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Elizabeth Afton had been pretending for as long as she could remember.
When you mention the word "Afton" many adjectives probably come to mind. That was how Elizabeth described her last name and her relationship to her family. At times, you could think of Afton as a busy family. Others, like a happy family. Other days, you might be envious of her fame in the small town of Hurricane and her money. Other times, it was just another last name.
If you were to ask little Elizabeth then 4 years old, just beginning to fully understand the reality around her (albeit with rather extensive body language and dialect for her age. Some described her as a child prodigy who was extremely quick to adapt. Elizabeth, however, knew that it was only because of the need she felt to make her father proud), which she thought of her family, would definitely be something curious.
William Afton; most likely about him is that he would tell you that he was a great father, loving and understanding, somewhat busy but that he cared for her and her brothers with her life, that he did everything for them . (Elizabeth knew that this was the first lie she had ever told. William wasn't the half of that as a father. She paid no attention to any of the three, she had seen him hitting Michael more than once and once he had kicked her, calling her a worthless girl. Elizabeth yearned for his attention like a bloody flea. She really found him foolish now, as she always did her best to please him, for him to just give her the most fake smile of his life and tell her he was proud of her; walking out of the room and muttering that she was disgusting. Elizabeth always knew that and still tried to please him).
Michael Afton; a big brother who cared about her and hers her younger brother, Evan Afton. Most likely, she would tell you that he adores him with his soul. (Elizabeth knew that it was the second lie she had ever told. She had no doubt that Michael loved them, but he used to bully Evan constantly and make fun of her for being a "daddy's girl." Still, Elizabeth always loved him. and she will always love him, because she always remembered those nights where she cried intensely during one of her father's arguments and her older brother appeared among Afton's corrupted roots, hugging her and whispering that everything would be fine).
Evan Afton; Certainly Elizabeth didn't usually have much to say about him. Chances are that if you asked her about him, she would tell you that he is a complete sweetheart, that she was always comforting her even when they were barely a year apart. (Elizabeth knew that it was the third lie she had told in her life, when really she and Evan were non-existent to each other. Of course she loved him, it was her family, but she cried all day with Michael tormenting him constantly, sometimes She was barely able to formulate a coherent sentence without freaking out. Still, she tried to defend him from her older brother as best she could. Still, it wasn't all a lie. He was the first to call her "Lizzy")
Mrs. Afton; if you asked Elizabeth about her mother, she could really say a simple: she died when I was a baby and I don't remember her, sorry. (Elizabeth knew that this was the fourth lie told in her life, because she remembered it very well. She had died when little Elizabeth was barely 5 years old, almost turning 6. She never knew the cause of her death, no It was very hard to take when she saw a stupidly faked sad expression drawn on her father's face. As a person who faked it all the time, Elizabeth knew instantly that it had been her fault. Her mother's few memories of her only boiled down to her holding her and cradling her in her arms lovingly (Little Lizzy had understood that he was physically the same as her, not drawing any apparent physical traits from William beyond his typical British accent and the shape of his nose).
For Elizabeth, pretending was normal, something so normal. She remembered William saying that one of her worst qualities was his ability to suppress his emotions. Elizabeth agreed seeing how foolishly impulsive her eldest was, even though her mother said it was part of her charm. The current green-eyed girl could only laugh when she remembered it, seeing how she had ended up with that same woman because of that same stupid man she had married.
For little Elizabeth, then, barely 6 years old, putting a mask over her face and pretending to be something she wasn't, was really simple, very simple. She used to do it all the time, just snapping out of it. Her mind constantly replayed William's words clinging to her brain “Make me proud and be the best. Remember, my little Elizabeth, the Aftons are a loving family." After all, she did fight to make him happy.
Thus, pretending and lying was something secondary in Elizabeth's life, so present that she sometimes confused with the truth.
...
When Elizabeth was 7 years old, she painted for the first time on a drawing an animatronic clown, a girl, beautiful and blue-eyed, with a red outfit and red hair tied in pigtails. Actually, she came out of her imagination, even though she liked her creation. Evan enthusiastically told him that the drawing was amazing, even Michael admitted that it was better drawn than many of her miserable attempts to improve her drawing.
William, however, the one person she really wanted to make proud, had a different idea. He only offered a nonchalant “Okay” when little Lizzy showed it to him, taking up her robotics work. For little Elizabeth, pretending and lying was something normal, so she drew a look enough on her face, with a disgusting smile plastered on him, returning to her room with that same expression on her face.
Elizabeth was surprised when at school she saw that many children found it difficult to lie. She really considered it silly, it was as simple as imagining a role and tying yourself to it, with impressive skills. She was mostly insensitive to her reactions, caring only how real they were. However, the rest of the children her age seemed to have a hard time doing it. They stuttered or said something completely different from what they had said, others failed and admitted the lie.
For Elizabeth Afton, someone who had lied and pretended for as long as she could remember, the scene was ridiculous to watch. She sometimes considered those her age simply too dumb to catch up with her. (Elizabeth knew that this was a self-convincing lie, in an attempt to feel self-sufficient, even though William's words remained ingrained in her brain. She simply knew that children her age were normal and that she was the problem).
...
When Elizabeth met Charlotte Emily that she was the same age as her, she being the eldest daughter of Henry Emily; her father's best friend, she knew that everyone in her world was strange. That time, it was the first time that she openly admitted that her reality was something out of the ordinary. That time, she really realized how empty her heart was, how empty of father and daughter moments, even brother and sister, that she had in her family.
Her eyes fixedly observed the scene, with the little chestnut timidly hugging her father's leg, while he knelt in front of her and lovingly caressed her hair, leaving a kiss on her forehead and wishing her good luck, encouraging her and animatedly introducing her to the group of children her age to the girl, who greeted with a hello and a "I'm Charlotte, but you can call me Charlie."
His lips trembled in something he couldn't quite make out, and then he could make out like a feeling of strange longing and emptiness together, watching as Henry lovingly hugged his daughter after giving her a birthday present, telling her how much he loved her and that he was the greatest. treasure in his life with his other son; Sam Emily, although they called her Sammy.
Her fists clenched furiously with what she could easily tell was jealousy when she saw little Charlotte perched on her father's shoulders, acting childishly towards her as they played together, with the little girl dressed as a knight and Henry being her father. faithful companion who took her everywhere. The scene was, in all respects, tender. A fond smile spread across Henry's lips, along with an ecstatic and excited smile from Charlotte.
Elizabeth truly knew that she envied Charlotte Emily when she turned and walked slowly towards her father, having heard her call earlier. She knew that her life was really weird when William grabbed her arm roughly and dragged her through the pizzeria, saying that she should go with Michael and Evan. The protest died in her arm, with the green-eyed woman letting herself be trampled by the older man with fear.
That day, Elizabeth Afton questioned herself for the first time, what was life like for others?
And yet, a kind and adorable smile spread across the girl's face as she reached her siblings, with Michael lazily looking at her and Evan hugging her stuffed animal fearfully, tears dry and picturesque on his cheeks. her.
Elizabeth Afton had learned to pretend for as long as she could remember and she realized that she did it with everyone, even her family or herself.
...
When William created what was then her favorite animatronic; Circus Baby, little 7-year-old Lizzy's eyes shone brightly, with admiration, seeing the animatronic. It was exactly the same as her drawing, with William claiming that he had based it on it to create it and that it was for her. That day, when he introduced her to her from afar, was the first day William knelt in front of her and put an arm around her body in a welcome embrace, giving her something of herself.
It was the first time that Elizabeth Afton felt the affection of a father, and still, She easily realized that the love the older man was giving her was nothing more than a farce when she left the room and heard an irritated sigh from William, mentioning something like she was a complete nuisance in her high-pitched girlish voice and that she wished she hadn't. brought out his British accent. A smile spread across Elizabeth's face when she heard the footsteps of someone approaching her, probably Evan or Michael.
It was one of the times where she pretended again in front of her brothers without any problem. Elizabeth realized that something was wrong.
...
When Circus Baby Pizza World first opened its doors to the public after months of intense preparation and construction on the animatronics and sets themselves, Elizabeth almost ran to see the Funtimes, and yet William told her not to go see them. ; especially Circus Baby. The girl's bright and excited eyes dimmed for a moment, and yet, a fake mask rose over her face as soon as she fell for a second, showing a serene face and obediently nodding at the command, settling for watching from afar. the animatronics to function in each of their scenarios.
Elizabeth wondered the reason for the warning and realized that it was false when William had no qualms about leaving her there, completely thrown, surrounded by unknown people. That day, she finally realized that everything she longed for was just that, longing, and that she would never have it. That day, Elizabeth Afton understood what it meant to be an Afton.
...
It wasn't better when she disobeyed her father. Little Lizzy, curious, ventured through the busy and crowded place. She walked through the halls, ignoring the small glances of the adults towards her; Of course it would be easy to recognize her, especially when her name had "Afton" at the end. The green-eyed girl arrived on the Circus Baby stage and her empty eyes lit up with adoration as she watched the animatronic work.
She was so pretty and so gorgeous, Elizabeth realized. She sang, danced, moved, even had artificial intelligence capable of responding to and understanding children's comments. She was perfect, Circus Baby was everything Elizabeth wanted to be to the rest and to her family; she realized. Elizabeth realized that if she was for the rest, but not for the interior. A bitterness settled in her stomach and yet she entered the stage.
She saw children her age, some older and some younger, staring at the animatronic in amazement, with some adults taking care of her children. Circus baby handed out goblets as she sang and danced, going through each child. She was even able to dispense ice cream from her fingers, being able to scoop out ice cream cones from her compartment. It was splendid, Circus Baby was splendid, wonderful. A longing smile spread across the little girl's face, amazed at the animatronic in front of her.
When there were no children left on the stage, Elizabeth dared to step onto the stage, having been watching from afar; even from this distance, she recalled her father's insistent words in her memory. Her steps wobbled slowly toward the animatronic, curious and admiring. Circus baby seemed to notice her, approaching her with her typical smile on her mechanical face.
"What are you doing here alone, little girl?" The sweet voice of Circus baby spoke to her, reaching out a hand as an ice cream cone came out of her torso and from her fingertips she dispensed the vanilla ice cream, forming the shape of the ice cream over the cone, spreading it directly towards the Afton. Elizabeth's eyes widened, instinctively taking a step back, however, a moment later, they lit up, peering doubtfully between the ice cream and Circus baby.
William's words about not getting close to the Funtimes, especially Circus baby, rang in her mind for a moment. "Do not fear, I am here for you. I can sing you a song, baby.” Circus Baby spoke to her, as kindly as anyone before. The green-eyed woman's mind remembered Evan's trembling voice, Michael's irritated voice and William's deep and angry voice, constantly telling her that she was annoying. And yet Circus Baby treated her like one of them, like someone other than an Afton, just like a lost child here. A smile spread across her face and she held out her hand for the ice cream.
That day, Elizabeth Afton made the worst mistake of her life.
...
If you were to ask Elizabeth how her death felt, most likely she would tell you as something quick that only scared her for a second. However, the bitter memory was stuck in her mind even through the years. The memory of how she extended her arm towards the ice cream cone held by the animatronic, and as soon as her fingertip touched the cone, Circus Baby's torso split open.
From there, a large claw came out, which grabbed the small body of the Afton. SHe still perfectly remembered his horror, his heart pounding when he couldn't get out of the firm grip and within a minute, his entire body crashed into the interior of Circus Baby. One thing Elizabeth is certain of is that she will never forget the physical sensation of how every bone in her body was compressed and then shattered as Circus Baby grabbed her with the pincers, how her skin was cut deep all the way to her feet. his muscles or how he felt more than one of his fingers even fall from his hand.
Elizabeth knew the pain she felt in every inch of her body even if it had been for an instant before her brain was crushed as well; squeezing his blood and cracking his skull, it was real, when he remembered William taking his engorged, blood-covered body out of the Circus Baby, slaughtered and almost unrecognizable if not for his still-tattered clothing, and most of all his trademark hair. orange.
That day, Elizabeth Afton died.
...
Elizabeth doesn't remember very clearly how she felt when the day after what she, she supposed was her death, she woke up, now on a stage; different from the one she remembered when she was killed by Circus Baby, smaller and less decorated, but still a stage. She only remembers three things:
His fear
your surprise
And her pain.
If she Elizabeth had to describe her stay in her early days at Circus baby, she would probably say something like it was easy to adjust. Indeed, Elizabeth still vividly remembers her horror when she saw her hands and instead of her small, white human hands, she saw the white, mechanical arms of Circus baby, perfectly capable of dispensing ice cream or inflating balloons from the door of her index finger. Elizabeth still remembers her surprise when she touched her face and realized that the image of her and her likeness was nothing more than that of Circus Baby. Elizabeth definitely remembers very clearly the pain in every inch of her body those first few days, as if the wounds on her human body were still present and rooted in her body, she still remembers what it felt like to walk, feeling indescribable pain, even though she had no system. nervous in the slightest now that he was a robot.
...
Elizabeth remembers spending decades at Circus Baby Entertainment and Rentals, locked up and emotionally destroyed on her stage. Remember how he learned every little thing about the underground, remember how he even manipulated the artificial intelligence of the Hand Unit to give him access to especially secret information such as how the Scooper works or how, oh surprise, the Funtimes were specially made to kill children, with a cavity in its torso ready to crush children to death there.
At Circus Baby Entertainment and Rentals, Elizabeth Afton learned more than just pretend and lie. She learned to manipulate.
Down there, Elizabeth felt like a prisoner, trapped in a mechanical body, in a subterranean from which she could not get out in the least. There, she Elizabeth learned to manipulate even the artificial intelligences of the Funtimes; that although they had captured children, they were not possessed. Elizabeth wondered if it was the curse for being an Afton; daughter of a murderer
In Circus Baby Entertainment and Rentals, Elizabeth Afton found out that William Afton was an investigator and murderer who was completely sick, even deciding to torment Evan into being terrified of animatronics after she died.
In Circus Baby Entertainment and Rentals, Elizabeth Afton really stopped being the old Lizzy and just became 'William Afton's Younger Daughter; the serial killer who haunts Fazbear's restaurants.'
...
Elizabeth vividly remembers the new security guard who had taken up the job on the subway. She had no idea who she was, and yet she didn't care either. She only learned that the Hand Unit identified him as Eggs Benedict, though Elizabeth easily knew that that was not her name and was just a product of the Hand Unit's unmaintained keyboard failure.
Elizabeth remembers with a kind of sick amusement coursing through her veins (He reminded her of William, Elizabeth assumed it ran in the family, and then corrected herself, remembering that stupid man wasn't her father) the desperate face of the security guard once completely dropped her acting and in his lies, now in front of the Scooper.
Elizabeth remembers how a macabre smile slipped across her face mentally, finally letting go of the stupid mask she had created for herself, even in her own mind; with Circus Baby's facial expression inability. She finally let the sick emotion work through her veins as the Scooper crashed into the body of the security guard, who coldly hit the wall behind him.
Elizabeth remembers the strange feeling of delight that she ignored when she became aware of the grotesque scene before her, now turned into Ennard physically fused with the rest of the Funtimes; with her taking primary control of her body. Her robotic eyes lazily fixed on the fallen, delirious body of the Guard, though she knew she wasn't going to die for the remnant. She actually found William's research on it useful, even though she was the main victim of her experiments.
Elizabeth remembers how the animatronic Ennard's feet were stained with blood as she got closer and closer to the body of the night guard, helpless and motionless, with her entire torso open; without organs and giving free access to see her ribs, with some still broken. Blood was splattered viciously around her, leaving a trail of blood under the Scooper's spoon containing the boy's organs.
Elizabeth remembers when she entered the hollow of the Afton's torso and wrapped herself around his ribs, making sure to hide, while she waited patiently for the night guard to wake up. Internally, she was curious about what would happen to her body, she was still 100 unaware of how the remnant worked; since William had not concluded her investigation. She supposed the night guard would stay alive, though his body would probably rot over time like a rotting corpse.
...
Certainly Elizabeth also remembers when Eggs Benedict's body expelled Ennard's body by vomiting it up, unable to take it anymore, falling to the ground completely dead, with his body completely paralyzed and his skin rotting purple; smelling of decay. Ennard's body drifted across where he had been spat at, something mixed with blood, into the sewers.
Elizabeth still remembers her argument with the Funtime artificial intelligences, which ended in her being expelled from the force. Elizabeth still remembers the immense anger she felt, the pain of tradition fresh in her blood, remembering that thanks to her, they were free of her and had made it out of the underground; even if they had to kill an innocent.
...
Elizabeth has hazy memories of the last thing that happened in the last time before she died. She remembers reconstructing herself from pieces of garbage, now nothing more than a physical shadow of what she was, and then, a hooded guy with a strange white mask over his face picked her up from the garbage alley where she was, carrying her who knows where. Elizabeth didn't resist for some reason, though she had a claw on her arm ready to kill the subject.
Even with her blurred memories, she clearly remembers that last day where the temperature began to rise uncontrollably in the labyrinth where she and other animatronics had been locked up. She knew William was one of them and it wasn't hard to recognize Molten Freddy as Ennard when those same bastards betrayed her, threw her to her own fate, forced her to rebuild herself from the remaining pieces of garbage animatronics. Certainly the black bear was someone unknown to her; she didn't care either.
The day Henry's last message, left like a recorder, played, interrupting her words, she understood that the bear (if she remembered correctly, it was Lefty) was Charlie. William had murdered her. That was new news, but Elizabeth didn't feel anything, she didn't feel anger, she didn't feel fear, she didn't feel resentment. She simply felt empty, it was ironic, her whole life felt empty in her heart.
That day, the mask that Elizabeth herself had put on her broke into pieces and fell to the floor in small pieces as she walked on the pieces. She watched William run from the fire, his body still worn away from him; the girl wondered how the man had ended up in that suit. She couldn't have cared less. She skated easily away from the fire, looking for no way out; if not, rather, to the black bear.
Elizabeth vaguely remembered her days when she was alive and how Charlie, in all of her, always treated her well and wanted to play with her; although the girl's blood boiled with jealousy and injustice when she realized the difference in lives between her and Charlie. However, she did not manage to find it, instead of her, she ran into the same subject that she had killed years ago in order to be free of her; Eggs Benedict, now without her white mask.
Elizabeth knew it was Michael when the purple-skinned man gave her a tender and warm smile, just like the one the Michael of the past had given her. A warm feeling settled in Elizabeth's heart, temporarily covering the emptiness that covered her heart infinitely. Scrap Baby stared at the man for a moment, before a mental smile spread across her face, though she was unable to express it physically. Still, Michael seemed to get the message.
The fire consumed the labyrinth, with the temperature now high. Finally, the fire reached where both Michael and Elizabeth were sitting next to each other, watching the fire consume everything around them, getting closer to consume them. Scrap baby turned his gaze to the boy watching the fire, his purple eyes reflecting the intense glow of the fire.
"I'm sorry I didn't save you back then, Elizabeth." Michael's hoarse and especially British voice caught his attention, although he still retained his characteristic tone from his adolescence. Scrap baby turned to look at him, his voice box slightly broken, yet he still tried.
"Ssssorry for hmmmatting you" The words came out with some interference. Michael just smiled, shaking his head, and looked at the green-eyed girl.
"From now on, let's rest in peace together and maybe we can meet Evan and Mom in heaven, Lizzy."
For the first time in more than 50 years, a sincere and warm smile mentally appeared on Afton's face. The fire finally consumed them both quickly, wiping out their bodies in a second.
This was how the Afton story came to an end. Finally, Elizabeth Afton was able to be free.
Elizabeth Afton learned to pretend at an early age and had been doing it for as long as she could remember. However, for once, she smiled sincerely, walking along the small shimmering tunnel. She knew that she would have to pay for her sins, but she was willing to do it in order to one day meet Michael, Evan and her mother on the other side.
...