"Where areee youuu?" A voice asked in the void, its echo sounding across the entirety of the pizzeria.
A crying child, holding a golden teddy bear in his hands so tight he was about to crush it, sat under one of the tables, trying to hide from the voice that was now looking for him. He couldn't help but continue sobbing, the tears leaving marks on his cheeks from how long they had been running down on his skin.
"I can hear you Evan... Come on, stop being such a cry-baby and come out! I'm tired of this!"
The little crying boy held himself together, just praying that the voice for some reason wouldn't find him at all, although he knew it was already too late.
"You'll protect me, won't you?" he asked towards his plush, which did not move, but somehow the thought that he was listening calmed his heart and absorbed some of his pain and suffering.
"Bro, your brother is such a coward! How can you stand babysitting him like that?"
"I can't! I've had enough of this crap! Come on, Evan, just get out and let's be done with this".
It was his birthday. He had tried to enjoy it, but he couldn't understand why his father had chosen such a place to celebrate... It was his worst nightmare, and worst of all, he had known that they would celebrate the occasion at Fredbear's Family Diner. He had been counting down the days until the one arrived, dreading the passing of time and wishing for it to stop even if just for a minute, but the days had gone by so quickly that his prayers almost seemed to have accelerated time instead of slowing it down.
"Ah, there you are you little brat!"
Michael grabbed Evan by his leg, and pulled him from under the table. Now, the crying boy was before four teenagers, one of them being his very own brother, each one with a different animatronic mask covering their faces.
"Mike... Please, let me go!"
"Wow, he really just doesn't stop crying, doesn't he Mike?" said the one with a Bonnie mask.
"Yeah, he's so afraid of the animatronics, he thinks they are going to come during the night and eat him alive! You know what, I'll show you that you don't have to be afraid of these robots, that's all what they are after all! What do you say guys? Seems like my brother wants to meet the big man in person..."
"No! Not Fredbear, please!"
As Michael and his friends carried the crying child in their arms, each one of them laughing at the prospect of their little prank, a little girl with two hairtails on the sides came right at them, and although she was of a smaller age she planted herself in front of the gang to stop them.
"Stop it! Can't you see he's not having fun!?"
"Well, well, what do we have here? Are you my brother's girlfriend or what?"
"The hell are you doing kid? You're spoiling the fun of it!" Complained one Mike's friends, the one with a Freddy mask on his face.
"He's not enjoying it! Put him down, now!"
"As if..."
Michael pushed the little girl aside, falling to the ground she hit her knee hard enough to cause a bruise, and started crying. None of the teenagers realised what just had happened, and continued to get closer and closer to the two star animatronics of the restaurant: Fredbear and Spring Bonnie. The two of them were performing at the stage, singing their songs for all children to hear, although they were concentrated somewhere else in the different arcade machines, not paying attention to Mike and his friends, carrying Evan all the way towards Fredbear.
"Mike! Stop it! Stop it!" he cried, his tears rushing out from his eyes.
"You heard the man, he wants to give Fredbear a big 'ol kiss!"
"No! Please stop! Michael!"
Michael took his little brother in his arms, raising him towards the animatronic. It continued to sing, oblivious as to what was happening right in front of him. Right as he saw Evan in front of him, he laughed, as he so usually did during his performances.
"Hey, dude... aren't you taking this a bit too far?"
"Come on, don't bail out on me now! I'll just show him he doesn't have any reason to be afraid of the animatronics, it'll give him some backbone!"
Mike's friends looked at each other, not knowing whether this was a good idea or not, but it was already too late. The teenager raised once more his little brother, preparing himself to throw him right inside of Fredbear's mouth.
"One...! Two...! And Three...!"
And with that, Michael shoved Evan's head inside his mouth. The world stopped for a second, as both his friends, the little girl in the ground, and even the crying child just waited, and nothing happened.
"See? I told you! Those are just robots and nothing else, there's no way that..."
Crunch.
Michael stopped feeling the body of his brother trembling, now it lay lifeless, hanging from the animatronic's mouth. Eventually, his body slid out of Fredbear's jaw, and fell to the ground, filling the main stage with blood, his head crushed in two, completely deformed.
"Evan...?"
Just as Michael's eyes focused on his brother's head, people started to scream after seeing Fredbear's bloody mouth, the animatronic still moving around and singing his songs, as if nothing had ever happened.
"Mike! What have you done!?"
The teenager lowered himself towards the body of his brother, the tears still marked on his face. He moved him a little, getting his hands bloody in the process. He hadn't realised yet, but his shirt was filled with blood as well. The blood of his brother.
"Someone call 911!"
People started panicking, and all the employees and security guards arrived at the scene, finding Michael, his friends, and the body of Evan, still in the ground, filled with a pool of its own blood.
"Evan... Please, say something! I... I didn't mean to... Please Evan!"
And then, right as Michael lifted his head, he crossed eyes with his father, who was holding out the birthday cake of Evan, the number 10 already placed on top of it. As Mr. Afton saw his own son, dead, and the animatronic's mouth filled with blood, he let the cake fall to the floor too, and it crashed into a puddle of cream, dissolving itself into an unrecognisable, deformed shape that would no longer return to its normal form.
"Is that...?"
"Dad! Forgive me! I swear to God I didn't mean it! Please!"
Michael threw himself at the shoes of his father, staining his working uniform with the blood of his own son. William Afton stood lifeless for a second, assimilating the scenario in front of him, completely ignoring the pleas from Michael, and then, suddenly, out of nowhere, a huge smiled appeared on his face, his eyes not sharing the emotion at all.
"He's... he's just broken! He'll be fine... He... He'll be fine! We can fix him!"
And then, William Afton laughed. What had Michael done to him? Had his father just gone mad out of seeing his own dead son? Soon enough though, his laugh transformed itself into a mournful sobbing, and tears started flowing down his eyes, falling on top of the only son he now had.
"Dad... please say something..."
Then, Afton took Michael by his shirt and raised him in the air, even higher than himself. The boy struggled with his feet, trying to set himself free, feeling the pressure of his father's hands on his neck.
"Oh, you're a horrible big brother Michael! You'll go to hell for this, I assure you! I can only wait and see how demons come after you during the night, and finally claim their prize! As for me, I'm afraid you're no longer my son, not after what you've done... Now go away! Go away back home, and shut yourself inside of your room! Now!"
After throwing him to the floor, Michael finally took away his foxy mask, and before running away gave his brother a last look, trying to understand why he had thought this was a good idea in the first place. He turned around, and ran, ran until he was out of the pizzeria, didn't care that rain was now pouring from the sky, making him dirty. If his father had reacted like this, what would his mother say? Would she still consider him his own son?
The last thing Michael remembered from that fateful day, the day the bite of '83 took place, what entering into his house, and finding that there was no one there. He was alone, all alone, his friends wouldn't want to acquaint themselves with a murderer, and he was failing school either way... This was it for him.
Back in the present, Michael woke up from his own dream, still seeing the face of his brother imprinted in his pupils before finally gaining full consciousness. He immediately heard furious knocking at his door, someone was getting impatient after all.
He hadn't even changed his purple uniform before going to sleep. No matter, whoever was at the door needed to be attended. Michael opened the door, and he found Mr. Schmidt right outside of it, his ugly face frowning upon him.
"I'm telling you boy, find a way to stop yelling every time you sleep, or I'll tell the landlord! This is your last chance!"
"What do you want me to do!? Put a pillow on my face so that I die while sleeping!?"
"Preferably yes" he grumbled.
Having said that, Mr. Schmidt retired himself back to his apartment, closing the door with the sound of a thunder. As for himself, Michael retreated back into his room, walking slowly and with his eyes focused on nothingness. As he reached over his family picture, right beside his bed, he looked at the lonely boy with a single curled hair on his front, trying as hard as possible to smile, knowing that his big brother was right behind him.
"I'm sorry Evan..." he said. "You don't know how much I regret that day ever since it happened".
It took Michael an entire hour of mourning to fully return himself back in the present, a present where his fourth shift at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza was about to start in just a few more hours. Before anything else, he took the recording that he made the previous night, and played it just to confirm he hadn't been hallucinating Fritz's voice coming from the phone.
"Hello, hello? Hey, you're doing great! Most people don't last this long!..."
That was enough. He had not been dreaming or imagining things. Fritz's calls were real, and he had proof that he could take to the police as soon as he wanted to... But first, he had to find out what was inside that grey box in Henry's office.
And so, Michael took the key he had stolen from Henry's pocket, and placing it on top of his table, then went into his closet and got out a tiny box filled with useless stuff he had collected over the years. In there, he found the other key he had retrieved from the bunker all those years ago, also tiny and silvery, just like the one Fritz had in his apartment.
Why would his father have the second key to that box? And why out of all people would Fritz be involved in this? What even was inside that box that would be so secret, that it needed to be locked away in three separate locks?
He would find out tonight, he was sure of it.
And so, taking with him the flashlight, the taser gun, the recorder and the two keys, Michael said a final goodbye to his family picture, and departed towards Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, not knowing what destiny awaited him in that cursed place.
When he arrived, it was already 10 pm. Michael hoped to see Henry one more time before starting his shift, maybe he could get to convince him to stay 'just for a while' so that he would see that the robots indeed were moving and coming after him. Still, he wasn't so sure that it would work, his boss had said he wanted to sleep more, and he would definitely not be happy about Michael bringing up once more the walking robots subject.
He would have to wait for another day.
But even if he had wanted to ask him that, there was just no chance of doing it on that day, since Henry himself was nowhere to be found. The sole person still at the pizzeria for the night was none other than Vanessa, who had already started to clean the whole place, mopping the floor and getting rid of leftovers.
"Hi Vanessa!"
"Mike! I'm so glad you're here, I swear to God this place gets creepy when you're all alone".
The boy walked into the main party room, observing the animatronics already deprived of their instruments. He still remembered last night, how could he forget it? There were four of them, and they were coming right for him. This night, he guessed, it wouldn't be so different. Perhaps, if he could record the sounds the animatronics made, Henry would finally believe him... Or better said, police would.
"Isn't Henry around?" he asked.
"He already went home. He looked extremely tired, it's because he spent the entire day looking for a godforsaken key he lost yesterday, you know? I too would be exhausted after that. Didn't you find it by any chance?"
"I wish I had... I really do..."
Michael took a mop, and started cleaning the floor together with Vanessa, she had already done a quarter of the main party room, so with the efficiency of two he was sure they would finish well before 11 pm. That way, he would be able to open the box, get what's inside, and get out of the place before starting his shift. There was no way Michael was risking another night in there, last time he had barely made it out alive, he didn't know if he was up to the fourth night in there.
The two of them talked for a while about the day. Vanessa had scolded some kids for trying to sneak into pirate's cove to see Foxy, something which neither she nor Henry were too happy about. One of the arcade machines had broken down, and was shoved into the parts and services room. Beside that, there wasn't much else that happened, the day was rather tranquil and Henry himself had spent it all looking for the key, so he couldn't pay attention at what was going on around.
"And how was your night shift? Anything new and interesting?" she asked Michael.
"Er... not really, it was just the usual stuff... Ghosts, you know?"
Vanessa giggled for a while. It was already 11:15 pm, since they had been talking and talking, the cleaning had taken more time than Michael had initially thought. There were some pretty nasty leftovers too, and nobody likes having to take some nasty food and throw it in the trash.
Eventually, they were finished, with only 40 minutes left for Michael's shift to begin. He didn't want to stay in there, he had to hurry, take the grey box, and get out of the pizzeria before the clock hit 12 pm. Otherwise, he would be facing the wrath of the animatronics once more, and there was no way he would survive one more night.
"You know Mike? I tried asking Henry once more about the previous locations. You know the story he was telling us yesterday, the one about the bully and his little brother?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, he got angry, and he didn't tell me anything about it".
Michael was glad about that. He figured Vanessa would be even more horrified if she knew how the accident had actually happened in all its detail. It was already freaky to think that Fredbear himself was in the parts and services room, just lying on the floor, emptied of his endoskeleton.
"...But he did end up telling me one thing: the boy was actually the son of the 'previous employee' he never wanted to mention, that is, of William Afton. Go figure".
While Michael enjoyed her company, both the subject and the time were simply not appropriate. He already did have a nightmare about the day he accidentally killed his brother, and he couldn't help but see the clock ticking and ticking, each second getting closer to absolute doom.
"I'm really intrigued by the story of this place, you know? And you seem to know a thing or two since you used to come here as a little boy... Do you know anything about that tragedy at all? I know you weren't there, but your parents surely must have known about that, right?"
Sighing, Michael sat on a single chair, and placed his backpack on the table. Vanessa too came to sit right beside the night guard, not saying and word but keeping her eyes on him. He had been lying to her too much, and if she was to eventually trust him, he needed to tell her the truth.
«She's going to hate me for this...» he thought. Still, it was only fair, he was about to denounce the place to the police, and probably everyone in there would lose their jobs, including Vanessa. She needed to know why he was doing it. He would have to explain it all rather quickly too, if he wanted to get out of Freddy's before midnight. This would have to do.
"Before anything, let me show you something, Van. It's important that you hear this, it's one of the reasons I'm still going back in here".
Michael took out of his backpack the recorder where he had saved Fritz's call, placing it on the table. He pressed a button, and the audio started playing. Eventually, both of them heard Fritz's voice coming over from the phone. Vanessa almost couldn't believe it, she got closer to the device, as if placing herself closer would make the sounds clearer.
After it ended, Vanessa automatically directed her gaze towards the animatronics. They were still on stage, deactivated as they had been left, but sure enough, these robots had been hunting down Fritz, and Michael too.
"As you can imagine, every night I've had to face off these animatronics coming all the way to my office. I've been able to fend them off thanks to the doors, but I almost ran out of power yesterday... If I stay tonight, I'm afraid I won't make it 'till the next sunrise, Van".
"But Mike... Why didn't you tell anyone of this?"
"I told Henry, want to know what he said? 'It's impossible, I know because I programmed them'... Honestly, I don't even care anymore, the point is these animatronics..." Michael stood up from his place, and directing his gaze at Freddy, Bonnie and Chica, made sure to speak loud enough so that they too would hear him. "...These animatronics are more alive than dead, and they are coming after me. It all starts at 12 o'clock, when the lights go out, and it stops at 6 am, when Henry arrives into the building. During that time, there's nothing else to do but survive".
Mike turned around to face Vanessa, still sitting on her chair, and locked his eyes on hers Now was the time to say the whole truth, in whichever way it would end.
"The truth of the matter is, Van, that I've been lying. I didn't choose to work as a night security guard because I needed the money... solely. I also had another reason: to put a stop to all the tragedies that have been taking place here. I've gathered some proof, and I plan to take it to the police tomorrow. They will close this place down, and Freddy Fazbear's Pizza will be no more, at least that's my plan. I wanted to find out who was behind everything, but seeing that the animatronics are dangerous, I think it's better if I just try to make this place close down".
"Alright... so you want to save everyone the pain of losing a beloved one..."
Michael nodded with his head. He still had to say the most important thing, his real name, but he didn't know how the girl would even take it. Vanessa stood up from her chair, placing her right hand on her hip and taking a few moments before speaking.
"After all, you know very well how that feels; right, Michael Afton?" she said.
"Wha... How!? How do you know my real name!?"
Vanessa giggled, amused by the boy's reaction. She shook her head, trying and failing to get rid of the smile that now governed her expression.
"That fake ID you gave me on your first day... It's a mistake all amateurs make, like, seriously, you thought I wasn't going to notice the handwriting?" she continued laughing.
"But then... I... I don't understand anything now! This is... wow..."
Michael had no option but to sit down in a chair, raising one hand to his front and assimilating the fact that Vanessa had known he had been falsifying his identity all along. Why did she play the game? What was she thinking?
"Why didn't you tell Henry anything?"
"Because... I too am not who you think I am".
What!? Today God surely had decided to just play the wildcard, didn't he?
"In reality, I'm an undercover reporter trying to reconstruct the story behind Fazbear Entertainment. I have to say, I've had little success, yet slowly I've been finding clues about everything that's been happening... Henry doesn't suspect a thing, I started working here some months ago after all, trying to see what little evidence I could find. I managed to get Fritz Smith to help me a little bit, but then, he mysteriously disappeared in the shadows of the pizzeria..."
"But Van, if you're a reporter, then who are you working for right now?"
Vanessa raised her right hand and avoided eye contact with Michael, trying instead to look at whatever cobweb she could find in the corners of the main party room.
"I... am working for the local newspaper, not fancy, I know... But if I manage to find what happened here, I'll finally be able to go somewhere else... But that's not all, I'm not here for the money or the fame, you know? There's something more personal too... One of the lost boys, one of the many more that the official news never reported as you might know, was my little brother".
Oh no. She too lost a beloved one at the hands of Fazbear Entertainment.
"He loved coming here. He used to sneak into this place instead of going back home from school, if only to spend a little more time with the arcade machine, watching Freddy and the gang singing along... This is the last memory I have of him".
Vanessa handed Mike a couple of arcade coins, belonging to the previous Freddy's restaurant that closed on 1987 after Jeremy's death. He looked at them with great detail, getting waves of nostalgia out of the logo shining on their back.
"Vanessa... I'm so sorry to hear that".
"It's fine, I've been getting along, somehow".
There was a moment of silence, one where not even the animatronics would have known what to say or do. Fortunately, Michael did come up with something before letting the situation become too awkward.
"So... it was from playing fruit maze with your brother that you already knew every shortcut".
"You're still sore about that? Loser!"
And they both laughed, despite finding themselves in the middle of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. But shortly after they stopped, knowing that they had to hurry before the clock hit 12 pm, or it would be too late, and they would never again be able to laugh.
"If only you had indeed found the silver key that Henry received yesterday... Maybe that would have opened up something else inside his office, but now the only way would be to force the locks open..."
"Are you so sure about that?"
Michael took out both silver keys from his pocket and showed them to Vanessa, smiling all the way through. The girl oozed with excitement, jumping in her place and raising her arms towards the air. She even suddenly gave Michael a pretty tight hug, although she did separate herself quickly after.
"Ehm... Good job Mike! So you think those silver keys actually open the grey box inside Henry's office? That's awesome!"
"Yes! Let's go... Oh no! I'm such an idiot Van, I'm sorry!"
"What?"
Michael really did not think things through. He had given Henry the keys that opened all of the cases, and now there was just no way to open them! Even if he had both keys to open the grey box, he couldn't open the cases.
"Vanessa, I'm an idiot... I gave Henry the keys that open all the cases, now we won't be able to open the one containing the grey box!"
Yet, she smiled once more, and rolled her eyes.
"Oh, you amateurs really don't know what you're doing. Look, when you get hold of a key, what's the first thing you do?"
She then took an exact replica of Henry's precious keys from her pocket, looking exactly the same as the original ones.
"You make a duplicate" she winked.
"Van, you're a genius! Now we can see everything inside Henry's office!"
"Well, let's go then! Hopefully we'll be able to find out something that we can then show to the police..."
And so, both security guards made their way into their boss' office. However, in the midst of their excitement their guard had been left down, and even with the lights still on they didn't realise that a shadow moved in the darkest corners of the pizzeria, making its way over to the main party room. It was a yellow rabbit, similar to Bonnie, yet slightly slicker. His movements, fluid as those of a human, took him all the way over to the main stage, and with his big green eyes, the rabbit started talking to the robots.
"Hmm... they seem to know too much about this place, don't you think? They said they wanted to shut down the pizzeria. They said that you are dangerous... looks like they have it figured out. They want to destroy you, they want to get rid of you. But I can protect you, I can keep you safe, I am your friend. You know what to do next, animatronics. Get them. I'll clean the mess afterwards".