Chapter Text
It hadn’t taken long for Mike to figure out who the blond-haired ghost kid had been referring to. It was, of course, fairly obvious. And looking back, it made sense that he would come to possess the suit that he died in, given that was the same thing that happened to the kids, who were quite obviously not gone.
Unfortunately for him, by the time he felt mentally stable enough to even consider going back to Freddy’s for a third time, the building where Afton had died had already been demolished.
Not wanting to get involved in whatever crazy shit was going on with that stupid restaurant chain this time, Mike had tried to move on, telling himself that there was nothing more that he could do. He had searched the ruins of the pizzeria just in case, but found no sign of the killer. He figured that even if there was a corpse rabbit scouring the town looking for him, he should be somewhat safe given that he moved houses. Without an active outside source Afton would have no idea where he was, and while a part of him worried about Vanessa, he tried to shut down any train of thought involving her.
Vanessa had made her choices, and Mike had made his. It was far too late to back out now.
He was fully ready to forget that Freddy’s had ever happened when Abby spoke up as the two were eating dinner together.
“I saw in the paper a few days ago that there’s a horror attraction opening nearby,” She said while absentmindedly stabbing her fork into her spaghetti. “And some people at school were talking about it today.”
Mike scoffed. “It’s a bit early for Halloween celebrations, don’t you think? Plus, I’d have figured this town had seen enough horror in the past few months.”
“About that…” Abby said, hesitantly looking at Mike before examining her plate again. “...It’s based off of Freddy’s. I think the place is called Fazbear’s Fright or something like that.”
“If I never hear about Freddy’s again it will be too soon,” Mike half joked. He could tell what Abby was planning, and he was quickly trying to derail her train of thought. “Weren’t you also saying that kids at your school thought that one of your lunch ladies was recycling trashed food and serving it again?”
Abby rolled her eyes. “That’s different. And did you forget what the blond kid said? Afton’s coming back, you heard him say it yourself.”
“First of all, just because one of your friends says it doesn’t mean it’s true, dead kid or not,” Mike defended. “And second, what does any of that have to do with some horror attraction?”
Abby rolled her eyes like it should be obvious. “The attraction is housing genuine pieces of Freddy’s, it says so on the ad. They could have found something from before the restaurant was destroyed that could help us!”
“The chances of them having anything even remotely interesting are astronomically low, and I’m more than busy enough taking care of you, fixing up the new house, and trying to get a job.”
“Well,” Abby slid a newspaper that she had been hiding in her lap across the table to Mike, “This could fix one of those problems.”
Mike took the newspaper, seeing a large printed ‘Help Wanted!’ ad for said attraction. “Wait, I thought you were talking about, like, going there once to see if they had anything. You expect me to work here?” Shock filled Mike’s voice.
“Well you’re looking for a job anyways, so you might as well. Plus, what’s the worst that can happen? If there's nothing there then you can just move on, and you will have gotten at least some pay. And if there is something there, then we’ll finally have a lead, and you’ll also have money! It’s a win-win!”
Mike sighed. The promise of a job opportunity was tempting, he hadn’t had a huge pile of cash saved up before Freddy’s and caring for himself and his sister was eating through his funds fast. He really didn’t have much of a choice, and he could tell that Abby had been worried about the blond kid’s warning. This would solve both of their problems, and Mike quickly found himself giving in.
Not wanting to get Abby’s hopes up, Mike promised to look into it before quickly changing the subject.
He just had to hope that he wasn’t making another terrible mistake.
**********
Fortunately (or unfortunately, if you asked Mike), the job offer seemed legit. Actually it was almost perfect, the pay was decent, and he would be working in a position that he already had experience in. He wanted to put off putting in an application for longer, as his heart still wasn’t fully ready to relive his trauma (again) after only a few months of peace, but the rational part of his mind knew that this was a rare opportunity, and if he wanted a chance at this he would have to take it before someone else did.
A little over a week after sending in his application, and here he was, sitting in a waiting room about to have his interview.
From what Mike was able to see, the Fazbear’s Fright was completely covered in Freddy’s merchandise, no matter what quality or condition it was in. Posters from various locations littered the walls, and there were even a few machine parts scattered here and there. Mike had to admit though, they had nailed the ‘horror’ atmosphere. The place was dark, with exposed wires handing out of nearly every ceiling tile, and unidentifiable stains littering the walls. Mike had nearly jumped out of his skin when he rounded a corner just to come face-to-face with an empty Freddy head hanging from a stand. Where they had gotten something like that, with the classic animatronics having ‘died’ at his house during the final battle with the Marionette before being lovingly buried in the local dump, Mike had no idea.
The interview was conducted by the owner of the horror attraction, a young man who looked to be in his early twenties. He stuck out like a sore thumb in the building, his bright and retro-styled clothing clashing with the yellowed walls and floors. Given the man’s attitude during the interview as well as the faint smell of smoke and weed on his breath, Mike assumed that he had rich parents and was looking for something to do with the money that he clearly had too much of. Not that Mike was complaining, sure it meant that the management of this place would probably be beyond awful, but a paycheck is a paycheck, and Mike surely wasn’t going to be the one to point out that this job was paying way too much for what the requirements were.
The interview had to be put on pause multiple times for the other man to answer various phone calls, further supporting Mike’s assumptions about him being inexperienced and unprofessional. Other than that, though, the interview seemed to go very well. The interviewer, (who’s name Mike never got) seemed impressed by his variety of experience, and all but hired him on the spot.
“Oh,” the interviewer had said to him as Mike was leaving, “there was another guy who applied for the same position, we weren’t originally intending to have two people working security but hey, the more the merrier, am I right? Haha, anyways you can expect to have a coworker when you come in. I hope that’s alright, I know this was advertised as being a one-person job.”
After Mike assured him that he wasn’t bothered, they thanked each other and Mike was on his way. He had honestly been pretty relieved when he heard that he was going to have someone else working with him, it would surely help his sanity levels and keep him entertained (and awake) throughout the shifts.
Abby was ecstatic to hear the news, and she made Mike promise to take her when the attraction opened. He agreed half-heartedly, not wanting to scare her or encourage her obsession with Freddy’s but feeling obligated to as she had been the one to suggest the job in the first place.
Two days later, he walked into the building once more to start his first shift.
The attraction wasn’t due to open for at least another week, so Mike was unsurprised to only find one other car in the parking lot.
Guess my co-worker got here before me, he thought.
Fishing through his pockets for the keys that he had been given, he unlocked the door to the building. Mike was intrigued to see that there had already been noticeable progress made in furnishing the building, with multiple trinkets and decorations that hadn’t been there previously passing him by as he made his way to the security office.
Passing by the large window in front of the office where he was to be working, he could see a figure hunched over one of the screens, their features warped by the clouded and dirty glass.
“Hello-” Walking though the doorway, Mike’s greeting was cut short as he locked eyes with the other man. His blood froze as the other man’s face contorted in equal amounts of shock, anger quickly filling his eyes.
“YOU,” Mike spat. The other man quickly recovered, schooling his features to look calm and confident, but the glint of rage remained in his eyes.
“Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise! I wasn’t expecting to see you again quite so soon… Mike.”
“What are you doing here, Michael? Finally given up on your father’s ‘legacy’?”
Michael Afton chuckled, standing from the chair he had been sitting on. “Quite the opposite, actually. But I'll spare you the details. A better question is, what are you doing here? I was under the impression that you wanted nothing to do with Freddy’s, with all that talk about ‘moving on’.”
Mike took a step back as Michael advanced on him. “Wha- I didn’t- how did you know about-”
Michael laughed as he took another step forward. “Did you really think that I wasn’t keeping tabs on Vanessa? You just happened to come with the package.” Mike sputtered, his brain still in shock from the revelation that he was working with Michael Afton, a man who had not only tried to kill him once before, but was related to and actively supported the actions of a serial killer who had also tried to kill him.
“You’ve been stalking me?”
Michael’s face contorted into an evil grin. “I’ve been watching you for a long time, Mike. You, and your sister-”
At the mention of Abby, the dam in Mike’s head broke. Mike leaped forward, his fist slamming into Michael’s jaw. The Afton stumbled back, his hand coming up to his face. The shock in his eyes quickly reverted to hate, but before he was able to make a move Mike was on top of him, slamming him down onto the ground.
“You, and your crazy family better stay away from my sister!” Mike reared his fist back, ready to punch again, but was interrupted by a sudden beeping sound coming from the desk. Both men froze, glancing toward the ringing phone. Before he could do anything, Michael shoved Mike off of him, brushing the dust off of his clothes before picking up the phone. “...Hello?”
“He-hey! Glad you came back for another night! Is Mike in there with you?” Mike recognized the voice as the owner of the building.
Michael glanced towards him before turning back to the phone. “Uh, yeah- yeah, we’re both here.”
“Okay great! I’ll be calling you at the beginning of your shift to make sure that everything’s going well since I can’t be there in person, just checking in to make sure everything’s alright,” Mike edged closer to the desk as the call went on, earning himself a suspicious side glance from Michael.
“Lemme just update you real quick, then you two can get back to work. Uhm, when the place opens, people will come in at the opposite end of the building, work their towards you, pass you, and go out the exit. So not only will you be monitoring the people on the camera as they pass through, you know, to make sure no one steals anything or makes out in the corner, but you'll also be a part of the show! It'll make it feel, really authentic I think. Uh, we’re tracking down a good lead right now, actually, so hopefully we’ll have something really good before the attraction opens next week.
“Um, that’s pretty much it, I think… there should be some written instructions in the first drawer on the desk, try to look through that tonight, but uh other than that you two should be good! Call me back if you need anything!”
The phone beeped once more as their now boss hung up. The two men glanced at each other, hesitant and wary, but the look was quickly broken by Michael sitting back down in the chair and rummaging through the drawers.
“What are you doing?” Mike asked, confused by the sudden change in attitude.
“Looking for the instructions, duh. We can’t exactly go back to trying to kill each other when it’ll be pretty obvious what happened with Phone Dude checking up on us at least once a shift.”
“Phone Dude?”
Michael stopped rummaging through the drawer to look at Mike, one eyebrow raised. “Did he give you his name?”
“...no.”
“Well he’s a dude, and he’s on the phone, so I figure that’s the best thing we’ve got,” With that Michael continued his search.
Mike stood there watching him as he struggled to come to terms with everything that had just happened. Eventually Michael found the instructions booklet, letting out a small “aha!” of victory.
As Michael began reading, Mike looked around the room. “Is there another chair in here?”
Without looking up, Michael answered “Nope, and this one’s mine.”
Mike sighed in defeat, searching around the room for something interesting to do to pass the time. The next ten minutes was spent in relative silence, with only the occasional shuffle or turning of a page filling the room.
Halfway through the booklet, Michael sighed, closing the book and tossing it at Mike’s face. “Yeah, this is garbage. Go look around the rest of the building, would you?”
Barely catching the book before it hit him in the face, Mike glared at the man, disgust curling in his chest. “Excuse me?”
Michael turned to him, his gaze unimpressed. “You heard me. Go make yourself useful for once.”
“If you think that I’m going to let you out of my sight for even one second you’ve got something else coming for you.”
Michael’s face split with a sharp smile, “Why, I’d almost think you don’t trust me.”
“That’s because I don’t. I don’t trust you, or any other member of your family,” Mike’s gut twisted at the half-truth.
Michael’s grin widened. “Aww, did you and Vanny have a messy breakup? Oh, you poor, poor thing!” he said in a mocking tone.
“Shut up,” Mike spat. “You’re one to talk, she didn’t exactly seem ecstatic to see you last time.”
Michael shrugged. “She chose her side, and I chose mine. Plus, with her out of the way, it will be a lot easier for me to win my father’s favour.” That last sentence was said quieter, almost under Michael’s breath, as though he didn’t intend for Mike to hear it.
Mike laughed. “You sure seemed to care when she first rejected you, despite how hard you tried to not show it.”
Michael’s face shifted into a dark glare. “She has forgotten her place in the world. I have not. One day she’ll realize her mistake,” He smirked, “And you of all people are one to judge me on sibling relationships.”
Cold dread furrowed its way down Mike’s throat and into his stomach. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” He spelled out through gritted teeth.
Michael laughed, abruptly standing up. “Oh, don’t lie to me Schmidt. I know all about Garrett, and how you failed at the one thing that you were supposed to do.”
Mike’s vision clouded with tears, and he shouted as he swung a fist at Michael’s face again. The other man was prepared this time, however, and easily caught Mike’s fist, using his own momentum against him to turn him around and slam him against the wall.
Mike gasped, struggling to catch his breath. “You are very predictable, Schmidt. Honestly it’s a miracle anyone trusts you to look after that girl after what happened, and it’s not hard to see that you haven't learned from your mistakes. You’re just as careless with her as you were with that little brat.”
Mike struggled, trying to get out of Michael’s hold, but the larger man held tight. “But I guess that’s not really your fault, is it? It’s those idiot parents of yours that don’t know how to discipline.”
“What, like yours? I can only imagine the ways that Afton liked to torture his own kids given his track record,” Mike managed to gasp out between breaths. Michael shoved him again, pushing the air out of Mike’s lungs.
“Well he at least knew what he was doing. He knew how to teach a lesson, something you clearly never learned.” Mike coughed as he was released, leaning his weight against the wall.
“Now, if you’re insisting on being useless, I’ll have to go explore the building,” Michael stated before walking out of the room. A part of Mike wanted to follow him and find out what he was doing, but he decided against it. He could just watch him on the cameras, and the more distance between the two the better Mike would feel.
It took Mike a few minutes to get used to the cameras, but he managed to track Michael throughout the building. It didn’t seem like he was doing anything in particular, just poking around.
Deciding that Michael probably wasn’t going to do anything malicious, Mike resorted to looking around the room. He searched through the drawers, both the ones on the desk and the ones on the filing cabinet behind him. Most of them were empty, with a few of them holding seemingly random items or what looked like goodies that could be handed out to customers. He tried to read the booklet that Michael had read, but quickly got bored and confused and ended up placing it in his jacket pocket.
Mike played with the small Freddy’s themed bobbleheads on the desk for a few minutes before noticing the large vent opening in the side of the wall next to the desk.
He crouched down so that he was in front of it. Looking at it now, Mike was surprised that he hadn’t noticed it before. Someone his size could easily fit into it. Why would anyone need vents this big? And why are they on the ground? Just add it to the list of weird things about this job.
Mike stood up, turning away from the vent, only to find Foxy standing right in front of him. The animatronic screeched, lurching at Mike’s face, and he shouted, falling back to the ground and covering his face with his hands.
Bracing for a metal hook to lodge itself in his flesh, Mike was surprised to hear laughing. Looking up, he realized that it was not Foxy in front of him, but Michael wearing the broken head that he had seen hanging on the wall his first time here.
Mike glared at the other as he stood up, brushing the grime off of his clothes. “Haha, yes very funny. Don’t you have anything better to do?”
“Oh my god, you should have seen your face! Ha! Oh, that trick never gets old…” Michael patted Mike’s shoulder, the weight and force of the action making him stumble on unsteady feet. “Come on Mikey, lighten up!”
Mike slapped Michael’s hand off, his lip curling. “Don’t act like we’re all buddy-buddy now, Afton.”
Michael feigned mock hurt. “Oh, and here I was thinking that we were finally starting to understand each other. Tsk tsk.” Michael shook his head.
Mike rolled his eyes, beginning to walk away.
“Where you going Mikey? I thought you had to watch me to make sure I didn’t do anything malicious!” Mike didn’t answer as he walked out of the room. He didn’t really have a plan, he knew he couldn’t leave the building for another few hours, but he wanted to get as far away from the raving lunatic that was his co-worker as possible.
Michael chased after him. “Don’t ignore me, Schmidt,” When Mike still didn’t answer, he ran down an adjacent hallway, coming out in front of Mike to cut him off. “I can see why father was so obsessed with you, you really don’t have any self-preservation skills, do you?”
Probably sensing Mike’s confusion at his statement, Michael continued. “I mean, not many people are willing to stand up to a serial killer like you did, but something tells me that move was more out of stupidity than bravery.”
Mike was ready to turn back around when Michael spoke again. “Plus, being able to talk to ghosts is quite the rare ability. Did you know that Garrett could do that too?”
Mike froze.
Michael seemed amused at how he was struggling to hide his reaction. “Your brother was one of my father’s favorite victims. I think he kept him alive the longest, too.”
Mike fought the tears starting to gather in the corners of his eyes. “You don’t know anything about him.”
Michael smiled, a huge manic smile. “Oh, but I do. It’s such a shame that you never got to meet him afterwards, he was truly a sight to behold.”
Mike felt his pulse pounding in his ears. “Stop it.”
The Afton’s smile got impossibly larger. “And you would have loved to hear about the plans that he had for your sister. You know, at first I didn’t understand what he saw in your family, but then I met you in person, and you were just so obsessively infuriating that I couldn’t help but think that my father might have been onto something.”
Mike tried to turn away before the first tear fell, but Michael spun him around, his fiery gaze holding him in place as the wetness traveled down his cheeks. “Where’d all that fighting spirit go, Mikey? Finally realized you're out of your league?” Michael laughed. “Well let me tell you what’s going to happen. I’m going to find my father, and I'm going to help him put my family back together, just like he had said that he would. And after that, I’m going to hunt you and your sister down, and both of you are going to pay for what you did.” Michael spat the words like they were venom, and Mike could feel them sinking into his skin.
“Get off of me.”
To his surprise, Michael obliged. His eyes had darkened, and Mike didn’t doubt for a second that he would do what he was threatening. “Go home, Mike. Enjoy what little time you have. I’ll be waiting.”
Panicked and desperate for an escape, Mike rushed out of the building. He sped out of the parking lot, heart pounding, but quickly cursed himself for his stupidity. He needed this job, and he couldn’t afford to get fired just because his co-worker pissed him off.
Shit! Mike swore, slamming his hand on the steering wheel. I never should have let him get under my skin so easily! Michael’s right, I am predictable.
He took a deep breath, attempting to calm his nerves. Okay, this can still be salvaged. Until further notice, I still have my job, so I’m going to use the rest of the night to calm down, and tomorrow I’ll go back. And that time, I’ll be ready.