold sweat and breathing rapidly. To his relief, he was still in his bed and his room was his own, but Evan’s toys were nowhere to be found. He looked at his blaring alarm clock which said it was 6:00 am, just in time to get ready for school. 

William still made Michael and Elizabeth go to school since he refused to trust them at his house by themselves. Henry picked them up this time since the pizzeria was closed, and William would go down to help a little later. Once they finished their breakfast, they heard Henry honk his horn so they would know he was there and they both went out to the car and got in. Once they were in they all sat in silence for a while as Henry started driving. 

“Any news about your brother?” Henry asked, breaking the silence. He still didn’t know anything. 

“He’s dead,” Michael said quietly after a minute as he looked out the window.

Henry drove on silently, slightly in shock, but he kind of expected it. He was in pretty bad shape when he pried Fredbear’s mouth open, so he wasn’t all that surprised. He drove up to Michael’s school where Michael started to get out of the car. 

“Mike, wait,” he said before Michael opened the door. He looked back at him. “Look, I know you’re not feeling great but…just try to have a good day.” 

“I’ll try Uncle,” he said as he hugged him. 

“And if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll get you whatever you want after school.”

“Anything?”

“Anything. I know how much it hurts to lose your little brother.”

“Can we get McDonalds?”

“McDonald’s?” Henry echoed, smiling. 

“Yeah. It was his favorite place.”

Henry chuckled. 

“Okay, we can get McDonald’s. Is that alright with you Liz?” He asked Elizabeth in the backseat. She was quiet the whole way because she was trying not to cry again, but she nodded since she wanted the ice cream there. 

Michael smiled and got out of the car. 

“Bye Uncle Henry,” he said before closing the door. Henry smiled and he closed the door. Michael watched him drive off to drop off Elizabeth at her school. 

“Mike!” he heard Jeremy call to him. Michael looked over his shoulder and spotted him over the crowd of kids and went over to him by the flagpole. “D’you still wanna wait for the other two?” Jeremy asked once Michael got over to him. Michael had to think about it for a few seconds. 

“I’d rather not. I didn’t really care for those guys anyway,” he said as Jeremy smiled and they both walked in the building together once they heard the bell. 

Everything was normal until lunchtime, except that Michael wore a black hoodie that day and kept his hood up since he was obviously feeling more down today than any other days. Jeremy didn’t mind though and they sat outside, just the two of them because they had ditched the other two. They kept talking nonsense to each other as they had their lunch because Jeremy wanted to get Michael’s mind off the incident. 

In the middle of lunchtime, Nicolas and Richard came up unexpectedly to Michael and made him flinch by grabbing his shoulders. They both laughed, but neither Jeremy or Michael thought it was funny. 

“Go away,” Michael said. 

“Why, are you two planning to ditch us again?” Richard demanded harshly. 

“That was the plan.” 

“You really hate us that much?” Nicolas asked. 

“Go away. I don’t wanna talk to you guys,” Michael advised as he put his head down. 

“I heard that yesterday, your brother actually died,” Richard taunted. Michael turned his head away from him. “Don’t you feel bad? That it was all your fault? That you’re a murderer?”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Michael said, feeling tears build up in his eyes and he quickly wiped them away. Richard and Nicolas ran over to the other side of the table to face him. 

“Aw, is little Mikey gonna cry? Just like his brother? Oh wait, I forgot. You killed him!” Nicolas teased and they both laughed. Michael tried to control himself instead of punching them both square in the face. 

“Guys, leave us alone. He doesn’t need reminding from you two,” Jeremy said but they both ignored him. Richard opened his bag of chips that he bought and Nicolas took one. 

“Hey Mike, look at this,” He said to Michael. He looked up at him and Nicolas bit the whole chip, making sure Michael heard the crunch. They laughed, making fun of him and Michael put his head down again as he clenched his fists, trying to control himself. Jeremy clenched his jaw as couldn’t take their bullying any longer and finally decided to be the bigger person for once. He slammed his fist on the table as he got up and pushed them both away. 

“Woah, what’s your deal Fitzgerald?!” Nicolas said. 

“Stop reminding him!”

“Why? We’re just poking fun at him!”

“Well, you’re terrible at this. Poking fun doesn’t mean reminding him of something traumatic!”

Richard and Nicolas laughed at him. “Listen Fitzgerald, here’s something you should know. It’s hilarious. That’s all it is. It’s like he can’t help but cry about it, just like his brother would’ve,” Nicolas said. Jeremy lost it at that comment and punched him in the face as hard as he could. Michael looked up at them as did the other kids around. “What the hell was that for?!” Nicolas exclaimed, wiping the blood from his now bloody nose. Jeremy ignored the question. 

“Go away and leave us alone!” Jeremy yelled as he started to walk back towards the table. Nicolas was angry and he punched Jeremy in the arm where he almost fell to the side from the force. Jeremy could practically feel the anger boiling up inside him and he pushed Nicolas to the ground. Before he could take another step back towards the table, Nicolas pulled on his ankle where Jeremy fell to the ground and he slammed on his back on the pavement. Before the pain could even register, Jeremy’s anger overflowed and he started to attack Nicolas, angry about what he said about Michael. The other kids started gathering around them in a circle and Michael quickly stood up. He took off his hood and pushed his way to the middle of the crowd (concerned for Jeremy’s safety) where he found Nicolas and Jeremy, fighting each other.

He heard both of them cursing at each other as they hit each other and Michael ran in the middle of them to try and break them up, and he got punched right by his eye by Nicolas. Michael couldn’t control his anger anymore and punched Nicolas in the same place he was hit by him, which was pretty strong considering his strength. Michael was thrown back onto the rocky pavement by Nicolas as hard as he could and Michael got deeply cut on the bridge of his nose which wouldn’t stop bleeding. Jeremy wanted to go over to Michael to make sure he was alright, but Nicolas pulled him back and continued attacking him. 

Michael felt his lip where he had a scar from years ago from another fight he was in where it cut almost all the way through his skin, and thankfully there was nothing there. He hated that his father had a scar in almost the exact same place which made them look more similar than they already did.

He was in pain, but was angry and joined in on the fight again. Jeremy and Michael were cursing out Nicolas as they took turns grabbing his shirt and slamming his back into the pavement as hard as they could, until a teacher came and broke them up and the circle of kids around them broke apart. 

“Just what do you boys think you’re doing?!” a teacher shrieked. It was their history teacher. She sees all three of them throughout the day. 

She pulled on Michael’s hood and the back of Jeremy’s shirt so that they were both standing up and they could see the damage they had done to Nicolas as he stood. He had a black eye, several bruises on his arms and legs and several small cuts from being on the pavement. Michael and Jeremy didn’t look much different than him, except Michael had a deep cut on the bridge of his nose (that was still spewing blood) and Jeremy’s back was sore from when he slammed into the pavement at the beginning. 

“We’re sorry,” Jeremy apologized for all of them after he caught his breath. 

“Now, I want to hear what happened.”

“Well uh…” Michael started, but he couldn’t get the words out being that the wind was knocked out of him and he was still trying to catch his breath. 

“It was my fault this started ma’am. Nicolas was just reminding my friend here of a traumatic incident and I just lost it. If anyone is given punishment, it’s me,” Jeremy said. 

“Well in that case, you still will all receive detention,” she said and they all groaned from disappointment. “A week for Nicolas, two days for Jeremy and only today for Michael. I don’t want to hear about you guys getting into a fight again. Understood?”

“Yes ma’am,” they all answered and she walked away. Once she did, Nicolas pushed Jeremy lightly. 

“What the fuck man?!” he said. 

“Sorry. You just gotta do what you gotta do,” Jeremy said. 

“Y’know, I never liked you Fitzgerald,” he said and wiped the blood from his nose and walked away with Richard. 

“Jer, what the hell man?!” Michael said as he stood up. He shrugged, thinking Michael was going to be angry at him. “That was fucking awesome!” Jeremy smiled as they high-fived each other. “I don’t even care that we got detention, but you got in a fight? For me?” 

“Well, I didn’t like what he was saying to you, and I got fed up with it. You’re my friend Mike, and that’s what friends do, right? They’re always there for each other?”

Michael smiled shyly. “I guess you’re right,” he said. 

“We should get you to the nurse though. That cut doesn’t look good enough to leave exposed.”

“You’re probably right. Let’s go.”

As they walked to the nurse, they kept joking about how badly they beat up Nicolas’ face, which both helped cheer both of them up slightly. 

---

After school got out, Jeremy and Michael were in the room the school usually held detention and Nicolas was across the room, giving them the death glare. Jeremy and Michael kept making jokes about him and snickering softly. They saw Nicholas’ face tense up as he flipped them off which made them laugh even more until the teacher told them to be quiet. 

When it was finally over after an hour, Jeremy and Michael practically ran out of the room just to get away from Nicolas trying to start another fight. Nicolas caught up to them and pulled the top strap on their backpacks, making them both fall over. 

“Ow! What the hell man?!” Michael yelled. Nicolas said nothing and walked past them out the front door. 

“Whatever. Let’s just get out of here,” Jeremy said, standing up and helping Michael up. They walked out the front door together and they saw Henry’s car waiting for Michael to get out since it was around the same time Elizabeth got out. “I guess this is where we part.” 

“I guess so. See you tomorrow, Jer.”

“See ya Mike,” He said as he got his bicycle off of the bike rack and went off towards his house. Michael went to Henry’s car and opened the passenger’s side of the car. 

“What’d you get detention for-oh my God Mike! What happened to your face?!” Henry exclaimed when Michael sat down and closed the door. Henry examined Michael’s face, obviously worried and noticed Michael’s black eye, which Michael held a bag of ice over and the bandage on the bridge of his nose.

“I’m fine Uncle. Can we still get McDonald’s?” Michael said, pushing Henry’s hands away from his face. 

“Tell me what happened first, then we can.” Henry said as he started driving. 

“Well, my friend Nick, he’s not my friend anymore, but he made a joke about…yesterday. So Jer and I fought him. Can we get McDonald’s now?” 

“Mikey got into a fight?” Elizabeth asked from the backseat. It’s the first time Michael has heard her talk all day. 

“Yes. I did Liz.”

“How’d you get that cut on your nose?”

“I was thrown onto the pavement.” 

“The pavement? Don’t they use the same one that they use for roads?” Henry asked. 

“Yeah. The school made poor design choices.”

“Was it just a scrape or was it bleeding?”

“It was bleeding and it felt deep too. But the nurse gave me a bandage so hopefully it’ll be okay.”

“That sounds awful. Hopefully it won’t leave a mark” 

“Hopefully not. But if it does, I’ll get another cool looking scar on my face.”

Henry snickered quietly. 

After they got their McDonald’s and went to the Afton’s house, they all found William outside smoking again, but on the front porch this time. He was happy to be in silence and groaned once he saw the car pull up.

“Where the bloody hell have you three been?!” he exclaimed once they got out of the car. 

“I promised the kids McDonald’s after school!” Henry said. 

“And Michael, what the hell happened to your face?” William asked. 

“I uh…I got in a fight,” Michael said worryingly. 

“A fight, eh? Whatever. Both of you go inside.”

Michael and Elizabeth went inside the house after saying goodbye to Henry. “I can’t believe he didn’t yell at you like he usually does,” Elizabeth said to Michael when they were inside. 

“I can’t either. Maybe it’s because Uncle Henry’s there, but it’s sort of a miracle.”

“Anyways, I heard something. Do you want to know what it is?” Elizabeth asked excitedly. 

“Fine. What?”

“Daddy’s building his own robot! He says it’s gonna be a clown!”

“A clown? Those are bloody terrifying.”

“They’re not to me. They’re cool!”

“Cool?”

“Yes! And Daddy says that it’s going to be finished on my next birthday!”

“So, next year?”

“Yes! Isn’t that exciting?”

“I…I guess? But, do you know why he’s building more apart from the ones with Uncle Henry?”

“Nope. He just said he’s building more.”

“That’s a bit…dodgy.”

“Well, it’s not to me. He said that he was basing one off of one of my drawings for him! I think her name was, uh, Circus Baby! He showed me the plans for her!”

“How did you get to see them?!”

“He showed me! He let me go down in the basement one time!”

“You?”

“Yes! Isn’t that exciting?”

“Uh…yeah!” Michael said, but was unsure and worried about what his father’s true intentions were with these new animatronics. Why else would he be building separate ones apart from the ones he has already built with Henry?

Meanwhile, Henry and William were outside and William offered Henry a cigarette, which he took. William lit it and they were talking as they smoked. 

“Are you really sure you don’t wanna run this new place with me?” William asked Henry. 

“I’m sure. I just think it’ll be too much with my kids and dealing with Fredbear’s. As I think about it, Fredbear’s is a lawsuit waiting to happen. I know some parent’s gonna be upset, speaking of which I don’t even think it’s a good idea to stay open at this point!”

William stayed silent for a minute. “No, keep it open,” he finally said.

”But…it’ll look bad on our part! It’ll be bad for publicity!”

”Then get rid of Fredbear, decommission it and make a new one.”

”But…if we do stay open, I can’t just get rid of the animatronic the place is named after!”

”Say it’s out for repairs or something.”

”But…” Henry sighed, knowing there was no getting through to him. “Fine. I don’t think the  restaurant will be open for much longer anyways. But we have to close it for a few weeks at least for cleaning.

”Like I said, I think running another location would be too much on my plate. It’ll already be tough enough dealing with Fredbear’s.”

William hesitated, wondering how he could get through to Henry. “But I’m sure the kids’ll love it too! Besides, it wouldn’t be that different from Fredbear’s,” William said, handing him the blueprints for all of them and Henry looked over them. 

“I still don’t think running two locations would be a good idea for me. Heather says that she wants me to be with the family more since I’m usually working at home as well, and two locations would make that harder than it already is.”

“Fine,” William said, knowing from previous attempts he couldn’t win Henry’s choice when it came down to his wife. “But you’ll still visit at least, right?”

“Of course I will. I’ll be there on opening day. I still wanna see what you can accomplish.”

“Thank God. I was afraid you wouldn’t come by at all.”

Henry chuckled. “You know I wouldn’t. You’re still my friend. And, I guess I’ll bring the kids when it opens as well. I’m sure they’d like the animatronics.”

“I’m sure they would!”

“Quick question. Why did you design Ballora this way when this is a kids diner?”

“I just uh…I don’t know. I thought it was a good idea at the time. For like, uh…girls going through puberty and stuff, y’know?”

“It’s still a little…strange for a design.”

“Okay, look. I don’t know why. I was honestly a little tipsy when designing her and just decided to go with it.”

“You really miss your wife that much, huh?” Henry teased. 

“Shut up! No I don’t!” he said, but this is one of the few rare times he actually meant what he said. 

Chapter 7

Summary:

The effect of bite on Michael after several months, but William has other plans.

That summer, Michael was bored out of his mind. It was humid outside like the regular Utah summer weather, like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But at least he had Jeremy to keep him company.

Michael still felt responsible for what he had done and hated himself for it over the summer, even though he should’ve been happy that school was out and he and Jeremy were going to high school that August, but he couldn’t stop thinking about what Richard said. ‘Don’t you feel bad? That it was all your fault? That you’re a murderer?’

Typically, Michael would spend his summers hanging out with Jeremy and the others, scaring and teasing their younger siblings but this summer was different. He finally realized that he was acting like a terrible person and Jeremy had told him before multiple times to stop, but he didn’t listen. He didn’t want to be that type of kid anymore, he wanted to change his ways.

Ever since the bite on that day, on a few occasions (seemingly out of nowhere) Michael would feel his heart beating faster and experience pains in his chest, have a tight feeling in his throat and start sweating even if it wasn’t hot out. He would start shaking everywhere and Jeremy didn’t fully know how to help when he was with him when those happened, but he wasn’t willing to give up on Michael. He would try anything, from speaking words of comfort to him, breathing deeply with him or just sitting next to him. Michael, of course, would do the same for Jeremy, since he would often have flashbacks of the incident.

One day in the summer while he was hanging out with Jeremy and Elizabeth was with Charlotte at Henry’s house, his father forced him to help out at Fredbear’s since some of the employees were out. Michael’s heart dropped. He never wanted to go back to that place for as long as he lived, but Jeremy said that he’d go as well, to comfort Michael if he needed it and to help out.

They sat in the back of the car, going to Fredbear’s in silence. Jeremy was fidgeting with his hands when he looked up at Michael next to him. He was staring out the window at the cars on the road looking absent minded, but Jeremy could tell his thoughts were racing.

“Hey Mike, it’s okay,” Jeremy said calmly. Michael looked back at him.

“It brings back those memories. I killed my brother there for God’s sake! Who would want to remember that?!”

“No one would. But the place has changed since we’ve been there last. It’s been months.”

They arrived at Fredbear’s and walked in behind William. Michael saw that Jeremy was right, physically at least. Everything was rearranged but only one animatronic was still on stage: Springbonnie. There were still kids running around, but the parents told them to not go up to the stage so they stayed back in the dining area. 

“See? It’s not that bad,” Jeremy said as he stayed close to Michael. He nodded and they kept following William who would tell them what to do.

“Alright, so one of our janitors is out for the day. So, guess what you guys will be doing,” William said as he unlocked the janitor's closet. Both of them groaned in disappointment as they got the rags and William locked the closet after them. They were all going back to the main dining area and bumped into Henry looking for William.

“Will, who did you bring-” he stopped mid-sentence when he saw them. Henry glared at William and brought him to the side to talk to him privately. “Will, you know they have trauma surrounding this place,” He partially yelled and partially whispered at William.

“I know, but there was no one else. And these two were just lazily hanging around my house all day anyway.”

“Uh…back table boys, I need to talk with Will,” He said to Michael and Jeremy. The boys nodded as they went off on their way, racing each other to the back. William and Henry went into Henry’s office and he shut the door.

“Will, what the hell?!” Henry yelled at him.

“What?”

“You brought them, the two who have the most trauma surrounding this place, which could send one or both of them into a anxiety attack? How does that not make sense?!”

“There was no one else for me to ask! And they both know how to clean tables, so what’s the big deal?”

“The ‘big deal’ is that they both saw Mike’s little brother die here! They’re traumatized by that and they probably will be for the rest of their lives!”

“Probably, but Evan was also my son! I still have to come here everyday because this is my fucking job! So what about me?! Do you just not care about how I feel about this whole thing?!”

“I know he was your son Will and I’m sorry! But we’re also a partnership! We own this place together!”

William tried to calm himself down before he blew up at Henry again like he did a few months ago at Evan’s party. “Look, they were the only people I could find. There’s no one else out there.”

“I get it but…it’s just they both have so much trauma here. I’m just worried for them.”

“I don’t think you have to be so worried. They’re almost in high school, they’ll be fine Hen. You’re worked up over nothing.”

Meanwhile, Jeremy and Michael were sitting at the table they just cleaned. “I dunno man. I never wanted to come here in the first place. But really I’m just…mad. Mainly at myself for being as stupid as I was. Being here is just a constant reminder that I am the stupid fourteen year old who thought it was a good idea for some ungodly reason,” Michael ranted while cracking his knuckles because it was how he calmed himself down.

“I know why you might be mad. Hell, I’m even mad at myself even though I knew it was a bad idea but I didn’t do anything.”

“And…I know you probably don’t wanna hear it, but recently I’ve just been so angry at everyone. Everyone just pisses me off, especially my family.”

“I know, you’ve even snapped at me a couple times. But, do you think you’re just taking your anger out on other people because you don’t want to believe it happened?” he asked and Michael stayed silent for a while as he thought about Jeremy’s words.

“I think you're actually right. And I feel like more of a shitty person than I already think I am.”

“You’re not a shitty person Mike. You’re an amazing person and people would be lucky to know you.”

Michael smiled shyly like he was embarrassed, but he was actually flattered. “Yeah right.”

“No, I’m serious. You’ve always been there for me and I’m lucky to have met you. Now that I know you, good luck trying to get rid of me that easily.”

“You really think you’re lucky? With the way I treat everyone now, I would think no one would wanna be around me.”

“It’s understandable and something I can handle to not lose someone I care about. All I have to do is knock some sense into you ‘till you stop snapping at people,” he said and Michael and Jeremy laughed together.

“I just don’t know if I’ll ever be able to look at this place the same way ever again,” Michael said, changing the subject to stop himself from getting lost in Jeremy’s eyes, knowing that his words about caring for him were genuine.

“I won’t either, believe me. I don’t think we all can.”

“I think…I mainly didn’t want to come here ‘cause it’ll bring back the memories. He was my brother after all and I was dumb enough to not think ahead.” 

“Look, how about this. Since you really don’t want to be here, after we clean some more tables we can play something in the arcade here.”

“Really? You have money?”

“Yes! I have a couple quarters we could use.”

“But I said I don’t want you spending money on me.”

“I know you said that. But I didn’t want to listen.”

Michael beamed, but shyly. He knew Jeremy wanted to treat him with just a game, but it still felt like it was too much. “But I feel like I don’t deserve it. You should keep it.”

“No! I'm your friend. Plus, I see you’ve been eyeing that Donkey Kong game back there.”

“It’s a cool game!”

“See? So whaddya say after we finish cleaning a few, we can go back and you can play it. My treat.”

“Fine. You win,” Michael said as he and Jeremy started cleaning tables.

---

A few months after school had started for Jeremy and Michael, it was starting to get colder. Jeremy and Michael were already known as ‘the quiet kids’ and ‘the murderers’ around school (since most of their peers had all heard that they were involved in the incident). They were both targeted for bullying (by the popular students mainly) but Michael and Jeremy tried their hardest to not let it get to them. They would see Richard and Nicolas sometimes and they would still harass them around school, (since they had somehow convinced the students that they were not involved in the incident) but neither Jeremy nor Michael acted like they cared.

But, Jeremy was not used to this kind of treatment as he was always ignored in school. Sure there was a little bullying here and there being that he was a little different from a lot of his peers, but now almost everyone knew him for a bad reason. He had tried to explain several times that what had happened that day several months ago was an accident, and the bullies would not believe it. Oftentimes, Michael was there to defend him but that just made him feel like a coward for having to rely on Michael. He was already dealing with a lot at home, being that his parents had just recently divorced and dealing with the bullies at school made it harder for him to handle. Once he got to the safety of his room at his house, he would sob silently into his blankets, dreading having to go back to school the next day. A lot of times, when Michael didn’t have his headphones on and he would walk past the counselor’s office, he would hear Jeremy’s voice speaking faintly through the closed door.

Michael was different from Jeremy, being that he had a shorter fuse than him. Michael decided he would not take his anger out on people who were close to him anymore, but rather his bullies since they reminded him of the incident the most. He was depressed about it, sure, but he couldn’t stand the names he and Jeremy would get called when their peers would find one or both of them in the school bathroom, trying to deal with the flashbacks on their own. Typically, William would get calls home that Michael would get in fights (sometimes Jeremy’s father would get those same calls since Jeremy didn’t want to be seen as reliant on Michael) with kids his own age all the way to the seniors at school. After Michael would get home from school, he would typically lock himself in his room and listen to music while drawing and only come out of his room for food or to hang out with Jeremy. Every so often though, since Elizabeth’s room was across the hall from his, she would hear a thump which told her that her brother punched a wall out of anger.

Elizabeth was handling it better, but not by much. At school, a lot of people had also heard about what happened but they would instead act apologetic towards her, saying they were sorry her brother was a terrible person. Often she would try to defend Michael, but it would usually get brushed off and she wouldn’t be taken seriously. She would get picked up from school feeling unhappy almost every day and try to tell her father, but she would get brushed off again and he would not care. She would pout and stomp her foot and go up the stairs to her brother’s room, where she was only very rarely allowed in to talk. Most often, she would get an answer of ‘Go away Liz’. All she could do was hide away in her room and play with her dolls or cry into her pillow.

Oftentimes when she was playing with her dolls after Michael had forbidden her to talk to him, she would get chills very suddenly even though her room was a comfortable temperature. She would then hear an unfamiliar voice speak to her. She saw no one, but this voice would tell her, ‘You know they don’t love you. They don’t care about you.’

William was also pretty upset. But not about the bite (he could care less about it) he was upset at Henry. After Fredbear came back a while ago, Henry said that they should both lay off the spring lock suits being that they’re so dangerous. William, of course, didn’t want to but Henry was saying they have both seen how fatal they were as they could kill someone. But the problem was, William only had a sense of security when he had the Springbonnie suit on and now Henry took that away.

William also despised how Henry kept bringing his kids to the diner when Heather couldn’t watch them. They would usually hang around his office those days and William would get jealous easily from seeing him give all his attention to them and not him. He was angry, but he was also lonely and miserable. He didn’t know what else to do. He was hopeless.

When Charlotte and Samuel were finally at their house with Heather watching them, Henry walked into William’s office one day to find him asleep at his desk. He had been falling asleep on the job a lot lately, and Henry wasn’t sure why. He lightly shook William awake by his shoulder, which didn’t work at first since he was a heavy sleeper. He shook him harder and William opened his eyes.

“What do you want?” he asked sleepily.

“I just wanted to check up on you. You know you can’t fall asleep on the job every day.”

“Really? You’re not gonna tell me to clean something or to entertain the kids somehow?”

“No. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

William picked his head up as he pushed a few stray hairs away from his face that got in his mouth while he was sleeping. “Why do you suddenly care?” he asked as he pushed his long, thick hair behind his ears.

“I’ve always cared, Will.”

“Really? You haven’t lately.”

“What d’you mean lately?” Henry asked and William turned to face him with a look of sarcastic surprise, saying he wasn’t at all surprised at Henry’s actions being that he has been doing this for years.

“I mean ever since your kids kept coming here all the damn time, all you do is pay attention to them. Hell, ever since they were born!” he yelled, now more peeved than he was before.

“I’m sorry Will but they’re young. They want and need attention and I want to be someone they can count on in the future. You’ve just been sleeping a lot, Will. I want to make sure you’re okay,” he said, but to William he sounded like he was just giving him false pity. William scowled as he crossed his arms and slumped in his chair.

“I’m fine Hen.”

“Are you sure?”

“Isn’t that what I said?!” he snapped.

“No need to get angry at me. I’m just checking up on you.”

“Well, I’m fine.”

“It’s jealousy, isn’t it?”

“What?! No!”

“I remember this conversation last time, it was about jealousy from the kids.”

“I-ugh!” William said as he put his head down again and his face flushed from embarrassment.

“Look, Will, I don’t want to ruin our friendship on a couple kids, but they just need attention. All kids do. Even Mike.”

“Michael?! This conversation isn’t even about him!” he said as he picked his head up.

“I know, but he’s still a kid, Will.”

“Well, I don’t even see him anymore! He’s always with his friend…what’s his name, Jeremy.”

“Well, I just think maybe there’s a reason. He probably just doesn’t feel comfortable around you anymore.”

“That little shit. But, I could care less.”

“Care less?!”

“He pissed off and got off my back, like I wanted. Now all I have to worry about is feeding him.”

“But he’s your son Will! He’s your flesh and blood!”

“Yeah, along with Evelyn’s!”

“She’s dead Will!”

“I know Hen. She was my wife.”

“But it’s your job now as a single parent to be a part of both your kids' lives! Evan’s dead, is it that hard to be in two of your kid’s lives?”

“They get in my way all the time! Besides, I’m more focused on other things than them.”

“Really? Like what?”

“I…I can’t tell you,” William said, regretting he even mentioned that.

“So it’s so secret you can’t even tell your best friend of almost twenty years?”

“I’m sorry, I just can’t tell you.”

“Fine. Don’t tell me then.”

William felt terrible for keeping secrets from him, but he’d probably hate him forever if he told him about his experiments.

“So, question. What did you actually come in here for?” William asked.

“I said I wanted to check on you.”

“Thank you, but I know there’s another reason. Not just to argue about the kids.”

“I uh…well I just wanted you to know that Charlie wants a Halloween party here the Saturday before Halloween after it closes.”

“So I’ll have to be here late on a Saturday, is what I’m hearing?”

“Well she is my daughter and her dad partially owns the place, but I didn’t say yes yet because I wanted to make sure it was okay with you first.”

William thought about it for a while. He didn’t want to stay late on a Saturday because the weekends were his days off, and he knew that was a day when he could lay on the couch, get drunk and watch whatever crappy horror movie was on television for the Halloween season. But he let his jealousy get the best of him and got an idea.

“It’s fine with me,” he said.

“Are you sure? I didn’t want to have you there on a weekend if you don't have to.”

“No, no. It’s fine. I’m sure Michael will be able to handle it anyway.”

“Great! I’m sure Charlie would be delighted to hear that!” Henry exclaimed and left the office. William grinned evilly. Perhaps he could satisfy his jealousy, as well as finding a new target for his ‘stupid little science experiments’. Kill two birds with one stone, right?

Chapter 8

Summary:

What happened to Charlie?

“Michael,” William said to Michael that next Friday morning before they were all about to leave the house for work and school. 

“Yes?” Michael replied as he was finishing his breakfast of cereal, worried that he might’ve done something even though he had no idea what. Elizabeth was sitting across from him, intrigued.

“I suppose I should tell you beforehand, I have to stay late at the diner tomorrow.”

“Really? You never work on a Saturday.”

“Henry has called me to go into work tomorrow. Don’t make me regret trusting you to be alone at the house with Elizabeth.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

All three of them walked to William’s car since William was the one who usually dropped Michael and Elizabeth off at school. William didn’t like to, but Henry wasn’t always available. 

Once Michael was dropped off at school, William watched him run up to the flagpole where he met Jeremy. After a while, he went to Elizabeth’s school and dropped her off and watched her run up to her friends on the playground. After he dropped his kids off, he drove to Fredbear’s and turned up whatever was on the radio as he drove to his shift. It was AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’, and he smiled because it all reflected his plan for the next day. 

Michael ran up to Jeremy excitedly after his father had driven off. His mood was a little bit more uplifted now that he knew his father wouldn’t be there on a Saturday night. 

“Woah, you look happier than usual. What’d you do?” Jeremy asked teasingly and Michael laughed. 

“I robbed a bank,” he joked and Jeremy snickered. “But actually, my father said he’s staying late at the pizzeria tomorrow, so do you want to come over tomorrow night while he’s not there?” Michael asked excitedly. Jeremy felt his heartbeat start to race but tried to ignore it.

“What kind of question is that? Absolutely! We can play video games, watch stupid horror movies, tell ghost stories, stuff our faces with candy, get high, it’ll be awesome Mike!”

“High?”

“Yeah! I know where the stash is at my house, I’m pretty sure my dad wouldn’t mind if I took some before I went to your house!”

“I uh…I’ve never tried.”

“Put it this way. It helps you forget your stress, which I definitely think you need.”

“Why do you think I’m stressed?”

“Well, let’s turn our brains on and think. Your sibling is gone, we started high school and everyone hates us, you have to deal with your dad-”

“Okay! You have a point! I’ll try tomorrow,” Michael said while laughing and the school bell rang. 

When William got to work, he saw that Henry was already there. He noticed that the walls were also decorated a little and the stage had Halloween streamers on them. 

“Well, whaddya think Will?” Henry asked when William was beside him. 

“It looks nice. Did you do all of this?”

“Not all of it. Me along with a couple other employees did it earlier this morning.”

“Should’ve guessed. You’re such an early bird,” William teased and Henry laughed. 

“I just thought this place should get more in the Halloween spirit, it’s getting closer anyway. Also, thanks so much for agreeing tomorrow Will. Charlie was delighted when I told her it was okay.”

“I’m sure she was. I mean, how many times are you gonna get to stay after hours at your father’s diner?”

“Not many.”

“Exactly. Anyways, who’s gonna be there?”

“Just Charlie, Sammy and their friends. But Charlie’s a talkative one so, there’s a lot. And since the pizzeria isn’t going to be in business hours, It’s only going to be you and me watching them. Plus some of the parents but they're not really going to be paying a lot of attention towards the other kids.”

“Great. More kids to watch.”

“But you also handle business as well as being the head of security, so I think that’s kind of your job.”

“Got me there.”

---

That next evening, it started to lightly rain at the pizzeria. All of Charlotte and Samuel’s friends came, and like Henry said, it was more than William expected. They took turns watching all of them while the other went into their office, about thirty minutes at a time. 

Each time William went to his office, he would go over his plan again and again. It was perfect. He wanted to show Henry that he was one who shouldn’t be messed with. He had done something like this plan before, so it didn’t deter him as easily as he was used to it. 

Almost every time William was alone in his office and reviewed his plan, he would hear a voice. It was the voice of a young woman who he swore sounded familiar but he couldn’t remember from where, but William thought he was just losing it. She kept on saying ‘Don't give into it.’ or ‘You’ll regret it.’ But William would ignore it and would carry on. 

When it was William’s turn to go and watch the kids, he watched some of Charlotte’s friends lock her outside as a joke and ran away, giggling as Charlotte was banging on the window. The security puppet that Henry recently made for Charlotte was struggling to get out of its box because William had put a couple materials on it earlier to block it. They were mainly boxes of metal tools that were difficult to lift without an extra set of hands, so he was sure an animatronic couldn’t.

Perfect, William thought. He went outside quickly and quietly when no one was looking directly at him, and was immediately hit with an earthy smell being that it was now pouring rain. Every so often, he could see the flashes of lightning and the crash of thunder come after it in the looming clouds overhead. He went into his car and changed into some spare clothes he was going to throw out anyway, since he knew executing this plan was going to get messy with experience from Evelyn those few years ago. He didn’t bring an umbrella to shield him from the beads of water, so he was going to have to walk through the rainstorm and through puddles of mud starting to form.

He got to the corner of the alleyway Charlotte was in and the chilly breeze was starting to pick up. He saw she was still banging on the window and sobbing as she was afraid of the loud booms of thunder.

“Charlie?” 

She turned around and saw him and her face brightened. She ran up to him and hugged him, and William knew she was freezing because she was shivering and her nose was starting to turn red.  

“Uncle Will!” she said, happy that someone had found her.

“What are you doing out here?” 

“I was locked out. But you can help me get back in, right?”

“Of course. I don’t think we can get back in this way, but there is a separate door further down. Follow me. I’ll take you to it.”

She smiled and took his hand as he led her down the alleyway.

“Uncle Will? Are we supposed to go down there?” she asked before they started walking.

“Yes. I’ve been through that door several times, I know it’s down there.”

Charlotte gulped, a little afraid because it was pitch black further down the alleyway, but she trusted William and believed he wouldn’t do anything to scare her. He was a nice man, her father trusted him, so she figured she should too. Charlotte nodded as she got up the courage to go against her fear of the dark and William led her down the alleyway.

“Uncle Will? It’s very dark down here.”

“I know it is Charlie.”

“Are we getting close?”

“Almost. Just a little further.”

“It’s very cold out here too.”

“I know it is Charlie.”

“When are we getting inside?”

“Soon Charlie.”

He was starting to get agitated, but he wanted to make sure he wasn’t seen. 

“Uncle Will? I can’t see you anymore.”

“I know, but you’re right next to me.”

“Are we there yet?”

“Almost.”

“I don’t think I’ve been down here before.”

“I have Charlie. I know where we’re going.”

“Uncle Will? Are we starting to get near the dumpster?”

“Yes Charlie. The door’s right here.”

They both stopped and William pretended he was taking his keys out by rattling them since she couldn’t see, but there was actually no door and they were just next to a wall. 

“Are you almost done unlocking it?”

“Almost Charlie. It’s more difficult since it’s dark.”

William then quietly took out a knife he had hidden in his pocket and felt around for Charlotte since he couldn’t see her either. He found her leaning against the wall and quickly covered her mouth, and William felt her warm breath against his hand as she breathed very rapidly. 

“Don’t worry. I’m right here. But, I just have to tell you, this will only hurt for a moment.”

Charlotte’s eyes widened with worry. What was he going to do to her? She tried to scream for help, but it was muffled from his hand over her mouth and no one was around. 

William then took the knife and held it tightly as he mustered up his strength and lunged it into her chest, and she screamed out in pain as she started crying. He took it out and lunged it into her stomach and he heard her muffled, ear piercing scream again. He uncovered her mouth and heard her sniffles of pain, but even hearing that wasn’t enough to pull on his heartstrings. 

“Uncle Will…” she sobbed very shakily. 

 “Sweet dreams Charlie,” he replied and William took out the knife and heard her drop to the ground. 

He waited a few minutes before he shook her shoulder and she had no reaction. William took a metal syringe from his pocket and pierced it deep into her chest, practically stabbing her with the syringe as he pulled on it. 

“C’mon, c’mon…” he whispered. He then saw purple colored liquid that emitted a dim light start to come up the syringe after many minutes of getting just blood. He smiled as he filled up the syringe and put the cap on and stuffed it back into his pocket. “Stupid kids.”

Before he went out into the light of the street lamps, he took off his shirt since he was sure it had blood stains and it would definitely look suspicious to any random passerby. Once he got into the light, he looked at his shirt in his hands and saw he was right. He ran back to his car and changed out of his bloody clothes back into his uniform he had on beforehand. He threw his bloody clothes in the seat next to him and put the syringe under a black cloth that he had in his backseat to make sure there was no light seen from the outside, making sure it was sealed tightly. He cleaned off his knife and put it under his bloody clothes he was going to throw out.

Before he went back inside he got a hair tie, and since he grew out his hair longer instead of cutting it like he’s seen most men do, he put his hair up in a loose ponytail hoping it would dry a little faster. He’s had longer hair since he met Henry, but it was better for him now since it can help hide his face better. He went inside the building and saw Samuel, the other children and the few parents scattered around, looking for Charlotte. 

“Mr. Afton! Thank God you’re here!” one of the parents said. 

“What’s going on?” He asked. 

“It’s Charlie! She’s missing!”

“Charlie?”

“Yes! Have you seen her at all?”

“I’m afraid I haven’t. Has anyone told Henry?”

“I told some of her friends to look for her in Henry’s office. Hopefully she’s just hiding or playing a joke on us!”

A couple kids went down the hallway where the offices were located. They checked William’s office first, just in case. “It’s so messy in here!” one of the girls exclaimed. William had papers and trash scattered around his office that he had refused to pick up, some on his desk and some on the floor. They could have been from recently or months ago. 

They looked around the office, under the desk and behind furniture but found nothing. They checked Henry’s office right next door and saw him at his desk as he was working on paperwork. They cautiously opened the door and the door creaked, to which he looked up at the noise and he saw them peeking in. 

“I told you guys she wasn’t in here!” one of the boys said to the rest of the group. 

“Wait, who isn’t?” Henry asked. 

“Charlie. We can’t find her anywhere.”

“Charlie?!”

“Yes! She’s missing!” another one of the girls said. 

“And…you checked everywhere?” Henry asked, feeling the beating of his heart speed up with worry and anxiety. 

“Yeah. We can’t find her,” another boy said. 

“We even called her name. We didn’t hear her,” the other girl said. 

Henry got up and they all filed out of his office as they looked for Charlotte. Henry spotted William in the main diner who was pretending to look for her. 

“Will, is Charlie missing?!” he exclaimed when he got over to William. 

“Yes. No one can find her.”

“But you were out here! I thought you’d be watching her!”

“I was! But then I had to run outside for a few minutes to check on things with my car! I thought she’d be fine for ten minutes, tops!”

“Oh my God. Oh my God, oh my God…” Henry repeated to himself, worryingly. 

Both of them kept checking everywhere, even in the places customer’s couldn’t get to, like the back room and other employees offices even though they were locked. The rest of them checked under tables, in the game room, in between video game machines, on the stage and behind the front counter, but no one found anything. 

They all came together after about thirty minutes of searching. 

“Did anyone find anything?!” Henry asked, alarmed. 

“We looked everywhere,” one of the parents said. 

“She didn’t come when I called her name,” one of the kids said. 

“Oh my God…” Henry whispered to himself as he sat at one of the booths and held his temples. William sat across from him and noticed tears of worry forming in the corners of his eyes. “What’s Heather gonna say?!”

“I’m sure Charlie’s around here somewhere.” 

“But no one could find anything!”

“Maybe we just didn’t look hard enough.”

Henry noticed behind William that the security puppet was out of its box. There were boxes with metal tools spilling out on the ground, but that was the least of his worries right now.

“Hey, the puppet’s out. Let’s go see if we can find it,” Henry said as he wiped his eyes. They went to the security puppet’s box and Henry saw the exit door behind it was left loosely closed, which means it was possibly out there. “In the rain? It’s not supposed to be in the rain!”

“Maybe she’s out there somewhere.”

“Well, it’s dark out so we need flashlights.” Henry got a couple flashlights from his office and handed one to William and they went out and clicked them on. “Charlie? My baby, where are you?” Henry called out. No response. Their clothes were drenched now and Henry’s glasses had raindrops on them and started fogging up, and he took them off and hung them on his shirt because he couldn’t see. Both William and Henry walked side by side as they went down the dark alleyway. 

“This looks like a place for creepy murderers to hang out,” William said, trying to brighten the mood and Henry chuckled. 

“Will, this is serious. My daughter’s missing.”

They both walked beside each other in silence for a while, until Henry saw sparks from the security puppet. He pointed his flashlight over and froze in horror. William stopped next to Henry, pretending like he didn’t see or know what happened. 

“What?” he looked over where Henry’s flashlight was. 

“Charlie?” Henry mumbled quietly, his voice breaking. He shoved his flashlight into William’s free hand before he could say anything, and ran over to her body and knelt down next to her even though the ground was muddy. He turned her around and saw it was her, completely lifeless, with the puppet laying down next to her. “No, no, no…” he was now sobbing as he held her body. “No! How…why…”

William went over to him and held the flashlights over him so he could see. He had done more damage to her than he had originally thought. He heard Henry wailing, but surprisingly didn’t feel bad. 

“How…how could I have been such an idiot and not been watching her?! Why…who could have done this?!” he sobbed. William had never heard him sound so upset before. He didn’t want to say anything since Henry was clearly upset and didn’t want to make it worse. He didn’t care that the front of his flannel was filled with her blood now, he was too upset to care. William bent down next to him. 

“I’m so sorry Hen. I have no idea who could’ve done this.”

Henry continued crying and he noticed her green bracelet he had put on her before they came here, for extra security. It didn’t work anymore, since it was out in the rain, but he took it off her and put it in his pocket. 

“Will…call the police. Tell them…tell them there’s been a murder.”

William nodded as he left a flashlight by Henry and went back to the pizzeria to call them. It was a strange feeling. It was like he was calling the police on himself. But as long as he didn’t say he knew who caused it, he figured he would be fine. 

When William left and it was just Henry crying while hugging his daughter’s dead body, something happened. Maybe it was because of the rain, or the blood that was streaming onto that animatronic, but Charlotte’s soul had somehow latched itself onto the puppet. She was able to see everything from its eyes, but she didn’t want to move in fear she might freak her father out. She was too weak anyway, since animatronics shouldn’t be out in the rain. She saw her father, sobbing over her dead body. 

Dad? I’m right here, she thought, but she was too weak to say anything, so Henry didn’t know she was there. 

William went inside the diner with his clothes soaked and muddy as he went to the nearest telephone and made the call. After he was finished with it one of the parents approached him as he was about to go back outside to Henry. 

“What happened?” she asked. 

“Charlie. She was murdered outside. We don’t know by whom.”

“She was?!”

“Yes. Henry’s out there right now, bawling his eyes out,” he went back outside to Henry. “They should be here any minute,” he said to him. Henry calmed down a bit, but didn’t speak in case he started crying again. He still was in the same place and holding her in his arms, but he started rocking her back and forth as if to send her to sleep. William then heard him softly singing to her, her favorite lullaby. 

“Ninety years without slumbering, tick tock, tick tock, his life seconds numbering, tick tock, tick tock, but it stopped…short, never to go again when the old man…died.”

---

Michael and Jeremy sat out on his backyard covered porch, late at night after Elizabeth went to sleep as they smoked together and they watched the rain falling. Michael had an uneasy feeling in his stomach which made him uncomfortable, and he was strangely feeling lightheaded seemingly out of nowhere.

“What d’you think my father’s doing?” Michael asked Jeremy as he exhaled smoke. 

“I dunno. Probably being his own weird self.”

“I mean actually. I feel like something was…off with him today.”

“He’s always a little off.”

“But today he was acting more weird than usual.”

“I dunno. I think you’re worried about nothing Mike.”

“But…I don’t know, something felt wrong. I can literally feel it in my gut.”

“Stop stressing out about him. He doesn’t matter right now, it’s just us here. Want me to run to the gas station and steal a candy bar or something for you?”

“Thank you, but I don’t need it.”

“Then what d’you need?”

“I don’t know. I feel like I just needed to tell someone. He just let me stay home by myself so willingly. He never does.”

“Didn’t he say he was going to be late?”

“Yes but…usually he doesn’t do this sort of thing. He’s usually so hesitant to allow me to stay home by myself and this time he put almost no thought into it.”

“Maybe your dad was feeling nice.”

“I never thought I would hear my father and nice in the same sentence,” he joked and Jeremy snickered. 

“I’m pretty sure he’s not doing anything out of the ordinary. Honestly he’s always seemed a little strange.”

“I just can’t seem to shake this feeling that something’s wrong.”

“Maybe because of the pouring rain. We never get rain like this here.”

“I know, but it’s not that. Something’s off about him. Especially today and yesterday. I haven’t seen him act this strange since…” Michael remembered the last time he’s acted this strange and dismissive. It was with his mother. But, he couldn’t be doing that again, could he? 

“Since…” Jeremy said, snapping him back to reality. 

“Nothing. It’s probably just my imagination.”

“See? Nothing to worry about. Want another cigarette?”

“No thanks. I think I’ve had enough for now.”

Both he and Jeremy continued to watch the rain for a while, but Michael couldn’t shake off the feeling that his father was up to something today. Something bad, but maybe Jeremy was right and he was just stressing out over nothing.

Chapter 9

Summary:

TW: Brief suicidal thoughts
(it’s like 2 lines i promise)

Beginning of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza…

The next day, Henry sat alone outside almost the whole day, since he wanted to be away from his family in fear he might break down in front of them. He would sit outside on the back porch holding onto Charlotte’s green bracelet tightly while he thought about the memories of her, unintentionally making himself tear up. Sometimes he would get up to smoke a cigarette to calm himself down, but he would barely eat or drink anything all day. 

When he got home the night that Charlotte died with only Samuel, his wife questioned him where her daughter was and why the front of Henry’s flannel was covered in dried blood. Henry let Samuel go upstairs to his room so the yelling that was sure to come from his mother was muffled, and he told his wife that their daughter had passed. She, of course, cried and yelled at him for not watching her, where they got into a screaming match just like how William and Evelyn used to. 

Samuel was up in his room while his parents yelled at each other, and tried to block it out by covering his ears. It helped, but not fully. He couldn’t stand to hear his parents yelling at each other after their long years of being happily married to each other, or any yelling for that matter. He, of course, was upset about his sister’s death as well, but he felt like no one cared how he felt. They always made it about themselves and now Charlotte was not here to comfort him like she always did. He and his sister were vastly different, with him being the quiet one in the family and her being the talkative one, but since no one at school liked him because he was different from his peers, he considered his sister as his only friend.

Both Heather and Henry were furious with each other and barely talked to each other the next day or even the following week. Samuel would always try to get them to talk to each other again, but they refused to even look at each other for long. His father would often sit outside in the backyard because it was Charlotte’s favorite place to be while tears formed in the corners of his eyes. Often when he was outside, he would be either smoking or drinking until he got himself drunk and would barely eat anything. After a while, he would often stay inside since it was getting colder but he still wouldn’t act as loving as he used to. He would often skip meals or not eat at all during the day and Henry was now losing weight faster than what was considered healthy. Within the first few months, he had gone from being the plump person he was to getting skinnier by the day from the lack of food. 

When William came over to try and cheer Henry up (by the request of Heather) either by having a couple drinks together or lighting cigarettes together, he would try everything but nothing seemed to work. Even though William saw his friend in a state of depression like he was when his brother had passed all those years ago, it didn’t affect him as much since it was of his own doing. At his residence William kept Charlotte’s remnant in a small jar, which was hidden away in the basement of his house. The jar had the name ‘Charlotte’ written in black pen on masking tape as a label, since he was planning to capture a few more subjects so he could test his theory, though he wasn’t sure who yet. The jar was emitting the same eerie glow next to him when he wrote his findings down in his journal. 

‘Subject 2: Charlotte Emily

The theory about a younger target seems to have been correct. Much more remnant was able to be harvested. 

The remnant is harder to extract by hand. Would it work if machines did it for me? 

It’s concluded that harvesting remnant is easiest from children, possibly because of age.’

One day a few months after Charlotte’s death, Henry heard the telephone ring. He thought his wife had told William to call him again, but he saw that the number was different and was very confused since no one else really called him. 

“Hello?” he said. He thought it was a spam call. 

“Hey! It’s me, Jen.”

“Jen? I haven’t heard from you in forever!”

Henry’s sister, Jennifer lived down in New Harmony, where his childhood home was so she could take care of their old and aging mother. He rarely went back so he hadn’t seen his sister in years, much less heard from her often. 

“I know. I’ve been caught up in work and taking care of mom. Anyway, I heard that you weren’t doing too great. Do you wanna tell me what’s wrong?”

“Where’d you hear that?”

“…Heather.”

“Of course you did. She always rats me out.”

“Henry, what’s wrong?”

“Uh…nothing.”

“I’m your sister. I know when you’re lying.”

“Uh…”

“We’ve been siblings for what, over thirty years now? I know you.”

“Fine. You win. Um, you know my daughter, Charlie?”

“Yeah.”

“Well she’s um…she passed.”

“She died? At a young age?”

“Yes. She was murdered and…I’m not holding up about it to well.”

“How long ago was this?”

“I dunno…October?”

“It’s January so I figured. Your wife said that you’ve been neglecting her and your son for a few months.”

“Of course you did.”

“You still have a son who needs you. You can’t keep neglecting your other family members.”

“I know but-”

“She was your favorite. I know.”

“ I don’t pick favorites.”

“Sure you don’t. Just say she was your favorite.”

“I said I don’t pick favorites.”

“But the thing is, you still have other family members. Not just Charlie.”

“I know, but I can’t help thinking it was all my fault. I feel like a horrible person. I should’ve been watching her so that nothing could’ve happened to her and I failed. I’m such a horrible dad, I don’t even know if I deserve to be called a father. I-I ruin everything I touch, so why should I even be here and hurt more people?!” Henry said with his voice barely quivering and tears building up in his eyes. He quickly wiped his eyes and swallowed the lump in his throat that would trigger the waterworks. 

“Don’t say that. You do deserve to be here and many people are grateful for you.”

”I just feel terrible about it. I could’ve done something and I just…didn’t! I let her die and I did nothing!”

“You didn’t know. You’re not the guilty one here.”

“But…I feel like if this is anyone’s crime, it’s mine.”

“You’re not at fault here, Henry. If it’s anyone’s fault it’s whoever the murderer was.”

“You keep saying that it’s not my fault, but it is! It is my fault, I could’ve stopped her from dying and I didn’t!”

“And I keep saying that you didn’t know. Yeah, your daughter’s dead, and that’s something that’ll hurt forever. But you have to learn to move on. You can’t just keep obsessing over her death.”

“I know, but I can’t stop blaming myself. I know that I have to move on, but I can’t.”

“It hurts, I know. But you have a family that needs you.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

“And while I’m at it, eat something, please.”

“Did Heather tell ya that too?”

“Yep.”

“Oh my God Heather,” he whispered to himself. 

“C’mon. I’m not just going to let my little brother slip into madness and starve himself. You know I had to say something.”

“Yeah, I know.” 

“Just be strong for me Henry, and you can get through this. I know you can. I have to go. I’ll talk to ya later.”

“Bye Jen,” he said and he hung up. 

After he hung up, all he could do was sit at the dinner table by himself and put his head down. He still felt horrible, even though it was months ago. Jennifer’s call didn’t help all that much, but at least she cared enough to check in on him. Deep down, he thought he would be better off not in this world. But as he thought about it, he saw that he was wrong. He knew that Michael, Elizabeth and Samuel still needed him as a father figure. But most of all, he felt the need to find Charlotte’s murderer and make whoever it was pay. 

---

That next week, William went over to Henry’s house since Heather worried for her husband’s health. Henry hasn’t been working, refuses to eat some days, didn’t really acknowledge her or Samuel and developed a smoking problem. Heather didn’t know what else to do, so she called William. 

“Hen, you need to let Charlie go,” William said. 

“But I can’t. That’s the problem.”

“Hen, don’t you see? Charlie died a few months ago and you’re getting skinnier by the day! Your wife is worried for you, hell, I’m worried about you!”

“I know! I’ve tried to let go of Charlie, but it’s not as easy as it seems.”

“How about this Hen. You’ve been out of work for a good while. What if we started another business since the other shut down?”

“Another one?”

“Yes. But with new animatronics since the old ones aren’t in the best shape.”

“Will, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“But it can be just like old times! Just think about how happy you were!”

“I know, but that was before Charlie died. I’m not feeling up to running another business.”

“But I’ll be right there. We can do a partnership again.”

“I don’t think we should run a business considering what happened.”

“Easy. We sell the business.”

“Sell it?”

“Yes. That way we can still work there and be higher up since we founded it, but we won’t be running it. Some other corporation will.”

“But I’m not in the right state of mind to work.”

“You haven’t been working for a while, Hen. I think it’d be best if you get your mind off Charlie. We’re adults. We can’t just sit around at home all day.”

“I guess you’re right. But I’m just having second thoughts about selling it. I mean, it’s a popular business so what if they just do what they want with it?”

“We’ll still be there. And technically since we founded it, if I’m not mistaken we can tell them. If anything, this'll just be another location, but not directly run by us.”

Over the next few weeks, Henry and William explained their situation to a corporation looking to buy the business, and they struck a deal with Fazbear Entertainment. Thankfully, the company agreed to let them still work at the establishment since they had founded Fredbear’s. Since Henry was the brains behind everything they agreed to let him build the animatronics, since it was what he enjoyed doing and took the job as the head engineer. William decided to do what he did previously, and he took the jobs of handling business, a part time technician and a head security guard. The company seemed to trust him enough to complete all of those tasks, since he certainly seemed like he could handle it all from his past experience at Fredbear’s. 

The rest of the year went by and they eventually opened a new location called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. The customers were delighted, being that this was almost like another Fredbear’s which was insanely popular for families and kids. Inside, there were four animatronics instead of two, since it was a small team working on them instead of just William and Henry. One bear named Freddy Fazbear who was the main attraction, one rabbit named Bonnie, one chicken named Chica and one fox named Foxy. Both William and Henry wanted to keep the theme of a bear and a rabbit to keep representing them and their partnership and the original location. William decided to add a fox that looked a lot like Michael’s mask when he was younger and a chicken because they decided, ‘Why not?’

Both of their spring lock suits from the original location have been stored away in the back room of the location meant to never be used again, but William was the one who insisted on keeping them even though they were getting old. He never told anyone why he was so insistent. Henry assumed he wanted to remember their time at the old location instead of throwing out the spring lock suits or scrapping them for parts. 

Over a few months, William saw that his suggestion for Henry was correct. Working again made Henry get his mind off of his daughter and other people, for the time being they were at the location anyway. But what he didn’t know was when Henry was in the privacy of his home it was a different story. He was still neglecting his wife and son and he wouldn’t stop blaming himself for his daughter’s death. Sure, he ate, but his smoking problem has still stuck around. His wife eventually got so fed up with him neglecting his family that they started arguments often and it usually led to a screaming match. 

Samuel hated when they fought, which seemed to be more and more often as the months went on. Sure, he was young, but he still knew what was going on. At this point he considered Michael as his only friend, and would often call him when his parents were fighting since he knew the Afton’s house phone number, and Michael would be there to talk with him over the phone. Samuel didn’t know what was going to happen with his parents, but he didn’t want them to split up when he thought they loved each other to death. He wanted a happy family even though his sister was gone, but he didn’t think he was going to get that. At this point, his parents splitting up was evident to him, and at this point it seemed like they didn’t care how it would affect him.

William on the other hand, was ecstatic that his plans to capture more victims was almost complete. But what made it all the better is that no one had questioned him on the designs just yet. He had been working on these separate animatronics for years, making sure they were perfect and could perform the task he had designed them to perform. It took many steps of trial and error, but the mechanisms were finally working and could perform without flaws. The only thing left that he needed to do was make them look more approachable to his unknowing target: children. 

Chapter 10

Summary:

Elizabeth?

The months leading up to Elizabeth’s birthday went by, completely normal, or as normal as they could be. It was very strange for Michael to not see Evan or Charlotte every day like he did, but he eventually got used to it. Kind of.

Jeremy and Michael would still hang out with each other every day, laughing and joking, not giving a care in the world so as to not remind each other of the incident even though it’s been a year. Nicolas and Richard had chosen them as a target for bullying this new school year even though the bullying from the previous year had died down, but again they wouldn’t care. They would either fight them willingly where they all got detention (so they wouldn’t do that very often) or cuss them out and run off laughing, trying to lose them in the hallways. 

It was also very strange for Elizabeth to not see Evan or Charlotte as well. She missed them both dearly since they were all very close, but didn’t want to tell anyone because she was afraid William would see her as weak. She didn’t want that. She only wanted her father’s attention and approval, which she rarely got as it is. He would rarely greet her in the mornings or when she got picked up from school or even tell her good night. He seemed to only notice her when he needed her to do a chore, but otherwise it was almost like she didn’t exist to him. 

Michael was better to his sister, but not by much. He would say hello when she got picked up from school or help her find a snack when she was hungry between meals and she couldn’t reach it in the pantry. Otherwise, he seemed lost in his own head. He almost always had an absent expression on his face and would hide away in his room, out of the house hanging out at the park with Jeremy or in detention from another fight. When she would try to be a good sister and check on him, as soon as she knocked on his closed door she would get a response of ‘Go away’ or ‘Not now’.

At the Emily’s, things were different now that Charlotte has been gone for almost a year. Henry and his wife were fighting because Henry couldn’t get over Charlotte’s death and Samuel was scared that his parents were going to separate. He knew he couldn’t control his parent’s situation and he felt hopeless. 

William, however, still couldn’t get over his jealousy, even after Charlotte’s death. He hated that Henry didn’t pay as much attention to him anymore, being that he was either being swamped with work, moping about Charlotte, paying attention to Samuel, Elizabeth or Michael or he was fighting with his wife. It was as though Henry made no time for him seemingly on purpose. He wanted it to go back to when they first started college, when they would keep each other company all the time since they were both outcasts and talk crap about the professors, go to bars and get drunk, or just laugh and joke together. He wanted to go back when it was just them two against the world. He was building this new diner for two reasons. To distract himself and because he needed more test subjects to prove his theory. 

The day before the diner opened, the mechanical supervisor came into the diner to ask a couple questions about the blueprints he was looking over, since overseeing the mechanics was his job. 

“Mr. Afton? If I may have a word with you?” he asked. William saw and went over to him as he finished up the final touches on the diner. “The team and I had a couple questions on the blueprints for Circus Baby we were shown.” 

William nodded. 

“There’s no doubting what you’ve achieved on a technical level. These are clearly state of the art. There are just certain…design choices that were made for these robots that we don’t fully understand. We were hoping that you could shed some light on those.”

William was quiet for a few seconds as he thought about what design choices he could be referring to. 

“She can dance, she can sing. She’s equipped with a built in helium tank for inflating balloons right at her fingertips. She can take song requests. She can even dispense ice cream,” William responded. 

“With all due respect, those aren’t the design choices we were curious about Mr. Afton.”

“What design choices were you referring to, exactly?”

“In this blueprint, Circus Baby has a giant claw inside the stomach area. Do you have any idea why that was put in?”

“I don’t. But I can reassure you, it will not be used. I would assume the mechanics put it in to fill up extra space, since they have different endoskeletons.”

“That is reassuring that it will not be used, but do you know why it’s in the shape of a claw?”

“I don’t. I would think it was because they were originally designed to hold things, like food, but that idea has since been scrapped.”

“That reassures my worries. Thank you for your time Mr. Afton,” he said and walked out of the diner. 

That was…surprisingly easy. How stupid can he be?! William thought. 

The next day when the diner opened on Elizabeth’s birthday, Elizabeth was running all around, making sure she saw everything like the other children but she spent the most time in Circus Baby’s room. Her father had told her strictly before she went into the establishment to not go near any of the animatronics, but he didn’t tell Michael or any of the other children to do the same. She didn’t know why. She kept begging him to let her go see Circus Baby up close, but he always answered with a ‘No’ or sometimes ‘No, she’s too dangerous’.

Michael had to admit, he was pretty impressed by the diner and it was obviously inspired by Fredbear’s, but he was in charge of keeping track of Elizabeth and Samuel. He knew that his father was busy with running the place by himself, but he didn’t want to keep track of the little kids and just explore the diner on his own. He was always picked as the babysitter by the adults since he was the oldest. Even when Charlotte and Evan were alive, Michael was always chosen to watch them all. 

Michael usually stayed a few feet behind Elizabeth, but she was usually busy running around to explore or chatting with Samuel since he was around her age, so thank goodness Henry was also there with him. After a while of following Elizabeth, Michael finally saw his father for what seemed like the first time since he unlocked the doors. 

“What d’you think of the place?” he asked, mainly to Henry who was right beside Michael as they were in Funtime Foxy’s stage room, watching their show with the kids. 

“It’s great! The robots are highly advanced. I’m surprised you could even do this sort of thing.”

“Are you calling me dumb?” William joked. 

“No!” Henry chuckled. “I just didn’t think the endoskeletons would be possible. They look so…different from what I’m used to.” 

“Well, I wanted to try a different approach on the endoskeletons. Do you want to see how they’re made?”

“Sure! Uh, Mike, do you mind watching the kids for a bit?”

“Fine. If you pay me,” Michael said. 

“We’ll only be a few minutes!”

“Ugh, fine! I’ll watch ’em.”

“Thanks Mike! I knew I could count on you!” Henry said and they both went to William’s office where William was showing him how he built and put the endoskeleton together. 

Michael went up to Elizabeth and Samuel, who were sitting in plastic chairs and watching Funtime Foxy’s show. 

“Mikey,” Elizabeth finally said. Michael turned to her. 

“Yes Liz?”

“Do you think daddy based this one off of you?”

Michael looked back at Funtime Foxy. “I don’t know. Why do you think that?”

“Because daddy said that all of these were based on our family. One for Mum, one for Evan, one for you, one for me, and one for him,” Elizabeth explained and Michael’s attention went back to Funtime Foxy on stage. 

“Maybe.”

Once Funtime Foxy’s show ended, Elizabeth hopped out of her seat and ran to the doorway. “Mikey! I wanna go see Circus Baby!” Elizabeth exclaimed and she took off to the room again like this was the first time she had seen Circus Baby all day. Michael let out a sigh. 

“C’mon Sammy. She’s on her way again,” he said. 

“Where did she go?” he asked.

“She went to Baby’s room again.”

“Again? We've already been there like, two hundred times!”

Michael snickered. “It was only five times. C’mon, we have to keep up with her.”

Samuel got out of his seat and took Michael’s hand as they went to Circus Baby’s room together, where they found Elizabeth aways back from a small crowd of kids who were by Circus Baby’s stage, like William told her to. The parents of the children were either next to their kids or along the back wall, conversing with each other. They went over to Elizabeth and stood next to her, where Michael noticed from her height she could barely see Circus Baby over the kids in front of her.

“Daddy said I couldn’t go near her. He said it was too dangerous to be close to her, even though she was made for me!” Elizabeth told Samuel. 

“Why would he tell you that if she was made for you?” Samuel asked. 

“I don’t know! All the other children are allowed to be near her! I don’t understand! She’s so pretty and shiny!” she exclaimed. After Circus Baby finished performing after a couple minutes, the small crowd of kids cleared out with their parents and left the three of them alone with Circus Baby. “Where did the other children go?” 

Michael felt a light tug on his jacket and turned to Samuel. He was the only person who ever did that to get someone’s attention, since he was too scared to speak more than he had to. 

“Do you know where Dad is?” Samuel asked Michael quietly. His voice was very soft spoken, so it was difficult for Michael to hear at times. 

“He said he was going to my father’s office to see how the endoskeletons were built, but I thought he would’ve been back by now.”

“He might be in danger!” Samuel exclaimed. He never liked leaving his parents' side for a long time. 

“I’m sure he’s completely fine.” 

“We have to help him though!” Samuel said and he grabbed Michael’s hand and tried to use all his strength to lead him out of the room to show him where William’s office was. Michael resisted and looked back at Elizabeth. He had to make a choice to watch his sister (who was a little older than Samuel) and not let her go near the animatronics like his father said, or help Samuel get over the fear that his dad was in danger (who wouldn’t stop trying to pull him out of the room by his sleeve). He eventually made up his mind after thinking for a moment. 

“Liz, don’t you dare go near those animatronics.”

“Even Baby?”

“Even Baby. Father will ground me or possibly worse. They are really expensive, so he doesn’t want you near them.” 

“But all the other children were allowed to be close to her!”

“Maybe it was because he didn’t want your grubby little hands all over these expensive machines.”

Elizabeth stomped her foot as she crossed her arms. “Okay Mike. I promise,” she said angrily as she looked at the floor, not sure if she was angry or unhappy. 

“When I come back in five minutes, I should see you in the same place. Got it?”

“Yes, I understand Mike.”

“Good,” Michael finally gave in to Samuel leading him out of the room. “Woah, you’re a lot stronger than I thought,” Michael said and he was pulled by the sleeve out of the room, leaving Elizabeth alone. 

Elizabeth watched Circus Baby for some time until she checked the entrance to Circus Baby’s room and saw no one was there. She stepped a little closer to Circus Baby until she was in her field of vision and her eyes locked on Elizabeth. 

“I don’t know why daddy wouldn’t let me come see you. You’re wonderful!” Elizabeth said. Circus Baby kept her eyes fixed on Elizabeth eerily. Suddenly, Elizabeth saw ice cream appear out of Circus Baby’s stomach, which happened to be her favorite. Elizabeth gasped excitedly and looked around her to check that no one was watching. She cautiously stepped forward and took the ice cream and she started eating it. 

Michael was by his father’s office as Samuel went in to check on his father when he got a bad feeling in his gut that told him he had to go back to the room, like something bad was going to happen. Michael thought it must’ve just been his inner conscience telling him to go and check on Elizabeth, since he was supposed to watch her. He decided to trust his gut and snuck away back to the room. 

After Elizabeth only took a few licks of the ice cream on the cone, she saw Michael come back into the room. 

Shit, he thought as he saw her and ran across the huge room as fast as his legs could carry him. Before Elizabeth could move, she saw what looked like a giant metal lobster claw come out of an empty compartment on Circus Baby’s stomach and grab her. The claw had sharp spikes lining the inside of the claw, which impaled Elizabeth's sides. She screamed from both fear and agonizing pain from the claw. 

“Michael!” she yelled to her brother. As quickly as the claw grabbed her, it retracted with her back inside the compartment in Circus Baby’s stomach, trapping her inside. 

“Elizabeth!” Michael yelled as he finally got to Circus Baby and almost crashed into her as he went onto the stage. He tried to frantically open up the compartment so he could get Elizabeth out, but it wouldn’t budge.

---

“Mike! He’s okay!” Samuel said as he poked his head out of the office door and saw Michael wasn’t there. “Mike?” William and Henry went up behind him as they were all about to leave the office. 

“Did you come here with him?” Henry asked Samuel. 

“Yes! But now he’s gone.”

“Was Elizabeth with you?” William asked and Samuel shook his head. William let out a sigh and clenched his jaw together as he tried not to cuss in front of Samuel while Henry was with him. 

“He might be back in Circus Baby’s room. Go run and find him and we’ll catch up to you!” Henry said. Samuel nodded and took off running to Circus Baby’s room. 

Back in the room, Samuel suddenly appeared right behind Michael like he had teleported. Michael was too worried for his sister to even flinch in fright when he all of a sudden heard Samuel's voice or that there was even a pain in his stomach, telling him that he was too late.

“What’s happening?” Samuel asked. 

“Elizabeth…she’s trapped in there! I have to get her out!” Michael said. 

“Liz’s in there?” 

“Yes!” he replied and frantically tried to open it again. Samuel tried his best to help him, even though he thought he was just making it up; he thought they were playing a game.

Both Henry and William came back into the almost empty room and saw the two boys on the stage. They both ran to them and pulled them back, Henry pulled Samuel back by his arm gently because he didn’t want him touching it and Michael was pulled back by the hood of his coat by William, quite strong and sudden because he was angry. “Woah, what’s going on here?!” Henry exclaimed.

“Elizabeth. She’s trapped!” Michael said. He now had tears streaming down his face. 

“After I told her not to?!” William said. 

“Yes! I saw her with my own two eyes!”

“Maybe she’s hiding,” Henry suggested. 

“She’s not! I saw her!”

“That’s not what animatronics are meant for, Mike. The diner’s about to close anyway and Heather should be back home. We should get going.” 

They all said their goodbyes to each other and they left. The remaining parents and children left shortly after, and pretty soon the parking lot was empty. 

Father’s going to kill me, Michael thought. He felt terrible as he watched the last of the cars leave the parking lot out the front window. He watched his own sister get snatched in front of him by that animatronic like she was nothing and he could do nothing to stop it. He should’ve just stayed with her instead of giving into Samuel’s fantasy and he hated himself for making that decision. To make matters worse, no one believed him. 

“Michael,” his father said after they were alone and went up behind him. Michael gulped his fears down and turned around to look in his father’s cold, dead eyes; his eyes were as cold as the belt buckle Michael felt on his skin the night of the incident at Fredbear’s. He felt his heart racing from fear and he tensed up.

“Y-yes?”

“How dare you lie to me.”

“I wasn’t! I swear!”

“Don’t lie to me again! I know she’s just hiding somewhere, I told her not to go up to them!”

“She’s a kid!”

“She knows better! Just tell me the truth for once in your life!”

“I saw her with my own two eyes! She’s trapped inside Circus Baby!”

“How hard is it to tell me the goddamn truth?!”

“It is the truth! I swear!”

William smacked him in the back of the head. 

Michael was forced by his father to search around the whole diner for her, even places Michael didn’t even know existed, and both of them found nothing. 

Michael went to find his father a few minutes later and found him searching Circus Baby’s room again. 

“I just finished double checking Ballora’s room. I found nothing,” he said quietly. His father didn’t say anything in reply, but was holding something red in his hands. 

Michael went up beside him and saw he was holding Elizabeth’s bow she had in her hair that she always had right in front of Circus Baby, where she was. Michael guessed that it probably fell out as the claw grabbed her; he hadn’t noticed it when he ran up to Circus Baby.

“Father?” he asked. 

“No one could survive that long without air,” William muttered so Michael couldn’t hear him clearly. William looked up and he saw that Circus Baby’s eyes had changed. She was built with a blue color in her eyes, but now they were a bright green, just like Elizabeth’s were. He stepped closer to it and dropped the bow as Michael grabbed it and shoved it in his pocket. “It worked,” William whispered to himself. Sure, Elizabeth was the only one who he wanted to keep alive since he saw her potential to carry on his legacy, but he’d just have to alter his plans slightly and it could work for the future. 

“What worked?” Michael asked softly. William didn’t answer him. 

“Let’s go,” William said. 

“What?”

“I said let’s go!”

“But we can’t just leave her!”

“Hurry up and get in the car! Now I said let’s go!”

Michael followed him out the door and they got into William’s car as he started it and drove them home. “So..is Liz-” Michael started. 

“No.”

“What?”

“She’s still alive, you know.”

“Then why are we just leaving her?!”

“We can’t bring her back. Not now.”

“So, it’s just us then?”

“Yes. It’s only you and me now. I’m afraid the diner has to be shut down tomorrow.”

“So uh…am I not grounded?”

“You definitely are, don’t think you’re getting out of this easily. You had one job. ONE. And you failed.”

“But she was older than Sammy! I thought she would be able to stay in the same place! I was only gone for a few minutes!”

“Still, you should’ve been watching her since you know how much she wanted to see Circus Baby. Henry and I wanted you to watch all the kids to make sure they didn’t get into trouble and now look at what you did. Elizabeth is gone, because you weren’t watching. You’re grounded for a month.”

“A month?!”

“Isn’t that what I said?! I can make it two months if you like.”

“N-no! A month’s fine.”

Michael stared out the window at the passing cars in silence. How could his father still be so calm about all of this? He killed his wife and two of his kids were dead, granted this one was his own doing since he built the things, but she was still gone regardless. It hurt Michael, especially since his father made him feel like it was his fault in the first place. But what else could he have done to stop it? Circus Baby was designed that way. Sure, not going with Samuel was one thing, but what else? Just magically run faster?

Michael also feared for himself. Was his father going to bring out the belt again? He didn’t doubt it, since his father saw this as all Michael’s fault. But what was he going to do now that he has to carry all this guilt? He felt like both of his siblings' deaths were his fault, and he even blamed himself for his mother’s death. But he couldn’t do anything about it, not until he either got old enough or his father somehow died soon. Part of him hoped the second option would come first. 

---

The next day when Jeremy and Michael were at lunch at school, Jeremy saw Michael at their usual table outside but with his head down. He knew something had happened, and it couldn’t be good. The last time he had kept his head down at lunch was the incident a year ago. Jeremy went up to the metal table Michael was at and knocked on it, sending an echo throughout the whole table and Michael looked up at him. He saw Jeremy’s smiling face as he sat down across from him. 

“What was that for?!” Michael said. 

“I dunno. I wanted to make sure you were awake. Anyway, I bought juice from the snack bar for you,” Jeremy said as he handed him a bottle and he had one for himself. Michael smiled as he took it. 

“Thanks Jer. But I don’t want you using your money on me.”

“You said that before but I’m not a great listener. Anyways, what’s up?” he asked as he sat across from Michael and opened his bottle. 

“I mean, nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Nu-uh, everything doesn’t seem ‘ordinary’.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, the last time you had your head down at lunch it was about your brother. So what happened?”

“Oh. You noticed?”

“Jeremy knows all and sees all. He’s very observant y'know,” he joked and Michael snickered. 

“Well, it’s about my sister this time.”

“Aw man. What happened?”

“Let’s just say, yesterday was her birthday. She uh…she’s dead now. And my father says it was all because of me. That I should’ve been watching her.”

“Another one of your siblings is dead?”

“Yes, and I feel terrible.”

“No Mike. You’re not allowed to feel like that under the law of Jeremy. Whatever happened to your sister, it was a mistake. Just like the last one.”

“I know it was, but I was watching my Uncle’s son and her, and she’s a year older than him. I thought she’d be alright if I left for five minutes, tops.”

“It’s not your fault though. I’ve met him before once or twice, he’s quiet but he’ll believe whatever pops into his mind, real or fake. So I’m guessing that’s what happened?”

“Yeah. He thought his dad was in danger or something and dragged me along.”

“See? That's not your fault.”

“But my father thinks so. So I’m grounded for a month.”

“A month?!”

“Yeah. I even told him what happened but he didn’t believe me.”

“Well then, I guess I’ll just have to stand outside your window.”

“And do what?”

“I dunno. Talk like we always do after school. Or if you have a rope or something, you could let it down and I could climb up into your window like they do in movies.”

Michael laughed. “I’m sure those are fake, Jer.”

“Nuh-uh! I’ve seen it before!”

“Where?”

“…movies.”

They both laughed. “Plus, my father would probably hear you anyway and ban me from seeing you again or something.”

”Right. I forgot you had a strict dad. He’s rude too.”

“But now that both of my siblings are dead, I’m wondering how long it’ll take before I’m next.”

“Don’t say that. You’ll live if you play life smart, and from what I know you’re a pretty smart kid. I know you’ll live a long time.”

“I mean, it just seems like my family’s cursed for some reason. I mean, my mum’s dead, Ev’s dead, now Liz’s dead. All that’s left is me and my father.”

“They’re probably all just coincidences. Besides, why would your family be cursed out of the billions of other families in the world? I think you’re worried about nothing Mike.”

---

When Michael got home after school that day, he was told strictly by his father to go up to his room. Michael threw his backpack near his bedroom door and laid on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He was upset, but was a little angry at the same time, being that he had nothing to do. Sure, he could work on the homework he was assigned, but he would get bored easily or need to stand up and do something else, then forget that he had homework, so it would probably only get partially done by tomorrow. He got up and got Evan’s Fredbear plush and Elizabeth’s bow from his closet and sat back on his bed and put them both in front of him. 

“I miss you guys. So much. I'm so sorry for being such a shitty brother. I should’ve been better,” It was a strange feeling, to be talking but there was no response. But he did feel like something was in the room so he kept talking. “I’m…I’m sorry. I know just an ‘I’m sorry’ sounds like it doesn’t mean a lot, but I mean it. I’m really sorry. I should’ve been there for you. I should’ve been a better brother. I shouldn’t have treated you guys like you were nothing. But I did, and look what happened. I just want you guys to be alive and happy again, even if you two are a pain. 

“But…I also miss Mum. Father treats me like shit, he doesn’t care about me. I watched her die, and I couldn’t do anything, I was just some scared little kid. I wanted to do something, I wanted to save her but I couldn’t because I was scared and stupid. I'm sorry Mum. I just…I wish all three of you were here right now.”

He suddenly got chills like he had a couple of times before, like someone or something was close to him but he saw nothing. He smiled as the wave of tears escaped his eyes. He didn’t know what it was, but he felt as if the comfort of a mother was around him. 

Meanwhile, William was downstairs in the basement, writing in his journal again on the page next to where he wrote down his findings from Evelyn and Charlotte. 

‘Subject 3: Circus Baby (Elizabeth Afton)

I couldn’t get any remnant for myself being that I wasn’t in the room. 

Should try getting a child’s remnant before the rest of their soul can latch onto anything. 

Concluded that machines cannot do the dirty work for me. Should get the child’s remnant manually instead of with machines unless I want them to fuse.’

Now he only had to figure out who his next target should be. 

Chapter 11

Summary:

A few months after Elizabeth’s passing.

Michael missed his sister. He didn’t want to admit it, but he did. It wasn’t the same without any of his siblings, for that matter. He regretted his decision how he treated them both while they were alive. He would’ve thought he learned his lesson after Evan, to treat his siblings better because they weren’t immortal, but he hasn’t. He treated his sister like she was nothing, and he felt terrible. 

His father wasn’t any help as he was making Michael feel like it was all his fault. He told him he was a murderer, that he was the villain here. He told his son that if anyone found out about what he did, then he would be locked up for sure. Nevertheless, William said that he wouldn’t call the police on him only if he didn’t tell anybody what he saw all those years ago. Michael didn’t want to risk it if William was telling the truth and would hold up to that promise, even though he was sure his father was trying to manipulate him. 

William, though, was too focused on the new diner to worry about Michael. He wanted to make sure it was popular with children, like Fredbear’s, so his targets would fall into his hands. Thankfully after a few months of the diner being open, it was very popular with families but he needed a solid target. Someone who came regularly and not just a couple of times a month so the parents would be used to them being away from the house often. He thought since he was a security guard and it was his job to watch the children it would be easier, but as it turned out it was a lot harder to find regulars who came in the diner often since it was popular. 

Finally after playing the waiting game for longer than he cared to admit, he found a girl who seemed to come by a couple times a week. She had blonde, curly hair and often came dressed in pink. This girl was about eight or nine, ten at the most and often came without any parents. Regularly, she came with what William assumed were her friends, a small group of girls and their parents were usually close by. They would usually spend time in the arcade and while her friends switched what games they would play, she would spend the most time playing a game called Fruity Maze. She was often seen smiling and laughing while her friends would say ‘Go, go, go!’ as she played the game because she was timed. William continued to play the waiting game with her, praying that one of these days she would come alone. 

Oftentimes on the weekends, William wouldn’t give Michael as much of a break as he would make him help out at the restaurant in case that girl would show up one of these days alone. Michael hated it. He didn’t want to be at the pizzeria as he hated the place from memories, but he also wanted to be with Jeremy. He would rather be with him at the park or one of their houses than at that dreadful place, either cleaning the tables or sweeping the floor. He liked to hang around Jeremy, not just at school but even outside of school, being that they both enjoyed each other’s company. Michael felt a little more uplifted when he was with Jeremy as he made him feel like a person and not a burden. 

Finally after what seemed like months, William finally let Michael not work one weekend near the end of the school year and Michael used that time to hang out with Jeremy at the park. He was always a fun person to be around and made him less worried being that he always acted like he was trying to live his life to the fullest, acting completely absurd or saying random things that came to his mind, which both made Michael laugh and forget about his problems for the time being. 

When Michael went up to Jeremy on the bench, he saw he had dyed his hair color. Instead of a black color like he had before, he had bleached his hair so it was now a blonde color. 

“Hey Jer!” Michael called out to him. Jeremy looked up and smiled. “You changed your hair!”

“Yeah! I was just going for something different since I was getting sick of black,” he replied and Michael sat next to him. 

“It looks good on you!”

“You think so? I thought it looked kind of dorky.”

“No! I like it,” Michael reassured him and Jeremy smiled shyly. “So uh, what’s up?”

“Nothing much,” Jeremy said without making eye contact with Michael. 

“You’re lying, aren’t you?”

“No.”

“Yes you are. You look more uneased by something today. What’s up?”

“I-I don’t want to burden you. I mean, you’re already dealing with so much that it may just seem stupid to you.”

“Jer. I rant to you a lot about what I’m dealing with, and we’re supposed to be there for each other. I think I need to return the favor.”

“Fine. But I’m just afraid you’ll think of me as too sensitive.”

“I won’t. I’m sure that whatever you’re dealing with is perfectly reasonable to be upset over,” Michael said and Jeremy inhaled and exhaled deeply. 

“Okay…it’s about my mom. She’s not doing too well.”

“What’s happening with her?”

“She…she’s in the hospital. The doctors said that…” Jeremy said in a now quivering voice and could feel the wave of tears building up behind his eyes. “they said that it’s very bad and…she probably won’t make it.”

Jeremy couldn’t stop the cries of grief like he usually could and covered his mouth to muffle his sobs. Michael felt a wave of sympathy for him and without thinking, Michael wrapped both of his arms around him and hugged Jeremy as he cried into his shoulder. He didn’t want to say anything at first since Jeremy was clearly very upset, and feared that if he did say something right in that moment he would make it worse. “I-it’s not fair! She was the only one of my parents that cared about me! And they say she probably has only a couple months left and after that…I-I'll be alone!” Jeremy sobbed. 

“I’ll still be right here. I’m not leaving your side,” Michael said comfortingly and Jeremy looked up at him. 

“You mean it?” he asked as he wiped tears from his eyes. 

“I mean it. I don’t want to just leave you alone when you’re also one of the only people who treats me like a person.”

Jeremy smiled and hugged Michael. They didn’t care that they got weird looks from strangers passing by or parents trying to lead their small children away from them, being that Jeremy was crying in Michael’s arms while they were embracing each other. Michael only wanted to try his best to comfort Jeremy since he was clearly upset about his mother passing away in a few months.

“So I’m guessing that’s why you went blonde?” Michael asked and Jeremy let out a half snicker, half sob. 

“How could you tell?” he joked and they both chuckled. They let go of each other as Jeremy felt better and he wiped his tears. “After I heard about it yesterday, I ran to the nearest drugstore and I impulsively bleached my hair when I got home.” 

“Well, I think blonde suits you.”

“It’s slowly growing on me.”

From behind him, Michael could sense that a couple of pairs of eyes were staring at him and Jeremy. Michael looked over his shoulder at the bushes behind him and saw nothing. 

“Mike? Are you okay?” Jeremy asked once he saw Michael looking over his shoulder and looked in the same direction. 

“I thought someone was watching us.”

“Watching us? Do we have a stalker now?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being paranoid again.”

“I think you are. There’s no one there!” Jeremy said and they both went down to the grassy area of the park ahead of them. 

From the bushes, there were in fact people watching them, and it wasn’t Michael being paranoid. They were people he knew, their only bullies that school year, and they both knew they could use what they just saw as blackmail in the future. 

“Dude, did ya see that shit?!” One of them said to his adopted brother. 

“Yeah. I knew something was up with them from the moment we met them. But what if it was just in a friendly way? ‘Cause we heard Fitzgerald was upset about his mom dying,” the other said, trying to convince his brother. 

“Last time I checked, guys usually don’t hug each other for several minutes.”

“I guess you have a point.”

---

Once Michael had started his new year at school, Henry found William at an empty booth near the back with an absent look on his face. 

“Will? Everything okay?” Henry asked William as he waved his hand in front of his face. 

“Oh! Uh-yes.”

“You sure?”

“Yep. Just…forgot I was working for a while,” he replied and Henry chuckled. 

“You forgot?”

“Yes. I just uh, got…distracted in my thoughts.”

“Well, we’re still on the clock, so try not to get too distracted!”

“Aye aye captain,” William joked as he stood up and Henry snickered as he walked away. 

In a way, William was kind of telling the truth. He did get distracted in his own thoughts, but he was trying to review his plans for exactly how he was going to successfully lure the girl away from people and without anybody noticing. It would be easier since she almost never had her parents around, but she was always surrounded by other adults or kids that knew her, so he guessed she must’ve been popular at her school. 

He remembered walking by her, and she was telling her friends excitedly that her parents had gotten her a dog. He didn’t know if he would be able to use that information but she was excitedly speaking about it loudly, so he couldn’t help but overhear. He could tell that she loved that dog dearly, as she was talking about it every time he passed her and her friend group. 

One time when he was passing the girl and her friends on his route around the whole diner, he heard her mention a name that he immediately knew. ‘Elizabeth’. He let his curiosity get the best of him and went up to them. 

“Excuse me girls,” William said and the group looked up at him. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear, but who is this Elizabeth you were talking about?”

“Oh! She was my friend from school! She…she died though,” the girl said. 

“And if you don’t mind me asking, do you know her last name?”

“Yes! It was Afton!” She noticed William’s name tag which read ‘William Afton’. “Oh! Are you Liz’s dad?”

“Yes. I was her father,” William replied and he faintly saw a petrified look in the girl’s eyes.

“Well, she was a very nice girl. All of us were her friends!” she added on quietly, “I was her best friend, though.”

“Well, nice to meet you all. I have to get back to my shift now. Can’t leave for too long,” William said, walking away from the group as they continued playing the games. 

What she didn’t  know is she gave William more of a reason to target her instead of Elizabeth’s other friends. If that girl was her best friend, then Elizabeth most definitely told her about things that were going on in her family. William wouldn’t know what she told her, but he couldn’t risk it. If he had to guess, she probably told her about the blueprints of Circus Baby and Funtime Freddy since he had stupidly left them out on the kitchen table one night and caught her looking at them. That girl did look slightly afraid when speaking to him once she found out he was Elizabeth’s father, so she probably knew something that Elizabeth had told her. Most likely regarding him. 

For the life of him, he couldn’t remember her name but that was beside the point. He wanted to execute this plan as soon as possible, no matter if there were other kids around or not. 

Chapter 12

Summary:

“I was the first. I have seen everything.”

The next day, Henry was at work and he kept his head down on his desk. He and his wife had been fighting a lot more recently and he just needed to be alone in thought. William walked by his office and saw him with his head down fiddling with his pen. He knocked on the door and he let himself in since it was open. 

“Hey Hen. Why do you look so down?” he asked. 

“Family problems.”

“What kind of family problems?”

“Heather and I…we’ve been fighting a lot recently. I’m scared that our marriage is falling apart before my eyes.”

“Well, we can’t change what’ll happen to your marriage in the future. But if the reason you’re fighting is about Charlie…” William waited for him to answer but Henry stayed mute. “Is this about Charlie again?”

“…yes, it is.”

“Hen you need to let her go. She died two years ago! You have a life for God’s sake!”

“I know but she was my daughter! It’s not that easy!”

“Look, we all know she was your favorite-”

“I don’t pick favorites.”

“Sure you don’t. Anyway we all know she’s your favorite, but she died! We can’t raise her from the dead! Move on!”

“It’s not that easy!”

“If I can move on after the death of two of my kids, you can move on about the death of your daughter!”

“But that’s different! She was younger than them!”

“So?! You just need to move on!”

“I can’t!”

“Yes you can! It’s possible!”

“It’s different from your situation!”

“Really?! How?!”

“Because I actually care about my kids!”

Henry regretted saying those words as soon as they left his mouth. It was so quiet between them that they could practically hear a pin drop and it was almost as if Henry could hear his words echoing off the walls. It was different when Evelyn said those words to William because he didn’t truly love her so they held no meaning to him, but he and Henry have been close for years and he never expected to hear those words from him. 

“Will, I didn’t mean it-”

“Didn’t sound like it.”

“I’m sorry!” William didn’t say anything. He stood in place as quiet as a mouse, not looking at Henry. “Will-”

“You know you didn’t have to tell me. I don’t need help from you pointing it out.”

“William please-” William cut him off by walking out of Henry’s office and slammed the door behind him. Henry felt worse than he did before. He opened the door and spotted William walking away down the hall and Henry chased after him. “Will, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

William ignored him as he sped up slightly and went out to the main diner where he was lost in the crowd of people and Henry stopped chasing him as he got to the end of the hall. He felt terrible. 

William sat by himself at an empty booth in the back, partially doing his job as a security guard and partially replaying what just happened in his head. Each time he remembered he got more and more pissed. He was angry at Henry even though he tried to apologize, but he’s heard empty apologies before (mainly from his parents). He wasn’t sure if Henry’s apologies just sounded empty and they weren’t, but he didn’t care. He just decided to watch the kids in the diner for a while. He was pissed, but he still had a job to do. 

William looked into the game room a little while later as his leg was bouncing from overthinking when he saw the same little girl he had seen many times before, but she was by herself, crying. On one hand, he could care less. But then he remembered his experiments that he had started a while ago. Sure, he got enough remnant from Charlotte which he hasn’t done anything with yet, but not enough. He wanted to test the remnant on the animatronics he created first before he tried it on himself. For that, he was going to need more. 

He looked around and saw she was totally alone and got up to go to the back room where Springbonnie was stored. 

“Don’t do it. Don’t give into those thoughts,” he heard faintly. He thought he was just losing it again. He closed his eyes and shook his head as if to clear his mind. “You’ve done enough harm already.” 

“Shut up and get out of my head. Whatever you’re trying to do, it’s not going to work,” he said quietly out loud, where he was sure he looked like he was crazy as he talked to himself. He quickly went to the back room and put the suit on and went to where the girl was. She was still in the same place, playing her favorite game, Fruity Maze. Once the game ended, she noticed her quarter cup was gone and saw his, or rather Springbonnie’s reflection on the screen. She turned around, half frightened but half curious about who she saw. 

“Hello!” William said from the Springbonnie suit. He had to strain his voice to go higher than it usually did. The girl wiped her tears, looking back at her ‘Game Over’ screen. “Why are you crying?” 

“My dog. He was run over earlier today. This place always makes me happier, so I decided to come here.”

Shit, William thought. He was in a rush for work that morning and he ran over an animal of some sort. He saw in his rear view mirror that it was a dog. He didn’t  know what else to say about her dead dog, but he got an idea. 

“You know, he’s not really dead.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I found him this morning and fixed him up. He’s all better now.”

“Where is he?”

“He’s in the back waiting for you. Follow me, I’ll take you to him.”

William started going towards the back room and to his relief, the girl followed him excitedly. They went to the room in the back of the main diner that was labeled ‘Employees Only’ and William opened the already unlocked door.

“Are you sure I’m allowed to be back here?” the girl asked. 

“Of course! I’m giving you special permission.”

The girl went inside and William closed the door after both of them were inside, making it very dim with only a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling lighting the room. 

The girl looked around for a while and William took off the Springbonnie head and got a container of chloroform that was in the back that was used for dissolving excess oil on the animatronics. Chica was also in the back, for repairs. William smiled. His plan was going perfectly. 

“I don’t see him,” the girl said. 

“I’m sure he’s back there somewhere! Keep looking! Maybe he’s hiding.”

William put some chloroform on a rag the company had in the back and snuck up on the girl. She had her back turned to him as she was still looking for her dog. 

As she got closer to the light, William put the rag over her mouth and nose. She tried to scream for help, but it was muffled and no one could hear her. She struggled and tried to hit William (or anything else she could do) to get out of his grasp. William held on to her tightly, not letting her escape and keeping the rag in place. After several minutes of her struggling, William felt her getting weaker and weaker and she suddenly stopped. William took the rag off of her face and she fell to the floor.

That was easier than I thought it was going to be. 

William stood over Chica for a while, thinking about how he was going to hide her from the authorities, since they weren’t spring lock suits and there was no storage tank. He took off Chica’s head casing and noticed the entire casing was wider than the endoskeleton it was on, but not by much. He decided it was the only way if he was going to get away with this crime. He picked her up and tried to stuff her as best he could into the suit, hearing the many cracks of bones and her blood would get on his hands as she was bleeding from the force to stuff her in the suit. She was most likely dead, William figured, and he then took a metal syringe he had with him and practically stabbed her with it. 

“C’mon, c’mon…” he whispered to himself. This one was just like Charlotte, the syringe getting nothing but blood, except several minutes later when the same purple, dimly glowing liquid came up the syringe and he pulled on the syringe until it was full of this strange purple substance. After he finished gathering what he could, he closed the chest piece on Chica, which he struggled to get closed for several minutes since she was stuffed inside along with the mechanical parts, and put the head casing back on. He cleaned up the excess blood on the outside using chloroform to cover up the smell, which didn’t work as well because it now smelled like a mix of chloroform and a dead body which wasn’t pleasant in the slightest, but William decided it was good enough. 

He took off the rest of the Springbonnie suit and cleaned it off before he put it back in the corner next to Fredbear. He hid the syringe in many other clean rags in the back room, and he ran out to hide the syringe in his office to bring it back to his basement after work, where Charlotte’s remnant was hidden. 

Later that evening when everyone else went home, the same puppet that was next to Charlotte when she died got inside the location through outside vents. They were able to unlock the door to the back room by picking the lock with their eerily long fingers, and found the animatronic with the girl inside it.

The Puppet went over to Chica and suddenly, by some sort of magic, a small gift box appeared. They put the gift box touching Chica and it began to glow. Suddenly within seconds, the girl’s remaining soul was attached to the endoskeleton, but her body was still in the same place.

She opened her eyes and looked around after several minutes, but the Puppet was gone. All that was left was the gift box next to her but it disintegrated once she touched it. She looked at her hands and saw she was not who she was before. She knew who she was as a person, but she was different now. 

After many minutes of confusion, she realized that she was the animatronic, Chica, who was in the room when that man had murdered her. She was confused about how she was still able to live through an animatronic. She was scared. All she wanted was to go home to her mother and father. They were probably worried sick about her but she couldn’t do anything to get back to them. If she went out of this location looking for her parents, she would get taken back, or people would freak out because it wasn’t part of an animatronic’s programming, or both. She wanted to cry, knowing that she would never get to see her parents again. But being as though she was now an animatronic that couldn’t produce tears, she couldn’t. 

Chapter 13

Summary:

Michael knows that something terrible happened at the diner the previous day involving his father, but doesn’t know exactly what or if he should trust this gut feeling

The next day at work, Henry cautiously knocked on the wall to the security office, where William was. 

“It’s open,” he heard William say from the inside. Henry peaked his head in and William looked up from lazily checking the cameras and turned around to see Henry’s lightly freckled face peering in. Instead of having a glazed expression on his face like he usually did, it was replaced by a downcast expression that was clearly etched, similar to that first day Henry was back to work after his daughter’s death. His wavy hair was more unkempt than usual due to overthinking, where it looked like he didn’t even bother to run a quick comb through it that morning like he usually does. “Hey Hen!” William said, like nothing had happened between them both the previous day. 

“I just wanted to apologize again for yesterday. I wasn’t thinking before I spoke and I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Hen, I told you, it’s fine. That argument is over between us now.”

“But…I still feel so bad. How can I make it up to you?”

“You don’t have to. The past is the past.”

“I still feel terrible. I feel like it’s my fault that I hurt you and I should fix things between us.”

“Hen, I know how you are. You’ve been this way for years where you feel like you have to apologize again and again after every argument, but you don’t have to do something after every disagreement. It’s okay, I can assure you.”

“If you say so. And hey, I wanted to ask you one more thing.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Do you happen to know anything about the disappearance of a little girl yesterday?”

“A disappearance?”

“Apparently she was last seen here. Her family’s going crazy looking for her.”

“Uh…I don’t believe I even heard anything about that.”

“It was briefly in the paper this morning. Apparently the police are now starting to look into it, but I doubt it’ll be for long since you said you saw nothing.”

“The police? I wouldn’t think it would be that serious. Maybe she just lost her way home or something. Kids get lost like that all the time, especially if their parents aren’t around.”

“I mean, Charlie ended up getting killed at the old location and if this is the same situation as it was then, I don’t think the business could handle another one.”

“It would leave a bad name on the business as well. But do you know what she looks like so I could keep an eye out for her?”

“If I remember correctly, she had blonde curly hair, blue eyes and was last seen in a pink dress. I believe her name was Susan, but according to the parents everyone called her Susie.”

“Susie. I’ll keep an eye out for her.”

“Thanks Will,” Henry said as he left the office. 

So, she was known as Susie. William was the only one who knew about her ‘disappearance’ but he wanted to see how long it would take for anyone to catch him. He did not feel bad being the cause for her disappearance because he needed her remnant for science. He wanted the secret to immortality that no one has found. He was the one who wanted to make a scientific breakthrough. The only problem was, he was needing to perform tests. Lots of them, since the remnant is a part of a soul so it can be dangerous. And for more tests, he was going to need more remnant from more unsuspecting victims. And he wasn’t willing to stop at anything until he got what he wanted. 

A little later, William was walking around the pizzeria, doing his job as a security guard. He saw Chica on stage again after yesterday and she suddenly locked eyes with him from the opposite side of the room. He smiled evilly and she knew that it was him. He was the one who killed her. He was the one who took her away from her family. She wanted to do something, but the endoskeleton she was attached to was in performance mode during the day. She couldn’t do anything until nighttime, which is when he was gone. He walked away and she was angry. Angry that he still got to walk free and she was stuck. She couldn’t see his face clearly, but she knew that the one who had killed her was a man in a security guard uniform, and she felt like that’s all she needed to know. 

---

After school got out, Jeremy waited by Michael’s classroom like he always did to walk outside together. This time though, he was able to sneak out of his classroom earlier than he usually did, so he had some time to kill. He quickly got bored and ran his fingers through his messy, thick, collar length hair, which a few hairs kept escaping and falling in front of his face. His hair was now starting to grow out and the roots of his hair were now back to his natural hair color while the rest was a blonde color, and since the bleached hair grew on him he wanted to dye it again in the future. He heard the school bell ring and fixed the necklace his mother had given to him and leaned against the wall until he saw Michael come out the door along with the crowd of kids. 

“Mike? Are you feeling okay?” Jeremy asked when he saw Michael, who was looking at the ground in front of him absent-minded. Michael snapped out of his trance and looked directly into Jeremy's bright, honey colored eyes (which clashed with the dark circles under Michael’s eyes and the weird mix of the gray and blue color in his eyes), where he also had a very faint, peculiar scar over his left eye that he got in childhood and talked about, which made his eyes different from everyone else’s. 

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine.”

“You sure? You look like you’re very…distracted.”

“I’m fine, Jer.”

“Why don’t you just tell me what’s up? It might make you feel better to get it off your chest,” he said once they started walking down the hallway together along with all the other kids in the hallway. 

“It’s…it’s about my father. I just have this gut feeling that he’s up to something…bad.”

“Bad? Like robbing? I’ve stolen candy bars before.”

“No, not that. I feel like it’s worse, but I don’t know what. I’ve had this feeling since yesterday.”

“I highly doubt he’s up to something. He just seems…more of the weird type. His presence just rubs me the wrong way. It’s that same kind of feeling about a weird uncle who doesn’t talk to anyone and only contacts family like, twice a year to ask for money.”

Michael laughed as Jeremy scratched his jawline, and found out that a stubble was starting to grow on his freckled face from forgetting to shave for a couple of days. 

“I wouldn’t doubt he’d be like that,” Michael chuckled as they went outside to wait by the flagpole for William or Henry to pick up Michael from school, where Jeremy  would ride his bicycle home afterward. 

“Point is, you’re probably just imagining things like you were two years ago.”

“You could’ve just said ‘when Charlotte died’.”

“It’s the same thing! It was 1983 then, and it’s 1985 now.”

“Whatever.”

“Okay, what I mean to say is you’re probably just imagining things.”

“I hope you’re right. Everything just feels so…off. I know something’s wrong but I don’t know what.”

“I mean, what’s not weird about your dad right now?”

“Nothing.”

“Exactly.”

“You’re probably right. I’m just making this all up.”

“You probably are. But honestly this is the actual world. Lots of bad things happen.”

“So you’re saying it’s a possibility?”

“I dunno. I don’t know what my point is half the time.”

“So you’re saying I’m making it up?”

“I don’t know. What if it’s magic or something?”

“Magic?”

“I don’t know a lot about magic, but I’ve seen it in movies and it’s pretty cool.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about right now.”

“What I’m trying to say is that anything’s possible, but thinking he might be up to something while he’s at work doesn’t sound believable if you ask me.”

“You’re right. But I don’t know if I should trust my gut on this one.”

“He’s one of the guys who’s founded a shitty children’s restaurant. D’you really think he’d be up to something while he’s there?”

“Not really. I hope.”

“Then the answer is you’re probably just making shit up. I think your gut’s lying to you.”

“I hope it is. Otherwise, we’d be in a bad situation.”

Jeremy was quiet for a minute as he hung onto the flagpole and spun around it like he did when they met in elementary school. 

“Hey! Why’d you drag me into this?!” he exclaimed once he got back to face Michael and he heard him laugh. 

“I just wanted to see how long it’d take for you to notice.”

“Damn you,” Jeremy said as he continued to spin around the flagpole and Michael watched. “So, leading away from this subject since I know you don’t like to talk about it, I’ve been wondering since it’s been a couple years, is your opinion of pineapple on pizza still the same?”

“Yes! How could you like that? It’s nasty!”

“Nuh-uh! Have you even tried it?”

“I just know fruit doesn’t belong on pizza!”

“Sometimes it can!”

“Just because you said that you got that all the time when you lived in California doesn’t make it good!”

“We didn’t even have pizza all the time there! It was mainly tacos and enchiladas since that was my mom’s favorite. It’s different now that she…” Jeremy trailed off and Michael stayed silent, knowing he didn’t like to talk about his situation. “Anyways, I think I should force you to try it one of these days.”

“No way!”

“Yes way!”

Michael chuckled, finding it amusing that they were both so different and only bonded that one day in elementary school over one subject: they had complicated relationships with their fathers. But Jeremy did always help Michael get his mind off of his miserable life, as did Michael help Jeremy get his mind off of his. They both wanted nothing but the best for each other and hoped that nothing would happen to either of them, as they were both thankful to have each other. 

Michael was snapped out of his thoughts as Jeremy called out to him. 

“Mikey!” he teased, surprising Michael by leaning in closer to him and patting his shoulder several times. Michael rolled his eyes while smiling. 

“What?” he replied, pretending to sound annoyed and Jeremy laughed. 

“Your dad’s here.”

“Oh really?”

“He’s the only one with a purple car so I’m pretty sure unless some other parent got one yesterday.”

“Doubtful. See you Jer!”

“See ya Mikey!” Jeremy replied. Michael chuckled and they both went separate directions, Michael towards his father’s car parked on the side of the road and Jeremy went towards the bike rack and rode his bicycle back to his house. 

As Michael watched the cars driving beside William’s on the road out the window, he couldn’t get rid of the gut feeling something was wrong. It felt almost as if his inner consciousness was telling him he was right about his father: that he was up to something but he didn’t know what. Jeremy said it didn’t sound believable that William would do something shady at his job, but his inner consciousness was telling him otherwise and to trust his gut. Michael didn’t know which he should believe. 

Chapter 14

Summary:

Hope everyone remembers that little brother I briefly mentioned in the first chapter

That day, Henry went home, but he stayed quiet for most of the evening. It wasn’t unusual, but usually it was about Charlotte or to have time to himself to think about other difficulties he was dealing with. This time, it was about the little girl who went missing at the restaurant a couple days ago. Heather walked in on Henry in the kitchen, who was staring off at nothing, absent-minded as he was lost in thought. 

“Did you seriously not hear me again?!” she said aggressively and Henry snapped out of his trance so he was looking directly in her bright blue eyes. 

“I-I’m sorry. What did you say?”

“I said ‘Can you help Sammy with his homework’ since I was upstairs, but it seems you weren’t paying attention, again!”

“I’m sorry. I can help him right now-”

“Don’t bother. I’m already down here anyways. I’ll help him.”

“I mean, I still can-”

“No. I don’t want him getting help from a dad who doesn’t care about him!”

“But I do care! I just didn’t hear you!”

“That was the fourth time I called you, and I heard nothing!”

“I’m sorry, but it’s the truth! You know I have hearing difficulties!”

“Even then, you can still help your own son!”

“Well I didn’t know!”

“He came home from school almost an hour ago!”

“He’s a smart kid!”

“He still needs help sometimes!”

“Well I’m sorry, I was also thinking about my own job!”

“About Charlie?! She died a year ago, Henry! Grow up and get past it!”

“Not her! That was at Fredbear’s! Not here!”

“Then what the hell was so important that you couldn’t help your own son?!”

“Another little girl! She went missing a couple days ago and I’m sorry for being concerned about the customer's safety!”

“You’re not at the diner right now! You’re at your own home!”

“My job is still a part of my life and it’s not every day a little girl goes missing at your job, so sorry if I’m a little concerned! Yes, I’m still upset about Charlie, but this isn’t about her right now!”

“And you still couldn’t help him?!”

“Do you not understand the severity of this?! She could be dead for all we know!”

Samuel peaked into the kitchen as his parents were fighting. He heard everything. He understood both sides of his parents’ argument, but hated that they just yelled at each other for it. What he couldn’t stand was that he was the main cause of starting the argument. If he hadn’t said anything to his mother then this wouldn’t have started. Yet, he did, and now he felt terrible. Sure, he was stuck on one problem, but he was able to do the rest. If he had just missed a couple points on his homework instead of listening to his parents argue, he’d take the points. He ran out to them since it was the only way he knew to get them to stop yelling, and they stopped once they saw him in between them and he had tears in his eyes, which he wiped away. 

Henry bent down so he could see him eye to eye, and Samuel hugged his father as he weeped into his shoulder. Henry hugged his son, trying to calm him down as Heather was shooting daggers at her husband and he looked up at her. 

“He’s my son too,” he said. Heather glared at him and went out of the kitchen. 

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry Dad,” Samuel sobbed. 

“It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yes I did. I…I started a fight. I didn’t want you guys to yell at each other. If I didn’t say anything to Mom then this wouldn’t have happened.”

“It wasn’t your fault your mother yelled at me. She’ll get over it,” he said. “Hopefully,” Henry added on to himself under his breath. 

“I don’t want you guys to split up over me.”

“No Sammy. We wouldn’t. If we did, it’d be between me and your mom. Not you.”

“But I feel like it’s all my fault you guys started fighting.”

“It wasn’t your fault Sammy. It was mine and your mother’s fault. You didn’t do anything. If anything you just got caught up in the middle of it which isn’t what I wanted to happen at all.”

“But…you guys still fought over me. I don’t want anything to happen.”

“Hopefully it won't. But if anything did, it wouldn’t be about you. You didn’t do anything to hurt this family.”

Samuel stopped crying and looked Henry in the eyes. 

“You mean it?”

“I mean it. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Samuel smiled and hugged Henry again. Henry smiled and started tearing up as well, both from happiness that his son trusted him and from fear that he and Heather might actually split up in the coming months. After Henry calmed Samuel down, he helped him with the rest of his homework which he ended up getting full points on. 

As content as Henry was, Heather was still not pleased with him. She didn’t like that he never showed as much care towards anyone now that Charlotte was gone. Helping Samuel was one of the few rare times she had seen Henry attend to their son. She was livid and afraid that their marriage was going to fall apart. But as the weeks went on and the arguments continued, she thought it’d be better if they left so he could think things over for himself. She didn’t want to leave so soon as she remembered that they were happy together before the twins were born, so she decided to wait to see if he would change, but she had her doubts since it has been over a year. 

Deep down they both knew their marriage was definitely falling apart even if they didn’t want to admit it. They wouldn’t even face each other when sleeping anymore and they would usually have their backs to each other and separate so they weren’t touching each other at all. When Heather was furious at Henry, he’d sleep on the couch instead. Sometimes Heather wouldn’t even wear her wedding ring and sometimes Henry wouldn’t wear his because they ‘forgot’ very often. But their marriage could possibly be saved if she convinced Henry to get help and if nothing else came up at his job. 

She felt hopeless that she couldn’t save her marriage by herself, and after weeks of no progress she felt as though she had no other choice but to call her brother all the way from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to try and help her sort things out with Henry that he couldn’t sort out by talking through on the phone (William was obviously no help since he was the same way). Her brother had a job as a mental health therapist and Henry was somewhat more comfortable talking with him than some stranger, being he saw him multiple times when Henry and Heather had first gotten married, a few times when the twins were born and again when his children were born.

That Friday when her brother heard the telephone ring at his house, Heather had to explain her situation to him thoroughly, and that she was desperate. 

“But, what about the kids? It’d be difficult to bring the three of them down,” he said over the phone. 

“Isn’t their mother there?”

“Not at the moment. Nia got called for a business meeting out of state. She has to stay in New Jersey for the week and she’s coming back next Friday.”

“That’s a problem. But if you did bring them down, it’d be good for them to see their cousins.”

“You’re right. But going from Pennsylvania to Utah isn’t a very short distance and I’m worried how the kids will take it. They have their own friends that they wanna hang out with during their fall break!”

“I know and I feel terrible, but I’m desperate. Henry and I might be divorced by next month! I can’t handle the way he’s acting and he refuses to seek help in our area even though I tried to talk him into it several times.”

“Ugh…” he groaned as he held the bridge of his nose. “Fine. But just because you’re my sister, and you actually sound like you need me and I want to boost my ego.”

“Thank you so much! I knew I could count on you!” 

“Yeah, yeah. Bye Heather. See you Monday.”

“See you then!” she said and they both hung up. 

He went into the living room where he heard his three kids, where the youngest was sitting on the floor and the oldest and middle were fighting for control of the television remote on the couch. The oldest had the remote and was standing on the couch while holding it up above his head and laughing while the middle child tried to reach up and grab it. 

“Why’re you on the floor?” he asked the youngest. 

“I was kicked off the couch by them.”

“What…? Never mind, anyways you three,” he started and the three children stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to him, “I just got a call from my sister, so we’re going to be going down there this week!”

“Go where?” the oldest asked. 

“Uh…Utah.”

“Utah?!” the middle exclaimed. 

“But that’s far! I think…” the youngest said. 

“It is far. But she begged me to come down, and I have to bring you three since your mom isn’t here to watch you.”

“Why do we have to go down now? Why not the next break?” the oldest asked. 

“That break’s very short and they might be divorced by that time.”

“Ugh!” the three of them groaned together. 

“Pack your bags. We leave Monday.”

---

“Ugh! Why did we have to come all the way down to Utah?” the middle child said as they all went to the hotel to check into their room and drop their things off before going to the Emily’s. 

“Because your aunt lives here. I told you dozens of times that she needs help with her husband,” he answered. 

“But why couldn’t we stay at our house? I could’ve handled things!” the oldest said. 

“We both know you would try to have all your friends over for a party. I’m pretty sure your mom wouldn’t be too happy if that were the case and neither would I.”

“But we aren’t even in the big city! There’s nothing to do here!” the youngest said. 

“There’s stuff to do here! There’s a pizzeria that your uncle used to own with his friend, who happens to be your ex-uncle and they both still work there, and if that doesn’t satisfy you enough, you can play out in nature instead of being cooped up inside watching television all day.”

“I thought you said Aunt Evelyn divorced him before she died,” the middle child said. 

“She…she did. But you can’t change that he used to be your uncle by marriage. Same with your Uncle Henry.”

“Uncle Henry?” 

“Yes. We haven’t seen him in a while, not since you guys were little so you probably won’t remember him. But he’s your uncle by marriage and my sister is having problems with him, so I’m here to help her.”

“Why couldn’t he help him? Uh…what’s his name…” the oldest trailed off in thought. 

“William. And he, surprisingly, is acting the same way as Henry so he’s not much help to the situation.”

They got to their room on the second floor, which was small to them since they weren’t used to sharing a room between the four of them, then went out to the parking lot to their rented car to go to the Emily’s. 

“Shotgun!” the youngest yelled as soon as they all got outside and he ran to the passenger’s seat of the car. 

“Hey! You little-” the middle said but from the passenger’s seat, the door was already locked with him inside and she saw her younger brother blowing raspberries at her as she tried to shake the handle open. The oldest was laughing at his sister as they both got in the backseat. Their father let out a light chuckle and rolled his eyes as he got in the driver’s seat and went off to the Emily’s house. 

“There’s a lot of desert out here,” the oldest said as they were on the road and he stared out the window. 

“Wow, maybe it’s because we’re in the desert dummy,” the middle said. 

“Shut up.”

“Hey, no fighting. We’re only going to be here for a week. Contain yourselves,” their father said as he glanced at the rear view mirror at the two of them in the backseat. 

“A week?!” all three of the siblings exclaimed together. 

“Just until Thursday. There was no other time to come here but your break.”

“But…that’s our whole break and I’m gonna miss my show!” the oldest said. 

“And mine!” said the middle. 

“And mine too!” the youngest said. 

“You’ll all live. Don’t worry,” their father said. 

All three of them crossed their arms and slumped in their seats almost in sync. The oldest and middle put on their headphones and started playing music on their own walkmans as they stared out the window at the passing cars. 

“Are we really staying here for the whole week?” the youngest asked his father. 

“Yes. Your Auntie Heather said to come by as soon as I could, and of course your mom’s job schedules her for an out of state meeting this week.”

“So we can’t go back earlier?”

“I’m sorry, but no. The way Heather described it, it seems Henry needs a lot of help and there’s no one in this area that he wants to talk to. And we’re way too far from home, so your mom can’t come and pick you three up.”

“Do they have a TV there?” he asked and his father chuckled. 

“I’m sure. The channels are different here though, so don’t get your hopes up too much.”

All of them got to the Emily’s house a few minutes later and the youngest got out and ran to the front door and rang the doorbell as the rest of them went up behind him. It didn’t take long before Heather answered the door. Samuel was behind her, almost hiding as he didn’t recognize any of them. 

“Hello Sammy!” his mother’s brother said. “You’ve gotten so big since I saw you last!”

Samuel said nothing as he was very shy, but he knew that whoever he was, he knew him. He waved shyly at him and the three of his kids and he held his mother’s hand. 

“Hello guys! Come in!” Heather said and she let them all inside. Once the kids and him were inside she shut the door behind them and turned to her brother. “Henry’s at work right now, so we have some time to spare. So Daniel, how was your trip?”

“It was…long. Coming from Pennsylvania to Utah isn’t a very short distance,” he replied as he ran his fingers through his thick, short, golden brown hair and tilted his head back and closed his eyes, saying he was tired from their trip. After a few seconds he tilted his head back to its original position and crossed his arms.

“What about the kids? How did they handle it?”

“They weren’t too happy to be here to say the least because they would miss their shows. But they’ll live.” 

“God, They’ve gotten so big since I last saw them. Granted, last time I saw them, they were babies.”

“Yes, it’s been a while. Speaking of which, why don’t you meet them all now that they’re bigger?”

“Yes, of course!”

“Cassidy! Gabriel! Jeremy! C’mere!” He called over to them and they all came running next to him. “Heather, you remember my oldest, Gabriel, the middle, Cassidy and the youngest, Jeremy.”

“Yes, of course I do! You’ve all gotten so big since I saw you last!”

“When did we see you last?” Jeremy asked and Cassidy nudged him. 

“Last I saw you three, you were babies so you probably don’t remember me.”

“Well uh, nice to meet you…again?” Gabriel said awkwardly. 

“Delighted to meet all of you! Again!” Heather said and turned to Samuel who was still holding onto her hand and hiding behind her. “Sammy? Want to say hello?” she asked. He hadn’t said a word since they got there. He was silent for a long time while he mustered up the courage to speak and came out of hiding. 

“Um…hello,” he said quietly. 

“Hi Sammy! I’m Jeremy, but you can call me Jere!” Jeremy said excitedly, since his father told him on the way to Utah that he and Samuel were about the same age. Samuel smiled shyly, happy that he would at least talk to him. 

“Why don’t you four go sit on the couch while I catch up with my brother?” Heather said. They all nodded and Samuel let go of his mothers hand as the three siblings went to the couch and Samuel sat on the chair by himself, feeling a little awkward but didn’t want to escape to his room because he was afraid of being rude. 

“Gabe, you know you didn’t have to be so awkward.” Cassidy whispered to her brother. 

“Well what d’you expect?! This is our aunt we haven’t seen since we were little!”

“That means she probably changed your diapers,” Cassidy said, trying to annoy him. 

“Yeah!” Jeremy said and Samuel smiled. 

“Shut up! She probably did to you guys too!”

“Yeah, but for you it’s funnier ‘cause you’re older,” Cassidy said and Gabriel lightly punched her in the arm. “Ah! Don’t hit me! We’re at our aunt’s house and you wanna show you’re a gentleman!”

“Where did that rule come in?!”

“Right now. I made it up.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. 

“Whatever dummy.”

“Don’t call me a dummy! You’re a dummy!”

“No, you are.”

“You are!”

“You both are,” Jeremy chimed in and Samuel giggled as Jeremy went to sit next to him. 

“Hey!” they both said. 

“Hey! No fighting you three!” Daniel yelled over to them. They slumped on the couch as Gabriel and Cassidy kept nudging each other in the ribs as Samuel and Jeremy talked quietly amongst themselves. But even through her and Gabriel’s sibling quarrels, Cassidy knew that soon enough Henry and William were going to walk through that door, and even though she hadn't seen him in years she had a bad feeling about William. 

Chapter 15

Summary:

William and Henry meet Gabriel, Cassidy and Jeremy, but William suspects that Cassidy knows something about him

After the restaurant closed that evening, William and Henry carpooled to their houses like they usually did after work. William was driving this time around, and as he pulled up to Henry’s house they both noticed a strange car parked in front of the house. 

“Who’s that?” William asked Henry, hoping for a straightforward answer. 

“I uh, I don’t know. I’ve never seen that car before.”

“Do you think your wife is seeing someone else?”

“Part of me is hoping she is,” Henry replied as William parked the car and Henry got out. William followed him up to his house, curious about what was going to happen and he wanted to be there for it. Henry unlocked the front door and went in while William cautiously looked in from the doorstep. Inside the house he saw Heather and a young man near the doorway, talking to each other and three children on the couch. He felt as if he had seen the man and the children before, but he wasn’t sure from where. 

“Hello Henry,” Heather said in a monotone voice. That was how she greeted him now as their relationship has been slowly drifting apart for years. The other man looked up and smiled at Henry, who immediately seemed to recognize him. 

“Daniel?” Henry said. As soon as Henry said his name, William knew who he was. It was Heather and Evelyn’s younger brother who had moved across the country. 

“Henry!” he replied. 

“It’s been years! What’re you doing here?”

“Heather…called me down.”

Henry turned to Heather. 

“Why did you decide to call him down all the way from Pennsylvania?!” he whisper-shouted at her. 

“She called me down to actually help you,” Daniel said and Henry turned back to him. 

“Help me? With what?”

“Just…to help you get over yourself. Y‘know with your daughter and all of that.”

He turned back to Heather. 

“That’s what this is about?! Charlie?!” he whisper-shouted to her. 

“Yes Charlie!” she whispered back. 

He turned back and took deep breaths to not blow up at Heather in front of her brother. 

“Okay then. Glad you’re here though, Daniel,” Henry said. Daniel smiled at him and saw William out of the corner of his eye, who was standing near the doorway and watching them quietly. 

“Hey William!” Daniel said enthusiastically. 

“Hello,” he replied. 

“You know you can come in. We don’t bite,” he said jokingly. William went in and closed the door behind him as the three kids on the couch turned their attention towards William. The first thing they noticed is that he had dark, longer hair which was down to his shoulders. The hair left of his part was tucked behind his left ear and the rest he left untouched. The next thing they noticed were his scars that seemed to be everywhere but his head. They didn’t look that old, but they didn’t look recent either. He looked mysterious to all of them, being that he had on black dress shoes, black slacks and a black blazer over his purple button down. The only other bit of color he had on was a small golden rabbit pin on his blazer.

“Who are they?” William asked Daniel when he noticed the kids on the sofa. 

“Oh! Those are my kids! Gabriel, the oldest, and his two half siblings, Cassidy and Jeremy. You might not recognize them since the last time you saw them was when Eve was alive.”

“Half siblings?” Henry asked. 

“Yes. I don’t remember if I’ve told you this story before, but when I got married to my current wife she already had Gabriel because her previous husband ran off. Then together we had Cassidy and Jeremy.”

“Why couldn’t they stay back in Philadelphia?” William asked. 

“Their mother was out of town for a business trip, so I had to bring them.”

Great. More kids, William thought. 

From across the room, Cassidy knew something was off about William. She had heard the name William Afton before. The name had come to her in several dreams, which were supposedly from a deceased family member of hers, someone who had died several years before she was born. He had said to her that William had murdered her Aunt Evelyn, involved in the death of Henry’s daughter, Charlotte and more recently he told her that William had also targeted and murdered another little girl named Susie. None of her siblings ever had these dreams and thought she was crazy, and her parents said they were just dreams and most likely made up. But she knew this entity was real. She could sometimes hear his voice as clear as day, but since he never spoke to anyone else everyone thought she was going crazy. 

She only had to take one look at William and knew he was no good and the dreams were probably right. She was shooting daggers at him from across the room, and William made eye contact with her and immediately knew she was going to be a pain. He gave her one of his ice cold glares back and she immediately turned away from him. 

“It was nice revisiting with you Daniel, but I have to get going. Michael’s…waiting for me at home,” William said. He actually just wanted to get away from Cassidy, he didn’t care if Michael was home from school or not. 

“Right. I forgot that your other two children died at such a young age. I’m so sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. It’s nothing now. Anyways see you all later!” he said and he went out the front door and went to his car, which he started up and drove away to his house. He could already tell that he and that Cassidy girl weren’t going to get along. He didn’t know why Cassidy was shooting daggers at him in the first place. Was it because of his looks that made him look untrustworthy? William didn’t know. 

He got to his house and found Michael on the couch watching television and eating popcorn like he usually does. 

“What the hell are you watching?” William asked once he got in the door. 

“Nice to see you too,” Michael answered sarcastically. “Why’re you so late?” he asked as he tried to catch pieces of popcorn in his mouth and William came into his view. His father seemed to be in a decent mood today so he hoped he wouldn’t get yelled at. 

“Your cousins are at Henry’s.”

“Cousins?”

“Your mothers brother is here and he brought his three little brats.”

“I didn’t even know I had more cousins on Mum’s side.”

“They’re from Philadelphia, so we never see them. Last time we saw them was when Evelyn was alive. They’re at Henry’s right now but staying in a hotel I believe, but I don’t trust his daughter, Cassidy.”

“Cassidy?”

“Yes. She seems untrustworthy and very judgmental.”

“So you’re basing this off looks?”

“Don’t you put words into my mouth.” 

“But it’s literally what you’re doing.”

“I don’t need you to tell me what’s right from wrong,” he said with a little aggressiveness in his voice. Michael thought it would be in his best interest to stop arguing with his father or else he knew that he wouldn’t be getting dinner that evening. Michael turned off the television and went upstairs to his bedroom, and took the popcorn bowl with him where he left his father alone in the living room.

William sat on the couch while he replayed his conversation with Michael in his head. Maybe Michael was actually right. Maybe William was just thinking about this too deeply since he was just basing it off looks. But what stumped him is why Cassidy was glaring at him when she didn’t even know him that well. Maybe she saw him as untrustworthy, or she somehow knew something about him. But how? They haven’t seen each other since Evelyn was alive. The other two boys looked completely neutral towards him, but it was Cassidy that stumped him. He felt something was off about her, he just couldn’t put his finger on it. 

Just maybe though, he had found his next victims, since Cassidy clearly knew something that could be used against him and couldn’t have her walking around. The other two boys would just be more test runs for his theory since they were clearly all very close. They all looked like they would be easy to lure, especially the youngest since young children are usually very gullible. If he lured the youngest back, the older two would certainly have to go with him since their mother wasn’t around.

Of course, he would have to play the waiting game until their father was out of sight, or anyone for that matter. They would definitely notice if three children went missing suddenly and William would get caught. The only problem was that he didn’t know how long of a window he had to execute this plan, but knew Michael was off of school for the week so they might be off of school as well, so he guessed that his window would would be this next week.

Chapter 16

Summary:

Michael meets Gabriel, Cassidy and Jeremy

“Michael. Get up,” William ordered his son as he went to Michael’s room that Monday morning. 

“Ugh. Five more minutes,” Michael replied sleepily without opening his eyes and rolled over. William let out an exasperated sigh and took a spray bottle from the bathroom, filled it with water and sprayed it in Michael’s face. Michael jolted awake as soon as he felt the cold water get sprayed on his face. 

“What the hell-I’m awake! What?!” Michael exclaimed as he sat up and dried his face as much as he could with his hands. 

“Get dressed. We have to go soon.”

“Go? Go where?!”

“Freddy’s. I got a call this morning that the kids want to meet you.”

“Why do we have to meet there? Why not at Uncle Henry’s house?!” Michael asked through a yawn. 

“Because Henry’s doing his first therapy session with their father since he’s a licensed therapist. But I still have to work today so you’re coming with me.”

Maybe you should’ve done it too, Michael thought. “Ugh, fine! I’ll be down in a few.”

“Don’t you dare go back to sleep either. I have to be there soon and I can’t have you holding it up,” William said sternly as he closed the door. Michael rolled his eyes and yawned as he looked at his alarm clock. It was 10:00 am, and his father needed to be at work by 10:45 am since the pizzeria opened at 11:00 am. 

“Seriously?!” Michael said under his breath and he quickly got dressed. 

Michael went downstairs a few minutes later to find his father at the kitchen table, drinking his coffee and reading the newspaper. Michael went by him as he got his daily pop tarts from the pantry and popped them in the toaster. His father looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was almost 10:30. 

“Hurry up Michael,” he said. 

“I can’t rush the toaster. I thought you’d know that since you’re a technician.”

William narrowed his eyes at Michael. He never liked Michael’s sarcastic remarks towards him. 

“Just hurry up and get in the car. I’m going to be late,” William said as Michael’s pop tarts popped out of the toaster. Michael grabbed them and he took a bite out of one as he opened the front door and walked out to his father’s car. William followed him out to the car and shut the door behind him. 

Once they arrived at Freddy’s and William parked the car, Michael let out a sigh and slumped in his seat. 

“Get up Michael. They’ll be here in a few minutes,” William said. 

“I didn’t even know they existed so why do I have to meet them?!” Michael said, obviously not happy about waking up at 10:00 am during fall break. 

“Hell if I know. Now c’mon, I’m going to be late for my shift.”

Michael sighed and went inside with his father where he sat at one of the empty booths while his father went to the security office. He watched as some of the employees quickly dusted off the casing on the animatronics before the diner opened that day and took them out of night mode. What confused him though, was that when the employees got to Chica, they either held their breath or gagged. Michael wasn’t totally sure why. 

Michael held his head in his hands, bored out of his mind. He realized that he wasn’t even sure what his cousins looked like, so how was he supposed to know what they looked like if they came in? He watched the animatronics on stage for a while out of boredom and noticed Chica was acting a little strangely, but that was a problem for the mechanics. 

His gaze shifted over to Pirates Cove where Foxy was. Secretly, Foxy was his favorite. Ever since he was a child he was always interested in pirates. Although he loved the fairytales behind pirates, he loved to learn about the true history behind them from books at the local library and school library. He always found it to be very interesting how many were originally just regular people who had turned to a life of crime, or that they stole many precious items on sea or land. He loved to use any opportunity that he could to learn about pirates. 

He was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts when he felt a light tug on his jacket. There is only one person who does something like that to get his attention, and that person is Samuel. Michael turned his head to find Samuel smiling next to him and he hugged Michael’s side while he ruffled his wavy, dirty blonde colored hair. Michael looked at the front door when he let go, and saw Heather along with three other kids he didn’t recognize who he assumed he must be meeting today. Two boys and one girl, who he presumed to be Cassidy. Michael waved hello to Heather and she waved back, now leaving through the doors since she had to get to work.

As the three kids got to the table he was at, he studied their appearance since he hadn't seen them since his mother was alive, which was five years ago. The oldest of the three had dark brown skin and had thick, coarse hair he kept in a short Afro. His two younger siblings had light brown skin, and the second oldest had wavy hair pulled up into pigtails, while the youngest had much curlier hair than his sister that he kept in a short style.

Their sister had an overall dress on with a yellow long sleeve t-shirt underneath while her brothers came in basic t-shirts and khaki shorts. The middle child also had braces for her almost-fixed crossbite while the youngest had round glasses that were very thick, so Michael assumed he had bad eyesight. All three of the siblings seemed very kind and non threatening, but they were also tired as they were not used to sharing a hotel room with four people inside. They were all obviously younger than him, the youngest being about eight years old, the middle looked to be about ten and the oldest looked like he just turned thirteen. But, Michael noticed that they were all freckled just like him.

They all stood awkwardly and shyly across from each other, unsure who should speak first. Samuel held onto Michael’s wrist, waiting anxiously to see who would speak first. 

“Hello? Can you talk?” the youngest finally said as his sister nudged him and Michael snickered. 

“Uh, yes?” he said awkwardly. 

“Wait, you’re British?” the older of the boys asked and his sister nudged him in the ribs this time. 

“Not technically. I was born here but my father is British. I’ve actually never been to England.”

“We’ve met him. I already don’t like him,” the sister said and Michael chuckled. 

“I don’t blame you honestly. Oh, I’m Michael by the way.”

“I’m Cassidy and these two knuckleheads are Gabriel and Jeremy,” Cassidy said. Gabriel nudged his sister in the ribs. 

“Hold on, you’re Jeremy?” Michael asked the youngest. 

“Yeah!”

“My friends’ name is Jeremy.”

“Woah, really?”

“Yeah. I have a feeling if you met, you’d get along just fine.”

He smiled and he ran off with Samuel who was showing him the animatronics as he was excited to show off what his father helped to build. Samuel and Jeremy had warmed up to each other and now treated each other like best friends. 

“So, Michael, where’s your dad?” Cassidy asked. 

“Uh, I don’t know. Probably back in the office but no one’s allowed back there. Why do you ask?”

“I just…wanted to talk to him.”

“About…”

Cassidy looked around and spoke so low it was basically a whisper. 

“I think he may have something to do with the death of your mom.”

Michael’s eyes widened. He didn’t know how she, someone who he hasn’t seen for years, could know about that. Gabriel went up to them as he was about to leave with Jeremy and Samuel to watch them. He had heard them. 

“Cass, Uncle Henry said to not bring up his mom, remember? It upsets him,” he said sternly. 

“I know but-”

“No. Those dreams sound stupid anyways. They’re not real. Apologize.” 

“I’m sorry. I knew it was stupid. I just thought I could’ve gotten answers since you’re her son,” Cassidy apologized and her brother left with Jeremy and Samuel to watch the animatronics. 

“You’re okay. I’ve kinda learned to get past it even if it’s still upsetting. But what you said isn’t actually that stupid,” Michael said, where once again his mouth was moving faster than his brain. His statement caught Cassidy’s attention. 

“What do you mean by that?” she asked and Michael regretted saying anything at all. 

“Uh, nothing. Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

“No! You said they’re not stupid, so that means you’re hiding something! What is it?”

“I can’t tell you. Father would probably hit me if I said anything.”

Cassidy lowered her voice again, but so low it was barely audible to Michael. 

“I won’t tell him you said anything. I promise.”

Michael gulped. Was he really that stupid to tell a girl who he hasn’t seen in years exactly what his father said not to tell anyone, especially when they had just met up again for the first time in years no more than ten minutes ago? 

“Swear on your life that you won’t tell another soul that I told you,” Michael whispered back to her, sounding a little more threatening than he meant. 

“I promise.”

Chapter 17

Summary:

Michael finally tells Cassidy exactly what his father said not to tell anyone.

Michael took a deep breath and crossed his arms, almost as if he was hugging himself. Was he actually going to give in and tell her? 

“You promise to not tell?” he asked again for reassurance. 

“Cross my heart.”

Michael took a deep breath again. 

“Uh…” he started and Cassidy waited anxiously for him to finish his sentence. After debating back and forth in his head, he concluded that she probably wouldn’t stop nagging him about the subject if he didn’t say anything, so he could tell her quickly and get it over with like ripping off a bandage. “He did it,” he blurted out to her in a whisper that was barely audible even though there wasn’t anyone but her, Gabriel, Jeremy and Samuel around this early, but he still felt it was best to take precaution because William might be watching the cameras. 

“He did?”

“Yes. I saw him.”

“You SAW him?!” she echoed. 

“I was about eleven years old at the time, and I saw him kill her in the kitchen. Not the best thing for a little kid to witness.”

“Oh my-so the dreams I had were right? He’s a murderer?!”

“I suppose so. But if I told anyone they wouldn’t believe me since I have no evidence. From what I remember the next morning, everything was cleaned up and there wasn’t even a splatter of blood anywhere.”

Cassidy stood in silence, processing everything she just heard. 

“Now I have more of a reason to hate him,” Cassidy said and Michael chuckled. 

“Just don’t tell him I said that though.” 

“I promise. While I’m on the topic, d’you know anything about the, uh, disappearance a few weeks ago?”

Michael hesitated on his answer. How did she know all of these things? She didn’t even live here!

“I might,” Michael answered and before Cassidy could ask anything else, they heard her brother from across the diner. 

“Cassidy!” they heard Jeremy shout from across the restaurant. Cassidy turned to him. “Come look!” he said excitedly as he pointed to the animatronics. She sighed as she went over to her brother and Michael followed her. 

As Michael got closer he realized that the employees were in their right mind to hold their breath, because Chica did smell terrible like something was in her casing that shouldn’t be (he figured some little kids tried to feed her the crappy pizza). He didn’t know why Samuel, Gabriel, Cassidy or Jeremy didn’t notice, but maybe they did and they just didn’t want to say anything. Michael took a few steps back from the stage and watched them since he couldn’t handle the smell which made him gag.

A little while later as the restaurant was slowly starting to fill up, Michael was in Pirates Cove watching Foxy while the other children explored the game room. He was stuck there until his father got off of work, so he had nothing better to do. He was almost mesmerized by Foxy’s robotic movements when he was suddenly snapped out of thought. 

“You like Foxy too?” a little boy asked shyly. This boy was obviously years younger than him, so Michael didn’t know why he was talking to him. He had many freckles on his face and arms, and had messy ginger hair that he didn’t really bother to style that morning. He had a red and white striped t-shirt that had a skull and crossbones on it and jean shorts paired with dirty sneakers. 

“Uh, yeah,” Michael replied awkwardly. 

“I wanna be a pirate when I grow up. My dad said I can be when I get old enough,” he said and Michael snickered silently. “Did you hear about the girl that went missing here a few weeks ago?” 

“Uh, no,” he lied. He had seen it while his father was reading the newspaper at the kitchen table a week after he had thought something happened, and got an even worse feeling that his father was behind it being that he skimmed the story so nonchalantly. 

“My dad said that in the newspaper, there was a whole story about it because her parents were so worried. She went to my school too, I remember her. I remember that she didn’t come to school that whole week and then the story came out that she was missing. My dad said that she was last seen here but then she disappeared like magic. Or like pirates kidnapped her.”

“A little girl, eh?”

“Yeah. He said her parents never heard from her again. But the police closed the investigation. Said she was probably dead since they couldn’t find anything.”

“I’m sure she’s out there somewhere. She has to be.”

“Oh! I’m Fritz by the way!” he said. He had been talking so much that he forgot to introduce himself. 

“Uh, Michael.”

“Nice to meet you Mike! It’s cool knowing someone else around here likes pirates too!”

“Uh, yeah…”

“So Mike, did you know that the skull and crossbones on Foxy is called a Jolly Roger?”

“Yep. I knew that.”

“You knew?”

“I’ve been learning about pirates since I was about your age.”

“Woah! That’s cool!”

They had only known each other for a few minutes, but Fritz now looked up to Michael and saw him as a friend he could talk to, even though Michael was obviously older than him. Fritz was a talker, but that was perfectly fine for Michael since he wasn’t much of a talker anymore. After a while of talking, Michael realized Fritz wasn’t as bad as he thought, and maybe they could actually be friends.

---

William looked up at the clock on the office wall a while later when he noticed the many extra voices of parents and children coming from the main diner, and saw that it had been almost three hours since the diner had opened and he was last out there physically. He had been so distracted with the useless paperwork that he hadn’t bothered to check the cameras like he was supposed to, since he was stuck doing both Henry’s work while he was out plus his. He stretched as he got out of the chair, relieved to not be sitting anymore and went out of the office.

William saw that Michael was in Pirates Cove, but he was talking to someone new. Someone he’d never seen before, but he assumed he must’ve liked pirates as well being that there was a skull and crossbones on his shirt. Michael looked happy to finally be talking about his interest to someone who would understand (instead of when he talked to his other friend, Jeremy who let him ramble often but only listened since he had no idea what he was talking about) even though the boy was obviously several years younger than him.

William looked over at the others who were in the game room with Samuel, taking turns playing games. If he wanted to lure them all back, the time was now while the diner was still semi empty and Michael was distracted. The problem is he was extremely busy with Henry not being at the restaurant like he usually was, plus he didn’t know what time Henry would get back, so he watched them from a distance. 

In the game room, Samuel led Jeremy over to another game in the back that he wanted to show him while Cassidy watched Gabriel play the game he was at, intrigued but also trying to make him mess up so she could have a turn. William turned around to go to the back room to make sure the Springbonnie suit was still functioning properly for when he decided to use it within these few days, but right at that moment he saw Henry walk in the doors with Daniel behind him. He stopped himself knowing that if they saw him, they would find out he’s planning something no good and could potentially turn him in.

“Hey Will!” Henry said when he saw William and went over to him. Daniel went over to his kids in the game room, where Jeremy ran up to him and tackled him in a hug and he tried to stop the other two from irritating each other. Gabriel rolled his eyes and ran off with Jeremy to play a couple more games with him. 

“Hey! Uh, how did it go?” William asked and Henry shrugged. 

“I think it went okay, but now I know why I never saw therapists. They freak me out,” Henry said and William chuckled. “Anyways, how were things here?”

“Normal as they could be. Although I’ve been busier than usual, but that can be because we usually split the work between us.”

William continued to talk with Henry, like he wasn’t planning to do anything bad to Gabriel, Cassidy and Jeremy, who they rarely see as it is. If he was going to get the kid’s remnant, he would need to act as quickly as possible. William knew, however, they were all going to have to be back at Freddy’s since their father was having daily ‘therapy sessions’ with Henry until Thursday. He would have to lure them back within the now three day time frame, which wasn’t a huge window William could work with. But the problem was Henry would return to the restaurant at around 1:30pm every day, so that left William with about a three and a half hour time frame for three days. 

He was going to have to act fast. 

Chapter 18

Summary:

There’s someone telling Cassidy what William did?

Before William knew it, it was Thursday. He was always swamped with work in the mornings since Henry would clock in later than he usually did during the week. Daniel and his three children would be leaving later that evening, and William was starting to doubt himself that he could carry out this plan, but it gave him time to watch and observe their behaviors. 

William noticed during the many hours a day Daniel’s children were sent to the pizzeria, that Gabriel and Jeremy were always together so he assumed they must be close. Their sister however, seemed more closed off and antisocial, but she was also more aggressive towards people than her brothers if she was ticked off even slightly. William could tell though, she had a burning hatred for him when he had done nothing towards her. She always gave him the death glare when he passed, raised her voice at him or made snappy remarks towards him. She knew something about him, William knew it, which is why he had to get rid of her.

Throughout the last few days, Henry's therapy sessions seemed to not be helpful at all. Even though he was told to express his feelings about Charlotte’s death, which he did, everything that Daniel suggested and the talks they had did not help since he couldn’t relate. He had no idea how Henry was feeling since he had never lost a child like he had and only had to go from the book. He was stumped, but also upset since he was trying to do his job and he didn’t seem to be helping. 

That Thursday morning when William, Michael, Gabriel, Cassidy, Jeremy and Samuel arrived at the diner at 11:00 sharp, William went straight towards the office, upset that he was not able to lure the kids back as they would be leaving later that day and he made no progress. He would try to do the paperwork that was piling up on the desk to distract himself as he sat alone in thought, but he couldn’t stop thinking about how he was wasting time to actually execute this plan. 

Around thirty minutes later, Fritz arrived at the diner and ran over to Michael in Pirates Cove, to where Samuel decided to spend some time with Michael this time around, which William learned by checking the cameras so figured he would have to be careful if he was going to lead the other three kids to the back. 

After several minutes of having his leg bounce under his desk while he had to get a ton of work done, the room temperature dropped and he heard a voice. 

“Stop,” was all this voice said. Whoever it was, it sounded like a middle aged female. William looked around the office but saw nothing and he continued to work on the paperwork.

Again? Seriously?! he thought. 

“Don’t you see the harm you’ve already caused? Isn’t it enough?” 

Whoever it was, it sounded like the same woman he has heard every single time. As he listened to the voice, he realized it sounded very familiar like he had heard it before years ago, but he couldn’t place it. He decided to talk back to it, just for the hell of it since he was probably losing it anyways and there wasn’t anyone else in the office. 

“Yeah. And I don’t care,” he muttered without looking up from his writing. 

“But three harmless children won’t ever get to see their mother again and you’ll destroy their parents’ lives. Doesn’t that devastate you as much as it does to me? If you do this, your actions will end up ruining all of our lives more than your previous ones already have, which is exactly what he wants!”

He paused from writing and looked around the room, slightly frightened now. He didn’t expect a response, nor did he know who this separate person was. He had never even heard of this person until today, but he needed the remnant from the children. And he wasn’t  willing to let a threat from something he was probably imagining stop him from getting what he wanted. 

“Does it look like I care?!” he said with aggressiveness in his voice. 

“You’ve tricked me William. You’ve tricked all of us. Years ago, I thought you were actually a good guy and thought you would do nothing to harm anyone else, but then again, ‘when’s the last time I’ve seen you care’?”

He recognized the voice now. Those were his words and he’s only said that line to one person in his entire life. 

“Wait…Evelyn?!” he exclaimed as he stood up quickly and he heard the crash of the chair falling on the tile as he looked around. He heard no response. He felt his heart racing as he frantically looked around the empty room for any signs of paranormal activity, but saw nothing and the room went back to its normal temperature. 

He calmed himself down and picked up the chair on the ground, but he was even more on edge right now for his own sanity. He never thought that his ex-wife would ever talk to him again. He thought the little bit of remnant he was able to harvest from Evelyn all those years ago infused with Ballora would have been enough to not make her come back. Remnant was stronger than he had originally thought, so now he knew he had to be especially careful with it which is why he wanted more test subjects than he had already. Two attempts is not enough.

Back in the main diner, Cassidy was in the game room along with her two brothers as they played air hockey together and she watched. Cassidy was on the side, watching as her brothers battled it out for the win. 

“You’re going down!” Gabriel exclaimed to his little brother. 

“No!”

“Yeah-huh!”

“Nuh-uh! We both know you suck at air hockey!”

Gabriel looked sarcastically offended as his brother and sister laughed and Gabriel put two quarters in the machine and began to play. Cassidy watched her two brothers battle it out until she got bored and wandered around to the other games to see if she wanted to play anything. That’s when she suddenly got chills out of nowhere, so she knew the entity that had told her everything was near. 

“Cassidy,” she heard almost inaudibly, it was basically a whisper. This entity chose to not show himself a lot of the time, so she was glad no one saw her talking to a random man. 

“What is it now?!” she whispered back, careful not to let her brothers see. She went over to one of the empty booths near the back since she knew this individual would follow her, and hoped that no one would see her talking to what looked like nothing. 

“William is going to come back here any second, and it’s not going to be good. I need you to not follow your brothers no matter how much you want to,” she heard back when she sat down. 

“Why?! I have to be with them! Family’s supposed to stick together!”

“Cassidy, listen to me. Do not, under any circumstances, go with them.”

“But-”

“You have to trust me.”

“Nothing’s gonna happen! They’re just playing air hockey!”

“You know William is an evil man. Michael even told you he killed Evelyn and Susie, like I told you.”

”Yeah, so?!”

“He’s planning to strike again. I’ve heard him talking to himself in the office. He wants to kill you and your brothers.”

“So are you saying we’re his next targets?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Well, is he just going to come in here and just stab us or something?”

“No, he’s actually smarter than that so that’s why you have to be careful. He’s going to come back and try to lure you three into the back room with his rabbit mascot costume from the old restaurant, exactly how he did this the previous time. Do not follow it.”

“But why can’t you tell Gabe and Jere?! They need to know too!”

“I’ve told you time and time again that I cannot do that. That is why I’m leaving it up to you so you can tell them.”

“That makes no sense but fine. Whatever.”

“Thank you Cassidy. Be careful.”

The goosebumps on her arms went away and she was now alone at the booth. 

“God…” she whispered to herself. 

That’s when she realized Gabriel was calling her but she had been so distracted that she wasn’t paying attention to him. 

“Cass!” he yelled and she ran back to them. She found them next to each other, leaning against the side of the hockey table. 

“Sorry, uh, what?” she asked as she caught her breath as she went in front of them. 

“I've called you several times. Where were you?”

“I was uh…wandering.”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” her little brother said. 

“I’m fine guys. Trust me.”

“I agree with Jere, so d’you wanna tell us what happened?” Gabriel asked and Cassidy hesitated. 

“Okay, promise not to think I’m crazy?”

The boys looked at each other and back at Cassidy. 

“We always do anyway,” they said together and Cassidy rolled her eyes. 

“Just promise me!”

“I promise!” Jeremy said. 

“Fine,” Gabriel said, obviously irritated. Cassidy motioned them closer to her even though the game room had barely anyone else inside and the few people who were in there weren’t listening to them. 

“Okay, so you guys know the creepy guy, William?” Cassidy whispered and they nodded. “Well, apparently he’s going to come over in a rabbit costume and try to lure us to the back room so he can kill us,” Gabriel crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at her. “You promised!”

“I’m rethinking it.”

“I am too. Are you sure?” Jeremy asked. 

“Yes!”

“Then how do you know?” Gabriel asked. 

“I-a ghost told me,” she realized how stupid she sounded. 

“A…ghost?” 

“Yes. I know it sounds crazy but you have to believe me!”

Jeremy and Gabriel looked at each other and back at her. 

“I think you are the one who needs therapy with Dad,” Gabriel said. 

“No I don’t!”

“Ghosts aren’t real Cass. How many times do I have to say that?!”

“No! I know they’re real! I heard one!”

“Do you realize how you sound?! You sound like a total idiot!”

“I know I do but you have to trust me!”

“You sound like you’re making up stories,” Jeremy said. 

“I’m not, I swear! Please, you just have to trust me! I don’t want anything to happen to you two!”

“I think you’ve been watching too much television,” Gabriel said. 

“They’re not even about that! Please just believe me!”

“Cass, you don’t even sound like you’re telling the truth. Now do you have two more quarters so Jere and I could play again or not?!” Gabriel asked and Cassidy angrily handed him two quarters from a cup their father gave them. 

Well that didn’t work.

Chapter 19

Summary:

Cassidy finds her brothers, but not in the state she hoped.

Over in Pirate’s Cove, Michael was invested in the conversation he, Samuel and Fritz were having about what kind of loot different kinds of pirates would steal. He was so invested that he didn’t even see Cassidy run off to the bathroom for a quick five minutes. He didn’t see Gabriel and his little brother alone in the game room, who he thought were perfectly safe playing air hockey. Cassidy left the cup of quarters with them so they could play again while she was gone and she promised she’d be back in a flash, but it didn’t take long before their game ended and the small cup of quarters beside Gabriel seemingly disappeared. 

“Hey! Where did they-” Gabriel started and he heard the shaking of the change behind him. 

“Bunny!” his brother exclaimed excitedly and Gabriel turned around to look behind him. It was indeed a man in a rabbit costume. 

 “Can I have my quarters back?” Gabriel asked, obviously annoyed. 

“You guys have been picked for a surprise!” the man said. 

“Surprise?”

The man nodded. 

“What surprise?” Jeremy asked. 

“A weeks’ worth of candy, all for you!”

“A week?!” he gasped and his eyes sparkled with excitement. This man knew that Jeremy had a sweet tooth. 

“Yup! If you’ll just follow me, I’ll take you to it!” he said as he started walking out the game room and Jeremy followed him. 

“Hey, Jere!” Gabriel let out an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes. “Wait for me!” 

He chased his brother, not wanting to leave him alone with some stranger. As they both followed, Gabriel had a bad feeling about this man. This establishment never gave out anything special to its customers, but at the same time he wanted to see if this man was telling the truth. He got an even worse feeling when they started going toward the back room labeled ‘Employees Only’ and he gulped, now a little worried. Jeremy went inside without worry when the man opened the door while Gabriel cautiously went inside, but was almost pushed in by the man with the rabbit costume. Come to think of it, he has never seen that rabbit around before. 

“Where is it?” Jeremy asked excitedly. 

“You have to look for it!” the man said as he went in after Gabriel.

Jeremy grabbed his brother’s hand as he led him further back to look for their prize, leaving the man in the darkness near the door. When no one was looking, the man quickly took off the costume and revealed William who was inside of it. 

Gabriel didn’t trust this man at all since he led them to a room that was restricted to the public, but it also reeked like several things died in that room and it was only lit by a single dim light bulb. It was then when Gabriel remembered what his sister said about half an hour earlier: William would be dressed in a rabbit mascot costume to deceive them, and was going to lead them away from the main dining area to trap them and kill them all. This was the man in the rabbit costume and they were led away from the public, so that meant this man was William. 

Oh crap.

Gabriel pulled on his brother’s hand to lead them both out the door as fast as he possibly could, but as soon as William saw them he slammed the door and locked them inside. Gabriel and Jeremy pounded on the door and tried to jiggle the locked doorknob, yelling for help but it was too far away from public areas for anyone to hear them. 

“Help!” Jeremy screamed. 

“Let us out!” Gabriel yelled but it was no use. “Shit,” Gabriel said under his breath as he and Jeremy stopped banging on the door. 

“What do we do now?” Jeremy said with tears in his eyes. 

“I…I don’t know,” Gabriel heard his brother start softly crying. “Hey, it’s going to be alright. We’re going to find a way out of here,” Gabriel said as he hugged his brother. 

“It’s all my fault! I-I’m sorry!” Jeremy said through sniffles. 

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t know. But we’re going to find a way out of here. I promise.”

Meanwhile, Cassidy went back to the game room and found her brothers weren’t anywhere in sight and the cup of quarters were gone. 

“Gabe? Jere?” she called out. No response. She started searching around the game room for them because they were all told to stay together, but she couldn’t find them anywhere. She even looked between the arcade games but found nothing and no one else who was in the arcade looked like her brothers. She went out of the room to look in the main dining room, and even searched under all the tables littered with trash and dropped food while calling out for them, but she found nothing. She went to the main stage where she noticed Freddy and Bonnie were gone, but brushed it off because they were told that ‘they were taken back for maintenance’ earlier that day. She looked everywhere, even on stage and behind the curtains (even though she could get in trouble for being  on stage) while calling out for them worryingly but found nothing. Her eyes kept darting around as she ran to Pirates Cove to call for Michael’s help. 

“Michael!” she yelled and ran up to him and Michael looked up as she ran past the other kids and parents. 

“What’s up?” he said. 

She ran next to him out of breath. 

“Have you seen…Gabe and Jere anywhere?!” she asked frantically, trying to catch her breath. 

“Uh, no. Are they gone?”

“I wouldn’t be running to you saying ‘have you seen them anywhere’ if they were with me, pea brain! Can you help me look for them?!”

“Fine,” Michael said, a little annoyed that Cassidy didn’t just resort to his name and instead made fun of him. 

“I’ll help you!” Fritz exclaimed. 

“Me too!” Samuel said. 

They all started searching Pirates Cove and asked people if they’ve seen either Gabriel or Jeremy, but found nothing and got no answer. They went around the pizzeria asking everyone the same question and looking everywhere Cassidy searched, but found nothing. After a good half an hour of no progress, they all met up in the main dining area where they all sat at an empty booth near the back. 

“They’ve got to be around here somewhere,” Michael said. 

“Yeah! They couldn’t have just walked away without you!” Fritz said. 

“Especially if you guys were supposed to stick together!” Samuel added. 

“Dad’s gonna kill me,” Cassidy said. 

“You?! What about me?! I was supposed to be babysitting you three!” Michael exclaimed. 

“You’re terrible at your job.”

“Shut up.”

“Doesn’t matter. He’s gonna kill us both.”

Michael’s leg started bouncing from the stress of their situation, when he suddenly got a terrible pain in his stomach out of nowhere which lingered on and he hugged himself. It felt like the same type of upset stomach that he had several years ago when his mother was murdered. 

“Michael? You okay?” Cassidy asked when she noticed. 

“I feel like I’m gonna be sick,” Michael replied. 

“Don’t throw up on me dude,” Cassidy said and Michael gave her an annoyed side eye but said nothing. 

She sat at that booth, worried and hoping they were just pulling a prank on her like they always do, when she got a terrible image in her head. She saw both of her brothers in the back room labeled ‘Employees Only’, but they were both knocked out. But even worse, she saw William in the room as well, who looked like he had just knocked them both out and was grinning smugly to himself. She turned back to Michael and started to wonder if he felt the same way when that girl was murdered a few weeks ago, and this was how he knew.

Cassidy quickly got this horrible feeling that was the reality of the situation and got up from her seat. 

“Oi! Where d’you think you’re going?!” Michael yelled. 

“I think I know where they are,” she replied. 

“Do you not see the situation we’re in right now?! You can’t just run off, so tell me where you’re going!”

“Just…uh…the office.”

“No one’s allowed back there.”

“I think they’re hiding.”

Michael gave her a side eye as he raised his eyebrows and she smiled a fake smile, and Michael clearly didn’t believe her. He rolled his eyes and sighed. 

“Fine. But if my father finds you, it’s not my fault.”

She nodded and ran off as Fritz and Samuel looked back at her. 

“I don’t think she’s going to the office,” Fritz whispered. 

“Definitely not,” Samuel whispered back. 

Cassidy ran to the back room where she bumped into William. He was mainly hidden in the shadows, but she could see him clear as day. She saw his misty gray eyes glowering down at her with his infamous ice cold glare that sent shivers down her spine. She saw that his face was almost hidden in his long, slightly wavy (almost) jet-black colored hair that was starting to gray at the roots. He was in a different uniform though, which definitely looked older and the blazer was nowhere in sight, but she could see very faint blood stains on his shirt that looked like they had been scrubbed to the best of his ability. 

“What did you do with my brothers you bast-” she started but William covered her mouth before she could finish her sentence and put a finger to his lips. 

“You want to see your brothers?” he asked as he took his hand away from her mouth. 

“Isn’t that what I came here for?!”

He led her to the room and opened the door for her and she ran around, looking for them. It didn’t take long before she saw them in the back corner, where they looked like they had been knocked out and were propped up against the wall. She ran over to her brothers, knelt down in front of them and tried to shake them awake. 

“Gabe?” she said frantically as she shook Gabriel by the shoulders. No response. “Gabriel?! Please, wake up! Your family needs you back home! You can’t die yet!” No response again and she moved onto Jeremy. “Jere?! Jeremy, can you hear me?! Please Jere, wake up! Mom and Dad want to see you both again! Please, you guys can’t be gone yet!” No response and she turned back to William and wiped the tears off her cheeks. “What did you do to them?!” she yelled at William who locked the door behind him. He went over to where she and her brothers were in the light with his hands behind his back. “Please…please don’t hurt them.” 

“I’m not going to hurt them. Not yet.” 

“What…what do you mean ‘not yet’?!”

“Well Cassidy, it’s simple really,” he pulled out a rope he had hidden behind his back, “I’m going to make you watch.”

“What?!” she exclaimed but William already took her by the wrist and pulled her over to one of the shelves that stood on poles bolted to the floor. She struggled as he took both of her wrists and tied them tightly together around the pole so she couldn’t escape. “Let me out of here you murderer!” she yelled at him. He went to the table he was at, got a clean rag he found, went back over to her and stuffed it in her mouth. 

“Can’t have you yelling all the damn time,” he said and went back to the table. She watched him put his long, dark hair in a low ponytail so that it was away from his face and he got one of the three shiny metal syringes from the table, and he went back over to the two boys. She saw him pick up her younger brother and tears filled her eyes again and streamed down her face. 

Her muffled yells at him and her struggling was not enough to make him stop at what he was doing. He went over to the Bonnie animatronic and she heard the cracking of bones as William stuffed him inside with the animatronic parts. She started crying harder than she already was and her vision went blurry as she tried to yell ‘stop’, but he ignored her and took the shiny metal syringe he had and practically stabbed him in the chest with it. He pulled on the syringe, and at first she thought he only wanted blood since it was what he was getting, but after many minutes a dimly lit purple liquid came up unlike anything she had seen before. After the syringe was filled as much as he could with the strange purple liquid, tried to stuff him into the rabbit animatronic as best he could and closed the chest plate and put the mascot head back on after he put the cap back on the syringe. He cleaned off the excess blood and went back to Cassidy. 

“And that’s how it’s done,” he said, almost as if he was proud of himself and he did almost the exact same to Gabriel but stuffed him in Freddy. Cassidy cried and screamed even though it was muffled when she heard the many cracks of bones and saw blood starting to spill onto the floor. Her yelling was no use and her head was now starting to hurt from her sobbing. He put his two syringes of the purple liquid on the table, went back to Cassidy and wiped her tears. “Now what am I going to do with you?” he asked rhetorically as he pulled the rag out of her mouth. He hadn’t planned to get three victims in one go. The two boys at least, but not her. 

“Let me go so I can tell everyone that you’re a murderer,” she answered. 

“Hmm…I don’t think I will. I can’t let you go after you witnessed something like this.” 

He looked around the room and he saw Henry’s old Fredbear suit in the corner next to Springbonnie. He doesn’t use it anymore, so he definitely wouldn’t mind. He smiled as he moved the suit away from the corner and used the crank to pull back the animatronic parts with the rusty spring locks. After the spring lock suit was in suit form, he went to where the chloroform was kept in the darkness, put some on a rag and went back to her. Her eyes widened as she saw his slender figure emerging from the shadows and was getting closer to her. She tried her best to get away but didn’t get far since she was stuck. 

“Get the hell away from me!” she yelled but William put the rag over her mouth and nose and she tried to get away as he held her head from behind. She tried to scream muffled yells at him and tried to keep moving  away from the cloth against her face, but it seemed as though it was there to stay. After a few minutes, William could feel her struggling less and less. He took the rag off of her face and saw she was almost fully unconscious. “Please…” she said weakly and blacked out. 

William smirked to himself smugly and plunged the metal syringe into her chest. She however, was a little more difficult to extract the remnant from, which he expected more from Gabriel, but honestly his remnant was a lot easier to extract. He had to keep stabbing  her with the syringe multiple times and kept getting only blood, where finally he saw the dimly lit purple liquid come up the syringe. 

After it was filled with the strange purple liquid and he put the cap back on, he picked her up and carefully set her down in the old Fredbear costume (which the purple paint had chipped off over the years so the purple areas were now black) and he put the head on. She woke up as she was still fading in and out of consciousness, looked up shakily and noticed that these strange, sharp mechanisms all around her were holding animatronic parts back and she saw William still securing the Fredbear head. He must’ve noticed her eyes were open because he stared right at her and spoke to her directly. 

“Goodnight Cassidy,” he said and he tripped a mechanism near her neck and she felt the sharp, metal animatronic parts piercing through her body. She felt them everywhere, and she could not scream for very long because she was choking on her own blood. She knew she was dying very slowly, but she would have accepted death to see her brothers again. 

Back in the main dining room, Michael was zoning out as he still did not feel the best, and he felt another pain in his stomach. It was even worse than before and he hugged himself even tighter than he already was. 

Michael didn’t say a word as he got up and ran to the empty bathroom and went into a stall. He knelt on the ice cold tile over one of the toilets in a stall, and he felt tears starting to stream down his cheeks from the corners of his eyes because of the pain. He stayed put for a few minutes as the pain in his stomach seemed to not dissipate and he finally decided to force himself to vomit since the pain was unbearable. He did feel better afterwards and the pain lingered on but was manageable, and he sat on the cold tile floor with his back against the stall wall as he felt very dizzy like he spun around several times or he had low blood sugar. 

“Oh my God…” he said as he held his temples. He had suddenly felt the room temperature drop and he rubbed his forearms, trying to warm himself up with his body heat and from the friction. 

“Hello Michael,” he suddenly heard a voice say even though he was sure he was completely alone. He went wide-eyed as he looked all around him, including the ceiling but saw nothing. He felt his heart start racing and he gulped before he spoke. 

“What the-where are you?!” he yelled out loud. He was thankful that he was alone in the bathroom. 

“I am right here. It is a good thing you are alone for me to talk to you since it would be very difficult otherwise.”

“Mind telling me who the hell you are and what’s happening?!”

“No need to get angry with me. I am someone you’ve never met. But I know you,” the voice responded. To Michael, his deep voice seemed to be echoing off the walls since he could hear him from all sides, but whispering to him at the same time. Michael felt very scared and powerless for the first time in years as he pulled his knees closer to him. 

“Then that means…”

“I am your grandfather.”

“Uh, okay? That doesn’t explain anything.”

“I am your grandfather on your mother’s side.”

“Grandfather? Mum never mentioned she had parents! If she did, we never saw them!”

“Life’s full of surprises,” he said. Michael could tell there was a hint of anger in his voice at the very mention of his mother, but didn’t want to question it as he was scared enough already and didn’t want to risk anything else happening. 

“But…ghosts aren’t real!”

“That’s what everyone believes, but there is more to the universe that people still do not know.”

“So…let me get this straight. You are my grandfather that I’ve never met on my mum’s side, even though she never mentioned a father nor have we ever seen you?”

“Correct.”

This is utterly insane, he thought. “Okay, if you are, do you know where Mum is?”

“Yes. She is with you. But she is…let’s just say she is unable to speak to you.”

Michael knew he was lying. That she was able to speak to him, but couldn’t for some strange reason. 

“Then what about Evan and Elizabeth?”

“They are…they are both not in the afterlife. They seem to be stuck.”

“Stuck?!”

“Yes. Although Evan’s presence does seem close, as does Elizabeth’s but…I do not know where.”

“Okay, why are you here?!”

“I was with Cassidy to guide her. I mainly talked to her in dreams since she was with her brothers all the time.”

“Cassidy’s alright, right?!” he asked, trying not to panic since he was supposed to be watching the three of them but there was no response. ”Hello? Is she okay?!”

“I’m afraid not. Neither are her brothers.”

“What the hell happened to them?!”

”They…fell victim. I’m afraid they did not believe Cassidy when she told them to not follow.”

“Follow who?!”

“Your father. He is targeting people.”

“Again?! I thought he stopped!”

“‘He hasn't, I'm afraid.”

”Oh my God…”

“Not to worry. I’ll be here to help you from now on.”

“Oh yeah, a ghost helping me try to convince people he’s the cause of murders! What a very believable story!” he said sarcastically. ”I just…I just need a minute to process all this.”

“Of course. It’s not every day you talk to a spirit, after all. But if anything happens involving your father, I’ll be back.”

Michael held his head again as it hurt from his encounter as he felt the room go back to its normal temperature. 

“I’m going absolutely mad…” he said to himself and to his relief there was no response. Michael heard the bathroom door open and the pair of footsteps walk in and the door close behind him. 

“Mike? You in here?” he heard his friend, Jeremy, call out. He had passed the pizzeria while he was biking around town and decided to stop by. When he couldn’t find Michael, he saw Fritz and Samuel at one of the arcade games and asked them if they knew, and they said he ran to the bathroom and hadn't come out. 

“In here Jer,” Michael said from inside the stall and he wiped the lingering tears on his cheeks that refused to dry. He saw Jeremy cautiously open the stall door and he sat on the cold tile next to Michael, who had a dull, tired expression on his face. 

“Hey Mike! Are you feeling okay?” he asked. 

“Y-yeah. Just a little light headed, that’s all.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I felt like I was gonna be sick and I ran in here.”

“In that case, I’m no doctor but I think it’s because you lost fluids.”

Michael softly chuckled. 

“I guess your diagnosis is correct, Doctor Fitzgerald,” he said teasingly and Jeremy snickered. 

“I’ll go get you some water if you want-” Jeremy started and tried to stand up, but Michael held onto his arm telling him to stay, so he did. They sat in awkward silence for a while as Michael fiddled with his thumbs and bit the inside of his cheek. 

Jeremy started fidgeting with the necklace around his neck that his mother had given to him that he never leaves the house without. He had to admit, he was thankful now that he didn’t have to go back and forth between his mother’s and father’s house, but he still missed her regardless. His mother seemed to be the only parent that cared about him, even in her last moments when he saw her go limp in that hospital bed after a long battle with cancer. Now it was just him and his father where Jeremy was neglected and not treated with the love of a parent. Michael was all he had left who treated him like a human being, and they weren’t even related. 

Jeremy was snapped back to reality when he felt Michael rest his head on his shoulder. Michael closed his eyes, feeling tired from his encounter but knew exactly what he was doing, and partially hoped Jeremy didn’t see his lightly flushed face. 

Jeremy looked over at Michael leaning against him and pulled on his shirt collar since he was starting to get warmer, (even though it was freezing cold in that bathroom) careful to not let him see. Jeremy did not want to say anything to him though, fearing that he might ruin their several years worth of friendship if he did and he would be alone. He was grateful for having him in his life so that they could be there for each other if they needed it, or just to have someone to talk to. He was already seen as ‘The Freak’ at school along with many other hurtful words because he was a little different from his peers, but Michael was also different from his other peers so it was a constant debate whether or not to keep his mouth shut. 

“Should we uh…should we get back?” Jeremy asked, obviously nervous and Michael opened his eyes. 

“I guess we should get back out there to Sammy and Fritz. It wouldn’t be a good idea to leave them alone for long,” Michael said through a yawn as he lifted his head off of Jeremy’s shoulder, and Jeremy realized he was holding his breath and exhaled. He stood up and helped Michael up as they both went back to the main dining area together to find Samuel and Fritz.

Once they got back to the kids in the game room, Michael, Fritz and Samuel explained that Cassidy, Gabriel and Jeremy were missing. They all looked around the diner three times, between and behind every game and under every table, to where they found nothing. Michael was worrying as he knew what happened to them (and tried to convince himself that what he heard was a delusion, but now he was starting to doubt that) and he was supposed to be watching them, but Jeremy tried to assure him that they had to be around…somewhere.

Chapter 20

Summary:

The aftermath…

A few hours later, William heard two sets of footsteps from down the hallway heading towards the security office, and Henry walked in obviously very distressed. William was in his regular work attire and all cleaned up like nothing had happened, so Henry thought he was working the whole time. 

“Will, have you seen Daniel’s kids?!” he asked, panicked as William finally saw Daniel behind him, almost in tears and hyperventilating. 

“Hello to you too. And no, I haven’t,” William said, taking off his glasses he was supposed to wear more often than he does. 

“They’re missing! We’ve been looking everywhere and we found nothing! We even asked Mike and his friend, uh, Jeremy, Sammy and that other little boy, I don’t really know him and I forgot his name already. They said they’ve been looking for a while and found nothing!”

“I’ve been cooped up in here all day, so I haven’t seen ‘em.”

“You’re the security guard with cameras around you! You, of all people, should know where they went!”

“I haven’t had the chance to look at them.”

“Seriously Will?! This is what happened to Susie as well, hell even Charlie! As far as we know they could be dead! And Daniel’s supposed to go back to Pennsylvania later today!”

“How do you expect me to remember that I have two jobs to do, which is one I don’t regularly do and watch five damn kids?! I said that no one has told me anything and I didn’t see anything, so I have no clue where the hell they went!”

Henry started pacing around the office, contemplating what to do about their situation. Throughout the rest of the day the diner was open, Henry, Daniel, Samuel, Michael, Jeremy, and Fritz (before he was picked up) had looked around every inch of the diner that evening but no one had found a trace of those three. Daniel was worried sick, both for his children and how he was going to tell his wife. They looked everywhere again for the third time, but no one found anything once again. Henry tried to assure him that they were fine, just hiding somewhere else in town. He assured him that they’ll keep looking for them while he goes back to Pennsylvania, but Henry didn’t have much hope as he assumed it was exactly what happened to Charlotte, since whoever was causing these murders seemed to be following him everywhere.

After work, William went back to his basement to empty out the remnant from the syringes into jars, careful that Michael didn’t see him enter the basement. He labeled all the jars and prayed to no one in particular that no one would find them. He then counted how many jars of remnant he currently had, which was four. He knew there were four animatronics he built for this exact purpose, but one he knew he couldn’t use, he needed one for himself if it worked and he wanted one extra, just in case. He was going to need one more victim, and he knew exactly who it should be. 

That evening when Daniel left back to Pennsylvania, Samuel was listening to his mother and father’s almost daily screaming match with each other. They were arguing about Daniel’s three kids who went missing at Freddy’s, being that Henry was ignoring everyone and only focusing on his job. He wasn’t making time for his family which Heather wasn’t happy about at all. Samuel wanted to run back to his room and hide since he hated the sound of yelling and that was his safe place, but he was too interested in how his parents' argument would end since it seemed more intense this time around. 

“So you’re blatantly admitting that you only care about your job?! What about me?! What about Sammy?!” Heather yelled at him as she followed him pacing around the room. 

“I do care about you guys! It’s just not every day that three kids go missing! Freddy’s might close down for all we know!”

“There you go again! Just worried that you’re going to lose your job! What about your wife or your kid?!”

“I care about you two! I love you two, but I need to figure out what happened to them! What if they ended up just like Charlie?!”

“Charlie?! That’s what this is about?!”

Henry stopped pacing and turned to face Heather. 

“No! I’m saying what if they died?!”

“Then their bodies would have been found already! We would’ve known ages ago! Admit it Henry, you’re just ignoring us for no reason!”

“I’m not, aren’t you listening?!”

“What the hell d’you think I’ve been doing?! All I’ve been doing since I met you, I’ve been listening! I wanted to be there for you because I love you! But you won’t let me ‘cause you're so wrapped up in your own head!”

“Heather I didn’t mean-”

“Would it be better if we left and you could sort things out yourself?! ‘Cause that’s what it seems like!”

“Why would you even think that?!”

“You don’t pay attention to us anyway! It was only ever Charlie! You acted like me or even Sammy didn’t exist and only ever paid attention to Charlie! You neglected us and didn’t give a shit about us ever since Charlie came into this world, and after you found her dead in that alleyway! I’m sick of it Henry!”

“I’m sorry! But I need to figure this out!”

“Without us, I’m assuming since it obviously wouldn’t bother you if we left?!”

“No! I never said that!”

“Well that’s definitely what it seems like! And everyday for that matter!”

“I didn’t mean to Heather!”

“This is the same way you’ve acted since Charlie died, and I have tolerated it for, what, almost three years?! Hell, ever since she was born! I’m done Henry!”

“Heather-”

“No,” she interrupted him with tears building up in her eyes and her voice breaking. “I…I’m sorry Henry. I can’t do this anymore,” she took off her wedding ring and held it out to him. He was shaking as he extended his hand to take it, not wanting to believe it and trying not to burst into tears right then and there. 

Samuel covered his mouth with his hand, crying softly while watching from the top of the stairs. Henry and Heather heard his soft sniffles from the top and looked up to find him spying on them. When they saw him he took off to his room and slammed his door, sitting in the corner as he brought his knees closer to his chest. They both looked at each other and felt terrible that he had to see it, but what was done is done. Heather started to go up the stairs, but Henry stopped her. 

“I’ll talk to him. If you want to take him away from me, you’re only right to think that. But let me just talk to him, maybe say goodbye to him before the morning.”

Heather nodded and Henry went up the stairs and knocked on Samuel’s door. 

“Go away,” he said through sniffles and his voice breaking. 

“Sammy. Please,” Henry replied. When he didn’t answer for several minutes Henry let himself in to find him in the corner, curled up in a ball while silent tears poured out of his eyes. 

Samuel didn’t want anything to change. All his life, he lived with both of his parents, it was what he was used to and he was happy about it. But after what he just saw, he knew everything was going to change, and he hated change. 

Henry went over to him, sat next to him with his back against the wall and Samuel looked up at him. 

“I’m sorry Sammy,” Henry apologized. “I never wanted you to see all of that. And, I’m sorry that I was never there for you as much as I was for Charlie. I agree that was my fault. I wish I could’ve been there for you more so you could’ve had your dad there like a lot of the other kids, but I just…lost that time because as Mom said, ‘I’m so wrapped up in my own head’, and I’m sorry.”

Samuel was quiet for a long time, partly because he didn’t know what to say and partly surprised that his father apologized to him for the way he’s acted all these years.

“It’s okay Dad,” Samuel finally said. He honestly didn’t know what else to say in a moment like this. 

“I love that you think that. But I can’t get those years back, and if I’m not mistaken you and your mom are leaving tomorrow morning. I wish it was okay, but it’s not.”

Henry now noticed the buildup of tears in his eyes and he took off his glasses to wipe them away. Samuel noticed and said nothing as he hugged his father while Henry tried to not start breaking down in front of his son, but Samuel cried silent tears as he hugged his dad. 

But what they all didn’t know is that Charlotte saw everything that happened from out the window. Charlotte didn’t want to believe their parents ended their marriage right in front of her after all these years, and she couldn’t help thinking that it was all because of her. She shook that thought out of her head as she knew she had a job to do, but first she had to go to William’s house. Charlotte didn’t want to, but it felt important somehow. 

Charlotte went to the Afton residence and peered into the window by the kitchen table to find William by himself at the table. No one else was around, it was just him. He looked as though he was deep in thought and his leg was bouncing from anxiety. Not because he felt an ounce of regret from earlier that day, (he didn’t care that he ended the kids' lives at all) but because he couldn’t stop thinking about how he heard Evelyn’s voice. He didn’t want to believe it, but he heard her clear as day. To him, it sounded like a shout that was coming from all sides of him, but it sounded like a whisper at the same exact time. 

He was rubbing the nape of his neck in deep thought when he felt the room get colder, almost as cold to where he could see his breath. He looked around him and saw nothing out of the ordinary. 

“Hello?” he said to the room. No response. “Hello?”

When he got no response again, he shivered and hoped the coldness would go away on its own. He made the mistake of taking his hands away from his neck, and they were replaced by the feeling that something else was putting its hand on the back of his neck, but it was weightless and icy cold. Much colder than the room already. 

“Get your bloody hands away from me!” he yelled as he put his own hands back on his neck to warm it up, and the feeling went away. “Who are you?! What do you want?!”

“William,” the voice said. It was in Evelyn’s voice again. 

“Oh God, it’s you. What do you want?!” he yelled, trying not to show fear in his voice. 

“He’s here.”

“Who?!”

“He’s trying to hurt our son and he’s using your actions to hurt him! To hurt all of us!”

“I haven’t got a clue what you’re going on about, so the hell I care!”

“You have to stop this, then he will no longer hurt him!”

“What do you mean ‘hurt him’?! Who the hell is this ‘he’?! I’ve never heard of this person before in my life!”

William didn’t get an answer and the coldness of the room went away. He wanted to believe that he didn’t hear a paranormal entity in the kitchen, but he had heard this voice twice . He wanted answers. He wanted to know who this separate individual was. He wanted to know what Evelyn meant. But of course, he never got a straight answer from her, so he decided to continue his studies since he wasn’t going to let a warning with no meaning behind it stop him from getting what he wanted. 

He went up the stairs, cursing under his breath when from behind Michael’s closed door, he heard a thump against the wall. He let his curiosity get the best of him and decided to open Michael’s door, expecting to see that he punched a wall to take out his anger again, but instead found him asleep in his bed. Whatever he heard couldn’t be him since he was definitely out for the night, but he saw a thick, heavy book that was supposed to be in his bookshelf across the room. If this is what he heard, it looked as though the book was thrown at Michael but purposefully missed. He assumed that since nothing else against the wall could make a noise like that, this is what hit the wall, and whatever entity threw the book was haunting Michael. He closed the door and went down the hall to his own room. 

“She’s talking about some bloody poltergeist, eh? I’ll show her. The quicker I can get rid of Michael, since he gets in my way all the time, the better.”

Charlotte couldn’t believe it. There was more of a reason to stop William any way possible now. She couldn’t let William hurt another innocent person, so she needed all the help she could get. 

She went back to Freddy’s and got in through the vents, exactly how they did last time they were here. She didn’t want to be back, but knew they had to. Charlotte went around the diner, noticing that the animatronics were not on stage, so Charlotte assumed they must still be in the back room. Charlotte picked the lock to get inside the room, where she found the three animatronics with the kids inside.

By the same magic that was used a couple of months previous, three gift boxes appeared. They picked them up one by one and set them touching the kids when the gift boxes suddenly glowed, although the gift box by Cassidy seemed to glow brighter than the other two. After a while, the light got dimmer and dimmer with the energy being absorbed into the endoskeletons, attaching the remaining remnant to the endoskeletons while the bodies remained in the same place. That puppet went back out through the vents before the kids could see her. 

The kids opened their eyes, and were now aware that they all died but have somehow kept living. They all looked at each other and realized they were different. They were not themselves anymore. Gabriel did not look like Gabriel, Jeremy did not look like Jeremy and Cassidy did not look like Cassidy. All of them were frightened and the youngest felt like crying, but couldn’t. They all then noticed the gift boxes next to them which was the only hint at who could’ve not let their souls move on, but it disintegrated before one could even be picked up. 

“What are we gonna do?” Jeremy said, but they all realized his voice was different because of Bonnie’s voice box, so they figured they all had different voices. 

“I…I don’t know,” Gabriel said. 

“Didn’t I tell you guys?” Cassidy said. 

“So now you're putting the blame on us?!”

“I told you William was a bad man!”

“It was because of me. I’m sorry,” Jeremy butted in. 

“Jere, you just didn’t know if he was telling the truth. You’re the youngest out of all of us so he used that to trick you,” Gabriel assured him. 

“But if it wasn’t for me, then this probably wouldn’t have happened!”

“It’s not your fault. It’s William’s fault.”

“Whoever did this to us wanted us to keep living for a reason,” Cassidy said. 

“Not everything has a reason behind it, Cass.”

“Then what other bright idea do you have that explains why your soul is connected to a piece of metal then?” there was no response from him. “Exactly. So you guys know what this means?” Jeremy and Gabriel looked at each other and back at her and shook their heads. “God, you two are so dumb. It means whoever did this to us wants us to get back at him!”

“Not everyone needs revenge, Cass.”

“He does! He’s a murderer! He deserves to get a taste of his own medicine! A normal murder doesn’t happen like this, after all!”

“She has a point, y’know,” Jeremy said. 

“Okay, so what if we should get revenge?” Gabriel asked. “How would we do that? What happens next? Are we just stuck forever?!” 

“I dunno! This is the first time I’ve ever had something like this happen to me!” Cassidy exclaimed. 

“Well same here!”

“We can just attack him or something!”

“What great idea do you have that we can do that? Do you not realize how we are right now?! We can’t just attack him out of nowhere! He works in the daytime! Plus Jere and I will probably be forced to stand on stage all day!”

“We are?” Jeremy asked. 

“These are the only Freddy and Bonnie suits I know of. Except the one he used and the one Cass is in and from the looks of it, it’s been put out for years for a reason.”

“Hey!” Cassidy exclaimed as Jeremy snickered. “As for what we can do, just pray that he starts working nights.” 

“Wow. So smart,” Gabriel said sarcastically. 

“What other bright ideas do you have?”

“None.”

“Exactly.”

If only I knew what he was doing. That would make it so much easier, Cassidy thought. 

“It really would,” another, higher pitched voice said. It didn’t sound like anyone here and he didn’t sound like the ghost who was speaking to her before. He sounded like a little boy and he had a British accent, just like William’s. 

“Who said that?!” Cassidy said out loud. Both Gabriel and Jeremy looked at her. 

“No one said anything,” Jeremy said. Cassidy looked straight ahead again, though the suit couldn’t move much to begin with, thinking she was just in shock and hearing voices. 

”I’m right here. You know you don’t have to yell. That was loud,” she heard again. 

“Who’re you?!”

“Wait, who are you?!”

You first!

“I’m Evan!”

Evan…

“Yup! Evan Afton!”

I recognize that name…was your mom Evelyn Afton?

“Yes…?”

She had a younger brother, his name was Daniel Schmidt. I’m his daughter Cassidy and his youngest son is in the Bonnie mascot costume, his name is Jeremy. His oldest son, although he’s not his biological son, he’s in the Freddy mascot costume and his name is Gabriel. 

“Oh! So you’re all my cousins?”

This isn’t the best state to reunite but…yes. So…are you the son that died I kept hearing about?

“I don’t know, I wasn’t there. If he got bit in the head by Fredbear then yes.”

So that means your dad is William Afton?!

“Yes…”

Oh my God, it’s another Afton…

“Hey! What’s so bad about that?!”

Wait, did you not see it?

“I woke up the same time you did, I have no idea what happened.”

He…he was the one who put us here.

“You mean he murdered you guys?!”

Yup.

“Oh my gosh…”

So, are you able to speak?

“I don’t know, since you obviously took over speaking for the both of us.”

Shut it! Another quick question, when did you die?

“1983, I think. What year is it?”

So you’re saying you’ve been here for two years?!

“It’s 1985 already? Last I remember everything went black after Fredbear’s jaws snapped on me…then I woke up here today!”

So can you at least try speaking to my brothers so they don’t think I’m crazy when I tell them you’re here as well?

“I can try. But if nothing happens then don’t cry to me.”

He tried to speak, but all that actually came out was strange, distorted sounds and Gabriel and Jeremy backed away.

“What the hell was that Cass?!” Gabriel exclaimed. 

“It’s uh…okay, don’t think I’m crazy when I say this.”

“Nothing is impossible to me anymore so fire away.”

“Okay, so you guys remember Dad kept talking about Aunt Evelyn’s dead son that got bit?”

“Yeah…” they both said together. 

“Uh, it turns out he’s also possessing this thing.”

Both Gabriel and Jeremy looked at her, trying to process this new information. 

“Him?” Jeremy asked. 

“Yes, him.”

“What’s his name again?”

“Evan.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that name. Hi Evan!”

Evan tried to speak again to say hello, but all that came out was the same garbled sounds. 

“Okay, so let me get this straight. Evan, who Dad said was Aunt Evelyn’s dead son, is also possessing the same animatronic you are?” Gabriel asked. 

“Yes.”

He stayed quiet for a long time, trying to process what he just heard. 

“I’m not judging you cause I’ll believe almost anything now, but that’s weird,” he finally said. 

Don’t ever try to speak again unless you need to, Cassidy thought. 

“Noted.”

Chapter 21

Summary:

Michael blames himself.

“It’s all my fault,” Michael said the next day as he and Jeremy were sitting on the couch together in the Afton’s living room. Michael had refused to go to the restaurant that day, and barely even got the motivation to get ready that morning because of guilt. Michael had called Jeremy down earlier that day because he didn’t want to be alone in case he fell into an episode. 

“It’s not your fault Mike.”

“Yes it is! I should’ve been watching them. If I had, none of this would’ve happened!”

“Mike, you didn’t know they’d go missing at Freddy’s of all places. As far as we know they could be lost in the mountains outside town or something.”

“That’s not helping Jer. Their father left already and he  went back with no kids! He’s  probably devastated, or what’s even his wife going to say?! They’re probably going to hate me forever.”

“A lot of kids think it’s okay to walk around town then get lost. I think that’s what happened.”

“No, I don’t think that’s the case here.”

“So you mean…”

“They’re dead.”

“Dead?! How would they be murdered? This is only a small town, and there’s not many bad guys who’ll attack a shitty kids diner in the daytime!”

“I know, but let’s just say…I know a guy.”

“…a guy who saw this?”

“Kind of.”

“Well why doesn’t he go to the police?! This needs to be reported!”

Michael hesitated. 

“He can’t.”

“Can’t?! Can’t how?!”

“He’s uh…would you believe me if I said he’s dead himself?”

“A ghost, is what you’re saying?”

“Yes!”

“You know ghosts don’t exist Mike. We’re not some dumb little kids to be believing those fairytales anymore.”

“I think I would know if it were real, and what I heard definitely was!”

“Okay…let’s pretend you’re telling me the truth. How did this ‘ghost’ tell you?”

“He spoke to me.”

“Spoke to you?”

“Yes,” he finally realized how stupid he sounded. 

“Mike…what the hell are you on?! No one heard anything about murders but you, apparently! We don’t even know if ghosts exist, but here you are thinking you unlocked that secret of the universe and no one was around to see it but you!”

“I’m not shitting you man! Swear on my life!”

“Okay, let’s say, hypothetically, you’re right. Who is committing these murders?”

“My father.”

“Him? Your father, William Afton, is a murderer?”

“Yes.”

Jeremy wasn’t convinced at all. 

“Look, I know he’s weird and honestly a little scary, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to murder someone.”

“That’s how he lures people in! They think he’s a friendly guy but then he stabs them in the back!”

“Mike, have you been watching too many horror movies?”

“No! Well, kind of but I’m talking about real life here!”

“Really? ‘Cause this honestly sounds like the plot of a movie and you need to show it to me someday.”

“We’re living in it!”

“Sure we are Mike,” he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “Too many video games?”

“No! I always get angry at those, you’ve seen me,” Michael always rages at games when he doesn’t win and has cussed out the games many times before. “I’m telling you! This is what’s happening!”

“If your dad’s a murderer, then why don’t you turn him in?”

“I don’t have any evidence. Plus who’d believe me, who just turned sixteen a few months ago?!”

“Exactly. It’s all probably made up, Mike. Are you sure you’re not on something?”

“I'm 100% sure. I know it’s hard to believe it but I know it’s the truth.”

“Just let it go Mike. You don’t need more stress in your life.”

“I know what I heard!” he yelled when he noticed his leg was bouncing now, and he took out his pack of gum from his pocket. “Want one?” he offered. 

“I’m good,” Jeremy replied and Michael shrugged as he took a piece for himself. 

Deep down, Michael knew he would make a fool of himself telling Jeremy, but he needed to get it off his chest to someone. He knew he had to get Jeremy to believe him sometime, though. He wasn’t going to spend his whole life having to deal with this by himself, and if something were to happen to him or his family, he needed Jeremy to believe him to warn him. 

At Freddy’s, business was running as usual but William couldn’t stop thinking about his encounters yesterday. He didn’t want to believe that he was talking to Evelyn’s spirit, which hadn’t moved on like it was supposed to. He killed her years ago, so she was supposed to be dead! But he knew he heard her, it sounded exactly like her, and who else would be speaking to him from the afterlife? 

Although, he had a theory as to why she hadn’t moved on. Maybe all those years ago, he actually had connected part of her soul to Ballora, but not in the way he had hoped. He thought she would be trapped, but since the remnant is apparently much  stronger than he thought and he only harvested a small amount, it was like she was tied down to Earth instead of moving on. This was only a theory, but it’s the only one he had. 

Back at his house, William was so worked up that he couldn’t find his blazer that he usually wore to work anywhere, and just went in his purple button down and slacks. He looked everywhere, but it was like it vanished out of thin air. He didn’t need that blazer, he can go without it from now on, but what he wanted was that golden rabbit pin he had. He was given that pin by Henry (who had a similar one for himself but it was of a golden bear) when they had first opened Fredbear’s together. 

He went into work that morning with his hair a mess since that morning he had spent way too much time overthinking, and could only finger comb his long hair in the car. He had dark circles under his eyes from getting almost no sleep from the tossing and turning all night long. All day he has been going about his work day almost like he was in a trance, barely even noticing anyone walking by him while he stared at the floor getting lost in his own head. 

“Are you okay Will?” Henry asked William in the hallway, noticing William’s blank expression he had on almost all day. William snapped out of his trance once he heard Henry’s voice. 

“I’m fine Hen.”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost. What’s going on?”

“I don’t want you to think I’m mental.”

“You’re my best friend Will. I want to help you.” 

William inhaled sharply. 

“Yesterday, I started hearing voices in my office and at my house. The room got bloody cold out of nowhere, and I swear to God I heard Evelyn’s voice.”

“Evelyn? But she died, what, five years ago?”

“Exactly. I don’t know what’s going on. She was warning me of some…poltergeist. Not haunting me, but haunting Michael. And yesterday night I heard a thump against his wall. I thought he punched the wall again, but I opened the door and he was fast asleep with his back to me. So I thought, ‘it couldn’t be him’, but I saw one of his thick books he likes to read for some ungodly reason. I saw it thrown across the room like whoever threw it wanted to hit him but missed, but there was no one in the room but him.”

“Maybe it fell.”

“That bookshelf was across the room. It couldn’t have.”

“Maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe the book was on the floor and you were just hearing things.” 

“I don’t know. I’m really starting to doubt that.”

“You’ll be fine Will. Trust me.”

“I believe you. Sincerely, I do. I think you’re one of the only people I’d trust with my life.”

Henry smiled subtly and William smiled back at him. It’s the first time he’s seen Henry smile in months. 

“Also, uh, I heard about you and Heather. Sorry about that,” William said, tearing his gaze away from Henry’s kind amber eyes.

“Oh yeah…I’m really devastated about it, but she thinks it’s for the best, and frankly so do I. I was just never in the right state of mind after Charlie died to raise another child. I really just hope she’ll find someone new to raise him better than I did, or she’ll raise him better on her own.”

“Hen, I know how hard it must be on you, so would you fancy a drink with me after work today? My treat. It can be just like we’re in college again being stupid teenagers, just to get your mind off of what happened.”

“I would like that. I kinda wanted to relive our college days anyway, I guess this would be the right time since we’re both single again.”

They both stood across from each other in silence for a while, both feeling slightly awkward but didn’t want to move. 

“Remember back in college, I would get so drunk at the pub you’d have to drive me back to the dorms and I would have to leave my car there overnight?” William asked and Henry softly chuckled. 

“You mean every time?”

“Yes, almost every time,” William said while smiling. 

“How could I forget? I’d have to take care of you the next day during your hangover. Remember? You loved to complain to me,” he imitated him to the best of his ability, “‘Henry my head hurts, Henry my stomach hurts, Henry I’m hungry’.” 

They both laughed together and stood in awkward silence for a little while. 

“I can’t believe you still remembered after all these years,” William said finally. 

“I wouldn’t want to forget the good times we had together, even if I ended up having to take care of you.” 

“I guess you just…naturally have those fatherly instincts,” William joked and saw Henry smile again. 

“I guess you’re right,” he said. “So, uh, after work are we taking separate cars or are we going to go together in one of our cars?” Henry asked, sensing that the conversation was getting to the point where it was a little awkward for him. 

“Uh, we should just probably take one of our cars, cause who knows if we’ll end up getting drunk like we did back then.”

That night at around nine is when Henry met William at his house since they agreed he’d be the driver, just like he was in college. As William came out of the front door to the passenger’s side of his car, Henry noticed he was dressed totally different than how he usually sees him, though that time is mainly at work. He had on a simple purple t-shirt with a black leather jacket over and simple blue jeans he had found. William had his long hair up in a half ponytail, which was how he would normally have it when he wasn’t working. 

“Ready?” Henry asked as William got in the car.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” William answered and Henry started up the car and drove to their local bar a few miles away. 

“And, I just wanted to say Will, thanks for doing this for me. I’m sure if it had been anyone else they would’ve just let me stay by myself tonight,” Henry said a minute later as he was driving down the road.

“No problem Hen. I just thought you deserve to get your mind off of your troubles for one night and we should just be our stupid selves like we were back in college.”

Henry chuckled. 

“Yeah, we were pretty stupid. You especially.”

“Hey! It has to be even, you were pretty stupid too.”

“Yeah, but I still got better grades than you! And I only acted the way I did ‘cause you’re a bad influence.”

“I guess you’re right about that. But we deserved to have a bit of fun since we had freedom from our stupid parents.”

When Henry drove into the parking lot and they went into the bar together, they stayed until it closed at two in the morning, just like they did during college when the bartenders would have to chase them out. While they were there, they mainly cracked jokes together or sometimes would talk about their own lives to catch up with each other, just like old times. 

Their time at the bar together had been the most William has seen Henry smile since Charlotte died. 

Once they finally got into the car and Henry drove off to William’s house, William was a bit tipsy while Henry made sure to limit himself to one drink as he was the one driving back. On the way back, William kept Henry awake by talking constantly since the filter between his brain and his mouth was thinner. He kept saying random sentences, talking crap about other coworkers he didn’t like or just making random sounds with his mouth because he was bored. 

But since he was still somewhat aware, he made sure that he didn’t say a word about those missing kids. 

“Hey Hen,” William said once Henry pulled into the Afton’s driveway and he turned his attention to him. “Take care, all right?” 

Henry smiled. 

“I will. You too.”

When William got out of the car and went inside his home he found Michael on the sofa watching some boring soap opera and eating popcorn. He’s been into soap operas ever since the Evan passed, and William wasn’t sure why and Michael didn’t even know himself. 

“Why the hell are you still up?!” William asked through his slightly slurred speech as he hung onto the wall for balance. 

“It’s Friday night during break, that’s what.”

“Whatever. Go watch that shit upstairs.”

“Fine,” Michael said. He turned off the television and he took his bowl of popcorn as he went upstairs. After Michael left, William sat on the couch and turned on a random late night show until he finally fell asleep on that couch. As he slept, he kept rethinking Henry’s words from earlier that day and hoped that it was all true. That he actually was hearing things or that maybe the encounters actually were just dumb coincidences. But upstairs, Michael was still wide awake, knowing that what he had heard was all true. He had to find a way to stop his father, but how?

Chapter 22

Summary:

Michael and Fritz’s friendship :)

Over the next few weeks when Michael was forced to go to the restaurant with his father on the weekends, he would oftentimes find Fritz as well, making it slightly more bearable now that he had someone to talk to. Although, Fritz would do most of the talking since Michael wouldn’t want to talk often, but he would listen to him intently even though Fritz was several years younger than Michael was. 

Most of the time when they caught up with each other, Fritz and Michael would ramble to each other about pirates and then the conversation would drift off elsewhere. They would play games in the mini arcade together or Michael would buy the bland, crappy pizza at Freddy’s for them to share, and Michael finally considered him as his friend. 

“Mike?” Fritz said one day, snapping Michael out of his thoughts. They were eating the pizza one day for lunch, but Michael was mainly staring at the floor and fiddling with his thumbs, not even touching his slice. 

“Yeah? What is it?”

“You’re not eating your pizza. Are you okay? Are you sick?”

Michael smiled as though he was amused by Fritz’s worriedness. 

“I’m fine Fritz, trust me.”

“Then why aren’t you eating?”

“There’s just…a lot on my mind right now.”

“Like what?”

“I’m sure it’s nothing you’ll understand.”

“Yes I can! I’m in sixth grade! I’ve helped a lot of my friends at school feel better, so I’m sure I can help you too!”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t get it. It’s different from every other situation.”

“Well, I can still help.”

“Since you won’t stop nagging me about it, I can just tell you the part you’ll somewhat understand. My father…is not the best father. In fact he doesn’t act like a regular father at all. I mean, you’ve seen how he acts towards kids. He’s that way at home as well.”

“Oh! I know what you’re talking about! My mom’s kinda the same way.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. She can get kinda scary sometimes and yells at my dad a lot. If she’s really mad, she’ll yell at me too, I’m never sure why though. That’s why he lets me come here. He wants to make sure I’m safe!”

“He sounds like a good man.”

“Yeah. But he said we’re both probably going to be going away from her soon. So I might be moving next month.”

“Then who am I gonna share this crappy pizza with?” Michael asked and Fritz snickered. 

“I’m gonna miss you, Mike.”

“Y’know, I’ll miss you too.”

“But we still have a month! We can still hang out ‘till then!”

“We definitely can,” Michael said as he started eating the pizza. 

“Yay! You’re eating now!” Fritz exclaimed and Michael smiled. 

After they finished their slices of pizza, Fritz suddenly remembered one of his other favorite places that he hasn’t shown Michael yet. It wasn’t that far, so he was sure he wouldn’t mind, plus it might help him cheer up. 

“Mike! I wanna show you another place I really like! It’s not that far, and I go there all the time after I leave Freddy’s!”

“What is it?”

“It’s an arcade! It’s not like this small one at Freddy’s, it’s one of the big ones that has all sorts of video games!”

Michael looked back at his father, who wasn’t paying attention to him, so he definitely wouldn’t mind if he left for a bit. 

“I guess so. But just for a little bit, okay?”

“Okay Mike!”

Fritz grabbed his wrist and led him out the doors, where he let go and they walked side by side on the sidewalk. 

“So, where is this arcade?” Michael asked as they were walking on the sidewalk. 

“It’s not far. But my dad picks me up there on the weekends and I thought since it’s the weekend, it’d be perfect to show you! It’s one of my favorite places in town, I’m sure you’ll like it too! All the kids I think are about your age also go there!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! They have all the cool video games, so it’s a cool place for high school kids to hang out! But I like to go there because…well I don't really know. C’mon! We’re almost there!”

Michael and Fritz went across an intersection and Fritz led him inside a small building that Michael could definitely tell was an arcade. They went inside the double doors, and Michael stared inside in awe. The building was lit up with different colored lights and there were isles upon isles of different video games, everything from fighting games to simple games like Pac-Man to pinball machines. At many of the arcade machines were kids, mainly his own age by themselves or with friends, but there were also some adults with their kids or adults with other adults just wanting to treat themselves to a game. 

“Woah…how have I never heard of this place before?” Michael wondered aloud. 

“I dunno. Everyone comes here.”

“But me apparently. I don’t think my father ever let me go to arcades, maybe I went to one once when I snuck out, but that was years ago.”

“He never did? That sounds terrible! That means we have to play something! C’mon!”

Fritz led him over to several different arcade machines where they both paid for their own games. They took turns playing games such as Pac-Man, Frogger, Galaga, Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong as well as several other arcade games and several pinball machines. Both of them had loads of fun while playing those games together, and it was the most Fritz had seen Michael smile. Michael was happy that he was away from his father, away from his worries for a while and got to be a normal teenager for the first time. Fritz hasn’t really seen him express himself to be this high in spirits, and he was glad that he could help his friends day get just a little bit better. 

After a while of playing the arcade games, laughing, joking or just talking, they lost track of time and eventually ran out of quarters. They decided that since Fritz’s father was picking him up at the arcade later, and Michael thought it wouldn’t be a good idea to leave him alone, they hung around the pinball machines in the back. 

After a while of talking nonsense to each other, Fritz saw a man come in the front doors. Fritz’s face lit up. 

“Dad!” he exclaimed and ran over to him. Michael looked over to the front door to see who Fritz’s father was. He was a tall, plump man who looked to be in his early forties. He seemed like he had just come from work at a construction site being that his light brown  (starting to gray) hair was messy and oily, his shirt and old jeans were very dirty, but despite all this he wore a kind, tired expression on his face at all times. Fritz hugged the man and Michael went over to them. 

“Are you the Michael I’ve been hearing so much about?” he asked once he saw Michael. 

“Um…I suppose so.”

“Yeah Dad! This is Michael!” Fritz said. 

“He talks about you at the dinner table so often, you’re practically a celebrity to him!” Fritz’s father said. 

“He’s saying good things, I hope?” Michael asked awkwardly and Fritz’s father laughed a big, hearty laugh. 

“Yes, all good things! You seem like a very nice young man, Michael. I’m so glad you were kind enough to become his friend, even if he is younger than you.”

“It’s no problem sir. It’s nice to have someone to talk to at Freddy’s who likes the same things I do.”

“Looks like it’s time to go. Fritz? Wanna say bye to Michael?”

“Yeah! Bye Mike! See you next time!” he said. 

“Bye Fritz,” Michael replied and he watched them go out the front doors to their car in the parking lot and drive off. Michael went out the doors of that arcade and walked the four blocks back to Freddy’s. 

“Michael!” William yelled in his deep, booming voice as soon as he saw Michael open the front door. Michael looked up wide-eyed and tensed up. William went to him. “Where the bloody hell have you been?!”

“I was uh…away.”

“Away where?”

“Away from here. We got bored.”

“And where is that?”

“There’s a popular arcade around here that Fritz showed me. We lost track of time and were there for a while until his father came to pick him up.”

“So that boy…his name is Fritz?” William asked and Michael gulped. 

“Uh…yes.”

“Hmph,” he grunted quietly and walked past Michael, who was now a little more worried for his friend. William went to lock the doors since the restaurant was closing and the last of the customers were leaving. The whole time he was closing up he couldn’t help but think:

There was an arcade around here?

Chapter 23

Summary:

Oh no…Fritz…

William was wandering around the restaurant mindlessly one Monday afternoon, making his rounds around the diner. The small children had gotten out of school, but it was a little less busy than it usually was at this time. Fritz went to the pizzeria after his school got out as per usual, when he got bored of being by himself and spotted William from across the restaurant. 

“Mr. Afton!” Fritz said and ran up beside William, who was startled by the noise. 

“Jesus, what do you want kid?!”

“You’re Mike’s dad, right?” 

“Why does that matter?”

“D’you know where he is? I thought he’d want to go to the arcade again, or is he not here today?”

William knew Michael was probably at home, at the park with Jeremy or still at school because he got detention again, but he had other plans on what to tell him. 

“He’s here! He’s organizing things in the back. Do you want me to take you to him?”

“Isn’t that place for employees only? I’m no employee.”

“I’m giving you special permission since Michael is your friend. I just know he’ll be happy to see you!”

“Um…okay!”

William began leading him to the back and Fritz anxiously followed him, hoping to see Michael. This time felt different to William though. He felt as though someone or something put their icy cold hands on his shoulders to try to hold him back, but he wouldn’t let that stop him from getting what he wanted and fought against it, even though he was sure nothing was there. He finally got annoyed and pretended to dust off his shoulders, and whatever was trying to hold him back went away. 

Once William got to the door labeled ‘Employees Only’ and let Fritz inside, a putrid smell hit Fritz’s nose. 

“It smells like something died in here!” Fritz said as he held his nose. “Is Mike back here?”

“He sure is! I think he’s near the back trying to get rid of the smell.”

Fritz ran to the back as William closed and locked the door. 

“Mike! Where are you?” 

Oh no, Cassidy thought as he came into view. 

“What? What is it?” Evan said. 

You can see, right?! He got another one!

“Oh no! What are we gonna do?!”

I…I don’t know. I’m trying to stand up but I can’t! This thing’s too heavy!

“Try harder! We have to save him!”

I AM trying jackass!

“Shut up! So that must be why he brought Foxy back here earlier…”

Wow, ya think?!

“Mr. Afton? I don’t see Mike anywhere,” Fritz said. 

“He’s back there, I’m sure of it!”

---

Back at the Afton’s house, Michael was watching television with Jeremy when they both got chills. 

“Do you feel that?” Michael asked. 

“What happened?” Jeremy asked, slightly concerned that the air conditioner might have broken. When Michael didn’t answer him, he put his hand on his shoulder and shook him lightly. “Mike?”

“Michael, your father is targeting yet another victim,” Michael heard. It was the same voice he had heard that day he had run into the bathroom. 

”What?” he finally said. 

“You need to go back to Freddy’s! Now!”

“Now?!”

“Yes now! Your friend, Fritz, is in danger!”

”Danger?! Is he…”

”Yes! Go!”

The temperature of the room went back to normal and he looked back at Jeremy. 

“Mike? Are you okay?” Jeremy asked, concerned but a little frightened as he let go of Michael’s shoulder. 

“Did…didn’t you hear him?”

“Hear who? I only heard you. Are you on something?”

“What the…doesn’t matter. We have to go,” Michael said sternly as he stood up. 

“Go?! Go where?!”

“Freddy’s!”

“Why’re we going there?!”

“I can explain it there! C’mon!” he said as he put on his jacket that was thrown on a kitchen chair and headed out the door. 

Jeremy stood up and followed him out the door even though he didn’t know what was going on, and didn’t want to be alone in Michael’s house. Once they stepped outside, they were hit with the chilly breeze as it was transitioning from autumn to winter. 

“How’re we gonna get there? We don’t have a car!” Jeremy exclaimed. He was right. They didn’t have a car, but Michael saw Jeremy’s blue bicycle that he rides everywhere propped against the wall, and a lightbulb seemed to click on in his brain. He quickly opened the garage and went inside while Jeremy followed him. “What are you doing?” Michael returned with a dusty old bicycle from years ago. “What’s that from?”

“I found it in the garage a few years back. I think it was one of my parent’s, but I don’t know whose.”

“Well, are you gonna ride it or…”

“I’m gonna try.”

“Have you never ridden it before?!”

“I have a few times when I’m bored here, but I had to teach myself since my father never cared to teach me. I was…decent but it’s the only way unless you feel like giving me a ride on your bike.”

“It’s not big enough for two people!”

“C’mon then,” they both walked their own bicycles down to the sidewalk. “Do you know the way to Freddy’s from here?”

“Yeah, but it’s about five miles away. I know a shortcut to make it four and a half, but it’ll still be a long way.”

“It’s the only way. Go ahead and I’ll follow you.”

Jeremy got on his bicycle and waited for Michael to get steady on his. Michael took a deep breath and tried his best to balance while on his bicycle, almost falling a couple of times but eventually got the hang of it. Jeremy smiled a kind smile as Michael went up next to him as he was proud of Michael for learning after only a couple attempts, and Michael could feel his heart flutter but tried to ignore it. Jeremy started petaling down the road and Michael tried his best to follow him, even though Jeremy was going exceptionally faster down the road than him. 

When they got to the main road, they switched to biking on the sidewalk because of the cars on the road. They biked along the sidewalk for a few minutes and Jeremy suddenly turned a corner, so Michael followed him. Michael found out that it was the way to the shortcut Jeremy was talking about, and it was a long, dark alleyway. He gripped his handlebars tighter because the dark (especially dark alleyways) scared him, slowed down and stopped before he went into the shadows. When Jeremy was already partway down the alleyway, he noticed that Michael wasn’t following and went back to him. 

“Hey, you okay?” Jeremy asked, a little worried and Michael noticed that Jeremy was breathing heavily because he had biked almost four miles straight. 

“Y-yeah. I’m fine,” Michael replied, now noticing that he was trying to catch his breath as well and his hands felt clammy. 

“Are you scared?” Jeremy asked a little teasingly, but it was almost like he read his mind. 

“No!”

“Are you sure?” 

“…fine, I am. They just freak me out, okay?! What if there’s someone hiding down there that wants to attack us or even mug us?! Or what if there’s some weird animal down there that just wants to jump out at us?! Plus, it’s dark so then I’ll be even more freaked out because I won’t see it coming!”

“Really? I was just saying that as a joke, but if you actually don’t want to go down this alley we can go the other way.”

“No! You said this way’s a little shorter, and I have to get over there as quick as possible.”

“If you say so. We can walk together, so I’m right here if you decide you want to go the other way.”

Michael nodded and they walked quickly down that alleyway together, and Jeremy kept his word by staying close to Michael. A couple of times, Michael would  grab onto his shoulder since they were side by side because he thought he saw someone in the shadows or he thought he heard something, and Jeremy was thankful it was dark so Michael couldn’t see his lightly flushed face. 

When they finally got to the other side of that alleyway, Jeremy looked back at him. 

“See? Wasn’t so bad,” Jeremy said. 

“Yeah, not so bad.”

---

“Please Mr. Afton! Let me go!” Fritz yelled and banged on the door as tears of fear filled his eyes. He had just found out he had been locked in this room and the man had left. He was all alone and scared for his life as he went towards the only light in the back of that room.

He slumped down in a fetal position in the corner and noticed the old Fredbear suit from Fredbear’s Family Diner, which seemed to be where the smell was coming from. He went closer to it and noticed dried blood leaking out of the chest plate, joints and eye sockets.

Something definitely happened here, he thought and he knelt to inspect the suit. Suddenly, out of nowhere he thought heard the Fredbear suit speak to him.

”Run,” was all it whispered to him. He looked behind him and there was William in an old, blood stained uniform. William had come back into the room silently to try and sneak up on Fritz. He gasped and stood up as he ran towards the door, not daring to look behind him. Fritz got to the door and jiggled the doorknob as tears filled his eyes once again, but the doorknob wouldn’t budge.

William caught up to him and put a chloroform rag over his mouth and nose as Fritz sobbed and tried to get out of his grip.

---

Michael and Jeremy got on their bicycles and rode the rest of the way to Freddy’s, which Michael was now getting the hang of riding a bicycle and followed closely behind Jeremy. They got to the pizzeria in a matter of minutes and stopped at the front entrance where Michael propped his bicycle on the wall and ran inside. 

Jeremy stopped his bicycle next to Michael’s, and took them both over to the side of the building where they couldn’t be stolen and ran in after him, even though he felt like his legs were going to give out any second. 

As Michael was about to go down the hallway to the back, he felt the same sick feeling in his stomach as he did when Gabriel, Cassidy and Jeremy were killed. 

No, no, no…I’m too late?! he thought as he tried to swallow the lump in his throat. Jeremy caught up to Michael and he looked down at his own two feet as he put his hands on his hips as if he was trying to stand up and not collapse. Michael heard Jeremy panting heavily and turned to face him. 

“Jer, are you…are you okay?” he asked as he tried to catch his breath, but he wasn’t as out of breath as Jeremy was. 

“Oh yeah…I’m fine…no I’m…I’m not. Can we sit down…somewhere?” he asked as he was trying to catch his breath. 

Michael looked around the diner, making sure his father was nowhere in sight. When he saw that only the day shift employees were out in the diner, he nodded and they went to an empty table near the back where Jeremy slumped in the chair.

“Sorry for that. Can I get you water or something?” Michael asked, feeling a little bad that he needed to leave the house right then and needed Jeremy to lead the way to the pizzeria. 

“Yeah, then you can explain to me why the hell I had to bike…five miles straight here. Four…and a half thanks to that shortcut,” he replied as he let his head drop on the cold table. 

Jeremy hated that he was never as strong as Michael and could barely even bike the almost five miles straight here without his legs almost giving out, compared to Michael who was perfectly fine. All his life, he was the unathletic skinny boy who only very rarely pushed his limits, and even then he still took breaks when biking long distances since his legs would get tired so easily. Even though Jeremy would ride his bike outside often, he barely seemed to gain muscle and he would only get tanned. He didn’t mind that, but he wished he could be more muscular like Michael. 

Michael softly chuckled at Jeremy’s statement and got two water glasses, one for Jeremy and one for him to try and get the feeling in his stomach to go away. Once Michael got back with the water glasses, Jeremy practically chugged his while Michael watched and drank his. 

“Okay, why the hell did we have to come here?!” Jeremy asked, a little irritated as he wiped the excess water from his lips with the back of his hand. 

“Oh right. Uh, you’re probably going to think I’m mental when I say this, but there’s…a ghost.”

“A…ghost?” he echoed as he raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Yes. I know I sound crazy, believe me.”

“A ghost?! D’you know how ridiculous you sound right now Mike?!” he said a little too loudly as his words now started to sink in. Michael shushed him as he noticed a few people were now starting to look in their direction. 

“Shut up!” Michael whispered. “I know it sounds utterly insane, but it was about Fritz. My father…my father killed him, but we were too late,” he said, as he held back tears and bit the inside of his cheek. 

“Fritz? You’re saying your dad murdered Fritz?” Jeremy whispered back. 

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“This is the same thing you were talking about weeks ago,” he said under his breath and held his temples. “And how do you know he died and you weren’t just making up fake scenarios?!”

“Because, whenever someone dies, I get a terrible feeling in my stomach, and it seems to get worse when I was near where it happened. Remember how I felt like I was going to be sick when Gabriel, Cassidy and Jeremy went missing and you found me in the bathroom?”

“Yeah?”

“And I had those feelings about Charlie and Susie as well and now look. Charlie’s dead and they’re all missing, but I know they’re all dead as well. Hell, even my mother, I knew she was murdered.” 

That statement caught Jeremy’s attention and he sat up from his slumped position.

“Hold on, let me stop you right there…you mean to tell me she didn’t die of food poisoning like you said all those years ago?!”

“She didn’t. I’m sorry I lied to you Jer, but I was trying to protect myself then! But now, I feel like you should know so you’ll believe me!”

“If it was for your protection so young, I guess that’s understandable. But we’re gonna talk about this later.”

“Fine, but you have to believe me!” Jeremy kept staring at him with a look of concern in his eyes. “Okay, are you sure you didn’t hear anything at all?”

“I only heard you talking to yourself. Was I supposed to hear something?”

“Oh my God. I really am cursed.”

“Cursed?”

“Yes! I could hear him clear as day, but you couldn’t!”

“So, it’s something only you can hear but other people can’t like…a bat? Is that what I’m getting?”

“I don’t know! Are you totally sure you didn’t hear anything? Feel the temperature change?!”

“Hmm…oh! I did feel like I was freezing in that room, but I thought the air conditioner broke. Then when you looked back at me it was completely normal. It was like magic or something. Are you magic?”

“That…that was him!”

“That?”

“Yes! You remember, our air conditioner isn’t that old so it wouldn’t break, and no one was by it. And no, I’m not a magician.”

“But, how do I know you’re not just trying to play some joke to freak me out?”

“I’m not Jer. You have to believe me.”

“So then how would I know you’re not lying to me?”

“Uh…just wait for the newspaper or on the television. If they say that Fritz is missing, I’ll say ‘I told you so’.”

Chapter 24

Summary:

Aftermath of Fritz’s death

Late that night, Cassidy was stuck sitting across from Foxy, who had Fritz’s body contained. 

“I don’t like him staring at me. It’s freaky,” Evan said. 

Me neither. It’s unsettling, Cassidy thought . They both were stuck in the room with him, not sure what would happen next until they heard the doorknob rattle like someone was picking at the lock. 

What the-this place is closed! No one’s supposed to be here! Cassidy thought. She knew all the doors had to be locked at the end of every day, so she didn’t understand why someone was trying to unlock this door specifically, when there was nothing of much value in that room. 

“Shush! I wanna see what happens!”

I won’t shut up! D’you know who that is?!

“I don’t really know a whole bunch of details, but I remember I woke up before you. I remember I was still very tired, but I saw this freaky puppet leaving the room who I think somehow brought us back to life through…magic? Then I heard your voice in this suit as well and I stayed quiet for a while because I was scared.”

So, it was them?!

“I’m pretty sure, but I think they also wanted us to live for some reason. I don’t know that part.”

The Puppet finally unlocked the door, and Cassidy saw that Evan was right. Whatever it was, it was freaky. 

What the hell is that?!

“I said it looked like a freaky puppet, didn’t I?!”

They saw the Puppet start to go over to Foxy, but suddenly stopped when Cassidy came into view. They went over to them and looked right in Cassidy’s eyes. Cassidy saw that someone was in fact possessing the puppet, but whoever it was had white eyes. 

“Who…” Cassidy started, slightly afraid. 

“Shhh. You don’t have to be afraid,” the voice sounded like that of  a young girl. Younger than her definitely and probably even younger than her brother. 

“Who're you?” Cassidy asked. 

“My name is Charlotte!”

“So, was it you who…” Cassidy trailed off. 

“Yes. I saw that your soul was too vengeful to move on. The same goes for Gabriel, Jeremy, Susie, Evan and now, Fritz.”

Evan stayed silent even though he wanted answers. He wanted to know why Charlotte didn’t let them move on to the afterlife after they were killed. He wanted to know why Charlotte saw them as ‘too vengeful to move on’, because even before he knew that his father was a murderer he didn’t want revenge against Michael. He knew that Michael wasn’t thinking ahead when he pulled that prank, so it was an accident. He wanted answers, but he knew he couldn’t speak well. 

“To get revenge, right?” Cassidy asked enthusiastically. 

“Maybe someday, but the time isn’t right yet. Until next time, Cassidy and Evan.”

How do they know my name?!

“I don’t know! I’m still learning about this stuff!”

They both watched as a gift box suddenly appeared next to her by some sort of magic. She picked up the box and placed it very close to Foxy, and within seconds the box started emitting a blinding white light, connecting Fritz’s remaining remnant to the endoskeleton. As the light got dimmer and dimmer after a few minutes, they saw that Puppet was gone. 

Fritz opened his, or rather Foxy’s eyes and looked around. He remembered that he was knocked out via chloroform by Michael’s father, to where everything  went totally black and he should have moved on, but he was somehow able to live again. Cassidy and Evan saw the gift box disintegrate next to him before he could even see it, like it was never there in the first place. 

“Should you say something?” Evan asked. 

I dunno. 

“Maybe wait a few minutes then make our presence known. It takes a while to wake up anyhow.”

Cassidy waited a few minutes like Evan said. 

“Hello?” Fritz trembled, obviously confused and very scared. 

“Hello?” Cassidy echoed. Fritz looked at her, frightened. 

“Who’re you?!”

“Another one of William’s victims. I’m Cassidy.”

“Uh…Fritz.”

“What about me?!”

Fine, if it’ll stop your crying, she thought. “In my specific situation, there’s actually two people possessing this thing. The other’s Evan, but he can’t really speak well.”

“Oh. Uh…hi Evan…”

Evan made those garbled sounds to say hello. 

What did I tell you?!

“I know, but it’s a new person! I want to make myself known!”

Well now that you made your presence known, shut up. 

“You shut up,” he said, a little annoyed. 

“What was that?!” Fritz said, alarmed. 

“That was Evan. He was trying to say hello, but I told you he can’t speak well.”

“So uh, have there been any others that he killed?” Fritz asked, trying to make small talk. 

“Oh yeah. As far as I know, There are my brothers, Gabriel and Jeremy, possessing Freddy and Bonnie, and from what Evan told me a girl named Susie is possessing Chica.”

“Susie…I remember that name! She and I knew each other!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! We were friends from school, but I was so sad when I found out she was missing! That’s actually one of the other reasons I chose to come here all the time. She loved this place, and I wanted to remember my friend in any way I could.”

---

That night, Michael wasn’t even sure how he got to sleep. He was so full of guilt that he couldn’t save his friend from the hands of his father that he kept crying silently into his pillow, making sure that no one could hear him. Even when he heard his father’s threatening, evenly paced footsteps pass his room and the lights shut off, he stayed wide awake for hours after feeling guilty for not only Fritz’s death, but all of the deaths he could have prevented, but didn’t. 

Even when he did get to sleep, he kept having strange dreams. He kept seeing those five children's deaths as if he was there in front of them witnessing his father knocking them out cold with chloroform, plus his brother’s, sister’s and mother’s death. From those five children, he saw his father stab a syringe into their chest, and moments later he saw a strange, purple liquid come up the syringe. 

He was directly in front of them as they were all dying, but he couldn’t do anything. He was frozen in fear and wanted to help, but couldn’t because once he could move it was like he was stuck to the ground. It was then he finally even saw Charlotte’s death for the first time, located in a dark alleyway (now he had even more of a reason to hate dark alleys). But, he saw the same results as the other times: his father stabbed a syringe into her chest and that same strange purple liquid came up the syringe. He didn’t know what it was or why his father wanted it, but of course no one would tell him what this strange substance was, and sooner or later he knew he had to find out for himself. 

The entire time he was witnessing the deaths, he kept hearing the words ‘It’s your fault’ over and over again. Sometimes it was a family member’s voice, or even Henry’s, Heather’s, Samuel’s or even Daniel’s. But sometimes, the voice that would tell him about all of these deaths, his grandfather’s voice would slip through. He wasn’t exactly sure why though, because he had died before any of the murders occurred. 

He jolted awake in a cold sweat. 

---

That next day after Michael got off of school and his father was back from work, Michael found him on the couch watching television and had a cup of tea on the coffee table, as per usual. He gulped as he went downstairs and went to his father, who looked up at him and looked back at the television screen. 

“What do you want?” William asked, obviously annoyed. 

“I uh, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Alright then. What? And don’t waste too much of my time.”

“Okay, so I was wondering…lately have you, I don’t know, heard voices or has the room randomly gotten colder?”

William looked up at him and Michael realized that probably wasn’t the best question to ask him.

“What do you mean by that?” William asked. 

“Exactly what I said. Either voices or temperature change?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Because…I’m curious.”

“Curious?”

“Yeah…”

“Hmph,” was all he grunted and stared straight ahead at the screen again. Michael thought maybe he was going to taunt him and make him feel embarrassed about it somehow until he said, “Since you won’t leave me alone until you know, you want the truth?”

“Yes.”

“Not to long ago, I did have an experience like you described. I heard a voice and the temperature of the room dropped. No one else was in the room, which was very…odd.”

“What did the voice say?”

“God, must I have to tell you everything?! That’s all you wanted, wasn’t it?!”

“Yes…”

“You got it. Now get out of here,” he said as he shooed him away.

Michael nodded and went back upstairs to his room. He had thought this was the case, and he was right. Only his family seemed to be able to hear paranormal voices, but no one else could judging from his experience yesterday when he could hear the voice but Jeremy couldn’t. Usually when people talked to spirits they needed special equipment to do so, but both Michael and his father didn’t need anything. He didn’t know if this was the case for Henry, Heather or Samuel as well, but since he could only see Henry for the moment he thought it’d be best to not let him know until Michael knew what was going on. 

Perhaps what he said a couple of years ago was correct, which he never thought would actually be the case. He had said it as a joke, but it turned out to be true. 

His family was cursed. 

Chapter 25

Summary:

Jeremy finally learns that Michael was telling the truth

That Saturday, Jeremy was told by his father to go out to the front yard and get the newspaper for him. Jeremy rolled his eyes as he paused from eating his cereal and went outside where he was hit with the chilly autumn breeze. He shivered when he was hit with the breeze since he was only in a tank top and sweatpants as he assumed he was staying home that whole day; very different from his normal going-outside-the-house attire, which consisted of a dark blue button down shirt that was open to reveal a plain white t-shirt underneath, tucked into his khaki pants that he cuffed at the ankles, paired with his black belt and black Vans, and of course his necklace that he rarely takes off. 

He sighed as he looked in the front yard for the newspaper that was thrown on the lawn, and it didn’t take long for him to find it. He ran to it and took it back inside to his father as he tried to warm up when he shut the front door behind him. He took the newspaper to him and set it in front of him at the table as he was drinking his coffee and Jeremy resumed eating his cereal at the other end of the table. 

Since his mother died and it was just him and his father now, Jeremy noticed that his father only seemed to talk to him when he needed something or to ask him what they should have for dinner. Jeremy would tell him when he was leaving the house, but he always said to be back by dinner and nothing else. He was usually busy with work, falling asleep on the couch watching television or reading the morning newspaper. He never paid much attention to Jeremy, especially after the death of his mother. 

Jeremy read the back of the cereal box for what seemed like the millionth time that week and fiddled with his necklace, when his father opened the newspaper from across the kitchen table and a story on the front page caught his attention. It was another missing person story, but as Jeremy skimmed the story he noticed that the person was last seen at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. That caught his attention since he was there not too long ago with Michael and he kept reading what he could see. The story said his name was Fritz, and the picture of him looked very similar to the same Fritz that Michael had been talking about: ginger hair, loads of freckles and he was obviously obsessed with pirates. Jeremy had only seen Fritz a couple times, but that picture looked exactly how he remembered him. 

He remembered Michael said that his friend, Fritz had been murdered by William at Freddy’s earlier that week and to look for a missing person’s report if he didn’t believe him, and here it was.

“Holy shit…” Jeremy muttered so quietly his father couldn’t hear him. He didn’t want to believe it, but he kept skimming over that story on the front page that told him it was real and he wasn’t imagining it. He ran his hands through his thick hair, but kept glancing at that story on the front page. 

Michael was right, which Jeremy thought would never be the case. He half expected to wake up from a bad dream right then and pinched his arm, but he felt the pain so he knew that he was awake. He knew he needed to get over to the Afton’s house talk things over with Michael, but first was getting through his father which should be a piece of cake. The real struggle would be convincing William to let him speak to Michael when he got to the Afton’s house. 

About an hour later after his father was finished with the newspaper and Jeremy had finished with his breakfast, he took off that first page of the newspaper, folded it up and put it in his pocket. Since his hair was now starting to get long and in his face, he took a hair tie and tied it back in a half up ponytail so it wouldn’t get in his face when going to Michael’s house. 

“Papá, voy a ir a casa de Michael un rato,” ( Dad, I’m gonna go to Michael's house for a while.) Jeremy said before he left. Jeremy learned Spanish from his parents as Spanish was both of their first languages since they were both born, met and married in Mexico before they moved to California a few years before Jeremy was born. His father knew English, but he enjoyed Spanish as it came more naturally to him. Jeremy complied to it as he enjoyed being able to speak another language. 

“¿Para qué?” (What for?) His father asked and looked away from the television right at Jeremy.

“Para...estudiar. Acabo de recordar que tenemos un examen el lunes.” (To...study. I just remembered we have an exam on Monday.)

“Sólo asegúrate de estar en casa antes de la cena,” (Just make sure you are home before dinner.) His father said as he resumed watching television. 

“Lo haré,” (I will.) Jeremy said as he got his jacket from the closet and went out the door and closed it behind him. He shivered but since he didn’t have a car, he still decided to bike the half mile to the Afton’s house. He put on his jacket and he noticed there weren't as many people on the sidewalk today, but he figured it was because it was a lot cooler today so he looked like the strange one for being out in the cold.

Once he got to the house and propped up his bicycle on the garage door, he had to work up the courage to ring the doorbell since he knew William would be answering the door, and it was Saturday early in the afternoon. Ever since Jeremy met Michael, William wasn’t very fond of him since their personalities  clashed, so he had no idea what to expect. He finally rang the doorbell and it didn’t take long for William to answer the door. 

William looked very different than when he was out of the house or at work since he always tried to be professional. This time, he was in his usual at-home attire of an old sweatshirt that even though it was years old, it was still baggy on his slender body. His sweatshirt was paired with old, fading blue jeans and his hair was pulled messily back into a half-up ponytail. 

“Oh. It’s you again. What do you want?” he said when he saw Jeremy, obviously annoyed. 

“Sorry to bother you Mr. Afton, but can I talk to Michael? It’s important.”

“And what’s so important that you had to come here at two o’clock on a Saturday afternoon?”

“Uh…school?”

“There is no school. It’s the weekend.”

“Homework?”

William sighed. He knew Jeremy was lying since Michael only very rarely does homework, and part of him wanted to slam the door in Jeremy’s face to get rid of him. But then again Jeremy was only here to see Michael who was barely even awake upstairs, so that meant he wouldn’t have to see him for very long. 

“Fine. Go up there if it’ll get you out of my sight.”

Jeremy smiled when he went inside and went up the stairs to Michael’s room, taking the stairs two at a time. Convincing William to let him see Michael was easier than he thought it would be. 

Jeremy went to Michael’s closed door at the end of the hallway and knocked. Michael answered his door after a few seconds and his face brightened when he saw him. 

Michael looked like he had just woken up at 2:00 in the afternoon (which he did). He looked very different from when Jeremy saw him any other day, where he normally had black jeans that were about to rip at the knees paired with a black belt he had (he didn’t actually need the belt, he just liked it for the style), pierced ears with earrings always on so they wouldn’t close, a white t-shirt with a light blue denim jacket over it and his dirty white Converse. This time, he looked similar to Jeremy as he had an old tank top and sweatpants on that he had likely thrown on when he heard the doorbell ring. He was messing with his hair as if to comb it down once he heard that Jeremy was at his house. 

“Hey Jer! What are you doing here?” Michael asked and Jeremy took out the newspaper story from his pocket. 

“Well uh, I found something in the paper…and let’s just say that you were right.”

Chapter 26

Summary:

Jeremy learns that Michael was telling the truth the whole time, and Michael comes up with a plan to try to put a stop to all of these murders

“I told you!” Michael exclaimed as Jeremy handed him the paper.

“I-it just didn’t sound believable to say that he died!”

“I know, but I wish I wasn’t right and I was actually on something like you said. My friend is gone and there’s nothing I could do about it now. If I had just been there, this wouldn’t have happened!” Michael said glumly as he sat on his bed. 

“Mike, don’t blame yourself,” Jeremy replied as he closed the door so William wouldn’t hear what they were talking about and sat next to Michael. 

“I should’ve been there though. I didn’t want anything to happen to him. That night, I even had a dream that all of their deaths were my fault and that I could’ve done something but I didn’t, and I just watched all of them die!” 

“It’s not your fault Mike. It was just a bad dream.”

“But he was still my friend and I wanted to be there for him but…I wasn’t. I’m just a terrible person.”

“You’re not a terrible person. You’re the best person I’ve ever met! What happened was an accident and we couldn’t have known sooner.”

“I am a horrible person to be around! Almost everyone I even make eye contact with always ends up getting hurt in some way or dies, all because of my stupidity! So if you want to leave me for your own safety, I don’t blame you honestly.” 

“Nuh-uh! Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not true! All these aren’t because of you!”

“If not all, most of them are! Think about it, I left my sister alone and I just watched her get snatched in front of me, because then I was only worried about getting grounded because she was near that stupid animatronic, and I didn’t think she was in any real danger if I left her alone! I wasn’t watching Gabriel, Cassidy and Jeremy when I knew damn well I should’ve been, and Fritz, I should’ve warned him about my father! I knew he was planning something by the way he asked me about Fritz one day and I didn’t do a goddamn thing! I just sat there and did nothing!

“Even worse, I directly killed my own brother, just because I was jealous he was always getting the attention by crying all the time, but truthfully I just wanted my father to tolerate me like he did to him! I was just a jealous little prick! I knew he was terrified of those things and thought it was the perfect way to get back at him, but I also knew how dangerous those damn spring locks were, but I didn’t care!”

Michael looked down at his own two hands and noticed silent tears coming out of his eyes. He got up and started going towards the door, but Jeremy brushed his fingers against Michael’s arm to get his attention. 

“What?!” Michael yelled as he turned to him. He was upset so he couldn’t control the volume of his voice, so it was louder than he intended. 

“Where are you going?!”

“I-I don’t know. I need…I need to punch something,” he said as he headed out the door, went down the hallway and wiped the tears from his eyes. 

Down the hall, Michael went into the bathroom and sat on the cold tile floor with his back against the wall, not caring about turning the lights on, and the only light was whatever he got from the hallway since the door was open. He pulled his knees to his chest to try to stop himself from sobbing, since he knew Jeremy would come looking for him and he didn’t want Jeremy to feel sorry for him.

No matter what Jeremy said, he still felt immense amounts of guilt and thought it would be better for everyone’s safety if he just disappeared one day, however he couldn’t since he knew he needed to stop his father sometime. If he wasn’t around, that would give his father more time on his hands to target more victims. Other than that, he also wanted to be there for Jeremy even if he left him for his own safety like Michael said. Those were his only two goals that were keeping him going at the moment, and he wasn’t about to stop trying to complete them. 

After sitting in silence for many minutes and he had taken some deep breaths to calm himself down, out of the corner of his eye he saw Jeremy’s silhouette in the doorway and he sat down on the tile next to Michael. 

“It’s dark in here,” Jeremy said after sitting in silence for a little while and Michael smiled. “I thought you said you were gonna punch something.”

“I was, but I changed my mind,” he said. “Why are you following me?”

“Because you’re my friend. And I said that you weren’t going to get rid of me that easily.” 

“But I’m a terrible person to be around. All I do is watch people die and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Well, I don’t think you’re a terrible person. That thing with Fredbear, we all still agreed to it but we all didn’t mean to kill him. We all feel as guilty as you do, or at least I do, and it’s a miracle they didn’t lock all four of us up right then and there. And that thing with your sister, I just don’t think you could comprehend that both of your siblings died a little over a year apart.”

“I mean, why do you still choose to stay around me even though I could be a threat to your life?”

“It’s because I don’t think you’re at fault. Everything that happened was an accident and you happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And if anything were to happen to me, I’m not a stupid little kid anymore and I think I’ll see it coming. You’re my best friend Michael, I wouldn’t want to leave you even if you actually were a threat to my life.”

“Your only friend.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Is that the only reason? I feel like even if you don’t think I’m the cause of all these deaths, that’s still a good reason to leave to know death is involved. It seems like everyone I speak to is bound to not have a happy ending.”

“I guess I could say I don’t want to be alone. I mean, you’ve seen people at school, they don’t like me. My dad isn’t there emotionally, my mom’s dead and I’m an only child, so I really don’t have anyone at home. You’re the only one I have.”

“Oh. So you need me, that’s what I’m hearing?” 

“Yeah, I guess that’s what I’m trying to say. I actually don’t know what I’d do without you.” They sat next to each other for a while in silence as Jeremy looked straight ahead of him, being that he didn’t like to look people in the eyes for a long time, but he still had questions. “So um, about that day…you weren’t lying, huh?”

“I was telling you what I heard. It’s…pretty unbelievable honestly. I wouldn’t have believed me either.”

Jeremy chuckled. 

“It totally sounded like you smoked something. I mean, you randomly say one day that you heard a voice that no one else could?”

“My father can hear ghosts too, I found out.”

“Him too?”

“I-I don’t know. This is all very strange. I’ve done some thinking recently, and the only reasonable explanation I could come up with is it seems like my family’s the only ones who can hear the paranormal without that ghost hunting equipment I’ve seen around. No one else can, so it really does seem like my family’s cursed.”

“Cursed? I wouldn’t say that.”

“Then what?”

“I dunno. But to me it sounds like…superpowers or something.”

Michael snickered. 

“It sounds a hell of a lot better than saying ‘cursed’ I’ll give ya that.” Jeremy chuckled and Michael couldn’t help but smile. “But you have to promise not to say anything to anyone.”

“It’s not like anyone’ll believe me anyway, but my lips are sealed.”

---

That Monday it was very dark and cloudy like it was about to rain, and Michael was forced to go to the diner after he got picked up from school. Usually he was never told to wait at the diner after school, and would usually go to the park with Jeremy since it was almost halfway between their houses if he couldn’t get picked up right away. He was told this was his punishment until he got his grades up, even though he knew his father likely just wanted to taunt him since the missing person report for Fritz came out. 

Fritz was dead, and there was nothing Michael could do about it. He felt terrible about his death, but tried to convince himself it wasn’t his fault like Jeremy had said. He went into Pirates Cove as it was where he and Fritz always hung out, but it felt strange to him now. Everything was just the same, but Fritz was gone. It was strangely quiet to Michael when Pirates Cove was usually filled with chatter from other customers, but Fritz would speak the loudest out of all of them. Now, he could hear the mechanic parts moving from Foxy and there was no chatter in the room. 

Michael looked to the left and right of him and saw he was completely alone in Pirates Cove, just like he was when he first got there. He looked back up at Foxy moving robotically. 

“I’m so sorry Fritz. I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything. I was trying to save you, I really was, but I couldn’t get here in time. You were such a good friend and I still wish you were around for me to tell you that,” Michael glumly said as he tucked some of his excess wavy hair behind his ear, being that the front was now shorter than the back and it reached his jacket collar. All he saw was the fox animatronic he was talking to moving robotically and he looked like he was talking to nothing, but Fritz heard every word. He wanted to speak to Michael and tell him he was there, but he was powerless. 

Michael had told Jeremy earlier that day that his father was forcibly making him stay at the pizzeria until close. Jeremy soon entered the diner to surprise Michael, because he didn’t want him to be alone since he knew Michael didn’t want to be at Freddy’s since his friend was now gone. He found Michael alone in Pirates Cove, crossing his arms and glumly looking up at Foxy. Jeremy ran to Michael and surprised him by tapping his shoulder. Michael looked next to him and saw Jeremy’s smiling face looking up at him. 

“Hey Jer!” Michael said while smiling as Jeremy’s smile was contagious. He would never admit it, but he loved to see Jeremy smile.

“I didn’t want you to be alone. I know how much you hate this place.” Michael smiled and looked back up at Foxy and Jeremy looked up at Foxy as well. “I know you miss him, but it’s gonna be alright.”

“You’re right. But I just wish we could find something against him. I have to avenge him, hell, all of them. I want to do something good for kids in my life instead of just letting them die.”

“But how could we get evidence against him?” Jeremy asked. 

“I…I don’t know.” Michael got an idea of one place they haven’t looked yet. “Unless…”

“Unless what?” 

“It’ll probably take a while to actually get in there without him noticing…” Michael kept mumbling to himself. 

“Tell me! The suspense is killing me!” Jeremy exclaimed, now going in front of Michael so he could see him. 

“Be quiet Jer!” Michael whispered even though business was running slow that day and there was hardly anyone else in the diner. “But I could try my fathers basement. No one’s allowed in there!” 

“Yeah but, wouldn’t that be an invasion of his privacy?”

Michael looked at him with an expression that said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding right now’. 

“We’re trying to solve a real life murder here, this isn’t some horror movie,” Michael said. “So yes, it might but I’m trying to save more people from getting murdered so he goes behind bars!”

“You make a good point.”

“Even if we don’t have anything yet, I still have to tell the police so they can keep watch on him in case he tries to strike again. This has gotten way out of hand, so I don’t doubt there’ll be another soon.”

---

“Will!” Henry said as he passed the security office which William was in. William wasn’t watching the camera monitor that hard though, he had his feet up on the desk and was yawning to not doze off. 

“Yes?” he asked as Henry’s voice jolted him awake and he sat normally in the chair. 

“Do you know anything about a disappearance here a week ago?”

“There was a disappearance here again? Five in only a few months? I’m sorry Hen, but I didn’t see anything.”

“Are you sure? They’re already threatening to shut Freddy’s down because of sanitation, we don’t need this too!”

“I haven’t seen anything. There’s too many brats in here to notice if one goes missing.”

“Will, this is serious! The family’s probably devastated right now just like how my family and I were when Charlie died!”

“Listen, I’m just as devastated as you are. But I didn’t see anything suspicious going on in here.” 

“Alright. Thanks Will,” Henry said as he left the office. He went out to the main diner where he spotted Michael and Jeremy sitting across from each other in a booth, just chatting with each other. What? Will didn’t say that he was bringing Mike! Granted, I’ve been cooped up in the office all day, but he usually tells me when he’s bringing him!

He went over to them where Michael spotted him. 

“Hi Uncle!” he said. 

“Hello Mike! You seem happier, did something happen?”

“Do I? Uh…nothing happened.”

Sometimes Michael acted happier than usual when he was hiding something. In this case he was hiding the fact that his father was a serial killer, but he had no evidence so no one would believe him if he told them. Henry knew Michael had a bad relationship with his father, so he’ll probably think he just made that story up to try and get rid of him.

“If you say so,” Henry said. “Will didn’t say that you were coming here today.”

“Yeah uh…it kinda came as a surprise to me too.”

“Jeremy? Why did you decide to stop by?” he asked Jeremy. 

“I wanted to keep Mike company! I know he has a bad stigma around this place and I know he’s not handling it well since his friend went…missing.”

“That’s very nice of you Jeremy!” He looked back at the security cameras, which William wasn’t really watching all that hard. ”I’ll tell ya what, since you two don’t want to be here, I know how William is with wanting you to stay ‘till close, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I took you two back to your houses!”

“Really?” Michael asked. 

“Yeah! I’m his best friend, I’m sure he’ll understand! Plus, business is running slow today, it shouldn’t be that big of an issue!”

They started following Henry outside the diner to his car, where Jeremy mentioned he had a bicycle that he rode over to the restaurant, and Henry opened up the trunk of his car so Jeremy could put his bicycle in the back. Jeremy stopped to get his bicycle where Michael walked next to him, and Henry started up the car while he waited for them both. 

“So, are you actually planning on calling the police?” Jeremy whispered to Michael. 

“Yes. I said I would, didn’t I?”

“You actually are? When are you planning to do that?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?!”

“Yes. Maybe the detectives can find something that I can’t.”

Chapter 27

Summary:

Michael’s a man of his word

“Yes, hello. I’d like to report a murder, well, five actually, all part of the missing children’s incident at Freddy Fazbear’s,” Michael said the next day on the telephone when he got home from school. He had decided to finally report his father to the police since he was a man of his word, but knew there was no turning back now.  

“Do you know the location of the suspect right now sir?”

“Yes. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria.”

“And do you have any idea who might’ve caused it?”

He inhaled sharply. 

“Yes, I believe it was William Afton, one of the founders, which is why he’s there right now.”

“Are you in any danger?”

“Not at the moment, but I know he caused those murders. I am his son and I thought he deserves to get locked up for this since I can’t stand living in his house if he’s a serial killer.”

“The police will be there shortly.”

Michael hung up the phone and covered his face with his hands. 

“I can’t believe I just did that,” he said out loud. 

Back at Freddy’s, the diner was closing and the customers had long since left. The only car in the parking lot was Henry’s since Henry and William had carpooled together like they always do. William and Henry were still at the diner, trying to finish their closing tasks when Henry heard police sirens and saw police cars drive up to the curb out the window. Once he saw them in the parking lot William came up next to Henry, since his curiosity got the best of him and Henry turned to face him. 

“Did you call the police?” Henry asked. William shook his head and Henry looked back out the window. They heard them knock on the front door since it was locked and Henry went to open it for them. 

“Hurricane City police, is William Afton in this establishment?” one of them asked. 

Shit, William thought. 

“Uh, yes,” Henry said with obvious confusion in his voice when he saw the detectives behind the two officers. Both of the police officers went over to William, and one of them got out handcuffs to handcuff him while the other stayed near them, since the officers were told he was apparently dangerous. Since William didn’t have anywhere to run, (and would definitely get a sentence that way) he reluctantly surrendered and didn’t fight back when both officers led him outside to the police car. “Woah, wait. What’s going on here?!” Henry exclaimed as he followed them. 

“Mr. Afton has been accused of murder. We will have to detain him while the detectives investigate for any further evidence. If nothing is found he will be released shortly.”

Michael. He called the police on me. He’s the only one who knows I murdered his mother, but not the others, hopefully. That little-  William thought as he was pushed into the back of the police car by one of the officers. “Oi! Watch it!” he yelled at the officer since he was pushed in and almost lost his balance. 

“You didn’t actually kill anyone, did you?” Henry asked before the officer shut the door. 

“I didn’t. I’m pretty sure Michael just wants to get me behind bars, that little brat. I’ll be out before you know it. I promise,” he said before the door was shut. 

“Excuse me, Mr...” the other officer said and Henry turned to him. 

“Emily.”

“Mr. Emily. We’re going to need to call you in for questioning tomorrow, as well as his son, who had called him in.”

Mike called the police on him?! Henry thought. “Yes, that’ll be fine,” Henry answered the officer. 

“Feel free to leave the property if you wish. The detectives will take it from here. Thank you for your time Mr. Emily.”

Henry nodded to the officer and went to his car as the police car with William inside went off. He had to admit, he was upset but he could see why Michael thought it was him. He has always been the aggressive type, but Henry knew his friend and he knew he would never go as far as murder, much less child murder. 

Henry started up his car and drove to the Afton’s house, and after he rang the doorbell he found Michael opening the front door. He looked as though he was scared, but relieved at the same time. Michael let him in and they both said their hello’s to each other. 

“Mike, I need to talk to you,” Henry said. Michael gulped and Henry crossed his arms. “So, I heard that you called the police on your father?”

“Uh…” he started, not sure if he was going to get yelled at. “Yes. I know he did it. There’s not a doubt in my mind he didn’t.”

“Mike, I know why you could think he did, I truly can. But I know him, he wouldn’t do such a thing like that.”

“But he’s always aggressive toward kids, no one else I’ve seen in the diner is the same as him towards kids.”

“But…murder?” 

“Yes.”

Henry sighed and pushed up his glasses. 

“Mike, go pack your things. You’ll have to stay at my house until he gets out.”

Michael nodded and went upstairs to his room to pack his things in a bag, and soon he followed Henry to the car. Michael threw his bag in the backseat, got in the passenger’s side of the car and Henry drove off to his house. They sat in awkward silence until they were about to leave the neighborhood, where Henry decided to break the quietness between them. 

“So why do you actually think your father committed murder?” Henry asked. 

“Didn’t I tell you?”

“Are you sure that’s it? It doesn’t seem like that’ll convince the police when we go in tomorrow.”

“We’re going in tomorrow?!”

“Yes. We have to go in for questioning so lucky you, I’m not making you go to school tomorrow, unless you want to stay ‘till twelve o’ clock.”

“No thanks.”

Henry chuckled. 

“But, I do want to know the real reason you called in William.”

“I just…know.”

“You just know?”

“Uh…yep.”

“That’s…not convincing.”

“Fine,” he huffed. “I was told.”

“Told? By who?”

“I don’t think you’d believe me honestly.”

“Does anyone else know that this person told you though?”

“Yes. Jeremy does.”

“Jeremy?”

“Yes. I was able to predict when each of the kids would go ‘missing’ and I felt it as well. This…uh…person told me they were murdered by my father. Jeremy believed me after the news of Fritz came out.”

“Who is this person?”

“Well, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Is it…someone you know or some sketchy person?”

“I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Michael, I need to know!”

“He’s uh…well he’s not really a person so to say,” he said quietly. “He used to be, but not anymore.”

“Not a person? Then what?”

“He’s…a ghost.”

Henry gave him a concerned side eye. 

“A ghost?”

“Yes.” Henry sat in silence for a little while as he drove on. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me,” Michael said as he turned to look out the window at the passing cars. 

“It’s um…that doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know it doesn’t. But I can hear him and I feel like my conscience is saying that he’s telling me the truth.”

“Mike, you know that’s a pretty unbelievable story and I’m sure the police won’t buy it. I’m not even sure if I believe it.”

“I know it’s unbelievable. But I know it’s the truth.”

They pulled up to Henry’s house and they both went inside. It was strange to Michael since he hadn’t been inside Henry’s house since Heather and Samuel were living here as well. It was so quiet and very unnatural to him, and he half expected Samuel to run up and hug him like he always did. There was more of a mess on the floor and kitchen sink since it was only Henry living in the house now, and Michael could tell he stopped caring about cleanliness after they left. 

“Sorry ‘bout the mess. Wasn’t expecting to have anyone here today,” Henry apologized. 

“It’s fine. I’m used to it since my room at home is a mess,” Michael assured him. 

---

The next day, as expected, Henry and Michael were called to the police station for questioning. They went to the police station together and went inside, and it was a little more frightening than Michael thought. There were a lot of security measures taken, including guards at the exits and they both had to go through a pat-down to make sure they weren’t taking in anything dangerous. The lobby was almost completely silent but the tile was clean, and there was nothing decorating the walls. The walls were painted white and the only bit of color in the lobby was the dark blue plastic chairs or the brown desk they had to check in at. 

“We’re here for the questioning of the case for William David Afton,” Henry said to one of the receptionists at the front desk. She did some typing on the computer in front of her. 

“Michael Terrance Afton and Henry Samuel Emily?”

“Yes.”

“Right this way,” she said and she led them to a hallway with another door off to the side leading to a room, but there were no windows to see what the room looked like from the hallway. “You both will go in one at a time, one of you can wait out here in the hallway.”

“D’you want me to go first?” Henry asked Michael, who nodded yes. Henry went into the room and Michael sat on the cold, plastic chair in the hallway next to the door. 

After he heard the door close behind Henry, his leg started bouncing and he clasped his hands together (which was something he did when his anxiety was high). He didn’t know what to expect. Were they going to ask questions he couldn’t give a definite answer to? Were they going to ask questions which would force him to give up his secret that’ll make him look like a crazy person? Was his father going to be there? What was going to happen?

After half an hour of racing thoughts, he saw Henry come out of the room and he gulped. Henry must’ve noticed Michael’s worriedness because he spoke softly and calmly to him. 

“Mike, it’s okay. They’re just going to ask you a few questions about what you know.”

“Are you sure that’s all it is?”

“Yes. I know what you’re thinking, and I am sure that William’s not going to be there.”

Michael nodded and gulped as he went into the room and shut the door behind him. 

Chapter 28

Summary:

Police questioning

When Michael went into the room, he was completely alone for the time being. He noticed all that was in the room was a table with chairs across from each other, cameras in the corners and a huge mirror, which he guessed must have been a one way mirror but that was it. The room was also painted a white-gray color that somehow made the room look more bland than it already did. It was so bare in that room that it made him a little anxious, more anxious than he already was. He sat in the closest plastic chair to him and waited for the officer to come into the room as his leg started bouncing. He just wanted to get the questioning over with because he needed to see some more color than what was painted on the walls. 

A few minutes later, a police officer came into the room from a separate door. He looked about in his mid-thirties and bit like a stereotypical policeman. 

“Hello Michael. I am Officer Anderson. I just have to ask you a few questions,” he said as he showed him his badge and took the seat across from Michael. “So, Michael, or would you prefer Mr. Afton?”

Mr. Afton sounded like something his father would be called, and he didn’t like it. “Michael’s fine.”

“Michael, so I understand that you’re the son of the suspect, William Afton and you reported him.”

“I am and yes I did.”

“Why would you think he may be involved with the disappearances of the five missing kids and believe he murdered them?”

“Because he has always been the aggressive type, especially towards children. He’s the type to get angry very easily, and when he does he’ll get physical.”

He wrote Michael’s words down on a sheet of paper on a clipboard he had with him. “And have you found any evidence that might prove that he was involved and murdered them?”

“Uh, I haven’t. Not yet anyway.”

“So you’re looking for evidence against him?” 

“Yes, but I haven’t found anything.”

He wrote Michael’s words down. “Michael, how do you know he murdered them if you don’t have any evidence?”

“I just…know. I have this gut feeling that he did it, and to me he definitely seems like the type to stoop that low.”

He wrote down his words on the paper. “Do you remember the names of these children that went missing?”

“Yes, if I can remember correctly, their names were Susie, Jeremy, Gabriel, Cassidy and Fritz. But I think he had also been involved in the murder of Charlotte Emily a few years ago.”

“Charlotte? I heard about that case from a few other officers who investigated. No one could find out who the murderer was since their tracks were so well covered. You think he caused it?”

“I believe so. Again I don’t have evidence but I have a feeling.”

He wrote those words down. “Are there any other murders that we should know about?”

“Yes. One more. It was several years ago so I don’t know if the case used to be open or if it ever was, but it’s the murder of my mother, Evelyn Schmidt.”

“And how do you know he caused this murder?”

Michael hesitated for a second. He didn’t want to tell him in fear of what his father might do, but at the same time he wanted to keep his father locked up for his crimes once and for all. 

Just tell him Mike. He can keep him locked up and you can get this off your chest, he thought. “I was only eleven years old, but I saw him with my own two eyes. But I was a scared little kid so I didn’t think to tell anyone. Plus I was threatened by my father because apparently he saw me and he told me to not tell anyone.”

He wrote those words down. “And what is your age now?”

“I’m sixteen.” 

He wrote it down. “Thank you for your time Michael. You’re free to leave.”

Michael stood up as well as the police officer and they both walked out separate doors, Michael went out to the hallway back to Henry and the officer went to the room behind the one way mirror where the other officers were. 

“See? Wasn’t so bad,” Henry said as he stood up and they walked out together. 

“Yeah. Not so bad.”  They went out back through the lobby and went outside to the parking lot where it was starting to get colder and colder by the day. Michael breathed into his hands and put his hands into his pockets while they walked. They got to Henry’s car that was parked close to the entrance and when they both got in and shut the doors behind them, Henry turned on the heater but they sat in silence for a while.  “So…what’s gonna happen?” Michael finally asked. 

“I don’t know. It’s gonna be different for a while, I’ll tell ya that.”

“Also, I know you’re probably angry at me-”

“I’m not angry!”

“You are, I can tell.”

“I’m not angry. I’m just a little upset.”

“Somehow that sounds worse.”

Henry chuckled. “It’s just going to be difficult running things without him. I’m going to have to do double the work for a while until he gets back. I could just hire someone, but if they find him innocent it’ll just be a waste.”

“I can help!”

“Thank you for your offer, but I don’t want you to be overwhelmed.”

“It can’t be that hard. What is it, watching the cameras and going out to the main diner?”

“Well, yes. But the thing is the diner’s gonna be closed for a couple weeks and I need to stay there ‘till close. After we open again I need a security guard there from open ‘till close, and you still have school.”

“Yeah, but what about after school?”

“I don’t want to keep you there until the place closes. I remember Jeremy said you have a bad stigma of the place, so that’d probably be torture for you.”

“I can handle it!”

Henry chuckled again as he started up the car and drove out of the parking lot. “You won’t let this go, will you?”

“I wanna help!”

“I’ll have to think about it. But until I come up with something by the time it opens, I can’t leave the diner right away to pick you up from school.”

“So I have to freeze outside, is what I’m hearing?”

“I wouldn’t put it like that, you can still stay at school!”

“And do what?”

“Homework?”

“That’s not gonna happen.”

Henry snickered. “Well it’s either stay at school until I can get off work or wait outside somewhere. If I were you though, I’d stay at school since it is getting colder.”

“I’ll think of something. Maybe I can talk to Jeremy and he’ll agree to let me come over.”

Chapter 29

Summary:

This wasn’t apart of the plan…

“So you actually had the balls to do it?” Jeremy asked the next day as school ended and they pushed through  the crowd of kids to get out the front doors. 

“Yeah, surprisingly. It was pretty nerve wracking to be honest. 

“Wouldn’t blame you. So uh, where’re you staying then?” 

“With my uncle, but he actually can’t get off work to come pick me up, so I either have to walk to his house which is a longer way or walk to my house, which I just remembered I don’t have a key so I’ll have to wait outside. Or I could stay at school, but I don’t want to be here.”

“Oh. D’you wanna come over then? I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to stay outside since it’s now December, and to be honest it’s pretty cold out today.”

“Sure! Is your father okay with it?”

“He doesn’t care honestly. He’s in his office though since he has to work from home, so we have to be quiet.”

“Fine with me, as long as I don’t get frostbite or something.”

They both walked the quarter of a mile to Jeremy’s house, or rather Jeremy rode on his bicycle laughing while Michael ran behind him trying to catch up. By the time Jeremy got to the front porch and he leaned his bicycle on the wall, Michael ran into the driveway and went around the cars to meet him at the front door. Michael was breathing heavily as Jeremy got out his key from his backpack and unlocked the front door. 

“You…you…” was all Michael managed to get out due to his heavy breathing. 

“What?”

“You…you left me!”

“Yeah, and it was hilarious.”

“How…dare you.”

Jeremy laughed as he unlocked the door and they both went inside. Jeremy shut the door behind them both and Michael looked around as he breathed in his hands, since he was now a mix of starting to sweat from running but freezing at the same time. 

“It’s different since I came here last,” Michael said softly. 

“Yeah well, last time you came here was before my mom died,” Jeremy responded as he put his coat on a coat hanger and motioned to Michael that it was okay for him to do the same. 

“¿Jeremy? ¿Eres tú?” (Jeremy? Is that you?) Michael heard Jeremy’s father call from down the hallway. 

“Sí Papá,” Jeremy responded. 

“¿Quién está contigo?” (Who is with you?) he asked as he heard chatter. 

“Michael. No tiene la llave de su casa.” (Michael. He doesn't have a key to his house.)

“No hablen, ustedes dos.” (Don't talk, you two.)

Jeremy turned back to Michael. “We have to keep quiet. I think he’s doing something important,” he said softly. 

“I keep forgetting you can speak Spanish. I don’t have a clue what you’re saying,” Michael responded. 

Jeremy chuckled. “D’you wanna call Henry to tell him to pick you up here?”

“Good thinking. I didn’t even think of that.”

Michael went towards the telephone in the kitchen and dialed the number of the office phone, since he knew Henry would be there since William wasn’t there. He heard the phone ring three times before he heard Henry’s voice. 

“Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza,” Henry said. 

“Hey Uncle!”

“Mike?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Uh, Jeremy invited me to come over to his house until you got off work.”

“So I’ll pick you up there after I get off?”

“Yep!”

“Okay, what’s his address again?”

Michael told Henry his address, which Jeremy had to tell Michael since he forgot. Henry wrote it down on a piece of paper so he wouldn’t forget. 

“Get that Uncle?” Michael asked. 

“Yeah. I wrote it down right here. So I guess I'll see you in a couple hours then.”

“Yep. Bye Uncle.”

“Bye Mike.”

Michael hung up the phone and nodded to Jeremy. 

“So now that that’s done, what should we do?” Jeremy asked. 

“Doesn’t matter to me.”

“Oh! I rearranged my room recently, and I’m proud of it so I want to show it off.” Michael smiled as he followed Jeremy to the room at the end of the hallway. “I almost forgot to mention, it’s a little messy ‘cause I’m still rearranging stuff the way I want, but you can at least walk around.”

“That’s fine with me.”

Jeremy opened the door to his room, and it was obviously way cleaner than Michael’s room at home. All of his books and tapes were neatly organized and not thrown around like Michael’s were, and they were all next to a large cassette player. Jeremy’s bed was in the corner but messily made, unlike Michael’s who didn’t bother with his at home, but for Jeremy this was something he did everyday so it wasn’t unusual. Jeremy had a few posters of bands he liked, but his posters around his room were mainly about what he was interested in: astronomy.

He had a poster of planets, one of galaxies, a couple about stars, and many other things that Michael didn’t understand. Jeremy would often talk about these things, and Michael wouldn’t fully understand but he let him ramble because he liked to see him happy. 

Michael looked around at the posters about astronomy since they were new and he had never seen them before. Jeremy followed behind him. “What was this one again? You told me once but I kinda forgot,” Michael said as he pointed to a planet as he saw Jeremy behind him from the corner of his eye. 

“That one’s Venus. That one’s actually about the same size as Earth, but it’s not a good idea to go there because the atmosphere’s different and it’s the second planet from the sun.”

“Oh. This other one’s pretty cool, with the big red spot,” he said as he pointed to another.

“That one’s Jupiter, and that spot is actually a storm that’s been going on for hundreds of years.”

“Hundreds?”

“Yep. At least.”

Michael looked around and near Jeremy’s bed was a black case, one that he’s never seen before. “Hey, what’s that?” he asked as he pointed to the case. Jeremy looked over his shoulder and smiled. 

“Oh! I almost forgot to show you! I just got it!” He knelt over the case to open it as Michael followed him and he sat on the floor next to Jeremy. He excitedly opened the case and it revealed a new classic guitar.  He took it out of its case and sat crisscross on the floor across from Michael. “Pretty cool, huh?” 

“Yeah, it really is. I never knew you liked playing guitar.”

“I took lessons for a while when I was a little kid and I really liked it, then after elementary school I stopped and now I decided to start practicing again.”

“D’you remember anything?”

“Not really. I just got it a couple days ago, so I’m a little rusty.” 

Jeremy played a couple notes on the guitar and he handed it to Michael. 

“Me?” Michael asked and Jeremy nodded. “I can’t play guitar!”

“Just try!”

Michael hesitantly took the guitar from Jeremy and held it how he did. Michael remembered that his father had a guitar like this years ago, but he never let Michael touch it. Ever since Fredbear’s closed down it’s been in its case and kept in the garage for years and Michael never saw it again. 

Michael tried to strum the strings as he saw Jeremy do, and to his surprise it made music. He has never heard a guitar play in real life, much less from a guitar he played by himself. It was always whatever he saw on the television, heard on the radio or from cassettes. Sure he’s seen the guitar his father had but he never played it while Michael was around, or even his brother, sister or mother. Michael kept strumming at the strings, making noise like an excited little kid and Jeremy snickered. 

“You know, you can make different notes than just those,” Jeremy said. 

“I can?”

“Yeah. Let me show you.” Jeremy took Michael’s hand that was on the neck of the guitar and Michael tried to ignore his heart fluttering. “Just press down the strings in these little rectangles, they’re called frets.”

Jeremy guided Michael’s hand along the neck of the guitar, and Michael prayed that Jeremy would not look at his face since he was red as a tomato. Unfortunately, Jeremy looked up to see Michael blushing. 

“Mike? You okay?” he asked. 

“I-uh…yeah,” he answered through a voice crack, but Jeremy didn’t let go of his hand. 

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

They stayed in place for a while and Michael could see Jeremy was lightly blushing himself even though he looked away from Michael’s eyes. Though, he couldn’t tell if he looked away because long eye contact made him uncomfortable or from something else. 

Impulsively, Michael lightly held Jeremy’s chin and turned his face towards him, leaned in and kissed him. It was almost like he didn’t process what he did right in that moment since he acted on impulse, but he suddenly realized what he did and he quickly released and let go of Jeremy’s chin.

“Oh my…fuck! Oh my God…I’m so sorry Jeremy,” he said as he pulled the guitar closer to his chest.

”Mike-”

“I-I don’t know what came over me and I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable…I’m so sorry…oh my God I think I’m gonna be sick-”

“Michael!” Jeremy interrupted him, but he raised his voice a little bit to get Michael’s attention. Michael stopped talking quickly and looked at him. “It’s okay. You didn’t make me uncomfortable.”

“But I just made it so awkward and I don’t know if you even feel the same-”

“You mean you couldn’t tell yet?”

“What?”

“I mean…I do feel the same. I have for a while now.”

Jeremy cupped Michael’s face in his hands and smiled before he kissed him. When Jeremy backed away, he and Michael were both a blushing mess but both sat silently across from each other, not sure what to say and both feeling slightly awkward.

Michael didn’t expect Jeremy to feel the same as him at all, since he knew Jeremy had a girlfriend during their eighth grade year who he broke up with before that school year ended, but perhaps he was too quick to judge. Michael realized he was still holding Jeremy’s guitar, which was starting to fall since he was holding it loosely now and he put it down next to him. 

“So…what does this mean for us?” Michael asked. 

“I dunno. What do you want it to mean?”

“I…don’t know.”

“Well, I can go at your pace. Whatever you’re comfortable with. Or we can just stay friends if that’s what you want.” Michael took Jeremy’s hand in his and Jeremy’s heart fluttered. “I’m taking that as a little more than friends?”

Michael nodded and Jeremy let go of his hand to sit next to him, but they both held each other’s hand once again being that they wanted to hold each other’s hands for a little over two years, since they knew if they ever did they would be labeled as ‘freaks’ by society.

“But what’s your father going to think?”

“Right…uh, I haven’t thought that far ahead. I really don’t know but I won’t tell him a word.”

“I just don’t want you getting hurt.”

“I know you don’t. But if he does say anything about us, I’ll handle it. I don’t want you to worry more than you already do anyway.”

They both sat in silence for a while again, both just enjoying each other’s company when Michael felt Jeremy rest his head on his shoulder. Michael didn’t care that Jeremy could see his lightly blushing face if he looked up or if he could hear his heart fluttering anymore. He was finally happy for what seemed like the first time in years, and he smiled one of his ever rare genuine smiles. 

Chapter 30

Summary:

William’s jail time :D

William was in that prison for what seemed like years to him, even though it’s only been about a week. He hated having his long hair tied back in a low ponytail constantly and having to wear the orange jumpsuit all inmates had to wear. William mainly filled his days almost in complete silence, pacing around his cell while his cellmate watched him or muttering utter nonsense to himself, sometimes not even real words. Sure he would move to other places, but he would continue to mutter to himself utter nonsense, mumble ‘it wasn’t me’ or ‘I shouldn’t be here’ and he was barely eating at meals. The only times his cellmate would hear him speak normally is when he yelled at the guards passing by the cell. 

His cellmate thought to take a risky move one day and stopped him in the middle of his pacing session, even though he clearly didn’t like to be interrupted. 

“Dude, what the hell’s the matter with you?!” he yelled. William said nothing but continued to glare at him. “Look, you’ve barely said a word since you got here, what’s got you so worked up? What’re you in for?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? Those bastards don’t arrest people out of the blue most of the time and you’re going fucking crazy!”

“I said, nothing. Now leave me alone.”

William walked past him and continued pacing around the room, but his cellmate didn’t leave him alone since he wanted answers. He chased after him and stopped him again, to where William was now annoyed. 

“Just tell me! I don’t even know your name!”

“William, if you must know.”

“Well William, I’m Elijah. What’re you in here for?”

“I said, nothing.”

“C’mon, you had to have done something to get in this joint.”

“Since you won’t stop bothering me, I was accused.”

“Of…”

“Murder.”

“Murder? Damn, way more interesting than me. I’m in here for stealing shit from a jewelry store, maybe beating the asses of a couple cops.”

“I didn’t do anything though! I'm in this damn place for nothing!”

“Look man, I feel your pain. I tried to plead innocent but my buddy forgot to smash one fucking security camera…anyways, you have a court date?”

“Not yet.”

“Not yet?!”

“I’m just being detained unless there’s evidence pointing towards me.”

“So…what’s that? A few weeks?”

“Yep.”

“Better than me. I got ‘five to ten years’ in this shithole unless I break out. So is that why they refused to take those handcuffs off you?”

“Yes. They believe ‘I’m a danger to society’.”

“Sucks man. But hey, at least you’re outta here in January.” 

---

The pizzeria was closed for a week and a half while the detectives kept searching for evidence, but no proof William committed the crime he was accused of could be found. All that could be found were the foul smelling animatronics, but not even any dropped items such as a hair tie or bracelet could be found that could hint at where the children might be. 

They had decided to confront William to see if they could get any answers out of him. One evening, he was called out of his cell to a separate room, much like the one Michael was questioned in but there were guards at all the exits. He went to the closest chair to him and sat down, unsure of what to expect and his leg started bouncing, since the guards at both exits were just staring at him to make sure he didn’t try to escape. It freaked him out a little bit, to be honest. 

After waiting for about five minutes, a police officer walked into the room. 

“Hello Mr. Afton. I am Officer Anderson, I’ll just be asking you a few questions,” he said as he showed him his badge and took the empty seat across from William. “Mr. Afton, I’m aware that you are a technician, head security guard as well as shift manager at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria?”

“Yes.”

“So that means you are supposed to be watching the children all day and making sure they are safe?”

“Yes.”

“So, you saw no suspicious activity on August twenty fifth, October seventeenth or November eighteenth?”

“I didn’t see anything.”

“What a coincidence, because the detectives went through the security camera footage and they were all turned off those days for a few hours.”

“I was in the security office since that was around the time I switched from being out in the diner to the office, I think I fell asleep at the desk and turned them off accidentally.”

“If nothing actually happened and you are telling me the truth, which I am not sure if you are, I talked to your son, Michael-”

“You talked to Michael?!”

“Yes Mr. Afton. I talked to him and Henry Emily about a week ago. Mr. Emily didn’t give me much information, however he is saying that you would never do such a thing like that. Michael however, is saying that you were also involved in the murder of Charlotte Emily about two years ago.”

“Henry’s daughter?”

“Yes Mr. Afton. He thinks you may have been behind it.”

“Me? I’d never do something like that! Much less to Henry’s daughter since I’d never want to upset him purposefully like that! I was outside checking things with my car the whole time, thinking she’d be alright since there were other adults around. I was even the one who called it in!”

“Hm. Even if you didn’t murder anyone like you said, Michael said that you murdered his mother, or your ex-wife, Evelyn Schmidt.”

William stared at him in shock, but felt as though he was struggling to breathe out of shock once he heard her name. 

“What?” he choked out. 

“He said that you murdered his mother.”

“I would never!”

“You won’t? Then why do you think Michael said that he saw you kill her with his own eyes five years ago?!”

“Evelyn and I only divorced, and I understand that must’ve been hard on him. I believe that on record or whatever system you have here, that there was a custody battle between her and I. I had won because she was a danger to the kids, I only wanted to protect them. It must’ve been hard on Michael after seeing his mother leave and two of his siblings die that he started making up stories in his head, which got so intense he started to believe them.”

“You’re saying that Michael was lying, but he thought it was the truth?”

“Correct. I’m not even sure if there was a case open for her anyway, so I assume she’s somewhere out there. Haven’t heard from her in a while, though.”

“That is where you’re incorrect. We got a call on October first five years ago saying the owner of a closed down Italian restaurant found a dead body in his dumpster. She was later identified as Evelyn Schmidt and we concluded that she had been stabbed to death, did you have any idea about that?”

“No…oh my God that’s horrible.”

“Hm. We’ll have to review your answers and decide if you’re telling the truth or not and we’ll get back to you in a few days. But if the legal system were up to me, I personally wouldn't let you slide under the radar.” He stood. “Take him back to his cell,” he told the guards. 

The two guards nodded and held him by the arms while he stood from the chair and the officer who was questioning him left the room through a separate door. He was led out of the room, past the other inmates and back to his cell where he found Elijah who was eating stale bread he took from the cafeteria at dinner and he quickly hid it in his jumpsuit pocket. The guards closed and locked the door behind William. 

“Oi! Can I at least get these off?!” William shouted to the guards as the handcuffs were still on him, but they walked away and William flipped them off behind their back. He went back to sit on his bed, but Elijah was across from him on his bed where he was still eating that stale bread from the cafeteria. 

“Want some? I swiped two and I was gonna save one for later, but you look like you’re starving,” he asked through a mouthful. 

“I’m okay.”

“C’mon dude, you’ve barely eaten anything all day!” 

He took a piece of bread out of his pocket and held it out to William, and after debating for a while he finally took it. 

“Y’know, for a robber, you’re actually an okay guy,” William said. 

“I’m just trying to see what my mom meant all those years when she said to ‘be nice’. No place better than somewhere you don’t have access to weapons.”

Chapter 31

Summary:

Fritz’s father comes back to the pizzeria, hoping for answers. What he gets is not what he was expecting.

“Okay…so how do I do this?” Michael asked Henry after the pizzeria was open for business again. Michael wouldn’t let go of his offer that he made to Henry to help out at the pizzeria, so Henry let him tag along with him one day since it was now the start of the weekend. 

“It’s pretty simple. Just switch through the cameras and look for any suspicious activity. And on the rare occasion the phone rings, just say ‘Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza’, or ‘Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria’, whatever you wanna call it.”

“You mean I can’t try and prank call people?” Michael joked and Henry rolled his eyes, but smiled. 

“No. This is a professional business.”

“Fine. I guess I won't. So uh, do I go out to the main diner too just like father did?”

“I’m not too sure about that part. I mean, you’re not in a uniform so people’ll think you’re just a customer.”

“But then I can be like…an undercover security guard!”

Henry chuckled. “I know how stressed out you get around too many people and I don’t want to overwhelm you. I’ll be doing that part.”

“Fine,” he said as he slumped in the chair. 

“The pizzeria closes in a few hours, Mike. We’ll be leaving then but make sure you’re keeping an eye on things.”

“Will do boss.”

Henry chuckled and left to where Michael could finally get a good look around the office. It was quite small and quite plain, with the desk only having the camera monitors and a desk fan, but there were also lockers behind him which he could only assume that uniforms were kept. There were doors on either side of him, but right now there was no real reason to close them. A part of him wanted to close the door, but Henry said they were only to be closed in case of emergencies. 

He decided to check the cameras like he was supposed to be, and there wasn’t really much to watch out for at this time. All he saw were kids running around and their parents were either with them or at the tables. He flipped around to the other cameras and unexpectedly, he saw Fritz’s father walk in. 

He was still looking for his son. 

Michael watched as he went over to Henry at a table near the back since he was watching the kids. 

“Excuse me, you’re the boss here, right?” he asked Henry. 

“Manager technically, but yes I am.”

“Sorry to be a bother, but d’you by any chance know someone by the name of Michael Afton?”

“Yes, I do in fact. He’s my nephew!”

“Do you know where he is, or is he not here? I need to speak to him.”

“He’s here! Let me get him.” Henry looked up at the security camera which he knew Michael was watching, since he knew he would try to spy on them, and motioned for him to come out of the office. Michael got up from the chair and went out to the main dining area, not knowing why Fritz’s father wanted to talk with him. He went up to them and Henry said to Michael, “I’ll watch the cameras while you and Mr…” Henry looked towards the other man as if to silently ask his name. 

“Parker,” Fritz’s father answered. 

“While you and Mr. Parker talk. Call me if you need anything,” Henry said as he got up and went to the security office. 

“Okay, uh, what’s up?” Michael asked him awkwardly as they both took a seat across from each other once Henry was in the office. 

“I’m sorry to bother you Michael, so I won’t take up too much of your time. But I have been worried sick about Fritz. Have you possibly seen him anywhere? I’ve had to reschedule our moving date to a week from now so I can look for him, but I haven’t found anything!”

Michael went wide eyed and he suddenly remembered that no one else knew about the murders but he and Jeremy. He looked over at Foxy in the separate room across from him, and saw that Foxy wasn’t tearing his gaze away from the two of them. Foxy was programmed to perform at this time, but something was preventing that. He tilted his head in confusion subtly and looked back at the man across from him. 

“I’m sorry, I haven’t.”

“Alright. Well thank you Michael-”

“But I do have an idea of where he could be.”

“Really? Where?”

“I think…I think he’s dead. I’m so sorry.”

“Dead?”

“Yes. I believe he was murdered.”

“Murdered? No, he couldn’t be!”

“I believe it’s the truth.”

“How?! Where could his body be if he was murdered?!” 

“I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I think he’s there,” Michael said and pointed to Foxy who hadn’t torn his gaze from the two of them, and the man turned to look at it and back at Michael. 

“That…that doesn’t make any sense! I know that was his favorite animatronic, but those aren’t meant to hold dead bodies!”

Michael got up as did he, and Michael led him over to Pirate’s Cove where Foxy kept staring at them. 

“Look, he smells like a dead body, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in there. And right now, Foxy is programmed to be moving, but he’s not. It’s almost like he’s malfunctioning because of something.”

Michael noticed right at that moment a little bit of blood and mucus was dripping from the eye sockets, and Fritz’s father noticed it as well. Knowing that Fritz was last seen at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, he didn’t think Michael was far from the truth. 

“Oh my God…I think…I think you’re right.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Who…” he choked and he wiped his tears. 

“I’m prepared for you to not believe me, but I believe the one who had murdered him was…”  Michael trailed off and gulped, knowing that if he told him, once William gets back he’ll be in big trouble, even more than he probably already was. But if William did try to hit him or even something worse once he got back, he was always a fast runner and could escape to Jeremy’s house, since he said he and his father would always welcome him since Michael told them years ago what his father was like, and sleep on the couch or whatever they had to offer. He only lived about half a mile away anyway, so it made him feel better knowing he had a quick plan of escape now if he needed it. “…my father.”

“Isn’t your father the other original founder? What was his name…William Afton?

“Yes. He’s been detained right now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he got out soon.” 

“William Afton. Thank you Michael. I…I need to go,” he said and he went out the doors of the pizzeria. Michael looked back at Foxy, who was acting as normal as ever, and left. 

Michael went back to the security office where he found Henry on the phone. It sounded important even though he could only hear Henry’s side of the conversation, so he didn’t interrupt. 

“Really? When?…Tomorrow night?…Okay, thank you,” he said into the phone as he was finishing up his conversation and hung up. He turned around to see Michael in the doorway. 

“What was that? You got a date?” Michael joked and Henry chuckled. 

“No. It was the police station. It was about your father.”

“What’d they say?”

“Since the detectives have been investigating for a while now and nothing has been found, he’s being released tomorrow night!”

Michael stared at him in shock and felt his heart drop. 

Chapter 32

Summary:

*drops a little of my own lore on top of the already confusing FNAF lore*

cw: needles, injection

The night that William got home, it was totally quiet in the house because Michael had stayed the night over at Henry’s, but he would come back to the Afton’s house the next day. For now, William was alone in his house and had the perfect opportunity to test his theory. William practically ran to the basement and went down the stairs, and to his relief none of his things were moved. Not like they would anyway since the house was empty. He quickly grabbed his journal where he would document his findings, and took a bag containing the jars of remnant out to his car which he put carefully on the floor. He got in the driver's seat and drove to his underground facility located several miles away. 

Once he got to the facility and took the rickety elevator underground, he went to the Scooping room where he took out the jars of remnant, and to his relief none of the jars have cracked. 

He got the first jar labeled ‘Gabriel’ and dumped that remnant into the remnant reservoir and brought in Funtime Foxy from the stage. He went to the control panel and hesitated for a few seconds, hoping his theory would work, and he pressed the button to turn on the Scooper. He heard the alarm blare four times and saw the Scooper go towards Funtime Foxy, inject the remnant and retract almost immediately. He saw Funtime Foxy was not moving for a while and William was afraid it didn’t work, but then Funtime Foxy had fluid, almost human-like movements. William couldn’t believe it. He started laughing to himself in astonishment and relief, then he saw Funtime Foxy lock eyes with him. He felt like Funtime Foxy was staring straight into his soul, and whenever he moved Funtime Foxy’s eyes moved with him. He had to admit, he was a little weirded out but took Funtime Foxy back to their stage. 

‘Subject 4: Gabriel Johnson-Schmidt (Funtime Foxy, Freddy Fazbear)

Was not hostile during life, stayed with his half brother, Jeremy most of the time. 

Funtime Foxy was injected with his remnant, still was not hostile (yet, at least)’

He did the same for Funtime Freddy, but he used two jars of remnant (one labeled Jeremy and the other Cassidy) since it was technically two animatronics and he got the same results. They had fluid, human-like movements and didn’t speak, but eerily stared at him like they knew who he was. He didn’t know if that was the case and didn’t feel like finding out at the moment, so he put Funtime Freddy back on the stage. 

‘Subject 5 & 6: Cassidy & Jeremy Schmidt (Funtime Freddy & BonBon, Fredbear & Bonnie)

Cassidy was hostile during life, Jeremy was not. 

Have gotten the same results as Funtime Foxy. 

It is now concluded that injecting remnant gives life, a few more trials are left to fully test this theory.’

He made a side note. He felt as though it was irrelevant since it was the past, but still wanted to mention it. 

‘Remnant is easier to harvest from a child who is dead or wounded rather than a child who is not wounded and only knocked out.’

All that was left was Fritz, Susie and Charlotte. He knew he couldn’t have used Circus Baby since it already contained Elizabeth’s remnant, so adding more might cause complications. But he could use Ballora. Even though it contained a little bit of his wife’s remnant, it wouldn’t hurt since she didn’t remember anything anyways and there was only a small amount. 

He brought Ballora in front of the scooper again, dumped Susie’s remnant into the reservoir and went back into the room. He pressed the button to turn it on, heard the four blares of the alarm again and watched the arm inject the remnant into Ballora and retract almost immediately. He didn’t get quite the same result since Ballora’s eyes were shut, but she had more fluid movements like the rest of them. He definitely knew he was correct now. When he got Ballora back in her room and was about to leave, he heard her speak. 

“William,” was all she said. William stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned around to Ballora, which thankfully hasn’t moved. “William,” she said again after a minute of William standing frozen in fear. 

“Hello?” William replied, trying not to show fear. She didn’t turn to him, but he backed away as fast as he could back to the control room where he slammed the door to not risk her following him. “Oh my God…” 

It was Evelyn, and now that he had injected more remnant that had mixed with hers, she had regained her memory and knew what William did to her. Sure, she had less harvestable remnant than the children did, but since she was an adult it was strong enough to be able to overpower Susie’s remnant. The problem was (without William’s knowledge as he was almost unknowing of how remnant actually worked) her soul was no longer free with her son like she was and has been for years. 

Sure, she might’ve been blocked from speaking to Michael by her father because he was truly a power hungry soul in life and now, death. Even if he couldn’t get the power he wanted, he figured the least he could do was torment Michael without him even realizing. So he did that by telling Michael about every bad thing that happened in his life, and was able to indirectly communicate to him to make him believe that everything was his fault without directly saying anything so Michael wouldn’t get suspicious, and Michael believed it which is exactly what he wanted. Evelyn had tried to regain that quality that had been taken away from her with force to try and tell her son to not believe him (but she failed to do so), but she was able to still be with him even if he didn’t know she was there.

Her remnant was trapped inside Ballora many years ago, but since it was so little and weak at the time she was still able be free but not move on like she was supposed to, and since a physical object was still (forcefully) latched onto her soul she was cursed to roam the earth unless she was somehow able to be freed. Her father was in the exact same situation, but he was a powerful enough entity for it to be from his own doing, so he could continue to try and torture innocent people for hundreds of years or until his object that he had attached his soul onto was destroyed. 

Susie’s remnant who Evelyn’s had been mixed with had no other capabilities except to bring life, and the same went for the remnant harvested from the other children. Evelyn was now fully possessing Ballora, and now she couldn’t escape from where she was and she couldn’t see her son again except if he somehow came down to this facility. She was stuck. 

William wrote his findings down:

‘Subject 7: Susan (Susie) Campbell (Ballora, Chica)

Was never hostile in life, although she definitely knew something about me. 

Remnant was mixed with Evelyn’s, but it only seems to be possessed by Evelyn. Susie is practically nonexistent. 

Could it be the same for the other’s as well? Are they only able to give life?’

William went back to where he kept the remnant and noticed he had two more jars left, Fritz’s and Charlotte’s, but no more animatronics. He wanted to use the remnant on himself but however, the remnant seemed to be weak and did not give him the results he had hoped for. 

He suddenly got an idea but it would require him to go back to the pizzeria, and he would have no idea if it would work. He decided to risk it and drive back, since he needed to get another syringe anyway. 

He went up the elevator and out to his car and drove to town to get another syringe, which to his relief no one questioned why he was getting a syringe. He drove back to the pizzeria and prayed to no one in particular that the cameras would not see him as he went to the back. He cautiously unlocked the front door, zipped up his black jacket he grabbed before he left his house and put the hood over his head, sneaked his way into the back and to his relief no one was in the pizzeria. He went to the back where the old Fredbear costume was, and hoped his theory was right but partially didn’t at the same time. 

---

He’s done this type of thing before, when he started experimenting on animals. Several years ago, he had killed a young cat earlier that day out of anger and stress from his job and family. But, as crazy as he was, he took it to his home basement to puncture its organs in a faulty spring lock mechanism he had made, which happened to be his first prototype. 

He eventually did trip the small mechanism to where the cat was definitely dead, but since he didn’t want Evelyn to find out and he was definitely allergic to it he took his lighter from his pocket which he used to light cigarettes and burned it, but instead of just burning to a crisp like he expected, it melted into a strange, brightly lit purple liquid which got him curious what this was. The cat’s remnant had somehow fused with the faulty spring lock, but he quickly burned it all and found that if there was excessive heat on this strange substance (more than what was already used) it would be destroyed. He started experimenting on different kinds of animals to try and replicate these results, and once he found that young targets worked best he started targeting children. 

---

He went by the Fredbear costume and squatted down so he was eye to eye with it. 

“Ya still in there Cassidy?” he asked. 

I want to kill him right here, right now, Cassidy thought. 

“But, Charlotte said the time wasn’t right!” Evan said. 

Ugh, you’re right. But he deserves it!

“The time isn’t right!”

Fine, I won’t if it’ll stop your complaining. 

William heard no response, and he sighed but stood up. He went to one of Fredbear’s ears since he couldn’t cut off anything easily, firmly grasped it, mustered up his strength and pulled it off with more effort than he thought. He put the ear in his pocket to take back and left the restaurant. 

Did he just…

“Yes! I’m not sure why he wanted that part though...”

William got in his car and sat in the driver’s seat for a few minutes, debating if he should drive to the nearest store and grab a pack of cigarettes when he heard a tapping noise on his window. It was almost one in the morning, so he didn’t assume anyone would try to find him, much less tapping on his window. He looked up, saw that it wasn’t a police officer and rolled down his window a bit. 

“Whaddya want?” he asked, clearly annoyed. 

“I thought I’d find you here,” the man said. 

“Who the hell are you?!”

“You may not know me, but I assume your name is William?”

“Why does that matter?!”

“You murdered my son!”

“Your…son?”

“His name was Fritz!”

“Oh. So that was your little brat.”

“You bet your ass he was!”

“Michael told you, I’m assuming?”

“Why the hell would it matter how I found out?! Now come out here and stop hiding in your car like a coward!”

“Um…no I don’t think I will.” He locked the doors of the car. “You’re the one trapping me in here.”

“Oh, so now you wanna act like you’re the victim here?!”

“Those idiots at the police station don’t think anything happened to those kids, so why should you?”

“That was my son!”

“Yeah, yeah, you said that. I’m a terrible person, boo hoo, now get out of here before I run you over.”

“I’m not leaving until you face me and not be the coward you are!”

William started up his car. “Move,” he said coldly. 

“No.”

William glared at him as he rolled up his window and backed out of his parking space. “Looks like I’ll have to do some cleaning later,” he muttered to himself. He revved his engine because the man was blocking the only exit, telling him to move but he wouldn’t budge. He felt his anger and annoyance boiling over and impulsively, he pressed on the gas. The man backed away, seeing that William was not kidding and it wasn’t  just a way to tell him to get out of his sight. He tried to escape William’s car, which by looking back he saw that the front bumper was dangerously close to him and he ran down several empty parking lots, trying to lose him. William was already fed up and decided to not turn to the exit, but stick to his word and passed it as he continued chasing him. William continued to lightly press down on the gas and chased him down a couple of blocks away and the pizzeria was out of sight. 

After they were a couple of blocks away from the pizzeria, William decided to press the gas more instead of just trailing behind and teasing him since he wanted to stick to his word. He stopped the car and let the man get some distance away from him, and impulsively he pressed on the gas as hard as he could, caught up to the man and saw him fall to the ground and felt a bump as the car hit him. William backed up the car and saw him lying limp in the road and bleeding out, but it was too dark to see if any of his organs were spilling out or if he was just bleeding since he turned his headlights off when he started chasing him. To his relief, there was no one around since all the places were closed so the blame wouldn’t be put on him again and he drove away, cursing out Michael under his breath for telling anyone and started wondering how the hell he knew in the first place. 

Back at Henry’s house, Michael was hugging his pillow and crying into it to muffle his sobs. He was told what happened between Mr. Parker and his father and he had that same uncomfortable feeling that always comes when something bad happened, but there was nothing he could’ve done to stop him. He should’ve never told him his son was murdered by William, then maybe he could have moved to a new place like he wanted to. Maybe then, he could’ve started a new life like he wanted to, but he couldn't because Michael had told him Fritz was murdered by William. He should’ve known he’d go looking for him to seek vengeance for his son, and he called himself stupid for not thinking ahead. He barely knew him, but Michael felt the guilt creeping in, trying not to believe that dream he had several weeks ago that it was all his fault, but it was hard for him to not believe that what it said was true.  

---

William drove back to the facility and went back down the rickety elevator, went back to the room where the jars still were and took them to another part of the facility where his lab equipment was. One room that was completely hidden since he couldn’t risk anything being seen in his own home, because who knows what would have happened if it was seen. 

He mixed the two jars of remnant together in one jar and swirled it around so it was mixed, but it was still emitting a dim light which told him it was not strong enough. He took the broken ear he got from Fredbear out of his pocket and a lighter he brought everywhere with him out of the other. He had no idea if this would work, but he held the broken ear in metal tongs above the jar so he wouldn’t burn himself and flicked on the lighter. He brought the flame close to the broken ear, but all he could do was wait several minutes for it to start to melt. The felt covering seemed to burn right away, but the most waiting seemed to be with the metal endoskeleton underneath. 

After waiting for what seemed like several hours he finally saw the endoskeleton start to melt, and that same purple liquid started to melt from it but it emitted a much brighter light. He let it melt into the jar of remnant, and after hours when the sun was starting to come up above the horizon, the whole ear was melted into that bright purple liquid. William took the jar and used the tongs to mix it together, and soon the whole jar was emitting a bright purple light. 

He soon realized that meant Cassidy was still here, and feared that the others still were as well and all wanted revenge against him. He tried not to think about it too hard since they were all likely possessing the animatronics and couldn’t hurt him for the time being, and the only one he definitely knew was still here was Cassidy. 

He understood though, this might be way too much for a person to have in their system at once, but he didn’t want to just keep too much in the jar out in the open. He got an idea and went back to the Scooper where he dumped some in the remnant reservoir, since he was pretty sure the Scooper wouldn’t be used again. 

He went back to the room with the jar of remaining remnant and got his journal before he left to go back to his house, left up the elevator and drove to his house. He wanted to be home to inject himself since he wasn’t sure what would happen, in case he couldn’t get back to his house by dawn. 

He took the key out of the ignition of his car and made a mental note to remember to write his findings down after he injected himself with the remnant. He didn’t know what would happen or if injecting the remnant into his system would cause complications for him, but it was clearly able to give life which is what he wanted and if his theory is correct, the brighter the remnant was the more likely it was to give life. He took a deep breath as he parked in the driveway and sat in the driver’s seat for a few minutes in silence. 

“It’s now or never,” he told himself. He got out of the car and took the jar of remnant, his journal and the syringe with him. When he went into the basement and turned on the light, he finally noticed that the jar he used was the jar he used to store Charlotte’s remnant, with her name being written on masking tape that was about to fall off and he tried to remember to take it off afterwards. 

He opened the packaging on the syringe and put a needle on it, put the needle in the jar of purple liquid and put as much remnant as he could fit into the syringe but all that was left was a small amount. Definitely not enough for a fully grown adult. He put the lid back on the top of the jar, rolled up his sleeve and aimed the syringe toward a large vein he found on his forearm. 

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes before he moved. He couldn’t believe he was about to put some abnormal fluid into his system, but he had to remind himself it was for science and for possible immortality. He opened his eyes and inhaled sharply as he injected the syringe into his arm and forcefully pushed the remnant into his system.

It was unlike anything he ever felt before. For one, it burned and it sent a harsh, stinging pain throughout his body, and it was like he could feel the strange fluid go into his vein. He yelled out of pain, clenched his fist and he could feel his heart racing in his chest, but he knew he had to keep going until the syringe was empty. He shut his eyes, but he closed them so tightly he could feel tears of pain forming in the corners of his eyes. 

After minutes of slowly injecting the remnant into his system and enduring excruciating pain, he felt the syringe stop telling him it was empty and there was no more remnant. Relieved, he opened his eyes and quickly took the syringe out. He fell to the ground as his knees gave out from the pain, his hands felt clammy from his own body heat from clenching his fist, his whole body was now sore and his left arm (which was where he injected himself) was now tingling and partially numb, but other than that he didn’t feel any different. But he knew it had to have done something. There was no way all that pain did nothing. He sat up after many minutes and found his journal and pen which had fallen on the ground, flipped to the next empty page and started writing after his hands had stopped shaking. 

‘Remnant injected into my system. Sent burning, stinging pain throughout my body. Other than recovering from that, I don’t feel any different.’

He took a deep breath again as he shakily got up and went upstairs with his journal so he could look in the bathroom mirror and see if anything about his appearance changed. Once he looked at himself, he didn’t notice anything at all at first. But as he looked at his reflection closely he saw that his pupils had changed color from black to white. 

 “What the-” he said to himself. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. 

‘Appearance has altered slightly. Pupils have changed from black to white, but nothing else out of the ordinary has changed.’

He went back down to the basement and put his journal next to the almost empty remnant jar labeled ‘Charlotte’ on an empty bookshelf near the floor, pushed the desk in front of it and went upstairs to his bedroom. It was dawn anyhow, so he decided he should try to get some rest and prepare himself for Michael coming back to the house tomorrow, and to clean off the front bumper of his car. 

Chapter 33

Summary:

Michael goes back to his house, where he has to meet William face to face again after he accused him of murder

The next day, Michael hesitantly packed his bags to return to his house in a few hours. He didn’t want to go back, he wanted to stay at Henry’s house because he actually treated him how parents should be treating their children. But ever since he learned his father had been released from prison, he knew he had to go back to the hell hole called the Afton Residence. 

Henry passed by Samuel’s bedroom, which happened to be the one Michael was staying in, and noticed Michael’s unhappy expression as he packed his bag on the floor. 

“Listen Mike,” Henry started and Michael turned his attention towards him in the doorway. “I know you don’t wanna go back to your house, but if it makes you feel better you’re welcome to stay here any time.” 

“Really?”

“Really.”

Michael smiled and hugged Henry. He was happy that Henry was offering him someplace else to stay if he needed to. He would much rather be here than his own house anyway. 

A while later, Henry drove Michael back to his house while he sat silently in the front seat, scared about what he was going to encounter. He didn’t know what would happen when he was in his father’s line of vision again, since he knew that Michael had turned him into the police. Was he going to yell at him? Hit him? Ground him? Most likely it would be all three. 

When they arrived, Michael walked with Henry to the front porch while Henry rang the doorbell as Michael felt his heart race as he waited for his father to answer the door. 

It didn’t take long before William answered the door and Michael’s thoughts started racing. He could faintly hear his father saying hello to Henry and him responding with an ‘I’m glad you’re back!’, but it seemed as though everything was muffled. 

“Hello Michael,” William said emotionlessly when Michael came into his view and he snapped out of his thoughts. 

“Hello father…” he responded quietly. William let him inside, but as he passed him in the doorway it was as though he could feel William glaring at him even though he didn’t dare to look his father in the eyes. Michael looked back at Henry worryingly when he went into the house and sprinted up the stairs to his room. 

He dropped his bag that was over his shoulder on the floor of his room, and he sat on his bed as he waited anxiously for his father to call him downstairs or for him to come upstairs to Michael’s room. He was definitely going to want to talk to him after what had just happened, and Michael wasn’t ready for whatever his father was going to tell him. His mind was racing as his mind jumped to the worst possible outcome, his leg started bouncing and the only thing that seemed to calm him down was holding his own two hands together. 

“Michael!” he finally heard his father call up to him. He sounded angry, but almost as if he tried his best to not let Michael notice there was anger in his voice. 

Here we go, Michael thought. He cautiously went down the stairs until he met his father eye to eye, but Michael kept looking to the side as he was afraid to look him in the eyes. 

“Michael…” William started and Michael finally gave into looking at his father face to face. Michael was almost as tall as his father, but he fell a couple inches shorter so it was somehow more frightening to him. 

“Yes?” Michael asked nervously as he crossed his arms, hugging himself for comfort as he prepared himself for whatever his father was going to do. 

“You disobeyed me. You did what I explicitly told you not to do! I told you to not tell anyone about your mother!” he said as he slightly raised his voice at Michael. 

“I know,” he answered quietly. 

“And, about those missing kids…” Michael held his breath, preparing for his father to yell at him. “What would make you think I would stoop that low?”

“Because I saw you murder Mum! I know you would stoop that low!” 

“I am telling you right now, I would never stoop to that level to murder innocent children! Whatever ‘feeling’ you had is all in that head of yours. But what would make you believe I would harm children who had done nothing?”

“Because Mum didn’t deserve it either but you killed her anyway! Why would this be any different?!”

“She deserved it. She wanted to take you guys away after I had gotten custody of you three.”

“What?”

“You heard me. I had won, but she still wanted to take you away. Now, I wasn’t willing to let her take my children away since she was not their legal guardian, but she wouldn’t let it go so I did what had to be done.”

Michael gulped, knowing his mother most likely just wanted to take them away from him to protect them, but he quickly changed the subject since he didn’t want to think about it. 

“But what about the kids? I know you murdered them!”

“I didn’t. They had just gone missing and it happened to be at Freddy’s. From what I know, they could’ve used the back exits because they thought it would be a good idea and gotten lost in the town or even in those mountains outside town.”

“What about the animatronics?! They smell like something died and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were in there!”

“We hadn’t gotten the chance to clean them since they were built, and we can’t control what kids keep trying to stuff inside.”

Michael stayed silent in thought. He couldn’t tell if his father was telling the truth or trying to gaslight him into thinking he’s crazy. 

“But…I don’t understand…” 

“I know you don’t Michael. There is a reason why they’re called ‘missing children’. And, might I add, there was no evidence I have done anything. You are just making up scenarios and telling the authorities which, from what I know, is against the law.”

“But…I wasn’t lying. I know it.”

“You most likely didn’t realize, but you were. Although, we all make mistakes sometimes.”

“So, you’re not going to yell at me?”

“I definitely will later, but I’m not feeling up to it right now,” William didn’t feel like yelling at Michael right at that moment because his arm was still tingling from last night and he felt very woozy, but he wasn’t drinking today, “but you’re grounded for a month.”

“A month?!”

“Do you want me to make it more?!”

“Fine,” Michael said. “But I know you’re lying to me. You have a habit of lying anyway, just like Mum said.”

“Why would I lie about something as serious as this? I’m just telling you things from my perspective,” William said. Michael wasn’t sure if it was the truth or not, but he put some thought into it. The only proof he had were uncomfortable feelings in his gut that were sent to him by a spirit, which he wasn’t totally sure if they had the power to do something like that, and he could hear a voice that no one else could, which made him look crazy. He still believed his father had something to do with the disappearances, even if he didn’t murder them. Michael held his own two hands together. “So Michael, do you believe me or your gut?” 

“Uh…I don’t know,” Michael answered. William wasn’t expecting that answer and had to try everything he could to get his son to believe him. He put his hands on Michael’s shoulders and he felt Michael’s muscles tense up as if he was preparing himself in case he got hit. 

“Do you believe some feeling in your gut or me, who is directly telling you my point of view?” William asked threateningly, trying to scare Michael into believing him. 

Michael hesitated for a moment. “I…I don’t know.”

William took his hands off Michael’s shoulders and put his own hands behind his back as he was disappointed that his plan only partially worked, but he was able to make Michael doubt his views about the situation. 

William glared into Michael’s eyes with his infamous ice cold gaze, and Michael felt chills down his spine and went wide eyed as he backed away a step. He finally noticed that his father’s eyes definitely looked different than they were before. 

William knew there was no getting through to Michael easily. “Get out of my sight,” he said. Michael sprinted up to his room, taking the stairs two at a time and closed his bedroom door behind him. He felt fear throughout his whole body. Sure, his father had glared at him before, but something was different this time. His eyes were definitely different, but he wasn’t sure what happened to his eyes or what happened in that prison. 

He plopped backwards on his bed, laying down on it as he stared at the light above his bed. “Hey, are you there?” Michael said to the empty room and sat up. He wanted to know that he wasn’t going crazy, but he didn’t hear a voice like he usually did. Instead, he saw the lamp on his dresser flicker on and off several times even though he didn’t flip the switch to turn it on. Someone was definitely there, but didn’t or couldn’t talk to Michael. It stopped shortly after it had started and he knew he was alone in the room once again. 

Michael heard the telephone in his room ring and he picked it up. “Hello?”

“¡Hola Mikey!” Jeremy said from the other line and Michael smiled. 

“You know no one calls me that anymore.”

“I know, but I do.”

“Fine. I guess I’ll allow you to call me that. Anyway, what's up?”

“I heard your dad came back today and I wanted to check on you.”

“Oh. Uh, yeah he did.”

“Was he mad at you? Do I need to come over there and beat him up?” Jeremy asked and Michael chuckled. 

“I think he was angry, but he didn’t show it. Although he did say I’m grounded.”

“For how long?”

“A month.”

“A month?!”

“Yeah, so knowing him he’s probably gonna come upstairs any second now and take this phone away.”

“But then how would I spend my afternoons when this is the only thing I look forward to every day?”

Michael chuckled and lightly blushed. He hated that he blushed so easily, but Jeremy thought it was cute. “I dunno, we could meet at the park or something.”

“But it’s freezing out there!”

“We’ll have to come up with a plan then ‘cause talking to you always makes my day better.”

Jeremy smiled as he twirled the phone cord around his finger. “Uh, since I don’t want you getting your ass beaten I’ll make this quick: what d’you mean ‘he was angry, but didn’t show it’?”

“I don’t know. He was very…neutral about the situation even though he knew I turned him in. I could tell he was angry with me, but he wasn’t aggressive toward me like he usually is.”

“What did he do instead?”

“I think he was trying to convince me that nothing ever happened.”

“Did you believe him?”

“I hate to admit it, but he was pretty convincing. I mean the only proof I have is just this ghost guy and I don’t feel well when something does happen. But no one else has that so there’s no way anyone would believe me. And you just know because you saw that I was right about Fritz.”

“Look, just don’t believe him. You said that he could hear them too, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then he’s lying to you Mikey. He always seemed like a shady guy to me and this just proves my point. I believe you even if everyone else says you’re crazy. We just need to find evidence against him, that's all.”

“I know, but we haven’t found anything!”

“You said so yourself, I remember. The basement that he doesn’t let anyone go in!”

“Holy shit, I completely forgot! But I’d have to sneak down there when he’s not here, that’s the problem.” 

“Um, at night?”

“That might work, but the problem is he usually falls asleep downstairs watching television.”

“Oh, so he’s one of those dads.”

“Shut up!” 

“It’s cool. My old man’s like that too.”

Michael couldn’t help but chuckle and heard Jeremy laugh on the other line. 

“But I might have to search when I’m totally sure he won’t be around. Who knows how long I’ll have to wait. But, I noticed something was off with him.”

“What?”

“His eyes. They’re…different.”

“Different?”

“Yeah! His pupils seemed to have changed color. I don’t know how or what happened in that prison but as he glared at me, I could tell they were…colder. Like there was life behind those eyes but there wasn’t at the same time.” 

“I’m no scientist but from what I know, pupils can’t change color so it has to be from something unnatural. Something that people can’t usually access.”

“But what?”

“Uh, I don't know. But now that we know this, he wanted to murder those kids for something , right? I think he wanted to do this because he wanted something from them.”

“What though? They were just kids.”

“I dunno, I’m no detective. But usually these things have motives behind it, that’s all I’m saying.”

Michael stayed quiet for a few minutes as he processed Jeremy’s words. “You might actually be onto something here…”

Chapter 34

Summary:

Michael wants to find evidence against his father, but he’s worried. Both for his sake and if he finds out Jeremy knows as well

Michael tried for weeks to sneak into the basement at night like Jeremy suggested, but his father would wake up and would scold him for trying to sneak in without his knowledge and send him to his room. When Michael was feeling stubborn on those days, his father resorted to threatening to get the belt to which Michael would sprint up the stairs, two at a time and lock his bedroom door. When he tried to sneak in while his father was away, he would not notice the time and get caught where his father would then yell at him, smack him on the back of the head and send him up to his room, sometimes without dinner. 

Usually he didn’t mind being sent up without dinner, being that it gave him more time to draw in his sketchbook. His interest in art has grown more and more each year since he was a small child, and would often draw in one of his many sketchbooks he had around his room in his spare time. There wasn’t one thing in particular he liked to draw, usually it was whatever he had inspiration for at the moment. 

Sometimes when Jeremy and Michael were lounging around someplace together, Jeremy would let Michael doodle on his medium brown skin with a pen, which were usually little stars and crescent moons on his forearm. Sometimes though, Michael would get really detailed and draw a rocket ship and planets on his upper arm which Jeremy liked because they were done by Michael, but they also looked like little tattoos. Sometimes when Michael didn’t feel too motivated to draw something detailed, he would connect the freckles on Jeremy’s arms and the back of his hands to make different shapes.

---

“I don’t know. It seems like I’m never going to get in the basement at this rate. It’s been weeks,” Michael said one day to Jeremy. They had decided to hang out at Jeremy’s house this time around, and they were both sitting across from each other at the kitchen table as Michael was drawing a line connecting the freckles on the back of Jeremy’s hand. His father was in the office though since he worked from home, but not listening to the little bit he could hear them so they were able to talk quietly amongst themselves. 

“You will soon. I know it.”

“But what will happen afterwards? What if I find nothing?”

“Then…he’s innocent and we actually have no idea what happened to those kids. But since you said he murdered your mom, I don’t think we would be wrong to say it’s him.”

“But it’s already bad enough for me to say ‘I’m the son of a murderer’, and it somehow sounds even worse to say ‘I’m the son of a child murderer’, and I’m now realizing if I do find evidence the police will probably keep a close eye on me since I am his son after all.”

“I know it doesn’t sound great, but I also know you would never purposefully murder someone and so does Henry. So you have two people to vouch for you in court if you’re accused of something like that.”

Michael chuckled. “I wouldn’t want anyone to vouch for me, honestly. I feel like if I was arrested, I deserve it.”

Michael felt Jeremy pick up his head by his chin to look at him. Michael stopped drawing on Jeremy’s hand as he looked into his kind amber eyes. “Why d’you think you deserve it?” he asked. 

Michael looked to the side as he remembered his past. “…Evan.”

“If that’s the case, I’ll be there too. I’m not letting you go to jail by yourself just for that since I was there too.”

Michael smiled. “Plus we’ll have to find the other two, wherever the hell they are,” he said and Jeremy snickered. 

“Yeah. Speaking of which, where d’you think they are?” Jeremy asked as he took his hand off Michael’s face and he continued drawing. 

“I don’t know. Probably off getting drunk at some party.”

“Really? I would’ve thought that they somehow got girlfriends and tried…y’know.”

Michael couldn’t help but laugh. “I doubt they got any girls.”

“You’re probably right. They probably spend their time getting drunk or getting high.”

“I’m always right.”

Jeremy looked up at him as if to say ‘Really?’ “Sure ya are Mikey,” he said teasingly and Michael laughed. “Back to the subject, I’m sure they’d have to call Henry and William sometime. Those things smell awful!”

“Wouldn’t be surprised if they’re in there.”

“But stuffing them in mascot costumes doesn’t seem like the brightest idea. I mean, they’d definitely be found!”

“Usually, but it’s blowing right over everyone’s head and the police somehow believe my father’s stupid lie.”

“But that seems like a pretty dumbass move, if you ask me.”

“I say murdering in the first place is a dumbass move.”

“Got me there,” Jeremy said as he smiled. “How long d’you think it’ll be ‘till they close the place down?”

“I’d say about two weeks or less.”

“Really? I’d think it’d be at least a month.”

“A month?!” Michael exclaimed as he looked up. 

“They were dumb enough to let it fly over their heads for this long so it seems reasonable if you ask me.”

Michael looked back down at the line he was drawing. “You’re right. But by now, they had to have noticed something! I mean, they were all murdered a few months ago and it’s now the end of January. People are bound to start noticing!” Michael finished drawing on Jeremy’s hand. “There ya go Jer.”

“Thanks Mike!” he chirped. Michael smiled as he went around the table and sat next to Jeremy. “And you’re right, they don’t. But whatever happens and if you find anything at all when you eventually find a way in there, just know it’ll probably be shocking at first, but I’m always right here if you wanna talk,” he said calmly as he held Michael’s hand under the table. 

“But what if he finds out that I have evidence against him?” 

“Run away before he can catch you.”

Michael gasped from the image that just formed in his head. ”What if he finds out that you know?!”

Jeremy went quiet, because he didn’t think about that before and was now a little worried, but he didn’t want Michael to be concerned about him. “I…I don’t know. But don’t worry about me, I’ll handle it,” he said after a few minutes of silence. 

“But what if he tries to get you?! I can’t lose you too!” Michael exclaimed, as he was now talking quickly from worry. Jeremy put his hand on the side of Michael’s almost clean shaven freckled face to calm him down. 

“If he tries to get me, I think I’ll know since I’m not an oblivious little kid anymore. Don’t worry about me Mike, you have enough stress in your life as it is. I’ll be fine, I promise,” he said as he took his hand off the side of Michael’s face. 

Michael took some deep breaths to get his anxious feelings under control. “And…I just wanted to say I’m so sorry for just dumping all of this on you. It’s not fair to you.”

“It’s okay Mike. There’s not much I have to worry about anyway except for the jerks at school, and it’s better if I do know about William in case he does try to get me, although I’m sure that won’t happen anytime soon.”

Chapter 35

Summary:

The safe room is being sealed off, but with Spring Bonnie inside

Business at the diner wasn’t doing all too well. Since word got out there was an investigation recently for child murders after William returned to work via a newspaper article, parents have been scared to take their children anywhere near the pizzeria. 

Henry was deep in thought, wondering what on Earth could have happened to those kids. He didn’t think that this really could be a similar situation to Charlotte, where she was murdered and the killer was on the run and hiding, but then again there was always a possibility. But if it really was the same situation, Who could be the murder? he wondered. 

“Mr. Emily?” an employee said, snapping Henry out of his thoughts as he was sweeping the front entrance for the third time that day. The employee was in his twenties, had tan freckled skin, shorter than Henry and stout, thick glasses, messy jet black hair and always had a clean shaven face. 

“Yes?”

“You seem like a lot’s on your mind.”

“Do I?” Henry chuckled. “It’s uh…it’s something that Mr. Fazbear told me to actually inform the employees here.”

Mr. Fazbear was the CEO of Fazbear Entertainment. 

“What is it?”

“Well, since the investigations are surrounding the safe room, he thought it’d be best if we just seal it off. In fact, can you do something for me?”

“Of course.”

“D’you think you can make a recording about the safe room, so I won’t have to keep repeating myself when the other employees come in?”

“But I recorded the training tapes for the safe room about a week ago, they’re sealing it off now?”

“Yes, Fazbear just thought it would be best.”

Henry found a piece of paper and a pen to write the important notes down, and after he finished writing he handed the piece of paper to the employee and he read it. “Work crews?”

“Yes. They’ll be coming in later today to board up the room. Leave what’s in that room, I’m pretty sure nothing important was in there anyway.”

“I understand. I’ll get on those now.”

“Thank you.”

The employee went off to make the recording as William went up to Henry after he finished his route around the pizzeria. “Who’s he?” William asked Henry as they watched him go to the office. 

“You don’t remember?” William stared at him blankly. “Of course you don’t, you don’t hire. But that is our recently hired employee, Patrick Graham. He was the one who made the training tapes.”

“So he's going back to the security office?”

“Yes. I sent him there.”

“Why’s he going back there?”

“I asked him to record another tape in addition to the training tapes he has already recorded.”

“But uh…what’s the tape about?”

“Fazbear requested that I inform all the employees, so I asked him to make a recording so I don’t have to repeat myself. But it’s about the safe room-”

“Safe room?!”

“Yes, let me finish. Since the investigation was surrounding the safe room and this place is coming to a close, which I’m sure is coming in the next few weeks, it’s requested that it should be sealed off since we are going to remain open for the time being. For safety precautions, y’know?”

“Sealed off?!”

“Yes. The work crews are coming to board up the room later today.” William opened his mouth to say something but Henry cut him off. “And I know what you’re going to ask, no you can’t get Spring Bonnie.”

“Why not?”

“Will, think about it. You almost died in that suit at Fredbear’s but you continued to use it anyway. I can’t risk another accident involving those springlock suits, so I think it’d be best to just leave it. The animatronics however, are going to need upgrades sooner or later so I wouldn’t be surprised if the place shuts down soon. It’s an old suit anyway, it wouldn’t be a good idea to use it ever again. Fredbear however, is being taken out of the room before it’s sealed off because we can use it for parts.”

Shit, William thought. “Why Fredbear?!” he exclaimed. 

“Because the harvestable parts it has are easier to get than Spring Bonnie. Plus when we moved to this location I remember you begged to keep those suits, so I don’t know if you’ve actually used yours or not, which is why I suggested we use Fredbear instead since I used that suit significantly less.”

Patrick went into the security office telephone like he did many times before, and sat in the chair as he looked over the paper Henry gave him again and reviewed it. So it’s being sealed off, huh? he thought. Makes total sense, that room always gave me a bad aura surrounding it, maybe Mr. Fazbear noticed it too.  

He hit the record button and talked into the phone. 

“Uh hello, hello? Uh, this is just to inform all employees, that due to budget restrictions the previously mentioned safe rooms are being sealed at most locations. Including this one. Work crews will be here most of the day today constructing a false wall over the old door face. Nothing is being taken out beforehand, so if you left anything inside, then it’s your own fault. Management also requests that this room not be mentioned to family, friends, or insurance representatives.

Thanks again, and remember to smile. You are the face of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.”

Chapter 36

Summary:

Visiting another perspective on the whole situation

“They’re gonna do something with us soon,” Evan said later that night. 

What?! What’re you talking about?! Cassidy thought. 

“I mean, didn’t you hear them?”

Not really. I wasn’t really paying attention honestly. 

“You’re a lot of help,” he said sarcastically. “I heard them though. They have to push the false wall building to tomorrow since they were too busy today.”

Okay, so your point is…

“I think my father’s gonna come to the pizzeria tonight.”

What?! Why?!

“Don’t you remember? Your body’s still in this thing!”

Oh right. Well it’s not my fault I can’t smell anymore. 

“It’s not, but I still think he’s coming. If he really doesn’t want to get caught, he has to dispose of the bodies!”

Can I kill him then?

“No! Charlotte says we shouldn’t! And no matter what, he’s still my father!”

But don’t you see what he’s done to you, what he’s done to us?! Doesn’t it make you angry?!

“It does, and I won’t forgive him for that! But Charlotte is the one who said the time wasn’t right!”

To hell with what Charlotte says! I want to kill him!

“Charlotte’s the one who gave us life, so she probably knows what’s best! I’m pretty sure she’s got a plan if she said the time wasn’t right!”

But he deserves to be killed! He needs to have a taste of his own medicine and see how he likes it!

“Look…I now realize what a monster he truly is, and I want revenge as much as you do. But I’m also one to follow the rules!”

Why?! He deserves what happens to him, he’s a terrible person, Evan! And I’m sure he’s a terrible dad to your brother, if you even wanna call him your dad!

“Even though he is terrible and I want to kill him as much as you do because yeah, he is a terrible father and wanted nothing to do with me or my siblings, always chose work over us any day, I bet he even cared less that I died but I can’t change the fact that he is my father! And when Charlotte says the time is right, then we can kill him because she probably has a plan, which is why we were brought back to life in the first place!”

Why do you want to go by her rules?! Why not just kill him now?!

“Because, weren’t you listening?! She probably has a plan to kill him if she says the time isn’t right! Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to ruin my chance to kill him. So that’s why I’m saying, wait.”

How long would that be?!

“I don’t know. But I suspect it will be sometime soon since we don’t want a serial killer on the loose in this town for long.”

You’re right. Again. She probably has a plan and I don’t wanna blow it just because I hate him. She stayed silent for a few minutes. Hey Ev, can I ask you something?

“Go ahead.”

D’you ever feel…like there’s another part of you somewhere but you don’t know where?

He stayed quiet for a moment as he tried to process her words. “What do you mean exactly?”

Exactly what I said. I feel like there’s another part of me somewhere, but I don’t know where.

“…that still doesn’t make any sense.”

I mean…how do I describe it…I feel like my soul is ripped in two. One part, the stronger part, is here and another weaker part is somewhere else. I don’t know where, but it’s somewhere.

“Like…you’re in two places at once, but you’re not at the same time?”

Yes! Exactly. 

“The answer to your question is no. Honestly, I don’t know if that’s possible.”

Evan, we are possessing a robot together which we definitely shouldn’t! We should be in the afterlife right now where I can see my brothers and my parents and you can see your siblings and your mom but we’re not, so I think anything’s possible.

“But…ripped in two?”

Well, not exactly ripped. Like one part is here and another part is somewhere else.

“The answer’s still no. I have no clue what you’re going on about.”

Cassidy stayed silent in thought, but now felt partially embarrassed because she thought this was just a made up feeling since Evan didn’t know what she was talking about. Her thoughts wandered back to when she witnessed her brothers being murdered, but she remembered one detail she had forgotten for the longest time. She witnessed William harvesting this strange, dimly lit purple liquid from her brothers, so there’s no doubt in her mind that he harvested the same from her. 

Maybe whatever that was, and why she had never seen that stuff in her life before, was a liquid form of the soul which is why he wanted it and why it was purple and dimly glowing when blood is usually a deep red color. Maybe a part of her soul was here and he did something with the other part, which is why she felt like her soul was in two places at once, but one part was stronger than the other. It seemed totally crazy to think about and she doubted this was why, and it was just some weird feeling souls possessing robots felt, but it’s the only reason she could think of. 

Little did she know, Gabriel, Jeremy, Susie, Fritz and even Charlotte felt this exact same way for weeks like she had, ever since William snuck into the pizzeria and stole Fredbear’s ear. Evan was the only lucky one, and didn’t feel like he was in two places at once since Cassidy’s remnant was overpowering his remnant in the Fredbear suit. 

---

William snuck into the diner that night after he was sure everyone had left with many garbage bags in hand and a pair of disposable gloves, since he knew this would get messy. Before he did anything though, he went to the security office and shut off the cameras to ensure he wasn’t seen. After they had been shut off, he went to the main show stage and noticed that flies were now starting to buzz around the animatronics, and shooed them away as best he could. He didn’t know if they were all the same as Cassidy where they were all still here and aware, but decided to not risk it and shut off the animatronics. 

“Alright then, let’s do this,” he whispered to himself. He tied his hair back, zipped up his old jacket which was paired with a pair of old jeans he was going to throw out anyway, since he knew he would get dirty. Lastly, he put on the gloves, opened up the chest plate and took the mascot head off Freddy. 

He tried not to gag at the sight, being that Gabriel’s body was now almost unrecognizable from being left and neglected for so long. “Oh my God…this is going to be a long night,” William said. 

Little did he know, Gabriel was still aware of what was happening. He wanted to try to attack him, like his half sister wanted to do, but couldn’t do anything because the endoskeleton was shut off. The others were the exact same way: aware, filled with rage and wanted revenge since they didn’t know when they would get another chance to try and kill him. But the endoskeletons were shut off so they couldn’t move; they were powerless. 

Carefully, William took Gabriel’s body out of the mascot costume to the best of his ability since he only had a flashlight with him for light to see; he couldn’t risk turning on the overhead lights even though it was midnight. He put what he could of his body into the garbage bag which took longer than he cared to admit, but after a while he finally succeeded in putting most of his body in the garbage bag and exhaled a sigh of relief. 

“One down…four more to go.”

The other main four animatronics were in the same state as Gabriel, so he got used to the sight after he got to Susie. Cassidy though, was a tough one. She was in the same state, but the spring locks were tough to clean off because William was always afraid they’d snap on him. 

After the five bodies were successfully in garbage bags, he took them out to his car and put them in the trunk. He knew he had to deep clean his trunk tomorrow to get the smell out, but there was no other way to dispose of them without going somewhere far away, and frame the murders on another restaurant. 

After he cleaned the stage and safe room, he went back out to his car and finally took off the gloves, which were obviously dirty and put them on the floor next to him. His hands were clammy because of the little air circulation they got, turned on the car and he looked down at his clothes which were very dirty, but everything was dried. 

He drove across town to a dumpster of a restaurant that he didn’t even know and from the looks of it, no one was there yet and there was no one around since it was very early in the morning. He quickly got out and dumped the garbage bags in the dumpster, threw out his gloves and drove away back to his house, where Michael had already left for school. Michael rode a rickety old bicycle he had found in the garage one day as a last resort if no one was able to take him to school, but it just so happened that bicycle used to belong to his mother. 

William changed out of his jacket and jeans since he was planning to throw them out and disposed of them, debated if he should shower to get the smell off, which he finally did, and changed into a t-shirt and jeans. He decided he would just call into work a little later because he knew he needed rest since the sun was barely over the horizon, and he needed to deep clean the back of his car once he had awoken from his few hours of sleep. 

---

“Told you he would come here,” Evan said. 

I didn’t think you’d actually be right! I’m freaked out, hell even the others are probably freaked out!

“It’s not everyday you see your consciousness away from your body, much less seeing your own dead body, so yes it’s probably traumatizing for them as well.”

Well…now what?

“I don’t know. I guess we just wait.”

For what?!

“For them to move us, to gather parts, for Charlotte to give the okay to kill him-”

Okay, okay. You’ve made your point, we're waiting for…something to happen. 

Chapter 37

Summary:

Michael gets confirmation that his past convictions against William were true

Michael’s waiting game seemed to have paid off, because one day during spring break his father went to Freddy’s early because there were recently complaints of a rotting smell from the animatronics, as well as blood and mucus found leaking out of the eye sockets and a meeting was called between Mr. Fazbear, William, Henry and the health inspector. 

It’s now or never Mike, he thought shortly after he heard his father’s car pull out of the driveway. He went to the basement door and turned the handle, which wouldn’t move. Damn it. Locked. 

He dug in his pocket and took out a paper clip that he bent to be able to pick the lock, and to his relief he heard a click and the doorknob turned. He looked down the stairs and it was eerily dark; it looked as if at the bottom there was a bottomless pit. The only light was located at the bottom of the stairs and he went cautiously down the steep steps, but he finally reached the light and turned it on. 

When he turned the light on, the bulb was obviously  about to go out because it kept flickering every few seconds. He looked around the basement and it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years. There were bookshelves with a couple of books which were collecting dust, a few cobwebs in the corner and a spider starting to form a new web in one of the top corners. 

Father’s going to have fun with that, Michael thought. He knew about his father’s fear of spiders; he found it quite hilarious that a man like him was frightened of those puny things. When he was younger, he used to hide fake spiders where his father would find them and hear him yell out in fear in his deep booming voice or watch him practically run out of the room, telling his mother to kill it. He would then find out it was plastic and Michael would hide in the closet to get away from his father, who was definitely going to scold him since he knew that it was his eldest son who thought it was funny. 

Michael also saw plastic chairs and old, flipped over tables that collected a thin layer of dust on them and looked as though they haven’t been used in years. The last time they looked like they were used was before Michael was even born. He also saw loads of boxes and after looking through a few of them, he found them to be old baby toys, old clothes or just random old items that no one has bothered to get rid of. There were several old pictures of his family when the kids were young, all of the kids when they were young, his mother and father’s pictures from their wedding and pictures of Henry and William opening Fredbear’s together. 

He also found a box labeled ‘William’. It was just his name and nothing more, but Michael decided to look through it because he wanted to see what his father was hiding. When he opened the box, all he found were journals that belonged to his father that had been filled out. Several of them, which were all packed tightly into the box. 

“His diaries? Jackpot,” he said to himself and picked one up. He blew the dust off and the cover was a boring old solid black color. He opened up the journal, and it happened to be the one he started when he found out Evelyn was pregnant with Michael in October of 1968. The first words he read on the page were, ‘I didn’t mean to.’ Michael sighed. He knew his father never wanted to be a dad to him and this just confirms why, which now that he put some thought into it was probably why he was a terrible father to not only him, but Evan and Elizabeth as well. That he wasn’t thinking ahead and he ended up with children he didn’t want. He closed the journal since he didn’t want to keep getting distracted with reading and continued looking around. 

In the corner, he saw an old, broken television set that looked as though the screen had been kicked in. It looked way older than the one they had now, it was much smaller and definitely no longer worked anymore. He knelt down next to it and he had a feeling that this ancient television set was important, but he didn’t know why. He carefully touched the shattered screen when he cut his finger on one of the shards, but then the light above him started flickering way more than it was originally, the books in the bookshelves next to him started shaking like they were going to fly out at him any second and the room dropped in temperature where he felt goosebumps on his arms. He retracted his hand in pain and fear and saw his finger was bleeding, but the light went back to how it was before, the books stopped shaking and the room temperature went back to normal. He was scared now but stood back up as he wiped his hand on his clothes and continued looking around.

He went to the two dusty bookshelves on the opposite side of the room where the textbooks looked like they hadn’t been touched in years. He took one out and opened to the first page, and recognized the books to be William’s old college textbooks with the names of the subjects on the spine and William’s name written messily on the first page when he opened the book. 

He finally let his curiosity get the best of him and decided to look through it, since his father could have hidden something in there, either regarding the situation right now or from his early days of college. He flipped through the pages and didn’t see much of anything except a few notes William had written in the margins regarding the text on the page or badly drawn doodles in the corners, or sometimes those doodles were just flat out scribbles that looked like nothing to him. The textbook itself was useless to him and he put it back in the bookshelf. There weren’t many, thankfully, and he decided to look through all of them, just in case. All of them had almost the same things, notes in the margins, doodles or scribbles. But in one on the back cover, he saw his father had written, ‘Fuck this school’ in black pen. He had to admit, he found that a little humorous. 

After he put all the books back, he decided to look in the bookshelf across the room. He had to push a table in front of the bookshelf to get to the dusty books, but after he pushed it away it revealed something that was hidden on the second shelf up that shouldn’t be there at all. There was a small jar with nothing but a small bit of brightly glowing purple liquid and journals next to it. He recognized the liquid as the same that he had seen in his dream several months ago, as well as in several different dreams he kept having ever since that day. He picked up the jar and examined it. 

Now, what the hell is this?

He spun the jar around and saw on a piece of masking tape that was about to fall off, it was labeled 'Charlotte' in black pen. He stared at it wide eyed for a second, hoping what he thought this substance was is wrong, put the jar on the desk and took out the journal. He then realized that there were only two journals and decided to look through both of them. The first journal, he could tell, was William’s personal journal because it was written in his messy but readable handwriting in purple pen, but unlike the others it was only partially finished. 

The first pages were dated back to when Elizabeth was a baby, most likely when he started this journal because he stopped writing in it so often since he became a father. Michael could tell after skipping a few pages to when they were all years older, William wouldn’t even allow Elizabeth to do anything the other kids her age did. He read that William would hear Elizabeth crying in her room saying, “I hate you!” into her pillow. Michael remembered one of the few rare times he actually allowed her to speak with him after the bite, she said that it felt like their father didn’t care about her anymore and he would barely even pay any mind to her. Michael, of course, was an asshole to everyone then since he was dealing with his own guilt and would tell her, “I don’t care. Get out of my room”.

It was then Michael realized that’s why she played with her dolls instead of being with her family or drew William very messily drawn pictures. She hated William because he wouldn’t even look in her direction, especially after the bite since his attention was towards Michael and she felt jealous. All she wanted was to be seen by her father and for him to be proud of her. 

He then flipped to the next page and saw William was ranting about how Henry had told him to be a better father where Michael learned William only loved his mother during the first few months, but that spark quickly died out. He read he had only married her because Henry fell in love with her sister Heather. 

“Wait…” Michael said out loud. 

He flipped the next several pages and saw, front and back, those pages admiring Henry or being extremely jealous of him. He read how William was jealous that Henry didn’t give attention to him since the twins were born since he was too focused on his family. He read that William wanted Henry’s attention back so it can be just like old times before kids, or even before wives. Michael looked back at the box of other journals, and realized after going back and looking through a few of them that the many other journals had relatively the same as this one: his own life and what he was dealing with sprinkled in with rants about Henry; some rants were admiring him to the point of near worship and some were about pure jealousy of him. 

He closed the journal and tried to block out the thought of what he just read and put the journal back, although part of him wanted to keep reading to see if he could find out more about his father’s personal life that he never talked about, but he stopped himself from snooping around since he came down to the basement for one reason and one reason only. 

He picked up the second journal and opened it up to the first page. All it read was ‘Stop’ in big, black, bold letters which only made Michael more curious. He flipped to the next page and he went wide eyed and felt his heart drop as he read the first line. He should’ve listened. 

At the top of the page it read his mother’s name and then the ballerina animatronic that was at Circus Baby’s all those years ago: Ballora. Apparently, William had tried to get this substance he called remnant, but couldn’t harvest a lot from her because of her age. He looked over to the next page and felt his breathing quicken. He saw Charlotte’s name, which was his first successful attempt at collecting a sustainable amount of remnant from a human. On the next page was his sister’s name, but it seemed as though she was contained inside Circus Baby and remnant cannot be extracted. He was now shaking slightly as he saw Susie’s name, Gabriel’s name, Jeremy’s name, Cassidy’s name, and Fritz’s name. 

He quickly slammed the journal shut. His vision went blurry from tears filling his eyes as he pushed the desk back where it was. He didn’t care if it was perfect, he wanted to get out of that basement. He took the almost empty remnant jar and that journal as he turned off the light, ran up the stairs and slammed the door behind him. He ran back up to his room to hide the remnant jar and the journal in the back of his closet where his father never looked, next to his old fox mask. He closed the closet door as he leaned back against his bed, hugging his legs as he sat on the floor and let the tears building up in his eyes pour out. 

He was the son of a murderer. A child murderer, which somehow sounded worse. He didn’t think in a million years he’d be right. He didn’t want to be right. He wanted to believe he was making up fake scenarios like William said. He wanted to believe that voice he heard that told him about the murders was his imagination. He wanted all of this to be some kind of bad dream. 

He was scared and in shock since he now had physical evidence about what happened to those kids, and he was scared for his life if William ever found out he had evidence. 

There was only one other person he knew of who could help him calm down in times like this. Michael didn’t want to be the only one knowing this no matter how long this secret had to be kept, and it should be okay to tell him since he already knew and (somewhat) believed Michael’s accusations towards William. 

“Jeremy.”

Chapter 38

Summary:

Michael lets Jeremy know that he found the evidence against William.

Michael tried to stand up to the telephone on his nightstand (and fell several times as his legs were shaking) while his vision was blurred and quickly dialed Jeremy’s telephone number. He heard the phone ring several times, but Jeremy finally picked up. 

“Hello?” Jeremy said into the telephone as he put his book about different planets down. Michael couldn’t get any words out as he was hyperventilating and a few quiet cries escaped his mouth, but Jeremy instantly knew that those were his cries. “Woah, are you okay Mike?!” Jeremy asked, alarmed. 

“No…I-I just saw…” he trailed off as more tears escaped his eyes as he remembered the names on the page, and his mind wandered off to that day at Fredbear’s during his brother's birthday. 

“Oh my God. Uh, just stay put, I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

“Thank you,” he said as he hung up the phone. He was still in shock, but he was able to go downstairs to wait for Jeremy since he didn’t want to be in the same room as the journal until he calmed down. He sat on the couch but his leg bounced and he hugged himself for support, and he was thankful that he had Jeremy in his life to help him in times like these. 

---

“¡Papá! ¡Tengo que ir!” (Dad! I have to go!) Jeremy called out to his father before he left. 

“¿A dónde vas?” (Where are you going?)

“A casa de mis...amigos para estudiar antes de que empiecen las clases.” (To my...friend’s house to study before school starts.)

“Vuelve antes de la cena.” (Come back before dinner.) 

Jeremy nodded, got his keys off the table, sprinted out the door and drove in his car to Michael’s house since he didn’t feel up to biking the half mile. Getting Jeremy a car was the most his father had done for him in years, although he said he only gave him one from a used car dealership because he wanted Jeremy to get a job. 

A few minutes later, Michael heard the doorbell and he went to answer it. It was Jeremy, worried as ever. “Can I hug you Mikey?” Jeremy asked as soon as Michael opened the door and he nodded without hesitation. 

Jeremy didn’t want to touch him without asking first since Michael was very clearly distressed. Jeremy put his arms around Michael and felt him very subtly shaking. Michael did the same to him where he hugged Jeremy tightly as he needed the comfort since he was in shock and frightened, but was also afraid he might fall. 

“It’s okay Mike. I got you. You’re safe with me,” Jeremy said comfortingly and Michael couldn’t hold his tears back as soon as he heard Jeremy’s words. 

After a while of standing in the doorway, Michael stopped silently crying and Jeremy closed the door behind him and they went to the couch. Jeremy felt Michael rest his head on his shoulder when they sat, and Jeremy took Michael’s left hand in his right and Michael squeezed his hand, but not enough to hurt him. Jeremy leaned his head against Michael’s, being that he wanted to give him a few minutes before he was ready to talk but wanted to make sure Michael knew he was still there to listen. After a while Jeremy felt Michael loosen his grip and stop shaking, which told him he had calmed down some. 

“D’you wanna talk about what happened? It might help to talk about it,” Jeremy asked softly. Michael didn’t say anything for a long time, but he finally got up the courage to speak again. 

“He…he was right,” Michael said quietly. 

“Really?”

“He…he really did murder them.”

“Dios mío…” (My God…) Jeremy whispered to himself. 

“I-I wanted to believe what my father said: that I was crazy. But it’s there. It’s all there.”

“You found evidence?”

Michael nodded. “I saw…I saw he even recorded Liz’s death. It was almost like…like he wanted this to happen. He thought so low of her to call her a ‘subject’. But I saw he called the others the same as well. My mum, Charlie, Susie, Gabriel, Cassidy, Jeremy and Fritz. He called them all subjects like they were his little lab rats.”

“What about Evan?”

“I didn’t see him. It was almost like…like he didn’t exist to him.”

“I know you don’t want to look at whatever you found, but do you by any chance have it? I wanna see for myself,” he said. Jeremy believed Michael since he was clearly in shock about the whole thing, but he did need to see for himself. He was still on the fence about believing the whole thing anyhow. 

Michael picked his head up as did Jeremy. Michael nodded as he stood up, took Jeremy’s hand and he led him upstairs to his room. He opened and dug in his closet where he threw the journal, where he found it buried amongst things that were on the closet floor. He handed the journal to Jeremy and he read all the pages Michael did, including when William injected the remnant into himself. 

“My God…you were actually right,” Jeremy muttered, not daring to show Michael that now he was a little more scared of William. “So…his eyes are like that because of this stuff?” Jeremy asked him. Michael nodded to Jeremy and showed him the almost empty remnant jar he took labeled ‘Charlotte’ . Jeremy took it and examined this weird substance. “What’s this? Drugs?” he joked, trying to lighten the mood a little and he knew he was successful when he saw Michael crack a subtle smile. “We have to tell someone!” 

“But who?”

“Um, I dunno. I haven’t thought that far,” Jeremy said as he shrugged. 

“Being that we’re not technically adults yet, the cops won’t take us seriously so we have to tell an adult. This stuff looks straight out of a fairytale anyways and they’ll probably think we made it or something.”

“Uh…oh I know!”

“Who?”

“Henry!”

“But if we tell him, he’ll be devastated!”

“Mike, he’s literally friends with a murderer who killed his daughter. We have to let him know! You told me Henry trusts him with his life, we have to let him know that William’s a bad man!”

“You’re right, but I don’t want to ruin their friendship! They’ve been best friends since before I was born!”

“We have to let him know he’s friends with a murderer though! Which also happened to kill his own daughter!”

“You mentioned that already.”

“I know, but I’m emphasizing we have to tell him! It’s for the good of humanity, Mike! We don’t want him to hurt or kill anyone else so it’s better if we let someone know! Especially Henry!”

“But what about what my father will do to me?! Either way, he’s going to find out I told him and kick me out or some other crazy shit! I will tell him sometime, but I still need a place to live!”

“You’re right, but you have me and my old man, and remember you told me about Henry’s offer to you?”

“He’ll let me stay whenever I need to? Oh…”

Chapter 39

Summary:

Freddy Fazbear’s is threatened to be shut down, but there are only two ways it can be saved…

“I’m sorry, but Freddy’s has to be shut down,” the health inspector said that afternoon to the CEO, along with Henry and William trailing behind him as they went out the front doors, almost as if the three of them were chasing the inspector down to get closure on the circumstance of Freddy’s. 

“Just because of some odor?!” the CEO, Mr. Fazbear exclaimed. 

“I’ve told you Mr. Fazbear, we’ve been getting multiple complaints from customers about the animatronics and how they, and I quote, ‘are reeking of something rotten, possibly from years ago’.”

“What if we just get rid of the current animatronics? Or get a whole new location?”

“I would suggest both of those solutions or may I suggest looking for a buyer, but I’m afraid that you will have to close this location.”

“So, you’re threatening to shut this entire place down, is what I’m hearing?!”

“I’m afraid so, unless you can find a buyer or relocate with new animatronics.”

“I understand,” he said and the health inspector walked away. He glared back at Henry and William, who were a few feet away from him, and they could very obviously tell that he was pissed. 

“What?” William finally said, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. 

“You two were supposed to keep an eye on this place, now look what happened!”

“Woah, look. If we’re talking about this logically, you don’t even own half of this damn place, Fazbear. We do ‘cause we’re the founders but we sold it to you, so without us you wouldn’t even be in business so why’re you so worked up?”

“Because they’re trying to shut this place down! So unless you want your precious little place to be shut down for good-”

“It’s not our fault those little brats try to shove whatever they can get their greasy little hands on into those hunks of metal!”

“Do you two want this place to be shut down just because you two weren’t watching?!”

“No! I, for one, didn’t even know nor did Will tell me anything!” Henry interjected. 

“But did you not even see the animatronics or were you not paying attention again?!”

“I thought that the technician would get on that, so I don’t really understand why you’re getting angry at me when I’m not a technician! I’m a mechanic for God’s sake!”

“Look,” he took a deep breath to calm himself down, “all we have to do is get a new establishment and then build new animatronics. Simple.”

“That doesn’t sound ‘simple’, that sounds like a hell of a lot of work! Do you know how long it takes to, first of all, buy a new establishment then go through the legal process or do you not know how business works?!” William said with some sarcasm. 

“I do, I am the CEO, Afton. But I’m afraid it’s the only way. I’ll set the establishment up for a buyer to take it, but if no one takes it then we have some work to do. Although, in my opinion, I am very certain nobody will want to buy it because of the investigations surrounding Freddy’s.”

By ‘we have some work to do’, he means Henry and I have to do 80% of it, William thought as he and Henry packed their things from the office into boxes and they went over to Henry’s car and their boss went towards his truck. Henry and William both let out deep sighs once they got in Henry’s car after they put their boxes into the trunk of the car. 

“They’re seriously trying to shut us down,” Henry said. 

“Maybe it’s for the best.”

“For the best?!”

“Yes. Think of it this way Hen. We have another chance to start over if there’s not another buyer, which I’m pretty sure there’s not going to be another.”

“You’re right, but what about what happened to those kids? What if whoever did it plans to strike again and put the blame on Freddy’s again?”

“I’m sure they wouldn’t.”

“How? How would you know?!”

“I don’t know. I just have a feeling that they got what they wanted.”

Henry gave him a questioning side eye. How the hell would he know that? he thought. Before they left the property, William put a cigarette in his mouth and offered Henry a cigarette as well, which he took and William lit both of them. That made Henry forget to ask William how he knew that there wasn’t going to be another missing children’s incident. 

“D’you think they’ll hire us back if the company ends up being bought?” Henry asked as he was driving. 

“Hen. We’re two mechanical geniuses who founded the place. They’re sure to hire us back,” William replied as he exhaled smoke. 

“But even with what happened on our watch?”

“I’m sure they’ll still hire us back. If they don’t…I’ll talk to ‘em.”

“But we were supposed to be watching the place! I’d think they’d see us as untrustworthy.”

“But we’re also the founders and they wouldn’t know what to do without us.”

“I guess you’re right. I just hope there’s not another one, I don’t think the business can handle it.”

“Plus, it’s only if the company ends up being bought, and from the way things are looking right now I’m doubtful that’ll happen. As of now, we don’t have to worry about it.”

Once William was dropped off at his house, he noticed that Jeremy’s car was in his driveway. He let out an irritated sigh and rolled his eyes as he got out his box from the trunk of the car and threw his finished cigarette butt in the road. William went inside where he found Jeremy on the couch with Michael, who was drawing stars and planets on his arm. Jeremy had let Michael draw on his forearm in order to try and calm him down. 

“Hello father,” Michael said without looking up from his drawing. He only needed to see a tall figure with a purple button down from the corner of his eye to know it was William. 

“What the hell are you doing?” William asked as soon as he got inside. He had never seen Michael draw on Jeremy’s arm. 

“Drawing. What does it look like?!” Michael said but louder than he intended. William narrowed his eyes at Michael, but went upstairs to drop off his box of things from his office. 

Michael finished with the drawing and they stood up. “Thanks Mike!” Jeremy beamed and Michael smiled. He added on in a barely audible whisper, “So when do you plan on telling Henry about the journal?”

“I-I don’t know. I’m thinking next time I see him alone, but I don’t know when that’ll be since every time I see him my father’s always a few feet away from me. I’m hoping I’ll be able to tell him about it soon though, because he needs to know.”

Chapter 40

Summary:

William finds out that Michael stole the journal where he documented his findings of the remnant and hid it…somewhere.

One Saturday afternoon in the beginning of May, William felt as though something was off. He wasn’t sure what, and he’s had this strange gut feeling for a little over a month now. He didn’t forget to do anything before the pizzeria shut down, he didn’t forget to eat today, he didn’t forget to get the junk mail like he did every Saturday, so he didn’t know what was making him feel off. He stood and looked around the kitchen, but he didn’t know what he was looking for. Maybe just something to make him forget this gut feeling. 

He went down the hallway and checked the rooms, but again he wasn’t sure what he was looking for. He sat on the chair and said to himself, “Maybe I’m just going mental.” But he saw the lamp next to him flicker on and off again, like something was telling him to continue checking the rooms. 

He decided since he checked in all the rooms downstairs to go upstairs and check the bedrooms. He went into the first empty bedroom he saw as soon as he went up the stairs: Elizabeth’s. 

He opened the door, and everything was just the same as it was left for all these years. It was quite a small room and there wasn’t much, just a small dresser with a lamp on it, her bed with pink sheets in the corner, a picture of a pink flower on the wall and the floor littered with a her toys: a couple of blocks with letters on them, blocks she was using to make a tower and a broken pink version of Foxy. They were all covered with a thick layer of dust now after years of neglecting this room, but William shut the door to her old bedroom. 

He went a little ways down the hallway to the bedroom door and opened the door to Evan’s room. Like Elizabeth’s, it was quite small and there wasn’t much. There was only a small dresser with a lamp on it, a bed in the corner with blue sheets on it and four plush toys: one bear, one rabbit, one chicken and one fox that Michael had ripped the head off of when he was younger. 

William remembered hearing them yell over that fox plush, because Michael had taken it and held it above his head so Evan couldn’t reach. Michael had brought it lower to taunt him with it before he ran off, but Evan grabbed it and yelled ‘Give it back Mike!’ to where Michael wouldn’t budge and yelled ‘You let go first jerk!’ at him. They kept yelling at each other as they tried to pull the plush in separate directions, but eventually the fabric of the plush gave out and the plush ripped in two; Michael had the head in his hands and Evan held the body. Evan started crying while saying ‘It’s your fault!’ to Michael, but he laughed at him and mimicked him crying, but he eventually ran out of the room with the head. William never knew what Michael did with that head or if he even still had it now. Most likely he didn’t still have it since it happened several years ago. 

William closed the door to Evan’s room and he didn’t even bother to check Michael’s bedroom, because that was where his son spent much of his time when he wasn’t at school, with Jeremy or downstairs for dinner. If he went in there he was sure to get in another argument with Michael about knocking first or to just get out, and he didn’t feel up to an argument today. William didn’t feel a need to check his own bedroom, because he would know if anything was different since he was the only one who went in there. 

He went downstairs again, and thought maybe this bad feeling was just hunger again since it seemed to have gone away when he tried to eat something when he got this feeling before. He went into the kitchen but before he could do anything he saw the light above the table flicker. He ignored it and went towards the fridge to try and find something, but before he even touched the fridge he saw the door swing open. It was then he realized that the temperature did indeed drop in the room. 

“Hello?” he said to the room. 

“Basement,” a voice said back. It was a man’s voice, and he sounded as if he was in his early fifties. It was the same voice who had been speaking to Michael. 

“Basement?”

“Something is missing.”

The coldness of the room went away and the flickering of the light had stopped. William closed the fridge door, but he thought about that man’s words. Basement? What did he mean by something missing from the basement? He thought about it for a moment and his eyes widened as the realization hit. 

His journal. 

He ran out of the kitchen to the basement door and unlocked it, where he was met with steep stairs that seemed to go into a pit of darkness. He went down those stairs as quickly as he could and almost lost his balance a couple of times, but he finally got to the bottom and turned on the light. Please let me be wrong, he thought as he pushed the desk out of the way. There he found his personal journal, but his journal he used to write his findings down and the jar were gone. No, no, no…SHIT! he thought. 

He looked over to the old broken television set in the corner as he narrowed his eyes at it. “What did you do?” he asked coldly. He heard nothing. “I know you can hear me! What the fuck did you do?!” he yelled. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he heard the same voice again say as the temperature of the room dropped. 

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“Oh those…they’re somewhere.”

“Where?!”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Did Michael take them?!”

“We may never know.”

“You mean I will never know! You have done nothing but try to fuck up my life ever since I kicked in the screen of this damn television! Hell, ever since I killed you when I was what, twenty?!”

“So what’re you gonna do?! Destroy the television so you can feel like you killed me a second time?!”

“I can!”

In front of him appeared an almost transparent man, whose skin was a solid color white and he was dressed in fancy 1960’s attire of a black blazer with a white button down under it, black slacks and black dress shoes because it was the last thing he wore before he died. The only other color on him was a red scar going across his neck and a red stab wound on his chest, where William had cut and stabbed him with the knife several years ago. William was afraid since he had an intense fear of the paranormal, but he stood his ground. 

“Don’t you dare try to threaten me! You know I’m trying to take care of him for you which is exactly what you wanted; I’m fulfilling my part of the deal! And if you destroy this thing, you will never see or hear from me again!”

“Yeah, yeah. You told me that a dozen times, but might I remind you that you wanted to get rid of him too! But even though we both want him dead, that doesn’t mean to tell him everything!”

“He doesn’t know.”

“Yes, he does! I know it!”

“He doesn’t.”

“He does! I figured out it’s why he turned me in, because you told him what I did! This whole time, I thought it was some other bloody poltergeist haunting him, but this whole time it was just you!”

“I never told you to go and murder some kids, that was your own selfish doing. But I could have used those to make him think they were all his fault and overwhelm him with guilt so he’d eventually do the dirty work himself, but I didn’t. But if you’re really sure he knows what you did, then go ask him yourself.”

“I will!” William turned off the light in the basement and stormed off, and the man disappeared. William slammed the basement door behind him, locked it and went up the stairs to Michael’s room where he opened the door without knocking, which scared Michael who was on the phone. Michael put the telephone on his chest so the speaker was covered. 

“What?!” Michael said. 

“Have you gone into the basement lately?”

Michael inhaled sharply. “What?”

“You heard me! Have you gone in there?!”

“Why does that matter?”

“Just answer the damn question Michael! Have you gone into the basement?!”

“Uh…no.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

William took a quick look around Michael’s room and noticed nothing was out of the ordinary. His floor was a mess like usual and nothing was moved around. Michael was sitting on his bed and giving William a look telling him to leave him alone. 

William left the room since he didn’t feel like arguing with him, but he didn’t close the door all the way like Michael had before and he rolled his eyes. “Hold on,” he said into the phone. He got up to close the door so William couldn’t hear him, sat back on the bed and picked up the telephone again. “Okay, I’m back.”

“What was that about?” Jeremy asked over the phone.

“It was my father.”

“…you have to be more specific.”

“Okay, I think that…” He cupped his hand over the speaker and whispered, “I think he knows.”

“Knows…”

“He suspects that I know what he did!”

“Wait, actually?!”

“Yes!”

“Oh mierda…” (Oh shit…) Jeremy said, trying not to show that he was now afraid as well. 

“I-I don’t know what to do!” Michael said as he started hyperventilating. 

“It’s okay Mikey, I’m here for you. If anything happens you can come over to my house, remember?” Jeremy said calmly, trying to do what he could over the phone. 

“Yeah…yeah you’re right,” Michael said when he calmed down. 

“But, how would he know? I didn’t say anything like I promised and I would think you didn’t say anything as well.”

“I didn’t. I don’t know how he knows, but someone had to have told him something…”

William went back downstairs and slumped on the couch when the temperature of the room dropped again. 

“What did I tell you?” the man said. 

“He’s lying to me. I know it.”

“You know it?”

“Yes. You’re lying to me too! You think I can’t see through your lies, but it’s like looking through glass!”

“Fine then. If you really don’t want me around, destroy it. ”

William furrowed his brow in anger and thought. If he destroyed that television set, he wouldn't have to deal with this strange poltergeist anymore. He could just smash the television set to the ground or smash it with a sledgehammer that was kept in the garage and it would be like he killed him a second time, but then if he got rid of him he would have a tougher time trying to get rid of the son he never wanted who kept getting in the way of his plans, which this entity wanted to do as much as he did. 

“I need to get it back before he shows anyone,” William finally said. 

“Oh, if he did get it he already has.”

He sat up abruptly. “WHAT?!”

“You heard me.”

“Who?!”

“Good question.”

“…well?!”

“Why would I lie to you William when I am trying to do this for you?”

“You’ve lied to me before, don’t you remember or has it been that long already?”

“Well, the past is the past.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll find out for myself.”

Chapter 41

Summary:

Taking a quick break from Michael’s POV, but let’s see how Jeremy’s doing during the July of 1986.

Jeremy started up his car one Saturday afternoon in late July, but the sun was hiding behind the clouds and it looked as if it might rain. He did this every year around this time, but of course his father didn’t go with him since he tried to block her out from his memory; he could care less since he hated her when she was alive. Jeremy backed out of the driveway and drove out of the neighborhood to go to the local cemetery just outside of town. 

He didn’t even tell Michael what today was, but it was only because he couldn’t bring himself to say anything. It would be strange for him to see him so down anyway, since he was always happy around him and always brought his spirits up. 

He made sure to remember this day every year, being that she was the only one who seemed to care about him after he could process his life after the accident that his family got in when he was seven years old; before he met Michael when he was nine years old and even before they moved to Utah before his ninth birthday. Her and Jeremy’s birthdates were on the same days but Jeremy’s was in June and hers in July, so that made this day harder to forget. 

She was always there as a shoulder for him to cry on when he was young or just always there to talk if he needed it, she would make sure he was always safe and content with his life, she even taught him how to cook like her so now he was always in charge of making dinner for he and his father. When she died, that was one of the worst days of Jeremy’s life, since that meant he now had to live under his father’s roof until he could afford his own place, where almost all of his needs were neglected and he would have to fend for himself to live. He was thankful to not be homeless of course, but he just wishes his father was there for him more often like she was. 

He got to that small graveyard just outside of town, where it was almost empty and the only other people were on the other side of the graveyard. He got out of his car and he got a bouquet of flowers to put next to her grave from the passenger’s seat next to him. He got out with them, locked the car and walked several rows back to where she was buried, and once he counted several rows he turned down one of them until he saw her name. Rosa Fitzgerald. 

He sat down crisscrossed in front of her gravestone and put the bouquet of flowers in front of the stone. 

“Feliz cumpleaños Mamá,” (Happy birthday Mom.) he said. “I’m sorry that Papá didn’t wanna come. Just like last year, and the year before that.” He just sat silently at her gravestone for a while, tying back his long hair into a half ponytail because he forgot that it was so windy today. “I really wish you were still here, I’d much rather be under your supervision than his.” He went silent again, just trying to figure out if he should talk anymore, but he didn’t know if her presence was around. He tried to keep talking anyway since it made him feel less alone.

“I don’t know if you were watching or not, but it’s been a pretty crazy year for me, or at least in my opinion. Academically, nothing has really changed. I’m still getting good grades like I promised you because you wanted me to be successful in life. 

But around the beginning of December I got in my second ever relationship, and yeah it’s a boy this time but I’m so lucky to have gotten together with him. He loves me more than life itself it seems like, and I love him just the same. You know him, he’s been around since we moved here, Michael. You haven’t seen him a whole lot, but he’s always been there since I met him, and now that you’re gone from this world he has more than ever and I love him for that. I have a feeling that if you got to know him for a little bit longer, you would’ve loved him. He’d be like another son to you I think. 

But besides that, I need to get something off my chest,” he said quietly and he picked at his nails. “Recently we found out about Michael’s dad, that one who you always thought looked a little shady. It turns out that he’s starting to piece together that Michael knows his secret,” he felt the lump in his throat and stopped picking his nails as he grasped his hands together and put his hands in his lap, “and it’s only a matter of time before he finds out that I know too. I didn’t wanna tell Mike and make him worry, but I'm scared Mamá! I know I try to play everything off like it’s okay to not make people worry about me because that’s the last thing I want, but I’m not handling it well! I don’t know what’ll happen to me if he finds out!”

He felt silent tears streaming down his cheeks and he covered his face with his hands as he wept. He looked up at her gravestone again through blurred vision. “I don’t know what to do Mom,” he whispered. 

He stayed silent again for many minutes, just letting the tears stream down his face when he thought he heard footsteps behind him. He didn’t want to turn around and look, he would rather sit in silence since he put himself in a bad mood, worse than he already was. He finally got curious when he heard those footsteps getting closer and closer to him and then seemed to go down the aisle he was at. He finally looked up and saw Michael standing next to him. 

“Hey! Are you okay?” Michael asked and Jeremy wiped his tears. 

“Uh, yeah don’t worry about me,” he lied. “What’re you doing here?”

Michael sat down crisscrossed next to him. “Well, you didn’t pick up when I called several times and I admit, I got a little worried so I went over to your house to see that your car was gone. So I rang the doorbell and asked your father where you were, and he said he wasn’t a hundred percent sure but thought you were here.”

“How’d you get here?”

“Right. Uh about that-”

“Don’t tell me you walked here!”

“Oh God no. Uh, I may or may not have borrowed my father’s car keys.”

“He let you borrow his keys? That’s a first.”

“Okay, I ‘borrowed’ them without his permission and without him knowing.”

“What?!”

“It’s fine, he’s asleep anyways. What’re you doing out here?” Jeremy pointed to the headstone that read Rosa Fitzgerald. “Oh…uh, hi Jeremy’s mum.”

Jeremy snickered. “Today’s her birthday. She would’ve been forty five today.”

Michael turned back to the gravestone. “Happy birthday,” he said.

“Judging from that, she would’ve loved you.”

“I’ve only ever seen her a few times, but she definitely seemed like a nice lady.”

They sat in silence for a little bit, since Michael knew Jeremy wanted to be in silence since he was obviously more down today than he was any other day, but Jeremy wanted to lighten the mood a little nonetheless, mainly to try and bring his own mood up. 

“Can I tell you something I never told anyone before?”

“Yeah. You can tell me anything.”

“Did you know…that my name was almost Jeremiah?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. At the last minute my mom changed it to Jeremy because it was the English version of what they originally had in mind, which was Jeremías, which translates to Jeremiah.” Michael chuckled. “Hey, don’t laugh!”

“But you have to admit, it’s a little funny imagining you named Jeremiah after I’ve known you as Jeremy.”

Jeremy snickered and he fell silent once again. Michael felt Jeremy rest his head on his shoulder and they held each other’s hands when Michael decided to break the silence. “Hey, uh I know you’re scared about this whole situation with my father and everything-”

”Did he tell ya that too?”

”No, I just know. Mainly, because I’ve known you since we were nine and you’ve never been one to talk about these things. Honestly, I’m scared as well. But just know that I’m right here and we’ll get through this. Together.”

Jeremy squeezed Michael’s hand but was careful that it was not enough to hurt him (since he has squeezed his hand too much on accident in the past) and the the gray clouds seemed to dissipate until there were only a few stray clouds left in the sky. They listened to the birds and the faraway engines of cars as they watched the sun go down and start to hide away behind the mountains. 

“Should we go? Sun’s going down,” Michael asked after a while when the sky tinted orange. 

“We probably should. I’m sure they don’t want us here after dark, and you need to get the car back before your dad wakes up.”

“Good thing he’s a heavy sleeper,” Michael said. Jeremy chuckled and they both stood up. Jeremy and Michael looked back at the gravestone and Jeremy waved to it, as if to say goodbye to his mother. Michael noticed and copied Jeremy, just to be nice. They took each other’s hands and walked out together since everyone else was already gone. 

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Jeremy asked as they walked, breaking the silence between them. 

“Of course.”

“If you can hear the dead, why can’t you hear anyone else except that one guy? Or what about your other family?”

“I don’t exactly know. I’ve tried to contact others, but I heard nothing.”

“Oh. Hopefully they’re just not able to, since I don’t know how all that stuff works.”

“I’m hoping so too, because I can’t bear the fact that not one part of my family cares for me. But hey, at least I have you, and Henry.”

“Yeah, so uh see you tomorrow?”

“You bet,” Michael said and Jeremy smiled. “Hey, there’s a smile! Y’know, I was too afraid to admit it before, but I have always loved to see you smile.” Jeremy blushed and Michael kissed him goodbye. “You’re cute, you know that? Love you Jer.”

“Love you too Mike.”

Jeremy got in his car as he watched Michael walk to his (or rather William’s) car, and once he was in and started it up they waved to each other one final time. Michael backed out of his parking space and Jeremy  watched him as he drove out of the parking lot and he started his car. Soon after, Jeremy followed him out of the parking lot and they both went back to their own houses, both of which they did not want to go to. 

Chapter 42

Summary:

Michael and Jeremy’s last year of high school.

Ever since school had started up back in August for their senior year, Michael and Jeremy were still outcasts which wasn’t any different than previous years. It was now the first week of November and things weren’t any different than they had been, but this year the bullying seemed to have been a little worse than previous years. 

Michael’s classes were not helping him in the slightest, being that he just wanted to be done with high school, hopefully get a job and hopefully make enough money to move he and Jeremy out of Hurricane. He wanted to get out of that town since he has never really been anywhere else in his life; the last time he had traveled was to Salt Lake City for William’s mother’s burial about a year ago, and that was about as far as he has gone out of Hurricane. Michael wanted to travel to other states, or even other countries for that matter. 

Michael had noticed that ever since the start of that year his other peers were picking on him and Jeremy more often than usual, and they weren’t fully sure why. Michael and Jeremy wouldn’t get in fights as often anymore, but they would get pushed around, people would make fun of them or just talk about them behind their backs. 

It wasn’t until he finally saw his old ‘friends’, Nicolas and Richard from across the hallway with a group of their new friends, who were laughing at Michael and Jeremy. They called them both hurtful words, called Michael a murderer because of the incident three years prior and they all laughed, but it suddenly clicked for Michael. They were the reason behind all the bullying from their peers because they had told people that Michael and Jeremy were together, (since Nicolas had seen Jeremy and Michael at the park during the summer months holding hands and hugging) specifically Nicolas was the reason since bullying was how he dealt with stress at his house. Once Michael learned that it was mainly his fault, he hated Nicolas more than he already did which he didn’t know was possible. 

Michael was angry and because he had a short fuse he wanted to fight him, maybe cuss him out or even both of those things. Jeremy though, being the person who doesn’t want anyone to get hurt for one reason or another, held him back. 

“But Jer-” Michael started but Jeremy cut him off. 

“I know what they said, but I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“So what if I get hurt?!”

“I know. But I don’t want you getting detention. Again. Plus you’re outnumbered and God knows I can’t fight for the life of me. They’d kill me!”

“But-”

“Look, I know you wanna be protective, but I think it’s better to not go home with a black eye. Let’s just go to our next class.”

“Yeah! Listen to your boyfriend!” Nicolas yelled over to Michael and the friend group laughed, and the other students in the hallways turned to look at Michael and Jeremy. Michael could feel the anger boiling up inside him and he turned back to Jeremy, who shook his head telling him to not give in, but he was rubbing his own arm and blushing from embarrassment and anxiousness because he could feel people looking at him. 

Michael looked back at Nicolas who had his back to him and decided to drop his bag next to Jeremy, went over to Nicolas and pushed him where he tried to keep his balance but fell forwards and caught himself. Nicolas turned and looked up at him smugly. “What the hell is your deal, man?! Shut up!” Michael yelled at him. 

“Aww, defending your boyfriend?” Nicolas teased as he got up to look Michael straight in the eyes. 

“What part of shut up do you not understand?! We’re not hurting you so leave us alone!” Michael said as he walked back towards his bag that Jeremy had picked up for him. Nicolas wanted to go back to Michael and give him a taste of his own medicine, but he controlled himself as he, Richard and the rest of the group walked the opposite direction. 

“Mike, what were you thinking?!” Jeremy whisper-shouted at Michael as he took his bag and swung it over his shoulder as they started walking down the hallway. 

“I just told him to leave us alone.”

“Yeah, but you’ve done that tons of other times and look how that turned out!”

“But I didn’t get hurt this time, did I?”

Jeremy rolled his eyes as he tried not to grin because Michael’s smile was contagious, even though he knew Michael was playfully teasing him. “No you didn't, you big dork,” he said teasingly. 

“Hey!” Michael exclaimed as Jeremy laughed. 

Michael got to his history class as soon as the bell rang and took his seat at the back of the class as he tried not to sigh out of boredom. 

He hated history. He was good at it, sure, but that didn’t mean he liked it. It bored him to death and he tried to not fall asleep in that class every day but failed most of the time. Today was no different and he felt his eyelids  getting heavy halfway through the lesson. 

At the end of the lesson, one of the other students noticed and decided that they didn’t want to see him get scolded at by the teacher (again) for sleeping in class. Since they sat next to him they tapped him on the shoulder, and since he was a light sleeper he woke up instantly and looked next to him to see who woke him up. Michael was still waking up, but he knew he had seen someone who has looked like this person before. Sure, he has seen many people with dark brown skin who had their hair up in locs that were kept in a ponytail, wearing an old dark gray hoodie, ripped dark blue jeans and had headphones around their neck, but this person had light patches on their skin as well. Michael knew he had seen someone like that before, but it was probably years ago so he didn’t remember. 

“Hey! You awake?” they whispered to him.

“Uh, yeah,” Michael replied through a yawn. “You weren't just going to let her yell at me again?”

“Nope. Didn’t want to watch that for the…what is it, third time this week?”

Michael chuckled. “Well uh, thanks.”

“No problem,” they said as the bell rang and everyone got their bags and stood up. As Michael left the classroom, he realized he didn’t even know that person’s name, but they disappeared in the hallways before Michael could find them.

Once he got out of the classroom he spotted Jeremy coming out of the class across the hallway, but Jeremy was walking away quickly. Even as Michael followed him, Jeremy didn’t look up but he looked as though he was almost in tears. 

Michael saw Jeremy escape to the bathroom since that was the closest place he could escape to and to Jeremy’s relief there was no one else inside since the lunch period had just started. Michael noticed as he was walking that Jeremy clearly looked upset about something and decided to give him a few minutes to himself before he tried to follow him. 

After about 15 minutes, Michael got a bag of chips for himself and one for Jeremy from the snack bar and he ran off to the bathroom that Jeremy was in and found him at one of the sinks. Michael opened the door and knocked to let Jeremy know he was there and he turned his head to the noise. “Can I come in?” Michael asked. Jeremy nodded and Michael went next to him. “You okay?” Michael asked after a few minutes. 

“I…I don’t know. I just needed a few.”

Michael nodded as he stayed quiet and Jeremy took deep breaths and closed his eyes to calm himself down. “Oh, I got these for you. I want you to eat something,” Michael said as he handed Jeremy the bag of chips he got him. Jeremy opened his eyes once he heard Michael’s voice and smiled as took them and Michael stayed quiet for a few more minutes while Jeremy ate. “So was it too loud again or was there something else going on?” he asked after a while. 

“Uh…the class was just being loud again and I couldn’t handle it.”

“Jer, you know you can tell me anything.”

“Damn it. I’m terrible at this lying thing,” he said to himself and then looked back at Michael. “Honestly, it seems pretty stupid that I still hold onto this but this group of boys I don’t even know turned to me at the end of class, turned back and started talking very loudly about the…incident in ‘83 so they made sure I heard them. That and the class was actually getting a little loud.”

Michael sighed. “I know you still feel terrible about that, and I feel just as guilty about it as you do. But we can’t change the past unfortunately, so just try not to let them get to you. And I know you’re talking to the counselor about how you’re doing right now but after we get out of here, you can tell me anything.” Jeremy smiled and looked down again as he ate the last of his chips in silence, but Michael got an idea. “Y’know, if you want to you can borrow my headphones if you want. I don’t need ‘em,” Michael suggested after standing in silence for a while. 

Jeremy smiled and swallowed. “Really?”

“Yes really. I know you don’t have your own and if it can make you feel better, I don’t need ‘em.” Jeremy thought about it for a moment and finally nodded as Michael got his walkman and small cassette player out of his bag and switched out the current tape that was inside with another. “There! I put the tape you said you liked in there. You can put it on if you need it, or just wear the headphones if it gets loud. Whatever you want.”

He handed them to Jeremy and he happily took them because music always made him feel better and he smiled as he rewinded the tape. “Thanks Mikey,” he said and at that moment, they heard the bell ring and Jeremy put the headphones around his neck as they hugged each other. He put them on his ears and started playing the tape while they both walked out of the bathroom and down separate ends of the hallway to their next classes. 

---

At the end of the day, Michael no longer waited for anyone to pick him up from school anymore. Instead, he rode his own bicycle home with Jeremy by his side. 

One weekend, Jeremy surprised him by taking him to a small store where they both helped to buy a bicycle for Michael. He chose a red one, of course since that was his favorite color, but now he rode it everywhere. He had no car, so that was his go to method for any kind of transportation for the moment. Jeremy was impressed when he saw Michael ride that old rickety bicycle that one day that he decided he deserved his own, especially if he had no car yet. 

Oftentimes when Michael and Jeremy rode their bicycles to their houses after school, they would regularly have races since they lived the same way. The finish line was usually Jeremy’s house since he lived the closest, or sometimes Jeremy would bike a little further to the park where he and Michael would depart. 

Today, Jeremy and Michael raced each other to Jeremy’s house like usual, where Jeremy won and he gave Michael his headphones and walkman back. “Are you sure you’re okay now?” Michael asked. 

Jeremy laughed. “Yes Mike, I told you several times I’m fine now!”

“But you know how much I worry about you when this happens.”

“I’m fine Mike. You’re such a worry wart,” he teased and hugged Michael goodbye. Michael smiled as he hugged him back and then rode his bicycle off to his own house. 

Michael hated that school. The classes were fine, it was the students he couldn’t stand and then he had to go home to his father which felt like the same thing all over again. At least when he graduated he only had to worry about one bully rather than several. 

When he got home, he went upstairs to his room and his eyes wandered over to his closet where the journal was hidden. He couldn’t get what he saw those few months ago out of his head, it felt like a dream to him even though he saw it with his own two eyes, and he even looked through it again sometimes when he was starting to doubt that it was all made up. He made sure that this secret didn’t get out, as did Jeremy, since they both feared and didn’t know what William would do to them if it did get out or even if he found out they both knew. 

Michael had to tell Henry sometime. He had found out the secret in March for crying out loud and it was now November, and to be honest he felt a little guilty he hadn’t said anything to him right then and there. In his defense, the only times he had seen Henry was with his father, so that showed that William definitely knew something and was trying to prevent Michael muttering a word to Henry. 

---

“Well, here we are,” Michael said to Jeremy a few months later at the end of their graduation with his diploma in hand, and they went outside along with all the other students. They were both away from the crowd since it got much too loud for Jeremy, and even for Michael as well. 

“High school’s…over,” Jeremy said over the distant chatter of the other students and parents. 

“Thank God,” Michael said and they both chuckled. 

“It…it feels weird to say that high school’s over, part of me never thought that this day would ever come. I-I don’t know what to do with myself now.” 

“It will be a pretty big change, but I guess the next thing would be to find a job, I guess?”

“I guess you’re right, you just know how I am with things changing. Anyway, what are you planning now that we’re out of that dump?” 

“Honestly? I just wanted to get a job, maybe even go to college and eventually get enough money to move you and I out of here.”

“Really?” Jeremy asked as he lightly blushed. 

“Yeah. I really want to see the world and travel, but my father just keeps me in Hurricane, and I really just would be honored if you were there to see it with me. What about you?”

“Uh, I don’t really know. I’m just kind of a ‘go with the flow’ guy, y’know?” Jeremy said and Michael nodded. “And you wanted to go back to school?” he joked and Michael chuckled. 

“Yeah. For one, if I do go I’ll get a chance to get away from here for a little while at least, but it’ll just be good to get an education on what I truly want to do.”

“Which is…”

“I actually don’t know. I was hoping for something in the art field though.”

“You should! You’re really good! Better than me, definitely.”

Michael smiled and lightly blushed. “What about you?”

“I was joking, but I actually wanna go to college as well. I don’t know what I want to do though, I haven’t thought that far yet.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out sometime.”

“I hope so.”

“Oh! I see your father!” Michael exclaimed as he spotted the short, stout man and Jeremy said goodbye to Michael and went over to his father. Jeremy and his father were going out to the car as they walked past a banner that said their graduating class year. 

‘Class of 1987’

Chapter 43

Summary:

Michael builds up the courage to tell Henry about William.

Michael was fresh out of high school and it was only about two weeks before his 18th birthday, but he could still not find Henry alone to tell him William’s secret. Of course, he didn’t know exactly how to tell him but thought he could probably figure that out when that time came, which now looked like showing him the physical journal since Henry would not believe him otherwise, but now he was starting to lose hope that the time to tell him would actually come. 

---

William and Henry knew the diner would not find any buyers since no other company wanted to be associated with Freddy’s, so they convinced the CEO to start relocating a week after their meeting. Shortly before relocating and building the animatronics, Henry decided that he wanted to put the facial recognition feature into building the animatronics so they could recognize every customer who went in the pizzeria, and if there were any criminals who happened to come in for extra safety precautions since he was paranoid that whoever caused the missing children’s incident would strike again. The only problem was that it was expensive, but doable. 

The company decided to keep the same animatronic animals, but alter them slightly since the originals  looked frightening to the kids but use the parts from the originals which William would usually harvest. It didn’t take as long to relocate and build the four animatronics as they had originally thought, being that they were reusing parts they already had and the parts they did need didn’t take that long to build. 

---

William decided that he didn’t want Michael to stay at home so he made him go to the restaurant to help out with the finishing touches before the mechanics came to install the security cameras in a few weeks. Michael took a deep breath and searched around the diner for Henry since he couldn’t focus on his work; he decided that today was the day he was going to show him the journal, even if it risked William knowing that he told him. He just couldn’t stand to hold in this secret anymore. After searching for about fifteen minutes, he found Henry outside in the alleyway. Michael shivered since he still hated alleyways but knew this would probably be his only chance. 

“Uncle?” Michael said as he poked his head out the back door to the alleyway and he got Henry’s attention. “What’re you doing out here?”

“Mike! Look what I found.” He showed Michael what looked like an old, worn down puppet animatronic. “Just needs a few repairs and it’ll be as good as new!” 

Michael went up to the Security Puppet where he inspected it. It looked like it was a few years old (which it was) conquering the mud, dirt, rain, blistering heat, and even the snow they’ve gotten in late December. It was breaking with a few wires exposed and the paint was chipping off and as expected, it was so dirty that the white paint that remained didn’t look white anymore. He noticed that this puppet looked almost exactly the same as the one Henry had at Fredbear’s all those years ago, but this one had purple tears painted on its face. He looked into the puppet’s eyes where he faintly saw a pair of white eyes staring back at him and he slightly jumped back in fright. 

“That’s cool Uncle. But the reason I came out here, can I talk to you?” Michael asked him. 

“Sure, let me just bring this inside first.” Michael nodded and held the door open for Henry as they both went inside. Henry didn’t know where else to put the puppet, so he went towards the Parts and Services room and he was hit with the horrible, rotting smell as the door opened and saw the original animatronics on the floor, who definitely didn’t work anymore as William had been taking parts from them for months. He dropped the puppet in an empty corner and made a mental note to repair it later and quickly got out of the room as he waved a hand in front of his face and closed the door. “Okay, whaddya wanna talk about, Mike?” Michael’s mind was racing and he could feel his heart thumping in his chest. He couldn’t believe he was actually doing this. 

“Well, it’s not something I can really explain to you, I kind of have to show you.”

“Show me? Show me what?”

“It’s hidden at my house. Can you drive us over there?”

“Can it wait ‘till me and Will are done here?”

“No, it can’t!” Michael blurted out. Henry looked back at William, who was busy making sure that the Kid’s Cove was complete. William and Henry had come in their own vehicles this time around, so no one was carpooling and William could leave whenever he wanted. Plus there were a couple other employees around so it wouldn’t make a huge difference if he left for a few minutes. Henry sighed and pushed up his glasses. 

“Fine. But ten minutes, tops,” he said. Michael nodded and they both went out to the car which Henry started to drive to the Afton’s house. “So, what’s so important that I had to leave from work?”

“I told you, I can’t really explain it. You have to see otherwise you won’t believe me,” he answered and Henry continued driving. Soon, Michael saw that they passed the high school, a couple of blocks later they passed Jeremy’s house, a few more blocks they passed the park and after a few more blocks and a left turn was the Afton residence. Henry drove into the driveway of the house, got out of the car and Michael ran up to the front door and unlocked it using the spare key while Henry followed after him as he went inside and shut the door behind him. “C’mon! Upstairs!” Michael exclaimed, practically running up to his room, taking the stairs two at a time. He heard Henry’s footsteps following after him and Michael heard him sigh while he dug around in his closet as he looked for the journal and jar. 

“Okay, what’s this about?” Henry asked, slightly annoyed that Michael pulled him away from work. Michael finally found the journal, stood up and handed it to him. 

“Something my father didn’t want anyone to see. This is his journal, you can tell it’s his by the first page.” 

Henry opened the journal where he saw the word ‘Stop’ in big, bold letters in William’s messy handwriting. “Isn’t it wrong to look through his personal stuff? He doesn’t want us looking at it so it’d be an invasion of privacy.”

“I know, but look on the next page. That’s what I think you need to see.”

Henry flipped to the next page and that’s where he saw it. ‘Evelyn Schmidt’ written in William’s messy handwriting. She was described as a subject, as though he was doing testing on her, but as he read that page, it took a few minutes to finally sink in but he realized that he is the one who murdered her. 

“What the hell…” Henry mumbled under his breath as he turned the page. There, in William’s messy handwriting read ‘Subject 2: Charlotte Emily’ and he felt his heart drop as he went wide eyed from shock. He read all the notes and he honestly didn’t want to keep reading on after he had found out his best friend had murdered his daughter, but at the same time he wanted to know if he was actually behind the missing children’s incident like Michael said. 

He looked onto the next page and he read ‘Elizabeth Afton’. She was described as a subject as well, just like her mother and Charlotte. He kept reading on and flipping pages where he found the other kids' names and he closed the journal and stared at the floor in a daze trying to process everything he just read. He read that William had injected himself with this ‘remnant’, but the only physical change he went through was his pupils changing color from black to white. Henry had known something was off about his eyes on that first day he was back, but didn’t think to question it then. Henry wasn’t fully sure what he wanted with this remnant, but what he did know was that William intentionally ruined his life and several other innocent families lives. He wasn’t sure whether to be unhappy, angry or both. 

“Uncle? There’s one more thing,” Michael said and took the jar out of his closet. He handed the jar labeled ‘Charlotte’ to Henry which contained the tiniest bit of Charlotte’s remnant. Henry dropped the journal as he took it and he couldn’t stop a few stray tears streaming down his face any longer, but he wasn’t sure if they were from anger or sadness. 

“My baby…he…no…he couldn’t!”

“He did, Uncle.”

Henry handed the jar back to Michael and went to the bathroom to think and sob to himself without Michael being there to witness anything. He shut the door behind him and took off his glasses as he wiped his eyes. 

He didn’t know what to think. He didn’t want to believe that William would do something as vile as this, but yet here was all the evidence. Henry’s trust in him was abused and he was so blind to it all believing that William was actually a good person. He was hurt and angry, but deep down he knew what he had to do first. He couldn’t leave Michael here with a serial killer. Now that Henry knows everything, it’s much too dangerous to keep him around William because what if he did something horrible to Michael?

Henry put on his glasses and went out of the bathroom after he calmed himself down to find Michael sitting on his bed, drawing in a sketchbook. 

“Mike,” Henry said as he wiped the last of the tears on his cheek. Michael picked his head up. “Pack all your bags and put everything else you can fit in my car.”

“What? Why? Where am I going?” he asked with obvious confusion in his voice and tilted his head slightly. 

“Look, I know this is all kinda sudden, but I don’t feel comfortable with you under William’s supervision anymore. I’m taking you to stay at my house.” 

“Wait…really?”

“Yes. I don’t know where else you can go, and since I am your uncle it wouldn’t be like you’re staying at some stranger’s house.”

Michael nodded and started packing his bags and Henry started removing the posters off Michael’s walls and rolling them up, but secretly Michael was celebrating in his head about the fact he was staying at Henry’s house instead of his own. 

Within half an hour, Michael was able to put all of his sketchbooks in the back of Henry’s car along with a few posters of bands he liked. All his bags were packed full of his clothes and he threw them wherever they could fit in Henry’s car, and he decided to take the Fredbear plush and Elizabeth’s bow with him as well. He even opened the garage and decided to take his bicycle with him since it was quite difficult to get around without a car yet. Michael didn’t have much, so it was quite easy to pack everything up and fit all his belongings in Henry's car. Once everything was in, Henry turned the key in the ignition and started the car. 

“Ready?” Henry asked Michael and he nodded. “Are you sure you got everything?” Michael nodded and Henry backed the car out of the driveway and once Michael saw that the house was out of sight from the rear view mirror, Michael put his hands over his face and smiled, happy that Henry was allowing him to stay at his house. Henry drove out of the neighborhood and drove the two miles to his house. 

They got in the driveway of Henry’s house and he parked the car. “You can have Sammy’s old room. He took almost everything anyways and you’ve always taken that one when you stayed over here,” Henry told Michael and they both took several trips up to Samuel’s old bedroom to drop Michael’s things off. Michael noticed that Samuel’s room was a little smaller than his previous bedroom, but he’ll manage. “You stay here and unpack everything how you want it. I have to go back to Freddy’s,” Henry said after everything was taken out of his car and transported to Michael’s new room. 

“After what you just learned about him?” Michael asked. 

“Not for work, but to…settle things with him.”

Chapter 44

Summary:

Henry confronts William about the murders.

Henry drove off to the restaurant and held onto the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white, angry as ever mixed with the bit of disappointment he had for William. He looked over to the floor of the passenger’s side where he took the jar and journal from Michael’s closet to show William that he knew everything. He wanted vengeance for not only his daughter, but for all the other innocent souls William had put through misery for his own selfish gain. 

Back at the pizzeria, William didn’t know what else to do while he waited for Henry since everyone else had gone home, but he noticed a box of decorations that were supposed to be put up on the walls sitting in the corner. He got some out, went onto the stage and started putting them on the walls, but soon after they all fell off. He sighed as he picked them up and put them up again but they did the same thing. He didn’t understand since they were strong enough to stay up, but then he realized. 

“If you’re doing this again, I’ll kill you a second time,” he said to the empty room. 

The room dropped in temperature. “Calm down William. What else am I supposed to do while I wait?” he heard a voice say. It was the same spirit who William’s been hearing for the past few months, and the same one that was trying to get rid of Michael. 

“This is the third time this week and it’s only Tuesday. I’m getting sick of it so go away.”

“As a poltergeist, this is what I’m supposed to do. Oh, and good luck.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?!”

“You’ll see,” he said and the room temperature went back to normal. Right at that moment, William heard the front door open and he could immediately tell that Henry was walking in the front door by his footsteps. 

“What took you so long? You were gone for about an hour and everyone left already,” William said. 

“I had to…run a few errands,” Henry went to the stage where William had his back turned to him. 

“Hen, where were-” He stopped mid-sentence and felt his heart drop when he turned around to face him and Henry was holding up the remnant jar that was almost empty. “Where did you find that?”

“Doesn’t matter! Tell me why you did this!” William stayed silent and got down from the stage to stand across from Henry, partially shocked because he had never heard Henry this angry before. Henry glared at William because of his refusal to answer him. “Well?! Are you gonna answer or what?!”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Don’t give me a bullshit empty apology! Why did you do this?!”

William didn’t want to tell him, being that Henry would be ten times angrier at him. “I was trying to…” he trailed off because he couldn’t bring himself to tell him upfront. 

“What about the innocent families you’ve ruined, including mine?! Don’t you care how those parents feel?! How I feel?!”

“I never meant to ruin your family!”

“Really?! ‘Cause it seems an awful lot like you did! I should’ve known you hated Charlie from the start! Admit it, you felt like you had to kill her to get rid of her, decided to use her for your damn science experiment and now Heather and Sammy left, because of you! You ruined my life William!”

“I’m sorry!”

“Lies! You’re not sorry, you wanted this to happen! You ruined my family, our business, everything! And to think it all started because you were jealous of Charlie because she hurt your little ego! Or what did you have against those other kids?! Or Evelyn?!” Henry was crying tears of anger now, but he didn’t even care or notice. 

“You found out about those?”

“You bet your ass I did! I should’ve known something was up with you from the moment Charlie and Sammy were born! Hell, even when I met you and I brushed off all the warning signs because I just thought you acted a little strange at times!” 

“Hen-”

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear you try to explain this, you monster!” he shouted. William’s eyes widened in shock. He had never heard Henry call him that, even as a joke. Henry has been nothing but nice to him all these years and wouldn’t hurt a fly, but now since he had been bottling up his emotions for years, he had snapped. Henry stepped closer to him and William had to admit, he was slightly afraid. “All this time, I trusted you with my life! Because of you, I blame myself for being so blind and ignoring all the warning signs! It was because I wanted to believe you were actually a good guy, but it turns out you’re just the devil in disguise!” 

Henry held up the jar in his hand, looked at the last remaining remnant and back at William, but he felt another wave of anger and threw the jar on the ground so that it smashed into a million pieces on the tile. William inhaled sharply as he saw the jar smash in what seemed like slow motion to him. 

“Henry!-”

Henry was so fed up with William by now that he clenched his fists and cut him off by punching him in the face as hard as he could, and William lost his balance and fell backwards. William now tasted blood in his mouth, felt blood dripping from his nose and the part of his face Henry had punched had definitely been bruised at least being that it hurt to put almost any kind of pressure on the area. William felt the sharp shards of glass cutting into his palms and poking his back as he sat up. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Henry yelled at him as he pushed up his glasses which were sliding down his face from his sweat. William tried to hold back his anger this whole time, but now he could practically feel his rage boiling over and his eyebrows lowered as he glared at Henry. 

“Are you losing your hearing already?! I said I’m sorry! I didn’t know it’d ruin your family as much as it did, or any of the others for that matter!”

“Bullshit! Losing a kid has a devastating effect on the entire family, but of course you would only know that if you cared about yours! Now quit lying to try and redeem yourself with useless empty apologies and get out of my sight!”

William inhaled sharply. “What?” William asked as he stood up. 

“I said to get out!”

“Henry, please! I can’t lose you! You’re all I have left!”

“You have hurt innocent families and ruined their lives, including mine for your own selfish gain! I don’t want to even see you around ever again! Now get out!”

William wiped his bleeding nose on his sleeve and surrendered as he walked out of the building to his own car, being that he didn’t want to get into a fistfight with Henry right then. He went out of the restaurant where he was hit with the summer heat, and as he sat in his car it was warmer but he didn’t care and slammed the door. He was unhappy, but the anger he felt overpowered it as he sat in the driver's seat and tried to pluck the last of the glass shards out of his palms while cursing under his breath. 

As he sat in the seat he felt a strange, sharp object in his mouth. He fished it out and saw that after he had wiped off the excess blood, it was part of his tooth. Shit, he thought as he swallowed the lingering blood in his mouth and looked in the rear view mirror. As he pulled his upper lip up, he saw that part of his canine tooth had been chipped off. Henry was way stronger than he originally thought. 

“Damn it Henry,” he said as he hit the steering wheel and held the bridge of his nose. 

What was Henry going to do? Turn him in? He didn’t show much evidence to him, but he knew about everything and hated his guts. Maybe, he thought, he saw the journal, but how? It was then, he realized, there was only one other person he knew of who could have told anything to Henry and he looked up. Michael.

Fuming, he turned on the ignition and drove back to his house, quite fast and almost crashed into a few other cars as he felt the ever rare feeling of his head hurting from holding back a flood of tears coming from his eyes, but he couldn’t tell if they were tears of anger, tears of sadness or if they were both. He parked in the driveway, not caring if he was parked straight, got out of the car and slammed the door behind him. He went to open the front door and slammed it shut behind him when he went inside. 

“Michael!” he yelled so his voice filled the whole house. No response. He huffed out of anger and practically ran up the stairs to Michael’s room. “Micha-” he started but as soon as he opened the door, he noticed that Michael’s room was almost completely stripped bare. Everything was off the walls, off his bookshelf, out of the closet, everything was gone. All that remained was Michael’s old fox mask from when he bullied Evan and a piece of folded paper. He picked up the piece of paper, unfolded it and as he read it his vision was now starting to blur from tears forming when he saw that Henry had written something, which just proves he knows everything now if his words weren’t enough. He dropped the piece of paper as he finally let the ever rare tears stream down his face. 

‘Hope you’re happy now.’

---

Henry had left the restaurant a few minutes after William, but he stayed in the driver’s seat for a while and the adrenaline rush he had gotten from a few minutes ago was replaced with an overwhelming grief. He was trying to hold back more tears that were begging to come out of his eyes, and he leaned back in the seat so he stared at the car roof. He didn’t want to believe William would actually do something like this, but he knows it’s the truth. He had seen it for crying out loud. He felt betrayed by someone who felt as if he was his brother, and he felt sick to his stomach about it. 

He wanted to leave, to go back to his hometown in New Harmony, Utah to think things over for himself, but he knew he couldn’t. Not yet, anyway. Not with Michael staying at his house and he especially can’t leave before Michael’s eighteenth birthday. 

Henry started up his car and went back to his house in silence, trying to ignore the lump in his throat and the anger he felt as he drove, parked in the driveway and took the journal as he went inside his house. Upon going inside and setting the journal on a shelf, going upstairs and down the hallway, he found Michael putting up his posters in his new room. Michael could feel that someone was looking at him in the doorway and he turned around and he saw Henry. Michael went over to Henry and hugged him since he could tell that Henry was upset. 

“I’m sorry Uncle,” Michael said. 

“How…how could he just abuse my trust in him?! How could he just make me think that he was actually a good guy?!” Henry ranted as he tried not to burst into tears. Michael stayed silent. “Are these the murders you were talking about those few years ago?”

Michael decided to come clean since he deserved to know. “Yes,” he answered. 

Henry stood across from Michael to look him in the eyes. “How…how did you know? That was before you found the journal, right?”

“Yes.”

“How…”

“Well uh, it’s kind of a long and very weird story.”

“If you’re going to be staying here Mike, I need to know what’s going on with you, so weird is alright with me.”

Michael smiled, happy knowing that Henry cared enough to know what was going on with him unlike his father. “Well, uh, so I don’t know if you’re aware of Mum’s dead father?” he asked as he sat on the bed and Henry sat next to him. 

“Yes, I remember she and Heather told me that around the time we all met, but they never went into extreme detail about it. Actually now that I think about it, they never really talked about him.”

“Okay, well here’s the thing,” Michael inhaled deeply, preparing for Henry to tell him his story was unbelievable, “so for some reason his soul didn’t move on like it was supposed to so he’s…how should I put this, a ghost?”

Henry stared at him in the eyes with slight concern. “A…ghost?”

“Yes.”

“So…you’re saying a ghost told you?”

“Yes. I know it sounds like I’m absolutely mental but I can hear him clear as day.” Henry raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. “Look, Jeremy only knew I was telling the truth because I told him that Fritz was dead before the story came out and before I even found the journal!”

“Jeremy knows about Fritz?”

“Yes! As well as the others! Although I did make him promise to not tell anyone so there’s no way anyone else could’ve known. But whenever one of the kids died, I would feel sick to my stomach which seemed to get worse when I was near where it happened. ”

“I remember seeing you feel sick to your stomach a few times before the news came out that they were missing.”

“That’s what it was!”

Henry was still not fully convinced. He thought those all could have been coincidental. “Okay then, quick question. If this ‘ghost’ supposedly alerts you when terrible things happen with William, what happened at the diner?” Henry asked. 

“Uh…” Michael started but the temperature of the room suddenly dropped. 

“Hello Henry,” they both heard from a deep voice that came from no one visible in the room. Henry went wide eyed in shock.

“What was that?!” Henry asked worriedly as he looked around the room. 

“You can hear him too?!”

“What, am I not supposed to?!” Henry asked, partially yelling as he was now scared. 

“You can only hear me because you were a part of the family, even though you divorced Heather. No one else has the ability to.” Henry stayed quiet in shock, but he looked almost as if he was hugging himself out of fear and felt his own heart thump quickly in his chest. “Don’t worry Henry. I’m not here to hurt you. Although I do still have that answer if you want it.”

“Uh…no thanks. I-it’s okay.” He turned to Michael. “So, is this how you knew?” Henry asked Michael. 

“Yes. My best guess now is that everyone who has or had a connection to the Schmidt family is able to hear him.”

“Oh my God…” Henry muttered. Henry stayed silent in shock, not knowing how to comprehend it all. His breathing slowed as he calmed down a bit. “I can’t believe it. This is…amazing but a lot to comprehend.”

“It was for me too, trust me.”

“So…does he know where Heather and Sammy are? I…I miss them.”

“Heather and Samuel are…safe in Idaho,” they both heard and the temperature went back to normal. Henry and Michael looked at each other, but Michael didn’t think it was for the same reason. Michael could tell he was lying that they were safe because of the pause, so he didn’t know if he should trust this entity anymore. But, he was the only way he knew anything about his father, so he decided to still trust him. 

“I figured she didn’t want to be in the state anymore. I was just curious. I hope they’re okay,” Henry said glumly. 

“I hope they actually are.”

“But now that we know he’s telling you these things, this can help us catch William if he chooses to strike again.”

“You’re right-”

“And Michael…I kind of wanted to ask you something that I’ve noticed, and since you’re staying here I thought it might be the perfect time.”

“Uh…what is that?” Michael asked. He noticed Henry’s voice got a little quieter, so it must be an important topic. 

“How should I start this…I’ve noticed for a little while now that when I’ve seen you and Jeremy together, like when William wanted me to pick you up from school or when I was at your graduation, you are happier with him than you were before. Are you and Jeremy…a little more than friends now?” Michael felt choked up but subtly nodded. “Listen, you don’t have to be worried. You’re still my nephew, with Jeremy or not.”

Michael smiled and hugged Henry, and for the first time in a long time he felt safe in a place he was staying. 

Chapter 45

Summary:

Let’s try this again…

When Michael woke up that next morning, he got dressed in his usual comfortable clothes of a tank top and sweatpants and went downstairs to find Henry at the table, reading a journal. Not just any old journal though, William’s journal. “Uncle?” Michael said, getting his attention and he looked up at him. 

“Morning Mike,” Henry replied. 

“Morning. Uh…what’re you reading?”

“Oh. William’s journal that I took before we left.”

“Why?”

“I wanted to see what he originally wanted with the remnant and why he killed those kids, and if he wrote that down anywhere it’s here but I can’t seem to find anything! All that I’ve found is his remnant tests and when he injected himself with the stuff, but that’s it! He…he must’ve been smart enough to keep it to himself.” He closed the journal and rubbed his temples. “I dunno Mike. Maybe I’ll just turn him in again and hopefully the cops can find him.”

“I think turning him in would be the best choice knowing the cops never believed me, a teenager so hopefully they’ll believe an adult. Plus, we now have proof.”

“I’m probably gonna go do that now. I would think killing kids would be enough to convince them to start looking for him,” he said as he stood up. “You can get whatever from the pantry or fridge.” He picked up the journal, but he grabbed it in a strange direction and dropped it where it opened to a random page near the back. It wasn’t a normal random page though, there were several papers hidden away between the pages, all folded in such a way that they couldn’t be seen from the outside. 

“What the-” Michael started when it opened and went over to it. “What is this?!”

“I don’t know, but it might be important,” Henry said. Michael picked up the papers that dropped out for Henry and set the journal on the table. “Thank you. Okay, let’s see…” He unfolded the first one. “It looks like a blueprint.”

Michael studied the blueprint, and he felt like whatever it was, he recognized it. It was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t remember for the life of him. That was until Henry pointed out on the opposite side of him, it read the name of it which Michael didn’t see and he honestly felt a little dumb he didn’t notice that. 

“Her name’s Circus Baby?” Michael asked, then the realization set in. “Wait…oh my God…”

“What is it?” Henry asked as he pushed up his glasses. 

“Those separate animatronics he was building! The ones before Liz died!”

“Wait…you’re right,” Henry said and he unfolded the other blueprints. They were all the separate animatronics that William was building all those years ago. “Oh my God…” he muttered. 

“So, what does this mean?”

“I…I don’t know. It’s just the blueprints he stuffed back here, plus one more.” Henry unfolded the last blueprint. “Whatever this is.”

Michael read the name. “S. C. U. P. So like, scup? No actually, scoop sounds better.”

“I think it’s scoop since it looks like an ice cream scooper.”

“But fifty times bigger,” Michael added on. 

“So that’s it, blueprints. The only question is, why was he hiding them?”

“No idea. But it might be important later,” Michael said. Henry folded up the blueprints and put them to the side while he took the journal again, since he wanted to really look over the blueprints later and not just skim the design like he did since he was in a hurry right then. “Are you leaving?”

“Yes. Hopefully the cops will believe me and find him. See you Mike,” he said as he opened the front door. 

“Bye Uncle,” Michael said and Henry closed the front door behind him, and Michael took the folded blueprints and put them on the shelf off to the side. 

---

Henry arrived at the same station he was at two years prior. When he parked the car, he took a deep breath before he took the journal and went inside to the front desk. “Hello! How can I help you?” the lady at the front desk asked. 

“Uh, I need to speak with the detectives. I have something that could link to a case.”

“Of course! Can I get your name please?

“Henry Samuel Emily.”

She typed on her computer. “Oh! It says here that you were here two years ago with Michael Afton for the case of William Afton.”

“It’s the same case. We didn’t have evidence then but we do now.”

“Just go to the first room on the left down the hall, I’ll send them in.”

“Thank you,” Henry said and did as he was told. He opened the door to the empty room and realized this looked like the questioning room he was in two years before, except there was a telephone now mounted on the wall. He took a seat in the plastic chair closest to him and waited for a few minutes before two detectives arrived in the room. 

“Mr. Emily?” one of them asked. 

“Yes.”

“I am special agent Isabella Davis and this is my colleague, special agent Jack Campbell,” she said as she introduced herself and the man standing next to her and they both showed Henry their badges while they took a seat across from him.  

“Campbell? I recognize that name.” 

“Really?” he said. 

“Yes. I remember seeing it.”

“Probably, I would assume so, from an ad my wife and I put in the paper about two years ago for our daughter. That’s the only instance I can think of.”

“What was her name?”

“Susie. It’s been about two years since we’ve heard from her, but I refuse to give up.”

The realization hit Henry like a ton of bricks. This man was Susie’s father, and he was about to find out that his daughter was murdered by William. “Oh…uh well I have something that you two may want to see,” Henry said a little awkwardly and he held up the journal.

“A journal?” Isabella asked. 

“Yes. It’s William Afton’s journal.”

“We were told this was about that case, and you’re claiming he documented everything in here?”

“Yes,” Henry said and she got on a pair of disposable gloves. 

“May we see it?” she asked and Henry nodded as he handed her the journal. She opened it to the first page and saw the words ‘Stop’ written in William’s messy handwriting. She flipped over to the next pages where she and her colleague saw everything. They saw that he had caused the murders of Evelyn, Charlotte, Susie, Cassidy, Gabriel, Jeremy and Fritz. They saw that he had written notes about this substance he called remnant he harvested from each of them. They read that he had injected himself with this strange substance and the effects it had on him, but they still weren’t sure why he had done it in the first place since it wasn’t written down. She stared at the writing in shock, but Jack got on disposable gloves and took the journal from her. 

“Susie?” he said to himself and his hands were shaking slightly as he held the journal. “She…she was murdered?! By him ?!”

“I’m so sorry,” Henry said to him and he gave the journal back to her, but he now looked more on edge than he was before. Isabella looked at him with slight concern, like she wanted to dismiss him to go back to the station, but he looked back at her and nodded, trying to signal that he was alright to move on. 

She turned back to Henry. “How did you get this?” she asked him. 

“His son, Michael showed it to me.”

“How did he get it?”

“I…I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking when he showed me the journal because I saw that William had murdered my daughter as well.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss Mr. Emily. Do you think you can call him since he is not here right now?”

“Yes.”

Henry got up and went to the telephone mounted on the wall, dialed the number to his home phone and listened to it ring a few times. 

---

Michael was at the house, trying to find something to eat for himself when he found a cookie in the cookie jar in the pantry. A part of him thought it wouldn’t be a good idea to have too much sugar this early since he was already having coffee, but as he thought about it he should be celebrating the fact he was able to find evidence against his father, worked up the courage to tell Henry about it and not have to stay at his own house. He finally gave in and took it, and as he bit it his mind wandered to what else he wanted to get done that day. He wanted to finish setting up his new room and then he wanted to call Jeremy to tell him to not call his old telephone number, but he snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the telephone ring. He went over to it and answered it. 

“Hello?” he said through a mouthful. 

“Hey Mike,” Henry said on the other line. 

He swallowed his bite. “Uncle? How’re you calling? I thought you went to the police station.”

“Well, uh, I am. But they let me call you because they needed to ask you a few things.”

“Okay…”

“I’ll put them on. Don’t go anywhere.”

Michael waited until he heard a woman’s voice on the line. “Michael Afton?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“I am special agent Isabella Davis, I just need to ask you a few things. Mr. Emily came in with a journal that he claims belonged to William Afton. Is this correct?”

“Yes it is.”

“How do you know?”

“I found it in the basement of our house. He never allowed me or my siblings or even my mother in there, so I knew it was his. And it was in his handwriting so that was more proof it belonged to him.”

“How did you get in the basement?”

“While he was away I picked the lock and got in because I knew something was down there, and that’s where I found it.”

“Okay, we’ll need handwriting samples from both you and Mr. Emily to make sure it doesn’t belong to any of you. Just have yours ready by tomorrow afternoon and bring it to the station, Mr. Emily will do his handwriting sample since he is here already.”

“Okay.”

“Thank you for your time Michael.”

Michael hung up and went back into the kitchen to continue searching for some breakfast since he knew a cookie wouldn’t be enough. 

---

“Mr. Emily, do you know the parents of the Schmidt kids?” she asked once she put the telephone back on the wall. 

“Yes. They are my niece and nephews, their dad is my ex brother-in-law.”

“Do you know his name?”

“Daniel Schmidt.”

“And is he here in Hurricane?”

“No, last I heard he was in Pennsylvania, but I haven’t heard from him in a while.”

“Before we get a handwriting sample from you, we’ll need his telephone number if you can remember it to give him the news.”

“I-I’m sorry, I don’t remember. I’d have to call my ex-wife.”

“Do you have her number?”

“Yes,” he said. 

“Do you think you can call her?”

He nodded and dialed the telephone number and listened to it ring a few times. 

---

Samuel was in his room, drawing pictures because ever since those few years ago when he first came to Idaho, he wanted to try it out since Michael was always drawing pictures and he needed something to distract himself. He wasn’t the best at drawing, but since he was finished with his homework he was too afraid to go outside because he was afraid the bullies at school might find him.

Since he lived in a fairly small house, he could hear the telephone ring from his bedroom. His mother was outside smoking a cigarette so he got up, went out of his room and answered the telephone. “Hello?” he said into the phone. 

“Oh! Hi Sammy!” Henry said. He wasn’t expecting Samuel to answer.

“Dad!”

“Hey! Sorry you haven’t heard from me in a while. I’ve been very busy trying to open a new pizzeria.”

“It’s okay Dad! I know you’re really busy.”

“So, I had to ask you something Sammy.”

“What?”

“I’m at the police station right now-”

“The police station?! What’d you do?! Am I your call?”

Henry chuckled. “I didn’t do anything Sammy. It’s just because I had evidence for a case.”

“A case? A case about what?”

“I don’t know if I can tell you over the phone ‘cause it’s…a very long story and I have to keep this short. But I needed something from you.”

“What?”

“D’you know if your mom knows her brother’s telephone number?”

“Uh…I don’t know, she’s outside. Lemme ask her!” he exclaimed and it went silent for a minute. “Yeah she knows it.”

“What is it?” Samuel gave Henry the number which Henry told the detectives. “Thanks a ton Sammy!”

“It’s no problem!”

“Uh, I have to go Sammy. I’m so sorry this has to be short but uh, I promise we can call sometime soon.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Okay! Bye Dad!”

“Bye Sammy,” he said and hung up the phone. 

“Thank you Mr. Emily, we will need that handwriting sample from you now.” Henry nodded and gave her the handwriting sample she needed. “Thank you Mr. Emily. Please make sure Michael gets his here by tomorrow afternoon so we can make sure this journal doesn’t belong to any of you and we’ll make the call to Mr. Schmidt. By the way, do you know anything about Fritz’s parents?”

“I don’t.”

“Alright, and I know Mr. Parker was already found dead, but now it’s a matter of finding his mother.”

“Wait, he was?!”

“Yes, last January he was found dead in a parking lot. He looked like he was hit by a car but the murderer left no evidence so we were left with an unsolved case.”

“Oh my God…”

“And...” she turned back to her coworker, “Jack, are you sure you’re fine? You look a little pale.”

The man looked her straight in the eyes. “I-I’m still trying to process this. Plus, how am I gonna tell her sister, or even her mother?! Oh my God, I can imagine the look on their faces…” he said as he held the bridge of his nose and looked as though he was trying to hold back tears. “I’ll…I’ll be back in the station Bella, and I’m sorry for your loss Mr. Emily.”

“It’s okay, I’m sorry for yours, Mr. Campbell,” he replied. He went back into the station and Henry said goodbye to Isabella before he left and went back outside to the parking lot to his parked car a couple of rows back. “Well Henry, you did it, just like you said you would,” he said to himself and he started up the car. He drove back to his house and upon going inside, he found Michael on the couch watching soap operas. “I’m back,” Henry said and Michael looked behind him. 

“Hey Uncle. You did it?”

“Yup. They’re gonna start looking for him once I get your handwriting sample to the station tomorrow and they see that it’s not ours.”

“Alright, hopefully they find something. Doubtful though since he was able to cover up his tracks so easily, who’s to say he can’t do that again?”

Chapter 46

Summary:

William knows he is not safe in his own house anymore.

*the way things will be dated here (since i wanted to stay true to William’s British roots) is:
Day/Month/Year

William knew he couldn’t stay at his house anymore. He could feel it, the police were looking for him and he was sure one of the first places they were going to look for him was his own home. He paced around the room in worry, wondering what he should do but then he remembered that there was an old abandoned house just outside of town that he could stay at, but that’s the only thing that was out there he knew of that he didn’t have to sign legal documents for. “That’ll have to do,” he said to himself. 

He quickly packed everything he needed into bags, plus non-perishable food since he knew that place didn’t have electricity. It would be like torture in the winter and summer months, but he didn’t have a choice if he didn’t want to be out on the streets and not be found, plus he could probably hang around inside gas stations or fast food restaurants during those times. 

After he packed everything he needed and filled his car, he got in and drove off to the abandoned house outside of town. As he was driving he realized then that he needed a job to get money to buy food since he knew he’d run out soon, and he didn’t want to be charged with both murder and theft. He would need to come up with a fake name to use and learn to talk differently as fast as possible. 

William had found out about the abandoned house when he moved to America about twenty five years ago, so who knows what condition it would be in now. He was seventeen years old when he had found out about it; he was in his junior year of high school. He had his own car then and he would drive around town often to get away from his parents yelling at each other, specifically from his father yelling at him when his mother wasn’t around or when his father tried to hit him. It was on one of his drives around town where he decided to make a turn he never took, and he stumbled upon the old abandoned house. To seventeen year old William, it was like he struck gold. 

It had been abandoned a few years before due to electrical problems and has been ever since. William came along and made it his own place to escape for his remaining high school years, and once he got to college and met Henry he started hanging out at his house more often and seemingly forgot about this place for the time being. Sometimes though, William’s father would be so drunk that he was scared to sleep in his own house, so he often came to this house to sleep on those days. 

He never thought to show Henry this house since this was his place to escape from the world, escape his problems, escape his home life and not have a care in the world. So thankfully, Henry didn’t even know of this house’s existence, much less Michael knowing about it. 

William drove up to the house and got out, and the house was in the same condition as it has been for several years: abandoned and run down. “Welcome home William,” he said to himself. He went up to the front door and opened it to see nothing had been moved, so thankfully nobody has been here since everyone seemingly forgot about this house’s existence. The most anything has been moved was more dust collecting on every surface, tons of dust bunnies in the corners and under furniture, dead cockroaches on the floor and cobwebs in the corners where the ceiling met the wall. 

He went inside and started walking around to relive the nostalgia of being in that house to get away from his own. It was quite a small house; only a few full rooms: a living room, a kitchen and a master bedroom. There was a small garage, two small guest bedrooms that had nothing inside them as well as a bathroom, but there was no electricity so he couldn’t even get running water. It was a little dark in the house as well since a few of the windows had been boarded up when the house had first been abandoned, but when William had come around he had stolen an axe from his parents garage and broke a few of the boards down so he could see where he was going. William checked the garage and to his surprise, it was still there leaning against the wall like it was a little over twenty years ago since he had forgotten to bring it back, and the only difference was that it had a layer of dust on it. 

He closed the door and went into the living room where there was nothing but an old fashioned couch, a coffee table in front of it, an old television and a couple of old framed paintings of flowers on the walls. He was never in this room often, so it was like he was discovering a new room in the house. 

He went into the kitchen, where he also didn’t spend a lot of time since he was always afraid he would break something. There was only a table and a few old chairs in that room, plus the cabinets that looked like they were going to break any second and nothing on the countertop along the wall. There was an oven and stove that of course didn’t work anymore, and tile on the wall behind it that was obviously supposed to be a white color, but after being neglected for years they were now a light gray color. 

He went into the master bedroom, which was where he spent the most time, and found everything he had put in there almost twenty years ago still in its exact same spot. When William first found this house there was no bed, the same framed paintings of flowers on the walls and a vanity with a broken mirror in that room. When he started sleeping in the house some nights, he moved in an old mattress and an old blanket. He also moved a few of his own things into the room, so it would be more tolerable to stay at, and saw his old action figures he liked to have around and his old, brown faux leather journal from when he was seventeen. 

This journal was the youngest thing in this room, he had last seen it about thirteen years ago and he had completely forgotten about it. He had never written in it often since he started it when he was a teenager and stopped writing in it when Michael was a little boy, but thinking back to why it was here and not in his box of journals in the basement, it was different because he had documented his very first murder in it. Not the first murder when he started experimenting with human remnant, his very first one where he killed a man for revenge. The man whose voice he and Michael were hearing now, the man who was haunting them. A few weeks after Michael had turned five he decided he’d had enough of carrying this journal around, since he wanted to get rid of any evidence he had that could lead to solving this case and let it remain unsolved, but was surprised that no one had found it during that time of trying to decide if he should keep it or not. He didn’t want to destroy it since it had entries from years before so he discarded the journal in this house, praying to no one in particular that it would never be found. 

He sat on the mattress and picked up the journal, curious what teenage William had to say, dusted off the cover with his hand and opened the journal to the first page. It must’ve been the first journal he had when he moved to America, because the first page was dated for that exact day. 

‘28/7/1962’ was written in the corner and he read on. 

‘I hate it here. I haven’t even been here that long, and I already hate it. Mother said, “We’re gonna start a new life here! It’ll be great!” but I know that’s a lie. I know the real reason we came here. She and Father did some bad things with money so now like they always do, they’re running away from their problems. Only this time we didn’t just move like we have several times in my entire life, we moved to another bloody country so they could never be caught. 

Speaking of not wanting to be here, I’m not excited for school. It starts in August and I already know I’ll hate it. I just know the kids there are going to bully me because I will be the only boy in the entire school with a British accent. I just want to go back to London, but only because I know things won’t ever be like they were, but I’ll just have to ‘suck it up like a man’ as Father always says.’

William got a wave of nostalgia from reading that entry. He remembered that he never wanted to be here in the first place and how much he hated being in America. He never asked to come here, and a part of him still wishes he was back in London, or anywhere in England for that matter. He shook his head to get the thought away and flipped the next few pages to an entry from that next year. 

‘3/2/1963:

I made Father angry again today by accident. Father hit me again today and he cut me on one of his broken beer bottles since he was obviously drunk. I’m scared to even sleep in my own house tonight so I came here instead in case he cuts me again, or worse. I hate sleeping here since there is no electricity and I can’t even turn on a light, but I don’t know of anywhere else I could go. Mother didn’t do anything about it or even try to stop it, she just let it happen like she always does. 

I hate Mother almost as much as I hate Father, but nothing can compare to him. He’s a monster, and Mother only stays with him to help her get by. I usually never wish death upon anyone, but he’s an exception.

I have no friends at school to tell these things to, not like anyone would care since they’re all just bullies who decide to talk behind my back, or sometimes they would even push me so I slammed against the lockers or they would even trip me. Once I got tripped on the pavement and skidded across it face down, and they all laughed at me because my face was cut up. But I had been cut on my lip and it ended up scarring over, and a few of them thankfully backed off because I guess now I look meaner and scarier than before.’

He felt his lip where he still had the scar. It was on the left side of his mouth and was completely visible if you only saw his face, but what he found most interesting was that Michael had a scar on his lip in the exact same place for almost the exact same reason. The only difference was that he was younger and got into a fight on the rocky pavement which he had skidded across. He continued reading the entry since there was still more.

‘I found an injured bird in the backyard today and it couldn’t fly. A part of me wanted to leave it there so it could get eaten by a bigger animal, but a part of me was also fed up from the previous night when Father hit me. We had gotten in an argument beforehand, and that's when I got hit, so without thinking I took a large rock and smashed it repeatedly with all of my strength. When it stopped chirping and went limp, I didn’t even feel sad; there was blood on my hands and clothes, but I didn’t care. Instead of feeling bad or feeling scared of myself, I felt happy. Happy that I had the power to do something like that, the fact I had the power to control when someone or something lives or dies.

That’s when Mother found me covered in blood and the dead bird in my hands, and Father was home as well. That’s when all hell broke loose since they don’t believe in murdering the innocent, even animals.

A part of me still can’t believe they were raised Christian.’

He flipped several pages to when he documented his first murder, almost three years later. 

‘1/7/1966:

I did something today that I never thought I would. I killed a man today. But it wasn’t for me, it was for Henry. He killed Henry’s little brother, Oliver and I saw how upset Henry was about it. He and Henry were as close as could be, despite him still being in high school and Henry in his second year of college. Despite  the age gap, they shared the same interests, and would do projects together so Oliver could enhance his skills in robotics, and just have a strong, healthy sibling bond. Henry still had his older sister, Jennifer but he wasn’t as close to her as he was to Oliver. They seemed like polar opposites from each other, didn’t share the same interests and didn’t even get along half the time. 

For what did he kill Oliver for? I don’t even know. All I know is that Henry was hurt, so all I felt was rage and needed to get revenge on this man. 

When I killed him, it triggered something in me. It made me realize that everyone eventually dies one way or another, whether it be brutal or of old age, but is it possible that it can be stopped?’

He saw that he made a note on the same page just a couple of months later. 

‘5/9/1966:

It was Evelyn’s father. Oh well, he was a bloody bastard anyway.’

He flipped over quite a lot of pages and stopped at another entry made three years later, exactly one month before Michael was born:

‘3/5/1969:

I made a grave mistake killing that man. He hates me of course, but it seems as though he especially hates Evelyn. I’m not entirely sure why, but all I know is that he’s haunting us. 

He appeared on the television screen last month and I got frightened, so I shattered the screen since I had enough money saved up to buy another and I thought that would be enough to get rid of him. I was wrong, I shouldn’t have done that. Ever since that night strange things kept happening around me, but they happened around Evelyn most often. Cabinets kept opening, lights flickering, everything.

After about a week of that, I started to hear whispers in his voice. Lies, but whispers I believed until I found them to be false. The little things at first, such as I didn’t lock the car or didn’t turn off the light but they made me late for work almost every single day, but Henry thankfully brushed it off because I had my firstborn on the way. Then the whispers got to more stressful situations that could lead to life or death: that there was a gas leak and I will die, to not go to sleep that night because I would get murdered in my sleep, things like that. Things would be moved or even thrown at me, and I was scared that one of these days it would be a knife or something. I was frightened. I didn’t want to die and I knew he wanted me dead but I refused to go down because of him. 

But now I wonder, since a person’s soul can live after death, can the physical form be preserved as well?’

He flipped over to the next few pages, a week after Michael’s fifth birthday. 

‘10/6/1974:

I don’t know if what I did on Michael’s birthday was a good thing or not. I was alone in the bedroom when the room dropped in temperature, he appeared to me for the first time and he spoke to me. I was definitely frightened since his skin seemed to be a pure white color. He had a white button down and the rest of his clothes were black, and the only other color on him was red where the knife had cut him all those years ago. I couldn’t even tell if he had color in his eyes since they looked pure white and he was slightly transparent, but I knew he wasn’t blind because he could clearly see me. He definitely looked frightening and evil like the poltergeist he is, but I knew I couldn’t escape or even hide. 

That’s when he proposed a deal to me. If I didn’t try to kill my son right then and there since I never wanted him in the first place, he’d find a way to do it for me once Michael was old enough but under one condition: I don’t get rid of or destroy the rest of that television set. He said that once I shattered the screen his soul connected to it, and if I destroy it then he wouldn’t be able to do this for me. I, of course, asked him why he wanted Michael dead as well and that’s when he finally opened up to me about his past. 

Before he and his wife had Evelyn, Heather and Daniel, there was another. His name was Joseph. Joseph was the only child he truly loved, but he had died very young because he got very ill when he was five years old. When the three of them came around, they were nothing like Joseph. His mentality was that Joseph could not be replaced and those memories kept eating him alive. 

He had finally told me why he had killed Oliver as well, and it was because that was one of the only days he would be away from his family since he was away on a business trip that day. He said that he had been drinking earlier that day because he was under so much stress from his memories of Joseph and the stress his family brought him that he felt he needed to take it out. 

After he died, he couldn’t find his son in the afterlife (because he said ‘he was always good at hiding’) and the pain he felt was immense. That’s when he decided to come back to Earth and watch his three other children live their lives with their children. He was angry, frustrated and jealous all at the same time seeing his children get to live the life he never got, and his jealousy seemed to grow worse as time went on. That’s when the idea hit him: if he’s miserable because he lost a child he cared for, why should they be happy with the children they care for? 

In order for him to do all of this, he was only asking me to keep the television set. All in all, he was asking me to not kill him a second time. 

At first, he admitted that he was trying to get revenge on me by scaring me with lies or moving objects, but then he realized that the hatred he had for me was great but the past pain he still felt was greater. 

This proposition was a win-win situation for me since I didn’t want to be a suspect for killing my own son and I could definitely keep an old television set in the basement, so I agreed. 

I never heard from him again after that and strange things stopped happening around me, so I think I got rid of him for the time being.’

William felt a wave of nostalgia from that day, and that’s when he remembered that this entity wanted to do the same to every other one of his grandchildren, but when the year 1983 had come around William had forgotten because it had been almost ten years since he had said or did anything to the family, he was dealing with his own stress and immense jealousy and beat him to it. William had his own goals he wanted to accomplish and didn’t even give this deal a second thought, (and he finally remembered once he saw that the journal he used to document the tests was missing) but he ended up using it and told Michael. A part of William wanted to go back to the house and destroy that television set just for that, but the other part of him wanted Michael dead and he would not be to blame for it. However, the more thought he put into this, maybe this was how he got Michael’s trust to eventually kill him. But of course, William was on the run now and this poltergeist hated him so it might also be revenge against William; kill two birds with one stone as they say. 

The more he thought about this situation, now he raised another question. Right now this entity had another grandchild still alive besides Michael: Henry’s son, Samuel. What was his plan for him because he had moved away a couple of years ago? Oh well, that’s his problem, William thought. 

William flipped to the very last page of the journal where he wrote about his father’s death, which wouldn’t have interested him in the slightest because he hated the man, but that’s when he remembered that he wasn’t living his past life that was preserved in these journals, he was a wanted man and the police were looking for him. He needed to go by a different name, and after glancing back at the page that’s when he saw it. His father’s last name was written on the page: Miller. He didn’t care for that name because it reminded him of the man, but the name wasn’t associated with him anymore since both his father and mother were dead, and he had chosen to use his mother’s maiden name as his legal last name. It then got him thinking that he could go by his middle name, lots of people did that. His middle name was David, which sounded like a first name so it wouldn’t be questioned. When he put those two together, he smiled to himself because he had now come up with his fake alias. 

Dave Miller. 

Chapter 47

Summary:

Michael and Jeremy decide to check out the new Freddy’s location.

As the middle of June came to them in what seemed like the blink of an eye, Michael and Jeremy walked out of their local 7-11 side by side since they were with each other at the park about fifteen minutes beforehand. They were about to part ways when Michael had asked Jeremy if he wanted to go with him to 7-11 even though he only wanted to run in there for a pack of cigarettes, but Jeremy had looked at the time and agreed since it wasn’t sundown yet and that meant he could spend more time with Michael. 

Once they went back outside to Michael’s car they decided to waste time by it, just leaning against the side of the car and they started chatting with one another. Michael had only gotten the car a week earlier because he and Henry managed to scrape up enough money to get him one, which Henry said was a late eighteenth birthday gift because he thought Michael deserved a car since he didn’t have one, and his eighteenth birthday wasn’t that long ago when they finally got it. It was a used car, but it was what money could buy at the moment and since it still ran as good as a new one, Michael loved it. 

Michael got a cigarette for himself and offered one to Jeremy, which he took and Michael lit them both. “So whaddya think about the new Freddy’s they’re building? It’s almost finished,” Jeremy asked Michael as he exhaled smoke. 

“I think it’s a terrible idea. I mean, something has happened at every other location, why not this one too? Maybe it’s just my bad stigma again, but I’m ninety percent sure someone else is bound to get hurt.”

“I’m sure no one would. I mean, you said Henry fired William and neither of you have heard from him for a while. Every bad thing that happened at Freddy’s happened when he was around, and I doubt he’ll be going back there so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“You’re right, but I just have a terrible feeling someone’s going to get hurt! It seems to happen every time a new Freddy’s location opens!”

“I think you’re just worried about nothing again.”

“I’m hoping you’re right.” Michael stayed silent for a while and put his cigarette in his mouth, but exhaled the smoke once he thought about something else to get off his chest to Jeremy. “Hey Jer…can I tell you something?”

Jeremy took his cigarette out of his mouth. “Anything.”

“Ever since Fritz’s murder, d’you remember me telling you about that one dream I had? The one where I was told everything that happened was my fault?”

“Uh…yes. I remember you briefly mentioning it.”

“What if I said…they haven’t stopped?”

“They haven’t?”

Michael shook his head. “I’ve been having them every single night, to the point where sometimes I’m scared to even sleep ‘cause I know they’ll come. Even when I can sleep, I don’t usually get more than five or six hours in because they wake me up and I’m stuck lying there, staring at the ceiling because I can’t fall back to sleep.”

“So that’s why you’ve had dark circles under your eyes?” Michael nodded. “You’re not believing them, are you?” Michael stayed silent and looked down at his feet and Jeremy looked at him worriedly. “Mike? I’m getting worried about you.”

“I really don’t want to believe them, but it’s getting harder every day to not. It’s just…I feel guilty whenever I sleep then wake up, knowing those six kids he killed can’t do the same, knowing that my brother and sister can’t do the same.”

“Aw, Mikey. It’s not your fault, even if you think so. If you are still stubborn to believe that, I know it’s not your fault. And…look at me.” Jeremy gently held onto Michael’s chin and turned his head to face him. “I’m always here for you if you wanna talk about it just like how you are for me, you know that, right? You’re not alone here. I love you so much Michael, more than life itself.”

Jeremy took his hand away from his chin, moved a stray piece of Michael’s hair out of his face and put his arm around Michael for a side hug as he put his arm around Jeremy, and Michael bit his tongue to keep himself from breaking down right then and there. They stood in place for a while in silence until they let go of each other when they saw people in the parking lot. They were far, but they could definitely still see them. 

“So…enough about me. What’s going on with you?” Michael asked Jeremy and he noticed some tears forming at the corners of his eyes and quickly wiped them away. 

“Me?”

“Yeah. Part of me wants to move away from this subject since we both know it’s a hard topic for both of us to talk about, but I also just feel bad about dumping all this on you, it’s really not fair to you.” Jeremy smiled shyly. “So tell me, what’s up?”

“Um…not much. My life’s pretty boring honestly. My dad's been nagging me to get a job since I’ll turn eighteen in two weeks and I still don’t have a job.”

“Where are you planning on working?”

“I dunno. I was thinking of some fast food place but I haven’t seen any ‘help wanted’ signs, so I’m honestly just waiting ‘till I see one anywhere and applying so I’ll get my dad off my back. I’d say it’s just annoying, but it’s getting pretty overwhelming now and I honestly just wanna get one so he’ll stop.”

“I get that. Maybe I should start looking as well since we took the year off before going to school.”

Jeremy smiled. “Besides all of that, it’s not really any different than it has been for several years. I mean, my dad doesn’t really pay attention to me like always except for nagging me, so there’s a reason why I want to see you everyday Mikey,” Michael smiled, “but, he’s my dad and I still need him, so I can’t get rid of him that easily.” They both finished their cigarettes, threw the cigarette butt into the road and both got in his car which Michael started up and drove out of the parking lot. “Where are we going?”

“I dunno, I was thinking of just driving around town since, according to the sun, it’s not technically dark yet.” 

“But the sun’s going down!”

“Can’t you spare a few more minutes?”

Jeremy looked at the time, and figured that his father wouldn’t notice if he was a few minutes late. “Fine. But just for a few.”

Michael smiled as he drove on, and soon they passed the new Freddy’s location, which Michael pointed out by saying, “There it is.”

“Where what is?”

“The new Freddy’s location.”

“That?”

“Yep. The most interesting thing I’ve heard about that place is that the animatronics have this, uh, facial recognition feature. Apparently the animatronics are linked to some criminal database so they can tell when a criminal happens to come into the restaurant. Henry was rambling on about that at dinner one night because he loves talking about anything related to mechanics and this was semi-new for him, so he was talking about it and I’m probably rambling right now, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine Mike. I like listening to you ramble.”

Michael smiled and lightly blushed, being that once he got talking he would keep rambling on which is something he didn’t like, so he loved that it didn’t annoy Jeremy. 

Michael suddenly decided to make a U-turn at the next intersection to go back to the restaurant, and Jeremy noticed they were going back. “Why’re we going back?” he asked. 

“Can you blame me for being curious how it’s coming along?” 

“Got me there.”

“I know we’re technically not allowed to go on the property yet unless we’re technicians or something, but what’s life if you don’t live a little?”

“You’re a bad influence, you know that?”

“C’mon, you’d do the same if you were in my place.”

“You are absolutely right.”

Michael parked the car a few parking lots away so they wouldn’t seem too suspicious, they both ran to the front window and thankfully they only saw technicians were in the building installing the security cameras. “Okay, we have to be careful,” Michael said. Jeremy nodded and they both cupped their hands over their eyes and looked in the window to see a technician down the hall, but he wasn’t paying attention to them. 

As Michael and Jeremy were looking around they both saw the new animatronics on stage, all looking more kid friendly than the originals, since Michael remembered that Henry said they wanted to make this place more ‘kid friendly’. The animatronics, Michael noticed, were the same animals as the originals: one bear, one chicken and one rabbit. 

“Where’s Foxy?” Michael asked out loud. Jeremy shrugged and looked around, and his attention was drawn to a separate room which he assumed must be this pizzeria’s version of Pirates Cove. He noticed a fox animatronic inside the room but it was pink and white instead of red. It was in the corner right near the doorway so Jeremy assumed they would be moving it soon. 

Jeremy nudged Michael’s side to get his attention. “Right there,” he said as he pointed to it. 

He looked over to where Jeremy pointed out and studied the animatronic. “I notice they didn’t get rid of those sharp teeth,” Michael said. 

“Or that huge mouth.”

“Not very ‘kid friendly’ of them.”

“I already don’t like that one. Something about it just rubs me the wrong way.”

“Can you see anything else?”

Jeremy looked around. “They added a…what is that, a corner to buy stuff of some sort? Wait, this place has games, so it might be a prize counter…I think. And right next to it is…a box.”

“A box?”

“That’s what I said. I dunno if there’s anything in it.” 

“Uh…” Michael looked in the direction Jeremy was looking and squinted as if that could help him see better, “yeah it’s a box, but above it I see…strings.”

“Strings?”

“Yeah…wait oh my God…” he said as he went wide eyed and the realization set in. 

“What?”

“I don’t think it’s in there yet though…” he kept mumbling to himself. 

“What? Tell me!”

“Charlie!”

“Charlie?”

“Charlotte…whatever you want to call her! But I totally forgot to tell you, on that day I told Henry about my father, he was taking in a Puppet animatronic and I swear to God that I saw it had white eyes like my father does. I have a feeling that’s her.”

“You had a feeling or were you told it was her?”

“I don’t know, I just had a feeling but I don’t actually know. But I do know the Security Puppet at Fredbear’s was made for her and it looked almost exactly like it, so there’s a possibility it’s the same one.”

“But why strings?”

“Uh, I don’t know. It’s a puppet animatronic?”

“Makes sense. Isn’t she…”

“Henry’s daughter. She was murdered that same year my brother died, just a few months after.”

“Oh my God.”

“Anyways, uh do you see anything else?”

Jeremy shook his head. “Nada (nothing), besides those technicians.”

“Why didn’t you remind me there were technicians in there?!”

“I dunno. I wanted to see how long it’d take for you to notice.” Michael smiled and lightly pushed him as Jeremy chuckled. “Love ya too Mikey.”

Michael tried his best not to snicker. “Let’s just get back before they notice us,” Michael said as he and Jeremy started walking back to the car. “I’m still mad at you,” he said teasingly to Jeremy. 

Jeremy ran up next to him and took his hand. “You know you love me,” he said. Michael subtly smiled but didn’t say a word as Jeremy went to the passenger’s side of the car and he got in the driver’s seat. Once they were inside, Michael leaned over the console and kissed him. 

“Fine, I forgive you. I can’t stay mad at you for long,” Michael said as he got back in his seat and started up the car. “And I’m taking you back, don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll make it back before it gets completely dark.” Jeremy smiled and Michael drove out of the parking lot. 

They drove off, not thinking anyone else was there but those technicians since it was a Sunday, but as they were about to leave the parking lot Jeremy swore he saw someone lurking in the shadows near them. He decided not to tell Michael, since he thought it was probably his imagination. 

From the shadows, a pair of white eyes watched them as Michael drove he and Jeremy out of the parking lot. As soon as they were out of sight, William appeared from out of the shadows, making sure he was nowhere near Freddy’s where he could be seen. He was in a pair of old black jeans and a black zipped up jacket to ensure that, even though he was starting to sweat. 

He was around the corner from them, smoking and trying to find a place he could hang around until dinner time to escape the summer heat in the abandoned house he was staying at, when he suddenly heard voices very faintly. He retreated to a corner and saw that the building was in fact, the new (almost ready to open) Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria which Henry had forbidden him from going near, so he would have to be extra careful he wasn’t seen. He smashed his cigarette on the wall and threw it on the pavement, peaked around the corner and found Michael and Jeremy near the main entrance looking into the window, where thankfully they couldn’t see him spying on them from their peripheral vision since their hands blocked it. 

He saw and heard everything though. He heard them talking about the new animatronics, he heard them talking about Toy Foxy and how Jeremy didn’t like it already, he heard that Michael thought the puppet was possessed by Charlotte which was now starting to make him worry since he knew that Fredbear was possessed by Cassidy. He decided to follow them secretly as they went to Michael’s car and hid behind another corner where he could see them in the car clearly but they (hopefully) couldn’t see him. As he was watching them, he saw Michael kiss Jeremy inside the car where he went wide eyed and he slammed his back against the wall, hoping Michael and Jeremy didn’t see him. 

William wasn’t happy in the slightest. He always didn’t care for Jeremy, but never in a million years would he think Michael would start dating him. But, besides the fact that his son is seeing Jeremy now he had other things to worry about. 

After pairing two and two together, Jeremy was most likely the one Michael first told William’s secret to and probably the first he showed the journal to as well, which he realized he should have figured that out earlier because Michael doesn’t get out much unless it was to hang out with Jeremy. He wasn’t happy that Michael had told him that William was the serial killer living in Hurricane, but there was nothing he could do about it now. Michael had more people on his side now, and William didn’t like that at all. 

After he saw that they were both out of sight, he went back to his car and hit his palm on the steering wheel out of anger once he closed the door behind him. He held the bridge of his nose, but he got an idea since he was alone. 

“Hey, you there?” he said out loud. No response and he sighed. “Hey Schmidt! I need you to work with me here! I just need to talk to you!”

He felt chills all over his body and looked in the seat next to him where the man appeared to him, and William’s body tensed up out of fear and surprise. “Calm down William. You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said. 

William gave him an annoyed side eye. “You’re not funny.”

“You have to admit, that was a good one.”

“I’m not admitting anything.”

“Fine. What?” 

“So…the killing Michael thing, when do you plan on getting on that?”

“Well, it would have progressed significantly without him .”

“Him?”

“For Christ's sake, one of the only other people that he cares for!”

“…wait, Jeremy?!”

“Yes Jeremy! I was hoping that eventually I’d feed Michael with enough guilt that he’d eventually feel guilty about living since those kids obviously can't, but of course Jeremy has to mess it all up! I’m considering just switching to a last resort plan by now but I think it would take a while to actually convince him.”

William wasn’t one to want to keep waiting since he already waited long enough. “So…get rid of Jeremy is what you’re saying?”

“I never said that. I was saying that now it’d be a lot longer than I expected.”

“But…what if I want to kill him? Michael keeps getting in the way of everything and I lost Henry because of him! I want him dead now more than ever and if Jeremy’s getting in the way of that, I want him gone!”

“If you want to figure out some way to kill him to hopefully move things along quicker, you go ahead, I really don’t care.”

“Fine then. I’ll figure out some way to get rid of Jeremy myself.”

Chapter 48

Summary:

Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza has officially re-opened.

(also, a few OC’s will be making their first official appearance in this chapter)

A few weeks before the new restaurant opened, Henry spent almost the whole day reprogramming the animatronics. He had decided that since he had installed facial recognition into the animatronics, he was going to add William Afton along with the other criminals in Hurricane. He was pretty sure that William wouldn’t try to get into the restaurant or if he was even in Hurricane anymore since nobody has heard from him in a while, but better safe than sorry. 

The day after that, he started to fix up the puppet animatronic he found in the alleyway a few weeks ago. From what he could tell, it was in pretty bad condition. It looked like it had gone through all sorts of different weather conditions, the paint was fading since it was unprotected from the sun, the animatronic was filthy with mud and dirt so that the little remaining white paint on the animatronic was no longer white, and every so often the exposed wires would spark. 

However, Henry was determined to fix it up because it would be a great extra security measure, although he wasn’t even sure if he could fix it because of the terrible condition it was in. After working on it for several sleepless nights, plus a few days where Michael wanted to help out because he was never allowed to even touch the animatronics before, Henry was able to get the puppet in working order again by some miracle. 

The only problem was, the puppet would come out of its box and it would roam the pizzeria freely at all hours of the day. For a while, Henry didn’t know how to control the puppet since it looked somewhat frightening as it roamed. Even he was a little frightened by the animatronic roaming since it would usually hang around him. 

He was stumped, until one day when he was about to head home after a long day of working on the final touches on the animatronics, he had gone out into the alleyway to see that someone must have discarded their old music box, but for some reason they had decided to throw it in the alley rather than the trash bin. Henry had decided to take it in temporarily even though it barely worked, because when he wound it up it played Charlotte’s favorite lullaby: My Grandfather’s Clock. When he took it in and left it winding down on the Prize Counter (so there would be noise since he was the last in the pizzeria), he saw that it had not come out of its box when he came back to the room and that sparked an idea for him.

The next day he decided to throw out the old music box and make a new music box, which played My Grandfather’s Clock on repeat for a little while so the puppet would stay in its box and not frighten anyone. He rigged it so it could be wound up remotely by the security cameras, since winding it up at the Prize Counter would be too inconvenient. 

Soon enough, the location was finished and all of the animatronics were in full working order and the hiring process was starting; a few employees were hired for day shift plus a night guard. Henry however, quit the franchise because he wanted little to no connection to that place and would find work as a mechanic elsewhere. 

The new Freddy’s location officially opened in July of 1987. 

---

After the two months the location had been open, the night guard came into the restaurant during the daytime to talk with the manager, since the only time they could catch him was during the daytime hours. 

“Hey!” they said as soon as they walked in the doors and immediately saw the woman working at the Prize Corner. 

“Hey! What are you doing here now? I thought you were on the night shift,” she replied. 

“I am, but I need to talk with him about something. Chances are you might see me here soon at this time if everything goes according to my plan.”

“Well uh, what’re you trying to do?”

“I’m trying to move my shift up. These animatronics…they’re freaky as hell up close.”

“Language! There’s kids around here!”

“Yeah sure, sorry.”

“But we found out about that Freddy head trick though, right?”

“Yeah, two weeks ago. That doesn’t mean they don’t go up to you, sometimes right in front of your face and they’re literally two feet away from you, trying to figure out if you’re one of them or not.”

“That makes sense. Well, good luck I guess.”

“Thanks.” They walked off to the manager’s office, and from down the hallway they saw the security office with the morning security guard inside, but he was dozing off like he usually does. They looked back at the manager’s door and back at him and ran off to the security office where they saw on the monitor that the music box was almost wound down. “Damn it,” they muttered and wound it up. 

Once it was wound up, they went around to face the guard who was still asleep and had his head down on the desk. “Hey,” they said but he stayed sound asleep. “Hey! Wake up!” they said a little louder and poked his arm. Still, nothing and they sighed as they held the bridge of their nose. They thought of something that usually worked and clapped their hands right above his head and yelled, “Hey numbnuts!”

He jolted awake instantly. “Huh? What?” he said and they laughed. When he realized it was them he said, “I’m not a numbnut!”

“What else should I call you for sleeping on the job then?”

“Uh, my name?!”

“But it’s a fun word to say.”

“Get out…wait, why are you here?”

“So you don’t want me to get out, is what I’m hearing?”

“Oh my God…” he said as he put his head down on the desk and they laughed again. He lifted his head up. “Just answer the damn question.”

“I’m trying to move my shift up.”

“Because…”

“This weird glitch, man. I can’t handle these animatronics. They’re creepy as hell up close.”

“So you’re scared of them, is what you’re saying?”

“Shut up.”

He laughed. “Say the right stuff to him and try not to get fired,” he said as he shooed them away and checked the rest of the cameras. 

“Yeah, yeah. And you should really get some coffee or something.” 

“I told you, I don’t like that stuff.”

“You’re strange.”

“Shut the hell up.”

They laughed and walked back down the long hallway, went up to the manager’s door and took a deep breath as they were staring at the name plaque on the door that read ‘Patrick Graham’. “Alright, you got this Alex. Just tell him what you want and get outta here. Simple,” they muttered and knocked three times before they heard a faint ‘Come in’ and opened the door. “Uh, hey,” they said as they closed the door behind them. 

“Oh! What a surprise!”

“Yeah, I need to speak with you about something. Can I sit?”

“Of course, of course,” he said and they took a seat in the chair across from him. “What can I help you with?”

“Uh…lemme just get straight to the point. Can I move my shift up?”

“Move your shift up?” he echoed. 

“Yes. It’s a lot to ask, I know, but I think it’d be better for me.”

“But…we need a night guard!”

“I know, I know. But if you look at it this way, then he doesn’t have to work from open ‘till close and keep falling asleep on the job!”

“But might I remind you, you are the night guard! We need you here in case someone breaks in! It’s not that easy to find a replacement!”

“But no one has broken in yet to try and steal those things, I’m sure they’ll be fine until we find a replacement.”

“Exactly. Yet. Those robots are very expensive and the company can’t afford to lose them! If the company loses them, it will take at least a couple of years to rebuild them! It only took such a short amount of time to build these because parts were reused!”

“And I’m saying that those things still roaming around at night and trying to get into the office have me wondering if I should even come back for another shift! Have you even seen them up close?!”

“The glitch in their system is to blame for that. I’m sorry, but this is just how it’ll have to be until we can get technicians in here, and it most likely will be a long while before they can come in.”

“It’s been two months! It’s an overwhelming experience for me every day, and it leaves me wondering if I’m even up to coming back for another shift the next day! If I moved up to day shift, then I wouldn’t get as overwhelmed with them trying to get into the office since they’ll be on the stage entertaining the kids.”

He stayed silent and held his temples as he thought about it for a little while. He needed a night guard here to keep watch, but at the same time if he refused to move up their shift the company would most likely lose an employee, and the company can’t afford that right now. He finally made up his mind after thinking for a few minutes. “The day shift does have a couple of extra duties, do you think you’ll be able to handle that?”

“Can’t be worse than night shift.”

He sighed. “You start the day shift Monday, three pm sharp. You’ll work from three until close.”

“Really?” they asked excitedly. 

“Yes. I’ll take the night shift until we can find a replacement.”

“Yes! Thank you Graham!”

“It’s Mr. Graham.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“Anyways, be here Monday at three, I’ll inform Robert that he doesn’t have to work from open until close anymore. Don’t make me regret taking you off the night watch.”

“Sweet! Thank you!” they said and walked out of the office. 

“Did you get fired?” Robert yelled at them from down the hall after they closed the door. 

“In your dreams.”

“I’m taking that as a no?”

“No I didn’t get fired, numbnuts.”

“Hey!”

They laughed and passed the tables of chattering and laughing kids as they went to the front doors. “So what happened?” the woman working the Prize Corner asked as they were about to leave. 

“Well, I didn’t get fired.”

“That’s always a good sign.”

“Yeah, and he said that I start the day shift Monday at three.”

“So you got it?”

“Yeah. It was way easier than I thought. I guess I’m just that convincing,” they said and she laughed. 

“Congrats!”

“Thanks. Anyways, I should get going now since my brother is about to get off of school and it looks like you got customers. See ya Hailey!”

“Bye!” she said back to them and they walked out of the front doors to their car in the parking lot. 

Now, all that Patrick needed to do was find a replacement night guard, which he was hoping wouldn’t be too difficult of a task. 

Chapter 49

Summary:

Jeremy gets the news that Freddy’s is hiring.

Jeremy woke up one Wednesday at 12:00 in the afternoon. He didn’t want to get up, he wanted to drift off back to sleep to not have to face the world today but knowing his father he’d have to, plus he was going to meet Michael in about an hour and a half. He sat up and yawned as he rubbed his eyes to wake himself up, and after he did he blinked a few times to get used to the light coming in through his window. He turned on his cassette player because that’s what he did every morning to wake him up, and even though he had it low he could tell that it was playing a song that he’s heard many times: Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears, one of his favorite songs at the moment. 

Once he woke himself up enough he finally got out of bed and went to his closet, where he put on a pair of sweatpants and a random tank top he had. He trudged himself over to his mirror, where he saw that he had bedhead from the night. He never knew how much he moved while he slept but from the looks of it, it seemed to be a lot. He took a brush he had on his dresser and brushed out his hair to tame it down a little, took a hair tie and tied it in a low ponytail so it was out of the way. Lastly, he went over to his bed and he arranged the bed coverings so it was neat, since he couldn’t stand it being unmade. 

He turned off the cassette player and got his guitar out of its case and strummed the strings on it like he did everyday before he left his room. He liked to play his guitar since music was one of his escapes from reality, and ever since he let Michael try to play a few notes on it that one day, it was special to him. 

After a while of trying to play a song on it from memory, he put it back in its case and went out of his room to go to the kitchen to get his daily breakfast of cereal, where he saw his father on the couch watching television. 

“Hola Papá,” Jeremy said as he passed him to the kitchen.

“Tarde Jeremy,” (Afternoon Jeremy.) his father said. “¿Te importa conseguir el periódico?” (Do you mind getting the newspaper?)

Jeremy sighed, but nodded and opened the front door and looked out onto the front lawn where he immediately saw the newspaper rolled up. He went outside to get it, a man who was passing by his house on the sidewalk waved to him where Jeremy waved back to be nice, and went back inside with the newspaper. He gave it to his father on the couch and went to the kitchen where he got his cereal he ate every day out of the pantry. 

He just poured the milk into his bowl when out of the corner of his eye, he saw his father come into the kitchen, put a paper on the counter and leave the kitchen. Jeremy got curious and partially looked up where he saw the ‘Help Wanted’ in big bold letters. “Ugh,” he grunted and went to the table. 

He decided to read the back of the cereal box for what seemed like the millionth time like he has every day, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the ad his father put on the counter. After he was finished with his cereal, he finally let his curiosity get the best of him and he got the ad from the counter, brought it back to the table and read it over. 

It was an ad for the new Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza that Michael had been talking about and the one they had visited before it opened. He read over the short ad and the only problem was, it didn’t specifically say what the position was for. This position though was only $100.50 a week, but it’d be something for him to do and he’d get his father off his back. He thought about it for some time while his leg shook, but he finally decided to take a red pen and circle it. He was going to meet Michael in about an hour at the local coffee shop, so he’ll bring it up then that he was thinking of applying. 

He left to his room to get ready for the day, where he put on his usual blue button down open to reveal a white t-shirt underneath, khaki pants, a black belt and his black Vans. He let his wavy, shoulder length hair down from its low ponytail and tried to style it as best he could as he put the hair tie back on his dresser. Lastly before he left his room, he got on his necklace that he always wore and went back out to the front door. 

“Papá, me voy,” (Dad, I’m leaving.) Jeremy said as he folded and put the ad in his pocket. 

“¿A donde?” (To where?) he asked. 

“He quedado con Michael en algún sitio.” (I’m meeting Michael somewhere.) 

Jeremy grabbed his keys, but his father eyed him suspiciously since he noticed that Jeremy had been going to meet Michael a lot lately. A lot more than he used to. 

“¿Por que?” (Why?) 

“Sólo por una taza de café.” (Just for a cup of coffee.)

He stood up and crossed his arms. “¿Por qué de repente vas a todas partes con él?” (Why are you suddenly going everywhere with him?)

Jeremy hesitated and decided to play dumb. “¿Yo soy?” (I am?)

“¡Sí!”

“…razones. ¿Puedo irme ya?” (…reasons. Can I go now?)

“¡Quiero saber por qué decides salir con él todo el maldito tiempo!” (I want to know why you decide to hang out with him all the damn time!) Jeremy stayed silent and crossed his arms. “¡¿Y bien?!” (Well?!) Jeremy walked past him quickly to the front door, not answering him. He didn’t want to have this conversation right now since it’d ruin his mood. “Jeremy!”

“I don’t wanna talk about this right now,” Jeremy said as he reached for the doorknob, but he felt his father grab his shoulder and he inhaled sharply. 

“All I asked was one simple question Jeremy!” he said as he raised his voice, but in English which he rarely does in the house so Jeremy knew he was getting irritated. 

“No,” he answered quietly.

“No?! That’s the kind of answer I get?!”

“Fine. You want the truth?!”

“That’s what I’ve been asking!”

“We’re dating! There, I said it! Is that the answer you wanted?!”

“I’m sorry…you’re dating him?! I thought I raised you to know that you shouldn’t go off dating boys! You know better!”

“I knew you’d be like this which is why I kept it a secret for so long! More of a reason to get this job to get away from you, Mamá would never be like this,” he said as he opened the front door and slammed it behind him. 

He heard the door open behind him. “Jeremy!” his father yelled, but Jeremy looked back and ignored him. Once Jeremy got to his car and started it up, he cursed under his breath as he backed out and drove out of the neighborhood. 

When he got to the coffee shop, Michael had just arrived as well. He watched Michael get out of his car and come up to his window and lightly tap on it, and Jeremy rolled down his window. 

“Hey!” Michael said as soon as the window was rolled down and noticed Jeremy’s gloomy expression. “…are you okay?”

“Right, I forgot that if I don’t say it, my face will. Uh, not really.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s…it’s my dad. I was forced to tell him about us and well…I don’t think he likes it. I left before he got the chance to yell at me though.”

“Oh my God…can I go and sit next to you?” Jeremy nodded as he rolled up the window and unlocked the door, and Michael got into the passenger’s seat. Jeremy almost immediately hugged Michael once he closed the door behind him and Michael held him close. “It’s okay, I’m right here. And remember, your offer is mutual. If you offered me a place to stay while I was living with my father, I’m living with my uncle now and he has an extra room if you need it.”

Jeremy smiled and hugged him a little tighter before they let go of each other. “I’m sorry. It’s just…overwhelming,” he said as he wiped the corner of his eyes since he was trying to hold back tears. 

“It’s okay. You don’t need to apologize. You still wanna get coffee then we can talk? Or are you not feeling up to it?”

“Yeah, let’s get coffee. I haven’t had any today so my day hasn’t officially started yet.”

Michael chuckled and they both got out of the car and went into the coffee shop together. They both got their coffees and once Jeremy had a sip of his, he felt a little better. They went back out to Jeremy’s car and sat in silence for a little while, sipping their coffees until Michael broke the silence and asked, “Better?” 

Jeremy nodded. “Now looking back on it, that’s another reason why I wanna get a job. I can’t stand him sometimes.”

“I know the feeling.”

“While I’m on the subject, can I show you something we got in the paper today?”

“Sure.”

Jeremy put his cup down and reached into his pocket for the folded ‘Help Wanted’ ad. “I was actually thinking of getting this job. But I know you don’t like this place so I just wanted to come clean instead of hiding it.”

Michael was now a little worried as Jeremy handed him the ad. There weren’t many places he didn’t like, but the ones he didn’t there was a good reason behind it. One was obviously, Freddy’s. The other was a store across town because their prices were high which he didn’t like one bit. If it was one of those two when he unfolded the paper Jeremy gave him, he would definitely be worried. 

Michael unfolded the ad and almost choked on a sip of coffee as he read it. He swallowed and coughed as he put the cup down and wiped his mouth as he held the ad tightly in both of his hands as he stared at it in shock and looked back at Jeremy. 

“Freddy’s?!”

Chapter 50

Summary:

Jeremy starts the application process to get hired at Freddy’s, but Michael is worried about Jeremy working there.

“Yes Freddy’s! They’re hiring!” Jeremy said. 

“Are you sure Jer? You wanna work there?”  

“I’m sure! Besides, what’s the worst that can happen? It even says ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ on the bottom!”

“A lot can happen!” he said as he handed the ad back to Jeremy. 

“You’re worried about nothing Mike. It’s a crappy kid’s restaurant and I want to get out of the house to get away from my dad as soon as possible, plus it’s already been open for a while and I haven’t heard about anything bad happening.”

“Yeah, it’s only been open for like, two months! What about what keeps happening there?! People keep dying at Freddy’s, I don’t want you to be next!”

“I won’t Mike! William’s gone into hiding, since he’s not there anymore, it’ll be fine!”

“But what if something does? I already lost my family, you and Henry are all that I have left!”

“Mike, I’ll be fine, I promise! It’s just something to do until the college year starts up next school year, plus it doesn’t sound like working there would be that hard anyway. You told me that Henry’s got the animatronics under control now.”

“Well, from a mechanic’s viewpoint that’s what he told me, but I know that they can malfunction or something! Do you even know what the job’s for?”

“…no. In my defense it doesn’t say.” Michael sighed and held the bridge of his nose. “Mike, c’mon! I’ll be fine! Plus I wanna prove to you that you’re just being a worry wart!”

“But that’s the thing! I am worried about you because bad things always happen at Freddy’s! I have this terrible feeling that this time would be no different!”

“But since Henry now knows about William and all that, that means he probably put him on their criminal database because I think he'd most likely be paranoid something’ll happen.” 

“Jer, you know I mean this in the nicest way possible: this is a terrible idea.”

“That didn’t sound like the nicest way possible.”

“Look, my point is that it’s not a good idea. I’d feel better if you got a job at a fast food restaurant like you said.”

“I know, but those places aren’t hiring so I’d have no chance. This place looks like they’re trying to get someone to work, so I’d have a better chance which would be a better deal for me.”

“But you know I worry about your well-being Jeremy! I don’t want you to get hurt!”

“And I’m saying you don’t need to worry about me since I’m not a little kid anymore! I’m eighteen, I can take care of myself!”

Michael sighed and slumped in the seat as he thought about his words. It didn’t matter if Jeremy did or didn’t get the job, either way Michael would be worried about him. If Jeremy stayed home, then he would be forced to have to deal with his father more often than he should which might have a bad impact on him in the future. Of course, the place that was hiring as quick as possible where Jeremy would most likely get the job was Freddy’s, and Michael had bad past experiences with the franchise and feared that Jeremy would suffer the same fate. However the more he thought about it, one was much more likely to happen than the other. “You’re right,” Michael said quietly after many minutes. 

“That you are being overprotective of me?”

“I am and I didn’t realize, and I’m sorry. You’re only a few weeks younger than me, so I shouldn’t be babying you. And I totally get why you would want to get away from your father for at least a few hours. From what you told me, things aren’t going well between you two right now.” Michael sighed. “Look, if you actually want this job, call the number.”

“Really?” 

“Yeah. Even though I will worry about you, you deserve to do what you want.”

Jeremy smiled and kissed Michael’s cheek. “D’you have a quarter on you by any chance or have a phone on you? I can’t afford a phone and I see a pay phone right there,” Jeremy said as he looked out the window towards the sidewalk. 

“I don’t have a phone because I haven’t got enough for one, but I do have a quarter,” he said as he dug in his pocket and handed him a quarter. “Are you really sure?” Michael asked before Jeremy got out of the car. 

“Yes!”

Michael put his hands up like he was surrendering to let Jeremy know he wouldn’t get involved, so Jeremy got out of the car and Michael waited in the vehicle as he drank the rest of his coffee. Jeremy closed the door behind him, went over to the pay phone where he put the quarter into the slot and dialed the number on the ad. He heard the phone ring three times before he heard a voice. 

“Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza,” he heard. 

“Hi, I’m calling about the job opening? There was an ad in the paper and it caught my eye.”

“Oh, you’re calling about the opening. Let me get the manager really quick and he’ll speak with you about that.”

“Okay!” Jeremy said as he waited for a minute until he heard another voice. 

“Hello?”

“Hi, I’m calling about the opening?”

“Oh yes, you were interested in the position?”

“Yes! Uh quick question though, what is the position for exactly?” 

“Right, the position is for a night shift security guard.”

“Oh. That should be no problem then.”

“And lucky you, you were actually the only one who called expressing interest in the position and we are in desperate need of someone to work at that time. However, I do need your address so I could send you an application.” Jeremy gave him his address and he wrote it down. “Great. And what is your name sir?”

“Jeremy Fitzgerald.”

“Mr. Fitzgerald, even though there is an extremely high chance that you will get the job, I still need to have you come in for an interview. Do you think you’ll be available next Thursday at three pm?”

“Uh, yes I should be free.”

He waited for a minute while he wrote it down. “Amazing. So I’ll be expecting you next week on Thursday for the interview. My name is Patrick Graham, just ask for me and an employee will escort you to my office when you come in. And be sure to check your mailbox for the application.”

“Got it. Thank you Mr. Graham!”

“See you then Mr. Fitzgerald.”

Jeremy put the phone back, went back to the car in the parking lot and sat in the driver’s seat. “So? What happened?” Michael asked when Jeremy closed the door behind him. 

“Well, I spoke the manager and he said he’s going to send me an application, and I’ll need to go in next Thursday to see if I got the job or not, although he said there’s an extremely high chance I will get it.”

“Really? That’s amazing! So, quick question, what was it for?”

“Oh right. The position’s for a night shift security guard.”

“At night?!” he exclaimed. 

“Yes, night! I’m a night owl anyway!”

“Jer, that’s the worst time to be there!”

“You’re worried over nothing again Mike! I’ll be fine!”

“But…what if something happens to you?! They could act differently at night than they do during the day!”

“Mike, it’s just your bad stigma surrounding the place talking. They have that facial recognition feature so they’ll recognize that I’m not a threat, hopefully. I just have to make sure some rando doesn’t break in and steal anything, plus I’ll probably be getting paid to nap.”

Michael smiled. “Just promise me you’ll be extra careful. I just have a bad feeling about that place,” he said, taking Jeremy’s hands in his. 

“I promise you, I’ll be careful Mike.”

Michael lightly squeezed Jeremy’s hand because a part of him still couldn’t let go of the terrible feeling that something bad was going to happen while Jeremy was working at Freddy’s, but even then he still had no idea what this feeling could possibly be. The other part of him thought that maybe Jeremy was right since William was no longer working at Freddy’s, and it was just his mind making him fear the worst. 

Chapter 51

Summary:

Interview time.

“Well, here we go,” Jeremy said to himself as he sat in the driver’s seat of his car while he was parked in the parking lot of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. He looked in the rear view mirror, fixed his bleached hair (but his natural charcoal black colored hair was just starting to show from the roots) for what seemed like the hundredth time and put it in a low ponytail. He had also found a white button down and black slacks in his closet, and decided it was good enough to wear for an interview. 

He wanted this job. He wanted to get out of the house because he and his father had gotten into an intense argument that day when Jeremy got back home and they now spoke to each other very little, but he also wanted to prove to Michael that there was nothing to be afraid of, but if things actually did end up going south then he can take care of himself. 

He took a deep breath and went inside, and immediately heard the laughter and chatter of children. A lot of children in fact, so a part of him was thankful that this opening was for night shift. He looked around the brightly colored pizzeria, with the three main animatronics on stage with children all around them, children going in and out of a room off to the side that he assumed was like another Pirate’s Cove, and parents at tables or talking with each other near the back wall. There weren’t many employees around the restaurant, but the one he first saw upon entering when he walked in was managing the Prize Corner. He went up to the counter where he was met with a blonde, blue eyed woman who looked to be about nineteen or twenty. 

“Hey! How can I help you?” she asked Jeremy. 

“I’m here for an interview with, uh…”

“Mr. Graham! He said you were coming in today for the interview. I’m pretty busy here, but in a few I can show you to his office!” Right at that moment, she saw another employee walk in about to clock in for their shift and they had a 7-11 cup in hand. “Actually…hey Alex!” she said to get their attention. The employee went up to the counter next to Jeremy, and the first thing that caught his attention about their appearance was that they had light patches on their dark brown skin. 

“‘Sup?” they said as they sipped their drink. 

“Can you show him to Mr. Graham’s office? He’s here for the interview.”

“Sure.” They turned to Jeremy. “So you’re here for the interview?”

“Uh-yes.”

“He said someone was coming in today for that. Lemme just put my stuff down then I’ll show you to his office.” They started walking towards the hallway but stopped to turn to Jeremy. “Well c’mon! If you get the job, you’re gonna wanna know what the security office looks like! Plus his office is down here!” Jeremy followed Alex to the hallway and ended up walking next to them. They walked side by side in silence for a little bit and Alex decided to break the awkward silence between them and said, “I’m Alex by the way, but you probably already knew that ‘cause of her. Her name’s Hailey, but I dunno if you’ll need to know that ‘cause the position’s for night shift.”

“Nice to meet you Alex. I’m Jeremy.”

“Well Jeremy, if you do get the job, I'm the day shift security guard and I always close up this place, so we would be seeing each other pretty often…I think.” 

Jeremy chuckled. “This place is so much bigger than the other location.”

“I’ve never gone to the previous location a whole lot, so I’ll take your word for it.”

“It’s so quiet down here,” Jeremy said once he realized the chatter and laughter of children was significantly fainter.

“That’s one of the reasons why I became a security guard for this place. All that noise is sure to drive me insane and I might hurt someone.”

“…I can’t tell if you’re joking or you’re serious.”

“Nah, I’m just messing with you, don’t worry. I’d never do something like that,” Alex said as they laughed to themselves and Jeremy snickered. 

They got to the security office, and it was obviously bigger than the one at the other location, but the only difference was that there were no doors. Alex put their cup on the desk and went back to Jeremy. As they walked in the room, Jeremy noticed another security guard at the desk with dark brown shaggy hair, skin the same medium brown as his own and he also looked about nineteen or twenty. He was dozing off at the security desk and had his head down. “Who’s that?” Jeremy asked when Alex came back to him. 

“Oh him? That’s Robert. He’s the morning security guard and somehow he always manages to sleep on the job and get away with it.”

“Hey. I start early man, so don’t blame me,” he said sleepily. He picked his head up and opened his eyes to look at Alex.

“Well good morning sunshine!” Alex said teasingly. 

“Shut up.”

“Anyways, Rob this is Jeremy, he’s here for the interview,” they said introducing Jeremy and Robert looked up at him. 

“Oh! You were the one who called about the interview last week?” he asked him. 

“Uh, yup.”

“I was the one who picked up at first.”

“Oh! Hey!”

“So uh, I suspect it’s supposed to start soon so Alex here should show you to his office,” he said as he tried to sound annoyed at them because it was now exactly three pm. 

“Yeah, I’ll get on that and it’s three so YOU.” Alex shooed him away. Robert rolled his eyes and waved to Jeremy when he left, and Alex and Jeremy walked out of the office together. “Don’t worry, we’re always like that to each other. He’s actually a cool guy but we like to annoy one another,” they said to Jeremy. 

“Oh…I thought you hated each other or something.” Alex chuckled. “So uh…the office has no doors?” Jeremy asked. 

“Nope. Terrible design, I know. I don’t even know why they thought that was a good idea.” They led him back down the hallway and off to a separate room that said ‘Patrick Graham’ on the name plaque . Alex knocked on the door to where they heard a faint ‘Come in’ and Alex opened the door. “Hey Graham?”

“It’s Mr. Graham. I told you this several times.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“How can I help you, Mr. Davis?”

“Uh, it’s about the interview you told us about? He’s here.”

“Oh yes.” He saw Jeremy behind Alex. “Come in, come in.” Jeremy went into the office and Alex closed the door behind him. Jeremy stood awkwardly and he was motioned to sit in the chair across from him, and he took a seat and the interview began. “So, do you have the application I sent you?”

“Oh! Yes it’s right here,” he said as he handed him an application paper and read it. 

“It says here you’re eighteen years old, correct?”

“Yes. I turned eighteen in June and I have already graduated, so the night shift shouldn’t be a problem.”

He looked over the application Jeremy gave him. “Everything here looks good. So, I just need to ask you a few questions Mr. Fitzgerald.” From a drawer on his desk, he took out a clipboard that had a sheet of paper on it and a pen. Jeremy inhaled and exhaled deeply as he tried to remind himself he was prepared since he had stayed up late the previous night practicing his answers. “First question, do you have any similar work experience to the position you’re applying for?”

“No, I don’t. This would be a new experience for me but it will expand my horizons in the workforce.”

He wrote that answer down. “Next question, what would you look for regarding irregularities in the premises after hours?”

“I would look for anyone in the building after hours who is not an employee or manager, and I would also look for any suspicious activity that I see.”

He wrote those words down. “Great, one final question. Do you have any history with any of the locations?” Jeremy didn’t want to answer that question, being that the history he did have with the franchise wasn’t the best and he hated to even think about it. He thought all the way back to when he was fourteen at the original Fredbear’s location and his leg started to shake. “Mr. Fitzgerald?” 

Calm yourself, Jeremy. The past is the past, he thought and snapped out of his trance. “Uh, no, I don’t,” he lied. Mr. Graham looked at him with slight concern and wanted to ask if he was alright, but tried to brush it off since he had to get through the interview. 

“Um, so for payment reasons, is the address you have written down on here correct?”

“Yes.”

“And if I ever need to contact you, the phone number you have written down is correct?”

“Yes it is.”

“Well from the looks of it, you got the job.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yup! Your first day is Monday evening, at ten pm sharp. Alex will be here every day closing up and they'll show you around on your first day. After your first day, you can come in at eleven, but I suggest coming in a little bit earlier to help Alex close up the pizzeria.”

“Thank you Mr. Graham!” Jeremy exclaimed as he shook his hand.

“And, I need your shirt size before you leave so I can have your uniform ready by Monday.”

---

“So how’d it go?” Michael asked over the telephone once Jeremy got home. 

“It went well! I uh, I got the job.”

“Really? That’s great!”

“Yeah! I start on Monday, so wish me luck!”

Chapter 52

Summary:

Jeremy arrives at the pizzeria for his first night on the job.

That Monday evening, Jeremy arrived at the location for his first night on the job. He came to the pizzeria in just a t-shirt, jeans and his necklace he wears everywhere for good luck since he didn’t have his uniform yet, but was still very unsure of what to expect. 

He used a key on a key ring that he was given after the interview to open the front door, and the ring had many other keys on it that went to different rooms. He was supposed to meet Alex on his first day so they could show him what to do and how to work everything. Once he walked inside and put the key ring back on his belt loop, the restaurant was eerily quiet and only a few lights were on. 

“Hello?” he called out and went inside. Still, he didn’t see a sign of movement so he decided to look around until he spotted them. “Hello? Alex, you here?” he called out again. Still, he heard nothing. He went to Kids Cove and turned on the light but saw nothing out of the ordinary, except that the fox animatronic was broken in pieces on the floor. “What the hell’d they do to you?” he whispered. It looked even scarier to him up close, and especially when it was a mess of parts on the floor.  

He turned off the light and went to the stage where the new animatronics were. Up close, the animatronics definitely looked like they were supposed to be more kid friendly, but he looked around and didn’t see a sign of any movement. He went to the Prize Corner, where he kept hearing the lullaby, ‘My Grandfather’s Clock’ in the big box on the floor. The box was closed and didn’t budge open, so he couldn’t even see if they moved Puppet in the box like Michael said. He went up to the Prize Corner counter, but it wasn’t long before Alex jumped out from behind it. 

“Boo!” they yelled and Jeremy yelped as he jumped back in fright and Alex laughed, and he couldn’t help but let out a slight chuckle with them. “I got you!”

“Holy…” he whispered as he put his hand on his chest feeling his heart racing. 

“Look man, it’s been a while since I had interaction with someone my own age outside the pizzeria, let me have this.”

“Yeah I get that just…oh my God you scared the shit outta me,” he said as he put his head down on the counter. 

Alex snickered. “Sorry man, but I was busy restocking and I couldn’t help myself. But if you want my advice…I suggest you get used to it a little.”

“You’re gonna scare me again?”

“Not me, but you’ll get scared here most likely.”

He picked his head up to look at them. “What?”

“Anyways, I’m done restocking here, should we get started with the tour?”

“Uh…sure.” Alex went to Kid’s Cove and Jeremy followed them. “Wait, what did you mean by that?!”

“I can’t really explain it, but you’ll find out.”

Jeremy gulped. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Trust me, I don’t either and I’ve worked here since this place opened.” They both went over to Kids Cove and Alex turned on the light. “This is Kids Cove. This is where the toddlers and kids usually come to get their greasy little hands all over everything they can reach.”

“What about…” Jeremy pointed to the fox animatronic that was a mess of parts on the floor. 

“Oh yeah. That’s Toy Foxy, but seeing as what the kids do to them, the employees and myself just refer to it as ‘Mangle’.”

“So, Mangle. That’s what everyone calls it.”

“Yep. Be careful with her though. It gets…feisty sometimes. Speaking of which, I have to put it back together again before I forget, this’ll take a few.” Jeremy nodded and he waited for Alex to put Mangle back together. “D’you think you can give me that hand? My arms aren’t that long.” Jeremy nodded and picked up Mangle’s hand that was just out of Alex’s reach and gave it to them. “Thanks Jeremy.”

“No problem. It's so much bigger up close.”

“Yep. These things are…scarily big,” Alex said and they finished fixing up Mangle, motioned Jeremy to follow them out of Kid’s Cove and turned off the light. Jeremy followed Alex once again to another part of the pizzeria. “This is the Game Area. Another place for kids to get their greasy hands on everything.”

“What about this?” Jeremy asked as he went up to another animatronic. 

“Oh, that one’s Balloon Boy. A lot of staff don’t really care for him, me included.”

“Why’s that?”

“He likes to steal flashlight batteries and it pisses me off.”

Jeremy chuckled. “Makes sense. Why does he do that?”

Alex shrugged. “Dunno. Everyone thinks it’s ‘cause of the weird glitch, but no one knows for sure.” 

“Glitch?”

Alex nodded and led Jeremy to the Prize Corner. “This is obviously the Prize Corner, where kids can exchange tickets for prizes. I'm just now realizing the name was kinda self explanatory and you didn’t need me to explain it.”

“What’s in there?” Jeremy asked, pointing to the box. 

“Oh that? It’s for this Puppet animatronic. I was told it was brought in about a week or two before opening for extra security measures or something. Haven’t seen it a lot though since it usually stays inside the box.” 

So Mike was right, Jeremy thought. “Have you ever actually seen it?” he asked. 

“I have once. A while ago, around the time the pizzeria opened and I was still learning what to do. Puppet came into the office because I forgot to wind up the music box, asked if I was working for a dude named…William because I have a security guard uniform, but I said I wasn't and eventually got it back.”

“Music box?”

“Oh yeah. Puppet has this music box and when it’s wound up and playing music, it won’t move. It’s the lullaby that keeps playing on repeat over here and to be honest, it gets pretty annoying after a while so thank God I don’t work over here. Anyway if you don’t wanna get scared shitless by it, don’t forget the music box. ”

Jeremy was now a little frightened and rubbed his own arm. “Uh…okay…”

“I’m not tryna scare you, but this place does get a hell of a lot creepier at night. C’mon, lemme show you the stage.” They went to the stage as Jeremy followed and stood next to them. “This is the Show Stage where Toy Freddy, Toy Bonnie and Toy Chica perform. From my experience, they don’t cause a huge bother but are still worth keeping an eye on.”

Jeremy gave them a questioning side eye and turned to them. “What d’you mean ‘keeping an eye on’?”

“Uh…it’s a little hard to explain, but the best way I can describe it is that they move. That’s what the weird glitch is.” Jeremy went wide eyed and rubbed his own arm again. “Don’t be afraid of them though. They’re not a huge deal since you’re not in the criminal database.” They leaned closer to Jeremy and whispered, “I think they can smell fear though.”

“How?”

“I dunno. They just can. C’mon, just a little more then we get to the office,” Alex said. As they walked they asked Jeremy, “You know they can’t actually smell fear, right?”

“Oh thank God. You had me worried for a second.”

Alex chuckled. “I particularly just find these things creepy, and whenever I was scared of them, I felt like…they sensed it somehow and tried to creep me out more.”

“That’s still creepy, and I would still count it as smelling fear,” Jeremy said and they both snickered. 

As they went down the hallway, Alex listed off the places they passed. “Anyway, here are the bathrooms, uh there’s a few party rooms if we turn-”

“What’s that room?” Jeremy asked as he eyed a room at the end of the hall.

“That one’s Parts and Services. I’ve actually…never been in there, and even though we’re security guards Graham doesn’t give us a key to that room. He doesn’t really allow anyone back there unless we have a good reason, and no one has come up with a good enough lie to go in there and check it out.”

“D’you know what’s in there?”

“Yeah. I’ll show you on the cameras once we get there. That’s really the only way employees know what’s in that place.” Alex turned and led him down another hallway. “So anyway, we have four party rooms here, and at the end of the hall we have in my opinion the best place here because it’s away from everyone, the security office.” 

There wasn’t much in the room, just a security desk with the monitors, papers which some were untouched  and some were crinkled up into balls and a metal fan on the desk. There was also an empty 7-11 drink cup on the desk which Alex took. 

“Sorry, that’s mine.”

“You’re good. Um, what’s this?” Jeremy asked as he noticed there were a couple shirts folded on the desk. 

“Oh right! Graham wanted me to give those to you. Your uniforms came in.”

“Uniform…plural?”

Alex laughed. “You’re funny Jeremy. Yes, we just get multiple copies of the uniform in case one’s in the wash or something. But we security guards get different uniforms than everyone else, it’s more security guard-ish. It’s basically just a white button down with black shoulder pads. Nothing special.”

“The others look like…red button downs or something, right?”

“Yeah. But they say ‘Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria’ on the back. Oh and one more thing, you get your very own name tag!”

They handed him a name tag that had his name on it and directly under it in smaller font it said ‘Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria’, and for the first time it sunk in that he actually had a job at this place. 

“Woah,” was all Jeremy said. 

“Pretty neat, huh? Anyways uh, any questions about the place?

“Yeah. Just one.”

“Shoot.”

“The vents. Why are they so big?”

“That is actually the one question I don’t have the answer to because I have no idea.”

“Who designed this place? That makes no sense.”

Alex laughed. “Don’t look at me, I didn’t have the ‘bright idea’ to make the vents so big. Oh wait! I’m so forgetful, I need to show you how to work the cameras.” Jeremy’s eyes lit up since that was the part he’s been looking forward to, even if he forgot himself. “So, it’s pretty easy honestly. You just kinda…pick which camera you want to see and it shows up on the monitor. Each camera has a flashlight, but make sure to use it sparingly.”

“Why?”

“The flashlights on the cameras have a battery that doesn't get checked until this place opens, so you don’t wanna use it all then have no flashlight power until daylight. But here’s the kicker, the music box I’ve told you about. Every so often just switch over to the Prize Corner video feed and wind it up. Because trust me, you don’t want Puppet coming out of the box unless you wanna be scared to fall asleep that day.” Jeremy gave them a side eye. “That totally didn’t happen to me, shut up.”

Jeremy chuckled. “So uh…Parts and Service-”

“Oh right, Parts and Service! I tell ya I’m so forgetful sometimes,” they said as they switched over to Parts and Service’s video feed and turned on the light, and Jeremy couldn’t believe it. All of the original animatronics were in that room, but in what looked like a worse state than before.

“They’re all still here?!” Jeremy exclaimed. 

“Wait, you recognize those things?”

“Yeah, they’re the animatronics from the previous location! I-I didn’t think they’d still keep them around, I thought they’d get rid of them after…” he trailed off as he realized what he was saying and slapped his own hand over his mouth. 

“After…”

 Jeremy took his hand away from his mouth. “Uh, never mind. Forget I said anything.”

“Uh, anyways d’you need me to stay to show you what to do or are you good? I’ve worked this job before, so I can stay if you want.”

“From how you described it, this job actually sounds pretty easy so I think I’m good.”

“Alright, wait hold on.” They reached behind the Prize Corner counter, grabbed a scrap piece of paper, wrote some numbers down and gave it to Jeremy. “If you need anything, just call me and I’ll be here, ‘cause working here can get overwhelming sometimes. Good luck Jeremy!” they said as they went out the doors. 

“Bye Alex!” Jeremy called out to them. Jeremy watched them walk out the doors, folded up the paper Alex gave him and put it in his pocket. It was then he realized, they looked strangely familiar like he had seen them many years ago. Sure, he knew many people who had dark brown skin, kept their thick, coarse hair in locs and in a ponytail to keep their hair out of their face, but what stood out to him about Alex was that they had many light patches on their skin, where he was sure he had seen someone have that same condition several years ago. Someone he’s seen at school ever since he was young and they always caught his eye because they were the only person in the entire school who had light spots on their skin. Only problem was, he didn’t remember the name of this person so he didn’t know if they were the same. 

After Alex left, Jeremy was alone in the pizzeria and he had to admit, the ambiance was a little creepy to him. He turned off the lights, went back to the security office and sat in the rolling office chair. 

Alright Jeremy, here we go. First night on the job.

Chapter 53

Summary:

Jeremy realizes that he wasn’t being lied to when he was told he would have strange encounters on the graveyard shift.

Once the clock struck twelve, Jeremy made sure that he kept the music box wound up in case Alex was telling the truth and continually checked the cameras out of boredom. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary which made him question if they actually did move, but he heard the telephone ring which startled him since he wasn’t expecting it. 

“Jesus Christ,” he said under his breath and he picked up the telephone. 

“Uh, hello? Hello, Hello?” he heard. This sounded like an audio recording so he didn’t answer. “Uh, hello and welcome to your new summer job at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.”

There had to have been a mistake when recording. He checked one of the papers on the desk. It's September twenty eighth.

“Uh, I’m here to talk you through some of the things you can expect to see during your first week here to help you get started down this new and exciting career path. Uh, now I want you to forget anything you may have heard about the old location, you know. Uh, some people still have a somewhat negative impression of the company.”

Wow. I wonder why, he thought. 

“Uh…that old restaurant was kinda left to rot for a while, but I want to reassure you, Fazbear Entertainment is committed to family fun and above all, safety.”

That’s a new one.

“They’ve spent a small fortune on these new animatronics, uh, facial recognition, advanced mobility, they even let them walk around during the day. Isn’t that neat?”

Yeah, neat and not creepy at all.

“But most importantly, they’re tied into some kind of criminal database, so they can detect a criminal a mile away. Heck, we should be paying them to guard you.”

I don’t think so. I need the money.

“Uh, now with that being said, no new system’s without its…kinks. You’re only the second guard to work at that location. The first guy finished his week but complained about…conditions. Uh, we switched him over to the day shift, so hey, lucky you, right? Uh, mainly he expressed concern that certain characters seemed to move around at night, and even attempted to get into the office.”

So Alex was right. They do move, he thought and was now starting to get a little more anxious than he was before. 

“Now, from what we know that should be impossible. Uh, that restaurant should be the safest place on earth. So while our engineers don’t really have an explanation for this, the working theory is that…they were never given a proper ‘night mode’. So when it gets quiet, they think they’re in the wrong room, so they’ll go try and find where the people are, and in this case that’s your office.”

Yeah. Totally the ‘safest place on earth’.

“So our temporary solution is this. There’s a music box rigged to be wound up remotely. So just every once in a while, switch over to the Prize Corner video feed and wind it up for a few seconds. It doesn’t seem to affect all the animatronics, but it does affect…one of them.

”Uh, and as for the rest of them, we have an even easier solution. You see, there may be a minor glitch in the system, something about the robots seeing you as an endoskeleton without its costume on, and wanting to stuff you in a suit, so hey, we’ve given you an empty Freddy Fazbear head, problem solved!”

Why would he just brush over that like it’s nothing?!

“You can put it on anytime, and leave it on for as long as you want. Eventually anything that wanders in, will wander back out.”

Maybe Mike was right about this job being dangerous, Jeremy thought as his leg started to shake. 

“Uh, something worth mentioning is kind of the modern design of the building. You may have noticed there are no doors for you to close, heh. But hey, you have a light! And even though your flashlight can run out of power, the building cannot. So don’t worry about the place going dark.

“Well I think that’s it. Uh, you should be golden. Uh, check the lights, put on the Freddy head if you need to, uh, keep the music box wound up. Piece of cake. Have a good night and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” 

Jeremy put the phone down and saw that almost two hours had gone by already. Well, I survived two hours, who’s to say I can’t live four more? he thought. 

Jeremy looked back at the camera monitor and as he flipped through the cameras saw that Toy Bonnie had left the stage. Shit, he thought. He didn’t think that they would actually start moving, he thought that maybe there was a chance that Alex was trying to scare him again. 

He frantically flipped through the cameras and found Toy Bonnie in one of the party rooms. He kept watching the animatronic as he bit the inside of his cheek, and he felt as though Toy Bonnie was staring straight at him through the camera. The thought sent shivers down his spine and he shook that thought away, but when he looked back he saw that Toy Bonnie had left the room. 

He flipped through the cameras thinking Toy Bonnie went to another room, but the searching didn’t last long until he heard something crawling in the vent. He stared at the vent wide eyed in worry, hesitantly switched over to the camera in the right vent and turned on the light and to his surprise, he saw Toy Bonnie. He froze in fear, not thinking they would get into the vents but saw Toy Bonnie crawl past the camera. Shit, shit, shit… he thought, but he remembered that he was told to put on the Freddy Fazbear mask and that way the animatronic would wander back out. Let’s hope this works, he thought. 

He put on the mask as soon as he saw Toy Bonnie appear out of the vent and he could hear his own panicked breathing. As Toy Bonnie stood, Jeremy realized the animatronics were way bigger than they looked on the stage and he felt small compared to them. 

Jeremy froze again in fear as Toy Bonnie went up to him and tried to figure out if Jeremy was an animatronic or not, and the whole time Jeremy could feel his heart racing from the panic. Eventually, Toy Bonnie gave up on trying to figure it out since he looked way shorter but looked like Freddy and wandered out of the office. Jeremy watched Toy Bonnie leave and took off the mask, but he realized he was holding his breath and he exhaled. 

He switched over to the Prize Corner video feed like he was told, and saw the music box winding down by itself being that he forgot to wind it up for a while. He decided that since he saw Alex wasn’t kidding about the animatronics moving around, they might be telling the truth about Puppet as well and that it actually is creepy looking, especially up close. Jeremy wound up the music box and made a mental note to check it every so often. 

He kept seeing the other Toy animatronics every so often, but after his encounter with Toy Bonnie he knew what to do. It still scared him, but he seemed to get used to it more and more each time he saw them. He just needed to listen for them in the vents, look for Toy Freddy in the hallway and keep the music box wound up and he was safe. 

He decided to check in Parts and Services again, since he was afraid those would start moving as well, but to his relief they hadn’t moved an inch. They weren’t supposed to be working anyway, but he thought it would be best to check. 

Before he knew it, the clock struck 6:00am so he clocked out and went out the back door to his car in the parking lot. As he walked out, he was almost thankful to hear those annoying mourning doves cooing softly in the distance after this bizarre night he had. 

Maybe this job is a lot more stressful than I thought. At least it’s not boring me to death, he thought as he sat in the driver’s seat. As he looked out the window, he saw the sun barely coming up over the hills and heard the roar of the engines of the cars on the highway going to work. He started up his own car, was thankful to hear the engine roar after his strange night and drove home to where he almost immediately fell asleep in his bed since he got almost no rest before his shift. 

Chapter 54

Summary:

William finds out that Jeremy is working at the Freddy’s location.

William sat on the old couch at the abandoned house as he tried to think to himself about what he saw the previous night. Last night, he was driving around town since he needed to get out of the house because he hadn’t been out of hiding often, and decided the safest time to leave the house was at night. He was driving until he saw a car in the Freddy’s parking lot that looked very familiar, like he had seen it many times before. 

He decided to let his curiosity get the best of him and turned into the parking lot, parked far away from the building and ran up to the side of the building to where he could just see the car from peeking around the corner. He watched as he saw someone very familiar get out of the car, unlock the front door to the building and went inside. 

It was Jeremy, and William was almost shocked that he had gotten a job here. Although, the more he thought about it, Michael had probably said he shouldn’t and it was classic Jeremy to want to prove himself. 

As William sat on that couch, he remembered that getting rid of the people Michael was close to would be the only way to get rid of him faster, Jeremy being the obvious one. That’s when he thought of the perfect plan since Jeremy was working at Freddy’s; William knew how to reprogram the animatronics since he helped to build them and smiled to himself. It was then that he felt the coldness in the room and rolled his eyes. 

“Go away!” he yelled to the room and the poltergeist appeared in front of him, just as frightening as he always has been. William jolted back in surprise. “You know I hate it when you do that!”

He scoffed and disappeared, but the coldness in the room stayed. “You know, you’re not very good at hiding your ‘plans’,” he said. 

“What?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, William.”

“Since you won’t stop pestering me, I said I wanted to get rid of Fitzgerald and I found the perfect way I can. And before you go off telling Michael anything at all, don’t. I don’t want him knowing I want to get rid of Fitzgerald, because God knows that’ll motivate him to find me.”

“What are you going to do if I tell him, kill me?!”

“You absolutely know I can.”

“You know I’m your only hope at getting rid of Michael, otherwise if you hadn’t done what you did all those years ago I'd leave you to figure it out for yourself.” 

“What?”

He laughed. “Of course, I wouldn’t be surprised you don’t know why I’m actually helping you.” 

“What do you mean?! Tell me!”

“It’s because of you that I’m still here. Even if that set is destroyed by, say, a sledgehammer, I can still live on.”

“I don’t understand…”

William felt his head jerk forward and a pain like he hit him on the back of the head. “Remnant, you dimwit,” he said. 

“So, you lied to me?!”

”About my life before this, why I killed that boy and my son? No. About why I decided to help you? Precisely.”

“You lying son of a bitch…” William muttered under his breath. He couldn’t believe he had tricked him into believing he just wanted to make his kids lives miserable, but he wasn’t as mad as he thought because this meant he didn’t have to deal with Michael by himself. “But…I didn’t collect any remnant then, at least I don’t think I did…” he said.

“Don’t you see William? You’ve forgotten. That day, you did harvest very little because you were curious like any boy would be, and that day I appeared to you, you smashed the screen and the vial of the little remnant you harvested splattered on it. I was free, but now I am how Evelyn was at first: still free, but tied down to Earth since it was so little.”

Evelyn?! William thought. “I thought there was a reason it seemed familiar. So…you’re blaming me?!”

“Yes. It’s your fault I have to rely on that set. If you hadn’t dropped that vial on the set all those years ago I’d leave you to it yourself; I’m only doing this because it’s what you wanted so I knew there would be less of a chance of you destroying me.” William could feel the rage flowing through him. He wanted to destroy that set just because of what he said, but then again he’s the only shot he has to kill off Michael without getting caught or any suspicions drawn to him, so he stayed silent. “Anyhow, this’ll be fun to watch. And before I leave William, if you’re smart and don’t want to get caught, might I suggest changing your appearance.”

“Whatever. Get outta here.”

---

When Jeremy finally woke up at four in the afternoon, he went to the neighborhood park to sit in silence by himself until Michael arrived. He had called Michael earlier to ask him to meet up at the park at five o’ clock, and he felt a tap on his shoulder shortly after he arrived. 

“Jer?” he heard next to him and Jeremy looked up from his spot on the bench to see Michael had arrived. 

“Mikey!” Jeremy said as his face brightened and he stood up from the bench and hugged him. 

“Oh my God, you’re okay,” Michael said, relieved as he hugged Jeremy tightly. 

“I told you I would be fine. My sleep schedule might be fucked up now, but I’m completely fine!” he said but Michael refused to stop hugging him, so they stood in each other’s arms for a while. 

Michael smiled, relieved that Jeremy was alright before hugging him a little tighter and letting him go. “So uh, how was it?” Michael asked as they sat on the bench together. 

“It was…stressful. I think it’s ‘cause it’s my first day so it’s a strange experience for me.”

“See? That’s why you should quit,” Michael said and Jeremy chuckled. 

“I’ve only been there a day, Mike. I can’t quit now!”

“I know, but I’m worried about you. It just seems dangerous and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Nothing’ll happen Mike, I promise. You’re such a worry wart.”

Michael smiled. “Well, uh, anything else?”

“Yeah, the day shift guard who closes up the place’s name is Alex. They seem pretty chill. I didn’t really meet any of the others since they all work day shift, but they all seem nice.”

“What about the animatronics? Are they acting…strange?”

“Not from what I can see. Although, I learned that Toy Foxy does have sharp teeth…which I don’t know if that’s safe to have around kids but that’s not my problem since I’m not the one who’ll get sued by an angry parent for that.” Michael chuckled. “But all in all, the job isn’t actually that bad. It’s only sometimes the animatronics move around-” 

“Wait, they move?!”

“Apparently yeah, even during the day sometimes. But I’m slowly getting used to it and the only really scary thing is the phone ringing.” 

Michael snickered. “So uh, I was wondering, do you want to go and get coffee at the coffee shop before your shift? Might help you to have some and then take in another so you don’t sleep on the clock.”

“Sure! I’d love to!”

He and Jeremy had some time to kill before Jeremy’s next shift started, so they decided to drive around town and go grab a quick dinner together before they got coffee. But as they both made their way to his car, Michael couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to go terribly wrong sometime and he stared out the front window in silence. 

Jeremy noticed that Michael looked like he was deep in thought about something after he got into the car and shut the door behind him. “Mike? You okay?” Jeremy asked with slight worry in his voice as he put his hand on Michael’s shoulder.

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine,” Michael replied as he snapped out of his trance. Jeremy took his hand off of his shoulder as Michael turned the key in the ignition and drove out of the neighborhood. As they drove, Michael  replayed Jeremy’s reassurances in his head from earlier, but he still couldn’t shake this strange feeling even if he didn’t know who or what he should be worried about. Then again, he figured, it might just be his head messing with him and there was hopefully nothing to worry about. 

Chapter 55

Summary:

Jeremy finds out that Michael was hiding something from him.

From what Jeremy could tell, everything was perfectly safe at the restaurant. Nothing has tried to attack him, at least in the past week he’s been working there, and if anything the animatronics just wandered around not bothering him in the slightest. Maybe frightening him because they were a lot taller than him, but they didn’t bother him. 

He walked into the building with a steaming hot coffee in his hand that he had gotten with Michael, and he was met with Alex again as he went in the doors who was just closing up the diner. 

“Wow! You came back after your first week!” Alex exclaimed once they paused from sweeping the floor, turned around and saw him. 

“It’s my job! Not like I had a choice!” he replied. 

“I would’ve thought those things would scare ya off!”

“I don’t back down that easily.”

Alex chuckled. “Uh…ready to help me close up this place again?”

“What else is there to do?”

“I just have to finish sweeping here, wiping tables and the counter down and of course fixing Mangle…again.” they said. Jeremy nodded as he put his coffee down on the Prize Counter, grabbed a rag from behind the counter and he started wiping it down and Alex resumed sweeping. “Y’know, I honestly didn’t think you’d stick around after your first week. I mean from what I’ve heard, this place has a bad reputation.”

“The animatronics are difficult to handle, but I manage. Plus I have stuff going on at home and I want to prove to my…friend I’m safe here.”

“Makes sense, although I can honestly see why your friend is worried about you. Those things moving around on their own are…a little creepy.” They finished sweeping and leaned the broom against the wall. “Anyways, do you think you can help me try and fix Mangle? Those kids keep breaking them.”

“They broke it again?”

“Yep, this is the second time this week it had to be put back together and it’s only Monday. I showed you last week how to put him back together, right?”

“Yeah, let me just finish up here.” Jeremy put the rag back under the counter and followed Alex to Kid’s Cove, and just as they said Mangle was a mess of parts on the floor. “Jesus,” he muttered. 

“Those kids can’t keep their hands to themselves nowadays. Who knows how many times we have to keep fixing them up before we just leave it.”

“10 bucks it’ll take a week or less.”

“Deal.” 

They knelt down and started fixing up Mangle together when Jeremy decided to break the silence between them so he asked, “Hey Alex, I was thinking about what you said last week, and were you the last night guard here?”

“You mean the first one?”

“First one, last one, same thing.”

Alex chuckled. “Took you long enough. Yes, I was actually the first night guard here.”

“So, what made you quit and move up to day shift?”

“It was the animatronics. They should really fix that ‘night mode’ thing so they stop getting into the office all the time.”

“Really? That’s it?”

“Well when you put it like that it sounds like I just quit the night shift because I was a coward! But now that I think about it I guess I kinda made it sound that way…but the real reason is whenever they wander into the office, it seems almost as if they’re looking for someone. When they saw me before we figured out the Freddy head trick, they would just…stare for a while, it felt like they were staring straight into my soul. It can just be because of the glitch and it might be my head messing with me, but it overwhelmed me to the point that I couldn’t handle it.”

“I guess it can get pretty overwhelming if that happened since the place opened.”

“So really just try not to get freaked out by them like I was. Yeah I get they’re creepy, but the kids love ‘em for some reason so we can’t get rid of ‘em, but now that we know the Freddy head trick you should be fine. Oh, by the way I found something out today by eavesdropping.”

“What’s that?”

“Turns out we’re getting a new hire next week.”

“Oh? Who?”

“So Hailey told me she showed him to Graham’s office, but I heard through the office door when I was passing by it to come in for my shift that he was hired. I couldn’t really walk away from the door fast enough, but I briefly met him as he was walking out of the office and he told me his name was Fritz Smith. I’m ninety nine percent sure he’ll be working day shifts at the Corner since that’s really one of the only available places, so it’ll give Hailey a break since she’s been working double shifts almost every day since she was hired.”

Jeremy’s brow furrowed in thought, because that name wasn’t very popular especially for a small town like Hurricane. The memory suddenly hit Jeremy that a couple of years ago, Michael had a friend who was named Fritz. That couldn’t be the same Fritz because he was dead, but he knew that Fritz and Michael were close friends before Fritz was murdered. “Wait, did you say his name’s…Fritz?” Jeremy asked. 

“Yep,” Alex said. 

“I recognize that name…what’d he look like?”

“Uh…weird question but I’ll try to remember. I remember he was quite tall, he had freckles and…he had a scar on his lip. That’s all I can really remember.” 

As soon as they said that he had a scar on his lip, Jeremy’s mind went straight to Michael. He didn’t see many people who had lip scars in Hurricane because everyone saw everyone at least once, at least by passing by each other on the street, unless William somehow snuck past the animatronics since he and Michael had a scar in the same place. The only thing  that could show that this Fritz was Michael was that they said he had freckles, and a lip scar with freckles  were traits specific to Michael.

Michael had also shown up to the park yesterday with his thick shoulder length hair cut shorter and into a shag. He had said that he needed a change since he’s  had that same hairstyle for years, but the more thought Jeremy put into this it might’ve been so he could look less recognizable. He still wasn’t a hundred percent sure that he was correct, but if he got any straight forward answers he’d have to ask Michael. 

“I think I know him…” Jeremy finally said. 

“Really?”

“Yeah! I’d have to ask a certain someone I know if it’s him.”

---

That afternoon when Jeremy woke up and got ready for the day, he went over to Henry’s house to speak to Michael. He rang the doorbell and to his surprise Michael didn’t answer the door, but Henry did. 

“Hello Jeremy! What a surprise!” he said. 

“Hello Mr. Emily, I didn’t think you’d be back. Um, I thought Michael said you have a new job working on cars or something.”

“Yes, I recently got a job as a mechanic on cars since I also love to work on cars and just got home. Anyways I'm back because my shift just ended.”

“Oh. Um, is Michael here? I need to talk to him.”

“Not at the moment,” he said as he shook his head. “He went to the store since we needed food around here. I was gonna go after my shift ended, but Mike offered to go instead since I had to clean up to get all of this soot off me.”

“Oh. Well in that case…”

“You’re welcome to wait for him here if you want!”

“Are you sure?”

“You totally can! He probably won’t be that long anyways.”

“Uh, okay!” Jeremy went inside the house and turned to Henry. “Um, can I ask you something?”

“Yes, of course,” he said as he shut the door.

“Did Mike apply for a job recently?”

“I thought he would’ve told you.”

“No, he didn’t tell me anything…he did?”

“Yes! I didn’t think I’d be the one to tell ya since you two are so close.”

“D’you know where he applied?”

“Uh, here’s the thing, he never really told me. I knew he applied somewhere, but when I asked him where he seemed…secretive about it and avoided the question, told me ‘don’t worry about it’ and all that. I didn’t want to get all up in his business and pester him about it, but now I’m really starting to wonder why he was so secretive about it in the first place.”

“That’s kind of what I’m wondering too, since I heard something at work yesterday that I suspect might be him, and I just need to talk to him about it.”

Henry paused for a second as soon as Jeremy said ‘at work’. “Hold on, Mike said you worked at Freddy’s, right?” Henry asked.

“Yeah I do, one of my coworkers told me that we were getting a new hire, and when I asked if they remembered what he looked like all the descriptions matched Mike.”

“Why would he think that was a good idea?!” Henry whispered to himself. He knew that Michael knew the name Afton was banned from the property, but he couldn’t tell them to excuse Michael because he no longer worked at the company. He never even thought Michael would go back to a Freddy’s location, because he said how much he disliked the place from his past history with the franchise, so he didn’t even think of it.

“So uh, just wait here until Michael comes back?” Jeremy asked. 

“Yep. He should be back in a few minutes.” They heard Michael’s car in the driveway. “Speak of the devil, there he is!”

Henry opened the door for Michael, and after a couple minutes Michael walked in with bags of groceries in both arms. 

“Thanks Uncle,” Michael said. 

Henry nodded. “Mike, someone’s here to see you.”

Michael saw Jeremy behind him and he smiled. “Hey Jer!” he said as Henry closed the door behind him. Michael went up to Jeremy and kissed his cheek, to where Jeremy looked up at him and Michael nodded, as if to subtly tell him what Henry told him a few weeks ago. 

“I’ll leave you two alone to talk. I need to clean myself up anyways,” Henry whispered to Jeremy. He nodded and Henry went up the stairs while Jeremy followed Michael to the kitchen. 

“So, Mike. The reason I’m here…can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead,” he said as he set the bags down on the countertop and started unbagging the groceries. 

“Did you…apply for a job recently?”

Michael inhaled sharply. “Maybe…”

“Did you apply at Freddy’s?” Michael didn’t look at Jeremy and stopped unbagging the groceries as he leaned on the counter. “Well?”

Michael sighed. “How did you find out?” 

Jeremy stayed silent for a minute because he didn’t want to just throw Alex under the bus. “Work,” he finally said. “And…are you going under the name Fritz Smith?”

Michael hesitated for a moment. “Yes. I-I applied secretly. I got an interview yesterday and was pretty much hired on the spot.” Jeremy looked like he was angry with Michael so he tried to explain himself before Jeremy could yell at him. “Listen, I didn’t wanna tell you ‘cause I knew you’d be angry at me,” he said as he stopped leaning on the countertop and stood across from Jeremy. 

“I knew that was you! Why didn’t you just tell me?!”

“Listen-” 

“Mike, just because you have this feeling something terrible’s gonna happen to me doesn’t mean it’s true! I told you this already!”

“I know-”

“So why are you following me?!”

“Because…reasons.”

“C’mon Mike, you know you can tell me!”

“It’s…it’s not just you. Yes, I worry for you, but I know my father’s still here. I want to find him because I have a feeling he’s out there and I need to find him.”

“He’s been classified as ‘missing’ for months now Michael! He might have fled for all we know!”

“Look, I know that’s not true. I know he’s still in Hurricane and he wants to target more people! I have to stop him before someone else gets hurt or even killed!”

“But why Freddy’s if you want to look for him so bad?! He’s a wanted man, I’m sure he’s not gonna be showing his face in public anytime soon!”

“Because I know he’s going to be hanging around Freddy’s! He has history with the place and that’s where he targets unsuspecting people!”

“But…this doesn’t even sound real, Michael! Wanted people don’t usually hang around the place they know people are going to be looking out for them!”

“But he’s not like most people! He got that purple stuff from those kids, which I didn’t even know was possible! You saw this, he won’t let anything stop him unless he gets what he wants!”

“So, what, I’m just supposed to blindly believe that he’s supposedly still here and you’re looking for him at the same place I work, and this isn’t because of me?!”

“It sounds absolutely crazy, but yes.” Jeremy stayed silent for a minute, and Michael could tell he felt hurt. “If…if I was in your place I wouldn’t believe me either.” 

Jeremy sat at the table and once he calmed himself down, he spoke again. “It just hurts because…you didn’t tell me. We agreed to not keep these types of secrets from each other-”

“And I broke that promise. I know, and I’m sorry.” 

“I know about him, Mike. You could’ve just told me instead of trying to hide it, I was bound to find out eventually. But you kept saying that you were worried about me working at Freddy’s, and now that you’re working at the same place as me it feels like you’re not giving me freedom. I-I understand where you’re coming from, but it just feels like you’re following me because you keep saying you’re worried about me.”

“Now that you say that, I see how it looks from your perspective and I feel terrible. Believe me, if my father wasn’t a serial killer who targeted Freddy’s locations, I wouldn’t have applied in the first place,” Michael said and went to the table to sit next to Jeremy. “Look, this isn’t about you, I know you’re an adult and you want to be independent. This is about my father, I know he’s still out there and I think he’s going to be at Freddy’s. I need to catch him while he’s there and won’t be expecting it and…I dunno, bring him into the police station before he hurts someone else.”

Jeremy stayed silent while his words sunk in and Michael took his hands. “You sure this isn’t about me?” Jeremy finally asked him quietly. 

“Why would I lie to you, Jer?” He put a hand on the side of his face. “I promise it’s only about him, if he never targeted Freddy’s locations I never would’ve applied in the first place.” He took his hand off Jeremy’s face. 

Jeremy smiled shyly. “When d’you start?” he asked. 

“I start next Monday morning and I work from nine until three I think. And I’m not a morning person so I’m not looking forward to it.” Jeremy smiled. “So…you forgive me?”

“Yes, but it’s my fault too, I feel like I overreacted to you getting a job of all things and I wasn’t expecting it.”

“It’s okay, we all get angry sometimes, but as long as we don’t stay angry at each other that’s all that matters.”

Jeremy smiled out of relief. He hated that he could get upset over something he’s not expecting, but he was thankful Michael was able to look past that and forgive him. “So uh, I know you’re going by Fritz Smith, but I’m pretty sure they know that the Afton’s have British accents, so how do you plan to hide that?” Jeremy asked.

“Try my best to attempt an American accent so I fit in more. I hate it.”

Jeremy’s eyes lit up. “I wanna hear!”

“No!” Michael said as he smiled and blushed. 

“C’mon, how bad can it be? Plus if we show up together in front of our coworkers, I’ll have to know.”

Michael rolled his eyes but smiled. He cleared his throat and spoke in his accent, “Hello, I’m Fritz Smith.”

Jeremy chuckled. “It’s good!” he exclaimed. 

“Yeah right,” he said, switching back over to his normal British accent. “I hate the way I sound with it.”

“It just takes some getting used to.”

“I guess you’re right. Anyway, do you think I should finally come clean to him?”

“Henry?”

“Yes.”

“I think you should. I mean, he is your uncle and you’re staying with him, and he should know where you’re going every day.”

“I know, and you’re right. But I just know he’s going to ask me why the hell I thought that was a good idea.” He sighed. “Anyway, how’s work?”

“It’s alright so far, you have nothing to be worried about, Mike.”

Chapter 56

Summary:

There’s more to people than what meets the eye…

That evening before Jeremy went into work, he was outside sitting on the curb smoking a cigarette. He had a cup of coffee next to him, and impulsively he took the cigarette out of his mouth, exhaled the smoke and took a sip of coffee where he coughed and tried not to gag because it tasted terrible. He put the cup back next to him, heard the door open from behind and he turned around. 

“There ya are!” Alex said. 

“Yep. Don’t expect me to quit so soon since I’m broke.”

Alex chuckled as Jeremy picked up the cup in his hands and motioned that it was okay for Alex to sit. They sat next to him and asked, “Coffee and cigarettes?” 

“Before you say anything, I wanted to see what nicotine and sugar mixed together tasted like and it’s terrible. Don’t recommend,” he said and Alex chuckled. 

“I never knew you smoked,” Alex said. 

“Well, you learn something new everyday. I don’t smoke every single day though. I’m just…stressed out from today.”

“I know it’s kinda awkward of me to ask since we only met about two weeks ago, but can you spare an extra one?” Jeremy nodded as he put his cup of coffee on the other side of him, got his pack of cigarettes from his pocket, gave one to Alex and lit it. “Thanks. I needed it after today, or even yesterday,” Alex said as they exhaled smoke. 

“Stressful?” he asked as he put his lighter and pack of cigarettes back in his pocket. 

“Yep. Those kids, I swear they’re gonna be the death of me. They’re very loud, especially when there’s a ton of them and you can hear them all the way from the office.”

“Could you not smoke at your house yesterday?”

“Not really. I uh…I still live with my mom and stepdad.”

“Oh. I get it, but you don’t have to be embarrassed. I still live with my old man.”

“Yeah, my mom just hates smoking and she doesn’t allow it in or near the house.”

“So uh, sorry for getting all up in your business, but is your biological dad not…around?”

“He’s not. He and my mom divorced a while back, like when I was about ten or eleven. My mom’s seeing someone else now and she’s been seeing ‘em since I was…twelve I think and they got married a couple years back.”

“Oh. Congrats to them but sounds a little stressful in my opinion.”

“It just took some getting used to but he’s way better than my biological dad, so me and my brother just call my stepdad our dad. I actually don’t see my biological dad anymore.”

“What happened to him?”

“Oh. He’s in jail.”

Alex put their cigarette back in their mouth and Jeremy gave them a side eye. “You said that so casually…are you okay?”

Alex took the cigarette out of their mouth, exhaled smoke and laughed. “Yeah, I’m fine…I think. Anyways he’s in jail because I think he robbed a jewelry store or something about two years ago. Before my mom and biological dad divorced, he really was just never there for the family and of course, my mom didn’t like that. They’d get in fights all the time about it and eventually divorced.” They sat in silence for a little bit, watching the cars pass by on the highway. “So what about you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah. Why d’you only live with your dad? What’s your story?”

“Well uh…it’s kinda hard to talk about.”

“Oh. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t wanna.”

“It’s fine, I think I’ve finally learned to accept it. So my mom and my dad divorced about four years ago, actually about a similar situation you were in. But the only difference is now my mom’s uh…she’s gone ‘cause cancer sucks, y’know?”

“Oh. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine, it happened about three years ago. But she actually gave me this necklace which is why I wear it all the time,” he said as he pointed out his necklace around his neck. It was only a simple black stone, but it was special to him. 

“It looks good on you.”

“Thanks. Anyway, it’s only me and my dad now and it’s been that way for a while, but after she died it’s just…different. My dad hasn't been emotionally…there for most of my life, but now I think I just notice it more because my mom’s not around.”

“I get that. Honestly, it’s one of the worst feelings to feel unloved by a parent.”

Jeremy nodded as he exhaled smoke and quickly changed the subject. “So uh, how old’s your brother?”

“He’s eleven, almost twelve so I’m always in charge of getting him to school since I don’t clock in ‘till about three. On the night shift I never really saw my family since I would be sleeping when my parents came home from work and he got home from school, so I guess that would also be a little bit of the reason I moved up to day shift.”

Jeremy chuckled. “At least you see ‘em more often. Honestly, I wish I had a sibling, then I’d be less alone when dealing with this stuff. My uh…friend’s the only one I have left and we aren’t even related. He’s been around since we were in elementary school and stayed by my side ever since then. We’ve always been outcasts, but we were outcasts together.”

“That’s sweet. What’s his name?”

“The new guy, Mi…Fritz.”

“So, is he the same Fritz you thought he was?” Jeremy nodded. “He didn’t tell you he got the job?”

“No, he said he didn’t want me to think he was following me ‘cause he knows I hate it when people seem overprotective of me. We talked about it earlier today and thankfully we didn’t stay mad at each other for too long.”

“Being angry at friends is the worst, coming from experience, so at least you eventually forgave him. Hopefully he’s prepared to listen to that damn music box his entire shift.” Jeremy chuckled. “So I’ve been meaning to ask you, what’s with that scar?”

“Scar?”

“Well I’m not sure if you realize, but you have a scar on your left eyebrow.”

“Oh right! That…” he said and brought his cigarette up to his mouth and brought it away as he exhaled smoke.

“What’s that about?”

“So usually I don’t bring it up ‘cause people don’t usually ask about it, but before I moved here when I was in fourth grade I lived in California.”

“You lived in Cali?”

“Yep, I was born there. So me, my mom and my dad were driving…somewhere, I don’t remember where since it was a while ago, I think I was about seven. Anyway this guy just ran a red light while we had a green and hit us.”

“Oh my God…I’m sorry Jeremy. That sounds terrible.”

“It’s fine. The crash happened a while ago anyway, but good news is we all lived through it.”

Alex chuckled as they finished their cigarette and threw the cigarette butt in the road. “Looks like it’s almost time for your shift.”

“Yay. I’m so happy,” he said with no emotion in his voice and Alex snickered. “But I guess I’ll do it since I need the money.” Jeremy finished his cigarette and he threw the cigarette butt in the road. 

“Nice talking to you Jeremy!” 

“‘Night,” Jeremy said as he watched Alex walk off to their car, and he went into the building through the door and into the back office. “Here we go again,” he muttered. 

---

Jeremy had gotten used to working as a night guard in the pizzeria. It was a strange experience, sure, but it wasn’t a difficult one for him. 

He flipped through the cameras, and saw that all of the Toy animatronics were not really bothering him that night. Eventually, he felt his eyelids getting heavier since he didn’t have to worry too much about them tonight, and fell asleep at the desk for a while. 

He jolted awake after about fifteen minutes once he remembered the music box, and he assumed it was close to winding down since he didn’t check it for a while. He yawned since he was still half asleep and switched over to the Prize Corner video feed, saw that the music box had winded down fully and Puppet was now out of its box. 

Oh mierda. (Oh shit.)

He hesitantly turned on the flashlight and pointed it down the hallway and to his relief he saw nothing. He decided to check the vent openings even though he was sure it wouldn’t bother going into the Party Rooms, but decided to play it safe anyway and turned on the lights, and to his relief there was nothing. He ran back to the desk and switched between all the cameras to see the Toy animatronics hanging around the stage, wandering into Kids Cove or staying near the Game Area and he finally found Puppet eerily standing in the hallway. 

“Go away, go away, go away…” he repeated. He didn’t know what to do since he had never encountered Puppet before. Once he saw Puppet down the hallway he found that the flashlight and Freddy mask didn’t work, so he was stumped. He put on the mask out of fright and cowered behind the desk, hoping it wouldn’t see him and leave him alone. 

His wishes didn’t come true and soon, Puppet was in the office and he closed his eyes tightly, his mind coming up with the worst possible scenarios that could happen. Soon, he opened his eyes to where he saw Puppet right in front of him and it was way taller than he expected. He yelped and stood up in fright, realizing he was holding his breath, exhaled and he took off the Freddy mask since it obviously didn’t work. 

“I-I'm not here to hurt you,” he said, trying not to show fear.

“You’re not?” he heard back from Puppet, not expecting an answer. 

“Uh-I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Uniform.”

“Huh?”

“Uniform.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Do you work for him?”

“Who?”

“Him.”

“Him?”

“William Afton.”

“Oh…him? No, I don’t.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Uh…I needed a job? Money? Free pizza?”

He heard nothing in response and Puppet stared at him. That’s when from the black eye holes where there was supposed to be nothing, he saw a pair of white eyes glowing faintly. He shivered and backed up out of fear until he felt the desk behind him, which wasn’t a very far distance. 

He reached behind him, trying to find anything on the desk to get Puppet away from him since it kept standing eerily across from him, and felt the buttons of the camera monitor. It was then he remembered, Puppet loved the music box.

He turned his head slightly and from only looking out the corner of his eye, he switched over to the Prize Counter video feed and wound up the music box in hopes that Puppet could hear it from all the way here, even if the office was far from the Prize Corner. Faintly from the video feed, they heard it and their attention was torn away from Jeremy to the video feed. 

“What’s that?” Puppet asked. 

“Your…your music box.”

“Music...”

“Yeah. You can’t hear it well from here, but if you go back to your box, you can hear it better.”

To his relief, Puppet believed him and left his line of vision and he heard it go out of the office. He turned back around to the monitor and turned on the light to see Puppet back in the Prize Corner where they were supposed to be. He relaxed his shoulders from their tensed state and held the bridge of his nose. 

“Oh Dios mío…” (Oh my God…) he mumbled to himself and slumped back in the chair.

Chapter 57

Summary:

Michael drops Jeremy off at his work and meets one of his coworkers, but something about them seems strangely familiar…

Usually when Jeremy goes into work, he goes in by himself. This time though, Michael ended up walking him into work since they got coffee together before his shift started on Friday evening, and because Michael was starting work that next Monday and he hadn’t seen the restaurant since May (it was now October). Alex was busy restocking the Prize Counter when they walked in. 

“Hey!” Jeremy said and Alex turned to the two walking in. 

“Hey Jeremy! Oh! And Fritz, right?” they asked. 

“Uh…” Michael cleared his throat and spoke in his American accent, “yes?” 

“Jeremy has mentioned you before. Good things, I promise,” Alex said and Michael chuckled. 

“Uh, Fritz, this is Alex I told you about,” Jeremy said to Michael as they got closer to the counter and Alex turned to them. 

“I remember I met you on Monday,” Michael said to Alex, but since their brief meeting was in the dim hallway, Michael saw them in the light for the first time and felt like he’s seen this person somewhere before. “I feel like I recognize you from somewhere else actually…” Michael said once he saw the light patches on their neck. 

“I feel like I recognize you too, but I don’t know if that’s you.”

“Uh…who?”

Alex thought about it for a moment. “Nah, I might be imagining things. Welcome aboard Fritz, Hailey will be here early on Monday to give you a tour and how to do your job and all that.”

“Sounds good.” He noticed it was almost 10:45 at night. “Well uh, I have to get going. His shift is about to start and my uh, guardian might start to wonder where I am,” Michael said. He turned to Jeremy and whispered, “Jer, be careful. Promise me that.” 

Michael’s hand brushed against Jeremy’s hand and Jeremy took it. “I will. I promise you,” Jeremy replied as he squeezed Michael’s hand for a second and let go. 

Michael smiled at him as he backed away towards the door and turned to Alex. “Nice meeting you…Alex! Right?” Michael called out as he went to the front doors. 

“Yes! Nice meeting you…again Fritz!” they replied. Michael waved to both of them as he went out of the building to his car in the parking lot, which was parked next to Jeremy’s car and he drove off to Henry’s house. “So, quick question, why is he so paranoid about leaving you here for your shift?” Alex asked Jeremy after they both saw him drive off. 

“He believes that Freddy's restaurants are cursed or something.” 

“Why would he believe that?”

“Because people have uh…gone missing at every other location so he just doesn’t want me to be next, although I’ve tried to let him know that I’m fine. Several times.”

“Oh. I unfortunately heard about all that and I wouldn’t blame him for being paranoid. After what happened to all those kids, I get why he just doesn’t want you to get hurt. I can tell he…he cares about you a lot Jeremy.” 

“Uh…y-yeah.”

Alex rolled their eyes and turned to face Jeremy. “Listen man, with him working here now I was bound to find out sometime.”

“What?”

Alex smiled teasingly and leaned on the counter. “You guys weren’t very slick with that hand holding, and it’s just something about the way you two looked at each other…I guess you and Fritz are a little more than ‘just friends’.”

Jeremy snickered. “Shut up!” 

Alex chuckled. “So how long has that been going on?” they asked. 

“It’ll be two years in December.”

“Almost two years?” 

“Yep. But we’ve been friends since I moved here, so we’ve known each other for years.”

“Wow. Congrats, man.”

“Thanks,” he said. Jeremy got the rag out from under the Prize Corner counter and started wiping it down like he always did, while Alex got the broom and started sweeping the floor like always. They were working in silence for a few minutes until Jeremy decided to break the quietness between them. “I guess now that I think about it, I do feel a little bad that I made him more paranoid than he should be. At this rate, I’m surprised he hasn’t started growing gray hairs from all the stress.” 

“Maybe he dyes it.”

Jeremy smiled. “Now that you say that, I think that’s what he’s been doing. Some days he smells like hair dye very faintly.” Alex snickered. “By the way, you said he looked like someone you knew. Who was that?”

“I didn’t know if it was actually him so I was too nervous to say anything, but it was this one guy who’s been in my class since…sixth grade I think.”

“Who’s that?”

“Uh…good question. I don’t remember his name. I do remember though, I sat next to him in history my senior year. Uh…oh! I remember that my ‘friends’ in sixth grade kinda forced me to tell him I liked him when I didn’t, but I don’t remember his name for the life of me though.”

“Wait…they forced you?!”

“Yeah, but that’s a story for another day. Anyways I didn’t say anything because I figured Fritz just looked like him.”

Alex went back to the security office and got their 7-11 cup they always had and leaned against the Prize Corner counter. 

“Are we gonna fix up Mangle again?” Jeremy asked. 

“Dunno. Graham said it depends if we feel like it. I guess it finally got through his thick skull that the kids keep breaking them no matter what.”

“So are we just leaving it?”

“I am.”

“You owe me ten bucks.”

---

When Michael got to Henry’s house that night, Henry saw him walk in late since he usually stayed up later on Friday night. 

“Hey Uncle,” Michael said when he walked in and saw him. 

“Hey Mike! Where were you? You’ve been gone for a while!”

“I went to Jeremy’s work to drop him off so I wouldn’t be shocked when I went in for my first day on Monday. I haven’t seen the place since that one time in May, so I wanted to see what changed.”

“That makes sense. Food’s on the stove if you’re hungry, it’s probably cold by now though.” 

Michael nodded and went to the kitchen where he served himself a plate, warmed it up a little and ate in silence, but he couldn’t stop his leg from shaking. He had a terrible feeling in his gut that something bad was going to happen sometime, but he had no idea what it could be so he tried to reassure himself that everything was fine. He didn’t bring it up to anybody though, because he knew that no one would believe him and it would look like he’s anxious about something that was probably fake.

A few minutes later, Henry was watching television and he heard Michael’s footsteps come into the living room, where Michael started pacing from behind the couch to down the hallway while fiddling with his hands. Henry knew that usually, Michael would move around since he couldn’t get himself to sit still. This time as he turned around to see him pacing and fiddling with his hands, it was a mix of that and he was clearly worried about something else. 

“Mike? Are you okay?” Henry asked and Michael snapped out of his trance and stopped pacing. 

“Yeah. I’m fine, Uncle.”

“You don’t seem like you’re fine. What’s wrong?”

“I…I’m worried. I’m worried about Jeremy.”

“Jeremy?”

“With him working at Freddy’s, I don’t want what happened at the other locations to happen to him!”

“Mike, nothing’s going to happen. William’s not there anymore, no one has heard anything from him in months and the police are still looking for him, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he fled the town.”

“But I have a terrible feeling that something will happen to someone, even if it’s not Jeremy! I've had this feeling ever since his second day and I can’t get rid of it!” he said and started pacing again and Henry watched him. 

“I’m sure nothing will happen. Everyone’s going to be fine,” Henry said, trying to reassure Michael. 

“But no matter what I did, I can’t get rid of this feeling and it’s been two weeks! I never liked that place, I knew I should’ve stopped him from applying there, because what if he does actually get hurt?!” Michael said, but louder than he intended.

“Mike, calm down, it’s okay. You told me you’re working there now, and even though I think it’s a terrible idea for you, you can make sure that nothing happens. But I am ninety nine percent certain that nothing bad will happen to anyone.”

Chapter 58

Summary:

Michael’s (Fritz’s) first day.

Michael inhaled and exhaled deeply before he went into the building for his first day that Monday. He didn’t want to be working here, but he was here for one reason and one reason only: to find his father. He knew he had to be around here somewhere, he could practically feel his presence. 

He arrived and parked his car in the parking lot at eight o’clock sharp, like he was told by Mr. Graham. As he stepped out of the car, he saw a woman with golden blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail and bright ocean blue eyes unlocking the door, and he remembered he was supposed to meet her on his first day so she could show him what to do. 

He went up to her and spoke in his American accent, “Hey! Uh, Hailey, right?”

She turned around once she unlocked the door. “Yup! You’re Fritz if I remember correctly?”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Awesome! Follow me inside and we’ll start with the tour.”

He followed her inside, and he noticed that the restaurant looked very different than it did at night. At night, it looked somehow creepier with only the overhead lights on. During the day, sunlight came in through the windows and made the restaurant look more happy and cheerful. 

He kept looking around the room until he heard her say, “So as soon as we walk in, to your left you can see the Prize Corner, where you’ll generally be working as well as maintaining the rest of the pizzeria.” She went over to the counter and handed him some folded shirts, which were red button downs that had the logo of the pizzeria on the back, just like the one she had. “These are your uniforms, and your own name tag came in!” she said. Hailey handed him a name tag with his fake name on it and below that it read, ‘Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria’ and it finally sunk in that he had a job at one of the last places he wanted to work. 

“Woah. Uh, I mean thank you,” he said as he placed his uniform and name tag on the counter next to him. 

“No problem, Fritz!” she exclaimed. She led him to another part of the diner, a separate room. “This is Kid’s Cove, where the Toy Foxy animatronic is,” she said, pointing to the entrance of the Cove as they walked. 

They got to the entrance of Kid’s Cove and Hailey turned on the light, where Michael flinched from what he saw because he was not expecting it in the slightest. There he saw Toy Foxy, who was a mess of parts on the floor. 

“What happened to it?!” he exclaimed.

“So, what I know is that the toddlers couldn’t keep their hands to themselves. The employees had to put Toy Foxy back together literally every shift, and then we decided to not fix it until close. Alex and…what’s his name…Jeremy, that’s it! Anyways they had to put it back together basically every night and they eventually just left it. Seeing as what happens to the animatronic everyday, me and the other employees call him, ‘Mangle’.”

“Mangle, huh?”

“Yep. Now it’s just some take apart, put back together attraction. Keeps the toddlers entertained at least.” She led him out of Kid’s Cove and to another part of the pizzeria. “This is the Game Area, the name is kind of self explanatory, and there also happens to be another animatronic.”

She pointed to the back and Michael saw an animatronic that looked like a little boy holding a sign that read, ‘Balloons!’, but it seemed more off putting to him than the other four animatronics. 

“What’s that one for?” he asked. 

“It’s just for handing balloons out to the kids. He doesn’t perform or anything, although both of the night guards have said that he’s quite the troublemaker at night.”

Huh?! What does she mean by that?! Michael thought. 

“Lemme show you the stage!” She led him over to the stage where the three main animatronics stood. “This is the Show Stage where Toy Freddy, Toy Bonnie and Toy Chica perform. They do however, have new programming that lets them move around during the day, just as a fair warning so you won’t get spooked if you see them moving a bit. They don’t usually come off the stage during the day, though.”

“Uh, is that safe?”

“Yup! They don’t go against programming so everyone should be completely safe! The only case they would actually hurt someone is if someone messed with their programming, and none of the guards have reported any suspicious activity that can affect them.”

“Question, d’you know why they decided to use different ones than at the other location? If they wanted to move locations, why didn’t they reuse them?”

“Mr. Graham told me that the original designs were too scary for the kids, so they redesigned them to be more ‘kid friendly’.”

“What did they do with the originals?”

“He told me that they’re in the back-”

He went wide eyed from shock. “Wait, they’re still here?!”

“Yes…are you okay Fritz? You look a little worried.”

“Uh…yeah I’m fine. Um, what’re they still doing here?”

“I dunno. He said that they’re kept in Parts and Services for, well, parts! Although, the employees aren’t allowed in there for some reason, only the mechanics are allowed in there when they’re called in, and we haven’t needed them to come in since the diner opened. The only way we know what’s in there is from the security cameras.”

“Is there a chance I could see that camera?”

“Yes of course! Although now that I think about it our morning security guard should be here already-” A man walked into the pizzeria in a security guard uniform with a McDonald’s soda cup in hand. “Speak of the devil, there he is!”

He went up to both of them. “Hey! Sorry, McDonald’s took forever,” he said and turned to Michael. “This the new guy?”

“Yeah. I’m Fritz,” Michael said. 

“Hey Fritz, I’m Robert. We’ll be opening this place together,” he said as he held out his hand and Michael shook it. 

“Hey Rob, Fritz here wants to see what’s in Parts and Services, do you think you can show him on the cameras?” Hailey asked. 

“Sure thing. Fritz, you wanna follow me?” he asked Michael. 

“Sure, but what about…” Michael trailed off and gestured over to Hailey. 

“Oh, don’t worry about me. Gives me time to set up the Prize Counter before we open,” she said. 

Michael nodded and followed Robert down the hall. “So, I guess I’ll cover the rest of the tour now. The bathrooms are right here, Parts and Services is right next to it, and then we go down this hallway and there’s four party rooms, but they don’t get used very often,” Robert told Michael and they walked side by side in awkward silence for a while. “So…why’d you want to work at Freddy’s?” he asked, breaking the silence. 

“Oh. Um, I just needed a job to…get out of the house,” he lied. 

“I feel ya man. Honestly, that’s why I got this job too.” They got to the end of the hall and went into the office where Robert put his soda cup down on the desk. “This is the Security Office, where I live, and of course all the other security guards.” 

Michael chuckled and Robert clicked through the cameras. “Hey, uh, Robert?” Michael said to get his attention. 

“‘Sup?”

“I'm just curious, d’you know what it’s like working the night shift?”

“Uh…I dunno actually, I’ve never worked at that time. Since you don’t work anytime close to the night shift, I’d suggest you ask Alex once he gets here.”

“Alex?”

“Yeah, the guard who comes in when I get off at about three.”

“Alex, who was training someone two weeks ago?”

“Yeah. He was training that new night guard. Uh, what was his name…”

“Jeremy.”

“Yeah, Jeremy. Anyways Alex was actually the guy who worked the night shift before Jeremy, so if anyone has experience with night shift, it’s him.”

“Oh. Okay thanks.”

He clicked a button on the monitor. “Here’s the Parts and Services feed. You wanted to see it, right?” Michael nodded and went next to him as Robert turned on the light. There, Michael saw all of the original animatronics, broken with parts missing from all of them. Michael stared at the feed in shock. “Like Hailey probably said, they’re mainly used for parts for the Toys. Other than that, they’re just kept back there.”

“I can’t believe they’re all still here. Especially with what happened,” he mumbled to himself and Robert gave him a questioning look. 

“What?”

“Uh…y’know what, forget I said anything. It’s not important anyway.”

“Okay…so uh, you should probably get back. Place is about to open.”

“Right. Thanks Robert,” he said as he left the office. 

---

Michael was restocking the Prize Counter with Hailey when he turned around to see Alex walk in the front door. 

“Hey!” Alex said. 

“Hey,” Michael and Hailey said together. 

“You know Alex?” Hailey asked Michael. 

“Yeah, Jeremy’s actually my…friend so he introduced me to Alex.”

“Oh. That’s pretty cool.”

“It is,” Alex said and went up to the Prize Counter. “So, first day, how’d it go?” they asked Michael. 

“Uh, good I think. I’m slowly getting the hang of it,” Michael replied. 

“He’s good at it already! He’s a fast learner,” Hailey said. 

“That’s good to hear. Well, it’s almost three and you don’t wanna be too overworked on your first day.”

“Right, uh Alex before I go, I wanted to ask you something,” Michael said. 

“Sure. What’s up?”

“I’m just wondering, Robert said you were the last night guard here, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“So, what’s it like working the night shift?”

“Aw, worried for Jeremy?” they asked teasingly. 

“What? No! Maybe…”

Alex laughed. “To answer you, I’d say it’s stressful, but not.”

“…that makes absolutely no sense.”

“Okay, I worded that strangely so put it this way. So the job is kind of stressful especially on the first day because you see some things you’re not quite…expecting.”

“Wait…what d’you mean?!”

“Oh. These things, they move around at night too.”

“They do?!”

“Yep, they even try to get into the office sometimes ‘cause of this weird glitch, but they’re not supposed to attack you or anything. They’re just unexpected, and from what Jeremy told me he already got used to them so they’re not that big of a deal. They’re kinda creepy looking up close as well in my opinion.”

“So you’re saying they actually go into the office?!” Michael asked, a little worryingly. 

“Yeah, or at least they try to. They’re not programmed to hurt you though, like I said. If they do see you then they just…stare eerily like they’re trying to figure out if you’re a criminal or something. Gives me the creeps, man.”

“Well uh, thanks Alex.”

“No prob. See ya guys!” Alex said to Michael and Hailey. 

Alex went off to the security office and Michael turned to Hailey. “You sure you can manage this by yourself until closing?”

“Yep. I’ve been doing this for a while.”

“Okay, I just feel bad putting all this work on you and I’m just leaving.”

“No, go ahead. It’s your first day and like Alex said, you don’t wanna be too overwhelmed.”

“Okay, um, see you around.”

“Bye Fritz!”

Michael went out the doors and went to his car in the parking lot, where he saw Robert walking out as well and other parents and kids walking in. 

Alright. First day wasn't as bad as you thought, Mike. Just gotta look out for Father, though I have no idea when he’ll actually show up. 

Chapter 59

Summary:

Mystery identity of the coworker solved.

(Someone who made a very brief appearance near the beginning…)

“Hey Fritz!” Alex said that next Monday when they walked in the front doors for their shift at work. 

“Oh. Hey!” Michael responded as he wiped down the Prize Corner counter. 

“So, first week, how’d it go?”

“Not as bad as I thought, honestly. It gets a little overwhelming sometimes, but it dies down quickly. I sometimes have to mentally prepare myself for that before I come in.”

“They tend to do that. These kids, I swear…”

“Yep. Well, at least you’re not out here, where a few of the kids are screaming at the top of their lungs a few feet away from you.”

Alex chuckled. “Anyway, it’s about three and Hailey should be here soon, I’m pretty sure.”

“So I should get outta here soon, is what I’m hearing?”

“I mean, unless you plan to stay here all day and stand kids screaming a few feet away from you-”

“Nope. I’m good,” he said and Alex snickered. Right as he said that, Hailey walked in and he went around the counter and stood across from Alex. 

“I’m gonna go back there and try to wake up Rob, ‘cause I don’t doubt he fell asleep on the clock. Again.” Michael chuckled. “Later Fritz!”

“Bye Alex,” he said when they walked away, and Michael said goodbye to Hailey before he went out the front doors to his car parked in the parking lot. 

Once Michael got back to Henry’s house, changed out of his work uniform into his casual clothes and drew in his sketchbook for a while, he heard the telephone downstairs ring. Michael and Jeremy had set up a routine where they usually call everyday around five to see if the other can meet up somewhere. If one or both can’t that day they talk on the phone for a while, sometimes for only about an hour and sometimes until Jeremy has to leave for his shift.

Michael ran downstairs once he heard the telephone ring. “I got it Uncle!” he called out. 

“I thought it was for you!” Henry replied from the living room. He just got off of work and was putting his coat on the coat hanger since the temperature was starting to drop outside. 

Michael smiled and picked up the telephone. “Hello?” he said. 

“Hey Mike!” Jeremy said on the other line. 

“Hey! So lemme guess, park at six just like last week?”

“Yep! And I was wondering, d’you wanna get coffee with me afterwards? It’ll be nice to go with someone for a change, I’ll buy it.”

Michael covered up the speaker. “Uncle, are we doing anything later?”

“Uh…I don’t think so. Going to the park again?” Henry asked. 

“Yeah, then Jeremy asked if I wanted to get coffee afterwards.”

He thought about it for a second. “Yeah, that should be fine.”

Michael uncovered the speaker. “I’d love to!” he said into the phone. 

“Cool! So uh, see you in an hour?”

“Yes, definitely.”

“Oh! I also wanna show you something that I found earlier today.”

“What’s that?”

“I think I found out who Alex is and why they looked so familiar.”

“Wait, how?”

“I was looking through my yearbooks from sixth grade all the way to high school, since that’s when they said they remembered you from, and I found someone who looks exactly like ‘em.”

“Okay, I’ll take a look at it when I get there. I’ll see you at six.”

“Love you, Mike.”

“Love you too.” He hung up the telephone and started  heading to the kitchen to get a snack before he left, but as he passed Henry he noticed that he wasn’t even fully paying attention to what he was doing and staring off into the distance. “Uncle?”

“Oh. Sorry Mike,” Henry said, snapping out of his trance. 

Michael stopped him before he went upstairs to clean himself up after his day at work. “You okay? You look distracted by something. Actually, you have a lot lately.”

“It’s just that…I don’t know, I don’t wanna rant to you about this. You’re dealing with enough stress already.”

“I can take it.”

Henry hesitated. “I guess I should come clean, I’ve been hiding this for long enough. About a month ago, this ghost, entity, whatever, that we heard actually came and spoke to me, which I thought was strange because he usually follows you.”  

“Really?”

“Yes. He admitted he was lying because he wanted to ‘not worry me’ or something, but he said Heather and Sammy aren’t doing very well financially. What’s worse is that they can’t move houses because besides food, Heather’s spending their money on cigarettes and alcohol. Ultimately, she’s just ruining her own life and Sammy’s life at his young age, and I have to admit I feel guilty because I wasn’t really there for him all his life, so there’s no way he’d want to come back to me to escape his situation. Not that he can yet anyway, because he’s too young to drive since he’s only about ten right now!”

“I’m sure Sammy will find a way out eventually, because from what I remember he’s a pretty smart kid.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.”

---

At six o’clock that evening, Michael made his way over to the park and found Jeremy’s car in the parking lot. He parked next to his car and saw him sitting in the driver’s seat looking at a book, it was a thin book that looked somewhat new, probably from this year.

Michael got out of his car and tapped on the window to get Jeremy’s attention since he was looking down at the book leaning on the steering wheel. Jeremy looked up when he heard the noise and smiled once he saw that Michael had arrived. He unlocked the door and Michael got into the passenger’s seat, but after he shut the door behind him he leaned over the console and kissed Jeremy hello once he shut the door behind him. 

“Hello to you too,” Jeremy said once Michael got back into the passenger’s seat. 

Michael smiled. “Whatcha reading?” he asked. 

“Oh. It’s my yearbook from twelfth grade. I told you I think I found out who Alex was.”

“Oh yeah, who? ‘Cause I feel like I recognize them.”

Jeremy flipped the pages of the book. “Oh, I wanted to mention to you…Alex knows.”

“Knows about…”

“Us.”

“Already?!”

“Yeah. Alex saw us hold hands and we looked at each other in a way that I guess…they could tell? I don’t know.”

“So I guess the ‘keep it a secret’ thing didn’t work with ‘em?” 

“Nope.” He finally flipped to the twelfth grade section of the book. “Here! So d’you remember in like…sixth grade-”

“Sixth grade is a blur for me.”

“Well, just try to remember, because I remember it clear as day now that I see the pictures. Anyway there was this one person who came up to you and said they liked you in sixth grade.” Michael kept a blank expression on his face. “You said you didn’t like them like that? You, me, Nicolas and Richard were all there?”

“Not ringing a bell.”

“Hold on…” Jeremy trailed off and got out another yearbook from the back of his car, his sixth grade one that was starting to collect dust, and he flipped to a page near the front. “This person,” he said as he pointed to a picture and showed Michael. 

The picture he was pointing to definitely looked like Alex, but different at the same time. This person looked exactly the same as them, had all of the same features down to the light patches on their neck, but looked more feminine. Now that he saw the picture and the name printed below it, the memories came flooding back to him. 

Jeremy pulled out the yearbook from their senior year and opened it to the page he was on a few minutes earlier, and there was Alex. “See?” Jeremy said.

“They’re the same…but their name here isn’t Alex…” Michael trailed off, because the name on both of the pictures was Amelia, or if Michael remembered correctly, Amy for short. They came up to him the day after his mother died, so it was hard for him to forget even though he tried to block out that day from his memory. He never got to know them in school, but he knew their name and could recognize them. “I knew Alex seemed familiar.”

“So did I. We’d have to ask Alex, or I’ll have to since I see ‘em sooner than you do, but I think we have an answer here.”

“Well uh, mystery solved.”

---

That evening, Jeremy went into work where he saw Alex sweeping the tile. “Hey!” Alex said once they saw Jeremy and went back to sweeping.

“Hey. Um, I guess I’ll just get this over with, I wanted to ask you something,” Jeremy said as he went over to them. 

“Shoot.”

“Did you…did you recently graduate from Hurricane High School by any chance?”

“Yeah actually, I graduated in May. I got this gig when it opened as something to do until I finally decide to go to college, which’ll probably be next year.”

“Cool! Uh, I wanted to ask you something else but I don’t know if it’ll be too personal.”

“Uh…should I be worried?”

“I dunno.”

“Ask away.”

“Did the school…were you listed under a different name by any chance?” Alex stopped sweeping for a minute and went silent. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, I was just curious.”

Alex resumed sweeping. “I don’t know how you found out, but the short answer is…yes, they have me listed under a name I no longer go by. It was…Amelia. I used to go by Amy as a nickname for it until freshman year where I completely ditched the name and now I go by Alex. Why?”

“Well uh, Fritz and I were looking through our old yearbooks and we found someone who looked like you, but under a different name. We just wanted confirmation that was you.”

“I guess I would be pretty recognizable in a crowd, huh? Anyways, you and Fritz went to the same school as me?”

“Yeah, I guess you can say that. We also graduated in May.”

“So glad I’m outta there, honestly. All of the bullying just ‘cause I was a little different, y’know?”

“Not your exact situation, but I know the feeling. I honestly got bullied a ton while I was there too, ‘cause people don’t take kindly to people who are different from them.” Jeremy quickly changed the subject since he didn’t like to think about high school for long. “So uh, you wanted to go to college? For what?”

Alex finished sweeping and looked up. “I don’t know. Haven’t really decided yet, although I might wanna be a detective or something because that runs in the family, but I dunno. Did you want to?”

“Yeah actually. I was thinking if I wanted to keep my dreams small I’d like to do something in the food industry like my mom did, but if I’m able to I’ve been really interested in space for a long time so I wanted to work in that industry, or even if I get a chance I wanna go to space so I see it in person and not through television, telescopes and books. I know that sounds like a stupid little kid's dream that has a really low chance of becoming true, but I’d really like to one day.”

“Wow. That sounds awesome, honestly. I think, if you get a chance, I say go for it.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. ‘Cause it’ll be a really cool thing to tell people that you went to space, that’s not something that just happens everyday. I know I’d be jealous.”

Jeremy chuckled. “I don’t know if I’ll actually get a chance, but a guy can dream, huh?”

Chapter 60

Summary:

Those old animatronics in the back…they’re moving.

Someone is out there, Cassidy thought that next week.

“Who?” Evan responded. 

I…I don’t know, but what I do know is that it’s a security guard, or even worse he could have somehow snuck in again. 

“Possibly…”

We need to make him pay.

“But what if it’s just a normal guy?!”

I’ve learned my lesson: don’t trust the security guards at Freddy’s. William was the head of security at the other place and whoever’s out there might still be working under him, so they could take us to him and we can get our revenge.

“I-I think you might be wrong about this one, Cass. I’m not totally disagreeing with you here, but I just don’t think he’s working at the company anymore!”

He’s around here somewhere, I know it! We need to catch him while we have the chance!

Evan went silent, because he knew he couldn’t change her mind now, especially if she insisted on it. “Psst…Gabe!” Cassidy whispered to the animatronic  in front of her. No response at first. “Gabe!” He looked up. 

“What?” he said, but his voice box was obviously damaged.

“God, your voice creeps me out every time.”

“Hey! Jere and Susie got it worse than me, you’ve heard them before.”

“Fair.” Jeremy and Susie looked over at her but said nothing. “Anyways, d’you think you can do something for me?”

“Which is…”

“Can you go check and see if William’s in the building?”

“Why me?!”

“Because you’re the oldest out of all of us. There’s someone else in the building and I need to know if it’s him. If it’s not, whoever’s out there still might be working under William and could lead us to him.”

“I can’t believe you’re still going on about this, but I have nothing better to do anyway.”

”If murdering us and ripping us away from our families wasn’t bad enough, he’s broken us for stupid parts like we were nothing, Gabe! Are you telling me you’re not just a little bit angry?!”

”Fair point. And if it is him?”

“I dunno-”

“Then the other three should come with me for backup.”

“Fine.”

The other three were listening to their entire conversation and they all got up and went to the door, but as Fritz pushed the door it was locked. 

“D’you have any other bright ideas to get us outta here?” Gabriel said to Cassidy. 

“Uh…”

Suddenly, they all heard the latch of the door click and there was Charlotte on the other side of the door. She was surprised to find the four gathered around the door once she opened it, she’d thought they would all be on the floor like they always were.

She came in this room sometimes to make sure that they weren’t going to try something stupid that could get them decommissioned. She felt that because she had given them a second chance at life two years ago, it was her job to make sure they don’t get into trouble since they were not supposed to be moving at this time. This was one of those days, and she just so happened to find them trying to do exactly that.

“What are you four doing?” Charlotte asked them. 

“Scoping out the area,” Gabriel answered. 

“Scoping it out? Why?”

“For William!” Jeremy said. 

“William? He’s not here anymore!”

“Cassidy says there’s someone out there and wants us to check it out. We know it’s a security guard, we’ve seen the cameras watching us,” Fritz said. 

“I’ve seen the guard, he said he’s not working with William. I don’t even think he knows where he is, no one does-”

“He might be lying,” Cassidy said. 

“What?! He’s not!”

“How trustworthy are those security guards?! We were all foolish and believed one, and look how that turned out! He definitely could be lying for all we know-” 

“But he said himself that he’s not working with William. He’s just a normal person, Cassidy!”

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve had to learn the hard way to not trust those security guards. I’ve learned my lesson now, so it’s about time you open your eyes and learn from your mistakes as well.”

Charlotte was left speechless, but Cassidy said for the four of them to go. The four all looked at each other and back at Charlotte. 

“You don’t actually believe her, do you?” Charlotte asked them. 

“I hate to admit it, but she has a point,” Gabriel said. 

“What?!”

“It’s because of a security guard that none of us get to see our families ever again! She’s right, how trustworthy are they?!” Susie said. Before Charlotte had the chance to say anything back, the four of them brushed past her in the doorway of Parts and Services, and once they were out in the hallway they all split up to cover more ground. 

Charlotte looked back at Cassidy, and she could tell Charlotte was fuming, but she said nothing and left back to her box in the Prize Corner. 

Back in the office, Jeremy was flipping through the cameras and switched to the Parts and Services video feed, but since he was half asleep he instead saw a dark version of Freddy filling the space. He was spooked and shook his head to wake himself up and saw the room was missing the four original animatronics. He took a sip of coffee and almost choked when the realization set in that the room was almost empty when they shouldn’t be able to move. He coughed and set his cup down as he looked back at the video feed and saw he wasn’t imagining things. 

“Shit, shit, shit…” he muttered to himself and started flipping through the cameras. He’s never had to deal with them before, actually no one has had to, and prayed that the Freddy head trick worked on them as well. 

Jeremy frantically flipped through the cameras and found Chica in one of the Party Rooms, staring at one of the security cameras next to a vent that leads to the office. “I know what you’re thinking, don’t go in that vent,” he muttered like she could hear him, but Chica did exactly what Jeremy didn’t want her to do. “Shit.”

He heard Chica in the vent and Jeremy quickly put the mask on, praying that it would work. Chica came into the office and stood in front of the desk, and Jeremy could hear his own panicked breathing but he didn’t dare say a word or move out of fear since the originals were just as tall as the Toy animatronics, if not taller. 

Chica was definitely in a worse state than before, her hands were missing and her jaw was unhinged, but her looks surprisingly didn’t unsettle Jeremy more than they did before. It was the fact the animatronics were able to move and opened the door from Parts and Services on their own that frightened him the most. 

Chica kept staring at him, not being able to tell if it was actually Freddy since he was a lot shorter. She had just seen him, but there was also Toy Freddy so she thought this was some kind of third version. 

Don’t kill me, don’t kill me, don’t kill me…  Jeremy repeated in his head as he bit the inside of his cheek. To his relief, Chica finally went out of the office and back through the hallway so he took the mask off, which he was now starting to sweat in. After recollecting himself after his frightening encounter, he wound up the music box again since he now learned his lesson to not let it wind down. 

During the next couple of hours, he saw another two of the original animatronics: Bonnie and Freddy. They were definitely in a worse state, but Bonnie got it to where he was almost unrecognizable. His arm was completely gone with excess wires spilling out where his arm should be, and his face was gone exposing the wires behind the face plate with only the bottom jaw intact. The thing that spooked him the most about Bonnie though was not the wires where his limbs once were, it was the fact that whoever was taking parts from him took the eyeballs and left the lights, so he looked like he had a pair of glowing red eyes coming from the darkness. 

Oh my God… Jeremy thought once he saw Bonnie. 

When Bonnie was in the office and Jeremy put the mask on the rabbit animatronic kept staring at Jeremy, unsure if he was looking at an animatronic since the one he was looking at was a lot shorter than any animatronic he had seen before. After a while, he finally gave up and headed out of the office where Jeremy took off the mask and exhaled a sigh. “Just a few more hours…” he told and kept repeating to himself. 

When it was thirty minutes before his shift ended, he was encountered by Foxy in the hallway. He put the Freddy mask on again, thinking Foxy would leave him alone like all the others did, but Foxy kept coming down the hallway.

Fuck. How-what do I do?!

“You can’t fool me with that mask of yours,” he heard from Foxy, and Jeremy lifted the mask up but didn’t dare speak. He felt his heart racing and was frozen in fear, not thinking about anything in particular but hoping he wouldn’t die tonight. 

Foxy inched closer to him and Jeremy snapped out of his trance, and almost as if he was on autopilot he started looking around on his desk for anything he could use as a distraction. Jeremy saw the many papers crinkled up into balls on the desk, so he took one of them and threw it at the animatronic, not counting it would do anything but maybe distract Foxy so he could buy time to come up with an idea, or even escape through the vents. Unfortunately, Foxy wasn’t even fazed by it and kept coming towards the desk, but at what seemed like a slightly faster pace so Jeremy assumed he was gaining speed to jump at him. 

Jeremy frantically looked around on the desk for anything he could use to defend himself and saw his flashlight. At first, he thought about throwing it but that would mean he only had one shot. Suddenly he got an idea, not even sure if it would work, but since he didn’t want to use his last resort plan of throwing the flashlight it was the best he had in mind, and he turned on the flashlight while he pointed it to Foxy. 

He saw the animatronic try to shield its eyes and back away into the darkness, and Jeremy now felt unfazed by Foxy. He felt more powerful than before being that he was smart enough to figure out how to fight off an animatronic that was about six and a half feet tall, even though it was an impulse idea he came up with out of fear. 

When he finally saw Foxy retreat to the back of the hallway and watched him go off to a separate room, Jeremy turned off the flashlight to not waste the battery. “Yeah! Nobody messes with Fitzgerald!” he yelled down the hall and he slumped back into his chair. 

He put his hands on his face, partially thinking that he just went through a dream, but he pinched himself and of course he didn’t go through a dream. He laughed to himself out of relief he didn’t die right then, and in disbelief at himself that he was brave enough to try and be the bigger person for the second time in his life. 

Right then, he heard the six o’clock bell ring as he checked the cameras again, and saw all the originals back in the Parts and Services room where they belong. Since he was never given a key to Parts and Services and he couldn’t make sure they were locked in, he grabbed his empty coffee cup from the desk and went out the back door to his car, trying to forget about the stressful night he had. 

The four animatronics went back into the Parts and Services room, but once they were all inside the door slammed behind them and the lock clicked, and when Fritz pushed on the door it wouldn’t move an inch. 

“Damn it, Charlotte,” Cassidy muttered. “So? Did any of you see a guard?” Cassidy said to the four of them. 

“Nope,” three of them answered. 

“I did,” Fritz said. 

“Who was it?”

“I know he was a security guard, but I…I don’t really know who it was.”

“What d’you mean ‘you don’t know’?!”

“I mean, there was definitely a security guard there, but I couldn’t see if it was William or not!”

“How could you not see?!”

“He blinded me Cassidy! I didn’t get a chance to see his face so how was I supposed to know if it was William or not?!”

“Ugh…”

“Well, there’s always a next time, right?” Evan said. 

There will, if whoever’s out there can’t outsmart these idiots. 

“Hey! That’s rude.”

Yeah, whatever. We’ll get him next time, if there’ll even be a next time. 

Chapter 61

Summary:

A short detour from the pizzeria…

That Saturday, Jeremy called into work saying he couldn’t make it tonight. He said he felt sick, but of course he didn’t and he felt fine. It was because he wanted to take Michael out to one of his favorite places, and hopefully to also calm his anxiety a little bit about their current situation. He still hasn’t told Michael where they were going, but saw that he kept staring out the window as Jeremy drove them both out of the city. 

“Where are we going?” Michael asked for the third time. 

“I told you, it’s a surprise!”

“But Jeremy!” he whined. 

“No! My lips are sealed.”

“But the corn fields turned into dry grass as far as the eye can see! How far out are we?”

“Not very, but I’ll give you a hint. It’s one of my favorite places to go alone.”

“…I dunno ‘cause you’re there alone.”

“Well, I guess you’ll have to wait then.” Michael slumped in the chair until they turned off on a dirt road and they parked at the bottom of a hill. “Here we are, you big baby.”

“Hey!” Jeremy chuckled as they both got out of the car and Michael climbed to the top of the hill. “Wow, we really are further out than I thought. I’d say we’re at least ten miles out of town,” Michael said as he squinted and looked in the direction of Hurricane. 

Jeremy came up behind him with a blanket in his arms and said, “It’s only about three, smart guy.”

“I’m smart? Wait…hey!” he said and Jeremy snickered. 

“No one really comes out here at night since there’s nothing in this direction for miles.”

“What’s that for?” Michael asked, pointing to the blanket. 

“D’you wanna sit on the grass so it can stick to you and bugs can crawl on you?”

“When you put it like that, no thanks.” Jeremy put the blanket down on a semi-flat surface of the hill. “Okay, mind telling me why we’re here?” Michael asked as he sat down on the blanket and Jeremy sat crisscrossed next to him. 

“Okay, I guess I’ll tell you now. So when I started driving I started coming out here when I needed to be alone, and one day I stayed out until it got dark and the sky looked beautiful. I know you haven’t seen many stars like these since you’ve always stayed in the city, so I wanted to show you.”

“Are they really that beautiful in real life and they’re not just drawn in your books when we’ve read them together?”

Jeremy chuckled. “No, it’s real.”

“Really? I don’t believe you.”

“It is! Trust me.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“We won’t have to wait too long then. If I’m right, the sun should be fully set in about five to ten minutes.”

“So…what do we do until then?” Jeremy shrugged. “So, question. How many stars should I expect?”

“Uh, I’d say thousands.”

“That many?!” Jeremy nodded. “That’s gonna be a lot for my brain to comprehend. So uh, about your shift at work, what’s happening there?”

“I dunno. I actually called in sick today and Graham said he’ll cover for tonight, although I told Alex and they said if it’s absolutely needed they’ll cover for me.”

“Really?” Jeremy nodded. “Alex seems pretty cool. We talk and catch up whenever they come in for their shift.”

“So…you have a new friend, is what I’m hearing?” 

“I mean…I guess? But you do too!”

“I’m happy for us, honestly. It’s been almost ten years since we’ve both made a new friend.”

“And that friend we made was each other,” Michael added. 

Jeremy looked up and his eyes lit up as he smiled. He held onto Michael’s shoulder and pointed upwards. “Look!” he exclaimed and Michael looked up to where Jeremy was pointing. Jeremy put his arm down and up above them, Michael saw a few stars twinkling in the sky, and soon he kept seeing more and more stars start appearing. 

“This is already more than I’ve seen in my entire life,” Michael said quietly and Jeremy snickered. 

“The sun’s not even down fully yet.”

Michael and Jeremy watched the sky in silence as more stars started appearing, and soon the sun was below the horizon and there was almost no light in the sky except for the crescent moon and stars.

He was in awe once the light from the sun was no longer visible. The sky was beautiful, like he was finally having a good dream, but what made it better was that the sky looked exactly like Jeremy’s books. He’s always loved the pictures because they looked beautiful, but he always assumed they were drawn. His eyes kept darting around and everywhere he looked there were stars, hundreds or even thousands in his field of vision which was very different from what he could see and was used to in the city. 

“So, whaddya think?” Jeremy asked, snapping Michael out of his thoughts. 

“It’s beautiful,” he whispered back. “But my neck’s starting to cramp.” Jeremy snickered and they both laid down on the blanket, and Michael felt Jeremy cuddle up next to him since it was starting to get cooler even though he was wearing a jacket. Michael put his arm around Jeremy and asked, “Better? Or d’you need my jacket?”

“No thanks, I’m okay now.” Michael and Jeremy stared into the sky for a few minutes in silence. “See that big bright one? Right there?” Jeremy asked as he pointed to what looked like a bright star, but it wasn’t twinkling like the other stars. 

“Yeah,” Michael answered. 

“That’s Jupiter, the one with the big red spot,” he said as he put his arm down. 

“Really?” Jeremy nodded. “I didn’t know you could see them from here. And, what’s that big cloud across the sky?”

“That would be the edge of the Milky Way.”

“Our galaxy?” Jeremy nodded. “I definitely didn’t know you could see all this.”

Jeremy chuckled and they stayed silent for a few minutes looking up at the sky, until Jeremy broke the quietness between them and said, “This is my special place.”

“Special place?”

“Yeah, and this is why. Sometimes I’d just come out here and sit under the stars, and I’m happy. And I thought since you’re special to me and make me happy as well, I thought you should see it.”

Michael smiled and blushed lightly as he hugged Jeremy. “It’s magnificent,” he said and Jeremy smiled. 

“I wanna go up there someday,” Jeremy said after a while.

“To space?”

“Yeah. I wanna see how Earth looks from space, I wanna walk on the moon and I wanna be weightless in a rocket. That’s my dream.”

“If you actually feel up to it and you can, I say go for it.”

Jeremy chuckled. “A guy can dream, huh?”

“You should go for it. You said I should follow my dream so why can’t you follow yours?”

“I’d doubt I’d even be able to once I get the balls to do it.”

“Well…I guess only the future can tell.”

Chapter 62

Summary:

That guy Fritz Smith…is not Fritz Smith.

Alex was digging around in the garage one Friday evening after they had gotten off of work, looking for their old yearbook from twelfth grade. They had remembered that Jeremy said he and Fritz were in the same graduating class, and Alex wanted to see if he was telling the truth. After about ten minutes of searching, buried in a box of old school supplies, Alex finally found the yearbook and took it back upstairs to their room. 

As Alex went through the living room to get to the stairs, they found their little brother slumped on the couch watching television. “Whatcha have?” he asked. 

“Something,” Alex replied. 

“Lemme see!”

“You’ll think it’s boring! I’m just trying to find something.”

“Ooh! Secret stuff!” He sat up straighter. “It looks like…a book?”

“Yep.”

“Why d’you need another? You already have like, a thousand.”

Alex smiled. “Shut up! It’s my old yearbook, I said I just need to find something.”

“What?”

Alex sighed. “Do I have to tell you everything?”

“Uh…yes,” he said, smiling teasingly. 

Alex chuckled. “You’re too nosy. Just watch…whatever weird show you’re watching. Wait, hold on a minute, what’re you still doing up?! It’s late!” 

“I dunno. But no one’s said anything ‘cept you, plus it’s the weekend.”

“That means you should still go to bed! Dad’s already asleep, you should be too!”

“But-”

“I’ll tell Mom that you’re still up.”

“Ugh! Fine! You’re no fun,” he said as he turned off the television and went upstairs to his room.

“G’night Jerry,” they called to him as he was going up the stairs. 

“‘Night,” he replied and ran off to his own room, taking the stairs two at a time before Alex told their mother that he was still up and closed his bedroom door behind him.

Alex rolled their eyes and went upstairs to their own bedroom, turned on the lamp by the bedside and sat on the bed. “Alright, hopefully Jeremy’s actually telling the truth,” they muttered and flipped to the senior section of the book. Alex flipped to the F’s, since F came before S and looked at the names and pictures until she found him. Alex and Jeremy had gotten somewhat close over the weeks since they had a lot of similarities, so Alex thought it would be cool to find him in their high school yearbook. It didn’t take long before Alex found the name ‘Jeremy Fitzgerald’ printed in small font on the page and right above his name there was his school picture. 

Alright, he’s not lying, but let’s see about Fritz, Alex thought and flipped to the S’s. They read down all the names and looked at every single picture, but couldn’t find Fritz anywhere. When double and even triple checking, there was no sign of him like he hadn’t even attended the school before. Alex was stumped, that was until they remembered that Fritz looked like someone who sat next to them in history class. Alex didn’t want to check the whole senior section of the book, but since they didn’t remember his name it seemed like the only way. 

Alex flipped to the beginning of the senior section of the yearbook and started looking at each of the pictures to see if they could find him. It didn’t take as long as they thought since it turned out his last name started with an A and they found him; he looked exactly like Fritz but he had longer hair like Alex remembered. The only problem was, his name wasn’t Fritz Smith, the book said his name was Michael Afton. 

It suddenly hit them that even though they had known each other for only a few weeks, they had actually gotten somewhat close with him because they saw each other so often and both of them considered each other as friends, so Alex was shocked to find out that they were friends with an Afton. 

“Holy shit,” Alex said out loud as they stared at the picture. They recognized the name Afton, surprisingly. Their mother was one of the lead detectives on the case, and she had come home tired and stressed everyday for months after finding nothing about it. Her name was Isabella Davis, and the whole family was told that her colleague on the case, Jack Campbell, had lost his daughter to someone with the name Afton, so the whole family was advised to be cautious if they ever met someone with the name. 

When Alex was hired at Freddy’s they were told by their mother and stepfather to take extra caution, since the murderer seemed to target Freddy’s locations and to not come into contact with anyone with the name. However, Alex couldn’t remember the murderer's first name, they didn’t want to believe that it was Michael but if anyone knew for sure it’s Isabella. 

Alex ran out of their bedroom and went down the stairs to find their mother at the kitchen table with her head in her hand, falling half asleep over paperwork. “Mom?” Alex said, getting her attention. 

“Oh! Hello Alex!” She yawned. “How was work?”

“It was fine. Same as every day.”

“Did you need something? Did you eat?”

“Yeah, I ate a little while ago, but I needed to ask you something.”

“What is it?”

Alex sat at the table next to her. “D’you remember that case you were telling us about a few months back?”

“You have to be a little more specific.”

“The one about the murderer? You told me to watch out for him once I started this job because he seems to target Freddy’s locations?”

“Oh, that one! It still causes me stress to this day. No one can find anything leading to him, so we’re considering just leaving the case ‘unsolved’ and returning the evidence.”

“Well uh, what was the murderer's name again?”

“William Afton, according to his son, and his uncle confirmed that information for us. Why, do you think you know where he is?”

Alex gulped. They knew that last name seemed familiar. “Uh, no. I was just curious.”

“Just curious?”

“Yeah, ‘cause of my uh, work. Y’know how they are about the name Afton.”

“Oh yes, how could I forget?”

“Anyways, uh you should get to bed Mom. It’s already past midnight.”

“Is it?” She looked at the clock on the wall. “It is! I should get to bed, I had a busy day today at the station. Good night,” she said as she got up and straightened the papers, hugged Alex goodnight and went to the stairs. 

“‘Night Mom,” Alex replied and Isabella went up the stairs to her bedroom. Since Alex was in the kitchen, they grabbed a cookie from the pantry and went upstairs to their room and shut the door. Alex sat on the bed with their back against the wall, partially in disbelief. 

Alex noticed the yearbook next to them that was left open and took it to make sure they were seeing things right. Sure enough, the Fritz they knew at work looked exactly like Michael Afton, which probably meant that he was William Afton’s son. They were pretty confident that Fritz was Michael after all, but of course they had to ask him in some way that didn’t come off as weird, and also with minimal attention drawn to them. That was going to be the toughest part. 

But, a part of them still couldn’t believe that Michael was lying to them this whole time and he was the son of a wanted serial killer. This whole time, he’s been going by a fake alias so as to not draw attention to himself, but the more Alex thought about it the only question now was, ‘Why is he at Freddy’s?’ 

Alex sighed, bit the cookie and rested his head against the wall. “Holy shit indeed,” they muttered. But now, their only goal was to find him with minimal attention drawn to them, or even alone and ask him if he was Michael Afton. Hopefully he wouldn’t be too upset to find out that they know who he actually is. 

Chapter 63

Summary:

So they were right, Fritz Smith is not Fritz Smith.

“So lemme guess, you couldn’t go to the park today?” Michael said into the phone that Monday evening. 

“Yeah, I’m sorry I forgot to tell you that I had to go run a few errands. But I am finally back now and to make it up to you, we can go get coffee together if that’s okay with you?” Jeremy asked as he was getting ready for work. 

“I don’t think we’re doing anything later so yes, definitely.”

“Sounds like a plan. Love ya Mike, see ya in a few.”

“Love you too,” he said as he hung up. 

Jeremy finished buttoning up his shirt and tucked his shirt into his jeans, went out of his room to grab his keys to the diner and his car keys on a hook by the front door. “Ya me voy, Papá,” (I'm leaving now, Dad.) Jeremy said to his father half asleep on the couch. He looked up at him and waved, but he didn’t say anything and Jeremy went out the front door. His father was still hesitant to accept the fact that Jeremy was with Michael and had been for almost two years now and kept it a secret this whole time, but he was still refusing to speak to Jeremy unless he needed to. 

Jeremy sighed as he shut the door and started up his car like he did every workday, and drove off to the coffee shop he went to everyday before he went into work. 

He arrived in the parking lot at the same time he saw Michael getting out of his car, and Jeremy parked semi-close to his car and turned off the ignition. Once he did and unlocked the door, he heard the car door open since Michael had opened it and he bent down to kiss Jeremy. 

Jeremy smiled once Michael backed away. “Hello to you too,” he said and Michael beamed. 

“Ready?” Michael asked as he held out his hand. Jeremy nodded and took his hand as he let Michael help him out of the car and Jeremy closed the car door behind him. They walked hand in hand until they got closer to the entrance, and they let go of each other’s hands and walked next to each other. They walked into the coffee shop together and got in line where Michael asked, “Are you getting the same thing as last time I came here with you?”

“Yup. You?”

“Same thing I got last time. D’you remember it?”

“Yup.”

“D’you wanna pay this time or should I?” 

“I’ll pay. I have enough, plus this is how I make it up to you.”

Michael nodded and they both waited in line until it was their turn at the counter. Soon, a register opened and the barista said she could help whoever was next, and Jeremy and Michael went up to it.

“Oh! Hello!” the woman behind the counter said. A lot of the baristas knew Jeremy’s face because he came to the shop so often. 

“Uh-hello again,” Jeremy said. 

“Same as always?”

“Yup, and can I get a black coffee too? It’s for my friend here.”

“Of course! That will be…$3.58.” Jeremy nodded as he got out his wallet and handed her the money. “Will the name be the same?” she asked as she handed him his change. 

“Yes,” he said as he put the change in his wallet and put the wallet back in his pocket. 

“We’ll have that right out for you two.”

Jeremy nodded. “Thank you,” he said and he and Michael stood off to the side. They stayed silent for a little while until Michael nudged Jeremy’s side. “Hm?” he said as he looked at Michael. 

“Is that Alex?” Michael whispered since he saw someone in line who looked exactly like them. Jeremy looked in the direction Michael was looking in and almost immediately recognized them, because they had light spots on their neck as well as a few small patches on their face that Jeremy hadn’t noticed until a few days ago. 

“I think you’re right,” Jeremy whispered back. “You get the coffee, I’ll see.”

Michael nodded and Jeremy went over to Alex and tapped them on their shoulder. Alex immediately turned to look at him and smiled. 

“Hey! I didn’t think I’d see you here!” Alex said. 

“I thought the same actually. I always come here before my shift and I asked Fritz to join me this time.”

“Makes sense. It’s hard to stay awake that late without some type of caffeine. I dunno if Rob would say the same but…whatever.”

“Why’re you here?”

“Oh. I started dozing off on the clock, and I thought, ‘oh my God, I don’t wanna pull a Rob and sleep on the job’ so I told Graham I was gonna run here for a few.”

“And he just let you?”

“Yeah apparently. He said he’ll cover for me until I get back, which he said would be forty five minutes, tops. By the way, d’you know what I should get? I almost never come here.”

“Uh, I usually get vanilla in mine and I think it’s pretty good, but Fritz is weird and gets his black.”

Alex snickered. “Maybe I’ll try vanilla, or should I get black just to piss you off?”

Jeremy chuckled. “Vanilla’s my recommendation, but I’d say you get whatever ‘cause I’m not buying it.”

“Damn it,” Alex joked and Jeremy chuckled again. Right at that moment, Michael came back and handed Jeremy his cup and cleared his throat. 

“What’re we gossiping about?” Michael joked and Alex and Jeremy laughed. 

“Coworker,” they said together. 

“Who?”

“Rob. He doesn’t like coffee! That weirdo,” Alex said. 

“Rob, who opens up the place with me?”

“No, some other Robert,” Alex said sarcastically. “Yes, that one!”

“He never told me! I’m gonna ask him about this tomorrow morning.”

“Oh, it’s your turn Alex,” Jeremy said and pointed ahead. Alex went up to the counter as Michael and Jeremy went back a few steps to wait for them. 

“I didn’t think they’d be here,” Michael said to Jeremy. 

“Neither did I, but apparently Mr. Graham let them leave to get coffee.”

“He just let ‘em?”

“Yup. I don’t know how since Graham is usually so strict, but Alex was able to convince him.” Alex came back to them both with their coffee and they all left out the doors together. “So uh, you should probably head back.”

Alex nodded and looked around the parking lot, and there wasn’t anyone else around. If there was any chance to ask if Fritz was Michael Afton, now would probably be their only shot. Alex took a deep breath. “You’re right, but Fritz, is it okay if I ask you something first?”

Michael looked at Jeremy and he shrugged. “Uh, sure. What’s up?” he asked. 

Alex motioned him towards their car so they were more hidden and there was definitely no one around. “Uh…oh God, I don’t know how to word this without coming off as weird.”

Michael was now starting to get a bit worried and so was Jeremy. He and Jeremy looked at each other and back at Alex. “I’m okay with weird,” Michael said. 

“Uh…okay I’ll just give it to ya straight. So on Friday night I remembered that Jeremy told me that you two were in my graduating class, and I got curious since I had a yearbook,” Michael inhaled sharply and felt his heart racing, “I found Jeremy, but there was no one named Fritz.”

“Uh, did I say Fritz was there?” Jeremy butted in. 

“Yep. I remember.”

“I said uh…he was NOT in our graduating class.”

“No, no. I remember you said he was.” Jeremy gulped. “But what I do remember is that Fritz looked like someone in my history class, and I found him and he looks exactly like Fritz.” Alex put their coffee down on their car roof behind them, and Michael and Jeremy put theirs on the car roof behind them. Alex turned to Michael and spoke so low their voice was barely audible, “Is your name…Michael Afton?” 

Michael went silent because he didn’t know how to answer and he looked over at Jeremy, but he didn’t know how to answer either. Michael took a deep breath and spoke in his regular British accent, “Don’t tell anyone, okay?”

“Wait, wait. You’re British too?!”

“Not technically, but don’t tell anyone,” Michael said, a little more threateningly than he meant. 

Alex held up both of their hands because they were a little scared since they have never heard him sound this threatening before. “You have my word, man. My lips are sealed.”

Jeremy put a hand on Michael’s shoulder to calm him down and thankfully, it worked and he felt his muscles loosen from their tensed state. Michael took a deep breath as well to try and tell himself that he was alright, and he should probably apologize since he has put the ‘bully days’ behind him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Oh I thought you’d be like this, I just wasn’t prepared. I uh, I haven’t even said the most shocking part yet.”

Shit, Michael thought. 

“I uh,” Alex took a deep breath, “I know about your dad...William Afton. I uh…I know what happened to those kids.”

Michael took a sip of his coffee because he didn’t know what else to say, but he also wasn’t sure if he was angry or unhappy that someone else knew his family secret. Jeremy noticed and decided to speak for Michael. “Uh, how do you know?” he asked. 

“Oh. I know because of my mom, she’s one of the lead detectives on the case. She warned me about this when I got hired.”

Michael tried not to spit out his coffee he had in his mouth to keep himself from yelling and swallowed it. “Who is she?” Michael asked. 

“Her name’s Isabella Davis.”

Michael stared at Alex for a while with his mouth open. “That’s your mum?!” he finally said. 

“Yeah.”

“How the hell did I not pair two and two together?! The name tag was right there…oh my God, I’m so stupid…” Michael muttered to himself. 

“Uh, you know who their mom is?” Jeremy asked Michael. 

“Yes! I-I spoke to her that day after I found the journal. Oh my God…” Michael bit his coffee lid because he was afraid to even speak. “Excuse me,” he finally said and walked quickly back to his car and sat in the driver's seat for a while. 

“What the…is he alright?” Alex asked. 

“Uh…it’s kind of a hard topic for him to think about since he feels guilty about it. He believes that everything his dad does just reflects back onto him.”

“Oh God…I feel so bad…”

“He just needs a few to cool down. He’ll be okay, I think.”

Michael was in the driver's seat of the car and put his cup down while he sat in thought for a while. He tried his best to hold back tears, but couldn’t stop a few from escaping his eyes. 

He felt terrible. Terrible being that his friend knew he lied to them, terrible that now that they know who he is that they might be in danger if they refuse to leave him as a friend. If both Alex and Jeremy aren’t being hunted down by William yet, they will be soon. Michael knows it because everyone he’s close to always ends up dead or seriously hurt sometime, and he feels awful. 

Jeremy had already refused to leave his side, he said so a few years ago (Jeremy said that he’ll ‘be smart enough to avoid it’) and he was sure Alex would be the same way. If he had a choice, he would go far away and cease contact with anyone to protect them, but he knew he couldn’t. Not with his father still around to (hopefully) stop him from hurting anyone else. 

After a while, Michael heard tapping on his window and he looked up to find Jeremy and Alex looking down at him through the car window. Michael opened the door. “Hey, you okay?” Jeremy asked and Michael shook his head ‘no’. Jeremy gave his empty coffee cup to Alex and bent down so Michael didn’t have to look up at him. “Can I hug you?” Jeremy asked and Michael nodded. Jeremy hugged Michael, and he felt him holding onto him very tightly since he needed the comfort after he got the overwhelming sensation of the future. After a few minutes and after he stopped shaking subtly, Michael loosened his grip and Jeremy backed away and stood up. 

Alex put the cups on the roof of the car and bent down so Michael didn’t have to look up at them. “Hey Fri-Michael. I’m sorry. I had no idea that this would be a heavy topic for you, and I shouldn’t have even brought it up and ignored my curiosity. I feel…awful,” they said as they tried to ignore the heavy feeling in their chest. 

Michael sniffled to keep himself together as he turned around in his seat so he was facing them. “It’s alright. I…I also feel terrible and that’s why I acted the way I did.”

“You do? Why?”

“I mean…for one, I’ve lied to you and I feel awful about that as it is. I-I understand if you hate me just for that,” Michael said. 

“But I don’t hate you for that.”

He looked at them. “You don’t?”

“Of course not! You were doing it for your own safety. And, unless you give me the word, your secret’s safe with me. Even though your dad’s…not on good terms with the restaurant so your name’s banned, it shouldn’t be linked back to you because as far as I know, you haven’t done anything wrong, you just happen to share his name.”

Michael hesitated. “Alex, you aren’t considering that…I have done something wrong. That I contributed to my family’s bad name. That I’m a part of that reason.”

“What? What d’you mean?”

Michael and Jeremy looked at each other and back at Alex. “Were you…were you never told what happened at the original location? In 1983?” Michael asked. 

“I…I don’t think so. My family rarely went there as it was, and my mom was on the case but she didn’t share details.” Michael and Jeremy stayed silent, not sure what to say next. “Jeremy? You too?” they asked once they saw Jeremy’s worried expression and he subtly nodded but said nothing. “What have you two been hiding this whole time?”

“It’s um…it’s difficult for both of us to talk about,” Michael said quietly and he noticed his leg was now shaking, which it probably has for a while. He looked up at Jeremy who was now looking down at his own feet, but as Michael looked at him he looked straight at him. “Are you okay if I tell ‘em?” Michael asked Jeremy quietly as he tried to swallow the lump in his throat. 

He knew that Jeremy was still deeply bothered by this subject, and even though Michael was hesitant but willing to tell since he thought it would be best if they knew, he wanted to make sure that Jeremy was alright with it as well because the trauma was shared between them. 

Jeremy looked back at Alex, and thought it would be best if they knew sooner rather than later, he thought it would be best if they knew the full story instead of just what William did. They were bound to find out sometime so might as well get it over with, so Jeremy looked back at Michael and nodded. 

Chapter 64

Summary:

The truth comes out.

Michael hesitated on his words and rubbed his own two hands together. “It’s okay. You can tell me,” Alex said quietly. 

Michael swung his legs to face forward in the seat, motioned Alex to sit in the passenger’s seat and Jeremy in the backseat, so they both got in the car and they all shut the doors behind them. “I uh…I don’t know how to start…” Michael said as he tried to ignore the lump in his throat that came back. 

“Well, just start from the beginning.”

Michael took a deep breath to calm himself down, but thought it was best to get this over with since he was sick of pretending to be someone he’s not in front of them. “I had…I had a younger brother once,” he said. “He was terrified of those stupid animatronics and I thought it was hilarious. 

“My father…my father never really paid attention to me. He never even liked me, but I craved his attention and approval and I wanted him to finally notice me. My young teenage brain thought that the only way to get his attention was to be rude and mean to my younger siblings, so I did just that.

“To my sister, I wouldn’t bother her a lot because she was a fighter. I would just call her names sometimes, maybe steal one of her dolls once in a while and hide it. To my brother, I made his life an absolute hell. I would scare him until he cried and laughed in his face, lock him in rooms, steal his stuffed bear he always had with him, call him names all the time and I even tore one of his plushies once. 

“Me and my friends at the time would all take part in this so he got three times the normal amount of bullying when they came over. We bullied him so much in fact, he would have nightmares…about us,” Jeremy looked at him in surprise. He didn’t know about that part but he stayed silent since he didn’t have the energy to talk at that moment, “I-I thought that I would eventually get my father’s approval that way. Whenever me and my friends would bully him, he’d run to my father and instead of hitting him like my father would have done to me, he seemed to tolerate him which only made me more jealous and I began to bully him more. 

“One day, he had a party. Or rather, my father forced him to go to Fredbear’s for his birthday because he had to work, and my mother is…my mother passed away when I was young so there was no one to watch us.

“I was with some friends and my father left my line of vision so I thought, while he wasn’t looking, it would be funny if we could all take him to see Fredbear up close since he was terrified of it and he couldn’t run to my father. We grabbed him from under a table since he was hiding, brought him up to the stage and shoved his head into Fredbear’s mouth. It got stuck, he cried, we laughed, and then…” Michael didn’t even try to stop the tears from flowing down his cheeks. “It’s all my fault…” he said softly, his voice beginning to break and he covered his face with his hands. 

“It was an accident…” Jeremy said so quietly it was almost a whisper. It was the first time he spoke in a while, and he had silent tears flowing down his cheeks and was slumped in the backseat. 

“H-he’s right,” Michael said as he took his hands away from his face. “I-It was an accident! I didn’t mean to, we didn’t mean too! I-I didn’t think…” he trailed off. 

“We?” Alex asked. 

“I…I was there,” Jeremy said and wiped the tears from his cheeks as he sat up. “I was one of his friends. I-I knew it was a bad idea and I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want them to think less of me. I could have stopped it from happening, but I was scared that they’d make fun of me so I stayed quiet. I…I was a part of the problem,” he said as he bit his lip to try and hold back more tears.

Alex stayed silent as their words sunk in. “…I know you hate us. I wouldn’t blame you if you don’t want to be around us,” Michael said. 

“But…I don’t hate both of you!” Alex said. 

“But Alex, I killed my own brother! I watched my own sister and mother die right in front of me! I knew about the death of those kids and I didn’t do anything! I lied to you about my identity! Truth is, I-I only started working at Freddy’s to find my father to try and put a stop to all of this to do something good for once in my pathetic life, but everywhere I go this bad luck just follows me!” He looked at his palms and clenched his fists. “I’m not a good person. I’m a murderer, I’m a monster-”

“That’s not true!”

He and Jeremy turned to face them. “What?” Michael said. 

“Don’t say such terrible things about yourself, both of you! You both are not terrible people, and you both are not murderers, that’s for sure. Sure we’ve only known each other for a little while, but you’re both nothing like how you described, you two have just gotten in your own heads and made yourself believe you’re something you’re not. I can tell from what you both have said, you have grown and changed from your past mistakes, and I can tell you’re trying to heal from the past. I’m so, so sorry you both had kept this bottled for so long…and if I had known you two sooner you know I would’ve tried to help you. 

“Listen, I guess what I’m trying to say is that even though I may not know exactly what you went through, I’m here for you both. I’m not angry and I never have been, I don’t hate you, and I will stand by your sides until the very end. Hell, maybe even after that if there’s something after this.”

Jeremy and Michael stayed silent in shock, not knowing how to respond. To them, it was some sort of miracle Alex didn’t hate them both or think of them any differently. They both stayed silent until Jeremy leaned forward and trapped Alex in a bear hug as he tried to hold back another wave of tears. 

After he let go and retreated back to the backseat, Michael impulsively trapped them in a hug as well and he tried not to start crying again. It has been a long time since Michael finally considered another person his friend; the last time he did consider someone his friend was almost ten years ago when he met Jeremy. 

Michael retreated back to his seat and wiped his tears. “You okay, Michael?” Alex asked. 

“If you want, you can just call me Mike. Everyone does so I don’t see why you can’t.”

“Fine by me.” They turned to Jeremy. “How about you Jeremy?” Jeremy nodded.

“I still have…a lot to explain to you. About why I’m looking for my father, about my sister, about my mother…about something else that I don’t really want to say right now because you’d think I’m mental…” Michael said.

“And we have time for that. We’re only eighteen, we got time before we’re all like, twenty or something.”

“Time…wait, shit! I probably kept you for longer than you were supposed to be, huh?”

Alex looked at their watch. “Uh…a few minutes, but if he’s mad I’m late he can cry me a river.” Michael and Jeremy snickered quietly. “So uh, I’m thinking you two wanna take it easy for the next few hours, but at least let me buy you another coffee.”

“Are you sure?” Jeremy asked. 

“I’m sure. It’s the least I can do to try to make you guys feel a little bit better because I know this is a heavy topic for both of you.”

Michael and Jeremy looked at each other and back at Alex, smiled and nodded. The three of them got out of the car and went back out towards the coffee shop for the second time that evening. 

Chapter 65

Summary:

Night 1

Everything’s going smoothly so far.

When Jeremy arrived for his shift that next Monday, the animatronics didn’t move for a good couple of hours, and he had to try his best not to doze off by taking sips of his steamy coffee because he didn’t sleep well that previous night. He had no idea why, but he assumed it was just one of those days where it was tough to get back to sleep after you randomly woke up. 

When the clock reached two, he kept yawning to keep himself awake. He flipped through all of the cameras out of boredom, wound up the music box and rubbed his eyes trying to not fall asleep. He’s made the mistake of dozing off once before and learned his lesson the hard way that it’s not a good idea. 

When three came around, he checked the Show Stage camera and saw one of the animatronic silhouettes were gone. He turned on the light and saw that Toy Bonnie was off the stage and nowhere to be found. “Of course it’s Bonnie. It’s always Bonnie first,” Jeremy mumbled to himself. 

It didn’t take long for Toy Bonnie to make his way down to one of the Party Rooms, which happened to have a vent that led straight to the office. He usually did something like this every night, so Jeremy was used to it by now. 

Jeremy put the mask on when he heard Toy Bonnie in the vent, and the encounter went just as it always did: Toy Bonnie crawled out of the right vent and stared at Jeremy for a while. Jeremy used to be frightened of their dead stares, but by now he has grown almost numb to them. Toy Bonnie got closer to him, and Jeremy didn’t even flinch even though they were looking each other in the eye. 

“Freddy?” Toy Bonnie said.

Jeremy cleared his throat. “Yes?” he answered. He had to deepen his voice to get himself to sound somewhat believable. 

“Have you seen a metal endoskeleton wandering around? It’s not wearing a costume, so it wouldn’t be good to have it wandering around during the daytime.”

“Again?”

“Yes, again. This keeps happening almost every day!”

“Uh, nope. Haven’t seen one around here.”

“Okay! Thanks Freddy!” Toy Bonnie said and wandered out of the office and into the hallway. 

Jeremy took off the mask when he couldn’t see Toy Bonnie anymore. “Same thing every time,” he muttered and wound up the music box. 

It didn’t take long for Jeremy to shine his light down the hallway to find Toy Chica standing at the end of it. She didn’t come into the office on a regular basis, but it was still a bit unsettling to see her standing there with her beak taken off. 

The more he thought about it, it was strange she was able to take her beak off by herself because usually that couldn’t be done without tools. All the employees and the manager, Patrick Graham have noticed this, but even though it was strange to everyone no one bothered to call the technicians in to fix the issue since she technically wasn’t broken. Technicians were expensive to call in and very time consuming, so it wasn’t deemed as necessary. 

Even though Jeremy saw her at the end of the hallway, Jeremy didn’t put the mask on because he only needed it when they came into the office. Jeremy looked up from the monitor and turned on the flashlight to find that not only was her beak gone, but her eyes were missing as well. Jeremy flinched and backed up in surprise, rubbed his eyes and when he turned on the flashlight again she was gone. Jeremy looked behind him as well since he had the feeling something was behind him, but there was nothing and he turned back around. 

“I must really be tired,” he said to himself and took another sip of coffee. 

When the clock struck five in the morning, right when the numbers of the clock changed he saw Toy Freddy in the hallway. Toy Freddy usually didn’t bother him that much, maybe he’d come into the office from time to time but nothing to stress about. Toy Freddy usually spent a lot of time in the Game Area, usually by himself and going around to the different arcade games. Sometimes, animatronics would join him in the Game Room and watch him go around to the different games, but soon after they would get bored and leave to find where the people were. 

It was very rare that Toy Freddy appeared in the office, but he was just the same as all the others. Even though he was a version of Freddy, he was still fooled by the Freddy mask. Jeremy thought it was strange how he could be fooled by a mask that looked like him, but he decided it must have something to do with the facial scanners and didn’t question it. 

Jeremy saw him down the hallway but like Toy Chica, he didn’t put on the mask because he only needed it if they came into the office. Jeremy disregarded him for a while, flipping through each of the cameras and winding up the music box, but after about thirty minutes of forgetting about Toy Freddy in the hallway he decided to check again. This time, Toy Freddy was closer than he was before, but he was only in the doorway to the office. His facial scanners couldn’t detect him from very far, so he was alright for the time being but decided he should still be cautious and have the mask at the ready. 

Jeremy continued checking on him every few minutes, but he never moved all that much. The most that Toy Freddy moved was turning his head slightly, because he could see that there was something in front of him that was moving, but he couldn’t tell what it was. 

Jeremy kept switching between shining the flashlight on Toy Freddy and winding up the music box until he heard the six o’clock bell ring. He watched Toy Freddy turn his head to the noise and he made his way back to the stage, since he was programmed to make his way back to the Show Stage if he was away from it before the restaurant opened. 

Jeremy checked all of the cameras one more time before he left, and all the animatronics were back where they belonged on stage. Since he found out the Originals could move on their own a couple of weeks ago, he checked the Parts and Service video feed and found them still in their same places on the floor. He switched over to the Prize Corner video feed and wound up the music box again, since it was rigged to go down very slowly before the morning staff came in, and he left through the back door. 

Alright Jeremy, another night done. 

Chapter 66

Summary:

Night 2

Things are starting to get a bit strange.

The next day, Jeremy went into his job like he always did and sighed as he went in the front door. 

He still didn’t get that much sleep that day just like the day previous, and he didn’t know why. He was starting to get dark circles under his eyes from not sleeping, and both Michael and Alex had noticed today. They had both asked him if he was okay, and he replied with, ‘I’m fine, just tired’, and ‘I’m okay, I just didn’t get a lot of sleep’. This time, he had brought his usual coffee with him and a drink cup full of ice cold water to drink from, but also to splash on his face to ensure he wouldn’t fall asleep on the job since he could feel his eyelids getting heavier by the minute.

When the animatronics didn’t move the first hour, he kept yawning and looked over at the water cup he had brought with him. He was dreadfully tired and he just wanted to fall asleep at the desk right then, but he knew he couldn’t since he could risk the building getting broken into and he wouldn’t notice. He knew the company couldn’t afford that, so he took the water cup from the desk and splashed a little water on his face. 

“Oh my God…” he whispered to himself as he put the cup down and dried his face off with his sleeve. It was way colder than he originally thought, and part of him was glad because it woke him up but part of him wished it wasn’t so he could take a short nap at the desk. Once he dried his face off, he heard the clanging noise of metal hitting the tile, or rather an animatronic walking down the hallway. “Here we go,” he muttered. 

Once the clock struck two, the sound of metal hitting the tile stopped. Jeremy decided to shine his flashlight down the hall to see who it was this time, and to his surprise it wasn’t Toy Bonnie or Toy Chica like he expected, it was Toy Freddy. He was surprised because it was very rare for Toy Freddy to come down the hall to the office since he usually preferred to stay in the Game Area, especially so early into his shift, so it was very odd that he was the first to come down the hallway before the others.

Jeremy brushed it off as, Maybe he finally got bored of the Game Area, and turned on the vent lights since Toy Freddy couldn’t see him clearly yet. Once he saw that there was nothing in the vents, he checked the monitor to wind up the music box since he hadn’t checked it in a while. He looked up from the monitor when he heard the sound of metal clanging on the tile, and he shined his light down the hall to see that Toy Freddy was closer to the doorway than he was before, just staring straight at him which Jeremy thought was a little unsettling. 

The more Jeremy thought about it, it was a little unusual because the animatronics usually didn’t start moving until about three or four in the morning, sometimes even five in the morning. They never started moving this early, but he thought maybe there was a bug in their system. 

The clock struck three, and Jeremy decided to wind up the music box once again out of boredom. He heard the clanging of metal getting closer to him and thought, I’ll bet he’s right in front of me.

He looked up from the monitor and saw he was correct, Toy Freddy was right in front of him. Jeremy sighed as he put on the mask, and he was thankful that Toy Freddy never spoke to him because he was too tired to put on an act to sound like someone totally different. Tonight wasn’t any different and Toy Freddy stood silently in front of his desk like he expected. 

Tonight was a bit different though, because as he stood in front of the desk Jeremy saw that his eyes were totally black or that they were taken out somehow, he wasn’t sure which. That alone was enough to make him jolt awake and he could hear his own panicked breathing from inside the mask. He closed his eyes and shook his head back and forth because he was sure his mind was just playing tricks on him. As he opened his eyes, Toy Freddy already turned and started making his way down the hall so Jeremy couldn’t even see if his mind really was playing tricks on him.

Once Toy Freddy was out of sight, he took the mask off and checked both vents and the hallway, but he saw nothing and checked the camera monitor. As he wound up the music box again, he heard something crawling in the left vent and rolled his eyes, assuming it was Balloon Boy since he was the one who most often crawled in the left vent. He checked the left vent light to see if he was right, but he saw that it was in fact, not Balloon Boy. It was Toy Chica, who almost never went in the vents. 

Once he took a closer look, he saw the same blackened out eyes Toy Freddy had just about fifteen minutes before. He jolted back and stared at Toy Chica while he fumbled around the desk for the mask. He finally found it and quickly put it on and left the mask on until he heard Toy Chica crawl back into the vents once she saw nothing out of the ordinary. 

“Can they even take their eyes out or am I just losing it?!” Jeremy said to himself as he took the mask off. 

He took the mask off and shined the light down the hallway, but saw Toy Chica coming out of a Party Room. Jeremy didn’t look at her again, afraid he might be losing it and it would scare him enough to make him want to quit this job so soon, and he knew he couldn’t because the company needed a nighttime security guard. The animatronics never did that before, so he thought either there must be a bug in their system, he was extremely tired or both. 

Before Toy Chica even left the hallway, Jeremy heard something in the right vent. Toy Bonnie was usually the one who crawled in the right vent so he assumed it was the same as every night, and as he turned on the light he saw that he was correct. He was grateful that it looked like Toy Bonnie’s eyes were still intact and put on the mask. 

When he put on the mask, Toy Bonnie came up in front of the desk like he always did. “Have you seen an endoskeleton anywhere, Freddy? I keep thinking there’s one around here and we can’t have it wandering around when the pizzeria opens.” Jeremy just shook his head since he didn’t feel like responding today. “Okay! Thanks Freddy! Tell me if you see one. I think I saw a spare suit somewhere around here and I think that would be perfect for it…” Toy Bonnie said as he crawled back into the vents. 

The clock struck four and Jeremy yawned and splashed some of the water on his face, which had now warmed up to room temperature so it didn’t work as well. He dried off his face and turned on the light down the hall, and as he expected Mangle was down the hall and hanging onto the ceiling. That wasn’t unusual, since Mangle was able to crawl on the ceiling so that was how they got around, but when he wound up the music box again and looked back, Mangle had moved closer to the doorway and they had the same blackened out look in their eyes as Toy Freddy and Toy Chica. 

I’m fine, I’m just losing it. Maybe this job’s finally getting to me, Jeremy thought and when he shined the light down the hallway again, Mangle was gone. 

Besides Toy Freddy showing up in the hallway again, which was very unusual for him, nothing much happened until the clock struck five when he heard something crawling in the left vent. Okay, this one’s Balloon Boy, he thought and turned on the light. He saw he was correct and quickly put the mask on, because he knew if he didn’t then Balloon Boy would take the flashlight batteries. 

As he expected, Balloon Boy went in front of the desk and Jeremy gripped the flashlight tightly. Balloon Boy stared at him for a little while, but he eventually got bored with trying to figure out if Jeremy was an animatronic or not and left through the hallway. Once he was out of sight, Jeremy took the mask off and right then the clock struck six in the morning. 

He checked all the cameras on the monitor again and saw everyone was in their correct spots, and just to be safe he checked the Parts and Service room again and saw that all the original animatronics hadn’t moved an inch from the previous night. He went back to the Prize Corner video feed, wound up the music box, grabbed both the empty coffee cup and empty water cup, and left through the back door to his car parked in the parking lot. 

Hopefully I can get more sleep today when I get home. These last two days were like hell getting through, he thought as he drove away to his house. 

Chapter 67

Summary:

Night 3

It was just a nightmare, Jeremy. Probably means nothing…

“Jer? Are you sure you’re okay?” Michael said over the phone that evening. 

“Oh yeah,” Jeremy replied through a yawn. 

“You sound tired. Did you sleep?”

“Yes.”

“Jeremy?” he said sternly. 

“…fine, I didn’t.” Michael sighed. “It’s not my fault! I couldn’t for some reason!”

“This happened yesterday too! I’m getting worried about you, what if I took your shift tonight and you stay home and sleep?”

“No, no. I’m fine. You already worked today, it wouldn’t be fair to you.”

“But-”

“Mike, I know how you are and I love that you care, but I’m telling you I’m fine.”

“Okay, if you’re sure. But if this insomnia doesn’t clear up in a few days, I’m making you stay home and rest.”

“Deal. Love you Mikey.”

“Love you too.”

---

When Jeremy went into work that night, he was dreading the thought of possibly having to come into contact with the animatronics. Part of him wishes he took Michael up on his offer, because all he wanted to do was go home and sleep in his comfortable bed. 

When he got to work, Alex had noticed he hadn’t been sleeping either. For one, he was getting very obvious dark circles under his eyes and he was yawning way more than usual. 

“Hey man, you okay?” Alex asked and they came up to the Prize Corner counter Jeremy was wiping down. 

“What? Oh yeah, I’m fine,” he replied. 

“You don’t look fine.”

“I just haven’t been sleeping well this week, that’s all. Could barely get more than an hour in.”

“Why? Is there something else going on? We can talk about it.”

“No, no. Everything’s fine. I don’t know what it is, I just can’t sleep, and every time I manage to I jolt awake an hour or two later and I feel like something terrible happened, but I don’t know what happened.”

“Hm. Well I dunno if it would be the smartest decision since you have to keep watch, but if you can maybe you could nap on the clock for a few even if it’s just for a few hours.”

“I don’t know if that would be very smart, but honestly I might. No one has tried to steal those things yet,” he said and he yawned. 

“Well, if you do I won’t tell Graham, you know how he is about the rules and shit. I have to get going now, but good luck tonight Jeremy.”

“Thanks Alex.”

---

Right when the clock struck twelve, Jeremy immediately felt the tiredness creeping in. He tried to force himself to stay awake by taking sips of hot coffee and burning his tongue, but it didn’t work so he thought maybe since the animatronics were acting somewhat normal again, he should listen to Alex. Of course, there was the music box issue but then again, Puppet knew he was just a normal guy who meant no harm and could keep the animatronics away. 

An hour into his shift, he felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier by the minute and eventually gave in and put his head down on the desk. He closed his eyes and the constant lullaby playing on the monitor seemed to send him to sleep almost instantly. 

Once he finally drifted off into a dream, it was a strange one. He was on the street outside of his house, but it was odd and didn’t feel like his house even though he knew it was. He looked around and there were no people on the street, no small children playing on the sidewalk, no teenagers riding bikes or riding skateboards and there were no cars in any of the driveways or driving on the road. 

He also saw no animals; no annoying mourning doves, no sparrows and no occasional rabbits that appeared next to houses. There were no dogs barking like usual and there were no occasional stray cats that hung around the neighborhood looking for food. 

“Hello?” he called out but there was no answer, so he knew he was alone. Part of him was even freaked out now because the quietness was eerie to him. 

He finally went up to his house and turned the doorknob to open the door to an empty house. This is freaky, he thought and went into the house, but as soon as he went inside he got the feeling that he wasn’t alone like he thought.

He went around the house and he found it to be empty, like he was the only person left alive in the world. That was, until he heard a voice.

“Bad,” was all it said. He never heard this voice before; it sounded like both a man and a woman, young but old at the same time. Whoever this voice belonged to was nowhere to be seen like it was coming from a speaker that he couldn’t see. 

“What?” he replied. 

“He’s bad.”

“Who?!”

“He wants to kill. He craves the blood of the innocent.”

“Kill?! Kill who?!”

“He wants to kill Michael.”

“Mike…” he said quietly. 

“That was the deal they made.”

“Deal?! What deal?! Who are you talking about?!”

“William sent him to kill Michael for him, but William wants to get rid of those dearest to Michael in order for him to kill and the plan can move forward.”

“Get rid of…who?”

“You.”

Jeremy was petrified as soon as he heard that word and backed up against the wall, but as soon as his back hit the wall he let himself slip down and curled up into a ball. He felt his anxiety beginning to rise and he put his hands on his face, but as soon as he brought his hands away they were drenched in blood. 

“Oh no, oh God…” Jeremy whispered and felt his face, and sure enough that was his blood on his hands. It was everywhere on his face and dripping down to his neck and chest, and soon he saw blood gushing out of his hands and dripping down his arms. He didn’t know what it was from and he knew he couldn’t do anything to stop it, but he was scared and paralyzed from fright. 

He suddenly opened his eyes from his dream and sat upright, but way too fast and he and the chair he was on fell backwards. He landed on his back but he stayed put while his eyes started to focus on the real world again. He was breathing heavily and he could feel his heart beating quickly in his head, but after a few deep breaths he calmed himself down. 

“It was just a dream, Jeremy. Just a nightmare, it probably means nothing,” he told himself as he pushed his stray hairs that got in his mouth to the side. He looked at his hands just to be safe, and to his relief they were normal and there was no blood in sight. He felt his face and when he took his hands away he brought back no blood and exhaled in relief.

He sat upright and held onto the table as he stood, but he felt his back ache since he landed on it. “Ow. Goddamn it,” he mumbled as he stretched out his back and bent to pick up the chair, and after he set it down he sat in it with his head in his hands. “Just a stupid nightmare…”

He looked up when he heard the clanging of metal on the tile, and when he shined his flashlight down the hallway he saw Toy Chica standing at the end of it. Oh. It’s just you, he thought, but he saw she had her beak taken off and eyes taken out and he shuddered. 

She turned to go back to the stage like usual since she didn’t come into the office a ton, but that’s when Jeremy suddenly remembered the music box that hadn’t been wound up for a long time. He looked over at the clock and saw that it was only three in the morning, and the anxiety from his frightening dream he had a few minutes ago had worn off. Only two hours?! Are you kidding me?!

He looked back at the monitor and turned on the light to the Prize Corner, and Puppet was out of its box. He flipped through all of the cameras and he finally found Puppet in the hallway. Damn it, he thought, but he got an idea. Even though Puppet wasn’t there, he wound up the music box in hopes they could hear it even though they were far away from it. 

His wishes didn’t come true again and Puppet made their way into the office, and he jumped back slightly from surprise when he saw them suddenly in front of the desk. 

“It’s you again,” Puppet said. He wasn’t expecting to hear it start talking to him. 

“Uh…yeah.”

“Why are you still here?”

“Um…it’s my job?”

“Job?”

“Yeah, like work?”

“Work…it’s dangerous here. You shouldn’t be here for work.”

“I have to be here!”

“He’s coming back, I know it. You have to get out of here, it’s not safe.”

“He? Who’s…whatever, if you get back to your box before the place opens, I’ll play your favorite lullaby.”

“Music?”

“Yes, music.”

He wasn’t expecting that to work, but Puppet believed him and went out of the office. He looked back at the camera monitor and turned on the light to find Puppet back in the box with the top open, waiting for the music box to be wound up again since it had winded down. Jeremy thought he should do his part and wound up the music box, and he watched as the top of the box closed with Puppet inside. 

The rest of his time at the pizzeria was normal: the animatronics didn’t bother him much and he heard nothing in the vents. They mainly stayed close to the Show Stage, stayed in the Game Area or in Kids Cove. There were a few instances where they appeared in the hallway, but after a few minutes they went back to the main dining area. 

After a few hours, Jeremy heard the 6:00am bell ring and he checked all of the cameras to double check everything was in place. He saw all of the Toy animatronics were in place on stage and decided to check Parts and Services again, since he couldn’t get over the feeling that there was something back there. 

When he turned on the light, he found a couple of the original animatronics standing and trying to push open the locked door. They looked up at the camera once they saw the light turn on, and Jeremy felt as though they could see him. He shuddered at the thought and turned off the light for a minute, and when he turned it back on he saw them all in their usual places. I’m definitely losing it, he thought and turned off the light, grabbed his empty coffee cup and left through the back door.

Chapter 68

Summary:

Night 4

Someone may have tampered with the facial recognition.

The truth was, William had been in Hurricane the entire time, just flying under the radar by not contacting anyone he knew and not telling anyone his real name. He had been hiding behind his best attempt at an American accent to fit in and cut off his long hair. He had been hiding behind his best attempt at makeup to cover up his scars since they were easily his most recognizable trait. He had been hiding behind this persona he had created called Dave Miller. 

William parked his car a few blocks away from Freddy’s to make sure he wasn’t seen at about seven o’clock in the morning when Jeremy had left. Before he got out of the car to the building, he zipped up the gray jacket he had on, put the hood over his head and he stuffed some small tools he had ‘borrowed’ from the hardware store into his jacket pockets. He then pulled up the black bandana loosely tied around his neck over his mouth and nose since he was sure Henry programmed the animatronics to recognize his face.

As he sat in the driver’s seat telling himself to do this to get it over with, part of him couldn’t believe that he was going to try and break into the establishment that was his old place of work, but he had procrastinated his plan long enough. If he wanted Michael gone, he needed Jeremy gone, and he figured this was the best way to do it without getting caught.

He knew he only had a limited amount of time to execute this plan before the restaurant opened and day shift employees came in. He grabbed a small flashlight from his car, ran up to the building and cautiously opened the back door that he knew was often left unlocked for the security guards and made his way inside, turned on the flashlight and went down the dark hallway, towards the few wooden steps leading up to the main stage and to his relief from the huge front windows, he saw no one outside.

He went up the steps and looked forward to where he stopped suddenly as he almost crashed into the animatronics on stage since he wasn’t watching where he was walking. He carefully took off the face plates of all the animatronics one by one, and after several minutes of reprogramming each of them he successfully added Jeremy Fitzgerald to each of their criminal databases. 

He was thankful that it didn't take as long as he had thought, but still longer than he’d like to admit. He put the face plates back on and went towards Kid’s Cove to reprogram Toy Foxy, which he learned that the employees referred to as ‘Mangle’ and he quickly learned why as soon as he stepped foot in the room. 

“God. What’d those damn kids do to you?” William muttered to himself when he shined the flashlight on Mangle. He didn’t question it for very long as he took off the face plate and he got to work on the reprogramming. He did not want to be convicted of any more crimes than he had already been convicted of, but wanted them to see it as the animatronics having a faulty system. He programmed into the system that Jeremy was on the criminal record, just like all the other animatronics and put the face plate back on. 

As William passed the Prize Corner he didn’t see that Puppet’s box was open slightly, so he didn’t see that Charlotte’s eyes were following him everywhere he went. She tried her hardest to open the lid of the box because she saw someone else in the building who shouldn’t be, and it was her job to make sure the building was free from intruders but the box wouldn’t budge. William noticed the lid of the box moving out of the corner of his eye when he went out of the Cove and went over to it out of curiosity. 

He couldn’t see what was in the box so he decided to open it, and to his surprise a puppet animatronic came out of the box. William lost his balance and fell backwards because it was towering over him, even though he was pretty tall himself, but as he looked closer he saw that Puppet had white pupils like his own and he smiled evilly. 

“Hello Charlie. Long time no see,” he said.  

Charlotte recognized his voice instantly and her eyes locked on him. William stood up and took off running to the back door since he knew the front door was locked and Charlotte went after him. She chased him through the hallway, trying to catch up to him and getting very close to him, close enough to where she could barely touch him. 

Just as she reached for him to try and pull him back so the morning employees could see him and call the cops, William opened the back door and slammed it shut in Charlotte’s face with only seconds to spare. Charlotte banged on the door and William held it shut, but after a few minutes he heard the banging stop. He didn’t want to stick around to find out if she left or not so he decided to run back to his car parked a couple of blocks away. 

Just as he got to the corner of the building, he heard two employees talking quietly amongst themselves, and William decided it wouldn’t be the best idea to run now so he hid behind the wall. When he heard their voices getting closer, he let his curiosity get the best of him and peeked around the corner, and to his relief they didn’t see him. 

One of the employees had a security guard uniform on so William assumed he was the morning security guard, and the other was wearing a red button down with the logo on the back but he looked shockingly similar to William. That employee went by Fritz he learned, but William could recognize his features anywhere. 

Michael?!

---

That night, Jeremy heard from Alex before his shift started that there was an investigation starting on the building because the animatronics were acting quite odd that day, especially towards staff members. It shouldn’t be a huge issue that would last a long time, but Alex told him to just be cautious around the animatronics until the investigation is over with. 

That night Jeremy switched between flipping through the cameras and sipping his coffee to keep himself busy, but it wasn’t long until he heard an animatronic in the vent. Jeremy checked the camera and saw a silhouette of an animatronic, but when he turned on the light it didn’t look like Toy Bonnie, Toy Chica or Mangle like he expected but it looked like a completely different animatronic. One made to entertain the small children that he rarely ever sees out of the Game Area. 

Just as he saw the animatronic come out of the vents and looked at him with curiosity, Jeremy put on the Freddy mask hoping the animatronic didn’t see him. 

This specific animatronic was a short animatronic—very different from the rest since the others were towering over Jeremy—and the animatronic held a sign that read ‘Balloons!’ . It’s name was Balloon Boy, and Jeremy hoped he wasn’t too late to put the mask on otherwise he’d steal the flashlight batteries. 

Balloon Boy went up to the desk Jeremy was at and stood in front of it, as if trying to figure out if Jeremy was Freddy or not. When Jeremy saw that Balloon Boy just stood there staring at him, he rolled his eyes thinking Balloon Boy was just trying to waste his time since he sometimes liked to do that. He looked at the monitor and back to where Balloon Boy was standing, but saw he had gone away from his place in front of the desk. 

After a few minutes Jeremy looked around the office and saw that Balloon Boy was nowhere in sight. He took the mask off in relief because he was starting to sweat with it on and he picked up his flashlight and clicked it on to look down the hallway, where it remained off even though he clicked it several times. 

For fuck’s sake… he thought because he knew he didn’t use up all of the battery power yet. He opened the bottom of the flashlight where he saw the batteries were gone, just as he expected. He sighed and turned his attention to Balloon Boy when he heard him laughing and saw him run out of the office with the batteries in his hand. “Hey!” Jeremy yelled as he started to run after him. He then stopped himself and turned back to the desk to get the mask and flashlight and put on the mask as he ran after him. 

He finally caught up to him in front of the stage and saw that the other animatronics were either in Kid’s Cove or the Game Area. There you are, gotcha now, he thought because he had finally caught up to Balloon Boy. Jeremy was already fed up once he reached Balloon Boy so he tackled him to the ground to get the batteries back. 

After Jeremy had the batteries tightly in his grip and he put them back in the flashlight, he was about to sprint back to the security office when he heard the music box stop, and out of the corner of his eye saw Puppet’s box start to open. Shit, he thought and started heading back to the office, but Puppet began to speak to him and stopped him in his tracks. 

“I saw him,” he heard from Puppet’s box. 

“Huh?” he said as he turned his attention to the box and turned on the flashlight. 

“He got in and he did something. Something bad.”

“Uh…who?”

“Him.”

“Him?” he asked. Why are you so vague?! he thought. 

“The others don’t know. The others want to kill him, because the others are like animals, but I am very aware. I see things they do not.”

“The others?”

“I gave them life, a second chance, but they do not want to listen to me. She has led them to believe that they can kill him just like that.” Puppet turned to Jeremy and he backed up a step. “There is no known way to stop him, not yet.”

After Puppet had stopped speaking, Jeremy was left standing in place, flabbergasted. He didn’t know if he should trust Puppet because she definitely knew something he didn’t, then again he always thought Puppet was just an animatronic that acted strangely, but as he thought about it more he was starting to doubt himself. 

The few times Puppet has actually spoken to Jeremy, Puppet was talking to him like a human and not like a robot. Puppet’s voice was also nothing like the others who sounded robotic when they spoke, Puppet sounded like a human child.  

Jeremy suddenly remembered that he was still in the main dining area with all of the animatronics who have been acting stranger than usual tonight, so he thought it would be best to get back to the safety of the office. He sprinted back to the Security Office and took off the mask to find that he was starting to sweat with it on. 

At least nothing was in the hallway. 

Chapter 69

Summary:

Night 5

Well that was quite unexpected.

“Jer? Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve been…awfully quiet lately,” Michael said to Jeremy as they were sitting in his car together before Jeremy’s shift at work. 

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine. It’s just been…a really weird week for me, that’s all.”

“What happened? D’you wanna talk about it?”

Jeremy hesitated. “I dunno. You’ll just think I’m stressing over nothing.”

“Look who you’re talking to.” Jeremy smiled. “You just seem upset about something and you know you can talk to me, it might be better to get it off your chest.”

“Well…for starters someone may have messed with the animatronics facial recognition.”

“I’ve noticed that too, everyone has. It’s really weird.”

“I-it’s just getting a lot for me to handle by myself at night. I don’t know, I’m seriously thinking about quitting after this party thing.”

“I wouldn’t blame you. It’s getting to be a lot for me too, but with the investigation going on I doubt the place will be open for long so you’ll have an excuse to quit.”

“I hate to admit it, but I’m beginning to think you were right,” he said sarcastically and Michael snickered. “And then…can I tell you something else?”

“Anything.”

“So, you know that creepy Puppet thing?” Michael nodded. “Last night it actually spoke to me. I don’t know how it’s able to talk freely on its own since the Toys are programmed with lines, but it did. It said something like, ‘he got in last night’, ‘he did something. Something bad’, ‘I gave the others life’ but whoever it was was very vague. It didn’t tell me who ‘he’ is, who ‘the others’ were and it’s making me a little nervous.”

“I…I’m sure it’s nothing you need to worry about. Those things say weird things all the time.”

“I’m hoping you’re right. Oh, and can I tell you one more thing? It’s kind of stupid but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.”

“You can tell me anything.”

“So, this may sound kind of childish when I say it, but a few nights ago I was able to fall asleep for a few hours at work and I had a nightmare I’m not able to shake.”

“A nightmare? About what?”

“In it I heard a voice, one that I’ve never heard in my life before. It kept saying, ‘he’s bad’.”

“He? The same he or different?”

“It seemed to be a different one, but it didn’t tell me who ‘he’ is. This dream felt oddly real to me, so I dunno if it seems childish to say I’m starting to believe it.”

”Not at all. What did it say?”

”It said ‘he’s working with William’, saying that he wants to kill…you.”

“Me?” 

Jeremy nodded. “This voice told me, ‘it was the deal they made’, and I’m getting worried about you, Mike. A-and whoever this was told me that William sent him to kill you, but in order to do that William wants to get rid of those dearest to you so I guess…you won’t have a reason to want to stay alive.“

“So that means…”

Jeremy nodded, but he couldn’t stop the tears coming out of his eyes and streaming down his face. “William’s planning to kill me! I-I don’t wanna die, Mikey!”

Jeremy was now sobbing in the passenger’s seat next to Michael, and Michael asked, “Can I hug you?” to which Jeremy nodded. Michael leaned over the console and wrapped his arms around Jeremy and he did the same to Michael, and he felt Jeremy hugging him tightly and shaking as he sobbed into his shoulder. “It’s okay, it’s okay, I got you,” Michael said calmly to Jeremy and he only hugged Michael a little tighter. 

Jeremy sniffled. “I-I don’t wanna die, I-I don’t wanna leave you,” he said shakily.

“And you won’t. I know it.”

---

“Y’know, you’re a terrible liar,” Alex said when Jeremy arrived for his shift and they were closing up together. 

“I told you, I’m fine.”

“Something’s up. You can talk to me, Jeremy.”

He inhaled and exhaled deeply. “I already talked to Mike about it earlier, and I dunno if I’m just stressing over nothing but if it’s true then there’s no stopping it.”

“Stopping what?”

“A few days ago, I decided to take your advice and nap on the clock for a few hours, and I had a very disturbing dream that seemed very…real. Like it was a warning of some sort.”

“A warning?”

“Yeah. And it said…” Jeremy paused to try and keep himself together. “William's gonna try and…kill me.”

“Kill you?! Why?!”

“H-he doesn’t want Michael to have a reason to live. I’m nervous for him of course, but he wants to get rid of me first since I’m just in the way of his ‘plan’.”

“Oh my God…I-I’m so sorry Jeremy. I don’t know what else to say.”

“It’s fine. I’m trying to accept that this may or may not come true and it’s just a ticking time bomb at this point. I don’t know how or when it’s gonna go off or if it will, but I’m just hoping that it doesn’t actually happen.”

“Well, if it actually happens, I just wanna say that I’m lucky to have met you. You’re one of the best friends I’ve ever had.”

Jeremy smiled and hugged them. “Thanks Alex. You’re pretty cool too, if I do say so myself. I’m glad to have met you.”

Alex smiled as Jeremy let go. “Let’s hope to God this isn’t our last goodbye then and if you do make it through tonight, call me tomorrow. You have my number, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. Good luck out there and see you later Jeremy.”

“Later Alex.”

---

That night when the clock struck midnight, it was a very overwhelming experience for Jeremy. For one, he couldn’t comprehend the fact that William was planning to kill him and he didn’t know how or when, but the animatronics were also acting as strange as ever which didn’t help in the slightest. 

Jeremy checked the Prize Corner feed as he sipped his warm coffee, and the music box was winding down like it always has, but this time it seemed to go down faster than the previous nights. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was stressed or if he was just imagining things, but it definitely stressed him out a little more than he was a few minutes ago. 

It didn’t take long before he heard the clanging noise of metal on tile down the dark hallway. He shined his flashlight down the hallway and saw that it was Toy Chica, which was odd because the animatronics never started moving this early, but then again what hasn’t been strange this week?

There she was at the end of the hallway, with both her beak off and eyes taken out. He was frightened because he wasn’t used to the sight yet and shuddered, but tried to disregard her since she couldn’t see him yet and checked the monitor to wind up the music box. 

When it was all wound up, he heard the clunking of metal footsteps being replaced with the sound of someone else’s metal footsteps. Great. There’s another, he thought and turned on the flashlight to look down the hall. Instead of Toy Chica standing at the end of the hallway, he saw Toy Freddy instead which showed him that someone definitely tampered with the facial recognition, since the Toy Freddy he knew never bothered him too much.  

Toy Freddy was too far down the hall to see him clearly yet, so he looked over to the monitor to wind up the music box. On the Prize Corner video feed, instead of the room being empty like usual he saw Mangle dangling on the ceiling. Mangle usually never went into the Prize Corner so it was quite odd to see them. He disregarded Mangle for a bit as he switched between checking the hall and winding up the music box since none of the animatronics could see him yet.

It wasn’t until about thirty minutes later when he heard an animatronic in the right vent, so he turned on the light and he saw Balloon Boy. He quickly fumbled around the desk for the mask, and once he had it in his grip he quickly put it on. He left the mask on and didn’t look anywhere but the monitor until he heard Balloon Boy crawl back through the vents where he took the mask off. 

Once he took the mask off and checked the monitor again, Mangle was nowhere to be seen in the Prize Corner. Shit, he thought but didn’t see it in the vent, so he didn’t bother trying to look for it since it wasn’t a threat yet. 

Nothing much happened until the clock struck five thirty, which is when he saw Toy Chica in the left vent and she looked just as frightening as when he saw her in the hallway. He quickly fumbled around the desk for the mask, and once it was on his head he shut his eyes because she was frightening to look at. He then heard the clanging of metal on tile which told him that Toy Chica was in the office. Go away, go away, go away…he repeated in his head. 

When he didn't hear the clanging noise of metal hitting tile a few minutes later, he opened his eyes and looked around to find Toy Chica nowhere in sight. He took off the mask and didn’t see her, but felt as though she was still close to him and instantly knew he shouldn’t have taken the mask off. 

“I knew I saw you in here,” he heard her say from the darkness of the hallway. 

Oh shit, he thought. 

He stood and tried to scramble out of the office since the mask wouldn’t work because she already saw him, but once he stood up he saw her appear out of the darkness. She ran to the table he was behind and once she got to the desk, she lunged over the table straight for him. Jeremy brought up his arms to shield his head since that looked like exactly what she was going for and closed his eyes tightly from fright.

Next thing he knew she crashed into him, hitting his forearms and they ricocheted back to hit his forehead. The force from the hit was so powerful it knocked him backwards and he passed out once he hit the floor. 

---

“Jeremy?! Jeremy, can you hear me?!” Jeremy heard faintly and muffled a few hours later. It was Michael, but he was speaking in his American accent. “Oh my God, are you sure he’s not dead?!”

“Calm down, Fritz. I could feel his pulse when you said to check again a few minutes ago and he’s breathing. He’s alive, just knocked out probably,” he heard another voice say. It was the morning security guard, Robert. 

Jeremy opened his eyes and the light shining on him blinded him, but he quickly got used to it. The world was blurry as he tried to focus and he groaned as the world started to sound normal again. 

“Jeremy!” Michael exclaimed. 

“Told ya,” Robert said. “Rise and shine, Jeremy.”

“Ow…” Jeremy said quietly because his whole body ached from falling on the tile. He quickly realized his head was resting in Michael’s arms and he looked up at Michael a minute later as he woke up more. “When did you get two heads?” he asked him and Michael chuckled. “What happened? Why’re you guys here?”

“It’s eight o’clock, morning shift,” Robert said. 

“It’s morning shift already?”

“Yep. Well, eight twenty really, we’ve been trying to wake you for a while. Fritz here had me check your pulse like, five times in twenty minutes. Now stay still, I learned how to check for concussions in high school.” Jeremy stayed still and Robert shined the flashlight in both of his eyes, which blinded him but he kept his eyes open. Both of Jeremy’s pupils got smaller as soon as Robert shined the flashlight in his eyes and he turned off the light. “Alright, no concussion so you’re good there. Tell me, how many fingers am I holding up?” he asked as he held up three fingers in front of him. 

“Uh…five?”

“See? He’s fine,” Robert said and Michael rolled his eyes.

“What happened?” Jeremy asked. 

“I-I don’t know. All I know is that we walked in for work, Rob came to the security office and found you on the floor knocked out,” Michael said. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Uh…I was on the night shift…the animatronics were acting really weird…Toy Chica jumped at me and I woke up right now.”

“So it was Chica. I’ll have to talk with him about that later,” Robert muttered. “Can you stand?” he asked Jeremy. 

Jeremy sat up so his head was off of Michael’s arm, and Jeremy hung onto the desk with one hand and held onto Michael’s hand with the other as he stood because he was lightheaded. 

He stretched out his back since he felt his muscles getting tight and noticed a dull pain in both of his forearms and the left side of his forehead. He pulled up the sleeves on his shirt to look at his forearms and saw that both of his arms had a big purple bruise. 

He also saw that his right sleeve looked perfectly intact, however his left sleeve was torn like Toy Chica tried to bite whatever she hit first, but Jeremy knew her mouth wasn’t very big so it could barely get around his arm. There were a few scrapes on his arm that weren’t too deep where she actually got through and the teeth dragged on his skin, but they didn’t hurt as much and it will probably scab over by tonight so it was the least of his worries right now. 

He put his hand on the left side of his forehead and flinched, so he turned to Michael since his vision was somewhat focused now. “Is there anything on my face?” he asked as he took his hand away and moved his hair out of the way of his face. 

Michael looked and gasped. “Yes! You're bruised! Are you okay?” he asked and cupped Jeremy’s face in his hands. 

Jeremy put his hand over where Michael said he was bruised and flinched. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’ll just ice it when I get home.”

Michael took his hands away from Jeremy’s face. “Are you sure? I can take your shift tonight!”

“No, no. I’ll be fine. You shouldn’t have to stress more than you already do.”

Michael nodded since it was usually impossible to try and convince Jeremy to let Michael cover for him. “Well, can you see now? I don’t wanna have to carry you outside.”

Jeremy chuckled. “Yeah, I can see fine now. Just took a few to focus.”

Michael turned to Robert. “I’ll walk him out,” he said and Robert nodded. 

They walked down the hallway together. “Are you sure your head’s okay?” Michael asked quietly, but in his British accent this time since they were far enough away from Robert. 

“Yes! I told you, I’ll be fine!”

“I’m sorry, but you know I get worried about things like this.”

“I know and I understand but it’s just a little bump, I’ll ice it when I get home and I’ll be fine.”

“How about your arms?”

“They’re fine. I’m sure they’ll heal in a few days or so.”

“Do you need water or anything?”

Jeremy chuckled and lightly blushed, because Michael’s nervousness about his health showed him that he actually cared about him. “I’ll stop at the gas station on my way home,” he said. 

“What about your uniform? It’s torn.”

“I have another in my closet. I’m sure Graham wouldn’t mind if I threw this out because it’s no good anymore. Good thing I was given more than one.”

They passed the Show Stage and Jeremy saw that Toy Chica now had her beak on and eyes back on like nothing had happened. As they passed, Jeremy gave her the death glare and Michael chuckled. 

When they got to the front door, Michael pushed it open and Jeremy walked out where he shielded his eyes from the morning sunlight. “Well, you’ll call later?” Jeremy asked. 

“Of course I will.”

Jeremy smiled. “I love you, Mike,” he said. 

“Love you too,” Michael said and pecked him on the cheek before Jeremy went off to his car in the parking lot. 

Chapter 70

Summary:

Night 5 1/2

The yellow suit in the back…it’s been moved and now none of them are acting right.

Didn’t you hear?! He got in, Cassidy thought that next day. 

“He did?!” Evan replied. 

Yes! It’s not fair, we’re trapped in here and we couldn’t get him while we had the chance!

“But what could we have done?! We’re locked in here and we can’t move!”

Hmm. Or so we think…

“Cass? I don’t like how you said that.” Cassidy mustered up all her strength and it was enough to make the suit move from its place about an inch. “Cassidy?! What are you doing?!” Evan shrieked. 

Seeing if we’re actually trapped in here. I’m sure the others don’t want to check the door because they’ve been doing that almost every day, time to take matters into my own hands. 

Cassidy again mustered up all her strength and soon, it was enough to make the suit stand. The others looked over at her, confused.

“Cass! You’re doing it!”

“I’m actually doing it…” Cassidy whispered. 

“Uh…whatcha doin’?” Gabriel asked when he saw the suit stand out of the corner of his eye.

“Trying to get us outta here,” Cassidy answered. 

“That door’s locked. We all tried to open it but it's no use.”

“I haven’t tried yet. Maybe you guys weren’t trying hard enough.”

Gabriel stayed silent as Cassidy made her way over to the door slowly and turned the doorknob, but it wouldn’t move an inch. “Told ya,” Gabriel said. 

“That’s because you guys only turned the doorknob…”

“Cass? Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not a good idea.”

Cassidy didn’t listen to him and banged her shoulder against the door, and where the others backed up slightly from the noise of the crash made right next to them. 

It was the day shift and Robert was in the security office trying to not fall asleep from boredom, but he heard the crash from the Parts and Service room down the hall which jolted him awake. “What the hell…” he mumbled and switched over to the Parts and Service video feed. Without even having to turn on the light he saw an animatronic trying to break down the door, and he could barely see inside since it was so dark but he saw that the animatronic had gold casing. He heard another loud crash from the Parts and Service room and he looked up from the monitor, partially worried and not totally sure what to do.

In a state of worry and with his mind racing, he decided the only thing he could do was tell the manager and he backed up the swivel seat he was sitting in, but way too fast and the chair fell backwards with him in it. He paid no mind to it and got up quickly. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…” he muttered as he ran to the manager’s office and opened the door in a hurry. 

“Uh…hello Robert,” Patrick said once he saw him. 

“Hey, so uh, crazy hypothetical here, how worried would you be if I said the golden bear animatronic in the back started moving?”

Patrick looked at him dead in the eyes. “What?” he said with a hint of worry.

“Uh, okay so not totally hypothetical but I dunno what to do! I wasn’t trained for this!”

They both heard another crash from the Parts and Service room, and Patrick got up and brushed past Robert to the security office and he followed behind him. There, Patrick turned on the light of the security camera in the Parts and Service room to find all of the original animatronics trying to break down the door. “They’re…” he said but trailed off. 

“It was only the gold one a few minutes ago!” Robert said. 

“None of them are acting right. Robert, make sure no one comes into the hallway, I have to get into Parts and Service to see what’s going on.”

All the kids in the Parts and Service room looked up at the light from the camera, realizing what they had just done and Patrick turned the camera light off. “Now see what you did Cass?! We got caught!” Gabriel said angrily. 

“Me?!” Cassidy replied. 

“This was your stupid idea!”

“And you guys followed along!”

“Stop fighting!” their younger brother, Jeremy said. “Just get back to your places and don’t move, or else we’ll all be decommissioned for good and we’ll have no chance to get Afton!”

“He’s right Cass,” Evan said. 

“What Jere said,” Fritz and Susie said together. 

---

While Jeremy was at home and it was hours before his shift, he was looking at his bruised face in the bathroom mirror. He had put his hair in a low ponytail a few minutes beforehand so it wouldn’t get in the way and he could see better. The bruise he had gotten on his forehead was small, so it wasn’t as noticeable as he thought but it hurt whenever he put pressure on it. He sighed and put a small bag of ice on his forehead, turned off the light and went to his room where he heard the telephone on his nightstand ring. 

He picked up the phone. “Hello?” he said into the speaker as he sat on his bed and held the bag of ice on his forehead. 

“Mr. Fitzgerald?” he heard. 

“Oh! Mr. Graham, what a surprise!”

“Yes, I’m very sorry to bother you but I need to ask you something. Now, it’s unfortunate that Alex had recently quit yesterday unexpectedly.”

“Wait, really?! Alex didn’t tell me that!”

“Yes, which means the position has just become available. So, I need you to come in for him tomorrow.”

“What?! Why not Robert?! Didn’t he work double shifts before?!”

“He has worked double shifts before, yes, but from what I have seen you actually take the job more seriously than him since I haven’t heard of you falling asleep on the clock, so I’m asking you since you are more reliable than him and the animatronics need a close eye kept on them tomorrow.”

“So…you’re asking me to work a double shift tomorrow is what you’re saying?”

“Yes. I don’t want to do that to you but it was unexpected and I don’t have a choice.”

He sighed. “Fine.”

---

“Look, Jer, I get he made you work double shifts, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for you,” Michael said into the phone. Jeremy had called him after he got back to Henry’s house after work that the manager, Patrick Graham, is making him work double shifts. 

“But I have to! He told me specifically that he wants me to take their place however long the restaurant stays open! I mean, I could ask Graham to do it instead but he’s busy doing manager stuff so he can’t!” he said as he held a bag of ice on one of his forearms and sat on his bed.

“And I understand that but think about it: you got hit last night and I can tell you’re stressed out this week so I don’t think it’s a good idea for you. Plus, did you get a good amount of sleep?”

“Well…no…”

“See? And I’m pretty sure since this seems to be a consistent pattern, tomorrow won’t be any different. So how about this: since the night shift is technically supposed to be easier and I don’t want you working back to back, I’ll take your night shift tomorrow.”

“But-”

“No buts. This is for your own good. I’ll talk to Graham and see if I can take the night shift tomorrow, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. I’ve been asking to take your place all week and you’re stubborn. Just let me do this for you one day, you’re working a lot so I think you need it.”

“Fine, you win this time. Thank you Mike, I’m pretty sure I could use the extra sleep.”

“Of course Jer. I love you.”

“Love you too.”

---

Jeremy dialed a number that was written on a piece of paper that he had since he started the job because he hadn’t memorized their number yet. The phone rang three times as Jeremy put the bag of ice on his other forearm then he heard their voice. 

“Hello?”

“Hey Alex!” he said. 

“Hey! ‘Sup Jeremy?” they replied. 

“I wanted to call to tell ya I made it through the night, but I wanted to ask why you quit yesterday?”

“Oh. You heard about that, huh?”

“Yes! Just about an hour ago but yes!”

“Well, it’s the animatronics. They seem almost…aggressive towards staff now and I just get anxious around them and it’s pretty overwhelming. I-I don’t know, I feel terrible that I quit but I have my family to think about too, and I can’t be there for them if I’m dead.”

“Well, I’m the one covering your shift tomorrow, but who knows how long that’ll be with the investigation going on.”

“You’re the one covering?!”

“Yeah, Graham’s request so I guess I’ll do it. I hope I’m getting paid overtime.”

“Oh God,” they mumbled because they didn’t know Jeremy would take their place. “I wonder why the hell he decided to not just make Rob work double shifts again. I was ninety nine percent sure he would do that!” Alex said. 

“I dunno. I thought the same but he said something about me being more reliable than him so he insisted I take it. I didn’t really feel like I had a choice on the matter.”

“Well uh, I don’t wanna keep you too long since I know your night shift is starting soon, but be careful out there.”

“Will do. Bye Alex.”

“Good luck Jeremy.”

---

Jeremy arrived for his shift like he always did, but it was strange to him to not see Alex closing up. Instead, it was Robert. He worked a double shift that day which he hadn’t done for months to fill Alex’s place. 

Robert turned around from sweeping once he heard the door open and Jeremy walked in. “Hey! How’s your head?” he asked when he saw him. 

“Better now. I iced it when I got home and that helped a ton.”

“That’s good to hear. And your arms?”

“Better. As long as I don’t touch ‘em, they’re fine.” He got out a rag from behind the Prize Corner counter and began wiping it down like always. “Hey Rob?” he said a few minutes later. 

“Yeah?” 

“So I heard that Alex quit yesterday, so did you fill their place today?”

“Yeah, it was totally unexpected. I was just told when Graham came in today but he said I’ll get paid overtime so that was good enough for me.”

“Heavy. Double shift?”

“Yep. Haven’t worked those in a while. So he told me you’re coming in tomorrow to fill Alex’s place?”

“Yeah.”

“Is anyone filling in for the night shift tomorrow then or are you working double?”

“I was told that Fritz is. I was gonna work a double shift but he insisted he take my shift since he didn’t want me to get too overwhelmed by working back to back.”

He stopped sweeping and put the broom away. “Oh. So is Hailey gonna work double shifts again or will he work twice?”

“If I had to guess, I’d say she’s working double shifts.”

“Feel kinda bad for her, honestly. I hate that she has to work so much.”

“I’m sure with the investigation going on here, this place won’t stay open for long.”

“You’re right, in fact I don’t even know why we have to keep working here with it going on, but a buck’s a buck. Anyways, the animatronics do seem like they’re getting more aggressive by the day. I’ve been noticing it all day today, so just be cautious around them. I have a feeling you got lucky last time.”

“Will do.”

“Good luck and see you.”

“See ya,” he said and Robert left. “Okay Jeremy. Here we go,” he told himself and went to the security office.

Chapter 71

Summary:

Night 6

Just get through tonight Jeremy, then you don’t have to work at this stupid job anymore.

Jeremy went to the security office like always and just when he sat in the chair, the clock struck twelve in the morning. He checked the cameras like he always did and it wasn’t long before he heard the telephone ring, which he hadn’t heard for a while and nobody ever usually called at night.

He picked up the telephone. “Hello?” he said, a little confused. 

“Mr. Fitzgerald?” he heard. 

“Mr. Graham?”

“Yes, hi. Anyways I forgot to tell you, there’s been a slight turn of events. I just got news from the detectives about an hour ago so I didn’t get a chance to tell you before you left your house, but the place is supposed to be closed down, at least for a while. You uh, you actually weren’t even supposed to come in tonight.”

“Closed?”

“Yes. Uh, a suit in the back, a yellow one. It’s been moved around and now none of them are acting right.”

“The yellow Freddy?”

“Yes, that one. It was just a spare and it didn’t move at all. Now it did and the animatronics are acting stranger than usual.” Jeremy bit the inside of his cheek because the manager actually sounded worried. “Listen, just finish your shift, it’s safer than leaving in the middle of the night. Tomorrow I’m gonna need you to stay close to the animatronics and keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t hurt anyone. If the place ever reopens after tomorrow, I’ll probably take the night shift myself. Good night and good luck.”

“‘Night,” he said and hung up. “Okay…just get through tonight, Jeremy. You can do this.”

It didn’t take long for the animatronics to start moving around, and Jeremy noticed that the animatronics seemed to be looking for something. The animatronics would seem to move into one room, look around and when they couldn’t find what they were looking for, went out of the room to the next one and repeated the process.

Jeremy didn’t even dare to switch between the other cameras since he was too preoccupied with the animatronics coming into the office so often, only looking at the monitor to view the video feed on the Prize Corner to wind up the music box. 

Every time the animatronics found a way into the office, Jeremy would hear his own panicked breathing from inside the mask and would freeze out of fear. It was though he could feel them staring into his soul every time they looked at him, they got so close to him they could practically smell him if their noses were real, and to make it even scarier for him their eyes were gone and they were horrifying to look at. He had to admit, he was more frightened about this job than he had been for weeks; the last time he felt this scared about working here was when he started.

As if he wasn’t already stressed out enough, a few hours into his shift he heard static radio sounds from above him. He made sure to keep the mask on, looked above him and he was thankful that the mask was covering his face, because dangling from the ceiling right above his head was an animatronic he had completely forgotten about. Mangle. 

“What the hell…” he whispered to himself because Mangle was getting dangerously close to his face, and without thinking Jeremy dropped to the ground on his hands and knees to where Mangle could not reach him.

He was surprised that Mangle was able to sneak into the office without him knowing, but he was also surprised that it started playing a recording from a police radio. He quickly realized that it wasn’t just any police recording, it was a recording from a day Jeremy didn’t want to remember. 

“Please leave now,” he heard on the radio quietly and more static following it. “Uh, we got a little boy, missing his frontal lobe…” More static. “He’s definitely dead…Is this happening?” he heard quietly in the background. “He’s not doing very well…Sir, we got a 10-1.”

The memories from that day in 1983 hit him like a ton of bricks. He remembered how guilty he felt that day and how he didn’t say anything when he wanted to say it was a bad idea; how he could’ve said something and prevented it but didn’t. He still carried all the weight of that guilt, and he knew he had to get rid of Mangle before the memories became too much for him to handle and he broke down, because that has happened more times than he wanted to admit and didn’t want another instance. 

He got up on his knees and looked around on the desk for anything he could use for a distraction and he spotted a blank sheet of paper on the desk. Without thinking, he took it and crinkled it up into a ball and he showed it to Mangle, not even sure if his stupid idea would work. He threw that paper ball as far as he could to the end of the hallway and to his relief, Mangle chased after it. 

“Fucking hell…” he whispered to himself as he got up. “Why was it even playing that?!”

He slumped in the chair and noticed his heart was racing from fright and he could hear it in his ears, just as it was that day. His palms were clammy from trying to keep his cool by clenching his fists and he lifted the mask up, where he was hit with a rush of fresh, cool air from the fan on his desk and he pulled on the collar of his shirt. Jeremy wound up the music box for what seemed like the millionth time that night, and it wasn’t even a minute later when he heard an animatronic in the vents. He took a deep breath in and put the mask back over his face. 

“Just a few more hours Jeremy. Just get through tonight…”

---

Once Jeremy heard the six o’clock bell ring after those several long terrifying hours, he sprinted as fast as his legs would carry him out the back door to his car. He didn’t stop until he got to his car in the parking lot, opened the driver’s door, slammed the door behind him and locked the doors when he was sitting in the chair.

He was breathing heavily, both from tiredness that he had run as fast as he could and from fright. He was getting lightheaded from all the heavy breathing and heat he had to endure, so he leaned back in the chair to stare at the car roof while he caught his breath and until he couldn’t feel his heartbeat in his head anymore. 

Jeremy started up his car a few minutes later and the radio was playing his favorite song, Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears; the best thing to happen to him that day. He drove out of the parking lot, down the street to his house and repeated the lyrics as they came on the radio. 

“Nothing ever lasts forever…”

Chapter 72

Summary:

November 14th, 1987

cw: gore descriptions (it gets kinda intense)

Jeremy drove into the parking lot of Freddy’s at three in the afternoon, just in time for his shift and he took a deep breath. “You’re gonna be fine, Jeremy. You’re gonna be fine. You’re worked up about nothing,” he said to himself before he got out of the car and went to the back door, where he always went since it led straight to the security office. 

When he went inside he saw Robert coming down the hallway, but he was walking so quickly that he was practically running. “Hey, uh what’s up?” Jeremy asked him when he got to the desk. 

“The animatronics. So, we were all told to stay close to them today but they seem…kind of aggressive towards the staff, but the security guards especially. Toy Freddy just walked off stage since they’re allowed to walk around during the day, but he went up to me and grabbed my arm! I think he bruised it or something, I’m not a hundred percent sure. Ever since that gold one in the back moved a couple days back none of them are acting right, it’s almost like…they’re looking for someone.”

“Looking for someone?” he repeated. 

“Yeah, as soon as Toy Freddy looked at my face as I tried to get away, he let me go and went back to the stage. I don’t know what could’ve happened or who they can be looking for, but just be careful out there Jeremy.”

Jeremy nodded and Robert left out the back door, almost as if he was trying to get out of the building as fast as possible. Jeremy was left alone in the office and bit the inside of his cheek from worry, and took a deep breath as he wound up the music box. “You’re gonna be fine Jeremy. Hopefully,” he whispered to himself. He went down the hallway to the main dining area where the animatronics were and the chatter of children started to get louder as he neared the room. 

When he entered the dining room, he spotted Hailey at the Prize Corner counter and waved to her to say hello and she waved back. He stood against the back wall for a while to keep as far away from the animatronics as possible, and watched the animatronics since he was told to keep an eye on them. 

He could tell that from across the room, Hailey was worried today as well. Every time she didn’t have kids at the counter, she would watch the animatronics since all the staff were instructed to, but she’d have a worried look in her eyes since the animatronics kept looking around the room like they were looking for something, and because just earlier she had seen Toy Freddy grab Robert by the arm. 

Perhaps the thing that scared Jeremy the most is that whenever he looked away, from his peripheral vision he thought he saw all the animatronics on the stage staring at him with their eyes gone, but when he looked back at them they looked completely normal. He shuddered and tried to push that thought down since he thought he was just imagining things, but he fiddled with his necklace since he was now starting to get worried. 

For a while he kept his eye on the three animatronics on the stage, and they didn’t seem like they were being aggressive to the kids at all. He decided that since they didn’t seem to be hurting anyone, he was going to go over to the Prize Corner counter to talk to Hailey since there were no kids there. He needed the company to distract him from his worries anyhow. 

“Hey Hailey,” he said once he got to the counter.

“Hey!” she replied. 

“So, quick question, have you also noticed the animatronics acting weird or is that just me?”

“Yes actually. During the day yesterday, I noticed that they interacted with the kids like normal. But when they encounter one of the adults, especially us staff members, they just…stare, much like today. People are starting to notice and are getting worried, so Mr. Graham had to constantly reassure the parents it might be a minor glitch in their system, but really we don’t know what’s going on with them.”

“Weird. But I mean have you noticed that…their eyes have gone missing at all?”

“What? No, that sounds terrifying!”

“I’m probably just going crazy then, I must really be tired.”

“I mean, I don’t think they can take their eyes out on their own, that must be scary.”

“You bet. Oh, looks like you’ve got customers,” he said as kids came up to the Prize Corner counter. “I’ll go check the Cove, haven’t checked it in a while.”

Hailey nodded and Jeremy went off to Kids Cove, since the staff members were told to watch all of the animatronics and not just the main three, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that the animatronics were staring at him and starting to follow him when he had his back turned. He turned around to face the stage and saw that they hadn't moved an inch from their original places. He shuddered again as he walked to Kids Cove since he thought he was just being paranoid again, but once he got to the entrance he saw nothing in the room. 

“Uh…hello?” he said to the empty room and there was no response. “Anyone home?” There was no response again and he went inside the room, but there was nothing inside and no one at the tables. Mangle was also missing from the Cove, which was quite unusual for them. “Mangle, where the hell are you?” he muttered under his breath. He knew the animatronics were allowed to move on their own, but Mangle never usually left the Cove during the day.

He started searching around the Cove and a few times he thought he heard the sound of animatronic parts moving behind him. He turned around but he saw nothing, and he even looked above him just to be safe and he saw nothing again. He was now starting to get a little freaked out, worried if this was real or he was just going crazy from the lack of sleep in the past week, and made his way out of the Cove back to the Prize Corner. 

“Hey Hailey?” he said when he went up to the counter. 

“Yes?” she replied and turned to him. 

“Have you, by any chance, seen Mangle around?”

“Mangle? Is she gone?”

“Yep. I looked everywhere in the Cove, but I couldn't find it anywhere.”

“Oh, uh I don’t know. Haven’t seen him around.”

“Alright. Thanks Hailey, I’ll keep looking. It’s a pretty big animatronic anyway, so it shouldn’t be that hard to find.”

Jeremy went off to the main stage, which was difficult for him since the kids by him made a lot of noise but he tried to block it out. He was only this close to the kids for one reason: to look for Mangle and bring them back to the Cove. He didn’t want to get on the stage, but he looked behind the animatronics and saw nothing but the wall. 

When he turned to go back to the Prize Corner counter or back to Kids Cove to double check, out of the corner of his eye he could see the animatronics staring at him. He looked at them and saw that they had in fact stopped what they were doing and stared at him, all with blackened out eyes. The room seemed to grow quieter as everyone noticed and looked over to what the animatronics were staring at. 

Oh mierda…(Oh shit…) Jeremy thought and the fear started to sink in as he slowly backed away. “Hey, everything’s fine, the animatronics…are just acting a little funny right now. Go back to your seats,” he said to some kids who got up from their seats so they could see better. 

From the Prize Counter, Hailey noticed the animatronics as well and was about to go over to help Jeremy back away, but she heard the movement of animatronic parts on the ceiling and she looked up. There, she saw Mangle on the ceiling and it was going towards Jeremy quickly, and she knew she couldn’t get over to him in time. 

She gasped and without thinking she yelled, “Jeremy! Run!” 

Jeremy heard her from behind and instinctively he looked behind him and up, there he saw Mangle dangling on the ceiling and they lunged towards his head. Just before Mangle could reach his head, Jeremy grabbed and forced the top and bottom jaws to stay open, even though they were fighting back with a lot more force than he ever had to go up against. 

The pizzeria suddenly got very loud with children’s screams and cries; kids ran to their parents and older kids tried to get the crying younger kids away and to their parents or outside so they wouldn’t see.

Jeremy fought back against Mangle as much as his arms would let him, but he could feel the sharp teeth digging into his palms and soon it was enough force to break the skin; he could see blood dripping from both of his hands and it trickled down his arms.

Mangle fought back with more force and he yelled out of pain because it finally registered that the sharp teeth had cut deep enough into his palms to where it would scar over. He was now crying from pain but of course, his yells and cries couldn’t be heard from the noise in the pizzeria. He wasn’t sure how deep the teeth went into his hands, but he carried on because he was too frightened for his life to care at the moment.

Jeremy tried to push back so he could get away, but he ended up using the last of his strength so it was a very weak attempt. Mangle pushed back against Jeremy and being that he used up the last of his strength he couldn’t fight back, so they lunged forward at his head and bit down until skin broke. 

Everyone in the pizzeria started screaming somehow louder as soon as Mangle bit Jeremy’s head, the remaining kids ran to their parents, Hailey was screaming and trying to get over to him through the sea of running kids, and Jeremy himself was yelling and trying to push Mangle off of him. 

Just when anyone thought it couldn’t get worse than it already was, Mangle’s jaws were biting down slowly and soon Jeremy’s yells could be heard again, because it was enough to where his eye was punctured by the sharp teeth. It was on the same side as his scar he got when he was seven, and it hurt somehow worse than the animatronic biting the left side of his head. More blood from his eye mixed with the blood that was already flowing down his face, onto his shirt and onto the floor. 

As Mangle bit down with more force, Jeremy could feel his skull being broken and felt agonizing pain in his head where Mangle bit, worse than when his skull broke and a little worse than when his left eye got punctured. Jeremy yelled out of pain and continued to try and push Mangle off of him even though it hurt his head to even move, but he seemed to be getting weaker and weaker by the second and the room started to get darker every moment.

Jeremy was eventually too weak to push back any longer and shut his only good eye so tight that he cried out of pain, so he now had more tears streaming down his face than he already had. 

Just as soon as Mangle got through and just about closed their mouth, Hailey pulled back on Mangle’s face plate between the eyes and the exposed endoskeleton on their back, since Hailey was the only one in the restaurant brave enough to get close. Mangle was almost all the way through and fought back against her since this was now in their programming, but Hailey was pretty strong and fought against Mangle to keep their mouth from closing.

After a minute of fighting, Mangle eventually gave up since this fight wasn’t moving anywhere, and Hailey forced Mangle’s top jaw open and they were thrown off of Jeremy. Mangle was dripping blood from their mouth but got on the ceiling and crawled away before anyone could catch them. 

After Hailey’s adrenaline rush and she caught her breath, the world suddenly came into focus and she saw that bits of Jeremy’s brain were scattered on the floor, chunks of his hair that Mangle had bitten off, a pool of Jeremy’s blood and of course, Jeremy in the middle of all of it. “No, no, no…good God…” Hailey said under her breath and got down on her knees next to him.

To her, everything seemed to be going in slow motion because she couldn’t believe she had witnessed this at her job, she didn’t want to believe it. She didn’t know what else to do, but she saw the shine of the necklace hooked around Jeremy’s neck and got an idea. 

She has seen Jeremy wear it all the time, even those few times she had seen him outside of work. Every time she has seen him outside of work though, she had seen him with Fritz so she thought they must’ve been very close.

She carefully unhooked it so it was free, even though her hands got covered with blood and put it in her pocket since she had no idea what hospital staff did with jewelry. She knew that Fritz had taken the night watch so he was probably asleep, but she knew that Alex was friends with both of them. 

She didn’t know what else to do since she and Jeremy were never close, but she held onto his arm as if attempting to shake him awake even though he was unconscious. “Jeremy? Jeremy, can you hear me? You’re gonna be okay,” she said calmly, but inside she was freaking out. There was blood coming from a hole on the left side of Jeremy’s head, his left eye was no good anymore, there was part of his brain exposed and part of his remaining skull exposed, she saw that a part of his brain was missing and he already lost consciousness; it was a terrifying sight that she never in a million years thought she would see. 

She could barely notice herself, but she was crying because she didn’t want him to die today even though they barely knew each other. He was only a few years younger than her—he was eighteen and she was twenty—that was too young for someone to go. 

At that moment, the manager walked out of his office from all the noise and saw Jeremy a bloody mess and Hailey kneeling next to him, trying to figure out what to do next, kids were with their parents and crying, a good handful of the customers with children already left and the rest were making their way out. Patrick was petrified and before he went over to Hailey and Jeremy, he went back into his office to call 9-1-1. 

He went over to them and looked over Hailey’s shoulder, who was just about to stand to go to the telephone on the wall to call the paramedics and he saw what had happened to Jeremy. “Oh my God…” he said and Hailey turned and looked up at him, and he saw that she had been crying because her makeup was streaking down her face as well as a few stray tears. 

“Graham! Have you called 9-1-1?!” Hailey asked frantically as she was in shock. 

“Y-yes. They’re on their way.”

Hailey nodded and turned back to Jeremy. “Jeremy, please! You’re gonna be okay, you can’t go yet!”

“Jeremy, the paramedics are on their way, please hold on a little longer,” Patrick said. “Check his pulse!”

Hailey nodded and put two fingers on his neck. “It’s there…barely.”

“Oh my God…” 

“What…what do I do?!”

“I…I don’t know…just monitor his heartbeat and make sure it doesn’t stop beating!”

“And if it does?!”

”I’ll handle that part.”

Hailey and Patrick did whatever they could to keep Jeremy alive until the paramedics arrived, and Hailey checked to make sure his heart was still beating several times like she was told. After what seemed like hours even though it was only a few minutes, Patrick finally heard the sirens outside and got up to open the door for the paramedics.

Once they were in the building, they saw Jeremy on the floor and soiled with blood on his clothes and the bitten hole in his head. They quickly made their way over to him, loaded him onto a stretcher, loaded him into the ambulance and sped off to the hospital. 

As the paramedics sped off, they did anything to keep him alive until they got to the hospital and had to put him on oxygen since he stopped breathing completely. It took only a few minutes to get to the hospital, but once they were there they didn’t take him into the hospital because they didn’t have the right equipment to help him. Instead, they loaded him into a helicopter and flew him to the hospital in Salt Lake City, the closest hospital that had equipment to help him, which thankfully only took a few minutes by helicopter.

Back at the empty restaurant, Hailey sat in one of the chairs at the nearest table with shaking hands, a bouncing leg and shallow breaths. She didn’t know how to comprehend what she just saw or if she could; it all felt like one big nightmare but she knew it was real. She stayed silent with her mind racing and she snapped out of her trance once she heard the manager’s voice next to her. 

“Hailey?” he said and she turned to him. “How’re you holding up?”

“Well…” She looked at the blood still on her hands since she was too in shock to wash it off and looked back at him. “Not too good.”

“Why don’t you go clean yourself up and I’ll clean things up out here? If you want to, we can talk after I clean this mess.”

Hailey nodded and went towards the bathroom where she stood at one of the sinks and washed the blood off her hands, but couldn’t stop the tears flowing down her cheeks. Her shirt was a mess and her jeans were stained with blood; it looked like she had committed a murder. How was her family going to take this when they saw her? She’d have a lot of explaining to do, that’s for sure. 

She tried her best to clean off her clothes and washed off her face to clean the makeup streaking down her face, and once she took her hands away from her face she stood at the sink for a while looking at her reflection.

Whatever she did, she couldn’t help thinking back to when she saw Jeremy’s gaping head wound with his brain exposed. Every time she thought back to it, either more tears would stream down her face, she would gag since the sight was both horrific and because she gagged easily, or both. 

After she had tried her best to calm herself down after several minutes, she noticed a strange lump in her pocket. She dug in her pocket and pulled out Jeremy’s bloody necklace, which she had completely forgotten about since she was more concerned about keeping Jeremy alive until paramedics got to the restaurant.

She cleaned it off to the best of her ability and ran out of the bathroom to find Patrick in the main dining room, cleaning but deep in thought as he was processing what happened.

“Mr. Graham?” she said and he looked in her direction. “Do you know Alex’s telephone number?”

“Second drawer on my desk, all the applications should be in there.”

“Can I use your telephone?” she asked and he nodded. She went towards his office, opened the door and opened the second drawer on his desk like he said and the files of all the applications were there. There weren’t many, so it should be easy enough to find. 

“Let’s see…Davis! Here we go…” she said and pulled out Alex’s application. The first thing she noticed was the word, ‘Quit’ had been written on it in red pen at the top. On the application was the name, ‘Amelia (Alex) Alexis Davis’ which told her it was the right one. She put the paper on the desk, dialed the telephone number that was on the application and she heard the telephone ring four times before hearing Alex’s voice. 

“Hello?” Alex said over the phone. 

“Hey! It’s uh…it’s me.”

“Hey! ‘Sup?”

“Uh…yeah. Listen, something happened at work today...I need you to do me a favor and give something to Fritz for me.”

“Yeah, of course, but what exactly happened?”

Chapter 73

Summary:

Michael goes into work for his first night shift, but he gets news he’s not expecting.

All day, Michael was in bed trying to get some sleep and he felt like he couldn’t no matter what he did, so eventually after tossing and turning all night he decided to get up since he couldn’t sleep. He got up, went downstairs and got himself some breakfast since he now felt hungry, and he was met with Henry drinking coffee downstairs.

“Morning Uncle,” Michael said through a yawn.

“Morning,” Henry said and Michael went to the pantry to get a breakfast of sugary cereal like he did every day. Once he sat down at the table, Henry noticed he looked tired since the usual dark circles around his eyes were more prominent now. “Mike, did you sleep?” he asked.

“Uh…maybe, maybe not,” Michael said through a mouthful.

“Mike, you know you have a long night tonight!”

Michael swallowed his bite. “I know, but I was hungry.”

”Well I do suppose it’s best to not sleep on an empty stomach. Finish your cereal then go upstairs and try to get some rest.”

“I’ll try. No promises though.”

After he finished his cereal, he went back upstairs and back to bed. For a few more hours he kept tossing and turning but finally, at ten in the morning, he got to sleep but he kept having terrible nightmares. Granted, he had a nightmare about his past almost every single day, but these were different. These particular nightmares were not about anything he witnessed, these nightmares were about Jeremy. 

He saw Jeremy doing what the manager told him to do earlier in the week: to stay close to the animatronics, but he was soon interrupted by Mangle. Mangle was not acting how it should however, since the animatronics were not programmed to hurt anyone, but Mangle did exactly that to Jeremy as it dangled down from the ceiling and bit the left side of his head.

Michael wanted to go and run to Jeremy to protect him, but he felt as though he couldn’t move and was forced to watch the whole thing happen. Each time the nightmare seemed to be over, it would fade to black and the words, ‘He wasn’t safe.’ would come to him in whispers and the nightmare would replay again. 

He finally jolted awake after several hours and realized it was 8:00 in the evening; he slept way longer than he intended and it was the longest he’s slept in a while.

“It was just a dream, Mike. Just a dream…” he told himself as he still laid in his bed.

He groaned and sat up, but as he sat up he felt off and he didn’t know why. He realized this feeling was an agitating headache but he tried to brush it off by saying he was dehydrated. 

Besides the awful feeling in his head, he also had a terrible feeling that something bad had happened, but tried to brush it off as memories from the strange dream he had and got ready for work before he went downstairs. 

When he got downstairs, he saw Henry reading the newspaper at the table since he didn’t have the chance to all day. “Hey Uncle,” Michael said when he walked into the kitchen and Henry turned to see him coming down the stairs. 

“Hey Mike. Food’s on the stove if you’re hungry.”

“Thanks Uncle,” he replied and fixed a plate for himself and sat across from Henry. He also got a glass of water for himself to drink, and his headache seemed to fade away but it didn’t die out, but no matter what he couldn’t shake the terrible feeling that something horrible had happened. 

Henry looked up from his reading and noticed that Michael looked like he was more on edge about something today. “Mike? You okay?” he asked.

“What? Yeah I’m fine. Just…thinking,” Michael replied as he stabbed a piece of food with his fork.

“You sure everything’s okay? You don’t look like everything’s fine. Is something going on?”

“I…I don’t know. Something about today feels off, and I don’t know what it could be.”

“Off?”

“Yeah! Like something happened, but I don’t know what it could be.”

“Well, nothing around here happened, at least not that I know of.”

“Uh…did you hear anything from Jeremy? Did he call asking for me?”

Henry thought about it for a few seconds. “Nope. Maybe he was too worn out from the day and fell asleep.”

“I dunno about that. He’s been complaining that he’s had this insomnia all this week, so it’s kind of doubtful that’s not the case today.”

Henry shrugged and Michael stayed silent while he ate his dinner, but he couldn’t stop thinking of the dream he had. He saw Jeremy, blood, and kept repeating those words in his head. Those words sent chills down his spine and he could tell they were said coldly, like whoever said those words wanted him to believe it was all because of him, because he believed Jeremy when he said he would be fine and let him work at Freddy’s.

But, he decided, it couldn’t be real. It was all a dream anyway so he decided it was his head playing tricks on him. 

After he was finished with his dinner, he stood up and put his plate in the sink as Henry stood and went to the couch, exhausted because he was an early bird. Michael got his keys, said goodbye to Henry and headed out the door, but whatever he did he could not shake the feeling that something was wrong even though the nightmare ended hours ago.

He drove to the location and the first thing he noticed was that the parking lot was completely empty. Not unusual for the night shift, but thinking back Jeremy was supposed to be inside closing up. He brushed it off as, Maybe he was too exhausted from today since he never works day shift, and went inside through the back.

When he went inside he noticed that it was eerily quiet and the ambiance seemed a lot creepier than usual. Of course, he figured it was probably because he wasn’t used to it since he always worked in the daytime and this was his first time working at night.

He decided to walk around the restaurant since it was still a few minutes before his shift started to see if anyone was in the building or if he was alone. He took the flashlight on the desk and shined it down the hallway and thankfully there was nothing there, not like he expected anything to be there since it wasn’t even midnight yet.

He went down the hallway and called out, “Jer?” He heard nothing back. “Jeremy? Are you here?” There was no answer again and he could feel that he was starting to get worried because his pulse rose. 

He started walking quickly down the hallway until he got to the main dining area and turned on the overhead lights. The feeling suddenly hit him that something happened in this room earlier that day, something bad.

“Jeremy? This isn’t funny. You’re making me worry here,” Michael called out, hoping that Jeremy would run out from behind the Prize Corner counter, or come up behind him because he was hiding in one of the party rooms and surprise him with a hug from behind, but that didn’t happen. 

He looked around the dining area since the feeling seemed to not dissipate and walked around. As he walked past the stage, he had to remember to not make eye contact with the Toy animatronics since he didn’t know what to expect from them when he was a splitting image of his father. 

As he looked around, he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary except that everything seemed to be left a mess, like no one had swept earlier in the day, no one had wiped down the counters and no one had cleaned up the tables. But, he noticed, there was one place on the floor in particular that seemed to be the cleanest like it was deep cleaned.

As he got closer to the area by the stage, he felt the room start spinning and he started to get lightheaded, lost his balance and fell to the ground like he was about to pass out, which told him this is where it happened, whatever it was. He fought back against this feeling and backed away on his hands and knees shakily and waited until the room stopped spinning, stood up and the room started to go back to normal. Weird, he thought, but he got an idea. 

“Hey,” he said to the empty room. “Look, I know I haven’t talked to you in a long while, but I need to ask you something.” There was no answer at first, but he felt the coldness in the room. 

“Hello Michael. It’s been a while,” he heard back. 

“Yes, it definitely has. Listen, I just need to know, did anything happen here?”

“Did anything?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm, I don’t think I should be the one to say anything.”

“So something did?!”

“I shouldn’t be the one to say if something did or didn’t.”

“So something…didn’t? I don’t get it.”

“You’re just as dim witted as your father,” he mumbled so quietly Michael could barely hear him. 

“What?”

“Nothing. Perhaps it’s best if you get back to the office.”

“But you didn’t answer me!”

He stayed silent for a few seconds. “The only thing I could say is…something did.”

Michael went wide eyed. “What?! What happened?!”

“I said that’s all I can say!” he said with a hint of anger in his voice, but soon after the room temperature went back to normal so Michael knew for certain he was alone now. Michael was left standing, flabbergasted and his mind racing about what could’ve happened. 

He turned off the lights, went back to the office and sat in the chair, but his whole body was shaking. The memories of his dream came back to him, but specifically the only line that was spoken to him: He wasn’t safe. Michael hoped it wasn’t what he thought as he put his head down on the table and closed his eyes to calm himself down. 

A few minutes after the clock struck midnight, he heard the telephone on the desk ring, which was odd because he wasn’t expecting anyone to call, but since he had calmed down some he opened his eyes and picked up the phone. 

“H-Hello?” he said in his American accent since he didn’t know who it was. 

“MIKE!” Alex yelled over the phone so loud that he had to pull it away from his ear. They didn’t mean to yell, but they had to get the message across to Michael before something happened to him.

“Jesus,” he said in his normal British accent. “How’d you know I’d be here?!”

“Not important right now, you have to get outta there!”

“Now?!”

“No, tomorrow,” they said in a teasing way, but worried at the same time. “Yes, of course now!”

“Wait, wait, why?! What happened?!”

“It’s…it’s Jeremy.”

He went wide eyed. “Jeremy?!”

“One of the animatronics went haywire today and…h-he’s at the hospital…I don’t know a lot, but from what I heard he’s not exactly stable.” 

Michael was speechless and in shock, but after a minute he didn’t even hesitate in dropping the phone so it hung off the desk by the wire and ran to the back door behind him.

He tried to open it by jiggling the doorknob, pulling and pushing the door as hard as he could, but it wouldn’t budge; he even tried to slam his body against the door multiple times to break out, but it wouldn’t move and it only left him with a bruise on his shoulder. “I’m trapped…shit…” he muttered.

“Michael?!” Alex asked since they heard Michael slamming against the back door and it went silent for a while. Michael heard their petrified voice and picked up the phone.

“It won’t budge,” he said.

“The door?!”

“Yes.”

“That doesn’t make any sense! The back door’s never supposed to be locked, only the front’s supposed to be! Uh, maybe try your keys?”

Michael put the phone down on the desk and took the key ring off his belt loop and found the one that opened the door. He brought it up to the lock but it repelled like two south pole magnets brought together. “What the hell…” he said and tried again, but the same thing happened and he couldn’t get the key in the lock. 

He tried again, again and again but the same thing kept happening. He took the flashlight and sprinted down the hallway to the front door, but the same thing kept happening. He even tried to jiggle the doorknob, pull and push the front door like he did to the back door, but again nothing happened. He ran back to the office and picked up the telephone again. 

“It’s not opening,” he said. 

“Did you try both doors?”

“Yes! They won’t budge! They’re both…repelling it.”

“Repelling it?”

“Yeah! It’s like…magic or something.”

“That doesn’t even sound possible. Uh…you know what? Sit tight, I’m goin’ over to see if I can get you out since it’s not safe to be in the building right now, as soon as I get outta here.”

“Wait, where are you right now?”

“I’m with Hailey because she needed to give me something, and then she vented to me for what seemed like hours, which I could see because she was traumatized. She…she watched the whole thing happen.”

“Oh my God…okay, just try to get here as fast as possible!”

“On it boss,” they said and both of them hung up. 

Chapter 74

Summary:

Night 7

Well this was certainly an interesting night.

“…and hopefully everything goes according to plan,” the entity William called ‘Schmidt’ (since he refused to tell him his first name) said to him. 

“And you’re sure you locked him in there?” William asked him.

“Yes! I just explained this to you! Twice! Do you want him gone ‘sooner rather than later’ like you said or not?!”

---

That night was an interesting night for Michael to say the least. Once he and Alex hung up, all that was left for Michael to do was wait, hoping that Alex would appear through the back door any minute. 

Once he saw that the Toy animatronics actually did move like he was told and it wasn’t some kind of joke, he remembered that Jeremy had told him he had to keep the Freddy mask on so that they would wander back out of the office. He decided to follow Jeremy’s instructions he told him weeks ago when he heard an animatronic in the hallway, and to his surprise when he shined the flashlight down the dark hallway he saw Mangle at the end of it.

If the animatronic already wasn’t scary enough, Mangle had dried blood on its mouth and Michael had a very strong feeling that it was fresh from earlier that day. 

“Oh my God…” he whispered to himself as he tilted up the mask and he stared at it in shock. His mind started racing about what could’ve happened and who could’ve programmed the animatronic to do something as vile as this.

He suddenly snapped out of his thoughts after Mangle had left from the hallway, but his thoughts were so loud that he hadn’t noticed that ‘My Grandfather’s Clock’ was no longer being played on the monitor. 

“That goddamn music box,” he said out loud as he took off the mask, put down the flashlight, checked the video feed and turned on the light to find that Puppet’s box was open. Shit, shit, shit…he thought. He took the flashlight from the table and frantically tried to turn it on, but he kept flicking it on and off and no light would shine. “C’mon you stupid thing…” he mumbled as he opened the bottom of the flashlight and froze when he saw that the batteries were gone. 

He heard laughing from the opposite side of the room and Michael slowly looked towards the noise to find it was an animatronic that mainly stayed around the younger kids. His name was Balloon Boy, and if Michael remembered correctly, Jeremy was telling him that Balloon Boy loved to steal the flashlight batteries. He was right Michael found out, because the batteries were in his hand and he was about to run out of the office with them. 

“Hey! I need those! Give them back you little-” he yelled but he was cut off by hearing ‘Pop Goes The Weasel’ in the dark hallway. Balloon Boy stopped in his tracks, changed his mind about running down the hallway and retreated back into the vents and crawled off with the batteries, so Michael couldn’t even shine a light down the hallway if he wanted to. 

Oh, for Christ’s sake, he thought and quickly dropped to the ground and hid under the table like it could protect him. He saw Puppet emerge from the darkness of the hallway and enter the office, but it was way taller than Michael expected since he had never seen it out of the box, which made the experience slightly more frightening for him.

He gulped and brought his knees to his chest, and once he saw Puppet getting closer to him he scooted backwards until he felt his back hit the wall. Puppet saw him scoot back to the wall and followed him, but Michael was trying not to show fear when the Puppet looked down at him. 

“An Afton,” Puppet said quietly. “Are you like him?” they asked a little louder. 

“What?! Like who?!” Michael said but louder than he intended.

“William Afton.”

He stared at Puppet for a second. “How…how do you know who that is?”

---

Ever since the original animatronics got caught a few days ago trying to open the door to Parts and Services, they hadn’t even tried to open the door and there was barely any conversation between the five. That was until today, because there seemed to be someone or something else trying to unlock the door from the outside. They all looked at each other with confusion and back to the door when it was cracked open.

As the door opened slowly, it revealed Balloon Boy on the other side with one of Mangle’s extra parts that fell off when they came to the game room. He found it on the floor and started to see where it could fit, but he accidentally picked the lock and unlocked the door.

Balloon Boy stared at them for a while because he had never seen them before, nor did he know they were in the Parts and Services room, and he ran off back to the Game Area but left the door open.

As Gabriel stood and went out of the room into the hallway, he heard Charlotte continuously call out the name Afton. “Hey, uh, someone else is here…” Gabriel said. 

“Who?” Jeremy asked. 

“I really don’t know, but Charlotte keeps calling out the name Afton and I don’t think that’s the same dude as before.”

“What’s his first name?” Cassidy asked. 

“I don’t know. All I know is that it’s an Afton.”

“Well, there’s a fifty percent chance it’s him.”

“Well what are we waiting for? We have to catch him while we have the chance!” Susie said.

“Susie’s right. Just like Cassidy said, we have to make him pay,” Fritz said. Gabriel, Jeremy, Fritz and Susie all went out of the room to the office to try and catch whoever was there, since they believed it was William Afton in the office.

I just wish this stupid thing wasn’t so hard to move! Cassidy thought and she struggled for several minutes, but all the others were already making their way towards the office and leaving her and Evan in the dust.

She sighed and she closed her eyes, but a minute later she suddenly heard the noise level of the room change. When she opened her eyes she was in the office as the others were getting into the office themselves. 

“How…how did you do that?!” Evan asked. 

I…I don’t know.

“It’s like…it’s like you teleported somehow! Whatever, it probably won’t last long. Let’s see if it’s him!” They both looked over at Puppet who had a man backed against a wall in fright. “Is that…”

Who?! Is that who?!

The man crawled on his hands and knees around Puppet to get away but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the old Fredbear springlock suit in front of him, which seemingly appeared out of nowhere. 

“Where…how…” he said as he could barely get any words out before he yelled out of fright and he struggled to stand up from his shaking legs. He stood and ran the other way to the back door, but it still wouldn’t budge as he jiggled the doorknob and tried to run to a vent to crawl away.

The other animatronics blocked the vents before he could get to one and were now backing him into a corner, so he couldn’t even get away if he wanted to. When his back was about to hit the wall his legs gave out from fright and he fell to the ground. 

“Guys, please! I’m not William!” he shrieked, but they weren’t convinced and started cornering Michael so he was backed further in to the corner. He brought his knees close to his chest and held back tears that wanted to flow down his cheeks because he thought this was where he would die. 

Oh my gosh…is it him? Evan said as if he didn’t remember Cassidy could hear him talking to himself.

“Who the hell are you talking about?!” Cassidy said.

Is that…Michael?

Cassidy was just as confused as ever now that Evan had said that statement, but before she could say anything the back door creaked like it was forcefully being pulled open and Alex appeared at the doorway.

“I did it! Finally!” they exclaimed. “Oh my God-” they said quietly when they saw the Withered animatronics, but were cut off by Michael squeezing between the animatronics and were pushed outside by him. 

“Close it!” Michael yelled and Alex slammed the door in the animatronics faces, but they could hear the Withered animatronics pounding on the door. Alex and Michael kept it shut, but they faintly heard the animatronics repeating the name, ‘William Afton’ and Alex was definitely confused as to why they knew that name.

Soon enough the pounding stopped and both of them didn’t want to find out if the animatronics were still behind the door, so they both ran out to their cars in the parking lot and felt their hearts racing from fear. “Took you long enough,” Michael said once he caught his breath and saw the sun was now starting to come up above the horizon.

“The thing was jammed.”

“How long were you out there?” 

“Only about an hour. I tried literally everything I could to get the door open. That thing was stuck like someone super glued it or…someone put magnets on it! Strong ones!”

“Well uh, thanks. I’m pretty sure they would’ve killed me or something if you didn’t show up. They definitely would have now that I think about it.”

“No problem. Anyway, what the hell?!”

“What?”

“They’re moving?! They’re not supposed to move, they’ve been powered off since the previous place closed down! At least that’s what I was told!”

“It’s…a lot to explain.”

Alex was silent for a while as they tried to process everything they just saw, but figured Michael wouldn’t want to talk anymore than he had to today because they could see on his face that he was upset about the news of what happened to Jeremy. Michael didn’t know a whole lot, but Alex figured it was best that he knew at least a little bit like they did.

“Hey, about Jeremy. I don’t know a whole lot but all we can do is hope that he makes it. From what Hailey told me, it was pretty bad,” Alex said.

He was silent for a minute. “What exactly happened?” he asked quietly. 

“I can only go off of what I was told, but one of the animatronics, I think it was Mangle, went haywire today and…bit him.”

“Bit him…where?” he asked and Alex pointed to their head. Michael stayed silent in shock and put his hands in his pockets as he stared at his feet and he tried to hide a few sniffles. 

“From what she said, he got bit all the way through to his brain. And one of his eyes…I think it has to be taken out-”

“Oh my God…” Michael said as he covered his mouth with his hand.

“So, I don’t know what’s gonna happen, I-I think you’d wanna take things easy for a few days because I know how much you’ll worry about him. Oh! And here, I figured you might wanna hold onto this,” Alex said and dug in their pocket and fished out Jeremy’s necklace.

Once Michael saw it shine in the sunlight from the corner of his eye, he looked up to see the necklace Jeremy wore every day. Alex handed it to him, and once he took it from them he had to swallow the lump in his throat and hold back another wave of tears.

“Where…where did you get this?” he asked but his voice was starting to break.

“Hailey. She said she noticed how close you and Jeremy were because she saw you two together outside of work. She knew that you were probably asleep so the only other person that knew Jeremy was me.”

Michael stayed silent for a long time, just staring at the necklace in his hand and he finally hooked it around his neck. It was special to Jeremy, so he felt like it was his duty to protect it for him until he was able to again, if he ever could again for that matter. “Thanks Alex.” He sniffled and wiped the corners of his eyes because tears were starting to form. “Listen, I need some time to regain myself, but next week let me treat you to a coffee.”

“Really? You sure?”

“Yes. Like I said, those animatronics probably would’ve killed me if no one had shown up, so it’s the least I can do to thank you for saving my life.”

Chapter 75

Summary:

This is all hard to believe…

“Did it work?” William asked the next day as he stood in the kitchen, restocking his non-perishable food and he heard no response, but knew the room dropped in temperature about a minute ago when he called this poltergeist. “I know you can hear me, Schmidt! I know you’re here! Tell me!”

“Uh…” he started but trailed off. 

“Well?!”

“Okay, so…don’t get mad, but it didn’t exactly work.”

“What?!” he yelled as he slammed his fist on the counter. “You said he was locked in there! The animatronics were definitely still reprogrammed so they could’ve ripped him to shreds!”

“He was locked in-”

“So why the hell didn’t it work?!”

“There’s…there’s another about Michael’s age. Another who knows what you did, who knows that Freddy’s isn’t safe so he saved Michael from being trapped inside.”

”But you could’ve fought against him! Why didn’t you?!”

“I did. I did for almost an hour. He’s stronger than I thought and when I checked to make sure the Toys were making their way over to Michael, he ended up opening the door and Michael escaped.”

“Goddamn it…” he whispered to himself as he let out an exasperated sigh. “Alright then, I need to find some way to get rid of the problem…”

---

Michael and Alex had decided to meet at the coffee shop that next week, because it was the halfway point between their houses. Michael wanted to thank them for saving his life, but Alex wanted answers that could possibly lead to an explanation as to what they saw, since Michael definitely seemed like he knew something about the animatronics. Michael already had his coffee and they were both sitting at a booth in the back so hopefully no one would overhear them.

This was one of the first times Michael had seen Alex dressed casually; they were wearing a black sweater that was a little bit too big for them since it was getting cold outside and they didn’t feel like digging very deep into their closet, blue jeans that were slightly ripped at the knees and dirty black Vans that had a white stripe on the side.

Their hair was the only thing that stayed the same: still in locs that were kept in a high ponytail like it has been. Alex had obviously gotten bored over the past week now that they were out of a job, because the light patches on their left hand were outlined with different marker colors. Some lines looked like they were done by Alex, but some looked like they were done by someone younger: their brother.

Alex had rarely seen Michael dressed casually as well, so it caught them by surprise when they saw him in a denim jacket with a white t-shirt underneath, black jeans that were about to rip at the knees and white Converse that were no longer white. Alex also noticed that Michael was still wearing Jeremy’s necklace around his neck and the dark circles under his eyes were a lot more prominent now, which showed that he’s barely gotten any sleep in the past week.

“So…what was that all about? How do they know who William is?!” Alex asked a little over a week later as they sat across from Michael when they got their coffee.

“It’s uh…very difficult to explain since I don’t even know the full story myself,” Michael answered.

“Well, what do you know?” Alex asked as they sipped their coffee. 

“What I think is that William’s still in Hurricane and they’re looking for him. They just thought I was him because I look almost exactly like him.”

“They? The…the old models?”

“Okay, so this is going to sound absolutely absurd when I say it and I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me, but I think those kids are still here.”

“What?! How?! They’re dead! They were murdered, what, two years ago?!”

“I know, I know. But a while ago, before the restaurant was open and even before evidence was turned in, I was there. I saw that Puppet had dim white eyes and I felt like there was something…alive there, but it wasn’t fully alive at the same time.”

“So, alive but dead? Like…a zombie?”

“Not quite. Puppet could move on their own without programming, that’s why the music box has to be wound up. Whatever or whoever’s controlling it can go against programming and same with the Originals, because their pupils are white as well and can move freely on their own.”

“So…not a zombie so…like a ghost? Is that what you’re getting at?”

“Yes, I think. I’m still not a hundred percent sure.”

Alex was still hesitant to believe him since this sounded totally made up. “And your point since you’re saying they have this…thing?”

“I’m saying my father has the exact same thing in his eyes. His pupils are pure white, so I think whatever he wanted from them somehow worked for the kids too, but instead of a body they fused to those things.”

“So it’s like…a soul that’s not meant to be there?”

“Possibly. I’m not even sure myself, I sound utterly insane now that I hear myself.”

“But…if William already has a soul, why would he want another one?”

“That’s the part I’m stumped on. I-I don’t even know  what that stuff does, so I couldn’t tell you.”

“Stuff?”

“Right, I keep forgetting I have to explain since you don’t know what I know. I just found out about it because…I’ve had these dreams, consistently, and they’ve been saying almost the exact same thing every time I sleep so I’m starting to believe they’re real.”

“How long have you been having these dreams?”

“About…two years.”

“Two years?!” they echoed.

“Yep. I kept seeing the same thing every night about these murders, short answer is they’re all still here because of this purple stuff my father called remnant. I know this sounds crazy and it’s probably hard to believe but…I dunno, I just wanted to get it off my chest.” Alex was quiet for a while as they tried to process his words and kept staring at him. “I said this would be hard to believe.”

“You weren’t kidding,” they said and Michael chuckled. “It…it doesn’t even sound real.”

“I know, so it makes sense if you don’t believe me. I wouldn’t believe me, that’s for sure.”

Alex chuckled. “And uh, you told me the short answer, what’s the long answer?”

“Uh…I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t ask that.”

“Why? Are you hiding something else from me?”

“Kind of. So I wasn’t lying to you about these dreams, but I did leave one thing out. Whoever or whatever is sending these messages tells me that all of these murders are my fault, because I could have saved them since I found out about all of them one way or another and I didn’t do anything!”

“Mike, you know those aren’t true. You were sixteen! William would’ve literally killed you if you went up against him, you were just a scared kid!”

“I know, and I keep trying to remind myself of that but I can’t help feeling a little guilty.” He sniffled and for a few minutes, he watched people filing into the coffee shop and ordering. He looked back at Alex after those few minutes.“So uh…have you heard anything about Jeremy?” he asked, changing the subject as he took a sip of his coffee. 

“Not since that day, but I did remember something yesterday that Hailey told me. I think they transported him to the big city because hospitals here couldn’t help him.”

“Wait…they did?”

“Yeah! He had to be airlifted by a helicopter and everything. Hailey told me that day that she overheard Graham calling his dad while he was in his office, and Graham said it was probably a lot for the hospitals here to handle so he was airlifted.”

“The hospital in…Salt Lake?”

“I would assume since it’s the closest that probably has everything to help him. I dunno.”

Michael stayed silent as the memory came back to him. “Oh my God…” he mumbled and held his head in his hands.

“What?”

“That’s…that’s where he was before…”

“What? Who?”

“My…my brother…”

“Oh…” The memory of what Michael told them came back. “Oh…you’re probably right, he’s probably in Salt Lake.”

“It wasn’t for very long, since he…y’know. But they had to airlift him to Salt Lake since hospitals here couldn’t help him.”

“Oh my God…these sound too similar-”

“I want to go there,” Michael said suddenly. 

“What?!”

Michael turned to face them. “I said, I want to go there.”

“What?! You can’t! Not sure if you’re aware, that’s kind of illegal at this point in time! Plus there’s your…guardian whoever that is.”

“It’s my uncle. But he’s still at work since it’s only noon and if I’m quick-”

“You do realize Salt Lake is like, a four hour drive from here?! That would be eight hours of driving in a day, since I’m pretty sure you weren’t paid enough to rent a room for tonight since I definitely wasn’t, plus however long you’re there if you can even get in-”

“I get that, but besides my uncle, Jeremy’s the only one I have left and I want to make sure he survived since I can’t lose him now.”

“Look, I know you’re worried about him and so am I, but I don’t think this is a good idea. They might not even let you in for all we know since I don’t know if he’s even stable!”

“He might be. It’s been over a week.”

Alex sighed. “Okay, what if he is? They usually don’t allow people who aren’t family in! It’s kinda the law right now!”

“That part’s easy. Lie.”

“Lie?!”

“Yes. Or just sneak in and try not to get caught. Still have to come up with a lie so I’m leaning towards the second option.” 

Alex sighed again. “Look, this may not be the best idea, and even though we don’t know each other well outside of work, I wanna go with you.”

“You wanna go too?!”

“What, does it look like I can’t handle it?”

“No! I actually think you can handle it, I’m just asking…why? If you know it’s illegal, why would you risk going to prison?!”

“I wanna make sure you don’t get yourself arrested, those hospitals are packed with security that’ll probably be tough to get around by yourself, and since the thing with your brother and the thing now with Jeremy sound way to similar, I want to be there to make sure you’re okay, so this doesn’t seem like a one person job. Plus, I’m always up for a little risk.”

Chapter 76

Summary:

Original character backstory, and it’s not a happy story.

“Ready?” Michael asked Alex, who was right next to him when he shut the car door.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Michael backed out of his parking spot and drove out of the parking lot, silent because he never goes somewhere without telling somebody, so it felt strange to rebel against the rules for the first time since he was fourteen.

It was also slightly awkward between them because Alex had never been in his car before, much less going hours away from home. They only very rarely spent time together outside of work (if they did it was when they bumped into each other at stores) and they were going to spend the next eight or more hours together.

“Uh, are you sure your parents would be okay with this?” Michael asked Alex when they were about to drive out of the town. Michael remembered that they had once mentioned at work that they still lived with their parents. 

“Oh yeah. I think they’ll be cool with it.”

“Are you sure? I can turn around if you want.”

“No, I’m sure it’s fine. I might have some explaining to do when I get back but I’m sure they’ll understand, just drive me back to the shop since I left my car in the parking lot. Real question is, is your uncle okay with this?”

Michael inhaled sharply. “Maybe? I don’t know. But he knows how much I care about Jeremy, so hopefully he’ll understand.”

Michael and Alex stayed in awkward silence while he drove and he turned up the radio a bit so they wouldn’t be in total silence. 

They listened to the song playing on the radio for a while, and once it was over Alex asked, “You like rock too?”

“Pretty much,” he said as he shrugged. “I’ll listen to anything honestly, but rock is my favorite.”

“I’m kinda the same way actually. I’m not too picky when it comes to music, except country.”

“Annoys me as well actually, so I guess that’s one similarity between us,” Michael said and Alex snickered. “So, we have some time to kill before we get there, so let’s get to know each other a bit better since we only know each other as work friends. Tell me about yourself.”

“About…what?”

“I don’t know. Anything. About your family, what you like to do, anything.”

“Well, I’ll start with my family. I live with them still, obviously, and I live with my mom, stepdad and little brother. My brother and I were literally best friends growing up, he and I can always count on each other to be there, and we generally just enjoy hanging out together. Y’know, there’s the stupid arguments and he’s annoying sometimes but we get over it.”

“What’s his name?”

“Jeremiah, but I call him Jerry. He hates that nickname and I think it’s hilarious.”

Michael chuckled. “Uh, I don’t know if this seems like too personal of a question so you don’t have to answer, but d’you know why your biological father isn’t around?”

“I do, unfortunately. So, me and my brother have the same mom and dad. My biological dad wasn’t…great to say the least. I don’t know if Jeremy’s ever told you about his parents-”

“Oh yeah. He told me years ago.”

“So, it was kinda like that. He was just never…there. He would get angry easily and yell at us, but the difference is when my mom wasn’t around he…he got physical if he gets pissed off at us even a little bit. Most of the time was when he was drunk, which was pretty often. I remember several times when we got home from school, he was home and my mom was at work since she usually works late because she’s been a detective for years, me and my brother would hide in my room until my mom got home.

“And then there were the days where it was like the family didn’t even exist to him, but one day me and my brother finally got the courage to tell her about the physical part, because he usually threatened us in some way if we told her. When I tell you she was pissed, she was pissed. I can still remember her screaming at him and crying, eventually she said that they’re getting a divorce and she kicked him out, but we never saw him again.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry. No one should have to deal with that.”

“It was years ago. He’s getting what he deserves now.”

“What he deserves?” Michael echoed. 

“Yep. He went and got himself arrested.”

“Oh…”

“It was for robbing a jewelry store or something about two years ago, I found out because my brother said he found our dad’s picture in the paper. He was a piece of shit to us but sometimes I wish he was there for us, part of the family and treated us like his children and a good husband to my mom, y’know?”

“I know the feeling. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. My stepdad’s way better and he actually cares about the family even though we’re not biologically his kids, so sometimes my brother and I call him our dad.”

“At least he’s there and he treats you guys well,” Michael said and they listened to the radio for a minute. Michael remembered at that moment something he’s been wanting to ask them for a little while now. “Hey Alex? Is it okay if I ask you something?”

“We have time to kill, so shoot.”

“So, remember back a few weeks when Jeremy and I found out that you said you liked me in sixth grade?”

“Oh yeah!”

“So I’ve just been wondering, was that…true?”

Alex’s face flushed with embarrassment. “Uh…” Alex started out awkwardly. 

“If you say it was true, we can still be friends but I’m not breaking up with Jeremy anytime soon. Even if he does…y’know, pass, I probably won’t be thinking of dating anytime soon.”

“I don’t expect you to, I just don’t know how to word it.” Alex stayed silent for a while as they thought about their words. “Okay, to put it simply, I don’t really know if dating is ‘the thing’ for me. Even back then, I wasn’t interested.”

“Oh. So you’re saying it wasn’t true?”

“No, it was all one big lie and I’m sorry about that. I should’ve said something earlier now that I think about it. Uh, don’t get me wrong, you’re a cool guy and all-”

“Yeah, I get what you mean, I think. Then why’d you say you liked me if you didn’t?”

“Well, it’s because of my ‘friends’ at the time, they weren’t actually my friends. But to give you some backstory, I always knew I was different and I thought, if I hung out with the popular girls at school then it’d get people to like me, because people at my old school couldn’t give two shits about me.”

“Old school?”

“Yeah, I lived in Arizona until that summer before sixth grade. Now onto the story. So, I became friends with them and one day we got to the subject of dating. The rest of the girls said the names of boys they liked, and once they got to me I said, ‘no one’. One of the girls didn’t believe me, because according to her ‘I had to have liked someone’ and chose a boy for me since I was stupid and didn’t just lie, and surprise surprise, that was you.

“So I played along with it for a while even though it wasn’t true, but one day, I think all of the girls decided to confess to their crushes and some even got boyfriends, some got heartbroken, all but me. So they said I should confess to you and I said I didn’t want to, but they kept pressuring me and making me feel guilty if I didn’t, saying ‘I’m not a real friend if I didn’t’, things like that.

“I kept saying that I didn’t want to because I didn’t even know you at the time, and to me it looked like you were dealing with something that day so I didn’t want to bother you. The girls didn’t care and didn’t take no for an answer, so eventually I gave in so they’d shut up. That’s why when you said you didn’t like me, I didn’t seem upset about it or anything.”

“So, what happened behind the scenes that I didn’t see?”

“I guess long story short, I sort of blew up at them after school and we were no longer friends since that day. I was bullied sometimes at school because apparently the girls spread rumors about me, but after a while I had grown so numb to them and didn’t react so they finally stopped. Couldn’t stand those girls honestly, I have no clue why the hell I thought that was a good idea.”

“Wow. Quite the story there.” Alex chuckled. “But, I was actually dealing with stuff that day.”

“Really? With what?”

“It was…it was the day after my mother died. My father made me and all of my siblings still go to school.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry.”

“Happened years ago, so I've pretty much accepted it. I still miss her though, a lot.”

“D’you know what happened to her?”

“She…she was murdered. Stabbed to death…by my father.”

“Oh my God…”

He inhaled and exhaled deeply. “Worst part is, I saw it with my own two eyes and no one but Jeremy believed me. Still think about it sometimes, and then I feel guilty that I didn’t do anything even though I wasn’t even a teenager yet, I was just a scared little kid.”

“I’m so sorry. That’s some traumatizing stuff for an eleven year old to witness.”

“It was. I-I remember I cried my eyes out and was too scared to fall asleep that night, so I chose to sleep in class instead for some weird reason. That’s when I started tormenting my brother because I processed grief through anger until…y’know how that ended. I swore to myself I would change after that day he died.”

“I couldn’t imagine that…and I just heard about those kids but he killed your mom right in front of your eleven year old eyes…oh my God… ”

He sniffled and swallowed the lump in his throat. “I usually don’t talk about my mother, her death still upsets me to this day. Moral of the story, my father has caused way too many deaths of innocent people, so I want to check up on Jeremy because I have a feeling my father was behind it, and I can’t let him take another innocent life.”

Chapter 77

Summary:

“So, I guess you were telling the truth about these voices…”

“So…lemme get this straight. So you’re saying the way you found out about these murders in the first place was because some dead dude that only you can hear told you?!” Alex asked Michael about thirty minutes later.

“You just made it sound like I’m absolutely losing it.”

Alex kept giving him a side eye. “That’s because I do think you’re losing it man.”

“I’m not!”

“That’s what someone who’s losing it would say.”

“I’m telling you the truth!”

“Won’t believe it ‘till I see it. That’s like, not a normal thing to say in a conversation! Now that I think about it, are ya sure you’re not just getting hallucinations or something?”

“You asked how I found out!”

“I didn’t mean to tell me about your hallucinations!”

”It’s not hallucinations! It’s the truth!”

“It sounds like the plot of some horror movie! How the hell can it be real?!”

“That’s actually what Jeremy said when I first told him.”

”You’re telling him that this is real too?!”

“I‘m not shitting you man! It’s real, swear on my life!”

”I think you’re just hallucinating. I mean, a ghost that only you can hear? That sounds like hallucinations to me.” They both felt the temperature drop in the car and Alex turned to face Michael. “Did…did you turn on the AC or something?”

“Nope. He’s here…somewhere.”

“I think that was just a coincidence. Dude, I know it’s tough but just admit it. You need therapy.”

“Shut up.”

Alex thought they saw something out of the corner of their eye, so they looked to the backseat and saw him.

There, sitting in the backseat was a man whose skin was pure white, his hair was slicked back and pure white, the dress shirt he wore was pure white, and the only color on him was his black blazer over his dress shirt, black slacks, black dress shoes and a red cut on his neck and what looked like a red stab wound on his chest right over his heart. His whole body was slightly transparent, his eyes were pure white but he definitely wasn’t blind because he looked straight at Alex.

Alex was petrified since he had never seen this man in their life and went wide eyed. “What the fuck?!” Alex shrieked. 

Michael still hadn’t looked back and flinched from the noise. “God, that was right in my ear-”

“Look!”

“Where?”

“B-backseat!”

Michael glanced back and saw him as well and the car started swerving a bit with how spooked he was. He pulled off on the side of the road so the few other cars on the road could pass them, and after the car was parked he looked to the backseat and the entity was still there. 

“You’re telling me you could’ve shown yourself this whole time?!” Michael said to him. 

“It takes a lot of energy. I just decided to so your…friend can believe you.”

Michael turned to Alex, who was now hugging their knees close to their chest. “You can see him too, right?”

“Of course I can! I wouldn’t have screamed in your ear if I couldn’t!” they replied. 

“And you can’t hear him, right?”

“He speaks?!”

“Yes.”

“Oh my God, this is the scariest moment of my life…okay second, but still!”

“Hey, it’s okay. He’s not going to hurt you.”

They looked him in the eyes. “Y-you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

Alex looked back slowly to where he still was. “Uh…hi…” they said quietly to him, but was still holding onto the seat because they were frightened.

“Tell your friend to call me Schmidt,” he said to Michael. 

“That’s your last name though?” Michael replied. 

“My first name is unimportant.”

Michael nodded. “Uh, Alex? He says to call him Schmidt.”

“Schmidt…”

“Yeah, and he also happens to be…my grandfather.”

“You…that’s your grandfather?!”

“Yeah. This is my mother’s father so…he’s family. He’s how I found out about the murders in the first place, he’s on our side here.”

“Oh…” Alex said and turned back to face forward, but leaned against the door still trying to process what was going on.

“Michael,” he said from the backseat and Michael turned to him. “You know, you’re not entirely wrong.”

“Wrong about…” Michael said. 

“The kids. They’re still here, and they’re attached to those things.” 

“Wait…you’re telling me my totally madman sounding theory was actually true?!”

“Correct.”

“So…how do I destroy it so they can go to the afterlife?”

“Uh…” He paused. “I’m actually not sure.”

“You’re not sure?!”

“I’ve only ever seen remnant get activated, not destroyed. That’s something your father keeps to himself.”

“So I have to find him…”

He nodded. Michael looked next to him in the passenger’s seat, and could tell Alex was still terrified so he nodded to Schmidt and he disappeared. The coldness in the room went away as well and the two were alone again, but Alex was still silent. 

“Hey Alex? You okay?” Michael asked. 

“Oh I’m fine. I just saw a ghost after I was told they weren’t real all my life, and you were just talking to him and I couldn’t hear a damn thing. Totally normal,” Alex answered sarcastically. “Of course I’m not! You’re telling me that was your dead grandfather?!”

“Yeah. My mum never really talked about him though, but I remember she said he died before I was born.” Alex was still silent. “Trust me, I was just as spooked as you were when he started speaking to me.”

“Wouldn’t doubt it. Y-you can start going again, I just need a minute.” Michael turned the key to start up the car again, put the car in drive and turned back onto the road once it was clear. He turned up the radio a bit as he drove so he wouldn’t be in complete silence, and he was driving for about fifteen minutes when Alex spoke. “So…you’re telling me that was your grandfather?” Alex asked again quietly. 

“Yeah, my mother’s father. I never knew too much about him, she never really spoke about him. Not sure why.”

“It certainly didn’t look like he died of old age…”

“He never told me how he exactly died, but I assume he was murdered.”

“Wow. I never could’ve guessed that,” they said in a monotone voice and Michael snickered. “By who though?”

“I don’t know. That’s actually the first time he showed himself to me, so I had no idea.”

“And you’re saying he was the reason you found out everything?”

“Yeah. He told me, and he also just confirmed my theory about the kids being attached to those mascots, so I guess I wasn’t as mental as I thought.”

“Mental means crazy, right?”

“Yeah sorry, it’s just how I learned to talk. Trying to break that habit.”

Alex smiled. “So uh, I guess you weren’t hallucinating.”

“I said I wasn’t. Who needs therapy now?”

“Both of us, but not for hallucinations. ‘Cause I think I’m a little more traumatized now, and your reason is pretty much self explanatory.” Michael snickered. “So uh, moving away from this subject since I still need time to process, how much longer ‘till we get there?”

“About…two hours I think?”

Chapter 78

Summary:

Michael sees Jeremy for the first time since the incident, but he’s not prepared for what he sees.

Those two hours on the road seemed to go by a lot quicker than expected, being that Michael and Alex were talking almost the entire time. They had gotten somewhat close being in that car for four hours with each other, where Michael learned that Alex was a quiet but free spirit since they were always made fun of for being different. They were always cracking jokes whenever the chance came and loved to have friends around, but was also content with being alone if needed, even though it may get lonely sometimes.

He learned that whenever they were alone, Alex was a bookworm and would read one of the dozens of books they owned, sometimes within a day or over the course of several days, and would even go to the library so often the librarians knew them by name.

He also learned that Alex loved music, and always had music playing in their headphones when they couldn’t handle the loud sounds from the outside world or just to have it on. Michael and Alex turned out to like many of the same bands as well as have a similar taste in music, so Alex was very happy to finally have someone to share that interest with.

“Are we almost there?” Alex asked for what seemed like the hundredth time and Michael saw tall buildings in the distance. 

“Almost,” he answered.

“Really? You’ve said we were almost there like, three times and we were nowhere near Salt Lake.”

Michael chuckled. “That’s because it was funny to see you get annoyed when you realized we were still about an hour out. But I actually see it this time, so I’m pretty sure we’re almost there.”

Alex looked into the distance and saw the tall buildings of Salt Lake City, which were still a ways out because it was just a tiny dot on the horizon, but they still had to go around a few hills which made the remaining trip even longer. “We still have like, thirty minutes! We are not there!” they said and Michael snickered.

“Almost! You asked if we were almost there so technically, I’m not wrong!”

“I don’t know if I find your smart-ass comments hilarious or irritating,” they said and Michael laughed again.

When Michael drove into the city and Alex looked up the address on the map, it was only about fifteen minutes before they drove into the parking lot and Michael parked the car. “Well, here we are,” he said.

They both got out of the car, shut the door behind them and looked up at the tall building in front of them. “That didn’t feel like four hours honestly,” Alex said. 

“When we go back, it will.”

“Right. I keep forgetting that we have to get back tonight.”

“Yep. Can’t stay here overnight, I didn’t get paid enough for that.”

“Me neither. Let’s go, I wanna see how you plan to get us in.”

“Me?!”

“Yes. Do I look like I have a plan?”

”I have a terrible one!”

”Still a plan.”

Michael followed Alex inside, where they saw many people in the lobby. Some were doctors and nurses, but the rest were ordinary people. Some people were in wheelchairs, some had crutches, some had canes and some were walking without assistance. 

They went up to the front desk since they both knew they certainly couldn’t sneak into the building with eyes everywhere they looked. “Hello! How can I help you today?” the woman at the front desk asked them once they walked up to it. 

Michael cleared his throat and spoke in his American accent, “Uh, is a patient named Jeremy Fitzgerald staying here?”

She typed on her computer. “Oh yes. It says here he’s…all the way from Hurricane!”

“Are people allowed to see him?”

“Not unless you are family, it’s the law.”

“Well uh…can we?”

“Are you two family to him?”

“Yes,” he lied. “We’re his uh...”

Michael looked at Alex, because he knew that the law only allowed immediate family to see patients. He didn’t come up with a plan at all, he was too focused on the road but Alex spoke up.

“Sorry, he’s not good with words. You see, I’m actually his sibling, but I was adopted by his family at a very young age.” They looked at Michael and back to the woman. “He’s uh…a step-sibling, twice removed,” Alex lied. Michael was quite surprised they came up with all of that on the spot but he nodded in agreement. 

The woman at the front desk looked at both of them for a while, sighed and wrote some numbers on a piece of paper. “He’s on the third floor, this is his room number,” she said and handed the paper to Michael. 

“Thank you,” he said and both he and Alex went off to the elevator to go to the third floor, and Michael pressed the button to call it down. The elevator came down a few seconds later and the door opened, and once they were in Michael pressed the button to the third floor. 

“I can’t believe how easy that was,” Alex whispered almost inaudibly to him once the door closed. 

“I know, they’ll believe anything. How did you come up with all of that on the spot?!” Michael whispered back. 

“I’m a reader, what’d you expect?”

Michael chuckled. “You said you didn’t have a plan!”

“Maybe I had a backup plan thought up of in case you didn’t have one. Anyway, have you even looked at his room number?”

“Uh…no. In my defense, I was too preoccupied with making sure we didn't get caught while you lied right to her face.”

“Got me there. Well, we kinda need to know where we’re going so I think looking at the room number would be helpful.”

“Wow. What would I ever do without you,” Michael replied in a monotone voice and Alex snickered. He looked at the room number the woman at the front desk wrote down and sighed when he saw the first number. It was the same for all of the rooms on this floor, so he didn’t expect anything different.

They walked out to the hallway together once they saw the doors open to the third floor. “Well? Where is he?” Alex asked. 

“It’s um…” He looked at a map on the wall. “The room’s this way,” he said and led them down a hallway. 

They walked side by side in silence for a few minutes until Alex noticed that Michael looked worried; his shoulders were tense, he was clenching his fists and he was walking faster than usual. “Mike? What’s up?” Alex asked.

“N-nothing.”

“C’mon, you can talk to me.”

He inhaled and exhaled deeply as he slowed down the pace of his walking. “I’ve been down here…once.”

“Once?”

“Yeah. This is the part of the hospital where they put patients who’re in critical condition. I told you what happened with my brother before, so yeah I’ve been down here before.”

“Oh…now that I think about it, I don’t think you ever told me his name.”

“Oh right. His name was Evan.”

“Evan…that’s a nice name.”

They got to a hospital room at the end of the hallway they were at and stood facing the closed wooden door. “Well, here we are,” Michael said.

“D’you wanna knock or should I?”

“I can,” he said and brought his fist up to knock, but hesitated. 

“What’s wrong?” Alex whispered to him. 

“I…I’m scared.”

“Scared?”

“What if when I walk in, the same thing that happened to Evan will happen to Jeremy?! I can’t live with myself if that happens!”

“Mike, that’s just anxiety talking. Nothing’s gonna happen.”

“But what if it does?!”

“The doctors can keep him stable, he’ll be fine,” they said, but Alex really didn’t know what was going to happen. He was just trying to calm Michael down since sneaking into the hospital was his idea, so he obviously wanted to see Jeremy sooner rather than later. “Plus, I said that this is another reason why I wanted to come with you. You may need someone to calm you down in case…y’know, flashbacks.”

Michael nodded as he raised his fist again and knocked on the door, and a few seconds later he saw a nurse peek her head out of the room. 

“Oh! Hello!” she said, and Michael saw her name tag read Jasmine Sanchez.

Michael spoke in his American accent again, “Uh, hello. Is this Jeremy Fitzgerald’s room?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Can we see him?”

“Well, I suppose, but are you two staying long?”

“No, we have to get back home soon. We’re just checking up on him,” Michael said. 

“Well, let me just tell you what’s been happening with him. His heart rate is steadying out, but his breathing isn’t. He’s still having a difficult time trying to breathe so we had to put a ventilator on him to hopefully stabilize it so he can eventually breathe on his own.”

“Is his father here?”

“No, since it is the middle of the week and his boss wouldn’t let him take a few days off of work he couldn’t, but he should be here by the weekend. Someone has to be in here at all times though, since his breathing is still unsteady.”

“Well, can we see him?”

“Yes, of course.” She turned to face behind her. “Cooper!” she called. A male nurse next to Jeremy’s bedside looked up. “Are you almost finished with that?” 

“Yep,” he answered. “Good as new.” He went up next to her with a roll of bandages in his hands, and Michael read the name tag he wore, which said his name was Mason Cooper.

“My coworker and I are his regular nurses, so we come in here often. He unfortunately needs more than one nurse, since this type of injury we’ve almost never seen. The last time we’ve seen an injury similar to this was in 1983,” Jasmine said. 

“Uh, what happened? What are the bandages for?” Michael asked.

“Replacing bandages on his hands. The other ones he had were soaked with blood,” Mason said.

“He…he had more?”

“Well, long story short he had cuts on the palms of both of his hands that were just about down to the bone. They were in an arched dotted line down his palms and the surgeons had to give him stitches to heal. However, the injuries still bled so they need to be changed out every once in a while.”

Jasmine opened the door wider and Mason stood out of the way of their line of vision, and there in the hospital bed they both saw Jeremy for the first time since the incident. 

There they saw Jeremy, still unconscious in his hospital bed and in a hospital gown. The first thing Michael noticed was that his shoulder length hair had been cut short, and he assumed on his left side it had been buzzed off since that’s where he was told the bite was, but his head (mainly his left side) was covered with gauze as well as his left eye socket was covered so Michael couldn’t see.

Jeremy had a ventilator like the nurse had said, and Michael noticed that he was connected to several IV’s and a machine to measure his heart rate. The last thing he noticed was that his hands were in fact, all bandaged up and his palms were facing upwards.

Michael and Alex walked in the room, but were silent as they looked at Jeremy. “We’ll leave you guys alone since we have to take care of more patients. Call out if something happens,” Jasmine said.

Alex nodded and the nurses closed the door as they went out, leaving them alone with Jeremy. Alex went over and stood next to Michael, who kept staring at Jeremy with a worried look on his face. 

“Mike? What’s up?” Alex asked. 

“He’s…he’s just like him…oh God…” Michael said with his voice breaking, and Alex saw a few stray tears falling down his face.

Chapter 79

Summary:

The return from the almost eight hour journey from Salt Lake City, but Michael now has to face Henry (who is standing in as a father to him)

The flashbacks hit Michael like a ton of bricks and he covered his mouth with his hands. 

“I didn’t mean to…I didn’t mean to, I didn’t mean to…” he kept repeating and he started breathing quickly as tears streamed down his face. 

“Woah, hey, it’s okay. You're okay, it’s gonna be okay,” Alex said as they went in front of Michael so he could see them, and they could see that Michael’s hands were shaking as he put his hands down to look at his palms. 

“But…he’s…”

“I know what you’re thinking, and that thing with your brother happened years ago. This isn’t the same, Jeremy is still alive.”

“But what if he does-”

“He’s gonna live, I know it.” Michael wouldn’t stop hyperventilating and Alex decided to take some deep breaths with him to calm him down. After a few minutes and when Michael’s breathing slowed they asked, “You okay?” 

“Maybe,” he answered and wiped his tears. “Y-you sure he’s gonna make it?”

“I…I’m sure,” they said, but they really didn’t know if he was going to be fine because of the bad state he was in. “Now if you need to step out of the room at any time, it’s okay. I’ll stay here.”

He nodded and shakily walked over to Jeremy’s bedside and Alex stood next to him just in case he needed to be calmed down again. Both of them got hit with another wave of emotion as they both stood at the bedside, but suddenly Michael held onto the sidebar and Alex’s shoulder because he could feel himself starting to get lightheaded from the shortness of his breath.

“Woah, you okay?” they asked.

“I…I don’t know, just…flashbacks. I need a few.” Alex nodded and after a minute, he could feel Michael loosening his grip on their shoulder and Michael let go, stood up straight and put his hands in his pockets. For several minutes, none of them said a word as they stood at the bedside and tried to process the reality of the situation. “It’s…it’s strange, huh?” Michael said after a while of silence.

“What?”

“It’s strange.”

“What is?”

“I mean, it’s strange to know that everything changed in an instant, that everything will be different now.”

“I guess you’re right. It is…kind of strange to know that.”

Michael stayed silent as he brushed the back of his index finger against Jeremy’s arm lightly, feeling the softness of his skin. “Do you think he can hear us?” Michael asked after several minutes. 

“I dunno, he might.”

Michael lightly held onto Jeremy’s fingers that weren’t bandaged, because he was scared that he might hurt him even if he was unresponsive.

“Hey, Jer? I dunno if you can hear me, but you might so might as well talk to you so you can hear my voice again. It’s been…a crazy week, that’s for sure. But, I suppose what I want to say is…I miss you, I miss you so much even though it’s only been a week. I’ve been so worried about you that I could barely even sleep. These next few months are gonna be…strange to say the least, but I know you’ll get through it because the Jeremy I know is strong enough and capable to fight through this tough time. I guess what I’m trying to say is…I look forward to seeing you back home sometime, but you gotta promise me to come back soon.” 

Michael sniffled as he let go of his fingers and sat in a chair next to the hospital bed, but Alex went over to the bedside. 

“Hey man, I really don’t know if you can hear me or not,” Alex said to Jeremy. “But like Mike said, it’s been a crazy week, but I guess our good luck couldn’t last forever, huh? Look, we haven’t even known each other that long, but you’re one of my best friends.” Michael could see their hands slightly shaking as they leaned against the sidebar and grasped both of their hands together. “Before everything happened, I was actually glad to go into work everyday because that meant I could see you and Michael, but I guess that sounds kinda cheesy, huh? I-I don’t know, I guess what I’m saying is that you’re my first friend who I enjoyed being around, and it’d be really nice if you could stick around. So…come back home to Hurricane soon…can you do that for me?”

They pulled up a chair and sat across from Michael, and there he saw them trying their best not to cry, but their eyes were still watering and their leg was shaking. They tried to dry their tears before Michael saw, but they didn’t know he already had. Michael had never seen them in their most vulnerable state before, they were usually happy and making jokes so it was very strange to Michael.

“I seem like a real crybaby now, huh?” Michael said. 

“Huh?”

“I’ve never seen you cry before.”

“Oh.” They smiled. “I usually don’t show my emotions in front of people, blame my biological dad for that one. But I trust you, just how you decided to trust me with telling me about…your brother and your mom, so I decided the trust should be mutual.”

“That’s actually…kinda nice to hear.”

As they both fell silent again and Michael sat on that chair next to Jeremy, he wasn’t sure what else to say, or if he should say anything at all. He kept nervously checking Jeremy’s heart rate monitor, which seemed to be beeping regularly (so he was sure he was worried about nothing) and back at Jeremy.

He didn’t know what else to think while Jeremy laid motionless in the hospital bed, except that he wished it was him instead. Living with an injury like this would make life a living hell, and Michael wished he could switch places with him because he thought he deserved that hell, not Jeremy. 

“Mike?” Alex said, snapping him out of his thoughts. 

“Yeah?” he asked. 

“What’s up? You look like you’re about to cry again.”

“Do I?”

“Yep. So talk to me, what’s up? Pretend that we’re not next to Jeremy’s hospital bed, pretend it’s just us talking in the car. What’s up?”

“I don’t know…I’m just…scared. Scared for what the future holds for him. I guess that song he loves really did mean something, ‘nothing ever lasts forever’. I mean…I dunno, part of me can’t help thinking I deserve it more than him. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“Neither have you. You said so yourself that you didn’t mean to do anything.”

“I-I know, but I still feel guilty nonetheless. It just…hurts to see him like this and part of me thinks it’d be better if it was me.”

”Trust me, it wouldn’t. This whole thing would be a thousand percent better if this didn’t happen to begin with.”

Michael smiled. “So, what d’you think your parents will say when you get back tonight?” he asked, changing the subject.

“I dunno. Maybe they’ll ask me about why the hell I thought it was a good idea to leave the city without ‘em knowing.”

“Just say it was my idea then and hopefully you won’t get in too much trouble then.”

“I’m hoping they’ll be asleep by the time I get home and I won’t have to say a damn thing. But if it does come to that, I’m definitely using that to try and win the argument against them.”

---

Michael and Alex didn’t get back to Hurricane until almost ten o’clock that night. Michael dropped Alex off at the parking lot where they left their car, but the lot was empty except for a few employees' cars who were closing up. Alex got out of Michael’s car once he parked and went around to the drivers side where he was, and he rolled down his window so they could talk. 

“Thanks for agreeing to take me to Salt Lake. I bet it was kinda weird ‘cause we didn’t know each other that well when I said I wanted to go with you,” Alex said to him. 

“I mean, it’s not every day you get to go on an almost eight hour trip without anyone knowing except you and me and you didn’t know me that well outside of work. Y’know, that sounds kinda like kidnapping now that I say it out loud.”

Alex chuckled. “I don’t think it counts as kidnapping ‘cause we knew each other as work friends before. Plus, we got to know each other a little better so you’re officially being promoted to my friend. You’re a cool guy, Mike.”

“You’re pretty cool as well. I wish I would’ve known that sooner.”

“Anyways, hopefully when I get back to my place my parents won't ground me or something. They might, now that I think about it unless I somehow win the argument. That’ll be a miracle,” Michael snickered. “See ya Mike!”

“Later Alex,” he replied and waited until they got in their car and started it up. After he heard the roar of the engine Michael rolled up his window and started to play the radio quietly since it was silent now, then they both followed each other out of the parking lot and turned separate directions on the main road to their own houses.  

Michael stayed silent while he drove, listening to the radio very quietly while he went to Henry’s house. No matter what, he couldn’t stop thinking about Jeremy. He was worried for him because his state looked all too similar to the state his brother was in before he died, and was scared how Jeremy would handle all of this when he wakes up since he was going to behave differently than he was before.

How long would someone have to be with him in that hospital room 24/7? Was his father going to show up? Was his breathing ever going to steady out? Would he ever be conscious again? Could he ever be left alone again once he finally got out of the hospital? These were the questions running through his head. 

Once he pulled into the driveway of Henry’s house, he saw that the lights in the house were still on. Michael sighed because he hoped that since it was the middle of the week and there was work the next day, Henry would be asleep so he could sneak inside and pretend he was there the whole time locked up in his room like he has been for the past week.

As it seemed, Henry stayed awake worrying if Michael was ever going to get back, because he couldn’t sleep knowing that Michael was still out there somewhere. 

Michael sighed as took the key out of the ignition, got out of the car and and closed the door behind him, went up to the front door and turned the doorknob, but it was locked and wouldn’t move an inch. He had a key to the house, but that would mean he’d have to dig in his pocket for them without dropping other things that were in the same pocket.

Michael didn’t want to drop anything since all he wanted was sleep since he barely got any the night previous, so he rang the doorbell and had to wait a few seconds before he heard the fiddle of the lock and finally saw Henry open the door. “Uh…hey Uncle,” he said awkwardly but Henry only pulled him into a hug. 

“Oh my God…I’ve been worried sick about you for hours. I was about to call the cops if I didn’t hear from you tomorrow morning,” Henry said after a minute and let Michael out of the hug. “You must be freezing standing out there, it’s been windy all day. Come in, don’t feel like a stranger.”

Michael walked inside and Henry shut the door behind him. “Uh, sorry I didn’t tell you anything. It was kind of a last minute thing,” Michael said. 

“Where were you?! I thought you were kidnapped! You know how dangerous Hurricane is now with William still roaming free, especially at night!” 

“I know.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine Uncle.”

“Where were you?!”

“In…Salt Lake.”

“Salt Lake City?! As in, the capital city that’s four hours away from here?!”

“That’s the only one I know of so yes.”

“Why?! What were you thinking?! You can’t just decide to take an eight hour road trip without telling me! I’m standing in for your dad here, I worry for you!”

“I know and that was my fault, I didn’t think ahead. But I wanted to go because…Jeremy’s there.”

“Jeremy?”

“Remember I told you he got…bit a little over a week ago?” Henry nodded. “Well, apparently the hospital here couldn’t help him so they had to airlift him to Salt Lake. I wanted to go see him and make sure he’ll be okay.”

“So, why’d you decide to go there? No one but families are allowed in!”

“I know, but I have been worried sick about him for days that I could barely even sleep, I had to see him with my own eyes.”

“But…what do you mean you saw him ?”

“Well…uh…”

“Don’t tell me you did something illegal.” Michael stayed silent. “You did something illegal, didn’t you?”

“Well, technically…” Henry sighed and pushed up his glasses. “Okay, so lying wasn’t my go to idea really, but we couldn’t do my plan with eyes everywhere so my friend lied to the lady at the front desk and we snuck around them.”

“Your friend? You have a new friend?”

“Yeah, I actually met them as a coworker, but they kinda saved my life so I think they deserve to be promoted. It wasn’t their idea to go, I take responsibility for that but they wanted to go as well.”

“But you could have put two people in danger instead of just one! What if they found out you two were lying?!”

“But they didn’t. For some reason they believed them when they said we were related to him, security’s not that good there for a big hospital.”

Henry sighed and stayed silent for a few minutes. “I-I don’t even know whether to be upset or not. I know you’re worried about him, and I can’t blame you for that because I know how relationships are, I’ve been through a few myself.”

“So…you’re not angry at me?”

“No, but I’m also not happy either.”

“For some reason that sounds worse.”

Henry chuckled. “I mean, for one you told no one , you could’ve put you and your friend in danger and you lied to sneak into the hospital when you know you’re not supposed to do that! That’s against the law and you could’ve gotten the cops called on you!”

“I know, and I’m sorry. If you ground me, I don’t blame you.”

“On one hand, it makes sense because you want to check up on him, on the other you did something illegal...”

“Go ahead. Ground me for a month or two and just get the yelling over with.”

“I’m not gonna do that. Yelling at you wouldn’t solve anything.”

“You’re not gonna yell at me? Father would’ve.”

“I’m not William, Mike. I know he wouldn’t make any hesitation to do that, but you are living under my roof. Since I’m not grounding you, I’m instead gonna limit you from driving your car for a while unless you tell me.”

“What?! So basically ground me from my car until I move out?!”

“Well…kind of yes.”

“That’s like…worse than grounding! I love my car!”

“C’mon, this is a light punishment for doing something illegal, I should’ve made it a little harsher cause, y’know, the law could’ve gotten involved but I’m choosing not to. The thing is you can still drive it sometimes, but every time you drive you have to let me know where you’re going, and you can’t lie because you unfortunately do the same thing as William when you lie.”

“What?! What do I do?!”

“Look away, a little more fidgety than usual, speak very monotone but he was pretty good at hiding it, but after a few decades together I pick up on this stuff-”

“Okay, okay. I get it.”

“I just can’t risk you driving off and doing whatever for hours on end without telling me first! It’s dangerous with William still out there somewhere! Plus if you do get another job, you can’t keep it a secret from me like you tried to last time.”

“Ugh…you make a fair point.”

Chapter 80

Summary:

An unexpected phone call…

Around 12:30 on a Saturday afternoon a few days after New Year’s day, Michael was sitting at the table having his usual breakfast of sugary cereal and drinking black coffee because he had gotten up at 12:00pm. Henry was across the table from him reading the newspaper, but there wasn’t anything that interested him very much. 

“D’you think they’ve found Father yet?” Michael asked and Henry shook his head. 

“I don’t think so. They said they’ll tell me if they found anything, but I haven’t heard back.”

“Maybe they just stopped caring.”

“Wouldn’t doubt it.” Michael nodded as he continued eating his breakfast, but they both heard the telephone ring and Henry stood up to answer it. “Hello?” he said into the speaker when he picked it up. Michael could only hear Henry’s side of the conversation, but he could tell Henry was slightly confused as he spoke. 

“Who…?” Michael started but Henry put a finger up to his lips telling him to keep it down. 

“Uh, yeah this is the Emily residence…” Henry said into the speaker. “Yes, you’re speaking to the owner of the house…I’m Henry Emily…Michael?” Michael perked up because he heard his name. “ Michael Afton ?…Sorry, who am I talking to?…Oh, I don’t believe we’ve met…Uh, yes hold on.” Henry covered up the speaker. “Mike!” he whisper-shouted and motioned Michael over.

Michael went over to him and Henry handed him the telephone, but Michael wasn’t expecting a call so he was very confused, but he was also curious so he put the phone up to his ear. 

“Hello?” he said. 

“Hello, is this Michael Afton?” he heard. Whoever this man was, he had a Mexican Spanish dialect to his words. Jeremy also had a slight Mexican Spanish dialect, but since he was born in the United States it was almost unnoticeable. Unlike Jeremy, this man sounded like he originally came from Mexico.

“Uh, yes?” Michael answered.

“This is Jeremy’s dad, Diego Fitzgerald.”

“Mr. Fitzgerald?”

“Yes.”

“Why are you calling? Is something going on?”

“Listen, I need you to come down to the hospital. I’ll talk to the hospital staff and try to convince them to let you in.”

“Why?! Did something happen?!”

“Yes, but don’t be alarmed. It’s nothing serious.”

“What happened? Is he…awake?”

“Yes, he has been for a little while now and he’s learning to stay awake for a little longer than a few hours a day. The only problem is that…he doesn’t remember. He barely remembers me, he has a hard time remembering people from his past and I don’t know if he knows where he is because he keeps forgetting. Every time he wakes up from sleeping, he looks confused and I have to remind him he’s in the hospital and who I am because he forgets.”

“So…why do I need to go down there?”

“Well, I just thought as a last resort attempt to jog his memory was asking you to remind him before we have to completely start over.”

“Me?”

“Yes. And I know you probably don’t want to see me based off what Jeremy’s probably told you, but I just want to say, lo siento Michael.”

“…huh?”

“Sorry, I’m just used to it more. It means ‘I’m sorry’. I don’t doubt that Jeremy told you about the fight we got in before he got the job at Freddy’s.”

“Briefly.”

“I’ve had a lot of time to think about it, and I was wrong. I-I feel like I was a part of the reason he got this job because he said he wanted to get away from me before he applied, and I feel terrible. I am so sorry, Michael,” he said and his voice was starting to break.

“Mr. Fitzgerald, he’s gonna be okay. After he gets out of there, he’ll be okay and everything will work out.”

He breathed deeply to calm himself down. “I just…I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive myself. I’m sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself so back to the reason I called, I was just thinking if anyone could help jog his memory, it’s you.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You were the one he was closest to, even closer than anyone in his own family, and the doctors and nurses are no help, so I’m hoping he’ll at least somewhat remember what you say.”

“Uh, lemme check first.” He covered the speaker. “Hey Uncle?”

“Yeah?” Henry called from the living room. 

“Can I go to Salt Lake again?”

Henry poked his head into the kitchen where Michael was. “Why?”

“Jeremy.”

“But you know how you snuck in last time was against the law!”

“I know, but Mr. Fitzgerald is asking for me this time so it’d be slightly less illegal. He said he’ll talk to them and try to convince them to let me in.”

Henry sighed as he thought about it for a moment. “Since he’s asking for you, that means it must be important since you aren’t trying to get in on your own, and since he’s going to let you in you technically won’t be breaking any laws…“ he muttered to himself. He sighed and pushed up his glasses. “Fine, but I expect you back by ten thirty.”

Michael smiled. “I promise.” He uncovered the phone speaker. “Mr. Fitzgerald?”

“Yes, I’m still here.”

“I’ll be there in a few hours.”

---

Michael got in his car half an hour later and put the key in the ignition, and as soon as he heard the roar of the engine he saw Henry in the doorway. Michael rolled down his window as Henry went up to the side of his car. “Remember, be back by ten thirty at the latest!” Henry said. 

“I will.”

“Be careful, Mike.”

“I promise Uncle. Bye!”

“Bye Mike,” he said and stepped back until he was at the front door and Michael rolled up his window.

Michael backed out of the driveway and into the street, waved to Henry one last time before he drove off and Henry waved back, and Michael drove away.

 Once Michael got out of town, he turned on the radio since he couldn’t stand to be in silence. It was better when he went to the hospital in November because Alex was there to talk with him and keep him company. Now there was no one with him since Michael found out that Alex’s parents grounded them for a month and a half from breaking the law. Since they weren’t there to keep him company as he drove, each minute seemed to go by longer than last time. 

Over the course of those four hours, all Michael saw ahead of him was the road and every so often a car or truck would pass by him, and sometimes the very occasional semi-truck transporting goods to a store.

He kept yawning to keep himself awake and turned the radio up so the noise would keep him awake, but it didn’t help a whole lot so he got out his pack of cigarettes, lit one and put it in his mouth. He opened the window and exhaled smoke, and it was enough to keep him awake for the time being.

A few hours passed and soon, Michael saw the tall buildings of Salt Lake City in the distance. He smiled to himself because those four hours seemed to go by a lot slower than last time he came here, so he was happy he finally made it. 

Michael had to look up the location of the hospital again on a map, but after driving around for a few minutes he found it almost instantly. He parked in the big parking lot out in front of the hospital and put his finished cigarette in the ashtray in his car, where a couple others were from his four hour journey. 

He went in through the front double doors and saw people in the lobby, some were walking with little assistance, some were handicapped and some were walking without assistance like he saw last time. He went to the front desk again and was met with a different woman than last time. 

“Hello there!” she said once Michael walked up to the desk. 

Michael cleared his throat and spoke in an American accent, “Hi, uh Mr. Fitzgerald asked me to come here?”

“Fitzgerald…” she typed on her computer, “Jeremy Fitzgerald?” 

“Well, his dad asked for me since he’s not able to speak yet.”

“Hmm, let me call him and I’ll double check for you.” She picked up her telephone and dialed the number to the room. After a few seconds she said, “Fitzgerald? Yes, hi, did you call for someone to come down here?…You did?…His name is uh…” She covered up the speaker. “What’s your name, sir?”

Michael hesitated. On one hand, he could lie and say Fritz Smith like he has been doing, but Diego might not know who that is since he didn’t know if Jeremy ever told his father. He probably didn’t, because the way Jeremy put it they didn’t talk much so he decided to use his real name. “ Michael Afton ,” he said quietly. He felt as though the room got slightly quieter once he said his name, but he told himself he was just imagining things. 

The woman nodded. “ Michael Afton ,” she repeated into the phone. “You called him?…Oh, that makes more sense…Okay, I’ll send him up.” She put the phone down and wrote some numbers down on a piece of paper. “He’s on the third floor,” she said as she handed it to him. 

“Thank you,” Michael said and went to the elevator. Once he got in, he pressed the button to the third floor, waited until the door was closed and he felt the elevator going up. He looked at the paper the woman gave him, and to no surprise it was the same number as last time. He sighed and went out the elevator doors once they opened to the third floor and went down the same hallway as he did previously. 

He got to the room and brought up his fist to knock, hesitated, reminded himself that everything was going to be alright and knocked. He waited a few moments and Jeremy’s father opened the door. 

Jeremy and his father looked very different being that Jeremy was on the slender side and his father had a pot-belly, Jeremy’s father had jet black hair that connected to his classic beard while Jeremy had dark brown hair that was almost black and just a small stubble, and his father wore glasses while Jeremy did not. Their only similarity in appearance was their medium brown skin tone and freckles scattered everywhere on their body. 

“There you are!” Diego said once he opened the door and saw Michael. 

“Yeah, it’s not a very short distance,” Michael replied. “How were you able to convince them to let me come up here?”

“I may have told them that you were his mother’s sister’s kid, but you two were so close you were basically brothers. The thing is though, his mother was an only child. Well, Jeremy’s been asleep for a few hours already, so I suspect he’ll be waking up sometime soon,” he said as he let Michael in the room.

In the hospital bed he saw Jeremy for the second time in a little over two months, and he looked almost exactly the same as when he previously saw him. The only difference was that the ventilator he had was replaced with a nasal breathing tube, his hospital bed was reclined a bit instead of laying down flat and he had a rag under his right cheek. 

“How is he?” Michael asked. 

“Same as he has been for weeks. Really the only difference is that they had him on a ventilator around the time he first got to the hospital, but they recently switched him to the tube…a couple weeks ago.”

“Why’s that?”

“Since he was fully awake and probably didn’t want a tube pumping air directly into his lungs, they switched it out and from what they say that seems to be working better for him. He also has the rag because based on what the doctors said, he can’t control the right side of his face so he’s had a little bit of a drooling problem.”

“How does he get food? I don’t see a tube for that,” Michael asked. The last time he was here and Jeremy had the ventilator, he had a nasal feeding tube but he didn’t see that anymore.

“He now has something called a G-tube, which is a surgically placed feeding tube on his stomach. The doctors said that it actually works better for them because the nasal one has to be replaced every so often and that one doesn’t.”

Michael went over to Jeremy, who was sound asleep in the bed and he noticed that Jeremy’s breathing seemed to have steadied out some, but not fully. He didn’t want to touch Jeremy because he was conscious now, and didn’t want to risk waking him up since Michael knew he needed the rest.

“So, d'you know what exactly happened when he arrived at the hospital?” Michael asked.

“I was told what originally happened at the restaurant from his boss, have you heard that part?”

“Yes, but what about when he got here?”

“Well, I don’t know everything but apparently when he came in, he wasn’t breathing so he needed an oxygen mask. When he got to the emergency room, he was in bad shape; his eye was punctured, his head was…whatever had bitten him was so powerful that it broke his skull, so he had to get a metal plate to cover up the hole in his skull. Whatever bit him also took some of his brain with it, I was told it was some of his frontal lobe.

The tissue around the bitten area had died so they had to remove more of his frontal lobe so most of the lobe ended up being removed. The doctors compared his injury to…a lobotomy.” Michael put his hand over his mouth, and Diego stayed silent for a few seconds trying to contain himself. “His hands were also cut down to the bone, I’m not sure if some bones in his hands were broken or not, but from what they told me they looked like…teeth marks.”

“So…he was trying to fight back.”

“Exactly. The doctors said it was a miracle he woke up at all, they said they thought he wouldn’t make it. Hell, even I thought I was going to lose him. The doctors said that if he did make it past the surgery that he would be gone a few weeks later, because that’s what happened last time they saw an injury like this, and here we are two months later.”

That’s the Jeremy I know, not willing to go down without a fight, Michael thought. They stood in silence for a while, not sure how to fill the awkward silence between them while they waited for Jeremy to wake up. Just then, Diego got an idea of a topic.

“Michael,” Diego said, getting Michael’s attention. “I just wanted to apologize, again, but this time in person. I don’t know if Jeremy told you every single thing I said when he told me about you and him, but I was angry at him for just being with you. I yelled at him, called him and you hurtful things and I now realize I shouldn’t have said any of that, because a parent should love their child no matter what.

“I guess I couldn’t let go of my parents ways of thinking, because they taught me that it was wrong and those people would burn in hell. I-I didn’t even think about Jeremy’s feelings and I realize now that I was just being selfish because I made it all about me. But Jeremy’s smart enough to know right from wrong, and from what I can see you care about him a lot so I think he made the right choice here.” Michael smiled. “I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m sorry, I was wrong about you Michael.”

“He never told me every single detail, but I believe in second chances.”

“I don’t expect forgiveness from any of you since I’m still learning about all of this, but I will promise you that I will change my way of thinking even if I don’t understand fully. But what I do want to ask of you, Jeremy will probably need help his whole life…I don’t know, the doctors said it’s unclear but it seems like the most likely scenario. But I am getting older and when I do eventually leave this world and if you two are still together, can you do me a favor and take care of him for me?” 

Michael was in shock. He never expected Jeremy’s father to say those things, especially admitting that he was wrong and he would change. Michael looked back at Jeremy who was still sound asleep, back at Diego, smiled and nodded, promising that he would always be there for Jeremy.

Chapter 81

Summary:

Jeremy sees Michael for the first time since the incident, but something very strange happens…

Jeremy’s father and Michael both stayed in awkward silence for a while at Jeremy’s bedside because they were waiting for Jeremy to wake up from sleeping. “I see you’re wearing his necklace,” Diego said, breaking the silence between he and Michael. 

“Oh yeah. I know it’s special to Jeremy, so I kind of took on this protector role until he can again.”

“He told you the story behind that?”

“Yeah, he said his mum gave it to him.”

“She did, she gave it to him because she knew she was dying and she knew that no amount of chemo could save her. He was always really close with her, I’d say he was quite the ‘mama’s boy’ when she was around. He was devastated when she passed away a few years back, it was…it was a pretty bad time for him.”

“That’s what I assumed.”

“Something tells me he won’t be that devastated when I eventually go. He probably hates me, but I wouldn’t blame him if he even remembers.”

“Wouldn’t blame him?” Michael echoed, because he was quite surprised that he realized he wasn’t a good parent to Jeremy.

“I’ll admit I was never a great dad, and I was too stuck in my own head to even be one when I should’ve, because I couldn’t accept the fact that I was a dad even after eighteen years, and I didn’t know how to do it because my parents never cared to raise me properly. I-it feels like I blinked and I missed out on trying to be a dad to Jeremy.”

Michael didn’t know what else to say. Jeremy always told him that he couldn’t stand his father, that it was like he wasn’t in this world emotionally and how he was tired of it.

“Well, there’s still time to raise him,” Michael said finally. 

“You’re right, now I just need to learn how to do all of it. Eighteen years later.”

It didn’t take long after that conversation for Michael to see Jeremy’s good eye open from his peripheral vision. Michael turned his head and saw Jeremy’s amber eye looking back at him but Jeremy looked tired, confused and couldn’t focus, because every so often his eye kept drifting away from Michael and Jeremy had to keep centering it back to look at him, which would usually take some time.

Michael was taken aback because he wasn’t sure if he would ever see Jeremy wake up again, even though his father said he’s been awake for a few weeks. 

“Jeremy! Oh my God, I’ve missed you!” Michael exclaimed, almost crying happy tears, but Jeremy kept staring at him with the same confused look in his eye. Michael calmed himself down after a minute and spoke to Jeremy softly. “Do you remember me?” he asked after a while as Jeremy studied his face. 

“Jeremy?” his father said from behind Michael and Jeremy looked towards him, so he obviously understood what they were saying. “This is Michael. Remember? You two were always together.”

Jeremy stared at Michael for a few minutes, studying his face and Michael decided to speak again. “We were even closer than friends. C’mon Jer, don’t you remember?” Jeremy stared at him while Michael stayed silent, like he wanted a response. “Please…I can’t lose you too Jeremy,” he said softly as Michael put his hand on Jeremy’s arm lightly and swallowed the lump in his throat.

“He’s been awake for a while, try jogging his memory a little,” Diego said and Michael nodded as he leaned on the side rail of Jeremy’s hospital bed, grasping his own two hands together. 

“Remember…remember that day we met when we were nine? I remember it clear as day even though it was almost ten years ago. You were…you were sitting by yourself on the playground, you always sat by yourself at the playground so I decided to come up to you because it looked like you needed a friend.

“You didn’t even want to talk to me at first, because I was the annoying kid in class that kept getting into trouble, and you were the kid who always got good grades and was well behaved in class. But since I didn’t get the message to leave you alone, I kept coming up to you on the playground because I wanted to be your friend. You finally told me your name after about a week and a half and you quickly learned that you also wanted to be my friend, and we’ve been by each other’s side ever since.”

Jeremy kept staring at Michael with the same confused look in his eye. “Try something else, maybe more recent,” Diego said to Michael. 

He nodded. “Uh, how about…how about two years ago when we got together? It was one of the best days of my life, and I don’t say that often. You were trying to teach me how to play your guitar, you were holding on to my hand and I kissed you. It was the best impulse decision I’ve ever made. You said you’ve liked me for a long time and I felt the same way, I think we were both just in denial for a long time.”

Jeremy stared at him, like he was trying to remember but nothing came to mind.

“How about what you liked?” Michael said after thinking for a few minutes about what he was going to try next. “You loved your guitar, you played it almost everyday. You would even play it for me sometimes because you were excited to show me a new song that you had learned. When we were alone, you would play a song on your guitar and I would sing along, and you said I had a beautiful voice even though I have a tough time hearing what you did. 

“Um…how about the fact you loved astronomy? You would tell me about different stars and planets, and even though I had no idea what you were talking about, I loved seeing you happy. Remember? You had all kinds of books and we would read them together, you had all kinds of posters about different planets and stars around your room at your house.

“You had even taken me once to see the stars on a hill outside of town, since I had never seen them without the lights of the city before. You said it was your favorite place to go, so I might have to take you there again once you get outta here.”

They looked at each other in the eyes, and before Jeremy’s eye drifted away from looking at Michael again he could see that it looked cold and defensive. Michael sighed and wiped the right side of Jeremy’s cheek with the rag and put it back where it was, and put a hand lightly on the left side of his face. 

Jeremy stared at him, a little confused on why this man was touching his face. Then he figured that this must have been someone from his past which is how he knew all these things about him, and Jeremy wished he could ask him. 

“Please, d’you remember me?” Michael said as he took his hand off of his face. “I’m Michael, Michael Afton. We were best friends for almost ten years and saw each other almost every day, but that day we kissed everything changed between us. I was the happiest I have been for a long time and to me, it looked like it was the same for you. Jeremy…please. I know you’re in there somewhere, I can’t loose you too.”

Jeremy had to study his face for a few minutes again, but then like some sort of magic all of the memories of Michael came flooding back to him all at once, it was like he was having several flashbacks all at once because saw everything from his perspective. It was so intense that he got scared, his heart rate started speeding up and his breathing started getting faster as he shut his good eye tightly.

The monitor started beeping rapidly, so Michael and Diego had to calm him down so it slowed down to a normal pace and his breathing slowed to a normal speed.

After that intense moment, Jeremy opened his good eye but he was a little lightheaded and sleepy since he hasn’t experienced that intense of power before. The memories soon seemed to be fading in and out, and then Jeremy couldn’t remember the details of his time with Michael unless someone told him.

After he was breathing normally again, Jeremy wasn’t left with a whole lot to work with but he was able to recognize the name Michael. He knew that they were friends for years, and a couple years ago they confessed their feelings to each other. He couldn’t remember all of the details and it was tough for him to feel those same feelings at the moment, but it was enough to know who he was.

“I think he recognizes you,” Diego whispered to Michael. 

“You think so?”

“I definitely think so. Something happened just now after you told him who you were, it couldn’t be just nothing.”

“Does…does he recognize you?”

“Not really. He doesn’t have that many memories of me, but he knows my face. I tried for a long time to get him to remember me, weeks, but I had almost no luck. You seemed to have done something right because you got him to remember you in forty five minutes.”

Over the course of the next hour, Michael decided to try and remind Jeremy that the man staying with him in the hospital was his father, and Jeremy seemed to absorb every word Michael said. It was tough for Michael, because he and Diego had never seen each other that often.

Since Michael didn’t know a lot about Jeremy’s father, Diego told him things to tell Jeremy since he seemed to retain information better if Michael told him rather than his father.

It was strange that he retained information better from Michael, and definitely was not a normal thing to happen in this circumstance. It was like magic not of this world was making him remember, but Michael brushed it off because he was too preoccupied at the moment, and used the fact Jeremy could retain information from him to his advantage.

Diego told Michael to tell Jeremy that usually, he and Jeremy would only speak Spanish to each other in the house. He told Michael to tell Jeremy that sometimes, Diego would call him Jeremías because that was the Spanish version of his name, and that his parents were originally from Mexico and Jeremy had gone there a few times to visit his grandparents before they passed away.

After almost an hour of Jeremy struggling to remember and Michael kept repeating himself like a broken record, they eventually ran out of positive things to tell him about his father.

“Well, what now?” Michael asked.

Diego sighed. “I really wish I didn’t have to tell him, but it’s apart of his life and I can’t let it be stripped away from him.”

“What?”

“That I was…not great to him, but I promise him to change.”

Michael nodded and told Jeremy that his father was not the best; that when Jeremy was young his father had grown more neglectful towards him, and after his mother was no longer in the picture Jeremy had to learn how to take care of himself. He told Jeremy that Diego promises him to get better from here on out and learn how to be a good father to take care of him.

Once Michael told him that, Jeremy had no reaction but Michael could tell on the inside he was shocked. He still had the same cold and defensive look in his eye, but Michael shrugged it off as, ‘he just needs to get used to everything’.

After explaining, Michael stood up straight, turned to Diego and said, “Y’know, I’d hate to leave right now but my uncle’s expecting me back and it takes four hours to get over there.”

“Of course. I don’t know when I’ll see you again, but see you then Michael,” Diego replied.

“Uh, before I leave Mr. Fitzgerald, I’m just wondering, d’you want Jeremy’s necklace back? I think it’d be good to have it around.”

“You’re right. Maybe remind him who gave it to him and hook it around the side rail since he can’t wear it yet until those monitors come off his chest.”

Michael nodded and went over to Jeremy’s bedside, where he unhooked the necklace from around his neck and showed it to Jeremy, whose attention was immediately drawn to it because it glared in the light. Jeremy stared at it, confused as to why Michael was showing him this piece of jewelry but watched the stone swing back and forth.

“D’you remember why this necklace is special?” Michael asked. Jeremy looked at the necklace and back at Michael. “Your mum gave it to you. Remember? I remember you used to call her the Spanish version for mum, which I believe is mamá.”

Jeremy only stared at him, but Diego whispered to Michael, “Tell him what happened to her. I don’t think he remembers.”

Michael nodded. “I guess you’re probably wondering where she is. She’s um…she passed away a few years ago.” Jeremy’s eyes widened slightly, which told Michael that he was actually listening. “I-I don’t know all the details, but she gave you this necklace to remember her by. I was just holding onto it for you until I saw you again. And I know you can’t wear anything around your neck yet, but I can hook it around the side rail for you.”

Michael brought the necklace to the side rail of the hospital bed and hooked it around the metal bar.

It caught Jeremy’s attention immediately because it would glare in the overhead light. As he was looking at the necklace with curiosity, he didn’t notice Michael go over to talk with Diego since he was distracted. “Uh, thank you for getting me in here to see Jeremy,” Michael said to Jeremy’s father.

“It wasn’t easy, but of course. You were my last hope before we had to start over,” Diego replied.

“Just uh, if anything happens to him, good or bad, keep me updated?”

“Of course,” he replied as he held out his hand and Michael shook it.

Michael went over to Jeremy’s bedside and Jeremy looked up at him again. Michael wiped his right cheek with the rag again, put his hand on his left cheek and said, “Hey, I know it’s hard but if you can do one thing for me, just try to remember. Even more than what I say, what your father says and what the doctors and nurses say. They’re there to help you, so it’s better to remember in case they have good information to tell you.”

Jeremy only stared at Michael, but it was as though Michael could see in his eye that he was saying, ‘I’ll try. I promise’.

Michael smiled. “I love you. Even if you don’t remember, I love you.”

Michael didn’t want to leave, and from the looks of it Jeremy didn’t want him to leave either. Then again his father was here to make sure Jeremy was safe and Michael knew he had to get back sometime today. He took his hand off of Jeremy’s face, went to the door and opened it to make his way out of the room, and before he closed the door behind him he looked back at Jeremy and smiled.

Chapter 82

Summary:

It’s been a few months since Jeremy had last seen Michael, and he’s trying not to forget (with some help from an unknown source…)

“Hey Mike!” Alex said to Michael that next Saturday as they sat in a booth across from each other at the local coffee shop. Michael had asked them if they wanted to grab a coffee since today was officially the first day they weren’t grounded anymore, and he wanted to give them an update on their other friend. 

“Hey. You ordered already?” Michael replied.

“Yep. It should be ready in a few.”

“So um, what’s new with you?”

Alex shrugged. “Not much honestly.”

“Before I forget, I’m sorry I got you in trouble with your parents. I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s cool. It was my decision to go since you gave me a choice, so I guess I suffered the consequences.”

“Didn’t you say it was my idea?”

“I did even though I didn’t want to throw you under the bus like that. But they still threw a huge hissy fit ‘cause ‘I chose to sneak off, so that’s my own fault’.”

“I thought you said they’d be understanding!”

“I thought so and they understood the part where I just wanted to check up on my friend, but they were both pretty pissed about the whole ‘illegal’ thing. But it wasn’t too bad because I got to start and finish the book I’ve been meaning to read but kept getting distracted with other books.”

“How was it?”

“It was good! I don’t think I ever told you about it, I could ramble on and on about the plot but since I’m deciding to save you from that, it’s kinda like a medieval-ish fantasy book. There were the main heroes, who weren’t originally from the magical world, but they had to defeat this powerful wizard who was trying to take over the world. The twist is someone who they thought was good turned out to be a traitor and was working with him, so they had to figure out how to defeat this also powerful person, and it wasn’t easy.”

“Interesting. That sounds like a cool book.”

“Yeah, but since that didn’t take the whole time and it’s not a series, I’ve recently started reading a bunch of Stephen King stuff.” Michael chuckled and right at that moment, they were both called to the counter because their coffees were ready. They both got them and sat back down across from each other at the table they were at. “So, enough about me. You said you live with your uncle…right? Did he get pissed off when you came back too?!”

“Uh, no, surprisingly. That time we went and I walked in the door he was still awake, which was unfortunate ‘cause I could’ve snuck upstairs and pretended I was there the whole time. He was pissed, I think, but surprisingly he didn’t ground me.”

“He didn’t?! How the hell did you manage to avoid that?!”

Michael shrugged. “He didn’t ground me, but now whenever I drive anywhere he has to know otherwise I’ll lose driving privileges. He says he can’t risk me sneaking off again, especially with my father still walking free.”

“That’s kind of understandable. So he gave you a warning?”

“Kind of. So this time when I went I couldn’t sneak off to Salt Lake, but Jeremy’s father asked for me specifically and he let me go. Gave me a curfew though.”

“You went again?!”

“Yeah. He said he was hoping I could jog his memory a little.”

“So what you’re saying is…he’s conscious now?”

“Yeah-”

“Wait, actually?!”

“Yeah, I saw him with my own eyes. Can’t talk yet and he doesn’t remember a lot, but he’s awake.”

“I…I didn’t know if he’d ever wake up again. This is amazing!”

“But, what’s really strange, whenever I tell him things he seems to grasp onto them better rather than when his father tells him. Mr. Fitzgerald said he tried for weeks to get Jeremy to remember him, and all he could get was Jeremy recognizing him since he sees him every day. I was able to get him to be comfortable around me in about forty five minutes.”

“Dude, you magic or somethin’?”

Michael chuckled. “I don’t think so. I don’t know how, but I just assume it’s because of what Mr. Fitzgerald said, because I was closest to him.”

“Or, here me out,” they said and spoke in a whisper so other customers wouldn’t hear them, “what if it’s that ghost dude?”

“Schmidt?” he whispered back.

“Yeah, him.”

“I don’t think he has the power to do that.”

“You said he was on our side.”

”I don’t know how all that paranormal stuff works, so I don’t think so.”

“D’you have a better explanation?”

“Because I was closest to him!”

“That’s the logical answer, but think outside the box here. I’m just sayin’ that doesn’t sound like something that just happened naturally because you were close to him. I mean, maybe because he has that connection to you, but I think naturally you’d have gotten the same result as his dad.” Michael opened his mouth to say something, but the more he thought about their words the more they made sense. “Catch ya speechless?”

“Yes, ‘cause the more I think about it you have a point. Something happened that day when I reminded him who I was. After I told him, he looked at me for a while and then it happened. It was like…I don’t know. On the outside, it looked almost like a panic attack: his heart rate was high, I could tell he was having shortness of breath and he was trembling a little.

“But I knew it wasn’t a panic attack, it didn’t seem like it. I could tell he was also seeing something because his eye moved like he was looking at things that weren’t there. After several minutes he opened his eye and it seemed as though he knew exactly who I was.”

“Weird. You could ask what happened. You’re the ghost whisperer here.”

Michael chuckled. “Doubt I’ll get a straight answer. That’s what happened last time, when I went into Freddy’s as the night guard to fill in for Jeremy that one night, when I asked what happened he just kind of…avoided answering the whole question.”

“So, back to the topic of the conversation, are you ever going back to see Jeremy?”

“I don’t think so, at least not for a while. My uncle doesn’t trust it, because to be honest he’s kind of a worry wart.”

“Oh, it makes sense though. It’s kinda on the illegal side.”

“I guess. But then who knows how long it’ll be before I see him again! The only good thing about all this is that Mr. Fitzgerald said he’ll keep me updated on Jeremy’s progress. I’m just…I’m just hoping that Jeremy doesn’t forget that he has a life in Hurricane too.”

---

About few months had passed since that day, and Diego kept to his word. He would call Michael and update him on Jeremy’s progress every so often, and usually they were good things.

Good things like the breathing tube came out a couple weeks after Michael’s visit, once the breathing tube came out he was learning to talk again and it didn’t take long for him to add a lot of words to his vocabulary, he’s now able to stay awake a full day (sometimes), and that he relearned how to sit upright about a month after Michael visited, when everyone was sure he was going to be bed bound for a much longer period of time.

However, he spoke in a very soft spoken tone, and every time he spoke it often came out very slurred so he had to focus to speak clearly. Diego has also reported to Michael that it seems as though Jeremy has trouble hearing in his left ear, and to add onto that he has trouble smelling and distinguishing the little he can smell.

One day during the first week of May, Jeremy was in the speech therapists office and the therapist walked in the office with a machine Jeremy had never seen before. She has been trying to get Jeremy to relearn how to swallow so he can eat and drink again, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually, she decided the method she would try was electrodes, since the patients she had used this method on experienced good results.

“Okay Jeremy, so for our session today, I thought we would try something a little different,” she said as she sat across from Jeremy and put the electrodes on her desk.

“What…?” Jeremy asked softly as he pointed to the electrodes. Even though he had been speaking for a little while now, he usually didn’t have the energy to speak full sentences yet.

“These are called electrodes. What they do is send little shocks to your throat muscles so you can learn how to swallow again, because I’m sure you don’t want that feeding tube in your stomach forever.”

“Does it hurt?”

“It shouldn’t, but if it gets too painful then just let me know and I’ll turn the electricity off for a minute.”

She put the small patches on Jeremy’s throat, making sure they were only on his throat muscles.

“It’s cold,” Jeremy said once the patches were on. 

She smiled as she plugged them in. “They’ll warm up.”

“It’s safe?” Jeremy asked in a soft spoken voice, but because he didn’t speak a full sentence the therapist asked him what he meant.

”Do you mean ‘are you sure it is safe’?” Jeremy nodded. “Yes. I’m trained on this and every time I used this kind of therapy on a patient, they’ve experienced good results. Remember what we worked on, full sentences Jeremy.”

---

After the session, she helped Jeremy get settled in his wheelchair and she pushed him back to his room.

“Is your throat sore?” she asked as she walked down the hall and pushed him along.

“Kinda. It’s tingly and I don’t like it.”

“It’ll go away in a few minutes.”

“Is he back?” Jeremy asked the therapist.

“I don’t know. He should be, but since your physical therapist said you’re allowed to spend up to an hour alone in your room, do you think you’ll be able to do that if he’s not?”

“What?! I don’t wanna be alone!”

“I know, but the nurses are busy today.”

She opened the door to Jeremy’s room and there was no one in sight.

Jeremy’s father left back to Hurricane for a work day because his boss told him to come to the office. Diego didn’t want to leave Jeremy, but his boss usually didn’t allow leave unless the medical emergency happened to the employee themselves. Diego didn’t care for his boss, but he stayed working at the company because it was next to impossible to get a job right now, and since the pay was fairly good he was going to need all the help he could get to pay the hospital bill.

“Aw damn it!” Jeremy said.

“Language Jeremy!”

“I’m mad!”

“I know you are, but remember? We talked about this.”

“Uh…”

“Every sentence you say can’t have a cuss word in it! You’ve been getting better since you started talking again, but you’re still in an environment where you can’t say those words!”

“Oh…I don’t remember.”

“Well, long story short, early on you said whatever came into your mind.” The nurse wheeled him inside the room and helped him into the hospital bed. “Now remember, if you need help you can call the front desk on the unit. The number is right here on the wall.”

“Got it.”

“Do you need anything before I leave to my next session?”

“Uh…no.”

“Alright, call if you need anything,” she said and she shut the door behind her.

Jeremy sat in silence for a few minutes, but he quickly got bored. “Now what?” he wondered aloud.

He looked to his left, where he saw the shine of the necklace that was still hooked on to the side bar of his hospital bed from a few months ago. He grabbed and played with the stone in his hand for a few minutes, admiring how it shined in the sunlight coming in through the window but he quickly got bored and his mind wandered off to why this necklace even showed up in the hospital room.

That’s when he remembered the words from a few months ago, but he didn’t remember who spoke them because it was only a few weeks after he woke up: ‘Just try to remember’.

He took the advice from this mystery person, and he tried to think back. Nothing from that exact moment came to mind, but then he remembered a name his father said the day previous when Jeremy asked him the same question, and the name was Michael.

“Mi…” he said, trying not to mess up his name since he had some speech difficulties. “Mic…Mike? No, Mi…chael. Yeah, Michael.”

He remembered that name, it was very familiar to him but Jeremy hasn’t seen the person who it belonged to in what seemed like to him was forever. He had forgotten what he looked like but Jeremy tried to remember, regardless if he had memory issues or not.

After many minutes of trying to remember and nothing coming to mind, he suddenly got very tired from all the thinking. He put his head down on the pillow but a glare on the table next to him on his right caught his attention.

Without thinking he sat up and tried his best with his right hand to grab it, since his occupational therapist told him to try and use that hand more often, but it was tough to coordinate so he ended up getting frustrated, scooted over and reached for it with his left hand.

Once he had it in his grasp, he brought it closer and saw that it was a picture of him, his mother and father when Jeremy was just about a month old; he figured his father must’ve brought it over from one of his trips to Hurricane that he took once a month.

Jeremy stared at it for a long time, but then realized there were more pictures filed behind it. He flipped through them, and the only other one of his mother was her first day in the hospital bed she would pass away in a few months later. The picture was dated from only a few years ago, 1985, and she was hugging Jeremy, trying to comfort him and tell him everything was going to be okay.

He flipped through the several others, and saw the rest were all pictures of Jeremy and Michael together. All of the photos were from when they were kids to Jeremy’s first day on the job at Freddy’s.

Most of the pictures early on looked like the were taken by a parent—he assumed that it was his mother—then the pictures after 1985 looked like they were all polaroid photos taken by Jeremy, and he and Michael looked like they were trying to take a weirdly angled selfie because Jeremy wasn’t the best at photography.

He looked through the pictures of he and Michael for a while, but then like some sort of magic he remembered exactly who Michael was. Not only did he remember what was happening in the moment of the picture, he was able to remember days they spent together in detail. He didn’t know how or why it was just him specifically, it was like the pictures were a key and unlocked a door to the memory of Michael, but the door was much bigger than all of the other doors. 

”Michael,” he said softly after the flashbacks went away a few minutes later and he stared at the most recent picture of them. “I miss you.”

Chapter 83

Summary:

Michael tells Henry what he saw that day he showed him the journal, but an unexpected visitor eavesdrops on their conversation.

Henry was bothered by a thought that kept recurring in his mind recently, and he couldn’t shake it no matter how much he tried to tell himself that it was nothing to be worried about. He remembered that day Michael was at Freddy’s before the restaurant opened, how he met Henry in the alleyway when Henry found Puppet, and Henry saw how Michael jumped back when he inspected the Puppet.

That can only mean that he saw something, something strange since Michael wasn’t the type to jump back at bugs or small creatures, he never has been even back when he was a little boy in elementary school.

Henry hadn’t thought about the fact Michael jumped back when he saw Puppet since that day, but he thought nothing of it then and just brushed it off. Now he had questions and his only hope at getting an answer to them was Michael, if he even remembers what he saw. 

Henry heard Michael walk in the front door a few minutes later, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Hey Uncle. I’m back,” Michael said as he closed the door behind him. 

“Hey Mike! How was the arcade?”

“Good! The place wasn’t as busy today even though Saturdays are usually their busiest days, so Alex and I got to play tons of games. Although, we had a competition on who could get a higher score on Galaga after one try, and they beat me. Boasted about it for a few minutes until we decided we should do the same challenge on a pinball machine and I won.”

“Well it’s fair now, huh?”

“Yep. Then afterwards we went to McDonald’s and they kept saying that I suck at Galaga to annoy me, but then I came back with a, ‘well you suck at pinball’. We laughed after that, we each smoked a cigarette together after we ate then called it even.”

Henry chuckled and Michael made his way over to the couch and turned on the television, flipping through the channels until he found something he liked. Once he found a channel, Henry stood behind him for a few minutes watching what he was watching, when he finally decided to ask him what’s been on his mind lately. “Mike, can I ask you something?” Henry asked as he went over to the couch Michael was at. 

“Uh, sure,” he replied and turned off the television. 

Henry sat next to him. “D’you remember that day you showed me the journal? When you were at the diner before it opened?”

“Kind of.”

“While we were both in that alleyway just before we left, I found Puppet and you inspected it, but you jumped back like you saw something.”

“Saw something?” he echoed. 

“Yes. And I doubt it would have been a bug or something like that because you generally don’t jump back at things like that. That time it seemed like you were surprised and possibly even scared. It’s just been on my mind lately and it’s been bugging me, do you remember what you saw at all?” 

Michael was confused at first since it was quite a few months ago, but the memory suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks. “Yes,” he said after a few minutes of thinking.

“What was it?”

“It looked like…it looked like a pair of eyes. White eyes.”

“You mean, white like William’s eyes are?”

“Yeah.”

“So…what do you think this means?”

“Okay, this is going to sound absolutely absurd when I say it but that day I filled in for Jeremy, Puppet was actually conversing with me like a person which animatronics aren’t supposed to do. That’s weird enough on its own, but the weirdest part is…it sounded just like Charlie, or at least how I remember her sounding.”

“Charlie?”

“Yes, and once she said the name ‘William Afton’ because she mistook me for him, Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and Fredbear came into the room like they knew who he was and they were angry. They cornered me that night I was there and I saw they all had the same white eyes Puppet had, which sort of explains how they were able to move on their own.

“That day Alex and I snuck into the hospital, we talked it over since he had questions and we concluded that the white eyes meant that there was a soul that’s not meant to be there. On the way there I got confirmation that the crazy theory we had was actually right.”

Henry was in shock since that meant his daughter could still be alive, but he needed confirmation that it was true. “So that means…”

He looked at Henry in the eyes. “Schmidt told me that those missing kids William killed didn’t move on. They all somehow attached to those mascots. Not just Charlie, all of them.”

Little did they know, William was spying on them from out the front window and listening to their conversation. Shit, shit, shit… William repeated in his head. He knew about Charlotte still being around based on his interaction with her he had at the pizzeria, but he didn’t think all of them would still be around. 

He eventually decided to make a run for it out of Henry’s front yard back to his car around the block.

William was in shock, so in shock in fact that his balance was off where he made a few audible crashes from bumping against the cars and eventually fell, catching himself on the pavement of the driveway. 

Even though the pain didn’t fully register yet, he whispered, “Ow, bloody-“

“What was that?” Henry said and got up to check outside. William stayed unmoving and silent, laying on the pavement out of sight behind Michael’s car in the driveway, hoping that Henry wouldn’t look hard enough to see him. “Maybe it was a stray or something,” Henry said to Michael and moved away from the window.

After William saw Henry move away from the window he made a run for it back to his car, slammed the door behind him and turned it on. He sat in the driver’s seat for a few minutes, the soreness in his wrists now fully registering from catching himself on the pavement. 

“Goddamn it…” he said to himself as he shut his eyes for a few seconds, opened them and drove away. He didn’t care that his wrists hurt and were possibly swelling up now, he needed to get away from the neighborhood before Henry or Michael spotted him. 

As he drove back across town, it was silent in his car and he had time to think about what he just heard. He didn’t want to believe it, but he decided there was only one way to find out since he wasn’t prepared to confront the animatronics yet.

“Schmidt!” William said after a few minutes and the inside of the car got cooler almost immediately. 

“What do you want?” he answered. 

“So, I heard from Michael-”

“So you’re stalking ‘em both now?”

“Shut up! So, I heard from Michael that those kids are somehow still around.”

“…and your point?”

“Is it true?”

“Oh yeah.”

“What?! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“You never asked.” William rolled his eyes. “Anyways, it wasn’t the smartest decision to stuff them in those mascots.”

“Oh my God…so it’s true. What about-”

“Fitzgerald?” William nodded. “I know how badly you want him dead, but he’s still kickin’. Your plan didn’t work out, fun to watch though.”

“What?! How?! It was several months ago! He should be dead right now!”

“I don’t know, do I look like I know how the brain works?!”

“Well, I just assumed since you are, y’know, dead…”

“That I can find out all of this stuff?” William shrugged. “That’s not how it works.”

“Whatever. Get outta here, that’s all I wanted to know.”

The car went back to its normal temperature, and William drove back across town in silence thinking about what he just heard. 

The kids whom he thought were dead had somehow latched onto those stupid mascots, but then what about the remnant in the animatronics that he built at the abandoned Sister Location? Was their soul a part of both of them now and there were two of them? Was it just a part of them and they could only possess one at a time?

He wanted answers, but he didn’t want to risk going back to the mascots unarmed now that he knew the kids were still around, but one thing was for certain though: he had to get rid of them.

Chapter 84

Summary:

“Perhaps some things are best left forgotten…for now.”

“What do you mean you wanna try to resalvage the Originals?!” Henry angrily asked the CEO over the phone the next month. 

“There is clearly potential in the Originals. We would have to scrap the Toys to repurpose them, but it should not cause problems because there were clearly malfunctions with the facial recognition.”

“But trying to resalvage them, it sounds like a bad idea. I mean, I don’t think you would want them again.”

“Why’re you trying to talk me out of this, Emily?”

“Uh…I’m not! I’m just saying they’re years old, who knows what’s going to happen.”

“Well, we wouldn’t be reusing the entire animatronic since those mascots are in no condition to be reused. We would be reusing some of the remaining usable parts from the Originals and Toys and the rest will be melted down and discarded accordingly. We can program them with a newer system so they will be up to date.”

“But you can’t go and get a whole new location! That’s a lot of money that I’m sure the company doesn’t have!”

“Hm. There is a simple fix to that. Use the previous Freddy’s location.”

“That one?”

“Yes. You are correct, the company doesn’t have enough money to get a new location. However, it has been two years since the missing children’s incident, I’m sure the public would have forgotten by now.”

“What about their families?!”

“The police have said that William is either missing or dead, since nothing had happened by him for two years, or at least nothing that I heard of. If that is the case, then there is nothing to worry about. I’m sure it will be fine.”

“There would certainly have to be some deep cleaning in that location and we would also need to add a new backroom. That other one was sealed off so no one could get in.”

“Perhaps. Alas, we still need your help to repurpose the originals.”

“Of course you do,” Henry muttered.

“They are your designs, anyhow. No one is as experienced with them as you and Mr. Afton, but of course we can’t ask him because he’s been declared ‘missing’ for some time now.”

“Why me? I have a job and I don’t think I can take off work to repurpose my old designs.”

“We need your expertise if we’re going to do this and since you are one of the founders, it was the perfect opportunity. I can write a letter to your work saying that you will need the time off, but of course you have a say in whether or not you’ll work with us on this project.” Henry stayed silent for a few seconds in thought. “If you agree to help on this project, you will be handsomely rewarded.”

“Rewarded?”

“Yes. If it’ll convince you, we’ll say…about five thousand dollars?”

I really don’t wanna be doing this, but we need the money if I’m gonna keep supporting Mike until he moves out, and since I figure he’s going to be starting college soon I’m gonna need all the help I can get, he thought. “Hold that thought, I’ll be right back,” he said. 

“Of course.”

Henry put the telephone down on a shelf and went upstairs to his bedroom, and on the top shelf of his bookcase was a box with two locks on it. He got it down and in his pocket, he got out the key which he always kept with him for extra security. He unlocked the box that was starting to collect dust and inside was William’s journal where he recorded the children’s deaths and effects of the remnant, but there were also William’s blueprints hidden inside of the box.

He had gotten the journal back from the police about a week earlier because the police had a difficult time finding anything about William. To them, it was like he had died because there was no trace of him anywhere and had declared him ‘missing’ instead until his body was found.

Henry took out the blueprint about the Scooper and looked at the print on the bottom: ‘There is a possibility that overheating may neutralize the effects permanently.’

If there was a possibility the effects would stop, then there was a possibility that the team melting down the extra parts would free the children unknowingly. Plus, they were only using some parts from the Originals and Toys, so there was a possibility they won’t possess the animatronic again, although Henry wasn’t a hundred percent certain.

He put the blueprint back in the box, locked it up and put it on the top shelf again. He looked at the key in his hand for a while, but decided that Mr. Fazbear was right; it had been two years since the missing children’s incident, the public was bound to forget. If William did die like the police said, the public wouldn’t have to worry about a child dying by his hands. “Perhaps some things are best left forgotten, for now,” he muttered as he put the key back in his pocket and left the room.

Henry went back downstairs and picked up the telephone again. “Mr. Fazbear?” he said.

“Yes, I’m still here.”

“You win. I’ll do this for you.”

“Fantastic! The team will go over to the second location tomorrow to pick up the original animatronics, and I will send someone over to help you harvest parts from the Toy animatronics and gather the portable security equipment say…this upcoming Tuesday?”

“Yes, that should work.”

---

That next week, Michael was slumped on the couch watching his favorite soap opera he’s seen dozens of times. He heard from behind that Henry was getting ready to leave somewhere, and it wasn’t to work since he wasn’t in his uniform, but his casual flannel and jeans.

“Uncle? Where are you going?” Michael asked as he turned to him. 

“Freddy’s.”

“Freddy’s?! Why?! Just leave that place to rot.”

“That’s unfortunately not my decision to make anymore. Fazbear wants to try to repurpose the originals-”

Michael sat up from his slumped position. “What?! They’re just kids!”

“I know, but they are only using some parts from the Toys and Originals and Fazbear was insistent, and correct me if I’m wrong, but we used parts from the Originals for the Toys.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.”

“Were they possessed?”

“Uh…I don’t know actually. If they were it was hard to tell, but I didn’t see the white eyes. All I know is they acted really weird.”

“So there was a possibility they weren’t, and Fazbear said the rest of the parts will be melted down. I read from William’s blueprint that when remnant is heated up there’s a possibility the remnant will neutralize, so the team melting the parts down might free them unknowingly, and all we can do is just pray that these animatronics won’t get possessed. I’m rambling again so anyways, Fazbear’s sending me and one other person to harvest parts from the Toys.”

“Parts?”

“Yeah, I still don’t know who they’re pairing me up with, but I guess I’ll find out when I get there.”

“Can I go with you?”

“You want to go collect parts?”

“Yeah! Also if you said you need to collect parts from the Toys that means breaking them apart, and I’m not on good terms with some of them.”

Henry chuckled. “Hm…I suppose you are stronger than me so I could definitely use the help in that area, and with more help the quicker it’ll go…”

“So can I?” Michael asked excitedly. 

Henry smiled and sighed. “Fine. Get dressed because I’m sure this is no job for a tank top and sweatpants and I’ll be waiting in the car.”

Michael nodded as he turned off the television and ran upstairs, taking the steps two at a time. 

---

When they both got to the almost empty parking lot of Freddy’s, Michael noticed a car in the parking lot that looked very familiar. 

“I feel like I recognize that car…” Michael said as they drove into the parking lot. 

“Well, I had no say in who Fazbear was pairing me up with, so it might be someone you know.”

Shit, Michael thought. 

When they drove up by the car, they saw two silhouettes in the front two seats talking to one another. “Oh. Looks like whoever Fazbear paired me with brought someone too. This should go faster now that we have double the help,” Henry said. 

When they parked and Henry got out of the car, Michael saw the man in the driver’s seat of the other car get out as well and he stared at him, wide eyed from shock.

Graham?! My old manager?! Michael thought. Michael almost didn’t recognize him because this was the first time he’s seen him not in a dress shirt, blazer and slacks. He was instead in an old red polo shirt and faded dark blue jeans.

“Hey! Patrick! Good to see you again!” Henry said being that he was Patrick’s hiring manager when he worked at the first Freddy Fazbear’s location. He closed the door but Michael could still hear what they were saying and watched as they went over to each other. 

“Henry! Good to see you! I haven’t seen you in…how long has it been, over a year? Wait, you’re not working with the company anymore, right?”

“Fazbear said that since the Originals were my designs, I should know what to do with ‘em to repurpose them. I’m still not working for the company, but they’re only bringing me back for this project. Oh! And I hope you don’t mind, but I brought my nephew. He wanted to come.”

“Oh I don’t mind at all, the more help the better! In fact, I brought my nephew as well since I figured we could use the extra help.”

“This should go faster since we have double the help!”

“Let me introduce you to him.” He turned to the car. “Robert!” The person in the car looked up, got out of the car and went over to them. It was indeed Robert, Michael’s old coworker who was the morning security guard and always managed to sleep on the job. “Henry, this is Robert, my sister’s son.”

“Hey!” Robert said to Henry and shook his hand. Michael almost didn’t recognize him because Robert was wearing a black t-shirt, letterman’s jacket for Hurricane High School, faded blue jeans, but his same old dirty tennis shoes.

This is going to be very awkward, Michael thought.

Chapter 85

Summary:

Well this is a little awkward.

“So, you brought your nephew as well?” Patrick asked Henry. 

“Yes, I did. I just figured since he was stronger than me he could help in taking the animatronics apart.”

“Good thinking.” He turned to Robert. “Maybe he’s around your age.”

“How old are you Robert?” Henry asked.

“I’m twenty,” Robert replied.

“That’s perfect! He’s just a couple years younger than you, he’s eighteen.”

Henry looked at the car and motioned Michael over to say hello to them. Well, here we go, Michael thought.

He opened the door and got out. “Fritz?” Patrick and Robert said together. 

“Fritz?” Henry asked, obviously confused. Michael realized then he had never told Henry his fake name. 

“Okay, this is awkward,” Michael said under his breath and shut the car door. 

“Wait, wait…what’s going on here?” Robert asked him as Michael went over to them. 

“Uh…” Michael said and he blushed with embarrassment being that everyone was now staring at him. He cleared his throat and spoke in his American accent, “Um, sorry, that’s my bad.”

“You lied?!” Robert exclaimed. 

“Uh…”

“Who’s the real Fritz then?” Patrick said. 

“Fritz was the name of one of my old friends. He uh, he passed though.”

“So, lemme back up, who are you?!” Robert asked. 

“My name’s Michael.”

“And that’s your real name?”

“Yes.”

“Wait, Mike, were you lying to them this whole time?!” Henry asked.

“There was a good reason behind it I can explain to you later.”

Henry sighed. “This is the second time I found out you lied and it could get you in legal trouble. You better have a good explanation later or you are so grounded!” Henry whispered to him and Michael nodded. Henry turned to Patrick and Robert. “Uh, sorry about him.”

“It’s alright. Just wasn’t expecting it, that’s all,” Patrick said, but Robert was still giving Michael a side eye trying to decide whether to trust him or not. 

“Let’s all go inside and get started then. Mike, can you grab the boxes from the trunk?”

“Robert, there’s a couple in my car too. Can you please grab them?” Patrick asked Robert.

The two of them nodded and went to their uncles cars, grabbed the folded boxes in the trunk and followed their uncles inside the building. Henry and Patrick were walking side by side to the building, catching up since they were coworkers years ago, but Robert and Michael walked silently next to each other a few feet behind them with the folded boxes in their arms. 

Michael decided to break the awkward silence between he and Robert. “Hey, I’m sorry Robert. I’m sorry I lied to you about my name,” Michael said. 

“That wasn’t really cool, man,” Robert said a few seconds later.

“I know, and I’m sorry.”

“Why did you decide to do that? Go under a fake name?”

“I just…I don’t know.”

“Is it because of that Afton guy?”

Michael inhaled sharply. “How do you know about that?”

“Dude, my uncle’s the manager, he tells me everything. But he was an employee at that last restaurant and worked under the two of them until it closed down. I remember him telling me that the Afton guy had a son named Michael, so I bet you just didn’t want anybody to think you were the same, huh?”

Michael exhaled in relief. “Uh, y-yeah. How did you know?”

“Either that or you are his son, but you don’t look like your last name’s Afton.”

Yeah right, Michael thought. 

“So…let’s start over. What’s your name? Your real name?”

“Michael…Schmidt.”

Henry looked behind him at Michael, but said nothing and turned back around as he unlocked the door and they all went inside. 

“See? That looks more like it’d be your name,” Robert said. “Either that or Schmidt sounds very close to Smith and I’m just used to it. Anyways since we’re starting over, I’m Robert Graham.”

“Wait, your last name’s Graham as well?”

“Yeah, it would've been different if my mom and dad were actually married, and he didn’t break up with her as soon as he found out my mom was pregnant with me in…her last year of college I think?”

“You just said that so casually…” Michael said and Robert chuckled. “Guess that’s why it only said ‘Robert G.’ on your name tag.”

“Yeah. I actually asked him ‘cause I was afraid if people found out I was the manager’s nephew then they might treat me differently. I didn’t want that extra attention.”

“Makes sense.”

Henry led them all inside, where Michael immediately saw that the tables and chairs were gone and there was nothing in front of the stage except the tile. He looked towards the direction of the Game Area, and saw that Balloon Boy was nowhere to be found since he didn’t have the right parts that could be used for the Originals, so he was scrapped when the Originals were taken out of the Parts and Service room.

“Okay, since I was told Toy Foxy is broken in the Cove, Patrick and I can harvest parts from it while you boys can do one of two things: either gather up the portable security equipment or find a way to break open the casing of the Toys,” Henry said when they were all inside.

“Do we have to do both?” Michael asked.

“Eventually. But I’m giving you two a choice on what you want to do first.”

“Are they powered off?” Robert asked. 

“Yes, so no need to worry,” Patrick said. 

“Wanna do the robots first?” Robert asked Michael.

“Sure,” he answered.

Michael and Robert went over to the stage while Patrick and Henry went into Kids Cove. Robert hoisted himself onto the stage so he stood behind the animatronics while Michael watched him and went to the stairs of the stage. “Wow, these things are so much bigger up close,” Robert said when he climbed up.

“You know you could’ve just used the stairs to get on the stage instead of climbing on,” Michael said as he came up behind him. 

“Oh. Too late now.”

“So…how’re we gonna get these open?” Michael asked as he inspected the animatronics. He couldn’t see screws on any of them and they had no tools, so he was stumped.

“Well, I think Toy Freddy opens from his stomach and we could open it from there-”

“I don’t like how you said that.”

“Well, we do need to get to more than just the machine stuff in the stomach, so that means only one other way: push them off the edge so they break.”

“We could also ask. Maybe they forgot to give us tools-”

Robert didn’t let him finish his sentence, and with all of his strength he pushed Toy Freddy so he leaned forward. “Timber!” he yelled and ran to the back of the stage near the wall in case parts flew and Michael ran next to him.

They watched as Toy Freddy fell off the stage and landed on the tile with a huge crash that could be heard throughout the pizzeria. Michael and Robert flinched at the noise because it was so loud, but after it fell silent they looked and saw Toy Freddy on the floor. Henry and Patrick heard the crash and immediately came out of the Cove because they knew those two had done something that they weren’t supposed to do. 

“What are you two doing?!” Henry yelled. 

“Uh…” Robert and Michael said together as Patrick went up to Toy Freddy. 

“No wait. Henry, before you yell at them, this might actually be a good thing,” Patrick said. 

“Good thing?!” Henry replied. 

“I mean…look,” he responded and showed him that the casing was cracked in half where it could be lifted up and the mechanics inside weren’t damaged at all. 

Henry sighed as Patrick moved Toy Freddy’s remains away from the stage. “I guess you two got saved this time,” he said and they both smiled. “But I do guess there’s really no other way to get to all the mechanics inside, unless you want to chip away at the casing the old fashioned way. So you two, go crazy. Just make sure you move them after they fall.”

Henry and Patrick went back into the Cove. “Your uncle just saved our asses,” Michael whispered and Robert chuckled.

“Mike,” Robert said and Michael turned to him. “Your turn. Choose a victim.”

“You made that sound like I’m committing a murder with you or something,” Michael replied. 

“Well not technically, but if you think about it.”

Michael chuckled as he stepped forward so he was closer to Toy Chica and Toy Bonnie, and he decided whoever he was going to push over the edge he should make it count. He had nothing against Toy Bonnie, but he now had a burning hatred for Toy Chica ever since she hurt Jeremy that one day, bruised his arm and forehead and knocked him out. 

He went up behind Toy Chica and mustered up all his strength because the animatronics were a lot heavier than he expected, and pushed her until she started to lean forward. He backed up against the wall and they both watched as she fell to the tile with a huge crash, and Michael couldn’t help but smile. They watched as her beak flew off across the room and into the doorway of the Cove, which Michael remembered was always taken off at night. 

“Oops,” Michael said in a monotone voice and Robert chuckled as he and Michael jumped off the stage. Robert opened up the casing of Toy Chica to see if any of the mechanics were broken, but he didn’t know what exactly he was looking at. 

“I can’t tell if any of this shit’s broken,” Robert said after a few minutes of staring at the mechanics. 

Michael bent down next to Robert. “I can, and all of it looks fine,” Michael said. 

“You know this robot stuff?”

“The basics at least. I’ve seen blueprints so I know what they’re supposed to look like.”

“Yeah, yeah. Your uncle’s a mechanic, no need to brag.”

Michael snickered and ran across the room to grab the beak while Robert moved Toy Chica’s remains to the side. Michael grabbed the beak and it was a lot lighter than he expected, not any heavier than a baseball. 

Michael started walking back as he inspected the beak but he heard Robert yell, “Mike!” from across the room and he turned his attention to him. “Toss it!” Michael looked at the beak in his hand, and he threw it overhand to Robert since he was sure it would be fine if it was thrown since Toy Chica took it off all the time.

Once Robert caught it he looked at it closely, but shrugged since it wasn’t interesting and threw it back to Michael. Michael caught it and threw it back since Robert was closest to the boxes they were going to put the extra casing in, but Robert got an idea and soon they were throwing it back and forth like a football. 

Henry and Patrick were busy collecting the rest of the parts from Mangle, and about fifteen minutes later they saw from the doorway that Michael had caught Toy Chica’s beak that Robert threw to him and he threw it back. Michael was smiling because he was having fun as was Robert, and they heard from the Cove that they were telling each other to go long or ‘how bad of a throw that was’ when the other person missed catching the beak.

“It looks like they’re getting along,” Patrick said to Henry. 

“It does. I’d hate to ruin their fun, but we have to get this done today.” He looked over to the doorway. “Boys!” he yelled and both of them stopped what they were doing. “You got Bonnie down, right?”

“Shit,” Robert said under his breath as he remembered that he was supposed to be breaking open the casing and climbed up onto the stage again. Michael stepped out of the way and Robert pushed Toy Bonnie off the stage so the animatronic fell on the tile with a huge crash.

Michael put the beak down on the stage and they both grabbed boxes to pack portable security equipment and went down the hallway. 

“You got a pretty good arm there, Mike. Have you ever played sports?” Robert asked as they were walking down the hall. 

“I didn’t play sports, but if it counts I was part of Little League when I was ten.”

Robert chuckled. “I say it counts a little, it means you know how to throw a ball.” Michael chuckled. “I played a lot of sports as a kid, even in high school.”

“What did you play?”

“As a kid, I played mainly baseball, basketball and soccer just trying to find ‘my thing’. In high school, I joined the school football team and decided that was ‘my thing’.”

“Oh! A jock then?”

“Uh…I guess so, technically. I was in it all four years too, and I got this letterman’s jacket. Even though I’ve been graduated for two years, I still love it and I wear it all the time. It’s like a trophy to me or something.”

“Makes sense why you knew how to check for concussions then.”

“My coach taught it to the whole team just in case one of our teammates was hit in the head. I can teach it to you after we do this if you want.”

“Sure! Hopefully I’ll never need to use it, but given…personal life problems it’d probably be a good idea.”

They both got to the security office at the end of the hallway. “Y’know, I would’ve never thought I would be the one to take this all down.”

“Well, let’s get started then,” Michael said and they started unplugging the monitor and the desk fan. “Thank God there isn’t too much in here,” Michael said after a minute. 

“Yeah, but they decided to use metal for this fan. I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed but I know that isn’t very safe.”

“Not at all. I don’t think this place cares a lot about our safety.” Robert put the fan in a box. “So, Rob, your uncle was the manager this whole time?”

“Yeah. How else did you think I managed to sleep on the job just about every day and get away with it?”

“Everything’s starting to make sense now.”

“Now I don’t mean to brag, but I’m basically his only nephew since my mom is his only other sibling so he lets me get away with a lot of shit. But what I find the most shocking: your uncle was one of the founders of this place and you didn’t tell me?!”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Learn something new everyday. Speaking of which, I remembered something recently and it’s been on my mind a lot, and I’ve wanted to ask you if I ever saw you again.”

“Which is…”

“I just don’t wanna come off as weird for getting into your personal life but I’ve been wondering for a while, ever since that day when we found Jeremy passed out on the floor, I had a feeling there was something going on between you two ‘cause of the way you two acted towards each other. Are you two, like, a thing?”

Michael stopped what he was doing. “Uh…”

“If you’re worried about me not being cool with it, I’m not like one of those assholes. I was just wondering.”

“Well um, I guess you can say we are,” he said awkwardly.

“That’s cool. I was just curious, y’know?”

Michael exhaled in relief and resumed packing up the equipment. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“I mean, you were so worried about him and literally cupped his face in your hands. Correct me if I’m wrong, but people who are ‘just friends’ wouldn’t usually do that to each other.” Michael snickered. “So uh, I heard about what happened to him, and I’m sorry because I can imagine how worried you must be. D’you know how he is?”

“Yeah, I saw him. He’s in the hospital in Salt Lake but last time I saw him he was barely able to move, but that was a couple months ago.”

“Really? He’s still alive?”

Michael nodded. “Last I heard from his dad about a week ago, he’s getting stronger every day. I’m just…hoping he doesn’t forget that there are people who care about him in Hurricane too.”

---

They both finished packing up the security office in about half an hour, and were stuck waiting at the restaurant until Henry and Patrick collected the rest of the parts they needed since it wouldn’t be right to just leave them at the restaurant. Robert kept to his word and taught Michael what he knew to check for concussions, but since that didn’t take long they started tossing Toy Chica’s beak back and forth again down the hallway.

After the parts were collected about an hour later, Henry was looking at Puppet’s box with a glum look in his eyes because the box was empty; Charlotte had escaped weeks ago and no one knew where she had gone or how she got out.

Henry sighed and turned to the hallway once Patrick put Toy Chica’s casing in a box. “Boys? Almost ready to go?” Henry asked. 

“Finally,” Robert said and they both walked out of the hallway. Once they got near the front entrance, they saw all the animatronics casing broken up and put into a few boxes and Robert tossed the beak in the box with Toy Chica’s casing inside.

“Are they all in there?” Michael asked. 

“All but Mangle,” Patrick said. 

“Can I break apart that one?”

Henry chuckled. “Go ahead, don’t be too long though. We need to get going to drop these boxes off,” Henry said as he, Patrick and Robert started loading boxes in the cars and Michael went in Kids Cove, alone with Mangle. 

He went over to Mangle and picked up the remaining casing (which was just the head, eye and a little bit of the endoskeleton), lifted Mangle’s remains above his head and threw it as hard as he could on the cold tile floor, making a huge crash as it hit the floor.

As he went over to it to pick it up he could visibly see that the remaining faceplate was cracked and it could’ve broken off with one more smash against the tile. He decided he had time to do just that, picked it up and smashed it against the tile as hard as he could, and once he heard the crash he saw the top jaw pop off. 

“That’s for almost killing my boyfriend, bitch,” Michael said under his breath as he picked it up off the tile and left the room. He packed the remaining pieces in the already overflowing box of extra casing and brought it outside to Henry.

Henry was outside stuffing a box in the back of his trunk, and once he heard Michael say, ‘Uncle’ behind him (since Henry didn’t hear his footsteps) he turned to get the box from Michael, saw what he had done to Mangle and softly chuckled. Michael handed him the box and went to the passenger’s seat of the car and closed the door. 

Henry closed the trunk after many minutes and went to the driver's side of the car. “Get everything outta your system?” he asked Michael. He knew that Michael now hated Mangle for what they did to Jeremy and thought he wanted revenge, and saw he was right.

“Yeah. I needed that,” Michael said as he rested his head against the seat so he was looking at the roof of the car. Henry snickered quietly as he started the car and drove off, and he and Patrick followed each other to the location since they both had to drop off the boxes of parts.  

Once they all got to the location, Michael and Robert helped them unload the boxes into the restaurant. There were only a few chairs and tables inside, but it didn’t look like that was the main focus because there was a construction of a new room off to the side, a new back room since the other had been sealed off.

After unloading for about twenty minutes, Michael stood next to Robert. “Well, I guess this is it,” Michael said to him. 

“Unless we somehow run into each other in the future,” he replied.

“Yeah, but I dunno when or if that’ll happen. So…see you around, Rob.”

“See ya Mike,” he replied and they both got in the passenger seats of their uncles cars. Once their uncles were in their own cars, they drove out of the parking lot and in separate directions, unsure if they were ever going to see each other again.

Chapter 86

Summary:

The return.

The months came and went by, and soon enough the scorching heat of June came. It was the strangest month Michael had ever experienced being that Jeremy couldn’t be around when Michael turned nineteen, but that didn’t matter because Michael didn’t care after he got the news that next week. He didn’t know whether the day would actually come, but after seven long months it was finally here, and he was going to be here just in time for his own nineteenth birthday. 

Michael dialed Alex’s telephone number excitedly and waited until he heard their voice after four rings. 

“Hel-” Alex started.

“HEY!” Michael yelled and Alex pulled the phone away from his ear. 

Alex put the phone by their face again after a few seconds. “Jesus Christ, Mike,” they said.

“Sorry, sorry, sometimes it’s hard to contain myself, but that’s payback.”

“You still remember that from…however many months it’s been?!”

“Yep. I have a shit memory but I can sometimes remember.”

“…y’know fair. Whaddya want?”

“He’s back! He’s actually back!”

“Who?”

“Jeremy! He did what we asked him all those months ago! He’s back home!”

“He is?”

“Yeah! His father called earlier, said they got to the house around ten this morning and Jeremy was trying to get situated in the house again. Now that it’s three in the afternoon, he said I was welcome to go over to welcome him back. And then I mentioned you and he said you’re welcome too.”

“Really?” they asked excitedly. 

“You’re his friend, so duh! I dunno how much he’ll remember, but d’you want to?”

“Uh, hell yeah! It’s not everyday your friend comes back from the hospital after half a year!”

“So, what’s your address so I can pick you up?” Alex told Michael their address. “So, I’ll see you in like, an hour then?”

“Sounds good!” They spoke in a whisper, “Oh, and when you see my family, I’ve told them your name’s Michael ‘cause they can always tell when I’m lying, but I didn’t tell them your last name so don’t say you’re an Afton. They’re still on edge about the name.”

“I won’t, trust me, I hate that I have to live my life with that name. I’ve been going by Michael Schmidt lately, and it seems to be a better option than Fritz Smith.”

---

About an hour later, Michael knocked on the front door to Alex’s house and their stepfather opened the door. He was a tall, muscular man with dark brown skin, a short Afro and a classic beard. Since he was as tall as Michael, maybe an inch taller, and very muscular he was a bit intimidating but he remembered Alex saying he had a kind heart.

Michael spoke in his American accent, “Hello sir. Uh, I’m Michael Schmidt.”

“Oh! You’re the Michael I’ve been hearing so much about?”

“I uh, I suppose so.”

“Alex told me you were coming. Something about your friend coming back from the hospital today?”

“Yeah, I’m here to pick ‘em up since I know where his house is.”

“Well, Alex will be a few to come down, so you’re welcome to wait inside.” He let Michael inside the house and shut the door behind him. “I’ll call Alex down,” he said as he went up the stairs. After he disappeared upstairs Michael was alone and awkwardly waiting by the front door, that was until a few seconds later when he heard the back door open and close and a little boy peaked around the corner. 

He had the same dark brown skin as the rest of his family, he was a little on the skinnier side, he had a flat top so hair wouldn’t get in his face and he looked to be no older than twelve. He was just playing outside with his friends, had come inside for a glass of water and was going to bolt back outside to finish the game they were playing, but seeing a man that he had never seen before standing in his doorway got his attention. 

Michael and the little boy stared at each other for a minute until the little boy said, “Who’re you?”

“Uh, I’m Michael.”

“Oh…you’re Michael? Alex talks a lot about you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Are you his boyfriend?”

Michael chuckled. “No, we’re just friends.”

“Are you sure? That’s what they all say in the TV shows.”

“Shut up Jerry!” Alex said as they came down the stairs. “I told you, he’s just my friend!”

“Don’t call me Jerry! I told you that several times!”

“Whatever Jerry,” Alex said as they got down the stairs. The little boy charged at Alex and ran to them, but when he reached them Alex trapped him in a hug and he laughed, saying to let go and Michael smiled. 

“So…is this your brother?” Michael asked Alex. 

“Yeah, this is Jeremiah, the little monster,” they replied as they let him out of the hug. 

“Hey! I’m not a monster! And don’t call me Jerry!” Jeremiah said and he ran off to the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water and went back outside so Alex couldn’t catch him again. 

“He seems fun,” Michael said to Alex. 

“He’s a handful sometimes. Anyways, ignore him.”

Michael chuckled. “Should we go?”

“Yeah.” Alex turned and their stepfather was coming down the stairs. “Hey Dad! I’m leaving!”

He went up to Alex and gave them a quick side hug. “See you later!” he said. Alex and Michael went out the front door and they heard the sound of kids playing from the backyard as they got in Michael’s car.

“Is your mum not here right now?” Michael asked when he shut the door and he started up the car. 

“No, she had work and my stepdad’s off today. Remember? It’s Friday.”

“I knew that.”

“Has it really been that long since we graduated? Did you forget what the weekdays are?” they said teasingly. 

“No. Shut up,” Michael said and they both laughed as he drove them away.

---

“I never knew there was a park there,” Alex said several minutes later as they looked out the window.

“That means we’re on Jeremy’s street.”

“Really? I live closer than I thought, even though it took like, fifteen minutes to get here.” 

“I guess I can’t blame you for not knowing, this is a huge neighborhood. I actually used to live around here too until I moved in with my uncle, but we’re only about five miles from here now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I used to live a few blocks away from Jeremy so we were able to see each other often.”

Once they arrived at Jeremy's house, Michael rang the doorbell and Jeremy’s father answered the door. “There ya are!” he said to Michael and turned to Alex. “You must be Alex.”

“Yes sir,” they replied. 

“Come in,” he said as he let them both in the house and shut the door. “Jeremy’s in his room, I left him alone because he wanted to rediscover everything on his own.

“I just want to give you two a heads up before you walk in, the whole left portion of his face where he had been bitten is a scar. He’s missing his left eye and his left eyebrow, he even gets scared of himself when he looks in the mirror because he’s not used to seeing himself like this yet. It um…it’s a bit shocking at first so if you can, try not to stare, it makes him upset.”

“Is he using any walking assistance?” Michael asked. 

“Yes, he’s using a wheelchair right now although the doctor said that may or may not be permanent, but nevertheless he will probably need assistance for the rest of his life.

“Anyway, I’ll lead you two, I don’t doubt he forgot I said you two were coming so I’ll remind him.” They both nodded and Diego led them down the hallway to Jeremy’s open door. “Hey Jeremy?” he said a little louder as he poked his head into the doorway so Jeremy could hear him. 

“Yeah?” Michael heard Jeremy say. It was the first time in a long time he heard Jeremy speak a full word, so he surprised because he wasn’t sure if he would ever hear him speak again.  

“Remember I told you earlier that people were coming over?”

“Uh…”

“Remember…?”

“Uh…no?”

Diego chuckled and motioned them over to the doorway so Jeremy could see them. There they saw Jeremy for the first time in months, wearing his necklace again and he was in his normal clothes, although he turned the wheelchair he was in so he could see them in the doorway but Michael saw that Diego wasn’t exaggerating about his scar. 

His left eye and left eyebrow were gone and replaced with a very large scar that Michael wasn’t expecting to see. The skin covering the upper portion of the left side of his face was a slightly lighter skin tone than his face, being that it was skin taken from his thigh, but not lighter by much.

Michael saw that the scar went from the middle of his forehead, diagonally down to the bottom of his left cheekbone and rounded out until it almost reached his hairline, where that scar went upwards to almost the middle of the left side of his head and rounded until it connected with the rest of the scar.

His hair was short but growing out, the last of his bleached blonde hair was gone and his hair was his natural dark brown, almost black color he had. His thick hair around the injury was growing over the scar on his head, but it was still noticeable since the injury site was so big. 

Besides the scar on his face, he was in a wheelchair because his legs were having a tough time balancing and couldn’t walk unless someone held onto him. Even then, he was still unsteady and would get frustrated, so he chose to stay in the wheelchair even though he didn’t care for it.

His left arm was obviously his stronger and more coordinated arm, because he did turn his wheelchair around with that hand when Michael and Alex appeared in the doorway. His right arm however, stayed in his lap, not moving for the time being. 

“Remember Jeremy?” Diego asked and Jeremy stared at the two of them blankly. Alex and Michael looked at each other, and Alex nodded to Michael as if saying that he should go up to see Jeremy before them. Michael nodded and stepped closer to Jeremy, unsure if he even remembered him so he was a little scared if that were to happen.

As he got closer Jeremy stared at Michael, because he felt like he’s seen this face before, sometime a while ago but he couldn’t place it. Once Michael got to Jeremy, he knelt down on the floor next to him so Jeremy wouldn’t have to strain himself to look up at him since Michael was six feet tall.

“Jeremy?” Michael said softly. Jeremy knew he recognized his voice, but again he couldn’t place it.

“Yeah?” Jeremy answered and Michael chuckled since Michael wasn’t expecting an answer when he said his name. 

“Do…d’you remember me?”

“Uh…you seem familiar…”

Michael put a hand on top of Jeremy’s right hand in his lap, hoping that Jeremy somehow managed to remember at least a little bit of his life before. Jeremy looked at his hand in his lap and back at Michael, a little confused on why Michael was holding his hand but he didn’t want to ask. “I’m Michael,” Michael said. 

“Mi…chael, Michael…” Jeremy said, sounding his name out. It was the first time in months Michael had heard Jeremy say his name and he smiled. 

“Yeah, Michael.”

“Michael…” Jeremy stayed silent for a few seconds but after hearing his name, recognizing his voice and remembering that he saw his face somewhere, he looked over to the bookshelf where he saw the same pictures from his hospital room his father had brought over, and they were all propped up so Jeremy could see them all.

The pictures were all polaroid photos of him, his family, his mother and him and Michael through the years, but the most recent picture of him and Michael stood out to him. Jeremy looked back at Michael beside him, and the memories came back like some magic not of this world, like the key unlocked the door again. He realized that this was the same Michael from the pictures, but he was real.

“Michael?” Jeremy asked and Michael looked at him. “You…you’re here!”

“Yes, I’m here.”

Michael stood on his knees so they were looking at each other face to face, and impulsively Jeremy wrapped his arms around Michael and hugged him tightly. Michael was in shock for a few seconds, but he wrapped his arms around Jeremy and hugged him.

“Do you remember?” Michael asked after a minute. 

“Michael...I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you a lot.”

Michael stayed silent in shock that Jeremy remembered him and Jeremy rested his head on Michael’s shoulder. Michael tried his best to hold back tears of happiness but couldn’t stop a couple tears from rolling down his cheeks. He quickly wiped them away and took a few deep breaths to regain himself.

“This…this is amazing! I thought you wouldn’t remember me at all.”

“I wouldn’t forget you!”

Michael smiled as Jeremy let go of him and Michael backed away so they were face to face again. “Jer, I dunno if you remember this much so it’s probably a shot in the dark, but do you remember about two years ago-”

“Of course I do!”

Michael looked into his amber eye, trying not to look at the scar. “Really?” he asked.

“Yeah!”

“What d’you remember?”

Jeremy looked over at the pictures on his bookshelf again, and as he looked at them he noticed the ones before 1983 where they stood at enough distance to obviously tell they were just friends. The ones after 1983 however, they were slowly moving closer together until late 1985 or early 1986, where one was hugging the other, they took turns kissing each other on the cheek or when one or the other rested their head on the others shoulder.

Jeremy turned back to Michael. “Boy…friend?” he said slowly, trying not to mess up the word.

Michael smiled and almost started tearing up from happiness again. “Yes! Yes Jer! You remember me!”

Michael stood up and kissed Jeremy’s cheek from happiness, but Jeremy didn’t quite understand since empathy was something he struggled with. Michael could tell that from Jeremy’s look on his face, he had a difficult time feeling any emotion towards anyone, even him, so he hoped Jeremy would warm up to those close to him again soon.

Michael looked over at Diego and Alex in the doorway, who were watching them and they both smiled, although Alex teasingly mouthed, ‘aww’ while Michael smiled and replied by mouthing, ‘shut up’ to them. He motioned Alex over and they stood next to Michael while Jeremy looked at them with curiosity. 

“Hey Jeremy,” they said as they knelt down on the floor next to Michael. 

“Pretty spots!” Jeremy said, immediately noticing the light patches on their dark brown skin and Alex smiled. 

“You think so?”

“Yeah! They’re cool!”

“Um, I dunno if you remember, but d’you remember seeing these pretty spots a while ago? Before everything happened?”

Jeremy thought for a few seconds. “Uh…” 

“We were friends. Not for very long before so I don’t blame you for not being able to remember, I don’t even think we have a picture together like Mike does since it was only about two months.”

“I don’t know…”

“Um, there’s not much else I can say since it wasn’t for very long. We started off as coworkers, just two security guards at the same place. We saw each other nearly every day before you clocked in for your shift, we would mainly joke around, but we eventually got close because we were similar and honestly…it was really nice to have a friend who understood me like you did.”

“What’s your name again?”

“Right, I’m so forgetful. I’m Alex.”

“Al…lex. Alex,” Jeremy said, sounding it out. 

“Yeah, Alex.”

He stayed silent for a minute. “Pretty spots…” he said again. However, since he could remember his time with Michael and the door was still open, he saw Alex with them both sometimes. The memories of them didn’t appear a lot, but he was able to know who they were. ”I think I recognize you…”

“Really?”

“I…I don’t know a lot about you, oh God, I feel stupid…”

“Hey! You’re not stupid! We’ve only known each other for a little less than two months before, so we have time to make new memories. We’ll get there soon enough.”

Chapter 87

Summary:

Great, more things to think about.

For the next few hours, Michael and Alex were greeting Jeremy back home, Michael showing him things that Jeremy owned including the guitar they had their first kiss over, which to Michael’s surprise Jeremy could recall in full detail. Alex was exploring his room, looking at all his posters and showing him the books he owned, but since Alex was a bookworm they tried to read some of Jeremy’s books as well.

They both then had to leave because it was getting dark and as they backed out of the driveway, Jeremy and Diego watched them leave and drive off. As they drove, they were both silent for a few minutes until Alex decided to break the silence. “Well uh, I think he’ll be okay,” they said. 

“Yeah, I think he will be.”

“So, I’ve been wanting to ask you, how does he remember you so well?”

“Well, I’ve known him since he was nine.”

“But I mean like, the whole night it seemed like he remembered you so vividly. Sure it was foggy at first, but then it was like, clear descriptions of what you two did.”

“That was twice! He remembered that we had our first kiss over the guitar so it was special, and after that he remembered that he played the guitar for me often.”

“And that he spoke Spanish and he used to tease you in the language ‘cause you couldn’t understand!”

“Okay, three times. But that’s something he’s done for years! When we got close when we were what, ten, he always teased me in Spanish! That’s like, nine years!”

“But I mean it was clear descriptions, like what song he often played on his guitar and what you usually sang to, he even remembered what you said your favorite planet in the solar system was! And from what you said, you only said that once!”

“Fine, four times. But to be fair, Jupiter’s a pretty hard one to forget.”

“I mean, if I went through something like that, I wouldn’t remember! Although to be fair we only asked him questions about you a few times…but I’m just saying, it seems almost…unnatural.”

“Unnatural?”

“Yes! It’s great, don’t get me wrong, but he’s remembering more about you than anyone else!”

“Well, I am the one he’s spent the most time with.”

“That’s not what I’m saying! It seems like…something’s making him remember you.”

“I think you’re just overthinking this. Are you sure you’re not just jealous he remembers me?”

“No!”

“You sure?”

“Positive. Something else is going on, and when I’m right I’m gonna say, ‘I told you and you owe me ten bucks’.”

“Oh, it’s a bet now?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, deal.”

They both laughed then stayed in awkward silence for a minute until Alex broke it. “Hey Mike?” they said. 

“Yeah?”

“Guess what?”

“What?”

“It’s that time of year again.”

“What time of year?”

They looked at him. “Have we been out of school that long?”

“Wait…oh! Oh shit, school?!”

“Yeah…you probably don’t wanna hear it but our year off is almost up.”

“It’s June, huh? College starts in August or September…I completely forgot about that.”

“Well, it’s been a pretty crazy year so I don’t blame you for forgetting, but what I’m asking is, do you want to go?”

“I mean…I dunno. I wanted to but that was before all this happened.”

“I don’t blame you if you don’t want to go and you want to stay here with Jeremy. But I’m just saying applications are due soon.”

“Well, are you going?”

“Maybe. Mainly because I wanted to do something different, y’know? I’m still not totally sure though.”

“Well, what did you wanna do?”

“I dunno. I was kinda thinking about being a detective like my mom, but I’m not totally sure I wanna do that for the rest of my life. What about you?”

“I don’t know what kind of job I would specifically want, but I wanted something in the art industry. The only problem with that is that if I wanna eventually move out of this shitty town then I need to make a lot of money, and it’s rare that artists’ work ever goes for a lot of money.”

“Art?”

“Yep. I’ve been drawing since I was a kid, I think before my sister was born when I was about…seven or eight.”

“I would have never guessed that Michael Afton likes to draw.” Michael chuckled. “You have to show me your drawings sometime.”

“I mainly doodle when I’m bored, I usually don’t do huge art pieces.”

“Back to the topic: school. So, it’s your choice, I’m just putting it out there. I still have to make a decision myself.”

After Michael dropped Alex off at their house, he drove back to Henry’s house with the radio barely audible so he wasn’t in complete silence, but his head was so swarmed with thoughts that he could barely hear the music.

The college he had wanted to go to was located about an hour away, so he would have to dorm unless he wanted to drive an hour both ways every time he had school, and he really didn’t want to drive all that way almost every day. 

On one hand, he wanted to stay with Jeremy and help him with anything he needed to get better. He knew his father was still out there as well, and he needed to find him to put a stop to all of this.

On the other hand, he probably wouldn’t find William for a while since no one has heard from him in over a year, so he would probably go crazy with the need to do something different. Sure, he could get a job, but there weren’t many available without a college diploma besides fast food and retail stores, which he didn’t really want to do. 

He drove into Henry’s driveway and parked his car next to Henry’s, got out and went into the house. Henry was in the kitchen, making dinner for the both of them and was just finishing up. 

“Hey Uncle,” Michael said when he walked in to get Henry’s attention.

 Henry turned. “Hey Mike! How was your visit?”

“It was good! He’s doing a lot better than I thought he would. But uh, Mr. Fitzgerald was right, he’s missing an eye so I was trying my best to not stare since it’s not something you see every day. But, I think he’ll be alright.”

“That’s good to hear. Dinner will be ready in a few.”

Michael nodded and set the table, and soon after dinner was ready for the both of them. Michael and Henry served themselves and sat across from each other at the table like they did every other day. 

They sat in silence, eating their dinner until Michael decided to break the quietness a few minutes later. “How was work?” he asked Henry. 

“Same as everyday. Car repairs, tire changes and oil changes.”

“Did Fazbear say anything about the animatronics?”

“Not recently. Last I heard they were planning the build of the endoskeletons using my old blueprints to go off of, but that was a few weeks ago.”

Michael stayed quiet and ate a little more until he thought about his next sentence. “Hey Uncle? I have a question,” he said a few minutes later. 

“Yeah? What is it?”

“So, I was driving my friend to their house and they brought up a topic I completely forgot about.”

“…which is?”

“School.”

“Oh, college? You want to go?”

“Well, I was just thinking about it.”

“So are you asking my opinion?” Michael nodded. “That college you brought up to me seems like a good fit for you. I personally think you should enroll, but you are your own person so it’s your choice.”

“I mean, with Father still out there, do you think it’s safe for me to go?”

“Mike, we haven’t heard a word from him in over a year.”

“But I know he’s still out there! He’s still here, he wants to kill people!”

“And you don’t have to go if you don’t want to. If you wanna stay here and find William and you want to stay with Jeremy, that’s up to you.”

“I know but…there’s also a part of me that wants to go to school. I mean, there’s a chance Father’ll do nothing and I’ll be bored out of my mind! I do want to stay here with Jeremy though because, y’know, I’m worried about him but his father’s here and could take care of him as well.”

“So…I’m just gonna repeat myself. It’s your choice.”

“Wait…are there those colleges that last two years?”

“Yeah. Community college, there’s one here so technically you wouldn’t have to move away for that, but it only lasts two years.”

“Maybe I’ll do something like that.”

“So, does this mean you’ve made a decision?”

He sighed. “No, I’m just kinda thinking out loud. Maybe I’ll ask Jeremy’s opinion.”

Chapter 88

Summary:

Michael has finally made a decision.

“…so yeah, I have no idea what to do,” Michael said to Jeremy the next week after he got off of his first full week of outpatient therapies. Michael had offered to take Jeremy to the park that day, because Jeremy was instructed by his therapist to get out in the community since he rarely does that now that he got discharged from the hospital.

They had decided to walk around the huge park by Jeremy’s house and had taken a rest at one of the benches about halfway, because Michael was getting tired since he hadn’t had to control a lot of weight in a very long time.

During that time he was resting to get his strength back up, Michael had been ranting to Jeremy about how he couldn’t make a decision whether to go to college or not. 

“I say do whatever you want. It’s your life, not mine,” Jeremy said.

“I know, everyone said that but it’s tough to make a decision so I’m asking your opinion.”

“Well, my opinion is that you should do whatever you want, but you probably heard that a hundred times.”

“Yeah, feels an awful lot like I did.” He sighed and slumped back in the seat. “D’you know if Alex said anything about college?”

“Alex…”

“The one with the pretty spots.”

“Oh! No. If he did I don’t remember.”

“I wouldn’t doubt they haven’t said anything. They usually keep to themselves.”

“Where is he?”

“I told you earlier, they were busy.”

“Oh right. Stupid memory.”

Michael chuckled. “It’s alright Jer. I understand.”

As they were at the bench together a mother and her son passed, and her child had to be no older than five years old. As they passed the mother glanced at Jeremy’s face but didn’t stare, but the child stared at Jeremy’s scars on his face with curiosity. Jeremy noticed them as they were walking away and heard the child speaking to his mother since they weren’t too far away yet. 

“Mommy, why does that man have only one eye?” he asked his mother. 

“I don’t know,” she answered. 

“He looks a little scary.”

“Not everyone looks the same, Thomas. We have to be nice and respectful when people look different than us.”

Jeremy turned to Michael after he couldn’t hear them anymore. “I don’t like kids,” he said. 

Michael snickered. “Why?”

“They always stare at me because of this stupid scar and I’m missing a stupid eye! They say whatever they think of me and it’s always that I look weird or scary! I don’t like it, it pisses me off!”

“Well, if it truly bothers you-”

“It does!”

“You didn’t let me finish again.”

“Damn it! I’m supposed to be practicing to get better at that!”

“It’s alright. I’m just letting you know because I’m supposed to do that according to what your father said your speech therapist said…did you follow that or did I over explain it to you again?”

“The second one.”

 “I do that a lot. Anyways if it really bothers you, I can get you an eyepatch or something.”

“Really?”

“Yes really. I want you to be comfortable and if that helps you be comfortable, I’ll get you one.”

“Yes! Thank you Mikey! I can’t wait!”

Michael smiled, happy that Jeremy was now happier. “Should we go again?” Michael asked and Jeremy nodded. Michael stood up and stretched out his back since his muscles were getting tight, went around behind Jeremy and pushed him in his wheelchair down the sidewalk.

They were silent while Jeremy looked all around him since he didn’t recognize anything in the park, that was until a red dot in the grass caught his eye. 

“Wait, wait!” Jeremy said suddenly a few minutes later and Michael gradually came to a stop. 

“What is it Jer?” he asked.

“What’s that?” he asked as he pointed to the grass ahead of them. There on a blade of grass that Jeremy pointed to was a red bug. Michael hadn’t even noticed it as he was too busy concentrating that he didn’t lose his balance trying to walk two people. 

Michael leaned in a little closer to it to look since it only looked like a red dot to Jeremy. “That would be a ladybug,” he said once he got a good look.

“Lady…bug…” Jeremy repeated softly. “Can I see?”

“I can try, hopefully it doesn’t fly away,” Michael said and he squatted down on the pavement. He held out his hand so the ladybug could crawl on, and to his surprise it did and didn’t fly away.

He held it in his palm and stood up slowly to not scare it and he showed the bug to Jeremy. He looked at it but a few seconds later, he decided to hold up his hand next to Michael’s for the insect to crawl on. The ladybug crawled onto Jeremy’s hand and Michael took his away as Jeremy looked at it with curiosity. 

“It tickles!” he said as it crawled around on his hand. The bug then crawled onto his palm where he counted five black spots on its shell, and then it crawled to where there was a dotted arched scar he got from trying to hold open Mangle’s mouth. “I can’t feel it anymore,” he said when it crawled onto his scar. 

“That’s because there’s a scar there,” Michael said. 

“Oh yeah. I didn’t forget, shut up.” Michael chuckled and Jeremy continued watching the ladybug on his hand for a while, until a minute later when Jeremy held out his hand with the ladybug and it flew away. “I like ladybugs,” he said. 

“I don’t see ‘em often, so I say we’re lucky to see that one,” Michael said as he started pushing the wheelchair along the path again. They were quiet for a few minutes until Jeremy saw a butterfly fly by him and he watched it flutter by. 

“What is it Jer?” Michael asked when he noticed. 

“I don’t remember clearly, but I remember somewhere that my mom said butterflies were her favorite.”

“It was the note she gave you with the necklace before she died, remember? We found it and read it together last week.”

“Oh yeah. Didn’t she say whenever I see a butterfly, think of her?”

“Yep.”

“What if that was her saying hi to me?”

“I dunno, we don’t know what’s after this. It could be.”

“I’m saying it is. So when I die whenever you see a ladybug, think of me.”

Michael smiled. “Hopefully that won’t be for a very long time.”

They stayed silent while Jeremy looked around as Michael pushed him along the path for a few minutes. Along the way, they passed by a play structure that had little kids playing on it and a few parents were on the benches around the park. As they passed Jeremy covered his missing left eye and as much of the scar as he could with his hand so he wouldn’t get stares.

This time, Michael definitely saw that Jeremy was self conscious about his scar, so he made a mental note to get him an eyepatch next time he went to the grocery store so he could feel more comfortable going out of the house. 

When they got closer to Jeremy's house after they made their lap around the giant park Jeremy asked, “What d’you think Alex is doing?” seemingly out of the blue. 

“I dunno,” Michael answered. “Probably buying books for school or something since they decided to go.”

“Haven’t seen ‘em in a while.”

“It’s only been a week since you last saw him.”

“Still a while.”

Once they got to the house they had to go through the garage door because the front door had steps, but Jeremy’s father had thankfully moved his car out of the garage while they were gone so they could get through. 

Michael pushed him into the house and into the kitchen and asked him, “You hungry?”

“I could eat. I haven’t had anything since breakfast.”

Michael looked in the pantry and showed him a granola bar, and Jeremy nodded and he handed it to him. He got one for himself, sat on the couch and Jeremy moved his wheelchair so he was facing Michael and they ate their food in silence for a while. 

“Haven’t seen you eat since you had the tube in,” Michael said finally to Jeremy.

”I got that stupid thing out before I had my first outpatient therapy. Grateful too, the stuff in the bag they fed me smelled bad. I’d much rather have solid food, specifically the ones with sugar on it.”

Michael chuckled. “D’you remember what it smelled like?”

“How could I forget? The smell is like, engraved into my mind or something since I relied on it for food, and I was hungry all the time. My dad said it smelled like baby formula, but I think it smelled like vomit or something.”

Michael snickered. “So, back to our original conversation, how would you feel if I went to college?”

“College…would you be going away?”

“Maybe. I told you, it’s not far from here but far enough where I have to stay there.”

“Oh…I swear this memory thing is gonna be the death of me. Well, I’d definitely miss you because I couldn’t really see you except during the summers and holidays since I can’t really go.”

“And some weekends.”

“That too. But y’know, I’ve lived without seeing you for months already and I’ve remembered you through…everything.”

“That’s a miracle just that you remembered me this whole time. So you’re saying you can do it again and you’ll remember me?” Jeremy nodded. “I-I don’t know, Jer. Like, I wanna get an education to eventually get a good enough job to move you and I outta this town when your father’s too old to take care of you anymore-”

“You wanna…you wanna move me too?”

“Yes. I wanted to since we graduated high school and all this that happened to you hasn’t changed my mind. Sure, I’ll need to plan accommodations but that’s not a huge issue. When I’m with you, I’m happy so why wouldn’t I?” Jeremy smiled and Michael held his hand. “You’re so cute when you smile, you know that? Before and after all of this.”

Michael could see that Jeremy got slightly flustered for the first time since everything happened and Michael pecked his cheek. Michael could see that he had finally warmed up a bit towards him, but not enough for his face to get very noticeably red like before or for Jeremy to kiss him.

“Damn it, I interrupted again, didn’t I?” Jeremy asked a minute later out of the blue after the pink on his cheeks was gone.

“Yeah…I didn’t remind you…as a test.”

“Sure, a test, totally didn’t forget,” he said a little sarcastically as Michael snickered. “Continue.”

“So as I was saying, I wanna go to college to get a good job to move us outta here one day, but then the only problem with that is…I don’t really wanna leave.”

“Why not?”

“Because my father’s probably still here, and I wanna find him to put a stop to all this. Plus your father’s getting older and I’m the only other person you trust to take care of you essentially.

“While you were still in the hospital, I promised him that I would take care of you when he eventually leaves this world, and I wanna keep that promise.” He leaned on the armrest of the couch and let go of Jeremy’s hand. “I-I don’t know. I just feel like something’s gonna happen in the next few years here, and I wanna be ready for it.”

“Like…a gut feeling?”

“Yeah, something like that. It’s stuck around since you came home and I didn’t tell anyone else about this ‘cause they might think I’m overthinking, but you don’t think I’m crazy…sometimes. I don’t know what it’s about, but I think it has to do with your family since it’s strongest around here. I don’t know if it’s you, your father, both...”

“Is it bad?”

“I don’t know. But I do know when I had one of these gut feelings last time, it was right and it was bad.”

“When was the last time?” Michael pointed to the left side of his head. “Oh…”

“So, I just wanna be ready. I don’t want it to be like last time where I wasn’t ready in the slightest, but I just wanna be here so I’m prepared. So, since I don’t want to leave, I was thinking about community college.”

“You won’t have to leave?”

Michael shook his head. “There’s one here. Downside is that it only lasts two years.”

Jeremy thought about it for a minute. “I think that’s the best decision that combines both of the things you want, but I’m no expert about knowing what you want.”

Michael chuckled. “You’ve gotta point. I think it’ll be the best decision for right now, so I guess I’ll have to start getting ready for school to start…again. Thanks Jer, for helping me finally make a decision.”

Chapter 89

Summary:

Michael helps Jeremy overcome his self consciousness about his scars.

The weeks went by, and soon enough it was the first week of August. Michael went up to Jeremy’s front door and rang the doorbell to give Jeremy what he had promised him, since he had finally remembered after being busy these past couple of weeks getting school supplies for the new college school year about to start.

Jeremy’s father opened the door a few seconds after Michael rang the doorbell. “Oh! ¡Hola Michael! What a surprise!” he said. 

“Yes, hi, I promised Jeremy something a while ago, and I finally remembered because I had time. I just wanted to give it to him.”

“What is it?”

Michael reached into his pocket and pulled out a plain black eye patch. “I promised Jeremy I’d get him an eye patch one of these days. He’s self conscious of his scars and if it helps, then of course I’d get it for him.”

“Oh! That’s very nice of you, Michael! I’m sure Jeremy would be happy to have that and it’d help him build his confidence.” He let Michael in the house and closed the door once he was inside. “Jeremy!” he called but there was no answer. “He probably didn’t hear me, but can I tell you something before you meet with him?”

Michael nodded as he put the patch back in his pocket. “Sure.”

“So, recently I’ve noticed that…how should I word this…he gets pissed off way easier now. Ever since a few weeks ago, he’s yelled, cussed, or both for what seemed like the stupidest reasons, so be careful about that. But mainly he’s been calling himself ugly, a freak, anything hurtful to his self esteem he’s been saying.”

“Oh…he’s not any of those things at all!”

“I’ve been trying everything I can to help him, but he doesn’t listen to what I say. Michael, I think you are the only person in the world he truly believes and you can help him with this depression he’s going through. If you tell him that those things he says about himself aren’t true, I think he’ll believe you rather than me.”

“Okay, thank you Mr. Fitzgerald.”

He sighed. “He’s just been…a little difficult lately. He’s in his room like he has been for a while, he’s been isolating a lot recently and I rarely see him, I think it’s because he’s hurting himself with his words. It seems he only comes out of his room to eat, use the restroom or when he has therapy.”

Michael nodded and went down the hallway to Jeremy’s room, and once he was in the doorway he saw him on the opposite side of the room in his wheelchair and playing with the cassette player he had. He was listening to a tape that only had his favorite songs on it, and he’d rewind it after it was done and play it again. He repeated this process over and over again but he was content with it. 

Michael knocked on the wall after a minute and Jeremy turned his attention to the noise. Once he saw that it was Michael, he paused the cassette player and put it on the shelf next to him. “Mike?” he said and Michael went over to him. 

“You didn’t forget me yet, did you?” 

“No! It’s only been…uh…”

“Two weeks?”

“That’s not that long so I would never forget you, but why’re you here?”

“Why? Can’t I see my own boyfriend now?”

“Not that, I mean where were you? I missed you.”

“I was busy getting school supplies, but I’d still call you every day!”

“I know, but I wanted to see you, even if you didn’t want to see me.”

“What? What d’you mean? Of course I would want to see you, I’ve missed you too. I’ve just been busy.”

“I mean, it’s just really hard dealing with this, I can barely look at myself in the mirror and I feel stupid that it’s hard for me to do things other people can, I…I feel like an embarrassment. Besides that, all the stares I get really get to me and I just feel like…a freak.”

Michael sighed, knelt in front of him so Jeremy wouldn’t have to strain to look up at him and took both of his hands in his. “Your father told me you’ve been saying stuff like this. Jer, you are not a freak. Everyone looks different, that’s what makes them unique. I mean, look at me, I have a lip scar and I look different because no one else has a scar like me. Except my father but we don’t talk about him.”

“Well yeah you have it, but you didn’t lose a whole eye.”

“Maybe not, but my point is that nobody looks the same. Besides my scar, I have freckles. A lot of them. D’you know how many times I’ve gotten called ‘spotty face’ before I met you? Maybe that’s when I started getting in trouble all the time.” Jeremy let out a light chuckle. “I mean, besides me, think about our friend Alex. Remember that they have those light spots on their skin?”

“Yeah, the spots.”

“Alex told me that they had it since they were about five, and some of the kids at school called them names ‘cause some kids are dicks. Even though they went through all of that, they learned to love it. It makes ‘em unique and different from everyone else, because who wants to be just like everyone else?”

Jeremy smiled a small smile. “So…you don’t think I look like a freak being the only person in this town with one eye? You don’t think I’m an embarrassment when we go outside together?”

“Not at all! I think you’re just as handsome as before, you’re still a person just like everyone else with just an extra dose of uniqueness to you, and no matter what I still love you for who you are.”

Michael pecked his cheek, stood up and let go of his hands.

”Thank you Mikey, you made me feel a lot better about all this. But I’m still embarrassed to go outside because no matter what I still get stares. From kids mainly but they still get to me!”

”Well, for that I think I have a solution. D’you remember a couple weeks back when I made you a promise?”

“Which is…”

“Remember? I’m challenging your memory here.”

“…that didn’t help at all.”

”You said you were self conscious about your scars and how people stared at you?”

“Of course I remember that because that’s like a daily thing, but I don’t remember a promise.” Michael chuckled and pulled the eye patch out of his pocket. “Oh, I remember now! You actually got one?”

“I said I would and I’m a man of my word. And now that you’ve told me how you feel and I know that staring makes you uncomfortable, I think it’d help you not get as many stares from little kids. D’you wanna see how you look with it on?”

Jeremy nodded excitedly and they went to the mirror in his room, and Jeremy cringed at the sight of himself. Michael put the eye patch over his eye socket with no eye, adjusted it and freed some of his now slightly longer hair that was under the strap so it was more hidden. After he adjusted it so it fit Jeremy right, Michael looked up and in the reflection he saw Jeremy staring at himself in awe. 

“I can barely even see the scar,” Jeremy said quietly. 

“D’you like it?”

Jeremy turned his wheelchair to face Michael. “I love it! Thank you Mike!”

He lifted his left hand out to Michael and he held it, and to his surprise Jeremy gripped onto it and pushed himself to stand upright. He was wobbly but Michael held onto his sides while Jeremy held onto his shoulders.

“Wha…Jer!” Michael said out of surprise.

“My physical therapist said to use every chance I get to stand, she’s trying to get me walking again since I hate that stupid wheelchair. In the hospital my dad said I could barely stand for thirty seconds so I think this is an improvement.”

Once Jeremy was somewhat stable after several minutes he embraced Michael in a hug, which both of them haven’t done in a long time because the wheelchair blocked it, except when Jeremy got discharged from the hospital, saw Michael for the first time after he got discharged and basically jumped into Michael’s arms. 

They stayed in place for a long while as Michael held onto Jeremy tightly, not wanting to let go since it had been a long time since they had a proper hug like this. Jeremy backed away from Michael after a while, but still held onto his shoulders and Michael held onto his sides. 

“Why’re you crying?” Jeremy asked after he noticed Michael’s stray tears of happiness at the corner of his eyes. 

Michael sniffled. “I’m not crying.”

“Last time I checked, tears meant crying.”

Michael snickered. “You have a point. But tears don’t always mean I’m sad.”

“So…you’re happy?”

“Yeah! This is the first time I’ve seen you stand in almost nine months. I’m just…I’m just happy ‘cause I told you a couple days ago that my father’s basically out to get me, so I didn’t know if I’d get to see the day when that happened again,” he said shakily.

“And I told you that he’s not gonna kill you, so stop crying you big cry baby,” Jeremy said and Michael chuckled. 

“I am kind of a cry baby now, huh?”

“Yes, but I like that part of you. It shows you have feelings.”

They stood in place for a long time, Jeremy trying to balance as he held onto Michael’s shoulders and he held onto Jeremy’s sides. “It’s like we’re dancing. Like those people I’ve seen on TV,” Jeremy said suddenly after several minutes of silence.

Michael let out a light chuckle. “You’re right, it does look like we’re gonna dance at one of those stupid school dances, but I do have to warn you, I’m no dancer.”

“Me neither so we can be, uh, not-dancers together!”

Michael smiled and Jeremy looked off to the side since long eye contact still made him uncomfortable, but he got an idea in his head so for the first time in a long time and because he acted on impulse, Jeremy kissed Michael which he wasn’t expecting in the slightest. It wasn’t for very long but when Jeremy backed his face away, Michael was a blushing mess.

Jeremy traced a finger along Michael’s face wherever he saw red. “You’re all red right there,” he said softly and Michael snickered. 

Michael hugged Jeremy one more time before he sat him back down in his wheelchair because he could tell that Jeremy’s legs were getting tired. “Was it really that red?” Michael asked once Jeremy was sitting back down. 

“Yes! Your face was all red like a tomato.”

Michael smiled. “I blush easily and it’s very noticeable since I’m pale as a ghost, but it’s because I love you.”

“Aww, you love me?”

“Since we were fourteen.”

Jeremy smiled shyly and Michael saw in his eye that it seemed as though Jeremy’s coldness towards him finally thawed out and that was why Jeremy kissed him for the first time in a long time, instead of Michael initiating which is what usually happened now that he was discharged.

It didn’t take long after that for them both to hear the telephone in Jeremy’s room ring. “Want me to get it?” Michael asked and Jeremy nodded, so he went over to the telephone. “Hello?” he said into the receiver.

“I knew you’d be there!” Alex said from the other line.

“Hey! I haven’t heard from you in a few days!”

“Yeah, sorry. Crazy busy, y’know?”

“At least we saw you a couple times last week. Anyway, what’s up?”

“Uh, okay, so d’you think we can meet at the park in about twenty minutes?”

“Uh…why?”

“I’m kinda leaving tomorrow, so I just wanted to say bye to you guys and it’s not the same over the phone.”

“Oh yeah, I remember you telling me that. Lemme ask Jeremy.” He covered the receiver. “Jer!” 

“Yeah?” Jeremy said as he looked up from what he was doing. He was busy playing with his cassette player again because he got distracted. 

“Alex wants to know if we can meet at the park in about twenty minutes.”

“Uh, sure. I don’t think we’re doing anything here, if we are I forgot but I don’t care. It gives me a chance to use my new eyepatch!”

Michael smiled and uncovered the phone.”You still there?”

“Yep,” they answered.

“He said it should be fine.”

“And it won’t take that long, I promise. And…do I hear music?”

“Yeah. Jeremy has been playing his cassette player with the same tape inside for a little while now. He’s gonna break that thing one day, I swear.” Alex laughed. “Anyways, remember where it is?”

“Yeah. And I live in the neighborhood still so I don’t have to drive, but it’ll take me about twenty minutes. So see ya then.”

“See ya.”

---

Michael and Jeremy went to the park about twenty minutes later, but they didn’t see Alex anywhere so they found an empty bench to wait at.

As they waited there were young children running past them on the sidewalk trying to get to the play structure located a little ways away, and for what seemed like the first time ever the children didn’t stare at Jeremy because there was less attention drawn to his scar. Jeremy was very happy that the eye patch worked, so it made Michael happy that he was happy.

They didn’t have to wait on the bench long, because about five minutes later they saw Alex on the sidewalk. They had their usual headphones on which were connected to the walkman that was clipped on their waistband, but they were riding a skateboard which Michael had never seen before.

Once Alex saw them, he turned the skateboard and slowed the board once he got closer to them.

“Hey!” Alex said and put their headphones around their neck, paused their walkman and got off the skateboard.

“Wait, wait. You mean to tell me that you skate?!” Jeremy said to them.

“Did I never tell you guys before?” Michael and Jeremy looked at each other, back at Alex and shook their heads. “Oh. Well, I skate.”

“Why have you never told us?!” Michael exclaimed.

”This is crucial information!” Jeremy added.

Alex chuckled at Jeremy’s comment. “Why else d’you guys think I wear Vans?”

“I dunno, same reason I wear Converse,” Michael said.

“‘Cause they look cool? Well, I guess some people do that but not me.”

“Nice board you have too.”

“It’s alright. This one’s kinda old but it’s still kickin’.”

“How old?”

“Like, two or three years.”

“Should’ve told me. I have a bike, we could’ve raced or something.”

“You have a bike?!”

“Yeah. Everything’s too far from me now so I just drive. Jer has one too.”

They turned to Jeremy. “You have a bike?!”

“I kind of remember it but not a whole lot. But I saw it in the garage!” Jeremy answered. 

“He rode it all the time when we were in high school. He would often ride away laughing while I chased him before I had my own,” Michael said. 

Alex chuckled. “Now that's hilarious.”

“Hey!”

Alex and Jeremy laughed, but Michael couldn’t help but let out a chuckle with them.

“So, why did you call us here?” Jeremy asked a few minutes later. 

“Oh right. I suppose you want to know why I called you both here.”

“Yes!”

“Well, I’m gonna be going away for a while tomorrow.”

“Go? Go where?”

“Alex is going out of state tomorrow,” Michael told Jeremy. 

“What?! You knew?!” Jeremy exclaimed with a hint of anger in his voice. 

“Jer, no need to get angry, we did tell you.”

“A couple weeks ago,” Alex added. 

“I don’t remember!” Jeremy said.

“It’s the memory loss again, Jer,” Michael said. 

“Oh…stupid memory loss.”

“I’m going away to university in Arizona, my home state,” Alex told Jeremy. 

“University?”

“It’s a type of college that lasts four years.”

“Four years?!”

“I’ll be back for the summer and holidays, but I have to dorm there since it’s far and I have to leave tomorrow.”

“Oh. You won’t forget us, right?”

“Never. You two are a little hard to forget.”

Jeremy and Michael stayed silent for a few seconds as they processed their words. “Was that a compliment or teasing us?” Jeremy whispered to Michael and he shrugged. 

“I dunno but I’ll take it as a compliment,” he whispered back. 

“Agreed.”

“You guys aren’t very quiet especially when you’re right in front of me, and I meant it as a compliment but I have to admit you guys know me so well to know I could’ve been teasing you,” Alex said. 

“Well, we’ll miss you and it won’t be the same without you, just don’t replace us,” Michael said. 

“Never. Hey Mike, aren’t you going to college too?”

“Community. I chose that path so one, I don’t have to dorm, two, it’s cheaper, and three, so I can stay near Jeremy.”

“Aww!” Alex said teasingly. 

“Shut up!”

“What? It’s cute!”

“Yeah, yeah. Just call us sometimes while you’re at uni so you don’t forget us.”

“Or replace us!” Jeremy added. 

“Of course,” Alex said. 

 Michael held out his hand as if to give a handshake, and Alex noticed and slapped their palm against Michael’s palm where they did a diagonal handshake and let go. Jeremy only did the diagonal handshake, since Alex didn’t know how tender the scars on his palms were and didn’t want to accidentally hurt him. 

“Well, it’s getting dark so we should be getting back,” Michael said. 

“Yeah. My place is further away and I have to be up somewhat early tomorrow since it’s a couple hour drive,” Alex said. 

“Well, see you around Alex.”

“Bye Alex!” Jeremy said. 

“See ya guys! And Jeremy, before I forget, nice eye patch.”

“Thanks!”

Alex smiled. “See you two!” they said before they got back on their skateboard and put on their headphones again. As they went to the empty road on their skateboard, Michael and Jeremy waved until they couldn’t see Alex anymore.

After he was out of sight, Michael brought Jeremy back to his house, and after he was safely inside Michael said goodbye to Jeremy and his father and drove away back to Henry’s house.

Chapter 90

Summary:

Catch up after the first few months of college, but William’s starting to hatch up a plan…

“What?! Whaddya want Schmidt?! Can’t you see I’m a little preoccupied at the moment?!” William said angrily to the empty room once he felt the room drop in temperature. He was just about to go to his car because it was now February and the house he was staying at had no electricity, the weather was very cold out today and there was even a light dusting of snow on the ground. 

He couldn’t get his mind off of the fact that his plan didn’t work and Jeremy was still very much alive. He was trying to come up with a new plan, but the thoughts that it wouldn’t work again plagued his mind and he wanted to be left alone since he was stressed.

“Look, I know you are still upset about your plan not working-”

“Wow, ya think?!” he said sarcastically as he went outside. “I wanted Fitzgerald fucking dead and now it’s been over a year since that damn bite! How the hell did he survive?!”

“If you just let me fin-”

“No!”

“It was over a year ago William. Get over-”

“No! I won’t get over it! Not until I know he’s dead!”

“If it makes you stop yelling at me, yes he’s still alive but he’s miserable because of what you did.”

He stopped in his tracks. “How do you know?”

“Easy. I saw him recently.”

“You saw him and didn’t tell me?!”

“You didn’t ask. Usually I wouldn’t tell you until nightfall but since we have this deal going on I decided to tell you now rather than later.”

William rolled his eyes as he got in his car and closed the door behind him, started it and turned on the heater. “Fine. Tell me about him.”

“He’s tearing himself down, saying  things to hurt his self esteem, he’s depressed…a lot more so when Michael’s not with him so you’re basically killing Jeremy slowly.”

“A slow and painful death…”

“Exactly. The only ones who’re really helping him in this situation is Michael-”

William sighed. “Exactly why I want them both dead. They’re keeping each other alive.”

“I mean, I could kill Michael right now-”

“No! I want to finish him off myself, I want him to look me in the eyes as he’s dying, I want him to know that he is no better than me.”

“Fine. As I was saying before you rudely interrupted me, the only ones who’re really helping him is Michael and one other who saved Michael from the restaurant that day, whose name is Alex.”

“Alex, eh? Why are you telling me this?”

“Ever since Alex saved Michael’s life, they have grown to be pretty close friends. So since Alex is friends with Michael, that means he’s also friends with Jeremy.”

“So what you’re saying is, get rid of Alex, that’s one step closer to getting rid of Jeremy, Michael, or both.”

“Precisely.”

“So? What’s the plan?”

“Uh…I don’t know, I didn’t think of one.” William sighed. “But I did figure out where he lives.”

“Where?”

“About twenty minutes away from Jeremy’s house. But what I wanted to tell you, he does have a younger brother ”

“…and what does that have to do with anything?!”

“Alex and his brother are extremely close despite the age difference. So close that Alex would die to protect him.”

“So what you’re saying is…use the brother as bait.”

“Precisely. I don’t have a plan, but I’m pretty sure you can come up with one in a few years.”

“I’m sorry…years?! Why the fuck do I have to wait more than a year?!”

“Because Alex is at university and he can’t be here until summer, unless you want to come up with a plan in a few short months but we saw how that turned out with Jeremy.”

He sighed. “I really don’t want to wait...”

“Well, I do suppose I could try one thing to get rid of Jeremy, but it will take a while since in this case he’s not supposed to be alone anymore, it will require getting rid of two people instead of one.”

“Will it take as long as four years?”

“No, at least I’m hoping not. It will still take some time though to wait for the perfect moment where I’m sure it would kill them both.”

“Do it. You handle Jeremy, I’ll handle Alex and Michael should be gone in a few years time.”

---

“Hey Alex! How’s uni?” Michael asked into the telephone the next day. They always called every Saturday evening when one another didn’t have classes and Jeremy didn’t have his therapy appointments. 

“It’s fine. Classes are kicking my ass but I didn’t expect anything less.”

“How is it now that you switched to a writing degree in January?”

“Way better. Being a detective is hard work that I don’t wanna do. I like writing more but I don’t know what I’d do with the degree yet.”

“Maybe become an author or something.”

“Maybe. What about you?”

“Well, remember I told you I changed my major as well because I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do?”

“Yeah. What was it again?”

“I’ve been taking engineering classes, because if I want to someday get outta here I need a good paying job. I’m taking art classes too though, really enjoying that.”

“How’s the engineering stuff going for ya?”

“Just like yours. Kicking my ass.” Alex chuckled. “I mean it’s easy, kinda, and I have a free tutor here for tests and stuff, but they give so much work that I wasn’t prepared for!”

“Must suck man. Also I’ve been meaning to ask you but I kept forgetting, I’m assuming the name Afton has a pretty bad reputation in the whole town including colleges, so did you apply under the name Fritz Smith again?”

“Nope. My uh, my uncle actually found out I was Fritz while I worked at Freddy’s.”

“Was he pissed?”

“Definitely.”

“So what’d you tell him?”

“He was pissed because of the illegal thing, but he was especially pissed that I lied twice to get around the law.”

“Oh yeah. Forgot about that.”

“Then his anxiety got in the way and he started saying like, ‘What if they found out you were lying one of these days?! The cops might come for you!’. So I had to explain to him why I did it, but after I explained he seemed to be more understanding. Still grounded me for two weeks, but I feel like if I didn’t have a good reason it’d be a month or two.”

“Definitely. So what’d you apply under?”

“He understood the whole Afton part so I was allowed to go under something different for my last name, and I decided to go under my mother’s maiden name since I would’ve liked for her win custody better than my father. So my name to the college is Michael Schmidt.”

“Has a nice ring to it.”

“Anyway, besides the school part, how is it over there?”

“Good! I’m down in Flagstaff where I used to live and we even got some snow last week. It melted like, the next day though.”

“Did you see the Grand Canyon?”

“Oh yeah. I visited as I was on my way down here since I hadn’t been there since I was little. It’s beautiful, you should see it one of these days.”

“I just might one day. How about the students there?”

“They’re fine as far as I can tell. In one of my classes, this one dude always looks high and says the most random, outta pocket shit and I have to pretend not to find it funny.” Michael snickered. “Anyways, I don’t really have any friends, but I do have a few acquaintances and they’re all really nice.”

“So you didn’t replace us yet is what I’m hearing?”

“I’m talking to you so no.” Michael chuckled. “But I did actually meet someone here who says he went to our high school. I don’t recognize him, but he’s in one of my journalism classes so he’s going for the same major as me.”

“What’s his name?”

“He said his name’s Richard.”

“Richard…I feel like I recognize the name but I dunno where.”

“Okay, time's up! My turn!” Jeremy said next to Michael as he reached for the phone. Alex heard his voice but it was quiet since the speaker wasn’t by his face.

“Wait, is Jeremy there?” Alex asked. 

“Yeah. He wanted to come over to my uncle’s house this time since I’m staying here and I didn’t have to go over there like I do a lot. Can’t really go upstairs though ‘cause…stairs. There’s nothing much up there anyways.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

“Mikey! Share!” Jeremy whined. 

“Okay, okay,” he said to Jeremy and he spoke into the phone again. “Bye Alex. I should give the phone to him because if I don’t he’ll get angry with me. He’s gotten upset at me before when I did that ‘cause sometimes it’s hard for me to shut up.”

Alex chuckled. “Bye Mike.”

Michael handed the telephone to Jeremy. “Hi!” Jeremy said into the phone. 

“Hey! How’re your therapies going?”

“They’re okay for the most part. Yesterday, my physical therapist had me practice walking on the parallel bars I think they’re called, and guess what?”

“What?”

“I walked along them by myself! She didn’t even have to hold onto me like she usually has to!”

“That’s good! I’m so happy for you!”

“And she said if I keep this up, she said soon I’ll be safe enough to walk with crutches and I can ditch the wheelchair! Those forearm crutches I think they’re called that she showed me look way better because they’re not huge like the chair.”

“Really? That’s awesome! It’d be so cool to see you up and walking on your own.”

“Yeah, I really only can walk right now if I’m holding onto something so she said it might take a few months to actually say it’s okay. And…guess what?”

“What?”

“My dad’s teaching me Spanish again! I forgot most of it ever since the accident, but he said I’m catching on really fast and my memory translating the words is a little better than it was and he was really surprised. Even my speech therapist when I told her was surprised.”

“Really? That’s cool!”

“Is it hot over there?”

“Not yet, but it will be in a few months that’s why I’m going back home for the summer.”

“What about that big rock thing? Uh…I forgot what it’s called.”

Alex chuckled. “The Grand Canyon?”

“Yeah, that! What’s it like?”

“Beautiful…and huge that’s why it’s ‘grand’. You should see it sometime.”

“I’m scared of heights though.”

Alex snickered. “You don’t have to get close to the edge unless you’re taking a tour of the inside or something.”

“Oh. That doesn’t sound too bad. I wanna see the pretty rocks!”

Alex laughed and heard Michael snicker quietly in the background. “Maybe convince Mike to take you one of these days.”

Jeremy turned to Michael. “Mike, can we go to the Grand Canyon someday?”

“When you get on your feet again Jer, then we might,” Michael replied.

Jeremy spoke into the phone again. “He said when I get on my feet again.”

“Well that’s probably because the wheelchair can’t go on rocks very well,” Alex said.

“There’s rocky paths there?”

“It’s a rock formation. Of course there is.”

“Oh…I feel dumb now.”

Alex chuckled. “How’re your other therapies?”

“Good! My speech therapist says my vocabulary is getting bigger every day, and my…occu…”

“Occupational,” Michael whispered to him.

“My occu…pational therapist says that my right hand involvement is getting better!”

“That’s good! I remember when that hand just stayed in your lap when we first saw you out of the hospital,” Alex said.

“Yeah! It stayed there ‘cause it was useless.” Alex chuckled. “How’s school?”

“Like I told Mike, kicking my ass. They give a lot more work than I expected but I manage.”

“That’s what Mike says too. I overheard him, and did you say you wanna be a writer?”

“Yeah, I changed my degree. I just thought it’d be cool since I love to read and I wanted to make my own stories, and it’s actually really interesting.”

“That sounds cool! I wish I could do something I want, that sounds cool.” Alex stayed silent for a few seconds. “Did I make this awkward?”

“A little…”

“My speech therapist said I tend to do that sometimes ‘cause uh…I don’t really have a filter anymore. It makes me so mad!”

“It’s fine, you don’t have to get mad, but lemme ask you something to change the subject. Do you know someone named Richard?”

“Richard?” Jeremy echoed.

“Yeah. He said he recognized me and Mike remembers the name, so I’m just wondering if you possibly remember.”

“First of all, look who you’re talking to. Me! I don’t know.”

“Right, I feel stupid. Well I guess I should let you go, knowing Mike he probably has a ton of homework he hasn’t started and you probably have things you should be doing.”

“Yeah, I have these occu…pational therapy thingys I have to do. Bye Alex!”

“Bye Jeremy,” they said and Jeremy handed the phone back to Michael, went over to the television set and started playing with the buttons until he found a channel he wanted.

“By occupational therapy thingys he means ‘right hand involvement doing tasks around the house’, “ Michael said.

“Sounds like a lotta words for what he’s supposed to do. Did you go with him to the doctor’s or something?”

“No, never have, his father told me that’s what they usually mean. Also, uh I don’t think I told you, one of my classes I decided to take is actually Spanish so I can know what Jeremy’s saying.”

“How’s that goin’ for ya?”

“Kicking my ass. How the hell was he fluent in this?! This is hard!”

Alex chuckled. “Well if it makes you feel any better, you’re doing better than me ‘cause I don’t know shit, I still get confused on ‘cómo estás’. Well anyways I guess I’ll let you go since you probably have homework you haven’t started.”

“You would be correct.”

Alex chuckled. “Bye Mike.”

“Bye Alex,” he said and hung up.

Chapter 91

Summary:

A quick and unexpected visit, where Jeremy tells Michael what’s been happening lately.

Michael drove past the park on Jeremy’s street one day at the beginning of May, the checkpoint he usually passes to know he’s close to Jeremy’s house. He had no idea why Jeremy had wanted to see him on this specific day on a Thursday, since Michael usually sees him every weekend and sometimes more, but he complied since he didn’t have classes that day even though he was supposed to be using it to study for finals that next week.

He drove up to the house, turned off the ignition, got out of the car and hesitated for a minute as he closed the door, now starting to wonder why Jeremy decided that he wanted to see him today instead of the weekend.

Did he forget what day it was again like he has many times before? Did he just want to be with him? Was he sick and wanted to see him? Or in Michael’s mind the worse case scenario, did he have to tell him bad news like he finally got sick of him after three years?

He went up to the front door, rang the doorbell and anxiously waited until Jeremy’s father opened the door since his mind resorted to the last option.

“Oh! ¡Hola Michael!” Diego said once he opened the door. He had been greeting him in Spanish lately when he came to the door, since he had seen Michael borrowing one of Jeremy’s Spanish dictionary’s to study a few months back since he had a D+ in Spanish then.

“Uh, hello Mr. Fitzgerald. Jeremy called for me about an hour ago.”

“Oh yes, he told me about that. Come in!” Michael stepped inside and Jeremy wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “Jeremy will be out in a few minutes,” he said as he closed the door behind Michael.

“Where is he?”

“He’s in his room. It takes him a while by himself since this is all new to him.”

”What takes a while? He wasn’t super clear as to why he wanted to see me.”

“He told me he wants to suprise you. He was very excited.”

So it’s not the worst case scenario, good thing I can cross that off from the list of things he possibly called me here for, Michael thought.

”He’s very persistent that he doesn’t want help and he’ll come out here to you later, so while you wait can I offer you anything?”

“No thanks. I just ate before I came here,” he said, but he actually didn’t have anything but a cup coffee and a small bowl of cereal hours before.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Thank you though.”

“Alright, he’ll just be a few minutes. I have some work I still need to finish.”

Michael nodded and he went into the office next to Jeremy’s room which was another small bedroom, but a few months after the Fitzgerald family moved to Utah, they converted it into an office which Jeremy told Michael the first time he ever went to his house.

Michael always wondered why the family had a three bedroom house and converted the third bedroom into an office instead of just getting a house with an office, but he decided not to question it because it seemed reasonable just to want a bigger office space.

Michael leaned on the couch armrest while he waited, but after a minute he started picking at his nails since he couldn’t stand to not be moving for long. After a minute of picking his nails, he got the weirdest feeling that someone was watching him. He looked up and went to all the windows he could see, looked out of all of them but saw nothing.

Weird, he thought and shivered.

“Mike?” he heard from a few feet behind him. It was Jeremy, so he turned around and was surprised by what he saw. Michael stood in place with his mouth slightly open, half in shock and half trying not to tear up from happiness.

“Jer?” Michael said shakily.

“Well? Are you surprised?”

“Yes! Oh my God…Jer, you’re standing!”

”Uh…suprise!”

He was in fact, standing on his own with forearm crutches on both of his arms supporting him. Michael couldn’t hold back his tears of happiness any longer as he went up to Jeremy and hugged him, not wanting to let go. He felt Jeremy also put his arms around Michael, and the two stood in place hugging each other for a while.

“I’m guessing you’re happy?” Jeremy said after a few minutes and Michael nodded. “Thought so.”

Michael smiled as he backed away from him, but kept his hands on his shoulders in case Jeremy suddenly started feeling unsteady, and Jeremy put his hands back onto the crutches. Michael wiped away his tears of happiness with his sleeve but once he put his hand down, Jeremy leaned forward and kissed Michael. It was for longer than last time and Michael cupped Jeremy’s face in his hands until Jeremy backed away as did Michael.

“Your face is all red again you big tomato,” Jeremy said and Michael smiled.

“Yours is too!”

“I am?!” he exclaimed as he felt his face with his left hand like he could feel the redness on his face and Michael snickered.

“Yes! But you’re a cute tomato.”

Jeremy smiled, and Michael saw one of the rare times he got flustered twice in a row because he was usually tough to make blush. “Anyway, you looked like you wanted to do that, but I beat you to it!” Jeremy said.

Michael chuckled. “You definitely did.”

Jeremy started making his way over to the couch slowly and Michael walked next to him, watching him walk and making sure he was stable, but was pleasantly surprised at how well he was doing on his own.

Jeremy took off the crutches and handed them to Michael, which he took and put them off to the side. Michael held out his hand and Jeremy held onto his hand to support him as he guided himself to sit down.

Michael sat next to Jeremy on the couch. “How long have you been walking?” he asked.

“Since…the beginning of the week…what day is that again?”

“Monday.”

“Yeah, Monday! I still need both of the crutches which I don’t like because my hands can’t do anything, but if I keep practicing I can go to one crutch!”

“That’s good!”

”I still have the wheelchair for ambu…ambulatory uses, but once the doctor says I don’t need it anymore then I can get rid of it!” 

“I have a surprise for you too, Jer.”

“Really? What?”

Michael cleared his throat. “Te amo, Jeremy,” (I love you, Jeremy.) he said softly and tucked one of the pieces of Jeremy’s stray hairs behind his ear since his hair was getting longer.

Jeremy smiled and shook his fists excitedly. “You’re learning!” he exclaimed.

“It’s just the simple stuff really, I still don’t understand a lot, but that book I borrowed really helped because I have a C+ in Spanish now. I have to keep remembering the accent though or it sounds weird.”

“Still!” He pecked Michael on the cheek and gave him a hug. “I still get confused on some words too.”

“We’re learning together,” Michael said as he hugged Jeremy.

Jeremy rested his head on Michael’s shoulder as they hugged but Michael’s gut feeling came back, the feeling he and Jeremy were being watched. Michael looked at all of the windows he could see without moving his head and saw nothing, but Michael snapped out of his trance when he felt Jeremy running his fingers through his hair.

“Your hair’s soft,” Jeremy said and Michael chuckled.

“Hey Jer, can I ask you kind of a weird question?”

“Shoot.”

“Do…d’you ever get the feeling you’re being watched?”

Jeremy stopped playing with Michael’s hair, took his head off Michael’s shoulder and backed away. “Why?”

“Just…I dunno-”

“‘Cause now that you bring that up, I’ve been getting that feeling a lot recently.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! A lot of times I feel like something’s watching me, even when I can’t see anyone there. I thought it was only because of the injury because my therapist said anxiety usually happens after a…frontal lobe injury.”

“Well, are you feeling that now?”

“Uh…kinda and it’s a little creepy ‘cause I don’t see anyone right now. But I feel better because I’m with you.”

Michael smiled. “Because you know I’ll protect you with my life?”

“That…and you’re stronger than me.” Michael and Jeremy leaned back on the couch and Jeremy cuddled up next to him. “I’m sure it’s nothing. That’s what my therapist said, even though I feel it often. It’s like I’m being observed or something.”

“How often are you feeling like this?”

“Every day, and it feels like whatever it is is just observing me. I haven’t seen anything there, unless it’s an invisible person that I can walk through, although sometimes it randomly feels cold when I walk then it goes back to normal but I dunno if those two are related. I’ve been too scared to bring this up to Dad ‘cause knowing him he’ll just take the therapist’s side and agree with him and say it’s nothing.”

“You feel it a lot more than me then, I’m getting worried about you. I mean, if you feel like you’re being watched so often, I have a terrible feeling it’s a lot more than paranoia because the way you describe it sounds a lot like…a ghost of some kind. At least in my experience.”

“A ghost? I just thought the air conditioner was acting weird, at least that’s what I hoped was happening.”

“It’s not, unless there’s sound then you might wanna get that checked out.”

“There wasn’t any. No one was by it and I think it was off sometimes when I felt it.”

“Then I’m ninety nine percent sure it’s a ghost of some kind. I know you probably don’t remember me telling you this before your injury, but long story short is that they’re real, and one of these days I’m gonna find out who this is.”

Chapter 92

Summary:

Quick catch up with an old coworker.

That next day while Michael was at Henry’s house, studying for finals and would try to pull an all nighter to get all of the studying in, Henry decided he needed to get out of the house to do what he liked for once. He hasn’t done that for a long time and would now only leave the house for work or errands; the last time he did something for himself was when he was still friends with William.

He has been getting stressed out lately, from worrying about Michael, stressing about work, thinking back to his family that left two years ago and worrying about their safety because he hasn’t heard from any of them, which would then lead him to think back about William.

The thoughts that the police still haven’t found William after almost two years, debating if he should just go and look for William himself and worrying if Hurricane is safe anymore with him still walking free.

He decided he needed this, and with Michael pulling an all nighter he should be up in his room all night, only coming down to the kitchen for a snack or soda once in awhile so he should be fine.

Henry was about to leave the house but before he could tell anything to Michael, he heard the rumble of thunder from miles away. He didn’t know if the rain was headed towards Hurricane, but grabbed his coat just in case.

“Mike!” he called upstairs as he put on his coat, and he heard Michael’s footsteps coming down the hallway and he peered over the railing.

“Yeah?” Michael replied.

“I’m going out for a few hours.”

“On a date? Who’s the lady?”

Henry chuckled. “No one. I just need to get out for a while and do something for myself that’s not an errand. Guard the house while I’m gone.”

“It would be an honor, sir,” Michael said and he saluted like a solider.

Henry chuckled again. “Bye Mike. And before I forget, don’t have anyone over since you need to study.”

“Ugh, fine. Bye Uncle!” he said and went back to his room while Henry shut and locked the door.

Henry went to his car, got in, started it and drove out of the neighborhood. He had an idea of where he wanted to go, it was a small bar that he and William used to go to when Mr. Fazbear bought the restaurant and they were employees under him, mainly going to it because Mr. Fazbear also owned this small bar and they would get a discount.

He drove up to this small bar called Jr.’s and he went inside rather quickly because it was starting to lightly rain, and Henry assumed it would start raining harder later. When he went in the bar wasn’t packed but it wasn’t full either, just the quiet chatter of people in the bar and some song that Henry didn’t know was playing on the jukebox was all that could be heard.

He went to an empty barstool where there was no one around and sat down while he waited for a bartender, and he didn’t have to wait very long after he sat when he heard the bartender speak to him.

“Hello sir. What can I get you today?” the bartender asked, but Henry recognized his voice and looked straight at him.

“Patrick? Patrick Graham?” Henry said.

“Wait,” he looked straight at him being that he recognized his voice, “Henry? ”

“Yeah!”

“Hey! How’ve you been?”

“Alright. How about you?”

“Same as you.”

“Why’re you working here now?”

“I’ve been trying to look for other work for a while, but didn’t have much luck. I stumbled across this bar which had an opening about a year and a half ago, got the job and I just learned it happened to be owned by Fazbear as well. He actually talked to me after one of my shifts and said if I still needed work, he’ll get me a job at Freddy’s once it opens.”

“What’re you planning to do if Fazbear gives you a job at Freddy’s?”

“I was thinking of being a manager again, but until we get a night guard I guess I’ll do that since I have experience as a guard from when you worked at Freddy’s.”

“Who’s taking the manager position now?”

“We don’t know yet, but we got a couple years before it opens. Anyways, can I get ya started on anything?”

“Yes, uh, can I just get a beer?”

“Of course! That’s what bars are for, after all.” Henry nodded and Patrick poured him a glass, set it in front of Henry and he took it and immediately started drinking it. “Rough day?” Patrick asked.

“You could say that,” Henry said as he set the glass in front of him again. “It’s just…between Mike always finding a way into trouble, worrying if Hurricane is safe anymore with William walking free, and at work I have to work on several cars every day! Some recently have been coming in with engine problems, which takes me hours and I’m working nonstop!”

“I get it. Those kids are tough now that they’re out of a job.”

“Wait, your kid?”

”Not mine, but my nephew is living with me, remember him? His name’s Robert Graham.”

“Oh yeah. He and Mike got along well when they saw each other.”

“They were good friends when they worked together, probably because they could only rant to each other about working at Freddy’s. Anyway he’s living with me because my sister, his mom, recently got evicted because she couldn’t pay the rent, and my parents aren’t living anywhere near here so she could only turn to me. So right now we’re all squeezed into my little two bedroom apartment but we manage.

“My sister has been working almost nonstop at both of her jobs, because she’s insistent that she helps pay half the rent for my place since I’m letting them stay there. You should meet her someday, she’s actually only a year younger than you and has the nicest soul out there. Maybe, I dunno, I could set you up with her…”

Henry laughed. “I’m not looking to date right now, maybe once all this stuff going on cools down. So, you’re helping them get back on their feet?”

”Yeah. I mean, it’s the least I could do for my older sister. But Robert has been trying to get a job for a while now since he unfortunately can’t go to school because he can’t pay for it. He’s just been getting more and more frustrated, so is his mom and I am too. So, how about your nephew?”

“He’s fine, as far as I can tell.”

“Is he goin’ to school?”

“Yeah, he went to community college for a degree in mechanics.”

“Community? Why not a university?”

“He didn’t wanna leave. He told me he was debating whether or not to leave to go to a university, but decided against it. It’s also way cheaper so that was ultimately the deciding factor.”

“Is there a reason or he just chose to because it was cheaper?”

“There’s an actual reason. I dunno if you remember your old hire, Jeremy Fitzgerald, but he didn’t wanna leave him.”

“Jeremy…wait, the one that got bit?”

“Yes,” he said as he took a sip of his drink.

“He’s…alive?”

“Yes. Disabled, but yes.”

“Robert told me that he and Michael were really close. I-I didn’t even know if he would make it, if he did I thought he would die soon after. That’s amazing that the human body can live without part of the brain…”

“It was the frontal lobe. Michael told me,” Henry said as he took another sip.

“Miracle, definitely. Is he walking?”

“I haven’t seen him lately, but he just started using forearm crutches according to what Michael has said so he’s up and moving. Still has the balance problem though,” Henry said and he took another sip of his drink. Soon after, another customer sat at the bar and Patrick was the only bartender around.

“Well, it was nice catching up with you Henry, but duty calls,” Patrick said.

”Work, am I right? See ya, Patrick.”

“Later Henry, tell me if you need anything,” he said and walked away.

Chapter 93

Summary:

Well, this was quite the unexpected run in.

Over the course of the next couple of hours, Henry mainly stayed quiet and alone in his thoughts. Patrick would come over and talk to him once in a while to keep him company, but because he was still working it wasn’t very often.

Henry made sure not to drink too much because he still needed to get home, so after he finished one and a half drinks he put on his coat since he could hear the rain pouring outside and left a ten dollar tip for Patrick.

Once he was outside he put on his hood because it was raining and headed towards his car, but kept thinking he saw something from the corner of his eye. He looked to the shadows and saw nothing, and decided that it was maybe because he had been drinking and kept walking.

“Fancy seeing you here,” he heard someone with a deep voice and a British accent say from behind him. He could recognize that voice anywhere, it was so cold and heartless so he knew the voice didn’t belong to Michael. It sent shivers down his spine and he froze dead in his tracks because he was hoping that the police were right in saying he was dead, but perhaps he hoped for too much because he was right behind him. “I know you can hear me Henry.”

“Whaddya want?” Henry asked with a hint of anger in his voice.

“I want you to turn around and face me.” Henry complied and turned around, and there was William standing in front of him. They both stood across from each other for a while in silence, Henry not taking his eyes off William with his eyebrows lowered in anger. “You look better than last time we saw each other face to face.”

Henry did in fact, look better; he was happier and he wasn’t as upset about his family leaving anymore since he had finally accepted it. He had gained some of his lost weight again, he’s been shaving so he was more presentable, but he still had very light dark circles under his eyes.

“You look worse,” Henry said to him.

“C’mon, do I really look that bad?”

“Your hair’s gotten longer, way longer-”

“It grows fast.”

“And correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to be so skinny your clothes are more baggy on you than they already were.”

“Well that’s what you get from surviving off canned tuna, water and the occasional beer and gas station hotdog for a goddamn year.”

“Why the hell are you here?!”

“Because...”

“Get outta my sight.”

“Why?! Are you gonna punch me again?! Chip off my other canine tooth?!”

“Come on, you know you can’t be here. Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”

William stood in place in front of him, too stubborn to move because if he wanted to talk with Henry alone now was the only chance he’d get for a while. Henry brushed past him to his car, unlocked it and from the backseat he picked up the emergency cell phone he always kept in his car.

William’s eyes widened. “Wait, wait. Before you do anything, lemme explain.”

“Really?! I’d like to hear! You have ninety seconds before I call the cops.”

“Okay, I’m only here because…I wanna apologize.”

“Apologize?! For ruining my life?! Yeah, good luck getting my forgiveness!”

”I know you won’t forgive me, but I’m sorry.”

“Sounds like a load of bullshit. Face it, you meant it!”

“I didn’t know it would ruin your life! I’m sorry Henry!”

“Not just my life, what about all those kid’s families?! What about Jeremy?! What about Michael?! Where’s their apology?!”

“But-”

“Oh right, I forgot. You don’t care. You don’t care about your family or anyone else’s, you’re just selfish and only care if I forgive you because you want your friend back so you can feel less alone. Is that it?”

“No!” he lied. “I just…I just want those good times we had together back, when it was just us two against the world. Remember that Hen?”

“D’you mean the time before you murdered innocent children?! Or do you mean the time before I knew you had something to do with the Missing Children's Incident but I just brushed it off as stress?!”

“You knew?”

“I didn’t know you killed those children because I didn’t want to believe it, but after Michael told me you did I saw it on your face that you knew something you weren’t telling me! I wanted to believe you were a good guy so I pretended he never told me but I should’ve listened to him!”

“Please Henry, I’m sorry!”

“You don’t mean that, you lying snake. You don’t care about your family or mine, you just want to hurt others for your own entertainment.”

”I...” William started, but he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“You’re not getting my forgiveness, not now, not ever. Because you didn’t care about the consequences, now you must suffer them.”

Henry brought the phone in his hand up so he could look at the numbers and dialed 9-1-1. William didn’t speak again until he overheard the dispatcher.

“Wait, wait, Henry, please,” William said worriedly once he heard the voice over the phone.

Henry ignored him. “Yes, I’ve got a wanted criminal here…his name’s William Afton…no, he’s not dead like they thought…he’s in the parking lot of Jr.’s…yes, I’m safe for now…okay, please get here before I loose my cool and smack the shit outta him.”

Henry hung up and William stared at him in shock for a while, and after a few seconds he said, “I know you didn’t just call the cops on me, that’s not the Henry I know.”

“Times change.”

William then took off across the parking lot to his car and Henry chased after him, just catching up to him before he reached his car, but Henry held him back by grabbing both of William’s wrists and putting them behind his back like Henry was arresting him.

“Let me go, you bastard!” William yelled at him.

“Not until the police arrive!”

William struggled for several minutes when suddenly in the distance, he heard police sirens coming down the street. William then struggled harder but he still wouldn’t budge and suddenly without thinking, he elbowed Henry as hard as he could in the chest, knocking him down but he took William down with him. William quickly got up, not caring about the pain in his back when he fell on the road and ran to his car.

Henry tried to grab William’s ankle to knock him down again but missed him by an inch, so William got in his car and started it up. Henry heard the roar of the engine and sat up, but William already backed out of his parking space and drove out of the parking lot.

Henry however, stood up slowly as he watched William drive away and the pain started to register, and he was seemingly hugging himself because that was where William hit him as hard as he could, which was pretty strong because he had always been a muscular person.

Henry was starting to feel lightheaded and slightly nauseous but fought through it until he got to his car and he leaned against it, praying that the cops would catch William. He started to get a headache, his vision was now getting slightly blurred but he heard a man shout his name, and Henry looked up but he couldn’t see who it was being that the parking lot was so dark.

William sped down the road, pushing the car past its limits as he hit almost ninety miles per hour and gradually speeding up. “Schmidt!” he yelled a minute later and the room got cooler.

“What is it boss?” he replied.

“Don’t you see or are you blind?! Fucking help me!”

“Jesus, calm down.”

“How the fuck can I calm down when I’m being chased by police?!”

“Whatever. I have an idea so stop being such a scaredy cat, I’ll handle this.”

The car suddenly went back to its normal temperature being that he wasn’t in the car, but he went to the top of the car so he was standing on the car roof and that’s when he decided to show himself so the officers could see him.

“What the…” one of the officers said as he saw him. He picked up his radio to speak to the two other cars behind him. “Are you guys seeing this?!”

“Oh yeah, we see it Anderson,” one of the other officers said.

“The hell is that?!”

“No idea, but it looks like…a person,” the other said.

“It…it can’t be! We’re going almost a hundred! Whatever, just don’t loose Afton!” He put the radio down. “I knew you weren’t dead Afton, you son of a bitch…your son was right in saying you committed those murders…”

The other officers put their radios down but from the top of William’s car, the entity knelt down on one knee and focused on the car closest to him.

“Hurry up Schmidt!” William yelled.

“Jeez, fine.” He focused on the car closest to him again, closed his eyes and formed an image in his mind of exactly what he wanted the car to do. He opened his eyes and said, “Bye,” under his breath and directed that energy to the car.

The car suddenly by what seemed like magic flew off of the road like it was picked up by a very strong wind and crashed into the top of the tall trees on the side of the road with a lot of force. The car then fell to the ground and landed upside down so the roof was now smashed in and laid flat.

“There’s still two left! What ‘genius’ plan do you have now?!” William yelled.

“I got this, now stop yelling at me,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt disappeared and the two other officers looked around for him, obviously confused but still continued chasing William’s car at almost one hundred and ten miles per hour.

Suddenly, one of the officers couldn’t control the steering wheel anymore and it seemingly started moving by itself, though it was just Schmidt turning the wheel to the right ever so slightly and gradually turning it more every minute.

“What the-” he said as the car started turning and he tried to straighten out, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Campbell! What the hell are you doing over there?!” the other officer shouted over the radio.

He grabbed the radio to talk to him. “I-I don’t know! The steering wheel seems possessed or something!”

“Look, I know you’re new to the police force and all, but get back on the goddamn road!”

“I’m fucking trying Schmidt!”

The entity stopped turning the wheel but held it in place. “Schmidt…” the entity whispered to himself, being that he was shocked to hear that name that wasn’t Michael lying about his last name.

The officer on the radio who was yelling at the other was his son, Daniel Schmidt who had moved to Hurricane about a month before. No one had even known he was in the town, because he didn’t want anyone else to know that he was just there to get revenge against William.

Daniel and his wife had divorced as soon as they got the news of their three kids, Gabriel, Cassidy and Jeremy being murdered by William Afton. Daniel had been in the police force for years so a chase was nothing new to him, but this one was the most significant to him since William affected his family directly.

The other officer was Jack Campbell, Susie’s father. He was a detective for years but once he found out that William was the one who murdered his daughter, he switched jobs to the police department since he thought that was the only way to find William quickly and make him pay. 

Once Jack’s car was almost off of the road, he used what muscle he had to try his hardest to straighten out before he crashed into the trees on the side of the narrow road. When the wheel wouldn’t budge, he tried his hardest to turn the wheel even slightly to the left, but still nothing would work but he refused to give up.

“Hurry up!” William shouted.

“Be patient! Jesus,” Schmidt said.

The entity then let go of the steering wheel and since Jack was using all of his strength to turn the wheel, the car took a sharp turn to the left and crashed right into the side of Daniel’s car next to him. They were both knocked off the road and the cars fell down the small hill and crashed into trees, but it was quite the impact given the speed they were going.

William sped off, leaving the officers in the dust and was thankful that there were no other cars on the road to witness that whole fiasco. He gradually slowed down once the cars were out of sight since he saw street lights in the distance which told him that he was nearing the highway.

He turned onto the highway when he slowed down to sixty miles per hour, and tried to act as if everything was fine so the few other people driving on the highway wouldn’t think he was suspicious. Then, the temperature dropped in the car and William could practically feel the presence of someone else in the car with him. “So? How did I do?” the entity asked.

“Oh my God…you might’ve killed them all…”

“That was the entire point.”

“You’re more capable and cold hearted than I thought.”

“We made a deal. What’d you expect?”

“I don’t know, I was expecting you to ruin my life forever or something.”

“Well technically, I’ve done that already so now I’m satisfied.”

“What?!”

“Did you forget you’re living out of that dump?”

“For your information, the dump you’re talking about was my hideout in high school to get away from my parents.”

“Oh, so that’s why there was a whole bunch of stuff already there.”

“Yes, but you did make it tough for me to live and I’ll never forgive you for that. Now back to the topic, are you willing to kill…anyone?”

“As long as it’ll keep you from destroying the little remnant tying me to the world, I really don’t care who dies. I want to stay a poltergeist forever, I couldn’t do anything to the physical world when I was just a spirit, plus I want to watch people suffer by my hands.”

“I want you to add another person to your target list.”

“If this is about Jeremy, I’m working on it. I’ve been watching him almost daily and it’s just tough because he almost never leaves the house and he’s always with his father! When he’s not, Michael’s there and I need him to continue to trust me so I can’t kill Jeremy when he’s around.”

“I’m not talking about him, I’m talking about someone else, someone who doesn’t live in this state anymore. It’s not urgent, but I would love to see her dead.”

Chapter 94

Summary:

Unexpected visitor.

Michael jolted awake at his desk, and as the room came into focus he saw that he had fallen asleep on his desk with his head down at an open textbook. He was trying to pull an all nighter to study for his final exams, but it didn’t work out as well as he thought. From looking at his book, he was either trying to study and take notes, or he got distracted and doodled in the margins of his notebook which seemed to happen a lot more often than studying.

He looked around and saw a small empty chip bag along with a half full bottle of Coca-Cola on his desk, gum wrappers from gum he had chewed to try and keep himself awake, his lamp shining down on his book and paper he was taking notes on and he wondered how he ever slept with a lamp shining in his face. He looked at the clock on his wall which told him it was two in the morning; last he remembered it said it was midnight.

He sat up straight and noticed his back was starting to cramp, so he yawned and stood up to stretch out his back. He picked up his empty chip bag, put his gum wrappers in the empty bag and grabbed his half full bottle of Coca-Cola and went out of the room.

As he went down the hallway to throw away his garbage he passed the master bedroom, which was Henry’s bedroom and saw that the door was open. He looked in and assumed that Henry was too tired to close the door earlier, but as he looked in he didn’t see Henry’s silhouette in the bed. He decided to risk it and turned on the light to check, but Henry was not sleeping in bed, in fact the bed still looked neatly made like it hasn’t been touched at all.

He gulped and turned off the light and drank the rest of his Coca-Cola as he went down the hall and down the stairs.

He should be back by now, Michael thought as he turned on the light to the living room to go to the kitchen. Michael tried not to let his mind wander off to the worst possible scenario, but he couldn’t help it.

Michael knew he probably went to a bar, so what if he got in a car wreck? What if he got hurt or worse: what if he died? Michael didn’t want to loose his uncle as well, especially since he was pretty much the only family he has still around.

As Michael went into the kitchen, drank the rest of his Coca-Cola and threw away his garbage, he knew he couldn’t go back and study now. Not after worrying how he was going to live if he can’t support himself yet, or concentrate with the assumption that his family was gone and he was on his own.

After he threw away his garbage, he went to every room, calling out ‘Uncle’ in every single room hoping for an answer, but he heard nothing. He went back to the kitchen and thought about getting another snack since he was stressed, but ended up pacing around the kitchen since it was what he did when he was nervous or worried.

It was almost two fifteen in the morning and he sat at the table with his leg shaking and drinking a new bottle of Coca-cola, drinking it so often as a form of stress relief that he was almost finished with it, and after what seemed like hours to him he finally heard the doorbell ring. He thought it was a little strange because Henry had a key to the house, but he thought nothing of it and bolted to the front door.

He fiddled with the lock and opened the door, and to his surprise he opened it to find his old manager, Patrick Graham.

“Mr. Graham?” he said in his American accent. 

“Hi again Michael.”

“What’re you doing here?”

“Well uh, I’m so sorry to bother you this late, but uh…it’s about Henry.”

“What?! What happened?!” he shrieked as his mind wandered off to the worst possible scenario again.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s fine. Kinda.”

“Kinda?! Whaddya mean kinda?!”

“Uh, I think it’s best if I just show you.”

He motioned Michael to follow him and Michael grabbed his coat from the coat hanger, put on the hood because it was still raining and followed him outside. Patrick led him to his car, opened the back door and there was Henry in the backseat, alive but silent because he was in pain.

“Wha…what happened?!”

“He was in the parking lot after I heard some yelling. Guessing he got hit, hard, and that’s why he’s not talking.”

“Oh my God…”

“I was one of the last employees leaving the parking lot, so thank God I saw him. He was knocked out when I got to him, but it seems as though he just woke up. I just need your help to get him inside.” Michael nodded. “Hey Henry?” Henry looked at him. “We need to get you inside. Can you move?”

“I don’t feel very good,” he said. “I fell on the pavement twice and he hit me as hard as he could.”

“Where were you hit?” Michael asked and Henry put his hand on his chest right above his stomach but in line with the bottom of his ribs.

“Oh God, that’s the worst place to get hit. Probably all bruised up too,” Patrick said.

“Uh, we can just put him on the couch I guess since it’s not too far from the front door.”

”Hey Henry?” Henry looked at Patrick. “Can we help you inside?” Henry thought about it for a moment and then he nodded. Michael and Patrick helped Henry out of the car and Henry held onto Patrick’s shoulder and Michael stayed close to them as they went inside.

Once Henry was inside Patrick led him to the couch and Henry sat and slumped down because he was in pain. “What happened?” Michael asked as he took off his hood and when Henry was on the couch.

“I dunno. I heard shouting at work and as I went out there, I saw him and he looked like he was in pain, and when I called his name he passed out. Guessing there was a fight or something.”

“Where d’you work?”

“Jr.’s, the bar owned by Fazbear as well,” he said as he pointed to the logo on his black polo shirt. “Makes sense there was a fight, that sometimes happens when people get drunk. I’ve had to break up a few fights in my time there, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone knocked out and the other person was nowhere to be seen.”

”Well…what do we do?!”

“I guess…just wait until he feels good enough to talk again, maybe get him some water or something. There’s not much else we can do until he tells us if he thinks it’s that serious that we need to take him to a doctor.”

”How long was he out there?”

“He left at about the time we closed, and I heard shouting so like always when that happens I went out there and I saw him in pain and he blacked out as soon as I got to him. So I’m guessing it’s been about ten or fifteen minutes by now.”

“Wait, how did you know where his house was?!”

“In case you forgot, I was your manager. I had to write your address several times to mail you your paycheck, and even though that was a while back I still have it remembered somehow. I just figured that since you were living with him, his address was on your application.”

“Well uh, thanks for bringing him back.”

“Of course. It’s the least I can do for a friend.”

“Yeah. Well, goodnight Mr. Graham.”

“Please, call me Patrick. There’s no need for all the fancy names. Only if I happen to be your manager again.”

”Okay, uh, goodnight Patrick.”

“Goodnight Michael, and I wish the best for you and your uncle,” he said as he went out the front door and Michael shut it behind him.

Chapter 95

Summary:

Suspicions start to grow.

After Michael shut the door behind Patrick, Michael went over to Henry on the couch. “Uncle? D’you need water or anything?” he asked.

“Yeah, that should help.”

Michael went to the kitchen and started to pour Henry a glass of cold water, but as he stood alone the awful feeling in his gut that that something bad had happened became more prominent. He’s had this feeling ever since he jolted awake at his desk and the feeling seemed to not dissipate.

After debating whether or not to say his name, he finally said, “Schmidt,” to the empty room.

The room got colder as soon as he said his name. “It’s been a while Michael,” he said.

“Yes, uh, I just wanted to ask you something because I have this awful feeling that something bad happened, and I know you can see if something did and I’m just really anxious about it, so did anything happen?”

The room was silent for a minute as he thought about his answer. “I think you’re just being paranoid again Michael.”

“Really? Are you sure? You said you would tell me if anything happened so I could try to put a stop to all this!”

“I know how you are about these feelings, and I’m here to tell you that not every one of them is true. I believe some are just because of anxieties about your situation that you think every one of them is true.”

“But every other one was true!”

”Those were all coincidences. I believe you’re only feeling like this because you happen to struggle with anxiety, it’s a very common symptom to have with anxiety that you believe the worst has happened.”

Michael was skeptical as he heard his words, not fully believing him because there was an almost unnoticeable change in his tone of voice. “Sure…yeah. Are you sure you’re not lying to me?”

“Why would I lie to you? You said so yourself, I’m on your side here.”

Michael refused to let go of the feeling that he was being lied to, fully believing something had happened and Schmidt was refusing to tell him but he was stumped as to why. “Okay, thanks,” he finally said and the room went back to its normal temperature.

Michael took the glass of cold water to Henry, who took it from him and started drinking it.

“Ugh…” Henry groaned as he tried to focus on the coldness of the water and not his aching body. 

”Are you okay? D’you need a doctor or anything?”

“No, I should be fine. Just aches now, thank you for getting me a glass,” Henry said. “Why were you in there so long?”

“Uh…no reason. I just um…”

“Mike?” Henry said sternly. 

“I just…I have this awful feeling something terrible happened earlier tonight. I thought it was just because of you because it’s stuck around since I was at my desk, but I have a terrible feeling it’s worse so I asked Schmidt to help clear the air. He said I was just being paranoid but I dunno if I believe him.”

“Well, it’s tough to trust a lot of people right now I’ll give ya that.”

“But why would he lie? Was he trying to hide something?”

“I dunno.”

Henry sipped his water while they sat in silence in the dim lamp lighting. “Uncle?” Michael said after a minute, getting Henry’s attention. “Do you remember what happened before you blacked out?”

“Uh…I remember I was at the bar, I went out to the parking lot…and it’s blurry after that.”

“You don’t remember?” Henry shrugged. “Can you try to remember?”

Henry stayed silent for many minutes as he drank the last of his water; Michael could practically see the gears turning in his head as Henry tried to think back to what happened and he put his empty glass on the coffee table. “All I remember is…a voice.”

“A voice?” Henry nodded. “Who’s?”

Henry stayed quiet for a minute while he thought. “Now that I think about it, I think it was William.”

“William?”

“The voice had a British accent like yours, but I know you weren’t at the bar.”

“No, I was trying to study and I’m legally not old enough to drink yet.”

“So it only makes sense.”

“Why was he there?”

“I dunno, I can’t remember. But what we know now is that he’s not dead like the cops said, I had a feeling they were wrong.”

“Well…can you try to remember what he said?”

Henry stayed silent for many minutes as he thought, but the blurry memories suddenly became clear like someone wiped away the fog on a foggy window. “I dunno if I’m right, but I think he was trying to fake an apology.”

“Fake it?”

“Yeah. He only cared if he apologized to me but he didn’t care about the other families, you or even Jeremy so I didn’t accept it. I called the cops on him and I tried to restrain him in place so the cops could arrest him, we yelled at each other, then we heard the sirens a few minutes later and…I guess he knocked me out ‘cause I don’t remember anything after that.”

”Wow…” was all Michael said as he tried to process Henry’s words. His father was still out there, still in Hurricane and he needed to find him before he hurt anyone else.

---

A few days later, Michael went outside to the front yard to get the newspaper for Henry, since he had taken a few days off of work because he said that it hurt to bend down, although it is a lot better than it was that day when he met William in the parking lot.

Michael got the newspaper from the front yard and brought it inside, and like he often did after he closed the door he opened it to scan through the front page before he gave it to Henry.

This time however, a story caught his eye. The headline read, Three officers involved in a high speed chase. Two dead, one on the brink of death. Michael kept scanning the story as he went to the kitchen where Henry was.

“Hey Uncle?” Michael said and Henry looked up from his morning coffee. “What day were you at the bar again?”

“Saturday. I didn’t come home until Sunday morning though.”

“Right…this story was written on Monday,” he said as he handed the newspaper to Henry.

Henry pushed up his glasses as he read the story, and once he read the name of the person they were supposedly chasing he stared at it in shock. “Oh my God…” he said under his breath.

“Is it the same? I didn’t read the whole thing.” Henry looked up at him, nodded and Michael stared at him in disbelief. “Uh, what does it say?”

Henry looked at the newspaper again and read it out loud. “‘Three officers; Kevin Anderson, Daniel Schmidt and Jack Campbell; were called to a small local bar called ‘Jr.’s’ on Sunday at 1:52 in the morning to detain a wanted criminal; William Afton; who was thought to be dead, but the detaining quickly turned into a high speed chase.

“‘From retrieving the radio communications between the three police cars and headquarters at that time, the three men had apparently seen a strange entity on top of Afton’s vehicle. From the officer’s description, the entity looked exactly like a man but it should’ve been impossible. The entity then made Anderson’s car crash and flip over, and he was pronounced dead at the scene when the crash site was investigated.

“‘The other two men had continued chasing Afton and from retrieving radio communications, Campbell seemed to be driving off the road. Schmidt told him to get back onto the road, but Campbell said he was trying and he wasn’t turning the car. There was no information about what caused the cars to suddenly crash into each other, but the cars seemed to have flipped multiple times then stopped when they crashed into the trees on the opposite side of the road.

“‘Schmidt was pronounced dead at the hospital and Campbell is in critical condition, his family unsure if he will survive or not.’”

Michael looked over Henry’s shoulder at the picture of one of the cars, which was flipped upside down and looked as though it had been smashed in with a giant club so it was almost flat and he knew that no human could have done that.

“Oh my God…something did happen, I knew it! Why would he lie to me?!” Michael shrieked.

“I don’t know,” Henry replied.

“Why would he try to hide this?! Did he not want me to know?! He knows I wanna stop these deaths so why didn’t he tell me?!”

”Mike, calm down. I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation for this.”

“He better hope so, because if he is hiding something from me about these deaths that he doesn’t want me to know, he better pray that I never find out.”

Chapter 96

Summary:

Michael’s not dealing with this search for his father alone.

”So…hold up, let me get this straight. You’re saying he’s not dead?!” Alex shrieked.

That following week, Alex had come home and Michael decided to tell them the news in person instead of over the phone, so they met at the park right by Jeremy’s house the day after Alex got back since it was by Alex’s house as well.

“Nope. I showed you the newspaper article. He’s still out there,” Michael said.

“Oh God, so, why d’you think that weird entity thing is working with him?”

“I dunno, I’m stumped.”

“Boo!” Jeremy exclaimed from behind them. He had decided to sneak up on them since his therapy appointments had gotten out early, and it had worked because they both jumped in surprise.

“Oh my-hey Jeremy!” Alex said and Jeremy waved.

“Jesus Christ, Jer!” Michael exclaimed and Jeremy laughed.

“I got you!” he said through laughter. “You should’ve seen your faces! It was like someone was murdered or something!”

“Well uh…” Alex started. “Wait, hold on, Mike was telling the truth?! You’re walking again?!”

“Yep!”

“Did you think I was lying?” Michael asked.

“You never know. I mean, you’ve lied to me before.”

“That was over a year ago! I’ve been honest every other time, swear on my life.”

Alex turned back to Jeremy. “This is amazing! I’m so happy for you! Now if you don’t mind me asking, why’re you here? I thought Mike said you had therapy or something.”

“I did, but it got out early because the speech lady wasn’t there today. My dad and I were walking around the park but I saw you guys, so I told my dad I was gonna try to sneak up on you guys by myself.”

They both turned around and saw Diego a few yards behind Jeremy and they waved to him. He waved back and went over to them on the bench.

“Jeremy was insistent he wanted to scare you two,” Diego said.

“Well, it worked,” Michael said. “I didn’t hear anything, usually I could hear his crutches on the ground.”

Jeremy suddenly got an idea. “¿Puedo..quedarme aquí...con ellos, Papá? ¿Yo solo?” (Can I..stay here...with them, Dad? By myself?)

Diego smiled as he sighed, and he asked Michael and Alex, “Can you two get Jeremy back home in about an hour?”

“Of course,” Alex said.

“It’d be an honor,” Michael said and Diego chuckled.

Diego said to Jeremy, “Sí, pero te espero de vuelta en una hora.” (Yes, but I'll expect you back in an hour.)

Jeremy nodded excitedly as Diego waved to them and walked away.

“Ooh! It’s getting better!” Alex said to Jeremy. 

“Yeah! I have to speak slowly ‘cause if I speak fast like him, I’ll mess up. And I learned a lot more words so I’m almost fluent again! Dad says that I’m grasping onto it a lot better than he expected,” he said. Michael got up from the bench he and Alex were sitting at and let Jeremy take his spot.

“Your hair’s getting longer too!” Alex said once Jeremy sat down next to them.

His hair was in fact longer than last time they saw him, where it used to be short and barely covering his scar. Now it was down to the middle of his neck, covering the part of his scar on his scalp and he had Michael cut layers into his hair to make it look better (since Michael had experience cutting messy layers into hair since that’s what he did to himself when he went under the name Fritz Smith) so it was now a short, wavy and fluffy shag, so hopefully it would draw some attention away from his scar even though he always wore the eyepatch over it.

“Yeah! My hair grows fast and I kinda like it, but maybe I wanna keep growing it out so it’s down to my shoulders like it was before, I dunno. So what were you two talking about? Secrets?”

“Well, it’s not really a secret since it’s in the paper,” Michael said.

“I didn’t hear about it! What is it? Tell me! You’re killing me over here!”

Michael chuckled and lightly blushed. “You’re cute, y’know that?”

“Focus Mike!” Alex said.

“Right, uh, so I was telling Alex that my uncle and I found something in the paper,” Michael said.

“What?” Jeremy asked.

Michael pulled the newspaper article from his pocket and unfolded it so Jeremy could see. “Three men were killed a week ago, well two that day and the third was pronounced dead a few days ago. One of which was my mother’s brother, in other words, an uncle of mine who I didn’t even know was here.”

“An uncle?”

“Yeah, it said they were on a high speed chase for my father, William Afton.”

“William?”

“Yeah. Remember? The one who gave you the…” he said and pointed to the left side of his head.

“This was HIM?!”

“I’m ninety nine point nine percent sure.”

“I didn’t know that! That son of a bitch!”

“I know, but what’s really strange, the article said on the recordings from that night the police officers saw an entity-poltergeist thing. That’s what killed them all, not William surprisingly. We’re trying to figure out who this is but most importantly why the entity’s working with my father.”

“So…a ghost? We’re on a ghost hunt now?”

“I don’t know. But do you guys remember Schmidt?”

“Oh no, it totally didn’t change my view on reality so much that it became a prominent memory,” Alex said sarcastically. “Of course I remember!”

“Uh…kinda. Not really,” Jeremy said.

“He’s the ghost of my mother’s father, my grandfather, who’s supposedly helping me, but now I’m not too sure about that,” Michael said.

”What’s making you change your mind?” Alex asked.

“He lied to me! He fucking lied to me!”

“Mike, calm yourself. What did he lie to you about?”

Jeremy reached and grabbed Michael’s hand and Michael thankfully calmed down a little, but was still squeezing Jeremy’s hand a little tighter than he usually would but not enough to hurt him.

Michael took a deep breath and said, “I knew something had happened that day, and I thought it was just because of my uncle because William knocked him out but I knew it was worse. I had the same exact feeling that I always get when someone gets seriously hurt or dies, but Schmidt blamed my anxiety about my situation and said nothing happened.”

”So…can you trust him?”

“I dunno. I’m still debating whether or not I should.”

“D’you think he’s…hiding something from you and he didn’t want you to know?”

“I don’t know-”

“Wait! I have an idea!” Jeremy said suddenly. “What if, hear me out, what if the ghost Mike is seeing is the poltergeist?”

“I dunno if I would go that far Jer.”

”Wait no, Jeremy actually has a point,” Alex said. “I mean, when he appeared to us he didn’t exactly look friendly.”

“What?!”

“He looked freaky as shit man!”

“It can just be what happens in the afterlife!”

“I’m pretty sure that whoever died doesn’t want to be reminded of how they died in the first place!”

”Well we don’t know what happens when you die, now do we?” Michael said sternly.

“Plus his pupils were literally gone! I’ve seen enough movies to know that’s like, a villain thing!”

“If he is, why hasn’t he tried to kill me yet?!”

“Guys! Don’t argue!” Jeremy exclaimed. “I’m just saying, it’s a possibility! We don’t know for sure yet!”

Michael sighed. “You’re right Jer, I can’t rule it out just yet. Sorry Alex, I just get defensive sometimes,” Michael apologized.

“You’re all good,” Alex said.

”But, I think if I find my father, I’ll find this poltergeist since they’re working together and I can find a way to put a stop to all this.”

“You mean we will.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t think you’re doing this alone. It sounds dangerous and you could potentially die from it so it sounds like you’re gonna need help. I’m joining in on the search since I wanna put a stop to this as much as you do.”

“Count me in too!” Jeremy said.

“You want to do this too Jer?” Michael asked.

”Yeah! I wanna stop him too and like Alex said, you’re not doing this alone. We’re in this together, right? ‘Till the end?”

Michael smiled at Jeremy. “‘Till the end,” he said and kissed the back of Jeremy’s hand that he was still holding.

---

Back at the old abandoned house William was staying at, he was busy writing in a journal he ‘borrowed’ from the store about the chase a week before. He wrote how Schmidt had successfully managed to kill three officers who were chasing William, and Schmidt was coming up with a plan for an attack of a woman William wanted dead.

William always wrote whenever he was feeling stressed, and today he was feeling that particularly more than usual but wasn’t sure why because he hasn’t heard anything since the chase a week ago. He usually wrote to get his thoughts together so he could try and find what was stressing him out, but nothing seemed to stand out to him yet.

As William was writing the pen he was using started moving so subtly he didn’t notice, but suddenly the pen flung out of his hand and across the room.

“Hey! What the hell?!” he said and Schmidt appeared in front of him. Once William saw him he jumped in surprise and scooted backwards until his back hit the wall. “I told you to not do that!”

“Your phasmophobia can wait, William.”

“What do you want?!”

“They’re onto us.”

“Sorry, but can’t you disappear or something?! I can’t focus if I can literally see through you!”

Schmidt rolled his eyes and disappeared. “Will you listen to me now?!”

“Fine, what?” William said as he calmed down. 

“They’re onto us.”

“Who?”

“God, Michael and the other two! Who else d’you think?!”

“What d’you mean us?! They already know about me, that’s why I’m here.”

“Fine, me. They’re onto me.”

“…okay? What am I supposed to do about that?”

“Well, since you don’t care, you may care that Jeremy has said he’s joined in on the search for you.”

“Him?! What can he do?! He’s powerless.”

“Well…”

“What?”

“He may not be able to physically do something against you, but he is smart even when dealing with the injury. He’s been making progress faster than I anticipated, way faster. In fact I don’t even think he should be making this much progress.”

William sighed. “I’m still wondering how the hell he survived…” William muttered.

“I have my theories, but I do have a plan in mind to see if it’s true.”

“What about the other one? What’s his name…”

“Alex. He has joined in on this search as well. Good news though, he has gone away to college for four years and will only be back in the summer months and breaks, so he won’t be around too often for four years.”

”Another one on the search, eh? That’s three looking for me,” William sighed as he held the bridge of his nose.

“I do have something to add William. So, one of the lead detectives on your case, Isabella Davis, remember her?”

“Of course I do, my memory isn’t that bad yet.”

“Well…Alex may or may not be her child.”

William looked up. “What?! How could you just forget to tell me that bit of information?!”

“I didn’t even know until recently, so quit getting angry at me.”

“God…I have to get rid of Alex some time because he has a clear shot to turn me in anytime he wants if those three brats find me, but how?”

Chapter 97

Summary:

The other side of the main story, let’s see what’s going on with Michael’s little brother.

”Nice work ladies and gentleman, two down and two to go. At this rate, it shouldn’t be too much longer for the pizzeria to open,” Mr. Fazbear said to the workers who were building the new animatronics. He had went by the shop that one specific day to oversee the progress that has been made on building the animatronics, which he did about once every month.

”What about the fifth one? The yellow Freddy?” the head supervisor asked. “We had questions on what to do with that one, whether we should keep the parts as spares or throw it in the furnace.”

“Hmm…throw it in the furnace, we don’t need it anymore. If we need spares it’d be better to build new ones instead of using parts from ten years ago.”

“Should I inform Mr. Emily?”

“It wouldn’t matter to him much, so no.”

“But that suit was his since Fredbear’s was open!”

“That may be true, but as you may not be aware his daughter was murdered there and I don’t think he wants that reminder. I choose what goes on around here now, not him, so throw it in the goddamn furnace.”

”Yes sir.” The supervisor turned to the workers. “You heard him! Throw it in!”

”Oh God,” Cassidy said.

Well, this is it. Nice knowing ya Cass, Evan said.

“We’re not gonna die dummy, we’re already dead!”

I know, but I’m gonna go to the afterlife and I don’t know what’s going on with you.

“Are you sayin’ you think I’m goin’ to hell?!”

That came out wrong. What I mean is I don’t know what’s going to happen to you, because I remember that you said you felt like you were in more than one place at once.

“…y’know you’re right for once.”

Hey!

“So uh…I guess this is it.”

Guess so. Nice knowing you Cass. Hopefully one of these days I’ll see you again.

“Y’know, I’ll actually miss you and your stupid comments. Hopefully I’ll see you again one of these days, whenever that may be.” For the first time in a long time, if she concentrated really hard she could sense Evan crying. “Are you crying?!”

“No. I’m dead I can’t, shut up,” he said shakily.

You’re gonna miss me that much?

“Look, it’s hard for me to move on after we’ve been trapped together for six years! I don’t know when I’ll ever see you again because you’ve been a friend to me even though you playfully tease me sometimes, even though you’re my cousin but it still counts!”

Well…I’ll hopefully see ya soon then Ev.

“See ya Cass.”

After waiting several minutes, two men went over to Fredbear in the corner and picked the suit up. “Jesus, didn’t expect this thing to be so heavy,” one of them said.

“I’m helping you, so be happy it’s not as heavy as it would’ve been,” the other said.

The two carefully carried Fredbear over to a separate room, which was very warm because of the giant furnace on the opposite side of the room. The two looked at each other, nodded and carried Fredbear over to the furnace across the room.

With a lot of strength, the two successfully lifted Fredbear up and threw the suit into the flames, where the suit soon caught fire and the endoskeleton started melting down into liquid.

---

After a while, Evan finally opened his eyes and saw nothing but white walls all around him. Am I dead? For real this time? he thought and to his surprise, he didn’t hear a voice back like he has for years.

He stood up shakily and immediately fell back down because he wasn’t used to walking again, but to his surprise the landing was soft even though the floor was hard and solid. He got up again but slower this time and regained his balance, stepped with one foot in front of the other, and once he got used to walking again he looked down at his hands and arms.

He was back in his ten year old body wearing the same clothing as he was that day he was shoved into Fredbear’s mouth: jean shorts, brown shoes and a striped t-shirt. He had his brown, thick, messy and wavy hair back that kept getting in his eyes because his hair was getting long at that time.

He figured that on his face he had his many freckles back and his baby blue eyes back as well, which he was grateful for because those were the only parts he liked about himself because Michael never teased him about his eyes and freckles.

“Hello?” he called out to the vast white area but there was no answer, only his echo. He decided to walk around, but the white area seemed to have no end and there was nothing that he could see. “Cass? Cassidy are you here?” he called but heard nothing. “Is anyone here?”

“You are not alone,” another voice said, but it didn’t sound like anyone he recognized. It sounded somehow like both a man and a woman at the same time; a high but deep sound in their voice.

“Who said that?!”

“Don’t be afraid Evan. I am here to help you.”

“How…how do you know my name?!”

“I know everyone’s name, I know everything about everyone.”

“Are you God?”

The voice chuckled. “No, I am an entity of the afterlife. You, Evan Christopher Afton, unfortunately are dead.”

“After six years, I finally am?”

“Yes. I know you had quite a difficult time getting here so I would assume you are happy to finally be here instead of distressed like most are.”

“How long was I on the ground?”

“In the human world, it’s been about a week which is typical for newcomers. Here, it hasn’t been that long since the concept of time doesn’t exist here.”

“So…what now?”

“Of course. I will transport you to where everyone else is. Stay still, this tends to get a bit bumpy.”

Evan did as he was told and stayed completely still, and within seconds he was greeted by a bright flash of light and the winds started picking up. He shut his eyes because of the bright light and within a few seconds the wind stopped. He opened his eyes and saw he arrived at another place, one that seemed to have a lot more color.

As far as the eye could see there was land of all different climates, seemingly next to one another with many different species of animals and plants, even the rare ones were abundant. There were oceans that spread far and wide, there were several gardens with multiple different kinds of fruit and vegetables and this area seemed to extend for miles in all directions, but what he was most happy to see were the people. People of all ages; from young kids to older adults.

“What is this place?” Evan asked.

“This is the afterlife for souls who do not want to go back to Earth again.”

Evan saw that next to him what looked like to be a man and a woman at the same time but also didn’t resemble a person at all, which he assumed was the one talking to him. They were very tall, way taller than any human and looked very old but somehow young at the same time.

“This…all these people are dead?!” Evan exclaimed.

“Unfortunately yes. Me and the other entities around could sense that their souls do not want to be human again because their souls are tired. They do not want to go back, and it is what we have sensed for you. You are tired, your soul could not move on after your physical body died. Your soul needs to rest.”

Evan noticed as he watched the people with curiosity, two of them seemed to be old, then a child, then a young adult and then a teenager all within a few seconds. “How…how did those two…” Evan trailed off.

“Change their ages right before your very eyes?” Evan nodded. “Those two are brothers, both died of old age, and ever since they met up again they love to compete who can switch the fastest.

“Everyone here can switch their ages within the time frame they were alive, you can even change back to a toddler if you wanted to! However, most people here prefer to stay around the age they died even though they can change that whenever they want, although most of the older folks tend to want to go back to their twenties.”

”So…I can be any age I want?”

“If it’s within the time you were alive, yes. Your case however, is one of our special ones. Your range isn’t very big, only ten years so there’s no possible way to know what you would have looked like if you were say, twenty.”

“I think I’ll stick with being ten if I can’t get older than this. So…what now?”

“Oh yes! I need to show you where you would be staying. No one here is homeless, after all.”

They only walked a few feet when suddenly, the scenery changed to many doors all around them as far as the eye could see, possibly even further. There were people scattered around the area, some talking with others, some going in rooms and others going out of rooms and becoming transparent until they disappeared before his very eyes.

“Woah, what happened? Where are we?” Evan asked as he looked around, noticing the area they were just standing in was no where to be seen.

“I suppose what you would call it in the human world is magic. Everyone here is able to perform it.”

“Even me?”

“Yes. It is how spirits can transport different places, disappear or appear without saying a word or seemingly unmoving. It’s very simple and doesn’t require any special skills, all you have to do is envision where you want to go and you will be transported there.”

They turned towards the door they were at and it looked like it was made of colorful stained glass, but nothing could be seen through it. Above the doorframe on an engraved gold plate read, ‘E. C. Afton’.

“This is mine?”

“Yes. Everything you could possibly want is in this room, it’s made especially for you.”

“Can I go back anytime? I wanna explore that place, it looks cool.”

“Yes. That is the common area, and all you have to do is envision it, same as when you want to be transported to your door. There, people can meet others, explore, anything you can think of and the area goes on forever in all directions so there’s no limit to what you’re able to investigate. I will leave you alone to explore on your own, but feel free to call me back anytime. Just call out ‘Spirit’ or ‘Entity’, and one will come to you.”

Evan nodded and the entity became transparent until they disappeared, just like a ghost. Evan turned to his door again, took a deep breath and turned the doorknob.

Chapter 98

Summary:

First day in this strange new place.

Evan opened his door and it immediately disoriented him because it was like there wasn’t even a room beside him. He went inside and shut the door behind him, and as he looked around he noticed that this room was bigger than any room he has ever had, although the one he did have was pretty small to begin with.

The walls were painted a sky blue color and the carpet was white with a sky blue rug in the middle of the room. On the wall, there were varying sizes of framed pictures of different types of jets which were one of his interests, some pictures looked like they were painted and some looked like actual pictures.

On the back wall there was a big jet that took up the whole area that looked like it was painted on the wall, with painted fluffy white clouds scattered across the four walls of the room and the ceiling. The room was also lit with a dim light so it looked a little more welcoming to him and it wasn’t too harsh on his eyes.

Scattered around the room were all his toys that he loved when he was alive, including the one he loved most which was a purple plastic telephone toy.

In another corner, there were all of his old plush toys, including the Foxy that Michael had ripped the head off of, but it looked good as new with its head back on. He loved his old plushies, he saw them as his only friends and he was devastated when Michael ripped the head off of Foxy. He went over to them, and as he went closer he saw leaning against the wall was one more that he did not see before.

“Fredbear!” he exclaimed and scrambled for it. Once he had it in his hands he hugged it tightly, being that it was his comfort item that was painful to be away from for all those years.

He looked behind him across the room, and he saw toys that he had never had before, but they were the ones that he wanted desperately.

He always knew his father wouldn’t care that he wanted them because if he did ask, his father has threatened many times to get rid of the ones he did have if Evan ever did anything to make him angry, so he kept quiet out of fear that his father might one day do exactly that. Now that he looked back on it, his father probably let Evan keep all of his toys to keep him busy and away from him.

He went over to the other corner of the room where the new toys were and saw the shiny red fire truck toy he had wanted since he saw it in the window of a toy store he passed. Next to that was a shiny new toy jet that rolled on the floor as well, and he thought it was the coolest thing ever because it looked realistic. Leaning against the wall in the corner was a giant teddy bear toy that was almost as big as him that he wanted ever since he saw it in that same toy store window.

He touched the giant toy and it was soft to the touch, way softer than he expected. He smiled and kneeled down, leaned Fredbear on the wall and pushed the jet and truck along the floor, pretending the fire truck was going to put out a fire and help the citizens played by his plushies, or making the jet fly around the room and mimicking a landing by building a runway for it by lining up two rows of toys, and what felt like for the first time in a long time he finally felt happy.

After a while of playing with his toys, he noticed another door that was small enough he had to crawl through. He picked up Fredbear, opened the door and on the other side he couldn’t believe what he saw and he gasped in astonishment. Inside was a huge bedroom, with a huge bed with a black comforter against a wall, the walls were painted deep red and the carpet was white.

There was a giant firefighter’s badge hanging above the bed, a firefighter’s hat on a hook right next to his bed with a firefighter’s jacket hanging under it, right behind him on a wall across the room from the bed was what looked like a huge painting of a fire truck, and finally a ladder leading to a room above him and he could come down using a firefighter’s pole. The room was also dimly lit so it was more welcoming, but it wasn’t too harsh on his eyes like the previous room.

He ran to the side of the bed and put Fredbear on it as he tried to contain his excitement, but couldn’t help shaking his fists out of happiness. He loved firefighters, it was what he wanted to be when he got older so knowing that this was all his was unbelievable to him.

Right next to his bed was a window with black curtains covering it and he opened the curtains to see that he was very high up, but looking down on the common area where everyone else was. It was a beautiful sight to see, and part of him couldn’t believe he would be seeing this every day. He opened the window and peaked his head out, looked to the right, left and under him and saw that there was nothing.

“Ooh, magic,” he said. He went back inside, closed the window and went to the opposite side of the room to see what was up the ladder in his bedroom.

He climbed the ladder which led to a small room above him, just big enough to fit a swivel seat, a desk, several pieces of paper, pencils, colored pencils, crayons and markers. It was also dimly lit and had a small window on one of the walls with curtains so he could open it if he wanted, but the desk had a lamp on it in case he needed more light to see what he was doing. He hoisted himself up and sat in the swivel seat, which he learned could spin around so he spun himself around on the chair until he got dizzy.

He was always embarrassed to tell anyone being that it could be another excuse to make fun of him, but he liked to sometimes draw pictures. It wasn’t on a regular basis since oftentimes he spent his time hiding from Michael and his friends, but now that he didn’t have to worry about them he could draw whenever he wanted.

“I could get used to this,” he said to himself when the room stopped spinning.

---

“Mum?” he called out a little while later as he explored the common area but no one there looked like his mother, or at least how he could remember her. “Mum, are you here?” No answer again and he could feel himself getting scared. “Mum! Please!” No answer again and no one looked like his mother that he could see as he scanned the huge area.

He tried to call out for her for a few hours, traveling for miles since his legs could no longer feel tired, but no luck. He went to a tree by him and sat under its shade, feeling the lump in his throat that would trigger the tears because crying was still possible in the afterlife. He hugged his knees and he let the tears trickle down his cheeks. “I don’t wanna be alone…” he said shakily.

After a few minutes he saw from his peripheral vision that the shadow of the tree he was under got slightly bigger. He looked up and saw a boy a little bit older than him, and he had thick light brown hair in a short hair style and had very light freckles all over his face. He wore a pair of browline glasses and had a casual plaid long sleeve shirt on tucked into his corduroy pants. His attire looked a few decades older than Evan’s, so he assumed he was killed before Evan was even born.

“Hey!” he said. “Are you new here?”

“Uh…” Evan wiped his tears. “Y-yeah.”

He sat down next to him. “I’m Oliver, what’s your name?”

“Evan.”

“Nice to meet you Evan! Were you the one calling out for your mom earlier?”

“Oh, uh yeah…”

“Did you find her?”

”No…” he said and he felt another wave of tears coming on but he held it back.

“Oh…I’m sorry. Is she still alive and that’s why she’s not here?”

“No. She was murdered in 1980, I thought she’d be here because I have a feeling that dealing with my dad all those years affected whether or not her soul was tired. I really miss her and I wanted to see her.”

“It’s the 80’s already?”

“Yeah. Before I came here, it was the year 1989 I’m pretty sure.”

“Wow. I’ve definitely been here a while. Anyways, Spirit might know something about your mom! I’m sure they’ll help!” He stood. “Spirit!” he called out and Evan stood up as well as he dried the last of his tears and what looked like the entity he was greeted with was suddenly standing in front of them.

“Are…are you the one who I saw when I first came here?” Evan asked them.

“Unfortunately, I am not. There are many of us around,” the entity said.

“Spirit,” Oliver said. “Evan is looking for his mom. D’you know where she is?”

“Evelyn Schmidt…used to be an Afton…” the entity said.

“Yeah, is she here?” Evan asked.

“Unfortunately, she is not.”

“She’s not?! I thought she was dead!”

“She is, but your father…you know your father is an evil man. To say the least, he trapped her.”

“He trapped her?! Where?!”

“An underground facility. She’s been there for years and we’ve tried everything, but unfortunately we can’t do much to help her get out because there’s only so much we can do to the physical world, which is next to nothing.”

“Well, is there any way I can see her? I miss her.”

The entity looked to the horizon and back to them. “Oliver, you are free to go. I will take it from here.”

“Got it!” He turned to Evan. “Will I see you tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?” Evan echoed.

“Yeah! We still have days and nights here! Why else would we be given our own rooms?”

“Well, I thought us meeting was just a one time thing.”

“I…I heard what you said earlier, and to me it sounds like you’re alone here and I know from experience that it can be really scary. I want to be your friend so you won’t have to be alone!”

“Having a friend would be pretty nice. Uh, yeah. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Awesome! Uh, what’s your full name so I know where to go tomorrow? This place is gigantic so it’s easy to get lost.”

“Evan Afton.”

“Afton…my brother had a friend with that last name once. I can’t remember his first name though…anyways see ya Evan!”

Evan waved to him and Oliver waved to both of them, ran off and disappeared to his own room.

“Oliver…very nice boy, but he has been here a long time, he’s been here since the 60’s.”

“Figured he was here a while. His clothes looked like they were from a long time ago. So…what did he mean that he knows what it’s like to be alone?”

“Well, he’s been here by himself for a long time, and still is. His mother is in her early seventies and still healthy his older siblings are still alive. His father has been out of the picture ever since he was a baby, he never even knew his own father, poor thing, so ultimately he just pretends that he never had one. But I think he just wants a friend as well to feel less alone.”

”Wow…what happened to him? Why is he here so young?”

“I don’t want to get into all the details since he will tell you that when he’s ready. It’s a little difficult for him to relive but he thinks it holds more meaning if he tells the story.”

“Oh…one more question. How did he recognize my last name?”

“Those are some more details that Oliver will tell you when he’s ready because he feels that information is better if it comes from him. It’s just…hard for him because it reminds him that he still has family on Earth and he can’t go back, and it’s been that way for over twenty years.”

“Oh…that’s fine. I wanna respect his wishes.”

“Now, back to what I was saying, we don’t normally let people travel to Earth, especially if they’re young and especially if they’re newcomers because traveling to Earth is very dangerous, much more dangerous than people would expect.”

“I’ll be careful!”

“Hmm…” they said and looked as though they were staring off into space, but a few seconds later they snapped out of it. “Sorry about that. The other entities and I were talking.”

“Right…right now?! You had a whole meeting right now?!”

“Yes, in these instances where it’s an emergency it’s a telepathic one, and it actually took a while but time is nonexistent here. We had to discuss what to do in this case and we all came to a decision: since your situation is vastly different from everyone else’s here we’ve decided to make some arrangements for you to see your family.”

“Really?!” he asked excitedly.

“Yes. I can teach you, but you must follow two rules with no exceptions: you have to be careful you’re not seen, in other words do not reappear in front of humans and you must be back before sundown.”

“I get the other part, but why sundown?”

“That is when poltergeists who roam the earth typically become more active, only on rare occasions will they become active during the day.”

“Poltergeist? What’s that?”

“It’s an evil spirit who can manipulate the physical world, and although most poltergeists were always poltergeists, very few were people just like you. They were regular spirits here in the afterlife who had evilness in their hearts and felt as though they could not move on.”

“But why do I have to be careful of them?”

“They happen to be the only ones who can hurt you. They can hit you, burn you, cut you, stab you, shoot you, anything you can think of.” Evan noticed that this entity wore a glove on their long slender left hand which was different than the other entity he was greeted by. “Poltergeist wounds are not the same as human wounds. Poltergeist wounds can remain on the body for years and be excruciatingly painful all those years. It’s…it’s not fun.”

“All this poltergeist stuff sounds pretty scary.”

“If you are worried about travel, it’s alright to stay here. The poltergeists cannot get to the afterlife because their souls refuse to move on, you are safe here.”

“No! I wanna go! I…I’ll be careful.”

“Now to travel is very simple, but it’s done differently. Instead of envisioning the person you want to see, you have to think of the name of the person you want to see and you’ve arrived. To disappear is pretty much the same way, all you think is the word, ‘disappear’ to become invisible, and the word, ‘appear’ to do the opposite.”

“Simple enough.”

“Good luck Evan and remember, be back before sundown, because there is a poltergeist who stays around Hurricane and I don’t want you getting hurt.” Evan hesitated but nodded. “But not to worry, the entities will be watching over you from afar and if you happen to get in trouble, they will transport you back before anything can happen.”

Evan nodded again, that information making him feel a lot better about traveling and the entity disappeared right in front of him.

Alright, let’s do this, he thought. He took a deep breath and thought his mother’s name, Evelyn Schmidt. He then closed his eyes and felt the temperature change around him, and once he opened his eyes he saw that the scenery changed drastically.

Chapter 99

Summary:

Visiting family members.

As Evan opened his eyes to look at the room the first thing he noticed is that it was dark and drab, much different than the common area he was in before. Even though he could tell that it was dark, he could see perfectly fine a few yards ahead of him like he had night vision.

“Hello?” he called out but there was no answer. “Mum?”

He walked around the room a little bit and saw there was nothing in the room but white tile and a small stage in the corner. He climbed onto the stage and as he looked out to the room, he noticed that there were several little robots with white tutu’s, white heads while the rest of them was a light brown color, black eyes with a little yellow light inside and a semicircle mouth scattered around the room.

Weird little things, he thought. He climbed down the stage and tried to avoid the weird miniature ballerinas as he walked around the room when he suddenly heard music. It sounded like it was coming from a music box, but it seemed to grow louder and softer so he figured that it was coming from something moving.

He followed the music for a little bit and across the room, he found a bigger ballerina animatronic about six feet tall at least who was dancing to move and had her eyes sealed shut, so he assumed that she couldn’t see.

He followed the animatronic around the room for a little while and it seemed as though the smaller ballerinas were following her. Weird, Evan thought. He continued to follow the big ballerina animatronic for a while but it didn’t help him at all with finding his mother and he thought he was wasting his time, so he was about to leave until he heard the robot start singing.

“Why do you hide inside your walls…When there’s music in my halls…All I see is an empty room…No more joy, an empty tomb…It’s so good to sing all day…To dance, to spin, to fly away…”

That singing sounded exactly like Evelyn to him, maybe slightly deeper but then again it has been years and she was probably tired of being here, but it still sounded almost exactly like her.

“Mum?” Evan said.

The robot stopped in their tracks. “Is someone there?” it asked.

“Yes! It’s me!”

“Who are you? I cannot see.”

“I’m Evan, Evan Afton.”

The animatronic stayed silent for a few seconds. “I have not heard that name for a long time.”

“Are you…is your name Evelyn?”

The animatronic stayed silent for a few seconds again. “I have not been called Evelyn in a long, long time, I almost forgot that the name was mine.”

Evan gasped. “It’s me Mum! It’s me, Evan!”

“Evan? My youngest son?”

“Yes! I’m here now, I’m really here now!”

“Evan, my baby boy, how I’ve missed you.” She held her hand out to Evan and he tried to hold her hand, but his went right through hers because he was just a spirit. “You’re cold,” she said.

“Well, I am just a spirit.”

“I saw what happened to you all those years ago, and I am so sorry Michael treated you that way. He shouldn’t have done that, it was never destined to end well either way. Where were you all these years?”

“I was a little like you, I was trapped in an animatronic. I was powerless to do anything, but I got out of that situation and I’m here now!”

Evelyn stayed silent for a minute. “Evan, I must warn you, you cannot stay here long.”

“What?! Why?!”

“I must warn you that your grandfather, my father, is a poltergeist. He comes down here often trying to taunt us by reminding us that we cannot leave this place.”

“Wait…us?”

“There is another soul here. Not in this room, but in the room right next to me.”

“Who?”

“I do not know, I only know because my father has said that there is someone next to me. I do not know what he will do to you if he finds you Evan, so you must leave before he comes!”

“It’s…it’s not sundown yet. I have time to check out the room next to you.”

”Be careful Evan.”

“I will Mum, I promise,” he said. “And I hope I’ll see you again soon.”

As he left, he found out he could pass through walls which made getting to the room ten times easier. When he got in the room, since he could only see a few yards ahead of him the room looked empty.

“Hello?” he called out.

”Who’s there?!” a voice from behind him said. He turned around and there was an animatronic standing behind him that was at least seven feet tall who looked like a circus clown. She was looking around the room with her green eyes lighting up wherever she looked like flashlights, and Evan realized that he was invisible but he was too frightened to show himself.

“Uh…” he started but trailed off.

“I know you’re there! Where are you?!”

Evan sighed and thought about going back, but he instead made himself appear in front of her. “Right in front of you,” he said as he stood his ground since he was tired of always being labeled as the ‘scaredy-cat’ and wanted to prove to himself that he wasn’t.

Circus Baby looked at him for a minute. “What? It can’t be…” she said.

“What?”

“Evan? Is that you?”

”How…how do you know my name?”

“Because…I’m your sister.”

Evan gasped. “Lizzy?”

”Yeah! It’s me Ev.”

”Lizzy! I-I thought I’d never see you again!”

“Me neither Ev. Where were you?”

“I was stuck in that Fredbear animatronic for a long time.”

“How did you get out?”

“Some guys threw us in the fire and I got free! I don’t know what happened to the other though…”

”There were two?!”

”Yeah! It was very weird.”

“That’s strange.”

“Real question is, what happened to you?!”

“Captured and suffocated, it all happened so fast that it’s hard to remember all the details.”

“By what?” Elizabeth pointed to the animatronic she was in. “Isn’t that Dad’s animatronic he was making?”

“He told me not to go near them. I should’ve listened and shouldn’t have been an ignorant little kid. I still don’t understand why he was making killing machines to capture children when he had kids himself!”

“He’s bad Liz!”

“What?”

“He’s evil! He’s an evil man! He’s killed kids before, that’s why he wanted to capture them!”

Elizabeth stayed silent for a minute as Evan’s words and the reality of it all finally sunk in. It only made sense that it was why he wanted to capture kids, and plus he knew she was down here but he never cared to come back and see her which just showed her how good of a parent he was. He always saw her as nothing but an annoyance and a burden and because of him, she was stuck in this facility for possibly many more years and could not rest.

“I’m gonna kill him one of these days to get back at him, I swear,” Elizabeth finally said.

“I’d hate to cut this reunion short, but I should get going. I think sunset’s about to start and I can’t stay here after dark.”

“Why?”

“Mum said her father is a poltergeist and he comes down here often. I was told that poltergeists can do terrible things to spirits if they see us!”

“Mummy? Mummy said that?”

”Yeah! She’s actually in the room next to you.”

“Why would he trap me down here and not let me see my own mother who is also here?! Some parent he is,” she said quietly.

“I…I guess I should get going.”

“If you must be going, nice seeing you Ev.”

He smiled. “Nice seeing you too Lizzy, and I hope to see you again.”

He disappeared again just in case, and he was about to go back to the afterlife common area or his room and play with his toys more or draw, but he got an idea.

Michael Afton, he thought.

Part of him didn’t want to see Michael since Evan was still angry at him, but he couldn’t help being curious about what he did with himself after six years.

He closed his eyes for a few seconds, felt the temperature change and opened his eyes to see that the scenery completely changed from a dark, drab room to a bright neighborhood where the sun was just starting to set. He looked at the house behind him and the house looked strangely familiar to him, like he has seen this house a long time ago but didn’t know where.

Where am I?

He walked to the sidewalk where he saw a person with forearm crutches on both of his arms, a plain black eye patch that Evan noticed was covering the majority of a very large scar on his face. He had a medium brown complexion with freckles scattered all over his skin and he had thick, shaggy, dark brown hair.

He wore a light blue t-shirt, his shirt was tucked into his khaki pants and he had on what looked like old black Vans with a white stripe on the sides. He was leaning on the back of a car in the driveway as he was looking down the street.

He was tired because he had walked around the block with the two others with him, which was only the second time he had walked that far without having to take a rest half way through, and he was resting up while the other two people decided to race each other down the street.

“You’re not Mike. Who are you?” Evan said, but the man didn’t say anything. “Uh…hello? Can you hear me?” The man seemed to look in his direction because he felt as though something was looking at him, shivered because the temperature dropped a few degrees and looked back down the road like before.

“Guess not,” Evan said. He looked out to where the man was looking and he saw two people who looked like they were racing down the street, one on a bicycle and one on a skateboard.

“Yeah Mike!” the man next to him suddenly said because the one on the bicycle was now ahead by a little bit.

Mike? Evan thought.

A few seconds later, the two people zipped in front of the house, slowed down and turned back in front of the man next to him.

“So? Who won?” one of them asked as they picked up their skateboard.

That one had a dark brown complexion and light patches on their skin, their hair was in locs but put into a ponytail so it would stay out of their face, a tan t-shirt with some rock band that Evan heard about but didn’t know that well, had ripped light blue jeans and wore the exact same kind of Vans the other man wore.

Evan new that person wasn’t Michael, so the one next to that person was definitely him. He looked way different than when Evan got a good look at him last (which was six years ago), but he still had his gray-blue eyes, freckles scattered across his face and a scar on his lip he got when he was little which were his identifying characteristics.

He still had his thick, wavy brown hair, but it was a little shorter than he used to have it but he looked like he was growing it out again. He wore a white t-shirt tucked into his black jeans and wore what looked like new black Converse shoes.

“C’mon, it was obviously me!” Michael said as he got off his bicycle.

“Shut up Mike! Your boyfriend’s the judge here!

Boyfriend? Mike has a boyfriend? Evan thought.

“Fine, since you won’t take my word for it. Jer? What d’you think?” Michael said.

Jer? Mike used to always call his best friend that…is that him?! As Evan studied the man’s face, he realized it was almost exactly how he remembered Jeremy, just with an eye patch, shorter hair, a little older and a stubble that looked like it hadn’t been shaved in a while. That is Jeremy…what happened to him?!

“Well, I think Mike’s right. He did beat you by a little bit,” Jeremy said.

”Hah! Told ya!” Michael said to the other person.

“This was the first time we went around the block, I was still getting used to this neighborhood!”

”It looks almost exactly how your neighborhood does.”

“Uh…no!”

”Excuses, excuses,” Michael said teasingly as he shook his head.

“Shut up!” they said and Michael laughed.

”Hey guys!” a voice from behind them said. Evan turned his attention to the voice with them and there he saw who was calling them.

Uncle Henry?

“Yeah Uncle?” Michael said as he put the kickstand out on his bicycle so he wouldn’t have to hold it in place.

”I just got off the phone with Jeremy’s dad, he said he should be home by seven because he has an early therapy appointment tomorrow!”

“Ugh! I hate those!” Jeremy said.

Michael looked at his watch. “It’s barely six, we’ll be in after we finish another lap around the block!” Henry nodded and went back inside.

”I have an idea!” Jeremy said. “How about this time, you and Alex switch?”

“Ooh, good idea Jeremy,” Alex said as they shoved their skateboard into Michael’s arms.

“Wh…hey! I dunno how to skate!” Michael said.

“Better learn quick,” they said and put the kickstand up. They tried to sit on the seat and almost fell because it was too tall. “Damn, you’re tall!”

“I have it like that ‘cause I’m like six feet tall, not 5’5”.”

”Shut up.”

Michael laughed as he put the skateboard down and tried to get on it, and once he was on it he tried to keep his balance. “How the hell d’you stay on this thing?!”

“Practice,” they said as they adjusted the seat lower.

Once it was the right height, Alex seemed to look in Evan’s direction for longer than just a glance like they knew something was watching the three of them. Evan stayed silent and backed away a few feet and they still stayed looking around worriedly, but put up the kickstand and got on the bicycle to not worry Michael and Jeremy.

“Enjoying watching me struggle Jer?” Michael said as he tried to keep his balance on the skateboard.

”Very much. It’s funny,” he answered through a snicker.

Alex laughed as they rode the bicycle around Michael since they knew how to ride a bike and they watched Michael try to stay on the skateboard.

As Evan watched them from a little ways away, wasn’t sure if he should feel mad or sad. He was watching Michael, his murderer, live the life he never got. Michael got to live with Henry instead of their father, get into a relationship and get another friend, all of which were things that Evan didn’t get a chance to do because Michael had taken that chance away from him.

And it made the feelings a little worse knowing the one he had gotten into a relationship with was someone who helped him pull that stupid prank.

Evan felt as though his heart dropped (even though it wasn’t actually there because he was just a spirit) and tears started to pour out of his eyes as he watched Michael, and he started making a few audible sobs as he slumped down on the ground. He covered his mouth with his hand when he saw Michael look up with confusion and jump off the skateboard.

“Did you hear that?” Michael said when he got off the skateboard.

“Hear what?” Jeremy asked.

“It sounded like…someone crying.”

“Was it the ghost dude? You’re the ghost whisperer, not us,” Alex said as they still rode the bicycle around in big circles around Michael.

“No, I can recognize his voice, it’s all deep and sounds like he smoked his entire life. This one sounded like it was a kid crying, I can only hear it sometimes though.”

“Oh. A kid ghost?”

“Maybe.”

Evan heard them and tried to stop the sobs to keep himself hidden like he was supposed to, but every time he looked at Michael he couldn’t help it. Eventually the sadness was too much for him to handle and Evan closed his eyes tightly while the tears streamed down his cheeks, where the sadness soon turned into boiling anger.

Evan opened his eyes and directed that energy towards Michael as he stared at him with tears streaming down his face, and soon he saw Michael walk backwards in fright, trip on his own two feet, fall backwards and when he hit the ground he hit it so hard the wind was knocked out of him.

“Woah Mike, you okay?!” Alex asked as they stopped the bicycle and put out the kickstand.

“Mike?! What happened?!” Jeremy shrieked and both he and Alex went over to him.

Michael caught his breath after a minute. “Did…didn’t you see it?!” Michael shrieked as he sat up too fast and tried to slow his breathing. “Ow…God, I shouldn’t have done that,” he said under his breath because his back ached from falling on it.

“See what?” Alex asked.

“The words, ‘it’s me’ showed up right in front of my face and it looked all glitchy and weird! I also heard these strange garbled sounds like something was trying to talk to me and it freaked me out! I don’t know what it is, this never happened to me before!” Jeremy and Alex looked at each other and back at Michael. “I swear to God I’m telling the truth!”

“What’re you talking about?” Jeremy said. “Are you okay Mike? Are you sick?”

“I…God, I don’t know.”

“This heat is probably making you see things, we’ve been out here for a while so you’re probably dehydrated or something. Let’s go inside and we’ll finish the race another day, we have all summer,” Alex said and Michael nodded as Alex helped him up. “You go inside with Jeremy, I’ll put your bike in the garage.”

Michael nodded as he and Jeremy went to the front door and went inside, while Alex put the bicycle in the garage and the skateboard by the front door so they could take it home later.

After that Alex looked back because even though they couldn’t hear it, they definitely knew something was there because of Michael’s reaction and he noticed the temperature drop a few degrees, and they didn’t know whether to be scared or not because it was a different entity according to Michael. This entity was just a little kid, but because of the non-human experience Michael just had because of it this one was mad at him, but also powerful.

They really just wanted to get Michael inside in case the entity did anything else to him, they knew he wasn’t dehydrated but it actually was very warm out. After a minute of scanning the area they went inside the house to join Michael and Jeremy in the kitchen getting water.

It actually worked… Evan thought as he went back to the common area of the afterlife because the sun was starting to go down.

Chapter 100

Summary:

Jeremy is in denial this is all happening.

(this chapter is kinda intense)

”Well Jeremy, that concludes our session today,” the physical therapist told Jeremy one Thursday afternoon.

“I’m done today?” Jeremy asked.

“Yup!”

“That felt like way more than an hour.”

The therapist laughed. “Well, you are making great progress, and very quickly too might I add.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Yup! I am very impressed! Let’s get you back out to the lobby with your dad.”

She led Jeremy back to the parallel bars for him to hold onto because they were walking together around the unit, and once he was holding onto them she went and brought him his forearm crutches. He put them on and they went back out to the lobby together to meet Jeremy’s father waiting out in the lobby.

“That the last one for today?” Diego asked the therapist once he saw her in the doorway and Jeremy went over to him.

“Yup! He’s making great progress very fast, I’m very impressed! The team and I were also thinking,” Jeremy turned to her as his father helped him put on his jacket after he put on his own, “it seems we’ve done all that we can do and you Jeremy are making great progress very quickly, so how do you feel about discharge from these therapies soon?”

“Really?” Jeremy asked enthusiastically.

“Yeah! How would you feel about not coming here a few times a week anymore?”

“That would be great! I don’t really know what I’d do with myself yet but I’ll find something!”

“I’ll talk with the team about it a little more and we’ll let you know an exact date soon. See you next week!”

“Bye!” Jeremy said and he and his father went out the front door. “¿Has oído eso? ¡Den de alta pronto!” (Did you hear that? Discharge soon!) Jeremy said slowly so he wouldn’t mess up but enthusiastically as he and his father walked through the parking lot in the cold January weather.

“¡Escuché a Jeremy! ¡Estas son buenas noticias!” (I heard Jeremy! This is good news!) his father replied.

“Por fin después de...¿cuántos años han pasado desde que empecé con esto?” (Finally after...how many years has it been since I started this?)

”Dos.”

”Jesús, dos años...” (Jesus, two years…)

They both got in the car as soon as it was unlocked, and once Jeremy got inside and was sitting in the passenger’s seat Diego put Jeremy’s crutches in the backseat like always. After that he went to the driver’s side of the car, turned the key in the ignition and heard the roar of the engine as they both closed their doors.

For the next fifteen minutes they drove, and Jeremy stared out the window quietly at the lightly snow dusted desert passing by. He hasn’t been able to sleep well for the past few nights, so his mind was wandering off while he tried to fight against closing his eye and drifting off until he got back home.

Jeremy was falling half asleep in the passenger’s seat when they got on a road a few miles from his house, but it wasn’t even five minutes later when he felt the car slow down suddenly. Jeremy jolted awake, confused because he couldn’t see any other cars on the road and he looked at his father next to him hoping for an answer.

“Las carreteras están heladas,” (Roads are icy.) his father told him.

“Pero... ¡antes no lo eran!” (But…they weren’t before!) Jeremy said.

“No sé, parece que ha sucedido de repente...” (I don't know, it seems to have happened all of a sudden...) Diego tried to back up to get back onto the main road leading to their house, instead of being on the shortcut route a little ways outside town he always took because there were no buildings or traffic around, but as he backed up the road still seemed icy which was strange because they weren’t a minute ago. “Supongo que no tenemos elección.” (I guess we have no choice.)

“Esto es como una especie de magia extraña,” (This is like some kind of strange magic.) Jeremy said.

They drove on slowly, and Jeremy huffed in irritation because he knew at this rate it’d be a while before he got back home. He stared up at the car roof when he closed his eye since he decided he would try and take a quick nap because they were going slow, and it wasn’t until about five minutes later when he felt the car speed up suddenly along with the temperature suddenly dropping and he jolted awake again.

”Pensé que habías dicho que las carreteras estaban heladas,” (I thought you said the roads were icy.) Jeremy said through a yawn as he turned to his father.

”Yo…¡Yo hice! ¡No estoy haciendo nada!” (I...I did! I'm not doing anything!)

Jeremy looked at him with confusion, but Diego lifted his foot off the brake and took his hands off of the steering wheel, but the car was still gradually speeding up seemingly by itself.

Jeremy went wide eyed. “Oh shit,” he said as he fastened his seat belt, since he didn’t have it on because they were going slow. He knew what happened when you drove fast on ice, and he knew it wasn’t good. “Are…are we gonna die?”

“I…I don’t know.”

A few minutes later the car was now at sixty miles per hour after Jeremy noticed that his father wasn’t controlling the car, and Jeremy noticed that Diego was trying to open the door to try and jump out so he tried to do the same. Jeremy tried with all his might to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Even as he pulled on the lock of the door it seemed stuck in place like it was glued and wouldn’t move.

Jeremy saw that his father was having the same issue with the door, so he tried to break the window and Jeremy tried to do the same. No matter how hard he hit the window it didn’t seem to budge like they were thick even though these windows were supposed to break easily.

After many minutes of trying to break out and no one getting any luck, Jeremy and Diego looked at each other as if saying, ‘we’re trapped’.

At seventy miles per hour, Jeremy tried to break open his window again but it was no use because nothing happened. Jeremy stayed silent in his seat trying to not have a panic attack as his mind was racing, wondering if he would die today or somehow survive again like in 1987.

Eighty miles per hour, and Jeremy tried to hold back tears almost certain he was going to die because they were going so fast. He was starting to hyperventilate as he sat frozen in fear and staring straight ahead like a deer in headlights.

At eighty five miles per hour, Diego reached over and lightly touched his shoulder. Jeremy looked over to him, his father blurry from the tears in his eye but he saw his father was tearing up as well.

“No matter what happens Jeremy, I just want you to know that I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for all the times I have failed you before your accident. I’m sorry for not being a better dad, I’m sorry for not being there for you when I should’ve, I’m so sorry for everything. I know I don’t say it often, but I love you Jeremy,” Diego said shakily.

Jeremy stared at him, part of him not believing what he was hearing because he was in shock. At almost ninety miles per hour Jeremy reached over the console, sobbing into his father’s chest as he hugged him not being able to muster up any words because he was crying so hard.

Diego held him tightly and covered Jeremy’s head with his arms and hands as much as he could, like he was shielding him from the danger that they were going to face and he would get the full effects instead of both of them.

When the car reached one hundred miles per hour, the brake was suddenly pressed as hard as it would go seemingly by itself. Jeremy held onto his father tightly as the car skid on the road, buried his face into his father’s chest so he was certain that he wouldn’t see anything and shut his eye just to make sure, while his father continued shielding Jeremy and holding him tightly as he shut his own eyes and turned away from the windshield.

The wheel was suddenly turned sharply to the left by some strange force and the car went off of the road, Jeremy not daring to let go of his father, open his eye and look. The car eventually slid sideways down a hill, and because of the momentum the car had it was going downhill fast.

It wasn’t long before the car then bumped into a huge rock, which tipped over the car and sent the car flipping several times down the large hill they were on. Jeremy could hear the glass breaking, the car smashing against the ground with each flip, all while he turned right side up and upside down over and over again with the car, but he eventually felt that it had stopped when they got to the bottom but the car landed upside down.

Jeremy was almost certain that he was dead, but he could feel his stomach expanding very rapidly with each breath he took. He couldn’t hear his own breathing, being that it was drowned out by a very loud ringing in his ears. 

When he worked up the courage and opened his eye a few minutes after the car stopped, he let go of his father and he was terrified by what he saw; broken glass everywhere, the car roof was smashed towards him, it was very dark because the front of the car seemed to have bent towards the windshield but from the little he could see there were several cuts on his arms, some big and some little, and he saw his clothes were soiled with blood but he wasn’t sure if that was his blood.

His heart was beating fast, he was hyperventilating and he was terrified, almost in denial this was all happening and it was all a dream. Everywhere he looked was disoriented, his ears were ringing from the loud and violent crashing of the car, and his body ached but he tried to ignore it when he saw where the light from outside was coming from.

It was from the window closest to him, and there was a small space where he didn’t even know if he could fit leading to the outside. He didn’t want to unbuckle his seatbelt just yet because if he did, it was possible that he could’ve fallen on his head or neck so he tried to reach the edge of the car roof outside to pull himself out that way.

He reached to the space with his left hand since that was his stronger side to pull himself out but he didn’t have a good grip, so he eventually tried his right since he would have a better grip that way. As he reached with his right and moved his wrist to hold onto the car roof, it sent a terrible pain that felt like his wrist was being constantly stabbed and on fire at the same time. He kept trying to move it closer to the outside but the pain seemed to continue to grow worse with each movement he made as he tried to force himself to reach.

He eventually gave up when he felt tears streaming up his face because he was stuck upside down, and he put his wrist in its original limp position and held it with his free hand but the pain seemed to not dissipate like he hoped it would. He was crying out of pain and panic about what happened to his wrist, but he tried to take deep breaths to calm down and it eventually helped calm him down but didn’t do anything for the pain.

It’s gonna be alright Jeremy. I’m alive somehow, and hopefully someone’ll come by and help. I probably just broke a wrist or something, it’ll be fine! he thought as he tried to calm himself down.

“Dad?” he said softly after the ringing in his ears went away a few minutes later, but there was no answer so he thought he just hadn’t heard him. “Dad?” he said a little louder, but again there was no answer which was strange to Jeremy because the ringing should have stopped, but then the dreadful feeling of why he hadn’t responded to his cries of pain hit him and he could feel the tears building up behind his eye. “Papá?! Dad?! Dad, are you there?!”

There was no answer and Jeremy let the tears fall, but they traveled up his face since he was upside down. “No…no Papá, please wake up,” he said through sobs but again there was no answer and he tried to shake him by the shoulder, but Jeremy felt no movement from his father.

He hugged his father’s body which was now freezing cold from the temperature outside and was no longer warm like it usually was, but he didn’t care that his clothes got more soiled with more of his father’s blood and his right wrist was in pain because he moved it to hug his father, he was too upset to care.

Even though he was now a twenty year old man he let himself cry like a baby even though his head was now hurting and pounding, but he wasn’t sure if it was because of all of his sobs, the fact he was upside down or both. Jeremy never in a million years thought he would be this upset over his father’s death, but he was.

For a while since Jeremy heard no cars on the road he was trying to accept that this was how he’d die, because even though he miraculously survived the crash it was still close to freezing outside.

He tried to use his jacket, took his father’s jacket off his body and put it on as carefully as he could to not hurt himself and used whatever else he could find to keep warm, but it wasn’t much.

When he couldn’t find anything else to keep warm, he tried to use his own body heat to keep warm by wrapping his arms around his own body as if hugging himself, but even his own body temperature was starting to drop because he was so cold and his body was shivering uncontrollably. He tried to hold onto his father to use whatever remaining body heat he still had, but Jeremy’s hands were numb from the cold so he couldn’t feel anything.

After he found what he could Jeremy started singing to himself to try to keep calm one of the only songs he knew all the words to, but it was barely a whisper because of how weak he had gotten from the cold and blood rushing to his head.

“Help me make the most of freedom and of pleasure, nothing ever lasts forever. Everybody wants to rule the world…”

After he finished the song his mind wandered off to the only two people left alive who cared about him, Michael and Alex.

Would Alex know how much he platonically loved them, how he was forever thankful that they’ve been there for the good days and the bad days for the past three years, how he was grateful that they were always understanding and patient with him, how they were always kind to him even though he doesn’t look how he used to, how Jeremy loved their sense of humor and always made him smile when he was having a bad day?

Would Michael know how much Jeremy loved him? How he was forever thankful that he’s stuck by his side for over ten years, dated him for four of those years and Michael still loved him just as much as the day they met?

How much Jeremy loved that he tried to put on a tough exterior, but really he was a kind, dorky and funny person who always made Jeremy happy and how Michael wanted to undo all of his wrongs and make it right? How Jeremy loved that Michael loved and cared for him so much that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt him, emotionally or physically, and even though they argued sometimes they would make up very quickly and still always loved each other? 

After a while he closed his eye and he felt his whole body start to go numb, he could feel his heart beating fast to keep him warm and any amount of warmth was now getting rarer and rarer. After many minutes of trying to accept he would die by freezing to death and wished the crash would’ve taken him out quickly instead of going through this slow death, Jeremy heard the faint sound of a car engine.

He thought it would drive off because the ice that was covering the road had now melted rather quickly as if it was only meant for them, but the car didn’t drive away and it seemed like it pulled off to the side of the road. He heard a pair of footsteps come up to the side of the car, crunching the frozen dry grass underneath their shoes and without thinking Jeremy softly said, “Help.”

“Oh my God,” a man said who was inspecting the wreckage because he was going to call it in as he was passing by, but decided to check just in case. He was clearly surprised and not expecting to hear a voice from under the car because of how badly the car was damaged from the outside.

“Help me,” Jeremy said softly. “Under here, I can’t get out.”

“Uh, let me run back to the car, grab the phone to call the paramedics and I’ll try to help you.”

“Please hurry. It hurts, and it’s so cold out here.”

He heard the man run off to his car as Jeremy held the bigger jacket in place, now getting more dizzy and lightheaded than before. Jeremy tried to fight against it, but because of the blood rushing to his head for so long he passed out.

The man ran to the car, opened the door and he scrambled for the emergency telephone that was always kept in his car in the glovebox.

“What are you doing?!” his wife in the passenger’s seat shrieked.

“There’s a person in there, I take it he’s been trapped under there for a good chunk of time based on how softly he spoke.”

“There’s a man trapped?” his daughter in the backseat asked.

“Yes sweetie.” He found the telephone and dialed 9-1-1 and he was almost immediately connected with a dispatcher. “Uh, there’s been a wreck, the car was flipped over and I heard one survivor. He didn’t sound too good though so I think he was stuck under there for a while…oh yes, the road that goes around town, the one some people take to avoid traffic…okay, please hurry, I dunno how much longer he’ll last under there.”

Chapter 101

Summary:

A last minute decision to decide what to do until all of this is sorted out.

It was seven in the evening, and Michael just got home after his afternoon college classes got out for the day because he went to a gas station for a pack of gum and a soda. After he shut the front door behind him, he said, “Hey Uncle! I’m home!”

Henry looked behind him from where he was on the couch watching television to relax after he got home from work. “Hey Mike! How was school?”

“Fine. We’re not doing much since it’s barely the first week back.”

“Expected. I think it should be picking up by next week though.”

“Yay. I’m so happy,” he replied in a monotone voice and he sipped his soda.

Henry snickered. “Dinner’s on your own tonight, I’m sorry but I’m just too tired to make anything.”

“I can go pick up something!”

“Yeah, if you want, that’s what I did on my way home. Today wore me out.”

Michael put his soda cup on a shelf as he took off his coat, put his coat on a hook and grabbed his cup again. “Hey Uncle, can I tell you something?”

Henry turned off the television. “Sure, anything.”

Michael sat next to him on the couch as he sipped his soda and put the cup on the coffee table. “So uh, I know I just kind of sound like a broken record at this point, but I’m getting the feeling again.”

Henry looked at him with confusion. “What?”

“The feeling? Y’know, when something bad happens!”

“Oh, that one! Um, are you sure?”

“Yes! Someone got hurt, I know it! I just don’t know who though.” Just then, the telephone rang and Henry was about to stand up to get it but Michael said, “I’ll get it Uncle.” He stood and went over to the phone. “Hello?” he answered in his American accent.

“Is this Michael Afton?” the woman on the other end asked. Michael looked over at Henry who was watching him and Michael shrugged.

“Uh…yes?” he answered.

“I need you to come down to the local hospital.”

“Hospital?! Why?!”

“We have a young man here who asked for you, his name is Jeremy Fitzgerald. He’s in shock right now, and because of that he’s been getting aggravated or having crying spells and he won’t let anyone help him. He said you were the only person he wanted to see right now.”

Michael stood in shock for a few seconds. “Wha…what happened?!” he asked but louder than intended.

”Car wreck.”

“Oh my God…alright, I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

“And if you can, bring some extra clothes for him. When first responders got to him his others were no good anymore.”

“Got it. Be there as soon as I can,” he said. He put the telephone down, went over to the coat hanger and put on his coat again.

He was about to head upstairs to grab some clothes because he didn’t have a key to Jeremy’s house when Henry stopped him. “Woah, hey, where are you going?! Who was that?!” Henry asked as he stood.

“A nurse called, she said Jeremy’s at the hospital, the local one. He’s hurt, and he said he wants to see me.”

“Hospital?! Jeremy?!” He sighed. “Alright, but call me later when you have time to talk.”

“I will, don’t worry.”

---

About thirty minutes later, Michael went in the front doors to the local hospital lobby, practically running. He went up to the front desk out of breath because he had to park his car in the furthest parking spot because there was no room, and the receptionist stared at him not expecting to see a young man run in out of breath today.

“Uh…can I help you sir?” the receptionist asked.

“Jeremy Fitzgerald. I was called…to see a patient here…named Jeremy Fitzgerald. I’m…uh…” He spoke so low it was almost a whisper, “ Michael Afton.”

“No one but immediate family members are allowed to see patients sir.”

“I know, but it’s urgent.”

“Urgent?”

“Yes! Where is he?!”

“I’m sorry but you’re not allowed in! It’s the law!”

“But I have to get to him now!”

“I’m sorry but you can’t bend the rules when it has to do with the law!”

”But he asked for me!”

“Did he now?!”

“He won’t listen to the doctors or nurses, and I assume they’re making him angry because he has trauma from hospitals! I know him, and when he gets mad he gets aggressive, even if he can’t walk well right now he’ll find a way, he’s way smarter than most people think! I’m the only person he’ll listen to when he’s like this and the only one who can help calm him down! I’m here to help him!”

The receptionist sighed an irritated sigh because Michael could tell she was annoyed, she looked up the name, ‘Fitzgerald’ to get the room telephone number and dialed it. “Hello Michelle, did your patient ask for someone named Michael Afton?” she said into the telephone once the nurse answered, and the receptionist listened to the woman on the other line explain the situation for a couple minutes. “Oh, is that right?…Oh my goodness…Alright, I’ll tell him.”

She put the phone down. “So it seems you were right, I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. I’m going to need you to wait here though since his nurse, Michelle is going to come get you since this situation is urgent and she doesn’t want you getting lost in here.”

Michael nodded and went by the chairs, but didn’t sit as he paced around the lobby with his mind racing, being that he never thought he would spend his Thursday evening after the college day got out at the hospital. A few people and children on the chairs watched him as he paced and mumbled to himself, but Michael didn’t even acknowledge their stares since his mind was too loud with thoughts to be worried about them.

After a few minutes, a woman finally tapped him on the shoulder. “Are you Michael Afton?” she asked him and he nodded. “I’m Michelle, Jeremy Fitzgerald’s nurse. I’m going to need you to follow me.” She motioned him to follow her and they quickly walked to the elevator.

She pushed the button to call it down and the door opened immediately, they both went in and she pushed the button to the second floor. As the door closed Michael asked, “So uh…what happened?”

“Car wreck, a tragic one indeed. When first responders arrived at the scene the car was upside down and when they finally got to Jeremy, because of the blood rushing to his head for so long and because it was so cold out today he was passed out.

“It took a while to raise his body temperature again, but he woke up about two hours before I called you and once he realized where he was he started crying, yelling and resisting the doctors and nurses. Overall just being aggressive, and now for about an hour he hasn’t said a word.”

“Oh…oh my God…”

“Before he went nonverbal, I asked him what would help him since we only wanted to help and he said he wanted two things: coffee and you.”

Michael snickered softly because he knew that coffee was a comfort beverage for Jeremy, so part of him knew that he would ask for that.

She and Michael stayed silent as the elevator door opened and they went out. “Did you happen to bring extra clothes for him?” she asked as she led him down a hallway.

“I couldn’t get his because I don’t have a key to his house, so I got some of my clothes that were a bit small on me for him.”

She finally noticed the black folded clothes in his arms, nodded and she continued walking until she stopped in front of a door, opened it and poked her head in. “Hey Jeremy?” she said and Michael heard nothing in response. “Michael’s here.”

“Mike?” he said softly and she opened the door wider, and after a while of waiting he was relieved to finally see Michael in the doorway.

Michael saw Jeremy in a hospital gown, the hospital bed he was in was reclined so he was sitting up, with bandages wrapped around his forearms, a few bandages were patching up his face, and his eyepatch was off but on the table next to him along with his necklace that somehow survived the crash. His only good eye looked a little swollen but it wasn’t too bad, but the most noticeable thing was perhaps that his right wrist was in a cast and his right arm was in a sling so it would stay elevated.

Right next to him within reaching distance was a tray with an empty coffee cup and another right next to it that was half full, so Michael assumed he kept drinking it before Michael showed up from stress and to distract himself. In his free hand he held what looked like a black leather jacket that looked big for him, so Michael assumed it belonged to his father and he refused to let go of it except to take a sip of coffee.

Jeremy put the jacket in his lap and reached out for Michael with the only hand he could, and without thinking Michael went over to him, put the extra clothes on the end of the bed and hugged him.

“Mikey…” Jeremy said softly and shakily.

“It’s okay, I’m here now,” Michael said comfortingly.

“I’ll leave you two alone,” the nurse said and shut the door.

Jeremy and Michael stayed in place for a long while, just hugging each other and soon Michael felt Jeremy sobbing into his shoulder.

“Shhh, I got you now. You’re safe with me,” Michael said and Jeremy continued to sob and hug him tightly. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“But…i-it’s not okay!” Jeremy sobbed.

”What? What d’you mean?”

“Dead! He’s dead Michael! M-my dad’s dead!” Michael stayed silent for a few seconds as he tried to process Jeremy’s words. “I-I don’t know what to do! Both of my parents are dead! I-I’m so scared Mike!”

“You don’t have to be. Well…we’ll figure this out.”

He continued hugging Jeremy until his sobs started to grow further and further apart, and soon he stopped crying but laid his head on Michael’s shoulder and Michael started swaying as if rocking him to sleep to calm him down. “Are you sure it’s gonna be okay?” Jeremy asked quietly.

“Yes. We’ll figure something out eventually, don’t worry.”

Jeremy and Michael let go of each other and backed away, and Michael sat on the bed as Jeremy wiped away his tears. “At least the feeling I’m being watched went away,” Jeremy said to try and cheer himself up.

Michael smiled as he wiped away the tears on Jeremy’s face that he missed. “And um…I brought you some more clothes. She said to, but I couldn’t get any of yours since I don’t have a key to your house, so I brought you some of mine that were a little small for me.”

Michael handed him the folded clothes and Jeremy unfolded them to see that it was a plain black sweatshirt and black sweatpants. “They look comfortable,” Jeremy said and Michael chuckled.

“Hope they are, they’re still pretty new but the place wouldn’t let me return them, they’re pretty good for me to wear just around the house anyway. That’s even the tallest size I could find and they’re still a little short for me by like, half an inch which is annoying.”

“You beanstalk. You’re so tall,” Jeremy said and Michael laughed.

“I’m just a few inches taller than you!”

“Still! You could be like, a basketball player or something,” he said and Michael chuckled.

Over the next forty five minutes, Jeremy explained to Michael what happened and why his arm was in a cast, but he also explained that the jacket he was holding belonged to his father since it was one of the few pieces of clothing that was savable.

He explained what happened to his father based off of what the doctors said since Jeremy couldn’t see what happened to him; he told Michael that the doctors said it looked like he was stabbed in the side by a car part, and since he already lost a lot of blood from deep wounds he already had he died almost instantly from blood loss.

The doctors said that Jeremy was lucky to have survived and only gotten a broken wrist and some wounds on his arms, legs and face, but it was still a miracle nonetheless since it looked like he would have suffered the same fate as his father, but broken car parts missed him by a couple inches.

To get Jeremy’s mind away from the situation, Jeremy asked Michael to sit next to him in the hospital bed, so Michael squeezed in and for a little over an hour they cuddled silently because Jeremy needed the comfort, but he also wanted to try to relax in Michael’s arms after the trauma he experienced that day.

A while later, Michael was out in the hall on the phone with Henry since Jeremy didn’t want Michael in the room while he changed out of the hospital gown into the extra clothes Michael brought, but one of the male nurses was helping him instead since it was difficult for Jeremy to change with just one arm.

Michael heard three rings and then Henry answered the phone.

“Hello?” Henry answered.

“Hey Uncle! It’s me.”

“Mike! It’s been a while, I was getting worried.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Jeremy’s just…shaken up right now so I was trying to comfort him.”

“How is he?”

“He’s…alright for the most part. He has several cuts with bandages on every limb I think, his eye seems a bit swollen but it’s not too bad, but perhaps the most noticeable was the cast on his wrist. Apparently, he has a fractured wrist so he can’t use crutches ‘till it heals but his were destroyed anyway. He wasn’t too happy about that.”

“God…what happened to him?”

“Car crash. The nurse said the car was flipped upside down and he was passed out when they got to him because he was stuck like that for a long time.”

“Goodness, so I take it he wasn’t driving so what happened to the driver?”

“Uh…his father’s…dead.”

Henry gasped. “He died?!”

“Yeah. I was talking to one of the nurses a few minutes ago and she said that when they got to him, it was too late to save Mr. Fitzgerald because he lost so much blood.

“She said Jeremy looked like he was dead because he was covered in blood and passed out, but it turns out most of it was his father’s blood and Jeremy was still breathing, so they said it was nothing short of a miracle that he survived an accident as tragic as this. Jeremy was able to get help from passersby right before he passed out, that’s what he told me.”

“Thank God he did, so what’s going to happen now?”

“I dunno. We’re still figuring that part out. So uh, Uncle, Jeremy and I were thinking until we sort this out, and I know this is all out of the blue but would you mind if Jeremy stayed over since he doesn’t have to spend the night in the hospital?”

“He doesn’t have to?”

“Apparently. All this happened at like, one today and it’s about ten right now according to the clock I see, so it’s been a while and they were able to do everything they needed to do. The biggest thing they needed to do was x-rays of his wrist and put the cast on.”

Henry sighed. “He can’t really climb stairs well, so he can’t get his own room.”

“I said that, and he said he can sleep on the couch if he needs to, he doesn’t mind.”

Henry stayed silent in thought for a minute. “Okay, since he has nowhere else to go. It’ll take a little bit of planning since I dunno how long he’ll be staying, but we’ll make it work.”

---

“I can’t believe I have to be in the stupid wheelchair again,” Jeremy said when Michael pushed the wheelchair to the side of his car an hour later.

“It’s just temporary Jer. Your crutches were kinda destroyed in the crash so we have to get you a new pair sometime. Once you do we can give this back to the hospital,” Michael said as he opened the door, put Jeremy’s necklace and eyepatch on the dashboard and helped Jeremy with the transfer from his wheelchair to the seat in the car.

”Why did it have to break my damn wrist?! Why not my leg or something, they both don’t work anyway!”

Michael closed Jeremy’s door, put the wheelchair in the trunk of the car and went to the driver’s side and shut the door behind him once he was inside. “They do work Jer, they just need extra compensations,” he said as he turned the key in the ignition.

Once they were on the road Michael asked, “Are you hungry? I can make you something when we get back ‘cause I don’t think places are open.”

“Nah. No appetite.”

“Not even cereal?”

“Nah.”

“What if I throw in a Coke or something? I’m willing to share a bottle with you and I rarely share my Coke’s, but you can only have it if you eat cereal at least.”

Jeremy smiled. “Fuck you, fine.”

Michael snickered. “I knew I could bribe you. Knowing you, you probably haven’t eaten that hospital food and I don’t want you to go to sleep hungry.”

“Well what about you?!”

“I’ll find myself something when we get there, don’t worry about me.”

As they drove, Jeremy was silent as he watched the cars passing by next to him on the highway, and Michael stayed quiet because he knew how it felt to witness the death of a parent.

When Michael saw his mother get murdered, he wanted the world to go away, he didn’t want to talk, he was grieving silently and trying not to think about it even though the memories came back to him sometimes. He assumed Jeremy was the same way, but wanted to reassure him that he would still be there to listen.

“Hey Jer?” Michael said as he drove and Jeremy turned to him. “I…I know how you must feel. I know how it feels to loose a parent in front of you and it’s terrifying, especially if it was a parent that actually cared about you, so if you ever want to talk I’m right here.”

Jeremy smiled weakly, nodded and turned back to staring out the window.

Once they got to the house and both of them got to the front door, Michael rang the doorbell and Henry opened the door for them.

“Hey Uncle,” Michael said.

“Hi Mr. Emily!” Jeremy said to Henry.

“Hey you two! Come in, it must be freezing out there.” They both went inside and Henry shut the door behind them. “Jeremy, I heard about what happened and I’m so sorry. I know it must be really hard for you.”

“You can say that again.”

He noticed the jacket Jeremy was wearing over the sweatshirt Michael gave him was a little bit big for him. “Who’s jacket is that?” he asked.

”My dad’s. I had them clean it off ‘cause I wanted to keep it.”

“I’m glad you still have something of his. Uh, until we get your living situation all sorted out, did you want to sleep down here or do you want to try the stairs? Michael converted Charlie’s old room into his study space since it wasn’t being used, but I still have the old full sized bed in the garage, and I’m sure Mike’ll be willing to move his stuff.” He turned to Michael. “Right?”

“Uh, yeah!” Michael answered.

He turned back to Jeremy. “Down here, the couch is a Hide-a-Bed, but it is old because I’ve had that here since Heather and I got the house. It’s up to you.”

“Uh…I’ll sleep down here. I don’t feel comfortable going up there,” Jeremy said.

As Henry went over to the couch to set up the Hide-a-Bed Michael caught up to him and said, “Hey Uncle, just a quick question, don’t you have work tomorrow?”

“Yeah, but I called in because I assume we’re gonna be busy tomorrow since I was thinking we’d have to help Jeremy pack, and I wouldn’t just leave you two to do it all yourselves.”

“Oh, I didn’t even think of that. Yeah, thanks Uncle.”

---

After everyone was supposed to be asleep in the house at one thirty in the morning, Jeremy was still wide awake staring at the ceiling, holding his father’s jacket tightly and close to his chest trying not to get flashbacks from earlier that day. Feeling his father’s cold lifeless body was terrifying to him, it was in a way that he never thought would be as terrifying as it was.

Part of him was still in denial that he was now on his own. His father’s brother and his kids were down in Mexico, as was his father’s mother, and he was pretty sure his mother’s parents were dead because he hasn’t heard from them in years. He had no other family in the States, so he was all alone and scared for what was going to happen next.

He knew he couldn’t just live on his own, not anymore. He knew someone always had to be with him to keep an eye on him in case something goes south but that was something his father was doing, and now that he was gone he didn’t know what it meant for him.

As Jeremy stared at the ceiling he heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and when he sat up and looked behind him he saw a silhouette on the bottom stair.

“Jer!” Michael whisper-shouted when he saw Jeremy looking at him, and Jeremy smiled because he liked that Michael had cared enough to come downstairs in the middle of the night to check on him. “You awake?”

“Yeah. Can’t sleep.”

Jeremy heard his footsteps coming over to the couch, and soon Michael sat on the bed next to him. “I can stay here ‘till you fall asleep if you want,” he said.

Jeremy smiled and nodded as he handed the jacket to Michael and he draped it over the top of the couch so he could lay down next to Jeremy. When he laid down and settled they both stared at the ceiling in awkward silence for a while, until Michael rolled over on his side to face the man next to him. Jeremy finally broke the silence and said, “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For coming down here. I don’t wanna sound childish, but I was scared to fall asleep on my own.”

“Oh. No problem. I mean, I know you had a pretty rough day and my gut just told me you were still awake cause who can soundly fall asleep after a day like this, unless you’re crazy or something like that so I came to check that you were alright.”

Jeremy turned to him. “Well, thanks. It’s really sweet.” Michael smiled shyly and Jeremy cuddled up next to Michael. “Goodnight Mikey,” Jeremy said through a yawn and closed his one good eye.

Michael kissed Jeremy’s forehead. “Goodnight Jer,” he said and he felt his own eyelids starting to get heavy because feeling Jeremy’s body heat on his chest as he cuddled up to him made him feel tired.

A few minutes later he could tell that Jeremy was now fast asleep, but Michael decided that he didn’t want to go back to his own bed. He wanted to stay here with Jeremy to not risk waking him up since he was cuddled up next to him and Michael was already comfortable, so he put his arm around Jeremy, closed his eyes and after a few minutes he fell fast asleep next to him.

Chapter 102

Summary:

Something strange is happening with Jeremy’s memories.

The next morning Michael woke up to the annoying mourning doves cooing outside, and to his surprise Jeremy was still cuddled against his chest like he was at almost two that morning but now laying on his left side so they were facing each other. Michael was surprised because part of him thought it was a dream that he had fallen asleep next to Jeremy being that he has never slept next to someone before, but as he woke up a little more the memories became clearer from that previous night.

It occurred to Michael that since this all wasn’t a dream, he hadn’t dreamed that he had to pick up Jeremy from the hospital and came back hours later, he hadn’t dreamed Jeremy was in a wheelchair again or the fact he had fractured his right wrist, but what concerned him the most was the fact that it wasn’t a dream that Jeremy’s father was gone and he had no other family left.

Michael looked over at the clock on the wall when his eyes focused and saw that it was nine in the morning, earlier than he usually wakes up on non-school days. He sighed and let his head rest against the pillow again, closed his eyes to try to get a few more minutes of sleep in and once he did he was comfortable and content like he was when he first laid down next to Jeremy, but then he heard footsteps coming down the stairs which scared him awake.

He didn’t think ahead about what would happen if Henry saw them sleeping together. He knew Henry was fine with them dating, but like Henry said a while ago when he came back after sneaking off to the hospital in Salt Lake City with Alex, Henry was standing in for his father. He didn’t know what a parent would say if they saw their kid sleeping with their partner, even if said child was a twenty year old.

His mind was racing and suddenly he saw Henry in his line of vision, who glanced at them, looked at them in surprise and saw that Michael was awake and looking back at him. Michael blushed from embarrassment and nuzzled Jeremy’s hair (which was now getting longer) to hide his red face, and because Henry was surprised and didn’t know what to say he went into the kitchen without saying a word.

After he slipped away into the kitchen, Michael felt Jeremy moving around a minute later because he was trying to wake up. Michael took his arm off of Jeremy, rolled onto his back and let him stretch out.

“When did I roll onto my left side? It’s all pins and needles now,” Jeremy asked in his morning voice, obviously to himself as he tried to wake up and rolled onto his back.

“I dunno. I wasn’t up,” Michael said and Jeremy looked at him, surprised. “Mornin’ Jer.”

“Morning…oh my God, you scared me.”

“What, did you think it was a dream?”

“Partly, I forgot that I wasn’t in my own bed. But then I felt that my arm’s in a really itchy cast so most likely it’s not a dream.”

Michael smiled. “I thought it was, because I think I was half asleep when I came down here.” Michael and Jeremy pecked each other ‘good morning’ and Michael sat up, yawned and looked back at Jeremy who was still in Michael’s sweatshirt and sweatpants from yesterday. “You’re still in those?”

“They’re comfy!”

Michael snickered. “You can keep ‘em, even though they are a little big on you.”

“That’s ‘cause you’re a giant.” Michael chuckled. “Just five more minutes then I’ll get up.”

Michael looked at the clock and back at Jeremy as if timing him, then he tried to wake himself up as he fluffed up his hair and yawned, but then he stared off into space for a few minutes until he felt Jeremy sit up on the bed next to him. “That was not five minutes.” He glanced at the clock. “That was like, ten.”

“Oh. Time doesn’t exist to me,” he said through a yawn.

Michael snickered. “Oh by the way, my uncle saw us down here sleeping together,” Michael said.

“Oh…okay.”

“You’re not worried?!”

“No. He’s not my dad so why would I?”

”Because! He’s standing in for my father, so seeing the kid you’re taking care of sleeping with his boyfriend is gonna be a shock!”

“Well duh, we haven’t slept together before. But couples sleep together all the time! Haven’t you seen TV shows and movies?! Your uncle even had a wife at one point, so did your dad! Plus he knows we’re together and at our age it’s not uncommon, so most I expect’ll happen is that he’ll ask why you were down here, I’m sure you’re worried about nothing.”

“You have a point. But it’s just awkward and I dunno what he’ll say!”

”Maybe it’s more awkward for you ‘cause you’re just wearing sweatpants.”

“I don’t like sleeping with shirts! I get too warm, and to be fair I didn’t wanna put one on when I came downstairs because I was half asleep.”

Michael got up from the bed and went around to Jeremy’s side, went to the coffee table Henry moved out of the way the previous night where the sling, eyepatch and necklace were and helped Jeremy put on the sling.

“You should probably go put a shirt on if you’re embarrassed,” Jeremy said once the sling was on.

“You’re right, probably should,” Michael said, yawned and went towards the stairs. “Don’t transfer to your wheelchair without me.”

“What the…why?!”

“Because of your wrist. I wanna make sure you’re safe and don’t hurt yourself, Jer. You already have a broken wrist and you’re living with a brain injury, you don’t need to be hurt more.”

“I’m safe! I won’t hurt myself!”

“Every time you’ve transferred with your cast on, someone’s helped you so we don’t know that you won’t. Wait here, I’ll just be a minute I promise.”

Michael ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time and Jeremy huffed in irritation. A minute later he got bored of waiting and looked to the stairs, where he didn’t see Michael and he swung his legs over to the side of the bed so they were dangling off. The wheelchair was so close to him that he could touch it, so he scooted to the edge of the bed and put his hand on the seat about to push himself to stand.

“Jer!” Michael said from the top of the stairs and he came down, and Jeremy saw he now had on a black tank top. “What did I say?!” he exclaimed as he made his way over to Jeremy.

“To wait.”

“And did you?”

“No, because I didn’t want to. I was getting bored!”

“I know, but what if you got hurt if you did it yourself? You’re trying to do this without one of your arms Jer, it’s going to be hard to do by yourself because you’re still getting used to it.”

“Fine, let’s just do the stupid transfer.” Jeremy got an idea. “Wait!”

“What?”

“All I’ve ever done with the cast was transfer, I wanna stand for a few.”

“Really? You sure?”

“Yeah! I haven’t since before the crash and I’m getting bored of sitting all the time!”

Michael shrugged, held out his hand and Jeremy grabbed onto it, and once he had a good grip on his hand he pulled to stand himself up and Michael held onto his side with his free hand. Jeremy had a difficult time getting his balance being that he hasn’t stood for more than a minute after the crash, but Michael supported him so he wouldn’t fall and Jeremy seemed to regain a lot of it back after a few minutes.

“Wow, you’re stronger than last time we did that,” Michael said and Jeremy put his hand on his shoulder.

“That was like, forever ago. I walk with crutches now, of course I’m stronger.”

“You remember the first time you stood with me after your accident?” Michael asked as he put his other free hand on Jeremy’s side.

“Of course I do.”

“Interesting…”

Jeremy inhaled sharply. ”Don’t tell my therapists. They’ll make me see more therapists and I don’t wanna answer questions I don’t know the answers to.”

Michael chuckled. “Fine, if you insist.” He sat Jeremy down in the wheelchair. “I just find it interesting that you do, because I’ve been reading about the brain-”

“Wait, you? Reading?”

“I know, shocker. I went to the library a few weeks ago and checked out a whole bunch of brain anatomy books.”

“What’d you do with Michael?” Jeremy joked and Michael chuckled.

“Very funny Jer. Anyway it said that normally people who survive a brain injury have many challenges, one of the most common ones being memory.”

“I dunno. I just remember and I’ve never questioned it because why would I? Sometimes it’s really funny to bring something up before my accident and freak people out, specifically you ‘cause I don’t remember a ton about anyone else.”

”So…you like to freak me out?” Jeremy nodded and Michael snickered as he sat on the bed across from Jeremy. “What do you remember about me?”

“I remember…that one time when we went to the pizzeria and you made me bike like, five miles and I almost passed out.” Michael stared at him, speechless. “Told ya. It’s funny!”

“That…that happened years ago! Do…do you remember what it was for?”

“I think…I think it was for the murder of…I think his name was Fritz?”

“Wow…are you sure you don’t remember a lot about anyone else? Uh, what about your father before your accident?”

“I-I don’t remember a lot about him. All I know is that he was very neglectful but after my accident he changed. I don’t remember all the details just the big picture, that’s how it is for everyone else too.”

“Interesting, you just remember details about what you did with me and not much about anyone else. I would expect it’d be the same for me, but something weird’s going on.”

Jeremy gasped excitedly. “Is magic real?”

---

Later as Michael and Jeremy were across the table from Henry, eating their breakfast and drinking coffee while Henry was reading the newspaper and drinking coffee, they all sat in awkward silence with the exception of Jeremy mumbling to himself every so often because he had trouble keeping his thoughts in his head sometimes.

Michael was embarrassed to talk to Henry after he caught them downstairs together, and Henry was wondering when the right time to ask what he was doing downstairs sleeping next to Jeremy was. Jeremy however, stayed quiet because he was busy having breakfast and was partially confused as to why it was so quiet, but decided to not worry about it and continued eating because he was starving.

“So, Jeremy, how was the Hide-A-Bed last night?” Henry asked breaking the silence.

Jeremy swallowed his bite. “Good! Uh, thanks for letting me use it.”

”Of course! You had nowhere else to go and it was already dark when Mike called, so it was the least I could do.” Henry looked over to Michael. “Mike? Something on your mind? You’ve barely touched your food.”

“Uh…kinda,” Michael said.

“What’s wrong?”

“This morning…”

“Oh yeah. I slept with your nephew last night,” Jeremy said, teasing Michael.

Michael’s face turned red from embarrassment. “Jeremy!” Michael said and Jeremy snickered as Michael turned back to Henry. “I mean, it’s awkward! You’ve been standing in as my father for like, four or five years so getting caught is awkward!”

”I’ll admit it was a bit of a surprise at first because I wasn’t expecting it. But I know you and Jeremy are together and you have been for a while and you’re both twenty years old. You’re both young adults so I technically don’t have any authority over you, I’m just providing a roof over your head and providing food for you. If you two were younger then that would be a different story, but you’re not.”

“Yeah, we’re the big two zero,” Jeremy said. “I told you you were worried about nothing!”

Michael sighed. “I know, but still.”

“So, let me just ask, what were you doing down here?” Henry asked.

“Jeremy didn’t wanna be alone so I laid next to him, and once he fell asleep I was comfortable and fell asleep.”

”That makes sense, especially considering what happened yesterday. And, I’m just saying, I dunno if you two can share the Hide-a-Bed every night because like I said, it’s old.”

---

After breakfast Michael got dressed, helped Jeremy put on his eyepatch and necklace, Henry finished getting ready and they were all headed out the door going back to the Fitzgerald house. They were all talking at breakfast, and it was decided that they would all head to the Fitzgerald house together to try and find a way inside, and if they could then pack things that Jeremy needed.

“So Jeremy, d’you happen to remember a way inside?” Henry asked from the driver’s seat to Jeremy in the backseat when they drove into the driveway.

“Uh…I dunno. I feel like there is though.”

“Maybe there’s a spare key somewhere,” Michael said as Henry parked the car.

“I think so.”

“Mike, you go out and look for one. I’ll help Jeremy out of the car,” Henry said.

“Aye aye captain,” Michael said and opened the door, closed it behind him and practically sprinted up the three steps leading to the front door and looked around.

Henry chuckled as he rolled his eyes and helped Jeremy out of the car and transfer to his wheelchair, and once he did Michael yelled out, “I found it!”

Henry pushed the chair with Jeremy in it to the front steps. “You did?” Henry asked.

“Yeah! There was a spare right under the doormat.”

“Well, open the door and open the garage so Jeremy can get in.”

Michael nodded, unlocked the front door, ran inside and it was very strange to him being that he has never seen the house completely empty before. About a minute later the garage door opened and Michael motioned them to follow him from the doorway because the house was now unlocked.

“That was fast,” Jeremy said once he saw Michael.

“It wasn’t very hard, it was in a pretty obvious spot. I’m taking this with me just in case,” he said as he put the key in his pocket.

They went inside through the garage and Jeremy looked around at his own house. “It’s so weird now that it’s empty,” he said.

”Let’s start gathering things together that you’ll need for at least a few weeks,” Henry said. “I’ll start gathering the perishable food in the kitchen since it’ll go bad soon and you two start gathering whatever else Jeremy needs.”

Michael and Jeremy nodded and they went down the hallway together. “So what first?” Jeremy asked as they went down the hallway.

“I’ll give you a hint at what I’m thinking. I personally think you shouldn’t wear those clothes I gave you the whole time you’re staying at my uncle’s-”

“So that means my stuff first!” Michael nodded and they went off to his room together. “So uh…where do we start?” he asked once they were in.

”Well, I guess we should start with the clothes and stuff, then you tell me anything else you need.”

After about twenty minutes and Jeremy telling Michael which clothes he wanted to wear over the next few weeks, some of Jeremy’s clothes were in a large duffel bag with just a few left in the closet and dresser, along with his things from the bathroom and his medicine he had to take packed in a smaller bag.

“Is that it?” Michael asked Jeremy.

“Uh…I want my cassette player.”

“Your cassette player?”

“Yeah! I like the tape in there.”

“How could I forget? You play that thing all the time.”

“Yeah, because I like it! Duh!”

Michael smiled and went over to the cassette player Jeremy pointed to, opened it and checked that the tape Jeremy wanted was in there. Once he nodded that it was the right one Michael packed it in the bag.

“Is that it?” Michael asked.

“Uh…wait.” Jeremy used his one hand to turn his wheelchair around. “The door’s not against the wall all the way.”

“That could just be how it is, Jer. Not everything’s gonna be perfect all the time.”

“What if something’s there?! I might still be paranoid from when I thought something was watching me but still! It’s usually not like that!”

“Fine, I’ll check for you.” Michael went over to the door and closed it a little bit so Jeremy could see. “Oh. Something was there.”

“Oh my God! I forgot I had those there!”

”You had a spare pair of forearm crutches?”

“Yeah! My dad bought two, just in case. Gimme!” Jeremy said as he reached out for it.

Michael got one of the crutches and handed it to Jeremy, who planted it firmly on the floor and used it as support to push himself up to standing while Michael stayed close to him in case he lost his balance. Luckily he didn’t, and Jeremy never seemed happier to stand on his own again even though he’s only been in the wheelchair less than a day.

“Uh…are you sure you can walk with just one?” Michael asked as he helped adjust it to Jeremy’s height.

“I think so. My physical therapist said because I’ve been walking with two for about a year, she said I’m allowed to go to one when I’m ready,” he replied as he put it on.

“Have you ever tried?”

“Nope!”

Michael softly chuckled because he sounded enthusiastic when he said he didn’t know how. “Well, we have time to practice. But until you’re confident, I want you to walk with someone by you in case you start to feel unstable.”

“Fine. At least I’m not in the wheelchair anymore.”

They walked around his room side by side, and Michael did have to catch him a few times because he started getting unsteady. Walking with one crutch was very awkward for Jeremy being that he had to walk with them differently; when he used two, he would move them both at the same time which meant moving his arms at the same time. and now he was only moving one which meant he would have to move his arms at different times when he got the cast off.

The more they walked together the more used to it he got and Michael had to catch him less and less, so they eventually upgraded to walking up and down the hallway since they were waiting for Henry. 

“Jer?” Michael said as they were walking. 

“Yeah?” he answered. 

“Do…do you remember anything right before you passed out during the crash?”

Jeremy stayed quiet for a long time as he thought about it. “Yes. I remember feeling…scared. I remember…my ears ringing and it was very loud, I remember I was in pain especially my wrist…”

“What about the other things?”

“Um…it’s blurry but I saw broken glass, the car roof was smashed in so I couldn’t get out if I wanted to, and there was…blood. A lot of it. It was splattered on my clothes, hands and arms so I’m sure there was some on my face.”

“That much?”

“I…I don’t know if it was all mine. Probably not.”

“Well uh…anything else?”

“Yeah…but it’s scary.”

They went to his room and sat next to each other on Jeremy’s bed since Michael could tell he was getting tired. “Do you…wanna talk about it?”

“I guess I’ll get it off my chest. If I tell one of my therapists they might make me see someone else and I don’t wanna see anymore therapists.” Jeremy inhaled deeply and exhaled. “I…I didn’t really see, I more so felt. I felt my dad’s dead body.

“He was…bloody and when I called to him there was no answer. I-I cried and hugged his body because I was scared and it was cold and lifeless, not warm like it usually was. I-it was more terrifying than I thought it would be.” Michael could see that there were tears forming in the corner of Jeremy’s eye. “I’m sorry, ever since my accident I’ve gotten more emotional,” he said as he wiped his tears.

Michael hugged him and he felt Jeremy wrap his one good arm around him. “Don’t apologize, it’s completely understandable. I’m so, so sorry you had to go through that,” Michael said softly.

“It was scary. It was so scary Mike,” he replied shakily.

Jeremy rested his head on Michael’s shoulder as he took a few deep breaths with Michael to calm him down. After Jeremy calmed down a little after a few minutes Michael said, “Thank you for telling me.”

“Well, you told me your story when you saw your mom, it’s only fair.”

Michael was speechless, impressed that he remembered because he only told him the story once five years ago, but Jeremy said he didn’t know how he was able to remember this much about him. Michael knows he shouldn’t remember this much from his past by himself so something is definitely helping him cognitively, but he didn’t know if this strange force was good and actually trying to help him, or evil and trying to gain his trust this way and stab him in the back in the future.

Chapter 103

Summary:

Jeremy has a difficult choice to make.

After a while, Jeremy calmed down so his breathing was back to normal and Michael wiped away the rest of his stray tears. To get Jeremy’s mind off the situation, Michael suggested that they look through the rest of the rooms in the hallway to see if they needed anything else, but Michael mainly just wanted to explore the house since he was never really allowed in some of the rooms.

They decided to check in the office first, since it was right next to Jeremy’s room and Michael had only gone in there once the whole time he’s known Jeremy. He was never quite sure why, but since he respected the family’s wishes he never questioned it, although it could just be because it was Diego’s workspace and he didn’t want anyone in there. 

When they first opened the door to the office, the first thing Michael saw was Diego’s desk in the corner of the room, and on his desk was a computer with a pile of papers next to it. “Your father had a computer?!” Michael exclaimed to Jeremy.

“It’s his work computer, but yeah. Probably have to give that back to the company soon.”

They both went inside and Michael didn’t see much on the walls except the window next to the desk, there were some quotes that were all in Spanish and old pictures of what he could only guess were Diego’s mother, father and brother when they were all younger and Diego still lived in Mexico, but there were also some pictures of Diego’s parents when they were older, Diego’s brother, his wife and his kids, Diego, Jeremy’s mother and Jeremy when he was young, probably when he was only about six or seven years old.

Michael looked through the papers on the desk which all seemed like work papers and he looked through the drawers on the desk as well, but they were all filled with office supplies.

Michael wouldn’t have seen this room as much if he didn’t see the small table in the corner opposite to the desk on the other side of the room, with a framed picture on it and noticed a couple stray yellow marigold flower petals had fallen off looked old because they were dried out.

“What’s that?” Michael asked as he pointed to the table with the picture.

“Oh, that’s the ofrenda-oh look! There’s still petals! We didn’t see those!”

Michael picked up the old petals because they fell under the table and Jeremy had a difficult time getting up if he knelt down. “It’s the what now?” Michael asked when he got up.

“It’s an alter for Día de los Muertos, it’s a Mexican holiday. It’s uh…two days where we remember loved ones by having their favorite foods and drinks. We never celebrated outwardly because we’re not in Mexico, but my parents wanted a little piece of where they came from in this house, and every year we get different foods and drinks that were the relatives’ favorites. I personally like it because it’s like a big feast for two whole days.”

“Makes sense. Hold on…how did you remember all of that?”

“I think my dad said back when I was first discharged, I came into this room almost every day and kept asking what it was, so now I kinda have it memorized.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense. You’re starting to hold onto things you want to remember a lot better now.”

“I am?”

“Yeah! So uh, I’m guessing this is your mum?” Michael asked as he pointed to the framed picture on the ofrenda.

“Yeah. I was told another picture is supposed to go up there too, I don’t know who’s but it’s not up because our ofrenda isn’t big enough. Guess I’ll have to get a new one and add my dad sometime.”

Michael stayed silent as he tried to think of another topic to get Jeremy’s mind off his situation. “Hey, uh, is there anywhere else we should look?” Michael asked finally.

“Uh…I don’t know. We covered almost all the rooms and Henry’s checking the garage. I guess that leaves my dad’s room.”

“Let’s check there then.”

They made their way down the hall and went into Diego’s room, which Michael has never even caught a glimpse inside.

The first thing he noticed when he opened the door was the Mexican flag on the wall, and scattered around the room were a few posters of different sports which all looked old since they were yellowing and were all in Spanish, so Michael assumed Diego had them since he was a kid. Across the room from them was a window on the wall and next that was what looked like a painting of a few bulls in an arena getting ready for a rodeo, and the rest of Diego’s room was taken by his bed, closet and dresser.

“So I’m guessing your father was really into that bull riding thing?” Michael asked Jeremy. “He has the most posters of that and literally has a small painting of it.”

“Yeah, he told me he liked it ever since he was a kid, I never really got into it. Anyways what are we in here for again?”

“To look for things that we could possibly need since we don’t know how long you’ll be staying at my uncle’s. Might be weeks, might be months-”

“Oh God, don’t make me think of that. I doubt there’s anything in here though.”

Michael shrugged. “You never know. I think it’s always good to check.” He went over to the dresser and started going through the top drawer and mumbling to himself once he found items saying if he didn’t need it or he did, and most of what he found was pointless to take.

“What’re you looking for exactly?” Jeremy asked a few minutes later.

“His wallet.”

“What?!”

Michael laughed. “I’m just kidding Jer. I’m seeing if there’s anything important that he left in here.”

“Did you find anything?”

“Uh, there’s half a pack of cigarettes in here, but I’m trying to lean off of those a little so not yet.” He dug around the top drawer some more and found what looked like to be a file with papers inside. He opened the file and saw that there were multiple pieces of paper, but the first page looked like a letter more than anything. “The hell is this?” he mumbled.

”What is that?” Jeremy asked as he sat on the bed.

“Uh…I dunno. The words in the front are in Spanish and I have a C in there right now.”

“Dude, you have a translator right here. Lemme see!” Michael went over to Jeremy and showed him the cover. Jeremy stared at it for a minute, reading the words slowly as he followed along with his finger so his attention wouldn’t wander off. “Stop shaking! I can’t read it!” Jeremy exclaimed a minute later.

“Sorry, sorry. I can’t help it.”

“Put it on the bed or something, sorry I just need it still so I could read or the letters get mixed up.” Michael put the file next to Jeremy on the bed and he traced underneath the letters with his finger. “It’s a note, one that he only wants me to read after he dies, but why would he write one that he only wants me to read after he dies? Why not just tell me when he’s alive?”

“Wait…maybe it’s a note that’s meant to be like his will! Maybe he left you stuff Jer!”

“Good thinking. I didn’t even think of that.”

Michael heard the garage door open and close. “Guys? Ready to go?” Henry called from down the hall.

“Yeah! Be there in a minute!” Michael called back to him.

Jeremy went out of the room to the living room where the font door was as Michael got Jeremy’s bags from his room, as well as trying to fold up the wheelchair because Jeremy didn’t need it anymore. “Found another crutch?” Henry asked Jeremy once he walked into the room. 

“Yeah! My dad bought two pairs just in case, and part of me is kind of glad he was paranoid enough to believe something might happen to the other pair!”

Henry chuckled and Michael came back a few minutes later with the wheelchair folded up. “This thing is so difficult to fold,” Michael said.

---

Once everything was loaded up a while later, the three got back in the car and went back to Henry’s house. On the way Jeremy was talking quietly to himself complaining about how itchy the cast was, but Michael was quietly sitting in the front seat trying to figure out what the papers in front of him said because they were all in Spanish.

“I don’t think you’re a great translator Mike. You’ve been staring at the first page for like, ten minutes,” Jeremy said suddenly from the backseat as he looked over Michael’s shoulder which scared him out of his trance. “Ha! I scared you!”

“You definitely did. And you’re right, but I wanna challenge myself. Not going well.”

“What isn’t?” Henry asked.

“Mr. Fitzgerald left a note to read after he dies, but no one here can read anything but Jeremy because it’s all in Spanish.”

“A note?”

“I’m guessing it’s like his will, maybe he left something so Jeremy could live without him.”

---

Once they were all back at the house about five minutes later, Henry and Michael unloaded the car, put the bags next to the couch where Jeremy chose to sleep, and then Michael and Jeremy gathered around the kitchen table with the papers in front of them, Jeremy translating and Michael looking over his shoulder.

Jeremy was sitting at the table reading the words on the page and following along with his finger so he would stay focused on what he was reading, Michael was standing beside him on one side and Henry was only sometimes in the room with them, intrigued and coming in the kitchen every so often to check on them but made sure not to helicopter them because this wasn’t concerning him.

“So? Jer? What’re you getting?” Michael asked after about ten minutes.

“I’m reading! Shhh!” Jeremy exclaimed and read the paper as he followed along with his finger. “So, he says this part’s in Spanish because he’s talking to me, but he said he wrote to you too.”

“He did?”

“Yeah! That stuff’ll be in English.”

“Oh thank God,” Michael said as he exhaled a sigh of relief. Jeremy flipped through the few pages and handed him the papers in English and Michael read them to himself as Jeremy read the ones in Spanish.

‘December 15th, 1989,’ was the first line he read.

“Wow. He finished this just in time,” Michael mumbled to himself. It was like he was anticipating his death coming soon, but Michael didn’t know how he knew because he was still somewhat young, only just turned fifty.

‘Hello Michael, if you’re reading this then that means Jeremy is probably left without any parents, and I know that must be hard on not only him but you too. I know you’re probably helping Jeremy look for anything I may have left behind, or he somehow found this himself and in that case I hope he gave this to you. I know we haven’t really talked or have gotten to know each other all that well, but I wanted to write to you specifically to ask you something.

Remember that promise you made to me while Jeremy was in the hospital? You said you would take care of Jeremy when I was gone, and I’m asking you if you’re still up for fulfilling that promise. I wrote in the portion that Jeremy will be reading that I have signed the house over to him if he chooses to stay there, since it is already paid off and it is a one story house.

What I’m asking of you is, since Jeremy seems to trust you the most out of anyone, if he chooses to stay at the house if you would stay with him. You know that he unfortunately cannot live alone anymore, and he needs someone there in case things go wrong.

If he chooses to stay elsewhere, that’s perfectly fine but I just worry for the memory aspect of that as well since it would be a brand new place and you know how he is about change, he doesn’t handle it well. I just know that Jeremy wants to be somewhat independent, especially considering his circumstances now, you give him space when he needs it and he doesn’t want someone watching his every move, so you were the best option in that case.

I also just want to thank you Michael, for being there for him when I wasn’t. I was dealing with…a lot when me, my wife and Jeremy moved here, that I couldn’t be bothered to be a dad for him and I absolutely regret it, but you were always there. You were there for him through the good days and the bad days and refused to leave his side, and he refused to leave yours ever since you were both nine years old.

You were there for each other after the events of ‘83, he was there for you after your sister passed, you were there for him when his mother passed, you were there for him after ‘87 and seeing how much you care for each other, I expect this trend will continue for a long, long time.

All in all, to summarize my rambling, thank you Michael. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.’

Michael stayed silent as he folded up the note in his hand because part of him couldn’t believe it. The fact that he could possibly move out with Jeremy in the near future if he chooses to stay at his house was a surprise to him to say the least, but the fact that Diego has noticed all these years when Michael was there for Jeremy and he wasn’t was the biggest surprise to him, so Diego wasn’t as oblivious as Michael thought.

“What the fuck?!” Jeremy suddenly yelled which snapped Michael out of his thoughts.

“What?! What is it?!” Michael asked, a little worryingly.

“Oh my God…” Jeremy said as he covered his mouth with his hand.

“What is it?! What happened?!”

He took his hand off of his mouth. “I…I could’ve been a big brother…”

Michael stayed silent, at loss for words. “What? What do you mean?” he finally asked.

“I mean…I could’ve been one. I-it turns out,” Jeremy sniffled and looked at the paper again, “my mom was pregnant when we moved here, and apparently they told me but go figure, I forgot since it was so many years ago. They told me she was before we came here, and that’s why we have a two bedroom house. That room, the office…was for my baby sister, or brother, he didn’t say if they knew the sex. My mom apparently had a miscarriage about four months in.”

“Oh my God…Jer I’m so sorry,” Michael said and hugged him. “D’you think that’s who’s picture was supposed to go on the, uh, ofrenda?”

”Christ…maybe an ultrasound or something. But it was over ten years ago, it’s…fine now.”

Michael stopped hugging him and he saw on Jeremy’s face that he was only a little upset, but Michael also knew he had trouble with showing emotion so he could be guessing completely wrong about how Jeremy felt on the inside.

“Uh, anything else?” Michael asked.

“Uh…oh yeah!” Jeremy flipped a page and followed along with his finger until he finally stopped on a word. “It says here…he’s leaving me the house! He also says that he’s leaving me money, and from here it looks like a lot of it.”

“How much?”

“About,” he looked at the page again, “thirty thousand.”

“Thirty?!”

“Yeah…that’s what I said.”

“That must’ve been one hell of a job then.”

“I think he said it was good paying and that’s why he stayed there, it says here that was why he did anyway. He said this was collected over the years, and it would’ve been more but there were hospital bills he had to pay. Stupid bills.”

“That’s still a lot. Jer, between that and me using my father’s small fortune, we could be set for a while!”

“You’re using William’s money?!”

“He’s not using it anyway! He canceled literally everything when he ran off to who knows where and I’m no waster when it comes to money, if it’s there I’ll take it. Plus I’m his only living child so I got it.”

“…fair I guess. Anyways, what do you mean ‘we’?”

“Oh. Uh, well you’re father kind of wrote me a note to ask me something, and he said if you choose to live in your house then he wants me to…stay with you so in that instance we would both be combining and using the money we have. He just knows you want to be as independent as you can, and I’m the only one he knew of that was willing to give you space when you need it.”

Jeremy stayed silent for a minute as Michael’s words sunk in. “I uh…I don’t know what I want to do,” he finally said.

“And that’s okay. Your bags are packed for a while, you have time to decide.”

Chapter 104

Summary:

A phone call from a friend.

That evening after dinner, Michael and Jeremy were on the couch watching television together and they both stared at the screen in silence. Jeremy laid his head on Michael’s shoulder as he cuddled up to him because he was starting to get tired even though it was only eight o’clock in the evening, but Michael understood because these past few days have been stressful for him and he just wanted to sleep the stressful days away.

Suddenly, Michael heard the telephone ring on the small table next to him and he picked it up.

“Hello?” he answered, only half listening because he was paying attention to the television.

“Mike?” the person on the other end said, and Michael recognized their voice immediately.

Michael suddenly stopped being mesmerized by the moving pictures on screen and sat up from his slumped position. Jeremy yawned to wake himself up from his half asleep state and took his head off Michael’s shoulder when he felt him move, but he didn’t know who Michael could be talking to.

“Hey!” Michael said.

“You didn’t forget me yet, did you?”

“No! It’s just been…a crazy few days so I’ve been busy.”

“Who is it?” Jeremy asked in a soft voice.

Michael covered the reviver with his hand. “Alex,” Michael answered and uncovered it.

Jeremy gasped from excitement and got closer to the receiver. “Hi Alex!” he said.

“Hey! Wait, why’s he there? It’s like, eight o’clock at night over there!” Alex exclaimed.

Michael put the telephone between he and Jeremy so they could both hear. “Like I said, it’s been a crazy few days,” Michael said.

“Well you know you can’t just leave me hangin’ like that. Spill! What happened?”

”Well...” He turned to Jeremy. “D’you wanna tell ‘em or me?”

“Uh…you do it,” he answered.

“Tell me what?” Alex asked.

“Well um, God I don’t even know where to start-”

“Fine then, I’ll tell ‘em,” Jeremy said, reached over for the phone, took it and brought it up to his ear. “Hey Alex, so…small update. I uh, may or may not have gotten into a car wreck.”

“Oh my…please tell me you’re joking,” Alex said.

“Nope. It was…it was bad.”

“Jesus…”

“That’s not even the worst of it.”

“There’s more?!”

“Yeah, uh, so…y’know how I said a few times before it felt like my dad wasn’t there for me before my accident?”

“Yeah.”

“Well now he’s actually not here…permanently.”

“What the…please don’t be saying what I think you’re saying.”

“He’s um…” He inhaled and exhaled deeply. “He’s dead. The crash was so violent it ended up killing him.

“Holy shit, I’m so sorry Jeremy.”

“It’s fine, it’s just…hard to accept. He was my only family in the States and the one who was taking care of me since I can’t live alone, and now that he’s gone I don’t know what to do.”

“I’m so sorry Jeremy. I-I couldn’t imagine how scary that must feel.”

“So until we figure out what to do I’m staying over at Michael’s place with his uncle. Anyway I’m hoping we figure this out within a few weeks but right now I’m just…stuck.”

“I’m hoping you figure it out too. God, that’s horrible…”

“The good news though, my dad’s leaving me the house so at least I won’t have to stay here forever and thirty thousand dollars.”

“Thirty thousand?!”

“Yeah! That job he was at was good paying. Anyways, I uh…I wish you were here. You always know how to get my mind off the bad things with your stupid jokes and I know you wouldn’t leave my side if I was going through something, even if you find me and Michael acting all lovey-dovey annoying.”

Alex smiled. “You two are a bunch of lovebirds, and I dunno if I find it hilarious or cute.”

Jeremy chuckled. “Sorry for getting all depressing and stuff, it’s just…hard and I’m dealing with a lot right now. Mike is helping, but it would be great if I had my friend around too.”

“I wish I could be there, but I can’t really take off-”

“I know, I know. You have school and it’s kinda far.”

“Yeah, unfortunately. Every three day weekend we have, it’s a really tight squeeze so it’d be difficult.”

“But I’ll see you in…May? Is that when school gets out?”

“Or…how about spring break in March? We have a week off.”

”Really?!” Jeremy asked enthusiastically.

”Yeah! Whaddya say?”

“Yes!”

“I’ll plan for then Jeremy. So uh, let me talk to Mike real quick then I’ll talk to you again. I need to ask him something.”

Jeremy handed the phone over to Michael. “Hi again,” Michael said once he had the telephone next to his face.

“Hey, so is it true? Is Jeremy’s dad really dead?”

“Yeah, unfortunately. I just…I feel so bad for him. His father was his only family here and now he’s been ripped away from him.”

“God…I was hoping it wasn’t true, I was hoping it was a prank or something.”

“So also news, Jeremy now kinda needs help with his arm again-”

“What?! Why?! What happened?!”

“He has a fractured wrist from the crash. Doctors say he was lucky to escape with just that because he should’ve suffered the same fate as his father, but he’s staying here until it heals and until we figure out what to do.”

“Jeez…sounds stressful for both of you, plus your uncle.”

“It is. I guess I’m not the only one who had my family ripped away from me, but I still have my uncle and he has no one and I…I feel so bad for him. I-I can’t imagine what he’s feeling right now, even if he has a hard time showing it and has a tough time telling anyone about his feelings.”

“I can’t imagine. So, I also hate to stress you out about this by bringing it up-”

“Oh God, I’m not gonna be up all night thinking about this am I?”

“I dunno, you tell me. So anyway I was just thinking, what’re you gonna do on Tuesday if he’s staying there?”

“Tuesday?” 

“Dude, you have classes Tuesday and Thursday.”

“Wait…shit! I completely forgot!”

“Well, you kinda need to be there for your last semester since this is your second year.”

“The last year of community…damn it!”

“I know, I know, you don’t wanna think about it, blah blah blah, but Tuesday’s in like, four days so get to thinking!”

“Fuck you for reminding me.”

Alex chuckled. “I knew you were gonna say that.”

“You know me so well, but I have to talk with Jeremy about that later and see what we’re going to do. Anyways, to try and get my mind off of the stress for now, how are you?”

“Uh, I’m fine, same ol’ same ol’.”

“Really? There’s nothing new?”

“Well, classes are getting tougher but I’m still somehow passing.”

“Any new friends?”

“Eh. Mainly acquaintances and I have them in all of my classes, but they’re all really nice so it’s way better than high school. Although-”

“Ooh! Spill!”

That caught Jeremy’s attention. “Ooh! Gossip? I wanna know!” he said and Michael put the phone in between them so they could both hear.

Alex sighed. “You two sound like a bunch of teenagers.”

“I’m still a teenager at heart,” Michael said.

“Me too!” Jeremy added on.

Alex chuckled. “Anyways, remember that guy Richard who said he recognized me a while back?”

“Yeah,” Michael said.

“No,” Jeremy added.

“So I couldn’t even notice but of course I’m terrible at knowing, but one of my other acquaintances said she thinks that Richard likes me!”

“Woah, really?” Michael asked, surprised.

“Yeah! And I dunno what to do!”

”For real? You?” Michael teased.

”Shut up,” Alex said and Michael snickered.

“Well, do you like him?” Jeremy asked Alex.

“I told you guys that I thought the romance thing was overrated so not really! I-I would just feel guilty if I told him I didn’t like him back!”

”Well, I’m not really a huge romantic expert myself, but my advice would be just to not acknowledge it, and if he does eventually tell you then just come clean to him and say you would rather just stay friends,” Michael suggested.

“Yeah, what he said,” Jeremy added.

“But it’s just…he’s nice to me and I would hate to break his heart!” Alex exclaimed.

“Can it be that he’s just nice to you and doesn’t like you?” Michael asked.

“I dunno dude and it’s stressing me out! Kinda wish she never told me honestly, sometimes I’m stressing out about it all night.”

---

“So…Jer, Alex brought up a good point while we were talking.” Michael said later when the show they were watching was over.

“Yeah?”

“So, I don’t know what we’re gonna do on Tuesday and Thursday, since those days I have classes and my uncle’s at work Monday through Friday.”

“Oh…oh shit I didn’t even think about that.”

“I know you’re only going to therapy three days a week, so it shouldn’t be a huge problem to convince them to not schedule you on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I can take you Monday, Wednesday and Friday, it’s the days I have class that’s the problem.”

”Well…I can stay here those days!”

“Alone?”

“Yeah!”

“Jer, you know you’re not supposed to be alone.”

“I know, but I want to! I haven’t stayed home alone since it happened and that was like, three years ago!”

“Look, Jer, I don’t know-”

“C’mon Mike! I’m twenty years old, I’m turning twenty one this June! I’m a grown man! Don’t you trust me?”

“I do trust you but you’re also a grown man who’s living with a brain injury that he shouldn’t have survived from, as well as having a broken wrist and you can’t use one of your arms for a while. I mean, between that and your walking-”

“My walking’s gotten better!”

“It has, but you know what I mean. What if when you take your crutch off to use your good arm, you just loose your balance?! I don’t wanna go back to the hospital for a concussion or something!”

“I don’t get unbalanced when I’m just standing, it only happens when I walk.”

“How about I just stay home-”

“No! You need to be at school!”

“But-”

“No!”

“What if we hire someone?”

“No! I’m sorry but I think I’m past the age where I need a babysitter. I wanna be by myself, I can handle it! C’mon, I haven’t been independent since I was eighteen!”

“But…”

“Please Mikey?” he asked as he put his head on Michael’s shoulder and looked at him with a puppy dog look in his eye. Michael looked at him for a minute as his cheeks got lightly flushed and he tried not to give in. He tried to look away every few seconds but every time he looked back, Jeremy still had that puppy-dog look on his face and Michael would pull on the collar of his shirt because he would get warm.

After a minute Michael finally said, “Ugh! Fine, you win.”

Jeremy picked up his head. “Really?!” he asked excitedly.

“Yes, because your puppy dog eye really got to me. I’ll tell my uncle that you’re staying since this is his house but don’t make me regret it, or I’ll convince the librarians to let you stay ‘till I get out and I’ll take you to the library at my school with me.”

“You won’t regret it! I promise!”

Chapter 105

Summary:

When Jeremy stays by himself for the first time in over three years, he gets an unexpected visitor.

”Are you sure you’re gonna be okay?” Michael asked Jeremy that Tuesday before he left for college. He took his classes in the afternoon, which meant he had to be on campus at twelve o’clock in the afternoon. He would be back by six or seven in the evening, depending how long the class took, and Henry would be back by five so that meant Jeremy would be by himself for five hours.

“Yes! I told you, I can handle it!” Jeremy exclaimed.

“But you know I’m worried about you! I’m not supposed to leave you alone!”

”Since when are you a rule follower?”

Michael opened his mouth to say something, but the more he thought about Jeremy’s words the more they made sense. “Touché,” he said.

”Exactly. I’ll be fine! You already moved the things I want from the top shelf to the bottom so I wouldn’t have to reach. I think I’ll be okay now.”

“Still!”

“I’m probably just gonna sit here and watch TV all day. You’re worried about nothing! Again!”

Michael sighed. “Fine. But if I come back and you’re hurt, I’m taking you with me on Thursday and leaving you in the library so the librarians can keep an eye on you.”

“Ew! I don’t wanna read books all day! That’s boring!”

Michael chuckled. “Well, be safe and then I won’t make you go with me next time.”

“Fine.”

“Remember that the number to the school and the number to my uncle’s work is on the fridge if you need us?”

“Yes!”

“Love you Jer,” he said as he tucked a stray piece of Jeremy’s hair behind his ear since he was growing it out to the same length he had before his accident.

“Love you too.”

They pecked each other goodbye and Michael headed out the door, closed it and locked it behind him. Jeremy watched out the window as Michael got in his car, started it and waved to Jeremy watching him through the front window, backed out of the driveway, headed down the street and out of the neighborhood.

Jeremy turned back to the empty room once he was gone, and for the first time in a long time all he heard was silence. He went over to the couch and sat down, and the silence didn’t last for long because for the first time in a while he remembered what it was like to be alone in your thoughts. His head was so swarmed with thoughts that it was like it wasn’t even silent, and he hurriedly tried to find anything to tune them out but everything was out of his reach.

It was like something had taken his mask off of pretending to be this happy person, who’s injury didn’t affect him at all, who’s parents deaths had little effect on him and that he wasn’t at all upset that he could’ve had a little sibling. Pretending that he wasn’t still traumatized by watching both of his parents die in front of him, pretending to be someone who wasn’t upset about being alone and who wasn’t scared for his life, pretending to be someone who wasn’t upset that his life will never be the same ever again.

He knew holding it in wasn’t healthy, but he didn’t want to be a bother and add onto the list of things to be worried about. He knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up this act forever and eventually it would all have to come out sometime, but to him there was no other solution than bottling it all up.

He pretended to be a happy person for Michael’s sake. Michael has a lot of stress in his life and struggling himself, so Jeremy didn’t want to add on that he was struggling as well. Jeremy cared for Michael a lot and he was really one of the few people who actually made him happy, so he would hate to just add more weight onto Michael and make him worry about Jeremy more than he already does.

Jeremy calmed down after a while and took several deep breaths, and after his heart rate went down he felt the temperature drop in the room which sent shivers down his spine. He remembered this feeling all too well and he felt his heart rate speeding up from fear. He looked around the room and said, “Hello?” but he of course couldn’t hear anything.

His sadness was now replaced with a feeling of dread because to him, the temperature felt as cold as it was some days when he was alone in his room and in the car right before the crash. He didn’t know what was causing this icy coldness, but he assumed this was the thing that had been at his house, watching him and causing him to be paranoid every time he was in a room alone, the thing that caused the crash and killed his father.

“Who’s there?! Go away!” he yelled but the coldness lingered. He covered his good eye with his good hand and brought his knees up to his chest, but he suddenly felt a colder feeling on both of his shoulders like whatever it was was putting its hands on his shoulders and looking straight at him.

He took his hand off of his eye and yelled, “Go away! Don’t you dare touch me!”

The coldness on his shoulders dissipated and suddenly, he saw an almost transparent man standing across the room from him. His skin and hair were pure white, he had slicked back hair, no pupils and his eyes were pure white. He wore a white button down with a black blazer, black dress pants and black dress shoes, and the only color on him other than black was the deep red stab wound on his chest and deep red cut on his neck which Jeremy found terrifying.

“What the…” Jeremy started but he was left speechless.

The television next to the entity suddenly turned on to static which made Jeremy jump in surprise from the noise because he didn’t turn it on, but then he saw words appear on the screen.

Hello Jeremy, was all it said. Jeremy then realized that the entity was trying to communicate with him through the television screen.

“Wha…is that you?! How do you know my name?!” Jeremy said, a little louder than he intended.

I’ve known your name for a long time Jeremy. 

“Uh, who are you?!”

Unimportant.

“What do you want?!”

I want answers.

“Answers…to what?”

Who is it?!

“Who?!”

Who’s keeping you alive?!

“I-I don’t know!”

Liar.

“I swear, I don’t know!”

We’ve tried to kill you TWICE, and each time you survived and you’re saying it was all some accident?! That you don’t know who is protecting you?!

“Yes! Wait, ‘we’? You’ve been doing this?! Who’s helping you?! Why the actual fuck did you decide to kill my dad?!”

Unimportant. You’re saying you survived that bite, survived that crash and magically remembered your little boyfriend better than anyone else all by some freak accident?!

“Yes!”

Do you realize that if you don’t die, he’ll kill me?!”

“I don’t know who this ‘he’ is you’re talking about, but I hope he does kill you! You’re a bad man, go to hell!”

The entity stared at him with what looked like a death glare, and Jeremy realized he should’ve just kept his mouth shut instead of impulsively saying what he was thinking.

Bad choice of words Fitzgerald. I’ll ask you one more time, what or who is helping you survive all of our attempts to get rid of you?

“I-I don’t know! I don’t know how I’m progressing more than I should because I know I shouldn’t have even been out of the wheelchair yet! I know it should be hard to speak, I know I shouldn’t remember Michael as well as I do, I don’t even know how I escaped from the crash with just a broken wrist and a few cuts! I’m telling you, I don’t fucking know!”

It’s funny that you’re trying so hard to convince me that you don’t know. Something’s going on, and one day I’m going to find out, put a stop to it, and kill you. And that’s a promise, Fitzgerald.

Jeremy stared at the television screen in shock when those words came on the screen, but suddenly the entity disappeared and the television screen turned off. He then felt that the entity was making the cold air circle around him at a very fast pace, and he couldn’t handle it because it felt like a miniature tornado.

“Stop it! Leave me alone!” he yelled as he shut his eye tightly.

The circling air stopped suddenly and he opened his eye, and the room still felt cool but he saw nothing happen. He stood because he thought the entity had left, but then he felt the entity grab onto his shoulders very tightly, pushed him back with a lot of force, Jeremy lost his balance and he fell backwards onto the couch. His weight went to the back of the couch and suddenly he felt the it tipping over backwards.

“No, no, no…” he said under his breath as he shut his eye again. He knew if someone came back and found him on the ground, hurt or both, Michael would definitely take him to his school on Thursday and Jeremy was scared to go because he looked different, and sometimes people weren’t the nicest about people who looked different from them.

Before the couch could tip over, he felt the temperature drop more ever so slightly and the couch seemed to stop mid-fall. He opened his eye and saw that it did in fact do just that, it was balancing on the back legs and he stayed put as the couch slowly returned to its original position.

After he regained his confidence after a minute, Jeremy looked above the back of the couch so his eye just peaked over it and he saw the same evil entity that was talking to him through the television, but this time he looked like he was yelling at someone but he couldn’t see who because they were invisible, but he could only make out one word by reading the entity’s lips and watching very carefully: Fitzgerald.

It suddenly hit Jeremy that the second entity could be someone from his family, but he didn’t know who. Of course the evil entity could be talking about Jeremy, but it didn’t look like it because he was talking to the second entity, not him.

Suddenly, the evil entity pulled from his pocket what looked like an almost transparent dagger, but it also looked like it was something out of a fairytale so he knew this thing was more powerful than any old dagger.

It looked like a dagger, maybe slightly bigger and had swirl designs on either side. At the end of the handle was what looked like a small yellow jewel, which he he thought what was responsible for sending what he could only assume was liquid throughout the dagger making the swirl designs glow purple.

Jeremy knew at that moment he had to do something, he couldn’t let this evil entity hurt a member of his family because he assumed if they were hurt after they died it would be a lot worse for a lot longer.

“Hey! Stop it!” Jeremy yelled and the evil entity looked back at him like he had forgotten he was there. The room raised in temperature a few degrees and the evil entity looked at him with another death glare because Jeremy let them escape, he put the dagger back in his pocket because it couldn’t do anything to Jeremy (just spirits), disappeared and the room returned back to its normal temperature. 

“This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, this is just a dream, a very weird one-” Jeremy started but suddenly from a separate room he heard glass break. “Shit,” Jeremy mumbled as he stood, put his crutch on and went to the room. There, he saw one of Henry’s pictures on the wall had fallen on the tile with the frame face down that the entity had knocked down to try and get Jeremy in trouble.

Jeremy knew he wasn’t supposed to do it, but he stood with his legs far apart to keep his balance, took off his crutch and leaned it against the wall, bent down and quickly picked up the picture. He looked at the picture, saw the glass was broken and noticed it was a picture of Henry’s two children, Samuel and Charlotte when they were babies. He then knew that everything he just saw within the span of about ten minutes was most definitely real.

He audibly sighed and said, “Shit.”

---

Later that evening, Jeremy sat at the couch watching a movie and eating dry cereal on the couch, with a bag of ice that he put together on his shoulder and every so often switched it to the other since the entity had squeezed his shoulders so hard he ended up bruising both of Jeremy’s shoulders.

The broken picture was on the table since Jeremy didn’t know what else to do, and he didn’t know how to say that a ghost broke the picture without sounding like a bad liar. He decided that he would have to take the blame for it even though he didn’t do anything and accept whatever punishment Henry puts on him, since Jeremy was staying in his house for free.

After the movie was almost over, Jeremy heard someone fiddling with the door lock and he looked at the clock. It was five fifteen in the evening; the time Henry would be getting home. As expected, in walked Henry and Jeremy peaked his head over the couch.

“Hi!” Jeremy said to him.

“Hey Jeremy! How were things here today?” Henry asked.

“Fine. Uh…normal as they can be.”

“I have to go clean up, I’m full of soot every day and it drives me nuts. I’ll be back in a few.”

Jeremy thought nothing of it as he walked away, but he realized that to go upstairs he had to pass the wall that the picture fell off of. “Wait!” he yelled without thinking as he paused the movie and got up, and Henry stopped as Jeremy put on his crutch and went over to him. “Follow me.”

He led Henry to the kitchen where the broken picture was, and Henry gasped when he saw it and he picked it up.

“Wha…what happened?” Henry exclaimed.

“I-I don’t know! It just…fell.”

“Do you know what happened?”

“Uh…no!”

“Jeremy, you know I can tell when you’re lying.”

“Right, I’m terrible at this lying thing.”

“What happened?”

“I just…lost my balance and used the wall for support, bumped into it and it fell. I’m sorry. I-I tried to clean up as best I could, but you know I can’t bend down that long without my legs cramping.”

“Well, I appreciate you coming clean and apologizing, because this is one of the only pictures I had of them.” Jeremy felt worse. “Good news is, the back of this frame can pop off,” he popped the back off, “and the picture is fine! I can just get another frame since this one was cheap, it’s no big deal!

Jeremy exhaled a sigh of relief. “Thank God. I was preparing for the worst.”

“I know you’d never intentionally break something that didn’t belong to you, so it’s okay. I’m going to go clean up, I’ll be back in ten.”

Jeremy nodded as Henry went upstairs and Jeremy looked at the empty room. “Fuck you!” he said quietly to the empty room and went out of the kitchen.

Chapter 106

Summary:

A very odd way to start spring break…

“Look! There they are!” Jeremy exclaimed when he got up from the couch from watching a movie with Michael to look out the window. It was the second day of spring break and Alex was coming back home for the week, the first day they spent with family, and today they wanted to spend the day with friends.

Michael paused the movie and stood up. “Finally. Only took forever.”

“Be thankful it’s not eight months like it was for me.”

“…okay, maybe not forever.”

Soon, they heard a knock on the door and Michael went to answer it. He fiddled with the lock as Jeremy went up next to him and Michael opened the door to see Alex on the other side.

“Hey guys!” they exclaimed and both Jeremy and Michael gave Alex a high five and a quick hug to greet them. Michael then motioned Alex inside and closed the door behind them.

“So? How’re things?” Michael asked.

”Same ‘ol same ‘ol. It’s getting pretty hot over there though.”

“Figured. It’s Arizona,” Jeremy said.

“Yeah, that’s the one part of living there I don’t miss at all. I’d give that up for like, eighty or ninety degree summers any day. Anyways, Jeremy you’re really walking with only one now?”

“Yeah!”

“When did that start?”

“Well, after the crash. I broke my wrist so I couldn’t hold anything for a while. Thank God I got that stupid cast off last week, still kinda hurts when I move it but I can take it.”

“Oh…I’m so sorry about what happened Jeremy. I know it must be hard.”

“It is, but uh…it’s okay now,” he lied because it wasn’t okay now, he just didn’t want anyone to worry about him.

”But hey, if you ever wanna talk about it or anything at all, me and Mike are always here for you.”

Jeremy looked at Alex then Michael who nodded, looked back at Alex and he smiled shyly and nodded.

Alex looked at the paused movie. “Uh, what were you two watching over there?”

“Star Wars! I found a whole bunch of those movies since I’m here by myself sometimes and Henry said I could watch them!” Jeremy exclaimed.

“Mike? You like it too?”

“It’s slowly growing on me,” Michael replied as he went to turn off the television. “So, should we go?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Michael went back to them and turned to the stairs. “Uncle! We’re leaving now!”

Henry came down the stairs. “Hello Alex, I think we briefly met a few times,” he said.

“Yeah, I think. Hi again Mr. Emily,” Alex replied.

“Have fun you three, and don’t stay out too late!”

“We won’t!” Jeremy said.

“We’ll be back by seven!” Michael added on.

---

“So what’s the situation like over there?” Alex asked as they were walking across the parking lot of the local Seven Eleven, drinking the sodas that they bought from the store.

“It’s…different,” Michael said as they neared Alex’s car which they all came in.

“Especially ‘cause I’m sleeping downstairs and not in a room,” Jeremy added on.

“You’re not?” Alex asked him.

“No! I’m sleeping on the couch because I don’t feel comfortable going upstairs yet.”

”Other than that, how do you like it?”

“It’s good! I never saw Henry a lot and now that I do, it’s a little weird but he’s really nice! Still strange though because…well imagine how it is visiting someone at their house but staying there for a few months.”

“Must be homesick now, huh?”

“Yeah. I miss my room.”

“Oh, Jer that reminds me, have you thought about what your father wrote at all?” Michael asked.

”Woah, pause, back up a step, what’re you talking about ‘cause I think I missed something,” Alex said as they leaned against their car.

“Well, Jeremy’s father wrote a letter and it acted kinda like his will, but he actually wrote one to me too telling me that the house was paid off and Jeremy can move back into his house if he wants, but since Jeremy needs someone to stay with him I promised I would take care of Jeremy for him when he was gone.”

“So…if Jeremy chooses to move back, his dad wants you to move in with him?”

“Basically.”

They both turned back to Jeremy waiting for an answer. He was busy sipping his drink while they talked, but now he was deep in thought pretending to sip his soda to not answer. Finally he said, “I uh…I haven’t really thought about it. But…I guess it would be nice to not sleep on the couch, plus I don’t think Mike wants to live with his uncle forever. I mean, I wouldn’t.”

“And I’d think it’d be easier for you to get around because you can’t go up to the second floor well,” Alex said.

“Fair point,” he said as he put his cup back on the trunk of the car because he had trouble holding it for long.

“So have you made a decision?” Michael asked.

“I think so because Alex makes a fair point. I wanna move back in my house with Mike since it’s a one story house, but I wanna wait until Mike’s done with school.”

“So that’s…what is it, two months?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, and honestly, I can’t wait,” Michael said and held Jeremy’s hand, but tried to be subtle because across the parking lot he saw people coming out of the store.

For a few minutes, Michael and Alex talked about how happy Michael was to finally be on his own with Jeremy, what he’ll need to do to pack and how he should start little by little now to not be stressing when moving day came. Jeremy however stayed quiet and sipped his soda but was so distracted by his own thoughts that he didn’t even hear the world around him.

He was thinking back to when that entity appeared in front of him, the one who knew his name when Jeremy never even saw him before and communicated with him through the television screen. The one who was basically yelling at him to tell him who was protecting him and came clean that he was behind the murder of his father, the one who promised Jeremy that he would put a stop to whatever’s keeping him alive and kill him.

Honestly, he was scared. He didn’t want to be murdered, if he chose how he wanted to go it would be of old age, but it seems as though he didn’t get a choice in this matter. He couldn’t do anything to stop it and he would have to wait for his own demise, whenever that may be which terrified him.

“Jer? You okay?” Michael asked as he put his free hand on Jeremy’s shoulder, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“What? Oh yeah, I’m fine.”

“You sure? You’re squeezing my hand.”

“Oh. Um, sorry. I always accidentally do, you know that,” he replied as he let go of Michael’s hand.

“Yeah, but it’s just that you’ve been doing that a lot recently.”

“It’s just because I got the cast off.”

“You’ve also been chewing your straw, are you worried about something?” Alex asked.

“No! I-I chew things sometimes!”

“Usually you only do it when you’re anxious.” Jeremy handed his cup to Alex who put it back on the trunk of the car behind them. “Jer, what’s wrong? You can talk to me,” Michael asked.

“Yeah Jeremy, what’s up?” Alex asked.

Jeremy sighed. “Promise you won’t argue again? You know I hate it when you two do that.”

Michael and Alex looked at each other and back at Jeremy. “Promise,” they said in harmony.

“Okay, so…about a month ago when I was home alone for the first time, I…I lied about the bruises on my shoulders.”

“What?! When I saw them you said you bumped into the wall!” Michael exclaimed.

“Wait, pause, how did you know? He always wears t-shirts,” Alex asked Michael.

“Jeremy was scared to sleep alone that night, so of course I laid down with him but he asked to not touch his shoulders. When I asked why he said they were bruised because he bumped into the wall, but now that I think about it I should’ve known it was a lie because it wasn’t just a little bump, they were big purple blobs about the size of my hand.”

“We fell asleep after that,” Jeremy added on.

“You had the balls to sleep with him?! Impressive,” Alex said to Michael.

“Shut up!” Michael exclaimed and turned red with embarrassment as Jeremy and Alex softly chuckled.

“Sorry Jeremy, continue,” Alex said to Jeremy and continued to sip their drink.

”Anyways, yeah I lied, I don’t know how since I have the brain-to-mouth-filter problem, but I did and I’m sorry, I was just embarrassed,” Jeremy said.

“Why would you lie? Jer you know you can tell me anything! I’ve told you that dozens of times!” Michael said.

“I know, and I’m sorry. I just didn’t know how to say it without starting a fight.”

“Well, what is it? I promise I won’t get mad.”

Jeremy took a deep breath. “That first day, I never bumped into any walls. I saw something, something actually there and wasn’t just my hallucinations because it could touch me. It gave me those bruises, and that…thing whatever I saw knocked the picture down that day, it was never me. I just lied and took the blame because I didn’t know how to say it without someone blaming my injury or something.”

“What…what was it?” Alex asked.

“A…it looked like a ghost.”

“Ghost?”

“A terrifying one, he appeared in front of me and he looked scary.”

Alex and Michael looked at each other and back at Jeremy. “Can you remember what happened when you saw this ghost?” Michael asked.

“I think…,” it was then like something wiped away the fog on a foggy window, because the memories were now clear as day, “it couldn’t talk to me because I now know that usually, alive people can’t hear dead people. It instead communicated with me through the TV screen, the words popping up on the screen and responding every time I spoke.”

“Why was the ghost there? Did they say?”

“It wanted to know how I lived. Twice. This ghost assumed that someone or something was protecting me because it should be impossible for me to survive those on my own. 

“I also learned that…that the ghost was my dad’s murderer and caused the crash in the first place. Anyways I said that I didn’t know how I got away both times and he called me a liar. If I could hear him, I swear he would be yelling at me for an answer that I didn’t know the answer to.”

“Oh my God…Jeremy that sounds terrifying!” Alex said.

“The…ghost whatever it is also said, ‘we tried to kill you twice’, so that means he’s working with someone else.”

“Who d’you think it is?” Michael asked.

“I dunno. Haven’t really thought about it.”

“Wait! I just remembered something!” Alex said and put their drink behind them. “Remember a while ago when you showed me that newspaper article?” they asked Michael.

“Kind of. I have a shit memory so I don’t remember fully.”

“Well, anyways I kept the one that was in my newspaper because…well to me it just seems like this was deeper than what meets the eye so it felt important. Anyways remember that it said that there was an entity on William’s car, and we thought it was there because it was possibly working with him? I remember it was a powerful entity because Mike said, ‘no human could’ve done that to cars’?”

”I kinda remember now.”

“I don’t,” Jeremy said.

“Okay, stay with me here. What if since Jeremy’s first injury was caused by William, what if that entity is working with him since it’s so powerful that it could knock stuff down and hurt people? We don’t know of anyone else working with a ghost-poltergeist thing! Jeremy, d’you remember what the ghost looked like?”

“Kinda. I remember I could see through it kind of, it had white eyes, it looked all dressed up for something because it had one of those fancy jackets, it’s skin and hair was pure white, and it had a stab wound on its chest and cut on its neck.”

Alex thought about his description for a minute, but suddenly the association was made that they saw something like this before. “Random question, was his hair greased back?” Alex asked.

“Uh…I think.”

Alex looked at Michael. “You know what I’m thinking?”

“Uh…no,” Michael answered.

“I told you you couldn’t trust Schmidt!”

“Wait, you’re saying it’s him?!”

“Yes! I mean, the way Jeremy described the ghost was exactly the same as Schmidt!”

Michael looked at Jeremy and back at Alex. “I-I don’t know-”

“I believe you!” Jeremy exclaimed.

“Jeremy!”

“What? It makes sense! Think about it: he lied to you about what happened that one night when those police officers were killed! You told me!”

“I think he did that to cover up what he was actually doing so you could still trust him,” Alex added on.

“But he said so himself he’s on our side here!” Michael said, trying to defend his idea that Schmidt was good.

“He murdered my dad and those three officers! He’s not on our side! He’s lying!”Jeremy yelled.

“He’s manipulating you!” Alex exclaimed.

“And if what I described sounds exactly like what’s been talking to you, there’s a damn good chance they’re the same!” Jeremy said. 

Michael could feel himself getting angry now, but tried to keep his cool and he said, “We don’t know if they’re the same yet, it could’ve been someone who looks similar to him for all we know, we don’t know anything about the dead!”

”I don’t know about you, but I don’t think two ghosts can look the same! Ghosts were people at one point, and everyone’s different so I think the afterlife has that same thing!

”But he’s the one who told me about the murders of the kids in the first place! He’s how I found out about the remnant! I couldn’t have found out and turned my father in without him.”

“That could’ve been all to gain your trust!”

“How do you know?!”

“Because I’ve seen that he actually doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself! If he was on our side, I have a feeling he would’ve killed William or something before he even committed the first murder! If he was on our side, I’d have both eyes right now and not be walking with this because he knows I’m with you, so he would’ve tried to stop it so I could help you take William down! If he was on our side, those three officers would still be here, my dad would still be here and he wouldn’t be actively trying to kill me!”

Michael, Alex and Jeremy stood in silence for a minute, Michael and Alex trying to process the last words of Jeremy’s sentence and Jeremy regretting he had said that at all and he slapped his own hand over his mouth since he spoke before he thought about it.

“What?” Michael finally said softly and shakily. 

Jeremy took his hand off of his mouth. “Forget about it. I shouldn’t have said that,” Jeremy said as he looked down at the ground and he felt a lump in his throat.

“Wait…he’s trying to kill you?!” Alex exclaimed.

“I said forget about it. I don’t wanna make you guys worried about me of all people.” Suddenly, Michael pulled Jeremy into a tight hug, and Jeremy couldn’t help but hug him and sob into his shoulder. “I-I don’t wanna die Mike! I-I’m so scared, and I don’t know when it’s gonna happen!” he said through sobs.

“Shh, don’t worry. I’m gonna make sure that doesn’t happen for a very long time,” Michael said. “One of these days, I promise you I’m gonna find him and my father and figure out how to put a stop to all this,” he said and Jeremy’s crying started calming down some.

After a while Jeremy stopped sobbing and was just hugging Michael, but Jeremy noticed the people across the parking lot staring at them with weird looks and whispering to each other, so he flipped them off because Michael couldn’t see behind him.

Michael looked over at Alex who was leaning against their car and seemed lost in their thoughts. “Alex? You okay?” Michael asked snapping Alex out of his thoughts.

“Yeah. Just…just thinkin’.”

“About what?”

“About how I’m kinda in the same mindset as you right now. I don’t want to believe it, I thought it was just a stupid theory but after hearing Jeremy, it’s sinking in that it might actually be true. Also since I joined in on this hunt for them and I saw what he’s trying to do to Jeremy, he might be coming for me too.”

“Look, I know you’re scared, and I’m kinda split between the options. I have never heard him threaten anyone before, so I have a tough time believing but I also want to believe it. I mean, with how scared Jeremy is and how scared you probably are, it’s making me split between the two.”

“I guess that’s fair because you’ve never seen him get violent, but I think you should believe Jeremy.”

Michael sighed and Jeremy let go of him, wiped his tears and went over next to Alex leaning on the back of their car. “Hey, it’s…hard, I know,” Jeremy said. “It’s hard knowing some poltergeist is coming to get me, maybe you too and we don’t know how long we have.”

”Yeah, really is. This isn’t how I expected it to be when I joined in on this search at all, but it doesn’t seem like there’s backing out now, not that I’d really want to because I actually want this stupid little town to stay safe.”

”Yeah. Well I don’t know about you, but I don’t wanna just sit around and wait for it to happen.”

“What…what’re you saying?”

“I don’t wanna just be upset about it for the rest of my life, waiting for this to happen if it ever does. I wanna live! I wanna have fun!”

“So…”

“Arcade? Tomorrow? The three of us?”

Alex smiled. “You bet.”

Chapter 107

Summary:

An unexpected surprise.

“So…you’re telling me that this place is not called the afterlife?!” Evan asked his friend as he paused from his drawing.

“Well, kind of. It’s mainly just a preference thing,” Oliver responded as Evan was trying to teach him how to draw Foxy.

“Well, what’s the other name?”

“Sometimes it’s called the Other Side because this is the ‘other side’ to life: death. Afterlife isn’t wrong either but adults don’t use it as much, it just tends to comfort the kids who come here a little more than saying it’s the Other Side for some reason, especially the young ones.”

“I guess I can see how it’s a little scary. That would’ve creeped me out but I’m scared of everything.” They both chuckled. “To me, if you say afterlife, then there’s that feeling that you have another shot to get back to the physical world even as a ghost. Other Side sounds like…I dunno, like there’s two sides but you’re stuck here, away from the rest of your family and friends who are on the other living side, and there’s no way to see them again for a very long time.”

“Huh. I never thought about it like that.”

”That’s how I take it, and that sounds really scary if I wasn’t prepared.” They both silently drew on their own pad of paper for a few minutes. “Hey Oliver?” Evan asked breaking the silence.

“Yeah?” Oliver responded and put his pad of paper in front of him.

“I’m sorry, I know this is a touchy subject for you-”

“It’s okay. I can handle it!”

“Okay, um, so I’ve been wondering…that first day we met you said you recognized my last name.”

“Oh. Yeah I do. I haven’t heard it in a long time until you told me.”

“So, where d’you remember it?”

“Well, my older brother had a friend with that name. I don’t remember that guy’s first name though and I’ve been hesitant to ask the Spirits.”

“What’s your brother’s name?”

“Henry Emily. I miss him, I haven’t been able to see him for over twenty years,” he said glumly.

“Henry? Uncle Henry?”

Oliver looked at Evan with confusion. “Uncle?”

”Wait…are you the younger brother that Uncle Henry said died before my older brother was born?”

“I-I dunno. Depends if his name was Oliver Emily.”

“Oh my…it is you! I’d never think I’d run into you!”

“Heh. Small world I guess. What’s your dad’s name again?”

”William Afton.”

”William! That’s it! That’s been bugging me for years…wait, how is Henry your uncle?! I don’t know much about my sister now but I wouldn’t think she would ever have kids and as far as I know, William didn’t even acknowledge her most of the time so I don’t think he even liked her.”

“My dad and him actually married women who were sisters, so yeah he’s my uncle because he was married to my aunt. I never saw Henry’s sister a lot, maybe once or twice. Uncle Henry said she moved away after she finished college.”

“Henry and William are still doing things together after all these years, just like they used to.”

“Well…”

“What?”

“Long story short, he and my dad…they’re not really friends anymore.”

“They’re not?!”

“Nope.”

“They…they were best friends for years! What happened?!”

“My dad’s not a good person. In fact he’s a terrible person and a terrible dad. I dunno all the details, but I overheard Henry and my dad arguing, glass breaking and Henry yelling at him he doesn’t wanna see him again.”

“Oh my God. So…what happened? Why aren’t they friends anymore? Do you know?”

“Well, ultimately my dad killed Henry’s daughter and a few other kids and Henry said something about how William ruined his life by doing it.”

“So your dad’s a serial killer?! God…wait, Henry’s daughter? He had a kid?! I was an uncle and I didn’t even know it?!”

“He had two actually, one boy and one girl. They were twins.”

“Twins?!”

“Yeah! I don’t know much about Henry after that, since he never visited the pizzeria and that was about three years before I came here.”

“Pizzeria?! Wait, what?! Where did that come from?!”

“Very confusing, I can explain later but it’s a long story. But what I do know now is that he is housing my older brother, in other words my murderer.”

“Woah, wait. If your dad is a serial killer and Henry stopped being friends with him, and your brother killed you so why is he helping him and not your dad?”

“I dunno. I’m guessing he said he changed or he’s sorry or something stupid like that, but I don’t believe it one bit.”

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, what happened to you?”

“My…my head was crushed in the jaws of an animatronic.”

“Oh Jesus…”

“Not the ideal way to go, and I don’t even know how it was possible but it worked. My brother always bullied me, so of course he thought it’d be hilarious to put me up against my number one fear. He was in full control of whether or not he pulled that stupid prank so I don’t think I’ll ever forgive him.” Evan sniffled. “So what about you?”

“Well uh, I was murdered in an alley. I was kidnapped from my own house at like, midnight by this guy, and then he took me to a very dark alley so I couldn’t see anything and stabbed me in the back. I don’t even know how my family reacted when they found out because it all happened so fast and I was dead in seconds.”

“Jeez…”

“When I got here and I knew I would be alone for years, it felt like a part of me died even though I’m already dead. I miss them, especially Henry.”

Evan saw that Oliver was starting to tear up so he took off his glasses and quickly wiped away at the corner of his eyes. “You really miss Henry, huh?” he asked and Oliver nodded.

“He and I were like two peas in a pod even though he was six years older than me. We did everything together because both of us didn’t really get along with our sister, we had similar interests and he was the only family member that really cared about my well being. I just…I just miss him so much, he was my brother , but he was also my best friend and I just wish I could see him again before he comes here.”

Evan could see that Oliver was holding back a wave of tears, and without thinking Evan said, “I have an idea.”

“W-what?”

“I said I have an idea. I know how to travel to Earth and I’m willing to take you so you can see Henry again!”

“But…wouldn’t we get in trouble? They don’t let me go to Earth because they say it’s dangerous and I stay fourteen forever, so I’m still young even though it’s been, uh…twenty something years!”

“It is dangerous and usually only adults are allowed to travel, so l had to say I’ll only travel to Earth to see my family only that one time, but they left me with the knowledge so we just have to be careful and follow the rules so they won’t suspect anything. We can’t reappear in front of people and we have to be back by sundown.”

“Sundown?”

“Because of…I think they were called poltergeists? That’s generally when they become more active I think.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard about those.”

“Anyways, as long as we’re careful and don’t get caught, I can take us there!”

“But I’ve never gone against the rules before! What if we do get caught?!”

“We just have to be quick and we’ll be fine! I dunno, I just think you deserve to see your brother once while he’s still alive since you have been here over twenty years already, so technically you’re an adult by now in human years. He’s your family for crying out loud!”

Oliver thought about his words for a minute. “Y’know, you’re right! It’s been way too long and I should be able to see him at least once! They shouldn’t keep me from seeing my family until they die!”

Evan smiled, sent the sketch pads back to his room and they both stood up. He held Oliver’s wrist and asked, “Ready?”

Oliver took a deep breath. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Evan nodded, closed his eyes and thought the name, Henry Emily.

After a few seconds, Evan felt the temperature change, opened his eyes and found himself standing in front of Henry’s house with Oliver next to him. He let go of the boy’s wrist and Oliver looked around, being that he hasn’t seen what the world looked like since 1967.

“Woah…where are we?” Oliver asked.

“This is Henry’s house. It seems like one of the cars in the driveway is gone, I’m assuming it’s my brother’s car but I dunno where he is.”

“So…do we just go in?”

“Uh, I guess. But remember, be careful.”

Oliver nodded and they followed each other to the front door, and since they were both ghosts they went through the wall and into the front room.

They walked around the small room and Henry was nowhere to be found, but Oliver kept getting distracted by everything and wanted to stop to take a look, but Evan was busy making sure Michael wasn’t around. He didn’t want to enter another crying spell in front of Oliver, much less get so angry that he made Michael see hallucinations since he figured out he could do that.

They went into the living room and on the floor by the couch was what looked like a duffel bag full of things; some clothes which were mainly disorganized and thrown in, some basic necessities as well as a few medications so Evan assumed someone was staying here with them but he didn’t know who.

Evan motioned Oliver to the kitchen since that was the last room on the bottom floor and he followed, and on their way to the kitchen they passed a calendar that said, ‘May 1990’. Marked on the calendar were a few important dates; two circled on the 17th and 18th which Michael wrote in his messy handwriting that they were the days he would be taking finals, the 25th which read, ‘Michael’s graduation’ and the 30th which read, ‘Michael’s moving day’.

“It’s 1990 already?!” Oliver whisper-shouted. “It’s been that long already?!”

“I mean Henry and my dad were old enough to have kids. That’s why I’m here!”

“That was rhetorical but you make a good point.”

“Oh. Anyways it looks like my brother’s in school still…and he’s moving out?”

“Maybe he’s in college.”

“He’d be about twenty right now, twenty one next month so maybe, unless he failed so bad they held him back. Twice.”

Oliver chuckled and they went into the kitchen slowly, looked around and Henry was still nowhere to be seen. “Where could he be?”

“I dunno. It’s Saturday, he should be here.”

They went back to the living room which had the couch with a duffel bag next to it, which was a big room that they had to go through to get to the stairs, but Oliver looked at the pictures on the wall and he saw that some looked like older pictures of what he assumed to be Henry’s family. “Is this his family?” Oliver asked Evan.

Evan went over to him. “Yeah. That’s Charlotte, or Charlie as we all called her, Samuel or we all called him Sammy and my Auntie Heather.”

Oliver chuckled. “I remember Henry talking about Heather every day, I knew he was in love with her but I didn’t think it would’ve lasted long enough to get married and have kids together. And…his daughter’s dead you said?”

“Yeah. I don’t know where the other two are though, but I couldn’t find them last time I was here either, so I’m thinking they left a while ago since I don’t see any new pictures of his family.”

“Feel bad for Henry, he’s had it rough ever since I died. But I never saw this girl, uh, Charlie. Maybe she returned to Earth.”

“Not exactly. I’ll explain once we get back.”

“What about these two?” he asked as he pointed to another picture that looked newer.

“That’s…Michael, my older brother. And that other man with him with the full beard and not just a stubble is Henry.”

Oliver looked at the picture for a while. “Wow…Henry’s really changed. Figured, it’s been a while.”

”Since our dad’s a terrible person and our mum’s dead, Uncle Henry’s been kind of like a stand in parent for me and my siblings and I’m guessing my older brother took the opportunity. I don’t know where my real dad is now-” Right at that moment, they both heard the front door open and two voices followed, one of which sounded like Michael’s. Crap, Evan thought as he grabbed Oliver’s wrist and they both hid in the corner.

”Why’re we hiding?” Oliver whispered to him.

”Okay, so, weird story,” Evan whispered back. “Everyone who was related to…my grandfather on my mum’s side at one point, whether by marriage or blood, can hear ghosts! So that means Henry and Michael can hear us if we say anything or even move! I asked the Spirits last time I came here since I was freaked out Michael could hear me crying but no one else could.”

“Oh my…okay, I’ll shut up.”

“Uncle! We’re home!” Michael yelled up the stairs.

They heard footsteps come downstairs, Henry went quickly into the front room to greet them and Henry finally spoke. “Hey you two! How was it?”

“The movie was good! Jeremy jumped and squeezed my hand a few times.”

“Not my fault!” Jeremy said. “It’s a thriller for a reason!”

Michael chuckled. “D’you need help with dinner Uncle?” he asked.

“I should be okay, thank you for offering though.”

Michael and Jeremy followed each other into the living room from the front room and Evan made sure they had both disappeared, put a finger to his lips telling Oliver to keep quiet and they sat motionless in the corner of the room.

Michael and Jeremy walked into the room hand in hand, talking quietly amongst themselves since they wanted to sit together and watch television, but they both stopped dead in their tracks and looked around the room.

“Is it me or is it a little cold in here?” Jeremy asked after a minute.

“It’s not just you, I feel it too,” Michael replied. “I think it’s him.”

Michael felt Jeremy squeeze his hand a little tighter. “Him?! No, no, no…he’s here to kill me! I-I’m not ready to go yet!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he doesn’t hurt you.” Michael hugged Jeremy close, protecting him and Jeremy hugged him back tightly and buried his face in Michael’s chest. “Show yourself!” Michael shouted at the room, but Evan and Oliver dared not to move.

Suddenly, Henry came into the room from the kitchen since he slipped through to start dinner. “What is it? Why’re you yelling?” he asked.

“It’s Schmidt,” he whispered, and Henry knew exactly what he meant because Jeremy couldn’t help but share that day because he was so terrified.

“Oh Jesus…Mike, take Jeremy and…wait outside or something because there’s people out there. Don’t let him leave your side, I’ll try to handle this.”

“Be careful Uncle,” Michael said as he grabbed Jeremy’s hand and led him outside, Jeremy now not speaking as if almost in a trance because he was terrified.

Once Henry heard the door close he shouted, “Show yourself!” to the empty room.

For a while, Oliver and Evan said nothing and dared not to move, but Evan suddenly got an idea. It would be against the rules, but what they were doing was already against the rules anyways so not much worse can happen if they found out. He grabbed Oliver’s wrist and Oliver turned to him. ‘What are you doing?!’ Oliver shrieked without sound.

‘Trust me, it’ll be worth it,’ Evan said back without sound. He closed his eyes and after a few seconds, Oliver appeared in front of Henry and Evan’s spirit stayed hidden.

In front of Henry, he saw what looked like a figure fade in who looked like they were sitting in the corner and he tried to brace himself for whatever was going to happen. When the figure faded in but it was still transparent enough to see through, the figure scrambled to stand up and Henry saw that it wasn’t Schmidt at all, but a young boy.

After some time and analyzing the features of this ghost, Henry finally realized that it was Oliver’s spirit standing in front of him. He stood in shock for a few seconds, stared at him wide-eyed with his mouth partially open because he couldn’t believe it and he relaxed his tense state. “Ollie?” Henry finally said shakily.

“Hey Hen,” Oliver said softly and shakily.

“You…you’re here!”

“Yeah, I am.” Oliver went up to him and hugged Henry, and even though he felt weightless and freezing cold Henry tried to hug him back. As Oliver let go a few seconds later he saw that Henry tried to wipe away his tears of happiness before Oliver could see. “Y’know you can cry around me Hen. It’s been…uh, twenty three years but I haven’t changed, I won’t judge you.”

Henry chuckled. “I’m just…happy, but also surprised! I wasn’t expecting you at all! I thought it was this…evil spirit that’s been coming here a lot.”

“I wasn’t expecting to be here either, I’m glad to finally be talking to you again. And sorry for scaring those other two guys.”

“Where…where were you all these years? Ever since I found out I could hear paranormal stuff, I’ve been trying to get to you because I just wanted to talk to you again, but I heard nothing.”

“I usually am not allowed to travel since I’m so young, but my friend helped me. We’re not supposed to be doing this, so I don’t know if I’ll see you alive again without getting caught. And we can’t tell if anyone tries to contact us so we can’t communicate back. If I could, I would talk to you until your ear falls off.”

Henry smiled but it quickly faded. “I…I’m so sorry Ollie. The day you disappeared, I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye since you were taken at night and you know I’m an early bird. I-I didn’t even know you were gone until the next day.”

“But I know you meant to say goodbye, because I know you wouldn’t ever let me leave without saying goodbye.”

Henry chuckled. “I’m just…I’m so sorry. I should’ve just stayed up with you since you liked to stay up late. I’m your older brother, I’m supposed to watch out for you and I failed.”

“It’s not your fault Hen. You didn’t know.” Oliver looked out the window at the horizon, and he saw the sun was going down. “I’d hate to cut this short, but we have to get going before we get caught. ‘Till next time?”

Henry smiled and tried to hug Oliver and he hugged him back, and Oliver’s touch sent icy cold shivers down Henry’s spine. “‘Till next time. Goodbye Ollie.”

“Goodbye Hen.”

They let go and Oliver backed away, Evan then grabbed onto his wrist and transported them back to the afterlife, and the room temperature dropped down to its normal temperature.

Henry stood alone in the room, taking off his glasses and feeling a few tears trickle down his face because he was sad to see his brother that he hasn’t seen in years leave, but he was also happy at the same time. Happy that his brother was in a better place, one that was free from all the horrors of the world.

Chapter 108

Summary:

Visiting the old Afton house.

A few days after Michael’s graduation, Michael and Jeremy had finally moved into the Fitzgerald house together, and they were both excited but also terrified. They were both thankful that Henry had given them a place to stay, but they both didn’t want to live there forever and Henry understood that.

After both of their twenty first birthdays, the house was now somewhat livable for Michael and Jeremy. It didn’t take as much effort as they thought since they had help from Alex who had come back to Hurricane a few days after Michael’s graduation, and they even got help from Alex’s stepfather and little brother who Jeremy got to finally meet.

To move in took a lot of rearranging since most of the furniture was still able to be used while just a few new pieces of furniture were bought, so hiring movers were out of the equation anyway.

They had both decided to take the master bedroom which meant taking everything off of the walls and put into a box in the basement, plus a new lamp was bought and put in their room as well as a new mattress since the one already in the room was old.

Since they were sharing a room, there wasn’t much on the walls except the polaroids of Michael and Jeremy throughout the years, and a picture of Michael and Jeremy together when Michael graduated from college. They had a bookshelf in their room as well that had a few books, but it was mainly there to hold Michael’s sketchbooks and so the room would look less bland.

They had also decided to get a small television set and stand for the master bedroom so that they could stay up late watching movies together, lounge around on weekend mornings and watch whatever was on television or watch TV by themselves in the bedroom instead of the living room.

Next was the office room which they had decided would still work as an office space, but it now doubled as a lounge space complete with new comfortable chairs, a bookcase filled with Jeremy’s books from his old room, other books they found in the garage and a lamp on the desk in case the overhead light was too bright.

There was also an easel in the room with a partly-finished canvas on it that Michael was working on to help liven up their room a little; it was Michael’s idea to paint something, and Jeremy agreed it was a great idea.

They both took everything off of the walls and replaced it with small posters from their old rooms so it was less bland, and it was a nice change from just having a boring old room.

They had also decided to keep the ofrenda, but it was now bigger so both of Jeremy’s parents pictures could fit, as well as an ultrasound picture of Jeremy’s miscarried little sibling that he found in the garage (who he found out was going to be a little girl), but Michael also decided to make a last minute decision and go a little over a mile down the street.

He grabbed his car keys, and Alex happened to be helping out that specific day by helping Jeremy take down the last of his things in his old room, moving in new furniture to convert it into a spare bedroom since there was no other use for the room yet. Alex heard the keys jingle when Michael grabbed them, but Jeremy didn’t hear anything so he didn’t notice until Alex yelled, “Mike!”

”God…why right in my ear?!” Jeremy said.

“Sorry Jeremy, I’ll be more careful next time. Wait here, I’ll be right back, I promise.” Alex went out the room to the front room where Michael was just about to leave. “So uh…where’re you running off to?” they asked him.

“Nowhere,” he said as he rolled up his sleeves on his denim jacket.

“Nowhere? That sounds real suspicious man.”

“I guess it does, eh? But I swear, I’m not going anywhere important.”

“Then where? If it’s not important you can tell me. C’mon, tell me!”

Michael sighed. “Since I know you won’t stop bugging me about it, I’m going to my old house.”

“The…the old Afton house? The place you used to live? Or Henry’s house?”

“Afton.”

“What?! That place has been abandoned for, like, years!”

“I know, but I only brought stuff from my room to my uncle’s, y’know the typical teenager things. I’m hoping to find small photos of my brother, sister and mother to put on the ofrenda over there since I don’t have any. Jeremy said it was fine if I put them up there.”

“Woah. Can I go?!” they asked enthusiastically.

“No, this is something for me only. It might be dangerous since I don’t know what to expect after all these years.”

“But abandoned houses are my thing, man! And there’s not many the public’s allowed to go to here, which is all of like, one! I’ve been there like, five times and it’s boring now!”

“But someone has to stay here with Jeremy!”

“Nuh-uh!” Jeremy said from down the hall and he went to them. “I can stay by myself! I did while you were at school and I was fine! Mostly.”

“See?” Alex said.

“We shouldn’t have done that, we just didn’t have an alternative,” Michael said to Jeremy.

“C’mon Mike! Please? I wanna check out your scary old house!” Alex exclaimed.

Michael chuckled and Jeremy said, “Mike, let ‘em go.”

“But what about you?” Michael asked.

“According to what I’ve seen on TV, abandoned houses are dark, covered in dust and dirt and have bugs everywhere! Bleh! No thank you! I’ll probably just try to find things I can do to set up the house.”

Michael sighed. “Fine. But we’ll be back in about an hour, I just wanna try to find a few things. We won’t be far if you need us.”

“Okay!”

Michael got two flashlights from a drawer and Michael and Jeremy pecked each other goodbye. “Love you Jer,” Michael said.

“Love you too!”

“Be safe.”

“I will! Stop worrying!”

“Bye Jeremy!” Alex said.

“Bye!”

Michael and Alex went out the front door and got in Michael’s car. “So, question,” Alex said to Michael.

“Shoot.”

”Was Jeremy always a sanitary person? He doesn’t seem to like getting dirty.”

“Yeah, always has been. He gets upset when I leave my stuff laying around and make a mess so I have to try and remember to pick up after myself. Plus he hates spiders.”

---

”So…flashlights?” Michael asked once they arrived at the house a few minutes later.

“Check. I think that’s all we need.”

”Yeah, you’re right. Now to find a way inside.”

“Break a window.”

Michael snickered. “We might actually have to.”

“You mean you might, I’m pretty sure you have a good enough arm to throw rocks at windows.”

“Me?!”

“I have the same body type as a stick!”

Michael smiled. “Fine, but you’re throwing the second rock if it ends up coming to that.”

They both got out of the car and cautiously went up to the front door, Michael turned the doorknob and as expected, it was locked.

“Break the window, break the window, break the window,” Alex chanted an Michael chuckled.

“We still have to check the back, don’t get your hopes up yet.”

They went to the back gate and it was still unlocked, so they opened it to be greeted by the yard having tall dry grass and weeds everywhere. “Looks like this yard hasn’t been used in a while,” Alex said.

“What do you mean? It was just used yesterday,” he replied sarcastically.

Alex laughed and went into the tall dry grass that reached their knees and they went to the back door. Michael followed and once he reached the door he turned the doorknob and as expected, it didn’t turn. “Now can you break a window?” Alex asked.

Michael rolled his eyes. “Fine. But you find the rock.”

Alex nodded excitedly and ran off into the tall grass, looking for a rock that Michael could throw to break the window and get inside.

After a few minutes of Michael trying to open the door again and again and getting the same result, Alex came back to him and put a rock about the size of a softball in his hand.

“Oh my-where’d you find this?!” Michael exclaimed.

“By the wall. There was a whole lot of ‘em all in a row.”

“So…funny story. When my brother was a lot younger he actually used to collect rocks and name them for some reason. I thought it was the stupidest thing in the world but now I kinda see why he did it. A few of them had googly eyes on them but they must’ve fallen off or something.”

“No way! He had pet rocks?!”

“Kinda. This one I believe was named Pebbles.”

Alex bent down to the rock. “Pebbles, you’re gonna go on an adventure!” they said enthusiastically and Michael laughed.

Alex took off the screen of the window and stood back so they wouldn’t get hit, then Michael stood at a good distance from the window, aimed the rock, threw it as hard as he could at the window and they both watched the window shatter and the glass fall everywhere.

“Hopefully the neighbors don’t think anything of the noise,” Michael said to himself. “So smart guy, how’re we gonna get around the broken glass?” Michael asked Alex.

“I uh…I didn’t think this through. Carefully?” Michael snickered and he motioned them to follow him, and they both carefully walked over the broken glass to the window where Michael unlocked it, opened it and they hoisted themselves up one after the other, went inside and they both turned on their flashlights. “Woah,” was all Alex said.

“What?”

“It’s…bigger than most houses I’ve seen.”

“Well, my father was semi-rich. I’ll never understand why he just abandoned all his money instead of taking it out of the bank or something if he’s gonna run off. Whatever, it’s mine now.”

Alex snickered and they both started looking around. “It’s very dusty in here,” Alex said suddenly a few minutes later.

“Dude, this place was abandoned years ago.”

“How many years ago?”

“Right before Freddy’s opened.”

“So…three?”

“Yeah.”

“Coulda just said that instead of making me count.”

---

“This place gives me the creeps,” Michael said half an hour later. “Plus, we didn’t find a lot, I was hoping more stuff was salvageable so I wouldn’t have to buy it.”

“We found some stuff though! Like these pictures you wanted, plus we found this gem from when you were thirteen!” they exclaimed as they held up a picture in a frame.

“What? Do I look that bad?”

“No, but you had braces! You never told me you had them!”

“It wasn’t my fault I had crooked teeth. I had to keep those things on until I was like, sixteen.”

“Can I call you brace face even though it was five years ago?”

“No!”

“Metal mouth?”

“No! Shut up!”

Alex laughed and put it off to the side. “Y’know I’ll never let you live it down though, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

”Anyways, we found these pictures of your sister and brother to put on the ofrenda, which is what you wanted, right?”

“Yeah, I wanted my mum’s too, but kinda disappointed we couldn’t find anything.”

“And I finally know what William looks like from that dusty picture in the hallway so I know who to look out for. Y’know, he looks strangely a lot like you, down to the lip scar and everything. So basically…like an older version of you.”

“I get that a lot, way more than you think.”

“Well good thing you’re not him, if you were I wouldn’t hesitate in beating your ass in the ground.” Michael softly chuckled. “Anyways, it wasn’t totally useless to come here in those aspects.”

“Yeah, I guess. But we’ve checked everywhere!”

“Everywhere but one place.”

“Where?” Alex pointed to a door semi-hidden in the shadows in the corner, one that was blocked off by police tape: the door that led to the basement. “Wha…the basement?!”

“What? Scared Mikey?” they said teasingly as they put the remaining two framed pictures in their arms on a chair in front of them.

”N-no! It’s just…”

“What?”

“It’s…it’s where I found out everything. The place where I felt…scared for my life because I found out my father was a serial killer and it just brings back that feeling of dread.”

“Mike, you know that everyone is afraid of something, right? I mean, for me it’s mainly heights, and maybe William and Schmidt because I’ve seen what they can do to someone. Anyways point is it’s normal to be afraid of something, it’s what makes you human.”

“I guess you make a good point.”

“If you don’t wanna check it out, you don’t have to. I ain’t forcing you.”

“No! I-I wanna. I shouldn’t be afraid of some stupid room, I’m a grown man!”

“That’s the Michael I know. C’mon!” They both went to the corner of the room, ducked under the police tape and went to the door, which was surprisingly unlocked once Alex turned the doorknob. They both turned on their flashlights and looked down to the bottom. “It’s dark down there. I wish there was a light or something that worked,” Alex said as they both peered down the staircase that looked like it lead to a bottomless pit.

“We’ll just have to make do.”

Alex went first down the tight stairwell and Michael followed closely behind him because he actually was scared. Michael tried not to remember the memories he had here, that feeling of dread that if William found out, he would most definitely kill him.

He was still scared because William most certainly wanted him dead, but now that the news was out there he had to remind himself that it wasn’t attached to this room.

Once they got to the bottom, they both looked around and saw that the room was a mess. The bookcases were knocked over, the boxes knocked down with things spilling out the top, the bulb above them was shattered, a lot of shattered glass which some pieces looked too big to come from that tiny lightbulb, books were scattered everywhere and some books had a few of the pages torn out so there were torn papers everywhere.

“Wow, this place is trashed,” Michael said.

“Definitely. Those police officers don’t mess around when they’re looking for something.”

“D’you really think it was the officers? I don’t  really think someone would just leave a place this trashed.”

Alex shrugged. “It’s the only logical explanation.”

They both looked at the books scattered around the room and they both found nothing important; a bunch of pages were filled with William’s messy handwriting, they looked through William’s old college textbooks with some of the pages now ripped out just in case, but no signs of Michael’s mother.

Everything else they found was trash, broken or most of the time it was both. They found a few pictures of William and Evelyn on their wedding day, and from the look on William’s face he really didn’t want to be there, and Evelyn’s face was ripped off of the picture and probably torn to shreds.

Finally after a lot of searching, Michael finally found a small picture of his mother by herself taken right before she died. He smiled and felt a lump in his throat from happiness because even though the glass covering the picture was broken, he could still see her kind smile and eyes that said, ‘everything is going to be okay’.

“Hi Mum,” he said quietly and shakily.

“Uh, Mike? You okay?” Alex asked.

“Y-yeah. Sorry, I’m an emotional person.”

”What’d you find?” Michael gave them the picture of his mother. “That’s your mom?” Michael nodded. “Wow…she’s very pretty. But I can see why you miss her, she seems very nice, very…motherly.”

Michael snickered. “She’d love you if she were still here.”

Alex smiled and gave the picture back to Michael. “Good thing we found a picture though, it’s like…she almost didn’t exist because we couldn’t find anything.”

“After she died, my father basically went on a rampage and went through every single room looking for anything that belonged to her or reminded him of her and burned it.”

“Wow. He really hated her, huh?”

“Yeah. I have no idea why, she loved all of us and would go through hell and back for any of us, but my father wouldn’t do the same. To him, me, my siblings and her were nothing.”

“God…I’m so sorry Mike.”

“It’s fine, I have you, Jeremy and my uncle now . I think I’m doing a little better than I was since you guys aren’t trying to tear me down any chance you get.”

Michael put the picture of his mother in his inside jacket pocket, since it was a little bigger than his outside jacket pocket. “Is that why you decided to wear a jacket when it’s almost ninety degrees outside?” Alex asked.

“Yep. The pockets on this thing are huge. Anyways let’s finish scoping out this room, then we can get outta here.”

Alex nodded and they both continued to search the room to try and find anything of importance, lifting up books and looking through them, looking through boxes and found nothing, until Alex found an area in the corner of the room blocked off by police tape.

“Hey Mike! Check this out!” they said and Michael came up next to them. “D’you know what this is?”

“Uh…a creepy old TV.”

“Well duh! But why’s it here?”

He shrugged. “I dunno.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “You’re no help. It has police tape around it so it must be important, so I’m checking it out.”

”Alright, I’d suggest you don’t touch it though.”

“Why?”

“One, there’s a sign on the wall that says ‘do not touch’, second, there’s blood smeared around the TV.”

Alex pointed their flashlight down at the ground and saw Michael was right. There was blood smeared around near the television set, and some smears looked like smeared handprints. “Jesus…” they said quietly.

They squatted down to see the broken television set better and saw that it was pretty old, it looked like it was made in the 60’s. It was very small with broken glass everywhere from the shattered screen which left the wires and mechanical parts inside exposed, the antenna on top of the television set was broken, the knob to change the channels was broken and some of the buttons underneath the knob were popped off.

Alex looked at the wall behind the set and saw what looked like lots and lots of holes; bullet holes, punched holes, holes from heavy objects being thrown at the wall and stabbed holes. On the wall with them was more smeared blood and smeared bloody handprints.

“Uh…” they said quietly.

“I can’t believe I didn’t see this before, this means that means there have been people in here but they never came out. Okay, I have a bad feeling about this room now. I don’t think we should be here any longer.”

“Scared ‘cause of some blood Mike?”

“Yes! We should go.”

“I don’t think that’s real.”

“What?!”

“It looks kinda like old ketchup, I’m just surprised that whoever did this spent this long modifying it to look real, because it got me at first too. I think someone’s just trying to pull a prank on whoever comes in here.”

”I don’t think-”

“Dare me to touch it?”

“Wha-no!”

“C’mon Mike. What’s a TV gonna do?! It’s just wood and mechanical stuff!”

“I dunno what’ll happen! But I do know that you shouldn’t touch something you’re not supposed to! Especially if there’s police tape around it!”

“Stop being a baby. Imma touch it, just to prove to you there’s nothing to be afraid of. One, two…” they counted and Michael covered his eyes with his hand that wasn’t holding the flashlight. “Three!” they said and touched the wood around the broken screen for a few seconds and Michael took his hand off of his eyes. They got up and said, “See? nothing happened-”

Suddenly, the light in the basement started flickering very quickly even though it had no bulb, making both of them dizzy and a very strong wind started blowing around the room so it felt like a miniature tornado. The wind started picking up items and would send the heavy ones crashing into the wall, just barely missing Michael and Alex and the light ones were carried in circles around the room.

“What the hell did you do?!” Michael yelled over the sound of the wind.

“I don’t know! All I did was touch it, I didn’t think it’d activate a death trap!”

Michael closed his eyes because he couldn’t handle the fast paced flickering light as did Alex, but a few seconds later Michael decided to squint to see where he was going to take he and Alex out of the house, but instead he saw a figure that wasn’t there before. He stayed in place as he tried to keep his balance and the figure went up to him, and as it got closer he saw that it was no one other than Schmidt.

“No…” he said as he shielded the side of his face with his hand so he wouldn’t pay attention to the flickering light as much.

“It was…such a foolish idea to come here. I really thought you would care for your own well being, but perhaps not,” Schmidt said.

“This whole time…Jeremy and Alex were right?!”

“Correct. D’you think I really wanted to help you get revenge on your father? I wanted my own revenge on him. He murdered me when he was twenty years old, he trapped me here by getting the remnant on the television, making it my life support so as you would expect, I was very angry with him. I thought if I gave you the resources to turn him in which ultimately made his life a living hell, you would do the dirty work for me.

“When he found me he threatened to destroy it which would send me to the underworld, the place where all evil souls go forever and would never come back, but we agreed on something. If I killed Jeremy and Alex for him, he wouldn’t do anything to the television and I will be free to roam the Earth as a poltergeist.”

“Wha…he set you up to this?!”

“Correct. Now I’d hate to cut this short Michael, but it appears that I can cross one victim off my list. Oh, and by the way, those blood smears aren’t fake. Those police officers were so foolish to mess with my life support.”

Michael stood speechless as he watched Schmidt pick up a piece of broken glass, but suddenly it looked as though it was carved almost instantly into a very pointy piece of glass like a knife. Michael saw he was making his way over to Alex who still had their eyes shut, and Michael’s protectiveness kicked in.

He made his way over to Alex slowly as he tried to keep his balance but Schmidt looked as though it didn’t effect him at all, perhaps because he was a poltergeist and he was the one causing it. Michael hurriedly made his way over to Alex, but Schmidt got there before him and grabbed onto the collar of their shirt.

Alex looked up at him since he was significantly taller than them, and Alex was frozen in fear once they saw the pointed glass in his hand. They shut their eyes tightly and suddenly, they felt someone grab them by the shoulders and pull them out of Schmidt’s grasp, and Alex’s back hit Michael’s chest.

“C’mon!” Michael yelled over the noise.

Alex nodded and grabbed his arm with their other hand so Michael could lead them without  even questioning him, but they were also a terrified and walked as if in a trance.

Michael made his way to the staircase slowly because he was fighting against the wind, but as they neared with every step the wind seemed to get stronger because Schmidt didn’t want them both to leave since he was supposed to make sure Alex was dead.

Once they got to the first step at the bottom of the staircase and the winds picked up, Alex grabbed onto the railing, let go of Michael’s arm and grabbed the railing on the other side and went up the steps.

Michael followed him up the steps, but when Michael and Alex were just about to the door the wind stopped suddenly, the flickering stopped so they were in the dark and the door slammed shut in Alex’s face.

“What the…what happened?!” they shrieked as both Alex and Michael turned on their flashlights.

“I-I dunno! Try the door!” Alex nodded and tried to turn the doorknob, but it wouldn’t budge. “Shit! We’re locked in!”

“Oh my God, a-are we gonna die in here?!”

“Not if I can help it. I’m not losing my friend today, stand back.” Alex stood with their back to the wall since they were scared to go down the steps and tried not to start hyperventilating. Michael gave them his flashlight, went back a few steps and looked at the door. “This is gonna leave a mark for sure,” he said quietly to himself.

He counted to three in his head, and once he got to three he ran at full speed towards the door and slammed his shoulder into it. When it didn’t break, he took a few steps backwards and did the same thing. It finally broke because it was only wood and Michael was pretty strong, and because there was nothing holding him he tripped and fell on the hardwood floor in the hallway.

“Ow…” he said to himself. “Yep, definitely left a mark.”

Alex crawled through the hole in the door and went over to Michael laying on the floor. “Mike! You okay?”

“Maybe.”

“C’mon! Let’s get outta here!” they said as they helped him up and they ran off.

As Michael stood he looked through the hole in the door and saw that Schmidt was at the bottom of the stairs. “This isn’t over Michael, don’t think you’ve saved your little friend just yet. I will kill him, and that’s a promise,” Schmidt said.

Michael stared at Schmidt in shock for a few seconds but then he bolted. He ducked under the police tape to get out of the dark hallway but almost crashed into Alex with the pictures in their arms, running to the window.

“Here! Hold these! You have pockets!” Alex said louder than they intended, took the frames and shoved them into Michael’s arms. “Okay, let’s get the hell outta here!”

Michael nodded as he stuffed the frames into his inside jacket pockets and they both bolted and crawled back outside through the window, ran as fast as they could to Michael’s car and once they were both in Michael started up the car.

“Drive!” Alex shouted and Michael backed out of the driveway without even looking back because he was so terrified, and suddenly they both felt a thump and looked out the back window.

As they looked they both saw that Michael had went over the curb and backed into a street light pole. “Damn it,” he said under his breath but dismissed it, put the car in drive and drove off.

They both sat in silence as Michael drove, both trying to process what just happened a few minutes earlier. A few minutes later once Michael drove into the driveway of the Fitzgerald house, they both sat in the car to calm themselves down.

“Hey Alex?” Michael said a few minutes later and Alex turned to him. “Y’know, you were right.”

“About…”

“Schmidt. I didn’t know if you were telling the truth in saying he’s bad, and I wanted to deny it but now I saw…he actually is bad and has been manipulating me this whole time.”

“Told ya. So do you think he like, lives there or something?”

“I dunno.”

“So…I also heard you talking…kinda, so what was going on?”

“Well, he told me why he was here, and why he was hunting you and Jeremy down. He said that my father was the one who set him up to this, and we barely escaped but he said he’s still going to kill you no matter what! I-I don’t want any of you to die!”

Alex sighed. “I knew he was hunting for me too. But ever since our conversation with Jeremy in March, when I realized he might be looking for a way to kill me too, I’ve had many sleepless nights and there’s been a lot more crying than I care to admit, but I think I’ve accepted it because I can’t make it go away no matter what.”

“But…aren’t you scared?! I’m terrified!”

”Of course I am, I’m human. But I’m just saying that there’s no stopping it, so I wanna live out my days to the fullest and not just sit around dreading it. Like Jeremy said, I wanna live, not sit around waiting for it if it ever does happen.”

Michael sighed but leaned over the console and hugged Alex. “I just don’t wanna loose my friend,” he said quietly.

They both let go of each other. “You can hear ghosts, right? I’ll still be around.”

“You sure?”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I be? Except if you do something to really piss me off, but you’re a cool dude to be around if I’m being honest.”

Michael smiled and they both fell silent. A few minutes later, Michael finally broke the silence and said, “Well, looks like we’ll have one hell of a story to tell Jeremy.”

Chapter 109

Summary:

Another unexpected visitor, but it’s a better suprise than last time.

The winter months eventually came, and Jeremy had an urge to want to do something different. Ever since Alex went back to Arizona in August for their third year of college, Michael got a job at Henry’s work as a technician for cars around the same time, and Jeremy got discharged from the therapies around the four year anniversary of the bite, he was bored.

He was left alone at home Monday through Friday for hours on end because he was unemployed and disabled, but that caused him to be paranoid and on edge almost daily fearing for his life because Schmidt was out to kill him. He knew that most murders happened when the victim was alone, at least that’s what happened when he flipped through the channels on television and stumbled across the news, and he didn’t want to end up as a face on the news.

In early January he was sitting on the couch, the television wasn’t even on he just didn’t know what else to do but sit in silence. It was way too cold to go outside, he couldn’t call Alex because they were probably in class, Michael was at work and Jeremy felt like he’s already watched every show in existence about a hundred times. There was nothing to do around the house since he and Michael were already moved in and comfortable and he wasn’t cleared to drive anywhere.

A couple weeks prior he started to get depressed from not doing anything and seeing the same thing every day, as well as experiencing major cabin fever from being stuck inside all day. He even lost track of the days and he wasn’t sure if it was Tuesday or Wednesday but he could care less.

He was leaning back on the couch so he stared at the ceiling, the activity he’s been doing the most these days, and Michael suddenly appeared above him looking down at him. He was behind Jeremy so he looked upside down, he had black soot in a couple spots on his face, many spots on his work uniform and other exposed skin but Jeremy’s face lit up nonetheless.

“Mikey!” Jeremy exclaimed.

“Hey Jer!” he replied and pecked him.

Jeremy sat up straight and looked over the couch so Michael was right side up again. “I didn’t even hear you come in!”

“That’s because I’m a ninja in disguise,” he joked.

Jeremy laughed and wiped at some of the soot on his face. “You got a black spot right there.”

Michael chuckled. “You mean everywhere. I have to go clean this stuff off, my uncle wasn’t lying when he said I’ll come home dirty every day. I’ll be back in like, ten to fifteen minutes.”

Jeremy nodded and Michael went down the hall to their room, but Jeremy leaned back again on the couch so he was staring at the ceiling again. He was bored like before, but this time there was a hint of excitement because he was waiting for Michael.

Jeremy closed his eye from the tiredness he felt all day after a while, when suddenly about ten minutes later he felt Michael join him on the couch and cuddle up next to him which woke Jeremy up from his half asleep state.

He opened his eye to see that Michael was indeed cuddled up next to him and he laid his head on Jeremy’s shoulder. He looked comfortable being that the spots were now cleaned off of him, he was in his sweatpants and he was wearing Jeremy’s hoodie because they often borrowed hoodies and jackets from each other since they wore about the same size in hoodies and jackets.

“Usually it’s the other way around,” Jeremy said as he played with Michael’s wavy hair.

“I know but I’m tired, nine to five jobs suck,” he said sleepily as he closed his eyes and Jeremy snickered. “So, I was able to get the dent in my car fixed.”

“The dent?”

“Yeah, from when I went to my old house and backed into a light pole.”

“Oh yeah! You were able to get it fixed?”

“Yeah, and discounted since I work at the car place. That may or may not have swayed my decision to work there.”

Jeremy chuckled and fell silent, calmed by Michael’s body heat right next to him and he was about to fall asleep as well, but then he remembered something. “Hey Mike? Before you fall asleep on my shoulder, can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

“So uh…this has been on my mind for a while, whaddya think about me working?”

Michael opened his eyes and took his head off Jeremy’s shoulder to look at him. “What?”

“I said-”

“No, I heard what you said.”

“Oh. Well, whaddya think?”

“I…I don’t know Jer.”

“C’mon, it’s been four years since it happened Mike!”

“Still! You know I worry about you!”

“Then what else can I do?! It’s just like when I was in the hospital! I couldn’t leave, I couldn’t go outside, nothing and I’m doing the exact same here all day until you come home!”

“Well you can…uh…”

“Exactly.”

“You can…play video games?”

“I have. But usually I get too frustrated with those.”

“You can…go to the park?”

“It’s freezing out there! Plus it’s outside so someone has to help me across the uneven ground.”

“Right. Uh…don’t you have your guitar?”

“Yeah, but it’s a little difficult to play because of the finger coordination so I don’t play too often.”

“Right, uh, I dunno.”

“See? So I wanna do something!”

“I dunno about working though. I mean, almost everything is fast paced and I know you have trouble with that! Plus I don’t want you working long shifts since I don’t know what you can handle.”

“I get that part, I don’t wanna work full time, I just wanna do something with my life while I still have it.”

Michael sighed, obviously now feeling bad. “I know you do, and I feel terrible for leaving you alone every day but I don’t know what else to do since you were discharged from therapies.”

“Then let me work somewhere!” He gave him his infamous puppy dog eye and leaned against him. “¿Por favor, mi amor?” (Please, my love?)

Michael pulled on the hoodie and blushed since he knew what that meant, sighed and stayed silent in thought for a while. Jeremy could practically see the gears turning in his head from thinking long and hard but suddenly, he got an idea. “The library’s always looking for people, and it’s pretty chill.”

“The library?”

“Yeah. I mean, that’s the only place I know of that’s not really fast paced around here. We just have to let them know about your accommodations, but I don’t think it should be a problem.”

---

The next day after Michael got home from work, he and Jeremy went to the local library to ask about part time positions since Jeremy said he was only comfortable working about fifteen to twenty hours a week. The library was bigger than Jeremy expected but it wasn’t swarmed with people like he thought; it was quiet, there were not many customers and the people seemed to mind their own business most of the time, the perfect place for Jeremy. 

They both saw a couple of people working as library assistants behind the counter and they decided to ask them what it was like. They were one man, about nineteen or twenty and one woman, also about nineteen or twenty, and they both said it was a very easy and relaxed place to work. They said if he got the position, even if it was temporary, they would absolutely help him with his job if he needed it while he was there.

That next day, Jeremy was able to fill out an application for a part time library assistant. He filled out the basic information as well as certain accommodations he would need to do the work, and about a week later he landed an interview.

Michael helped him prepare as much as he possibly could since Jeremy’s last interview was four years ago right before a brain injury, and Michael must’ve prepared him well because a few days later, Jeremy heard back that he got the job.

---

“You sure you’re ready Jer?” Michael asked when he parked the car in the parking lot to drop Jeremy off for his first day.

“I got it! Stop being such a worry wart!”

Michael chuckled. “I know, but it’s just a little nerve racking for not only you, but me too. But you have been progressing really quickly, way faster than I thought so I think you’re ready.”

“Yeah…I’m ready.”

“Want me to walk you in?” Jeremy nodded and they both got out of the car, and Michael saw how nervous Jeremy was so he held his hand and they walked across the parking lot together.

Once they got close to the building, they let go of each other’s hands but stayed close to each other, and once they got to the door Jeremy fumbled around with the keys that were on a lanyard around his neck. With Michael’s help he unlocked the door and they went up to the front desk together, and once they got to the desk they saw that the same girl who they met when they first came to the library was there.

“Hey!” she said. “Heard you got the job!”

“Yeah! So uh, what do I do?” Jeremy asked.

“Well, first of all your name tag came in! Y’know, to show you work here.” She handed him a name tag that read his name on the first line, ‘Jeremy Fitzgerald’, and the second line said, ‘library assistant’. “Now you come behind the desk and wait for your daily tasks from the librarian. She’s not here until nine usually, so you can hang out for about ten minutes since we’re not technically open until then.”

“Okay, thanks uh, Julia right?”

“Yep!” she said.

Jeremy and Michael went off to the side and Michael helped Jeremy put on his name tag. “Alright, you got this?” Michael asked him.

“Yes! I told you, I got it!” he replied as he put the lanyard with the key on it in his shirt so it would still be with him, but hidden since he couldn’t have the key to his work out in the open.

“I know but it’s like, your first day back to work since your injury, I’m a little nervous for you.”

“If anyone’s nervous it should be me, not you.”

“Are you?”

“…yes.”

Michael softly chuckled. “I know you’ll be fine though. But remember the number to my work if you need it?”

“Yeah!” He took out a small piece of paper that was folded in half from his pocket and unfolded it. “It’s right here!” 

Michael smiled as Jeremy folded the piece of paper back in half and put it back in his pocket. “I’ll pick you up when I take my lunch break at two.” He then lowered his voice to a whisper and said, “I love you.”

“Love you too,” Jeremy whispered back. Michael pecked Jeremy and quickly left the building since his work day began at nine in the morning and it was about five minutes until then. After he left Jeremy went behind the desk like he was told and went over to Julia, who was on the computer and stood behind her watching the screen. “Whatcha doin’?” he asked and she jumped in suprise.

“Oh my…hey! I wasn’t expecting you there!”

“Sorry, I do that sometimes.”

“It’s fine! Anyways I’m just checking what we have checked out and what’s due today, just to guess what tasks we have to do. And it looks like there’s a lot due today so we’re probably going to be shelving a lot.”

“Oh…”

“Don’t worry. One of us will help you out, whoever’s not doing something mega important. It’ll probably be Liam since he was assigned to train you for the first week I think.”

---

Around midday, Jeremy was busy shelving books while the other worker, Liam, told him how to do the job and they would take turns every so often so Jeremy could get the experience.

“Is that it?” Jeremy asked when he didn’t see anymore books on the cart they used to carry all of them.

“Uh…” Liam squatted down and looked at the bottom half of the cart but all that was there was Jeremy’s crutch since he couldn’t control both at the same time, “yeah that’s all for the fiction. But I know there’s some for the nonfiction stuff, there always is so let’s do that.”

Jeremy nodded as they went back to the front desk, Liam went behind it and piled books onto the cart which he thankfully didn’t have to sort because Julia already sorted them. They both headed off to the big sign in the back that read, ‘Nonfiction’ and they began shelving in alphabetical order.

“So, I’ve been wondering,” Liam said as they walked towards where the next book was needed to be shelved and Jeremy pushed the cart since he used it to remain stable instead of the crutch for the time being, “I’m sorry if I’m being too intrusive, but why do you wear that eyepatch? Is something wrong with your eye?”

“You’re good, it’s not intrusive but uh, the short answer is yes.”

“What happened?” he asked. “Oh, ’scuse us,” he said to a young man and he moved out of the way.

“I guess how I would put it, it’s kinda…not there,” Jeremy said once they got past the man and he shelved the book.

“It’s not?!”

“Nope.”

“What happened to it?”

“It’s uh, kind of a weird story, but there was an accident at my old job.”

“It cut off your eye?”

“Yeah, and as you can guess since it’s right there, part of my brain too. That’s also why I walk with the crutch, or even when we’re walking I use the cart as support sometimes, because if something isn’t supporting me I will fall. I’ve tried walking without holding on to something before and it usually didn’t take much for me to fall.”

“Jesus…”

“Yeah, it was bad. And I was tired of always seeing a scar covering like, a quarter of my face, sometimes even scared myself so my…” he caught himself just in time before he shared too much personal information, “uh, friend got me an eyepatch to help. It doesn’t cover the whole scar, but enough for kids to stop making comments on it and sometimes they think I’m a pirate.”

Liam snickered. “So is this…the first job you’ve had since that happened?”

“Yeah. It happened about four years ago though. I was eighteen then, I’m twenty one now.”

”God…I’m sorry Jeremy.”

Suddenly, the young man they passed earlier perked up once he heard Jeremy’s name and turned to them since he was close enough to hear them. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear, but where did you work?” he asked Jeremy.

“It was the shady pizza place that was around but it got closed down, Freddy Fazbear’s.”

He stared at Jeremy with his mouth slightly open once he saw his last name on his name tag. “Oh my God…Jeremy?!”

“Uh…yes?” he replied, obviously confused.

“Oh my God…I-I wouldn’t expect you to remember me, but I was a security guard there as well!”

“Who are you?”

“Robert, I was one of the day shift security guards at Freddy’s but we didn’t see each other often.”

Jeremy stared at him for a while, trying to figure out who he was, but then he remembered that Michael mentioned him a few times since he worked with him which caused him to remember back to when he saw Robert a few times on the job. “Holy shit, Rob?! Is that you?!”

“Yeah! Remember me?”

“How could I forget about how you got away with sleeping on the job all the time?”

Robert chuckled. “Yeah, it’s only because my uncle was the manager of the place.”

“Your uncle was the manager?!”

“Yeah! Didn’t someone tell you?”

Jeremy stayed silent for a few seconds trying to think back, but the memory suddenly came when Michael told him shortly after he was discharged from the hospital. “Oh yeah! Stupid memory.”

Robert snickered. “It’s fine Jeremy.”

“So uh, what’s going on over here?” Liam asked which reminded Jeremy he was there.

“Oh, sorry! This is an old coworker from where I used to work!”

“Hey, I’m Robert,” Robert said and held his hand out to shake.

“Liam,” Liam replied and shook his hand. “So uh, it looks like you two want to catch up, and Jeremy since it’s your first day I’ll let you off the hook with this one and let you have a thirty minute break.”

“Yes! Thanks Liam!” Jeremy said and got his crutch out from the bottom of the cart. After he put the crutch on, Liam took the cart to shelve the rest of the nonfiction books.

Jeremy and Robert went to a bench to sit because Jeremy had trouble with standing for long periods of time after Liam left. “So? How are you?” Robert asked.

“Eh. Fine but I could be better, obviously.”

Robert smiled. “Yeah, you gotta point. Listen um, I’ll just get straight to the point, I’m so sorry about what happened in ‘87. The animatronics never acted like that before, and I feel guilty because I just left instead of staying to help.”

“Rob, it’s alright. It wasn’t your fault, you didn’t know. You were trying to protect yourself and I respect that.”

“But I saw how they were acting, and I knew they mainly got aggressive around the security guards, plus you’re younger than me so…I dunno, I should’ve stayed instead of just leaving you to fend for yourself. I just feel selfish because you could’ve died from it, and I wonder if things would’ve been different if I was there.”

“But like I said, you didn’t know that they were gonna bite anyone, and I didn’t either! So I personally don’t blame you at all, I think it actually was…well y’know I’ll just shut up instead of rambling. I’m trying to work on that.”

Robert chuckled. “I’ve just been carrying that guilt ever since I heard about it, so it’s nice to finally have some closure that you don’t think it’s my fault.”

“Well that’s ‘cause it’s not.”

Robert snickered. “So uh, I overheard you say you’re missing your eye. Is that true?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Really?!” Jeremy nodded and flipped up the eyepatch so Robert could see. “Oh my God…Mangle really did a number on you, huh?”

“Yeah.” Jeremy put the eyepatch back. “And my hands.” He showed him the scars on the palms of his hands where Mangle’s teeth sunk deep into his flesh. “Mike says I’m doing way better than he expected though.”

“Mike?”

“Yep. Oh shit, I forgot, do you know who I’m talking about?”

“Yeah, Michael Schmidt.”

“Uh, y-yeah…sure,” he said awkwardly because Michael had told him that was his new fake name, but ever since Jeremy’s encounter with the poltergeist he’s had mixed feelings about the name Schmidt but decided to not say anything since Michael chose it because it was his mother’s maiden name.

Robert lowered his voice. “So, sorry if this seems a little invasive but I’m just curious, are you two still like…together?”

Jeremy stared at him for a minute. “How did you know that?!” he whispered.

“Dude, you two weren’t very slick that one day I saw you two together, plus Mike told me. So are you?”

“Well, yeah!”

“He treating you right or do I need to go beat him up?”

Jeremy laughed. “No, he’s a good guy. We’re actually living together now!”

“Really?”

“Yeah!”

“I thought you would be living with your old man.”

“No, well I was but I’m not anymore. He passed away and I chose to live with Mike since I trust him and we’ve known each other for years.”

“Oh shit, I’m sorry ‘bout your dad, Jeremy.”

“It’s fine. Happened about a year ago and I think I finally accepted it.” They both fell silent for a few seconds. “So what’re you doing here?”

“Oh, well I wanted to come here to see if I could find anything about Freddy’s and the very first place, Fredbear’s I think it’s called and what exactly happened.”

“Uh…why do you wanna look that up?”

”Well, for one my uncle doesn’t really talk about it, even though me and my mom are literally living in his house until we get the money to move into our own. He always tries to steer away from the subject so I know something’s up.”

“I uh…I don’t think you need to know about that. There’s…there’s a reason you’re uncle doesn’t wanna tell you, he’s just trying to protect you.”

“Wait, do you know the history? What happened?”

“Damn it! Stupid, stupid brain!”

“Jeremy, no need to get angry, I’m just asking if you do know.”

He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I sometimes forget to think before I speak, but short answer is yes and it’s not a happy story.”

”Oh my God…so I know there were missing kids because they were in the newspaper and on the milk cartons at the store, but I assumed they were found because I never heard anything else about them.”

“It’s way worse than just a few missing kids who were found. I bet that’s what their families would’ve wanted to happen.”

“What happened to them? I swear on my mother, I won’t tell anyone.”

“I had to promise to keep it secret.”

“Well, I should know if my uncle’s planning to give me the manager position while he’s working as a night guard until we can find somebody. That’s also why I came here, I’m trying to find anything about being a manager.”

Jeremy looked at him. “What?! Is he crazy?!”

“I said I could do it since he didn’t have anyone willing to take it for him.”

“Are you crazy?!”

Robert chuckled. “Maybe. But c’mon, you have to admit getting a manager position just for being his nephew is pretty awesome!”

“The manager position’s great and I’m happy for you for getting that part, but of Freddy’s?! They should’ve just let that place rot!”

“Sure the place seems a little shady but I mean the kids love it, so what’s so wrong about that?”

“No, you don’t understand!”

“Then just tell me what my uncle won’t tell me! What happened?!”

“Fine, those kids died there! A murderer hangs around Freddy’s and if you think about it, I’m really saving your life here!”

Robert raised an eyebrow at him. “Died?”

“Yes! Y’know, murdered!”

“Then police would’ve definitely found them and it’d be all over the news. I haven’t seen shit so I don’t know if I believe you.”

“Look, I’m a terrible liar and even if I was lying, I have trouble with it anyways! Usually. Look, there is no lying look on my face!”

“Alright, answer me this then, there were five or six kids who went missing, right? When did these murders happen?”

“Hmm…those were in the years 1983 to 1985, but it’s probably still going on since I know a couple slid under the radar because they weren’t kids but I dunno.”

“Okay that was…a very oddly specific answer that I was not expecting but…I-I still don’t know.”

“What?! You still don’t believe me?! I gave you dates and everything!”

“I don’t know if I do! ‘Cause on the other hand, this isn’t a huge city like Salt Lake, this is a tiny town in the middle of the desert! Sure it’s surrounded by mountains but if it was real they would’ve found something by now!”

Jeremy sighed. “There’s no getting through to you, huh?”

“Well, you’re very convincing with that oddly specific answer, but part of me still doesn’t want to believe it. So, it’s just hard to believe when I haven’t seen anything about it.”

“That’s ‘cause the police don’t want it to get out because they haven’t found him. Pretty stupid I think.” Robert nodded and Jeremy sighed again. “Look, I have like, ten minutes left in my break and I’d hate to leave on this note, so what’s been going on with you?”

Chapter 110

Summary:

The night before opening day.

”The hell are they doing?” William muttered to himself as he watched from a block away at the new Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria about to open. “I would’ve suspected they learned their lesson by now.”

Suddenly, the car dropped a few degrees in temperature. “I guess they just can’t let this place go,” Schmidt said.

“It’s like they don’t even care. Heh, perfect.”

He looked over to him. “I see that dumb look in your eyes. Your little plan doesn’t involve me, right?”

“I’m thinking if something ‘mysteriously’ happens to someone at this restaurant, it’ll lure Michael to this location one way or another. I can reprogram the animatronics to become more aggressive and they can wear him down for me so it’d be a lot easier for me to kill him.”

“Oh, good, this is all you. I was about to say that he doesn’t exactly trust me anymore so I can’t really lure him to the location but now that I know you don’t need me for your little plan, ignore me and pretend I didn’t say anything.”

“What?! You’re telling me you failed at your task?!”

“Look-”

“All I asked you to do was two simple things: to deceive him and kill Alex and Jeremy but you couldn’t even keep to that! ”

“I know, I know and I’m sorry, but if you think about it now I can kill his little friend and boyfriend in front of him which would also lure him to you or break him down more for you, that is if you didn’t kill him by then. Either way I’d still probably kill ‘em both because I can and don’t have to worry about getting caught.”

“Hmm…y’know, you have a point. Wait… AND?! I thought Fitzgerald died because I haven’t seen him for years!”

“Technically, you didn’t ask if he did or didn’t. But since we’re on the subject, he is alive but he just doesn’t get out a lot because he needs assistance,” William groaned in defeat and slumped in the chair, “but I have my theory. Something’s helping him survive, and it’s gonna take some work but I’ll find the source one of these days. But for now until I figure it out, I’m focusing more on the other one, the one who doesn’t have anyone protecting him which would make him an easy target: Alex.”

---

”Ready for tomorrow?” Patrick Graham asked his nephew, Robert as they went out of the building.

“I think. Still kinda nervous.”

“You’re gonna be fine Rob,” Patrick said as he locked the front doors.

“I mean, all the employees are counting on me to be their boss and this is my first time doing it! What if I mess up?!”

“Then you correct it.” They went down the curb and walked towards Patrick’s car in the parking lot which they both came in. “Everyone makes mistakes Rob, you’re gonna do fine. It’s only temporary anyway and hopefully it won’t take too long to find a night guard.”

“Why don’t you just let me work as the night guard instead?”

“I told you that I don’t want you working at night.”

“Why? You never told me!”

“Well…it can get dangerous at night. I’m just looking out for you.”

Robert groaned. “You’ve said that every time!” 

“Well it’s the truth! I just want what’s best for you and I don’t want you to get hurt, so I’ll take the position since I would rather get hurt to protect you than watch you get hurt and there was nothing I could do. You’re still young and have a whole life ahead of you!”

“Fine, I guess that makes sense. But I still have so many questions.”

“You probably will until I know you’re ready to take on this classified information.”

Robert and Patrick walked into the parking lot to the car they came in together and Robert got in the passenger’s seat while Patrick got in the driver’s seat. Patrick started up the car and they drove out of the empty lot since they were the last ones there, but once they drove away William appeared from around the corner.

“Are they gone?” William asked in a whisper.

“No, they’re still here,” Schmidt replied sarcastically. “Didn’t you see them drive off?!”

“Someone’s in a bad mood today.”

”Shut the hell up Afton!”

“Just go open the damn door and shut off those cameras! Tomorrow’s opening day, I need to get this done!”

Everything was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly William saw the front door swing open and he went inside. “Y’know, not the smartest idea to go in through the front door where everyone can see you,” Schmidt said as the door closed behind William.

“Well it’s getting dark and only the street lights are on, so no one can see me!”

“Whatever, it’s your plan. D’you still need me here?”

“Yes! I need you to keep watch.”

“What?!”

“Technically, I didn’t say if it would or wouldn’t involve you,” William said imitating him. “Sound familiar?”

Schmidt sighed and it fell silent once again, telling William that he had left to do what he was instructed to do. William turned on his flashlight he had brought with him and held it in his mouth so he could use both hands to dig around in the bag of tools he had brought. He brought the tools from his old house years ago since he had a feeling he would need them sometime, and today was the day.

He dug out the appropriate tools and got to work, since he had planned to alter the animatronics night mode slightly. He was going to alter them with the exact same plan in mind when he altered the Toys facial recognition: alter them just enough to make them more aggressive towards the staff, but since it was only their night mode being altered only the night shift would be affected.

The aggressiveness on the animatronics was only supposed to be used for a break-in or some other illegal activity, but he decided if they went for the guards as well then that would lure Michael to the position since he would take every opportunity he had to catch him.

He was busy at work, alternating the animatronics night mode and setting the aggressiveness to the maximum, not one hundred percent sure about what the animatronics would do if it was set that high, but he assumed it would be somewhat like what happened at the other location.

“Are you done yet?” Schmidt asked for what seemed like the hundredth time in four hours.

”Yes.”

”Really?”

“No. What better d’you have to do anyway?”

“Lots of stuff!”

”Like what?”

“Uh…”

“Exactly. So you just stand there and keep watch and I’ll keep working.”

“There’s no one here! I need to come up with a plan and you never said if this was going to involve me!”

“It doesn’t involve you, not technically anyway.”

“Then why am I here?!”

“I don’t want to get caught so unless you want me to destroy that set, be patient and keep watch. Come up with a plan while you’re standing there or something. I don’t care, just stop bugging me.”

Schmidt sighed and continued to keep watch while William continued working. It took a lot longer than he intended because he wasn’t used to the design of the new endoskeletons, but he did notice that the designs of the endoskeletons were similar to the original animatronics. The only conclusion he could think of to explain that was that they based the design of the endoskeletons off of the originals, just like their casing was.

“Are you done yet?” Schmidt asked for what seemed like the fiftieth time in the span of two hours.

William made the final touches and put the head back on Foxy. “Done,” he said.

“Really?”

”Yes.”

“Finally. Can I go now?”

“Hold on, what time is it?”

“Six in the morning,” he answered and the sun was just coming up above the horizon.

“Shit! I’ve been here that long?! Whatever, lock the door behind me.”

“You got it boss.”

William walked out of the front door and he sprinted back to his car as Schmidt locked the door, and William drove out of the parking lot and around the corner before anyone could see him.

Chapter 111

Summary:

“Uh, hey listen, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow.”

A little over a month before summer vacation, Alex decided he would get a summer job while they were home to try and help their parents pay for college. It wouldn’t be fair to them to pay all of it since going to school out of state was expensive, plus it would be something different to do. They loved hanging out with Michael and Jeremy of course, but that would be all Alex would be doing and it wouldn’t be for hours like they used to because the two were both working.

Michael and Jeremy were both at their jobs Monday through Friday, and Jeremy switched his hours to twelve in the afternoon (which was around the time Alex woke up when there was no school) to five in the evening when Michael got off. After that they went home, they both helped each other make dinner or bought something at six or seven, finished about an hour or so later and did chores around the house or hung out until ten or eleven when they both went to sleep.

The only time they were available was the weekend which meant they couldn’t do much over the week, so a summer job seemed like a good option.

As Alex applied to many places and didn’t get a call back no matter how much they tried, that left only one option and it was the last place Alex wanted to work: Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria as a night shift security guard. Alex really didn’t want to, the pay wasn’t even great but of course the minimum wage was very low everywhere, but since they didn’t have another option they decided to suck it up and apply.

A few days later, they got a call back from Freddy’s for an interview over the phone since they were out of state at that time, but it practically wasn’t needed since their manager was an old coworker and an old friend and hired them seemingly on the spot.

---

Something strange happened that last week Patrick was on the job. When he found out that there was now a new hire for the night shift guard, every night he would record training tapes for the new employee to help them get started.

However, by that Wednesday night he knew something was off because the animatronics were acting strangely. Patrick thought that maybe, since some of the original parts were used and those animatronics were faulty, maybe that’s why they were acting strange.

He was partly right anyway, it was because of the parts, but what he didn’t know is that those kids were still around. The rest of the endoskeleton they were attached to was melted down except for those few parts that were used; they thought after the endoskeletons were melted down they would be free, but since some parts weren’t they were still stuck.

The four of them were furious.

The problem was Gabriel and Jeremy didn’t know where their sister, Cassidy, was since the Fredbear endoskeleton was melted down completely, and they hated to admit it but they missed her. She teased them both often sure, but deep down they all loved and cared for one another. Now that she was gone and their trio had been separated, they both didn’t know where to go from here since she was the one who usually took the lead.

However since Cassidy wasn’t around to tell them otherwise, the four of them collectively decided to get revenge on William any chance they got. No more waiting, they were tired of it and decided they were going to give him a taste of his own medicine by stuffing him in an animatronic. They didn’t care if the endoskeletons got melted down after that, if it ended up coming to that they would rejoice because that meant they could finally be free.

It would be a great plan, except for one thing that they weren’t aware of. The day that William came over and reprogrammed their night mode, every security guard they saw after hours would look like William to the four of them without knowledge that it wasn’t actually him.

It was what happened on that third night of Patrick’s last week. He recorded the phone call like he always did every day that week, but as he checked the cameras at the same time the animatronics heads were twitching and they didn’t take their eyes off of the camera. This freaked him out and he switched to the Pirate’s Cove video feed and saw that Foxy was doing the same.

He ended the call and checked back to the Show Stage camera and saw that the three main animatronics were gone from the stage.

He knew that the animatronics were allowed to move at night, but this was way earlier than usual and typically, all three of them didn’t leave the stage at once. After contemplating for a minute, he finally decided to get the flashlight and check out what was going on, something he never usually did because there was risk involved.

For a while he couldn’t find any of the animatronics which also contributed to this strange situation because they were huge and shouldn’t be difficult to find. After a minute he suddenly heard Chica made her usual noise of knocking down pots and pans in the kitchen so Patrick was able to track her down.

He made his way to the kitchen and opened the door and sure enough there she was in the kitchen, but since the door creaked when he tried to open it as quietly as he could she turned around and saw him.

After a minute Chica didn’t take her eyes off of him and Patrick was starting to get a little nervous. He started to make his way out of the kitchen so Chica could continue doing what she was doing, but Chica followed him. She was slowly moving closer to him at first, but as she got closer she got faster and faster. 

Patrick backed away into the dining area and Chica continued to follow him, and it was then it clicked that she was chasing him. He ran and weaved through the tables trying to loose her, not even thinking about where the others were until he reached the west hall where he crashed into Bonnie because he wasn’t watching and fell down.

“Ow…” he said under his breath. He touched his forehead and it hurt to the touch, so he figured he got a bruise since he ran into Bonnie at full speed. He looked up at Bonnie who was looking down at him and Patrick saw double for about a minute, but then he realized that Bonnie was staring at him with his eyes locked on him just like Chica was.

Patrick quickly dismissed his headache, got up, sprinted down the hall to the office and sure enough, he heard the clanking of metal footsteps coming down the hall as soon as he started running. He closed both doors as soon as he got in the office and heard banging on both of them not even a second later. He tried to ignore his heart racing from fear as he sat in the chair, but he also tried to ignore the temptation to check the cameras since it would use more power.

“Just hold out ‘till six. You can do this Pat,” he told himself.

For a while he sat in that chair, trying to stay out of sight so the animatronics would leave him alone but it was no use. He looked at his watch and saw that it was now 5:57 in the morning, but he couldn’t see his watch for long because the power went out.

He tried to stay completely still, not make any noise and shut his eyes tightly to calm himself down as he heard the sound of metal footsteps moving around. He felt a lump in his throat and thought he was going to start crying out of fear, but then the 6:00am bell rang a few minutes later and he sprinted out of the building, not daring to stop running until he got to his car.

---

That next day at 11:57 at night, Patrick drove up to the restaurant, parked and before he got out he sat in his car and took a deep breath. “Just run in as fast as you can before they see you. You’ll be fine,” he said to himself and got out of the car. “Why do I still do this to myself?” he asked himself and shut the door behind him.

He unlocked the front door just as the clock struck twelve and the lights turned off except for the one in the office. Patrick took a deep breath and went inside, not even worrying about anything else but running to that light in the office.

He sprinted past the stage, through the main dining area, past the door leading to the backstage area and past Pirates Cove. Once he passed Pirates Cove, Foxy poked his head out of the curtains because he heard footsteps going quickly down the hallway and got curious. He saw Patrick running down the hall and because he was in a security guard uniform, he looked just like William to him.

Foxy came out of the Cove and began to chase Patrick down the hall and Patrick dared not to look back once he heard the clanking of metal on the tile. He got to the office just in time and closed the door, and not even a second later Foxy started banging on the door. Patrick hurriedly closed the other door because he was sure the others would be there soon, and a few seconds after he closed the door he saw both Chica and Freddy coming down the hall.

He turned on the light on the other side cautiously and saw both Foxy and Bonnie banging on the door. His heart started racing as the realization set in that he was definitely going to run out of power at this rate.

He knew they were in aggressive mode for whatever reason, but it stumped him as to why because they shouldn’t be aggressive towards the staff. He thought they saw him as an endoskeleton (which was the only logical explanation he could think of) and he knew what they did if they saw that since they were programmed to make sure all endoskeletons had a suit on, so he knew it wasn’t good.

He knew he was going to die if the animatronics didn’t leave, which they probably wouldn’t, so he got an idea and grabbed the telephone. If the recording of him saying where to find his body was found, there was a chance they could be decommissioned before anyone else could get hurt and his death wouldn’t be a complete mystery.

”Hello, hello?” he said into the phone. “Hey! Hey, wow, day 4. I knew you could do it. Uh, hey, listen, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow.” He heard banging on the door and he looked at his power which was almost out. “It's-It's been a bad night here for me. Um, I-I’m kinda glad that I recorded my messages for you when I did.

“Uh, hey, do me a favor.” He heard more banging and saw the power was almost out and he was starting to get more and more nervous. “Uh, maybe sometime, uh, you could check inside those suits? Uh, in the back room?” Just then the power went out in the building and he tried to stay completely still while he made the rest of the recording.

”Uh, I'm gonna try to hold out until someone...checks. Maybe it won’t be so bad. I-I always wondered what was in all those empty heads...back there-” he heard the sound of Freddy’s ‘Treador March’ playing which Freddy always played when the power went out, “You know…”

Just then Bonnie and Chica came into the office and stared down at him. They then both started making the noise they were programmed to make when they came in contact with intruders as a warning to get away, but Patrick had a feeling they wouldn’t give him very long. “Oh no…”

Just then, he saw what looked like a yellow version of Freddy with only two little white lights for eyes appear out of nowhere and he was petrified. He was too terrified to move because he had no idea where it came from, but suddenly it growled and jumped at him, knocking him out and it suddenly disappeared. 

The others looked around the room, confused but saw nothing, took him to the back room where the other suits were and put him in a suit, shoving his arms and legs into the metal and he suddenly woke up from the pain of animatronic parts sinking deep into his flesh. It was blurry at first, but it soon became clear to him what was happening.

“Oh-oh shit! No…no God please no…” he said shakily through tears, but knew he would definitely die tonight since every time he struggled, the parts would puncture deeper into his flesh and it soon hurt too much to move.

One of the animatronics got one of the extra heads and put it on him, shoving his head into the metal, hard plastic and wires.

He cried harder making audible sobs when he felt the metal on his head even though he was fading in and out of consciousness from blood loss, and because of their strength they were able to push the animatronic head so it broke through his skull and punctured his brain. Then, more metal and hard plastic followed, cutting through his face and head, puncturing his neck and soon, no more sound could be heard from him.

After the four stepped back as if to admire their work, they all looked at each other in confusion. Not about the fact that they had just killed someone, about one single thought that the four of them had collectively:

Was that Cassidy?

Chapter 112

Summary:

After an argument with law enforcement, the truth about what happened finally reaches family.

The next morning, Robert woke up at seven thirty in the morning to get ready for work at nine. He sleepily turned off his alarm clock and got up, got dressed and got ready for the day like any other normal day. 

When he entered the kitchen, he didn’t smell the usual smell of freshly brewed coffee because he saw that no one had even attempted to make the coffee, so he knew something was wrong. He didn’t drink coffee, but his mother did and his uncle usually made it for her when he got home because he didn’t want her to rush since she was working two jobs.

Robert then went back down the hallway and looked in Patrick’s room, hoping that he had just went to sleep as soon as he got home but he saw that his bed was empty when he looked in, in fact it still looked made from that previous day. 

Between seeing something that his uncle never failed to do every day not done and his uncle missing, he hoped he wasn’t overthinking this whole situation. He hoped that maybe he had just fallen asleep at work because that happens sometimes, especially on night shift.

Robert knew how to make the coffee and since it wasn’t started, he started it for his mother who would be coming into the kitchen in a few minutes. After that he got himself some cereal to hold him over until lunchtime, and then his mother came into the room. 

“G’morning Rob!” she said. 

“Morning.” He ate his cereal in silence while he thought about what to say next. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Anything!” she said as she poured herself a cup of coffee. 

“Did you by any chance hear Uncle Pat come home this morning?”

“Uh, no. Why, is he not here?”

“I dunno. But the coffee wasn’t started this morning, I made it.”

“Well, thanks for doing that, but how odd. He usually does that everyday.”

“That’s what I was thinking!”

“Have you tried looking for him?”

“Yeah, he wasn’t there.”

“Oh. Weird. Maybe he’s still at work, I have to go but let me know after!”

“Will do. Bye.”

“Bye!” she said and she went out the door. 

He sat eating his cereal in silence but his mind filled the silence with his racing thoughts. It wasn’t like his uncle to not come back home after work since he never usually went anywhere afterwards, then he wondered if he did just to switch up his routine a little. It was very out of character for him, but it was possible. 

Then there were other possibilities as well, such as ‘what if something happened to him?’. He didn’t want to think about that because his mind would go down a rabbit hole of possibilities which would make him worry even more. 

Robert got into his car and drove to Freddy’s just like every other day, but he immediately noticed there was a lot of traffic on the road when there never usually was because Hurricane is a small town, so he knew something was wrong.

When he got closer to Freddy’s, he saw why there was traffic: dozens of cars were driving slowly by Freddy’s to try and see what was going on because there were two police cars on the side of the road, a few others in the parking lot of Freddy’s, an ambulance, and several employees of neighboring establishments were out in the parking lot talking with police officers. 

What the hell happened here?! he thought. He tried to turn into the parking lot but was stopped by a police officer before he could even get in and he rolled down his window to talk to him. 

“Sorry sir, but you can’t go in,” the officer said. 

“Why not?”

“Investigation.”

“Investigation? For what?”

“We got a call from one of the morning employees who said there was a strange smell coming from backstage. We’re closing this establishment up temporarily until the smell is thoroughly cleaned and investigated.”

“Sir, I’m the manager of this place, Robert Graham. I think I need to know why this place is being closed up temporarily so just explain to me and I’ll be on my way back home.”

The sources said the manager was related to him…this won’t be good, the officer thought. “Oh, uh, well in that case, I don’t think it’s a good idea if I tell you-”

“What?!”

“Sir, I’m just trying to spare you any unnecessary trauma-”

“What happened?!”

“I…I’d rather not say.”

“Look, I don’t give a damn if I’m traumatized, I need to know the truth whether I find out what happened from you or not! And if you won’t tell me, I’ll drive over this curb and find someone who’ll actually give me an answer!”

”You know that it is illegal to walk into an active investigation-”

”And you’re not doing your job by telling the manager why this establishment is being closed, because I was tasked by the CEO himself to report to him if anything here goes to shit and you’re denying that! Y’know there can be some serious legal stuff here!”

The police officer took a deep breath. “Look kid, I’m tasked to stay put and make sure that no one comes in and you’re trying to prevent me from doing my job!”

Robert was annoyed with the officer, but since he wouldn’t let Robert into the parking lot he got an idea. “Fine then,” he said and rolled up his window and drove off, but only went to an establishment around the block out of sight and parked his car in their parking lot. “If he won’t tell me, I’ll find out myself,” he said as he got out of the car.

He made his way back over to Freddy’s being very cautious that he wasn’t seen and stayed in the shadows. He snuck around the side of the building and was was in the parking lot about to go to the front door when another officer spotted him. “Hey, you’re not supposed to be here,” he said.

“I have special permission,” Robert lied.

The officer sighed. “Are you press? We’re not supposed to say anything until we get confirmation from the boss of this place that it’s okay to release it.”

”I’m not press, I’m the manager. I report to Fazbear so I can pass the message along so you get the confirmation.”

”The manager of Freddy’s?”

”The one and only. Now, that officer at the front refused to tell me anything about what happened so tell me, what exactly happened?”

“I don’t know all the details, but one of the morning employees called in a rotting smell from backstage. The detectives still aren’t completely sure what happened.”

“Well, what was the smell?”

“A corpse.” Robert sharply inhaled as his mind thought of the worst. “We still don’t know who or what caused this, so we’re conducting investigations here until further notice. The lead detective has a hunch on who the suspect could be, but we still need evidence before anything can be done.”

“Who…who was the corpse?”

“It was hard to tell because his body was mangled when we got to him, but our best guess is the night watchman who was here last night based on evidence, and he was identified a few minutes ago based on a name tag one of the detectives found and confirmed our assumption was correct.”

Robert stared at him wide eyed. “What?” he said but with no emotion because he was in shock.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news but someone had to tell you eventually. The sources said that the night watchman was your uncle. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“He…he’s dead?!” Robert said shakily.

“I’m afraid so.”

“No…no, no, no, no, no…” he kept repeating as he dropped to his knees and started sobbing. He didn’t care that the nearby police officers, EMT’s, neighboring employees and passersby stared at him, he was too upset to care.

He was in disbelief, shock, he was upset and he was terrified. He felt all these emotions at once and they hit him like a ton of bricks that could only show itself in the form of tears, and as they fell down his face he realized this was the hardest he had cried since he was a child.

The memories of the years they had together came back to him: when Patrick would sit with Robert at the kitchen table and help with homework, when Patrick would come to all of his football games and would still be proud of him even when his team lost and they would go out for pizza afterwards, when Patrick agreed to go to the park with him almost every weekend and they would toss the football back and forth for hours, and when Patrick taught Robert basic life skills because his mother couldn’t from cooking meals to changing a flat tire.

He couldn’t believe it. The one who was there for him all his life, the one who raised him when his mother couldn’t, the one he looked up to, the one he saw as a father figure was gone.

The police officer knelt down next to him after a few minutes since Robert had calmed down some. “I know this is tough for you, so I think it’s best if you go home and rest.”

Robert took a shaky deep breath to try and calm himself down and wiped away his tears, but then he got an idea. He knew it was probably a stupid thing to ask but he needed to know if this was all real or not. “First…” He sniffled. “Can I see the evidence?”

“Uh…I dunno. The investigation’s still going on.” He looked around and saw that no one was really paying attention anymore since Robert had stopped crying. “But I strongly believe that family comes first before anything and they deserve to know exactly what happened to their loved ones, so I can sneak you inside as long as we’re quick.”

“Oh my God, I didn’t think that’d actually work. Thank you so much,” Robert said.

The police officer nodded and they ducked under the police tape along the front of the building and cautiously went inside, where Robert saw that all of the lights were on, there were police officers talking to the employees who called in the smell, there were detectives around the building and police tape was in the doorway to the backstage area. 

“Holy shit,” Robert said under his breath and they walked inside.

The officer motioned to quickly and quietly follow him and took Robert past the stage, through the dining area and down the hall to the office where a few detectives were.

The detectives stopped their conversation with each other and looked at them with stern looks on their faces, and Robert felt as akward as ever because he knew he wasn’t supposed to be there. “Brown, you know the public’s not allowed here while investigation’s goin’ on, you’re not a rookie you should know better,” one of them said.

“Hey, he’s family. He deserves to know what happened to him.”

”Everyone here knows. You can just tell him outside.”

”I need to see the evidence so I know this is real,” Robert butted in.

“This isn’t proof enough?”

”Nope.”

“Look Jones, you have a daughter, right? Doesn’t family come first? If she died wouldn’t you want to know what exactly happened because the words from a police officer aren’t convincing enough?” the officer next to Robert asked and the detective stayed silent not having a comeback. “It’s not like I’m goin’ to show him the body, I’m just gonna show him the message and I’ll get him outta here.”

The detectives looked at each other, looked back at them and the other detective said, “Just five minutes, tops. Then he needs to get outta here so we can continue the investigation before Davis notices anyone else was here.”

The police officer nodded and the detectives went out of the office. “Thanks for that,” Robert said.

“Of course.”

”So…the evidence?”

“It’s right here, the other employees told us how to access the recorded messages, and they said it sounded like him,” the officer said as he dialed the number to access the messages, and after a few minutes he found it and handed the phone to Robert.

There in his uncle’s voice Robert heard, “Hello, hello? Hey! Hey, wow, day 4. I knew you could do it,” he heard. Robert was terrified already because his uncle sounded scared for his life, a sound Robert hoped he would never hear.

“Uh, hey, listen, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow.” He heard banging like the animatronics were trying to get in. “It's-It's been a bad night here for me. Um, I-I’m kinda glad that I recorded my messages for you uh, when I did.

“Uh, hey, do me a favor.” He heard more banging. “Maybe sometime, uh, you could check inside those suits in the back room?” More banging came over the speaker. “I’m gonna to try to hold out until someone checks. Maybe it won’t be so bad.”

There was more banging and then Robert knew the power went out because he heard the animatronics footsteps go into the office. “Uh, I-I always wondered what was in all those empty heads back there.” Robert heard the chime that Freddy was supposed to play when the power went out and Robert felt another lump in his throat as he tried to hold tears back, but knew he wouldn’t be successful.

“You know…” Robert heard the noise the animatronics were supposed to make as a warning when stopping an intruder. “Oh no-” Patrick was cut off by an animatronic that he has never heard before and it was followed by static which went on for a minute. The only thing that could be heard in the office as Robert listened was the static and his audible sobs but then the dial tone went off.

Robert let tears fall down his cheeks as he handed the telephone back to the officer. “Uncle Pat…” he said quietly and shakily.

“That was the last recording on this phone, I’m so sorry about your uncle,” the police officer said as he put the phone down.

“He really is dead…” He wiped away his tears. “Whe-where was his body?”

“Inside an animatronic, but he was almost unrecognizable. He was mangled enough to the point where we couldn’t fully identify him until his name tag was recovered.”

“Alright Brown, your time’s up. Get him outta here before Davis notices,” the first detective said as he peered into the office.

The officer nodded and he and Robert filed out of the restaurant, the officer walked Robert to his car and after he shut the door, the police officer went back to patrolling the front of the building. Robert sat in his car for a minute, still in shock that this was all really happening.

Robert’s mother wasn’t always the best mother since she got pregnant with him at twenty by her boyfriend at the time who broke up with her as soon as she started showing because he was embarrassed, so he left his twenty one year old ex girlfriend to take care of an infant by herself so she didn’t know how to properly parent. She always turned to Patrick (who was nineteen at the time) for help since he was good with kids, but he also moved to the same city she was in which was far away from their parents.

She was almost always working at one of her two jobs because they have never been the richest of people and when Robert did see her, she treated him more like a friend than a son so Robert saw her as less of a mother and more of a friend, but Patrick was always there to parent him since his real mother didn’t know how to and wasn’t always willing to learn.

Besides being upset about his uncle’s death, he was stressed about the situation. He didn’t know what was going to happen to him and his mother, he didn’t know if they would get kicked out of the apartment or not, plus how would he even tell his mother that her only brother was dead?

“So…” he said to himself as he sat in his car. “Jeremy was right. There really is a murderer who hangs around Freddy’s.”

Chapter 113

Summary:

Let’s go back to someone who was MIA for some time.

”So…you want me to kill…her?” Schmidt asked William one day.

“Yes. I want her dead. If she dies, that’s one less thing I have to worry about and I’m not traveling out of state to do it, but you can.”

“But it’s not like she’s stopping your little plan.”

“No, but I have my grudges.”

“Which is…”

“Ever since Henry and I met her, and ever since they started dating they’ve seemed to only pay attention to each other! She stole my only friend from me, the first and only one who I considered a friend once I moved to America so yeah, I’m a little angry!”

“It’s not like Henry’s talking to you anymore anyway and he’s not even talking to her. Move on, William.”

“I can’t! I can’t just move away from him that easily, so I need her to pay for all the years she stole from me! Things could have been different, no, things would have been different if we never ran into those two in college! I can’t change the past, but my grudge against her never faded after all these years.”

“So…you want me to kill her…for you?”

“Yes, now do what I say, or I swear to God-”

“I never liked her anyways so I’m on it.”

The room suddenly dropped to its normal temperature and William knew that Schmidt had left.

After Schmidt had left, he traveled to a small town in Idaho where she and her son were residing. He had been here many times before so he knew exactly what to expect: when he didn’t have school and since Samuel didn’t have any friends, he usually stayed home while his mother, Heather, had developed an addiction to smoking and was usually out on the porch or working.

She used it as a coping mechanism because she truly did miss Henry, but knew she couldn’t live with him any longer. Sometimes, she wonders if he actually did change by now and she made the wrong decision leaving him, but she knew she couldn’t go back now and smoked her problems away instead.

Samuel was worried for her, he knew this wasn't healthy for her but of course he didn’t say anything. He was only fifteen years old, sixteen in a month, his mother wouldn’t care what he said because that’s what always happened. Besides, this has been his life for six years now and even though he didn’t like it, he was used to it.

When Schmidt got to the house he peered through the window at Samuel who was listening to music on his walkman and reading in his room. Samuel didn’t like to be home since it was almost like he didn’t exist here, but he knew if he even took a step outside he would get bullied for one thing or another so this was the best option.

Suddenly, Samuel got the strangest feeling that something was watching him like he has a few times before and he sat up from laying on his bed, pushed up his glasses because his father had passed down his bad eyesight to him and looked around the room. He saw nothing but still took off his headphones, put them around his neck and paused his walkman.

“Hello?” he said, but there was no response. “Weird,” he said as he put on his headphones again and unpaused his walkman.

Schmidt went down the hall since he knew his way around the house and saw his target: Heather, his only living child in the living room. This is one of the few rare times he hasn’t seen her out on the porch smoking or working, but she was busy watching television and drinking wine on the couch.

She obviously hasn’t been able to move on from Henry, and she felt terrible that she had left him and pulled Samuel away from his father so she was using her other coping skill.

Schmidt stayed in that room for a while, trying to figure out how to kill her with it looking like an accident, but he also noticed that she never looked around the room like people usually did when he was in a room, so she obviously had a few to many drinks and had a tough time standing; the only plus of that was that it’d make his job easier.

He thought he could do things the old fashioned way and stab her or shoot her, but that wouldn’t look like an accident and police would be looking for someone who didn’t exist in their world; he was cold hearted but not that kind of cold hearted.

He could drop something heavy on her, but for it to look like an accident she would have to get up and move towards the wall since everything heavy was near the wall and she was in no state to walk, plus it wasn’t one hundred percent certain that she would die from that alone.

Then suddenly, he looked up at the lights and got an idea. Electrical fire, he thought. It was perfect, he could mess with the wires, start a fire and the only thing that could get blamed were animals.

Since he was a ghost and could go through walls, he did just that and went into the wall. He looked around for a few minutes, looking for wires, or even better a bunch of them together and soon he found a few tangled around each other: the wires powering the lights.

He went to them and picked them up, but soon realized he had nothing to cut them with. That’s when he remembered: he was a poltergeist, he could make whatever he wanted appear right in front of him.

He closed his eyes and envisioned a small knife, almost like a dagger and he opened his eyes to find one right in front of him. He grabbed it, tightened his grip on the dagger and began to saw away at the wires, and after a few minutes he cut through and the lights turned off.

“Damn it,” Heather said as she looked at the light that went out. “Sammy!” She heard nothing because Samuel had his headphones on. “Sam! Samuel!” Still no response. “Whatever, I’ll fix it later,” she said as she watched the television again and took another sip of wine.

Schmidt however was working on trying to get the wires to spark, even though he had no idea what he was doing because he had never worked with electrical equipment before. He tried everything and after a little while, many attempts later and getting very irritated, he finally saw a small spark.

That’s when he finally remembered that he could perform anomalies in the physical world, which could be viewed as magic. He sighed in irritation because he had just wasted about ten minutes of his time, closed his eyes and formed a picture in his mind of what he wanted to happen.

He thought about the wire sparking uncontrollably from electricity still running through it, sparks getting everywhere and eventually catching on the surrounding wood which would then start a fire. He opened his eyes and concentrated on the open wire, directing that energy towards it and a minute later it did exactly what he envisioned.

The wire started sparking uncontrollably and the sparks from it were getting everywhere from the other wires to the surrounding instillation, and as soon as a few sparks got on the wood below it a small flame started. Schmidt smiled evilly and watched as the flame would get bigger, and soon enough a small fire started.

Schmidt left so the fire could spread on its own and it wouldn’t look suspicious, and it took a long while before Samuel could notice.

He only noticed when the air from his air vent smelled strangely like something was burning, but because of his life circumstances he thought it was just his mother smoking again. He dismissed it and continued reading and listening to music, but didn’t notice anything was wrong until about forty five minutes later when he heard his mother scream.

“Mom?!” he said worryingly and put his headphones around his neck, paused his walkman, put his book down, pushed up his glasses and opened his bedroom door where he was immediately greeted with black smoke being blown into his face. He coughed and stepped back, but then he knew what that meant for his mother. “MOM!” he yelled and ran out of the room as he put his shirt collar over his mouth and nose.

He ran down the hallway to try to get to her but saw that the living room she was in was already engulfed in flames, but then he saw her on the floor and he ran over to her as close as he could without getting burnt, which was still a good few feet away from her.

He then saw that she had collapsed because she had already breathed in lots of smoke, but there was also fire surrounding her, burning her clothes as well as her skin but she wasn’t reacting.

Samuel coughed again and looked to the front door but it was already blocked by flames as was every other exit in the room. Then, the boards from the ceiling started falling down, some of which were on fire and he could feel his heart racing in his head. He then let go of his shirt, took off his glasses and put them in his pocket because they were fogging and ran as fast as he could back to his room, but as he went down the hallway one of the flaming boards from the ceiling fell on him knocking him down.

“Ahh! Ow! Shit!” he yelled as he crawled out from under it, hit out the fire on his shoulder which burned through his shirt and reached his skin so it was very tender, but he got up and ran to his room which the fire was already spreading to.

He coughed again and he was starting to get lightheaded from all the smoke he was breathing in, but he saw his window wasn’t blocked yet. He opened his window and crawled outside, but because he was lightheaded and felt like he was about to pass out any second he fell onto his back on the rocks below him.

He dismissed it, got up and ran as far as he could down the street and soon the other neighbors started coming out of their houses. A few of them must’ve called the fire department since Samuel heard sirens, and he wasn’t fully sure why his first instinct was to run.

He ran as far as his legs would take him into town, past the people on the sidewalks and past the shops even though he got the weird look every so often because a dirty teenager with a hole burned into his shirt was running down the street, but he then went into an alleyway to hide and rest.

He first sat on the ground with his back against the wall but then the pain registered for him. His left shoulder was still very tender to the touch so he assumed he would get at least a mark of some sort there eventually. His back was also sore from falling on it and landing on the sharp rocks, so he scooted up so his back wouldn’t touch the wall.

He sat in silence for a minute, focusing on the pain and coughed again, but violently this time so he was scared he was going to be sick. His coughing stopped after a minute and all he wanted was water, but he knew that would be more difficult now. He put on his glasses again, which were now scratched but that didn’t matter to him right now.

Then his mind wandered back to what just happened within the span of an hour. He remembered that his house was on fire and everything was gone, but if that wasn’t already terrible enough the fire killed his mother, seemingly right in front of him. He remembered seeing her lifeless body, she looked like she was asleep but because she had no reaction to the flames he knew she was dead.

He didn’t even know how to react because yes, she has made mistakes before but that didn’t mean he wanted her dead.

He also couldn’t comprehend the fact that he didn’t have anywhere else to go; he had no family here, he had no friends and all he really could do was try to sneak in somewhere to stay for the nights ahead. He didn’t have any money for food or any extra clothes so he knew he had a very difficult life ahead of him, and he was only fifteen years old.

It was all so much and put a lot of extra worry on him that he knew he would be spending his sixteenth birthday homeless if he would even be able to survive that long, and he cried until there seemed to be no more tears left to cry.

Chapter 114

Summary:

The news gets out.

That night while Michael and Jeremy were supposed to be asleep because they both had work the next morning, Michael was wide awake and staring at the ceiling. He couldn’t sleep because his mind was racing as per usual, but this time was different. Something was wrong, dreadfully wrong.

He spent the next hour or so trying to get to sleep but ended up tossing and turning, finding no comfortable position to sleep in. He looked over at Jeremy laying next to him, sleeping peacefully on his side facing towards Michael and he watched as the fuzzy blanket on him rose and fell with every breath he took.

Michael wished he could sleep as peacefully as Jeremy tonight, but part of him knew that wouldn’t come true. Eventually, he sat up and even though he could tell he was exhausted he got off of the bed, went out of the room and down the dark hallway to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

He turned on the light to the kitchen, and once his eyes adjusted he got a small glass from the cabinet and filled it with water, barely even noticing the icy cold tile on his feet because of his tiredness. He sat at the table and drank the cool water in his glass, but his leg started to shake as he tried to think about what could be preventing him from getting sleep.

On one hand, it could be Alex because they had told Michael and Jeremy they got a job at Freddy’s because there was no other option and he knew that place was bad news. On the other hand, it was a different feeling than just worry. Michael was getting that same feeling he had always gotten when someone gets hurt or dies, but he wasn’t sure why because he wasn’t aware of any tragedy that had happened recently.

There were a few people he could think of that it could possibly be: there were Jeremy and Alex, but he didn’t think anything happened to them yet. He was just laying in bed with Jeremy a few minutes earlier and he seemed perfectly fine, and Alex was with their family so it was very unlikely something would happen when there were witnesses.

It could also be Henry but Michael saw him every day, he looked healthy and Schmidt wasn’t out to kill him, at least he hoped not. As he thought more he could only think of one other person it could possibly be which was William, but that seemed like the least likely possibility to Michael even though he hoped so.

He took another sip of his water and then he heard the familiar sound of Jeremy’s crutch coming closer to him from down the hall which meant he woke Jeremy up. He sighed and put his hands on his face because he felt bad he woke Jeremy up, but then he took his hands off of his face and there was Jeremy looking back at him.

“Mike? What’re you doing out here?” Jeremy asked through a yawn.

“Oh uh, I couldn’t sleep,” Michael replied.

“Again?” Michael nodded and Jeremy sat at the table across from him, held both of his hands in his and softly asked, “Okay Mike. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing! I just couldn’t sleep.”

“It’s not every day you get out of bed at…” He looked at the clock and back at Michael. “Two in the morning, tossing and turning for about an hour before you get up every night.”

”You noticed?”

”You know I could always pick up on these patterns. Something’s up and I’m worried about you!”

“I’m fine, it’s just insomnia.”

”I’m no genius but I don’t think insomnia has a set time like what you’ve been doing lately.”

”Just go back to bed, you have work tomorrow .”

“Later than you so technically I should be fine, but you’re the one who has to be up at seven! Mikey, just talk to me. ¿Por favor?”

Michael sighed, because knowing Jeremy he wouldn’t give up that easily, plus they had promised each other to not keep secrets from the other, especially if the secret’s bothering them. “It’s just…I’ve been having this feeling for about a week, like I’m dreading something but it was usually easy to ignore during the day, and just today it’s gotten worse.”

“What feeling?”

“Remember that feeling I told you I get when someone gets hurt?”

“Uh, I think so. Don’t you get lightheaded and get an upset stomach?”

“Yeah, and it was usually able to ignore during the day and was just annoying at night. Today though, the emotion part of it was added. It feels how you would when you’re crying because you’re upset about something. There’s just this…weight in my chest and I don’t know how to get rid of it.”

“So…you feel sad?” Michael nodded. “About what?”

“I don’t know, and I’ve been feeling it for a few days.”

“Hmm…d’you think it’s just mood swings?”

“My hormones are fine Jer.”

Jeremy rolled his eye. “Not hormones! I mean mood swings can happen to anyone, so maybe that’s what’s happening.”

“But it’s different, it feels like…like I’m mourning the loss of someone but I don’t know who.”

”Oh that kind…yeah I know how that feels. Well, why don’t you come back to bed and we can talk about it more in the morning? I know we’re both tired, or at least I am.”

Michael smiled. “I think I’m gonna stay out here for a few. I just…haven’t been feeling good these past few days and today is the worst of them.”

“D’you need to call into work?”

Michael shook his head. “No it’s not that bad…I’m pretty sure. I’ll be there in a few.” Jeremy nodded, went back to their room and Michael was alone in the kitchen again, where only the low hum of the refrigerator could be heard.

Michael was bothered by this feeling because he felt like he was always on the verge of tears, but he had no idea what it could mean or who it could be about so he thought about going back to bed and trying his best to ignore it.

When he stood, he looked over at the powered off television and suddenly had the strangest urge to turn it on. He had no idea why he listened to it, maybe because he was too exhausted to care, but almost as if he was on autopilot he went over to the set, turned the television on and started flipping through the channels.

For about five minutes he flipped through the different stations, not entirely sure what he was looking for so he thought he was wasting his time, but as he was about to turn off the television he stumbled across one of the channels that showed the news all across America.

“Tonight, we have a special report from Idaho,” the news reporter said. “Although Idaho is most famously known for its potato farms, it is not usually the target for unusual tragedies such as this. Today at around noon, an peculiar disaster has struck, and there are still questions left to be answered.”

He wasn’t sure why he had decided to stay on the channel since he was never interested in the news, but this caught his attention because he wanted to know what this ‘unusual tragedy’ was so he continued watching.

“Authorities say what appears to be an electrical fire has started in one of the houses in this neighborhood and burned it to a crisp, but this was no ordinary electrical fire. For an unknown reason the surrounding houses remained perfectly intact.

“From what the authorities and witnesses said, the surrounding homes should  have been charred to some extent because of the size of the flames, but there was no evidence found of the other properties or even plants outside being touched by the fire. It is still unknown how or why this happened, but police will continue investigating.

“As for other news of this fire, it has unfortunately taken the life of a woman named Heather Schmidt who was only forty five years old.”

A picture of her appeared on screen, and it was indeed Heather, Michael’s aunt. “Aunt Heather?” Michael said softly. He hadn’t seen her for years, but being that he has known her since he was a baby and she helped take care of him then, he was struck by a wave of emotions.

“Ms. Schmidt has unfortunately passed while her son, Samuel Emily-Schmidt remains missing.”

“Sammy?”

“Police are still searching for the body of this fifteen year old boy in the rubble and ash of the home, but if he did somehow survive this tragedy and if he is found, please contact authorities immediately.”

A picture of him showed up on screen and Michael gasped; he looked almost exactly like Henry after all these years, just way younger so he knew that was indeed Henry’s son. “Holy shit…” he said and turned off the television.

He went to turn off the kitchen light and once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he went back down the hall to his and Jeremy’s room and crawled into bed. When he laid down and put the blanket over him, he wasn’t expecting Jeremy to still be awake so he was caught by suprise when Jeremy put his arm around him.

“You’re still up?” Michael asked as Jeremy hugged him close. Michael put his arm around Jeremy and cuddled up to him, and suddenly he was calmed from Jeremy’s body heat around him like a warm blanket and closed his eyes.

“I’m making sure you fall asleep because you have work in the morning.” He fell silent for a minute. “So what were you doing out there?”

”Watching the news,” Michael answered sleepily.

“The news? You usually never watch that.”

“I know, but I just felt like I should this time and I found out…that there was a reason for my bad feelings. Another one of my family members is dead.”

Jeremy gasped. “Who?”

“I don’t think you know her well, but she was Henry’s ex wife, in other words my mother’s sister, or my aunt.”

“Oh my God, I’m sorry Mike.”

“And to make matters worse, her son is missing and no one knows where he is. I haven’t even seen them in years, but I’m still upset about it.”

“I get it, you’re still family so it’ll hurt. And don’t you dare say it’s your fault, you know it’s not because Henry told me they weren’t even in Utah.”

“Can I think it?” he asked teasingly.

“No!”

Michael chuckled and sighed. “I know I can’t keep this from Henry because that’s not the right thing to do, but if I do tell him he’s going to be a mess for sure because he was never able to let go.”

“I dunno. Maybe just give it to him straight, like ripping the bandage off. Sure he’ll be a mess but he can take off work the next day or something.”

“I guess so. I just hate the be the bearer of bad news, y’know?”

“Yeah I know. But really there’s not much else you can do.”

“But should I tell him at work tomorrow? I mean, he needs to do his job while he’s there and if he’s a mess he can’t do that!”

“Tell him after before he goes home. Easy fix.”

“Stop thinking of the logical things I don’t and making me look dumb,” he joked and Jeremy snickered. “I still love you though.”

Jeremy snickered and kissed his forehead. “I love you too. Goodnight, or…good morning Mikey.”

Michael smiled. “Good morning Jer,” he said sleepily, and within minutes he fell asleep in Jeremy’s arms.

---

The next day as Michael was getting ready to leave work, he saw Henry chatting with one of the other workers. Just tell him Mike, like ripping the bandage off, he thought.

Michael went up to Henry and he just finished his conversation and the worker was leaving to his car when Michael got to him. “Oh! Hey Mike!” Henry said as he headed back inside the building and Michael followed him. “Headed home?”

“Yeah but uh, I need to talk to you first.”

“Oh? About what?”

“Well…” he trailed off.

Henry stopped, sighed and pushed up his glasses. “What happened?”

“Well, it’s not about me-”

“Oh thank God.” He went to the back of the workshop and Michael followed him. “I thought you were about to say you and Jeremy broke up or something and I was not ready to have that conversation.”

Michael chuckled. “No, we’re fine and we still love each other to death just like we did in high school. Anyways uh, this is actually about you.”

“What is it? And if you’re trying to set me up with someone, the answer is no,” Henry said as he was putting supplies away since one of his tasks was to close up.

“It’s not that. It’s about…Heather.” Henry suddenly stopped what he was doing. “And Sammy.”

“Wha…what about them?” he asked worriedly and turned to face Michael.

“I saw on the news yesterday that their house was burned down and Heather…Heather didn’t make it.”

Henry stayed silent in shock, not knowing how to comprehend this information and Michael could tell he was trying to not show he was upset. “W-what about Sammy?”

“He’s missing. Cops don’t know if he’s dead or not, but if he is alive he’s homeless.”

“No…” he whispered to himself and leaned on a metal table to support him.

“I’m sorry Uncle. I-I know you still loved them-”

“Of course I did! You know I could never let go of them!” he said with his voice quivering. “And lord knows if Sammy’s dead or not, he probably is and the police just aren’t looking hard enough!”

“That’s what I thought too. I’m so sorry Uncle.” Michael hugged Henry as he took off his glasses and started crying. After a few minutes Henry calmed down and Michael stopped hugging him. “I…I’ll drive you home.”

Henry nodded, wiped his tears and put on his glasses again as he and Michael walked to the car.

Michael drove out of the parking lot to Henry’s house and the whole time Michael drove, Henry was dead silent. A few times Michael even looked over to make sure he was alright, and every time he was just staring out the passenger’s window at the cars beside them on the road. Michael didn’t even turn the radio on because even though he couldn’t stand the quiet, he knew it was an emotional time for Henry and there was a lot on his mind.

When Michael drove into the driveway of Henry’s house and parked he said, “Alright, here we are.”

“Thanks Mike. It really means a lot more than you realize,” he replied, and it was the first time Michael heard him speak in about twenty minutes.

“Uh, d’you need anything before I go and pick up Jeremy? Or if you do I can call Alex to go get him for me.”

“Jeremy’s working this late now?”

“Well, kinda. He was able to change his hours to twelve ‘till five when I get off. It just makes it easier on me.”

Henry smiled. “Y’know, I’m glad you two are figuring out this whole adult thing. You don’t even know how proud I am of you two.” Michael smiled. “But to answer your question, no I don’t need anything. I think I should be fine now.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. Sure it’s a shock and it upsets me, but like Heather said all those years ago, I have to learn to let go…eventually.”

Chapter 115

Summary:

First day on the job after weeks of postponing their first day.

”Are ya sure you hafta go?” Alex’s little brother, Jeremiah, asked them a few weeks later. “Why don’t you just stay home? We can play video games together all night long!”

“We did that every other day of summer break!” Alex replied. “Look, Jerry, you know I love to hang out with you but I’m an adult! I have responsibilities!”

“But why there?! You know that place is bad news! I-I dunno but it seems like a pattern at this point, something bad always happens at those places!”

“No other place was hiring and I’ll be careful, I promise. Robert is counting on me, I have to go in.”

“You even said last time you worked at one of those places that you hated working night shift!”

Alex sighed. “I do, but it was my only option for a summer job. It’ll just be for a few months anyway, I’ll be fine.”

“But Al, if you get hurt or worse, I don’t know what I’ll do with myself! You’re like, my bestest friend!”

“But you have other friends! I’m your sibling!”

“I said you’re like my bestest friend. If I wasn’t related to you, you would be my bestest friend.”

Alex chuckled. “Why aren’t you asleep yet? It’s getting late.”

“You should expect this from a sixteen year old. It’s not even one in the morning yet!”

Alex rolled their eyes. “I’ll be fine Jerry. I’ll see you in the morning,” Alex said as he gave Jeremiah a hug and left.

---

Alex took a deep breath in their car before they went inside as they were in the parking lot. “You’ll be fine Alex. That was just at the other place, except for that freak accident a few weeks ago, this is different,” they told themselves.

They got out of the car, locked it and went inside. They had parked close to the entrance in case things went south and they had to run out and escape as quickly as possible, so the distance was rather short.

Once they were inside, they saw Robert sitting at one of the tables with his head down on the table in front of him. They went over to him quietly and knocked on the table which startled him and he looked at them. “Sleeping on the job again? I thought you left that behind like, five years ago,” Alex said.

“I wasn’t sleeping! I was just…resting my eyes.”

“Sure you were.”

“Look man, it’s Monday, I’m stressed and I’m tired. I have a more important job than at the other place so I have a good reason this time.”

“Fair I guess. Anyways, who’s gonna show me around the place?”

“Me, that’s who.”

“Oh God, you?” Alex teased. “I thought your uncle was here or something.”

Robert went silent for a few seconds. “Well…he can’t be here right now.” He snapped out of it and stood up. “Follow me.”

“Oh. Uh, alright.”

Alex followed Robert to one side of the room. “So obviously this is the main dining area, then right up in front we have the three main animatronics, Bonnie, Chica and Freddy,” he said.

“The area’s a little bigger than the last one.”

“Eh, few square feet, give or take. Anyways right behind us are the restrooms, then right across the room is the backstage area.”

“Ooh, what’s in there?”

“Spare animatronic costumes and stuff. Wouldn’t recommend going in there though. It’s a little creepy.”

“Oh uh, noted.”

They went a little bit closer to the hallway but just enough so that they were still in the dining area. “This is the kitchen, the security camera’s broken in there for some reason but the audio still works. I’m guessing that Chica threw a pan at it or something.”

”Wait hold up, they still move?! Don’t they know what happened last time they moved?!”

“They’re aware, that’s why they don’t let ‘em move during the day anymore. They’re allowed to at night though, something about mechanical stuff and they don’t want that rusting or getting stuck in some way, something like that but honestly I was only half listening.”

“So I’m the only one who has to worry about them is what you’re saying?”

“Eh…basically.”

“Wow. I’m so comforted,” they said in a monotonous way and Robert couldn’t help but let out a light chuckle.

They went across the room together to a small room off to the side. “This is Pirates Cove, where we have the Foxy animatronic.” He turned on the light, and sure enough there was Foxy on the stage.

”Foxy gets his own stage now? First Mangle got its own room, now Foxy gets his own room and stage?! Spoiled if you ask me.”

Robert snickered. “That one wasn’t my decision, even though Foxy is a pretty cool one.”

“Makin’ it seem an awful lot like it was your decision.”

“I swear, it wasn’t!”

“Sure.”

Robert rolled his eyes and motioned Alex to follow him again. “So right here in the hallway is the storage closet, and on the other side there’s an identical hallway by the kitchen, and both of those lead to the security office,” he said as they walked down the hallway to the security office. “Anyways uh, that’s it! Any questions?”

“It’s uh, smaller than the other place,” Alex said when they walked inside.

“We were on a budget. Anyways you remember how you worked the cameras at the other place, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So it’s basically the same for this location. Just watch the monitor and make sure the animatronics don’t get into trouble.”

“No mask?”

“Nope, you have doors now because they finally decided those were necessary. They’re made of steel too, so you don’t have to worry about the animatronics breaking in when the doors are closed. But only use those, the door lights and the monitor when absolutely necessary because-”

“Yeah, yeah. I have a limited power supply, I know.”

“Just making sure you were paying attention.”

“I still will never understand why this place runs only on a shitty generator after hours.”

“Tell me when you figure that out. Shitty design, if you ask me.”

“Hey! Language! You’re the boss around here!”

“Dude, it’s just us here, it’s not like I can fire myself for cussing. Plus you literally just said it before me!”

Alex thought about it for a few seconds. “You gotta point for once.”

“For once? Hey!”

Alex chuckled. “Y’know I’ll never stop teasing you, even if you are my boss.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Anyways that’s about it, just had to go through that because I’m supposed to and legal stuff, y’know. But if you want my advice, make sure you aren’t seen by the animatronics. They’re not…super friendly to night shift for some reason.”

“Not like they ever were.”

“Got me there. But seriously, make sure you’re not seen. They’re very aggressive, way more than the other location after hours and I’m still not completely sure why.”

“Like, they can hurt someone aggressive?”

“Yeah…you can say that.”

---

“Anyway, here’s your uniform, pretty much the same as the other place but now it says ‘security’ on the back,” he said as he handed Alex a white button down with black shoulder pads.

“Woah, I dunno what it is but this looks cooler,” they said as they held up the shirt.

“Probably the letters on the back. Oh and here’s your name tag.” He handed them a golden colored piece of metal which could be pinned to their shirt. The metal pin had their name engraved on it and the word, ‘security’ underneath and it hit Alex that they were now officially working at another Freddy’s location, even though they hoped they would never see another location again. “Anyways uh, are you good or do you need me to stay here?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“You sure? I know you hate this place at night, and just the dark in general like a kid.”

“Shut up! I’m good!”

Robert chuckled. “Alright, but you know my number if you need anything?”

“Yeah, I do. See ya Rob.”

“‘Night!”

He went out of the building and a few minutes later, the clock struck twelve and all the lights except the light in the office turned off. “Here we go,” Alex muttered as they put on the button down on over their plain black t-shirt.

As Alex paced around the office, he had to keep reminding himself that this wasn’t like the other location, but if Robert was telling the truth then this was worse since they only hurt or killed people after hours, so that meant there were no witnesses to save you.

After they calmed down and sat back in the black faux leather swivel seat, they checked the cameras and noticed that these cameras had no lights on them like the other location. “Stupid budget,” Alex said softly to themselves.

They checked the cameras for a minute but then almost fell out of the chair from the telephone ringing. Alex picked it up and a few seconds later heard Patrick’s voice which they were relieved to hear.

They knew this was a training tape and this was how they trained new employees, but that didn’t matter to Alex since he really didn’t need the training, they were just happy to hear a friendly voice.

Alex put the phone on speaker and checked the cameras so it was playing in the background since they couldn’t turn it off, and they saw that nothing happened that entire time Patrick was speaking.

Alex looked away from the monitor for a minute to look around the office since Patrick was done speaking, and noticed several children’s drawings and a company poster behind the monitor. “Those kids really love this place, huh?” Alex said quietly. Alex spun around in the chair and saw that there were beige lockers with no locks lining the back wall, filled with what they could only assume were extra employees and guard’s uniforms.

A while later Alex checked the cameras again since they hadn’t in a while, and noticed that two of the three animatronics had left the stage. Shit, shit, shit… they thought and frantically checked the other cameras. Alex didn’t have to look for the animatronics for very long because they saw that Bonnie and Chica were in the dining room, both minding their own business and wandering around the dining area in circles.

Alex then checked Pirate’s Cove since the animatronics were now becoming active and saw that Foxy hadn’t moved off of the stage and only stayed in his area. Alex slumped back in the seat and exhaled a sigh of relief, thinking that maybe this job was going to be easier than they thought.

Chapter 116

Summary:

Well…this is a little awkward.

Over the next few nights, Michael couldn’t sleep. He stayed awake worrying about his friend working at Freddy Fazbear’s because they knew that place was dangerous, but decided to work there anyway. Over the weekend when he and Jeremy met up with Alex, they said they would be fine especially since this was their first week, but Michael being Michael he still worried regardless.

One night about a month after Alex started working at Freddy’s, he laid awake in bed like he has almost every other day. No matter what he did, he couldn’t sleep and started tossing and turning in bed, trying to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in but it was no use.

“Mikey…” Jeremy said sleepily next to him, so he was obviously only half awake and his eye was still closed.

“Sorry! Did I wake you?” Michael whispered.

“Yes. You’re shaking the bed.”

“Sorry! I’m so sorry! Go back to sleep, okay?”

It was silent for a few seconds but then the lamp beside Jeremy turned on and he blinked a few times to get used to the light. He sat up as did Michael, rubbed his eye and ruffled  his dark brown hair and turned to face him.

“That’s been happening a lot lately. Almost every night it’s the same thing, are you okay? Are you sick? Are you too hot because you have a fever?”

Jeremy moved Michael’s shaggy brown hair out of the way and put a hand on Michael’s forehead. Michael chuckled as he moved Jeremy’s hand away and said, “No, I’m not sick.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. Insomnia will do that to you.”

He looked at him like he could tell he was lying. “Mike, we’ve known each other for over a decade. I know when you’re lying.” Michael sighed and Jeremy held his hands. “C’mon, just talk to me.”

“It’s just…I’m worried.”

“About what? Work? Is something going on?”

“No. I’m worried about Alex working at Freddy’s.”

“But they said that they were fine and can take care of themselves if something happens.”

“But that makes me believe that something will happen that I should be worried about!”

“Mike-”

“I mean, it’s a Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria for God’s sake! Something always happens!”

“Mi-”

“I dunno what happened there, but I know it must be bad because it closed for a couple weeks, and there were police cars-”

“Michael!” Jeremy said loudly and Michael stopped talking quickly. “Alex said they were fine. The most dangerous thing they had to do so far was close the doors when the animatronics came near, plus Alex is still alive.”

“But…those doors are made of metal for a reason! Those animatronics are dangerous!”

“Like I said, Alex said that they can take care of themselves if they get into trouble. I don’t  think they wanna feel helicoptered. C’mon, let’s go back to sleep. You’re getting dark circles under your eyes so you need it.”

“I know but-” Michael started but Jeremy put a finger to Michael’s lips to shush him.

“Shhh. We can talk about it later. It’s one in the morning and we both need sleep,” he said softly and he took his finger off of Michael’s lips, turned off the lamp and laid back down.

Michael stayed sitting up, to restless to go to sleep but Jeremy suddenly pulled him down so he was laying next to him. Jeremy kissed Michael’s cheek, cuddled up next to him so his head was on Michael’s chest and Jeremy was listening to his heartbeat, which seemed to be the only way Michael was able to go to sleep these days. Today was no different because he started feeling tired almost instantly.

Michael put an arm around Jeremy a few minutes later and he could tell that Jeremy fell asleep, since Michael learned he was one of those people that fell asleep almost as soon as the lights were off. Michael closed his eyes, Jeremy’s body feeling like a warm blanket around him, and within a few minutes he fell asleep as well.

---

”Hey Al?” Robert said about two weeks later as Alex was walking into work.

“‘Sup?”

“So…you know how the company ordered us that the whole night guard thing is supposed to be a two person job now, but we couldn’t find anyone else for a long time?”

“Yeah.”

“Well…let’s just say you’re gonna have a partner starting like, tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?!”

“Look, I had to! I know you wanna work alone, but the company says it’s not a good idea!”

“But I can handle things by myself!”

“It’s just the company telling me to do it! If it were up to me, you know I’d respect your wishes…maybe.”

“Ugh…fine! They better not be someone who’ll piss me off though.”

”Oh no, I don’t think he will…maybe. In fact, I think you know him quite well.”

---

The next day Alex got to work a little earlier than usual just like Robert said to, and to no suprise Robert was already there since he always liked to be early to these things.

“Hey!” he said when Alex walked in the doors.

“Hey. So when’s this new guy comin’?”

“He should be here any minute now. He was very persistent about this job so I’m pretty sure he’ll be here soon.”

A few minutes later, from the window Alex saw what looked like a very familiar red car pull into the parking lot.

“I recognize that car…” Alex said, but then the man got out and Alex went wide eyed from suprise. “Michael?!”

Michael went up to the front door, took a deep breath and walked inside where Robert instantly got up from his seat, went up to him and gave him a fist bump since this was their first informal meeting after years.

“Whaddya know, we ran into each other again,” Robert said.

“Small world, huh?” Michael replied in his American accent.

The two went over to Alex. “See? Told you you knew him,” Robert said.

“Well uh, hi Al-” Michael started.

“Mike, what’re you doin’ here?”

“Well uh…it’s my job now?”

“I thought you had one.”

“I do! This is my second one, plus I’m only working part time here.”

“Then why are you here if you have a job already?”

“Jeremy and I need the money, and since he’s not able to work more hours than he does already I took matters into my own hands.”

Alex raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t say anything. Robert however, could tell Alex had a lot on their mind. “Alright uh…Mike? You wanna follow me and I’ll give you a quick tour? Y’know like old times,” Robert said.

“That was once when I started working at the other place!”

“Still old times.”

As Robert gave him a quick tour since Alex was distracted by the thoughts in his head; they didn’t know whether to be angry at Michael or happy he was here.

Michael was obviously lying about his and Jeremy’s money situation, since Michael inherited his father’s money and Jeremy still had a good chunk of money his father passed down to him, plus they both had jobs so they were probably set for a while and the pay here would do next to nothing for them if he was telling the truth, so Alex couldn’t figure out why Michael decided to follow them.

“Well, that’s about it,” Robert said as they came back over to Alex about ten minutes later, and they saw that Michael now had a folded uniform in his arms along with a name tag that read, ‘Mike Schmidt’.

“This place seems smaller than the last one,” Michael replied.

“Definitely is. They kinda…reused the building from one of the other locations, to stay in budget, y’know?”

Michael froze up for a few seconds. “Uh…from which location?” he finally asked.

“It was one of the first ones I think they said. Not Fredbear’s or whatever it was called but the one after that. Why?”

Michael froze up for a few seconds again. “You mean-”

“The one where those kids were murdered? Yeah, that one.”

Michael and Alex looked at each other and Alex shrugged to tell him they haven’t told him anything about that. Michael looked back at Robert and asked, “Uh, how d’you know that?”

“Jeremy. I thought he was lying that one day, but now I’m really starting to believe him, because I have a feeling that same guy killed my uncle.”

“What?! I told him he shouldn’t say anything about the murders! That was supposed to be confidential!”

“I swear, I won’t say a word. And, Jeremy did accidentally mention it when I brought up being a manager at Freddy’s and I got curious, so it’s not totally his fault.”

Michael sighed. “Fine, but don’t say a word to anyone else. This just stays between us five and the cops, alright?”

“Five?”

“Yeah. Me, you, Alex, Jeremy and my uncle since he’s also involved in all of this.”

“Oh, alright. Anyways, you have my word.”

Michael smiled. “Thanks Rob. G’night!”

“‘Night guys! Oh! And Al, before I forget, there’s two chairs in the office now because y’know, there’s two of you now.”

“Got it! Bye Rob!” Alex said as Robert waved to them and left out the front door, but then Alex turned back to Michael, and from the looks of it they weren’t happy with him.

“Well uh…this is awkward.”

Chapter 117

Summary:

Michael’s first day.

”You bet it’s awkward,” Alex said to Michael and crossed their arms. “What the hell are you doing here, man?!”

“Look, I’m sorry if it seems like I’m following you-”

“Definitely seems like ya are!”

“Well…”

“Well, are you?!”

“I wouldn’t say I’m following you. More like…uh, looking out for you.”

“So…you’re following me?”

“I wouldn’t necessarily call it that-”

“Then what?” Michael opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out and Alex sighed. “See?”

“Well, look it’s not just you. I know my father is here, and I need to take every opportunity I have to catch him, but I also have try to undo whatever he did because I know he did something to those animatronics!”

“Your…dad? You think your dad’s hanging around here?”

“Who else would kill someone using the animatronics so they wouldn’t get caught?! Much less at Freddy’s?!”

”Fair point. But what I don’t understand is why you decided to get a job here! You hate this place and could’ve probably gone looking for him…I dunno, around here!”

“Well…okay that part is a little bit because of you.”

“I knew it!”

“Look, I couldn’t sleep at night knowing you might be in danger!”

“Well it’s sweet that you wanna look out for me and all, but I can take care of myself.”

“We’re talking about William Afton here! Plus you’re on his hit list and something tells me he’s trying to kill you here!”

“But he’s also out to kill Jeremy!”

“He’s survived the attempts twice, so something is obviously helping him survive we just don’t know what or who yet. We both know Jeremy’s fine for now, we both know you’re not.”

Alex sighed and rolled their eyes. “Fine, whatever. But just know you’re wasting your time trying to look out for me.” They then heard the power shut off, the lights went out except for the one in the office and Alex sighed. “Well shit.”

“What?”

“Well I dunno about you, but I’m goin’ to the office.”

They made their way to the back security office and Michael went after them. “Hey! Wait for me!” he exclaimed. 

---

“So, I’m assuming that since you’re new, you have to go through the whole phone message stuff,” Alex said as they went into the office together.

“Phone message?” Michael asked as he put the button down uniform over his black t-shirt like Alex did their first day.

“It’s essentially just training tapes, like they did at the other place. You’ll hear them everyday for about a week then you’re on your own.”

“So…they’re basically just leaving us to fend for ourselves at that point?”

“Yep.”

“Seriously?!”

“Did you seriously expect anything else from Fazbear Entertainment? The place that’s trying to cover up actual murders?”

“Uh…no.”

“Exactly. Anyways it should be ringing any minute now-” Alex was cut off by the shiny red telephone ringing. “There it is! Pick it up, newbie.”

Michael rolled his eyes but couldn’t help but crack a smile at their witty comment. He picked up the telephone and was caught by suprise to hear Patrick’s voice.

“Hello? Hello hello?” he said.

Michael turned to Alex. “Patrick?” he asked. “I thought he left the company or something and that’s why he passed down the manager position to Rob!”

“Not exactly. Just listen while I check the cameras,” they said as they sat in their swivel seat and flipped through the cameras on the old, worn down monitor in front of them.

He put the phone back up to his ear and sat in his swivel seat. “Uh, I wanted to record a message for you, to help you get settled in on your first night. Um, I actually worked in that office before you, I’m finishing up my last week now as a matter of fact. So, I know it can be a bit overwhelming, but I’m here to tell you there’s nothing to worry about. Uh, you’ll do fine. So, let’s just focus on getting you through your first week, okay?

“Uh, let’s see, first there’s an introductory greeting from the company that I’m supposed to read. Uh, it’s kind of a legal thing, you know.

“Um, ‘Welcome to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a magical place for kids and grown-ups alike, where fantasy and fun come to life. Fazbear Entertainment is not responsible for damage to property or person. Upon discovering that damage or death has occurred, a missing person report will be filed within 90 days, or as soon as property and premises have been thoroughly cleaned and bleached, and the carpets have been replaced.’ Blah blah blah, now that might sound bad, I know. But, there’s really nothing to worry about.

“Uh, the animatronic characters here, do get a bit quirky at night, but do I blame them? No. If I were forced to sing those same stupid songs for twenty years and I never got a bath? I’d probably be a bit irritable at night too. So, remember, these characters hold a special place in the hearts of children and we need to show them a little respect, right? Okay.

“So, just be aware, the characters do tend to…wander a bit. Uh, they’re left in some kind of free roaming mode at night, uh, something about their servos locking up if they get turned off for too long?”

Michael turned to Alex. “They still move?!” he exclaimed.

“Unfortunately,” Alex replied.

”Did they learn nothing?!”

”My guess is they probably didn’t give a shit.”

Michael turned his attention back to Patrick’s voice on the phone. “Uh, they used to be allowed to walk around during the day too, but then there was…The Bite of ‘87. Yeah. I-it’s amazing that the human body can live without the frontal lobe, you know?”

“Yep. Truly amazing. He’s like a walking miracle,” Michael muttered.

“Uh, now concerning your safety. The only real risk to you as a night watchman here, if any, is the fact that these characters, uh, if they happen to see you after hours probably won’t recognize you as a person. They’ll pr-they’ll most likely see you as a metal endoskeleton without its costume on. Now, since that’s against the rules here at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, they’ll probably try to…forcefully stuff you inside a Freddy Fazbear suit.”

Holy shit…no one told me about that part! Michael thought.

“Um, now, that wouldn’t be so bad, if the suits themselves weren’t filled with crossbeams, wires, and animatronic devices. Especially around the facial area. So you could imagine how having your head forcefully pressed inside one of those could cause a bit of discomfort…and death.

“Uh, the only parts of you that would likely see the light of day again would be your eyeballs and teeth when they pop out the front of the mask. Heh.” Michael stared ahead, speechless from shock. “Yeah, they don’t tell you these things when you sign up.”

Definitely not, oh my God…

“But hey, first day should be a breeze. I’ll chat with you tomorrow. Uh, check those cameras, and remember to close the doors only if absolutely necessary. Gotta conserve power. Alright, good night.”

Michael heard the dial tone and put the phone down. “Is…is that it?” he asked.

“Kinda. Those’ll happen until about…Thursday, so you got through one of the four of them. The last one’s kinda depressing though because…well i-it just is. Robert just doesn’t have the heart to delete that message even though cops wanted him to.”

“What? What happens then? Something bad?”

“Well…yeah. It’s uh, basically the way I see it, it was classified evidence, not really anymore though because he refused to delete it.”

“Jesus…why doesn’t he just delete it if it’s classified and the cops told him to?! I mean, no one else was supposed to hear it!”

“I dunno, I’m not that numbnut.”

“What happens in it?”

“Uh…it’s hard to explain because it’s terrifying and emotional at the same time so it’s best if you hear it, but that’ll happen on Thursday since uh…I’m not totally sure how to skip through the messages.”

Chapter 118

Summary:

Michael finally hears the fourth phone call.

Over the next few days, Michael learned that the animatronics did in fact move just as Patrick said. Alex taught him how to fend off the animatronics as well as check the cameras, which meant they were both moving almost the entire time, taking turns checking the cameras, door lights and shutting the doors as needed.

Before they knew it, they both walked into the restaurant on Thursday evening, the day Michael would hear the final phone call, the phone call Alex didn’t want to talk to him about.

“Okay, so before the phone rings, remember what we went over?” Alex asked Michael.

“Yeah, don’t follow his instructions.”

“And…”

“Uh…oh yeah! Don’t ask Rob about it because it makes him upset.”

“Yeah, you got it! Also, this is supposed to be kept a secret between the employees who hear this, Rob and the police, so don’t mention it to anyone!”

“Great, another secret I have to keep?”

“Yeah, duh. If it gets out that police still have no idea why the animatronics did this, then that might lead to assumptions that they might do it again and the company will go out of business.”

“What’d they do? Should I be more worried than I already am about them?” he tried to ask again like he has the past several days.

Just then, the red rotary telephone on the desk rang. “Find out for yourself,” Alex said and sat in their black faux leather swivel seat.

Michael sat in his identical chair and cautiously picked up the telephone, not sure what to expect. It was silent for a brief moment but then he heard Patrick’s panicked, heavy breathing and he knew something was wrong. He sounded genuinely scared for his life, a noise Michael hoped he’d never hear from him.

“Hello hello?” he heard Patrick say. “Hey! Hey, wow, day four. I knew you could do it.

“Uh, hey, listen, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow.” He heard that someone, he assumed it was the animatronics, banging on the door. “It-it’s been a bad night here for me. Um, I-I’m kinda glad that I recorded my messages for you uh, when I did.

“Uh, hey, do me a favor.” More banging was heard which seemed to be getting more and more aggressive as the time passed. “Maybe sometime, uh, you could check inside those suits in the back room?” Michael heard the power go out in the building, something he’s rarely had to endure but since it always happened near the end of his shift, he and Alex would race to see who could get out of the building the fastest  

“I’m gonna try to hold out until someone checks. Maybe it won’t be so bad. Uh, I-I always wondered what was in all those empty heads…back there.” Michael heard the song, ‘Toreador March’, the song Freddy was programmed to play when the power goes out. “You know…” The sound Bonnie and Chica make when they are about to attack came over the speaker, it was supposed to be used as a warning for intruders, but that was obviously not the case this time.

“Oh no-” he started but he was then cut off by an animatronic attacking him, but it had a noise that Michael had never heard before followed by static. After a minute of listening to loud static, he heard the dial tone and he put the telephone down.

He was in shock and was almost dazed because he couldn’t concentrate knowing that Patrick was dead. He had that same horrible gut feeling weeks ago, the one he always got when something terrible like this happened, but like an idiot he ignored it and didn’t tell anyone, now regretting that he thought it was mood swings like Jeremy said.

His hands were shaking slightly and he felt that all too familiar lump in his throat. Robert was most likely close to him if Alex didn’t want him to say anything to him, and he felt sympathy for his friend knowing how it felt to be alone in this cruel world; a fter his mother and his siblings died all those years ago, before Henry took him in, before he knew that Jeremy cared about him the same way he cared about Jeremy, when he was still living with his father who didn’t see him as more than a parasite, those were the worst years of his life.

“Is-is he…” Michael started but trailed off.

“Yeah, animatronics got him.” Michael covered his own mouth with his hand. “Rob doesn’t have the heart to delete that message, because it was the last message from his uncle, AKA the one who basically raised him.”

“He did?”

“Yeah. Rob said his mom wasn’t always around and his dad’s always been outta the picture, so Patrick basically raised him and now, he has no one.”

“Oh my God…how do you know all this?”

“When I found out about that phone call and asked him about it, he broke down and I basically became his therapist for a day even though all I could do was listen. Never thought I’d see him like that, he acted so tough all the time so to see him that vulnerable…I didn’t think that side of him existed but here we are.”

“So…Patrick was like a father to him.”

“Basically. If you wanna put it into perspective, pretend your uncle died by these things.”

“Oh God…I was already feeling bad enough for him but now that you put it that way…oh my God. So, we have to be careful or else they’ll kill us?”

“Yeah. I knew I had a bad feeling about this place. Feel bad for not listening to Jerry.”

“Jerry?”

“My brother. He tried to talk me out of it because this is a Freddy’s location and he knows of all the bad things that happened here, but I didn’t listen because I was too desperate for a job. Now I’m stuck with doing this and can’t do anything, and I feel like an idiot because he warned me.”

“Al, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know. We’re gonna figure this out and put a stop to it.”

“How?!”

“Well, uh, I don’t know, but I do know this could only be the doing of one person: my father.”

“But if it was him, why would he do this? You said that he already got what he wanted, why go out and kill more innocent people?!”

“I don’t know yet, but I’m gonna find out.”

---

Michael checked the camera feed in the backstage area a little while later. “Told ya. Police already recovered his body,” Alex said.

“I know, but I don’t understand. Why would the animatronics kill somebody? Even with reprogramming, they’re not supposed to do that!”

“I dunno man. I do agree with you though, it is William, but I don’t know why the animatronics went that far because you’re right, they’re not supposed to do that.”

“It’s just all so weird to me…oh, Bonnie’s coming down the hall.”

Alex nodded and shut the left door, turned on the light and saw that Bonnie was near the door, but turned away when he saw the door was closed. “So uh, question,” Alex said as they opened the door once Bonnie was gone.

“Shoot.”

“I never asked, but how did it go with telling Jeremy you were working here?”

“Well, when I told him I got a second job here, let’s just say he wasn’t happy. He and I kinda got into an argument about it.”

“Figured. Did he forgive you?”

“A few hours later he did. He was just concerned about my safety because he doesn’t want what happened to him to happen to me. So now everyday when I come home, I have to wake him up to show him that I’m fine and tell him what happened at work so he knows I’m not lying when I say it was fine.”

“So, when you go home and tell him about work later, you’re not gonna tell him about what you just learned tonight, right?”

Michael sighed. “I absolutely hate keeping secrets from him because he and I tell each other everything and I’ve been keeping secrets almost my whole life. I’m tired of not telling the truth and I’ll feel absolutely terrible but…I won’t tell him.”

---

At 6:15 that morning, Michael walked into the house and shut the door behind him. The warm yellow glow of the sun was just barely peering through the curtains so it was just barely light enough to see, and he went to the master bedroom like he did every day he got back from Freddy’s.

There asleep on the bed was Jeremy, sleeping on his right side which he would then face Michael if he was there, but like every day when Michael was at Freddy’s, Jeremy was cuddling a pillow for comfort, possibly pretending it was Michael because Jeremy was worried about him.

Michael smiled, part of him feeling bad about waking him up because he looked comfortable, but knew that waking him up after he got back from Freddy’s was a promise Michael made to him that he wasn’t willing to break.

Michael exhaled deeply, knelt down and before he woke Jeremy up, he decided to stroke Jeremy’s dark, thick, soft hair on his head that he could reach, playing with it because Jeremy was usually awake before him so this was a rare occurrence.

After a minute when Michael intended to lightly shake his shoulder to wake him, Jeremy groaned not wanting to wake up since he felt his hair being played with.

“Five more minutes,” Jeremy said sleepily, his eye still closed as he repositioned himself on the bed and Michael quit playing with his hair.

Michael stood. “Jer? It’s Mike,” Michael said.

Jeremy almost immediately opened his eye and turned around. “Mikey!” he exclaimed as he jumped into Michael’s arms and hugged him tightly like he did every day Michael got back from Freddy’s. “Why do you have to work there? I’m worried about you!”

“I told you, I have to figure some stuff out,” he said almost on autopilot because Jeremy would forget that he asked him that same question the previous day.

“But you know how dangerous it is there, I can’t loose you too.”

Michael inhaled sharply, his mind racing because Jeremy has never said that when he came home. “W-what d’you mean?” he asked. 

“I mean I think someone died there, I don’t want that to happen to you! I know I just had a bad dream and it’s probably stupid to even bring it up, but if it’s true and you do go, I don’t know what I’d do with myself and I don’t want to find out! I’m scared!”

Michael let go of him and Jeremy sat back on the bed. “How…how do you know that someone died there?” Michael asked as he sat on the edge of the bed.

“What?! Is it actually true?!” Jeremy exclaimed and he now sounded genuinely worried.

“Tell me how you know because I’ve never told you, then I’ll talk.”

“No, you first! Wh-what d’you mean?!”

”Jeremy…” Michael said a little sternly.

“Fine. Well, last night, I had a nightmare again…but it was more like a dream than a nightmare. It was a vivid one, it seemed too real.”

“A dream? Those…if I remember correctly those are much more rare than nightmares after your injury.”

Jeremy shrugged. “So in this dream, I don’t remember where I was but this voice told me everything. That you and Alex were in danger because someone died in that restaurant, so there is a very high chance it’ll happen to you guys too.”

”Did it say if my father’s there?”

“I don’t remember…”

“It’s alright, Jer. Who…who was this voice?”

“It was hard to tell, but the voice sounded like my mom. It could’ve just been my mind playing tricks on me because I miss her, but I like to believe she’s still looking out for me.”

“So…your mum told you all this?” Jeremy nodded. “Do you know why?”

Jeremy shook his head. “I don’t know because I can’t really do anything to make you change your mind to stop you working at that place, as much as I hate that you decided on working there.”

“Maybe…maybe it’s like a warning.”

“What?! No! I don’t want you guys to die!” he exclaimed and he was now starting to tear up. 

“No, no Jer, shhh,” Michael said as he pulled Jeremy close and Jeremy sobbed into his chest. “I’m not gonna die for a very long time mi amor (my love).”

Jeremy sniffled. “Promise?” he said softly.

“I promise.”

“Wh-what about Alex?”

Michael stayed silent for a few minutes. “I don’t know,” he finally said.

Chapter 119

Summary:

Michael has to come clean about a few things to the manager since no one told him that he should be on the lookout for William.

“Are you sure Mikey?” Jeremy asked as they both sat in Michael’s car in the Freddy’s parking lot after they both got off of work.

“I…I’m sure. I need to keep my other job ‘cause it’s how I can support the both of us, and I can’t do that if I’m working all day and all night. I need to ask him if he can fix my schedule so I only work weekends.”

“But then you’ll be working all week long! What if you tire yourself out?! It’s bad to not let yourself get a little break!”

“My life has never given me a ‘little break’. I’m used to this by now.”

“You know what I mean! You’ll overwork yourself!”

“It would only be a six hour shift watching those robots on the cameras on the weekends! It’s not like I’m working on cars for eight hours a day like I do Monday through Friday.”

“But I would think he needs a reason why you suddenly only want to work weekends when you just finished your first full week!”

“But I also barely got any sleep that week, an hour a day at most and I slept all weekend, not even getting a chance to do anything but work and sleep.”

Jeremy gasped and whispered, “What if to convince him, you have to tell him the story?!”

“I’m sure he won’t ask because I’ll just have to say it’s ‘cause of my other job’s schedule, but if it does come to that, he already knows part of what’s happening ‘cause of you,” Michael said teasingly.

“Not my fault! It’s the impulse control!”

Michael smiled. “I know, I’m just messing with you Jer. I know you didn’t mean to,” Michael said and pecked him on the cheek. “Besides, I think you’re just being paranoid again that I have to tell him. I’m sure it won’t happen.”

Jeremy wiped Michael’s face to try and get rid of some of the black soot scattered across his face before he went into the restaurant. “If I end up being right, you owe me five bucks,” Jeremy said.

Michael chuckled and Jeremy took his hands away from Michael’s face. “Stay here, I’ll leave the car on and I’ll be back in a few,” Michael said.

Michael got out of the car, the summer heat beating down on him and he closed the door which as he expected, the door was hot to the touch. He took a deep breath, looking up at the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza logo on top of the building, got a piece of gum from his pocket, put it in his mouth and started chewing it as he headed across the parking lot.

Once he went inside the small building, he was greeted by a front desk with no one at it, so he went to it and waited for someone like any customer should.

He was alone for a few minutes too long but he was occupied; he was busy blowing bubbles from the bubblegum in his mouth, but he was also looking around the restaurant that he’s seen dozens of times. He was glancing at the colorful menu on the wall, noticing the black and white checkered tile beneath him, his eye captured by the dozens of colorful, brightly lit games in the small gaming area, the smell of pepperoni pizza in the air along with the sound of playing children, and of course, the four main animatronics singing their songs.

He looked at the kids, none of them no older than eleven or twelve running around the restaurant, playing with each other, talking and laughing with each other, and part of him wished that he were one of those kids.

He wished he could be a child again, without a worry in the world and that he was given a normal childhood like those kids. One that he wouldn’t have to grow up from a young age, one where he wouldn’t have to keep secrets and lie, one where the only tears would come from a scrape on the sidewalk or from a nightmare of monsters under the bed, not from standing around his mother’s and siblings gravesites by himself because William didn’t even care to go with him, much less give them a proper funeral.

To be a normal child like one of those kids was his one wish he knew would never be granted.

“Hello, what can I help you with today?” a boy behind the counter said snapping him back to reality. The boy was obviously just a teenager, possibly only seventeen or eighteen.

“Uh, hi,” Michael said awkwardly in his American accent. “I’m looking for Robert Graham.”

“Uh…why?” he said with a hint of suspicion.

“I’m one of the night shift guards here, I just need to ask him something. Is he still here?”

He exhaled a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness, I thought you were trying to file a complaint or something, people try to do that a lot. Anyway, last I saw him he was back in his office but I dunno if he left already, if he did I didn’t see him.”

“Alright, thanks,” Michael replied. He made his way across the restaurant and around the messy tables that they would certainly have to clean later, went to a door hidden in the corner and knocked.

He heard Robert let out a sigh of annoyance. “Come in,” he said in a monotone voice and Michael opened the door. As soon as Robert saw him he let out a sigh of relief and exclaimed, “Mike!”

“Yeah, hi, it’s me,” Michael said as he closed the door behind him.

“I thought you were one of those annoying people who complain all the time. Ever since, y’know, I seem to be getting a lot for the stupidest reasons. Fazbear hasn’t even told anything to the public so I don’t know where all this is coming from.”

“I swear, it’s like they know something’s off so they’re just trying to take the opportunity to piss people off.”

“That’s what I’m saying! I hate people sometimes.” Michael chuckled as he sat in a chair across from him. “Anyways, what’re you doing here?”

“Well uh, I came to ask you something.”

“Ask away.”

“So uh, let me get straight to the point, would it be alright for me to only work weekends?”

“Like…just weekends? You want to work only weekends?”

“Yeah.”

“Why? You know it’s a two person job!”

“I know, but just hear me out. I need to keep my first job and I can’t really do that if I don’t get sleep, plus I’ll still be able to check in weekly and since I didn’t apply for a full time gig, I don’t have to work the full forty hours a week and Alex said they’d rather be working alone anyways.”

Robert sighed. “I would as your friend and I understand, but because of company policy and I’m your boss I need more of a reason than just your schedule unfortunately. We’re really tight on employees so the company doesn’t want you to have a tight schedule we have to work around unless absolutely necessary.”

“Uh, what would an absolutely necessary reason be?”

“Basically medical stuff or you have some sort of condition where you can’t handle working for a longer time, that sort of thing.”

“Well, uh...”

“Look, if you wanna tell me anything, I give you my word it’ll be confidential.”

“Well, uh, I do have a pretty bad history with these restaurants.”

“So…trauma?”

“Uh…I guess you can put it like that.”

He went over to his computer, opened up a document and started typing. After a few minutes Michael heard the sound of a click and Robert turned back to him. “Done,” he said.

“That fast?”

“Yup. I basically just emailed Fazbear explaining the situation and hopefully the scheduling team will listen. So, now I wanna ask you something.”

“Uh, sure…”

“So I looked into that car place you said you work at full time, and it looks like they pay pretty good. You said you were here because you and Jeremy were tight on money and now I know that that’s a lie, so tell me, why’re you here if you don’t need to be and you have bad experiences at this place?”

Fuck, he thought. “Well uh, it’s a little complicated.”

“C’mon man. Look, if we just look past the boss part just tell me why, ‘cause I wanna help in any way I can. Like, is something going on? Is everything okay?”

Michael hesitated for a second. “Everything’s fine.”

Robert raised an eyebrow at him. “Really? Then you wouldn’t want to be working seven days a week. It’s just not normal for someone to run to the place you have trauma from!” Michael sighed. “Is something going on in your personal life? Is everything okay between you and Jeremy? I just wanna help you dude, it’s not healthy to keep everything in, believe me.”

“I appreciate the concern, but everything’s fine between me and Jeremy.” Michael sighed a deep sigh once again. “Promise not to tell anyone?”

“Promise.”

“Well uh…I suppose it’s better that you know anyways since you are the manager.”

”Tell me what?”

”The story your uncle didn’t want to tell you to spare you from the horror, the one Jeremy mentioned that one time.” He took a deep breath. “I’m only here because I’m looking for my father.”

Robert raised an eyebrow, because the way he saw it that didn’t affect the business at all, but because he was Michael’s friend he listened. “Looking for him? Did he run off or something?”

“Kind of.”

“I’m sorry dude, but speaking from experience, if your dad runs off there’s not a high chance he’s not coming back.”

“He’s different. He will come back, and I need to find him before he does.”

“Alright, so if you wanna find your dad why did you decide to work here? I don’t get it.”

“I know he hangs around here and I kinda need an excuse to be here often so I don’t look like a creep when looking for him.”

“Alright fair, but why a night guard of all positions available?”

“That part is because of Alex. My father always targets Freddy’s locations for some reason, and Alex is on his hit list. I have a feeling if he wants to kill them, it’s gonna be here.”

“Uh…kill?”

“He’s done it before, he won’t hesitate to do it again. I need to find him before it’s too late and he takes another innocent life.”

“Woah, woah wait. So you’re saying your dad’s a murderer?!”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Oh my God…okay…d’you know how long it’s been since his last murder?!”

“As far as I know, he last killed someone here about a month ago. I feel like I need to keep a close eye on this place, as much as I wished I didn’t have to.”

Robert thought about his words and the realization hit him like a ton of bricks: his uncle died here a little over a month ago. He widened his eyes from fright and lowered his voice. “So…do you think he was involved in my uncle’s murder?”

“I don’t think so, I know so. I knew it could only be him because he’s the only one in this town who would attack a Freddy’s location.”

Robert was in shock, not believing what he was hearing: Michael knew his uncle’s murderer all along. “You knew this whole time?!”

“I’m sorry I kept this from you, but I was afraid that if I told you…I dunno, you might think of me differently.”

“Oh my God, no, not at all. If I’m pissed at anyone right now, it’s your dad. So…has he done this type of thing before my uncle?”

“Yeah, at the original location and the one after it. Six children in total.”

“Jesus…kids?!”

“Unfortunately. Just…please don’t mention this to anyone. The police will do like, the bare minimum so it’s not worth it and it’ll probably just scare the public all over again. Believe me I’ve tried many times, and the most they do is look for him but since it’s happened so many times and they ‘can’t find him’, they usually end up giving up in a couple of weeks.”

“You have my word man, even though I am a little freaked out now. And hey, we’re friends. Don’t feel like you have to hide anything from me. You aren’t anymore, are you?”

“Uh…” Michael said awkwardly.

”Michael?” he said sternly.

Rip the bandage off Mike, even if he makes fun of you because it’s kind of stupid to hide since he knows now. Michael took a deep breath and switched back to his British accent. “Fine, I got a British accent from my father!” he said and covered his face with his hands.

Robert laughed. “Wait, you were seriously hiding that the whole time?”

Michael took his hands away from his face. “It was mainly for identity stuff. I didn’t want to show I had any relation to him since he’s probably the only person in this town with an accent.”

“Y’know, fair. You’re really good at the American stuff by the way. Fooled me pretty good.”

Michael shrugged. “I’ve learned throughout the years.”

Robert chuckled again. “Anyway, thanks for telling me about your dad, Mike. I’ll be sure to keep a lookout for him. What was his name?”

“William Afton.”

“Wait…so, you’re an Afton?”

”Technically. I don’t prefer it though, Schmidt is my mother’s maiden name. I would’ve taken that one instead of Afton if my mother won the custody battle all those years ago and she was still around.”

“Aw man, I’m so sorry about your mom, Mike. It makes sense though, if my dad was like that I wouldn’t want people calling me by his name either, even if it was my legal one.” He wrote William’s name down so he wouldn’t forget it. “Thanks Mike. So we’re like…best friends now, right? Since you decided to trust me with this secret?”

Michael chuckled and stood up. “Sure man. See ya Rob.”

“Bye Mike,” Robert said and Michael walked out of the office and shut the door behind him. 

As Michael walked out of the office he saw that the restaurant was just closing up and customers were leaving. He went out to the parking lot with the crowd of customers and went to his red car parked semi-close.

“There you are!” Jeremy said when Michael opened the door. “I was getting worried, that was like, twenty minutes!”

Michael got in the car and closed the door behind him, got out his wallet from his pocket and handed Jeremy a five dollar bill. “Here’s your five bucks.”

Chapter 120

Summary:

Something happened at the pizzeria. Something bad.

“So, just wonderin’, how does Jeremy take it when you leave him to come here every weekend?” Alex asked Michael a few weeks later as they were both in the security office together.

“Not very good. He usually tries to hold me back by hugging me from behind, and every time I get home from this job I find him asleep in bed hugging my pillow,” Michael answered as he popped a piece of bubblegum in his mouth.

“Aww! He loves you!” Alex teased as they quickly scanned all the cameras.

Michael chuckled and he lightly blushed as he went to the doors and shined his flashlight down the hallways. “He definitely does.”

“So…you didn’t tell him about what happened to Graham, right?”

“I didn’t. He actually found out himself.”

“What?! How?! He doesn’t even work here!”

“He told me he found out from a dream.”

“Dream? Can he even have those anymore?”

“Nightmares usually, but if I remember, nightmares are more common than flat out weird dreams nowadays, but they do happen every now and then. He has trouble sleeping because of nightmares and is usually awake when I am.”

“So would this fall in the weird dream category?” 

Michael nodded as he blew a small bubble from the gum in his mouth and popped it. “He said all it was was a voice that told him everything. Either that or he just couldn’t remember if he was anywhere. He said this voice sounded like his mum…but I guess it didn’t at the same time?

“After that conversation I felt…like I had to tell him it was true. We talked for a little bit and then he started repeating the word, ‘no’, in my arms and hugging me very tightly.”

“This…this doesn’t make sense. How could this…thing just tell him these things?!”

“But he said that this time it was actually speaking to him, unlike his other dreams where it’s gibberish or no talking at all. Anyways he said that I was right, that you are in danger!”

“Danger? Nothing happened to me for months and I’m scheduled to leave back to college to retake some classes in a few weeks!”

”Still! If he’s getting a vivid dream from an entity that’s saying real words to him, I believe him.”

“It coulda just been a coincidence. I mean, you said yourself that weird dreams can happen so having that weird dream isn’t super surprising.”

“Still! It’s too weird and it seems too…human.”

“So if he does, does he know what killed Graham?”

“Uh…not really. He said he only knows that it was like…a robot bear, it looked kinda like Freddy but it was a very dirty gold. Like, it was dark yellow-ish color, but had layers upon layers of dust and dirt on it. And he said the eyes were gone and had white little spots as eyes instead.”

“A gold…animatronic?”

“Yeah.”

“Sounds like you’re too gullible to believe these things. The only yellow thing I know of around here is Chica and as far as I know, she’s not gold, much less has her eyes missing.”

“Y’know, you have a point.”

Alex looked at him in the eyes. “You have that look in your eyes you have when you thought of something. What do you wanna do?”

“I’m gonna go out and see if I can find anything about this animatronic.”

“What?! With those?! There’s probably nothing there because it was all in his head! Are you crazy?!”

“Probably. That’s why I’m doing this.”

“Then I’m coming with you!”

“No. No you’re not.”

“What?!”

“Remember that William’s trying to kill you, probably with those animatronics? You need to stay here where you’re safe.”

“Ugh! Fine mom,” Alex said and slumped in the chair.

Michael chuckled. “I just wanna make sure you, y’know, live.”

“Fine. I’ll be watching you on the cameras though.”

“I’ll be back in ten. Don’t move from this office.”

“Aye aye capt’n.”

Michael snickered, went out to one of the dark hallways and turned on his flashlight. He went down the hall, where the only sound that could be heard was from his footsteps slowly and softly hitting the tile beneath him. He looked around and saw that everything that typically had colorful lights on in the daytime were now off.

The vibrant lights of the game area weren’t on, the giant menu by the counter only showed the words and prices etched on the glass, there was no sound of playing children, no music, and the black and white tile beneath him seemed to only appear when the light from his flashlight hit it.

The ambiance of a completely silent haunted pizzeria sent shivers down his spine, and every few minutes he had to look behind him because he felt like something was watching him. He didn’t even have to walk far to know that this place was way creepier than it was in the daytime.

Once he got down the hallway and still didn’t hear anything, even the sound of things falling to the ground or even rustling in the shadows, he realized it was too quiet.

He thought he should at least hear the metal clanking of their footsteps walking around, or at the very least hear Chica knocking pots and pans down in the kitchen like she usually does, but he heard nothing.

As he got to the stage and pointed his flashlight to it he saw that all three of them were gone, so they should be making noise but for some strange reason, they weren’t.

He spit his gum out in the trash can near him and gulped out of fear, but continued on and was cautious that he made as little noise as possible to not draw attention to himself. He went everywhere trying to look for the three animatronics but even more so was trying to find that strange animatronic Jeremy saw, even going to the backstage area but could only find a few extra costumes for the animatronics.

He went back to the dining area, feeling defeated but a little bit dumb as well because these animatronics were huge, so they shouldn’t be hard to spot.

He started making his way back to the office when he finally heard the clanking of metal footsteps and he froze up. He looked around quickly to get out of sight and ducked under one of the disgusting tables that looked clean, but it actually smelled of old pizza, feet and dirty water. He gagged from the smell under the table because it reeked, but at least he was safe.

As he turned off his flashlight to not draw attention to himself, he saw the feet of Bonnie, Chica and Freddy right in front of him, and it looked as though they were huddled in a circle.

After a minute they spread out as if they were looking for someone, which they probably were, and Freddy went to the shadows to hide as he made his way to the office, while Bonnie and Chica made their way to the two separate hallways that led to the office.

As Michael watched them leave he realized he was holding his breath, both from fright and the smell under the table and he exhaled. He knew he couldn’t go back to the office now without being caught because Chica and Bonnie were headed in the direction of the hallways, so he decided to hide in Pirate’s Cove since it was the closest to him.

After he couldn’t see any animatronics from the little he could see in the dark, he made a run for it and hid next to Foxy’s stage in Pirates Cove concealed in the shadows. “Fucking disgusting,” he muttered to himself when he noticed his security uniform still had a hint of the smell from underneath the table. “Good thing I have an extra.”

He looked to the camera in the corner of the room which had a blinking red light and smiled, slightly comforted by the thought that Alex was watching him to make sure he was safe.

From what he could see as he hid in the corner of the room in the shadows, Bonnie and Chica didn’t leave the halls and Alex was trying to fend them off. He also knew that Foxy’s stage next to him could have anything hidden in there, and the curtains were open so he was most likely gone and getting ready to run down the hall.

Michael decided to try and take a peek inside since Foxy was most likely gone, and he needed time to kill before Bonnie and Chica moved from the hallways anyhow. He stood slowly and climbed up onto the stage, still being cautious because it was pitch black inside and didn’t dare switch on his flashlight, because the light would either scare off something or attract something to him.

He looked around for a minute and from what he could see, he saw what looked like the outline of an animatronic near the back. It wasn’t moving so he decided to risk it and turn on his flashlight, but once he did he immediately regretted it because he saw it had a shiny, metal hook which gleamed in the light.

He was wide eyed from shock as Foxy looked at him, almost as if he was analyzing his face.

“Foxy…please,” Michael said calmly even though he was terrified.

Foxy’s eyes glowed as he was now in attack mode, went to Michael and he backed away, but there was only so much space he could walk on until he reached the end of the wooden stage and fell the three feet down to the floor, landing flat on his back on the cold, hard tile.

“Ow…” he groaned once his back hit the tile but then saw Foxy looking down at him from the stage. Michael sat up and scooted backwards, but unfortunately Foxy followed waiting for him to come to a stop so he would have a better chance at catching him.

For a minute Michael thought he might actually escape out of the cove and would be able to make a run for it to the office once he was out, but then since he wasn’t watching where he was going his back hit the wall of the small room. “Oh shit.”

Once his back hit the wall, Foxy was too close to him so Michael couldn’t run back to the office because any way he would be caught; he was too terrified to move anyway like a deer in headlights.

Foxy was now so close to him that Michael could see that he had a terrifying design and that he was way taller than Michael expected, and for what seemed like a split second he saw that Foxy’s pupils were pure white instead of black.

He wasn’t focused on that for long since Foxy suddenly started saying what sounded like his voice lines but they were either glitched or mixed together, and he was saying them very loudly as if to tell the others that he had found the security guard. Michael covered his ears and heard his heart racing as he saw Foxy’s hook raise above him as if to rip his face open and Michael shut his eyes tightly.

He waited a few seconds, scared for his life and waiting for that cold, sharp feeling of the metal hook down the center of his face, but it never came. Instead, he heard a pair of footsteps running into the room, a familiar scream, a thud and animatronic footsteps going out of the room so he decided to open his eyes and saw a sight just as horrific.

“Alex!” he yelled. There in front of him in a small pool of blood was Alex, almost motionless. He went over to them on his hands and knees and slowly turned them so they were facing upwards. “No, no, no…please don’t be dead…”

“God…oh God, oh God...” Alex said weakly and they were very obviously crying.

“Oh my God, are you hurt?!”

“What d’you think?! Ow…that hurt…”

Michael stood up and without thinking, he picked up Alex bridal style who was lighter than he thought, and he saw that they were holding the right side of their face.

Michael then ran back to the dining area with them in his arms and he heard the clanking of metal on tile because the animatronics were walking in his direction. “Fuck,” he said under his breath.

He then saw Bonnie in front of him, standing in the middle of the hallway who was again, way bigger than he expected. He looked to the other hallway and he didn’t have many options to get back inside because Chica was still pounding on the closed door. “Alright, just hold on, I’m gonna try to weave around Bonnie,” he told Alex.

Alex said nothing but put an arm around the back of his neck, and right at that moment Bonnie’s eyes glowed as he was now in attack mode as well. Bonnie took a step closer to Michael and before Bonnie could even react, Michael sprinted as fast as he could around Bonnie, which to Alex’s suprise was quite fast and they went into the office.

Once Michael got to the office he sat Alex down in a swivel seat and shut the door in Bonnie’s face. Bonnie got to the door and he started pounding at it, so that meant both Bonnie and Chica were pounding on both doors, draining their battery faster than it ever has before.

Michael backed away from the door and noticed that there were dark red blood stains on his uniform and he got even more worried than he already was. “Alright, we’re safe, what happened?” Michael said quickly.

“I-I dunno, it was all so fast…I-I tried to grab onto his arm…but I didn’t make it…” Alex replied shakily, and Michael saw that they in fact were crying and most likely in shock. Michael noticed that their uniform was splattered with blood stains as well, but it seemed it was more so than Michael’s was.

“Does it hurt that much?” Alex nodded. “Can I see?”

Alex took their hand away from their face, and Michael saw their hand was covered in their own crimson blood. Michael looked at Alex’s face and because he only saw it in the dark where he could barely see, he wasn’t expecting it at all because it was way worse than he thought: Alex’s right cheek was torn open.

It started from their cheekbone, just under their right eye and the cut ran down until about the middle of their neck. The skin was torn so it wasn’t a clean straight line, it had jagged edges and Michael could see the inside of Alex’s mouth from it: gums, top and bottom teeth, tongue, everything that was in that window of space.

What he also noticed was that some of the skin by the cut was hanging off because it was only hanging on from one side, which seemed to have scared him the most.

“Oh my fucking God…” Michael said.

“Is…is it that bad?”

“Worse. Uh, try to stop the bleeding as much as you can, I’m gonna try to find a first aid kit or something to help for now, so you won’t have to use your hand until the paramedics get here.”

Alex put their hand back on their face and Michael scrounged around, making a mess of the office trying to find anything to help stop the bleeding a little.

He ended up not finding a first aid kit, but instead took a few extra uniforms from the lockers behind him and gave them to Alex.

“It’s not much, but at least it’s something,” Michael said.

“It’s fine…oh God…” they said softly and scrunched up the extra uniforms and held them to his face.

Michael picked up the shiny red telephone, quickly dialed 9-1-1 and was almost immediately met with an operator. “I’ve got someone hurt here, it’s bad, very bad and I dunno if they’re gonna make it if they don’t get help.” Michael was silent as he listened to the operator. “Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria.” They asked if they could still speak. “Y-yeah they can still speak…alright I’ll keep talking to ‘em, please hurry.”

He hung up the phone and went over to Alex. “Hey, it’s gonna be alright,” he said calmly.

“I…I-I dunno about that,” Alex said shakily because they were still sobbing, wondering when the pain would finally go away, which didn’t seem like anytime soon.

Michael leaned them back in the chair and tilted their head to the left to hopefully slow down the bleeding some, but Alex was now dripping blood inside their mouth and tasted that tangy iron taste that they have always hated.

“It is going to be fine, the paramedics said they would be here as soon as possible.” Alex said nothing but was still crying, but their sobs were getting further and further apart so Michael knew he had to keep talking to them. “I told you not to follow me.”

“I-I wasn’t about to let Foxy kill you.”

“But look what he did to you!”

“Better me than you. Y-you want to find and kill your dad, you have a mission…my dad’s already dealt with in jail.”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t matter!”

“Doubtful. I-I’m only here because I wanna help you, he never directly affected me like you or Jeremy so I have no reason, so I fear that sometimes I’m just slowing you down.”

“Well he affected you now!”

“It still wasn’t direct. I have a very strong feeling that this was actually meant for you.”

“Shut up. My point is that you do matter in this, whether he directly affected you or not because what he’s doing affects all of us. Even if you don’t see it, he is.”

”You sure I’m not just slowing you down?”

“You’re not, trust me.” Alex smiled weakly but they suddenly remembered the pain in their face and flinched. “Jesus, that’s getting soaked.”

“Mike…”

“Yeah?”

“I’m getting lightheaded.”

“No, no, no…they’ll be here any minute, just hold out a little longer,” he said worryingly as he helped Alex put more pressure on the cloth since Michael could tell they were getting weak.

A minute later, Michael heard ambulance sirens outside and right at that moment the power went out, the pizzeria went pitch black and both of the doors opened. Without thinking, he picked up Alex, making sure to put a lot of pressure on the cloth against their face and made a run for it out the front door where the sun was just peeking over the horizon.

He ran over to the paramedics who put them on the stretcher, they removed the cloth and they were just as shocked as Michael was when they saw Alex’s wound. They put gauze on the wound, hoping it would help some until they got to the hospital and one of the paramedics kept firm pressure on the gauze since Alex couldn’t.

As they were about to load Alex into the ambulance, Alex called for Michael weakly. Michael went over to them and Alex said, “Mike, if I don’t make it-”

“No, you will make it.”

Alex smiled. “You didn’t let me finish. If I don’t make it, I’ll make sure to visit you and Jeremy in the afterlife. Maybe Rob too, he’s a cool dude.”

Michael smiled and started tearing up himself. “Promise?”

“Promise. See ya Mike.”

“S-see ya,” he said shakily as he backed away and he was now crying like a baby.

From what he could see when the paramedics loaded them into the ambulance, Alex seemed to have passed out from blood loss and the paramedics gave them oxygen, making sure that it didn’t escape through the hole on the side of their face.

As Michael watched the ambulance speed away to the hospital and watched the birds in the trees fly away from the noise, he was now terrified that Alex wasn’t going to make it like they said.

Chapter 121

Summary:

The aftermath of the accident at Freddy’s.

As Michael watched the ambulance speed away, the sun was now coming up over the hills and the birds were chirping like any other normal day. Michael knew though, it wasn’t a normal day and it wouldn’t be normal for a very long time.

Since he was too terrified to go back inside the building and it was close enough to six in the morning anyway, he went to his car and sat in the driver’s seat without even turning on the ignition, but was silent as his mind was flooded with thoughts.

He just watched Alex save his life, but suffer the consequences because of it. He was always terrified for when this day would come, since it seemed as though everyone around him either died or got seriously injured where they were on the brink of death. He tried to tell himself that it was all in his head, that he wasn’t putting people in danger by being around them, but now he had a hard time believing that.

Even worse, he knew he had to tell people what happened since he was the only one who saw anything. He would have to tell Jeremy of course, because he would surely question the dark red blood stains on his shirt, and he would definitely have to tell Robert because he was the boss of this place, but he was also Alex’s friend so he deserved to know.

As he drove home he didn’t even turn the radio on because his mind was already loud enough with his thoughts. He was thinking about how he would tell them all this, because part of him didn’t want to tell them anything since it was horrifying to witness and he would hate to relive it, but he knew he had no choice.

It then occurred to him when he drove along the streets that one of the few drivers on the road could look over to him, see his blood stained shirt, get the wrong idea and freak out so he prayed to no one in particular that it wouldn’t happen. No one did look over at him thankfully since it was too early in the morning for anyone to even care, but when he got home he rushed inside before anyone saw him just in case.

He closed the door behind him and before he even went to he and Jeremy’s room, he went to the telephone in the kitchen, took a deep breath and dialed Robert’s telephone number.

Robert was sleeping peacefully, completely unaware that it wasn’t going to be a good day but he was suddenly woken up by the telephone in his room ringing loudly on the nightstand next to him.

He sat up, looked at his alarm clock and said, “God, why on the weekend?!” He knew it would be rude to just let it ring, but he would also hate to wake up his girlfriend sleeping peacefully next to him so even though he was still half asleep, he picked up the phone and said, “Hello?” through a yawn.

“Hey, it’s me,” Michael said.

“Mike? Is that you?”

“Yeah.”

“What the hell are you doing? It’s Saturday I’ll have you know.”

“I know, and I’m sorry about waking you up so early on a weekend but I needed to tell you something.”

“Fine. What is it?” he asked and Michael could tell by his voice that he was a little annoyed. “If it’s a stupid thing then you’re fired.”

“Well…it’s not exactly stupid. An accident happened last night.”

Robert sat up at that. “Accident?!”

“It’s about Alex.”

Robert sighed. “What’d they do?”

“No, no. They didn’t do anything. It’s about what happened to them.”

Robert perked up and Michael now had his full attention. “What?! What happened?!” Robert said worriedly.

“It’s…oh God it was terrifying to look at, I’m still haunted by the thought of it and it happened almost an hour ago.”

“Michael, tell me what happened,” he said sternly.

“Right, uh, their face…it was…it was cut open.”

Robert went wide eyed from shock. “What?!”

“What is it?” his girlfriend who he thought was sleeping soundly next to him said, but she obviously had just woken up by the sound of her voice and she didn’t even open her eyes.

Robert covered the speaker. “N-nothing, I’ll handle it. Go back to sleep, Hailey.” She obviously did and he uncovered the speaker. “Okay, what?!”

“Foxy did it with his hook.”

“Holy shit…a-are they alive?!”

“As far as I know, yes. But right now, I have no idea because I haven’t heard anything.”

“Oh…oh my God…” Michael could tell Robert took a deep breath to calm himself. “Alright, place is closed for two weeks minimum, I’ll convince Fazbear to let me do that.”

“Oh, and there’s still blood on the floor in Pirate’s Cove…I know I’m supposed to keep the place tidy and all but after tonight…”

“I’ll let you off the hook this time Mike. I’ll get someone to clean after I get the courage to go in there. And…you said Foxy did this?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll have to figure out what to do with him. I-I don’t know if we can keep him powered on at this point. Thanks for telling me though Mike, I’m just kinda…shocked. I didn’t think anything like this’ll happen to Alex because they were never around the animatronics a ton.”

“I didn’t either. But honestly, if you want the truth, Foxy was actually trying to get me, not Alex. He just stepped between us and basically saved my life.”

“They really are a brave soul, I’ll give ‘em that. Well, if you hear any updates can you give ‘em to me too? I just wanna make sure my friend is alright.”

“Sure thing. Talk to you later Rob.”

“Bye Mike,” he said and they both put the phone down.

Michael took a deep breath and stood in silence for a minute, deciding to call Alex’s parents later when he calmed down so he was not ready to see Jeremy’s reaction when he told him in a few minutes, or seeing how he’ll react to the stains on his shirt. He finally decided to force himself to go down the hall and tell him upfront; it would be like ripping the bandage off.

As he stepped into the hallway to go to the room, he thought about just taking off his shirt, throwing it out and waiting to talk to Jeremy until he woke up. Then again, there was the fact that he made a promise to Jeremy to wake him when he came home to show him he was alright, and if he didn’t do that today and drawing in his sketchbook next to him when he woke up, Jeremy would definitely know he was trying to hide something and question him more.

He decided against that since he wanted to keep his promise to Jeremy and went into the room, where he saw Jeremy fast asleep cuddling his pillow like usual but he was twitching every so often and mumbling nonsense very quietly in his sleep, something he usually does when he was having a nightmare.

“Another nightmare,” Michael sighed under his breath, went over to him and lightly shook him by the shoulder. “Jer,” he whispered to him.

“Ahh! Who’s there?!” Jeremy yelled almost instantly and he was obviously frightened by the nightmare he just had.

“It’s just me, you’re fine.”

“Oh. It was just a dream. Thank God.” He turned around and looked at Michael and his blood stained shirt. He sat up, scooted away from Michael and had a look on his face like he was about to start crying. “Wh…what the hell Michael?!”

“Jeremy, I swear, it’s not what it looks like.”

“Then what is it?! Because it looks like you fucking killed someone!”

“I didn’t, I swear-”

Jeremy gasped. “Don’t tell me you’re trying to follow in your dad’s footsteps…”

”No! Never!”

”Then what other explanation do you have that sounds somewhat believable?!”

“There…there was an accident today.”

“Accident?! Like a car accident?! Did someone die?! Did someone get hurt?! Did you get hurt?!”

“No, an accident happened at work today.”

“What?! Are you hurt?! I told you that place was bad news!”

“No, I’m not hurt, I’m fine.” Jeremy calmed down and continued to stare at him in disbelief, and even though he had trouble with facial expressions Michael saw that his eye said he was now feeling confused rather than scared. “It…it was Alex.”

“Alex?! What happened?!”

“It was…oh my God…it was bad…” he said as he sat at the foot of the bed.

Jeremy went closer to Michael and sat next to him for a while in silence as he thought about what he was going to say and Jeremy grabbed Michael’s hand. “It might be better to just talk about what you saw. That’s what helps me when I see something scary.”

“You’re right. Well uh, Alex…they’re at the hospital right now.”

“The hospital?!”

“Yeah. Uh today at work, Foxy cornered me and I couldn’t run. I-I knew he wanted to kill me, and he lifted his hook to slash down at me, I closed my eyes and then I heard Alex scream.” Jeremy gasped. “When I opened my eyes…I-I saw them laying in a pool of their own blood.”

“That’s why your shirt looks like that?”

Michael nodded. “They were too in shock to walk so I had to carry them to the office where I knew we were safe.”

“So…what happened? What did the cut look like?”

“The right side of their face…the skin was torn. I-it started from their right cheekbone and went down to their neck…from that space I could see the inside of their mouth…and there was blood…a lot of it.”

“Oh my God…” was all Jeremy said before Michael started tearing up again.

“I-I don’t even know if they’re gonna make it! Last I saw Alex, he was passed out and in bad condition, I-I don’t wanna loose my friend! Not yet, I’m not ready! I mean sure I can hear ghosts and shit but it’s not the same!”

Jeremy pulled Michael close and hugged him to comfort him while he cried, but Jeremy didn’t know how to comprehend it all himself; his friend was on the brink of death and there was nothing any of them could do. He couldn’t even imagine how Michael was feeling right now because this is the second time he has almost lost someone close to him in the past five years.

Jeremy was thankful that he at least got to see them often before this accident. Every summer when Alex was back home when Jeremy started working again, at least three times a week they would go to his work to talk to him and keep him company on the job. If Alex didn’t make it, he could at least look back on those moments when they were talking about random topics, laughing and overall just having a good time since it would be a long time before they hung out again.

Michael cried for a while but after some time, he finally calmed down. “You alright?” Jeremy asked softly.

“I dunno. To be honest I’m still shocked…and scared. Those things are a lot more powerful than I thought, I-I thought they would tone it down a little after your accident but I guess it didn’t get through their thick skulls somehow.” Michael sniffled. “How about you?”

”I’m really just…shocked if anything. But I wasn’t there, you were the only one there and you saw it firsthand, so if anything you need to be comforted after seeing something scary like that.” Michael laid his head on Jeremy’s shoulder. “Why don’t you call in on Monday and I’ll call into my work? Then we can spend the whole day together since was almost never get to do that anymore.”

Michael smiled and nodded as he wiped away his tears. “D’you think Alex’ll be alright?” he asked as Jeremy laid his head lightly on Michael’s head.

“I’m pretty sure. They’re tough, way tougher than they look. I’m sure they’ll make it out fine.”

Chapter 122

Summary:

Their parents get the news that their child was in an accident at work.

That morning at about seven o’ clock, Isabella, Alex’s mother, was woken up by the telephone ringing on the nightstand next to her. She groaned because she really didn’t want to be woken up this early on a Saturday, but opened her eyes and answered it.

“Hello?” she said sleepily, thinking it was just her boss trying to pull her into another investigation on her day off.

“Mrs. Davis?” the voice on the line said, and Isabella knew it wasn’t her boss.

“Uh…yes? Who is this?”

“Hey, uh, I know you probably don’t know me well but my name is Michael-”

She sighed in annoyance. “Oh my God, no I don’t want what you’re selling.”

”No, no, I’m not trying to sell anything. I’m one of Alex’s friends.”

“Alex’s friend Michael? Uh…oh I remember hearing your name! Wait a minute, aren’t you the one who’s dad is-”

“William Afton, yeah, but that’s not why I called.”

“Why’re you calling this early? Don’t you and Al usually get coffee together around this time?”

“Um, well, I actually called you because I can’t exactly uh…do that.”

Isabella was now a little concerned, blinked a few times to wake herself up and sat up straight. “Why? What happened?”

“Well uh, oh God, how do I put this? Uh, Alex was in…an accident at about five this morning.”

“An accident?!” she said a little too loudly and woke up her husband next to her.

“What’s happenin’?” he asked sleepily and she put a finger to her lips to tell him to keep quiet.

“What happened to my baby?!” she yelled worryingly into the phone.

“A-Alex’s face was torn open and…they’re in the hospital right now, the one in St. George. They lost a lot of blood, there was so much...” Isabella was speechless for a minute and on the verge of tears. “Uh…Mrs Davis?” Michael said, snapping her out of her trance.

Isabella took a deep breath and finally managed to say, “I-I’m goin’. Thank you for telling me Michael, I’ll be in St. George as soon as possible.”

She put the phone down and got out of bed to get ready to go to St. George, but suddenly her husband grabbed her hand. “What’s goin’ on?” he asked.

“It’s Al. They were in an accident and in the hospital, and it sounded like it was bad. I need you to stay here and take care of Jerry.”

“An accident?! What the…what happened?!”

”I’m not entirely sure, but I need to get to St. George.”

She went and got ready for the day, and it was the quickest she ever did because she only got out of the bathroom about fifteen minutes later instead of taking her regular hour.

She couldn’t even be bothered with makeup since she was to concerned about Alex to care and only only threw on some comfortable pants, a sweatshirt from when she and her family went to the Grand Canyon a few years ago and quickly brushed out her hair.

When she went downstairs to slip her sandals on, she found her husband now fully dressed, sitting on the couch and staring off into space so he obviously had a lot on his mind. In fact, Isabella couldn’t even remember the last time she ever saw him like this since he was the kind to always try to act tough, so right at that moment, she knew he had a soft spot for kids. 

“Hon? You okay?” she asked as she went over to him and he snapped out of his trance.

“Wh-oh. Yeah.”

“A lot on your mind?”

“Yeah, I guess you can say that.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“It’s just that…y’know about Alex…I’m worried. It’s just…I dunno.”

“What is it? C’mon, you can talk to me.”

“Well, this is my first time experiencing a major event in this family, and it just feels strange to me because I never thought I’d care this much about kids who aren’t even mine, but…I do. This family is basically my world.”

“Look, you are the kid’s dad. It doesn’t matter if they’re related to you by blood or not. If their other dad was here, he wouldn’t give two shits about Al or Jerry and he wouldn’t even care that this happened, but you do, so that makes you the father of our kids.”

He smiled, stood up and hugged her. “Just…just be careful, and make sure our child is safe.”

“I will, don’t worry.”

“What should I tell Jerry if he asks where Al is?”

She stayed silent for a while in his arms listening to his heartbeat. “I…I don’t know. The truth, I guess.”

He nodded. “It’ll break my heart to see him cry, but I will.”

She kissed him goodbye. “I’ll call you later once I find out what’s goin’ on. I love you James.”

“Love you too.”

She slipped on her shoes, went out the door, took a deep breath and went to her car, now ready to make the half hour journey to St. George.

---

When she got to the hospital Alex was at, she walked as fast as she could to the front door and went inside. Thankfully there weren’t many people in the lobby since it was eight in the morning, so she went up to the front desk out of breath because she practically ran across the parking lot.

“Um, can I help you ma’am?” the receptionist asked her once she got to the desk.

“I got a call this morning…that you had a patient here with the last name of Davis?”

She typed on her computer. “Yes, Amelia Alexis Davis?”

“Yeah, I’m their mom.”

She nodded. “Your daughter unfortunately is not in good condition. Sh-”

“He.”

“Oh…well, I’ll get someone down here to show you to his room, you’re welcome to wait in the lobby.”

Isabella nodded and went to the lobby, but she didn’t sit in one of the chairs. Instead, she fidgeted with her hands because she was so nervous and paced around the small room, the few other people sitting in the chairs watching her as she circled around the room, but after what seemed like forever a nurse called Isabella to show her to Alex’s room.

She followed the nurse through a door which led to a hallway and they started walking. “So, what exactly happened? D’you know?” Isabella asked the nurse as they were walking quickly side by side.

“No one’s exactly sure, and no one will know until your child can talk again or if there were any witnesses who can tell us, since according to the manager when we called him, when he got there, they were in the blind spot of the camera.”

“Witnesses…I may know of one. Let me see my baby first.”

The nurse nodded as they got to an elevator and the nurse pushed a button to call it down to them. They went up the elevator a few floors and walked to the unit Alex was in, which was pretty large, but it was broken up into different hallways based on the severity of the patient’s injuries.

They went down a hallway and each room had a large window on a wall, some patients had the curtains drawn over it and others didn’t. Even if the curtains were drawn to block the bright lights as they were trying to sleep or because the nurses drew them because they couldn’t, the nurses and doctors could still see the patient from a smaller window on the side. 

From what Isabella could see, most patients were bed bound or being pushed around in wheelchairs by nurses. There were also nurses walking around, caring for the patients, and it was no different when they got to Alex’s room which had the curtains drawn, because the nurses were afraid it would be too much of a shock to patients already going through their own trauma.

When Isabella saw Alex for the first time since the previous night when she walked in the room, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Alex was in a hospital gown since their clothes were drenched in their blood, they had an IV in their arm because they couldn’t drink water or get medicine, a breathing tube through their nose since they were unconscious and breathing was usually unstable at this state, a sensor to measure their heart rate on their pointer finger and a monitor showing that their heart was beating steadily was next to the bed. Then of course, there was a large amount of gauze covering the right side of their face running down to their neck.

Isabella didn’t know what to think. Just yesterday, they looked perfectly happy and healthy so to see them like this now was a shock. There was nothing she could have done, nothing to prevent it and she broke down in tears.

After a while she calmed down, went over to Alex’s bedside and squatted down next to the bed where she held their hand. “You’re gonna be alright Al. I know you will, you’re a strong person, I know you can get through this,” she said to Alex quietly. “What happened to their face?” Isabella asked the nurse who was still in the room.

“It was torn open so there had to be surgery done to close up the wound, so unfortunately they will have a very large scar on their face, but they’re alive.”

Isabella stayed silent for a few minutes, standing next to Alex’s bedside and trying to not cry again. After a while she asked the nurse, “Where’s the phone in here?”

The nurse pointed towards the hallway, and the telephone was right across the hall from where Alex was. Isabella stood up and went to it, dialed a number and waited for her husband’s voice.

After three rings he finally said, “This is Davis.”

“Hey!”

“Oh my God…Bell. I’m so happy to hear your voice. It’s been…a little crazy here is all I gotta say.”

“Did you end up having to tell Jerry?”

“Yeah, he woke up a few minutes after you left, saying he woke up because we were talking, you know how much of a light sleeper he is. Anyways he asked, I told him and he started crying, went to his room and he’s been there ever since.”

“Oh my God…”

“I feared it would happen, and to be honest I started tearing up a little too, it’s very emotional here right now which is…unusual for us to say the least. How’s Al?”

“Well…not good. I-I don’t think they’ll be getting out of here anytime soon. They aren’t even awake yet and I’m sure once they do, they’ll need help speaking and eating for at least the first few months.”

“God, what happened?”

“I…I dunno. All I know is that the skin on their face was cut so bad that they had to do surgery.”

“God. So are you planning to stay with Al for the night or come home?”

“I dunno. I know I need to be there for my job and all but at the same time…I feel like one of us has to be here even though they aren’t awake yet.”

“If you wanna stay for the night, I’ll take care of everything here and we’ll talk about what to do tomorrow.”

“You sure?”

“Definitely. I’ll make sure the house doesn’t burn down.”

She softly giggled. “Thank you Jamie, I love that I can count on you for this stuff.”

“Of course. I love you anyhow, I’m willing to do this for you. Anyways guess I better let you go-”

”Wait! Before you go, can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“D’you know Alex’s friend’s number? Uh, Michael?”

“Uh…no but I’m sure it’s written around here somewhere. Why?”

“I think Alex said they were working with him and he only works weekends, so there’s a chance he might know what happened.”

Chapter 123

Summary:

As it turns out, Michael is the only one who knows anything about the incident, so the mother calls him looking for answers.

“So…you wanna call him…to ask about what happened?” Isabella’s husband, James, asked her.

“Yes! I think he’s the only other one that knows anything!”

“But…you know what Alex said, right? He lied about his whole identity! You don’t know if he can be trusted for stuff like this because he might lie again!”

“But Alex trusted him with their life. Hell, I’m pretty sure he saved ‘em because he was the only one there! If he wasn’t there, Alex wouldn’t be alive right now!”

“But even if he did, who’s to say he won’t do that again?!”

“I don’t think he will. From what Alex said, he’s different. He lied to ‘em too about his name and Alex said it was for his safety, otherwise he wouldn’t have done it.

“But those Afton’s, I dunno what it is about them but they’re fucked up. Like, the dad is a serial killer, the kid lies way too often and I dunno about the rest! It may just be because of William that that kid learned to lie so often, but I wouldn’t trust him.”

“You don’t know him well though, Alex does and from what they’ve said, he’s not like his dad at all. In fact I think Alex said that he doesn’t even want to be called Afton because it reminds him of his dad, he goes by his mom’s name! Just because his dad is a shitty person doesn’t mean he is!”

James sighed. “Alright, you win. I’ll look, stay on the line.” It went silent and it stayed that way for about five minutes, and suddenly he spoke up again. “I found it, I’m pretty sure it’s his.”

“That fast?”

“Yeah, it was scribbled on a piece of paper right by the phone. It says that it’s Michael’s home phone number but there’s someone else’s name on here, Jeremy. So maybe they share it?”

“Wait…I think I remember him, he’s Alex’s friend too that they said was bit a few years ago! God…miracle he’s still here, really. Just…gimme the number.” James read the number on the paper he found to Isabella who wrote it down on a scrap piece of paper she found. “Thanks James. I love you.”

“Love you too. Talk to you tonight.”

She put the phone down to hang up, looked at the number on the paper and dialed it, but once it started ringing, it then occurred to her that she didn’t even know what she was going to say once someone picked up.

---

“I’ll be back, Jer,” Michael said after he was cleaned up from the accident and in his comfortable clothes of a black tank top and sweatpants, and Jeremy nodded because he understood that Michael wanted time to himself after what he saw so Michael left the room.

Michael went to the kitchen, his hands still slightly shaking from what happened a few hours ago. He couldn’t help thinking back to it: Alex’s ear piercing scream because of his stupid decision, all that blood on Alex’s face which also stained Michael’s shirt and got on his hands as well, Alex anticipating that they wouldn’t make it and eventually going unconscious, that scared him. He didn’t want to think about it, but it made him think of Evan.

He somehow connected the two together, and they eventually felt all to similar to each other but so different, so of course felt almost as scared as he was that day: praying that Evan would make it because he never wanted this to happen to him, but eventually saw him flatline in the hospital bed.

He didn’t want that same fate for Alex because he never wanted this and didn’t mean to put them in danger, but he couldn’t help thinking it was a high possibility.

He eventually got so stressed out that he opened a drawer and as if on autopilot, he grabbed the half empty cigarette box from the back of the drawer and a lighter. He went outside and shut the door behind him, partly hating himself that he resorted to the habit he tried so hard to break, but he sometimes couldn’t help himself.

Usually whenever the urge came, which was often, he usually resorted to chewing bubblegum instead of smoking. Sometimes though when he was really stressed, like today, as if on autopilot he reached right past the pack of gum on the counter and opened the drawer, straight for the cigarette box hidden under everything in that junk drawer.

He exhaled the smoke as he stood outside, not caring that it was still very warm outside even though the sun had just barely come up. He stood outside, continuing to exhale smoke but he hated himself more and more with every breath he took.

Eventually, he felt the tears welling up in his eyes from the guilt he felt that he put Alex in danger and he couldn’t focus on the cigarette in his hand. Even though the cigarette was only a little more than halfway finished, he took one final puff, bent down and squished it against the pavement beneath him to put it out.

He picked it up and went inside to put it on an ashtray he kept by the back door just in case and hid it out of sight, because he knew Jeremy would be upset if he saw it since he told him he quit. Michael then went to the counter which he kept his pack of gum on, grabbed a piece, popped it in his mouth and went back to the bedroom.

Back in the room, Jeremy was just starting to doze off again when he faintly heard the telephone ring.

The sound wasn’t actually faint however, Jeremy just couldn’t fully hear it because the telephone was on his left side, the side he was bitten on, the side that along with his eye and part of his frontal lobe, his left eardrum was bitten clean through as well, so therefore he couldn’t hear from his left side. He only heard the noise from his right ear receiving the noise; it was fainter but he could at least hear it.

Ugh, I hate phone calls, Jeremy thought as he reached and got the phone next to him. “Hello?” he answered sleepily.

“Hi, I’m so sorry to call you this early-” the voice on the other end started.

“Oh no, you’re fine,” Jeremy answered through a yawn and Michael appeared in the doorway.

“Jer, you did it again,” Michael said as he went to his side of the bed and scoot in next to Jeremy.

“Damn it,” Jeremy whispered to himself. “Sorry. Continue,” Jeremy said into the phone. 

“Uh, is this the residence of someone by the last name of uh, Fitzgerald or…Schmidt?”

Jeremy looked at Michael who wasn’t even listening since he was probably distracted by his thoughts, chewing his gum and blowing bubbles as he chewed as if in a trance. “Uh…yeah. This is Jeremy Fitzgerald. Who is this?” Jeremy said into the phone.

“Jeremy? Hi! My name is Isabella. I’m Alex’s mom.”

“Alex?!” Jeremy said a little too loudly.

“What?!” Michael exclaimed as he looked over at him and Jeremy covered the receiver.

“Sorry! You know I have trouble with impulses.”

“What about Alex?!”

“I-it’s nothing. I’ll handle it.” Jeremy sat fully up as did Michael, but Michael was now fully awake and he paused his gum chewing. “Uh, what about Alex, Mrs. Davis?” Jeremy asked.

“Well, I actually need the point of view from Michael. I just need to ask him a few things.”

Jeremy handed the telephone to the man next to him. “Alright, never mind, it’s for you.”

“Who is it?” Michael whispered as he took the phone.

“Mrs. Davis,” he replied.

Michael nodded and Jeremy laid his head on Michael’s shoulder, still listening to their conversation. “Mrs. Davis?” Michael said into the telephone.

“Hey Michael! How are you?”

“Eh, I could be better. How about you?”

“Good, good. Listen, so about earlier this morning, y’know with Alex and all, I’m sorry but there was no one else to turn to.”

”Turn to for what?”

“About what actually happened. No one knows but you and Alex and obviously, Alex can’t talk right now.”

“Wait, d’you know if Alex is alright?”

“Yeah, I’m with them right now. They’re still out of it because they apparently lost a lot of blood, but they’re alive.”

“Oh thank God,” Michael said and Jeremy exhaled in relief. “I was worried sick. So…whaddya mean no one else knows anything? Didn’t the cameras catch it?”

“Apparently, it happened in the camera’s blind spot so the cops don’t exactly know.”

“Of course,” Michael muttered. “But I thought I told Robert!”

”I didn’t hear anything about it from him yet, just that it was in the blind spot and he could only hear what happened.”

“Well…to be fair I was too much in shock to barely form sentences, so he really couldn’t tell anyone what really happened. I guess that makes sense.”

“Can…can you tell me? Not only as a detective to bring the evidence to police, but as their mother? I need to know the truth.”

Michael sighed. “I-I dunno where to even start.”

“Just start from the beginning, Mikey,” Jeremy whispered to him.

“Uh…gimme a minute.” Michael covered the receiver and turned to Jeremy. “But I don’t want to remember, Jer.”

“I know you don’t, but it’s their mom looking for answers. You kinda have to.”

”I know but…just that image of them losing blood from their face…that scream because of something I did…them anticipating they wouldn’t make it…it makes me think of him and that day.”

“Who?”

“E-Evan.”

Jeremy stayed silent for a second, now understanding what he meant, and why he couldn’t sleep even though he hasn’t slept since eight at night that previous day.

That day almost ten years ago was traumatizing for both of them to say the least, and he couldn’t even imagine how Michael felt about it all.

Watching that little boy in the striped shirt go limp in the fuzzy yellow animatronic’s jaws, the crimson liquid splattered all over the four of them along with the strong scent of iron, Jeremy didn’t want to think about it.

“I-I know,” Jeremy finally said. “But I’ll be right here. You’ll be alright.”

Michael nodded, uncovered the receiver and ended up holding Jeremy’s hand. “Mrs. Davis?”

“Yes, I’m still here.”

“I-I’m finally ready to talk.” He took a deep breath and Isabella got her scrap piece of paper and pen from earlier to write notes on what Michael said. “So when we were there it was normal. Y’know, us two talking and joking around. It…it was when I decided to go out of the office that everything went to shit. I-if I had just let it stay a mystery we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Michael sighed and Isabella wrote his words down. “And why did you go out exactly?” she asked.

“I wanted to see if I could find the animatronic that killed Patrick. It was just so strange to me and I thought for sure it was somewhere, and even though I told Alex to stay put just to make sure nothing happened to them...well you see what happened.”

Isabella scribbled his words down on the paper in front of her. “So…I heard that Foxy did this and obviously Alex went out, but how exactly did Foxy get to ‘em? Usually they’re put on edge with those things so Alex’ll usually never go near them.”

”I-I don’t know what Alex was thinking. They knew the animatronics were dangerous, but they were watching me on the cameras while I went through the pizzeria when Foxy cornered me. I-I don’t know exactly what happened because I shut my eyes, but my best guess is that they tried to save me.”

Isabella wrote his words down. “So…Foxy was trying to get…you?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you know why?”

“Nope.”

“So…Alex tried to save you?” she repeated, so Michael assumed she wanted confirmation.

“Pretty much saved my life. If it wasn’t for Alex, I’d probably be dead by now.”

Isabella put her hand over her mouth in shock because she didn’t know how to comprehend that that amount of bravery came from her child. Alex has always been a brave kid, not afraid to stand up to bullies, but never in a million years did Isabella think they would emit that amount of bravery.

Isabella calmed down. “So uh…one more question. Not really as evidence but as a mother…how bad was it?”

“Uh, depends on what you’re referring to.”

“I mean when Alex was cut, how deep was the cut?”

“Something I hoped I’d never see. Their right cheek was literally torn open and I could see the inside of their mouth from it…it looked straight out of a horror movie.” Isabella tried to hold back her tears because she was never told what exactly happened to Alex, and Michael didn’t even notice but he squeezed Jeremy’s hand. “God…I don’t even wanna think about it.”

Isabella sniffled. “Alright uh, thank you Michael.”

“No problem. And uh, keep me updated on Alex?”

“Of course.”

“Thanks. Bye Mrs. Davis.”

“Bye now, Michael.”

Michael handed back the telephone to Jeremy and he put it back where it originally was.

Michael sighed, leaned back against the wall, let go of Jeremy’s hand and ran his fingers through his dark brown wavy hair. “That’s not how I was expecting to start my day.”

Chapter 124

Summary:

A normal nightmare…or what Michael thinks is a normal nightmare.

For two weeks the restaurant was closed and apparently the technicians were trying to fix Foxy up, so that meant Michael was less stressed so he seemed to be getting more sleep, and Jeremy was less worried about Michael getting hurt by going to work, so he was less stressed as well.

One Friday night, Michael went and picked up Jeremy like normal, but on the drive home he started to feel extremely tired all of a sudden even when he was wide awake not even five minutes earlier. He could barely keep his eyes open and tried to force himself to stay awake; a few times Jeremy had to shake him awake or reach over and try his best to center the car in the middle of the lane because they were drifting into the other lane next to them.

“Mike, are you okay?” Jeremy asked him once the car was in the driveway of their house and Michael took the key out of the ignition.

“Oh yeah, I’m fine,” Michael answered through a yawn.

“You could barely keep your eyes open and you usually don’t go to sleep until ten or eleven at night!”

“Just…I had a long day is all.”

“You were fine when you picked me up!”

“I know just…” He sighed and yawned again. “I might take a nap. You’re fine for dinner, right?”

“I can warm up leftovers.” Jeremy looked at his watch he kept on his wrist since he had trouble with managing time, and he saw that it was only 5:30 in the evening. “Something’s not right,” he muttered worryingly to himself.

“What isn’t?” Michael asked, and Jeremy jumped in surprise because he kept forgetting that he couldn’t hear as good as Michael could.

“Uh, n-nothing,” Jeremy replied, not wanting to worry Michael. “Help me in, then you can go to bed.”

Michael nodded and rubbed his eyes to try and keep them open, then he and Jeremy got out of the car and Michael helped Jeremy up the three steps leading to the front door. The two went inside the house and once the door was shut behind them, Michael pecked Jeremy since he was about to head off to the room.

“Are you sure you don’t want a little something?” Jeremy asked him as Michael tucked a stray piece of Jeremy’s hair behind his ear. “You’re gonna wake up in the middle of the night and be starving!”

“I’m sure Jer, I’m not hungry. Besides, I’ll be up in a few hours anyway, it’s not like I’m sleeping until morning.” Michael kissed him on the forehead. “Love you.”

Once Michael turned however, Jeremy wrapped his arms around Michael from behind, tightly hugging him and wouldn’t let go for about three minutes. They were silent that entire time but after those three minutes, Jeremy let go of him and said, “Love you too.”

Michael walked towards the room. He usually never does that before I go to bed, and it’s not any day special so why did he do that? Michael wondered.

Michael went to the bedroom, changed out of his work uniform and into his comfortable clothes and laid down, and he seemed to fall asleep almost as soon as his head hit the fluffy pillow.

Michael’s sleep was not peaceful however, in fact he kept having nightmares, one after the other. Usually these wouldn’t bother him since he’s had nightmares about as often as he slept, but this one in particular actually scared him.

He opened his eyes and was greeted by a cheerful, warm yellow light that he hasn’t seen in almost a decade, but it was also paired with soft fluorescent lights on the ceiling that were starting to go out. He was laying on the floor so he sat up and looked around, wondering where his brain had taken him in this dream. He stood and looked at the colorful patterned carpet beneath him, saw children running around everywhere, but it was as though they couldn’t see him.

When he stood he realized he was basically towering over all of the kids running around the restaurant; he was able to see the games in the small arcade in the back, the tables where a few had parents sitting at them watching their children or families enjoying pizza at, and a small stage with two animatronic mascots and he was hit with a feeling of dread when he saw them, now knowing exactly where he was.

On the stage he saw the two yellow fuzzy animatronics, Spring Bonnie and Fredbear, so that meant he could only be in one place: the closed down Fredbear’s Family Diner.

No, no, no…he thought.

“Please guys, put me down! I don’t wanna go!” he heard a familiar voice scream at his older brother.

Evan?

“You heard the little man! He wants to get even closer!” he heard and he looked over to where the voice was coming from, and he couldn’t believe that he was looking straight at the younger version of himself.

He knew it was him because he was always the tallest out of his friends, the only one of his friends with a farmer tan (which he hated), the only one of his friends with a mullet that he grew out soon after, and of course the only one with a red fox mask.

“Hey guys, I think the little man said he wants to give Fredbear a big kiss,” his younger self said. “On three!”

Michael ran over to his younger self. “No, stop!” he yelled but they either ignored him or couldn’t hear or see him.

“Please, no!” Evan shrieked.

“One…two…”

Younger Michael and the younger version of Jeremy got up on the stage holding Evan’s arms while the bear, Nicolas, and the chicken, Richard, held Evan’s legs and stayed off of the stage.

The next time Fredbear’s mouth was open during his song, the four of them shoved Evan’s head in Fredbear's mouth. Younger Michael and Jeremy hopped off the foot tall stage and the four of them laughed hysterically at how scared Evan was. Evan was sobbing, struggling to get out and climb down, but he was too short.

As Michael watched because he knew he was powerless, he shut his eyes tightly since he knew what happened next and as expected, not even a minute later he heard that dreadful crunch and everything going silent accompanied with the strong scent of iron.

It was then that he the heard screaming from the children and parents and he hesitantly opened his eyes and he couldn’t believe what he saw. He was in his younger self’s place, his musty breath shooting back at his face because the mask only had two small air holes. He lifted up his mask so he could breathe and it was then he realized that he was sobbing. He was sobbing so hard it felt as though he couldn’t breathe and he tried to cough, but couldn’t, and it terrified him how real this all felt.

He looked down and saw that crimson red liquid on his hands and saw that it was stained on his clothes as well.

He looked around and saw a few parents and older teenage siblings around, too terrified to get close but close enough to where they could see, but suddenly they all turned to face towards Michael, not uttering a word and Michael turned behind him to Jeremy, Richard and Nicolas, and they were the same as well. Staring at him eerily but silent.

He turned back around to the people into the left and right of him. “I-it was an accident,” he spat out with tears in his eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. It’s all my damn fault! I’ll admit it! Is that what you want?!”

He dropped to the ground on his hands and knees now sobbing uncontrollably. He looked back at Evan and saw that he was gone, along with everything else accompanied by silence. All that was left was Michael in this pitch black void.

“What the…” he muttered and stood, then he called out, “Jer? Rich? Nick? Anyone?”

He looked behind him as if expecting to see something, but once he saw nothing he looked straight ahead again and he was sitting on the edge of a bed.

It was in a room he felt as though he has been in before, but after looking around for a while he realized it was his old room in the Afton house. What was strange though, Evan’s toys were in there as well but even with this fact, he felt as if this room exactly how it is had been pulled from the depths of his memories. 

Then he realized, this wasn’t his old bedroom. This was an almost identical replica of it, and he could tell it was because a few pieces of furniture were on the opposite side of the room than where he remembered, but again, it felt all too familiar. 

This has to have been a place I’ve been before, he thought, but I don’t remember. It seems way too familiar to be somewhere I haven’t. 

He got off of the bed he was sitting on and saw he was in fact still fourteen years old, but after the bite when he wasn’t taking care of himself as often as he should. He only knew because he hasn’t worn an all black hoodie that was a size too big for him and black sweatpants outside of the house since he was fourteen; now he would never wear the same two colors together.

He looked up and saw cameras in all corners of the room, the red light next to where the picture was captured was on, telling him that the cameras were recording so that meant someone was watching him. 

He was stumped on why he was here, but he didn’t stay questioning things for long because the Grandfather’s Clock in the hallway chimed signaling the end of the hour. 

He’s heard that noise before, he knew he has and something that smelled like gas came in through the vents, and again it was all too familiar which meant his suspicions were correct: back when he was a teenager when their mother was gone, his father used to take he or Evan to an exact replica of their house while they slept so they wouldn’t notice they were somewhere different when they woke up in the house and test different gases on them to make them see things. He would do this to Elizabeth as well, but being that it didn’t work as well as he hoped on her it was usually just the boys.

Why did he do this? He was still unsure himself. 

A day after the bite however, William had been extremely upset at Michael for ruining the businesses reputation, so instead of hitting him like he usually would he took him to this replica of the house and left him there for a whole week with no food or water while William watched him suffer on the cameras. Michael assumed that he was dreaming about that dreadful time.

He coughed, put his hoodie collar over his nose and looked for a way to escape because he knew the gas wasn’t good to be breathing in, but there was nowhere to run to because all of the windows were locked and there was no way to unlock them. 

After a few minutes he started to get dizzy from the lack of oxygen so he took his hoodie off of his nose, took a few deep breaths to get oxygen in his lungs and started heading towards the door to look for a way out, but before he got to the door he heard the clanking of metal in the hallway. 

He froze but then saw a flashlight on top of the dresser, so he took it and looked down the dark and eerie hallway. When he turned on the light, he saw what looked like a monstrous version of Bonnie at the end of the hallway,  way taller than him and it looked like it could snap him in half like a twig. 

Bonnie started walking quickly over to him and Michael slammed the door right in the creature’s face. He heard pounding and scratching at the door, he felt his heart racing and breathed heavily but wouldn’t stop pulling the doorknob to him, but then he heard footsteps walking away after a minute so he slowly opened the door, turned on the flashlight and thankfully he was nowhere to be seen. 

Then on of the opposite side of the room where there was another door, he heard an almost identical clang of metal but it was accompanied by the rustling of different items in the hallway as well.

“Again?!”

He went over to the door and before he could even turn on the flashlight, he heard what sounded like breathing coming from right outside the door.

From the little he could see in the darkness, the robot looked like an equally terrifying version of Chica who was also towering over him. Chica looked at him and Michael immediately slammed the door in her face, and not even a second later she started pounding and scratching the door like Bonnie was. 

After a minute, she gave up and he heard footsteps leaving down the hallway. He took a deep breath to calm down, then let go of the knob with the intention of leaving it closed but it slowly opened again inviting the terrifying animatronics inside. 

“Why won’t this damn thing close?!” he said to himself but soon after brushed it off. 

From the corner of his eye as he headed back to the foot of the bed, he saw the closet door move which spooked him. He went over to it cautiously, and it was an equally terrifying version of Foxy who looked like he was crammed inside of that tiny closet considering how tall he was. 

“Claustrophobia,” Michael said, trying to not be frightened by their nightmare-ish look. 

Foxy snapped his mouth full of sharp metal teeth at Michael so he slammed the closet door and like the other two doors, it didn’t stay closed. He sighed and held it shut trying to think of what to do since there was nowhere else for Foxy to go and leave him alone. 

As he thought for a minute he realized, this was a dream. Nothing here can actually hurt him. 

He opened the door and to his suprise, in Foxy’s place was a small red fox plush that wasn’t there before and he picked it up. “Not so scary now, huh?”

He returned it to its original place and went back to the foot of the bed where he sat, and all of a sudden he heard a strange noise from behind him. It sounded like malfunctioning or glitching robots, but it didn’t at the same time. 

He turned around and shined his flashlight on them and what he saw were what looked like three small nightmare-ish looking bears. When he shined his light on them, two of them took cover under the bed but the third one stayed in place. 

“Hey bud, that’s your cue to get outta here,” Michael said to it as though it could hear him. It didn’t move an inch towards the side of the bed to take cover like the others, but it instead went towards   Michael. “Woah, hey, what do you think you’re doing?!”

Michael backed away from the bed so he was now standing in the middle of the room, but suddenly the little bear jumped at him and landed right on his face. Michael lost his balance and fell on his back, dropped his flashlight and tried to get the bear off but it wouldn’t budge. 

“Get off! Get the hell off!” Michael yelled as he struggled to pry it off of his face. The little bear then scratched him on the side of his face as he was trying to reposition his paw so he had a tighter grip. “Ow! Alright, y’know what?!”

Adrenaline kicked in at that moment and he got the upper hand and flung the bear off of his face and across the room, he turned to stand up but it didn’t take long for it to come back and bite his leg to hold him back. “Get away from me!” Michael yelled and tried to shake it off. 

He turned around and sat up to try to pry it off with his hands, but after a while of fighting and the bear still didn’t budge, the small bear eventually bit him so deep in the leg that he stopped trying to get it off and fell on his back again, closed his eyes and cried while breathing heavily and coughing, because even though he knew this was a dream, the pain felt all too real. 

For a split second he opened his eyes, and the bear was sitting on his chest like nothing had happened. “Go away!” Michael yelled, but then it turned its head slowly to look at him, and suddenly it was getting heavier and heavier almost to the point of crushing him. 

He coughed, tried to breathe and struggled to get it off, but once he realized he was powerless against it he shut his eyes tightly but then a few seconds later, he knew he was somewhere different now being that the smell from the gas seemed to have vanished. 

He noticed that the pain from the bite in his leg still hurt to put a lot of weight on, but when he opened his eyes he noticed that he was back to his current age, the same uncomfortable weight was still in his chest from that bear from earlier, but he was now in a dimly lit room with nothing but a ginger haired girl and an animatronic circus clown.

Elizabeth?

“I don’t know why daddy won’t let me come see you, you’re wonderful!” she said.

“Oh my God…” Michael said and he looked around, but his younger self was nowhere to be seen. “No, no, no…” he said as he shut his eyes.

It was then he heard the sound of the machine dispensing ice cream to the girl, and after a few minutes heard his own voice.

“Elizabeth!” his younger self yelled.

Michael opened his eyes to try and do something but then he realized, he was different. He was in his sister’s place.

Oh shit.

All of a sudden, Circus Baby’s top half seemed to have folded backwards and a claw that looked like a lobster’s claw came out of her stomach. It grabbed him, metal sinking deep into his sides and he didn’t even have time to react before it pulled him back inside her stomach and sealed shut.

“No, no! Let me out!” he yelled as he pounded on the sides. He heard the faint pounding of his younger self and Samuel pounding on the animatronic as well, but it was no use because the metal didn’t cave.

After a few minutes, he heard Henry and William pulling them back and both of them telling them off, younger Michael sobbing and telling them what he saw, but of course they didn’t believe him and Henry thought Michael was letting Evan’s death get to him again.

Michael held his sides, the pain from the claw now starting to register, and he started getting lightheaded from the lack of oxygen and slumped down where he eventually fell on his back, now starting to choke since there was no more oxygen left where he was, so he was left laying down while choking and crying, so he closed his eyes and accepted his fate, terrified at how real this pain felt as well.

Then, before his eyes opened again he could tell the scene changed again because the room wasn’t as stuffy, the pain in his sides still stung as well as the pain of the bite in his leg, but it was now accompanied with the feeling of metal digging into his wrists.

What the hell could this be?! he thought. I don’t remember experiencing this!

Chapter 125

Summary:

Michael’s strange ‘dream’ continues, but little does he know it shows his future.

When Michael opened his eyes and looked at his wrists which were being held so tightly they were starting to get numb, he saw that he was in fact being detained and he had no idea what he had done to get in this situation. He found out his wrists were held tightly by metal wires, but his arms were also held above his head so he couldn’t get away no matter how much he struggled.

He looked down at himself and saw that he was indeed older than his current age, but only by about ten years give or take. 

“The scooper only hurts for a moment,” he heard a voice say and he turned his attention to the window across the room.

Behind the glass widow he saw what looked to be a humanoid looking robot, wires coming out of its body every which way, but most noticeable was the fact that it had a pure white clown mask with a red nose and green and yellow striped party hat. 

Scooper? Michael thought but then he saw from the brief pulses of light going off every so often in the room, revealing a giant, shiny metal machine that looked like an ice cream scooper in the darkness. Must be why they call it a scooper. 

He struggled to get out of the metal wiring since this machine if it hit him, it seemed like it would hurt but the struggling only dug the metal deeper into his wrists every time he moved and he felt blood trickling from his wrists down his arms. Ow! Damn, that’s tight! Who’s controlling these things?! he thought.

All of a sudden he heard the alarm in the room blare three times which to him, was louder than a jet. He froze like a deer in headlights, knowing this was the end for him since this ‘dream’ felt far too real and all was silent for a brief, agonizing second. 

Then, he watched, powerless, as the giant metal machine a few yards in front of him lunged at him at full force and he felt the flesh on his abdomen being torn as the machine hit it. The machine didn’t stop there and continued on until the arm of the scooper was fully extended, puncturing his organs along the way until it reached his spine; it felt like he was hit by a truck at full speed and it had multiple knives attached to it at the front.

He yelled out in pain as automatic response but it was as if he couldn’t hear himself from the pain he was in, the world sounded muffled and it was as if everything was in slow motion. The scooper went upwards and he knew it punctured the rest of his organs, broke his ribs and probably his spine as well. 

It ripped through his flesh on the way and he sobbed the hardest he ever has as he yelled out in pain, but he couldn’t for long because he soon had the taste of iron in his mouth.

The scooper retracted and because his legs gave out, he was only being supported by the metal around his wrists.

He tried to use what little strength he had left to try and cough to get the blood out of his mouth since he was choking on it now, but he couldn’t since one of his lungs were overflowing with the liquid, and the other was torn completely off so he couldn’t get air. 

The wires holding his wrists suddenly let go when the scooper retracted and he fell flat on the ground, everything going black almost as soon as he hit the cold, metal floor, the ringing in his ears getting softer and softer until he could hear nothing and all that was left was him in this silent dark void.

For once in his life he felt at ease and peaceful since his worries and fears could not reach him in this void. He of course had no idea what was going on, but he was for one of the few times in his life, happy. It wasn’t until almost a minute later when his consciousness faded back into this strange dream he was having.

As if on autopilot he opened his eyes again, and this time he was looking at himself in his bathroom mirror, or rather, what he could only assume was him. He was leaning on the bathroom counter, both of his hands supporting him and he was thankful they were, because what he saw looking back at him did not look like him at all and he would have fallen if they weren’t there. 

He knew the man staring back at him was himself because it somewhat resembled him, but that thing in the mirror staring back at him didn’t resemble a human in the slightest at the same time.

From the little he could see, he knew he was different; his vision seemed blocked by something but no matter what he couldn’t get it out of his eye, as a matter of fact he could barely even feel  it. 

He had to look in the mirror closely to see himself since his vision was so poor, but part of him wishes he didn’t. His eyes were not his; they were purple and dimly glowing, not his own blue-gray color which explained why part of his vision was blocked.

His skin looked much lighter than before; sure he was pale before but not this pale, he looked almost completely white and the freckles on his face and arms were pale as well and blending into his skin. He looked like he was terribly sick because his pale skin was turning a green-purple color, but he didn’t feel sick, in fact he felt nothing at all.

He noticed that he had a few patches of gauze on his face that he must’ve taped on himself, and when he peeled them back he was in shock. It looked as though some of his skin was decaying off of his face; it looked almost like the cut on Alex’s face where he could see the inside of their mouth from the hole on his face, but it instead seemed to be going from the corners of his mouth to where his ears were and seemed to be coming off in random patches instead of all at once.

He put the patches back on his face then backed away from the mirror to see his body from the waist up, and saw that he for some reason was shirtless but on his chest as he took a closer look, there was a giant scar right down the middle of his torso going from the bottom of his neck to his waist.

He pushed himself off of the counter and backed up, terrified, and he accidentally knocked down what looked to be a spool of thread from picking up his hand and right next to it as he figured, was a needle.

He looked back at the giant scar on his chest and after a closer look, his skin on both sides of the scar looked poorly stitched together in the same color thread as the thread on the spool in front of him, a pale tan color which was the same color as his skin before, but it now no longer blended in with his skin given that he was so pale and turning this green-purple color. He guessed that he must have done the stitching himself being that it was so poorly done. 

“No…no, no, no…” he said, but the voice did not sound like him. It sounded almost like him, but sounded robotic at the same time. 

He knew he was starting to panic even more than before and he tried to take deep breaths to calm himself down, but the air never came and he froze in fear for a second.

He put a hand on his bare chest and surprisingly, his hand didn’t feel cold on his chest like usual, maybe a little bit but nevertheless he had to check that his hand was still on his chest. He dismissed it and focused as much as he could but felt no heartbeat; he even checked for his pulse on his wrist and neck but again, nothing.

To him this meant one of two things: either his entire body was numb for some reason or his heart was actually not beating. 

He started to hyperventilate, or what looked like hyperventilating. He still wasn’t getting any air and he couldn’t feel his heart racing in his head like usual when he was feeling frightened, but then that’s when he felt it: movement from under his skin. 

It wasn’t a movement he could feel very often or as intense as it probably was, but even then it still hurt him as he felt whatever it was crawling around under his skin and around his remaining bones. 

“What the fuck?!” he screamed. “Get out! Get out you damn thing!”

He started scratching at himself to try and get whatever it was to find it’s way out, but then he saw that every time the thing was moving right up against his skin, his flesh would move as it would. This and the sensation of crawling and slithering under his skin eventually became too much for him to handle, he lost his balance and slammed into the wall before he dropped to the tile below him on his hands and knees. 

He tried to cough since the crawling sensation was in his throat, but nothing came out since he had no air. Instead, all that came out of his mouth was a gagging noise as he tried to force whatever was in his throat out, but nothing came out but little bits of blood that hadn’t dried up yet and the gagging sound continued. 

Eventually, he knew his attempts were doing something because he felt something in the back of his throat. He forced himself to gag again and what came up was of course, blood, but also a few small broken wires and a large broken robot part that was as big as a small PVC pipe. 

He stared at them on the ground in shock, not sure what to think but that’s when another thick wire broke through the skin on his forearm, making a gaping hole in his skin and wrapped around his wrist like a tentacle. “It’s a…it’s a fucking robot…”

He recognized again that he wasn’t breathing and he tried as much as he could to inhale any amount of air, but nothing came. He started sobbing, felt as though he was choking on another robot part, gagged again, more blood came out of his mouth and he screamed out in agony as he sobbed before he fell the few more inches to the floor and passed out. 

Again, he felt calm and at ease in this pitch black void since the worries and fear had no existence in this strange place. It was a void where he could not do anything about anything, but then of course his consciousness had to shift back to the real world.

“Michael! Mike!” he heard a familiar voice say faintly through the darkness, but he also heard the faint sound of a heart rate monitor beeping rapidly. “No, no, no, it’s happening again! Someone call a doctor!” 

Chapter 126

Summary:

That was a close one.

Michael opened his eyes and was met with blinding fluorescent lights shining down on him from the ceiling. He took in a deep inhale of air, happy that he finally could and he stayed completely still for a moment, enjoying the air that he could feel going rapidly in and out of his lungs.

After he calmed down and his eyes focused, he looked around and he saw that he was in a room painted white with blue tile, a large window was next to him which showed that it was dark outside, and across the room was what looked like a blue and green abstract painting to add more color to the room.

He looked to his left and saw Jeremy, but he looked like he was yelling something out the door of the hospital room, panicked, but he couldn’t hear him because his ears were ringing. Jeremy turned to go back to Michael’s side, but then he was taken aback when he saw that Michael had opened his eyes.

Jeremy went as fast as he could to Michael’s bedside and held his hand that was resting on his chest. “Mike?” Jeremy said faintly and Michael only groaned in response because his chest hurt every time he took a breath, and since he had trouble hearing his words he looked at him with confusion. “Can…can you hear me?! Oh no, oh God…”

The world suddenly became loud and clear, the beeping slowed down and he looked straight at Jeremy in his kind amber eye. “Jer?” he said hoarsely, but it felt as though he had a terrible sore throat because his voice was raspy and it hurt to talk.

“Can you hear me?!” he asked worriedly and Michael nodded. “Oh Dios mío…Mikey!” Jeremy exclaimed and leaned over the railing of the hospital bed to hug him, and Michael was grateful that he could feel Jeremy’s body weight on his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around him. “I…I thought I was gonna lose you too…I-I’m so happy you’re okay,” he added on, obviously holding back tears.

Michael also held him tightly and tried to not start bawling like a baby himself, but he did so because he was scared. After what he saw, and even though it was all in his head, he felt powerless again and wanted that sense of security.

Jeremy let go of him after a while and he held onto the railing of the hospital bed so he could remain standing next to him. Michael then saw Jeremy had a light dark circle under his eye hinting that he didn’t sleep or didn’t get a lot of sleep, he looked like it’s been a few days since he last changed his clothes, and since Jeremy’s brown (almost black) shaggy hair was now down to his shoulders since he liked longer hair, Michael guessed that one of the nurses put it in a half ponytail so it wouldn’t get in his face.

After looking around, confused, Michael soon realized he had a heart rate monitor on which showed that his heart was beating steadily on a screen next to him, he had an IV in his arm pumping medicine and water into his veins and had a breathing tube.

It was then he also realized, his sides and right calf stung like they were badly cut, but he of course was afraid to move them too much in fear of hurting himself more.

His shaggy brown hair which has grown to the bottom of his neck was thankfully not messed with or put back because it was short enough to not get in the way of the breathing tube, but he also noticed that the hospital bed he was in was reclined so he wasn’t laying flat on his back.

What am I doing here? he thought. Why am I in the hospital?

Michael tried to sit up, but apparently it was too fast because he got lightheaded, his head started pounding and the room started spinning. “Woah, slow down,” Jeremy said when Michael sat up and stopped him by putting a hand on his chest and lightly pushed him back to laying down. “C’mon, I was happy when I could first sit up again too but you gotta give yourself time. You just woke up like, five minutes ago, your body’s probably not ready yet.”

“Wha…what happened?” Michael asked, but he soon realized he shouldn’t have done that and began to cough violently.

“Woah woah woah, it’s okay, you don’t have to talk a lot,” Jeremy said and Michael’s coughing calmed down. “You don’t know?” Michael shook his head. “Guess I’m not the only one with memory problems now.”

Michael looked at him with a face that said, ‘Just tell me already!’

“Sorry, uh, bad timing. Well uh, when you went to sleep on…Friday I think? When I went to check on you because going to sleep early isn’t your thing, I found you on the bed but you looked like…you looked like you were hurt…bad.”

“Hurt?”

Jeremy nodded. “There was a cut on your leg, it kinda looked like a bite mark and on your sides, they were badly hurt too and you were bleeding a lot. Your wrists and chest weren’t too bad though, they already healed up when I got there.

“So, I went over to you and tried to wake you up, but you weren’t responding and then you kinda…stopped breathing. It was all so sudden and I-I was so scared so I called an ambulance.”

Michael put his hand over Jeremy’s hand on his chest and held it lightly. ”Well, thanks.”

Jeremy smiled shyly. “When they took you away, I called the police to come to check out if there was a break in or something, but they found nothing. They said I was safe to stay in the house, and I did for the weekend.”

“Did-” he started but then he coughed again, and thankfully less violently than before. “Did you tell Henry?”

“Oh yeah. He stayed with you that Friday all the way to Sunday. He had to go back to work on Monday.”

“So…why’re you here?”

“I…I was scared,” he said, blushing with embarrassment.

Michael chuckled. “Scared about staying by yourself?”

“Well, I was scared about you too but yeah, I was scared to stay by myself for that long so I called a taxi to bring me over.”

“You remembered the number?”

“No. There’s a thing called phone books.”

Michael chuckled. “I thought you hated hospitals!”

“I do, but like I remember what my dad told me before the…this,” he pointed to the left side of his head, “he would say, ‘Suck it up and be a man for once’.”

“Jer-”

“Ah! Shhh, I don’t wanna talk about how he was before. So, do you know what happened? Was this not so sudden after all and you were just hiding it from me?”

“No. I have no idea what happened…wait, have I been out all day?!” he said before he coughed again. “Ow…”

“It’s alright, you’re gonna be fine. The doctors will know what to do.”

“So…was I out all day?”

“Well technically all week. You got admitted here last Friday night...I think.”

“Oh my God…what time is it now?”

Jeremy looked at the clock. “Like, two in the morning. It’s that next Saturday now…I’m pretty sure.”

“Jesus…”

”Well, all that matters is that you’re awake now, and hopefully that’ll never happen again.”

“Wait, Jer-” he was interrupted by a violent cough again. “Ow, my damn throat…but have you even slept that whole time?!”

“Uh…not really...two or three hours over the week, I don’t remember.”

“Jeremy!”

Jeremy inhaled sharply. “Damn it! I told myself I wouldn’t say that because you would be mad at me! Whatever, in my defense, I was too worried about you to sleep.”

Michael rolled his eyes but smiled as nurse jogged in. “Oh! You’re awake!” she said as she closed the door behind her. Jeremy turned as she walked in as he and Michael let go of each other’s hands. “I thought I was going to have to do CPR on you again!”

“Wait, again?!” Michael exclaimed.

She nodded and helped Jeremy to sit down on the chair next to the hospital bed since she needed to work. “Your heart stopped once yesterday for about a minute, you stopped breathing on and off throughout the week, but it was most prominent in the last day.”

So it was real?! Was I actually dead for a little less than a minute?! Is that what that dark void was?! he thought.

He then remembered the fact about his leg and that it hurt to move, and how Jeremy said it looked like a deep bite mark. That little bear that was attacking him at the start, that bear bit his leg so deep he practically felt its teeth hitting his bone. Even weirder still, it was on the same exact leg in the same exact place.

He shifted his attention to his sides, and for a while he couldn’t remember what had caused them to be in pain but then he remembered: Circus Baby’s claw. He wasn’t sure how deep it had went, but enough to where it still hurt after a week.

Then there was his wrists and chest, which were the strangest to him because Jeremy had said they already healed by the time he got to him. They had never happened to him and it seemed like he was older then, so now he had a new worry if it was actually going to come true in the next few years, but decided to not tell anyone about this to not worry them.

It was all…real? Michael thought.

“Michael!” the nurse said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Uh, yeah?” he answered awkwardly.

She sighed. “Does he usually do that? Zone out randomly?” she asked Jeremy.

”Eh. Sometimes. But he usually snaps out of it pretty quickly.”

She turned back to Michael. “I’m just gonna check that your eyes are dilating so we know your brain’s working properly.” Michael nodded and she shined a bright flashlight in both of his eyes and he tried his best not to blink. “Alright, all good there,” she said as she turned off the flashlight.

“So, Jeremy said I wasn’t breathing when he found me, so do you know why?” Michael asked her.

“The doctors found that your lungs were filled with liquid after some x-rays, we’re not exactly sure how it got there yet, but we drained it all out although your body doesn’t seem to be handling it well. You were lucky, you could have suffocated if it wasn’t for Mr. Fitzgerald here.”

Michael looked over at Jeremy who smiled and he looked back at the nurse. “Liquid? Like water?” he asked before he coughed again and cleared his throat.

“Yes. We’re still not exactly sure how it got there since according to Mr. Fitzgerald, you were asleep.”

“I was! Is that why I’m coughing so much?”

“Well…that answer’s not set in stone. See, it could be your body just trying to drain out the rest of the liquid in your lungs, and that seems like the most likely possibility as of now.”

“Hope it goes away like, tomorrow.”

“If there happens to be any other news, we’ll keep you updated.” Michael nodded. “Open your mouth, I’m just going to check the back of your throat.” Michael opened his mouth and she shined the flashlight again. “You look all good there, although your throat does look a bit irritated but that’ll probably go away with time and explains why you’re coughing, so it might not be water…weird.” She turned off the flashlight and Michael closed his mouth. “Do you want water or anything since you’re awake now? Might help with that cough.”

“Please.”

She left the room and a few minutes later she returned with a glass of water which Michael took. “And not to worry, that tube will come out soon, we just need to be sure you’re breathing properly again.” Michael nodded. “Call me if you need anything.”

She left the room as Michael sipped the water and his throat started feeling a little better. “Jer, did you hear that?!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah, I heard.”

“It doesn’t make sense though. I mean, I was in bed! Asleep!”

“A lot of things don’t make sense. Exhibit A: you can hear the dead.”

Michael sighed. “Yeah, you’re right.” He coughed again and took a drink of water. “Wait…you might actually be onto something here.”

“I am?”

“Yeah! I mean, remember Schmidt is out to get us all, right?”

“Me and Alex, I dunno about you though.”

“He wants me dead though, I know it.”

“Well if he did, that wouldn’t explain why he didn’t do anything to you when you were most vulnerable! I mean, you trusted him for years! He could’ve done anything to you in those few years but he didn’t! Why now?!”

“I don’t know.” Michael coughed again, but as he thought about the entire situation as he drank the cool water, he got an idea. “Wait…maybe I do know.”

“Why?”

“Freddy’s is closed.”

“…what does that have to do with anything?!”

“Because I remember Alex said that the slash to the face was probably meant for me and I believe ‘em.” Michael coughed again and cleared his throat. “God, this damn cough…anyways that probably means my father is still hanging around that place.”

“Okay…and?”

“Alright, so my father wants me dead, right?”

“Unfortunately.”

“And Schmidt is working with him, right?”

“Yeah…”

“And he can perform like, magic or whatever?”

“Uh-huh…”

“So what if since Foxy’s hook didn’t slash through my face and since it was probably my father’s original plan to kill me, my father sent him to kill me another way but it failed?”

Jeremy looked at him for a few seconds like he was crazy, but the more he thought about it the more it made sense. “Holy shit…you might actually have a point.”

“That’s what I’m saying!” Michael coughed again and took a drink of water. “I mean, I can’t think of any other reason why this would happen! It’s too weird to happen coincidentally!”

“You have a point.”

“But…thank you Jer. You saved me from him.”

Jeremy smiled. “If this isn’t enough to show that I care about you, like, a ton, I dunno what is.”

Chapter 127

Summary:

Of course this would happen…

About an hour or two after Michael had woken up, he of course started to feel tired again. Jeremy understood why, because his body needed to heal, but Michael said that Jeremy should try to sleep as well since he barely has throughout the week.

Jeremy didn’t even feel tired, in fact he felt too excited that Michael was back and he didn’t loose him like he thought. He was one of the only people he had left, so of course he wouldn’t want to go to sleep but he reluctantly agreed.

For a while when all the lights in the room were turned off, Michael was asleep on the hospital bed, careful not to roll over onto his side like he usually did because he still had the breathing tube in.

Jeremy however, laid on the uncomfortable couch next to the hospital bed watching the heart rate monitor’s line go up and down steadily, hoping it would eventually hypnotize him into falling asleep.

It didn’t work like he hoped though because he stayed awake for a long while, watching it closely just in case that little line was straight for far too long, but that never happened and before he knew it there was morning light peeping in through the curtains. He groaned, took the pillow from behind his head and held it over his face.

He took the pillow off of his face and sat up, put on a white t-shirt to go along with his grey sweatpants he already had on, and put on his shoes as well as his crutch when he stood. His plan was, since he couldn’t sleep and it was already six in the morning, he would go to one of the surrounding shops within walking distance around the hospital because there were a few restaurants that sold breakfast as well as coffee.

Just as he reached for the doorknob however, he felt that strange and somewhat dreadful feeling that he was being watched. He turned to Michael who he hoped had just woken up and was looking at him because he heard him shuffling across the tile, but found that he was still sound asleep in the hospital bed. He was confused at first, but then he noticed that the room dropped in temperature and the air conditioning was not turned on.

Oh shit.

He was terrified and part of him wanted to leave the room since he was already this close to the door, but he stood his ground because he didn’t want to leave Michael alone, who was powerless at the moment.

Then just as he thought, there was Schmidt in front of him who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, completely pale except for the red stab wound on his chest right over his heart, red cut on his neck and black dress clothes.

Jeremy shivered at the sight of him but then he said, “Get the hell out of here,” trying to not sound scared.

The heart rate monitor suddenly went static and words appeared on the screen, like how they appeared on the television screen when Jeremy first encountered him. ‘Why? Am I not welcome here?’ it said.

“No. Go away.”

So you don’t even care to listen to what I have to say?

“No.” Schmidt then flicked his hand up in annoyance and Jeremy was then suddenly turned without him actually moving, pushed against the wall next to the door and slammed against it so hard that it hurt his back, his crutch fell off of his arm and he was pinned to the wall so he couldn’t move.

“Hey! Let me go!” Jeremy yelled, but since Michael was a light sleeper his eyes fluttered open and once he saw the two, he was too petrified to speak.

Not yet. Schmidt stepped closer to Jeremy, so close that Jeremy could feel the coldness coming off of his body. Do you realize what you’ve done?!

“Uh…no?”

Schmidt looked at him in annoyance. I was sent to destroy Michael once and for all because Foxy didn’t kill him like William intended. You interrupted his plan and my plan to get rid of him, so I have to kill you to keep you from getting in the way or else he’ll kill me if he finds out all of you are still alive. I was supposed to get rid of you anyway, so it works out perfectly.

“So… you’re just doing this for him?! What are you, some puppet?!”

Wrong Fitzgerald. I’m doing this so I can keep doing this type of work for centuries to come. I find joy in the suffering of others, and he’s just asking for a small price so I can keep doing what brings me joy, so, I decided, why should I not?

“Seriously?!”

Keep quiet.

“No the fuck I won’t! You’re a sick, twisted man!”

You will keep quiet, you wouldn’t want to alert Michael now, do you? You know how worried he’ll be for you if he sees you fighting for your life.

Jeremy paused, not sure what to say. He didn’t want to make Michael worry more because he had so much on his plate already, and Jeremy wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

Tears welled up in Jeremy’s eye. Don’t cry Jeremy, I’ll make sure to make it quick so Michael won’t even have time to see your dead body. You’ll reunite with him on the Other Side soon enough, same with the rest of your family.

”My…family?”

Yes. I know how badly you want to see them again, don’t you want that?

“I can meet my baby sister? I can see Mamá and Papá again?”

Yes, of course.

“I can live without my injury?”

Well…technically you’re dead when you go to the Other Side but, yes.

”And Mike’ll be there too?”

Yes.

Jeremy stayed silent in shock for a few seconds but before he could even say anything else, from out of nowhere a small, sharp, shiny dagger appeared in Schmidt’s hand. It wasn’t a normal dagger though, it was the same one Jeremy noticed he had on their first encounter: that small sharp object had a swirl pattern engraved on it that seemed to have purple liquid running through it.

Jeremy stayed silent for a minute and bit his lip in anxiousness. “Ju-just do it. Make it quick,” Jeremy said shakily as he accepted his fate. He couldn’t do anything to fight back, Schmidt held him against the wall and he couldn’t move.

“No…no Jer…” Michael said shakily. “Get away from him!” he yelled and Jeremy opened his eye to see Michael trying to pull the breathing tube out so he could get to him, but before he could Schmidt flicked up his wrist and Michael felt as though there was a huge weight on his chest, at least fifty pounds, pushing him down so he couldn’t move.

“This is just between me and him, Afton. I don’t need you getting in the way this time,” he said to Michael. “You’ll get your turn soon, but for now I’ll make you watch him die a slow and painful death.”

“P-please…don’t hurt him…” Michael said as he struggled to breathe with the weight on his chest; the breathing tube was now basically the only thing making sure he got air in his lungs.

“Mike…” Jeremy said quietly as he tried to sob silently and closed his eye tightly for a minute, wondering if he should try to get away since he had the rest of his life ahead of him to look forward to, or accept his fate since it was nearly impossible to escape and be able to reunite with his entire family again, who he missed immensely.

What would Mamá want you to do? he thought.

Jeremy opened his eye, now knowing his answer and tried his hardest to move to get away from the sharp tool in Schmidt’s hand and go to Michael’s side. However, it didn’t work like he thought and Jeremy barely moved but he continued struggling.

Hah! You look like a pathetic, worthless worm, trying to wriggle away from a child’s fingers. Should expect that, I’m more powerful than you’ll ever be.

Jeremy looked straight at him, rage and adrenaline now pumping through his veins, not sure if he was saying that because he was a powerful poltergeist or because Jeremy had a disability and he didn’t. He figured it was both. “Go to hell,” he said.

Schmidt then flicked his wrist up again and Jeremy’s head was slammed against the wall and tilted his head up so his neck was exposed. Jeremy could feel himself panicking, just waiting for that cold, sharp sensation to cut across his throat.

For a split second he did feel that pain and he sobbed as he felt blood trickling down his neck, thinking this was the end for him since Schmidt was just teasing him so he was as scared as he could possibly be before he actually killed him, but the sensation didn’t last long enough to cut off his breathing before he heard a crash and the dagger was dropped out of suprise.

Jeremy’s head was let go of and that’s when he realized he was lightheaded from the back of his head being slammed into the wall. Then, his entire body was let go of and he fell to the ground, trying to not pass out.

Schmidt looked at Jeremy on the ground but then he saw what made the noise: the blue and green abstract painting had fallen and the glass had broken.

Damn you Fitzgerald…trying to get me caught, he thought.

He picked up and hid the dagger in his pocket, knowing that she was here and would destroy it knowing that it was one of the only two things keeping him alive. 

He looked over at the window, fully expecting the other girl to be there since she was usually the one who oversaw when the other spirit went to protect her son, the one who first informed his mother that her son, his friend and boyfriend were being hunted by a poltergeist that was working for William, the one who asked his mother to help since she couldn’t help them alone, the one who had a burning hatred for William and wanted to stop him in any way she could, and that included bringing Schmidt down so William had less of a chance of hurting others, because he only used Schmidt so he wouldn’t get caught.

Schmidt looked out the window and saw her, just as he expected. Charlotte.

Once she saw that he saw her she left, but Schmidt disappeared and chased after her, but she was already long gone and hiding from him because he was even more powerful than her since he was a poltergeist. Schmidt didn’t know where she went, so he went back to the Afton’s old basement where old television was. 

The weight was lifted off of Michael’s chest once Schmidt had left the room. Michael sat up and had a coughing fit but once it calmed he took off the breathing tube, and even though he knew he wasn’t supposed to put too much pressure on his leg yet, he got out of the bed but almost immediately fell on the cold, hard tile because he hasn’t walked for well over a week. That and his leg was weak and hurting because he found out that he had to get stitches to fix it up.

He didn’t let that stop him and he got up, limped over to Jeremy and dropped to his knees next to him even though his knees were cut by the shattered glass on the tile. He couldn’t do anything that entire time and he felt terrible, but the important thing is that Jeremy was safe.

“Jer, Jeremy, it’s alright, he’s gone,” Michael said as he shook him lightly by the shoulder.

Jeremy was laying on the ground and Michael couldn’t tell if he was passed out or not, but Michael heard that he didn’t pass out because he was quietly sobbing and he was just laying on the ground.

“Shhh, it’s alright,” Michael said as he turned Jeremy around to look at him and sat him up, and from the darkness he could only see a few scrapes on his face, the large cut on his neck and he knew Jeremy’s head was slammed against the wall because he heard the thump. “Oh my God...”

Jeremy immediately wrapped his arms around Michael and hugged him tightly as did Michael while Jeremy sobbed into his shoulder.

“M-Mike…” he said.

“Yes, I’m here.”

”W…why?”

“Why what?”

“Wh-why me?”

Michael was silent for a moment. ”I…I don’t know.”

Jeremy was still shaking and crying so they sat holding each other for a while, and Michael began to gently rock himself and Jeremy back and forth so Jeremy calmed down.

Soon after Jeremy stopped crying and he was resting his head on Michael’s shoulder, Michael could feel Jeremy’s grip around him loosening up so he was finally getting tired enough to get some rest.

The calmness in the room didn’t last long though because a minute after Jeremy fell half asleep on Michael’s shoulder, Michael felt the room drop in temperature a few degrees again and saw Jeremy’s crutch inch towards him, like something was pushing it to him. What the… Michael thought.

Jeremy woke up, picked up his head and turned to look at it. He noticed it as well and was petrified as he sniffled. “H-hello?” he said as he grabbed the crutch and Michael felt him wrap his free arm around him as he leaned closer to him.

There was no response, but instead Jeremy felt what seemed like two cold hands cupping his face and an equally as cold peck on the forehead. The coldness in the room then dissipated and the room temperature was now back to normal.

After a minute of sitting in silence, both of them shocked and confused, Jeremy looked over at Michael and said, “What…the hell…is happening?!”

Chapter 128

Summary:

Aftermath of the terrifying encounter.

“I-I don’t know. C’mon, let’s get you up,” Michael said and tried his best to stand on his hurt leg so that they could both stand up, but before Jeremy could put his crutch back on his arm a nurse walked into the room to check on them. 

“Everything okay-oh my God! What happened?!” she shrieked once she saw them and turned on the light. 

Michael and Jeremy looked at each other, both of them not sure if they should tell her the truth which would probably lead both of them to seeing a therapist, or make up a believable lie. 

“Uh…the painting fell and I was…helping Jeremy up,” Michael said to the nurse. 

“You shouldn’t be out of bed! You’re still hurt!”

“I know, I know, but there was uh, no one else around.”

She turned to Jeremy. “And why were you over here in the first place?”

Jeremy looked over at Michael who gave him a look which Jeremy only assumed was Michael telling him to lie to her.

“I uh…” Jeremy started, not totally sure what he should say. “I…fell…trying to pick it up…and it uh, it cut me.” 

“Oh…next time, wait for someone else to pick it up, that can be dangerous for you!”

“Don’t baby me! I don’t need help! I’m a grown man-” Jeremy yelled but then Michael put his hand over Jeremy’s mouth.

“Uh…sorry about that,” Michael said for Jeremy. “I-I’m sure he didn’t mean to yell. I think he’s just a little…upset right now.”

“I sure as hell am!” Jeremy yelled, but it was thankfully muffled.

Michael led Jeremy back over to the couch to calm him down, then he went to the hospital bed close to him and he sat on the edge so they were facing each other. Michael was relieved to finally be sitting even though it has only been a few minutes because his leg was in pain the entire time he was standing.  

The nurse picked up the broken picture frame. “Be careful walking around here, we’ll get someone in here to clean up. I’ll be back shortly.” She turned to Michael. “I suppose that tube came out on your terms, huh?”

“Uh, yeah…”

She giggled. “I’ll double check to make sure you don’t have to have it in for any longer, otherwise you may have gotten it out early.”

“Alright, thanks.” She left the room and as soon as she shut the door, Michael hissed in pain from his leg still radiating the hurting sensation. “Ow…goddamn…” he mumbled.

“Oh my-do you want me to call her back here?”

“No, I-I’m fine.”

“But you’re in pain!”

“Don’t worry about me.” He immediately got off the bed and balanced on one leg, and since the couch was close to him he plopped down next to Jeremy and turned to him. He cupped Jeremy’s face in his hands and started gently moving his head around like he was examining his face and neck. “We should be worried about you! You’re hurt!”

“I’m fine, Mike.”

“No you’re not! He cut you, you have scratches all over you from when you fell and your head was slammed into the wall! He almost killed you! Are you alright?!”

“You don’t need to worry about it. A bandage would probably fix the cut right up,” Jeremy said as he pushed Michael’s hands away from his face. “And I could probably get an ice pack or something for my head, I’m fine.”

“You didn’t look fine a few minutes ago!”

“It doesn’t even hurt that much.”

“Liar.”

“I’m serious! Kinda. A bandage will probably help the cut on my neck.”

“What about your head?! That’s the part I’m worried about!”

Jeremy shrugged. “Still kinda hurts-”

“Well you should tell her! We’re in a hospital for God’s sake!”

“And say what?! That this poltergeist slammed my head against the wall?!”

“I-I don’t know! But what if you have a concussion or something?! You should get it checked out!”

“I’m fine. It’s probably just sore.”

“We don’t know that!”

Jeremy put his hands on both of Michael’s shoulders. “Mike, I’m fine. Breathe.”

Michael took several deep breaths and calmed down a little bit. “I-I’m sorry. I just worry for you. I hope this doesn’t seem like I’m babying you, I’m not, I swear!”

Jeremy smiled. “It’s alright. It’s just showing that you care.”

Michael smiled shyly and kissed his cheek. “Anyway, what happened back there?” he asked.

Jeremy sighed. “A lot.”

“Well that doesn’t really help.”

“You know I have trouble with finding the right words. I dunno how to say it.”

“Well then, just say it in one word.”

Jeremy stayed silent for a minute as he tried to think of a word to describe his encounter, and nothing really came to mind except for feelings that he could not put into words for the life of him. Suddenly though, without giving it a second thought he said the first thing that came to mind and what he thought was the perfect explanation: “Scary.”

“Was he that scary to you?”

Jeremy nodded and tears welled up in his eye again. “He…he threatened to kill me…I-I thought he couldn’t do anything to me since he’s, y’know, a ghost, but after seeing that he can actually hurt me…Mike, I-I’m terrified! I don’t wanna die! I-I’m too young, I’m only twenty three! I wanna live my life!”

Jeremy hugged him tightly and sobbed into his shoulder once again. “No…it’s alright Jeremy, I’ve got you, it’s okay. I won’t let him do anything to you, I promise,” Michael said calmly to him.

“M-more than he already did?”

“Yeah, you’re gonna be fine. As long as you’re with me, you’ll be alright.”

“But what if he does get past you?! What happens then?!”

”I won’t let him get there. I promise you, I’m going to find out how to stop him one day. But Jer…you’re hugging me too tight.”

---

That afternoon after Michael got the ‘okay’ that it was alright for the breathing tube to come out early since he was conscious again, Jeremy was eating his lunch that he got from McDonald’s since there was one not too far, and Michael had the usual lunch of hospital food which he didn’t even touch, but he was instead scratching at the bandages covering the stitches on his leg.

Jeremy touched the small bandage on his neck making sure it was still covering his cut, shivered at the thought that he could have died if this small cut went any deeper, but then he saw Michael not even touching the food in front of him. “Michael,” Jeremy said suddenly, snapping Michael out of his trance.

“Yeah?” Michael replied and he stopped scratching.

“They’re gonna cover that with something if you don’t quit it.”

“Not my fault it’s itchy.”

”Y, necesitas comer.” (And, you need to eat.)

He was silent for a few seconds as he tried to translate Jeremy’s words in his head since Jeremy spoke in Spanish to him sometimes to test him. “But I don’t wanna!” he whined after a second.

“Mike, you’re still sick, you need food.”

“But it’s hospital food, I don’t want it. What you have looks better than whatever the hell this is.”

Jeremy sighed and rolled his eye. “Fine, you big baby.” He went to the opposite side of the room, came back and handed him a scrap piece of paper that was on the desk in the room and a pen. “If you write down what you want so I don’t forget, I’ll go to McDonald’s and I’ll get it for you.”

“Aww, really?”

“Yeah. You need to eat, and I see you eyeing my burger.”

Michael chuckled. “I love that you didn’t loose your compassion back in ‘87.”

“So am I. I feel like I should’ve though…actually I feel like I should’ve lost a lot and I should’ve changed a lot, but now I’m almost…back to how I was before. Minus the few obvious changes.”

“But you didn’t loose a lot, it could’ve been so much worse and I could’ve even lost you, so consider yourself lucky.”

“I don’t really think it’s luck.”

“What? Is there something that powerful enough to prevent effects of a serious injury?”

Jeremy shrugged. “You never know, anything’s possible, but it doesn’t seem like it’s just pure luck. Since I work in a library there are some books on the brain and in one there’s this thing I found called…a lobotomy I think? Which seemed kind of similar to what I had.

“Anyway according to that I feel like I should’ve died or at least had an entire personality shift but for some weird reason, I didn’t. It’s weird, call me crazy but I feel like something…or someone is preventing that from happening. I dunno, I’m just thought dumping on you at this point.”

Michael bit his lip since he was now anxious because Jeremy was right: things should have been very different, but he tried not to think about it and put his pen on the paper, and it wasn’t long after when they heard a knock at the door which scared Michael since he wasn’t expecting it.

“Mike, it’s fine. It’s just the door,” Jeremy said.

“But you know I’m jumpy after these things!”

”Come in,” Jeremy said loudly and the wooden door squeaked open. “Mrs. Davis?!” Jeremy exclaimed once he saw her open the door.

“Hey!” she said.

“You’re here?!”

“Yep! Don’t you remember? You called on Saturday and said Michael was sent to the hospital. When I asked which, it turned out to be the same one Alex is in!”

“Oh…I forgot I said that.”

“It’s alright.” She turned to Michael. “Hey Michael! How’re you feeling?”

“Eh. Tired,” he replied.

“I’m so sorry. Well, someone wants to say hi to you two.”

Michael and Jeremy looked at each other and back at her, then she opened the door a little wider. “Alex!” they both exclaimed.

“Hey guys!” Alex said weakly as they walked in the room.

They didn’t look much different than they usually did; now dressed in a baggy shirt that had the Queen band logo on it and ripped sky blue jeans, but now had a hospital bracelet on to show that they were a patient at the hospital like Michael had. Their locs were now in a half ponytail rather than a high ponytail and they had gauze along the right side of their face held in place by medical tape.

“Oh my God, you’re alive!” Michael exclaimed.

“I don’t go down that easily.”

“I’ll leave you three alone to catch up. It’s been almost a month since they talked to you guys so I’m sure there’s a lot!”

”Thanks Mom, I’ll be back in like an hour, see ya!” Alex said to Isabella and she left, leaving the three of them alone in the room.

After she left, Jeremy immediately stood up slowly and gave Alex a giant bear hug, which he had trouble controlling his strength in but Alex didn’t mind. After Jeremy let go, Michael stood, careful to not stand on his right leg and also gave Alex a hug, since he was happy that their life didn’t end that night a few weeks ago.

“Oh my God…I can’t believe you’re alive,” Michael said, partly still in shock and he let go of Alex.

“Those animatronics got nothing on me,” Alex said and they all laughed at that comment.

Jeremy then sat back on the couch while Alex sat next to him and Michael sat on the hospital bed across from them so they could all talk and catch up.

“Does it hurt?” Jeremy asked Alex when they sat.

“My face?”

“Yes your face!”

“Eh. Kinda. Not as bad as like, one of the first days I got here.”

“How was it then?”

“Uh…bad.”

“Well duh!”

“I think he meant, did it hurt more than it does now?” Michael said.

“Yeah! I’m just bad at words.”

Alex chuckled and said, “Well those couple weeks ago…well let’s say it started getting a little infected because I guess the bandage wasn’t covering it well, I dunno, medical stuff.”

“So did they use like, alcohol on it or something?” Michael asked.

“Yeah! It hurt, but not just the wound part, my entire face hurt! Plus, there’s literally a hole right there and let me tell ya…straight up alcohol doesn’t actually taste that good.”

“Gross!” Michael and Jeremy exclaimed together.

“Totally. I think someone had to like, restrain me down because I kept moving and trying to get away. Anyways, Mike, what’re you in for?”

“You made that sound like we’re in prison,” Michael said. Alex shrugged and Jeremy chuckled. “Like, how did I end up here?”

“No, in detention,” Alex said sarcastically. “Yes here! We didn’t hear anything from Jeremy that day he called! Just that you were in the hospital!”

“Oh. There was fluid in my lungs, so much that it almost basically drowned me, I had to get stitches in my leg and my sides, but the sides don’t hurt as much as the leg-”

“Wait, fluid?!”

“Yeah! Water! I think…” Jeremy said. “It happened while he was sleeping, same with the leg and sides.”

“What?! How…how the hell did that even happen then?! You were asleep!”

Jeremy lowered his voice to a whisper. “Schmidt,” he said quietly.

“Him?!” Michael nodded. “He tried to kill you too?!”

Michael nodded again. “He said that since Freddy’s is closed, William sent him to kill me instead, or I guess at the very least beat me down so I don’t have the strength to fight back since uh…he obviously didn’t kill me.”

“Oh my God…so he’s after all of us now?!”

“Basically.”

“Jesus…I’m never goin’ to Freddy’s again.”

“Me either.”

“Well uh…about that…” Jeremy butted in.

“Oh geez, what is it?” Michael asked, but then he noticed Jeremy was holding a little piece of paper in his hand. “Where did you get that?”

“The table,” he said and motioned towards a small table right next to the couch. “I wrote it down so I won’t forget, and of course I forgot about it until right now.”

“Well, what is it?”

“When you were still out, I got a call from Rob. He asked how you were doing first of all, but then he said once you get back…he’ll give you a couple of weeks to get better at home and think about it but…he asked if you could go back to Freddy’s.”

Chapter 129

Summary:

Michael has a difficult choice to make.

”What?! He wants me to go back?!” Michael exclaimed.

“Hey, don’t yell at me, I’m just the delivery guy,” Jeremy said.

“Holy shit…what the hell is he thinking?!”

“He said it’ll just be for a little while until Fazbear decides what to do with that location, he said like a week at least, but he’s expecting the place to close by the end of that week. But he said it’s up to you if you wanna do it.”

“I thought this was a two person thing! How could he expect me to do two people’s job when I’m only one person?!”

“If you want things from my experience, it’s not actually a two person job. That was just for safety stuff after my accident.”

“He’s right,” Alex said. “I was alone ‘till you came along.”

“But he said if you want someone there, he’s willing to go in with you or even his fiancé is willing to go there to stay with you.”

“Wait…”

“Rob has a fiancé?!” Alex and Michael exclaimed together.

“Did…did you guys not know?”

”No!” Alex exclaimed.

“Oh. I’d thought you’d know because you guys work there. He told me that a few weeks ago because he meets up with me at work sometimes.”

“Well he never told us about that! He only comes by at night on really rare occasions, and he hasn’t for a while!”

Jeremy gasped. “He told me something he didn’t tell you guys?! I feel special! This is such an honor!”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Just tell us who!”

”You guys probably know her: her name’s Hailey!”

“Hailey?” Michael repeated.

“Yeah! Y’know, the one we all used to work with at the other location?”

“Wait… that Hailey?! The one who literally saved your life and pulled Mangle off of you, Hailey?!” Alex exclaimed and Jeremy nodded. “She and Rob were dating?!”

Jeremy shrugged. “Apparently for like, five years and Rob only recently proposed to her.”

“Okay, back on topic,” Michael said. “I don’t want either of them risking their life for me, but I also don’t want to miss another week at my regular job.”

“I personally think your day job won’t let you go back until you can walk properly again,” Alex butted in.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“Well if the night shift at Freddy’s is supposed to be a two person job and no one else is there, just don’t go back altogether! Simple!” Jeremy exclaimed. “It’s not meeting the requirements so there’s no reason for you to go back!”

“Jer, I can’t do that.”

“Why?! It’d be better for you!”

“Rob’s counting on me! I hate letting people down, and plus it’s not actually a two person job,” Michael sighed and rubbed his temples. “I wanna go back to the pizzeria.”

“What?!” Jeremy and Alex said together.

“You know what happened to me! What if it happens to you?!” Alex exclaimed.

“Better me than Hailey or Rob, who have done literally nothing. Besides, I wanna see what’s up with those animatronics and what my father has done to them to make ‘em that aggressive.”

”I don’t think that’s a good idea. Plus you literally had stitches so you kinda need to take it easy! Just tell Rob that you can’t and Rob’ll convince Fazbear to give the piece of junk the ol’ wrecking ball treatment.”

“Al.”

“What?!”

“I said I wanna see what he’s done to them! The animatronics themselves don’t know any better, they’re just robots.”

“Yeah, robots who kill people! Going back’s not a good idea!”

“What if they get to you?!” Jeremy exclaimed.

“They won’t, Jer,” Michael assured him.

“You don’t know that! They-they’re powerful!”

“I’ll be fine, I promise.”

“But…but you’re the only one I have left, Mike! If you die, I’m all alone because my family’s all dead and I don’t know what I would do with myself! I don’t feel comfortable relying on Henry because I don’t know him as well as you do, Alex already has a family they’re staying with and they have their little brother to look after because their parents are getting older, plus you are the love of my life and no one else can take your place! Please Mike, I need you here!”

Michael fell silent, flabbergasted and now feeling bad because he hated to make Jeremy worry about his safety, and now since he knew why he worried he felt terrible. Actual tears also started welling up in Jeremy’s eye and he quickly wiped them away, and this way Michael knew this was no act, he was serious.

“Woah,” Alex said a minute later, breaking the awkward silence between them. “That was…heavy.”

“Yeah,” Michael said. “I-I…I don’t know what to do now.”

“Mike, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Alex said to him. “You can stay at home and assure Jeremy and even Henry that you’ll be safe. You have a choice here, it’s not like you don’t.”

“Yeah, it’s not like you have to,” Jeremy added. “Just stay home and rest, you need it and you deserve it.”

“I want to, I really, really do because…I’m so tired…” Michael sighed and wiped the tears building up in his eyes. “But…I-I don’t think I can, I don’t think I have a choice here. I have to figure this out to find my father and finally put an end to this madness. I don’t think I can truly rest until I know he’s gone.” He turned to Jeremy and took both of his hands in his. “I’m sorry Jer, I am so, so, so sorry. But I promise you, every night I am there, I will come back home safe and sound every day.”

Jeremy sniffled. “Promise?”

”I promise.”

---

When Michael drove into the parking lot of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria a couple of weeks later, he wasn’t expecting the lights to be on. Sure it was eleven thirty at night, but the pizzeria would usually be empty at this time.

He went inside and unexpectedly, there was Robert waiting for him, but he had his back to Michael looking up at the three main animatronics on the stage. “Uh, hey Rob,” Michael said awkwardly.

Robert turned to him. “Oh! Hey Mike!”

“What’re you doing here?”

“Oh y’know, checking in on you. And there’s been a change in the pizzeria, so most likely you won’t have to worry about one of the animatronics so I kinda have to let you know.”

“Oh. Really?”

“Yeah. Anyways, how’re you feeling? I heard about what happened.”

“Oh, I’m fine. Just y’know, almost died, no biggie.”

Robert let out a light chuckle. “Your sarcastic tone always gets me. How’s the leg? I heard you had to get stitches in it.”

“Eh. Alright. I can walk on it now and the stitches came out last week, but it still kinda hurts. Not as bad as before though.”

“Then good thing this is a sitting job, huh?”

“Eh…it kind of is.”

“Oh right, kind of. Anyways uh, I was watching the old feed from the security cameras, and those animatronics are no joke. Are you sure you’re cool with staying by yourself? You can’t run that easily yet, so if something were to happen then I’d hate to put you in that situation.”

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure I’m smart enough to keep them out of the office. I mean, this place will only stay open for a little while, right?”

“Uh, yeah I think so. Unless I hear back from Fazbear and high chance he’ll want to close it down since there’s been two accidents and ‘it makes the business look bad’.”

“Wow. Not closing it down about the fact that people were hurt?”

“Nope. Just about reputation. I swear, can’t stand him but without him, I’d be out of a job. Anyways now that we got that outta the way, lemme show you what we’ve done with the place.”

Robert led Michael over to Pirate’s Cove where Michael saw that it was all cleaned; there was no traces of blood anywhere.

“Wow. Those cleaning people really know their stuff, huh?” Michael asked. “There’s no blood anywhere.”

”Kinda. That can also be because it was just on the tile. Anyways here’s uh…I guess improved for safety Pirate’s Cove?”

Michael looked to the small stage and saw that it was not improved, in fact it would probably lead to a worse experience for the kids. The purple starry curtains on the stage were drawn so nobody could see inside, and all there was on the outside was a wooden sign that said, ‘Sorry! Out of Order’.

“Seriously?! They just took him out instead of fixing him?!” Michael exclaimed. “What about the kids?! They loved him!”

“Oh no, he’s still there, just powered off.”

Michael opened the curtains a bit, just enough to peek through and saw that he was in fact still there. He didn’t look how he did before though, now Foxy’s casing seemed to be torn in random places, the casing on both of his legs were torn off as well as his left hand to reveal the metal endoskeleton which was underneath his casing.

“Jesus…” Michael muttered under his breath and closed the curtains once again.

“Truth is they did try to fix him, that’s why his casing’s all torn up. We even called in the mechanics and technicians who built him but they honestly didn’t know what was wrong with him. Or any of the animatronics really.

“While you were out, I even called in your uncle because I remember he helped Fazbear with the plans and helped build them…kinda at least. Even he didn’t think this would happen so therefore, he didn’t know how to fix the animatronics.”

”Well if one of the founders doesn’t know…is this place gonna close soon?”

Robert shrugged. “Most likely, so I’m in the job search right now. Again. So if you know of any good places, lemme know. Anyways d’you think William was also behind this?”

“Most definitely. That’s why I decided to come back. I would’ve anyway, since I want to figure all this out.”

“Yep, that’s what I thought. I didn’t want it to seem like I was forcing you to come back, I just knew you would no matter what I said so I gave you the option. So…are ya sure you wanna stay here alone? I-I can still call in Hailey if you want, knowing her she’s probably still awake or I’m also willing to stay here.”

“No, you don’t have to call her in, and I’m pretty sure you’ve been working all day, right? I’ll be fine.”

”You know how dangerous this place can be, and the animatronics seem more aggressive towards you than anyone else. I don’t want you to have to go through that alone, especially because y’know, you were just in the hospital.”

“I’ll be fine, I was only hospitalized for a week anyway and spent two weeks at home, so I rested enough to where I can handle myself. I don’t want her, you or anyone risking their life for me.”

Robert sighed. “Alright, you win. But my offer still stands if you ever change your mind. I talked to Hailey and she’s always up for it and so am I.”

“Thanks, but I’m pretty sure I won’t be needing it.”

“Alright then. It’s almost midnight, g’night and call me if you need anything or if you change your mind.”

“Okay! Bye Rob!” Michael said and watched as Robert left out the front doors, got in his old black car in the parking lot and drove away. “Now to figure out what the hell is going on with this place,” Michael mumbled to himself as he went to the security office.

Chapter 130

Summary:

Night 1

As Michael made his way to the security office at the back of the restaurant, the power turned off in the pizzeria and he took off in a sprint to the light in the small room, which wasn’t too quick because his leg was still recovering. Once he was inside, he slumped in the faux leather swivel seat, exhausted, and turned on the monitor.

“Alright, let’s do this,” he said to himself as he sat up straight and switched to the main show stage camera. “Don’t be too hard on me today, alright? I just got back,” he said as if the animatronics could hear him.

He started flipping through all of the cameras to double check that they were all still in working condition, and he noticed that the camera in the kitchen was still out and only the audio was working as of now. “Still haven’t fixed that yet, huh Fazbear? How cheap are ya?” he muttered.

He switched to the Pirate’s Cove camera and saw that Foxy’s curtains were still drawn and he hoped that he was actually powered off and Michael wouldn’t have to deal with him, because deep down he thought Foxy would somehow power on even though he saw that Foxy was powered off himself so he couldn’t help being worried that was the case.

He kept checking the door lights just to make sure the animatronics weren’t waiting to attack him right outside the door, although he knew they weren’t because he heard no footsteps, but he was paranoid that they would sneak up on him since Michael was prone to getting distracted easily and he wouldn’t notice them.

He kept checking the main stage and Pirate’s Cove, but once an hour had passed of none of the animatronics moving, he calmed down some and popped a piece of bubblegum from his pocket in his mouth.

“This is what being a night shift security guard should be like,” he said to himself. “I shouldn’t be fighting for my life every two seconds.”

The first few hours he kept checking the cameras, but the animatronics hadn’t moved an inch like they hadn’t been moving by themselves just a few weeks prior.

Since he wasn’t as worried about them tonight, he kept himself entertained by blowing bubbles with his bubblegum, spinning around in circles in the swivel seat, pacing around the office because he needed to move around, drawing in an old notebook he found in one of the drawers in the desk, and randomly switching on the door lights because he kept forgetting if he checked them earlier or not.

He thought about going out to the show stage to try and mess with the animatronic’s mechanics as much as he could without tools to try and figure out what his father did to them, but as soon as he checked the cameras to triple check that he was safe to go out of the office, he saw that Bonnie had moved to the dining area. “So much for that plan.”

At the end of the hour, he checked the dining area camera and saw that Bonnie had moved positions. He started frantically flipping through the cameras and even checked the door lights, but couldn’t find him anywhere. He was now no longer frantic and scared, but he was now rather confused because it wasn’t like he could hide that easily or walk out of the restaurant; he was too big and noticeable to sneak past him that easily.

Michael checked the cameras again cautiously to not waste too much power and in the hallway, he finally saw a silhouette of a rabbit animatronic partly hidden by shadows. He exhaled in relief and slumped back in his seat because it never turned out well if the security guard didn’t know where the giant, almost seven foot tall robots were.

The man watched Bonnie carefully and cautiously so he wouldn’t waste too much power, but every so often he switched over to Pirates Cove to make sure that Foxy hadn’t moved. Michael was sure he wouldn’t, but Foxy was able to move the fastest out of all of the animatronics and could get to him the quickest so he couldn’t help thinking it was a possibility.

As he moved away from the monitor, he decided to check the door light since he heard footsteps just moments before. He turned on the light and just as he expected, there was Bonnie at the door and Michael still jumped in suprise even though he’s seen Bonnie dozens of times.

He quickly shut the door in Bonnie’s face and went back to the monitor, hoping that he would move away from the door sometime soon because he was running low on power. It didn’t used to run out this quickly, but he assumed the building was on some kind of reduced power mode for safety precautions.

After battling Bonnie at the door for about an hour, trying anything to make him move away from the door since he wouldn’t budge, he finally gave up and went back into the hallway, making his way back to the dining area with the others. Michael opened the door and slumped back in the swivel seat in relief because Bonnie had seemed to have lost interest in him for the night.

Since it was now five thirty in the morning and Michael hadn’t checked Pirates Cove in a while because he’s been occupied with Bonnie, he went to the monitor and switched the camera over to Pirates Cove, and much to his suprise, Foxy was moving.

“What the…how?!” Michael exclaimed and sat up in surprise. “I thought you were powered off!”

There, he saw Foxy walking around on his small wooden stage like he was powered on like any other normal day and Michael stared at the monitor in disbelief.

After a minute of wandering around the small stage, Foxy picked his head up and noticed that the camera across the room from him had a small, blinking red light next to the camera lens, indicating that the camera was on him, and he went to the edge of the stage preparing to climb down those three feet to the black and white checkered tile.

Michael stood and scrambled for the door switch, but on the way since he wasn’t paying attention he tripped on his own two feet and his chest hit the cold, hard tile.

“Ow…” he groaned and glanced back at the monitor to see that Foxy was now off of the stage and preparing to sprint towards the office door. Michael stood, trying to ignore the lingering pain in his chest as he made his way to the switch, but then he heard a sound he thought would never come.

The sound of the bell signaling that it was now six in the morning and his shift had ended for the day.

Michael then clocked out and sprinted as fast as he could out the front door to make sure he didn’t run into any animatronics, and once he was outside he tried to ignore the slight pain in his leg as he walked to his car parked near the entrance in the parking lot.

As Michael sat in the driver’s seat and closed the door behind him, he was thankful that he got through his first night shift alone and looked back at the restaurant before he turned the car on and drove away, which had the morning sunrise gleaming on the sign while the door was still in the shadows, but soon enough those shadows would be chased away by the sunlight coming in from the east.

He thought back to the past half hour, knowing that something bigger than just a mechanical glitch could be going on. Foxy was moving by himself for crying out loud, but if powering on all by himself wasn’t creepy enough, the movements seemed too fluid, too…human. Sure, someone could be playing a prank on him, but he saw himself that Foxy was powered off and there was no one else in the restaurant all night.

That meant it could only be something paranormal or something done from a mad scientist, and since Michael’s father was able to complete the task of harvesting remnant from souls and experimenting with it, this could quite possibly the work of William Afton.

“What the hell did you do, Father?”

Chapter 131

Summary:

Night 2

”Alright, here we go,” Michael said as he got out of his parked car in the parking lot of Freddy Fazbear’s. He closed the car door behind him and went to the front entrance of the building, slightly anxious because he knew the animatronics got more active the longer they kept seeing someone.

Once he made his way into the office and sat in the swivel seat, the clock struck midnight and all the lights in the pizzeria went off except for the one in the office. He checked all of the monitors to check that they were all in good working condition, as usual, and sat back in the chair.

“And now, we wait,” he said as he popped a piece of bubble gum in his mouth.

About thirty minutes into his shift, he blew a bubble from the gum in his mouth but once he popped it, he decided to check the cameras once more. He flipped through the monitor, checking the camera closest to him first and making his way to check the one at the main stage last. Once he got to the main stage however, just as he expected, Bonnie was gone.

He flipped through the cameras because he had memorized Bonnie’s set path that he took to get to the back office, but as he checked all of the cameras along that path, Bonnie was nowhere to be found.

He woke up from his half asleep state and started looking through the cameras, thinking he just missed his shadow because he was half asleep, but he again saw nothing. He even checked the door light just to make sure he didn’t somehow sprint across the pizzeria, and thankfully nothing was there.

Although, not knowing where one of the animatronics were was never a good sign, so he decided to expand his search from Bonnie’s set path and checking the cameras more towards the right side of the restaurant, though he knew Bonnie wouldn’t be there, and as he expected he wasn’t.

“Where the hell is he?!” he mumbled.

There was one more camera on the very the left side of the pizzeria that he hadn’t checked, but no one usually went in there ever since Patrick Graham was forcefully stuffed into a suit. “Worth a shot.” Once he flipped to the camera to the backstage area, there was Bonnie’s shadow rummaging around the powered down suits.

Michael exhaled in relief and flipped through the cameras, but once he did he noticed that Bonnie had gotten bored of the suits and moved to the dining area.  

Michael watched him for a while, but when he finally decided to lightly push himself so the swivel seat rolled backwards with him in it, he heard the clanking of metal footsteps on his left like the previous night.

“That’s just great,” he mumbled.

He moved to the door and prepared himself to be jump scared by Bonnie trying to peek into the office, and once he turned on the light, he saw that Bonnie was trying to do just that. He gasped because no matter how many times that happened, it always scared him so he shut the door in Bonnie’s face. Bonnie started knocking at the door, wanting to be let in and eventually started banging on the metal, but since it didn’t budge he left within a few minutes notice.

Michael went back to the old metal desk with the monitor on it and went through the cameras again, and that’s when he saw Chica in the dining area. It was the first time he’s seen her move in a while, but she was headed towards the kitchen: her favorite place to be since the camera was broken and she could rummage around and make a mess.

He ignored her and decided to check Pirate’s Cove because he wanted to know if he was actually imagining things the previous night or not. He checked the Cove and as he expected, the curtains were still closed and untouched.

He exhaled slowly in relief as he slumped back into the chair because he knew he was imagining things, but he figured that the anxiety of coming back here must have gotten to his head.

After that, not much was happening and the animatronics weren’t being aggressive towards him so he closed his eyes, resting them and was starting to fall asleep when he heard a sudden crash on the tile just outside one of the doors. He opened his eyes at once since it startled him and checked both lights since he couldn’t tell which side it came from, but saw nothing.

“Weird,” he mumbled and checked the cameras to make sure, and again there was nothing in sight and there was no evidence that anything fell down. He pushed lightly on the desk in front of him so the rolling chair he was in backed him up from the camera monitor. “Someone call the Ghostbusters,” he joked to himself.

Suddenly from out of nowhere, he heard garbled mechanical sounds and the words, ‘It’s me’ flash in random places around the room. He also saw a Freddy head appear a few times, but it looked like it had bulging human eyes which freaked him out.

“Ah!” he yelped and stood up. “Who’s there?!” he yelled and looked around the room, but no response. “Please don’t tell me I’m hallucinating, I don’t wanna go to the doctor again…”

He checked outside of both doors and again, he saw nothing out of both entrances to the office even with the door lights turned on. He checked all of the cameras to find that Freddy and Bonnie were in the dining area, Chica was in her usual spot in the kitchen and Foxy hadn’t moved an inch from his stage.

There was nothing else in the entire building, and no children’s drawings or company poster had been magically changed and the screens on the monitor all looked how they did fifteen minutes ago.

“Damn it, I’m hallucinating.”

Soon enough, the clock chimed signaling the six o’clock hour and Michael headed out the door to his car in the parking lot.

As soon as Michael walked out of the pizzeria, the spirit of Evan watched him leave out the front double doors. He smiled to himself, part of him enjoying the fact that he was the one scaring Michael as payback for all the years of torture he had put him through, and he vanished.

---

“It’s not fair!” the spirit possessing the rabbit animatronic said to the three others before the restaurant opened. They could all walk freely from their animatronic, but not for long, just long enough to have a conversation with each other face to face which they did often because it was the only way they felt somewhat free even though it was only temporary.

“What isn’t?” the boy possessing the bear animatronic asked.

“He gets to leave and walk around free, but we’re stuck here! He’s bad! Why’re we doing what he should?!”

“It’s ‘cause our souls are trapped in robots Jere, it’s been like that for years.”

“I know smarty-pants! I mean…I dunno!” He slumped down so he sat on the stage. “I-I just want my life back! I w-want Mommy and Daddy! I-I don’t wanna be stuck watching other kids my age forever!” he said and he was obviously about to start crying.

“We all want our lives back,” the spirit possessing the chicken animatronic said and sat next to him. “I wanna see my Mom, Dad and little sister again. I-I wanna see my friends.”

“But we can’t, we’re stuck,” the boy possessing the fox animatronic added as he poked his head out from the curtains of Pirate’s Cove and he ran to the main stage.

“Fritz’s right. Look Jere, even though we’re stuck like this, we at least have each other, right?” the boy possessing the bear said.

“Not everyone!” he exclaimed and he stood up and turned around to face his older half-brother. “What about Cassidy?! Or did you forget about our sister already, Gabe?!”

“I didn’t forget about her. I wanna see her again too, but we don’t know where she is.”

“That’s because we don’t go out!”

“Well, it wouldn’t be a very good thing if people saw us walking around!” the girl possessing the chicken said.

“Yeah! What if we’re taken away to labs or something?!” Fritz exclaimed.

“Jere, I don’t think that would work,” Gabriel said. “Look, I know you wanna leave, but these things can’t go with us since they’re literal giants. I’m sorry but…we…we’re stuck,” he said, trying to sound like the situation didn’t upset him deeply for the sake of the younger ones. 

Jeremy back down on the edge of the stage and they all stayed silent for a while. “But…we all made a promise to hurt William, right?” he finally said after a minute.

“Yeah…” the other three said in unison.

“So…I know we stopped trying to actually hurt him after that security guard got hurt, but what if we did it again?”

They all looked at each other and back at him. “Jere…” Gabriel started.

“That’s a terrible idea,” Fritz butted in. “We already got rid of that…phone guy, and we all know how messy that was and it turned out he wasn’t even William, and that other security guy who jumped in front of me while I was trying to get him literally made my animatronic ‘Out of Order’. We already failed to get him twice, what if it happens again?!”

Gabriel and Susie shot him an angry look. “Fritz!” Susie shouted.

“What?”

“He’s the youngest out of all of us! Cut him some slack, will you?!” Gabriel shouted at him and turned back to his little brother. “What if it doesn’t work out like the first two times? I’m pretty sure the others are just scared to accidentally hurt another innocent person, and I am too.”

“I know it will work this time, like that saying, ‘third time’s a charm’. We just have to try harder this time,” he said.

”Try harder? We were already giving all we got.”

”I’m not talking about how strong we are. I’m thinking, what if instead of attacking him every second, we made him use the power more so he’ll run out?”

“Like, overwhelm him?”

“Yeah! He’ll run out of power faster if we’re all at the doors, then we can get him while the power’s out since he can’t do anything and we can get our revenge! Plus, there’s only one security guard here now, it should be easier and we shouldn’t make a mistake this time!”

“Hmm…y’know, that’s actually not a bad idea-”

“Seriously?! You’re siding with the bunny?!” Fritz exclaimed.

“Shut it Fritz, we all wanna get revenge on him, right? Overwhelming the power supply seems like the best option if we wanna get to him rather than just relying on the strength of these things.”

Chapter 132

Summary:

Night 3

”Now, what the hell is going on here?” Michael muttered as he opened the heavy metal doors to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. He walked inside and cautiously passed by the main stage to the office, but he didn’t notice Bonnie’s crimson red eyes following his every move.

There he is! Jeremy thought.

Michael walked into the office just in the nick of time because the power shut off everywhere except for the small security office room he was in. “Livin’ the dream…” he muttered as he sat in the black swivel seat in front of the monitors.

For the first hour nothing much happened; the animatronics didn’t even move which was very strange, because Michael knew they usually became more active as the week progressed. He even checked Pirate’s Cove to make sure nothing was moving but again like the previous night, nothing.

“The hell…” he said under his breath, but that’s when he heard it.

A child’s voice saying, “Psst!”

“Hello?” Michael said, but no response. “Who’s there?”

“Psst!” it said again.

“Who are you?! Where are you?!” No answer. “I’m probably hallucinating again...”

No response, but Michael was determined to make sure he was hallucinating by checking the entire building and not actually hearing a real child, so he grabbed the flashlight off of the messy desk and went out the door of the office.

He went out to the pitch black hallway and turned on the flashlight in his hands to be greeted by the same old messy hallway he always saw, only it seemed a lot more eerie this time around. He cautiously walked down the hall, looking for a source to the noise, but once he got to the dining area there was no sign of life anywhere in sight.

“Behind you!” the voice said and Michael froze because of how close it sounded. Cautiously, he turned around to see a little boy sitting on the table Michael had walked around earlier to get closer to the stage.

This little boy had a somewhat darker complexion and had a dark blue sweater paired with his light blue jeans. He wore round glasses and had very curly hair, and Michael sworn he had seen this boy before but not for a very long time.

“Uh…hey…what’re you doing here?” Michael asked him, trying to not sound scared because he had appeared out of nowhere.

“I wanna play!”

“…what?”

“We can play hide-and-seek!” he exclaimed, jumping down from the table he was sitting on. “I’ll hide and you seek!”

“Uh…” Michael started, but then the little boy ran off. “Hey! Wait!”

“Start counting!”

Michael sighed. “You shouldn’t even be here, kid.”

A few seconds later of Michael standing in complete silence in the middle of the room, the little boy shouted, “Come and find me!”

Michael exhaled deeply, but then he started walking to where he heard the boy’s voice which just so happened to be a place where the public is not allowed: backstage. Michael opened the door and shined his light in, trying to persevere through the putrid smell, but even though he double checked he couldn’t find the boy anywhere.

“Hey kid? Uh…where are you?”

There was no response, so he knew he must be getting close to finding him, and Michael figured that once he did he could bring him to the police and they could take him home since he had to finish his shift.

He searched and searched around the room for what felt like hours, checking every little hiding spot he could have squeezed into and still, nothing. He turned around to leave the room because he questioned himself on why he was doing this, but suddenly from out of nowhere, he heard the squeak of metal falling over against the back wall so he turned to see an dirty, old, animatronic suit of a brown bear on the floor leaning against the wall with the headpiece off.

“The hell…” he muttered, but his curiosity got the best of him and he cautiously walked towards it and crouched down to look at it closer. “Where did this old thing come from?”

“It’s your prize,” he heard the little boy’s voice from behind him, and Michael turned to him.

“Prize…for what?”

“For finding me,” he said and suddenly walked backwards until he was out of the beam of the flashlight, and suddenly from the darkness where that boy disappeared, was Bonnie walking towards him.

“B-Bonnie?!” Michael exclaimed and stood up and he dropped the flashlight in shock . “Oh my God…” he said as he backed up as Bonnie got closer to him, now noticing the animatronic head full of wires and different parts was on the table in the middle of the room .

He called the animatronic Bonnie, but he knew the animatronic’s name wasn’t Bonnie, he knew he wasn’t just an animatronic and he wasn’t just a mindless hunk of metal. He was a person, a child, a child who was angry and restless.

After his mind quieted with the racing thoughts that he was going to be murdered tonight, he finally managed to get out some words. “Please, I don’t know how you got there, and I know you don’t wanna be there but killing me…that won’t help, please just…just let me go! I-I’ll find a way to help you!”

Bonnie kept walking towards him, and deep down he knew he wasn’t going to convince him to stop no matter how much he pleaded. He could hear his heart racing in his ears, knowing that now, since Alex wasn’t here he would most likely die this time.

This is it. This is the end, he thought. I’m going to be murdered by a bunny.

He shut his eyes tightly, bracing himself because he was cornered and couldn’t see a way to get away, but it wasn’t until a few seconds later when he felt someone grab his wrist and push him down to his hands and knees where he opened his eyes.

“C’mon! Follow me!” the person said and without hesitation, he followed behind them to get away as they both crawled on their hands and knees out of the room . They crawled as fast as they could around Bonnie, who had a difficult time reaching down to where they were, and only when they were out the door they stood up again.

“Oh…oh my God,” Michael said, out of breath because he was holding it. “Thanks back there, uh…” the mystery person clicked on the flashlight they had. “Alex?!”

“That’s twice, saving your ass from these things.”

”Didn’t realize we were keeping score.”

”Y’know, you really gotta learn how to not get yourself into trouble.”

”Wait…what are you doing here?! How did you get out?! I thought you were in the hospital!”

“I got discharged like, a few hours ago from that place. I was gonna surprise you and Jeremy in the afternoon, but something in my gut told me you were in trouble. Again.”

”Okay…how did you get in here? I locked all the doors so nothing could get in or out!”

“Dude, in case you forgot, I was a guard here.” They got their keys from their pocket. “I still have these. Should probably turn ‘em in to Rob…eh, there’s always later,” Alex said, putting them back in their pocket.

Michael chuckled. “C’mon, let’s get you home ‘cause you need to rest.”

“I can drive again, I’m good now! But in case you forgot, you got stitches in your leg and on your sides, so really you shouldn’t even be here and you should be the one resting because that was gnarly man.”

“Your face was cut pretty good too! And for the record the stitches came out, but in case you forgot, Rob asked me to come here.”

Alex sighed. “Yeah I remember. That dumbass, I swear…I’m gonna call him in the morning and tell him off. Well, y’know, later morning.”

Michael chuckled. “I was just leaving anyway.”

“You mean before you were about to get absolutely beat by Bonnie?”

“Uh, yeah,” he said and he started walking towards the door following Alex, but then Michael heard the boy’s voice again.

“Hey!” he said and Michael turned around.

“No,” he said. “I-I don’t want any trouble.”

“Dude, who’re you talking to?” Alex asked but then Michael pointed to the boy. “Oh my God, it’s a kid.”

Suddenly, more kids appeared from seemingly out of nowhere: one girl with curly blonde hair, blue eyes and a pink dress, a boy who looked like he was the oldest, had an even darker complexion than the first boy, tightly coiled hair, jeans and a plain brown t-shirt. On the small Pirate’s Cove stage stood a boy with pale skin, freckles, red hair and a red and white striped t-shirt with black jeans.

“Oh my God…” Michael said.

“It’s more kids,” Alex added on.

“If you won’t cooperate with us,” the eldest boy said, hopping down from the stage, “we’ll make you.”

He looked over to the girl on the stage who was standing next to him and nodded as Michael and Alex watched them all in confusion. The little girl suddenly looked behind her at the pink and yellow cupcake on the white plastic plate in Chica’s hand, looked back at Michael and pointed to him.

“Carl…” she started.

“Who the hell is Carl?” Michael muttered.

“Oh my God, are they ghosts?! Is that why I can’t hear them?!” Alex exclaimed.

”You…you didn’t hear her say Carl?!”

“No! If I did I’d be asking who the hell Carl is too!”

They looked back to the little girl, now terrified, and she was still pointing at Michael. “Attack,” she said.

The cupcake on the plate suddenly turned to Michael and its eyes started to glow a golden-red color, and as it locked its gaze on him Michael started to back up as did Alex.

“Mike?” Alex said softly to him.

“Yeah?”

“Is this the part where we run?”

The cupcake who was watching them back away towards the door suddenly hopped off of the small plate to the stage and to the black and white checkered floor, and it started making its way to Michael and Alex as fast as it could, chasing them.

“Yes! Run!” Michael yelled a second after the cupcake hopped off from the plate, and they both took off running as fast as they could towards the front double doors.

Chapter 133

Summary:

Michael realizes that the kids from the missing children’s incident didn’t just disappear.

Michael and Alex ran as fast as they possibly could towards the front double doors to get away from the cupcake (which Michael thought was a prop) chasing them. However, since Michael couldn’t run as fast as before yet since he was still healing, the cupcake caught up to him and bit the opposite leg so now they were both injured, knocking him down and holding him back. 

“Ow!” he yelled. “Goddamn it!”

He turned and tried to shake it off as it was biting at him, ripping some skin off in the process, but as Alex reached the door and looked back they saw Michael struggling to get the cupcake off of his leg. 

Alex looked back at the door, heard him yelling in pain since it ripped at his skin, then looked back at Michael with worry and ran to him. “Get off you stupid thing!” Alex yelled as they got to him and grabbed the cupcake. Alex tried to yank it off of him as Michael tried to push it off, but they were both struggling because the cupcake had a good grip on Michael and the cupcake’s teeth were cutting Michael as they dragged along his skin, so Alex didn’t know how much to yank at it so it wouldn’t hurt him that bad.

Finally after what seemed like forever, they managed to pry it off and the cupcake was in Alex’s hands, trying to get back to Michael. Without even thinking, Alex threw it as hard as they could across the room to get it as far away from them as possible so it went flying across the room. 

“Carl!” the girl shrieked when the cupcake hit the wall and fell to the floor and she ran to it. 

“Oh my God,” Michael heard the oldest boy say. “Jere! Fritz! C’mon!” he told them and they all ran to the cupcake. 

“Jere? Fritz?” Michael repeated softly. 

Once Alex saw that the kids were distracted, they went to Michael who was still on the ground, helped him up and helped him walk to the front door by putting an arm around him while he held onto their shoulder furthest from him. 

Once Alex shut the door behind them and they were now outside, Michael stopped walking because he felt like his leg was going to give out any second. “Hang in there, I’ll get you to my car then I’ll take a look at it,” Alex said. 

They both went to Alex’s car and Alex sat Michael down in the passenger’s seat but turned so his legs weren’t in the car. “Ow…God…” Michael said. 

“That doesn’t look too good, but hang in there, you’ll be fine,” Alex said and knelt down to get a better look at the wound. “Thing really did a number on ya, huh?”

Alex lightly touched the wound to try and get a better look at the entire wound, but Michael suddenly yelled, “Ow! Stop it!” and flinched.

Alex stood. “Sorry! Sorry, shouldn’t have done that, I’m stupid.”

“No, you’re fine, just impulse. I-it just hurts because-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. But lucky for you, I have a roll of bandages in my car so we don’t have to go to the drugstore, or actually so I don’t have to.”

“Wait, what? Why do you have that?” Michael asked as Alex opened the back door and started searching around the backseat area. 

“Worried parents. It’s leftover from when I first got my license and got this car so it’s kinda old but it’ll do the trick.” They wiped the little blood on their hands on their jeans before they started searching, and after a minute they noticed the roll of bandages under the seat and closed the door. “Here. It should stop the bleeding for now,” Alex said as they tossed the roll to Michael. 

Michael wrapped the bandage around his leg as best he could and made sure it was tight to stop the bleeding. “Fucking thing…” he muttered.

“I dunno how deep it is, so I dunno if it needs stitches or anything but from the way I see it, it looks like it should scab over and you’ll be fine. I still say get it checked out though since I’m no doctor.”

“What?! I’m not going to the doctor again!”

“What?! Mike, this is like, serious! It was metal, so you might have something so you should get it checked out! Plus Jeremy’ll want you to!”

“I know-”

“So go to the doctor!”

“I just got out two weeks ago! I’m not going back.”

”Mike…”

“What?”

“Y’know Jeremy’ll be pissed.”

“He refused to get checked out when Schmidt slammed his head against the wall while I was there! Now we’re even.”

Alex grumbled in annoyance and rolled his eyes. “Fine, whatever dude, just…I dunno, change those bandages every couple hours until it scabs over or something.”

”I will, I’m not that stupid.” Alex chuckled. “So, anyway I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Shoot,” Alex said as they got in the driver’s seat and closed the door.

Michael sighed as he turned himself around to be facing forward in the passenger’s seat. “I just kind of need to tell this to someone, and I don’t really want all that sympathy if I tell Jeremy.”

“O…kay…” Alex said, obviously very confused, “go on.”

“So, you know those kids we saw were ghosts, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Before you helped me up, I heard the oldest speak. He said two of the kid’s names, one was obviously a nickname, but they were names I haven’t heard together for a very long time.”

“Really? What were they? You can’t leave me hangin’ dude.”

“It was…Jere and Fritz.”

“Jere and Fritz? Jere like…another nickname for Jeremy?” Michael nodded. “Why are there so many Jeremy’s?!” Alex muttered.

“Isn’t there only like, two?”

“My brother’s name is Jeremiah, basically Jeremy.”

“Oh. I must’ve forgotten.”

“And…Fritz? Wait, Fritz like your old fake name?!”

Michael nodded. “From the little I could see, and even though it was dark, it was him. I-I called myself that because he was my friend, so I did it in his honor. As far as I know, no one else in this town had or has that name.”

“Wow. So…you’re saying he was there?”

“Yes, but I didn’t recognize just him. I recognized the littlest one too, the one who was called Jere, and the oldest, and they looked like they were related so they must be brothers.”

“If you recognized the oldest, who is he and how do you know those two?”

“His name’s Gabriel if I remember correctly, and they’re cousins on my mother’s side, and I know that that those two plus their sister was murdered by my father but I didn’t see their sister.”

“Jesus…”

“The girl there, I don’t really know. But I do remember seeing my sister play with her in the front yard multiple times. I think her name was Susan or something, Susie for short.”

“Then…why the hell did she call the cupcake Carl?!”

“Dunno. Her dog? Chihuahua maybe? Those things love bite me, it’s like I did something to them.”

Alex chuckled. “Wouldn’t say that’s not the case. Anyway, I have to get going, I’m sill very tired, and you should probably rest too. Carl got ya good.”

“Stupid thing.” He stood, putting most of his weight on his leg that wasn’t hurt. “Fine, I’ll go rest. Bye Al, and thanks again.”

“No problem, be safe driving home, unless you want me to take ya home.”

“No, no, I don’t want help. I’ll be fine, promise.”

“And, it’d probably be a good idea to y’know, not come back tonight after what happened.”

“I know, I know. I won’t.”

Alex stared at him for a while. “You’re lying, huh?”

“Never! I care about my health, so I’ll…go home and take it easy for now.”

Alex raised his eyebrows. “Really? That’s a first.”

“Shut up.” Alex chuckled. “Bye Al.”

“See ya Mike, and y’know, don’t get yourself killed.”

Michael sighed. “Am I really that transparent?”

“Well, when’s the last time you actually agreed to go home and rest when you’re determined?”

“Uh…”

“Exactly, so be careful.”

Chapter 134

Summary:

Night 4

“Alright, now to finally find out what’s going on here,” Michael muttered as he pulled into the parking lot of Freddy’s that night. Tonight was the night he decided that he would finally figure out what was happening with the animatronics, and he would have to do so by messing around with their systems.

There was no other way, plus he had to see why the children’s spirits hung around the animatronics. Did his father do something to them? Were they trapped and tied down to Earth like Schmidt was? Were they already free and Michael happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?

He pulled the heavy metal door towards him and went inside, looking to the stage where they were all standing next to each other like they hadn’t moved at all and were bolted to the ground.

“I’m gonna figure out you four tonight, mark my words,” Michael said to them as he passed the stage.

He went to the back office, opened the locker behind him closest to the right door and right on the top shelf was what he needed: an old toolbox. He mustered up his strength and took it down from the shelf being that it was heavier than he anticipated and slowly and carefully placed it down on the black and white checkered floor.

He sat down in the swivel seat, now taking a rest because his leg had started hurting from the pressure he was putting on it to support himself.

Once he went home the previous night, Jeremy was asleep when Michael came home so he had to wake him to show that he was alive and fine as per usual. Jeremy woke up, but saw he was limping in pain and just assumed it was because Michael was still healing.

It was only when Michael got in bed that Jeremy noticed the bandages on his leg had blood on them that leaked through, so he of course questioned him about what happened earlier that morning and why he was bleeding.

Michael hesitated but told him the whole story because he hated lying to Jeremy, and as he expected Jeremy started telling Michael to get it checked out. When Michael refused because he felt fine, Jeremy got more upset and they argued back and forth for a while until Michael finally gave in, telling him he would go and get it checked out when he woke up.

He didn’t, of course. He only said that to calm Jeremy down, but he was now thinking he maybe should’ve kept his promise because it became sore with the smallest bit of pressure.

He ignored the dull radiating pain and stood, thankful that it started to scab over when he woke up, went to the box and grabbed a screwdriver from it. Once he had it in hand, the lights turned off in the building signaling that it was now midnight and now time to execute his plan, so he grabbed his flashlight.

He clicked on his flashlight and made his way to the main stage where the three were, and thankfully they hadn’t started moving yet since the lights just powered off. He grabbed a chair and climbed up the stage, now taking a deep breath and second guessing himself because doing this might get him fired, and he wanted to stay longer to see if he would run into his father.

He ignored the feeling and went up to Bonnie, took his guitar out of his hands and set it down in the corner of the stage near the wall. He took a deep breath as he went back to the animatronic, screwed off the screws holding the chest plate to the main body and put his hands around the chest plate, using all of his strength to pry it off and finally, he heard it pop off as he almost fell backwards off the stage from the momentum.

“Thing’s on there good,” Michael said to himself once he regained his balance and he set the chest plate down.

He grabbed his flashlight, turned it on and looked around at the mechanics, all of them seemingly running on a low power mode so Bonnie couldn’t move around a ton, but just enough so the servos wouldn’t lock up.

Michael was now a little confused and started poking around at the robotic parts with the screwdriver, careful to not actually touch anything since the mechanisms had a chance of shocking him.

“Hm. Nothing,” Michael mumbled after a while of looking for anything suspicious. “But there must be something I’m missing!”

Michael continued looking around, now putting the flashlight in his mouth so he could push back the robotic parts with his hands, now not caring if he got shocked.

After another half hour of no luck, he put the parts back as close as he could in their original spots and put the chest plate back on. After he got it on, he took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair as he tried to think.

Of course! How could I be so stupid?! he thought, They attack only what they see, so whatever he did must be in the head somewhere!

He went to the edge of the stage, grabbed the chair he used to climb up and carried it so it was in front of Bonnie. He set it down, a little nervous that he would loose his balance and fall the few feet to the wooden stage or even further to the tile behind him but he climbed on it regardless.

He carefully unscrewed the screws and took off the face plate, which was heavier than he expected but he still managed to keep his balance. He carefully set the head down next to him, ignoring the pain in his leg from bending down to put it on the stage and started looking around, holding the flashlight where he was looking and pushing the looser parts aside so he could get a better view, and it wasn’t long before he finally found what he was looking for.

The parts were definitely messed with; all it took was the changing of a few wires to completely change the ‘night mode’ on the animatronics. The night mode has been completely altered and now any person they see after hours looked like a metal endoskeleton without its costume.

However, since they were murdered children seeking revenge instead of mindless pieces of metal, that meant everyone they saw looked a little bit like their murderer, more so in Michael’s case where the only thing different about him and the real William Afton were the light freckles on his face.

“Bingo.”

Just as he put the flashlight in his mouth so he could use both hands to alter the mechanics, he noticed a few pieces of metal that looked older than the others in one specific area and they were obviously not supposed to be there.

What the…

He decided to stray his attention away from the manipulated parts for a minute and check the older parts instead, but he soon realized that was a mistake.

As soon as he touched the old, starting-to-rust part, it almost immediately shocked him but with a way stronger force than he expected. It was so powerful that it sent sparks flying like a miniature explosion and threw him backwards off of the wooden stage. He landed on his back on a table, rolled off and he fell on his back again, but this time on the knocked down chairs and tile.

“Ow…” he groaned. His ears were ringing, he was in pain, his vision was blurry and doubled and his body was shaking involuntarily, but looking to the stage he could see that Bonnie as well as the two others had turned to look at him. He rolled onto his stomach to get up to get away, but as soon as he mustered up the strength to get onto his hands and knees he lost his balance and fell back onto his stomach.

When he fell onto his stomach for the third time he rolled onto his back to see where the animatronics were, but he was fading in and out of consciousness and felt too weak now to fight off the animatronics which would probably kill him, and he lost consciousness.

The three gathered around him and suddenly, the oldest’s spirit came from behind Freddy, jumped off the stage and ran to him on the floor.

“Guys! We got ‘im!” Gabriel said to the other two; Susie peaked out from behind Chica but Jeremy climbed on Bonnie to get over him and sat on his shoulder.

“You mean I got him! You kinda just stood there,” the youngest said and hopped down from the Bonnie animatronic to stand next to him.

“It was a team effort to come up with the plan!”

“Still!”

He rolled his eyes. “Fritz! C’mon! We got him!” the oldest yelled and a minute later, a small redhead boy came running to the others.

“Really?” he asked as he knelt down next to them.

“Yeah! Take a look!”

To Fritz, this man looked a lot like William, almost identical and for a while Fritz was convinced that they finally got William. However, he decided to look closer because he felt as though something was off, and that’s when he saw them in the little light from the streetlights they got in the restaurant: the light freckles scattered across his face.

“W…what?!” Fritz mumbled.

“What?” Gabriel asked.

“Yeah, what?” Jeremy said, copying his older half brother.

“That’s…I don’t think that’s William, guys!”

“What?!” Susie shrieked. “Of course it’s him! He looks exactly like him! More than the others!”

”How do you know?! It’s dark in here!”

“Carl told me!”

“He’s a dog, Susie! He can’t talk!”

“Don’t be mean to Carl! He did a good job slowing him down yesterday in case you forgot!”

“Yeah, don’t be mean to Carl!” Jeremy yelled. “I did it!”

“You knocked him out?!”

“Yes! Surprised much considering I am the youngest?”

“Wha…I would’ve been fine if it was William, but this isn’t him! This is Michael!”

“Michael? Who’s that?” Susie asked.

”William’s son! H-he was my friend, and Jere might’ve killed him!”

“His…son?” Jeremy asked.

“Wait…step-cousin on my stepdad’s side Michael?!” Gabriel said and kneeled over him. “Oh my God, I barely remember him but now that you say it…”

”How do you know it’s him and not William?” Jeremy asked Fritz.

“Freckles! We all saw William before, so we all know he doesn’t have any!”

Gabriel and Jeremy looked closely at Michael’s face to see if he had freckles scattered all across his face like Jeremy’s, since only people from their dad’s side had them, and to their suprise he in fact did which meant he was a cousin, not an ex-uncle. 

They both widened their eyes as the realization set in that they got the wrong Afton. “Oh shit…” Gabriel muttered so the others couldn’t hear him.

”Oh no, he’s right!” Jeremy shrieked as he stood. “W-what do we do?!”

Susie bent down and looked at his face closely, inspecting it and saw it was in fact true and she turned to Jeremy. “How much power did you use?!” she shrieked.

“Uh…almost all that I could…”

“What?!” the other three yelled.

“You might’ve killed him!” Susie shrieked.

”I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!” Jeremy said shakily like he was about to start crying.

“It’s alright Jere, you didn’t know, it was a mistake,” Gabriel said kneeling down so Jeremy was looking at him.

“I-it’s not okay! I didn’t want to hurt him! It was d-dark! I couldn’t see and I might’ve k-killed him! It was an accident!”

Gabriel hugged him while his little brother sobbed into his shoulder, clearly feeling guilty.

“Susie…what do we do?” Fritz asked Susie as he sat next to her.

“I-I don’t know.”

“It would be rude to just leave him here, but at the same time, what can a few ghosts do to help?”

“I…I don’t know.” She looked back at Michael and she saw his chest move slightly as he took a few shallow breaths. “Oh my…guys!” she said and they all turned to her. “He’s breathing!”

“Really?!” Fritz said.

“Oh my God!” Gabriel said.

“H-he survived that?!” Jeremy said as he wiped his tears.

“Yeah!” Susie said to him. “I don’t know how, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that he’s alive!”

”Well, what do we do now?” Fritz asked.

---

“Alright, hopefully this’ll be my last day here today. I have an interview next week, good thing since Fazbear’s closing this place down,” Robert said as he drove to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria at eight o’ clock that morning.

Once he arrived in the parking lot however, it caught him by surprise when he saw Michael’s red 1984 model car still in the parking lot. What? Is he still here?! His shift ended like, two hours ago! Robert thought. What’s he still doing here?! Is he expecting to get overtime?! He knows the company can only do so much, it’s basically nothing!

Robert parked his car in the parking lot and went inside, thankful that nothing seemed to be wrong. That was until he turned on the light and he saw Michael, passed out and laying on a table, which two more were moved to both sides of him so he wouldn’t fall off.

In addition to that, he also saw that the entirety of Bonnie’s face plate had been taken off, revealing the endoskeleton underneath so he sort of looked like the torn apart original animatronic in the second location.

“What the fuck…” he muttered then ran to Michael. “Mike!” He pushed one of the tables beside Michael, went next to him and shook him by the shoulders. “Mike! C’mon man, wake up! Oh no, oh God…don’t be dead…”

He continued to shake him by the shoulders and shout his name to wake him up, but there was no response. He felt his neck for his pulse and he could feel that his heart was beating, although a bit quick for a resting heart rate but beating nonetheless and he was breathing, but for some reason he wasn’t responding.

“Mike! C’mon!” Robert yelled and finally, he heard Michael cough. Michael groaned and opened his eyes, trying to adjust to the bright lights above him but then his eyes focused and he saw Robert next to him.

“Rob?” Michael said weakly.

“Mike! Are you alright?!”

“My head hurts…”

”Oh jeez. Uh, can you tell me what happened?!”

“I…God, I just woke up, gimme a minute, it’ll come back to me.”

“Alright, first lemme ask you this one question before I start asking other questions: were you messing around with Bonnie’s mechanics?”

“Wha…how do you know that?” Robert pointed to Bonnie which had the face plate removed. “Oh…yeah.”

“Mike, y’know that’s against company policy. You can’t do that!”

“I know, I know, but it’s not my fault it shocked me.” Michael sat up so his legs were dangling off of the table. “Ow…my back hurts…not like old hurts but like sore hurts, I’m not that old yet.”

Robert sighed and held the bridge of his nose. “I told you on your first day that you shouldn’t mess around with them because they had a chance of shocking you. You knew this!”

“I know! I didn’t know it’d be that powerful, cut me some slack!”

Robert saw the flashlight that Michael had used earlier had rolled under the table he was sitting on, so he grabbed it and went back to Michael. “Alright, you know the drill.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Robert shined the flashlight into both of his eyes to make sure they were dilating correctly and thankfully, they were. “Alright, you seem okay in that head of yours,” he said and ruffled Michael’s hair.

“Hey!” Michael said and fixed his hair since Robert messed it up like a big brother teasing his younger sibling. “I don’t feel alright, I feel…like I was almost fried.”

Robert chuckled. “I can to take you to a doctor in a few. I’m okay with taking you, it’s no big deal.”

“No, I’m alright, you don’t have to do that.”

”That wasn’t a question.” Michael groaned. “It’s just to make sure you’re good, dude! Believe me, you can feel fine but not be and it’s best to catch it if anything happened.”

”Fine. Just give me a few and some water then I’ll be good…wait, how did I get over here?!”

“Over…where? The restaurant? You drove here, I saw your car in the parking lot.”

“No! The tables! Last I remember I was on the stage!”

Robert shrugged. “A ghost maybe?” he joked.

Michael looked over at the animatronics who were as still as they usually were right before the restaurant opened, but looking closer at the details and from what he remembered, he noticed that Chica was a few feet back from where she stood the previous night, Freddy was oriented slightly to the left and Bonnie’s guitar was right next to him instead of leaning on the wall where he left it.

He also remembered, those kids he saw the previous night were murdered and stuffed in the original animatronic suits. That wouldn’t have been much of evidence since those animatronics and these designs were different, but it was especially strange because he saw an old animatronic part on his endoskeleton, which he could only assume was a piece of the original Bonnie in this Bonnie’s endoskeleton since this company didn’t like to make extra parts and spend more money if they didn’t need to.

He assumed all of them had something from the original designs, so that could be the reason why they were still around and stayed by their animatronic.

That would also explain why they were moving on their own with fluid, human-like movements and not robotic ones, why they wanted to get Michael because he was often confused for William, and it explained why their behavior at times was so childish; sometimes he would catch the animatronics playing hide-and-seek in the shadows or making a small tower out of chairs.

Maybe they finally realized that he was Michael and not William, so even though they couldn’t do much they decided to help him a little bit instead of ending his life earlier that morning.

“Yeah, maybe,” Michael finally said to Robert.

Chapter 135

Summary:

Night 5

“So, unfortunately Mike, I can’t let you finish the week like I told you. I have to let you go,” Robert said to Michael over the phone later that day.

“What?! Why?!”

“Alright, so part of it is because of what happened, I mean you were kind of shocked so you really need to rest. You should be getting your final check in the mail soon, and I  was feeling generous and added what you should’ve made today, so there’s a hundred more extra dollars for the week. You were also tampering with the animatronics which as I told you, is against company policy. I’m sorry but I have to, it’s my job as a manager to y’know, manage!”

“N-no! I need to be there!”

“Really? Why?”

“Uh, reasons! Just let me go back, just for one day!”

“Mike, I told you the answer is no. Fazbear’s shutting the restaurant down today anyway.”

“What?!”

“Yeah. He saw the camera footage of you getting shocked, and between that, Alex getting their face torn open and my uncle dying, he thinks it’s best to just discontinue the business, so hey you’re not the only one getting fired today! All the animatronics will be left inside, everything’s going to be left behind and Fazbear’s leaving that place to rot.”

“Wait…there was footage?!”

“Uh, yeah.”

“What did it have on it?! Did you see anything?!”

“Not really. We just saw you tampering with Bonnie, you getting shocked and a few seconds later the battery died or something. We both found it strange that it was that powerful, you weren’t kidding, Jesus...oh also, he made the call to get you fired because he saw you, not me. If it were up to me I would’ve let you off the hook because it still works like normal.”

“Alright, whatever, I don’t really care that I got fired. But the footage, was there anything else after I got shocked?!”

“No dude, I already said the video feed was lost after that. Unless you count at six in the morning, it turned on because the building restores power at that time and you were laying on the tables. Not sure how you got there though or how they moved, no one’s sure. Then I walked in at about eight and you know the rest.”

Michael sighed. “Alright, thanks Rob. You find another job yet?”

“Yeah! I actually have a job interview next week!”

“Oh, that’s good! Well, good luck on that and I’ll talk to you later.”

“Later Mike.”

Michael and Robert hung up the phone and Michael sighed as he leaned on the counter with his hands supporting him. He closed his eyes, standing in silence and he could barely hear his ears still ringing, he still had a faint, lingering headache and on top of that his leg was still aching from when the cupcake ripped some of the skin off. He just wanted to go to the bed and “sleep it off” like the doctor said, but knew deep down he wouldn’t be able to sleep because of the pain.

Suddenly, he felt a pair of arms wrap around him from behind so their hands were on his chest, their body weight against his back and his head resting on Michael’s shoulder so his long, dark brown hair tickled Michael’s face. Michael opened his eyes, feeling his cheeks get warmer and put a hand on top of one of his.

Michael hated to admit it but even though they’ve been together for years, Michael still got flustered when Jeremy hugged him from behind.

“You feeling any better?” Jeremy asked him.

“A little.”

“Do you want another ice pack for your head or leg? Or both? How about water?”

Michael smiled a weak smile, getting more flustered since he was usually the one taking care of Jeremy, and now the roles were reversed. “No, I’m fine.”

“What’s wrong then? It seems like something’s wrong.”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie!”

Michael sighed. “I couldn’t finish the week at Freddy’s like Rob said, I was just fired.”

“Yay!”

“Jer!”

”I mean, aw man. Why?”

”Fazbear saw me tampering with the animatronics.”

“Uh, isn’t that what you wanted to do in the first place?”

“Well, yeah, but I was hoping to stay there longer because I wanna figure all this out and, I dunno-”

“What?”

“Y’know what? Doesn’t matter. I’m going back tonight.”

“What?!” Jeremy let go of him and went next to him instead and leaned on the counter with his back to it so he was facing Michael. “Mike, why?! Stay home and rest! You need it!”

“Because, well, I dunno if you’d really get it.”

“There’s a lot I don’t get. C’mon, we’re in this together and I love you more than anything in the whole wide world, just tell me what’s up.”

“Well…it’s just that I think those kids are still there.”

“The…kids?”

“The ones that were murdered in ‘85 by my father and possessed the original models.”

“I thought those old ones were destroyed.”

“Me too, but they’re still here. I saw them, so did Al! And that wouldn’t have meant anything by itself, but then I figured, if they were just regular animatronics they would’ve just left me laying on the ground when I got shocked, but I woke up on the tables so they obviously have human sympathy!”

”That doesn’t make sense though! Are you sure you weren’t just imagining things?!”

“I wasn’t! I swear on my life! Rob saw that I moved too and Alex saw the kids, so I have witnesses. And now the building's gonna be locked up with them all in it! I don’t care anymore, I’m going back before anything happens and they’re stuck forever.”

---

That night just as Michael said he would, he went back to the restaurant even though it was closed. This time however, he wasn’t going alone. Jeremy and Alex begged him relentlessly to stay home, but he refused.

They both knew that they weren’t going to convince him to stay home, not when his mind was set on something like this. Since they knew they couldn’t change his mind, they insisted they both go with him instead. Michael said that wasn’t a good idea, but like him they refused to change their minds and Michael eventually gave in and let them go with him.

When they drove up to the restaurant, as expected it was completely dark, pitch black and Jeremy kept asking if they were in the right place.

“We’re in the right place, Jer. It’s just dark,” Michael assured him for the second time.

”If you say so I guess, just double checking.”

“So, quick question,” Alex said from the backseat and leaned forward to talk to them easier. “How exactly d’you plan to get in?”

“Keys, Al.”

“Right, I’m stupid. Another question, why’d you decide to come at night?”

“The daytime was actually my resting time. It was recommended by that doctor that I needed just a few more hours and now I’m fine, my hands stopped shaking from the shock at least.”

”Alright, so we gonna go in or what?” Alex asked.

“Wow, so eager. C’mon.” They all got out of the car and went to the front door. “Alright, flashlights?”

“Check,” Jeremy said because all three of them had one in their hands.

“Be careful once we go in, what we’re doing is kinda dangerous.”

“Not like we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into.”

Michael unlocked and opened the door where they all went inside, and it was unsurprising that everything was left exactly how it was the previous night. The tables, chairs and floor still uncleaned and tables still unmoved, nothing seemed to be messed with. That was of course, until they saw the animatronics who have very obviously moved; they were either oriented slightly, completely turned around or off of the stage.

“Freaky. So uh, quick question, again,” Alex said. “What exactly do you plan on doing? You just said you were goin’ to come back.”

“Find all of their old parts and figure out some way to destroy them.”

“What?!”

“The kids are still there, and I’m pretty sure it’s from those parts! They’re trapped here, and I have to set them free.”

“And how do you plan to do that?!”

“Good question.”

“…you don’t know, do you?”

“Well, no.”

“Then how the hell are you gonna do this?!”

“I’ll figure it out.”

Alex sighed. “Yeah I agree with you that they need to be set free-” Alex started. 

“But we shouldn’t be doing this,” Jeremy said. “The building’s closed down! We could get caught!”

“Then hopefully it’s not by a cop.”

After searching around, Michael finally found the screwdriver that fell out of his hand the previous night. He took it, again took a chair and placed it in front of Bonnie, climbed on it and unscrewed the faceplate.

“Dude, what’re you doing?” Alex asked.

“You ask too many questions, y’know? What does it look like?”

“Like you’re trying to fry yourself. Are you okay dude? You need to talk?”

Michael sighed and rolled his eyes. “I’m fine! I’m trying to harvest these old parts, I told you.”

“Don’t hurt yourself again,” Jeremy said as Michael unscrewed the final screw.

“I won’t,” he said as he took off the face plate. “Here, Al, take this for me.”

“What’s the magic word?” Alex asked teasingly.

Michael rolled his eyes. “Please.”

Alex took the face plate from Michael and they finally understood why he wanted them to take it, it was heavier than it looked and it might hurt him since he was still healing and they set it down on the floor.

Jeremy however, was watching them but that didn’t last long because his mind wandered off and he started looking around. Although, he realized that was a mistake because seeing the black and white checkered flooring he was standing on brought back memories from when he used to work at a Freddy’s location.

He didn’t know how, but it did. He tried to look at the wall to stray his attention away from the floor but that didn’t help at all, because he noticed that the walls looked all too similar; some of the children’s drawings were brought from that location to this one, some of the decorations looked the same and it didn’t help that in the middle of the wall, there was a checkered wallpaper with trim around the edges. They were different colors, but the same design nonetheless.

He could feel himself hyperventilate and he reached behind him for a chair, and once he had one in his grasp he pulled it to sit down. Once he was on it he closed his eye as tight as he could and held his head in his hands to try and stop the flashbacks before they started.

He could feel his heart racing and his breathing getting shallower but he didn’t care. He wanted the memories to go away so he could help Michael and Alex, not sitting in the middle of the room remembering something that happened five years ago that flipped his entire world upside down.

In his mind, he could hear Hailey screaming, ‘Jeremy, look out!’ and he could see that crimson liquid on the checkered floor that spilled from the deep gashes on his hands. He could hear people screaming and crying, but most of all he could see the golden eyes of Mangle.

Jeremy remembered that looking straight into their missing eye knowing that Mangle had the sole intention of killing him but instead, it put him through hell on Earth and he would have to stay that way for the rest of his life. Not only getting stares from different people he passed on the street or at work, but dealing with the physical, cognitive and emotional challenges as well.

He wanted to be normal again. He wanted to be a normal twenty three year old person. He never wanted this, much less did he think this would ever happen. He knew he should have listened to Michael when he told him to not apply, but Jeremy’s ego got in the way and did anyway. He will regret that decision for the rest of his life.

Sometimes, he could never admit it to anyone, but sometimes he wished that Mangle had just taken him out right there instead of having to live with this difficulty for the rest of his time on Earth.

“Jeremy! C’mon, snap out of it!” he finally heard Michael shout several minutes later, the sounds of screaming fading out and being replaced by Michael’s voice, so Jeremy opened his eye and picked his head up to see Michael and Alex crouching down in front of him, trying to snap him out of it. “Oh my God, I knew I shouldn’t have brought you,” he said and hugged Jeremy.

“What’re you talking about? I’m fine!” Jeremy said as he hugged Michael tightly, but it was obviously a lie because his heart was still racing and his hands were shaking. 

“You weren’t like, five minutes ago!” Alex said. “D’you need to wait in the car? It’s no biggie.”

“No. I’m alright.”

“You sure? We heard you crying, I don’t think that’s ‘alright’.”

“I was crying?”

“Yes!”

He touched his face and felt the wetness on his cheeks so he wiped it away. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want you guys to worry about me.”

“Jeremy, we told you this was a bad idea for you.”

“I know, but I wanted to help keep watch while you two took them apart.”

“But you know what happened at the last location, and this one obviously brought those memories back.”

“We didn’t want that to happen,” Michael said, letting go of Jeremy. “That’s why we asked you if you wanted to stay home.”

”But I’m fine now, I promise.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Michael and Alex stood up and Michael grabbed Jeremy’s hands to help pull him up to standing while he pushed himself up. “Alright, but you have to tell me if you’re feeling uncomfortable, okay?”

“O-okay, just…hold me for a minute then I’ll be alright,” Jeremy said and Michael pulled him into a hug while Jeremy rested his head on his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat.

---

For the next few hours, Michael made sure that Jeremy was within ten feet from him so he could keep an eye on him and checked on him every few minutes. Jeremy didn’t mind surprisingly, and instead either looked at what Michael was doing, what Alex was doing, picked at his own nails or twirled his long hair around his finger.

“How much longer is this gonna take?” Jeremy asked as he sat on a table. “We’ve been here forever!”

“Not too much longer,” Michael said. “Sun’s coming up.”

“Y’know this would be way easier if one of those kids just told us instead of us guessing,” Alex said as they held the old animatronic part from Chica in their hand. “Where are they?”

“Doing ghost things, I dunno.”

Alex chuckled as they took the part and went to sit on the table next to Jeremy. “So what d’you think?” Alex asked him.

“About…”

”D’you secretly know how to do this shit so we can help this go faster and we can bust outta here?”

Jeremy chuckled. “Pfft, no. I’m not that smart.”

“Good, so I’m not the only one who has no idea what’s goin’ on. Anyway he said to destroy this thing to make myself useful, but I have no idea how and he doesn’t know either to completely get rid of it.”

“Uh…I don’t know, burn it? That’s what they do to melt metal down, so maybe if it’s melted enough it’ll get rid of it.”

“I like the way you think. We just don’t have any matches right now, there’s some in the car but Mike has the keys.” Alex sighed and they both sat in silence for a minute, until Alex noticed that Jeremy was staring at something so they tracked his gaze. “Why’re you looking at the wall?” they whispered to him.

“I’m not looking at the wall!”

“Oh yeah? Then what?”

“The guitar.”

“The guitar? You want it?”

“Are we allowed to do that?”

”This place is closed! No one’s gonna care!”

“Hell yeah! Sure!” Alex jumped down from the table and grabbed Bonnie’s guitar leaning against the wall and brought it back so Jeremy could see it. “It’s bigger in person...does it actually work?”

Jeremy ran his finger along the strings, but they were tight and seemed to be made of thick plastic. “Didn’t think so. Wait a minute, I think I remember seeing one in the back. Wait here.”

Alex ran to the back and like he said, Jeremy waited. “D’you think there’s actually something back there?” Jeremy asked Michael.

“No idea. I’ve never seen one back there but let Al believe.”

“Yeah, didn’t think so.” Jeremy watched Michael work for a few more minutes as he harvested the original parts from the animatronics, but then saw Alex come out of the back room with what looked like a dusty old guitar. “There was actually one in there?!”

“Apparently, I honestly thought I was just imagining things. Dunno what it’s from though.” Alex gave it to Jeremy. “You know how to play that thing?”

“Yeah,” he said as he brushed the thick layer of dust off of it and tuned it.

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. I’ve been able to play guitar for most of my life. That’s probably the reason why Bonnie was always my favorite. Still is.”

“Wait, didn’t you used to play it in high school? Like, by yourself in the music room? I think I saw you in there a couple times.”

“Yeah, that was probably me. I sometimes snuck in there after school and stayed until the music teacher caught me.” He finished tuning the guitar and played a few notes on it. “Any requests?” he asked.

“Wait, me?!”

“I mean, if you want. I just have no idea what to play.”

“Alright uh…y’know that one song in the movie, The Breakfast Club?”

“The Don’t You Forget About Me one?”

“Yeah! I love that movie!”

“Alright, I’ll try, I’ve never played that song before. Although, I do have to warn you, I am a little rusty because I haven’t played in years, but it’s gotten way better than it was so I wanna try again. Mike’s been really good at trying to retrain me to use my right hand again.” He strummed the strings again and Michael looked over his shoulder. “Alright, here we go.”

He started playing at the strings, a couple missed notes but after some time of learning the rhythm, he played it almost perfectly which surprised both Michael and Alex, and even himself.

If that wasn’t enough, Alex looked at him in amazement when Jeremy started singing the words being that they didn’t know he could sing, much less do both at the same time and thought he was only going to play the music.

”Won’t you come see about me?” he sung, and Alex was surprised at how good he was. “I’ll be alone, dancing, you know it baby.

“Tell me your troubles and doubts. Give me everything, inside and out and, love’s strange, so real in the dark. Think of the tender things that we were working on.

“Slow change may pull us apart, when the light gets into your heart, baby.”

Alex took over the singing so Jeremy could focus on the guitar. “Don’t you…forget about me,” Alex sung, and it caught both Michael and Jeremy by surprise because they didn’t even know Alex could sing. “Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t you…forget about me.

“Will you stand above me? Look my way? Never love me? Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling, down, down, down.

“Will you recognize me? Call my name or walk on by? Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling, down, down, down, down.”

Jeremy stopped playing the guitar because his hands were getting tired so Alex stopped singing. “I didn’t know you could sing!” Jeremy exclaimed.

“And I didn’t know you were that good at guitar. We both learned something new today.”

”I should dig my old guitar out from the garage…I know it’s there somewhere.”

Michael clapped for both of them, Jeremy and Alex now noticing he was sitting on the edge of the stage with his legs dangling from it, silently listening and watching them. “That was awesome, you two,” he said.

They both smiled, proud of themselves and high-fived each other, then suddenly they heard clapping from behind them.

They all looked to the door and who else should they see than Robert, leaning on the wall and clapping for them.

“Rob?!” Alex exclaimed.

“What’re you doing here?!” Michael said.

“I kinda figured you’d be here and ignore me.” He walked over to Jeremy and Alex. “That was awesome you two, you both have a musical side I never knew about.”

“Thanks!” they both said together and they both jumped down from the table.

“Although, I do have to ask, what’re you guys doing here at almost six in the morning?”

“Well…” Jeremy started and left the guitar on the table as he strummed the strings quietly.

“It’s kinda hard to explain,” Alex said.

“It’s unbelievable if we tell you the truth,” Michael said.

“I’m alright with crazy,” Robert said.

All three of them looked at each other and back at Robert. “Well,” Michael started, “we’re trying to set kids…free.”

Robert raised an eyebrow. “Kids? Are there kids in the animatronics?”

“Yes but no,” Jeremy said.

“Their souls are trapped in the suits,” Alex said and Robert stared at the three of them, obviously unconvinced. “To be fair, we warned you.”

“I didn’t think it’d be so crazy it seemed like you all smoked a pack each! What the hell?! What’re you actually doing here?!”

“We just told you, numbnuts!”

“No, no, no. That sounds like you just made that up and you’re all playing some big joke. Very funny guys!”

“We’re not joking!” Jeremy exclaimed.

“It’s true!” Alex said.

“Yeah, sure it is. C’mon, you guys shouldn’t even be here so I’m kicking you three out.”

Michael groaned but reluctantly stood, jumped down from the stage and gave the parts he harvested to Robert. “This should be all of them. They don’t need these anymore,” he said.

“Because you took them out?”

“No. They didn’t need them in the first place. Can you do me a favor and destroy them?”

“Destroy them?”

“We tried almost everything, but Jeremy suggested burning, so I dunno, it might work.”

“Oh. Uh, alright. I’ll find the nearest bonfire and throw ‘em in there.”

Michael rolled his eyes but smiled. “Whatever. Thanks Rob.”

“Hey, uh quick question,” Jeremy said and Robert turned to him as he was walking out behind Alex and Michael. “Where did the guitar come from?” he asked as he pointed to the table he left the guitar on.

“I…I think Fazbear mentioned it was something left over from the original restaurant, Fredbear’s or whatever it was called. One of the characters played it, a rabbit I think and they just never got rid of it.”

---

“How the hell are those three still alive?!” William yelled angrily and slammed his fists down on the counter in the kitchen.

“I’m telling you William, someone’s helping them survive all of your attempts to get rid of them,” Schmidt said to him.

“Who then?! Who?!”

“That part I’m not completely sure about-”

“Of-fucking-course! How don’t you know?! You’re a goddamn ghost for God’s sake! I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you to make sure they died.”

“But Will-”

“I gave you one job, ONE! Oversee that they all died and if they didn’t, kill them and you couldn’t even do that!”

“That’s technically two jobs-” William glared at him his infamous icy cold glare. “You know that look doesn’t intimidate me. It’s actually hilarious!”

William turned to face him and leaned against the table separating them. ”Listen, you WILL find out why they’re still alive for me, otherwise, I will make sure that little power you want back is gone for eternity.”

“Will-”

“That wasn’t a question.” Suddenly, Schmidt snapped his fingers and William felt as if he was hit on the back of the head. “Ow! What the hell?!”

“Stop interrupting me, otherwise you know I can make it a whole lot worse. As I was saying, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Rosa, although she doesn’t show herself and chooses to stay hidden from me.”

“…who the hell is that?!”

“Rosa Fitzgerald, Jeremy’s mother. I have encountered her from time to time, but most recently when I planned to hurt Jeremy enough so Michael would want to protect him and he would die, but she prevented me to be able to.”

“Didn’t she die years ago?”

“Correct, back in ‘83. She’s making sure they all stay alive, plus she’s the one who’s making sure Jeremy doesn’t suffer the consequences from the bite and how he’s almost back to normal instead of a vegetable.”

“How…how does she know?! How is she doing that?!”

“Do you remember Henry’s daughter?”

“Yeah, Charlotte.”

“She told her. They somehow found each other, I don’t know how, and I don’t know why she told her, but my best guess is that she couldn’t help them alone, especially that young.”

“Charlotte?! She’s just adding on to my hatred for her, huh?”

“She’s a child, William.”

“I don’t care!”

“Rosa’s not supposed to be that powerful, much less be helping them that much. The way I take it, she’s kind of like a poltergeist, but instead of dying with anger in her heart, she died with an immense amount of hope and love along with the ‘mama bear’ protectiveness.”

“How…how can we stop her?!”

“That part’s tricky. We cannot, and I can only hurt her but she continues on since she is dead. However, there is a way to work around this.”

“How?! Tell me how!”

“The only way I know that she’s able to help them is if I try to kill them indirectly…”

“So…that means we have to try and kill them directly, which will only make this a lot harder.”

”No, you, not me. I don’t know how you plan to do that and I don’t care how you do, but if I were you I’d want them dealt with sooner rather than later.”

“Wait…me?! Why me?! You’re a poltergeist! You can manipulate the physical world!”

Schmidt slammed his hands on the table and leaned on it so he and William were face to face. “I think you should stop cowering away against those three barely-even-adults and kill them yourself if you want them dead so bad, unless you’re scared of literal children,” he said smugly.

“I’m not!”

“In that case then…it’s your turn,” he added on and he smiled an evil smile and disappeared, the coldness in the room leaving with him.

Now, William knew, he had to start hatching up a plan and it wasn’t going to be easy to pick them off one by one, but doable.

Chapter 136

Summary:

William puts his plan into action.

”Alright, are you sure you’re alright walking home?” Alex asked their little brother, Jeremiah, over the phone a few months later. “I can pick you up if you want since Mom and Dad are asleep.”

“Al, my friend lives like half a mile away! I’ll be fine.”

“I know but it’s eleven at night!”

“I’m also almost sixteen years old! And this neighborhood is pretty quiet anyway and you ask this every time I’m out with my friends! I’ve also walked home at night several times!”

Alex sighed. “Fine. But if you get lost, you know the home phone number. Bye Jerry.”

“Bye Al, see you at home.”

He hung up the telephone and turned to his friend right behind him. “You headin’ out?” he asked.

“Yeah man. And promise we can play that game again next week?”

“Yep!”

“Alright, I’ll remember you said that. See ya at school on Monday!”

“See ya!”

Jeremiah went out the front door and went down the street, which looked like he would be walking into a dark void if it wasn’t for the evenly placed street lights right next to the road. The chilling breeze of March blew and he shivered since it was still that awkward transition from winter to spring.

He walked home as he usually did, now wanting to get home to tell Alex about this new video game he and his friend played for hours after school.

He told Alex everything, they were like a built in best friend to him. He loved hanging out with Alex, telling them about video games he and his friends played, making up stories with Alex (even though they weren’t little kids anymore) and they both would playfully tease each other from time to time.

He would tell them about school, crushes and also gossip about the teachers and students. Sure, there were the occasional arguments, but they usually didn’t stay mad at each other for long and would go back to playing video games with each other until two in the morning.

He walked home, noticing that there was no one else out on the sidewalk this late at night but monsters that may be lurking in the shadows didn’t scare him anymore, or at least he thought.

He was pretty far along, almost halfway to his house when he heard it: rustling dry leaves from behind him. He didn’t think much of it and thought it was just the slight winter breeze that picked up and he continued on, but he only turned to look behind him when he heard the sound of a twig snapping behind him.

When he turned just as he expected, there was nothing there so he assumed he was just hearing things. Maybe I should’ve brought my bike, he thought.

Jeremiah went and continued on his route, now walking faster so it was almost a run and trying to pay no mind to the occasional rustling of dead leaves behind him, but as soon as he got to the end of a street lamp so he was in the darkness again, a hand from behind him covered his mouth and pushed him to the chest of the attacker so he was trapped and couldn’t escape.

He yelled out for help even though his screams were muffled by the person’s hand, he tried to fight to get out of this person’s grip by trying to pry their arms off of him, kicking the person behind him, hitting the person, even trying to bite their hand so they would let go and he could take off in a sprint.

“Shut up unless you want me to kill you right now,” he said and Jeremiah was too terrified to move once he heard the sound of a handgun by his head cocking back.

The man tied Jeremiah’s wrists together tightly with a very scratchy rope and brought him over to his car which was not too far, in fact he only had to walk a few steps and he wondered how he didn’t hear it or see it. Now, he felt the gun’s barrel against his back and Jeremiah knew it was ready to shoot at anytime so he kept quiet.

Soon, once the man had a good grip on him so he wouldn’t move he reached to open the car door open and Jeremiah was pushed, basically thrown, into the hard, semi-carpeted floor of a car and he heard the door behind him slam shut. He then heard another door open a few feet to his left as he got up on his hands and knees and shut so he assumed the man got in the driver’s seat.

“Stay on the floor,” the man said as he locked the doors so Jeremiah couldn’t get out.

“But-”

“STAY ON THE FUCKING FLOOR!” he yelled. 

Jeremiah shut his mouth knowing he had a gun and possibly other weapons in the car so he was too terrified to move. The man turned the key, the car engine turned on and the car started moving so Jeremiah fell back on his side since there was nothing holding him down as the man drove fast to escape.

“Wh-what do you want?!” Jeremiah said a few minutes later after he calmed down, still terrified, but the man didn’t answer. “Who are you?!”

For a while, there was no response, but then the man finally answered smugly, “How rude of me. I didn’t introduce myself. The name’s William Afton.”

---

At around three in the afternoon that next day, Michael and Jeremy were at home, watching television and enjoying their lazy Saturday. Jeremy’s head was resting on Michael’s shoulder and he was about to fall asleep, but suddenly he was woken up by frantic banging on the door.

Jeremy opened his eye. “Who…” he said sleepily but whoever was outside kept knocking worriedly.

Michael sighed in annoyance. “I’ll get it.” Jeremy lifted his head up and Michael stood up. “I’m coming!” he yelled but the banging didn’t stop. “Jesus Christ, some people…” he muttered and made his way to the door.

He opened the front door and there on his front porch was Alex who looked like they must’ve been crying a few minutes before. “Mike! Oh my God, I can’t believe this-” they started saying very quickly.

“Woah, it’s alright.”

“No it’s not!”

“Just…come inside, calm down, I can get you a glass of water and you can tell us what’s wrong.”

Michael opened the door wider and Alex went inside the house, looking worried sick and they might even start crying again. Jeremy looked over the couch and noticed. “Al? What’s wrong?” he asked.

“E-everything right now.”

“That doesn’t help a lot.”

“Jer!” Michael whisper-shouted.

“Sorry! Sorry, bad time.”

“It’s fine, whatever,” Alex said as they went to sit at a chair at the dining table and held their head in their hands.

Michael and Jeremy looked at each other, knowing they were both thinking the same thing, looked back at Alex and both scrambled to go sit at the table with them.

Michael instinctively poured them a glass of water, set it down in front of them and pulled out the chair quietly, as if he didn’t want to bother Alex and make them mad by making more noise and he sat down. “Al?” he said quietly. “D’you wanna tell us what’s up?”

Alex put their hands down and Jeremy sat at the table across from Michael. “Yeah, you can trust us,” Jeremy said.

Alex took a sip of the water to try and calm down enough to form words. “I-it’s just…” Alex started and took a deep breath and set the glass down. “He’s gone.”

“Gone?”

“Who’s gone?” Michael asked.

“My brother, Jeremiah…I should’ve just trusted my gut, why did I have to be so stupid?!”

“Gone? Like, dead?” Jeremy asked.

“No! He’s missing! But he might be by now!” Alex sniffled. “He said over the phone last night that he was gonna walk home, but in the morning he still wasn’t at the house!”

“D’you think he maybe went back?” Michael asked.

“D’you think we haven’t checked?! Of course we did! And they haven’t seen him since he left!”

”Do you know of any other places he could’ve gone?” Jeremy asked.

“Police are searching, literally ripping the town apart because my mom told them to since she does work with the police. They’ve been at it for a few hours and still, nothing.” Tears welled up in Alex’s eyes again. “Wh-why didn’t I trust my gut?! I had a bad feeling about last night and I ignored it because he said he was fine! I feel so stupid for letting this happen to my baby brother, the one I was supposed to protect! I-I don’t even know if I blame myself.”

”Al, it’s not your fault,” Michael said.

“You didn’t know,” Jeremy added.

“Thanks, but that doesn’t really help. I-I just feel so guilty because he’s missing ‘cause of my stupid mistake and now he’s gone to who knows where and I feel like it’s all my fault-”

“Then we’ll help you look,” Michael said.

Alex and Jeremy looked at him with confusion. “How?” Alex asked. “Police are already searching for him!”

“I know police, and they don’t look everywhere when they’re looking for someone, they just say they are. So we’ll just drive around, and we will look everywhere in this town.”

“But that’s gonna take hours, days even, Mike!” Jeremy exclaimed.

“Yeah!” Alex agreed. “Like, sure we live in a small town but those mountains around the town could be hiding him too!”

“Trust me, we will find him. We’ll look everywhere , and if I have to take a few days off of work…” He shrugged. “So be it.”

“Yeah! Same here!”

“Really? You guys would do this for me?” Alex asked, holding back another round of tears but this time from happiness.

”Of course we would,” Michael said.

“Yeah!” Jeremy added. “Almost name twins have to stick together!”

Alex and Michael chuckled. “Thank you guys,” Alex said. “Get dressed first, I’m sure you two wouldn’t want to be out in a t-shirt and sweatpants.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Michael said. “We’ll meet out by my car in five minutes.”

Chapter 137

Summary:

The hunt begins.

”Are you sure we’re gonna find him?” Alex asked from the backseat once they all got into Michael’s car.

“I’m sure,” Michael said to them from the driver’s seat. “We’ll look around every inch of this town if we have to.”

”Where to first?” Jeremy asked from the passenger’s seat.

“I-I dunno. Um, the gas station maybe?” Alex suggested. “He and his friends like to buy snacks there sometimes.”

Michael nodded, backed out of the driveway and drove slowly out of the neighborhood while Michal and Jeremy had their windows rolled down and calling out Jeremiah’s name, and Alex had the back windows rolled down, going back and forth between both windows while calling out, “Jerry? Jerry, where are you? C’mon, it’s me, Alex. We miss you, please come back home.”

After Michael left the neighborhood he drove the speed limit to the gas station that Alex said he and his friends went to. He parked and he and Alex got out of the car and he spoke to Jeremy through the rolled down passenger’s window.

“You stay here Jer, we’ll just be a few minutes,” Michael said to Jeremy.

“Ugh! Fine. But can you at least buy me a soda or something?”

“Jer! We’re on a serious mission here!”

“That doesn’t mean I’m not thirsty sometimes. We’re here anyway!”

“Look-”

“Please?”

“Jer-”

“Mike-“

“Jeremy, I love you, but no.”

“Ugh! Fine,” he said and crossed his arms.

Michael sighed. “Look, if it makes you happier, I can leave the keys in and you can have the radio on or something.”

“No, you go ahead. I don’t trust myself with the keys in.”

“Okay, love you,” he said and pecked his cheek.

Michael and Alex walked away from the red car and walked side by side to the small convenience store. “He seemed kinda upset,” Alex said.

“It’s the injury. Again. He gets upset very easily about the smallest things, and of course he can’t drive again yet because I keep forgetting to re-teach him, but knowing him he’ll forget about it once we get back.”

They went into the store and immediately, Alex went to the cashiers to ask if they had seen Jeremiah while Michael asked the customers if they had seen him and also looked around. After a while, one of the cashiers went to go get a manager to hopefully answer Alex’s question, but they also didn’t know.

There was only one other option they could try, but that would mean the manager would have to take Alex to an area restricted to the public. They decided this was an exception since Alex was obviously very worried about their little brother, and took them to see the security camera footage.

“See anything?” Michael asked them.

”Nothing yet,” Alex replied as they rewound the footage. Michael looked over Alex’s shoulder, not totally sure what he was looking for because he hasn’t seen Jeremiah for years, but then Alex shouted, “There!”

”What?”

”It’s him!” they exclaimed and pointed to a boy with a friend at the cash register.

Michael looked in the bottom corner of the screen. “That was on Thursday, Al.”

”Shit! You’re right!”

After about ten more minutes of searching, they both came out of the store and back to the car empty handed.

“Find anything?” Jeremy asked once they both got in the car.

“Nothing,” Michael said.

“He hasn’t been here since Thursday! Where the hell could he be?!” Alex exclaimed. “He doesn’t really go anywhere else! Just school, his friend’s houses and here!”

“Is there…someplace that he rarely goes?” Jeremy asked.

“Well…I suppose the arcade. He doesn’t go too often though, so doubt we’ll find anything.”

“Worth a shot,” Michael said and he put the car in drive.

---

After searching their local arcade and somehow getting permission to go through the security footage there as well under the supervision of the employees, security guard on duty and manager, they still came back to the car empty handed with the only evidence of him being at the arcade was from a month ago.

“Where could he be?! Ugh!” Alex groaned and slumped into the backseat.

“Maybe we just have to drive around town?” Jeremy suggested.

“But it’s getting dark!”

“So?”

“It’ll make it harder to see! He’s somewhere hidden, so if we can’t see then we’ll have a harder time finding him!”

“They have a point, Jer,” Michael said.

“So, you just wanna try again tomorrow?” Jeremy asked.

Alex sighed and held their head in their hands. “I-I dunno. I really want to find him today, but I don’t think we’ll be able to. My parents are worried sick and so am I and it would help if we could get some idea of what happened to him.”

“We could use flashlights,” Michael suggested.

“Right, yeah, forgot those existed for a minute. Let’s do it.”

“Alright, where to?”

“Uh…the park? he and his friends like to play football and basketball there sometimes.”

“You got it, boss.”

---

In the basement of an old abandoned house on the outskirts of town, lit by several candles around the room since there was no electricity was Jeremiah, scared for his life, with William standing across the room from him and talking to Schmidt, who was invisible so Jeremiah couldn’t see him but of course Jeremiah could only hear William’s side of the conversation they were having.

“So to kill him yourself, you decided to kidnap…his younger brother?” Schmidt said to William later that night.

“Of course. It’ll lead ‘em right to me.”

“What?! Are you stupid?! That’ll lead those three straight to your little hiding spot and blow your cover!”

“Look Schmidt, I don’t want to stay here forever, alright? This dump is getting on my nerves, and even though I am able to survive starvation and dehydration, I don’t want to call this place my new home! After I kill Alex I’ll find somewhere else, it’s not a big deal!”

“Alex?!” Jeremiah yelled from the corner in the basement, but he couldn’t move easily due to his hands being tied behind his back so he couldn’t use his hands, his feet tied together so he couldn’t get very far before he fell if he stood, both tied tightly together by a very tick rope and he was sitting down. “You wanna kill…Alex? And who’re you talking to?!”

William went in front of him and crouched down until they were seeing each other eye to eye, ignoring his second question. “Why else would I kidnap you?!” he said smugly, “I would’ve just killed you on the spot yesterday since you are of no other use to me, so if I were you, I would have a little gratefulness!”

“Why would I have gratefulness for a serial killer?!”

“Because I am deciding to spare you until Alex gets here. You are nothing but a worthless little worm on a hook and all I have to do is lure in the fish. So I could kill you right this second if I wanted to, but I’m giving you a week. ONE week.”

“Until…what?!”

”One of you pathetic Davis children will be dead by next Saturday, probably even earlier knowing Alex wants to find you so bad, but it’s Alex’s choice on whether he shows his face or not.”

“I’d much rather both of us kill you by next Saturday instead.”

“You are forgetting though, I can survive a bullet to the head. You however, cannot.”

Jeremiah now felt terrified knowing that one of them would die either way, but knew that he was the bait leading Alex into a trap so they get themselves killed. He felt terrible and sick to his stomach thinking about it, but at the same time he felt nothing but rage.

“Go to hell,” Jeremiah said and kicked William as hard as he could in the knee so he fell on the cold concrete floor.

“Ooh! We got a fighter over here!” William said as he stood up. “Guess what, I know how to fight too.” Immediately after he said those words, he slapped Jeremiah as hard as he could across the face and Jeremiah tried to not start crying from the lingering burning sensation on his left cheek. “Now, pray that you don’t die in your sleep tonight.”

“You’re just leaving me down here?!”

“What else would I do with you?” He turned to the poltergeist who was behind him the entire time. “Schmidt! Leave the boy in the dark.”

With a snap of the ghost’s fingers, all of the candles around the room went out at once and the coldness in the room dissipated as quickly as the candles went out.

“Sweet dreams, kid,” William said evilly and Jeremiah could hear his evenly paced intimidating footsteps fade away, indicating that he went up the stairs to the main house, then he heard the door slam and lock behind William.

When they faded away and Jeremiah knew he was alone, he put his knees up to his chest and silently sobbed. Not because of the fact that his face still hurt from the slap, but because he was terrified. He didn’t want he nor Alex to die by next week, but the way William made it sound it was inevitable unless they were somehow able to outsmart him.

Chapter 138

Summary:

Some exploring of eerie buildings.

”We looked for him for three days! Where the fuck could he have been taken?!” Alex exclaimed from the backseat since they were all taking a break in a parking lot.

“He has to be around here somewhere,” Michael said from the driver’s seat.

“Where?! We checked everywhere! None of us have slept for three days, looking for him! I’d be damned if half the town didn’t know his name by now because we’ve been asking everyone for information!”

“We haven’t looked everywhere,” Michael said and then sipped the Mountain Dew he had gotten to stay awake.

“What?! Whaddya mean ‘not everywhere’?!”

“There’s a few abandoned buildings outside of town-”

“But Mike, those have been abandoned since before we were born!” Jeremy said from the passenger’s seat. “Plus it probably has…” He shivered. “Spiders!”

Michael chuckled and kissed his cheek. “You don’t have to go inside the house with us if you don’t want to. We need a lookout anyway because we really shouldn’t be exploring those in the first place, so it’s still worth a shot. We’ve checked everywhere else, so it’s worth exploring before we head out of town.”

“What?! Why didn’t you tell me there were abandoned buildings outside town?! I love that kind of stuff!” Alex exclaimed.

“That’s ‘cause the public’s not supposed to go there. Something about falling hazards because the floor can cave in.”

“Guess it’s worth a shot, even though this is my first time hearing about this.”

---

They went to the outskirts of town and just as Michael had said, there were four abandoned buildings all about a quarter of a mile away from each other. Alex thought Michael was lying, trying to trick them and get their hopes up, so Alex was surprised when he saw those rotting buildings that looked as if they had been there for at least fifty years.

After thoroughly searching the other three abandoned houses and coming back empty handed each time, they were starting to loose hope. There was of course one more house to search before they left town to search the surrounding cities, and it was perhaps the most eerie looking of all the old houses.

Once they drove up to the house, Michael stared at it like he was unsure of it. He was unsure of the other houses of course, but this one in particular sent chills down his spine. “Mike? Are you alright?” Jeremy asked as he put a hand on Michael’s shoulder and Michael jumped a little as he snapped him out of his trance. “Oh! Sorry!”

“No, no, you’re fine. I-I just have a bad feeling about this one.”

“Well we searched everywhere else but here!” Alex exclaimed. “He might be here!”

Michael sighed. “Alright.” He turned to Jeremy. “You remember what to do if things go south?” he asked him.

“Yep! Call for help!”

“And you remember where the phone is just in case you need to dial someone really quick or do I need to get it out?”

“It’s in the back. We went over this all three other times.”

“I know, but this one for some reason feels more dangerous. I feel it in my gut.”

“You’ll be fine.” Jeremy kissed him. “I love you. Be safe.” He turned to the backseat. “Be safe, Al.”

“You got it,” Alex responded and grabbed their flashlight like the three previous times because abandoned houses were always dark and got out.

Michael got out and grabbed the flashlight, but once he shut the door he noticed something on the ground, crouched down and called Alex over. “See? Look, these tire tracks are fresh!”

Alex gasped. “That means he’s probably here!” they said and ran to the front door.

“Hey! Al, wait up!” he said as he stood and went after them.

Alex reached for the front door which was as they expected, unlocked because the lock was broken, and opened the door which eerily and loudly squeaked so it most likely alerted anyone in the house that there was now someone else here. “Hell-” Alex started to call out but then Michael slapped his hand over their mouth.

“Shut up!” he whisper-shouted and uncovered their mouth.

“Um, ow! That hurt! What the hell, man!”

“Someone might be here since those tire tracks are fresh! If your brother’s here, I’m ninety nine percent sure the kidnapper’s here!”

“You’re being paranoid. He was probably taken to a faraway city, or maybe even killed! I need closure he’s not still here!”

“And to feel guilty the rest of your life because you lost him?”

“That already started the second I got the news.”

Michael gasped. “Oh my God, twining!”

Alex chuckled and lightly punched him in the shoulder. “You’re stupid, man.”

They both went inside and turned on the flashlights in their hands since it was as they expected, dark, but it was also very dirty and dusty with all of the old furniture abandoned and almost all of it was breaking apart or rusting. The few pieces of furniture that weren’t falling apart were the couch and the coffee table that was put in front of it, but they were very dusty like it wasn’t even painted blue.

“Wonder what happened here,” Alex said.

“Moved?”

“Without their stuff?!”

Michael looked around and looked back at them, obviously teasing them and sarcastically said, “No.”

Alex smiled and rolled their eyes as they both began looking around the house, but there wasn’t a living thing in sight. They did notice however, all of the windows looked like they were boarded up to begin with, but they looked like they were broken. Of course, it could be natural since the wood seemed old and the weather could have damaged it enough, but Michael couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t natural.

They both searched and searched around the house finding nothing and no clues on where Jeremiah could be. On the coffee table, Michael found some fingerprints in the dust that looked somewhat fresh and Alex noticed some more on a table, but that was about it.

They were starting to loose hope, that was until Michael went into one room, obviously the master bedroom. The bed was gone but on the floor in its place in the middle of the room was an old mattress, blankets on top of it that looked somewhat new and a journal on the floor. Michael immediately got chills and the hair stood up on his arms, frightened because they obviously weren’t alone in this house.

Someone was here, and Michael didn’t know if this person was good or bad.

Alex came up behind him. “What?” Alex asked Michael, seeing his wide-eyed expression.

“S…someone’s here,” he said, pointing to the items on the floor of the room.

Alex looked over to where he was pointing and gasped. “Maybe it’s him!”

“I have a feeling that’s not him.”

“You never know!” Alex said and went into the room while Michael sighed and followed behind them. “Jerry? Jerry, are you here?” Alex called out but there was no answer.

Alex and Michael continued to scan the room for any sign of life other than each other, but that’s when Michael saw it: a small handgun out of sight from the doorway by the old mattress.

What the… Michael thought and bent down. He picked it up and checked if it was loaded or not, and to his surprise, it was. He decided to take it, knowing that they weren’t alone and he didn’t know if this person was dangerous.

Alex heard Michael fiddling around with something metal, turned to him and saw the gun in his hand. “Why do you need that? Where did it even come from?!” Alex asked him as he stood from his crouched position.

“Self defense and right here,” Michael answered.

“But what if it’s just Jerry? Or even some homeless person?!”

“The dude has a loaded gun so they’re probably planning to use it on someone else which, in my opinion, doesn’t need to happen. It’s also to make me feel better because I don’t think this house is safe.”

“You’re being paranoid again, but fine dude, whatever. Take it,” Alex said, putting their hands up like they were surrendering and walked out of the room.

Before Michael followed Alex out of the room, he let his curiosity get the better of him and picked up the journal that was next to the gun to look through it. His heart dropped and he could feel himself breathing shallowly when he saw the words written on the first page: Property of William Afton.

He dropped the journal and ran out of the room to find Alex searching the kitchen. “Al! Al, Al, oh my God, Al!” he said quickly and almost bumped into them.

“What dude, what?! Calm down, what’s wrong?!”

“He’s here! Oh God, he’s here!”

“Who’s here?!”

“My father!”

Alex’s heart started to race from anxiousness. Alright, don’t panic Alex, maybe he’s out and that’s why we haven’t run into him, they thought.

Since they both knew that they were definitely not alone now, Michael stuck with them since he was the only one armed and Alex was now grateful for Michael’s gut feeling to take the gun. He followed them closely, keeping the gun ready as they both searched through all of the rooms, looking for a sign of life or clues as to where Jeremiah could be, but came out of every room empty handed.

Then at the end of the hallway, they both saw a locked door that was obviously hiding something, and since they already checked everywhere else they decided to check it out.

Alex reached for the metal lock, which was only a simple latch and opened the wooden door. Inside was an old, wooden staircase leading down to what was obviously a basement, but it was so dark it looked like it was leading to a bottomless pit, but it didn’t seem like William was in there because if he was, the door wouldn’t be locked.

“I don’t think William’s down there, I don’t know where he is. Should I keep watch and you check it out?” Michael asked.

“What, scared of the dark?” Alex replied teasingly.

“N-no! I’m a grown man! The dark is something six year olds are scared of!”

“Really? Then follow me, grown man.”

They both walked cautiously down the stairs, both of them had their flashlights on and looking around the large room which as expected had old pieces of furniture: a few bookcases falling apart, a ripped couch and armchair with a few springs coming out as well, and a couple small either broken or dusty tables.

The bookcases had destroyed old books near them on the floor and it didn’t even look like there was ink on them at all, but they most likely just faded away with time. To top off the creepiness, they had to be careful where they stepped because there were shards of shattered glass from the busted lightbulb overhead.

There were cobwebs everywhere and several spiderwebs, a few with dead insects on them and a few with spiders on them, so Jeremy obviously wouldn’t have liked this place.

“Jesus,” Alex muttered. “Jerry? Jerry are you here?” they called out, the sound bouncing off the walls being that there was no carpet so it was louder than they intended.

Just when they weren’t expecting to hear anything back, they heard a response. It was a boy’s voice and he sounded like he was tired but he managed to weakly say, “A…Alex?”

Chapter 139

Summary:

Unfortunate events…

“Jerry!” Alex exclaimed and ran towards where they heard the boy’s voice and Michael followed. There, slumped in the corner of the room and hidden from anyone coming down the stairwell was Alex’s little brother, Jeremiah, with his hands tied behind his back and ankles tied together. 

“Alex!” Jeremiah exclaimed and sat up straight. 

“Oh my God,” Alex said, dropped the flashlight and fell to their knees, so Michael stood holding the flashlight over them while Alex hugged him tightly. “I was so worried, Mom and Dad were so worried about you. We thought we would never see you again.” They let go of him. “What happened to you?!”

“I’m happy to see you too,” he said, “but talk later, you shouldn’t be here.”

“What?! Why?!”

“It’s him! He lured you! He’s here in the house somewhere!”

“Who?”

“The one Mom told us about, remember?” He paused from fright. “William Afton. He’s here!”

“Fu-” Michael started but was then cut off by the door at the top of the stairwell slam shut and lock. “We’re trapped.”

“Oh shit,” Jeremiah muttered. “Here, can you get this off me?” he asked Alex and turned to show that his hands were handcuffed by rope tied tightly behind him. 

“That knot looks impossible,” Alex said. “We’ll have to cut it.”

“Why not the glass on the floor?” Michael suggested and Jeremiah looked up at him like he hadn’t noticed him at all, even though he was the only one with a flashlight. 

“Good idea,” Alex said and took their flashlight from the floor next to them and went to where the shards of glass were. 

“Who’re you?!” Jeremiah asked Michael once Alex ran off. 

“I’m Michael, Alex’s friend.”

“Oh…I think I’ve met you once. There’s also a Jeremy that Alex mentions all the time, never met him.”

“Yep, he’s in the car. He’s our lookout. Haven’t seen you in a while though, how’ve you been?”

“Oh y’know, surviving. Livin’ the dream!”

Michael chuckled. “So it’s true that William’s here?! I-I found a journal with his name in it upstairs, but I was hoping it didn’t actually belong to him!”

“He’s here! Even worse, he knows you guys are here too! His whole plan was to kidnap me so it would lead Al here, and now that they’re here…” He sniffled. “I-I dunno what’s gonna happen to them! I-I don’t wanna loose my big brother!”

“You’re not going to, not today. I promise we’re all going to get out of here safely.”

Alex came back. “Okay, so I found a shard of glass,” Alex said and knelt down next to Jeremiah. “Don’t yell at me if I accidentally cut you.”

“Or else,” he replied. 

“Or else what?”

“Or else I’ll never let you live it down.”

Alex chuckled. “Okay, I’ll try not to slip. Hold still, I’m gonna try to saw this off of you.”

As Alex sawed away at the thick rope and Michael was holding the light for Alex, his gaze kept on shifting to the door, wondering if it was thin enough to where he could break through since they were locked in. They had to get out somehow, and that seemed like the only solution since the basement had no windows. 

After about ten minutes, Alex finally cut through the rope and Jeremiah slipped off the rope tied around his legs. Once he was free, he jumped into Alex’s arms, hugging them tightly which Alex thought he would never get to experience again. 

“Thank you for saving me,” Jeremiah said and let go of them. “But we have to go.”

“What?”

“Now! He already knows other people are here, he’s going to kill us all!”

“Oh shit, you’re right. Mike-”

“Yeah, yeah, break the door down, right?” Michael asked. 

”Exactly!” 

Together, the three of them went to the bottom of the stairs, and all of them were about to go up, but Michael stopped Alex and Jeremiah. 

“Wait here,” he told them. 

“What?! Why?!” Alex asked. 

“I’m the only one armed and we’re obviously not alone so I’m going first. Once it’s clear I’ll yell at you guys to follow.”

Alex and Jeremiah looked at each other, back at Michael and nodded as Alex turned off their flashlight to stay hidden. 

Michael went up the stairs and faced the door. He tried to push it open just to make sure he wasn’t breaking it for nothing, and as expected it wouldn’t budge and he hoped that the door was only made of wood and there was no metal on it except the doorknobs and latch. “Only one way to find out.”

Michael positioned himself so his shoulder would hit the door, braced himself and ran as fast as he could at the door. Much to his surprise, it broke with barely any effort and he tumbled onto the tile floor of the hallway, landing on his back. 

“Ow, God…” he said and stood. “Guess I overestimated an old house.” 

He stood, deciding to investigate their route to the front door to make sure there was no one hiding behind any walls or furniture, even though the route was quite short and the car was not too far outside.

Michael tried to step quietly, having the gun at ready in case he needed to shoot. However, he only got to the end of the hallway before he stopped because he was grabbed by the shoulder and a knife was drawn to his neck from behind him. 

“Drop it,” the person said, and Michael cringed at the sound of his voice. He knew exactly who it was, and he knew it was only wishful thinking that the person who owned that voice was gone. 

“No,” Michael responded, and then the person kept the knife closely drawn to his neck but moved in front of him so they could see each other. 

“Hello there Michael,” William said. “I wasn’t expecting you here, what a pleasant surprise considering you were probably too cowardly to face me in the first place, but decided to anyway. How bold of you. It’s been a while, eh?”

“It has,” Michael responded, “it’s been years Father, but I’ve been looking for you.

“Looking for me? Did you miss me that much?”

“No. I’ve been looking for you…to do this.” Since the handgun was facing down but his finger was on the trigger, he pointed it at William’s leg and shot him so William fell and was distracted. “Guys! C’mon! It’s not safe to stay here! Run!” Michael yelled so Alex and Jeremiah came running up the stairs. 

---

Meanwhile from the car, Jeremy has been in the seat for nearly half an hour and he was starting to get antsy. “They didn’t say they’d be this long,” he said to himself. “I wish Mike left the keys so I can have the radio on or something.”

At the thirty five minute mark, Jeremy was rocking back and forth, moving because he was restless when he suddenly heard the gunshot. It was loud, way louder than he thought it would be so he could actually hear it and he looked to the house. 

“What the hell…” He heard another loud gunshot which startled him. “No, no, no…Mike…Al…”

Without giving it a second thought, he reached into the backseat, almost climbing over the console for the emergency phone that Michael always kept in the backseat. After a minute of searching, he finally found it underneath the seats; it was a cell phone but it was as big as a brick, it had an antenna that he had to physically pull out of the phone and huge buttons with the numbers on them. 

He dialed the number 9-1-1 and he brought it up to his good ear that could hear everything, but as he thought about the situation he realized he didn’t even know what to say because his mind was racing. The phone rang a few times, but then he was met with an operator. 

”9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” the woman on the other line asked. 

“Help,” he said softly.

“E-excuse me?”

“Help.”

“You’re going to have to be more specific sir, what do you need help with?”

“I-I heard gunshots…they were loud. M-my friends are in there!”

”Alright sir, what’s the address and I’ll send help right away.”

“I…oh God, I don’t know. I-it’s one of the abandoned buildings outside town.”

“Sir, no one’s supposed to be there.”

“I know but…they were looking for someone, a missing person and I think they found him but now there’s this shootout happening.” He heard another gunshot and curled himself into a ball, trying to protect himself. “Please! I-I’m scared! I don’t want them to die!”

“It’s alright sir, don’t panic, we’ll send help right away.”

“T-thank you,” he said and hung up. “C’mon guys…”

---

“Stay…away,” Michael said as William cornered him. 

“Or what? You’re gonna shoot me again?! That’s cute. You can’t kill me, you bastard!” William yelled, and he was right. Michael couldn’t kill him considering he has already shot him in the leg, the shoulder and even his chest. Each one did the expected amount of damage but it was only temporary and he stood right back up like it was nothing. “Now tell me, where is your little friend?! I know he’s here!”

“Like I would ever tell you.”

Suddenly William put a hand around Michael’s neck and pushed him against the wall so he couldn’t get away and Michael dropped the handgun. Michael was choking, trying to get William’s grasp off of him and digging his nails into William’s hand but he wouldn’t budge. “Where is he?!” William yelled as he let go of him and he fell to the floor. 

When Michael didn’t answer because he was trying to get air in his lungs, William kicked him right in the stomach as hard as he could so the air he did manage to get was knocked out of him. 

“I’m going out there,” Alex whispered to Jeremiah as they were hiding around the corner. 

“What?! Al, he’ll kill you!”

“Maybe, but if I don’t do something he’ll kill all of us, and I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you two and I couldn’t stop it.” Alex then got an idea, took off their black denim jacket so it revealed the Nirvana t-shirt they were wearing and handed the jacket to Jeremiah. “Take this.”

“What?! But this is your favorite!” he said as he took it. 

“I know, but if something happens to me out there, I want the family to have something special of mine. This jacket was given to me by Mom on my birthday after I told her I didn’t want to be called Amelia anymore. From then on, I wore it everywhere and I cherished it. I want you to take care of it for me if something happens.” Jeremiah started to tear up and sniffle. “No, no, Jerry don’t cry. I love you so much no matter what happens out there and that’ll never change. I promise I’ll come back safe and sound and you can give me my jacket back.”

Jeremiah nodded, put Alex’s jacket on and hugged them. Alex let go of him, smiled and ran to William. “Be safe,” Jeremiah said. 

Alex nodded to him then turned to William. “I’m right here!” Alex yelled from behind William and he turned to look at them.

William smirked evilly once he saw Alex behind him. Michael tried to stand up, but as soon as he got on his hands and knees he lost his balance and fell right back to the ground because just a few minutes earlier, William kicked him either in his arm or chest to push him back over. Now that William turned his attention to them, Alex could tell he was at least breathing again since they heard him gasping for air and coughing but trying to quietly groan in pain.

“Whaddya want?!” Alex yelled. 

“A-Alex…stop…run,” Michael said softly to them. 

“Not yet,” Alex responded, but that’s when Michael saw what they were trying to do. They were trying to stall long enough so Michael and Jeremiah could get away.

”So you’re Alex…” William said taking a step towards them. “You’re a lot shorter than I expected.”

While William was distracted, Jeremiah decided to crawl as quickly and quietly as he could from around the wall to Michael. Once he got to him successfully without William even noticing him and was instead going back and forth with Alex, he shook Michael by the shoulder. “Michael! Mike!” he whisper-shouted. 

Michael coughed and looked at Jeremiah. “Hey!” He coughed again. “Ow…so uh, weird circumstances to be meeting each other again.”

He chuckled. “Can you sit up? We need to get outta here.”

Michael nodded and tried to get up, but the pain in his stomach caught up to him and he fell backwards onto his back again. “Ow...he probably bruised…something at least.”

“Uh, here, I-I’ll help you up.” He grabbed Michael’s arm that wasn’t hurt while Michael grabbed Jeremiah’s forearm, and Jeremiah used all of his strength to pull Michael up to standing because he was obviously bigger than him and it hurt to sit or stand upright.

Michael leaned on the wall, not sure if he was steady enough to depend on himself. Once Michael seemed steady enough leaning on the wall, Jeremiah looked over his shoulder and back at Alex, who William was now walking closer to. Jeremiah saw the knife still in his hand and remembered what he said a few days prior. “Hey!” he shouted and Michael turned to look at him as well. 

William turned to him. “Trying to be the hero, eh? You think you’re going to stop me?! That’s hilarious!” He finally saw Michael leaning on the wall behind Jeremiah. “Oh, you,” William said in a disgusted tone, “Who knew you were that strong to withstand all of that. Fourteen year old you wouldn’t have.”

“Times…change,” Michael said. 

“Well, I guess I’ll finish the job of slowly killing you, or how about to make this more exciting, kill two birds with one stone.”

He started going toward Jeremiah and Michael but Alex held him back by grabbing his sleeve. “I won’t let you hurt them, not again,” they said. 

Suddenly, since William still had the knife in his hand, he mustered up his strength and stabbed Alex right in the abdomen. 

“Alex!” Jeremiah and Michael screamed.

It all happened so fast, almost in an instant their entire life was ruined and possibly even taken away. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion but fast paced at the same time, like this was a dream that wasn’t even real. 

It was more painful than they thought it would be; it was too painful to talk at the moment, it was painful to take a breath, it was painful to see the thick crimson color dripping from their abdomen onto the floor, and it was painful to see Jeremiah and Michael’s shocked faces so they knew, this was real. 

William then leaned them forward to whisper in their ear, “How stupid do you have to be to walk straight into my trap?”

He took the bloody knife out of their stomach area and pushed them off of him so Alex fell to the ground. 

“No!” Jeremiah screamed, and without hesitation he took the handgun on the floor next to him and fired several shots at William while tears of anger and sadness poured out of his eyes, eventually shooting a bullet at William’s hand so he dropped the knife. 

It was a clean shot, a perfect circle straight through his hand, bleeding like there was no tomorrow. 

“You…bloody…” he started as he tried to speak through the pain in his hand. 

“Maybe I can’t kill you, but I sure as hell will try,” Jeremiah said and fired several more shots at him. He kept firing until the gun ran out of bullets, but every one that hit William wasn’t doing as much damage as all of them had hoped; the wounds looked like they were already healing as soon as they hit him. They obviously still hurt like they normally would, he was still bleeding a ton, but they didn’t seem like the wounds slowed him down that much and he obviously didn’t die from blood loss.

“What the hell…” Michael murmured, but didn’t question it for long as he ignored the pain in his arm and abdomen because the adrenaline took over. He pushed himself off of the wall and went to the knife on the ground and picked it up, looking back at William who was now unarmed. “Start running.”

Michael knew Jeremy well enough to know that he had already called the police once he heard the gunshots. As Jeremy said, they went over this several times so he knew what to do and Jeremy wasn’t the type to willingly let anybody down, he never has been. Michael thought if he cornered William at the front of the house since he was unarmed, the wounds obviously hurt him enough to slow him down even if they couldn’t kill him, William would definitely be trapped there long enough by the time the cops came. 

Just as Michael wanted, he cornered William in the kitchen as he was about to make his great escape through the closest window he saw, but when William saw that he couldn’t make it and Michael had trapped him he suddenly yelled, “Schmidt! Help me out here!”

Michael forgot all about him, William’s puppet to do his bidding that he held tightly by its strings. 

Suddenly, an axe that William hid in the garage all those years ago when he first found this house came at him, and William surprisingly caught it. 

“Of course, you use your little puppet to protect you,” Michael said as he stopped, holding his abdomen. “Shouldn’t have expected anything less from you.”

“He’s not so much a puppet so to speak.”

“You threatened to destroy him!”

“We both want the same thing: eternal life, so we’re really just partners in this whole thing so we both get what we want. Aren’t you going to go and help your dying friend? I’m pretty sure they don’t have eternal life.”

“They would want me to make sure you got caught first before I help them.”

“Oh, so now you’re refusing your father’s requests?! I thought you already grew out of your stupid rebellious phase, but obviously you still don’t know how to listen to orders from your own father!”

“The ‘father’ you’re talking about is dead to me, so why should I listen to him?!”

He raised an eyebrow at him. “Really? Whatever, I never liked you anyway. Any who, move.”

“No.”

“We can either do this the easy way or the hard way, Michael. Your choice.”

“Some father you are.”

“You said so yourself, Michael, your father is dead. I’m the damn devil.”

William suddenly swung the axe at Michael from above and he luckily blocked it with the knife before it hit his neck and face, but he had to use all of his willpower to not yell out in pain because the axe went right into his left arm. It wasn’t cutting completely through but it was deep enough to where it would leave an ugly scar since it felt like it was touching his bone, or at least cutting the muscle, multiple nerves and several veins. 

William was about to push on the axe so that it cut off his arm and went into his chest, through his ribs and slice his heart, but before he could he heard the faint sound of police sirens. William suddenly stopped what he was doing and turned back to Michael to look at him in the eyes. “Saved by the bell,” he said and took the axe out of Michael’s arm. 

Michael fell backwards, putting his hand over the gash on his forearm and trying to fight back tears. He couldn’t believe how much he was in pain; first it was a bruise on his opposite arm and abdomen, and probably his abdomen muscles or organs as well, but now he didn’t even care about that because of the gigantic gash on his other forearm, bleeding so much it was like a waterfall pouring out from his arm, painful like he was being stabbed multiple times because the cutting sensation of the axe’s blade lingered. 

“I’ll be back. I always come back,” William said evilly. Michael watched William jump out of the window and run outside behind the house to where he was unseen from the road. 

He ran behind the house and peered around the corner to see if the coast was clear, and there he saw Michael’s dirty red car parked by the front door but it wasn’t vacant like William previously thought. There, in the passenger’s seat was none other than Jeremy Fitzgerald. 

You, William thought. You’re the bastard that called the cops on me. Fuck you, Fitzgerald.

William didn’t dwell on it for long as he heard the sirens getting louder. Behind the house, there was also a very large and old tarp on top of William’s purple car he used to keep it hidden since it wasn’t hard to spot from the road. He tore off the tarp he used so he wouldn’t give his location away and got in the driver’s seat, put the key in the ignition and started up the car. 

He sped out from the side of the house to the road, going way over the speed limit to get away from the police sirens. 

He was there?! Jeremy thought once he saw the car speed down the road. If he was there, and there were gunshots…oh no, oh God…please be alright you guys.

Chapter 140

Summary:

So many things just happened in one day…

Michael stood, trying to stop the bleeding from his left forearm with his other hand, and after stumbling many times because he was dizzy since breathing was getting tougher by the second, he made his way to Alex and Jeremiah in the living room. Alex was now turned over on his back rather than his side and Jeremiah was trying to stop the bleeding with his hands when Michael walked in, since Alex couldn’t put very much pressure on their wound anymore. 

Michael went on his knees next to them. “Hey!” Alex said weakly but still managed to crack a small smile. “Doesn’t look too…too good, huh?”

“Definitely doesn’t. We need to get you to a…ow…a hospital,” he replied as he put his injured arm around himself, showing that his torso was in pain and he was trying his very best to not show it, even though it was painful to move his injured arm.

“No, no. Don’t worry about me. G…get yourself to a hospital. Y-your arm doesn’t look so hot.”

“What?! Y-you were literally stabbed! You’re the priority here! We need to leave now!”

Alex shook their head. “I know how far the hospital is, and I-I…I’ll never make it, I can feel it.”

“Don’t say that! Yes you will!”

“Face the truth Mike, I’m done for. He…he got me.”

“No he didn’t! We…we can still get there! The cops are coming, they’ll be able to help!”

”Just face it Mike, I…I’ve already accepted my fate.”

“No! D-don’t say that! God…” he said as he clung on to his chest tighter because breathing was hurting him, but again tried to fight through it by taking short, shallow breaths to keep talking to Alex. “C’mon, you’ll make it!” 

“Yeah! C’mon Al! You can’t die on me yet!” Jeremiah exclaimed, but he was now crying. 

“I…I’m sorry. I…can’t.”

“No! Please!”

“J…Jerry, take care of Mom and Dad for me, can you do that?” Jeremiah nodded as tears rolled down his cheeks and Alex turned to Michael. “T-take care, and tell that to Jeremy too.” Michael nodded and tears started coming out of his eyes as well because he didn’t have the strength anymore to stop them. “D-don’t be a baby. I-I’ll talk to you soon, won’t I?” 

“It’s…it’s not the same,” he replied. 

Alex cracked a weak smile. “Ge…get to a hospital for your arm since y-you kinda need that, and your breathing is starting to not sound too good. That’s my dying wish for you.” Michael hesitated but nodded and tried to stop his crying but couldn’t help it, neither could Jeremiah. “P-please guys, don’t cry…for me,” Alex said shakily, then they closed their eyes, took one final breath and stopped breathing. 

“Al?” Jeremiah said and shook their shoulder, but no response and he took his hands off of their abdomen. “Alex?!” he shrieked and shook them harder, but still, nothing, and he put his ear against their chest hoping to hear a heartbeat, even a faint sound, but nothing. “No!” Jeremiah yelled and sobbed some more as he hugged Alex’s limp body. 

“No…no, no, no…” Michael mumbled and started sobbing himself. “Alex…”

---

When the police arrived, there were a few cops on scene so Jeremy pointed to which way William went and three of them sped down the street in that direction. The other two went inside the house and it took them a few minutes but they walked out with Michael and Jeremiah, but Jeremiah looked exhausted like he was fighting or struggling, probably by police trying to pull him away from something. 

Where’s Alex? Jeremy thought. And why does Jeremiah have Alex’s jacket on?

He noticed that Michael was holding his forearm, was hunched over in pain and he was in bad shape altogether. The cops had him take off his denim jacket and bandaged up his arm for him, which he kept wincing in pain to and when the bandage was finally on his arm he dropped to his knees, fell so he was laying down on his side and curled himself into a ball. 

Jeremy never thought in a million years would he see a twenty four year old man curl himself up on the ground, sobbing. 

The cops and paramedics tried to get him up but every time they moved him, it seemed to hurt him and Jeremy was getting more worried as well as more agitated by the second. 

At that point, Jeremy couldn’t take it anymore and carefully went to Michael and Jeremiah across the rocky driveway, cautious so he wouldn’t fall, even though Michael was on the stretcher now after fighting and yelling at the cops and paramedics many times. 

As Jeremy got closer, he noticed that the front of Michael’s t-shirt, his jean jacket he had to take off, his regular jeans, the front of Jeremiah’s shirt, his jeans and a little of Alex’s jacket were stained in blood, tear stains or both, and he hoped the blood wasn’t all theirs. 

“Mike?!” Jeremy said after they already loaded Michael into the ambulance. “What happened?! What’s going on?!”

“Jer?” he replied softly. 

“Get me up there,” he said sternly to the cop by him with more aggressiveness in his voice than he meant, but the cop complied.

Jeremy got up, went over to Michael’s side and Michael looked at him in his kind, honey-brown eye. Everything that Michael saw though looked a little blurry from his tear filled eyes, but he could still tell that Jeremy was standing beside him.

“Wha…what happened?! What happened to you?!” Jeremy asked again but Michael seemed to have ignored the question and shakily reached out for Jeremy with his right hand, the side Jeremy was on and the side that was uninjured. Jeremy took his hand but to his surprise instead of just holding his hand, Michael squeezed it. He was careful to not squeeze so hard to hurt Jeremy, but Jeremy figured it was to distract himself from the pain he was in and because he wanted the comfort that Jeremy was still standing by his side. 

That made Jeremy just as confused, but Michael was refusing to talk and coughed violently which worried Jeremy because he was coughing so bad and it seemed to be hurting him. “Hey, uh, Jeremiah! D’you know what happened?” Jeremy asked worriedly to Jeremiah who was outside the ambulance, getting bandaged up as well because he had been cut and hit by William a few times. 

“It’s…i-it’s too…” he trailed off. 

“What happened to you? What’d he do to you?!” he asked him but Jeremiah couldn’t even get a word out because of how upset he was. 

One of the cops came to the doors of the ambulance. “Okay, time’s up. He needs to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. You,” he pointed to Jeremy, “time to get out of the ambulance.” 

Michael finally spoke up for the first time in almost five minutes. “No, he won’t,” he said.

The officer sighed. “Sir, we can’t-”

Michael picked his head up, fighting through the pain in his abdomen and chest and faced the officer. “THEN I’M NOT GOING!” Michael yelled at the officer. That caught Jeremy off guard because he’s rarely heard Michael yell, especially near him, so he was shocked at how loud he can get. 

Jeremy laid Michael back down because he was obviously in pain, but Jeremy put his arm behind Michael’s back and head so he was still leaning upward to get air without having to strain himself and Jeremy was trying to talk to him softly to calm him down. 

“It’s okay, breathe,” Jeremy said to him.

The officer sighed in annoyance but then his partner next to him said, “Just let him go.”

“What?! You know the law! Or have you even studied the law in training just as I have?!” the other argued. 

“I’ve studied it as much as you have, but if you don’t let him go he’ll refuse to get help, and from the looks of it that gash on his arm shows that this is more than just a little cut, and it’s hurting him to breathe so something is definitely wrong!

“If you force him, chances are he’ll fight and he might die for all we know considering how much he’s bleeding and how much he’s in pain by doing a simple thing like breathing! He’s running out of time and we’re here to PROTECT and serve, right?! Do you want this young man’s blood on your hands?!”

“Die?!” Jeremy shrieked, now letting go of Michael’s hand and clinging on to him. “No, no, no! I-I don’t want him to die!” he said shakily, not caring if some of the blood on Michael’s left arm and shirt transferred to his shirt. “Just lemme go if it means he’ll live!”

“But the law-”

Jeremy has now reached his limit with pretending to keep calm in this situation and yelled, “I don’t give a flying fuck what the law says! What if you were in this situation, or someone you love was?! How could you be so heartless to not bend the rules a little if it meant saving someone’s life?!”

“Jer…” Michael said softly and Jeremy turned to him. “I love you too, but calm down.”

“Right, sorry,” he said and went back to holding Michael’s hand. 

The officer stayed silent for a second. “Fine,” he said and turned to Jeremiah, “I’ll take you to your home, I’m sure your parents will be happy to see you.”

”But then they’ll be sad again when they find out about Alex,” he said and stepped up onto the ambulance to speak to Michael and Jeremy. “Thanks for finding me, even if it didn’t end up as well as we thought.”

“At least you can go home now, and that’s all that Al wanted to do,” Jeremy said to him since Michael was refusing to talk again. 

Jeremiah smiled a weak smile, because right then he knew that Alex wasn’t lying when they said they’d take a bullet to make sure nobody hurts their baby brother. Alex kept that promise and even though it resulted in tragedy, Alex got what they wanted in the first place. 

“I have to get goin’. See ya guys,” Jeremiah said, hopped down and went to the police car. 

”Wait, what about your car?” Jeremy asked Michael and he only shrugged, still refusing to talk. 

“We can get a tow truck to bring it to your house,” the other officer said. 

“Really? That’s possible?”

“Oh yeah. I can get it because we are gonna have to move it to perform a full investigation on this house since a murder and kidnapping happened here at the exact same time, but the thing is, it’ll still cost you so expect a bill in the mail sometime.”

Murder?! Jeremy thought and he looked back at Michael, who he finally noticed was breathing shallowly. “Oh my God, uh, fine! Whatever!”

The police officer spoke to the paramedic inside the ambulance. “He needs stitches in that arm because of that wound, so make it quick because those bandages are doing almost nothing. Also, I don’t know what happened and why his breathing is so shallow, so make it quick.”

The paramedic nodded, told the driver what he was told and the doors closed. 

Michael stayed silent while he watched the paramedic take the bandages off and hissed in pain as he applied alcohol on it to sanitize it. After that, he put new bandages on since the others were already soaked with blood and made sure they were tight. “Ow! Jesus, that…” He coughed. “Ow, God,” he muttered. “That hurts!” he yelled.

“Sorry, but it has to be tight,” the paramedic said. 

Michael turned back to Jeremy. “You’ll be okay Mikey, I know you will,” Jeremy said and the ambulance started moving but Jeremy didn’t seem to want to sit down; he only let go of Michael’s hand, hung onto the stretcher and held on as tight as he possibly could to keep his balance. “What…what happened?!”

“A lot,” he replied. “He kicked me in the chest…it hurts…he cut me with an axe-”

”Wait, WHAT?!”

Michael nodded. “I-it hurts…and…Al.”

“Where are they?”

“I-I saw it happen…”

“Saw what?”

“Al…is…gone,” he said shakily. 

After he said those words, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, his heart started to race and all that he could focus on was Michael and didn’t even notice anything else. “Alex is…dead?” he asked quietly and Michael nodded again. 

Jeremy was just as shocked as Michael first was, his mind telling him that this wasn’t true, feeling a bit nauseous as well as feeling somewhat numb because he couldn’t comprehend it. He bit his tongue to stop the wave of tears wanting to come out of his eye but couldn’t help the fact his breathing pattern gave it away that he wanted to cry. 

He couldn’t believe it. After five, almost six years, his best friend was gone. 

He hasn’t felt this way in a long time, not ever since his father died. 

“J…Jer?” Michael said suddenly, coughing and trying to get as much air as he could, snapping Jeremy out of his daze and he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. After only a few minutes Michael looked as though he was about to pass out either from blood loss or from the amount of air he was getting, possibly both. 

“Michael?!” Jeremy exclaimed. 

“I don’t…I don’t feel too…too good…,” Michael said weakly and from the looks of it, the several bandages wrapped tightly around his arm were now stained red in just a matter of minutes. 

“Oh no...oh thank God, we’re here! The doctors can help! Just…hang in there…please Mike…”

“Don’t…don’t plan on dying.” Jeremy smiled as those tears finally came out of his eye. “No, don’t cry, I’ve got you,” Michael said as he put his hand on the side of Jeremy’s face. “I love you, Jer.”

“I love you too…please be okay,” he said and he kissed Michael’s forehead. Jeremy laid him down again, then the paramedics took Michael and wheeled him towards the hospital as the other paramedic helped Jeremy off of the back of the ambulance. “He’ll be okay, right?” he asked. 

Chapter 141

Summary:

What a way to reunite.

William could hear the police sirens as he sped down the highway, passing the people who had pulled off to the right for the sirens and running several red lights because everyone was stopped anyway. 

His secret was out. The police found out where he was originally hiding so he couldn’t go back, and they were probably going to knock that building down anyhow since it was a murder scene along with the few other abandoned buildings because they were a falling danger. 

He pulled into an empty parking lot which belonged to a building that went out of business a while ago, hiding his dirty, dark purple car away behind the obviously abandoned building just in time. He watched in the rear view mirror as the cops chasing him turned the corner down the street and sped off past the building, just missing him. 

“Stupid bastards,” he said and got out of the car to scope out the place. 

He decided that since he didn’t have a safe place to stay in anymore, he would have to run away to a different town or better yet a different state or even country. 

He looked around for the police chasing him or any red and blue flashing lights, and faintly in the distance he could hear the police sirens coming back his way. 

He needed to hide, and fast. 

He looked to the abandoned building he was hiding his car behind and noticed that the windows were boarded up. He still had his axe from earlier that he threw in the passenger’s seat, so he used that to swing at the wooden boards multiple times before they actually broke. He threw the axe inside and then himself, and it was just in the nick of time because he heard the sound of cars pulling up, people getting out and splash of small puddles in the parking lot leftover from the rain that previous day. 

“Alright, you sure you saw his car here?” one of them asked another, and they seemed to be around the corner from how faint their voices sounded. 

“Yes! I’m telling you, it’s so easy to spot that car, wouldn’t miss it!” the other responded. 

“Alright guys, let’s just spread out and search the area and hopefully one of us finds something,” a third said. 

William ducked and scoot backwards so his back hit the wall, and he was thankful he did because one of the officers found his car in no time. 

“He was right...” The officer said and spoke into the radio he had on his vest. “Hey uh, you were right rookie, his car’s here but it looks abandoned. Woah…it also looks like those kids hurt him pretty bad, there’s blood on the steering wheel, a few spots on the seats, some spread on the actual car and some on the ground.”

“Does the blood lead anywhere?” the second officer said from the radio. 

Oh shit, is there a trail leading to me?! William thought, completely forgetting that he could have accidentally lead them straight to him. 

“The spots are just in random places around the car, no clear trail.”

Thank God.

“Alright, that just makes it tougher,” the third said from the radio. “Maybe he patched himself up and is hiding somewhere.”

“I’ll check around.” 

William heard his footsteps crunching the small rocks beneath him as he walked around and every so often heard a splash from a small puddle, and soon enough he heard the other two officers join him on the search. William stayed silent, careful not to move or make any sound because his wounds were still open, healing and radiating a dull pain, but he didn’t even give those a second thought once he saw a sign in the abandoned building stating what the building used to be: Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria.

Shit…he thought. 

He heard all three officers regroup outside once again. “Any of you guys find anything?” the first one asked. 

“Nothing,” said the second. 

“Nada,” said the third. 

“Where could he be?”

“D’you think he’s inside?” the first officer asked. 

“All the doors and windows are boarded up, at least from what I saw,” the third officer said, “I did see one broken board, but the gap is so skinny it’s hard to believe he slipped in.”

“So do you think he’s here?” the second officer said. 

“Probably not, rookie. That broken board’s probably just natural.”

William almost stood up because he thought that they were gone, but then he saw a light from behind him and was thankful he didn’t stand. 

“What’re you doing, rookie?!” the first officer exclaimed. 

“I’m just double checking!” he responded. “There’s always a possibility, plus the guy’s smart enough to get away with several murders for years so he could’ve found some way! Additional plus, the blood trail looks like a very curvy line to the building!”

“Well, find anything?

”Uh…no.”

“Then he’s not there. C’mon, let’s go.”

“What about his car?”

“You’re right, nothing’s here but his car,” the other officer said, “but I’ll still have someone take it since it’s evidence. If he is still here, we want to trap him so he can’t get away from town.”

William heard the other police officer slash the front two tires of his car so the car had a more difficult time driving if he got back. Goddamn it, William thought. So much for leaving town.

He heard all three police officers leave, and they probably already called someone to take his car away so now William was definitely trapped. 

He stood up once he was sure they all left, and looking around he saw that there were tables and booths covered with a thin layer of dust and several pieces of litter on the floor and tables. There were some old slices of pizza still on the ground which cockroaches and flies were devouring, and there was wood that was obviously meant to board up the windows and doors but didn’t make it on there. Some chairs and tables however were knocked over and on the ground, the drawings that were once on the walls of the pizzeria were falling off and the cash registers near the front were long missing the cash they had inside. 

He was unsure of what to expect and gripped the axe tightly at his side, having it ready just in case he needed to use it. He stood again and he didn’t even have to walk far before he saw them: Bonnie, Chica and Freddy on the stage in the darkness. 

He smiled evilly and went up to them. “So is it true that you kids are still in there? We can’t have that, now can we?” Suddenly, the three animatronic’s eyes glowed a red-golden color, the cupcake’s eyes even did that exact same thing, and William moved forward a step. “So it is true!”

Suddenly, the cupcake jumped from the white plastic plate in Chica’s hand and hurled itself at William, trying to bite him, but he noticed it right away and before it reached him and swung the axe like a baseball bat at the cupcake, slicing it in half with how much force he put into that swing and the two parts were sent flying to the corner of the room. 

“Home run,” William said smugly as it sparked and its eyes flickered, and a minute later it finally powered down. The three watched as the cupcake powered down, but then the three of them turned their heads to William. “Who’s next?”

Unexpectedly, all three of them got down from the stage at once, Foxy even opening the curtain to Pirate’s Cove to see what all the commotion was about, and once he saw William his eyes started glowing as well and he got off of his little stage. 

“All four of you? Well, this should be interesting.”

William tightened his grip on the axe and scanned the room to see who was closest to him, which was Chica. Suddenly, William swung the axe at her at full force, knocking her down, but before she could even get back up William swung the axe over and over again on her torso until the casing broke. He didn’t stop there and continued swinging until he could see the endoskeleton, and once he saw it glimmer in the little light of the building he swung the axe at it with all his strength until it split in two. 

Sparks flew everywhere, but he decided splitting her in two wasn’t enough and he started swinging at the legs, breaking both off of the body and then sifted his gaze to her neck, where he swung the axe at it with all his might several times at until the head broke off and rolled away from the body. The other three watched in horror as the head rolled by Freddy’s feet and the eyes powered off meaning she was gone. 

The three looked down at the head, then back up at William with rage. Bonnie and Freddy started heading toward him but from what seemed like out of nowhere, since he was the fastest, Foxy appeared from behind William and slashed him deep in the right bicep with his hook before William had a chance to swing the axe at Bonnie. 

William dropped the axe in pain because of how deep it was, put his hand over it and looked back at Fritz with pure anger in his eyes. “Oh, that’s how you wanna play?” he said and picked up the axe. He swung it at Foxy who already had some of the casing torn off so it hit the endoskeleton with no problem. “Two can play that game.”

All this time, Fritz thought he couldn’t feel pain anymore since he was a ghost. He couldn’t believe how much it hurt when William’s axe hit the endoskeleton because it felt like he was being stabbed all over again. Now, he understood why Susie was so weak that she couldn’t get up when William struck her; the shock of pain on the body after several years scared and hurt them so much to where they couldn’t move. 

William destroyed Foxy’s body and splitting him in two as well, slicing the legs off of the body and taking off his head like he did to Chica, and once Foxy’s eyes shut off William wiped the sweat beads off of his forehead. “Tough little bastards.”

Suddenly, he saw Freddy looking at him, looking like he was ready to attack him. “Your turn, eh?” William said when suddenly to his surprise, Bonnie grabbed him from behind and squeezed him around the chest as tightly as he could, trying to break his ribs; Freddy was just there to distract him. “Wha-ow! Let go of me you bloody-” 

He was interrupted by being lifted off of the ground, probably to be thrown down as hard as the animatronic could, and doing that repeatedly until they knocked him out long enough to stuff him in a suit like he did to them. 

The axe was still in William’s hands, and even though his arms were trapped at his sides he could move his wrist enough to strike at Bonnie’s leg to cause him to fall. He did just that and like he expected, Bonnie fell and let go of him, causing him to fall only a few inches so he landed on his feet. Bonnie tried to get up but before he could, William struck at the cracked casing until he could see the metal endoskeleton and tore the leg off of the body. 

William struck at the torso area until it broke in two, and when it finally did he struck at the neck taking the head off of the body like the others. 

Gabriel stood in horror as he watched the eyes of Bonnie go out, indicating that his little brother was gone for the second time. He was upset as well as angry because now he didn’t know what would happen and his mind was racing with unanswered questions. Was he alone? Was Jeremy alone? He didn’t know but he wasn’t fixated on those questions at the moment.

On impulse Gabriel made Freddy let out a very loud roar that even Gabriel didn’t know was possible, but it was a roar of anger. William covered his ears because of how loud it was, but then Freddy pushed him as hard as he could to the cold tile floor. 

“Ow! Fucking…you damn bear!” William yelled at him and got up. As William grabbed the axe and was about to charge at Freddy with it, he noticed that Freddy seemed to have vanished into thin air since Freddy always liked to hide in the shadows. “You think you’re so clever playing hide-and-seek with me, but this is no game! Come out, come out wherever you are!”

That’s when Freddy jumped out of the shadows from behind and threw himself at William, who got the air knocked out of him from the force and fell down against the hard tile floor. 

“Ow! Bloody hell…” William muttered. 

William stood and Freddy was still getting up, so since the axe was a few inches away from him he took it and this opportunity to strike Freddy in the back and disassemble him like the others. 

Once William struck the endoskeleton, Gabriel couldn’t believe how much it hurt since he thought feeling pain was a thing of the past. Of course, it could not be that bad and it just felt worse than it actually was because he had gotten used to not feeling pain for eight years, but he didn’t care. He wanted to cry, he wanted the pain to stop because he felt like he was being stuffed in a suit all over again. 

He was in pain from head to toe every time William struck the endoskeleton, when suddenly he heard a crack which meant that the animatronic was split in two. His entire body was in stabbing pain that didn’t seem to go away, too weak and too much in shock to move but then, he saw William standing over him. 

“Sweet dreams, kid,” William said and struck the axe at his neck multiple times, eventually taking off the head and like the others, the eyes eventually faded out. 

For a minute all Gabriel saw was darkness, and for a minute he thought he was actually dead and going to the afterlife, but then he heard the voices of very familiar kids shouting his name over him. 

“Gabe!”

“Gabe!”

“Gabriel!”

“Oh no, is he dead?!”

“We’re already dead, idiot! He’s fine.”

“Don’t call Jere an idiot!”

“Guys he’s waking up! I think.”

He opened his eyes and all was blurry for a second, but then he blinked and saw his little brother Jeremy, his friends Fritz and Susie who also had a young golden retriever next to her, which Gabriel could only assume was Carl. 

“Am I dead?” Gabriel asked. 

“You two really are related, huh?” Fritz said.

Gabriel sighed and sat up. The dog next to Susie barked out of excitement and went to Gabriel who immediately smiled once he saw him come up to his side. 

“Hey, little buddy,” Gabriel said as he pet the dog and saw the collar with the name Carl on it. “You’re Carl? I had no idea you were a retriever.” He continued to pet the dog as well as scratch him behind his ears. “Aw, you’re such a good boy! Alright, go back with Susie.” The dog did just that and Gabriel sighed as he stood. “What is it this time?” he asked the other kids. 

“I don’t know,” Jeremy said. “But we’re back.”

“In the restaurant?” 

“Yeah, in the office.”

Gabriel got up. “Damn it, we are,” he said quietly. “How’re we still here?!”

“Magic?”

“No, I don’t think so. The suits were destroyed, right?”

“Yeah,” Susie said. 

“That doesn’t make any sense! Whatever, figure it out later, is he still here?”

“I think,” Fritz said. 

Gabriel stayed silent for a minute. “I have an idea. You three know that secret room in the back?”

“The one that’s boarded up?” Susie asked. 

“Yeah.”

“We know of it.”

“Great, spread out around the restaurant and on my signal, lead him to that room. It’s all part of the plan, trust me.”

The three of them nodded, spread out and Carl followed Susie, and Gabriel went to the dining area where William was. “Finally! Got rid of you,” William said obviously to himself, as he kicked the powered down heads like soccer balls. 

“Not for long,” Gabriel said as he snuck up behind him and William turned to face him. 

“Oh my God…” he said. 

“Didn’t think you could get rid of me that easily, could you?!”

“Y…you’re…”

“What?! Say it!”

“You’re…you’re dead!”

“No thanks to you! D’you feel proud that you’ve taken our lives away or did you just do it for fun?!”

Gabriel stepped towards him in anger though he knew he couldn’t do anything to William, but William sharply inhaled and stepped back out of Gabriel’s reach and held the axe out in front of him like he was protecting himself. 

“Do not fucking touch me!” William snapped at him, thinking the exact opposite from Gabriel. 

Since he had no other experiences with spirits other than a poltergeist, he assumed they would all be like poltergeists and could touch or severely hurt him. He assumed the kids especially were poltergeists because they were angry, when in fact they were not because they had no evil in their hearts and didn’t want to hurt anyone else; they were vengeful towards him, but not evil. 

Gabriel watched William in confusion because it was strange to see the man who seemed like he feared nothing to cower away at the sight of something. Gabriel knew right then, he had to use this fear of William’s to his advantage. 

Gabriel started walking towards him and laughed to himself as he cowered away at the sight of him, when Gabriel saw something in the corner of his eye. He looked to his left and saw a face he hasn’t seen in a very long time. “Cass?”

“Hey,” she said and went next to him. “Reunite later, go with the others, I got this.”

“Are you sure?”

“I know what you’re planning, and I have a word or two I wanna say to him. I can handle this, and we’ll all finish this together.”

Gabriel nodded and went to another area of the restaurant like the other three did, and Cassidy shot an angry look at William. 

“Oh for fuck’s sake…” William mumbled. 

“You!” Cassidy stomped over to him and William made sure to stay out of her reach. “You’re gonna pay for that!”

“Pay for what?!”

“Killing them once wasn’t enough, huh? You just had to do it again!”

“What a way to reunite with old victims, eh?”

She eventually got so mad she was fuming, but she remembered Gabriel’s plan she overheard earlier. 

Lead him to the back. 

Cassidy decided to chase after him knowing he had a fear of the paranormal, where he ran as fast as he could across the dining area and he thought about escaping to the office, but then he saw Jeremy, Cassidy’s little brother, blocking the hallway and Fritz blocking the other. 

“You’re not going anywhere,” they said together. 

“Creepy little shits,” William mumbled as he backed away. 

Suddenly, from behind Fritz the dog jumped out and ran after William, barking and trying to bite him. William kept a distance from him, not sure if he could kill this dog again since it wasn’t possessing a physical form, and he chased William back to the dining area just before he reached the stage. 

William thought about breaking the boards of a window to get out, but Gabriel and Cassidy were blocking his way. 

There was nowhere else to go, except one room they weren’t blocking the entryway to which he wasn’t even sure was there because it has been so long, but he’ll break down the wall if that’s what it took to get away. He got up and ran to the backstage area, went to the back of the room and noticed it was in fact not a real wall; it was several planks of wood tightly packed together with the same wallpaper covering the other three walls of the room over it, tearing which was revealing the wood behind it. 

Is this…he thought but he didn’t even think his full thought before he started swinging the axe at the boards, knowing there was a back exit door in that room and he could escape if the door wasn’t stuck from rusting. 

He finally broke through those boards, dropped the axe and ran to the back exit door, which as much as he turned the handle, it wouldn’t budge. “No, no, c’mon…”

He kicked the door in frustration after a minute of the door refusing to move, hoping that the kids had left by now so he could leave through a window, he turned around to see them all (except the dog who was told to “stay” in the dining area) in the room, blocking the only way in and out of the room. 

“What’s wrong Mr. Afton?” Cassidy asked. “Can’t escape from the problems that you created?” 

William didn’t say anything, but instead froze in fear. They were all terrifying to look at: their muted colored skin tones and muted colors on their clothes, they were all slightly transparent but perhaps the most terrifying was their eyes. They were not pure white like Schmidt’s, they instead were black, their entire eyeball seemed to be black but had a small white dot amidst the blackness of their eyes where their pupils were, and it looked as if each one of them seemed to have black streaks of tears stained on their face. 

Cassidy then stepped closer to him, which eventually led to a chase around the room since he couldn’t escape with the other four blocking the only exit. After running around for a minute, William eventually saw what he could use to hide: his old, worn out and starting-to-rust Spring Bonnie suit. 

He ran across the room with the kids watching him with confused looks on their faces and he tried to remember how to put on spring lock suits. Spring Bonnie triggered a memory however, and he remembered exactly how to put it on and he got it on as fast as he possibly could. 

He stood and put the suit head on and watched as the kids all looked at each other with confusion and back at him. He started laughing maniacally because he thought they didn’t know where he was, when it was in fact the opposite. 

They all stared at him for a minute, but then Jeremy noticed a puddle in the corner of the room and instinctively he looked above it, then he saw that the ceiling was damp and molding from the rain the day prior. 

The roof of this section of the building was poorly built, and they hadn’t bothered to replace the roof in this room since they thought no one would come in the room ever again; they just left it because it was cheaper to leave it than tearing it down and building a new wall. 

He nudged Gabriel next to him. “Gabe,” he whispered to his big brother and he motioned for him to look up. 

Gabriel immediately noticed the water leaking through the roof in random spots and without giving it a second thought, he put his hands over Jeremy’s eyes since he was the youngest out of all of them. 

Chapter 142

Summary:

“That was…not what I was expecting.”

Gabriel covered Jeremy’s eyes just in time, because not even five seconds later a drop of water leaking in from the ceiling fell right on the spring locks inside the suit. 

William was still laughing at them, but then he was cut off by a snap of metal from inside the suit accompanied with a painful jab into his side. “Agh!” he screamed, but then there was another snap with the same sensation in the same place on the other side. Another snap accompanied by more stabbing pain, then another and still more; one jab after the other with each one sending a pain that felt as if he was being stabbed by swords that wouldn’t be taken out of his sides any time soon. 

No! Not this again!

He saw the deep red liquid spill from the small openings in the suit and he fell, his legs giving out from the pain, but realized that falling was a mistake because he felt the same stabbing sensation in both of his legs.

He felt his heart racing faster than it has gone for a very long time, the first time being when he had to endure the pain of spring locks many years ago, and he was breathing at a very fast pace but he wasn’t sure he was even getting enough oxygen. He felt the metal in his sides squeezing him and cutting against him, same with his legs and it was only made worse if he moved even slightly. 

His arms were next, both receiving stabs from all of the metal and animatronic parts cutting into his arms. All William could do was yell out in pain and cry since he was powerless to do anything, but he soon tasted iron in his mouth from the breaking of ribs that had punctured one of his lungs. All he could do was cough up blood and try his best to gasp for air, but it was now next to impossible. 

He didn’t know what came next, he hasn’t stayed awake this long all those years ago when the first spring lock incident occurred. Because of that, he couldn’t help feeling like he wanted to give up and shut his eyes as the darkness creeped in since he felt that ever rare feeling of fright. 

The remnant was both a blessing and a curse to him at this moment. 

He heard a loud crack because his spine had broken, along with the bones in his arms and legs as well as several major arteries were cut through in multiple places and it was officially one of the worst pains he had ever dealt with in his life; part of him wished the remnant he had injected into himself all those years ago hadn’t stopped his heart from giving out right then and there. 

His heart was beating the fastest it has ever gone that if he was hooked up to a heart rate monitor, it would be a constant, tight zigzag line. 

Finally, once the pain had ended in his arms he felt that same pain on his collarbone which only meant one thing: his head was next. He closed his eyes as tight as he could which only brought up more tears and continued to cough up blood, but then he felt those deep stabbing pains around his neck, with no doubt cutting his throat and slitting his airway so he had no idea how he was still somewhat conscious. He felt them until they reached the top of his neck, then the two spring locks from the animatronic’s jaw shot up through the bottom of his mouth, locking it open. 

There were also several other small pieces of metal and other animatronic pieces that punctured him all around his head, with no doubt some puncturing his brain and causing major damage. 

He didn’t want to die. Not like this.

Lastly, the animatronic’s eyes made their way to the two eye holes in the suit and shot back, so William’s eyes had ended up getting squished and replaced with the animatronic eyes so he was now completely blind and couldn’t see a thing. 

He didn’t know what would happen next. Would the remnant would somehow bring him back? He was doubtful, but he didn’t even have time to think about it all the way through before his heart finally gave out and he went limp against the wall. 

The four kids watched everything play out, now all a little more horrified at his death because they didn’t think he’d go out that way. 

“What?! What happened?!” Jeremy suddenly exclaimed, being that his brother’s hands were covering his eyes the entire time. 

“N-no…don’t look,” Gabriel said, obviously in shock and horrified. 

“Why? Is he dead?!”

“I…I think,” Fritz said, going up to him and noticing that there was no movement whatsoever when he got close. 

“I wanna see!”

“No!” Gabriel shouted.

“No fair!” he pouted and crossed his arms. 

Gabriel led him out of the room and uncovered his eyes, the other four closely following him, not wanting to be near him any longer so all five almost toppled over each other trying to set out of the room. 

Once they were all out in the main dining area with Carl again, Gabriel and Jeremy turned around to face Cassidy. “Cass!” they exclaimed together and both gave her a big bear hug. 

“I thought you were gone forever!” Jeremy said. 

“I thought we lost you, I thought we were separated,” Gabriel said.

“Yeah, yeah, I missed you guys too,” Cassidy said and they all separated from the group hug. “But I was…well, busy.”

“Busy?”

“With what?” Jeremy asked. 

“Yeah! What could’ve possibly taken you years to do and you couldn’t be here with us?!” Gabriel exclaimed. 

“I was with you guys! I was that fuzzy yellow bear!”

“Okay, once. But where were you?! That was one time out of who knows how long!”

“Yeah, I’m getting curious too, where were you, Cass?” Fritz asked. 

“I’m starting to wonder that too,” Susie added on and Carl barked as if he was saying he was curious as well. 

“Alright, since you guys wanna know so bad, I was making a uh…special afterlife especially for William.”

“You?! Creating a whole ‘nother land?!” Gabriel asked. 

“Yep!”

“You can do that?!”

“Well, it’s  not as easy as it sounds. It took a lot of convincing and debating, several months worth actually and it wasn’t easy since there are a ton of ‘em-”

“Who’s them?” Jeremy asked. 

“They’re…well it’s hard to explain. They’re not technically angels, they’re kinda like gods but also kinda like angels in a way? I dunno. Anyway, no one is that powerful to make a whole different land except them, and they weren’t willing to at first.”

“How did you manage to convince them?” Susie asked. 

“Well, I said that Afton deserves to suffer the consequences when he died so he could see how it felt to die more than once, and they argued that his soul was always one of the more difficult ones ever since it was created, but then another mentioned to the leader or something, I don’t know, they all looked the same so I don’t know if they have roles or whatever but that one was the one making the arguments. Anyway the other one mentioned something called remnant.”

“What’s remnant?” Jeremy asked. 

“No idea, but what I’m guessing is that it’s some kind of weird soul juice. Apparently he’s never successfully gathered that weird stuff before.”

“Is he there now?” Fritz asked. Cassidy shrugged but disappeared for a second then immediately after she left, she came back. “That was fast.”

“Time is honestly really weird there. Anyway I checked everywhere and…he’s not there.” All of them looked back at William, who was limp and unmoving against the wall and Cassidy went up to him. “Fritz, you said he was dead?”

“He looked like he was,” Fritz answered. 

“And you’re sure he wasn’t moving?”

“Yes!”

“That’s so weird…” Cassidy mumbled to herself. “No one could’ve possibly survived that. How could this happen?”

“Magic!” Jeremy exclaimed, suddenly appearing behind her and she jumped slightly in surprise. “Ew! Gross!” he said being that this is the first time he saw William’s corpse. 

“Jeremy!” Gabriel shouted. “Did you sneak around me?! I told you not to!”

“But I wanted to see, you big meanie!” he replied and stuck his tongue out at him. 

Gabriel looked mad at him but then Cassidy butted in saying, “Gabe, it’s fine, chill.”

“But-”

“Shut up.” Gabriel rolled his eyes but let them be. “But you might not be too far off,” she said to Jeremy. “What if he’s still alive somehow?”

”But…how?” he asked. 

”Some…power or-” Cassidy started but then a bright flash of light appeared around the group of kids and everything except them was gone, so bright they all had to squint their eyes. 

“W-what’s happening?!” Jeremy asked, terrified as he and Cassidy made their way back to the group. 

”I-I dunno,” Gabriel said. 

“Guys?!” Susie shrieked. “Carl?! Carl, where did you go?!” Susie yelled as he was missing from the group. “Oh no, not again!”

“What is this?!” Fritz yelled. “What’s going on?!”

“Guys, I promise we’ll find out what’s goin’ on here!” Gabriel said to them. 

A second later, the light went out and Gabriel was now in the pitch black darkness of an empty room by himself. “Wh-wha?!” he exclaimed, but his voice sounded different now; it sounded somewhat deeper but it also sounded like he was speaking through a very old radio. “Jere! Cass! Fritz! Susie!” he called but there was no reply. 

He went around the room, trying to see as best he could in the pitch black darkness but he couldn’t see a thing other than an infinite dark void. He was stumbling around the room until he finally noticed a dim flickering light a few feet away from him and went to it only to discover it was on the other side of a glass window. 

What?! I’m trapped?! No!

He stood by it, too afraid to move since everything was completely new to him and it was the only light source he had in this strange pitch black area, but then he noticed a reflection in the glass when the light flickered. He looked over his shoulder to see nothing, but the reflection moved when he did so that could only mean he was staring at his reflection, but he couldn’t even recognize himself.

He was an animatronic again, but a different kind this time. The casing was shiny metal, way shinier than the Freddy’s animatronics, and this one was pink and white instead of the usual muddy brown color he was used to. He had a red bow tie on, so the animatronic was definitely a performer which didn’t suprise him as Freddy was as well.

His face was the most different: the face plate was split evenly into four different sections; once across his face under his eyes and once up and down splitting his face in half. He could move the four face plate sections individually, his eyes were yellow and not the same sky blue color he had before, but his face was not even that of an animatronic bear. This one was a fox animatronic. 

“Where the hell am I?”

---

Robert stared at the metal barrel he had made a fire in just outside of town in shock. He had just remembered the rusty old animatronic parts that Michael had given him when he snuck into Freddy’s since he was busy with his job as well as wedding planning, so destroying them was the least of his concerns. Knowing he should keep his promise of burning them for him to be a good friend was weighing down on him, so he decided to burn them today since Hailey was called into work on a Saturday and that left him home alone with nothing else better to do. 

Hours before, he had placed them in a random metal barrel he found outside of town, probably litter and he threw them all inside. Then, since the grass was as dry as the Sahara Desert he grabbed several handfuls of grass, so much that it completely covered the parts and nothing but grass could be seen in the barrel. 

Next, to keep everything burning he found a large, thick stick and broke it into several pieces, found other random sticks on the ground and pieces of wood hiding in the grass with bugs on them and threw them in, as well as throwing in whatever litter he could find.

Finally, he took the matchbox from his pocket, took out a match and lit it, threw it in, and just as he expected it started to burn. He debated on leaving it since it would likely take several hours to burn through pure metal, but he decided to wait since he didn’t want to burn the town down since they were going through a drought around this time and  everything was easily flammable.

He decided to wait in the car since the midday heat of July was brutal on his skin and he was starting to sweat. He took his shirt off since it was keeping warmth in and in the car he kept the air conditioning on, blasted the radio since he was all alone and lit a cigarette while he waited. He even dozed off a few times since that seemed to make the time go by a little bit quicker. 

Wonder why Mike wanted me to burn these.

After a few hours, he awoke from one of his naps in the car to see the sun going down below the horizon. 

“Is this shit through yet?! I’d hate to leave this here, and I’m sure Hailey’s home,” he said through a yawn and put his shirt back on. He got out of the car to stretch and go to the barrel to see if it had successfully burnt all the way through, but he didn’t even have to take more than a step towards it to see the flames immediately change color to a deep purple. “The hell…”

He took another few steps towards it and right before his very eyes, it grew so tall that the whole town could see it and he backed away, stumbling over himself as he backed up to see the entire thing. Frightened as ever and afraid that it might grow bigger or even explode in his face, he took cover behind his car. 

Thankfully though, the strange occurrence only lasted a few minutes before the violet flames shrunk smaller and smaller. Robert cautiously stood once the flames were out but then, he heard a loud bang come from the barrel like a miniature explosion as the metal on the sides of the barrel were stretched outward, and out of fright of the noise he ducked and took cover once again behind his car. 

After a few minutes of no noise he stood and stared at the barrel now on the ground in shock, his breathing still quick and heart still racing but he cautiously walked towards the barrel to investigate.

Once he got to it and fanned all the leftover black smoke away, picked it up after burning himself a few times and saw that everything inside was gone. The wood, grass, litter and even the rusting metal parts were gone and the barrel looked so utterly destroyed inside; the sides were so thin now he could probably kick it with little effort and it would break in half.

All that remained in the barrel was a putrid smell like that of a rotting dead body. 

He was thankful that he had placed it in metal because the combination of flames and the explosion would have been enough to seriously damage his car, the area around it and possibly even him. 

Suddenly, he heard the very faint sounds of police and firefighter sirens coming from a few miles away, presumably called by a local who had seen the ‘flame tower’ and called them to investigate. Robert ran to the driver’s side of his car and drove away as quickly as he could so he wouldn’t be seen on the scene and he could get arrested for something he didn’t do. 

Once he got home and kissed Hailey ‘hello’, he went to the living room where the telephone was and dialed a number. He let the telephone ring for several minutes but there was no one answering the phone. 

He dialed the number again, but the same thing happened so he put the phone down. “Not there,” Robert muttered and he racked his brain to try and think of who else he could tell what just happened to who would pass on the message. Then, he got an idea and ran to his room to get a scratch piece of paper he thought he would never use again which had a telephone number on it. 

He’s only called this number a few times, the most recent being a few months ago when he asked him to come and take a look at Foxy since they were his designs.

Since Robert’s uncle was friends with him and ever since Robert’s uncle passed, he gave him his number to call if he ever needed anything. This was one of those times.

He dialed the number on the paper, and it took a couple of rings before someone with a deep, tired sounding voice with a slight southern accent that he tried to get rid of for years answered, “Hello?”

“Hey Mr. Emily!”

“Hey Robert! Sorry but kinda caught me in the middle of something, I can only talk for a few minutes.”

“Oh! Sorry, d’you want me to call you back?”

”No, I won’t be home by then.”

“Oh, alright uh, where are you going?”

“To Mike and Jeremy.”

“Where are they? I called them but there was no answer.”

“That’s ‘cause they’re not home. They’re at the hospital in St. George, and they’re not doing too well so I need to go.”

“What?! What happened?! Is everyone alright?!”

“No idea, but Jeremy sounded so worried when he said I needed to get over there, so I’m guessing no. I’m going to their house because Jeremy asked me to get an extra shirt for him, no idea why but he sounded like he was cryin’ so I didn’t force anything out of him.”

Robert was astonished at how calm he sounded, but of course he barely knew anything just as Robert did. “Oh, uh, this is gonna be awkward…oh well, can you pass on a message to them?”

“Of course.”

“So, some time ago Mike asked me to burn some old animatronic parts, and I finally did.” Henry knew exactly what he was talking about, they were the parts Michael said he thought were holding the remnant and keeping the children from passing on. “So, can you tell him that…it worked.”

Henry stood in shock for a second. “What?” he finally asked. 

“It worked,” Robert repeated. “I burned them, but it wasn’t a normal fire like I thought. The flames turned purple, and it grew like a skyscraper for like, five minutes then it went out all at once. Everything was gone, the parts, the wood and grass I put in the barrel to keep it burning, and the metal barrel I used was destroyed on the inside. After it ended there was a loud bang like a shotgun from inside the barrel. It was like burning those things did something, I don’t know what but I’m afraid I accidentally did something bad.” Henry stayed silent for a few seconds. “Look, I know I sound crazy but I know what I saw!”

“Rob, I believe you, and trust me, you didn’t do anything wrong. It was a good thing actually.”

“Yeah right ‘you believe me’. This story sounds like I’ve completely lost it now that I’m hearing myself.”

“No, I believe you because one, this type of thing isn’t out of the ordinary for Mike, Jeremy or even me, and second, I saw the ‘fire tower’ you were talking about thirty minutes ago from the window.”

“Oh right, it was probably tall enough for people to see for miles. Forgot about that.”

“I’ll pass on the message to ‘em though. They’ll believe it, trust me. Thanks Rob.”

“Thanks Mr. Emily, and keep me updated?”

“You bet.”

Henry put the phone down and grabbed a random scratch piece of paper near him and a pen from a room he was near. On the paper he wrote a note to himself which said, Fire is the answer, that’s how to destroy it.

Chapter 143

Summary:

Henry finally sees the aftermath of the run in that Michael and Jeremy had with William.

Once Henry put the pen down, he got the keys to his house to lock the door behind him and went outside to start the car. As promised, he went to Michael and Jeremy’s house to pick up the clothes Jeremy had asked for and since he was given a spare key, he had no problem getting inside. 

Once he had the clothes in hand and locked the door behind him, he went back out to his car that was still running in the driveway since he didn’t want to be gone for five minutes and start it up again. 

He drove the thirty minutes to the hospital in St. George, quickly but trying to act as though he wasn’t in a hurry since in his experience that always made things move much slower. He couldn’t be held up by getting all of the red lights going out of town because from the sound of Jeremy’s voice, he needed to hurry. Although, part of that nervousness stemmed from the fact that medical facilities made Jeremy feel uneasy, but the fact that both of them were in the hospital was enough for Henry to want to get to them as fast as possible. 

As he drove out of town his mind wandered to what possibly could have happened on a Tuesday evening that they had to go to a hospital that was thirty minutes away. A fatal car crash? A fall from several feet in the air? Near suffocation like a few years prior? The possibilities were endless at this point since the poltergeist working with William was out to get them both. 

When Jeremy had called, Henry wasn’t expecting to hear his voice at all since Michael was usually the one who called him to keep in touch. Jeremy was usually there to greet him and they knew each other well enough to exchange a few questions to keep up a good relationship between them, but since they didn’t know each other well enough to have a full blown conversation there was usually no reason for him to. 

Once Henry arrived at the hospital, it was already dark so he thankfully didn’t have to wait long to get to the front desk. “Hello! Can I help you?” the receptionist asked him once he got to the front desk. 

“Yes, uh, I’m here to visit a patient.”

“Are you related to the patient in some way?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, what’s the name?”

“Michael Afton.”

“Michael…” she muttered as she looked up his name. “Uh, it says here that he has two last names. Are his parents separated?”

”I…I guess you could say that. His dad’s name is Afton and mom’s maiden name is Schmidt.”

”Yes, this is him! And what’s your name so I can tell them you’re visiting?”

“Them? Is there someone else here?”

“Mr. Jeremy Fitzgerald is staying with him. It’s against the rules to have someone who is not family staying with them, but in this case there was a special exception made. I’m sure someone would explain it in detail later.”

“Oh. Uh, well I’m Henry Emily. Michael’s uncle.”

“Perfect! They’ve been expecting you!”

She called the room to let Jeremy know he was coming, then told him to go up to the third floor. Once he was there, he asked the front desk of that wing what room they were in and they directed him to the room, but gave him a warning to watch what he said because Jeremy was very emotional from today’s events and Michael might be as well when he wakes up, but Jeremy was still in a distressed state being that he had significant trauma surrounding hospitals but refused to leave Michael’s side. 

When Henry knocked on the door of the room, he heard Jeremy softly say, “Come in,” and went inside. The lights were dimmed but it was light enough to where Henry could still see: Jeremy was sitting on the couch next to the hospital bed with his forearm crutch leaning against the wall next to him, he was wearing a hospital gown and had his shirt next to him, which it looked to be covered in stained blood. He was very obviously concerned and terrified because his leg was bouncing and he looked tired but didn’t let himself or couldn’t fall asleep. 

Michael on the other hand, was the patient on the hospital bed and the sheets were covering him to his chest. He was in a hospital gown as well with his left arm wrapped in bandages from the middle of his forearm to the middle of his upper arm. He was very obviously asleep but the bed was raised so that he was propped up, and Henry wasn’t sure why. He also had an oxygen mask on that was forcing air into his lungs to help him breathe easier, and connected to Michael’s finger was a small machine that could track Michael’s steady heartbeat.

“Henry! Thank God!” Jeremy exclaimed, relieved and in a whisper. 

“Hey Jeremy!” Henry replied, mimicking the whisper. “Is…is Mike asleep?”

“Yeah. He’s had a long day, so I think he’ll be sleeping a lot more than usual for now. He passed out once he got here, woke up a while after that and fell asleep again an hour ago I think.”

“What’s with the mask?”

“When he got here, the doctors said he had trouble breathing so they put the mask on to help. I have no idea what’s going on with him, because the x-rays said his lungs were fine.”

“Is he better now though?”

“I have no idea, but it seems like it.”

Henry went to go sit next to him and Jeremy moved his soiled shirt out of the way. “Now, what happened?” Jeremy stayed silent for a minute. “Do you know?”

“I…kind of,” he said and took a deep breath. “There was…a run in with William today.”

“William?! He’s still alive?!”

“Yes, I think. Well, I don’t know. I dunno where he is, he sped off after everything happened. I didn’t even know he was there until the last second, you’d have to ask Mike for details. But I barely got anything out of him the first time he woke up, so I dunno how much he’ll talk about it.”

“Alright, what’d the doctors say was wrong with Mike?”

“The doctors said that his left arm was cut deep, so he can’t move it without hurting himself. Why he’s breathing is like this…uh, I don’t know. He wouldn’t say the first time he woke up. The doctor said he had a fractured rib and I thought it punctured his lung at first and that’s why he wasn’t breathing normally and…it wasn’t. It seems to have broken just enough to not damage anything else but he’s still having trouble breathing.”

“Wow….seems like a miracle nothing more happened.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time an unexplained miracle happened to us. Uh, there’s something else that happened but uh…I don’t wanna think about it right now.”

“To Mike?”

“No.”

”To you? Are you hurt?”

”No, I’m fine. I-I’ll tell you later.”

“So how long did they say he has to stay here?”

“I think they said a week or two, and when he’s back home I just have to make sure he’s taking it easy and try to be as independent as I can for a few weeks. But after I told ‘em what he did for work, he can’t go back until he’s better. I think they said about six weeks or something.”

“Understandable, I’ll tell the boss when I go back. Oh, here’s the shirt you asked for. I just grabbed a hoodie, hope that’s alright,” Henry said as he handed him the folded cloth. 

Jeremy unfolded it and as he expected, it was a hoodie that he and Michael stole from each other often, so much that both of them were now not sure who it belonged to originally. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

Jeremy tore off the hospital gown that the nurses have given him as a ‘temporary shirt’ since the original shirt he was wearing was soiled, and because he didn’t like to show his bare chest for very long to others except to Michael he quickly pulled the hoodie over his head. 

---

“You alright?” Henry asked him a while later. 

Jeremy hesitated for a moment. “Yeah.”

“Jeremy, you can be honest. I won’t judge.” Jeremy stayed quiet. “I know you don’t like hospitals and that’s completely understandable, and I know a lot’s on your mind right now so maybe it’s better to just…get it all out.”

“Why us?” he said quietly. 

“Hm?”

“Why us? Why has he chosen to target us?! Why is he making the poltergeist come after us?! I’ve almost died twice because of them, Mike’s almost died a few times because of them and Alex did die because of them! Why us?!”

“Wait, calm down, you said…”

“Alex is dead!” he cried. 

“Oh…oh no, I’m so sorry,” he replied and hugged Jeremy and he sobbed into Henry’s shoulder. “Shhh, it’s gonna be okay.”

“I-it’s not!” Jeremy wailed. “They’ve done nothing to him, and if anything we were just friends with them and once they found out, they were just helping us! W-why Alex?!”

“I don’t know why, and I’m sure he’ll pay for it one day. Your friend will not go down in vain and William will suffer the consequences, I promise.”

Jeremy sniffled but calmed down a bit. “Promise?”

“I promise. Tell ya what, I can stay here for tonight so you won’t have to stay by yourself. I wanna make sure you’re both alright.”

“Really? You sure it’s not just ‘cause you want to make sure Mike’s okay?”

“I do wanna make sure he’s okay, but I also wanna make sure that you’re okay. Mike can’t take care of you for a little while and your dad is gone, so I feel like I have to make sure you’re alright until you have the help back again.

“I can’t come here everyday but you have the nurses to help if you need it, but I can go by your house almost every day when you go back. Besides this, you’re both grieving over your friend and I know…I know how it feels to loose someone you’re close to. It hurts, I know, and I’m right here if you ever need to talk about it or anything else.”

Jeremy smiled and nodded. “Thank you.”

“It’s not a problem. I’ll always be right here if any of you need help.”

He and Jeremy separated from the hug and Jeremy wiped his tears that were falling down from his eye that he barely even noticed. But, Henry was right. Getting it all out was better than keeping it all inside so the pain could grow bigger and bigger to the point where he couldn’t handle it, and he was glad that Henry wouldn’t judge him for it. 

Jeremy fiddled around with his necklace, since it was usually something he did to distract himself from the situation he was in. “What’s that?” Henry asked suddenly. It then occurred to Jeremy that no one had ever told him why Jeremy always wore the simple necklace of a jet black stone around his neck. 

“It used to be my mom’s,” Jeremy said. “She gave it to me before she died in ‘83, a little bit after the bite and I was only fifteen years old. We were close, really the only real parent I had when I was a kid and…I guess you could say I was a ‘mama’s boy’.

“She loved this thing, so I never really take it off because when I wear it I feel closer to her somehow, like if I ever need her she can find me with this. Sometimes, I feel like the only reason I survived this long is the necklace, and she was able to find me in time and she’s still just as protective as she used to be. I’m probably just making it up but it’s a comforting feeling to think that my mom’s still here.”

“That’s really sweet,” Henry said. 

Not even a second later, Henry heard Michael breathing like he had something caught in his throat and he started coughing from the air that was being forced into his lungs. 

“Ow…” Michael said softly. 

“He’s awake!” Jeremy exclaimed. “Oh God…”

Jeremy stood up with the help of Henry to go to Michael’s side, and he held on to the handrails of the hospital bed in case he lost his balance. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m right here,” Jeremy said as he held Michael’s hand. 

“I-oh God!” Michael exclaimed and squeezed his hand for a sense of security. 

“What?! Talk to me Mike, what happened?!”

“It was…it felt so real!”

”What did?!”

“I-I had a dream, but it felt like someone was…I don’t know, trying to suffocate me by choking me!” Henry and Jeremy looked at each other, both now equally as concerned that this was possibly what happened before as well. He was holding his own throat because it obviously hurt, and Jeremy moved his hand to see a red handprint that looked as if the person was just squeezing with all of their might. Jeremy and Henry stared at it, both in shock and wondering how it got there in the first place. “I-I don’t think I can sleep now, I don’t want it to happen again!”

“We can…we’ll figure out what to do later,” Jeremy said. “For now, just breathe, you can do it.”

“It would be easier without this stupid mask!”

“We can’t take it off until tomorrow, they told you.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?!”

“I can ask for some more ice since your chest seems to be hurting again.”

“I don’t want any! I-it hurts to put anything on my chest! I’m not doing that again!”

Jeremy stayed silent for a minute, not wanting to be the ‘bad cop’ in this situation but was afraid he might have no choice and he turned to Henry. “Henry, can you get some ice from one of the nurses?”

“What?!”

“Michael,” Jeremy said with the sternness in his voice that Michael wasn’t expecting to hear. “This is important to help you get better. I want you to not be in pain just as much as you do. Just…please.”

Michael looked at Jeremy in his eye and he finally realized, he should be doing this even with the consequences because it will help him eventually. If not for himself, then for Jeremy. 

He nodded. 

Jeremy turned to Henry again, nodded and Henry went out of the room. 

“You’re right, Jer. It’s important. I’m sorry for complaining like a baby,” Michael apologized. 

“It’s alright, Mike. Just, calm down, all this is making the monitor go crazy.”

Michael nodded and tried to slow his breathing down which eventually slowed his heart rate down to normal. “What…what do you think’s going on with me?” he asked after a little while. 

“I don’t know. How did you get this? How did you get this red mark?” Jeremy asked, running his hand lightly down the sides of Michael’s neck.

”Is that what it is?!”

”Yeah! It looks like…a hand. It wasn’t there before, what happened?!”

”Now that I’m thinking about it, it might’ve been the dream. I could feel him hurting me, too realistic to be a dream.”

”Do you wanna talk about the dream? I kind of feel like it helps to get those bad dreams off your mind.”

Michael nodded. “It was…it was weird. It felt real but…well who knows if it was real or not at this point. I-I thought it was because of earlier because my father choked me and pushed me against a wall, the back of my head still hurts…he did that same thing.”

”Aw,” he said and kissed Michael’s head, and Michael immediately calmed down some.

“After that, he transformed into Schmidt. He squeezed my throat telling me he’ll finish what William started, but then there was…a woman.”

“A woman? Who?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t see her face. But she pushed him away from me and got him off of me, he was fighting with her and she told me to wake up so I did. Waking up stopped it and she saved me. This happened after I got the stitches in my arm too, I have no idea what’s happening!”

“Are you sure it wasn’t like, a guardian angel or something?”

“It wasn’t, I think. She didn’t seem like it, but I don’t know what angels are like.”

“What do you mean ‘she didn’t seem like it’?” 

“Well, she looked like someone I haven’t seen for years and as far as I know, angels aren’t human. She was human, she seemed human.”

“Well, what’d she look like from what you could see?”

“She had very tan skin, kind of the same color as yours, she had…brown wavy hair, probably a little bit longer than yours and she wore a dress with a similar looking headband. I’ve seen her somewhere before, I don’t remember where.”

“Do you think it was your mom?”

“I don’t think so. She has lighter skin, lighter hair and she almost never wore dresses.”

“Uh…”

“Do you think it’s your mum?”

“Mine? No, it can’t be! She was protective, but I dunno if she was that protective!”

“But I remember you telling me…your mum’s favorite color was light blue and she loved to wear dresses.” He turned to Jeremy. “Her dress was light blue.”

Jeremy stared at him trying to absorb everything that Michael was telling him, but part of him still didn’t believe it. It was hard to believe, and it was even harder to wrap his head around the possibility that his mother was still around him, protecting him and everyone he loved but she hadn’t even tried to contact him despite them being so close when she was alive. 

He clutched his necklace. “I…I don’t know, Mike.”

There was a knock at the door which Jeremy said, “Come in,” to and Henry came back into the room, gave the bag of ice wrapped in a few paper towels he had gotten to Jeremy who handed it to Michael. Michael put it on his chest and pressed it against his skin, and they could both tell from his face that it hurt to put weight on his chest but he kept holding it against his skin anyway. 

“See? Not so bad,” Jeremy said to him as he moved a stray piece of hair out of Michal’s face and tucked the hair behind his ear. 

“To you.”

Henry stood at Michael’s bedside opposite from Jeremy so that Michael could finally see him when he wasn’t panicking. “Hey Mike!” he said. 

“Hey Uncle.”

“How’re you feelin’?”

“Couldn’t be better,” he said sarcastically. “What’re you doing here?”

“Jeremy called me over to bring him an extra shirt and to visit. He said his other one got…bloody.”

“Oh.” He turned to Jeremy. “Sorry about that, Jer.”

”It’s alright,” he said. 

Michael turned back to Henry. “Don’t you have work in the morning?”

“Yes, but if I tell the boss why I can’t come in, he’s pretty understandin’…usually. So what happened to you?”

“Well uh, there was a run in with William today.”

“Jeremy told me that.”

“Yeah, so…it was pretty bad. I can’t remember a whole lot, but I remember he was kicking me. He was kicking me in my stomach, and then he moved to my chest. I didn’t hear a crack or anything but honestly, how could I focus on the noise when I was preoccupied with everything else?”

“God, what about your arm?” Henry asked. 

“He…he swung an axe at me. I-I blocked it with a knife before it got my face, but it still cut me pretty bad.”

Miracle he’s still alive even after everything he’s gone through, Henry thought. “Thank God you’re still here.”

Michael turned to Jeremy. “Does he know?”

“About Al?” Michael nodded. “Yeah.”

He turned back to Henry. “I-I was there when it happened,” Michael said. “I saw Alex die…they were murdered…by him.”

“I heard, I’m so sorry about that, Mike.” 

“E-everyone else got away because Jeremy called the cops,” Michael said. 

“Wait, everyone else?!”

“Alex’s little brother was there too and also saw them die. God, poor kid…I hope he’s home safe now.”

“Oh my goodness…”

“Uncle, it was terrifying!” Michael said, now obviously wanting to cry but tried not to because it was painful to. “H-he didn’t have any regrets about it, like it was all some game to him and he was happy he finally got rid of them! I wouldn’t doubt that was how it was back in ‘85 too! Or when he killed Mum! H-how can he just kill somebody like he was hunting them for sport?!”

“I…I don’t know.” Henry stayed silent for a minute. “But…I might know how to help.”

Michael and Jeremy looked at him with confusion. “Help?” Jeremy repeated. 

“I was told to pass on a message to you two, from Robert Graham.”

“Rob!” Jeremy exclaimed. “I haven’t heard from him in a little while. Hope he’s doing alright.”

“What’d he say?” Michael asked. 

“He is doing just fine but what he wanted me to tell you, d’you remember those parts you told me about? The ones you asked Robert to burn?”

“Yeah.”

“He said that he finally did today and it…it actually worked.” Michael and Jeremy fell silent, obviously in shock. “William injected himself with this stuff, right?”

“Yeah…” 

“This is how we can finally put a stop to all of this and destroy him.”

“But, Uncle,” Michael said and they turned to him. “He’s already dead. The spring locks on the Spring Bonnie suit…I saw in my dream before it all happened, he wasn’t moving. He’s already dead.”

Chapter 144

Summary:

You thought they were gone forever?

Soon after Alex lost consciousness and fell limp on the floor of the old house, moments later they regained their consciousness and found themselves lying down on the floor again. Alex opened their eyes and it took a minute for their eyes to adjust to the brightness in the room, but they were obviously not where they were before. It was a different room, an empty room, one with a pure white color on the walls, ceiling and floor and not a speck of dirt was anywhere to be seen. 

Alex stood up, just as confused as when they arrived and almost immediately their balance felt off and they fell because apparently they hadn’t used their legs in a while. Alex thought the landing would hurt at least a little since the ground was solid but surprisingly, the landing felt soft like a pillow. 

“What the…” Alex mumbled and stood up again having regained their balance, now noticing that they were dressed in the same tan Nirvana t-shirt, ripped jeans and Vans they last had on, but the deep red stab wound in their abdomen was gone. “What is this place? Heaven?” 

“Don’t be afraid,” a voice Alex had never heard before said; it sounded like whoever had said it had a high pitched voice but a low pitched voice at the exact same time. 

“I’m not afraid, more confused…wait, what?!” Alex shrieked and looked around the room, startled, now even more confused and fell over again from tripping on their own two feet.

”You’re alright Alex…”

“How do you know my name?! Who are you?! Where are you?! What’s goin’ on?!”

”Alex, you’re alright, don’t be scared. I know that this is a bit of a shock, but I’m here to help you and make sure you’re alright.”

Alex calmed down a little. “God?”

The entity chuckled. “No, not exactly.”

“O…kay then, who’re you?!”

”I am an entity of the afterlife, or as it’s actually called, the Other Side, not Heaven.”

“Afterlife? Other side?” Alex mumbled. “Am I actually…dead?”

“Correct. Well, your body is, your soul is not. It has come here, which is why you are here.”

“So I did actually die…it wasn’t a nightmare,” Alex said glumly. 

”Don’t worry Alex, you’re safe now, and you have a choice to go back if you want to.”

“I do?”

“Yes. Now, your soul is in the middle of its journey and therefore it’s not fully tired yet, so in this circumstance we give the soul a choice. 

“You can choose to either reincarnate back to Earth, but you will not be in your previous body since it is deceased. You can go back but as a completely different person, or even as an animal like a cat or a dog. It is extremely rare for someone to go back with their old family, especially since your family is not planning to have another child in their lifetime or will be getting a pet, and there is a possibility they will not believe you when you tell them who you are, if you can that is. 

“The other option is that you can choose to stay here where you are safe from harm, your family will eventually reunite once they all pass from their mortal forms, that is if they choose to stay as well, and you can visit Earth as a spirit or what the humans call, a ghost, but that part will come with time and typically, the humans cannot hear you when you speak so there is a possibility of scaring them accidentally.”

“Like…how much time?”

“The time can range, there is a special amount of time for each person so no one can know for sure, but there is a chance it may be your family’s and friend’s entire lifetime as well.”

“But, they won’t be able to see me for that long? However long it is in that range?”

“Correct. And, it is never guaranteed that you will reunite with them here. It is ideal but all in all, it is the souls final decision whether to stay or go in the end.”

Alex thought about their choices; they were both what Alex wanted, but both with its own flaws but one eventually outweighed the other. “I think…I think I wanna stay here.”

“We thought so. Now stay still, this tends to be a bit bumpy.”

“Wha…what’re you doing?!”

“I’m transporting you to where everyone else is. You didn’t think you’d be all alone, did you?”

“Well…I don’t know! I dunno what to expect when I’m y’know, dead!”

The entity chuckled. “Stay still, the ride to the common area is a little intense.”

Alex nodded and stood up, standing as still as they possibly could, and not even a second later Alex was greeted by a flash of blinding white light and the winds around them picked up so it felt like they were in the middle of a tornado. 

Through the light from the little Alex could see was a strange land which they thankfully passed, because it looked like a darker, almost barren desert except for creatures that Alex couldn’t have even dreamed of roaming through the land ranging in size and shape, dead plants covering the barren landscape and there were people, very few, but they were people at least at first glance. They were all a pure white, some were drenched in blood, some had the wounds that killed them, and some had both, so Alex had doubts about whether they were actually people at all. 

That didn’t last for too long though, because there was another flash of light and another area appeared, way brighter than the last and was filled with hundreds of little balls of light that were able to move around on their own and entities that looked like extremely tall and beautiful men, women or had features of both corralled them into groups and sent them somewhere. 

The rest of the way, Alex closed his eyes because he couldn’t keep them open because of the light, but a few seconds later the wind stopped and Alex opened his eyes.

As far as they could see, there were different habits of all different climates, and it seemed to extend for hundreds of miles in all directions. There were vast oceans, huge lakes but also small ponds scattered throughout the area, and there were also animals of all kinds in their natural habitats; even the ones that Alex has never seen before, whether they were rare or they had only seen them in a zoo, they were abundant. 

There were all kinds of different plants as well: trees with fresh fruit, trees that didn’t grow fruit, flowers of all different kinds, different species of grasses in the corresponding habitats, bushes, every kind of plant imaginable was scattered throughout this gigantic landscape. 

What Alex was happy to see though, were the people. People of all ages from children to older adults, and some were in pairs talking with each other, groups hanging out with each other or just lounging around by themselves. They were scattered everywhere, exploring the gigantic area so Alex knew they made the right choice. 

“Woah…” Alex said. “This is…amazing.”

”This land expands forever in all directions, so there really is no limit to what these spirits can explore,” the voice said, and Alex finally saw who was talking to them. The voice belonged to something that looked quite young, maybe twenty or thirty years old, had both masculine and feminine features and was extremely tall, at least ten feet tall but it wouldn’t be surprising if the entity could get taller, so there was no doubt they could also make themselves look older or younger whenever they wanted. 

“So, question,” Alex said a minute later after taking it all in. 

“Yes, yes, what is your question?”

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

”The lands we passed.”

”The first or the second?”

“Both.”

“Well, the first, darker one is the poltergeist’s land. Poltergeists are very powerful creatures who would have no problem and no remorse with hurting the people here, so thousands of years ago there was an agreement between entities to give them their own land.”

“So…hell?”

“Not exactly hell so to say, there is no Heaven nor hell being that there are people here who have done some very bad things in life. They are separated from everyone else when they first come here, but once their evil ways are unlearned then they are free to go where they want.”

“With no supervision?”

“Who’s to say we’re not supervising when we are not physically with them?”

“You can do that?”

“If humans got one thing right about the afterlife, it’s that the supernatural beings are depicted having hundreds of eyes, even if they are not physical.”

“Oh…uh okay, so what’s so special about the poltergeist’s land if it’s not where all bad people go?”

”The land just lowers the risk of them attacking anyone here by a significant amount being that it is far away. Most of them though, are not in that land. Most are on Earth, haunting either a building or a person…and we cannot get them back because we’re not supposed to intervene with Earth.”

“So…they’re not like, regular dead people?”

“Poltergeists are different entities than regular spirits, some were actually humans in their past lives, who died with evil and rage in their hearts who in turn, are difficult to control. Some souls however were created as poltergeists, typically they are more powerful than the ones who were originally human but now, one in particular changed that…twenty five years ago now.”

“What? Why is one more powerful than the others?! Why don’t you just destroy it and the rest of them while you’re at it?!”

“We cannot, one thing we cannot do is destroy souls but we can slow them down if needed. This specific soul is difficult to control, but someone here has assured us that she has this one poltergeist under control. We will step in if necessary, not to worry, and the rest are under our control so they cannot use their full power on the mortals.”

“What about the other land? The one with the little balls of light?”

“That one is where brand new souls are or the souls that have chosen to reincarnate and are getting ready to be sent to a life. Those balls of light are actually souls without a mortal shell, which they will get when they are closer to being ready to be sent to Earth.”

“Aww! So that place was a nursery?!”

The entity chuckled. “You could say that.”

“So…if the human body is just a shell of the soul, why do I still look how I did? Why does everyone look like people?”

”You and everyone else here technically still has their shell, but it is actually only the remnants of your previous mortal shell, hence why spirits on Earth are depicted as people but are transparent. It is to bring comfort to the souls here, since other human beings are more likely to not be scared of other humans.”

“So…how are they? Y’know, without me?”

“Michael and Jeremy I’m assuming?” Alex nodded. “They are unfortunately still grieving, but yes, they are alright.”

“Did Mike go to the hospital like I asked?”

“Yes, he did. He just got back home since it has been about a week and a half in human time already. He was in bad condition when he arrived, and he is thankful that you told him to go to the hospital. You saved his life in your last moments. 

“Jeremy is alright but still shaken up, still in denial, and he needed to take the next few days off from work to process and to stay with Michael, since Michael had to take the next several weeks off because it was difficult for him to do his job properly with all of his injuries.”

“All of them?”

“His forearm which was obviously not in good condition, but then there was the bruising of his opposite arm, muscle bruising on his abdomen and a fracture on his two bottom ribs. Thankfully, his internal organs weren’t badly wounded and will recover.”

“How ‘bout Jerry?”

“Your brother is alright and back home safe, but he’s still shaken up as well. He is unfortunately battling the depression of losing you, his only sibling and best friend, and he wasn’t even able to go to school for a week, but he is safe and back home.”

”Oh my God…is this all…my fault?”

“It is not, you do not need to worry about that. You were trying to save your brother, which you succeeded at, but only William is to blame for your death.”

“O-okay, if you say so.”

“Now, how about to help you feel better, I show you to your room?”

“My…room?”

“Everyone gets a room, designed just for them. Afterwards, I have a feeling you may want to meet some people here.”

---

The entity showed Alex to their room, as well as telling them how to get anywhere in this land and left them to explore on their own. Once Alex opened the door, it was better than they ever could have imagined. The room looked to be painted a deep green color, their favorite color, and the room had a tan carpet below their feet. 

The room was split in half: one side of the room had band instruments, different guitars as well as a drum set complete with different sizes of amps complete with posters of their favorite bands on the wall behind the drum set. They loved to play music, but couldn’t at home since they couldn’t afford it and went to the music store or school to use theirs for hours on end, eventually teaching themselves how to play. 

The other side had different skateboards on the wall since they loved to skate from time to time, and there was also a door that looked like it lead to something else. 

When Alex cracked open the door, it was as though it lead outside to miles upon miles of different skateparks so there was always something else new to try. There were a few people scattered throughout the area, who seemed like they also had doors that lead them to this place as well and Alex smiled as they closed the door. 

They went through another door which lead to where they would sleep, and it was only a simple bed in the middle of the room. The room however was not a square like the other: it was rounded at the corners so it looked like the inside of a medieval tower. There was a blank wall that was six feet up from the floor and all around Alex so there was room for the door and for Alex to decorate it however they wanted, but above that there were books. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of books that lead up all along the walls as far as the eye could see and Alex shook their fists in excitement and happiness. 

---

“Alright…so I’m looking for someone named Rosa…yeah this’ll be easy with millions of people here,” Alex mumbled to themselves. “I can just magically go to her since I learned how ghosts teleport and stuff, but what’s the fun in that when I have this entire land to explore? I have time to kill before I get to Earth anyway.”

Alex ran off into the vast landscape, crossing through many biomes and getting distracted by many animals and flowers along the way, because even the dangerous animals that would have attacked when Alex came close seemed friendly and went up to them. Alex wasn’t sure how many human days have passed since they first set off, but they were sure that many have being that many nights have passed. 

Miraculously, when Alex expected to feel hungry or tired after traveling nonstop for days, they didn’t. Sure, Alex stopped by the trees that grew delicious fruit and snacked on the fruit every so often, but every single time they felt full. Sure, there were some instances where Alex felt a little tired and they took a quick nap under a tree, but after only an hour they felt rested. Even when traveling at night, Alex had no problem seeing in front of them so they continued on, not even feeling a little scared because they were comforted by the fact that they were safe here. 

Alex continued on the search, not even sure what Rosa looked like so Alex didn’t even know what he was looking for, but suddenly as they were passing through a sandy biome they saw two boys who looked very young and obviously from different points in time. One, the one who looked as if he was from an older time, possibly the 1960’s, was drawing pictures in the sand with a stick and making up stories while the other, who looked like they were from a more recent time, sat and listened, only commenting every so often. 

The boy drawing pictures suddenly stopped mid-sentence and looked up to see Alex looking at them. Alex was embarrassed because they knew it was rude to stare and debated on walking away, but then the boy drawing in the sand stood from his crouched position, pushed up his round glasses and waved at Alex. 

“Hi!” the boy happily said, and Alex immediately knew he was very extroverted.

“Uh, hi,” Alex replied awkwardly. 

“Wanna see my picture?!” he asked excitedly. 

“Sure kid,” Alex said. They walked over to them and crouched down next to the boy. “Woah, that’s pretty cool!” 

“Thanks! It’s a story I remember my brother telling me and how I imagined it. See this right here, is a castle,” he said pointing to a drawing of a building that looked like a bunch of rectangles and squares next to each other, “and this right here is a dragon!” he said, pointing to a drawing of what looked like a worm with pointed wings. “The dragon lives in the castle, and he has to guard the treasure in the castle from anyone trying to steal it. One day a knight comes to the castle, trying to steal the treasure for his greedy king.”

“That’s a cool story kid!”

“Thank my brother. Oh! I’m Oliver by the way!” he said, extending his hand to shake Alex’s. 

“Alex,” they said in response and shook his hand. “And who’s your friend over here?”

They both looked at the boy sitting on his knees, but he only looked at the light patches on Alex’s skin and said nothing. “Sorry, he’s very shy,” Oliver said, now sitting crisscrossed on the ground. 

“Oh, it’s alright. I understand, I’m usually shy when I meet someone new too.”

“My brother is too! I’m the loud one of the two of us when we were together!”

Alex let out a light chuckle. “So uh, just curious, I’m not expecting you to answer, but you’re both quite young. Are you just changing your age so you stay young or were you actually young when you got here?” Alex asked, sitting crisscrossed on the ground as well. 

”I’m not changing my age, this is as old as I can get.”

“Oh my God…how old are you?”

“Thirteen.”

“Thirteen?!”

“Almost fourteen! Well, I would’ve been.”

“How…how old is he?” Alex asked, motioning to the other boy. 

“Ten,” the boy in the striped shirt answered for Oliver. 

“Ten?!” Alex echoed and he nodded. 

Now that Alex was looking at him, he noticed something that they’ve sworn they’ve seen before. Blue-grey eyes, freckles scattered across his face, wavy brown hair and an American-British accent. Those were all Michael’s characteristics. The difference was that this boy’s skin was more tan so he was not as pale as Michael, his hair was more light brown than dark brown and obviously still had a youthful face since he was young. 

“Uh…what’s your name lil’ dude?” Alex asked him. 

“Evan.”

“Evan…”

“Yep. That’s me.”

“I think…I remember hearing about you.”

“What?”

“By any chance, is your last name Afton?”

“Uh, yes?”

“No way…I knew your brother!”

“Michael?”

“Yeah, him!”

“He’s not my brother anymore.”

“What?! What are you talking about?! Of course he is!”

He stood. “No he’s not! He’s the one who did this to me! He’s a bad person, just like Father!”

Alex stood but crouched down so Evan was looking down at him. “No, no, Evan he’s not like that anymore, okay?” 

“Then why did he do it?!” Evan said, now crying. 

“He didn’t think it through. He didn’t think anything would happen because…well, why would it, and yet the worst still happened. It was an accident, a terrible accident, but he didn’t mean it. He regrets ever doing that stupid prank, he’s sorry.”

Evan wiped his tears. “T-that doesn’t sound like Michael! The Michael I know would be glad I was dead and happy that his wish came true!”

“He’s changed. Evan, he was fourteen when it happened. He’s almost twenty four now, people change, and I know he has.”

“Then maybe he should’ve actually treated me like his brother and not just a nobody who meant nothing to him,” he said then he dissipated into thin air. 

“That went well,” Alex said after a minute and stood. 

“Sorry about him,” Oliver apologized and stood next to them. “He’s not usually like this, especially on first meetings.”

“It’s fine. It’s my fault, I brought it up without knowing how much it affected him.”

“Well, knowing him he should come back any minute and apolo-”

Evan suddenly appeared back in front of Alex. “I’m so sorry!” he said through the occasional hiccups from crying. “I-I didn’t mean to!”

“Told you,” Oliver whispered to Alex. 

Alex crouched down so they were eye level with Evan. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s my fault, I stupidly brought it up without takin’ your feelings into account, and I’m sorry.”

Evan wiped away the wetness on his face. “I forgive you.” He sniffled. “Did he actually change?”

“Yes. He ditched those friends he had, except for Jeremy, but those other two weren’t his real friends. He wanted to fit in with them so he did what he did, and it was a mistake. His only real friend was Jeremy out of them and now, Michael is kind and is trying to undo everything your dad did. He’s not the same Michael he once was, trust me. If he was I wouldn’t have even met him.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

He wiped the remaining tears away from his cheeks. “Are you sure it’s okay?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“I still feel bad for yelling, how else can I say I’m sorry to you?”

Alex snickered, about to say that Evan didn’t have to do anything at all, that he owed them nothing and his apology was more than enough, but then Alex thought of something. “Actually, I do need help with one thing.”

“What is it? I can help you!”

“Do you know someone named Rosa?”

“Rosa?”

“Rosa Fitzgerald.”

“I…I don’t-”

“I do!” Oliver said. “She’s kind of hard to find so I don’t see her that often, but she’s really nice! She gives me cookies every time I go visit her!”

“Cookies?! I want cookies!” Evan exclaimed.

“Yes! Uh, where is she? I’m looking for her because the entity thing said I would want to meet her,” Alex said. 

“She’s…she usually hangs around that area,” Oliver said, pointing north. “It’ll take a long time to travel on foot, unless we take the short route and just teleport.”

“Where’s the fun in that? It can be an adventure!”

“Ooh! Adventure!” Evan exclaimed. 

“So…can’t believe I’m asking a kid this-”

“I was born in the fifties. It’s been a while,” Oliver said. 

“Alright, forty-ish years so you’re technically older than me but that’s beside the point, anyway, will you take me to her?”

”C’mon Ollie! I’ve been wanting to go on an adventure forever!” Evan said. 

“We usually come out here and that’s a few days!”

“Yeah but we usually don’t go further than that! This’ll take a few months!”

“Wait, months?”

“It really depends on how distracted we all get on the way,” Oliver said. “But if you’re up for it, yeah, I’ll lead the way to her.”

Chapter 145

Summary:

Characters that have been MIA for a while make a return.

It has since been two years since Alex’s passing, two years without them, two years without any sign of them according to Michael. 

Michael and Jeremy were sitting on the couch together, cuddling close to each other and watching television, wasting away their Saturday. Jeremy on one hand, was about to fall asleep since he felt at ease and he didn’t sleep well the previous night due to nightmares, while Michael had his head on Jeremy’s shoulder and mindlessly tracing the scars on Jeremy’s hand with his finger, but there was in fact a lot on his mind. 

One year prior, he and Jeremy attended their friend’s, Robert and Hailey’s, wedding and seeing the beautiful service got Michael thinking: he and Jeremy have been together for a little over ten years, would he ever work up the courage up to ask Jeremy the question? It was a major life changing question, one that was just four simple words but regardless one that Michael was terrified to ask even though deep down he knew that Jeremy would say, ‘yes’.

It’s been on his mind ever since they left the venue at almost two that morning, although very tipsy so it might have been just a passing thought he had since he was drunk, but the only one that he remembered so it was the only one that’s been bugging him. He had no idea whether or not to ask someone if he had said anything about it that night since he couldn’t remember, but he was afraid of making the conversation awkward. 

He kept telling himself that the time wasn’t right, both in society and the law, but financially he could barely even pay the bills and get food on the table for both of them so he couldn’t even afford a ring at the moment, but at the same time he didn’t care. He loved Jeremy way too much to care, figuring he could deal with the rest later and just ask the question that’s been eating away at him for a year. 

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he heard the telephone ringing on the wall. 

Jeremy groaned and was about to stand up to go answer it, but Michael picked up his head off of Jeremy’s shoulder. “No, I’ll get it, it’s fine,” Michael said, knowing that Jeremy didn’t sleep well the previous night.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’ll wake you for dinner.” Michael stood, went over to the phone and picked it up. “Hello?” he asked through a yawn. 

“Hey Mike!” the voice said. 

“Jeremiah? Hey!”

Michael, Jeremy and Jeremiah had gotten close over the past two years, mainly because Alex was very close with all of them and eventually their shared trauma of Alex’s death led to them all to becoming friends. 

Jeremiah chuckled. “I told you, you can call me Jerry. I don’t mind.”

Michael sighed. “I know, but I don’t wanna make you feel upset or anything because that was the name that Alex came up with for you.”

“You won’t upset me, trust me. If anything, I’d like to still keep their memory alive.”

“Alright then, Jerry, how are things?”

“They’re cool. You?”

“As good as they can be. Uh, any particular reason you called or did you just want to hear my beautiful voice?” Michael joked and Jeremy came over next to Michael. 

Jeremiah snickered. “No, there’s a reason. I uh…I’m heading out.”

“Heading out? Where?”

“Idaho. For college.”

“College?! You just graduated in May!”

“I know and I wasn’t planning on going ‘till next year, but I already got accepted to my dream college so I’m not goin’ to pass up this opportunity.”

“Alright then, good luck Jerry.”

“Good luck!” Jeremy said into the receiver. 

“Thanks guys, and see ya…next May I suppose.”

“See you then,” Michael said. 

“Bye! Bring me back a potato!” Jeremy exclaimed and both Michael and Jeremiah laughed. 

“You bet. Bye guys.”

“Be safe,” Michael said and put the phone back on the wall. “A potato?” Michael asked Jeremy as they both went to the kitchen so Michael could start making dinner. 

“What?! Idaho’s known for its potatoes and he’s going to Idaho!”

---

As Jeremiah packed the rest of his boxes in the back of his truck while his stepfather helped him, Jeremiah’s mother started tearing up as she watched them. 

“Mom?” Jeremiah said and jumped down from the bed of the truck. “Why’re you crying? It’s alright!”

“I know it is, and I’m so proud of you, but it’s going to be hard with an empty nest!”

“Mom, I’ll call you guys every day! We talked about this!”

“I know, I know, but I’m just going to miss you so much!”

“Aw, don’t cry, it’s alright,” Jeremiah said and hugged his mother. 

His stepfather also jumped down from the bed of the truck and joined in on the hug. “We’re both so proud of you Jerry, never forget that,” his stepfather said softly. “That reminds me, I have something you might want,” he said and went into the house to grab something. 

Isabella and Jeremiah looked at each other with confusion, but then he came back to them in the garage with a black denim jacket in his arms and Isabella started bawling once more. 

“Alex’s jacket?” Jeremiah asked him as the jacket was handed to him. “They loved this thing.”

“I know you brought it back for all of us, but I’m sure If Al were here, they’d want you to have it.” Jeremiah nodded and put it on. “Look at that! It still fits you!”

“Oh Jerry, it suits you so well!” Isabella said through tears. 

When Jeremiah wore it, he immediately felt closer to his older sibling, the one who was always there for him, always smiling, always made sure he was happy, and took care of him when his parents couldn’t. 

“Thanks Dad,” Jeremiah said and hugged his stepfather. 

---

After Jeremiah and his stepfather loaded the boxes into the truck, he said his goodbyes to his parents and drove away, but he had to admit he was a little nervous. Even though he was going for a degree in something he loves; which was to be a beta tester for new video games since technology was slowly but surely advancing; it was nerve wracking to be in a new school with entirely different people than who he grew up with, plus he had to live on campus. He could only hope that his roommate was decent. 

When he arrived to the school several hours later and went to the front desk to check in and get his keys, he lifted a box from the bed of his truck and took a deep breath. “It’s gonna be fine, Jerry,” he mumbled to himself and went towards the doors of the dormitories and up the stairs. 

Once he finally reached his room on the second floor, he heard the light rustling of things being unpacked from a box which told him that his roommate was already there. 

He unlocked and opened the door to find a man unpacking a box and looked up at him from his crouched position. He had dark brown skin just as he had, his hair was in locs and pulled back into a short ponytail, he had a goatee with a stubbled mustache and he wore a black Metallica t-shirt paired with ripped dark blue jeans. 

He stood up and smiled. “Hey! Are you Jeremiah?” he asked. 

“Uh yeah! Are you uh, Richard?”

“Yeah, I am, so you’re in the right place. Uh, I already kinda claimed the right side of the room so I hope you’re fine with taking the left.”

“Oh yeah, that’s fine,” he said and went to the left side of the room, set the box in his arms down on the bed and started unpacking it. 

Jeremiah went to get the other box from his truck, and after he came back they were both silent for a while as they unpacked their own boxes. 

“So uh, Jeremiah, how old are you?” Richard asked as they were both still busy unpacking, trying to make small talk. 

“Eighteen, nineteen in December. You?”

“Twenty five.”

“Twenty five?”

“Almost twenty six, I went to a college out of state for three years when I was twenty, then I dropped it because I thought it wouldn’t be all that helpful to me. But then my mom said I should get my degree since she didn’t want another son leeching off them so I came here to finish.”

“You have brothers?”

Richard turned to him. “One, he’s a little older. You?”

At this question, Jeremiah paused for a second. On one hand, he could say he had a sibling, but then Richard would probably ask, ‘what happened to them?’ and Jeremiah would end up dumping all of this on a man he just met an hour ago, or on the other hand he could lie and avoid talking about the death of his sibling. 

“No, no siblings,” Jeremiah finally said and turned around to face him as well so they could talk. 

“You’re an only child? Lucky.”

“Why lucky?”

“As the baby of the family, I always got the hand-me-downs from my brother. Kinda annoying.”

Jeremiah chuckled because he knew that all too well, but he had to keep up the act. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, sucked but whatever. So you from here?”

“No actually, I’m from Utah.”

Richard gasped. “No way! What part?”

“A stupid little town called Hurricane.”

“Shut up! I used to live in that stupid little town!”

“Really?!”

“Yeah! But we moved here a few years back when me and my brother were still in high school.”

”Hurricane’s an okay-ish town though, why did you move?”

”It wasn’t actually because of my parents, it was me and my brother. Me and him just couldn’t stand to be there anymore because…reasons that I’d rather not talk about right now. They understood, thank God.”

Jeremiah didn’t push him for an answer, but now he couldn’t help being curious about what actually happened to him down in Hurricane that caused he and his family to move.

---

A little while later as the sun started to set, Jeremiah told Richard that he was heading out for a few hours to grab some dinner and to see what places were hiring so he could start looking for part time jobs to make a little money. 

He drove around town, trying to get to know the area since he was in the big city now and not a little town where everyone knew everyone, and eventually he arrived in the downtown area where there were multiple different restaurants and stores. 

“This looks good,” he said and decided to park his truck and walk around instead of driving. 

He walked around for a bit, eyeing different stores he might go into later and ask for an application, but his main focus right now was finding somewhere to eat. 

He turned a block and eventually found a Wendy’s on the corner. Different from his usual McDonald’s, but he remembered that he hadn’t had anything from that restaurant in a long time. 

Since he wanted the nostalgia because the last time he had a Wendy’s burger was a year ago, he decided to head towards it. That was, until he saw a shadow in the darkness of the alleyway next to the restaurant, and this shadow caught his eye because the shadow looked like a person and seemed to be watching him. 

“Uh, hello?” he said, but then the shadow ran off. “The hell…”

Jeremiah went to the alleyway to try and look for this person, but suddenly from behind that same shadowy figure swiped his wallet and ran. “Hey!” Jeremiah yelled and ran after them. 

He chased after the shadow, but it was surprisingly fast as it ran for several blocks, weaving around walls and hopping fences to city parks but at least he saw it was actually a real person he was chasing, but this person kept his hood up while he was in the setting sunlight so Jeremiah couldn’t get a good look at him. 

Finally after several blocks the person seemed to be getting tired and Jeremiah caught up to him and grabbed his arm. “Gotcha, ya thief!” he took his wallet back from the person, put it back in his pocket and he pushed the person away. “What the hell d’you think you’re doing?!” he yelled and backed away. The person said nothing but kept his back turned to him. “Are ya gonna say anything?!” 

“I’m sorry,” the person said quietly as he turned to him. “I’m just trying to do what I can.”

“And that’s stealing?!”

“I don’t have a choice!”

“I should turn you in for stealing!”

He perked up. “No, no, please! I-I don’t wanna run from them again!”

“Then gimme one reason why I shouldn’t!”

“Uh…”

“I’m waiting!” 

Finally, he took off his hood and Jeremiah could get a good look at his tan, freckled face. He looked quite young, had dirty blonde, messy and wavy hair that reached the bottom of his neck, glasses that looked scratched like they haven’t been replaced in years, and his face was very dusty and covered in scrapes that had scabbed over. He was skinny, so skinny that his clothes looked two sizes too big for him and he had stubbled facial hair growing in that he either couldn’t or didn’t have time to shave.

He was wearing a dark grey jacket with what looked like a very dirty white t-shirt under it that no longer looked white, his black jeans had several holes in them and his black Converse shoes looked so beat up Jeremiah was sure they were several years old. 

“Because I’m hungry!” he exclaimed. “I haven’t eaten for days, I’m just trying to get something warm to eat since I didn’t want anything that’s been thrown out today! D’you know how gross that is to eat off of the ground or dig in the dumpster behind restaurants for any scrap of food you can find to survive?!”

“I…I don’t-”

“Well aren’t you fucking lucky!”

“Look man, I’m sorry! I-I didn’t know!”

The man sighed to try and keep his anger under control. “Whatever.”

He started to walk away, but Jeremiah could obviously tell that he was hungry and he got an idea. “Hey! Wait!”

The man stopped in his tracks and turned to him. “Whaddya want?! I-I have nothing on me!”

Jeremiah went up to him. “No, I don’t want anything. But I was just thinking, y’know I was just trying to grab a bite to eat, and I still feel really bad so would you want me to buy something for you too?”

The man softened his gaze. “Really? No one’s ever done that for me before.”

“I mean it. If you look past the stealing part, you seem like a cool guy who’s just trying to do what he can to survive, so how about I help you out today?”

“I-I dunno-”

“C’mon! It’s the least I can do!”

The man thought about it for a second, but then the man smiled at him and nodded. 

They both walked side by side on the sidewalk on their way to the Wendy’s, some people staring at them as they passed but they both didn’t notice nor care as they both made small talk with each other. 

As Jeremiah found out, he hasn’t always lived like this. He lost his family as well as his house when he was young and has been living on the streets ever since. Usually, he only eats once every three days since he couldn’t be bothered trying to eat and instead chooses to find water to drink, places to sleep, some kind of shelter he could use for a few days or begging for money, sometimes resorting to stealing if begging didn’t work even though the cops were called on him a couple of times.

But the most surprising part to him was that Jeremiah found out that he was only seventeen years old, only a year younger than him. 

After Jeremiah bought a burger and soda for himself, he asked the man what he wanted and he didn’t even have to read the menu before he said a double. Jeremiah chuckled and ordered him a double cheeseburger as well as a soda and they took the food once it was ready. 

The man was about to head outside back to the alley but since the fall season was right around the corner and it was starting to get cooler outside, Jeremiah beckoned him to sit at a table while he ate, which he hesitantly accepted. 

Jeremiah sat across from him in a booth as the man unfolded the wrapping on his burger and started eating as if he hasn’t had a crumb of food in his life. 

“Woah, slow down there man, you’ll get a stomach ache like that,” Jeremiah said as he unwrapped his own burger. 

“Fine with me,” he responded with his mouth full. 

Jeremiah watched him as he ate his own burger, both to make sure he didn’t choke himself with how fast he was eating and in amazement that he didn’t care that people were staring at him with disgust and judgment. 

When he was halfway through his burger and taking a sip of soda, that’s when Jeremiah decided to speak up. “Name’s Jeremiah, Jeremiah Davis,” he said and extended his hand to the man. 

The man pushed up his glasses, wiped his hand off on his jeans and shyly shook Jeremiah’s hand. “Samuel. Uh, Samuel Emily,” he said. 

Chapter 146

Summary:

A bit of lore on the mysterious second villain.

”So kid, uh, are we almost there?” Alex asked Oliver. “We’ve been exploring this place for who knows how long already.”

“Almost.”

“How long is almost in your head?” Evan asked. 

“Ev!” Alex whisper-shouted. 

“What?! It’s been a long time, plus we don’t know if we’re even heading the right direction! We ended up in some jungle-” he started but then yelped and hid behind Alex. 

“What is it lil’ dude?”

“S-snake!” Evan said and pointed to the ground next to the three of them. 

It was indeed a snake, a very large one in fact, but Alex knew it was not venomous; it was a boa constrictor. 

“Woah, cool!” Alex said and crouched down to get a better look. 

“What’re you doing?!”

“Petting the snake. What does it look like?!” Alex said as they touched the snake and ran their fingers along its back. “Woah! It’s cold!”

”But what if it’s dangerous?!”

“Ev, let me remind you of something really quick,” Oliver said and Evan turned to him. “We’re fine, we’re all dead, and nothing can hurt us on the Other Side.”

“Oh…oh yeah.”

He and Mike are definitely related, Alex thought. They stood and the snake slithered away. “See? We’re fine.”

“O-okay.” He turned back to Oliver. “So how much further?”

“Not far.”

“Here we go again.”

They all trailed behind Oliver resuming as they previously were, all of them getting distracted by the sights so it took a lot longer to get to their destination, but soon after they were back on course. After not talking much, Alex thought of a topic of conversation and spoke up. 

“Hey, Oliver,” Alex said. “So, this is kinda a weird question, but you keep talking about a brother.”

Oliver stopped in his tracks and the other two stopped as well. “Yeah, I do. What about him?” Oliver asked. 

“I…I guess I just wanna know if our situations are similar.”

“Well, if you really wanna know, he and I had a pretty big age difference but we were still close as could be.” They all resumed walking. “We would play pretend together even though he was in college and I was still in grade school, we would make up stories together, he would actually listen to what I had to say and he raised me when my mom couldn’t which was…a lot. And y’know, this sounds kind of silly but…he was my best friend in the whole wide world.”

After listening to him, Alex realized that their situations weren’t all that different from each other’s, the only difference being that he took the perspective of the younger sibling. Alex too, took on the role of a parent and was a playmate to their significantly younger sibling, and Alex was somewhat glad that they had run into each other. 

“I got this,” Evan said and Alex turned to him. “Y’know Mike?”

”Uh, my friend? Of course I do.”

“Okay, so y’know his uncle?”

“Mike mentioned him sometimes, and I’ve only seen him a few times but not often, so I don’t know him that well but he’s pretty well known throughout the area so…somewhat.”

“That’s his brother.”

“Him?! Henry Emily?!” Evan nodded. “I didn’t know he had a brother!” Alex turned to Oliver, who still had a glum expression on his face so they all stopped walking and Alex knelt down to be at eye level with Oliver. “Ollie, I’m so sorry. As an older sibling who was kinda the parent to the younger one, I can tell you it hurts for the oldest, so it probably does for him.”

“Believe me, it hurts for the younger ones as well.”

Alex sighed. “When I get to go back to Earth, I’ll make a promise to you that even though I don’t know him well, I’ll tell Henry you said hi and that you haven’t forgotten about him.”

“Really? You’d do that?”

“Of course, dude! We’ve known each other for a while, I dunno how long it’s been, so of course I’ll do that for a friend.”

Oliver smiled and hugged Alex. “Thank you.” He let go of Alex. “C’mon. This way.”

---

They got to the edge of the jungle biome they were in after a few minutes, and Oliver stopped in front of a very large and thick hedge that seemed to go on for miles. “Here we are!”

“That was…not far at all,” Alex said. 

“I told you we were almost there. Now, after you.”

“Through…the branches?” Alex asked and Oliver nodded. 

After hesitating, they pushed aside the thick branches to walk along the narrow path below them that they could barely see. It was very dark and eerie but as soon as they looked behind them however, the land which they came from was gone and replaced by darkness. 

“Well, only one way to go.”

For a while, Alex kept pushing aside the branches, wondering if this was actually the edge of the Other Side, and finally after some time of walking blindly into the darkness they saw light just a few feet ahead of them. Alex went to it and once they stepped into the light, they were taken aback. 

It was a small, sealed off area with branches blocking off the paths as doors, but within the plant walls were several different colors of roses as well as a few on the grass all around the area. In the middle of it all was a beautiful fountain and stepping stones leading to it from each of the four “doors” and there were several small white butterflies fluttering around the area. 

“Woah,” Alex said. “Uh, hello?” they called out. “I’m looking for someone named Rosa Fitzgerald. Is there anyone here named that? Or anybody here at all?”

Suddenly, a woman appeared from the “door” opposite to Alex and she had a bouquet of roses in her arms. She was probably in her mid thirties although Alex couldn’t tell if she was just changing her age, she had a long baby blue dress on and had her dark brown hair pushed back in an also baby blue headband. She had about the same skin tone as Jeremy, freckles scattered all across her body just like Jeremy, and had beautiful, honey colored eyes that sparkled in the sunlight just like Jeremy. 

Now, Alex could see that Jeremy looked a lot more like his mother rather than his father; the only similarity between he and his father was the hair color. 

The woman immediately noticed Alex and stood in place for a few seconds, obviously in shock that they had come to see her and Alex stood awkwardly across from her. 

“Uh…hi,” Alex finally said a minute later. “Are you…”

“Rosa Fitzgerald,” the woman said, and Alex noticed that she had a heavy Spanish accent unlike Jeremy where he still had it, but it sounded more like a mix of American and a Spanish accent. “And you must be Alex.”

“Alex Davis. I-I knew your son, he was a good guy.” Rosa smiled and looked up, then by some sort of magic the butterflies around the area took the roses out of her arms and placed them around the area. “Woah. That’s cool.”

She began to make her way towards Alex. “It is something I was gifted with, a power as some might say.” She got to Alex and to their suprise, Rosa pulled them into a hug. “I am so, so sorry Alex.”

“Uh, sorry for what?” Alex asked as Rosa let go of them. 

“I failed you. I tried to protect you, I really did.”

“When…oh, when William stabbed me?” Rosa nodded. “It’s…it’s fine. I guess we’re all destined to die sometime, and some just come earlier than others.”

“Alex…it’s alright.” Rosa took Alex’s hands in hers. “I know how upsetting it is, to leave all of that behind to come here and you don’t feel like you have a choice.”

“Y-yeah, it really sucks,” Alex said shakily. 

“Oh, poor child, don’t cry, you’re safe,” she said as she wiped away Alex’s tears. 

“I-I know I am, but what about-”

“Them?” Alex nodded and Rosa let go of their hands. “Oh Alex, always putting others before themselves. You don’t have to worry about them, they are safe. I’m watching over them to make sure nothing out of their control happens to them.”

Alex sniffled then smiled. “So uh, I-I know you’re Jeremy’s mom, but you’ve been helping us too?”

She nodded and looked around. “Let’s go to a different place to talk, shall we?” Rosa took Alex’s hand and within seconds, they were at a beach with dolphins jumping over the waves every so often and they were sitting on a bench. “That’s better.”

“How big is this place?!”

“It goes on infinitely in all directions, I haven’t even explored one percent of it and hardly anyone ever will.”

“Woah. Sick.” Rosa giggled. “So uh, how exactly have you been helping us?”

“I’ve stopped things that were out of your control, I’ve stopped him from killing all three of you when you three were most vulnerable, I even convinced a few entities here to make sure that Jeremy lives as normal of a life as he can. I didn’t want him to go through all of the difficulties that come along with his kind of injury, and Diego wouldn’t know how to help him much less Michael in that case, so besides the obvious changes that the entities could not control they gave him a semi-normal life.” 

“Diego was your…husband?”

“Ex-husband.”

“Oh.” That explained Diego’s behavior towards Jeremy before his injury; Jeremy looked a lot like his mother, especially when he was growing his hair out. “So you were the one preventing Jeremy from having a total personality flip?”

“Correct. 

“I knew something was up with him, it didn’t seem natural that he basically stayed the same after his injury. So…who was ‘he’ you were talking about?”

“Well, he is that Schmidt character as you call him.”

“Wait, wait, pause, okay, random question, d’you know his first name?!”

“Why yes I do. Why?”

“I wanna see how stupid it is.”

Rosa smiled. “I think knowing his name would be the least of anyone’s worries. According to the entities, he is the most powerful poltergeist that used to be human they have ever seen before.”

“Wait, he is?!”

“Correct, some might even call him a demon. He would find any way to kill innocent people, even children, because he believed that humans were littering the world with their filth. He, unlike most poltergeists, did not haunt only one building or a specific person. He moved frequently, and he was able to move from one place to another after he killed several families, and managed to convince many poltergeists to think the same as him so they could get rid of the people inhabiting their haunted buildings. 

“He, like most poltergeists, could make objects levitate, throw things, mess with appliances, mess with the physical world, but unlike them he could also make objects with the snap of his fingers, he could make people hear voices that would lead them to their death, he could move objects with such a force that I have never seen before, such as flipping a car at random, even if it was already moving.”

“Mike told me a few times that he’s heard his mom, sister and brother out of nowhere, but he didn’t pay attention to it because he knew they weren’t actually there, then they stopped after a while. That was him?!” Rosa nodded. “He’s that powerful?!”

“Yes. But then, William came along.”

“William? He did something?”

“Yes. See when he killed him-”

“Wait, wait, sorry, timeout. You’re saying he created that monster?!”

“Not ‘created’ so to say, more like, ‘broke him into pieces’.”

“That was…not what I was expecting to hear at all but sorry, continue.”

“So when he killed him, William found a small amount of the strange liquid that started all of this. It was powerful, so powerful that it could even create life itself. Although, when William found this, he was only twenty years old. He, much less anyone, knew what it was so he took a sample and kept it hidden away. 

”The night William had cursed his family unbeknownst to him, he had the sample in hand, but then he had gotten frightened and dropped the sample on the television set, kicking it in and running away. 

“What he was unaware of was that the liquid had merged with the set was actually part of Schmidt’s soul in liquid form. His soul was ripped in two, one part was in the physical world and one part he keeps with him. Now that his soul was torn, he wants to find some way to merge them back together again but before he could do that, he has to protect the set to not let it get destroyed which is why he’s working with William, who threatens to destroy it which would be breaking a deal they made.”

“A deal? What deal?!”

“One where William will not destroy the set so that Schmidt can continue on his mission and in exchange, Schmidt will help William at achieving his goal of eternal life. Before that, they had to get rid of you three because if you found out then there was a definite probability that you three would find some way to destroy it. William threatened Schmidt to find some way to get rid of you three so, he did.”

“Oh…that explains so much.”

“Back to what I was saying, that night half of Schmidt’s soul was bound to Earth, he was understandably furious with William and set off to kill him, but then he remembered, he has children with their own families. Instead of killing William for revenge, Schmidt had the power so he decided that everyone who is related to him, whether by blood or marriage, even past marriage, shall be cursed. Cursed by not only being able to hear the dead, but cursed by watching their loved ones die in front of them or at the very least, be powerless to do anything about it.”

“Woah,” Alex said a minute later. “So you’re saying that crappy old TV in Mike’s basement was…part of his soul?”

“Correct. That’s why if someone touches it, he kills them in fear they’ll destroy it. When you touched it to prove a point to Michael, I happened to be in the right place at the right time and saved you. I tried my best to not put all of the power on you two so you two could escape without harm.”

“Oh…thanks.”

“However if the set is destroyed, he cannot be destroyed, but weaker for sure. The only way to make sure he is gone once and for all is to destroy both parts of his soul. If you do, he will be sent back to the poltergeist’s land; trapped, powerless to do anything, too weak to even walk, he would be ultimately a dead body that is still conscious and forced to go through that torture for eternity because he has no soul.”

“Good enough for me.” Alex stood abruptly. “Alright. So, where’s the second part? I wanna kill this motherfucker, he deserves to pay for what he’s done.”

“That’s the trickiest part. He keeps it with him, merged with a dagger and it seems to have the purple colored liquid running through it. No one but him can come close to touching it. We have all tried, but he is far too strong. And since it is with him it cannot be reached by the physical world, only the spirits. He will protect it and if a spirit is struck by him, they will not die but be forced to be in pain from the wounds for hundreds, possibly thousands of years.”

“Fantastic,” Alex mumbled and sat again. “So to get rid of him is goin’ to be even harder than I thought.”

Chapter 147

Summary:

That was certainly unexpected.

For several months now, Jeremiah has been visiting Samuel every day by buying him a nice warm meal that he didn’t have to steal to get, or bringing him leftovers from the previous night if he had them. Samuel saw that after the first week, he was a kind soul and he genuinely cared. He cared enough to not let him go hungry at least, and since he ate at least once a day instead of once every few days, he started gaining weight again and was less skinny; his ribs were barely visible now, and he was thankful because he hadn’t gone to sleep hungry in months. 

Of course with this, Samuel felt a sense of guilt. He felt guilty that Jeremiah was spending money on him, going out of his way every day to bring him food and visit; he felt guilty that he was relying on him to eat when he never wanted to rely on people to survive in the first place. 

That guilt didn’t change when Jeremiah shook him awake to bring him lunch since he was sleeping on a bus bench. 

“Wha…” Samuel said sleepily once Jeremiah shook him lightly by the shoulder. 

“It’s just me, dude,” Jeremiah said as Samuel sat upright and Jeremiah sat next to him. Samuel yawned, put on his scratched glasses and ruffled his own hair which was getting longer now. “Here. I brought you some leftovers from last night,” Jeremiah said as he handed him a container. 

“Oh. Thanks. What is it?” Samuel asked as he took it. 

“Just some instant mashed potatoes and canned chicken from last night. Not ideal but for a college student, it’s something.”

”Thanks,” he said as he opened the container and started to eat. 

“So uh, new place?” Jeremiah asked a few minutes later. 

Samuel swallowed his bite. “Well, I needed to stay dry from the rain last night, so I found this spot and stayed here. This is probably temporary honestly, I like the alleyway ‘cause I have it all to myself.”

“You don’t have anything to keep yourself dry from the rain?”

Samuel shook his head. “My clothes are all I got. I actually found these in a dumpster a few years after it all happened and I grew out of my original clothes.”

”So…I know that this is kind of a heavy topic for you but you never told me, what happened to you?”

“To me?”

“Yeah.”

Samuel closed the container and set it down on his lap. “I suppose I can’t lie and say I was born living like this?”

“Well not now that you said you weren’t.”

“Right, yeah.” He sighed deeply. “Well, to put it…simply, a few years back there was a house fire. I uh…lost everything. Refused to go to an orphanage or something because I heard the kids there were treated horribly so…I ran.”

“Jeez…I’m so sorry, dude.”

“It’s fine. Learned to live at least.”

“So…did you have a family? Parents?”

“It was just me and my mom here. She died in that fire, I was lucky enough to get away but I still get flashbacks of seeing her body sometimes.”

”You saw her?! Like, dead?!” Samuel nodded. “Good God…”

“Try not to think of it too much, it took a toll on me. Anyway my dad is…somewhere and my sister is gone-”

“Gone? Gone where?” Samuel made a cutting motion across his throat. “Oh…I’m sorry.”

“Happened a while ago, but I still miss her everyday because…well she and I were twins.”

“You’re a twin?!”

“Eh,” he said as he shrugged. “Not really sure anymore. But anyway, no. No family that I know of.”

“Well how about your dad? You said he might still be out there!”

“Yeah, but I don’t even know where he is now! I haven’t seen him in like, ten years!”

They both sat in silence for a minute while Jeremiah absorbed all of the information Samuel told him. “So…you’re saying you’ve seen death?” Samuel nodded. “And your sibling’s gone?” He nodded again. “Wow…we’re more similar than I thought.”

“You too?”

“Yeah. My uh, my older sibling’s gone and I…I saw them die. They were trying to protect me, I-I was kidnapped and the guy was about to kill me and they held him back so I wouldn’t get hurt but he killed ‘em instead.”

“Jesus. I’m so sorry, dude.”

“It’s fine. Happened…about three years ago now.”

“Well, your sibling is very brave. I mean, risking their life for you? That’s bravery if I’ve ever seen it.” Jeremiah smiled, nodded and they both sat in silence for a moment before Samuel handed him back the empty container. “Uh, thanks. But y’know, you don’t have to bring me something every day. I-I don’t wanna be a burden.”

“No, no. You’re not! I like coming here and helping you out!”

“But you don’t have to.”

“But I want to.”

Samuel smiled. “Alright, I can’t talk you out of it. But if you forget to bring me something some days, I won’t be mad.”

“Not gonna happen.”

“But…aren’t you leaving soon? The school year’s about done I think, and you don’t live here, huh?”

“Yeah, finals are in like, a month…I dunno what we’re gonna do about that. I don’t wanna leave you, you’re my friend and friends are supposed to stick together.” He went silent for a moment. “Oh! I know! You can come back with me!”

“What?! Are you crazy?! I can’t go back with you!”

“Why not?! We have an extra room, you can stay with us! My parents are cool, I promise!”

”I know but after what you told me, isn’t that your sibling’s room?! I don’t think they would want some random dude staying in there!”

”But you’re not random! They know about you!”

Samuel stared at him for a second. “What?”

“Yeah! They say you sound really cool, and they know that you’re homeless and they said that if you ever want to, you can come stay with us!”

“R…really?” he said through a relieved smile. 

“Yeah! You in?”

“Uh…if you’re sure they’re alright with it, sure!”

---

“You sure it’s fine?” Samuel asked once he got in the passenger’s seat of Jeremiah’s truck at the end of May. 

“Yeah! I told you three times already!”

“I know, I know. It’s just…I dunno, I never expected this sort of kindness from strangers.”

“We’re not strangers though, we’ve been friends for a while! Since August!”

”Still!”

Jeremiah got into the front seat, started the truck and rolled down his window. “Bye Rich!” Jeremiah said to his roommate, Richard, who was parked a few spaces next to him. 

“Bye! You’ll call, right?” he said back. 

“Of course! And promise to visit one of these days?”

“Ah, y’know I don’t like Hurricane but if it’s just for a few days, totally!”

“Awesome! I want you to meet my family down there, everyone!”

“Alright! It’s a plan! See ya man! See ya Sam!”

“Bye!” Samuel said. 

Richard got in his car, Jeremiah rolled up his window and turned to Samuel. “You ready?” he asked. 

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

---

After a few hours of driving, Jeremiah pulled into a driveway and parked. Samuel fell asleep in the seat next to him a few hours back since they had to go across a state, but jolted awake when he felt the truck stop. “Is this it?” he asked through a yawn. 

“Yep. Have a good nap?”

“Best I’ve had in a while.” He stretched, feeling rested now. “Beats sleeping on a bench or leaning against a wall any day.”

“That sounds uncomfortable.”

“Sure was.”

“Let’s go in, I want you to meet my parents. I’ll get my stuff later.”

Samuel nodded, they both got out of the truck and Samuel followed Jeremiah to the front door, nervous but excited at the same time. Jeremiah took the key out of his pocket to unlock the door, but his mother beat him to the door and unlocked it while he was still fishing for the key in his pocket. 

“Jerry!” she exclaimed. “You’re home!”

“Mom!” Jeremiah went to his mother, Isabella, and hugged her tightly, then behind her coming from the hallway was his stepfather, James. “Dad!”

“Hey Jerry!” he said and Jeremiah gave him a tight hug as well. “Welcome home! We missed you!”

“I missed you guys too.” Jeremiah let go of him and went to the doorway because Samuel was still standing outside, feeling awkward and out of place. Jeremiah grabbed his wrist and guided him inside. “Mom, Dad, this is Samuel.” 

“Uh…hi,” Samuel said shyly. “You can just call me Sam.”

”Sam! We’ve heard so much about you, we’re so happy to finally meet you!” Isabella said as she grabbed his hand and shook it. 

“Good things I hope?” 

James chuckled as Samuel shook his hand. “Yes, yes, all good things. Unless you count your first meeting.”

Samuel chuckled. “Yeah, uh, that was a misunderstanding sir.”

He chuckled. “The room’s all ready for you, but feel free to look around and make yourself comfortable.”

“Right, uh, thank you so much Mr. and Mrs. Davis. This means so much to me and I don’t know how I could ever repay you.”

“We’re always willing to help someone in need! Especially if that someone is my child’s friend who helped him navigate the big city and making sure he’s safe. Thank you!” He smiled and nodded. “Jerry, please show him around. Dinner will be ready in half an hour.”

“Okay!” he replied and she and her husband went to the kitchen. 

“Nice house,” Samuel said to Jeremiah once they were alone. 

“Yeah, guess you could say that. It’s kind of an…average house.”

“Any house is a nice house to me.”

Samuel’s eyes darted around the room, looking at everything until he noticed some pictures on the wall and went to them. There, he saw that it was Jeremiah and his parents, plus one other person he didn’t recognize. 

This person was obviously older than Jeremiah was in the picture, and immediately Samuel saw that they had a more grunge sense of style compared to the rest of the family. He also noticed that this person did have dark brown skin like the rest of them, but they had lighter patches on their skin as well. They looked different than the rest of them sure, but regardless they were happy. 

”Who’s this?” Samuel asked as he pointed to the person’s picture. 

“Oh, that?” Jeremiah said and Samuel nodded. “Well, remember that older sibling I mentioned to you about a month ago? Where they sacrificed themselves for…for me?” 

“Oh…oh yeah.”

“That’s them. Alex.”

“I’m so sorry, Jerry.”

“It’s alright. Miss ‘em everyday but, hey, what can ya do?”

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

“I don’t like to dwell on it for long, so let me show you the room!”

“Alex’s room?! Are you sure it’s fine I stay in there?”

“Of course, man! It’s what Al would’ve wanted.”

Samuel followed him up to the room, and when Jeremiah opened up the door for him, Samuel was amazed and since it was a surprise for Jeremiah as well, he was just as surprised as Samuel. 

It honestly didn’t look all that different. There was still a bed, a nightstand and a mirror on the closet like before, but all of Alex’s posters on the walls were gone, their belongings that they had scattered randomly on the nightstand were all gone, and it was overall much cleaner on the floor since Alex usually had clothes, random trash and other random belongings thrown on the floor, but now it was clean and there wasn’t only one little pathway to walk on without stepping on something. 

“Wow,” Samuel said. “It’s-”

“Different,” Jeremiah said. 

“I was gonna say nice, but I guess that works too.”

Samuel went inside, not believing the kindness of these people to let him stay and thinking that this was all a dream. 

“Jerry! Can you come down here and set the table please?” Isabella called after a few minutes of looking around. 

“Ooh! Dinner’s almost ready! Okay, you hang out up here, get comfortable and I’ll meet up with you in about ten-ish minutes.”

Samuel nodded as Jeremiah ran off downstairs, leaving Samuel alone in the room. He went to sit on the bed, still thinking that this was all a dream but then, he felt a slight chill in the room. 

That didn’t happen often, and nothing ever came of those rare occurrences so he didn’t pay much attention to it and continued looking around the room, but he suddenly felt an icy cold sensation on his shoulder and turned to it since it felt like a hand. 

“Hey dude, you’re in my spot,” it said. 

Samuel stood at once and stepped backwards in fright, tripping over himself and his glasses fell off of his face. “Agh! What the fuck?!” he yelled as he scoot backwards. 

“Oh shit, did I scare you?! I’m sorry!” it said, and this spirit didn’t seem harmful at all if they didn’t mean it. “And they probably can’t hear me anyway,” they mumbled. 

“I can hear you! Who are you?! What are you?! What are you doing here?!”

“Wait, you can hear me?!”

“Yes! Should I not?!”

“I only know a few other people who can hear spirits…I guess I’ll add you to the list!”

Samuel stood up and put on his glasses again and once he did, he recognized this person. This was the same person from the family pictures downstairs, the one who Jeremiah said was dead. The only difference was that they were slightly transparent and their eyes were pure black. 

“Uh, random question but by any chance…is your name Alex?” he asked the spirit. 

“Yeah.”

“Alex…Jerry’s dead-”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m dead. Moving on, mind tellin’ me why you’re in my room?!”

“Well, alright funny story. So, long story short, I’m homeless, your brother found me in Idaho on the streets and he and your parents invited me to stay here until I get back on my feet.”

“Idaho?”

“Uh, yeah? The state?”

“Yea-I know the state, I’m not dumb! I’m asking why was he there?”

“Oh. College.”

“Jerry’s…in college already?”

“Yeah. H-he’s gonna be nineteen this year, he’s in college.”

“God…he’s so grown up now, last I saw him, he was barely even sixteen. Are you and Jerry friends?” 

“Yeah.”

“Makes sense. Anyways I was just kidding, you can take that spot and I guess you can stay in here. I can’t stay long anyway, plus it’s helping you and really, that’s all I wanted.”

“So, he wasn’t lying then, he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to his sibling. But why can’t you stay? Don’t you wanna see your family?”

“I do, I really, really want to, but I don’t wanna freak them out especially ‘cause I know they can’t hear me like you can, it’s just…specific people that can understand me. And also I have to get back before I get caught.”

“Wait, you’re not even supposed to be here?!”

“Nope. Snuck over here by the help of one of my friends. You’re actually the first person I saw since I wanted to visit, and I saw you were in my room.”

“So you decided to scare me?!”

“Honestly, yeah, it was really funny. How else should I react when there’s a complete stranger in my old room and I could do literally nothing else about it? Anyways, I have to get goin’.”

“Wait!” he said and Alex turned to him. “You said a few other people could hear you, who?”

”There’s only three others I know of, one of ‘em’s not a good person, I think he’s dead though, I dunno. One I barely know and the other is my friend, but I don’t plan on showing myself to him yet since I can only be here temporarily. By the way, what year is it?”

“Uh, 1995.”

“Not even the five year mark yet, these damn rules. Anyway I have to get goin’, uh, what’s your name? I don’t think I caught it.”

“Uh-Samuel. Samuel Emily. Everyone calls me Sam.”

“An Emily…haven’t heard that name in a while, makes sense though,” Alex muttered so quietly so Samuel couldn’t hear them. “Alright, see ya Sam,” they said and vanished into thin air, the coldness of the room leaving with them. 

Suddenly, Samuel heard a knock on the door. “Come in,” Samuel said, still in shock by what he just saw and what just happened in the span of five minutes. 

Jeremiah opened the door. “Are you alright?! I-I heard you yelling and we heard you fall!”

Samuel smiled shyly. “I’m alright man, just…startled is all.”

“By what? And who were you talking to?! You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

Samuel chuckled at the comment, because he did in fact see a ghost but was scared what his reaction would be if he told him the truth. “Well uh, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Jeremiah smiled. “As long as you’re okay, I don’t need to know.” They both headed out of the room and downstairs. “Also I was thinking, how about tomorrow I take you clothes shopping?”

“Really? It’s been forever since I had new clothes.”

“Yeah! The ones you have on you look like they’ve seen better days, and no offense, they smell so I think you need some new ones. My treat!”

“No offense taken because I agree with you. Wow, uh, yeah! Thank you so much!” he said with excitement. 

For years he has dreamt about the day some good Samaritan would come along one day and help him get back on his feet, and it took a while but his dream had finally come true and he couldn’t be happier. 

Chapter 148

Summary:

It’s a miracle…he’s actually alive.

”So uh, where are we going?” Samuel asked that Saturday evening as he and Jeremiah were walking out of the house. 

“I want you to meet my friends! They’re really cool, trust me. I called them yesterday and they said it’s alright if you tag along, they didn’t want you to be left out and it’d be cool to meet someone new! Plus, we’re going for dinner so hey, free food!”

“Alright, if you say so. What’s that for?” he asked, pointing to a brown paper bag in Jeremiah’s hand. 

“Oh. It’s something one of ‘em asked for.”

“It’s not, like, drugs or something, right?”

“You caught me.” Samuel stared at him with concern and Jeremiah laughed. “I’m just messin’ with you! It’s a souvenir from Idaho.”

“Not drugs, right?”

“No! He’s just never been there, and it’s honestly kind of hilarious that he even asked for it but it’s him, he’s funny even if he doesn’t mean to.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a surprise!”

“Drugs?”

Jeremiah laughed. “No!”

After some more walking, talking and Samuel kicking the rocks along the way, about a half mile later they reached a huge park which Samuel swears he recognized. 

“This…” he starts. 

“Never seen this big a park in the city, huh?”

“No, but it feels familiar.”

“What?”

“I-I feel like I remember it from years back…”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Speaking of which, where did you say we were again?”

“Hurricane. Hurricane, Utah.”

“Hurricane…” Samuel repeated. 

“Recognize it?”

“Yes actually…oh my God, you just unlocked a memory for me! I-I used to live here! Sometimes, I would come to this exact park with my sister and two other little kids!”

“What?! I’m just now learning about this?!”

“Sorry! I didn’t know we were in Hurricane, I was asleep all the way here!”

Jeremiah laughed. “It’s all good, I’m just messin’ with you! C’mon, they don’t live much further.”

They both jogged past the entrance to the park, past a few more houses and reached a house on the corner of the block. “Is this it?” Samuel asked. 

“Yep!”

“And are you sure they’re alright with me tagging along? They’re your friends, not mine.”

“They said they wouldn’t mind. Like I said, they’re really cool. Just, before you go in, I wanna tell you about one of ‘em.” Samuel turned to face him. “One of the guys, he uses a crutch to get around, and he’s also missing an eye. Knowing him he’ll probably have an eyepatch on his scar but whatever you do, don’t stare at it too long.”

“Does he not like it?”

“Nope. Made that mistake once when I was still getting to know him when I was sixteen. The other guy had to calm him down, so I won’t be doing that again.”

“So he’s self conscious about it?”

”Yeah, he got hurt from an accident at work when he was like, eighteen that he could’ve died from, so don’t stare. It brings up bad memories for him.”

“Got it.”

Samuel and Jeremiah went up the three short steps up to the front porch, and Samuel stayed on the second step while Jeremiah rang the doorbell because he was nervous. A few seconds later, a tall, pale man with semi-long, wavy brown hair answered the door. 

He smiled. “Jerry!” he said in a slight British accent and they greeted each other. “Glad you’re back!”

“Me too! Good to be home!” Jeremiah said. “Where’s Jeremy?”

Jeremiah and Jeremy, not confusing at all, Samuel thought.

“Hi! Sorry, I’m right here!” Jeremy said as he looked over the other man’s shoulder as he came from the hallway and the first man opened the door wider so Jeremy could squeeze by him. 

He wasn’t kidding, Samuel thought when he saw the eyepatch over a scar covering a quarter of his face and was walking with the help of a forearm crutch. Besides that, he had long, very dark brown hair that was tied back in a bun, had more of a tan complexion than the first man and was shorter than the man next to him, but not by much. 

“Hey!” Jeremiah said and he and Jeremy greeted each other as well. “How’ve you been?”

“Surviving!”

They all chuckled and the two other men finally noticed Samuel on the steps. “Who’s this?” the first man asked Jeremiah. 

Jeremiah went to Samuel. “Guys, this is Sam, the one I told you about.”

“Oh! The one you took in?”

“Yeah!”

“Uh, hey,” Samuel said awkwardly. “I’m Samuel, but everyone calls me Sam.”

“Is it cool if Sam tags along?” Jeremiah asked. 

“Of course!” the first man said. “Come in, you two! It’s pretty warm outside.”

They both walked into the house, Jeremiah talking excitedly to Jeremy, eventually reaching into the brown paper bag he brought and showed Jeremy a potato. 

“You remembered!” Jeremy exclaimed.

“Yep! A potato from Idaho, just like you asked!”

Jeremy took it, thanked him then went to put it in the kitchen. 

The other man closed the door behind Samuel who was standing awkwardly by the doorway. “I didn’t think he’d remember,” he told Samuel through a chuckle. 

“A potato?” Samuel asked. 

“Yeah, he asked for a ‘potato from Idaho’ when Jerry left, didn’t think he’d actually bring one. Kinda hilarious but Jer seems happy.”

“Jer?”

“Oh, it’s the nickname I have for Jeremy. Although, don’t call him that because he only likes me calling him that for some reason.”

“Oh. Alright, noted.”

“Oh, right, where are my manners? I’m Michael by the way, you can call me Mike,” Michael said, extending his hand to Samuel.

“Hey! Nice to meet you!” Samuel replied, shaking Michael’s hand, but then he noticed that Michael had a big, jagged scar on his left arm but didn’t seem bothered by it. 

“Oh, this ol’ thing?” Michael asked when he noticed Samuel looking at the scar.

“Oh, uh, sorry. I-I didn’t mean to stare,” he said, letting go of Michael’s hand. 

He smiled. “Hey, it’s all good! I don’t mind talking about it! I was uh, I was cut with an axe that was intended to cut my arm off. Couldn’t move my arm for a week without hurting myself.”

“Oh God, I’m sorry.”

”Hey, it’s all good! I’m okay now!” he said and now that they were making eye contact, he noticed something. Samuel’s eyes looked familiar, like he had seen them before. “You…you look familiar, have we met before?”

“Uh, I-I dunno,” Samuel replied. “I’ve always been told I have one of those faces.”

“Really? ‘Cause I swear I’ve seen you before. It’ll come to me eventually.”

---

“…so then, Sam got Al’s old room and he’s staying with us for now. The room looks…cleaner than before and all of Al’s things are gone but it’s still almost the same,” Jeremiah said as he explained their new living situation to Michael and Jeremy. 

“And your parents were cool with it?” Michael asked. 

“Yeah. I didn’t know if they would be honestly, but since he doesn’t…have a home my parents were cool with it.”

“Who’s Al?” Samuel asked. 

“My sibling. It’s their nickname.”

“Oh.”

“So, Sam, the special guest, I hope you don’t mind me asking but uh…what happened to you?” Michael asked. “What happened to your house? Why were you all alone before you met Jerry?”

”Oh, well, uh…it’s not…happy-”

“You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to!” Jeremy said suddenly and Michael nudged him in the ribs, reminding Jeremy to not interrupt. “Oh uh, sorry.”

“It’s alright! But, you guys don’t know?”

Jeremy shook his head. “Not really.”

“We were just told the very basic stuff, like that you were homeless and all alone. Young too so you needed help, but that’s about it,” Michael said. 

“That’s kinda on me,” Jeremiah said, “I didn’t know if Sam would be okay with me telling you.”

“It’s okay, I can talk about it!” Samuel said and cleared his throat. “Um, I-I lived on the streets in Boise, which you probably already knew but whatever. Before that, I lived with my mom, but there was…this fire. I lost everything in it, including my mom.”

“Oh my God,” Jeremy said. 

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that,” Michael added on. 

“It’s…it’s not your fault. Still hurts me, and still have nightmares about it sometimes.”

“Welcome to the club,” Jeremy said and they all chuckled. “What caused it?”

“I overheard on one of the TV’s on display that the police thought it was an electrical fire, but it was so…not like a normal fire so they don’t know.”

“Wait, what happened?” Jeremiah asked. 

“I don’t think I told you that part but uh, it seemed to have only burned my house down. None of the neighbor’s houses or the plants that grew over the wall to our yard were even touched by the fire, so when I went to the place a few days later there was just this burnt outline of our house and everything else was fine. It was…it was really weird and they never figured it out.”

“Huh. Strange,” Michael said, but he remembered seeing that fire broadcasted on a news channel to the whole country one late night several years ago. 

“Before that, I think I actually lived here in this town. It’s familiar, very familiar.”

“So…you’re back home?” Jeremy asked. 

“Yeah, I think.”

“Welcome home!”

Samuel snickered. “Thanks.”

“So, did you use live here with both of your parents?”

“Yeah. I lived here with my mom and dad, then I had one sister.”

“He was a twin!” Jeremiah added. 

“A twin?” Michael asked. 

“Was,” Samuel said. 

“Is it true that they have like, telepathy?” Jeremy asked. 

They all snickered. “Not really, but it would be pretty cool. I couldn’t really ever know though because she died here at a young age.”

“Aw, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. She was…she was murdered when we were about six or seven so I don’t remember it well. Then my dad…didn’t take it well and then my mom left him with me and yada yada yada, then Jerry found me and now I’m here!”

”Jesus…”

“You…your story sounds scary familiar…” Michael said, but couldn’t shake the feeling that he was someone he had known from his past. “Are you sure we haven’t met?”

“I don’t remember a lot when I lived here, I dunno,” he said as he shrugged. 

“Hmm…what’s your name again?”

“Uh, Samuel?”

“No, your last name. I don’t think I caught it.”

“I have two. Which one?”

“Uh…both I guess?”

“Well, they’re Schmidt and Emily. I like Emily better though, sounds better than Samuel Schmidt, ew.”

Michael stared at him for a second, but then the memories came back to him like a punch to the gut and his eyes widened as the realization set in.

“Was your mum’s name Heather Emily?”

“Uh, yeah? She went by Schmidt after we moved, though.”

No way…Michael thought and the realization hit: those kind, tired, brown eyes with a slight glimmer of hope in them which Samuel had were Henry’s. 

He didn’t think he was still alive. He didn’t think he escaped almost certain death. He thought he and his mother died, that there was no way someone could have survived since no one was ever found except the burnt body of his mother; he always assumed that his bones and flesh had disintegrated in the fire and that’s why he was never found. It didn’t make sense, but that was the only logical explanation as to why they couldn’t find him and there was no trace of him. 

“Holy shit…” Michael mumbled. 

“What? What is it, Mike?” Jeremy asked him but Michael stayed focused on Samuel. 

“Sammy?” Michael asked. 

“Sammy?!” Jeremy and Jeremiah repeated together with confusion. 

“No one…no one calls me that anymore,” Samuel said. “How do you know that? No one’s called me that in years and I haven’t told anybody since me and my mom moved!”

“Is…is your father named Henry Emily?” Michael asked. 

“Uh…yeah? Where’s this going?”

“Oh…my…God.”

“What?! What is it?” Jeremy asked again, putting a hand on Michael’s shoulder and lightly shaking him to get his attention so he would answer him. 

Michael turned to face Jeremy. “He’s alive!” he whispered. 

“Who is?”

Michael turned back towards Samuel. “I knew I recognized you!”

“I’m sorry, what?” Samuel asked, even more confused than before. 

“It’s me, Michael! Michael Afton! Your cousin! Henry’s my uncle!”

“Cousin?!” Jeremiah and Jeremy exclaimed.

Samuel stared at him with confusion for a while, wondering what was up with this guy and slightly weirded out by him, but as he looked closer at Michael’s face he saw that he had light freckles scattered across his face like he did, and had that same British-American accent he swore he had heard from somewhere. 

It was then he saw the faint scar on his lip that Michael had obviously gotten when he was a child, and he only knew two people in his life to ever have that scar in that same place. The scar combined with the appearance of light freckles, the fact that he had wavy, messy brown hair and light gray eyes with a hint of blue in them was familiar to him. Very familiar, and the name just proved that he was who he said he was, so he knew he wasn’t making it up when Michael’s face looked familiar when they shook hands. 

The memories came back to him all at once: he had more family that he hasn’t seen in years all the way in Utah. Michael and his two younger siblings, the children’s father, William, and their mother, Evelyn, which was also his mother’s sister who he never knew that well because she died when he was a baby. Samuel could remember that he, his sister and the other children would often go to Fredbear’s together–mainly during the summer since their fathers co-owned Fredbear’s together–to play, and Michael only went with them because his friends were going to be around Fredbear’s that day to go to the arcade with them down the street. 

After and Evan and Charlotte died and Fredbear’s closed down, they didn’t go to Freddy’s often since Freddy’s brought up bad memories for all the children, but Michael would often babysit he and Elizabeth after school while the adults were all at work since both of the schools were within walking distance from the Afton house. One time, they all went to Freddy’s to meet up with some more family and did so every day for almost a week, but Samuel couldn’t exactly remember what happened to them because they never contacted them again.

“Oh my God, Mike?! Michael Afton?!” Samuel said excitedly after a minute of analyzing his face and remembering most of the memories he had with Michael from his childhood. 

“Yeah! It’s me!” Michael said, both happy and relieved that someone else from his family was still actually breathing. 

They both stood up from their seats, went to each other and gave each other a big bear hug, never thinking that they’d ever see each other again but perhaps, it was fate. 

“What’s goin’ on?” Jeremiah whispered to Jeremy. 

“Beats me,” Jeremy replied. 

Michael and Samuel let go of each other. “God, look at you! You’re so big now! I remember when you were just a little kid!” Michael said to him. 

“Well, I am eighteen now. It’s been a little while.”

“Eighteen?! Has it really been ten years since I last saw you?”

“Look at you! You’re a full man now!”

“I’m twenty six next month, I guess it has been a while…I-I can’t believe you’re still alive!”

“Neither can I.”

“I…I thought you were dead for sure. We saw what happened on the news, it was big news, practically the whole country saw it. We thought…we thought no one could’ve survived that. I have a feeling I know what caused it and believe me, he never left any survivors before. It’s a miracle you got away.”

“Who? Who caused it?”

“That’s…that’s a story for another day.”

“Well, I ran before the cops could find me and they never looked for me. I guess they thought I was dead too.”

“So, does Henry know you’re back?”

“Dad? He’s still here?”

“Okay, what’s going on here?!” Jeremy asked suddenly since he was confused and none of his questions were getting answered. 

“Oh, right. Guys, Sam’s my cousin!” Michael said. 

“Uh, how?” Jeremiah started. 

“My mom and his mom were sisters,” Samuel said. “Auntie Evelyn, right? I didn’t know her that well since she died when I was a baby.”

“Yeah, Evelyn was my mum. She…she died when you and Charlie were just toddlers.”

Samuel smiled, because Michael knew the nickname of his sister with no hesitation when he hasn’t told anyone which just confirmed that he was someone who knew his family well. 

“Michael! I thought you said Henry was your only family member still alive!” Jeremy exclaimed. 

“I-I thought so too! I didn’t think anyone was still out there!” he replied as they both sat back in their seats. 

“Wait, you’re sure Mike is your cousin?!” Jeremiah asked Samuel. 

“I’m sure! He knows my old nickname I haven’t used since I was a kid that I haven’t told anyone, plus my dad’s his uncle, he knew that my sister’s nickname was Charlie, I knew his mom’s name and he knew my mom’s name, which a stranger couldn’t have possibly known because I never told anyone her name or my sister’s name! How could you mistake that?”

“Well I mean, I dunno man, you haven’t seen him in a long time, or maybe ever for all we know! How could we know a hundred percent?!”

“DNA test?” Jeremy suggested. 

“That takes a long time, Jer,” Michael said. “Uh…oh! I have an idea! We’ll take you to Henry’s tomorrow!” 

“Why Henry?” Jeremiah asked. 

“If he is Sam’s dad, which I’m ninety nine percent sure that he is, he’ll recognize him.”

“Even after that long?”

“Parents don’t just forget what their kids look like, especially not Henry. He’ll recognize him right away, I’m sure of it.”

“Really?” Samuel asked. 

“Yeah. I’ll let you in on something, I’m technically not supposed to know but after many nights of eavesdropping, he still cares for you a ton. He’s been wanting to reconnect with you but like me, he thought you were dead like Aunt Heather. We’ll take you when we go over to his place, we need to since it’s been a while since we visited him last so we could suprise him twice in one day!”

Samuel gasped. “Yeah! I wanna see him!”

---

The next day, Samuel went over to Jeremy and Michael’s house with the promise he would tell Jeremiah everything when he got back. Jeremiah even took him to the store and got him a new shirt and jeans since he wanted to look presentable to meet his father again who he hasn’t seen in ten years. 

Samuel rang the doorbell and Jeremy answered the door. “Ooh! You look nice!” Jeremy said when he opened the door to see him on their front porch. 

“Hey! Jerry and I went to the store yesterday to get me a new shirt for today. I-I wanted to look presentable.”

“Well, you nailed it!”

“Thanks! So, are you going with us or something?”

“Yeah.”

“Why? You’re not family I don’t think.”

“No, not technically. There’s a couple reasons: one, I don’t trust myself to stay alone even though I can, and two, Henry did help me out a ton in the past years.”

“Like what?”

“Well, I don’t think you know but my mom died years ago, and then there was this…car crash that killed my dad and left me injured–it wasn’t the accident that left me with this scar on my face by the way, the crash happened when I was about twenty. Anyways Henry helped out until we could get everything sorted out.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s…it’s alright. Plus I’m living with Mike so might as well go with him to visit the man that basically saved my life.”

“Oh. So are you two-”

“Yep!” Jeremy said before he finished the sentence since they were waiting for Michael on the front porch. “Have been for quite a while. You’re cool with that, right?”

“Whatever makes you happy.”

Jeremy smiled, relieved, and the door opened. “Alright guys, ready to go?” Michael asked as he shut and locked the front door behind him. 

“Yeah!” Samuel and Jeremy answered together. 

Michael helped Jeremy down the three steps on the front porch, but once they were on the soft grass they all made their way towards Michael’s car; Michael and Jeremy got in the front seats and Samuel climbed in the back. 

“So…does he live far?” Samuel asked. 

“Not too far, about fifteen minutes,” Michael replied as he backed out of the driveway and drove out of the neighborhood. “Y’know, you’re lucky to have him as a dad,” Michael said after a while of silence. 

“Really? I am?”

“Yeah. He took me in after he learned about my father, gave Jeremy a place to stay after a car crash, helped us move into this house we’re in now, helped me get a job, helped me out when I was in the hospital twice-”

“Oh…so he is a good guy unlike what Mom always said!”

“Huh?! What’d she say?!”

“She always told me that he was a bad man and that he never cared about me or her, which is why he never called.”

“That’s not true at all!” Jeremy exclaimed and turned to him. “He always was a good man, and he cared a lot!”

“W-what? She was lying to me?!”

“Truth is, he did try calling you because he wanted to fix the broken father-son relationship between you two,” Michael said. “After you guys left, I guess that finally knocked some sense into him, so he took me in after he learned about my father to protect me instead of leaving me to fend for myself.”

“What happened with your dad?”

“That’s…also a story for another day. Anyway he wanted to talk to you, but he told me that Aunt Heather usually said something like, ‘he’s busy’, ‘he’s with friends’, and the one that really got him was when she told him that ‘he doesn’t want to talk to you’, so he stopped trying after a while. Then there was the fire, and I know for a fact he cried the rest of the day, it’s just how he is.”

“Dad? Crying?”

“He wouldn’t often, but it really got to him and he was a wreck for days. I would go over everyday after work and I’d usually have to make dinner for him since he didn’t have the energy to. He was like that for about a week.”

It was strange to think of Henry crying. Sure, he was an emotional man but he almost never showed himself crying to others. If he was emotional in front of others then maybe he’d let a few tears trickle down his face and into his beard, but never to the point of sobbing. 

Perhaps Henry had always cared, but he was just never the best at showing it. 

---

When they arrived at Henry’s house, Samuel stared at it for a minute, recognizing it. 

“He still lives here?” he asked. 

“Yep. Never looked for another place, even though he lives alone now,” Michael said. “I reckon it’s because it’s already paid off and moving would be too much of a hassle.”

As they all got out of the car and made their way to the front door, Samuel’s heart was racing and he could feel his palms starting to sweat. “Nervous?” Jeremy asked him. 

“Not at all,” Samuel responded. 

“You sure?”

“Well…uh, okay, yes I am.”

“Sam, it’ll be fine. He’ll be happy to see you. He missed you.”

“I know, but then there’s a part of me where, y’know I wonder if he won’t act nice to me because of what my mom said about me? What if he refuses to accept me back as his son? I wouldn’t blame him if he just didn’t care about me because Mom said I didn’t care about him!”

“I can tell you, he won’t do any of that. Henry cares for you a lot, he’ll be…what’s the word I’m looking for…”

“Overjoyed?” Michael asked. 

“Yes, that’s it! He’ll be overjoyed to see you.”

“Okay, if you say so,” Samuel said.

Michael rang the doorbell and Samuel hid out of sight from the doorway out of anxiety, feeling the most nervous he ever had in his life. A second later, he heard the door open. 

“Mike! Jeremy!” a man said. His voice was deep, overall tired and he was getting up there in years, but the most recognizable was the fact that he had a slight Southern accent he has always been trying to hide but always failed. 

Yep. That’s definitely Dad, Samuel thought.

“Uncle!” Michael said. 

“Hi Henry!” Jeremy said and Henry gave them both a hug. 

“What’re you guys doing here?” Henry asked. 

“Well, we wanted to catch up, it’s been a few weeks,” Michael said. 

“But we also have a surprise for you!” Jeremy exclaimed and turned to where Samuel was hiding. “C’mon Sam!”

Here we go. 

Chapter 149

Summary:

The child who he thought was gone…is alive.

Samuel took a deep breath to calm his nerves and stepped into Henry’s field of vision; Michael and Jeremy held each other’s hands and stepped back, not wanting to invade on their reunion since they knew how important this was to the both of them. 

Samuel faced Henry, thankful that he didn’t look too different than from how he remembered. Henry still wore glasses on his face which he probably hasn’t renewed in a while, he still had facial hair and still had a full beard although the hair was straighter and graying. His wavy hair on his head was still the same light brown as his own but Henry’s was starting to gray at the roots, his face still looked the same but a few more wrinkles were present, and he has gained some weight from when he last saw him, granted the last time Samuel saw Henry he was barely eating. But the one thing that never changed was the fact that Henry always wore a flannel button down even when he wasn’t going anywhere and it was always paired with old, dirty jeans. 

Samuel gulped, his heart racing as he stood in front of him awkwardly. “Uh, hey,” he finally said quietly. 

“Sammy?” Henry finally said, his voice cracking from trying to hold back tears of happiness. 

Samuel smiled at him, immediately knowing it was him. “Yeah. It’s me, Dad. I’m home.”

Samuel went up to him, now noticing that he was a few inches taller than his father but regardless Samuel still hugged him. Henry was still in shock, a part of him not believing that his son was still alive and finally home, but feeling Samuel hug him confirmed that he wasn’t dreaming and Henry hugged him back. 

Henry squeezed him a little tighter, not wanting to let him go and leave again, but also couldn’t help feeling so many emotions at once and cried out of happiness into Samuel’s shoulder. 

“I’m sorry…I’m so sorry, Sammy,” Henry said. “I-I’m sorry I abandoned you when you needed it, I’m sorry that I let Heather take you away, I’m sorry that I made you feel that you came second to Charlie, I-I regret all of it, I’m sorry.”

“Dad, Dad, it’s alright.”

They both separated from the hug and Henry looked at him for a while. “God…look how big you are now! Has it really been ten years?” he said. 

“I guess so,” Samuel said as he wiped his own tears starting to form at the corners of his eyes away as did Henry, “and, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? Sorry for what?”

“For not contacting you at all during those ten years. I feel so bad…”

“No, no, Sammy, it’s alright.”

“It’s not alright!”

“It’s not your fault. I understand that you were busy and probably angry at me, you didn’t need to contact me at all. All I wanted to do was make sure you were safe.”

“That’s the thing! I would’ve talked to you if I knew!”

“What?”

“It was all Mom! She hid any calls from you, I never even knew! I was just stupid enough to believe that you didn’t care about us so why should I?!”

“It was all her? Oh no, don’t cry. It’s not your fault.” Samuel sniffled, wiped the tears building up in his eyes again and nodded. “Why don’t we all go inside? This heat is brutal.”

They all nodded and followed Henry inside, and much to Samuel’s surprise the house layout didn’t look all that different from how he remembered. The couches and television were in the same place, the shelf in the living room was still by the door like before, the front room still had a chair and coffee table that Henry usually used to drink his coffee and look out the window the mornings before work, the kitchen was still rearranged the same although dirtier because Henry was living by himself. Really the only different thing was that some of the furniture had been replaced since it was getting old, but Henry still tried to keep the house somewhat clean like he was still living with his family. 

“Sit down, sit,” Henry said to all three of them. “Can I get you anything? Are you hungry?”

“I can get Coke’s from the fridge,” Michael said. “Jer! C’mon!” he whisper-shouted to Jeremy. 

“What?! Why?!” he asked. 

“Give ‘em some space.”

Jeremy looked back at Samuel and Henry sitting across from each other, turned back to Michael, got up as he grabbed Michael’s hand and followed him to the kitchen. 

Henry again looked at Samuel, still in shock, but alas he was still happy. “I still can’t believe you’re really here,” he said. 

“Neither can I,” Samuel replied. 

“Hair’s gotten longer, I see.”

“Yeah! I might go for a haircut but I dunno, I kinda like it longer. Anyways uh, I see the house hasn’t changed.”

“You know I was never the best at change, I just couldn’t bear it. Yours and Charlie’s rooms are different though since Mike was staying for a while.”

“He was here?”

“For a while, until I helped him move a few years back. Charlie’s room’s an office space now, I guess and your room was Mike’s. Now it’s kinda storage for his stuff ‘till he finds out what to do with it.” Samuel chuckled. “I see I’ve also passed down my bad eyesight, sorry ‘bout that. We need to get you new glasses sometime.”

“Yeah,” Samuel said, taking his glasses off of his face to look at them. “I’ve had these since the fire. They’re all scratched up and a little small,” he said and put them back on his face. 

“So…” Henry cleared his throat. “About Heather-”

“She’s gone, Dad.”

“I…I know she is. But what she did to you was not your fault as much as you think it is. If you think about it from the very start, it’s my fault. I admit I’ve…I’ve messed up, big time, and I’m sorry. If it weren’t for me then you guys would’ve never left. I was just too focused on Charlie’s death and wasn’t in a great place…and I guess I forgot that I had other family who needed me.”

“It’s alright, you didn’t know. I guess we all handle grief differently.”

“Not to me, it isn’t. I don’t think I’ll ever move past it and forgive myself. It was a huge mistake, the biggest I’ve ever made and it messed up your childhood…I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright,” he said for what seemed like the millionth time and quickly changed the subject. “I know you have questions. Ask away.”

Henry chuckled softly. “I do, but I don’t think now is the right time to be askin’ them. I mean, you’re my son who just came home after ten years! Now just doesn’t seem like the right time to ask.”

“But it’s alright. I know you have questions about what happened, and there’s no better time than now to ask since it doesn’t seem right to hide everything from you.”

Henry got up and sat next to him on the couch. “Alright, uh, what happened that day?”

Samuel sighed. “A lot. It’s…a little fuzzy, but I can try to remember as much as I can.

“It was, y’know, a normal day. I guess it was summer or the weekend or something, but what matters is that I was home that day. Mom was…drinking in the living room and watching television like usual and I was in my room listening to music through my walkman.”

“Wait, she drank? I don’t remember her ever drinking that much.”

Samuel nodded. “It was normal for her by then. She was…she kind of turned into an alcoholic after we left. She never told me why.”

“And how was that…how was that for you?”

“Not good. I wanted her to get help ‘cause she was my mom, but I knew she wouldn’t care about what I had to say. She never did. In fact it was like I didn’t exist to her sometimes.”

“Sammy…”

“It’s fine, Dad. She’s gone now, so I don’t care anymore.”

Deep down though, Henry could see that he did still care even if he refused to admit it; he could see the anger in his eyes when he thought about his mother. 

“Anyway, about the fire,” Samuel continued, “I don’t really know what happened, but after a while I smelled smoke from the vents. When I opened the door, the living room, kitchen and hallway were already in flames. 

“I ran to go get Mom so we could get out since I knew she was probably drunk, but then…I-I…” he trailed off, the memories now flooding back to him and tears started rolling down his cheeks. 

“It’s okay. Take your time,” he said as he put a hand on Samuel’s shoulder. 

That comforted Samuel so he sniffled and nodded. “I-I saw her…” he said. “She was…the flames…she was dead.”

“You…you saw her dead body?” Henry asked and Samuel nodded, letting the sobs finally become audible. 

“I-I couldn’t save her!” he said between sobs. “Sure I was mad at her for everything, but I-I still wanted her to live! She’s my mom!”

That made Henry think back to 1983 when he found Charlotte’s body outside of Fredbear’s and Samuel most likely felt that same way that day: shock and grief, but Henry knew that the memory of seeing a lifeless body will haunt him forever. 

Henry let him cry all of his feelings out knowing that he probably never got a good chance to. He was silent, but he hugged Samuel from the side and it comforted Samuel that he was still by his side. 

”I-I was scared,” Samuel finally said, “so I just ran. The only exit was through a window in my room, so I squeezed through and ran. I-I didn’t want to go to an orphanage or something so I ran before the cops at firefighters could find me.”

“What’d you do?”

“I…I lived on the streets.”

“The streets?! You…wha…”

“Yeah. Lived on the streets. Not ideal but I made it work,” he said as he wiped the tears off from his face. 

“Sammy, why didn’t you tell someone?! You could have asked sooner if someone would be willin’ to give you shelter at least, especially since you were just a kid then!”

“I know, and I did. No one was willing until I met Jeremiah.”

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry you had to go through that. I-if I had just known-”

”Dad, it’s okay. I’m here now and that’s what’s important.” Henry nodded. “What about you? What have you been up to?”

“Well, things here have been…strange and difficult throughout the years. Very strange  around here, I’m kinda glad you missed it.”

“What happened?”

“Well…I’m just goin’ to get right into it, I feel like you have a right to know. William, remember him?”

“Kinda.”

“Let’s just say, he’s out of the picture now.”

“What?! You two were literally glued at the hip! You were best friends!”

“He’s…he’s actually a bad man, a very bad man and I was blind to it all until Mike told me. I…I believed he was good and that I could trust him with my life, I feel ashamed that I let him go on for so long.”

“What’d he do?”

“He…he was the one who killed your sister…he killed my baby. He destroyed this family and our business we built together from the ground up a-and he didn’t even care!” he said as his voice started to break. 

Samuel gasped. “He did it?!”

“That’s not all. There were five more victims, children, and he hid the bodies inside of the animatronics I built. I-I feel like…like I was used without my knowledge and I was stupid enough to not notice anything.”

“God…”

“Mike was only sixteen when he finally told me, but by then it was too late to save anyone and the damage had been done. I let Mike live with me since I was living alone and he had no other place to stay safely and William went into hidin’, no one could find ‘im for years.”

“So was it only kids?” Henry shook his head. “I assumed so.”

“There are two adults I know of, one of which was Mike and Jeremy’s friend. They were devastated when it happened, I went to their house almost every day because I knew they were going through a rough patch and I literally had to take care of them both, poor things.”

“Was their friend named Alex by any chance?”

“Yeah, they are Jeremiah’s older sibling. That’s why Jeremiah is friends with them in the first place.”

“Shared trauma, huh?”

“Unfortunately. But now it seems as though all of them have finally accepted it. Still hard for them, sure, but they know they can’t change what happened. Plus there is a possibility that Alex will be able to see ‘em again soon.”

“Huh? Whaddya mean?”

“You don’t know yet?”

“I have literally no clue what you’re talkin’ about.”

”Oh…well this is awkward. I guess I’ll have to tell you, it was, well it was surprising to me when I first found out too and I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me, but then I learned it was true.”

“What?! Is it some disease or something with no cure?! What’s going on?! What’s wrong with me?!” Samuel exclaimed with an immense amount of fear in his voice. 

“No, no, Sammy, it’s none of that. Calm down, you’re fine. Just breathe, in and out.”

Samuel took a few deep breaths to calm down. “So…this thing…what is it?”

“Okay, this is going to sound absolutely ridiculous but it is one hundred percent true, the truth is…we can hear the dead.”

Samuel stared at him for a few seconds like he had two heads. “What?”

“We can hear ghosts, and I’m now starting to realize how ridiculous that sounds now that I hear myself. Anyways, I can hear them, Mike can hear them and probably you too but I’m not sure why. None of us are.”

“Uh, can I…can I tell you something?”

“Anything.”

“That evening I came back from Idaho, I was in Jerry’s house and Alex visited. They were…I guess surprised I could understand them, and I thought that was weird because they were speaking English so I didn’t understand, and Jerry asked who I was talking to which I thought was also strange since they were speaking at a normal volume. Now, it makes sense, I can hear them too.”

“I’m not sure why this is happening to us, but we did implement a rule. Me and Mike were scared this’ll eventually get out there if we tell to many people and we’ll get taken away or something, so we decided that it’s best to not tell anyone unless you absolutely need to and trust them.”

“So does anyone else know?”

“Jeremy does and has known for many years and Alex did know, that’s all I know of and I haven’t dared to tell anyone. Scared of what’ll happen.”

Samuel smiled, knowing that his father always worried about everything. “Is there anyone else who’s weird like us?”

Henry chuckled. “If you mean those who can hear the dead, yes. William could as well, but Mike told me that he’s gone. He was the only other person.”

“William’s dead?”

Henry nodded. “And I hope he’s burning in hell.”

Chapter 150

Summary:

The return after a long separation.

Every year around this time was always tough. It was a gloomy time of year, but everyone who was close to Alex tried to not let it get to them. 

This specific day was the five year anniversary of Alex’s death. Usually at this time of year, Alex’s family would go to visit their grave alone, and after they were gone, Alex’s friends would stop by to visit if they had time which usually happened. This year was no different. 

Alex’s parents and brother had stopped by their grave hours before, but after Michael and Jeremy got off of work they stopped by as well. 

Jeremy took out two small bouquets of flowers from the car, gave them to Michael since he had to hold onto his forearm crutch with one hand and they both went into the graveyard, hand in hand since Jeremy had to also hold onto him for balance across the lumpy grass and made their way towards the back, but every time they came to the graveyard they had to make a quick stop at two graves midway up the hill. 

They got to those two graves, the ones that read, ‘Rosa Maria Pérez-Fitzgerald’ and ‘Diego Jose Fitzgerald’. 

“Hi,” Jeremy said softly as he looked down at the graves. “Te echo de menos.” (I miss you.) 

He knelt down onto the ground with Michael’s help and on his mother’s grave, he took the few old, shriveled up flowers he had put by her grave a year prior and replaced them with the small bouquet of roses he had, her favorite flower. 

He then turned next to her grave and there was his father’s grave. He, like his mother’s grave, took the few dead flowers from next to the grave and replaced them with new flowers, tulips this time. 

“I didn’t know what you liked, so I figured tulips were a safe bet,” Jeremy said and stood again with Michael’s help. “We have to go see someone else now. Adiós. Te quiero chicos.” (Goodbye. I love you guys.) 

They walked away from the two gravesites and up the hill. “So, weird question-” Michael started. 

“Go ahead.”

“Your parents are Mexican, right? So why isn’t your last name…”

“Some Spanish one?” Michael nodded. “I think my dad said he changed his when he came to the States, not totally sure why but whatever, and since they got married in the States my mom’s name was Fitzgerald too.”

They walked a little bit further, and there was Alex’s grave. They both went to it, and Alex’s family must have been there a few hours before since there was a fresh bouquet of flowers next to the grave. The name on the grave however, was Alex’s old name, ‘Amelia Alexis Davis’, but years prior Jeremiah had taken a permanent marker and crossed out the name Amelia, the letter i and the letter s on their middle name and he touches up the markings every year. To this day, no one knows how he doesn’t get in trouble. 

Michael and Jeremy made their way to the grave and sat down. “Happy birthday, Al,” they both said. 

They both sat in a comfortable silence for a while, listening to the rustling of the leaves as the wind blew and the chirping of the birds slowing down since the sun was setting. As they both sat in silence for a long while, Michael reached out to Jeremy with the palm of his hand facing upwards, and Jeremy held his hand with no hesitation. They sat there, silent and holding hands when Jeremy laid his head on Michael’s shoulder, and again just watched the sun setting as they were quiet. 

It wasn’t until a few minutes later when Michael felt Jeremy pick his head up and off of Michael’s shoulder. “Hello?” Jeremy suddenly said and he squeezed Michael’s hand. Michael looked to see him with a worried expression on his face and scanning the area. 

“What? What is it?”

”I…I could’ve sworn…no, must’ve been imagining.”

“What?” Michael asked, now with growing concern in his voice. 

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, you saying to not worry is making me worry!”

“I…I could’ve sworn I felt something cold on my arm, kind of scraping me but it didn’t leave a mark. It only happened once, I could’ve been imagining it.”

“What?!”

“See, this is why I didn’t wanna tell you.”

Michael scooted closer to Jeremy and put his arm around him, trapping him in a side hug. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”

Jeremy smiled and got flustered so he buried his face in Michael’s chest. Michael smiled and kissed the top of his head, but it wasn’t even a minute after that when Michael felt Jeremy jump in surprise again and cuddled up to him as close as he possibly could. 

“I felt it again. I’m not imagining it.”

Michael hugged Jeremy tighter and looked around, scanning the area but seeing nothing. “Maybe…maybe we should go…”

Jeremy nodded and they were both about to stand up but then they felt a cold breeze, too cold of a breeze for this kind of weather so they stayed seated on the ground, too terrified to move but Michael also heard a voice. 

“Not so fast,” it said and Michael was now terrified. He could hear his heart racing in his ears so with no hesitation he hugged Jeremy tightly to protect him. 

“Who’s there?!” he shouted as he put a hand over Jeremy’s head as he buried his face in Michael’s chest. “Show yourself!”

“I gotcha good, huh?” it said. 

Now that Michael was listening to them, he recognized the voice; the way they spoke, the pitch, and the fact that they were unserious like they were ninety percent of the time they were alive. 

“Alex?” he said and loosened his grip on Jeremy. 

Jeremy perked up. “Alex?” he repeated. 

“Yeah, could’ve sworn I heard them.” He loosened his grip on Jeremy. “Al?” Michael called out. 

At first, there was no response. Then, their backs both felt colder than their front and the voice said, “Behind you.”

Michael turned around and Jeremy did as well, mimicking him, and that’s when they saw them. It was Alex, although slightly different because their eyes were completely black and their body looked slightly transparent, but still Alex. 

“Al!” they both exclaimed, relieved and let go of each other. 

Alex crouched down and smiled. “Been a while, huh?”

“It has,” Michael said. “You scared the shit out of me! I thought you were Schmidt or something!”

“That’s what I was going for! If I could I would’ve…I dunno, knock something over like one of those pots over there or something, but then I remembered…I literally can’t.”

“You can’t touch anything?”

“Well I can touch stuff, just not move it. How d’you think I scared the shit outta Jeremy?!”

“I-I dunno!”

“I don’t like that you guys are having a secret conversation right in front of me,” Jeremy said. 

“Oh right, I forgot, he can’t hear me,” Alex said. “Mike, I think you’re gonna have to play telephone for us.”

”How fun,” he said sarcastically and Alex smiled. 

“Where are your eyes?” Jeremy asked and Alex chuckled. 

“Jer!” Michael exclaimed. 

“What?!”

“No, it’s fine, dude!” Alex said. “I literally have no idea! Everyone just looks like this when they come to Earth!”

Michael told Jeremy what Alex said. “That’s a little creepy,” Jeremy said. “Maybe that’s why they have a bad rep. So do you look normal when you’re…I dunno, in the afterlife?” 

Alex nodded. 

“Where have you been?” Michael asked Alex. 

“The Other Side! Duh!”

“The…what?”

“Afterlife! Where’d you think I’d be?”

“I dunno!”

“Oh, and tell Jeremy that his mom says hi.”

Michael turned to Jeremy. “Al said that your mum says hi.”

“Mamá?” he said softly. 

“Yes.”

“Mamá…where is she?”

Michael and Jeremy looked back at Alex. “As far as I know, she’s on The Other Side. She’s always protecting you guys though, so she’s always around.”

Michael nodded and turned back to Jeremy. “She’s in the afterlife, but she’s always with you and protecting you.”

“She is?” Jeremy asked and Michael nodded. He turned to Alex. “Why hasn’t she been here?”

Alex said something which Jeremy obviously couldn’t hear and Michael nodded. “Al says…it’s complicated.”

“Complicated?!” Alex and Michael looked at each other, back at Jeremy and nodded. “That doesn’t make any sense at all! If you can come here, why can’t she?!”

Alex again said something to Michael and he nodded again. “They don’t know. Al said they tried to ask her but she wouldn’t answer.”

“Does…does she still even love me then?”

Alex nodded and spread out their arms as far as they could reach as if to say, “Yes. a lot.”

Jeremy smiled, relieved. “So what’s stopping her?” Alex only shrugged. 

“Jer, Al answered that question already,” Michael said. 

“Really?”

“Yes. Like, thirty seconds ago. It was just worded differently. They said they don’t know!”

Jeremy chuckled at his own mistake and Alex seemed as if they were laughing as well, even if Jeremy couldn’t hear it. 

“Oh! And I got info from her,” Alex said, “about Schmidt.”

“Al has info from your mum about Schmidt,” he whispered to Jeremy. “Alright, what?” he said to Alex. 

“That shitty TV that looks like it’s been to hell and back in your old basement Mike, that’s actually half of his soul! It’s connected to that!”

“Shut up! Really?!”

“I’m dead serious!” Michael told Jeremy what Alex just told him and he seemed just as shocked and confused as Michael. “It’s connected to it with remnant! So all we have to do is destroy it and half of his soul is gone!”

Michael told Jeremy what he was told. “So how do we destroy it?”Jeremy asked. 

“Good question.”

They both waited a few seconds. “You don’t know, huh?” Michael asked and Alex shook their head. 

“Back to square one,” Michael muttered. 

“So…it looks like my family’s already been here,” Alex said as they looked at their own grave. 

“Yeah. Jerry fixes your name every time he comes here. Don’t know how he doesn’t get in trouble.”

“It’s usually best to not question how he does these things.”

“He’s done stuff like this before?”

“Stuff that can get him in trouble, yeah. I learned to just go with it.”

“So, are you here to stay?”

“Yep!” Alex said and nodded so that Jeremy could see that they can visit anytime they wanted. “Except nights, they don’t like people going out at night.”

“They?”

“The…I dunno, leaders of the afterlife I guess. They said to call ‘em Spirits, there’s like hundreds of them.”

“Angels? Gods?”

“No idea but I’ve decided to not question it since they seem legit.”

“Your family still doesn’t know you’re here?”

“No. Unless you feel like outing your secret to them and playing telephone for us, not planning on showing myself to them.”

“Oh…well uh, yeah, I dunno if I wanna tell your family.”

“Why not?” Jeremy asked. 

“Because…I dunno, it’s a secret. Secrets aren’t meant to be shared.”

“But I know!”

“That’s because I trust you.”

“But you’re also the only one besides Henry and Sam who can translate for them!”

“Still! I don’t wanna be like, taken away and tested on or something! That’s frightening to think about!”

“I get it, but I also think you’re worrying about nothing. Or, how about Sam? They know and trust him and he’s permanently living with his dad now!”

Michael sighed. “He feels the same way I do, he’s not going to out the secret. We just have to keep it on the down low for now, okay?” He kissed Jeremy’s forehead. “Maybe one of these days, but there’s so many other things I need to worry about first.”

Chapter 151

Summary:

A reunion no one expected, and one no one wanted to happen.

”Alright man. I’m here. Where’d you wanna meet?” Richard asked Jeremiah over the telephone that next May.

“You said you know that huge park by my house?”

”Yeah, only been there a few times though since I didn’t live in that area, but I know of it.”

“Meet there.” 

“Got it. See ya there,” he said and hung up the pay phone on the street corner. “Hope I don’t run into you-know-who. He hates me. Hope he still doesn’t still live here,” he muttered to himself as he made his way back to his car. 

He made his way to the park that Jeremiah had said to meet at, and to his relief there was no one else in sight. He got out of his car, nervous that he would accidentally run into the two last people he would want to meet again here, but knew he was only here for his friend so he tried to ignore the feeling of dread. 

He made his way down the sidewalk and immediately, he saw Jeremiah sitting at one of the metal tables. “Hey!” he said and jogged to him. 

Jeremiah looked up and his face immediately brightened. “Hey, man!” he replied and they greeted each other. “How’ve you been?”

“Oh y’know, surviving. Looking for work, actually.”

“You still haven’t found a job?”

“No. It’s getting tougher to find jobs up in Idaho. Considering moving somewhere else so I could get a job. Maybe like, Colorado or something.”

“Ooh! Denver’s nice!”

“Yeah, so…considering it. Anyway, it’s gonna be just us here, right?”

“Yeah. Sam’s staying with his dad, we decided that it was best he stays with him and they’ve been trying to slowly reconnect so I haven’t seen him much. Of course I just got back like, two weeks ago.”

“His…dad?”

“Oh, have I not told you? We found his dad here! That’s why he hasn’t been back in Boise!”

“I thought he said he didn’t have anyone left!”

“He thought there was no one left too! Turns out when I brought him back and invited him to dinner with my friends, thank God they were cool with it, it turned out one of them was his cousin who he hasn’t seen in literal years, then we found his dad through him!”

“No way! What a weird coincidence!”

“And, well, you used to live here, right? So you might’ve heard of his dad since he was pretty successful here. Does the name Henry Emily ring a bell?”

The name in fact, did ring a bell, and not the good ones. It was a name that he didn’t want to hear again, the name that brought back too many memories, the one who co-owner that God-awful place known as Fredbear’s, and the very place that his life was changed for the worse. 

“You…you alright?” Jeremiah asked suddenly, snapping him out of his trance. “You look like something’s wrong.”

“Emily…his name was Samuel Emily?! Son of Henry Emily?!”

“Uh…yeah?”

That just confirms his suspicions. The one person who he never wanted to see again was the nephew of this co-owner, and this person’s father was the other co-owner. “Is your friend…Michael Afton?!”

“Uh…”

“Is he?!”

“Well…maybe?”

“What?! And you never told me?!”

“I…I didn’t think it was important! I didn’t know that you knew him!”

“I do! He and I…we’re not on great terms. He hates my guts!”

“What?!”

“It…it’s a long story. Anyway, he isn’t here, is he?!”

“I don’t think…” he started to say, but then a familiar face came up behind Richard quietly so he paused. Richard noticed that Jeremiah was staring at something behind him, so instinctively, he turned. “Oh…uh, hey there Mike,” Jeremiah said. “What…what’re you doing here? I thought you said you were busy.”

“Oh, we were walking back home, but I could have sworn I heard this prick’s voice and it looks like I was right,” Michael responded and went up to Richard. “Long time no see.”

“Uh, hey,” he said, obviously scared. “I didn’t know you still lived around here. I thought you wanted to move after graduation.”

”Plans change,” he responded, but he was still defensive towards him.

Richard sighed. “Look, we can move past everything, right? I mean, it was twelve years ago-”

Michael then slapped him as hard as he could, not letting him finish his sentence and leaving a mark because he was quite strong which shocked both Jeremiah and Richard. “Don’t think for a second I’ve forgotten what a massive shit stain you are!” he yelled. 

“That was years ago!”

“And you don’t think I still remember the bullying after it all happened?! Blaming me for it when it was obviously an accident and we were all equally at fault?! Spreading rumors that I was a murderer and giving me a bad reputation so everyone was either scared of me or I got bullied even more?! Giving me reminders of what happened for no reason when I really didn’t need the reminder of what happened?!”

“It was all a joke!”

“I didn’t see anybody laughing! You and Nicolas made those four years some of the worst years of my life! And never once did I hear you apologize!”

“I’m sorry! Is that what you wanna hear?!”

“Little late for that! Twelve years late!”

Suddenly, a hand grabbed Michael’s shoulder, and he wasn’t surprised that it was Jeremy who had come from the sidewalk because of all the yelling and pulled Michael away from Richard. Michael was caught by surprise because even though it was his weaker side, he was still quite strong. “Mike, calm down,” he said in a soft and gentle voice. 

“Oh shit…” Richard mumbled. It was Jeremy, the other man who he never wanted to see again. He looked different, very different because he was missing an eye and walking with a crutch, but it was still very obviously him. “Jeremy?! Is…is that you?!”

He turned to him, not recognizing him at first, but then like a punch to the gut all of the memories came flooding back to him and the realization of who he was hit him and his grasp on Michael’s shoulder tightened. He felt his heart drop, his heart racing and Jeremy was about to yell out of anger at him for what he did to Michael when he remembered that Michael was right next to him, and that comforted him so he stayed silent. 

“You know both of them?!” Jeremiah asked suddenly. 

”We’re…we’re not on the best of terms,” Richard responded. “Look guys, I’m sorry for what happened. If you guys just let me finish-”

Jeremy still stayed silent, afraid he might uncontrollably yell at him but let go of Michael’s shoulder. Michael took it as he was allowing him to carry on so he went up to Richard, grabbed his shirt collar and pushed him as hard as he could against the wall. 

“Woah, Mike?! What the hell?!” Jeremiah shouted and pried Michael’s hands away from Richard, and after he resisted for a minute he finally gave in and let go. “What’s gotten into you?!” he said to Michael as he grabbed onto his shoulders to keep him from Richard. 

“You don’t know what he’s done! The torture he and his brother had put us through! The extra pain he caused us when we were already suffering!”

“What’re you talking about?!”

Michael’s head was pounding now from holding back his tears of anger. “He never once apologized, never once said he was sorry for what happened, and never even once said he was sorry for what he had done to us! He blamed everything on me, I…I only had Jeremy because he refused to leave me so he took the bullying too!” He turned to Richard. “Say you’re sorry! Be sorry, you son of a bitch!” he yelled at him. 

“Mike, breathe. Talk to me. What’s goin’ on?! What happened between you two?!”

Michael hesitated, trying to swallow the lump in his throat but and tried to calm his rapid breathing, but almost as if on autopilot, he nodded. 

“It…it was back in ‘83, I had a younger brother then. I thought it would be funny if we put him close to the animatronics since he was terrified of them. We brought him up to his mouth while it was open, stuck his head in and the jaws suddenly…”

Jeremiah put two and two together. “They…they crushed him?”

Michael nodded but then burst into tears, falling to his knees and Jeremy went next to him, sat on his knees on the pavement with him and hugged him to calm him down all while giving Richard a death glare. 

“How could w-we all be so stupid?!” Michael cried out, obvio talking to himself.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Jeremy kept repeating to him softly and trying to calm him down. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“No it’s not!” Michael wailed. “It’s my fault! It’s all my fault!”

“It’s not your fault, it’s not! It was an accident, we all didn’t know better then.”

“But the bullying, the rumors, it took years to make people not scared of me anymore!”

“I know the memory comes back, I know, but those are in the past.”

“Doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten!”

Richard stepped back from both of them on the ground, now seeing the effects of the bully that he was those twelve years ago and for the second time in his life, he felt very real regret. Not just for bullying Michael and Jeremy, but for everyone he and his brother bullied in the past. 

“I never wanted you to find out like this,” Richard said to Jeremiah. 

Jeremiah was still standing close to Michael and Jeremy, wanting to help but knew that only Jeremy could comfort Michael now since they shared the experience, so he went to Richard a few feet behind him. “You did all that? To them? Why?!” he said and he was obviously angry. 

“You only know their side of the story!”

“Then what’s your side?! If that’ll make it any better.”

Richard took a deep breath. “After it all happened I was too in shock to care that day, but a few days after…a few days after it, it hit me what I’d done. I didn’t know how to deal with it, and the only other people I could talk to either didn’t care or didn’t want to talk to me so I took it out on others by going for their weak spot, and I only targeted to you two because I was still upset that you guys wouldn’t let me apologize for leaving you that day because you two refused to listen to anything I had to say, and every time I went near you two you just walked away!” 

He was speaking loud enough for Michael and Jeremy to hear, so they perked up. 

“I’m sorry!” he continued with his voice cracking every so often, “I truly am! I know I shouldn’t have done something as shitty as that, I know and regret it but I hope you know that you guys weren’t the only ones suffering! Unlike you, I had no one to turn to, my parents didn’t wanna talk about it, my brother actually didn’t care even though he was there and neither did any of my friends! You at least had each other while I had to suffer in silence! I was jealous and mad at both of you so it was the only solution I had at the time! I realize that I was a shitty person and I understand you won’t forgive me, I wouldn’t forgive me either!”

He backed up from them and sat on one of the benches, his head hurting from trying to hold back tears of anger and sadness from the memories but he couldn’t help that a few escaped from the corners of his eyes. 

“Rich…” Jeremiah said after a minute. 

“What?!” he yelled, not intending to actually yell. 

“I…I didn’t know. I don’t know how to take any of this, it’s all coming to me so fast.”

“Whatever. I’m goin’ back to Idaho. I knew it was a mistake to come here,” he said as he stood and went back to his car. 

“Rich!” Jeremiah called after him but he ignored him. Jeremiah looked back at Jeremy and Michael still sitting on the pavement behind him, and as they also watched him walk away Jeremiah saw Jeremy look up at him and nod. He nodded in response and ran after Richard. “Wait up!” he said once he got closer to him. 

“Whaddya want?” he asked as he stopped in his tracks. “You heard what happened! I’m a piece of shit, go ahead and say it, I know!”

“No, you’re not. Look, what happened was…bad. But I believe that people change, you definitely have because you’re not the same as who you were when you were fourteen, I don’t know if you noticed.” Richard smiled for the first time in fifteen minutes. “But what you said, I don’t think they knew either. I know them enough to know they wouldn’t have treated you like that if they knew.”

“But you saw how Michael reacted to me! He hates me! I’m not sure about Jeremy because he didn’t say much but I wouldn’t doubt he does too!”

“I’m not too sure about Jeremy either, but point is that even though they may not like you very much, they don’t want your feud to get in the way of our friendship. They know just as much as the next guy that friends are important, and I need a friend when I go back to Idaho this fall.”

Richard was silent for a minute. “I’ve changed since then, at least, I think I have. I know what I did was messed up. I know and I’ll never forgive myself for it but I’ve been trying to change, trying to start over. That’s why my family moved to Boise, I wanted to start over and get away from this place.”

“And I’m sorry for making you come back, I didn’t know.”

“It’s cool. I never told you so it’s not your fault. Kinda nice seeing everything in this stupid ‘lil town again.” 

“So, for now how about you just steer clear of those two, and I’ll make sure you don’t accidentally run into each other like today? I still wanna be friends, you’re a cool guy and you’ve obviously changed from your ‘bully days’.”

Richard smiled. “Yeah, I’d like that. I think I’ll just stay ‘till tomorrow, not too long since there’s a high chance Michael will try to fight me again if he sees me, Maybe I’ll visit Sam as I head out tomorrow. But I can still come for dinner tonight, right?”

“Yeah! And I’ll make sure no one tries to fight you.” Richard laughed. “Go and rest for now, I think you need it after today, I’ll go talk to these guys and dinner’ll be ready at six!”

“I’ll be there! See ya tonight!” he said as he went off to his car. 

Once he drove off, Jeremiah headed back to Jeremy and Michael who were now sitting on a bench, Michael still hyperventilating and Jeremy trying to calm him down. 

“I…I didn’t know…” Michael said to Jeremy.

“I didn’t know either, but he was so good at hiding it that we couldn’t have known,” Jeremy replied. 

“Hey guys, you okay?” Jeremiah asked when he got to them. 

“No…” Michael said. “I’m so confused. I don’t know what to do.”

Jeremiah went to sit on a picnic bench across from them. “You wanna talk about it?”

“It’s just…I didn’t know he went through that. I didn’t know he felt that way about us. I wish I could…I wish I could apologize to him.”

“Me too,” Jeremy said. “But he’s gone now.”

“Now I know how he felt, not being able to apologize to someone for acting like a total bitch,” he muttered. 

“He’s not gone yet,” Jeremiah said. “He’s coming over to my house tonight for dinner and he’s leaving tomorrow. I’ll tell him for you before he leaves.”

Michael and Jeremy smiled. “Thank you,” they said together. 

---

“Hey, Rich, can I talk to you for a second?” Jeremiah asked after dinner. Richard nodded and they both went into the living room while Jeremiah’s parents were cleaning up. 

“‘Sup?” Richard said once they were alone. 

“It’s about Mike and Jeremy-”

“Oh, those guys?” he said smugly. “I don’t think they like me very much.”

“Well, they wanted me to tell you that they’re sorry. Like I said, they wouldn’t have acted like that if they knew the full story.”

“It’s fine, whatever, I expected them to react to me like that. I know I would’ve.”

“So, how’s your face and back? I know Mike’s pretty strong so those must’ve hurt.”

”Eh. Still sore but I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

”Uh, I know it’s a touchy subject but what was it about your brother not caring? You said he was there but didn’t care about what happened. You also keep mentioning him but never really told me what he did.”

“It’s uh, it’s a long story.” He cleared his throat. “I only call him that because he’s legally my brother, I was adopted into his family when I was young but I don’t really consider him my brother anymore. For years I had a hard time adjusting and trying to accept that my birth parents didn’t care about me, I never knew them that well but it still hurts ‘cause, y’know, I’m their flesh and blood. Anyway, he was jealous of the attention I got because I was struggling to adjust, and I guess he just never let go of that stupid, childish grudge for whatever reason and took it out on me. 

“I went to the same school he did and since I was new, I clung onto him since he was the only person I knew and even though he was a bully to me, but it turned out he was a bully to everyone in general. I still stuck by him so he dragged me into this sort of stuff, and when I started to participate and not just watch was when he finally started to see me as his brother and lay off the bullying towards me, and it turned into just playful teasing or regular sibling rivalry, and I was happy that he was finally starting to accept me. 

“When we were in middle school, we met those two, and my brother was actually the fourth bully in on the prank on Mike’s little brother. We thought it would be funny since he was always freaking out about everything so we wanted to scare him more. 

“I…I was struggling after the accident but I still stuck by him since I didn’t want our relationship to go away, and it was only after we moved after graduation when I realized it was wrong. Told our parents everything because they had almost no clue that he was a bully, and as I expected me and my brother weren’t on speaking terms since that day. It’s been about eight years, he joined the army shortly after I told ‘em but I think he only did that to get away from me, honestly.”

“Wow, I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

“I don’t usually bring up my past, it’s tough but I’m glad to get it off my chest. When we were eighteen and graduated, he actually did live with us in Boise for a while until I told our parents. If he ever does come back home from being deployed or whatever, he only wants to see my parents so I haven’t seen him since. My parents have been cold to me since then too, I think they’re scared of me honestly even though I’ve been actively trying to change. Not my brother for some reason though, but I think that’s because he acts like it never happened.”

“Damn…I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. Still hurts but…what can ya do?”

“So I take it the army’s not your thing?”

Richard chuckled. “Nope. I’m too scared I’ll die young or something and I actually wanna do something with my life.”

“So what do you wanna do?”

“I have a degree for a technician but still looking for a job, don’t know if I’ll ever use it honestly but I’ll keep tryin’.”

“Oh, Sam was thinking of going into that field too! He said he’s following his dad’s footsteps, maybe you’ll be partners one day!”

Richard snickered. “Wishful thinking.”

Chapter 152

Summary:

Nothing deadly has happened to anyone for the past seven years, so now Michael decides that it is the perfect time to ask Jeremy something he’s been planning for years.

Today’s the day, Michael thought one warm spring day. It was perfect, he had everything set up, and best of all he had chosen the spot where they had their first official date: the tallest hill outside of town where they could see the millions of beautiful stars across the night sky. Jeremy loved that place, he had taken Michael to it many times before, so he knew it was perfect. 

He was nervous the entire day knowing that the time to ask him the question was getting closer. He was a little thankful that he had taught Jeremy how to drive again a few years back and he was out shopping that day, probably for food to have a picnic under the stars for their date that night. 

Michael was pacing around the house, his heart racing as he tried to distract himself, switching between television and household chores but he couldn’t stay glued to one thing for more than five minutes. 

Michael paced around the house while the television was on for noise and he tried to do the dishes while his heart skipped beats, but then he felt that all too familiar chill in the air. 

“What is it, Al?” he asked. He has since grown less afraid of these chills ever since Alex came back a two years ago. 

“How’d you know it was me?!” Alex said and appeared next to him, sitting on the counter. “What if I was like, Schmidt or something?!”

“It’s a gut feeling. If I feel that it’s friendly, I know it’s you. If I feel it wants to kill me at any chance it gets, I know it’s him.”

“But what if your gut’s wrong one of these days?”

“It hasn’t been so far, and Schmidt hasn’t been around for a while. Kinda curious about where he is.”

“Maybe he’s guarding that crappy set, or maybe he finally died, like, for real, that would be awesome.”

“Anyway, what is it?”

“I can’t just visit my friends now?! How rude!”

Michael chuckled. “It’s just that usually whenever you come you always have some sort of news from the Other Side to report.”

“True, but that isn’t the case today. I just wanna chill, see what’s up.”

“Alright, well, Jeremy and I are going out tonight!”

“Yeah, I know, you’ve only been talking about it for like a week.”

Michael smiled. “I’m just excited! And, I guess possibly nervous.”

“Nervous? Haven’t you and Jeremy been on a million dates so far? I thought you were used to this.”

“It’s not that.” He stopped what he was doing and turned off the running water. “It’s…I dunno-”

“Oh God, don’t tell me that you’re falling out of love with him! Mike, why?! He’s a great guy! You’ve known this for over ten years or something!”

“Look, I’m not falling out of love with him-”

“Thank God!” Alex exclaimed and let out a sigh of relief.

“Why else would I be going out with him tonight?”

“Oh…good point. So why’re you nervous?”

“Well…I’m planning on asking him something big tonight, and I know it’ll change both our lives and I don’t want it to be for the worse. I love him, and the last thing I want to do is upset him.”

“Oh…asking him something big. Hmm, wait are you planning what I think you are?! Planning to ask him the question?!” 

Michael nodded. “I’m finally…I’m finally going to ask him to marry me.”

“Mike, that’s awesome! And planning to do it where you had your first date…oh my God, how romantic!”

“It’s just that I don’t know if both of us are ready yet. I know I am, I want him to be my husband and I do want a family with him one day. We’ve talked about it and we’re both open to the idea, but I’m just worried if the timing is right or not.” 

“Well, he’s waiting.”

“What?”

“Shit!” Alex mumbled. 

“Wait, wait…you said…”

“Yeah. We’ve talked a lot over the past weeks while you were at work and he was here by himself, remember your idea of talking with some erasable board? Anyway, he told me that he was actually wondering the same thing since nothing life threatening has happened to you two for quite a while, and now he’s worried that you might not want to marry like you both wanted. So, I’d say to go for it now.”

Michael smiled, because hearing that was like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. All of his worries melted away like they never existed in the first place and he felt all giddy like a high schooler in love all over again. 

He had to move around because of all the excitement he felt and couldn’t wait for Jeremy to get home. 

“You have that stupid smile on your face,” Alex said, snapping him back to reality. “You look like he just kissed you for the first time.”

“I’m just-oh my God! I’m so excited now, thanks Al!”

Alex snickered. “Anytime.”

---

That evening as the sun was going down, Jeremy was in the bathroom putting his hair up and getting ready to leave when Michael walked by. He noticed that Jeremy was struggling to put all of his hair up because his hands didn’t want to cooperate with him all the time, even if it has been several years since the accident at his old job. 

“Need help?” Michael asked and Jeremy turned to him. 

“If you don’t mind.”

Michael went into the bathroom with him, stood behind him and took the hair tie Jeremy had in his hand. “So do you want a bun, ponytail, or half up?” Michael asked, being that those were the three styles Jeremy always liked his hair to be in. 

“Whatever.”

“Whatever I want?” 

Jeremy nodded and Michael took the hairbrush that Jeremy handed to him. He kissed Jeremy’s cheek and started brushing Jeremy’s shoulder blade-length hair and Jeremy looked in the mirror at himself; he couldn’t help thinking about how lucky he was to have gotten someone like Michael. Someone who loved him for who he was and not just his looks, someone who was always there for him no matter what, someone he could trust, someone who he could rely on, someone that loved him exactly the way he was.

After a few minutes, Michael put Jeremy’s hair into a half-ponytail, but he didn’t leave from behind him. Michael instead put the brush down, put his arms around Jeremy’s waist and rested his head on Jeremy’s shoulder. Michael then shifted his weight from the right to the left repeatedly so they were both swaying like they were dancing. 

“You look nice,” Jeremy finally said, breaking the silence as he put his hands on top of Michael’s arms around his waist. 

“Thanks,” Michael said, but all he was wearing was a simple gray button down shirt and blue jeans. “So do you.”

“That’s just because you styled my hair,” Jeremy said through a smile. 

Michael smiled. “Sure, but I mean it. You look nice.”

“Oh. Thanks.”

Michael turned his head and gave Jeremy several tiny pecks on his neck which tickled and Jeremy laughed. 

“Oh yeah, forgot you’re ticklish,” Michael said teasingly.

“Yes I am! Stop!” he said through chuckles but Michael in fact did the opposite and continued kissing Jeremy’s neck to hear him laugh. Jeremy then put his hand on the back of Michael’s head to keep him kissing his neck so Michael couldn’t even escape if he wanted to, which he didn’t. “Okay, seriously! We need to go! It’s getting dark out!” he said after a minute and Michael stopped. 

Jeremy calmed down, turned his head to face Michael and kissed him while he let Michael go. Michael let go of Jeremy’s waist, grabbed his hand and they both went out of the bathroom. “Got everything?” Michael asked. 

“It’s all in the car.”

They both headed out to Michael’s car, Michael got in the driver’s seat and Jeremy in the passenger’s and Michael put the key in the ignition. Once Michael drove he and Jeremy out of the neighborhood he put his hand, palm up, on the console in between them and without hesitation, Jeremy grabbed Michael’s hand and kissed the back of his hand. 

“You seem like you’re in a good mood today,” Jeremy said. 

“Well, yeah, because I’m going out tonight with the best guy in the world.”

Jeremy squeezed his hand a little tighter as his heart fluttered and smiled. “Any reason why?”

“Why I’m going out with you?”

“No! I mean any reason why you’re in a better mood than any other day?”

“Because I’m going out with you.”

Jeremy smiled knowing his face was probably bright red, but deep down he knew Michael was hiding something. Every time they went out, Michael’s never acted this clingy towards him since they didn’t just get in a relationship. 

They were in the car for about fourty five minutes, never letting go of each other’s hands but talking. Not talking about anything in particular, but just mindlessly rambling to each other about life since they loved to listen to each other talk. There were also moments of silence between them, a comfortable silence that lasted many minutes where they just listened to the radio, and Michael was paying attention to the road while Jeremy looked out the window at the cars passing by them on the highway. 

Once they arrived at the bottom of the tallest hill outside of town, they got out of the car, again held each other’s hands, but this time so Michael could help Jeremy walk to the top of the hill since it was uneven, steep ground. 

“Wait, hold on,” Jeremy said when they were halfway up the hill since his legs were getting tired and he took a few deep breaths. 

“Tired?”

“A little.”

“Want me to carry you?”

“Carry me? But you’re carrying stuff and I have my crutch, wouldn’t that make it tough?”

Michael draped the blanket he was carrying over his shoulder, put down the basket of food he was carrying and suddenly scooped up Jeremy, bridal style, to which Jeremy yelped in surprise but once he settled and put his arms around Michael’s neck to hang on, Michael carried him the rest of the way up the hill. 

“Alright,” Michael said when they were at the top and put him down, “you hang out here.” 

Michael got the basket of food they had brought from halfway down the hill, grabbed Jeremy’s crutch on the ground and brought them both back to the top, then together they helped set out the blanket on the ground so they could sit on it. 

They both sat down and looked back at the town several miles away. “Beautiful, huh?” Jeremy asked. 

“Yeah. Just like you.”

Jeremy smiled, got a little flustered and turned to Michael. “Okay, seriously, why’re you so…flirty today?”

”I love you, that’s why.”

“I love you too but actually! Tell me!”

He turned to Jeremy. “It’s just, well, I’m happy.”

“Happy? About what?”

“Spending time with you, obviously.”

Jeremy laughed at his refusal to tell him why he was acting differently today. “You sure? Nothing else?”

Shit! He’s catching on that I’m hiding something! Should I just…no, wait for the perfect moment, Mike, when the stars are out, just like you planned, he thought as his heart skipped beats. “Uh, nope.”

Jeremy knew he was lying but brushed it off. “Alright then. Let’s eat, I’m starving.”

The rest of the hour, Michael and Jeremy sat and ate their dinner together while they watched the stars appear across the sky. They sat and talked almost the entire time: either Jeremy rambling about the stars that came up, Michael rambling on about art and different rock bands, talking about work, Michael and Jeremy gossiping about coworkers, or just flirting with each other like they were in high school again to see how much they could make the other blush.

Jeremy even forgot that Michael was hiding something from him because he was having too much of a good time with Michael to remember. 

After almost two hours it was completely dark and there were millions of stars in the sky, and the two were lying down next to each other, stargazing for what seemed like hours while Jeremy explained the different constellations. 

“-and that one’s Virgo, the maiden,” Jeremy said, pointing to a constellation in the sky. 

“Isn’t that one like, a zodiac sign or something?”

“Yeah.” 

“I don’t know much about zodiac signs. What’s yours?”

“Cancer.”

“Oh…”

“Not like, actually! It’s a crab constellation!”

“What does it mean?”

“Sensitive I think.”

“Couldn’t be more true,” he teased. 

Jeremy faked an offended gasp. “I am not sensitive!”

“Right, keep telling yourself that.”

Jeremy chuckled. “What’s yours then?”

“Uh…I dunno what it’s called. It’s like, two women I think.”

“Gemini! That means you’re energetic and curious.”

Michael snickered. “That doesn’t sound like me at all.” 

“Really? I think so.”

“You do?”

“You always want to know everything about everything, and you want to hear what people have to say about it. Also, how many times could you not sit still because of your energy so you paced around the house? And you used to be like, really extroverted, you still wouldn’t mind talking to a stranger in line at the grocery store. Completely different from me who wouldn’t even dare to.”

“Hey! That’s…okay fine. You win.”

They both laughed and stared up at the sky in a comfortable silence for a while once again. “Sky’s beautiful tonight,” Jeremy said, breaking the silence. 

“Yeah. There’s no clouds or anything.”

“I say this is the perfect first date of the new century. This place was our first date, so it only makes sense.”

“You remember?”

“Very blurry, but yeah, somewhat.”

“That was so long ago though!”

“It was a moment I treasured so I’ll remember it, even if it was a while ago. We were what, sixteen? Seventeen then?”

“We got together when we were sixteen. Didn’t go out ‘till we were seventeen.”

“You remember?!”

“Of course. I even remember the day we got together.”

“No way! I remember we kept celebrating to our second anniversary, then I had my accident so we stopped. You still remember it?!”

“December third, 1985.”

“Wow…hard to believe that it’s been that long.”

“I know,” he said and again they fell silent. It’s now or never, Mike, he thought and sat up. “Hey, babe?”

“Yeah?”

“I…uh, I wanna ask you something. It’s kind of important.”

Jeremy sat up next to him. “Anything, mi amor.” 

Michael sat across from him crisscrossed, took his hands and he was so nervous that his heart was pounding in his chest and his hands were shaking. “I-uh, wow…I had this whole thing planned-”

“It’s alright. Take your time.”

Michael took a deep breath and nodded. “I know…I know we’ve been dating a while, a long while, and every single minute I spent with you, I treasure. And, I know what I wanna ask is probably long overdue, but I just want you to know that more than anything, I wanted you to be safe. But I figured, if we were able to keep our relationship a secret for this long, what the hell, right?” 

Michael let go of one of Jeremy’s hands, reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box, opened it and revealed a shiny, silver ring to Jeremy, to which he gasped and covered his mouth with his free hand and squeezed Michael’s hand that he was holding. Even though he expected this moment to come sometime, nothing could’ve prepared him for the emotions he felt right in that moment. 

“I love you more than anything else in this world, and I would be honored if we could spend it together forever. So…Jeremy Diego Fitzgerald, will you marry me?” Michael asked him. 

Jeremy had to recover from the shock for a few seconds, being that he hasn’t felt as happy as he ever had right in that moment. He kept staring at the ring, shining in the moonlight as he took his hand away from his mouth. “Yes.”

Michael smiled a smile of what seemed like relief, happiness, and full of love all at the same time. He let go of Jeremy’s hand, took the ring out of the box and carefully slid it onto Jeremy’s finger, and it fit him perfectly. 

Jeremy stared at the ring on his finger, still in shock and tears of happiness building up in his eye as he tackled Michael to the ground and giving him a huge bear hug. 

After a while of getting his composure back, Jeremy rolled over so he was off of Michael’s chest and cuddled up next to him instead and Michael’s arm was around him. He was admiring the ring on his finger, how it shined in the moonlight and how beautiful and elegant the design engraved on the ring was. 

“It’s pretty,” Jeremy said.

”You think?”

“Yeah. Kinda looks like craters all around the ring.”

”I saw that one and thought you’d like it. Good to see I was right,” he said through a chuckle.

Then, Jeremy looked over at Michael, who had nothing on his hand yet. “You don’t have one!” Jeremy exclaimed. 

“I’ll get one tomorrow. Jewelry shops are closed, it’s like, ten.”

“Nuh-uh, that won’t sit with me! Hold on, I have something for you.” He sat up and started digging in the basket of food which he packed and muttering to himself saying, “Where is it?!” in a hushed voice and Michael sat up as well, confused, but watched him. 

It was only when Michael watched him for a minute when he saw Jeremy pull an almost identical box from the basket, open it and showed the contents to Michael: a shiny, silver ring but this one had swirly details on it like vines. Michael gasped and put his hands over his mouth as tears of happiness filled his eyes as well. “I was going to ask you too, I-I’ve been wanting to for a while, I just couldn’t pinpoint a right time. You beat me to it! So, how about this: will you marry me?” he asked. 

“Yes! A thousand times yes!” Michael said and Jeremy smiled, took the ring out of the box and put it on Michael, and it fit. Michael leaned over to Jeremy and hugged him so tightly that Jeremy had to say something to get Michael to loosen up. 

Michael loosened his grip on Jeremy and almost instinctively they kissed for a lot longer than normal, both of them feeling the best they had ever felt in a long time being that they were eventually going to marry and be together forever. 

However, Michael could physically feel the strong connection between them grow even stronger in that moment, like a strong wind was blowing around the two of them and it was almost as though Michael could feel his soul being pulled closer to Jeremy’s soul; it felt like thread was connecting two pieces of material together and it was being pulled tighter, closer together, separate beings but connected and meant to be together, but instead of material it was their souls.

It was a strange feeling, he had never felt the connection between them this strong before and he didn’t know if Jeremy could feel it as well, but even as they separated from the kiss the feeling didn’t dissipate. 

“I feel…I feel closer to you somehow,” Jeremy said in almost a whisper since their faces were still somewhat close to each other, which just confirmed that Jeremy could feel the connection between them grow stronger as well. “I felt like…I was physically being pulled to you but there was nothing there.”

Michael put a hand on the side of Jeremy’s face and Jeremy put his hand on top of Michael’s on his face. “Like, threads?” Michael asked him. 

“Yeah, it felt like they were tightening and pulling us together. I know it sounds crazy-”

“No, I felt it too.”

Jeremy smiled. “What does it mean? Invisible threads we can’t see?”

“I don’t know. But if those threads were the ones connecting our souls together and we just made that connection stronger...maybe it means that our souls were meant to find each other and be together.”

“Soulmates?”

Michael smiled. “That’s what I’m thinking,” he said. Jeremy then cuddled up close to him and laid his head on Michael’s shoulder while Michael put his arm around him, and they both laid back down to stare up at the night sky once again. 

Chapter 153

Summary:

A warning.

*slight nsfw MENTIONS (i can’t write that stuff lol)

Michael and Jeremy had no idea that the entire time, someone was watching them. They didn’t notice that entire time because he was too far away from them for anyone to notice, but he saw everything and only grew angrier by the second. 

He saw what happened which couldn’t be seen by living, human eyes, but since he wasn’t a living soul he saw everything happen. Shining, golden-white string connecting their souls; the souls only looked like a speck of light brighter than one hundred suns. He saw what happened around them as well: what looked like a transparent, golden dust circled around them like a tornado, growing the connection between them and reinforcing it to make it stronger. 

Within seconds, the light, the string and the dust was all gone and their souls were back in their bodies, but he knew the connection between them was still there and would never go away. 

It could only mean one thing, something which was very rare and hardly ever seen. It was supposed to mean a celebration, the joining of souls who were so very different but meant to find each other in one life or another: the joining of soulmates.

“No…” he mumbled so quietly only he could hear it. “I’m too late…”

“What the fuck d’you think you’re doing?!” a voice said from behind him. He recognized the voice, it was the voice of someone who was stabbed several years ago, died in front of their friend and brother, but only showed themselves as a spirit two years earlier.

He turned to face them, and there as he expected was the face of one he despised. “A hello would’ve been nice, Alex.”

“As if you would get a proper greeting from me. Now, answer me, what the fuck d’you think you’re doing?!”

“I was just leaving.”

“Hah! Not funny. You wanted to stop them, huh?! You knew their souls were meant to end up together, and together they can be strong!” Alex said and stepped closer to him. 

“Trying to be a hero?” He only had to form on image in his mind of what he wanted to happen and suddenly, Alex was pushed away by a strong, invisible force that felt like a metal rod hitting their chest until they were at least ten feet away from him and they fell to the ground. “Don’t get cocky now,” he said and went to them on the ground. “Just because you are dead just as I am, don’t think you can stop me. You are NOTHING compared to me!”

Alex was silent in thought for a few seconds, trying to think of a good comeback. “What if I’m not nothing, huh?! What if I have some secret power you don’t know about?! What if I am something?!”

“Doubtful, you’re just a soul who passed, and they can’t do much of anything,” he said as he walked away from them. “You are nothing.” 

Alex stood. “Alright, since you’re so smart, what if I just got Rosa here to beat your ass again?! She can do something to you!” Then, that same invisible force hit Alex in the chest, knocking the wind out of them as they fell to the ground. “Ow! What the hell is your deal, man?!”

“Why not? This is entertainment.” 

Alex stood again, expecting to be knocked down once more but were instead met with the ground rumbling at their feet, eventually splitting in two so that both feet were slowly moving opposite directions. “Wo-what?! You can do that?!” He split the Earth further and Alex shifted their weight to one side and stepping back away from the plot of land so that they wouldn’t fall and he stopped. 

He chuckled. “I really would like to play this little game of yours, but I must be going.”

“To talk to that old corpse again?! He’s dead you know, get over it. In your words, he can’t do anything!”

“That’s where you’re wrong.”

“That’s where I think you’re refusing to accept the truth.”

He looked back at them, annoyed. Then, Schmidt focused his energy on one thing: hitting Alex in the jaw as hard as he could and without even touching them, Alex felt what seemed to be a punch to the jaw from thin air. 

“Shut up,” he said.“You’re wrong.”

“Ow…what the hell?! Good thing the dead can’t break bones…” He suddenly appeared in front of them and Alex flinched back. “Agh! Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

He tilted Alex’s chin up to look at him. “Remember this as only a fraction of what I can do to you, I can eliminate your soul if I wanted to so you would cease to exist, so don’t think you are completely safe from me since you are dead. Imagine what I can do to those two, or your family.”

“Don’t you dare even think about going near my family.”

“You’re lucky I haven’t…yet.”

He let go of Alex’s chin, stepped back and suddenly disappeared before Alex’s very eyes. “Yet?” Alex murmured to themselves. “Yet?!” they yelled out, not even sure if he could hear them. “Seriously, old man?! You think you’re so clever but I swear, you won’t lay a finger on my family! I may not be able to do much, but I sure as hell will try to stop you before you can even scratch them! Actually, scratch that. I will stop you!”

There was no response as expected, so Alex knew that they were probably yelling at nothing. At that point, Alex didn’t even care and was yelling to get the anger out because deep down inside, they knew that they couldn’t do anything. Alex was nothing against him, just like he said. 

Alex dropped to his knees and started to silently cry, because the thought of seeing them join him in the afterlife was haunting to him. Alex didn’t want his family to die by Schmidt’s hands, Alex didn’t want them to join him so soon, but the clock was only ticking away and no one knew when it would go off besides Schmidt, so even if Alex told someone who could do something, they couldn’t predict the future, so there actually was nothing Alex could do. 

Despite the reality, there must be a way to protect them when the time comes, there had to. 

---

Once he left the grassy land outside of the town, Schmidt went back to an old building that was abandoned long ago. A place that was no longer occupied but was too much of a hassle to tear down: the abandoned building of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. 

The place has changed drastically ever since it was abandoned: it was dark, eerie and very dirty with cobwebs in every corner, litter scattered around the place and thick layers of dust on the tables and front counter. 

There was graffiti on the walls outside and some inside, the tables and chairs were broken, shattered glass on the floor from the lights above, the cash missing from the cash registers as well as the monitors missing from the security office. The old cameras in the diner were smashed, some boards covering the windows were broken off from people breaking in, and of course the old, disassembled animatronics that William had broken down about seven years before. 

Of course those animatronics weren’t inhabited anymore; the teenagers who broke into the building would usually throw them around and toss them to each other so they were now breaking and falling apart.

Schmidt disregarded everything and went to the back room, unbothered, knowing that the corpse was still there since he was sure nobody had reported a corpse in this restaurant. 

He phased through the door like usual when he entered a room, and this room had a different feel than the rest of the restaurant. There was barely any graffiti on the walls, nothing was stolen, although quite a few things were broken such as the overhead lightbulb. 

The only reason why this room was so different compared to the rest of the restaurant was the realization that there was in fact a dead body in this room. Once people found it against the back wall, sitting in what used to be a pool of blood but it was now only deep red or brown stains on the tile, it startled them so bad that they bolted before they had a chance to do much of anything. 

It was impossible to miss, the smell being the first thing they notice when opening the door. It was overwhelming, and whoever had the guts to go into the creepy, pitch black room often made a joke that someone died in the room, but once they spotted the bugs and sometimes rats feeding on the rotten flesh inside the metal rabbit suit, they were gone in a flash. 

Schmidt went to the corpse who was wearing the animatronic rabbit suit, and he realized that someone was actually brave enough to get close to him to break off half of the right ear. 

“You still there, William?” he said to it, as if expecting a response. 

However, he knew he was still there because of one specific power he had: he was able to tell if human souls were around him or not. When he approached William’s corpse, it indeed still had the presence of a living human soul even if the body was destroyed. 

”That was a rhetorical question,” Schmidt said. “I know you can’t answer me, not easily at least since your vocal cords are torn to shreds, but you can still hear me. The remnant slowed the dying process down for you by a tremendous amount and since hearing is usually the last to go, lucky you, you can still hear me.”

William, again, couldn’t respond; it was almost like he was in a coma that only a few people knew about and everyone else thought he was long gone. 

“Think of it as…you are dead, but not really. I’m not even sure if you’ll ever wake up. But, regardless, I am still working on the goal. I’m trying to get rid of all three of them like you asked, but whatever I do, it’s not working!”

He was silent for a minute as he gathered his thoughts back up. 

“I can eliminate Alex right now, but you-know-who’s preventing me. Alex is usually on the Other Side which I cannot go to, no poltergeists can! The Entities are much too strong, I was barely even able to cut one when I tried to get past them, and that was almost sixty years ago!

“Even if I cannot harm Alex as of right now, I’ve thought of another solution: go for the family. The family is what Alex really wants to protect and since Alex can’t do anything, Rosa will step in. That’s my opening, and if I kill the family in the process,” he shrugged, “I can deal with that.”

Whatever, I don’t care how you do it, just kill Alex so it will give you an opening to the others, is what he could only imagine William was saying since he didn’t sense any hostility. 

“You have my word. I will find a way. She’s strong, but I have hopes that I can outsmart her. 

“But, the real reason I came to you today. Remember how I told you that soulmates are some of the toughest to kill, and Michael and Jeremy were most likely soulmates so I had to kill one of them before they made the bond between them stronger?”

Schmidt could feel the presence of William’s soul getting more enraged by the second, growing louder and more violent so he wanted to get this conversation over with. 

“It’s…it’s true. They were soulmates which I wasn’t ecstatic about, and I wasn’t able to kill one of them in time. Their bond with each other…is very strong and cannot be broken easily, b-but I can still get through! I’m sure of it! I just need more time, please…”

---

That next morning, Jeremy awoke just as he was the night before: laying on Michael’s chest in their bed. Michael’s arm was around him on Jeremy’s back, and Michael’s body heat was like a warm blanket all around him making him feel sleepy even though he had just woken up. Jeremy nuzzled his face against Michael’s chest like that would somehow help with the terrible headache he had, then he felt Michael moving since he had just woken up as well from feeling the movement on his chest. 

Jeremy looked up at Michael. “Good morning,” Michael said in his morning voice and Jeremy only got flustered, smiled, cupped his face in his hands and kissed him. 

“Morning, sleepyhead,” he responded. 

Michael chuckled. “We’re both sleepyheads, if that’s the case,” he said and yawned. “I don’t wanna get up,” he said sleepily. 

“Me neither.”

”Waking up with a headache is not delightful.”

“Hangover?”

“Probably.”

“Yeah, me too,” Jeremy said and pecked his neck several times, tickling him like he did to Jeremy the previous day. 

Michael laughed. “Babe! Stop!”

“Ticklish?”

“Not as much as you.” Jeremy gave his neck one final kiss and cuddled next to Michael again. “Few more minutes.”

Michael played with Jeremy’s long, messy hair while he was cuddled up close to him which calmed Jeremy almost to the point of falling asleep again even though he just woke up, but was then jolted awake and Michael was caught by surprise when they felt the all too familiar chill in the air. 

“Por el amor de Dios...” (For the love of God...) Jeremy mumbled and Michael sat up slightly so he could see what was going on. They both made sure that they were both covered by the sheets and all they could do was wait helplessly.

“Hello?” Michael said to the room as he hugged Jeremy close. “Who’s there?”

“Oh, good God!” the voice said and appeared on the opposite side of the room. It was Alex, and they were covering their eyes because all of their clothes were very obviously thrown on the floor from the previous night.

Jeremy was petrified when they spoke and immediately sat upright and held Michael tightly, and Michael didn’t notice him looking at Alex with a half confused, half shocked expression on his face. 

“Couldn’t keep your hands off each other last night, huh?” Alex asked. “It…was just last night and not this morning too, right?” they asked teasingly. 

Both of them turned red in the face. “Shut up, Al!” Michael shouted.

“You were thinkin’ about it, though.”

“Shut it!”

“Hey, just be happy I didn’t catch you guys at like, two in the morning and I only saw the aftermath the next day.”

“What’re you doing here?!”

“Well I was gonna tell you guys something kinda important, like life or death important-”

“In the morning?! Couldn’t this wait ‘till the afternoon?!”

“Dude, it is the afternoon, it’s almost three! I didn’t know you’d both be…you know! Get dressed and I’ll tell ya after, I’ll meet you two out in the living room. And hurry up, it’s serious otherwise I wouldn’t have shown up today,” they said and disappeared, the chill in the air leaving with them.

“God, Al…” Michael mumbled. “Timing couldn’t be better.”

“W…what was that?!” Jeremy asked, terrified and clinging on to Michael so he couldn’t move. 

“Jer, c’mon, I have to get dressed.” Jeremy let go and sat up as Michael got down from the bed, picking up the clothes from the previous night that were thrown on the floor and putting them on again. “It was just Alex. Couldn’t have picked a better time-”

“I know it was Alex, I can still see!”

“Then…why’re you asking?” He put on his jeans from the previous day, looked back at Jeremy and could see that he was clearly scared about something and Michael sat back next to him. “What’s wrong? Are you alright? You’ve never been this scared of them before!”

“Because!” Jeremy said on the brink of tears. “I…I heard them!”

Michael stared at him for a moment. “What?”

“I heard Alex! I heard them talk! That never happened to me before! Why can I hear them all of a sudden?!”

“You…you’re serious?”

“Yes! I wouldn’t be absolutely terrified right now if I wasn’t! What does this mean?! Am I gonna die?! I-is something wrong with me?! Am I close to death so that’s why I can hear the dead?!”

“No, Jer, you’re fine. Nothing’s gonna happen to you, I promise, you’re alright.” Michael cupped his face and pecked him. “It’s okay, you’re okay, everything’s fine.”

Michael held him in his arms to calm him down, and he started swaying a little bit as he hugged Jeremy like he was rocking him to sleep as Jeremy held onto Michael tightly. He shut his eye as tight as he could, petrified, but knowing that he was in Michael’s arms eased his anxiety a little and he opened his eye again. “Wha…what does this mean, then?” Jeremy asked after he calmed down a little. 

“I don’t…” Michael started, but then suddenly remembered that this wasn’t normal. People are usually are only able to see the dead, not hear them talking as well except for relations in his family. Jeremy could only see Alex before but couldn’t understand them, so if what he was saying was true it could only mean one thing. “Oh my God…”

Michael covered his own mouth, almost tearing up himself from happiness and Jeremy looked at him with confusion. “What?!”

“That thing we both felt yesterday, I think that’s it!”

“So, that means…” Jeremy trailed off, wanting Michael to answer. 

“No one else can hear the dead unless you’re part of my family, whether by blood or marriage. I think…I think this means our souls are officially together now.”

“So…does that mean we’re like…technically married now?” Jeremy asked in a hopeful tone. 

Michael smiled and took Jeremy’s hand. “Yes.”

---

Michael came out of the room a few minutes later, still buttoning up his shirt and not caring if it was tucked into his pants like the previous day, and he was met with Alex staring into space and sitting on the couch. 

“God, my head…” Michael mumbled as he walked into the room. 

Alex looked at him as he almost tripped on himself as he stumbled into the room, but he caught himself by leaning on the wall. “You guys traumatized me, y’know,” they said to him. 

“That’s your fault for walking in on us, or…whatever you do.”

“I didn’t know you were doing…that last night! I’m not like the Entities, I can’t see what’s happenin’ on Earth!”

“What’d you expect us to do?!”

“Go to sleep after you came home like normal people since I assume you guys came back late!”

Michael rolled his eyes. “We just got a little carried away last night when we got home, that’s all!”

“Thanks, Captain Obvious. I thought you were just planning to propose to him yesterday not…that too!”

“Well I did propose and he said yes, obviously, then I found out he was gonna propose to me so I of course said yes, we kissed, hung out for a while and once we got home we both had a few too many drinks and then we sort of…got carried away.”

“Gross! I don’t need the details leading to that! It was kinda just a yes or no question!” Alex said as they shivered and Michael snickered. “That explains the stumbling though.”

“I’m not dizzy anymore though, thank God.”

“Anyways, leaning away from that conversation, congrats, man.”

“Thanks!”

“Where’s Jeremy? It’s important that both of you know and I don’t wanna do this twice.”

“He’s still getting dressed. That and he’s a little…startled right now but he’ll be here in a few once he collects himself. He wanted to be alone for a minute.”

”About what?”

“That’s the weird part.” Michael sat on the couch next to Alex. “He said when you were talking to us in the room, he said…he said he could hear you.”

“Wait…he can?”

“Yeah! So you know what that means?!” he asked excitedly. 

Alex knew the answer because they saw what happened during their proposal last night, but Michael seemed like he really wanted to be the one to say it. “What?”

“No one else can hear the dead except my family, by blood or marriage, so that means we’re technically together!”

“Spiritually.”

“Still!”

“So if you’re technically married, are you gonna skip all that wedding planning shit?”

“I…I dunno.We might do something in the future but for now…I dunno.”

Then, Jeremy came into the room wearing his clothes from the previous day like Michael and when he saw Alex again, his expression was a mix between embarrassment as well as scared. 

“Babe, it’s fine,” Michael said to Jeremy. 

“Aw! Pet names now?! Adorable!” Alex exclaimed. 

“We’ve been doing that for a while, not often though.”

“Wow. Thanks for fillin’ me in, dude.”

“Oops. Forgot,” he said sarcastically as he shrugged. 

Alex rolled their eyes. “If I could punch you right now, I would.”

Alex and Michael turned back to Jeremy on the opposite side of the room from them. ”Uh, hi,” Jeremy said. 

“Hey,” Alex responded and Jeremy flinched. “I’m not gonna hurt you, y’know. Just ‘cause you can hear me now doesn’t mean I’m a poltergeist. I’m not that powerful.”

Jeremy chuckled awkwardly. “I-I know…sorry.”

“It’s cool, dude. Uh, good to see you’re uh…decent again.”

Jeremy blushed out of embarrassment. “We…we weren’t expecting you today, that’s all.”

“Clearly.”

“I uh…nice to hear your voice again.”

“Good to see you can understand me now. Just so ya know, writing stuff as just a soul sucks. Don’t recommend.”

Jeremy went to sit next to Michael, but then he held Michael’s hand and squeezed it. 

“Jer, it’s fine, you’re okay,” Michael said to him. 

“I-I know, it’s just Alex but I…oh God this is all still a big shock to me. Just…everything’s coming to me all at once and I…I dunno how to handle it all, like yesterday I couldn’t hear Alex at all and today I can hear every word they say-”

“I know, I was just as shocked as you are when it first happened to me. You’ll get used to it eventually.” Jeremy laid his head on Michael’s shoulder and Michael kissed his forehead. 

“Congrats Jeremy,” Alex said. “Mike told me what happened before…y’know. I’m really happy for you two.”

“Thanks,” he answered and smiled a shy smile at them. 

”So, what’d you wanna tell us?” Michael asked Alex as he turned his attention beck to Alex. 

“Oh right,” Alex said. “So…when you did the whole proposal thing last night, I was…kinda there.”

They both perked up. “You what?!” they exclaimed together. 

“Yeah, I wasn’t there the whole time and frankly, I’m glad I wasn’t BUT it was for good reason and I honestly wasn’t paying all that much attention to you two, so you’re good.”

“Well, nothing really happened on the hill,” Jeremy said. 

“Jer! Remember what I said about blurting stuff out?” Michael said. 

”Shit! Uh, sorry!”

“Anyway, I was there because well, Schmidt saw the proposal happen, and he wasn’t happy,” Alex continued. 

“Expected,” Michael said. 

“What happened between you two is actually kinda rare, so that’s why. I don’t think I should tell you but I feel you have to know so I’ll tell ya anyway. Your souls…they were meant to find each other.”

“What?”

“The afterlife Entity things actually call it something else, some word in a language I don’t know but they told me it translates to ‘soulmates’. Jeremy, uh, your mom told me what happened-”

“Mamá? She knows about me and Mike?!” he asked worriedly. 

“Uh, yeah, she has for a while. Oh, and she asked me to tell you that she’s very proud of you, and wishes you and Mike the best.” Jeremy smiled, most likely relieved. “I asked her what the hell happened because I was just as confused as you guys probably were, and she said they call it, ‘The Joining’. Pretty basic name, if you ask me.”

“What’s that?” Michael asked. 

“What it sounds like, dumbass. The joining of soulmates, basically. The Joining can’t be seen by the human eye though but you guys probably felt it. It looked like a golden tornado thing around you two and like, golden strings attaching your souls together, basically pulling them together, then everything disappeared in a few minutes.”

“Yeah, I did feel that.”

“So did I!” Jeremy said. 

“Why couldn’t you tell us that?!”

“Because,” Alex said, “we’re not really supposed to tell the living about anything we can see ‘cause honestly, the dead can see some scary shit on Earth but usually it’s not harmful. Something about scaring people or whatever.

“Back on track, Schmidt wasn’t happy because according to Rosa, soulmates are usually tougher for poltergeists to touch than regular humans if they found each other and are ‘joined’. So, most likely possibility is that Schmidt and probably William too were trying to get rid of one of you before that could happen.”

“But that didn’t happen…they couldn’t and that’s why they were trying to kill us all these years!” Michael exclaimed. 

“Bingo. So now that you are, technically there’s a barrier protecting you two from harm from Schmidt, but there is a chance something can get through it. So what I wanted to tell you was that Schmidt and/or William may or may not be putting in way more effort to try to kill you two starting maybe today or tomorrow, or William might mainly be trying to kill you guys because he’s still in his mortal form…kind of, but good news with that is that he hasn’t come to yet so in that case, there’s more time to come up with a plan.”

“William?! I thought he was dead!” Jeremy exclaimed. 

“He’s not,” Alex and Michael said together. 

“Wait, how do you know?” Alex asked Michael. 

“Gut.”

“You rely on that for everything. Hope you don’t loose it one of these days.”

Michael chuckled. “Yeah, whatever. How do you know?!”

“I spied on Schmidt once when he went to that corpse. He was talking to it like it could respond but my guess is that he knew he was alive, otherwise he wouldn’t have gone to it. Creepy to watch, if you ask me.”

”Do you…remember where he was?”

“Mike!” Jeremy exclaimed. 

“What?!”

“I don’t want you risking your life over him, especially since he couldn’t die in the first place which means there’s possibly no way to kill him!”

“So I need to find a way to kill him, is what you’re saying?”

“No! If you try to kill him, it might kill you too!” Jeremy took his hands. “You’re mi amor, my everything, life wouldn’t be the same without you, I don’t want you risking your life for him when it could all be for nothing since we don’t know how to get rid of him! I wanna have a family with you, I wanna grow old with you, I don’t want you to die!”

“Jeremy’s right,” Alex interjected. “According to the Entities, William injected this stuff called remnant into himself a long time ago. The remnant was why he killed the kids in the first place, and that’s pretty much why he didn’t look his age when we went to that house and why he’s not dead now. The stuff basically makes him immortal. I don’t know if there’s a way to destroy it, no one is.”

“There has to be a way!” Michael exclaimed. “I just have to find it, I can’t rest until he dies!” He turned to Jeremy. “And I promise to you Jeremy, I will and I’ll make it out alive.”

Chapter 154

Summary:

Some things can’t stay a secret forever.

Against Jeremy and Alex’s wishes and after a week of thinking, Michael made an unexpected visit to Henry’s since Jeremy was called into an interview on a weekend. Michael knew he only had a limited amount of time to ask Henry for what he needed because he now trusted Jeremy enough to drive home but with his supervision, and he didn’t know how long the interview would take and didn’t want Jeremy to find him not home because he would know he’s been up to something, so he knew he had to act fast. 

He went up to the front door and rang the doorbell. 

After a few seconds, Samuel answered the door. “Hey! There’s a newlywed!” he exclaimed and Michael chuckled. 

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Where’s the other?”

“Interview, so I need to make this quick-”

“Wait, wait, pause, so why’re you here then?”

“I…I need to make this fast, I’ll tell you later. Is your dad home?”

“Oh yeah.” He turned. “Dad! Mike’s here!” he shouted. 

Samuel invited him inside and once Michael stepped in, Samuel shut the door behind him. A minute later, Henry came from upstairs. 

“Mike!” he said and hugged him. 

“Hey Uncle.”

“Wasn’t expecting you today, so sorry the house is a mess. Anyway, how’re you two?”

“We’re good!”

“How’s Jeremy handling…the family ‘curse’?”

“He’s actually handling it better than I thought he would. He’s still a little shocked at the whole thing which I guess is normal, but he’s getting used to it pretty quickly. I think a part of him is relieved that he can finally communicate better with Alex like I can.”

“Speaking of which, where is Jeremy?”

“Uh, Jeremy’s at an interview today actually and he seems to actually want this job. He got sick of his other job.”

“Oh? Where?”

“He wants to work as a salesman for a guitar shop. I think he’ll be great since he’s so friendly, I’m glad they wanna hire him even if he’s disabled.”

“He would! I’m glad. So, you guys honeymoon together yet?”

“No, not yet, no time. Maybe sometime, Jeremy’s been wanting to take me where he used to live in California and to the beach since I’ve never been.”

“You should! You guys should take a week off sometime this month!”

“If you do go, tell Jerry I said hi,” Samuel said since his friend, Jeremiah had gotten a job in California and was living there now. 

Michael smiled and nodded. “I’ll think about booking us a flight sometime. Anyways, uh, what I came here to ask, uh I was wondering…do you happen to still have that journal?”

”Uh, what journal?” Henry asked, being that he never kept journals. 

“Y’know, the journal? Old one?” Henry stared at him blankly. “William’s? The one that I showed you?” he said through gritted teeth. 

“Oh, that one! Why?”

“I just…I just need it.”

“What for though?”

“I just…do!”

Henry crossed his arms. “Mike, tell me the truth,” he said sternly.

Michael sighed. “Last week, we learned from Alex that William is actually still alive.”

“He is?!”

“Yeah, but I remember them mentioning this stuff William injected into himself called remnant. It was his whole reason for doing everything and the whole reason why he’s basically immortal now, so I thought, there must be some way to destroy it even if it’s extremely difficult. I thought, if anything he must’ve written something about it down for notes or something.”

“Mike, if it was that important, I don’t know if he would’ve even written it here!”

“But what about everything else?! He was stupid enough to write information down about the murders in it, maybe he was stupid enough to write down information about the remnant in there too!”

Henry sighed. “Look, I get where you’re coming from, but the police searched through that thing cover to cover and only found information on the murders. Plus, I know William, he and I have been friends from college to about eighteen, almost nineteen years ago. Do you know how long that is?! Point is, he can be a little dense about things sometimes, but he’s not an idiot. He’s smart, hell, he can even outsmart me sometimes!”

“Dense enough to practically turn himself in,” Michael muttered. 

“I heard that.” Henry sighed and held the bridge of his nose, stuck between the two options he had.

If he refuses to give in then Michael might keep nagging him about it since he didn’t know where Henry hid the journal with only a slight chance he would let this whole thing go, but if he gives it to Michael he might get himself into trouble because he’s never looked through the entire journal before. 

Henry didn’t want any nagging, but he also didn’t want Michael going and getting himself into trouble from something that his father wrote down almost twenty years ago, which if Henry remembered correctly, there was something in there that would cause Michael to do just that. 

“Please?” Michael asked. 

“No! I don’t want you going through it!”

“Why?! I wanna find out this stuff just as much as you! I’m the one who showed it to you in the first place anyway!”

“Just…because! That book is almost twenty years old! It practically means nothing now! I searched through that thing myself as well, so there’s no reason for you to go through it!”

“But there’s still valuable information in there that can probably help, plus I haven’t seen it in almost twenty years! Please, please, please, please? Pretty please?” Michael begged and gave Henry his best puppy dog eyes. Henry tried not to give in because of the consequences, but all he saw when he looked at Michael was the same, little boy who looked up to him and who Henry loved as his own son. Henry had a soft spot for children, which Michael knew and was picking at but stayed strong. 

Don’t give in, Henry, you’re smart enough not to fall for those eyes when they’ll lead to trouble! he thought. “No!” he exclaimed. 

“Why?!”

“Because I don’t want you to be getting yourself in more trouble, that’s why. Even if you do find out how to destroy it, you don’t even know where he is and I don’t either so I couldn’t help you!”

Michael groaned. “Fine. You have a point, I knew it was stupid to ask. I…I guess I have to get going now, Jeremy will be back soon, later, you two,” he said and gave them both a quick hug and went out the door. 

Henry watched him from the window for a minute as he got in the driver’s seat and drove away. 

“I still feel bad for saying no to him,” Henry said as Samuel went up next to him. 

“It’s what parents do. Even if he’s not your actual son, I see that you think of him as one.”

“It’s not that. There’s…I wasn’t lying when I said I searched that thing myself. There’s…a piece of information I don’t know if I want him to see.”

“So you’re keeping secrets now?”

“It’s for his own good…I’m pretty sure. I only skimmed the pages but…there’s stuff ‘bout his family in there, not just the murders.”

“His…family?”

“Your Aunt Evelyn, Mike’s mom, died when he was very young, and she was murdered by William.”

“He killed his own wife?! I don’t think you ever told me that!”

“Sick and twisted, I know, but I know he just wants to be reunited with her again. That’s all he really wants. His sister, Elizabeth, on the other hand, was murdered by one of William’s own creations. I’m still not over the fact that I didn’t believe Mike, I don’t think I ever will be.”

“Wait…I think I remember that. I was really young so I thought it was all a game. She…actually died?”

Henry nodded his head. “She was actually trapped in that machine, but no one could hear her so we thought it was as well. She suffocated in there, and both robots were stored in the same facility…I think. Point is that William wrote in that journal that both of them…still have remnant.”

Samuel stared at him. “So they’re both…still alive? Technically?”

“If Alex confirmed that the remnant is still keeping the souls on Earth, then technically Evelyn and Elizabeth are still here, yes.”

“So why don’t you just tell him?! He deserves to know they’re trapped here!”

“Because it’s William. I don’t know where this facility is, and I know it’ll probably have machines that can kill somebody, so what if this is all a trap so he can kill Mike without actually being there and their souls are elsewhere?! Or what if his family doesn’t recognize him because they haven’t seen him for well over twenty years, but instead thinks he’s William?! He can’t help the fact he looks so much like him!”

“Wait, he does?! I don’t even remember what William looks like, honestly.”

“Honestly, Mike only got William’s looks, he looks identical to William when he was younger, but got his mom’s personality. Anyways, I don’t want them to see him as their killer and try to get back at Mike for something he didn’t do! Who knows what they’ll do to him!”

“Dad, I think you’re stressing yourself out about nothing again. I mean, you created this whole fake scenario in your head and believing it. We don’t know if they even remember what William looks like at all so nothing’ll probably happen.” Henry sighed. “I know you care about Mike’s well being and I do too, but you can’t let your anxiety get in the way of his life. He wants to find justice for the kids and if he finds out about those two, them too, and even if he doesn’t find out how to destroy the remnant he can know that his mom and sister are still technically alive and eventually he’ll be able to save them too.”

Henry sniffled. “I usually let it get in the way, huh? Wow…Sammy, I…”

“Wow. Dunno what happened there.” Samuel cleared his throat. “It was like I was possessed by the ‘advice ghost’ or something.”

They both laughed at Samuel’s joke. “But you’re right, I can’t let my worries get in the way of people’s lives. Should I…should I tell him I changed my mind?”

“Up to you.”

Henry snickered. “Not very helpful, Sammy.”

“Well, I can’t make decisions for you, but do you…want him to know about them?”

“I dunno.”

“Because if he does, he can find out how to destroy them too and set them free. If he doesn’t, then, uh, they won’t get free except by you if you find out where they are.”

“I don’t even know where they are, I don’t even have an idea! The only person who might have some vague idea is…is Mike because those robots were William’s creations. I dunno if even he knows where his dad kept those robots now that I think about it, William was always secretive about this stuff so I doubt he said anything.”

“But, remember, he has a friend who can make looking for things a hundred times easier.”

Henry was silent for a second. “Who? Alex?”

“Yes!”

“You gotta point. If no living person can find this place, they probably could, but that would require me having to tell him the truth. God knows he’ll be pissed knowing I kept this all secret for years.”

Chapter 155

Summary:

Michael has a new mission.

For about a year now Samuel has secured a job as a technician, which is the job he originally wanted so he could follow in his father’s footsteps, so he was happy. He was very good at his work and was able to climb up the ladder in no time, and he hoped that one day he’ll be able to get his own place and start his own business like his father did all those years ago. 

“Samuel!” one of his managers said to him one Monday morning once Samuel had gotten to work. 

“Uh, yeah? ‘Sup?”

“So, you know how you’re one of the lead employees here?”

“I’m aware.”

“So, sorry for the late notice but we’re getting a new hire today and I would like you to show him the ropes!”

“Oh. Uh, alright, I can do that.”

“Alright, he’s scheduled to come in an hour from now, so meet me in my office then.”

“An hour?!”

“Yes. Apologies for the inconvenience, but the lead who was scheduled to do it today called in sick. It would be good practice for you anyhow, since you haven’t trained anyone before.”

”Alright, uh, I’ll see what I can do.”

---

After an hour, Samuel walked nervously to his manager’s office. He has never trained someone before being that he was just recently promoted, but figured that this shouldn’t be too difficult. It was only showing this new person what he was supposed to do every day and give a tour of the building, so nothing could go wrong. 

Samuel knocked on the door and he heard his manager say, “It’s open,” and he walked inside. There, he saw his manager sitting at his desk cluttered with paperwork and across from him was a man, but he looked very familiar. 

“Sam!” he said and he stood up so the man did as well. “Samuel, I’d like you to meet Richard, our newest hire.”

It was only when Richard turned to face him that Samuel recognized him. It was indeed the Richard he thought it to be: the one who used to live in Boise, Jeremiah’s dorm mate for one year and his and Jeremiah’s old friend who they haven’t seen for years. 

“No way, it’s you?!” Samuel exclaimed. 

“Sam?! No way! You work here too?!”

“Uh, do you guys…know each other?” the manager asked. 

“Yeah! We’ve been friends since uh…college!” Samuel said, not wanting to bring the real circumstances of how he actually met Richard to light. 

”Yeah, college!” Richard added. 

“Oh! It’s so nice to have a friendly face at your job! I have a meeting, so I’ll leave you two to it,” he said and waved to them. 

Once he left, they smiled. “I haven’t seen you in forever dude! How’ve you been?!” Richard asked. 

“Surviving, y’know, same ‘ol same ‘ol.”

“So you’re the lead of this place? Workin’ with the big dogs, huh?”

“Well, I’m one of ‘em, and just of my department which is now I guess also your department. What brings you back here?”

“Looking for work.”

“I thought Jerry said you wanted to move to Colorado or something.”

“That was the plan but…plans change so now I’m back.”

“Really? What happened?” he asked as they headed out of the office and started walking toward their department. 

“Well to put it short, I’m running tight on money, my family is actually, so they kinda just told me that they’re looking for another place and to get a job which, I’ve been looking for a while now. I couldn’t afford Colorado so I asked Jerry’s parents if they were willing to let me crash at their place for a while until I find my own place even though I’ve only met them a handful of times, and they actually said yes.”

“So your parents just…kicked you out?!”

“We’ve been renting since we moved there, and it was costing them too much so basically, yeah.”

“God, I’m sorry.”

“It’s cool, I didn’t mind. They’ve been acting cold and distant from me for years anyway so I didn’t really care.”

“Years?!”

“Well since I told ‘em about…the incident, yeah.”

Samuel knew what he was talking about, because before he left to go back to Boise a few years ago, he stopped by to visit and told him about everything instead of holding it in. 

“Oh yeah, I remember that. At least the Davis’s are kind.”

“Thank God. So uh, we almost there?”

“Yeah! Just around this corner.”

---

After Samuel gave him a quick tour and showed him the basics of the job, Richard still had a few questions. 

“So like, is there a specific company for this place or anything?”

“Kind of…but it’s not official yet. This place is actually kind of associated with uh…Fazbear.”

“I’m sorry…what?! Fazbear?! Like, the guy who owned Fazbear Entertainment?!”

“Yeah. That one.”

“Are you kidding me right now?!”

“It’s not a huge deal honestly! This place doesn’t run any huge businesses as far as I’m aware, and even though this place was associated with the restaurant chain, what we do here now is helping the other businesses around town with technical assistance. We are associated with Fazbear since the same guy also owns this company, so if there’s ever calls to one of the old facilities we have to take it, but there hasn’t been any as long as I worked here.”

“That’s…that’s good. Hopefully it stays like that. Those places give me the creeps.”

---

Henry didn’t want to believe he did what he did. He didn’t think it was a good idea at all, but after his talk with Samuel he decided to against his judgment. 

A week earlier, Michael had gone away with Jeremy on their honeymoon like Michael said he would, but shortly after they came back, Henry gave William’s journal to him. 

He had called him over after he got off from work and Samuel was still at work since he was training a new hire. Michael was off as well, so against his better judgement Henry unlocked the box he had hidden in his attic when all of the police investigations were over and done with which he hasn’t opened since then. It was covered in dust, so much that Henry had to wipe it away with his hand to make sure it was the right box. 

Once he confirmed that it was, he unlocked it with the key he kept hidden behind a family photo in his room and there it was: William’s old, dusty journal, the covers of the book were black faux leather, the pages were yellowed but once Henry opened it to the first page, there was the word, ‘STOP’ written in William’s messy but readable handwriting.

As if on autopilot he turned the page even though he didn’t want to, and there was the notes that William had written as he experimented with Evelyn’s remnant all those years ago. Then, he skipped a few pages to where he had written about the findings on Elizabeth’s remnant from about twenty years ago. 

“Oh goodness…” he muttered. 

As if he was being controlled, he turned to a page and he didn’t even have to read more than the name of the subject for tears to fill his eyes so that his vision blurred: Charlotte “Charlie” Emily. 

“Charlie…” he whispered as his voice kept breaking as he took his glasses off. “I’ll kill him for what he did to you baby, I promise I’ll let you rest…one day.”

Once Michael came over, unsuspecting, Henry greeted him, they made small talk but then Henry handed him the dusty, old journal. 

“Oh, change of heart?” Michael asked him. 

“I’ve done some thinking since the last time you asked for it, I decided that it’s better that you know.”

“Know what?”

“Just…everything. There’s a…there’s an extra piece of information on the very back page that I’m sure you haven’t noticed, even I haven’t until I looked through the thing cover to cover.”

Henry gave him the old journal, motioning that it was alright for Michael to take it. He hesitantly did and held it in his two hands, but it was almost as if he couldn’t bring himself to open it. He hesitated again for a while and stared at the black cover, his heart racing in his ears and hands shaking slightly, not knowing what information Henry was holding from him for almost twenty years.

“Should I open it?” Michael asked softly after many minutes. 

“Up to you,” he answered. 

Michael hesitated once again, but nodded and opened up the front cover to the very first page where the word, STOP was written in William’s messy handwriting in all capital letters so it was impossible to miss. 

Should I be doing this? Michael thought, doubting himself. 

When he first found everything out, he only saw the notes about the kid’s remnant and he was too in shock to look any further into the journal after that. Jeremy was the first person he showed the writing to so there was a possibility he knew everything from the start, but Michael knew it wouldn’t be beneficial to ask him since most of his memories from before the accident were completely erased. 

After Michael moved in with Henry, thinking back, Henry never let him read the journal unsupervised. Michael thought it was because he was only about sixteen at the time, and even though he thought it was strange since he was old enough to understand what was going on, he let it go. Even then, Henry always flipped the pages for him so that he could only see the murders of the kids so Michael never even knew there was anything else in the journal, and he was too preoccupied with his own feelings to see that it was a little strange that Henry controlled what he saw in the journal. 

“I won’t stop you this time, you’re old enough to know everything,” Henry said and he stepped back, showing Michael that he was free to flip the pages as he pleased.

Michael did as he was told and after reading the name of the first subject, he inhaled quickly to keep the tears in his eyes. Evelyn Donna Schmidt, his mother’s name was right there, along with the notes that she had remnant extracted from her as well and placed in an animatronic infamously known as Ballora. 

“M…Mum?” Michael said quietly, his voice cracking from the memory of when he first found out that she was killed at the hands of his own father.

Henry nodded and Michael flipped a few pages, but he could barely make out the words on the page because his vision was blurring from his tears: Elizabeth Donna Afton, captured by Circus Baby and passed away, but her remnant remained inside Circus Baby. 

“Lizzie?” Michael said, now letting the tears trickle down his cheeks. 

Michael went back and forth between the notes of all the kids and noticed something he had only glanced at before: there were two animatronic names; one from Freddy’s and one was another animatronic William called a Funtime. 

“W…what the hell is a funtime?!” Michael said, obviously to himself. 

Michael flipped through the pages for an answer, eventually finding the papers empty but alas, he kept flipping. He had almost gotten to the back cover when he saw a small blurb written on the bottom of a page by William: The Funtime animatronics have been transported to an undisclosed location. 

“Those things…the animatronics at Freddy’s weren’t the only ones?! They’re still here?!” he exclaimed and Henry only nodded in shame and guilt. “How could you?! How could you keep this from me?!” he yelled at him. 

“It was for your own sake, Mike!”

“The sake of what, exactly?!”

“The sake of your safety!”

“My safety?! You know as good as anyone that my family means more to me than my safety! What if he has information about how to destroy the remnant in this place?! What if going  to this place was the only way that everyone could be freed?! I have to get them the justice they deserve otherwise, I’d never forgive myself!”

“I didn’t want you goin’ to this place and gettin’ hurt because God knows you’ll try to find ‘em! I don’t want you getting hurt or even dyin’ in the process!”

“So what if I do?!” That left Henry speechless. “If I die knowing I freed my only remaining family so that they could die in peace, that’s good enough for me!”

“Mike…”

“What?!”

“This…I mean, I have a bad feeling ‘bout all this! I have ever since I found out that there was a possibility that your family’s still here and that the children’s souls are bound to two animatronics and not just one! I didn’t want you risking your life for this, you’re too young!”

“But my whole life, I have tried to avenge the dead and trying to undo everything my father has done! This wouldn’t be any different!”

Henry didn’t want to admit it but deep down he knew, Michael was going to die trying to accomplish this if it’s the last thing he does. 

Henry sighed. “Right, uh…I should’ve known. I’m sorry.”

Michael now felt a little guilty since he had never liked to yell at Henry, even when he was angry at him. “I’m…I’m sorry, Uncle. I’m sorry for yelling, but I have to do this.”

“It’s alright. Take it, find out where they are and free them. Because once you do…once you do I can free Charlie. She’s out there somewhere, I know it.”

Michael smiled a weak smile, because deep down he knew his uncle was willing to die trying to free everyone as well, even if he didn’t openly admit it. Even if he, Henry or both of them died in the process, both of them would be proud of the other because they had accomplished the same goal. 

“Yeah. Uh…thanks and I’ll see you later,” Michael said as he closed the journal to take it with him and went back out the front door. 

Chapter 156

Summary:

Jeremy finds out about Michael’s plan.

Notes:

sorry the posting schedule’s a little off now! i started college a few weeks ago so that’s been taking up a lot of time, but i’ll still try to update as much as i can!

Over the past few weeks, Jeremy has been noticing Michael acting a bit strange around him. Every time he has been coming home from work, he’d find him reading something and quickly hide it from him. When they were in bed and supposed to be sleeping because they had work the next day, Michael would turn on the dim lamp next to him and read that same book. A few times, Michael had even noticed that Jeremy was awake and watching him so he would quickly hide it, turned off the light, laid down and waited until he thought Jeremy was asleep, then go back to what he was doing.

Jeremy has been getting suspicious and knew that Michael was keeping things from him, but he vaguely remembered that they promised each other to not keep secrets from one another so he didn’t understand why he was combating that promise now. 

He has also been noticing that a couple times a week, Michael would get home extremely late or when Jeremy already went to bed, and he would usually say that he was caught up in work, but that didn’t make sense because the automotive shop he worked at wasn’t open at three in the morning. 

Jeremy began having doubts and the thoughts that he might be seeing someone else kept crossing his mind, but that possibility didn’t seem like him. They were soulmates after all, and Michael had never doubted any of this higher power that they were dealing with, so it didn’t make sense why he would try to ruin anything between them. 

Jeremy decided to let it go on for a few more weeks to see if anything else strange happens, and the most that has happened over a month of pretending to be asleep while Michael read the book was him mumbling to himself and flipping back and forth through the same exact pages, almost as if he was examining every blot of ink or even the yellowing paper itself. 

Jeremy usually got home before Michael and he couldn’t snoop through whatever he was reading since Michael had always hidden it before Jeremy woke up for work, and Jeremy assumed he always hid it in a new place because he could never find it even after looking in the most secret places he could think of. 

Other than this, he was still the normal Michael he had always known: he and Jeremy would take turns cooking and cleaning, lounge around together, cuddle while watching television or a movie, go on an occasional date together which would sometimes lead to intimate moments in the bedroom. They would also talk about their future, talk about work, talk about whatever crossed their minds or nothing at all, just enjoying the comfortable silence between them. Sure there would be an occasional argument between them like any normal couple but they usually didn’t stay mad at each other for long and would make up by the end of the day. 

One night while Michael was out, Jeremy decided to wait for him to come home even though he had work at nine in the morning. Jeremy was starting to fall asleep on the couch watching television holding his head in his hand when at almost two in the morning, Michael walked in the front door. 

“Oh! I didn’t think you’d still be awake!” Michael said, went behind the couch and leaned over it to kiss Jeremy. Jeremy was woken up from his half asleep state and kissed Michael back. 

“Hey,” he said, “Where were you?”

“Y’know, work. Same ol’ same ol’.”

Jeremy could tell that he was lying again. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmph,” he scoffed. 

“What?! What ‘hmph?!’”

Jeremy turned to him. “At this hour?! I call bullshit.”

“What?! Bullshit?! I would never lie to you!”

Jeremy stood and faced him. “Then why are you lying to me right now?! That place closes at like, ten!”

“I uh…I’m not!”

“What about the promise, the promise to never lie to each other?! To not keep anything from each other?! What happened to that?! Where the actual fuck are you going almost every night?!”

Michael realized that Jeremy had caught him. “Look, it’s not what you think-”

“Then what?! For the past three months, you’ve been doing what, exactly?!”

Michael sighed. “Look, if you think I’m cheating or something, I can say that I’m not! I would never, I’m not like that!”

“I don’t think you’re cheating, even though it’s crossed my mind-”

“So do you want my phone?! Do you wanna check my car?!”

Jeremy smiled, relieved it wasn’t what he thought was going on in the back of his mind. “I don’t think you’re cheating, I trust you to the end and beyond.” Jeremy took both of his hands in his. “We are soulmates, after all and I don’t see you wanting to mess anything up between us. If you were, you wouldn’t be that willing to let me search through those things. I just…” he let go of Michael’s hands, sighed, sat back on the couch and turned the television off. 

Michael sat next to him and put a hand on Jeremy’s thigh as Jeremy held the bridge of his nose. “We can talk it out. Just tell me what’s bothering you and I’ll try to fix it, the last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable.”

“I just…” He sighed. “I wanna know what’s going on with you.”

“Jer-”

“I want to know. That’s what’s wrong, you won’t tell me what’s going on with you. You won’t tell me why you come home late almost every night, you won’t tell me why you’re up so late reading some old book, and you won’t tell me why you keep hiding it from me every time I happen to see it. I wanna know, I’m worried about you.”

Jeremy tucked a piece of Michael’s stray hair behind his ear and Michael sighed, debating on whether he should actually tell him or not since he has picked up a pattern. He’s always been good at that, there was never hiding anything from him for long because he would quickly pick up on the pattern, but for some reason Michael thought he wouldn’t this time and as expected, he was wrong. Jeremy would never confront someone on these patterns unless it was something important and this, Michael could tell, was important to him. 

“I just want you to know…I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry,” Michael finally told him. 

“Worry?”

“Worry about me. I don’t want to make you more stressed out than you probably already are, so I did it for you, although I should’ve known you’d figure out I was hiding something eventually, you’ve always been phenomenal at doing that.”

Jeremy’s heart fluttered and he smiled, but then got back on topic, not letting the compliment distract him. “So you were hiding something! What is it? Whatever it is, we can work through it.”

“It’s…” Michael paused, sighed and just handed Jeremy the journal from inside his jacket. 

“So that’s where you’ve been keeping it.”

“I couldn’t risk leaving it and you finding out what I’m planning. But, since you’ve already picked up that something’s going on, I’m letting you in on it.”

Jeremy hesitated for a second, then opened the tattered, dusty, faux leather cover of the journal to the first page to see William’s old, messy handwriting on the yellowed paper where he had written, STOP, in all capital letters, and the memory of what this was came back to him all at once and he slammed it shut, becoming lightheaded because he couldn’t believe it.

He collected himself only a second later. “This is what it was?!” Jeremy asked him with tears of anger and disbelief in his eye. “William’s journal?!”

Michael didn’t say anything to him but opened it again for him and turned the page. That’s where he saw it: William had experimented on the remnant of his mother and sister, who were some of the first victims.

Jeremy remembered when he first found that out, and it still left him with an uneasy feeling to this day even though he barely knew any of them. But, he has known for ages, so he didn’t understand why Michael was hiding it.

Michael kept turning pages and Jeremy didn’t notice anything outside of what they already knew, until Michael pointed it out.

“So…you’ve been hiding this…why exactly? I already know all this stuff, you don’t need to hide it!”

“But look,” Michael said and pointed next to the victim’s names, and Jeremy finally noticed that almost every single one of the kids had not one, but two animatronic names next to them. Evelyn and Elizabeth though, only had what William called the Funtime animatronic’s names next to them and Charlotte had just, Puppet, written next to her name. 

“What the hell is a Funtime?” Jeremy asked and Michael chuckled. 

“I said the same thing. But…” He flipped to the back and pointed to the words. “This is what I’ve been trying to find.”

That’s when Jeremy saw it, the words written in dark purple ink scrawled onto the paper in William’s messy but readable handwriting: The Funtimes have been transported to an undisclosed location. 

Jeremy closed the journal and it was so quiet in the room for many minutes that even Jeremy could hear a pin drop. Jeremy didn’t even look at Michael so he could tell, Jeremy was not happy with him.

“J…Jer?” Michael said softly. 

“So that’s what you want?”

“Jer-”

“That’s where you’ve been going every night?! Trying to find this place?!”

“It might not be just my mum and sister, the other children might be at this place too! He literally split their souls somehow so they’re still here, I have to help!”

“Mike, this is William we’re talking about here! He could be sending you on a suicide mission for all we know and nothing could be there!”

“But what if he’s hiding more secrets in this location?!”

“He could just be saying this stuff so he could lure you and kill you without him having to actually be there! We both know your dad hates you and wants to kill you, so it wouldn’t be out of the question! Michael, listen, I don’t want you to do this! The chances of you dying if you do…I…I don’t wanna even think about what I’d do if you died!” Jeremy said, and Michael felt terrible because Jeremy was obviously about to cry.

“Jeremy, I love you, I love you so much.” He cupped Jeremy’s face and kissed him. “But…I’m so, so sorry. I…I have to, I have to know if it’s real, I have to find my family and the kids and I have to set their souls free! They can’t rest if they’re not so I have to do something, because what if he is actually telling the truth?!”

“That would be a first. So what if you’re right?! What happens then?! How are you gonna free them?!”

“I…I don’t know,” he said with a look of defeat on his face. 

“So stop all this! This could just be leading you to another rabbit hole when we just got out of one we’ve been in for fifteen years! Just stay here with me and we can make the life we wanted together! We can live a semi-normal life, we can have a family together, we can get better jobs to support said family and move out of this town to get away from all of this, just like we wanted, and the important thing is that we’ll all be together.”

Michael sighed. “I…I get it. You’re tired of this, I’m tired, but I don’t think I can rest, not until everyone can. I…I don’t want to do all this, I want to live a normal life with you, I really, really do, but if no one’s going to clean up the mess my father made, there’s no one else to do it but me.”

“But you can’t even find this place to begin with, so it’s probably not real so you’re wasting your time! Just give it a rest!”

“But I can’t find it anywhere because…because I’m a physical being…maybe it’s in a place where I can’t look?”

“Mike, I know what you’re thinking-”

“What if I ask Al?”

“No!”

“But-”

“Mike! No!”

“But they’re just a soul! They can’t die again! I think…anyways, point is that I wouldn’t be doing the finding, and they’ll just be telling me if this place is real or not! It’s just one little favor!”

Jeremy rolled his eye but was silent in thought. It was safer than Michael going himself, but in the end it was up to Alex to choose whether to say yes or no. If they said yes, they could just tell Michael if it exists or not and hopefully that would be the end of it. If the answer was no, then Michael wouldn’t give up and keep searching until he found it. Jeremy didn’t want him to use their friend for this sort of thing, but to him it seemed like the safest option. 

He grumbled in annoyance. “Fine,” Jeremy finally said. 

“Really?!”

“I don’t want you using them for things like this, it feels wrong, really wrong, but there’s really no other option that I want you to take. But in the end it’s their decision and I had no influence on it, so if Al says no, don’t get all pissy at me.”

Chapter 157

Summary:

The search for this strange place.

“So, lemme make sure I heard you right, you want…me to find this place for you?!” Alex asked Michael the next day after Michael told them the whole plan. 

“Well, yeah.”

“Haven’t you been looking for that place for like, months already?!”

“Yeah, but I can’t find anything because I’m a physical person, so I don’t wanna look like a total freak just wandering into random abandoned buildings where I can get arrested for trespassing since most of them aren’t open to the public! It’s just one little favor!”

“Well…I-I dunno man-”

“C’mon! Please?”

“This feels like you’re using my death to your advantage! I dunno, something about it doesn’t feel right.”

“I know, it doesn’t feel right to me either because I know that you didn’t die for this, but I…I talked to Jeremy. He found out about this whole thing and he’s not happy that I’m trying to find this myself.”

“Yeah, yeah, he wants you to stay safe. I know how it goes.”

“I’ve come up empty handed every night, and Jeremy doesn’t want me to keep going.”

“I don’t blame him. I mean, if I ever had a partner—which’ll never happen by the way—who was looking for a place that could probably get ‘em killed, I would try to stop ‘em too.” Alex sighed and rolled their eyes, even though Michael couldn’t see it because the entirety of their eyeballs were pitch black. “But fine.”

“Wait, really?!”

“I understand Jeremy’s point of view, but finding the thing has been only thing you’ve been talking about for weeks now and if this’ll get you to shut up about it, I’ll find it for you.”

---

The next day as promised while Michael and Jeremy were at work, Alex set out into town. They looked everywhere, but this place was too well hidden if it was even real, so Alex wanted to give up at first until they remembered that Michael would keep talking about it and annoying them if it wasn’t found, and that was enough motivation to keep going. 

They looked everywhere, going into abandoned buildings, abandoned houses and even to the outskirts of town when still, nothing but running into a few other spirits and creatures that humans couldn’t see. The only thing they had noticed was that the abandoned house they had been declared dead at was torn down. 

It was past midnight when Alex was about to go back to the Other Side because if anyone found out they were missing, they would be in trouble. That was until one small building that they haven’t yet checked in the distance caught their attention, at least they thought it was small from a distance. 

They went to it and saw that the building was in fact, abandoned and looks like it had been for several years. There was no road leading to this place, not even a dirt road so if there was any tire tracks to the building grass had already grown over the tracks, gone yellow like the rest of the grass around it and had gotten as tall as Alex’s knees. 

The building was tall, much taller than Alex expected so it had to be at least two stories high. There were no windows on the first floor, but only two windows on the second floor, one on the left and one on the right side. When Alex peered in through the window though, they couldn’t see a thing because it was completely blacked out like the material was something other than glass. 

“Weird,” Alex mumbled and went down to the ground, went to the front door and phased through it like all spirits could. The ground floor was something that Alex was not expecting at all: it looked like a laboratory, an abandoned laboratory. 

“What the hell…?”

There wasn’t much because most of the equipment had been broken or the scientist took the equipment with them, but there were very obviously remnants of test tubes, beakers and many charts and notes sitting on a dusty, broken desk. The room itself was obviously dark since there was no power or windows letting natural light in, but Alex could see as if there was a very dim light on in the corner of the room.

The laboratory was dusty and dirty, the walls were coming apart so the wires and pipes could be seen and there were cobwebs in the corners of the room, under the table and between shattered bits of glass. Alex couldn’t smell, but they were ninety percent sure the place smelled of old chemicals and mold.

They went to one of the desks and the notes on the papers scattered around on it weren’t at all what Alex was looking for, and they couldn’t pick them up since nothing in the physical world could react to their touch so their hands kept phasing through the papers and desk. 

The handwriting looked familiar though, like they had seen this handwriting somewhere before but couldn’t remember as to where. It looked like it was scribbled on the paper quickly but was still readable and was written in a dark purple ink. 

They turned and that was where they saw one of the weirdest things in this strange abandoned laboratory: several barrels of some type of chemical. Alex went to the corner of the room and looked closer since they couldn’t brush off the dust covering the name plastered across the barrel: Nitrous Oxide. 

“Why the hell would they need this?!”

They went back to the notes on the table that they only skimmed over, and there was the answer: Nitrous Oxide can produce a hallucinogenic reaction along with other side effects. Should wear off with time, so experiments will not kill subjects. 

“Why would they want to make people hallucinate?!”

Alex kept reading the page. It would simply be inhumane of me to take children and experiment on them, especially because they can tell their parents and get me caught, so I moved on to the next best thing: my own children. I have them for a reason, don’t I?

“Sick bastard…”

The youngest subject was a bust (eight years old, female). The gas had almost no effect on her. It made her sleepy and enter a euphoric state, the opposite of what I wanted. After a few trials, I concluded that I could not test her fear levels accurately because the gas did not affect her in the same ways as her brothers.

“Tested on your own daughter?! Jeez…”

Her older brothers however, had much more promising results. The middle child (9 years old, male) is frightened of even the sound of paper rustling so it was no surprise his nightmares would come to life during the trials. 

From the vitals collected from before and after the tests, his heart rate and breathing quickened by almost 90%, and for some reason he is more afraid of his brother and his three friends when they have their animal masks on. Other than that, fear of the dark has increased, more sensitive to unexpected sounds and general anxiety has increased significantly. 

The eldest brother (13 years old, male) had a similar reaction to the middle child, although he did not show it as much as him. He was very clearly scared, but being a thirteen year old boy, he tried to act as if he was not. He was more aggressive towards the mannequins than his brother was, I think trying to fight them off which I guess is to be expected, but made efforts to hide just as his brother did. 

Overall, from vitals collected before and after trials, heart rate increased 65% and breathing by 50%. Afterwards he had developed a fear for the chime of a Grandfather’s Clock and being alone in the dark, and general anxiety has increased significantly like his brother. 

“Who the hell does this stuff to kids?!” Alex mumbled, but Alex read the last line again. “These…these after effects seem similar to what Mike has, he hates the chime of that clock and being alone in the dark, but it could just be a coincidence.”

Alex stepped away from the table, now thankful that they couldn’t feel the broken shards of glass on the floor that they definitely stepped on and noticed the staircase leading up to the second floor. 

As they approached the stairs however, they noticed what appeared to be a large metal elevator door in the corner of the room. 

“Weird,” Alex mumbled and ignored it for the time being because they wanted to see what was up the stairs first. 

They went up the stairs, but the stairs were steep as well as a tight squeeze, but once they got up the stairs they were met with a locked door and a wall. That didn’t bother them and they phased through the door, but Alex wasn’t expecting to see it looking like a somewhat normal house on the second floor even though this was obviously no house. 

It wasn’t much, but the floor seemed to be hardwood and the walls were painted a rusty red color. There was a small table with a lamp on one wall and pictures hanging on the wall across from it. On the wall across from the door Alex had just come out of was what looked like a room taking up half of the entire floor, but there seemed to be two hallways split off from the main hall which Alex was in, leading to the two sides of the room. 

Near the door they just came from were two mannequins, both were falling apart and had missing body parts but were still standing thanks to support beams, which Alex noticed was connected to a track so that they could move. 

“Creepy.”

As Alex went to the room, they noticed the windows they saw from the outside on the walls. When he looked out of the windows, he could see nothing just as when he was trying to see inside the building. Alex backed up and in the corner saw a Grandfather’s clock that no longer worked, and through the thick layer of dust that was piled on the sides of the clock Alex could still see the wood pattern that no one ever bothered to paint to fit the aesthetic of the room. 

Alex went to the room and they were surprised to see that the door was open and had no locks on the doorknobs. They went in and it looked like a child’s bedroom, with a bed on the far side of the room with one nightstand on either side, a dresser across from the bed which Alex was right next to, and a closet that was right next to the dresser. 

The room was littered with children’s toys on the floor and overflowing in the dresser, but what made it stand out was the three little mannequins on the bed. Alex went to them and they were all thankfully unmoving because they had been out of power for years, and it was only when he crouched down because they saw a mannequin finger on the floor that Alex noticed a mannequin curled up underneath the bed, like it was hiding but the track it was connected to looked like it was meant to pop out. 

“This place just gets weirder and weirder.”

Alex stood from their crouched position and went across the room to the closet which they noticed was slightly open, and because they couldn’t open the door they phased their head through one of the French doors to look inside, but when they did they jumped back because they weren’t expecting to see a mannequin sitting down on the floor inside with the clothes that have probably never been worn hanging above it. 

“And creepier.”

Alex stepped back and avoiding the scattered, dusty toys on the floor, went out of the room and phased back through the locked door. They went down the stairs to the wide elevator they saw earlier, and because they couldn’t interact with anything to open the door, they phased through to where they discovered that the elevator was right behind that big, metal door. 

It was a large, circular elevator that looked like it was meant to hold very large and heavy items. There were buttons on the walls, a large vent, wires covered by tubes and control panels for the elevator that were protected with very dusty glass. Near the elevator door was a number pad and right above that was a big red button, which Alex assumed was how the elevator opened from the inside. Right next to the door on the opposite side was a speaker, and Alex couldn’t figure out why that was even needed. It stumped Alex as to why an elevator was needed in a place like this, but then they saw posters, one on each side of the door. 

One of the posters had a clown animatronic on it with the word, Celebrate! above it and the other had a ballerina animatronic with the word, Dance! below it. 

After Alex had said they would look for whatever place Michael wanted to find, Michael let them take a look in the journal which he originally didn’t let Alex see. Inside, Alex saw the names of two animatronics, the ones his mother and sister were apparently trapped in: Circus Baby and Ballora. 

There were no descriptions of what the animatronics looked like, so that made it difficult to know if these were the same or not. 

The first piece of evidence was that these were both animatronics, and very old ones at that because this place looked to had been abandoned for decades, and as far as Alex knew there were no other animatronics in Hurricane that were over twenty years old and still in one piece. Second, these animatronics seemed almost too technologically advanced being that this place was so old, and from Michael’s description of the Funtime’s, his father built them in such a sophisticated way that they were technologically advanced for the time. Third, Ballora sounded like ballerina, so this must be an animatronic related to ballerinas in some way. There was no mistaking that piece of evidence, so the other must be Circus Baby.

“Well Mike…found what you were looking for.”

Chapter 158

Summary:

Unexpected power.

Alex phased through the metal door of the large elevator and was about to leave, so they didn’t expect to see anyone standing behind the door they just came out of, but of course the last person Alex wanted to run into was standing on the other side  of the door.

“Agh!” Alex yelled when they bumped into him. “What’re you doing here?!”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Schmidt replied. 

“I…uh…” Alex started. 

“It’s not like I don’t know what you’re up to. I saw everything.”

“So you’re stalking me now?!”

“Not exactly. I’d call it…spying without your consent.”

“That’s stalking, dumbass.”

Schmidt stared at them in disgust that Alex had just called him that, but surprisingly, he didn’t do anything. 

“Do not forget where you stand, Davis. You know that I am-”

“Yeah, yeah, ‘more powerful than I’ll ever be.’ Don’t have to rub it in, y’know.”

Schmidt, now, was more confused than anything. Alex knew what he was capable of, but for some strange reason Alex didn’t seem intimidated by that fact at all. 

“What is it with you?”

“…huh?”

“You’re…strange.”

“Wow. Thanks,” they said sarcastically. 

“Why are you not intimidated? Any normal person would be cowering in fear, so perhaps you are not normal.”

“Thanks, again.” They rolled their eyes. “Look, I know what you’re capable of, but the fact is…I don’t really care.”

“You…what?”

“God, are you that old?! I. DON’T. CARE.”

“Such an odd person…” he mumbled. 

“So since you love to say that you have the power to kill me again, do it. I dare you.”

Perhaps Alex was scared, terrified even, but maybe they thought by acting like they weren’t and attacking Schmidt with words was their way of fighting him even if they couldn’t physically do anything to him. However, they were leaving themselves open to him in that moment so Schmidt decided to take the opportunity. 

He smirked because Alex thought that he was bluffing and that no one could erase a soul from existence, but they were wrong. 

There was only one way to harm a soul without a physical body, and it was usually not easy. True, any normal poltergeist could not get rid of a soul and could only harm them enough to the point they were on the brink of existence, but Schmidt was not like any poltergeist; he is the most powerful poltergeist that has come around in over one thousand years. 

From what seemed like out of nowhere, a strange dagger had appeared on the dusty table by him, and Alex knew this was no ordinary weapon. It was a dagger, but on both sides of it was a swirl pattern which showed that this dagger was infused with some type of glowing purple liquid. The dagger itself seemed to be old, probably rusted and the designs on the handle were clearly faded away. 

What is that?! Alex thought. 

Schmidt picked the dagger up and faced Alex. “Do you know how many souls I have erased from existence with this very tool?”

“Uh…”

“The answer is, hundreds. Hundreds in the only fifty years I have been dead. This is no ordinary blade, it’s the one that brought me to power, and to be feared as well.”

“That old thing?” Alex said with disgust. 

Schmidt glared at them. “Yes. You see, I have infused part of my soul is infused with it, making it no ordinary dagger, and therefore cannot be easily destroyed.”

So if it’s not easy, then that means it can…somehow. He said it’s infused with part of his soul…so is that the dagger Rosa told me about?! And it has the power to erase me from existence?! That thing’ll be so easy to get ahold of…

“Lost in thought I see? Trying to combat your fate brought to you by your ignorance?”

“Well…maybe.”

Before Alex’s very eyes he disappeared, and before they could even react he reappeared right in front of them, so close that Alex could feel the difference in how much colder the temperature was around him than a normal spirit. 

Alex tried to get away and disappear back to the Other Side since poltergeists couldn’t reach it, but found that sprouting from the tile floor was what looked like vines, hundreds of them, but instead of green and full of leaves they were pure black and had thousands of tiny thorns on them. Before they could even react, the vines were wrapped tightly around Alex’s wrists, the thorns cutting Alex as they struggled to get away, refusing to let them escape so Alex couldn’t move very far. 

Alex hadn’t felt much pain since they had been dead, but Schmidt’s power was enough to make a spirit feel a burning, lingering pain. 

“Hey! Let me go!” they yelled at him and struggled even with the pain it caused, but it was no use. 

“This is hilarious!” Schmidt said. “You think you can escape these?! These block you from using any power you might have, whether you are weak or powerful, and that includes going back to your safe haven! There’s no escaping these, so I guess this is where you say goodbye.”

“What?!” Alex exclaimed and tried again to run away even though he was slowly getting closer to them, but it was like the vines coming from the tile were steel chains bolted to the ground and the thorns seemed like they cut clean through Alex’s wrists. 

Soon enough, Alex’s stamina had run low and they just dropped to the ground in defeat, the pain in their wrists becoming unbearable and for the first time in almost five years, they let tears trickle down their cheeks but they dried before they could even touch the floor. Schmidt stopped before he got to them and watched them as they cried with annoyance. 

“If you’re gonna get rid of me…do it. D…don’t just stand there and make me wait…do it and make it quick.”

“Gladly,” he said, unbothered by Alex’s cries because he has seen this same act happen hundreds of times before. 

He crouched down to Alex, picked up their chin with his free hand so he could look at their crying face. “Don’t you worry, Alex. It’ll all be over soon.” He kept their head held up, put the blade on their neck to slice it and Alex held their breath and shut their eyes as tight as they could. 

It was then that Alex felt something. Not a blade across their neck, but something in their chest. It felt like a pressure was in their chest right where their heart used to be and this feeling was spreading. It covered their entire chest, then Alex felt as if a huge weight was lifted off of them; not metaphorically, but physically; Alex felt as if their weight had dropped about fifty pounds and Schmidt’s hand was physically pushed away from Alex by something, but at least Alex didn’t feel the blade on their neck anymore or Schmidt holding up their head so they relaxed and they fell down on their side. 

The world seemed to be muffled and they thought that the shock had finally affected them physically or that they had been erased from existence and this was what absolute nothingness sounded like, but that was not the case. Their body had used almost all of its energy, so much that Alex couldn’t hear as well and the corners of their vision were black so Alex had to turn even more to look at something next to them. 

Even through the shock, their head hurting and feeling extremely tired, they opened their eyes. From what Alex could see, Schmidt’s blade was gone, probably sent back to wherever it came from, but he looked like he was fighting something. An animal as it looked like, and though Alex’s ears were ringing they could still hear the growling noise as it was trying to chase Schmidt away. 

“Wha…?” they mumbled as Alex shakily picked their head up to get a better view.

“Get away from me, you beast!” Schmidt yelled at the animal attacking him, which Alex could barely hear, but it continued fighting back and it only responded with muffled growls of anger. 

The animal was biting at him, scratching him with its claws to cause actual damage to him where usually it was very rare for anyone to lay a finger on him, and even got up on its hind legs to reveal that it was way taller than him, at least ten feet tall and whatever he was fighting, it was strong. 

Schmidt tried to use the power he had to defend himself, making objects appear from thin air an launching it at the animal, such as knives, swords or even boulders but the animal seemed unaffected by all of it and every single item seemed to phase through it. 

He has never seen anything like this before, he didn’t even know this kind of thing was possible. He was frightened and ever so desperately wanted to retreat since he was powerless against it, but he had one more trick up his sleeve. 

As a last resort attempt, Schmidt made a picture in his mind of the animal being pushed backwards into the wall so hard that if it were part of the physical world, it would kill it on impact. He directed that energy towards the animal but again, nothing happened. 

It was like the animal didn’t even exist, it was like a shadow but was still causing damage to him somehow. 

That was enough to drive Schmidt away from Alex so the thorny vines around their wrists unraveled and only left many deep holes in their wrists where the thorns dug into their skin. As expected, they weren’t bleeding and the wounds stung, but that didn’t matter as much to Alex than the large animal in the room with them. 

The animal turned to Alex and they froze, not knowing what to do since nothing could affect the animal, not even Schmidt. The animal came closer to them and Alex didn’t move since getting to the Other Side was out of the question since they were so low on energy, watching as it eventually came right up to them where they saw in was a lot bigger than they thought. 

The animal stopped in front of them, but Alex saw that there was no sign of aggression in its eyes and now only a child-like playful look in its eyes like an energetic puppy. Now focusing on it, Alex saw that it was a bear, much bigger than the average bear, but it was a bear nonetheless. Its fur was as black as night and its eyes looked like two large black beads with a speck of white in the center. 

Alex sat up, the bear watching him and Alex put his hand out. The bear sniffed it, but then let Alex pet them and didn’t seem bothered one bit. Its fur did not feel how Alex was expecting it to; instead of Alex going straight through it like in its fight with Schmidt where it wasn’t affected by anything, Alex was able to touch the fur on its head and it felt like a fuzzy, plush toy that was brand new and never touched by anyone before. 

“You’re not so scary, huh?” Alex said to the bear like it could respond. “Thanks for saving me, I probably would’ve been dead by now if it weren’t for you…well, double dead.”

The bear looked at Alex’s hurt wrists with concern in its eyes. “It’s fine, I’ll be fine. It’s not as bad as it looks. I can probably convince the Entities to do something about it, or even Rosa since those roses of hers can heal wounds.” The bear looked at Alex again. “I’m Alex, did Rosa send you? You probably already knew that then.”

Alex thought they were seeing things, but they thought they saw the bear shake its head ‘no’. “Did you…did you just shake your head ‘no’? D-do you know what I’m saying?”

The bear nodded. Alex knew they definitely weren’t seeing things. 

“Oh my God…this is so cool. Okay, uh, d’you have a name?” The bear shook its head. “No name…where did you come from?”

The bear put a paw on Alex’s chest, which they weren’t expecting. “Me?! A-are you saying from me?!” The bear nodded. “That must be why I felt this decrease in energy all of a sudden…I guess I’m not as powerless as he said I was.”

The bear went next to Alex, sat on the floor next to him and Alex pet it again, but this time they were more comfortable with the bear next to them. “Hmm…you look like a shadow and nothing can affect you, like a shadow. Bears always remind me of Freddy Fazbear and if it didn’t have a negative connotation, I’d name you Shadow Freddy. For now, how about just…Shadow?”

The bear thumped its paw on the floor once as if to say that it likes that name. “Yeah, I like Shadow too. So that’s it, that’s your name.”

The bear tapped both of its front paws on the floor, indicating that it was happy having a name now. “You like that one, huh?” Alex said through a chuckle. “I guess you have to get going, I should too…wait, you came from part of my soul, right? So how does that work?”

The bear stood across from Alex and Alex stood, but then the bear lightly grabbed their forearm by its mouth so that Alex would touch their fur. Confused, Alex complied and waited a few seconds before the bear disappeared right before their very eyes and Alex now no longer felt tired, they could hear clearly again and their vision was back to normal. 

Alex looked around them, seeing that they were all alone now. “Sick,” they said. “I guess I have two things to tell Mike tomorrow.” 

Then, Alex disappeared back to the Other Side since they didn’t want another encounter like the one they just had. 

Chapter 159

Summary:

A strange location for an even stranger place.

That very next day, Alex told Michael everything; not only that this place he was looking for actually existed, but about the encounter they had the previous night and everything that happened. 

“You ran into him?!” Michael asked. 

“Yeah! He can take spirits out of existence, he wasn’t bluffing, but then a literal part of my soul saved me!” 

“Like…your soul split in two?” 

“Kinda, yeah, and it took the form of a bear, at least ten feet tall!”

“How…how is that possible?! I didn’t even know spirits could do that!”

“Well, I asked Rosa, she’s really nice to talk to by the way, and she says that it’s…that it’s not normal at all.”

“It’s not?”

“No! She said it’s pretty rare, and it only happens to spirits who died to protect someone else where they knew and were willing to sacrifice themselves, instead of like a murder, sickness or old age, something where people can’t control if they die or not. In this case it was my brother and you I was protecting.”

“So…that day you knew you were going to die?”

“Pretty much. I mean, I didn’t care if I lived, I only wanted you two to live so it was a risk I was willing to take.”

“So it’s like, a reward for an act of bravery.”

“Basically.”

“Wow…oh uh, thanks for saving us…that day.”

“Of course. Although that was probably only a one time thing.”

He smiled a small smile. “How is your brother? Have you seen him lately?”

“He’s alright, I visited his house a few weeks ago. I’m pretty sure he just graduated from college and working as a game tester. Oh, and he also has a girlfriend who I think he’s planning to propose to.”

“Really? Isn’t he only in his early twenties?”

“Yeah, and apparently they’ve only been dating for like two years but hey, if he loves her then not my place to judge.”

“So, back to the bear stuff, can you do it intentionally?”

“I actually…don’t really know. I mean it takes a lot of energy and I never did it intentionally it just…happened.”

“Oh. Well, thanks for finding this out for me. Mind uh, telling me where it is?”

“Not sure if I’d go that far. I mean, what about Jeremy?!”

Michael sighed. “Yeah, he’d find out soon enough. But he doesn’t have to yet.”

“Alright, so you’re saying-”

“What if you tell me and I can sneak out at night?”

“What?! No! Didn’t he already get mad at you for trying to find this place and now you wanna go there?! You wanna deal with Jeremy after he found out you were looking for this but times ten?!”

“Look, I don’t want to because I know that he’ll release hell upon me, but this might be the only way I can find out more information, even find my family!”

“No way, man! Look, I don’t wanna see you join me here in the afterlife right now!”

“But I’ll be more careful with hiding it this time! I won’t be careless like last time, I’ll make sure that he doesn’t suspect a thing. And, can you keep a secret?”

“Of course I can-”

“Then we’re going there tonight, no questions asked.”

---

At about midnight that night after Michael was sure that Jeremy was asleep, he got dressed again and since he didn’t turn on the light he grabbed the first shirt and pants he touched, put them on and snuck out of their room and grabbed his car keys. 

He went out the front door and quickly locked the door behind him. “Al!” he said in a hushed voice. 

Alex suddenly appeared right next to him, as Alex was hiding near the front of the house the entire time. “I still have a bad feeling about this. Are ya sure we’re doin’ the right thing here?”

“No,” he said as he went down the three short steps to his car in the driveway. 

Michael got in his car and Alex appeared in the passenger’s seat. Michael started the car, prayed that the engine starting up didn’t wake Jeremy and backed out of the driveway. 

He listened to Alex’s occasional directions since they were guiding him to the place, but once the street lights were getting further and further apart from each other was when he snapped out of his daze and started to question if they were going the right direction. He thought this place would be in town since it was a storage facility, so he thought it would look something like a warehouse. 

“Uh, Al?”

“‘Sup?”

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?”

“About seventy five percent sure.”

“That’s comforting.”

“If it makes you feel better, this place isn’t in town.”

“Wow, really?!” Michael said sarcastically. “How could I have guessed?!”

“Shut up. Just keep driving.”

“Is it in like, Salt Lake or something?” 

“No. I’ll tell you when to turn, just drive.” About fifteen minutes later, Alex suddenly spoke up. “Here.”

“What?”

“Turn here!”

“But there’s no road-”

“This place doesn’t have a road, so turn!”

Michael thought it was strange but shrugged it off and turned right off of the main road. He was met with grass all the way up to the headlights of his car and so nothing could be seen except for the yellowing grass blades in front of the lights.

“Al, the grass is blocking our view.”

“I can see, y’know.”

“So you sure you know where to go so you can point me in the right direction?”

“I think.”

“That’s only slightly comforting but I’ll take it.”

“I can see better in the dark than you, so trust me.”

“Right, I forgot you had that weird night vision. Just don’t make me drive off a cliff or something, alright?”

“Aye aye, captain.”

Alex led Michael forward, even though in reality they weren’t totally sure if they were headed in the right direction. Alex only knew that this place was on the outskirts of Hurricane heading north, but it shouldn’t be hard to find since the building was so large. However, this place was very well hidden so it was many minutes before Alex saw anything. 

“There it is!” Alex said after fifteen minutes of driving. 

“Are you sure? You said that three times already.”

“It’s for real this time!”

As they got closer, Michael saw that Alex wasn’t joking around with him this time, and there was actually a very large building in front of them. Once Michael saw it, he cautiously drove up to it and got out of the car. 

“It’s…bigger than I imagined. Are you sure this is it?”

“Positive.”

They both went to the front door where Alex was able to phase inside through the solid, metal door whereas Michael discovered, it was locked. 

He banged on the door. “Al?” he shouted.

Alex came out of the building. “Oh, right.”

“How am I supposed to get in?!”

“Good question. I uh…don’t know.”

“That’s great news. Is there…a window or something?”

“Only on the top floor. I don’t know how you would get up there without a ladder.”

“Hm. I’ll find a way.”

Michael walked around the whole building, not finding much but a few thin pipes he wasn’t sure if he wanted to find out what they were for. Other than that, there wasn’t anything to use to climb the wall besides a few indentations between the bricks on the wall that eroded away with time. 

“See if I were you, I wouldn’t climb that wall,” Alex said as though reading his mind, “not because I suck at rock climbing, but because it doesn’t look like you can climb it without falling.”

“Then what, genius?”

“I was gonna say you can use your car.”

“You want me to crash into the metal doors?!”

“Well, that’s one way to do it. I was gonna say that you climb on your car to reach it. I dunno if that’ll work, but if not you can always ram into the doors.”

“Then hopefully it works, because I don’t really want to replace this old thing yet.”

Michael got in his car and started the engine, then Alex guided him so that the passenger’s door was right against the wall of the building but the car was underneath one of the two windows on the second floor.

Michael got out of the car. “You’re really gonna climb up on that thing?” Alex asked. 

“I suppose so, yeah.”

Michael climbed up on the hood of his car, which he had done several times before, but hesitated before he climbed onto the roof of the car since he has never climbed that high, so he was a bit worried that it wouldn’t hold well and it would dent. 

He placed his foot on the roof of the car, making sure that he wouldn’t step on the windshield and pushed himself on top of the car. After he determined that the car roof would hold at least half of his body weight he carefully brought his other foot to the roof of the car and tried to not lose his balance. 

He turned to the window where he could thankfully reach, but as he tried to open the window, as he expected it was locked. 

“Damn it,” he muttered and crossed his arms. 

“Well, what now?”

“Hm…Al, do you think if i threw a rock at the window, it’d break?”

“I dunno! The glass is like, really dark so nothing can be seen in or out, so I don’t know if it’s thicker than normal glass or what.”

“Then only one way to find out.”

Michael got down from the roof of the car and went out into the field looking for something he could use to throw and break the window. It’d be like accidentally throwing the baseball into the neighbor’s window and shattering it, but the only difference is that he wouldn’t get in trouble.

Finally, he found a good sized rock in the field and went back to Alex who was standing near the car. Michael took a deep breath, aimed at the window and with all of his strength, he threw the rock at it and to his surprise, the entire window shattered to pieces on the first try. 

“Oh my…how strong are you?!” Alex asked. 

He shrugged and he climbed onto the roof of his car once again, grabbed onto the windowsill and thanks to his muscular physique, he was able to pull himself up, climb through the broken window and into the building. 

Chapter 160

Summary:

Finally, some answers were found.

Michael didn’t even flinch as his hands gripped the windowsill and he pulled himself up and into the room, but once his feet touched the floor the stinging sensation from the small cuts on his hands from the small shards of broken glass finally registered.

“Ow!” he whispered to himself and wiped his hands off on his jeans as he looked around. “Where…where are we?”

“I think it’s a lab of some sort,” Alex said.

“A lab? This doesn’t look like a lab. It looks like…”

“A what?”

“It looks like my old house,” he said and he got chills just thinking about it, but then he saw the mannequins in the corners of the room which startled him a little, “but…different.”

“Huh. Really? Weird.”

They went over to the door which led to the stairs and unsurprisingly, Michael found that it was locked. Luckily though, the door was only wooden so Michael could break it off of its hinges easily.

Without even fully thinking of the consequences Michael braced himself, ran at the door which as expected, broke but he stopped as soon as he heard the snap of the wood breaking off from the hinges. He lost his balance and began to fall forwards down the stairs, but caught himself by holding on to the railing.

“Wh…oh my God!” he yelled, his heart still racing from fear.

“Oh yeah. Shoulda warned you about that.”

He stood and went down the creaky stairs, but couldn’t get far because it was totally dark in the room. “There’s no light in here?!”

“This place is probably over twenty years old, of course not, Einstein.”

Michael groaned. “Nothing?!”

“Well, there’s a flashlight upstairs, I don’t know if it works.”

Michael ran upstairs and looked around, but there wasn’t a flashlight in sight so he opened the door leading into the room that took up almost half of the floor.

There, even though it was dark the natural light from the broken window in the hallway was just enough to see the silhouettes in the room. He saw that everything was laid out exactly like his old bedroom, or how he remembered it, and the only differences were the dusty children’s toys scattered around the room, small mannequins on the bed and another under the bed.

He ignored the bad feeling in his gut that told him this was a place he had been before, and it wasn’t a good place so he should leave. “Al? Where was that light?” he called out, trying to push the feeling away.

“Dresser,” Alex said from behind him which he jumped at.

“Agh! Don’t do that!”

“Why not? It’s funny!”

“I don’t like jumpscares!”

“Not my fault I don’t make noise. I don’t make the rules.”

Michael rolled his eyes and grabbed the flashlight off of the dresser. He flicked it on and after a few tries, it turned on. “Let there be light.”

“Honestly I didn’t even think that thing’ll turn on. Who knows how old this place is.”

They both went back out of the room and down the rickety old stairs that led to the first floor, and Michael saw that Alex was right: it was a lab.

“What the hell…” he muttered.

“See?! I told you!”

Michael walked around the room, slowly taking everything in and ignoring the persistent feeling of nostalgia that he had. He unlocked the front door so he wouldn’t have to crawl through the second floor window again, and he only had to turn around to see the giant tanks of chemicals stacked on top of each other on the opposite side of the room.

He went to them, brushed off the dust on the label to see the name, ‘Nitrous Oxide’, and backed away as if he would breathe in an over twenty year old chemical trapped in a metal barrel. “Why is that here?” he murmured.

He kept looking around even though he couldn’t help stepping on the shattered glass on the floor, noticing that the wall had multiple holes in it exposing the old wires and rusty pipes that were behind it, and after inspecting the broken test tubes and dusty old beakers he finally noticed the papers Alex read the day previous. He held the flashlight above the papers on the table, and it wasn’t long until Alex turned around to see the look of horror in Michael’s eyes.

“Oh my…what the fuck?!” he exclaimed as he dropped the flashlight and Alex could see that he was breathing faster than usual.

“Woah, hey! Calm down!” Alex said as they stood next to him and Michael put his hands on the table to support himself. “Breathe, it’s okay. What’s up?”

“I…I knew I recognized this place!” he yelled and he looked as if he might cry.

“Mike, what’s wrong?! You’re freakin’ me out here!”

“My father…I-I was just a kid…”

“What? You’re making no sense right now!” Michael closed his eyes as tightly as possible to try and resist the urge to start sobbing, and he slammed his fist on the table to get his emotions out causing a dirty test tube to fall on the cement floor and shatter. “Uh, y’know, you can tell me later. Just calm down and stop breaking things!”

“I can’t help it!” he yelled as he hung his head down. “The memory of being experimented on isn’t exactly a pleasant memory!”

Alex was silent for a second, not quite sure how to react and they kept looking at the old report paper and back at Michael. “That…that kid…that was you?!” 

Suddenly everything made more sense. His strange fear of the chime of a Grandfather’s Clock, the way he was always on edge, the almost constant complaints of nightmares that reduced his sleep so there were noticeable dark circles under his eyes, he was seeing something that time he was experimented on which left him scarred for life.

Michael sighed, relaxed the muscles in his face, took several deep breaths and after a minute and the darkness behind his eyelids relaxed him a little he faced Alex again. “Sorry about…yelling at you.”

“It’s cool. I have no idea what it’d be like to be experimented on as a kid, I guess that’s what it’s like.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“Let’s just keep looking,” Alex said. “Forget this ever happened, how ‘bout that?”

“It’s what I’ve been trying to do for all my life,” Michael said as he picked up the report, crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it across the room near the tanks of old chemicals.

He picked up the flashlight off of the table and went to a corner of the room that caught his eye ever since he entered the room: a giant metal elevator that looked very out of place in the lab. The elevator was huge, obviously used to hold very large items and was imbedded into the wall.

Michael gulped and headed for the rusty elevator door, pushed the red button next to it and waited to see if it would do anything. He was a bit nervous because it made a low rumbling sound so he was afraid it might blow up, but then the doors miraculously opened, surprisingly still being able to function over twenty years later.

“It…it works.”

“Uh…you sure that’s safe?” Alex asked as Michael headed for the open elevator door. “This thing doesn’t look very stable.”

“I have no idea.”

Michael went in and looked around the elevator and everything matched up to Alex’s description from earlier that day: metal walls, rusted tubes on the walls, what Michael guessed to be a control panel from the wires and buttons which was covered by very dusty glass, a giant fan overhead which of course wasn’t working but was probably once used for ventilation and a big red button right next to the door with a number pad underneath it.

But, what Michael really wanted to see were the two posters on opposite sides of the door confirming that his mother and sister were here: posters of Ballora and Circus Baby. He had read over and over again that their remnant was trapped inside these two animatronics, Ballora having his mother’s remnant injected and Elizabeth’s fused with the metal since her lifeless body could no longer contain it.

He knelt down to get a better look at the old pictures and there was no doubt in his mind that even if he couldn’t find his mother, Circus Baby was the one who snatched his little sister right in front of his very eyes. “Mum…” he said quietly. “Lizzie…”

He couldn’t help a smile was slowly spreading across his freckled face, happy that he finally found them after all these years and all it took was descending to who knows how deep underground, and he was going to do everything in his power to free them from their metal prison.

“So?” Alex said suddenly after many minutes and snapped Michael back to reality.

“Agh! Um, y-yeah?”

“Did I seriously scare you?”

“No!” Alex gave him a side-eye. “You just startled me is all!”

“Yeah…anyway, is this what you were looking for? Did I find the right place?”

Michael looked at them and smiled. “Yes.”

Chapter 161: NOT PART OF AU (update)

Hello all!

My deepest apologies for not uploading to this fic in…almost a year i think??? life got busy. i’m 20 (21 in a month) and started this fic when i was like 15-16. i have adult responsibilities and college 

busy isn’t the only reason why i stopped uploading unfortunately. the main reason is because im not as into FNAF as i was. dont get me wrong, i still like it, i love the storyline and the games, i'm just not as involved with the fandom as i used to be and im starting to loose interest in it, because i hate how they are just milking the game at this point when in my opinion it should have ended at 6 

it had a good run and the fandom is still active 10 years later which is longer than most games, but to me it’s getting old, they’re making the lore more confusing and complex than it should be, and there’s way too many plot holes. i do think that that’s why it went on for so long because the fandom can try and fill those plot holes, but it gets to a point, you know?

the other big reason i stopped uploading to this is because, well im stuck. i honestly have no idea how to continue with the story from this point, especially with the semi-new lore from SOTM which i do want to include at some point but it’s difficult to try and shove it in

the same goes for my other fic. it was an impulsive idea that i have no way to continue writing

does this mean that this fic will close permanently? maybe??? one day i do want to eventually finish it since i love the storyline i created so far, but that’s iffy. i need to get the motivation back for writing it even though it’s crazy long right now. might be too long at this point, so i’m torn on the idea

the other fic i have, sorry but that one will be closing permanently. there’s no way i can finish writing it as i’m not super involved with either fandom

honestly, idk if i will continue writing fics. i might in my spare time for myself mainly, but since FNAF is what got me started on this account i don’t know if i should completely rebrand since, if i do continue, uploading will be rare. like once every few months rare

i still love writing, but finding time and motivation when i have time is extremely rare these days since i am focusing on my studies, finding a new job and cosplaying from time to time

thanks for understanding!!!

-Asher (the author)

p.s: all of my works will stay up on my account until i figure out what to do with them, but will not be uploading anything new to them