Chapter Text
Cassidy stood back and watched as the Puppet carried a large birthday cake over to their table. The candles were flickering and Cassidy didn’t even want to question how the Puppet managed to light it. His eyes wandered to the people sitting at the table. There was Freddy, Foxy, Chica, Bonnie, and Golden Freddy. Gabriel, Fritz, Jeremy, Susie, Evan, and him. The kids that had their life taken away too soon.
Cassidy knew what was going to happen. The Puppet would free the souls trapped inside the animatronics. He knew that the others couldn't wait until they could be freed of the shackles holding them onto this wretched Earth. He was the same, and he couldn't even lie to himself about it. He knew that he had dreamed of escaping the golden suit that chained him inside. A distant thought.
Unlike the others, he couldn't just leave this world. When Afton wanted something he would do anything to get it. That meant that there was a chance that his soul would possess an animatronic. Cassidy wasn’t about to risk it. He had to make sure Afton would never hurt anyone again. However, there was only 1 obstacle.
If his soul got freed he knew that he wouldn’t ever get the chance to make sure William was dead. Maybe he could just walk out and leave the others to free their own souls. Sadly, there were 3 problems with this. Firstly, if Cassidy's soul never got released neither would Evan's. Cassidy barely talked to Evan, but from their faint talks, it was enough for Cassidy to think that Evan deserved to be free. Secondly, moving on itself would be difficult considering the state their 'body' was trapped in. Even one wrong move and their ‘body’ would twitch violently. Finally, if he just up and left he would worry the others. And if they were worried that meant that their souls might not be able to move on. In conclusion, that plan was a complete and utter bust.
On the other hand, he could let himself let go and leave Afton to his demons. Yeah, as if. There was no way that Cassidy was going to do that. He would rather let his soul burn forever than let Afton go. Afton deserved the worst possible death over and over again for the rest of eternity.
That left him with plan 3. He was the most confident in this plan as it was tested and it worked before. He just had to do the same thing as last time; let his soul be released but ground it so it would stay on Earth. It was risky, but it was the best thing he could think of. And even if that wouldn't work then he would go to his Plan B. Cassidy didn't necessarily like Plan B, but if he learned anything it was that getting what he wanted meant that there were some lines that he had to cross.
His thoughts were interrupted when Freddy fell to the ground, lifeless.
That meant that Gabriel was free. 5 souls left.
Foxy twitched violently before it slumped over and fell.
Fritz was free. 4 souls left.
Chica slowly fell over before crashing into the ground with a loud thump.
Susie was free. 3 souls left.
Bonnie just fell straight to the floor as the light fell from its eyes.
Jeremy was free. Only 2 left.
Cassidy could feel a sort of warm fuzzy feeling enveloping him before the sudden coldness of the suit seemed to close around him. It was like a part of him went missing. Evan was free. Only him left. The Puppet's eyes drifted toward him seeming to tell him, 'Go on,'
"̷̢̧̣̙͙̬̈́̀W̸̡͈̻͒̓̎͋̒̓ḧ̶̝͙́̎̐͝ã̴͇̲̲̫̞̺̺͐́̒̒̋ţ̶̪̭͈̝͑ ̴̢̛͈̻̩̂̂́̄̌͌a̷̬̅̓́͆͆͘ͅb̷̧̛̪͖̯͙͚̊̓͗͆̇͝o̶̘̭̎͜u̷̻͚̳̩͌̌͒̓͒̒t̸̲̾̉͋̀͝ ̷̤̳̃̽͂͆̀̕y̸̩̲̗̱͚̝̆̓́̋̔ó̸̩͉̰͍͇̈́̉͛͗̑͘ͅű̴̖̪͎̦̟͕͑̎?̵̡̳͉̿̆"̷̫̰̣̣͖̂̔ Cassidy grumbled out.
He didn't want anyone to be there when he followed the steps to his plan. Would the Puppet force him to move on? The Puppet tilted their head in confusion. Cassidy almost groaned in exasperation. There was no way they didn't understand what he meant.
"̷̣̌M̶̝͛y̵̗͒ ̸̦̎j̸̞̀õ̵̙b̶̮̌ ̴̨͗i̷̩̚ș̷͂n̶̡͗'̵̝͆t̶̠̽ ̷̬̐ḑ̶̕ō̶̤n̶͕̏ȇ̵̩ ̶̟̈́y̶͒ͅę̷̀t̷̬̾"̸̲̓ The Puppet said vaguely.
Cassidy didn't have any idea what that meant. Would that mean that the Puppet wouldn't free their own soul? Cassidy tilted his head in confusion, and immediately regretted it when he felt his head get stuck there. They both just stared at each other for a while. The Puppet's beady eyes staring into his almost lifeless eyes. Cassidy didn't even notice when he felt his soul float.
The Puppet smiled, or tried to. Cassidy wasn't too sure. Was the Puppet trying to distract him from his soul leaving? Cassidy scowled. Of course. How unfortunate.
Cassidy tried to focus on grounding himself. Focus. (The souls. Puppet. Evan. Golden Freddy.) Focus. (The dank and dusty smell in the room. The rotten smell of blood lingering in the air. The smell of the large cake that was given. Birthday parties. The humidity in the air. The familiar smell of the soil and mold.) Don't think about the afterlife. ( Would he go to hell after? He hoped not. ) Calm, deep breaths. (Each breath was painful as the humidity surrounding him triggered the springlocks. Try to focus on that, Cassidy) Focus on grounding himself. (The mysterious night guard that tried to free them, but failed. How Cassidy only remembers his name, and even that is slowly going away. ) Cassidy felt himself float and escape the darkness. His eyes could feel the light piercing them.
He didn't want to open his eyes. What if he had failed? At last, Cassidy was able to calm himself down before even squinting his eyes open.
In front of him there were people walking on the sidewalk. All sorts of people; some were talking to friends, some were walking alone, some were with their families, some were talking on the phone, and some were biking down the sidewalk. Cassidy’s eyes opened and almost fell out of their sockets. He could hear the cars whooshing past them. He heard a beep from a car, the beeping of the bicycle going past him, the people laughing and talking, the sounds of doors being opened, and so much more! He looked around and saw vibrant colors all around him. There were stores and houses everywhere! Every person looked different! All the trees were a bright green and brown that popped out. The grass was dull, but it looked like a radioactive green. He could practically taste the freshness of the air. The air smelled fresh and it carried the smell of all types of food. Cassidy could feel the sun beating down on him, yet he couldn’t feel the warmth that he remembered radiated off of it.
Cassidy felt like a kid again as he twirled around and took in everything. He forgot how long it had been since he was last outside. Despite that, Cassidy couldn’t help but laugh. There was so much to take in.
Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a candy store. He wondered what the chocolate would taste like. Would it be sweet like he remembered? He hoped it would. Cassidy ran and felt the wind go through his hair. He went to open the door but fell right through.
Huh?
How would that happen? Cassidy’s excitement faded as he got up and took a good look at himself. He was in the same outfit he wore on that day. Except he looked translucent and was floating off of the ground. He was a ghost. Pity.
Cassidy just stared at his hands before shoving his hands into his pockets and “walking” out of the store. All of the childlike excitement and wonder was put aside as he remembered his unfortunate situation.
Cassidy wandered off and his feet took him down a too familiar path. He took a right and then a left and walked until the business of the street faded and only he was left. The old buildings seemed to tower over him and watch his every move. He dragged his feet and stopped when he finally reached his destination - Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzaria.
He sucked in a breath and looked at the restaurant in front of him. It didn’t look anything like before. All the paint had been chipped, mold and ivy was creeping on the restaurant, and it looked extremely run-down and broken. Cassidy managed to tear his eyes away for a moment just to see Afton? on the other side of the street looking up at it. Cassidy wasn’t too sure but he thought he saw distaste in his eyes. Weird.
All the emptiness that he felt moments prior was instead replaced with pure hatred. Cassidy could feel his blood boiling and he ran over to him. Each step was filled with angry thoughts that clouded his brain.
It wasn’t until he was right in front of him that he really was able to take in the appearance of the other. The uncanny similarities between him and Afton was terrifying, but Cassidy was sure it wasn’t him.
Cassidy knew what Afton looked like. Everytime he was there haunting Cassidy’s nightmares. But this guy wasn’t William Afton.
His hair wasn’t the same. His eyes held a vast distaste for the restaurant. He reminded Cassidy more of the night guard that he haunted regularly. Just as Cassidy figured out that it wasn’t Afton, but a weird look-alike the man turned around and walked off. Cassidy followed him.
They walked further and further away from the city and into a forest. If Cassidy wasn’t confused before, he definitely was now. He half-thought to turn around and walk back, but decided against it. He was going to follow this man until he got the answers to his questions.
Eventually, they came to a hill and at the top stood a lone house. Cassidy had to take a step back and process it. He thought that the chance of this guy being William Afton decreased but the chance of him being a serial killer definitely increased. Cassidy ran ahead and entered the house.
There was a large living room that seemed to not be lived in. On the wall there were pictures everywhere. Cassidy was especially drawn to one that showed a family. The father’s head was torn out. He didn’t know why but Cassidy didn’t question it.
Cassidy looked at the other pictures one by one until he finally came across one that sent chills down his spine. It was William Afton and another guy.
Was this Afton’s house? But if Afton was supposedly dead and the guy looked like him…
Afton had a family?
Cassidy almost felt the need to throw up. What kind of sick person would be a child murderer AND have kids himself? The poor family.
Cassidy heard the door creak open and saw the man walking through the door. Only now had he noticed how corpse-like he looked. His skin was pure purple and seemed to stick to his skull. His eyes were sunken and red. His hair was extremely thin and his hoodie was stained with blood.
Cassidy felt bad for even thinking that he was William Afton.
No one deserved to be compared to that monster. (Unless they were worse than Afton, but Cassidy didn’t know too many people like that.)
The man took his hoodie off and put it on the couch, revealing a purple uniform shirt with a large gash in the middle. It was covered with metal wires and blood. Cassidy threw up.
He looked straight at Cassidy and his eyes widened.
“Evan,” He hesitantly said, reaching out a hand.
His voice sounded hoarse and unused, and if Cassidy listened closer it felt hollow and metallic.
“It’s me, Michael,” Michael said, reaching out before collapsing on the floor. He almost seemed to be crying.
Cassidy stopped. Suddenly, pieces fell into place one by one and it painted a picture he didn’t necessarily like.
Cassidy dropped the photo and just stared at him. Michael was crying and whispering something like, “I’m sorry.” over and over again. Cassidy awkwardly stared until Michael seemed to calm himself down. Michael just stared blankly over to where the picture he was holding fell. He crawled over there and a metal screech seemed to come from him everytime he moved.
Michael finally reached the picture and just stared at it. Cassidy barely processed what was happening before Michael scowled and tore the picture in half. The side with the mysterious man fell to the ground while Michael held onto the picture of William. Michael started to rip the picture in a million tiny pieces. He didn’t even seem to notice what was happening.
“Child-murdering asshole. I’m so fucking glad that you died,” Michael muttered as he stared at the ripped up pieces.
Yeah, Cassidy definitely liked him more. Michael finally stood up and scooped up the remains of the picture leaving the half that wasn’t ripped on the ground. Michael threw away all the ripped up pieces.
Michael then walked through one of the hallways and entered a room to the right. He closed the door with a slam and Cassidy flinched. He was now alone and wasn’t too sure of what to do. Cassidy looked around and saw a kitchen with barely any food visible. Somehow, Cassidy thought that a corpse didn’t need to eat much. Cassidy just floated down one of the hallways instead. On the right there was a girl’s room. He guessed that it was the blonde-haired girl that he saw in the family photo. Strangely, it looked like a child’s room but that wouldn’t make sense. He had thought that a long time had passed since the photo was taken - if Michael was anything to go by.
Once again another photo was formed and Cassidy liked this one even less. Poor Michael. His father was a psychopath and his mother was gone. (Evan told him that.) And both of his siblings were dead. They were killed from his father’s creations. (At least, he thought so. Evan told him how he died, and he saw quite a few robot plushies in the girl’s room. He wouldn’t put it past William to make child-murdering animatronics.) It made Cassidy want William to suffer all that more.
Cassidy slowly floated over to Michael’s room. He needed to learn more about Michael. As he entered the room he saw pictures, news clipping, maps, and papers all pinned to the walls and some were connected by strings. It looked like a crazy person’s or a detective’s room. Michael was laying on the bed holding onto a golden bear plushie. He was sobbing even louder than the last time. Cassidy felt like he was intruding in on something private.
Cassidy just tried to stare at the walls, analyzing everything. One blueprint showed a clown-like robot. Just like the one that he saw a few moments before in the girl’s room. Just like he feared it seemed like it was made to kill children. Wonderful.
Cassidy looked at another photo and it showed another Fazbear restaurant. Did those guys never learn? Cassidy quickly looked at another paper. It was a bucket list. It looked pretty old with the corners being ripped. There was one line that was so crossed out it was almost illegible. ‘Be nice to Evan and Elizabeth.’. Cassidy choked on his breath. No wonder it was crossed out so much. Michael knew that it would never happen. They were dead, after all.
Cassidy tried to look at something else to calm himself. His eyes wandered to a piece of paper from Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzaria. It was a ‘Notice of Termination’. Thankfully, it said; ‘(you’re fired)’ so Cassidy didn’t need to wonder what it meant. Had Michael worked as a night/day guard? Actually, now that Cassidy thought about it he remembered seeing someone that looked like Michael in the night guard office. Oh.
Cassidy’s eyes wandered to something else. It seemed like a journal page, and it was titled; ‘How to free the souls: ideas’ with multiple bullet points. Some were crossed out and others were only half-way complete. Cassidy held in a breath as he looked at the paper and then back at Michael. His eyes watered, but before tears fell he rubbed his eyes violently to stop them.
Cassidy suddenly felt a tug pull at him. He knew that his time was up. He had desperately tried to ignore it before, but now it came back full force. Casidy took a breath in and shakily let a breath out. He had worried that William would come back or more souls would be trapped in the suits before. But now?
He had a feeling that Michael would be able to do it. He trusted Michael.