Chapter Text
William did not raise a mopey, whiny child. He raised his miniature copy, he raised a mini William, the next Mr Afton. His successor.
Sadly, this was only true for one of his kids. He had three. Yet only his first seemed up to his standards. He wanted a son, so he got one. He was fine with Michael, one child was enough, he got his successor to his business. He got his replica.
But Clara wanted more. She wanted a big family, like the one that she grew up in. William was an only child. He did not feel the need for siblings, so he did not understand why Michael needed any.
But she insisted. Michael had no opinion on the prospect. He did pretty well on his own sitting and watching William and Henry toil away on their animatronics. He was quiet, ideal, and manageable. Just as William preferred. Yet still held the curiosity and often intelligence of his father. He was a natural in school, and just as bright, if not brighter then his father was at school. Michael did talk a lot when younger, mostly just words that he repeated over and over again. When he was 5 he did not stop greeting people with an ominous Hi and Hello coming from every corner of the house. Then when he got a bit older, he stayed relatively quiet. Only to break out into full on developed and perfectly pronounced words and phrases. When not watching his father work, he sat with his mother and watched those old and crappy soap operas. Memorizing the words for hours on end.
Michael started looking just like his father from a young age, everybody always commented on that. His father was accomplished and smart, a famous man. Why would Michael not be proud of that?
It was the three of them, in their little flat. Yet Clara kept insisting.
He was 8 when the twins were born.
Evan was whiny and noisy. Elizabeth was just as noisy, if not noisier, but needy. William tried with both of them, he really did. Elizabeth was kept happy by constantly spoiling her, putting things in front of her, buying her things so she would stop talking. Evan was inconsolable half the time, always crying about something. Nothing made him stop. Michael was 8 years older than his siblings, he was far out of their age range. He did not play with them unless he was forced to by his mother.
Michael was quieter when they were born. Michael viewed his siblings as an inconvenience most of the time. His parents paid less attention to him. He was expected to take care of them when William and Clara weren't home.
William kept his cool, despite the frustrating new additions to his family. He kept it together.
Kids started to grow old real quick when he was not only working in an establishment made for kids, but had his own loud and annoying set of children at home. Michael was a teenager by now, ripe at the age of 13. He was doing his own thing, occasionally stopping by his brother's room to spook him with the mask he had snagged from fathers workplace.
Elizabeth and Evan were getting on his nerves. William was getting tired of them. The first stages of their lives, the “baby phase” were over. They were never as silent and reserved as Michael was as a child.
Not to mention, siblings brought a nastier side of his oldest out. Michael picked on his siblings. A lot. He did not care for them like a brother should. Then again, Michael never wanted siblings. William never wanted more than one child.
William had taken the first life. A little black haired girl. She was whining like any child at closing of the restaurant after it became late. But William noticed that her parents were a little too careless, they were not paying attention.
He had killed a rabbit before… It had gotten stuck in the fence of their new house complete with a lawn. He snapped its neck. It felt.. Good to be in control of a life. To dictate what happens to it. To be the deciding factor of it.
Why was a child so different?
There were so many brats all about the place. He could take his anger out on them instead of his own kids. Nobody would know.
Nobody.
Except Michael. Who´s intelligence was starting to become a problem. His son knew something was off when William walked in the house more pleased than ever with himself.
Michael once saw a yellow rabbit disappear behind the stage with a kid. William saw him from the corner of his eye when he walked out of the room. The room was empty, all besides his boy. Who stared at him with a questioning expression. Not one of fear but… Something.
William knew Michael put the pieces together when the whole family gathered at the couch and watched the news reports. He knew what his father did when the police questioned them. But Michael never said anything. He just looked at his father occasionally, like he was trying to figure him out.
Eventually he deduced that Michael must have found whatever William was doing interesting to some degree. When he went to work on his own separate location, without Henry's input, Michael was there. Watching him work like he always had.
“Why did you do it?” The boy spoke up when William was tinkering with Funtime Freddy's endoskeleton. It was not in an accusation-like manner- It was pure curiosity.
Michael never picked up much empathy from William. And his mother was always busy with her job or his siblings. He was either inside his room, or with William. The few times he was with his friends, it was more like a hierarchy based on fear. Michael was good at scaring the other kids. Some took this as that if they stood behind Michael, he would protect them against the other kids in school.
It wasn't really friendship.
William was never social either.
“Why do you torment your little brother?” William said it almost like a statement, as if the two questions were related.
“He deserves it for being a cry baby about everything.” Michael spoke back.
“That's it right there Michael. They deserve it.”
He risked it. He risked it all on his son. On Michael. Yet Michael never said anything to anybody.
One day, Michael walked up to Williams office with a bird held between his hands. He said that Elizabeth found it outside and that it can't fly, probably flew into the window once or twice. She wanted to take care of it, yet refused to touch it because it could have germs. Clara said if she wanted to try and nurse it back to health, she would have to talk to William about it.
Elizabeth was smart enough not to go into her fathers office. He got mad when any of them besides Michael went down.
“Snap its neck. It's bound to die anyway.” He said, almost casually, but he kept eyeing his son.
Michael hesitated…
“If you won't do it, something else will. Death is a natural part of life.”
Michael snapped the bird's neck, twisting it quickly. William held back a pleased smirk.
“It died of natural causes, must have been sick.” He said suddenly just as Mike was about to leave the room with the dead bird. William smiled again, more vividly this time.
Nobody would know what actually happened to the bird. Just like the kids.
Nobody would know.
He heard Elizabeth cry out from the other room. She was upset that the bird had died so quickly, but it passed off as due to sickness or injury. She did not know Michael did it. Evan did not know. Clara did not know.
William would not say anything about it. Just like Michael kept his mouth shut about his stuff.
At 14 Elizabeth disappeared. Michael knew what did it- What caused the deed. William knew Michael knew. Michael saw him build Circus Baby. He saw the contraption hidden inside it. He knew his sister's fate- And he almost spoke up about it. But then. He didn't.
He stared at the animatronic coldly. But not William. William did not do it. The animatronic did. Even if it was made for it.
He was not overly attached to Elizabeth, but she did not cross paths with him too much. Her death made him at least shed a few tears.
It hurt more when mother left. Where-? He did not know. Although when William and her fought right before her disappearance- He suspected it wasn't just her getting up and leaving.
Evan got even more insufferable. Michael started drawing his frustrations out. The four faces of the four animatronics at his fathers workplace were often scribbled onto the pages. But they seemed more.. Horror movie monster looking then before, teeth, claws, and haunting eyes. He joked to his father that these should be the next design of animatronics. William got a few brand new ideas to make sure Evan would be a bit smarter than his sister.
Now that Evan was quieter than before, William tolerated him. He did not want to have to bury another child. So keeping him afraid was a key element to his survival.
Michael did help with that.
He helped out a bit too much.