(CW: slightest gore, anxiety)
The first week of your apprenticeship was a breeze, to say the least. Well, maybe breeze was the wrong word. It was more of a well-organized tornado. You were learning a lot, actually, and the experience was undoubtedly enriching. The problem laid in William's flirtatious mannerisms, which you were becoming all too familiar with. Even when his mood seemed sour, it felt like William would take every single opportunity to prod at you and make comments that had terrible effects on your heart rate.
Today was no exception as you leaned over one of the animatronics, pliers in hand while speaking to him. He was leaning over beside you, closer than you were used to, showing you exactly what you'd be doing with the pliers. When you first came in that day, you noticed he seemed annoyed and his body language was stiff and uncomfortable, but from the neck-up he appeared quite the opposite. A coy grin was painted onto his face as he spoke gently to you.
"So you'll just carefully detach these wires right here, see? ...Darling? Are you paying attention?"
Your face reddened, realizing you'd been caught staring at William's features under the dim fluorescent lighting. It wasn't your fault his lips were so pleasing to look at, and being this close to them was just downright unfair. You bashfully averted your gaze, studying the wires he'd apparently already referenced for you.
This was your first time actually performing some of the hands-on work yourself. The previous week, you were only being made familiar with all the parts and what they do, which was work enough in your opinion. William had thrown you off with the news of your involvement in today's lesson. You weren't expecting to do actual work so quickly, and you were terrified of screwing anything up. It was all so intricate, you felt as though if even a single thing were the slightest bit out of place, the whole animatronic would be toast.
On top of everything, William insisted you changed locations today as well, which threw you off your game even more. The 'parts & service' room wasn't exactly a comfortable place, but you knew it better than whatever the hell this room was. Upon first walking in, William had introduced it as the 'backstage maintenance area'. To you, it quite honestly was just a 'parts & service' room that was easier to get to, without the unnecessarily long hallway that always gave you the chills. No, this backstage room was just a measly door away from the main stage area. It was louder, with the sound of children celebrating nearby to joyous music almost crystal clear in your ears. You had to admit, you were a little disappointed that this new location wasn't as private, but you shook those thoughts away as you got to work.
With no actual repairs needing to be done, William just guided you to disassemble the entire animatronic. You, of course, were quick to comply. You didn't want to stress him any further than he already seemed to have been. You thought the task would be easy enough, you'd studied him go through this same process three times now. However, the nervous shaking that hindered your performance made this anything but simple. His eyes burned through you with every assisted move you made, drawing an acute awareness to every little breath, shudder, and blink you dared make before him.
"No, no, twist it like this-" He cut in at one point, diving for your grip on a screwdriver. You'd been attempting to undo a rather stubborn screw around the mascot's neck area, almost jumping out of your skin when William's hand secured itself around yours. He was leaning in so close to you now, his head aimed parallel to yours as he remained hyper-focused on correcting your error. Your eyes darted to the side to watch him scrunch his face up, letting out a small groan as he forced the tool in both of your hands to twist with force. It took everything in your power to not think about or memorize the little sound he'd just emitted. You were flustered enough with just his fingers over yours, gripping harshly.
"That should do it" he stated as his hands retreated back to his sides, stepping back and standing to watch over your shoulder for you to complete your task. You swallowed the spit gathering in your mouth and continued to twist the screwdriver. Sure enough, his budge had been just enough to knock the pesky screw loose. You breathed a sigh of relief before fully removing it and adding it to a nearby box of corresponding screws.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it, love."
The rest of the disassembling went by without a hitch, even though you were just a mere puppet to execute the actions William asked of you. You didn't fully understand every function or what it was doing, but you figured you would learn in due time. Unfortunately, the reassembly proved to be a bit more challenging. After a while of struggling, William decided to fully step in and take care of things. You couldn't complain, you were far too afraid of setting something up wrong and busting the whole thing for its turn to perform tomorrow. That, and you weren't exactly willing to frustrate William further with your pathetic struggling. You simply took a step back and flipped open your notebook to start jotting away, as always.
Typically, he would playfully banter with you over his shoulder while he worked, it was something you'd come to look forward to from him. However, today he was just... quieter. Looking back, he'd been rather on edge the last time you'd been here too, but he'd warmed up by the time everything was over. You held out hope that his playfulness would return as it had before, but he remained stiff and somewhat frigid. There wasn't any small talk, just brief facts and explanations.
He finished assembling the mascot with the smallest frown and turned to you, indicating your time there was over. You took the hint and shyly headed for the door with William following behind. He'd always leave with you, escorting you to your car before heading to his. Today, however, he stayed put right at the exit. You eyed him, noticing him lingering by the doors.
"You go ahead, darling. I've still got some... things to finish up here."
"Oh... Are you sure? I can wait for you, if you want. Is it anything I could help with?"
"No," he shook his head at you, "that's quite alright, sweetheart. You've done plenty today. Drive safely now."
You stood there, fumbling awkwardly. You were glad he was still feeling well enough to keep using those terms of endearment, but another part of you figured it might also just be a natural habit of his. You nodded towards him and pushed through the doors, hearing William lock them behind you. Admittedly, you were disappointed. You always looked forward to his charming goodbyes at your car before he would watch you drive away, but today you would have to do without that. It was strange that he was staying behind, no other employees were there. What did he need to do so badly? Maybe it was paperwork or something equally boring and tedious. Maybe that was why he seemed so frustrated, because he knew he'd have to deal with some stupid mundane task. It still felt odd, but you gave him the benefit of the doubt as you headed to your car all alone.
Driving past the building, you glanced towards the doors. You didn't know why you expected him to be there, watching you from within the building. You also had no idea why you were so disheartened when you saw nothing but darkness behind the glass doors. Even the windows were a stark black now. You drove home with a frustratingly heavy heart in complete silence, only to arrive to an unforgiving and empty house.
You waited for what felt like ages for Thursday to come around. Even just the one day without William felt to be too much. If you weren't with him, you were with your own thoughts. And you could only distract yourself from those for so long before they started tearing you down.
You hurried to the pizzeria with a pestering anxiety about how William would be feeling that day. Now that he was pretty much all that you thought about, it was hard to not worry over the topic. But, as he greeted you outside the diner's entrance like always, he seemed to be doing alright. He even appeared eager for today's events, with a wide grin highlighting his features and demanding your attention.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" He joked, inspecting you as he took a brief drag of the cigarette in his hands.
"Good to see you, too." You rolled your eyes playfully in return. A laugh was shared and William put out his smoke before opening the entrance door for you. Seeing him like this after the painful tension he was displaying on Tuesday was like a breath of fresh air. He was looser now, more relaxed than the last few times you'd seen him. You wondered what had been going on that stressed him so deeply before, and why he was suddenly so calm again. At least, he seemed calm. You found that it was difficult to tell with him.
"Did you finish whatever you needed to get done?" You asked nonchalantly as the two of you made your way to the backstage maintenance room.
"Hm? Oh, yes. I did, thank you for asking, darling." William responded hastily, quicker than you would've liked. You decided to drop it anyways, reaching the squeaky door next to the stage. The stares of a few people -employees or customers, you couldn't tell- burned through you as you followed the establishment's owner into the room. It had only then occurred to you that the action could look suspicious to any outsiders. A young woman being escorted into an employees-only area by the head of the business himself, not to leave that room for a few long hours. The thought of others perceiving you like that made you cringe painfully, but you forced yourself to remember that it was none of their business anyways. It's not like there was anything wrong with what you were doing, right? The interaction was harmless, beneficial even.
The door slammed shut behind you, snapping you out of your thoughts. You didn't remember that door being all that heavy before, but you shrugged it off. William began rolling up his sleeves, an action you never got tired of. You were convinced he would make a show out of it every time, flexing the muscles in his forearms subtly as he did so. It was difficult to not get lost in the patterns his veins made when they protruded from underneath his pale skin whenever they became exposed.
"How do you feel about getting your hands dirty again, angel?"
"Oh, um... I'm not sure, last time was really... nerve-wracking." You struggled to reply, fidgeting with your hands nervously. William inched closer, placing a cautious hand on your shoulder.
"It's alright, love. I'll be right here, helping you every step of the way." You looked up at him, heart fluttering at the encouragement of his words. He seemed genuine, but there was something in his silvery eyes that made you hesitate. He spoke again.
"It'll be alright. Just follow my lead." The grasp on your shoulder became more firm as he used it to guide you towards the work bench. The robotic mascot you'd come to know as Chica was laying there, waiting to be taken apart. William would switch out which animatronic you'd work on every time, giving you a chance to assess each of their differences accordingly. The first had been Foxy, then Chica, Bonnie, Freddy, and now Chica again. Although you'd seen all of the mascot's inner workings before, you couldn't keep your hands from clamming up or your heart from beating dangerously fast in an anxious panic. But perhaps there was another reason for that, you thought as you eyed William's stern grip on you.
He let go a moment after you reached the worktable, his eyes planted on you while he slowly took his hand away. You reached over to place your notebook on a dusted shelf next to the table before acknowledging William's stare. He was studying you, looking for something, it seemed. Before you could say anything, he broke away from the observant state to reach down to a nearby toolbox. You gathered each item on the table as he handed them to you. You had to admit, he had a good system for the animatronics. Their assembly and disassembly didn't require very many tools, and William even had a well organized storage box for each and every screw, nut, bolt, etcetera. It felt like everything under his control had its own proper place and position, a state where everything fit together perfectly. You daydreamed briefly if you could ever be a piece of all of that. Would there be room for you?
"You remember how to remove the head, don't you, love?" You snapped your head in William's direction to give him your full attention.
"Yeah, yeah. It's... the two buttons under the jaw, right?"
"Indeed, it is. Good girl."
You froze at the praise, a feeling akin to cold, rushing water running over your skin as you held back a shiver. You were sure you had to be blushing a bright hot red, but attempted to ignore it while you reached over to the animatronic and released the head of the outer shell from its endoskeleton. Looking back to William for approval, his eyes were half-lidded and seemingly taunting you.
The rest of the afternoon went on like that, taking his direction and carefully completing it to the best of your ability to receive praise in return. It was an odd feeling, being told you were doing a good job by someone. Your mother wasn't exactly the type to care whether or not you were excelling at something, or even trying at all. You forgot how good it felt, how pleasing it was. And to be praised by someone like William, no less... It made your heart feel like it was going to fly straight out of your body, the way it was fluttering.
Of course, you needed his direct assistance on numerous occasions, but you glowed at the fact you were able to physically take apart the mascot and put it back together again almost all by yourself. And either you were getting ahead of yourself, or William was at least somewhat proud of you, too. At this point, you were almost vibrating from the pressure growing inside of you with every 'yes, you've got it' or 'good girl' or 'you're doing wonderful, darling'.
Your work was finished, and you could tell the diner was closing up from the lack of music and buzzy chatter from the other side of the door. The owner was kneeling on the ground beside you, packing away everything you'd used into their respective places in the toolbox. You watched him with interest, seated on the edge of the worktable and swinging your legs around as the two of you chatted away. You couldn't help but think about how attractive he looked below you and a grin spread over your face. With his height, it was rare to see him at an angle like this. The grays of his hair shimmered under the fluorescents and fell over his face. The points of his nose were emphasized from above, making him look even sharper.
"There we go," he said as he swung the toolbox shut "that should be good."
"Is that a wrap?"
"Yes, darling, that is indeed a wrap." A smile graced the curvature of William's lips and he unfolded back up to his normal height before you, extending a hand out to you. You gladly placed your own into his, grasping it gently and hopping off of the table with his hold to stabilize you. Exiting the room, you noticed all of the employees had already left, or at least they weren't visible. You glanced out one of the diner's windows and sure enough, only two cars sat in the parking lot- yours and William's. Your counterpart was rambling about Henry, some complaint you'd forgotten to pay attention to after he started up. You found it weird that you still hadn't met this associate of his, with how frequently you were starting to visit this place. Maybe he was busy with other matters. Luckily, William's droning faded once you reached the exit doors.
"I'm sorry, angel, I still have some matters to take care of here. You'll drive safe, right?" You held back a groan.
"Again? Are you sure it's nothing I can help with?"
"Well... I'm not sure how interested you'd be in paperwork, love. Last time I checked, you weren't a business major." You rolled your eyes at the comment.
"Oh shut up, you're lucky I even offered." you smiled down at your feet, shuffling them around a bit. "Have fun with your boring papers, Mr. Afton" you teased.
William inched closer, placing a hand on your shoulder for the second time today. You tilted your head up, meeting his gunmetal stare. His face was nearer to yours than you thought it would be, startling you a bit. Your breath caught in your throat, but you didn't move away. He spoke with a quiet, silky voice.
"Trust me, it would be a lot more... enjoyable... if you stayed." William paused, his hand sliding from your shoulder to the base of your neck.
"But I'm doing you a favor by letting you leave."
He lingered for a moment, eyes wandering around your face. You were paralyzed with the fear of saying something wrong, so you just stayed put, breathing shakily before him. William was slightly hunched over to meet your face, his stale breath washing over you. You would be ashamed to admit that you welcomed it, leaning in.
Just when you thought he might close the gap between you, his touch left and he was a few feet away again. It took everything in you to not let out a disappointed sigh.
"Run along now, y/n. I'll see you on Tuesday."
"I... um... Yeah. Yeah, I'll see you then." Dazed, you turned to escape the situation. Everything in your body felt like a wildfire, and although he probably already had, you didn't want William to see the effect he had on you. You rushed out of the building, hearing the door lock behind you for the second time this week. Once you got to your car, you finally allowed yourself to let out a sigh. That man was exhausting.
Just as you reached to open your car door, you realized something felt wrong. Your hands were empty. Why were they empty? What did you forget? Shit, shit, shit, think...
It was your notebook. You left your notebook on that shelf in the backstage room.
You threw your head back and angrily groaned at the sky. You couldn't believe you left it there, you never forgot things like that. Then again, you had been pretty distracted. You turned around and glared at the diner, weighing your options. On one hand, you didn't want to bother William when he was working. On the other hand, you wanted to be able to study your notes over the weekend. You'd made a habit out of going over your notes countless times to memorize them, it was a helpful practice in school and you'd simply gotten used to doing it. Besides, it gave your brain something to do, and lord knows you were desperate to do anything that kept you from thinking too much.
With a frown, you marched back towards the establishment. Reaching the doors, you noticed that all the lights had already been switched off. You cringed as you knocked on the glass doors a few times. You really didn't want to annoy William, but surely he'd understand the situation, right?
You knocked again and waited a few minutes. There was no answer, and you couldn't see any activity inside the diner. Frustrated, you turned your back to the doors and leaned against them. You stared at the swirling gray clouds in the sky, contemplating what you could do. You could keep knocking, but you doubted that would work. Maybe the restaurant had a back door that hadn't been locked yet?
You made your way to the back of the building, examining several trash bags lined up against the wall to be thrown in the dumpster. It reeked, obviously, but somebody must not have minded it as there was a folding chair sat out by a large metal door. You could definitely picture someone sitting out there on a smoke break, as gross as the setting was.
You sauntered over to the door, looking over its aged stains before grasping the handle. You hesitated nervously before attempting to tug on it. The door was heavy, but at least it was unlocked. After getting it open, you took care to shut it cautiously so that it wouldn't slam. You squinted, trying to make out where you were in the dark restaurant.
"William?" You called out, quieter than you meant. You doubted he heard you. Maybe you could just grab your notebook and get out without disturbing him.
You clung to a wall, blindly following it into the darkness. You didn't know the layout of the diner all that well, and there weren't any windows in the hallway you'd stumbled into. Not like they would help very much, with today's heavy cloud coverage and the sun being close to setting. You let yourself be guided by the diner walls, running into a decoration every now and then. Eventually, the hall spat you out into the main stage area. Much to your relief, the windows there cast the dimmest of light into the room, providing a faint outline of everything. You could make out the stage on the opposite side of the space. The animatronics stood there lifelessly, their silhouettes thoroughly giving you the creeps.
You started heading for the backstage area when you were startled by a faraway crashing. Nearly jumping out of your skin, you turned to observe the direction the noise came from.
If you strained your eyes, you could just barely make out a familiar door that was labeled 'EMPLOYEES ONLY'. It was the door that led to the parts & service room. Your mind was frantically racing. William had said he was staying behind to do paperwork, so why were you hearing commotion from parts & service? You debated ignoring it, but curiosity got the best of you and you approached the door. You paused, noticing it was ajar once you got closer.
You nudged through the door, peering down the long hallway to see light coming from the room around the corner at the end. Silently, you creeped towards the lightsource, your heartbeat picking up speed as you neared it. Whatever was happening here, it felt... off.
With no door to separate the hall from the room, you hesitantly peeked around the corner in an attempt to discreetly examine the space. You didn't want to be seen at this point, out of fear of being accused to be a creep or stalker or something of the sort for sneaking in after-hours. Holding your breath, you pressed against the wall while your head looked out from behind it. You couldn't see much from this angle, but you could hear something... William.
You could hear him breathing heavily, along with some other rustling. You could make out a sharp scratching sound, something like bristles. Was he cleaning? You supposed that would make a bit more sense, feeling easier at the notion. You crept further out from the corner to get a better look... and immediately wished you hadn't.
Little droplets of red were trailed along the floor, shining under the dim lighting.
You almost started choking at the sight of it, the cold sensation of fear twisting your insides around. What was that? Why was it red? Why were there red droplets on the floor? What was it? What was it? What was it? There was no way that it could be...
Against your better judgment, you shifted to look even further to see where the drops led. They became more clustered as they trailed further, gathering into a pool in front of... William?
He was on the floor seated next to a bucket, scrubbing at the puddle with a sponge. His hair was a mess from the vigorosity of the act, and he was sweating through his dress shirt. Little splashes of red bounced up from the liquid as he wiped at it, staining the crisp fabric he wore.
You were frozen at the sight, not daring to look any further. Your eyes burned, but you denied them the action of blinking. The scrubbing sounds were growing fuzzy in your brain as you tried to process what you were seeing. Oh god, oh god...
You retreated back behind the wall, deciding you'd had enough. Your thoughts were roaring like a swarm of angry bees in your brain. Shaking, you quietly began to retreat, scurrying back down the hallway. Your vision was starting to blur as you grew lightheaded. You needed to get out of there. You pushed through the door at the end of the hall, freezing when it emitted a deafening squeak.
Your head whipped around to look behind you, staring down the hall you'd just escaped. The light casted onto the floor at the end of it slowly became blocked by a silhouette. Shit.
You darted into the shadows you'd initially come from, remembering only one turn that would bring you back to the exit. As you felt along the walls, you could hear footsteps echoing through the building. They sounded far, but you picked up your pace as quietly as you could regardless. Eventually, you felt the metal of the back exit door and desperately pushed it open. William still sounded far away, so you eased the door back shut silently. The second you did so, you broke into a sprint and inwardly thanked yourself for not parking right in front of the diner, but a little ways to the side.
Nearly flying into your car, you fumbled with the keys in your sweaty hands and shoved them into the ignition. The engine roared to life and you ripped out of your parking space, driving away as fast as you could without the vehicle revving too loudly. That would've just been plain suspicious.
Turning out of the lot, you adjusted your rearview mirror and spotted the faraway outline of William standing in front of the restaurant. Your eyes widened and you jolted your focus back to the road, hoping and praying to the universe that he hadn't seen your car in the distance.
What would he do if he knew what you saw?