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William stands in the Parts and Service room of Circus Baby's Pizza World. It will open soon, and he's already allowed a few volunteer families inside to test things and make sure everything is functioning properly. He's already checked Ballora and the Funtimes to esure that all is working right for the grand opening. He had sent Mike and Elizabeth outside the facility earlier, instructing his son to keep a close eye on Elizabeth. She just won't give up trying to see Baby.
He built Baby to be the most brutal with the killings, trapping her victims inside her chest cavity and scooping out their innards. She's his greatest achievement yet, the perfect specimen for his purpose.
He smiles as he powers her down to do another maintinence check. His long fingers press all the necessary little buttons to click her chest plates open and reveal her wiring.
Then, he notices something odd.
A small bit of red trickles down one of the wires. Strange. He was sure he had set them all up to be peaceful today while the place was tested. He shrugs. A little extra remnant isn't anything to fuss about. But none of the testers had reported a child missing.
He gets the feeling that something is wrong. Very wrong. Elizabeth and Michael are not in the building, Mike is protecting Elizabeth, he assures himself.
He digs his hand behind the wires to find the nessesary button, and he presses it, opening Baby's chest cavity.
He makes a choked noise once he sees what lies withing the chest cavity.
Elizabeth.
Her body is mangled. Contorted, dried tears streaking her cheeks. Her face is frozen with a look of terror, one eye on the verge of coming out of the socket. Baby's claw and scooper are stained red, Elizabeth's stomach torn open. Her intestines spill out, hitting the ground with a disgusting splat. Bloody handprints cover the scooper. Elizabeth had died fighting.
William lets out a noise he didn't know he could make, a cry of pain and loss and disbelief. No. Michael was watching her, right? When had she come inside? Why didn't she listen to him when he said to stay away? He scoops his daughter up in his arms, holding her to his chest as he wails. He looks down at her face, lifeless and afraid and in pain, and he falls to his knees.
He doesn't know how long he lays there, holding her, retching each time he looks down and sees her mutilated body. His poor little girl. Gone. All because of the monster he had built.
He sets her down on the floor gently, as if she was still alive. He takes off her headband and tries to wipe her blood off of the pink fabric of the bow. Mechanically, he stands and exits the building, in a daze.
Michael is outside. "Father, have you seen Elizabeth? We were playing hide and seek, and now she won't come out of her hiding spot," He says, crossing his arms. He notices the headband in William's hands. "Have you found her?"
"I told you to watch her." William says. "I told you to watch her and now she's gone. You've killed another one of my babies." His words drip with venom. "You're a monster, Mike. You wanted this to happen, didn't you? You wanted to get rid of your little sister too, just like you did to Evan."
Michael sighs, assuming that William is overreacting, as he normally does when Elizabeth gets hurt in any way. "I'm sure she'll come on out now that you're here. She's just hiding because of the game, she's not missing."
"She's dead."
He pauses. "What?"
"Your sister is dead, Michael. You didn't keep a close enough eye on her. I told you to watch her."
Michael searches Williams expression for any tell that it's a lie, but he finds nothing. "What? No, I was watching her, we were playing a game, Father, where is she?"
"She's dead! You killer her!" William snaps, slapping Michael across the cheek. He looks around and hugs himself. "This can't get out. We need to bury her."
"Father, no-" Michael hiccups, clutching the side of his face. He's sure there's a handprint left behind from the slap.
"If you don't do as I say, I'll tell the police you killed her. After what you did to your brother, theyll believe me and they won't hesitate to let you rot in jail." William seethes. "She's inside. You're going to help me load her into the trunk."
Michael looks down, tears streaking down his cheeks. "Yes, Father." He choked down a sob.
William leads his son inside, into Parts and Service where Elizabeth's body lay.
Michael vomits, wracked with fear and repulsion and remorse when he sees her. "What happened to her?" He can barely get the words out through his tears and snot, gray eyes unable to look away from the maimed corpse of his sister.
"I told her not to go near Baby. I told you to watch her." William won't look at her body. He can't. "I'll bring a tarp. You just wrap her up and toss her in the trunk. And remember, not a word about this to anyone or I'll tell them you did it."
Michael can do nothing but weep as William leaves to get a tarp from one of the supply closets, shaking and crying at the sight of Elizabeth.
They work quickly and efficiently, too efficiently for William to not have done this before. He leaves the place spotless and drives off with Elizabeth in the trunk and Michael in the passengers seat.
They bury her in the woods, with the corpse of road kill on top so that even if the grave was found by authorities, they would assume all that lay under the dirt was a dead animal, oblivious to the little girls body that lay a few layers of dirt lower.
The mood is grim and tense at home. William made up some lie to police about Elizabeth going missing while she was playing outside with Michael. He's in his office at home, in hysterics over losing Elizabeth. At least the amount of crying he's doing made his story seem more believable and gained him some sympathy. He didn't join the search, telling authorities that he was going to go home and console Michael.
Michael. He couldn't care less how Mike felt about it. Mike is the one that was too inattentive to keep an eye on her.
He's closing Circus Baby's Pizza World before it can even open. He doesn't think he can stand to look at those animatronics anymore, especially Baby.
He wants to call Henry, but after their last fight, he's sure any chance of being on good terms with him has gone. Henry knows. Knows about Charlie and the missing children's fate. He doesn't have enough evidence to get William arrested, but he knows.
He never thought Henry would ever put it all together. He wishes Henry never did. He wishes he could just call him and cry into his arms, but no. All he has left is Mike, and he'd truly rather be alone than be stuck with that monster.
No matter, he's ready been looking into kicking Mike out or sending him off to a foster home. Elizabeth's death has only made him more sure in the decision. But Mike is already in his teens, it might be easier to just kick him out on the streets...
He'll ponder it later.
He reaches for another beer. Poor Lizzie. His Lizzie. With her mother's hair and eyes and smarts. Always eager to please, to make him happy. Wanting his attention and validation and love. Why hadn't he given it to her? He doesn't know. He hopes her remnant isn't still trapped in that thing, in the metal monster that he created.
He went through so much to keep her. Lorraine tried to take her away, and he fought hard in court to keep her. And Lorraine had fought hard to stay alive when he snuck up behind her with a hammer. But what else could he do? She had left him and was trying to take their children with her. Nobody is allowed to leave Willam Afton.
Nobody.
But he hopes and prays that somehow, Lizzie did. That she's up in heaven instead of trapped in the very thing that that killed her.