A few days after that interaction, William began to leave work early, the time he spent at Freddy's getting smaller and smaller until he completely disappeared.
Henry had never informed you of his worriment, but it was painstakingly clear on his face. Every time William's car failed to appear in its usual parking spot, you'd see Henry's eyebrows crease with perplexity and his mouth twitch downwards into a frown.
Now without the help of William, Henry has had to take on a lot more than he can handle. You always insist on tending to the robots yourself, but Henry refuses. It's not that he doesn't trust you, he doesn't help you with the repairs, he only sits in the same room as you to do his paperwork. You suppose he just prefers the idea of having at least one creator of the animatronics present while you work on them.
It's obvious he's lost sleep over all of this, the lines on his forehead have deepened from the distress and his lips are fixed into a grimace. You often observe him at his desk, staring vacantly into the intricacies of the wood on the furniture, then he removes his glasses, rubbing his eyes until his fingers close and pinch around the bridge of his nose with frustration.
You want to comfort him, but you don't know when you're overstepping as his employee. To be fair to him, it has only been a few days since William's disappearance, you suspect he's holding out hope that he'll return on his own accord before he starts spouting unreasonable anxieties to you.
Even when he's with Charlotte, his cheer is muffled, like the weight of his friend's disappearance is crushing all things good. Henry absentmindedly sails a horse toy through the air as he sits on the dirty floor with his daughter. You are only a few feet away going at Freddy's leg joints with a wrench.
"Where's Michael?" Charlotte suddenly questions, asking the both of you.
"They must be on vacation." Henry hums and knocks over another toy with his horse, staring boredly in another direction.
"Can we go on vacation?"
You try to lighten up the mood and draw Charlotte's attention away from her father, who is getting visibly irritated by the poking and prodding. "You wanna leave me all alone?" You pretend she's just stabbed you in the heart and fall backwards into Freddy's large frame as if he caught you.
Charlotte giggles out a 'no!' and motions you over to sit with them. You comply, Freddy stands still as you leave, joints still slightly loose, but he could wait. Once you drop yourself down onto the floor the kid hands you a lion figurine. She gives you no instructions on what to do with it, so you turn to Henry with a lighthearted grin and knock his horse with your animal. His eyes refocus after the abrupt interruption and he stares up at you questioningly. The unamused expression throws you off slightly and your smile falters, but you recover by shooting him a sympathetic look, as if to say you know what he's worried about, and you're worried too. Henry understands what you're trying to convey.
"Charlotte, could you play outside for a while? We need to talk about grownup stuff."
"Like what?"
Henry rolls his eyes and turns to you, he starts reciting equations with a straight face. Charlotte's face contorts into one of horror and she runs out of the room screaming, sprinkling a few giggles in as she pushes at the large and heavy door. Henry chuckles and watches her leave, yet his face falls into a serious expression in time with the slam of the door.
"We need to talk about William." You thought you'd never hear him say it.
"Have you heard from him at all?" You don't bother to hide your worry, touching the collar of your shirt and tangling it in your hands out of nervousness.
Henry rubs his exposed arms, the dark hairs on them swaying under his touch. "I haven't been able to get a hold of him," He leans forward, even though the both of you are alone. "Has he said anything strange to you?"
Your mind circles back to his words at the diner. It was really the only significant thing he said to you before he completely went missing. "He'd been asking me strange questions on my lunch break so I asked if he was okay," Your brows furrow, everytime you think about his words it only confuses you. "He said that it's the best he's ever felt and that he doesn't have to hide it anymore."
"Hide what?"
"I dunno." You feel a little useless.
Henry sighs in frustration that you hope is not directed at you. "What questions did he ask you?"
"He asked me about immortality," Your eyes trace the details of the room as you recall that interrogation, they fall to the various toys sprawled out between the two of you as you sit cross legged. It feels a little silly to be having a conversation as serious as this whilst surrounded by a child's toys. "And he asked if I believe in souls."
Henry's brows knotted and he couldn't help but let out an exasperated laugh. "William tried to fight me the last time I saw him." He must've wanted to keep that from you for as long as he possibly could, as to not sully your view of William.
"Are you serious? Like physically?"
Henry unbuttons his shirt slightly and pulls the collar back so you can see his bare shoulder. A purple bruise rests on it and you gulp, staring between his face and the injury to convey you want an explanation.
"He started to talk to me about the animatronics. He said there's so much more we could do with them," Henry buttons his shirt back up and leans against the wall behind him. "He was being so vague, I kept saying I didn't understand what he was saying."
He points back to the wall he lounges on. "He shoved me into this wall and practically screamed at me, saying I would never understand. He said no one realises the importance of what he's found," He shakes his head as he remembers, it's a mix between disappointment and guilt that he can't exactly justify. "He said it has the power to change humanity forever. Then he kept saying it was all his, like he was bragging."
Your hand moves to cover your mouth which hangs agape. All words escape you, you want to say something optimistic, yet your brain fails to concoct such a fantasy.
Although it surprises you, you can't exactly say you've never imagined William becoming the manic egoist he is in Henry's story. He has moments occasionally where he will complain too harshly about the employees, insulting their intelligence compared to his own despite them being more than half his age. He always said he'd be better running the entire restaurant himself, which you would laugh off until now.
Faintly, you recognise Henry's hand on yours as you get lost in thought. Only when he squeezes it do you pay attention. "He's not dangerous, he just needs help." He says it like he wants to reassure himself as well.
You offer a small, bitter smile. "I know. We'll find him and help."
Henry removes his hand from yours and lets out a sigh of relief, he already appears to be a little better after sharing some of his burden with you. "I was going to visit his house again today."
"Again? He's not home?"
"I think he is, but he won't answer. I hear him in the garage trying to be silent," Henry frowns, upset that his own partner refuses to talk to him. "And when I first came to check on him, I heard him yell to Michael not to open the door."
It only hits you then that Michael and Elizabeth are stuck in the house with William. You suddenly feel scared for their safety.
"I'll come with you, Henry." You say in a firm tone to tell Henry you will be undeterred.
"Alright. I doubt we'll see him though." He rubs his forehead in frustration.
"I'm just glad he isn't completely missing."
"It's the only reason I haven't filed a report."
—
Before now, you'd never been in Henry's car, but it's pretty much what you expected. It's clean and the backseats are converted to be child-friendly, there are two booster seats on each side. It perplexes you for a moment, since Henry only has Charlotte, but it occurs to you that he must have two so that Charlotte can just choose where she wants to sit. It's sweet, if not a bit over the top.
Henry hops into the driver's seat, checking on his daughter in the rearview mirror to see that she's preoccupied with a book about a bear befriending a salmon. Once he deems her completely disconnected from the outside world, he turns on the radio, swiftly changing the station before you can realise he had a nursery rhyme radio ready to listen to. The droning sound of a man discussing the news now fills the car, just so that the sound of them talking is blocked out to the child, and she probably won't even want to attempt to listen with this boring station playing.
You keep your hands and legs tightly tucked inward, afraid of touching anything you're not supposed to. It occurs to you that you've never been to William's house, even though he's technically been to yours. You would've mentioned that to him if you were not coming to see him with the intention of asking him about his mental health, but then you consider the fact that he'd probably only twist your words to imply that you want to come to his house, and you decide maybe it's for the best you avoided telling him that.
"I think you should do the talking when we get there," Henry says abruptly, keeping his eyes on the road. "He must be sick of hearing my voice."
You let out a breathy laugh. "I don't think me talking will change his mind at all."
"Probably not, but I think it'd be nice for him to know it's not just me that cares." You'll never understand how someone can be so considerate and empathetic like Henry.
"Is Charlotte staying in the car?"
"Yeah, she'll just ask questions I don't wanna answer otherwise."
"What if he lets us in?"
Henry chuckles. "Fat chance, but I guess she could go and say hello to Michael and Elizabeth while we speak to him."
Once you arrive, Henry gets out of the car and sighs, sick of this routine. You find yourself hesitant to go outside. Eventually, you have to, though.
William's house is normal, just a simple suburban house built for a nuclear family like he used to have. Though, you note it does look slightly run down- vines crawl up the side of the wall and the front lawn is overall unattended to. You suppose a man like William would have no time for gardening, or even care for it at all.
Henry is already knocking on the garage door and you can hear the clanging of metal from inside, then the stumbling as William probably moves furniture around to step away from the knocking. Though Henry says nothing other than William's name, then he ushers for you to continue what he wants to say.
You're nervous, unsure of how to comfort someone in this sort of state. You conjure up worriment in your voice by reminiscing shortly on the good times you've had with William. "Hey William, we're worried about you. You don't have to let us in, just say hi so we know you're okay in there?" The softness of your voice is unexpected even to you, you feel as though William is standing right behind the door now, staring at the direction your voice is coming from.
A few moments pass where there's a long silence, William isn't even moving inside, you don't feel him staring through the wall at you anymore.
After a while, Henry sighs and touches your shoulder, motioning back to his car. "Sorry, I guess he's just not up for it yet." You try to understand, but can't help being upset that after laying your concern for William bare in front of him, he ignores it.
Just as you're walking back to the car, you hear a click and the creek of a door.
William leans against the frame of his front door, staring only at you. You can't look away from his piercing gaze, but you can tell Henry is gobsmacked from the corner of your eye. He's in a white shirt- or what used to be one- that is crumpled at every corner. He has formal trousers on with a belt that has been undone but not removed.
William's face is hollow. He seems to have lost weight even though you thought he couldn't get much skinnier, and his stubble has grown to the point where you can now see it even from your distance away. Somehow, his eyebags got heavier, but their dark purple contrasts with the light pink on his cheeks. He sways where he stands and says nothing. He must be drunk.
Without saying anything, he throws his hand behind him towards his long and dimly lit hallway, to invite the both of you in. He still hasn't looked at anything but you.