Michael's POV:
I didn't know what to feel. Excited? Relieved? Nervous? I was pretty sure I had found my sister... but not at all how I expected.
I didn't understand; I heard Circus Baby's voice. I used to hear that voice every single day back when I worked at Circus Baby's Pizza World. But she was back there, at the old place. Not here. If she were, I would've noticed her by now. Right?
If only I had been able to see the animatronic there during the salvaging process. If I had gotten a better look at what it looked like so that I could have more answers.
But the animatronic had still been a little visible. And based on the slight bit that I could see, it didn't look like Circus Baby.
"Maybe I should ask Ennard," I thought to myself. "He knows a lot about what happened and what happens with many of the animatronics. Maybe he'd know."
Not tonight though. I was too tired to function. It had been a stressful night, trying to avoid William. And I was stressed about Elizabeth. Maybe I found her... but maybe I didn't. And if I did, I most certainly did not find her the way I thought I would.
Once I got home, I went straight to my room. I didn't do anything else. I just wanted to sleep. I wanted to get the chance to rest my out-of-control thoughts for once.
Unlike the night before, y/n was asleep once I walked in. I smiled to myself, feeling grateful that she hadn't stayed awake the whole night worrying about me. And most importantly, I was grateful that I was indeed able to come home safely like I had promised.
After spending a very short amount of time getting ready for bed, I went over to my side of the bed and laid down next to her. I wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer to me.
"Michael?"
I looked down at her. "Yes?"
"You're home," she mumbled with a small smile. Her eyes were half-lidded, and based on her tone of voice I could tell she had just woken up.
"Yep. Now I'm all yours for the rest of the morning," I whispered.
She leaned her head against my chest and let out a sigh. "I'm glad to have you back."
"I know. It's better being here with-"
"Goodnight," she interrupted, clearly more than half asleep. I smiled to myself.
"Goodnight."
And with that I let my eyes close, finally falling asleep after a long night.
•••
I opened my eyes in the middle of the night. What woke me up? I glanced over to y/n's side of the bed to see that she wasn't there.
Surely it was no big deal. She was probably either in the bathroom or getting a midnight snack.
I turned onto my side to get more comfortable. But when I did, I noticed that my phone was on. That was weird. Did I forget to turn it off? Or did y/n use it for something?
I picked it up to see that my message app was open and on my texts with y/n. I rubbed my eyes to get a better look at what the texts said, since the brightness of the screen was so blinding. Then I saw it: she had shared the location of Fazbear Frights with herself.
Oh no.
I quickly got out of bed and grabbed my phone with me. I didn't bother getting ready to go. I just left straight to the car, popping a caffeine pill on my way to stay awake. Then I made my way to Fazbear Frights.
This was ridiculous. I had warned her earlier that this was a bad idea. Why wouldn't she listen to one simple instruction? She had already promised me that she wouldn't do anything stupid like this again! I would've been angry with her about it, but I was too terrified to feel any other emotion but fear.
I got there twice as fast as I should've, thanks to speeding at least fifteen over and skipping several traffic lights. Honestly, I was lucky to have made it there safely.
I showed up to find that sure enough, her car was the only one there.
I dashed out of my car and into the building, instantly trying to find her. I called for her several times, but I couldn't seem to find her.
The place was strange. It looked a bit like some of the other pizzerias but a lot more... abandoned.
I had been searching for about five or ten minutes when I finally heard voices.
"They deserve to be freed from that animatronic form. We freed their souls so that they don't have to be stuck as animatronics anymore. They don't deserve to be stuck like that! What you did to them was wrong!"
Y/n. That was her. She was here somewhere. She was nearby, but I couldn't quite tell where.
"It doesn't matter what's right or wrong!" I could hear my dad snap back. Their voices were getting louder. I knew I was getting closer.
I looked around for some sort of weapon, or just anything I could use to defend y/n and possibly myself in case I'd need to. In the doorframe of one of the empty rooms was a crowbar.
I guess I could use that.
I picked it up and began searching around more when I heard y/n yell, "It does matter!" Gosh, what the hell was she doing?! My dad was sure to kill her for talking to him like that! "You took their lives away! They did nothing to you!"
"You selfish brat!" Dad exploded. "You have no idea what it's like to go through what I've been through! You have no idea what it's like to lose two of your kids and see so many other happy families who have what you don't and realize that your family is broken! I killed them because of how angering it is to see other families who have what I lost!"
My heart started pounding faster and faster. This wasn't good. He was going to kill her any second. I needed to find them and save her before it was too late. And my time was running out fast.
"I'm... sorry..." She muttered faintly. It sounded like she was gasping for air. "Please... let... go..."
"No! I will not let go!" he shot. Just then I saw what looked like a green bunny animatronic who had gotten a hold of y/n and was grabbing her by the neck, appearing as if he were trying to strangle her. I sped up, now running down the hallway. "You ruined all of my hard work! And I'll make sure you suffer the consequences for that and have the same fate as them!"
"Wake up!"
I was right behind him now. Before he had the chance to do anything else I swung the crowbar at his head with full force, knocking him out. Once he fell to the floor, y/n looked right up at me. Her eyes were full of both indescribable fear and a huge sense of relief.
"Michael!" she exclaimed, rushing towards me and throwing her arms around me. I dropped the crowbar and hugged her back, holding her tighter than I ever had.
"Thank you, Michael! You saved me!" she cried. "He was going to kill me! You showed up right in time, you saved my life and he-"
"It's alright," I interrupted. "You're okay now."
"Michael, wake up!"
I gasped and shot up out of bed. I looked over to my side to see y/n who was also sitting up and had a concerned look on her face.
"Is he gone?" I asked anxiously, my breathing unsteady. She gave me a confused look.
"Is who gone?"
"What happened to him? Is my dad gone?"
She looked a little more surprised now. "Your dad? Do you mean William? I thought you didn't consider him your dad anymore."
I started bringing myself back to reality, finally beginning to breathe more slowly and steadily. She was okay?
"It was just a dream, Michael," she reassured me. "You're okay."
I took a deep breath, holding my head in my hand. She rested her hand on top of my free one. I looked over at her and she gave me a smile. It was a tired one, but it was still sincere.
"I'm sorry," I sighed, rubbing my temples. "I didn't mean to wake you up."
"It's okay. You don't need to apologize."
She moved over a bit closer to me and rested her head on my shoulder. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"I just... I dreamt about the night when you went to Fazbear Frights and when he tried to..." I stopped myself, not wanting to finish the rest of my sentence.
"Oh. I see."
I sighed, burying my face in both hands now. "I just... I can't make him go away. It feels as if he's still haunting me. And I'm terrified," I finally admitted. My voice was cracking, and I was almost positive that my entire body was shaking.
"He can't hurt you anymore, Michael," she said. "You told me so yourself."
I brought my head up to look at her. "But what about you?"
"He can't hurt me either. And he didn't get me that night. I'm okay."
"But he's back," I thought to myself. "And if he gets me then he could get you. I wouldn't be able to protect you this time." I wanted to blurt it all out. I wanted to tell her the entire truth right then and there. I wanted to quit my job right away and never get myself affiliated with anything relating to Fazbear Entertainment ever again. But I couldn't. Not until I did what needed to be done.
Before either of us could say anything else, she wrapped both arms around me, pulling me in for a hug. I didn't hesitate to give in, and held onto her like I never wanted to let go.
Probably because I didn't.
"He can't get me again. You told me so yourself, remember?" she reminded me once again.
I would've felt better by her reassurances, but I knew that none of what she said was true. And that made me feel even worse.
I finally let my tears fall this time. I couldn't hold it back any longer.
"I don't know what to do..." I sobbed. I knew that she had no idea what I was talking about, but I couldn't help myself. I had to get the question out, even if no one knew the answer. "What do I do?"
She gave me a soft kiss on the cheek. "Don't worry about it for now," she said quietly, rubbing my back. "Everything's okay for right now."
This time I didn't respond. I just gave myself a moment to cry and finally let all my emotions out.I couldn't tell her the full truth about William. And just because I told her that small bit of what I did, didn't mean that any of this would be fixed.
But at least being there in her arms at that moment brought me a little bit of comfort.
A/N: Holy moly! I just checked my read count for Stay By My Side and it has nearly 30k reads! Thank you guys so much, that means so much to me!