Chapter Text
The flames licked at his skin as he sat there in his chair. The black fabric catching fire far more easily than the metal surrounding him and Michael watches with morbid curiosity. He wonders how he can feel like he’s suffocating without having lungs in the first place. He then wonders if he’s going to feel pain when the fire gets to him.
Banging on the warped metal door starts. Michael jumps in surprise before it turns into fear. Slight but there. He would rather go on his own way thanks. He then thinks that it’s just luck that the door isn’t breaking from whatever animatronic is outside his . . . room. The banging gets less aggressive and more frantic by the time Michael can feel the heat touching his skin. The fire embracing him. But being dead has its perks sometimes. Most of those being he can’t *actually* feel pain. Phantom pain, sure. Actual pain? Not really.
“MICHEAL!!!” His father screams. While he was expecting it, he also wasn’t. Not really. “LET ME IN!” The banging continues and Michael worries that the door will break from the force of a ton of metal, a rotten body in that metal, and the heat. “LET ME IN RIGHT NOW YOUNG MAN!” Michael faintly hears Elizabeth- Baby- scream.
Michael wonders what death would look like. What it would feel like. Would he go to hell for what he did to Evan? Would he go to heaven because he tried to redeem it? Does heaven and hell even exist? Would he just be in limbo, or would he just die and never wake up?
What would happen to the kids that got lead here? His father would; should, go to hell. The kids didn’t deserve that. Elizabeth didn’t deserve that (he ignored the part of his brain that sneered at him that she killed him.) Cassidy didn’t deserve any of this. She was so young when his father murdered her. And while he wished he could say that he went to death feeling peaceful that would be a lie, and Michael doesn’t want to lie more than he has to.
- - -
Michael really thought that death would be different. But it really just feels like he’s drifting. Like how he felt like when he puffed up his chest so he could float in the swimming pool water. His mum laughing at him when he breathes and sinks down a bit into the water. Or when he was even younger than that. When his mum would sing to him before he fell asleep.
Sometimes it feels like when all he wanted to do was lay in his room for hours and not move once it was only him and his father. Once Evan … died. When he was working in those dreaded pizzerias, staying up for so long and only sleeping when his adrenaline crashed. Death was both peaceful and haunting.
Sometimes, when he could focus he can hear a kid giggling at something. Or someone screaming. He decides he doesn’t like to focus on that so he drifts. Stops trying to focus on whatever is beyond this part of death.
- - -
It starts to happen far more often than Michael likes. While resting in a dark empty pit after you die wasn’t what he imagined for himself it’s far better than whatever this is.
‘This’ is him being in a mall basically centered around that cursed pizzeria he thought would die with him and his father. ‘This’ is him being stuck in a bot (animatronic? It seems to have AI, just very stupid AI.) that can’t even talk. Just beep and repeat the words “Have a map.” Take it.” “It’s free” like it’s the coolest saying around.
While he would much rather prefer the void he has begun to slightly call his home, he can’t really stop himself from wondering what is going on with him. Humming a tune he can’t recall how or who he learned it from.
The AI that he’s trapped in seems to pause for a second before a voice speaks. “Who are you?” And Michael stops humming going as rigid as a ghost can get. “What- What is going on? This isn’t in my programming.” Michael knows the voice. It’s the one that was talking about free maps and getting pushed around by teens and adults. “How- How long has it been since they updated my AI? I- They haven’t touched me besides repairs what-”
Michael hums the same tune just slightly slower and the bot beeps it out loud, a few kids turn to look at what’s happening before shrugging, pulling their parents along for the next show. Michael then proceeds to realize what just happened and stops, freezing up. “I- I’m supposed to be dead? What- I thought this was like- a nightmare the void was playing on me. A trick of some sorts. What do you mean they haven’t touched your AI? Don’t you have to get it upgraded?” The bot, Michael is deciding on calling them Map, stops. Then they turn and shoves a map in someones face. Said someone yelping before yanking the map out of their hand with a mutter of ‘Why do they even have these things? I’m going to be working with this thing at night’. When Map said even a slight beep the voice box pitches up in what Michael can feel is confusion and really, Michael would agree. Cause what?
Map rolls away and goes to a place that Michael has seen a lot whenever he wakes up. It’s the place that Map went to when a teen got startled enough and pushed Map right down the stairs. Why did map think it was a good idea to scare a teen near a staircase Michael really doesn’t know. To be honest, Michael's pretty sure that Map isn’t even aware that he’s scaring people. It’s a terrifying mix of both him and Evan. . .
Michael mentality shakes himself. Evan passed. He tried his best to make it up and now as a . . . ghost he can try even harder. Why is he even a ghost? Was it because he wasn’t a animatronic? Is it just because he was a rotten corpse? Was it because he died cursing out his father even after knowing he was also dying?
The entire time Michael is thinking, Map is also thinking. Very loudly actually. It makes it hard for Michael to think. Most of the thoughts are “What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck.” While some of the others is just Map asking how they didn’t even know there was another AI put into their systems. Which is very faulty. Virus can easily bypass whatever firewall Map has if they are thinking like that.
“Hey umm. Map, your uh. You're fine. I haven’t been here for long really. Pretty sure it’s only been a while…” Michael says, hoping that Map calms a bit. And calm a bit they do, before bursting into beeps and frantic “Oh shits” in their mind, when they realize they took the stairs and not the elevator. Wheeling off the edge of the stairs and falling down the rest of the way.
Apparently possessing an animatronic makes it so he can feel pain again and Michael was not expecting that, though it makes sense with how much the others screamed when they got burnt. Map crashing onto the floor and chipping the casing on their arm. He floats out of Map dissolving into the air to go back to the void and chill out a bit after relearning what real pain feels like. Phantom pain sucks ass, don’t get him wrong. But being hurt again after so long of not even feeling cold shocks him a bit.
After floating for a bit Mike gets tugged down back into Map when a mechanical person puts Map into a white cylinder looking… thing. Before Michael can ask what's up to Map and *why* he got dragged down. More so how, but that’s not really important.
What is important is that he can’t feel Map. Can’t feel the AI pressing at the back of where his eyes feel like they are.