Chapter Text
Nobody had told you even once that it was Evan’s birthday today. Not even his own father had reminded you or had warned you about it. It was a late call that told you today an hour before you came in to babysit that Mr. Afton told you about the birthday party like it was no big deal. Yeah, It wasn’t that huge of an inconvenience but you still would have appreciated being told a few days before.
Now here you were at 4 pm, walking down the streets in the coma-inducing heat of Hurricane. The sun threatened to blister your skin, to peel it off until you were a huge lump of melted gore on the sizzling pavement. The thought sat at the back of your mind while you tried your hardest to walk faster and to not let the sun lay its attention on you way too much. A drop of sweat accumulating on the nape of your neck had slithered its way down your back, feeling much cooler whilst you continued. You shivered.
The familiar building in the distance had caught your attention, it brought back memories that you hadn’t thought about in a while. You haven’t gone here since middle school with a few friends. Your mother had warned you to stray far away from the diner and you’ve followed ever since. Now being grown enough, it was quite obvious what she had been referring to; that one child that had disappeared. It had taken place near the place. Parents were frightened of who was taking them.
A perverted wolf whistle had caused you to sharply turn towards the source of the sound.
The hell?
Disgust coursed through your veins, gaze scornful. As you walked, the car strolled just beside you at the same speed. They were like the voice of a bothersome fly, that you couldn’t swat away.
“Hey, you’re Mike’s hot babysitter right?” It was one of the guys from last time. Mike’s friends. You shook your head no with a small laugh, wanting this interaction to be over as quickly as it started. He looked at you with slight suspicion before backing away from the window and letting somebody else look out the window.
“This your girl, right, Mike? Yeah, I’d recognize that ass from anywhere.” His friend chuckled boisterously like the typical teenage boy, living up to the stereotype.
Michael looked at you with slight indifference but was shocked to see that it was you. At first, he was confused about where you were going, but then noticed the direction you were going.
Realisation struck him, mouth agape because he was thinking about how much of a pain you were going to be in the diner. He had to entertain his friends by making fun of his siblings and you always prevented that. Well. He just had to hope you weren’t successful this time.
“I know Mike, that ass looks so good–” His friend gets cut off by Michael grabbing them aggressively, seeming to be upset that he interrupted Michael’s train of thought. “Come on, man,” Michael shook his head, almost disappointed this was his friend’s way of entertainment. Even he wasn’t that shitty to be catcalling you.
“That’s fuckin’ weird,” He mumbled, his friends still not caring about what he was saying.
A sense of compassion wasn’t something you had expected from Michael, but you were skeptical of his intentions. Being thrown into the Afton’s home and his life was something you wouldn’t have believed at the beginning of the year.
Yet you were glad to be introduced to his family since you wanted to protect his siblings from himself. It was also quite refreshing seeing how Michael acts at home.
“Join her then, if we’re too weird for you,” Another voice from the car had taken part in the teasing of Michael. A train of laughs followed.
Michael’s body felt weightless as the car door opened; he was held by the back of his shirt, quite near from falling out of the moving car. The warm breeze of the wind hit his face. His eyes were stuck on the pavement for a second, yelling out of surprise and literal fear from getting his face scraped off. His stomach dropped, watching them drive faster on purpose.
Seeing him dangling like this made you afraid, coming closer to the curb to catch him if you were able to if he fell properly.
“What the fuck?!”
He had yelled, his forced american accent thinning out and not caring if you saw him as scared shitless as he was now. His eyes travelled from the asphalt, swiftly to you, as if asking for help.
“Let go of him, dipshit! What the fuck is wrong with you?” Your eyes almost had bulged out of your head, trying to keep up with the car by jogging.
You were worried about him, at this moment you had cared the most about Michael. What was wrong with his friends? Were they actually this reckless? Did they not care about him?
It wasn’t even dramatic to think that he could die from this because he definitely would, one slip and he’d be on his way down to getting his head cracked open like an egg.
His friends immediately got bored with this. Not surprising at all. All of them ultimately decided to kick Michael out for now. The van screeched to a halt. The pungent, indescribable smell of the rubber tires had attacked your nostrils, the marks of the tires implanting itself onto the hot pavement.
The whole group lurched forward, including Michael. The way forward for Michael is out, so his friend had pushed him, cackling at how he staggered forward. Michael cursed loudly once again, trying to control his body in what way he was falling.
You watched him falling close to the curb, so you grabbed his arm, pulling him into the cushioned grass of somebody’s lawn probably. Hopefully they wouldn’t get mad at you ruining their grass because you’d be so pissed if a bunch of teenagers had begun causing a ruckus in front of your home.
He fell with a grunt, cursing under his breath and embarrassingly getting off you as quick as you caught him.
His face was flushed with chagrin, embarrassed. You didn’t even have time to react and even realise he had landed uncomfortably close to you.
“How’d the grass taste?” The van had driven a few feet, yet his friend couldn’t drop it, taking it so far as to stick his head out while he yelled it out for the whole block to hear. His other friends laughed after him. This whole interaction had just pissed you off and none of it was necessary in the first place.
“Yum.” You remarked sarcastically, still having the might to stand up. Michael stood up on his own, not batting an eye at you like you hadn’t just saved his life or his face that made him less insufferable scraped off. “You’re welcome? Right? Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“Was getting to it.” Michael muttered before he turned sharply to glare at you like he usually did. “But now that you’re asking me, I really don’t want to.” He gave you a flash of a petty smile. This fucking bastard. Your jaw clenched at that specific tone in his voice that especially made you feel inferior to him. You didn’t want to be but he was a natural bully so you couldn’t help but feel that way.
With an exasperated sigh you opened your mouth before quickly closing it, stopping yourself from saying something you might regret. It wasn’t worth it to react much to shit he pulled anyway because that’s exactly what he wanted. He and his clique feed off reactions.
So you settled for a far more calmer approach that might piss him off instead. With a small smile, you collected all of your anger into a plan of trying to piss him off by acting unbothered.
“Okay.” You smiled, shrugging then walking away from him.
Your plan definitely worked because of the way Michael’s petty face converted into one of confusion but also one of feeling provoked. His reaction made it seem like
you
were the one that had pushed him out of the van instead of his friend. “What?” He furrowed his brows, spitting out the word before speed-walking up to you. Clearly, he’s never had a situation like this before where the person didn’t care about his petty remarks.
“What?” You echoed and he got more provoked, but as quick as he got irritated, it was as if he knew how dumb he looked getting mad at this right now. “Nothing, let’s just get to the diner.” His voice is slightly calmer than a few seconds ago, and his expression had softened to more of his usual one; his eyebrows scrunched and his attempt at making himself seem intimidating.
If you hadn’t ever been hired for this job and saw him at school, you probably would’ve thought he was. Now looking at him and listening to him, it was the exact opposite. You could never take him seriously now whenever you saw him in the halls. You’ve practically seen him pull off a ton of embarrassing feats and get scared of his dad.
Being around him for a few days, it made you realise he wasn’t scary. His accent was something that only added to it; you could tell whenever he was at school he always tried to hold the accent back to avoid getting made fun of, but it always seemed to be always lingering in his speech.
“What’re you staring at?” He snapped and you realised you were staring directly at him with your head. Shit.
“I wasn’t.” You replied quickly, turning your head straight at the sidewalk.
Michael glanced at you when you were too focused on the sidewalk. It was as if the sun had kissed your skin; you were glowing. He swallowed nervously, trying his best to not stare at you too much. He scowled, closing his eyes for a second longer than a blink, trying to recollect his thoughts and clear his mind of the babysitter whom he fucking hated. It worked since when he had opened his eyes, he was standing in the parking lot of the diner.
“You good?..” You raised an eyebrow at Michael who was staring absentmindedly at the front door. He didn’t answer, instead rudely opening the door, not holding it for you and stepping inside.
The hell?
You had no clue but you followed, feeling the even warmer, crummier air inside the building hitting all of your senses, overwhelmingly. It was like a playground with even more reckless children, knowingly bumping into underpaid employees trying to make leeway in their jobs. The building had only one floor, that’s probably why it felt so damn cramped in an establishment with about more than 20 customers at least, including the children.
The sounds of children shrieking out of joy, other younger teenagers lingering around the beeping arcade machines; guarding it with their life and the employees carrying birthday decorations. It filled you with a certain sense of feeling: nostalgia. Mr. Afton was nowhere to be found so you walked through the pizzeria, trying to find Evan and Elizabeth instead.
“Yo! Mike!” The mention of his name made your head spin around. Michael came around to the arcade to another group of people. Jesus, how many friends did this jackass have? He laughed before executing a handshake they probably only knew, then giving the guy a quick hug with a pat on the back.
“Where’s your dad? No Uncle Willy, huh?” Michael chuckled at how stupid he sounded, punching his stomach before putting the guy in a headlock.
Ah. Cousins.
You predicted that Mr. Afton invited pretty much most of their relatives but also allowed Michael and Elizabeth to bring over their friends. It shouldn’t be this difficult trying to find them but there are children clumped in one spot, then the other side of the diner and way too many parents chasing after said kids. You sighed under your breath, then felt a tug on your shirt.
“Hi.” Evan said with a smile, a half-eaten cupcake in his hand while the other held his Fredbear plush. Well, that was much better than spending all of your time looking for them. You always wondered why Michael was so mean to him, or any of them. You ruffled his hair, guiding his shoulder to a less crowded spot.
“You ready for your birthday?”
When he didn’t respond you looked towards where he was looking. Evan frowned, eyes growing wide at Michael coming your way. His grip on your side became tighter. He was afraid if he let go, Michael would ruthlessly attack him again. You looked at Michael with annoyance. There was no moment in your life where he can’t just stop showing up and ruining everything.
“Move it loser,” He grumbled at Evan and you glared at him even harder. “You’re really fucking lame, Michael.” You spat out as he moved away, then he stopped.
“Excuse me?” He said, asking you to repeat again because he thought you might’ve felt bad after calling him that. But you didn’t. You couldn’t care less about what this asshole felt because he was tormenting his brother on his birthday.
“Go bother somebody else, and quit picking on your brother because you’re insecure and in need of validation from your friends. It’s embarrassing.” He didn’t take too lightly to that and was resisting the temptation to yell at you and even attack you just for saying something like that. As he managed to walk away and resist the urge, he knew you were right.
Once Michael was out of sight again, you turned to Evan who was now lightly grabbing your shirt. “Let’s go look at your presents.”
Seeing the diner like this felt weird, people acting like nothing happened. But who were you to judge? You tried not to dwell on it too much as you sat at one of the tables, watching the golden coloured animatronics on stage jerking around awkwardly in what seemed to be a dance. You always found it sort of funny that the two owners who had run the diner kind of emanated the same energy as the golden bunny and the bear. It was both of their characters in a way.
Birthday balloons and decorations were scattered all over the diner, and some employees were still getting other things ready.
A worn out speaker was blasting out family friendly songs deemed fit for children but overly repetitive and slightly irritating. It sounded like a broken record having 3 songs on repeat. You didn’t complain about it though, as a kid going to this place you absolutely loved it. Evan watched in awe, a small smile plastered on his face even though he was used to seeing it all the time
Liz’s familiar voice cut through the sounds of children shrieking, saying your name to catch your attention. There she was, adorning a cute pink dress. Her ginger hair was down but she had come to you to ask for something.
She pulled out two bows, and two hair ties. “I don’t know how to.” She said sheepishly, almost embarrassed to be asking this to the babysitter. But you didn’t find it to be that big of a deal. You took one of the hair ties, splitting her hair equally at the back. “You’ll learn eventually, it took me a while too, as a kid. Do you want it high or low?” You asked, having one of the split parts in your hand.
“High please,” She said and even though you couldn’t see her face, she was definitely smiling. You tied it tightly, then the other before finishing it off by tying the bows that matched the colour of her dress. “There,”
You said, letting her turn around; she had a huge grin on her face. She quickly hugged you and you hugged her back. “Thank you!” She smiled before running off to play somewhere else. “Don’t go too far!” You yelled after her, completely forgetting for a second that you were still on clock, babysitting.
Talking about babysitting: where in the hell was Evan? The moment you were finished with styling Liz’s hair, he was gone from his seat. How did he even get past you?
Shit. Michael.
That was the only reasonable reason why Evan had run away, the sight of his brother might’ve scared the living shit out of him. Why was Michael so bothersome?
You stood up from your seat, eyes quickly scanning the crowd of children, teenagers and adults. It was so cramped that it was definitely going to be difficult finding the short child; it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. “Evan!” You yelled, hopefully he’d hear your voice in the cluster of voices within the diner.
After a minute of looking, you knew you had to at least try to find his brother because he was probably the reason for this. A faint chatter and collection of very teenage boy laughs caught your attention; they were in the diner somewhere.
There was another loud clatter, accompanied by crying. Your heart dropped at the sound because it sounded like Evan. If you failed at protecting him, you’d fail your goal of helping him avoid his brother’s harrowing. Your mind was only plagued by that thought, not quite being able to move around freely. Every time you looked in a direction, it was a stranger, and everytime you moved you would brush against somebody’s arm or a child would bump into you. It was making you claustrophobic.
Finally, you got closer to the sound, seeing what and who it was. Nobody in the crowd seemed to notice this situation, having the nerve to ignore it when they were literally at the boy’s birthday party. His birthday party or not, adults nor employees batted an eye to help him and the thought of them being so ignorant made your blood boil.
All of Michael’s friends wore masks of the main cast from Freddy’s, Michael displaying himself in an obnoxious Foxy mask. They were seriously childish, all of them were seniors, for Christ’s sake. Evan was now on the dirty carpeted floor, choking on sobs as his face was swollen red, eyes puffy from crying and his Fredbear plush nowhere to be seen.
One of them laughed harder than the rest of them, you had no clue which one due to them all wearing the masks. “Wow, your brother is kind of a baby, isn’t he?” You approached, before getting stopped by one of Michael’s cousins. They were preventing you from stopping this, what jackasses. You glared at his cousin, tempted to push him out of your way.
“It’s hilarious.” A voice that had a subtle English lilt added. That was definitely Michael. All of them laughed again, and the sound of it was enough to haunt you if you didn’t get there fast enough. “Why don’t we help him get a closer look! He will love it!” The moment Michael had said that, you knew his friends would follow through with it, you pushed through his cousin, who grabbed your arm quickly. “No! Please!” Evan has shrieked, clearly against the idea.
“Let go of me,” You said through gritted teeth, attempting to tug your arm away. His cousin didn’t move, but instead had kept his grip as tight as a vice. Doubling your hand that was free, you swung it into his stomach. His grip loosened as he went to grasp his stomach in pain. “That hurt, you–bitch!” He groaned out, hurling over.
“Come on guys, let's give this little man a lift. He wants to get up close and personal!” Michael said again, only pushing this situation further. “No! I don’t want to go!” Evan had wailed out.
You were never much of a violent person, but if it came to protecting somebody, especially a kid, the rules had to be thrown out the window. You let go of your fist, hand slightly shaking at such a violent action you committed. You had to.
“You heard the little man! He wants to get even closer!”
“Michael!” You pushed through the rest of his cousins and a few strangers who didn’t even try to intervene with you anymore because of you punching the last guy who did. All of them seemed to hear, turning their masked covered faces towards you.
They laughed, some of them shaking their heads in disbelief. They didn’t believe that you would be able to stop this, but you knew how to. Just get Michael to stop and the rest of them will fall in line.
Evan struggled and sobbed while Michael and his other friend with the Bonnie mask had lifted him high, walking over to the stage. What in the hell were they doing? The rest of Michael’s friends had raised their fists, laughing and bellowing, further encouraging this. You almost got close enough before his two friends with the Chica and Freddy mask had held you back.
“Yeah! Hold her back!” The one in the Bonnie mask had chuckled. “Let her watch.” They held both of your arms, moving alongside them carrying Evan. “Hey guys, I think the little man said he wants to give Fredbear a big kiss!” Michael’s English accent pushed through his fake American one, a thing you always noticed whenever he yelled or screamed.
Evan kept wriggling his arms and his feet, but the boys’ arms had kept him in place, not moving a budge. “Quit moving you little shit!” Michael’s Bonnie masked friend had guided him even closer to Fredbear’s mouth. Michael laughed cruelly, helping his friend.
“On THREE! One.... two....”
Time seemed to move slowly as his cousins cheered, his friends’ held you, and Michael’s countdown to the last number. There was no other way than to use violence against violence. There was no other way. You turned quickly to your right, pushing one of them to the floor.
The other to your left, the Freddy mask bearer had taken action by taking a step to swing at you with his fist. You ducked. With a slight turn, you struck him with your foot as you pushed it outward in a kick that had landed him on the floor.
“Three!” Michael yelled, lifting his brother higher into the animatronic’s mouth.