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“Would you take off the mask?”
Henry implored.
Michael shook his head. He didn't want him to see him like this. The scar running up his neck and his purple skin was enough to indicate that he was a monster.
“Fine. You aren't...comfortable yet...I don't blame you. I haven't seen you since...”
“1985.”
Michael remembered it clearly. At least he still had memories, though not all of them were pleasant.
“Christ. That... is a long time. It shows on me, doesn't it?”
Henry chuckled.
Michael could just about see out through the small eye holes in the mask. The sandy coloured curls were grey and those warm Hazel eyes were made wise with time. His wrinkles told all.
“Yeah, well...you certainly look better than my father and myself.”
Michael replied.
“Not even that... abomination of a form he is in can fully describe his evil...could truly depict that... horror in his head.”
Henry scowled.
“It's so strange. Like...I could almost still see him there, standing in his purple suit, still…somewhat human .”
Michael found it difficult to explain his experience of meeting his father again, mostly because he had never done it before. Never told a soul.
“Always was good at manipulating.”
Henry poured himself a glass of whisky.
“You want a drink?”
“No...uh, I can't really...”
Michael shook his head.
“Sorry...guess you can't feel the effects of drugs and alcohol either?”
Henry sipped from his glass.
“Nope. But...I like to chew gum. Just to...calm nerves. I...miss eating.”
Michael sighed.
“I mean...I used to be a lot fatter, remember?”
Henry laughed.
“Yeah, uh...stress will do that to you.”
“Or being scooped will.”
Michael grinned behind the mask. He could feel his skin tear slightly. That would need fixing later.
“Still have that dry British humour, I see. That's good. I try to laugh things off...but...it's hard, being alone.”
Henry placed down his glass.
“But, I mean, I choose to isolate myself, which is my fault...I'm sorry, I know you can't really...socialise in this state. They'd never understand really, though, would they?”
Michael scratched at his bandages that covered his hands.
“Hmm...yeah but it would be nice...pretending to be normal...isn't that part of the plan?”
“Oh yes, my illusion disks! I need some pictures of you...preferably close to when you, uh, died . Lucky you...still get to be in your 20s!”
Henry could always be rather excitable over his inventions.
“Illusion disks? So they'd make me look... normal ?”
“Yes, in theory. They emit these frequencies, you see, they trick the brain. Anyone in about 15 metres distance should see you as…normal, so I advise you to only use it when you have to be in this pizzeria.” Henry explained.
“Right, I just didn’t want to frighten everyone away…it’ll be weird…being able to talk to someone up close.”
Michael hoped he remembered how to do so.
“Well, you’re doing it right now, talking to me aren’t you?” Henry drank, his smile warm.
“I mean…yes, but that’s different, I already know you and you understand why I’m so…fucked up.”
Michael gazed down at his numb hands, he could see through to the bone on some knuckles.
“I guess so.”
There was a pause. What do you say to someone you haven’t seen in decades?
“So…what is this plan, Uncle Henry?”
Henry didn’t expect that.
“You still call me Uncle?”
The elderly man blinked in confusion.
“Yeah…I would even call you my father…but it’s too late for an adoption.” He chuckled.
“I…I wish I hadn't left you, Michael. I’m sorry.”
Henry’s eyes shimmered with tears.
“I-I couldn’t protect my Charlie, and I should have realised you needed me. That monster -”
Henry gripped his glass tight and Michael thought for a second that he would break it, but he slammed it back down on the table and put his head in his hands.
“Look…Uncle Henry…I don’t blame you for anything. You…me…we can both make it right…protect and save the people we should have back in the 80s.”
Henry sat up again and saw into the eyes of his godson through the holes in the bear mask. The ethereal glow signalling the otherworldly nature of Remnant and its hellish consequences on those he loved so dearly.
“You’re right, Michael… I suppose I should tell you my plan.”
Henry fixed his glasses on his face.
“Put simply, the plan is to use more animatronics and a new pizzeria to lure the possessed ones. It should take us only a week. Then…we close up the vents and set the heat on max…Remnant can be extinguished with extreme heat according to your father.”
“But I already set Fazbear Frights on fire…my father is still here somehow.”
Michael hated that his plan failed. Sure, it wasn’t brilliantly thought out but he thought it was a fitting ending, burning the place with the lighter his father bought for his 18th birthday.
“Mike, I am really at the end of my tether here. I…I want to end it all anyway…”
“Henry…what are you saying?”
Michael saw desperation plainly written in his godfather’s wrinkled face.
“I’m saying I will remain when the building burns. I…don’t want to die of old age here, alone .”
Michael nodded,
“If…that’s how you want to do it, then…I guess it’s your life. I…don’t know what I should do.”
“You have more to live for, Michael. You could use my illusion disks…live however long you want. Maybe…seek out Jeremy?”
Michael’s ears pricked up at the mention of his name.
“Jeremy…but I just can’t, I found out where he is now, I tried to call him…but I could just never go through with it. I…I can’t believe someone else got hurt in all this madness .”
Michael sighed.
“But he lived…just like you. And if you love him, well…”
Henry shrugged. He remembered Jeremy was a good friend to Michael but his poor godson couldn’t face the truth.
“I…I don’t think he’d still love me, even if I was still alive.”
Michael slumped in the chair, thinking of all the great times he had with Jeremy, but it was cut short by the spark of anger that came from remembering how he got caught up in his father’s misdeeds and became the victim of the Bite of 87.
“Well, I have the disks, so he wouldn’t be afraid.”
Henry wanted Michael to be happy no matter what.
“Yes, but I’d be 25 and he would be in his fifties. How could I explain that? And the older you make me look, the closer I’d look to… him. Besides, Jeremy has his own life now, own wife and kids, I’m just the weird kid from high school that didn’t accept that we were in love and pushed him away because of his scary dad.”
Henry didn’t know how to help.
“I mean…” The older man began, “How do you know that? You just assumed it?”
“It’s probably true.”
“Our assumptions are rarely true… I had assumed your father no longer really loved me when he moved over here to Hurricane, so I pressed on with my life, just as I had done when he got married…but I guess love is a strong force, though…it is deadly.”
Henry mused.
“I always thought that…maybe it was a punishment from God, for doing…what I did with William, making him an unfaithful man, but I never intended for that…I thought that because I liked men, that was why God took Charlie from me.”
Henry had always been religious, always attended Church and helped out.
“You still believe in God?”
Michael asked.
“I…I don’t know. All this…crazy stuff like possession, immortality…I… do think there is more when we die…like truly leave this plane of existence. I hope that there is some form of Hell, just for William.”
There was silence, but there was a mutual agreement on this. William deserved punishment.
“I…almost felt sorry for him.” Michael spoke, reflecting on the moment.
“I was unsure if I was angry or sad. I thought that I would know what to say when I saw him again, but…there was this odd sense of calm, some relief, some… understanding . I…I can’t forgive him, Henry…but I don’t understand why he wants to keep going, he was in pain and it was familiar to me because of Ennard.”
“You really are like 2 sides of the same coin, huh?” Henry listened attentively.
“Of course, it was a shock to me. The other animatronics were freaky but I pitied them, they were confused, lost souls, but he…was still there , you know?”
Michael just didn’t know how to take the whole experience.
“You would probably find it more horrifying than I did…I mean I’m desensitised to all this so-”
“Michael, nothing was and will be as distressing to me as seeing my daughter with choke marks around her neck, dead in an alley.”
Henry exhaled deeply.
“I know what you mean…every time I close my eyes it’s like I…I can see Evan hanging out of Fredbear’s jaw…like I can hear the crunch still.”
Michael tried to stop thinking about it, but it was always on repeat in his mind.
“Not even the fear of my father in Springbonnie, rotting away…or standing in front of that scooper compares to that moment.”
Henry nodded, empathetically.
“Been a tough life for us, hasn’t it, Mikey?”
It had been years since he was called that.
“Yep.”
Henry poured them both a glass.
“I know it’s morbid…and you can’t really drink it, but…I would like to propose a toast.”
The man cleared his throat,
“You know, I really did love William Afton. I trusted him, gave him my everything …but his pain has united us again, Michael. I raise this toast to all the innocent kids who lost their lives. My daughter, your siblings, all of them, and I raise this to you , Mike. You are…a thousand times the man your father was, no matter how much you deny it and I would be proud to call you son. So, let’s celebrate this moment…because we have nothing left to lose but ourselves.”
Their glasses clinked together and Michael just placed it beside him.
“So…the plan begins tomorrow. What are you going to do, then?”
Henry asked.
“I…want to spend these days well, regardless of whether I decide to die or not. I…think I shall visit my family’s graves. Do you want to come?”
“Sure…but on one condition: I get to see you behind that mask, even just for one last time. I know you aren’t the same, but regardless of the scooper, you would have looked different from when you were a teen.”
Michael thought for a moment then agreed.
He lifted the mask.
Michael wanted to cry when he saw Henry’s smile.
“You’ll look so wonderful in the suit I got you, I hope it fits.”
“What?”
“I think the colour will suit you, you only deserve the finest, son.”
Henry brought it in. The soft blue and yellow were so lovely, and the materials looked expensive.
“You…don’t think I look-”
“You look like the kindest , most determined and strongest man I’ve ever known.”
With that, Henry left to get ready to visit the graveyard. In the pitch black darkness, Michael didn’t wear his mask. There was never a moment during the drive down to the graveyard that Henry was frightened of him. They joked and reminisced like it was still the 80s and like they’d never have been apart.
Michael would not spend the last few days of his life alone and neither would Henry.