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Michael Afton, well it was right there in his name wasn’t it, Afton? That’s why he was there this night, why he was there every night since a teenager named Jeremy lost his face to… something. He wasn’t sure yet because Mike had only gotten so far and Fazbear Entertainment is known for being able to do a proper cover-up.
That's why Michael was here. Here in the security office with a familiar journal in his hands. The reason for his life after death, William Afton. He’d be dead for three years still Micheal was still on this earth to clean up after that man. Even though Michael watched his corpse turn to ash himself he knew there was a deeper story.
Still, there was a journal in his hands and Mike knew that the familiar dull feeling of the WA was engraved on the cover. His eyes struggled to read anything further than the two letters.
Mike closed the journal. He didn’t need to look to know what was written. Someone having access to and reading these is exactly what Mike had been trying to avoid. He was sure that these all burned in the fire but it was possible that Henry missed one. The biggest issue was that Mike knew that this journal was being read, and often.
He stepped away from the security office’s desk and back to his cleaning cart. He’s been the only janitor aside from robots for the past two weeks. The pizzaplex was large and Mike was tired of having to traverse it. Still, he kept walking.
Mike had found a tape a while ago that documented the experiences of someone named Vanessa. Mike couldn’t judge much for that aspect; he quite liked to tape himself talking and taking notes.
Vanessa had been a game developer for Faz Ent. and she had been rambling for minutes on how she was excited to learn about William Afton, infamous serial killer. She sounded infatuated, not something Mike cared to listen to but he kept the tape recorder playing, and then Mike heard her say something about William Afton’s journal. That’s what had truly made him set his investigation on the young security guard.
Mike finally stopped at the small supply closet he had made his own. He made sure he knew which chemicals were where, and he paid enough attention when he was in chemistry class all those years ago to know that mixing the wrong thing is a bad idea. It also helped that he knew his way around in the tiny closet, well enough that he had a hiding spot. The tapes of his notes along with the other journal he had found were stuffed into a small crack between the doorframe and the closet. Just on the inside of the door which was perfect because nobody else would even bother to check there.
He made sure to put the new journal into the hiding spot. He didn’t take one of Vanessa’s tapes today. Just making sure the journal was gone would be good enough.
That’s when he heard it. A scream cut through the complex. Mike was running before he could even think to tell his legs to move. He burst through the heavy employee-only doors that led to the stairwell. He only heard it faintly but he knew it was coming from under the pizzaplex.
The final stair and then he stood in front of the only door separating him from his father’s grave. He stood unmoving for a moment frozen until another scream came from inside and Mike shoved the door open. It didn’t matter if he could be down here or not, what mattered was that he needed to save whoever was screaming.
Inside Mike squinted in the low light. It was mostly rubble down here. Fazbear’s decided to build over their founders’ final resting places. Mike unclipped his flashlight from his belt and clicked it on.
There were small lights leading down a pathway through the rubble. Micheal took a step and then another, his free hand reached for the wrench on his tool belt.
Another scream and Michael abandoned all caution. He stumbled over rubble as he followed the noise. Then he came to an auditorium area. A large cleared-out semicircle with a few plastic chairs surrounded a small stage. Michael realized too late what was happening.
“Why don’t you give Fredbear a kiss?” Vanessa or as she called herself on the tape, Vanny held a kid in a striped shirt. They were on the stage with what Michael recognized from his nightmares, the reason behind the thick feeling on his hands, Fredbear’s head was mounted on a broken endoskeleton. Mike could see some spring locks poking out from the head and he watched for a moment in horror as the child’s head was moved closer to Fred bear's mouth.
Michael moved on instinct and the wrench in his hand made contact with Vanny the moment he was across the auditorium. She dropped the child and he squirmed out of her grasp and scurried off of the stage as Vanny started to recover as she stumbled backward.
“You must be the one who made it out of his tomb.” Vanny spoke in a singsong voice. Still, it carried anger, the kind of hatred that takes years to build.
Michael swung with his whole weight at Vanny’s ribs. The wrench made contact. A loud crack ripped through the auditorium as Vanny crumpled. Mike turned away to run but stopped. He had to finish the job… didn’t he? Vanny wouldn’t stop. Mike knew what Henry had done to his father. He knew what Henry would tell him. Was that what he was brought back alive to do? To end the lives of those who hurt others. He looked at Vanny who was on the floor cradling her ribs with one arm and using the other to stumble to her feet.
Michael pulled back the wrench as Vanny regained her balance. Then Michael felt something around his leg. The child was grappled onto him. Fuck.
He dropped his wrench, grabbing the child just under their armpits, and Mike began to run. Vanny wouldn’t get far with a broken rib and the top priority was getting the kid to safety. Mike knew that he could lock the door and keep the kid out of there. Then he would do what he has to.
His foot slipped but he recovered and gripped the child closer to his chest. He saw the faint light coming from behind the metal door. He turned and pushed through the door. He went to set the child down but the kid was latched onto him.
“Kiddo, I’m going to need you to be very brave for just a minute.” Mike brushed a quick hand through the child’s hair. “Can you do that for me?”
The kid shook his head and buried his face into Mike’s chest.
“I need to go back and take care of the bunny lady. Can you let go of me kiddo?”
Mike struggled to keep his voice calm. The kid kept a tight grip on Mike, hanging from his neck with his legs wrapped around him. For a moment it didn’t feel like this was some random kid. It was ‘82 and Evan just woke up from a bad dream and Mike was comforting him. That was before Liz, before Mike grew cruel before Mike’s story got forever changed, and before he got chained to becoming the legacy of William. Forever his unwilling successor.
For a moment though, Micheal was holding Evan in 1982.
Michael shifted his weight and wrapped his arms around the child.
“I’ve got to go back and catch the bunny lady. It’s my job to do that. Can I have you go up the stairs and wait in the daycare for me?”
“I got-“ the kid had to sniffle as he pulled his face away from Michael’s chest. “I got kicked out of daycare.”
Mike stopped his slow brushing of the kid’s hair.
“How did you do that?”
“It was an accident!” The kid wailed and shoved his face back into Mike's chest and Mike went to rubbing circles into the kid’s back. He was painfully aware that the door wasn’t locked.
“Shh, okay, it’s okay.” Mike’s free hand padded at his waist and he pulled out the hex key from his pocket. He turned it until the door made a loud thudding sound lock falling down into place.
The kid in his arms jumped at the noise and gripped Mike tighter than he would prefer. The last thing he needed at the moment was for this kid to discover all of the organs he was missing.
“Alright, here let’s go back upstairs and get you some water. Does that sound okay?”
With a small nod from the kid and Mike began the trudge up the stairs. He could feel the missing weight of his wrench. He knew if Vanny had gotten down there they must know how to get back out. There was a clear path and Mike was just hoping that Vanny had gotten used to always taking that route and there wasn’t an alternative.
Right now his top priority was taking care of the kid. Some water and then a call to the police. Mike would clock out and wait just long enough so he knew the kid would be alright and then he'd leave it to the professionals.
After what felt like the millionth stair Mike used his back to push open the door. He was near rockstar row. Mike pushed on between the rooms. He knew that Vanessa tried to avoid the animatronics and that they would usually leave pretty quickly if Mike was around. Roxy would be easily persuaded to stay out of his way if he gave her some new paint for her casing. If Vanessa comes up the first place she might look is the daycare or perhaps the garage that is of course if she recognized Mike. That wouldn’t be hard considering they were the only staff supposed to be on tonight. He had been careful to not use the alias Mike, instead going back to Fritz Smith, the old tried and true fake name.
Mike stopped in his tracks. The last time he used the name Fritz was when Jeremy… He couldn’t think of that now. He slid his badge over the lock next to Roxy’s door.
The door slid open and Mike stepped into the room. He had been here earlier and it was nice and clean. The room was just as empty as he had left it. He remembered that Roxy kept some water in a branded Roxy raceway bottle on her vanity.
“Okay, kiddo can you let go? You can sit down on the couch.” With a small brush of hair and the kid slowly released and scurried up onto the couch. The child was scrawny, he wore a striped t-shirt and he had bandaids on his cheek and arms. He pulled his knees into his chest and it only made him look even smaller on the large couch made for an animatronic. “Can you tell me your name?”
“Gregory.” Mike had to strain to hear the kid’s quiet voice.
“Gregory?”
A small nod from who he now knew was named Gregory confirmed.
“What are you doing here Gregory?” Mike crouched in front of the couch getting to the eye level of the kid. Mike watched as Gregory really got a look at him and gave a small gasp.
“Are you a robot? Your eyes glow!” Gregory’s small hands touched Mike’s masked face.
“No, I just have a condition.” Mike sighed letting Gregory wave his hands in front of his face. He didn’t know how old Gregory was but he couldn’t be much older than seven or eight. He wasn’t going to find out much. He reached for the water bottle on the vanity logo and handed it to Gregory. “Would you like some water?”
Gregory gave a small nod and took the bottle. Mike watched Gregory use his two little hands to hold the bottle and Mike just thought about how small the kid was. Tiny breath of life that Vanny was trying to kill. Not that Michael had room to talk.
He sighed and stood up to his full height drawing the curtains on chica’s room.
“Do you know your parents’ phone number, Gregory?”
Gregory stopped drinking the water and panted for a moment gasping for air after not breathing for a moment.
“I- no.”
That just means he’ll have to call the police instead. Mike didn’t particularly like that it was the case. He glanced at the door. The curtains were already drawn and he had no idea when Roxy would be back in her room. Mike would just have to come up with an excuse later. He walked back to the vanity and pulled the small phone sitting there off of its base. He didn’t hear anything as he held the handset to his ear. That was surprising. He punched in a few numbers ready to call the police but not even the harsh ringing noise of not having a call going was there.
He crouched with the handset still in one hand and followed the phone cable.
It was cut. Mike should have given Vanny more credit than he did. She had this more planned out than he would have thought. He didn’t have one of those fancy phones that you could walk around with that he saw fancy businessmen carrying around. He would have to take Gregory to the police station. He could take him to the garage now? That meant that he would have to expose them more. He didn’t know if Vanny could even get out but he knew that she had access to every door in the building and all of the security footage. Due to how Monty broke the last camera in his room the animatronics didn’t have cameras in their actual green rooms only outside pointed toward the curtains.
Mike had been careful to stay out of the cameras as much as possible but that doesn’t mean they were invisible. The garage had lots of cameras mostly due to how expensive the vans and equipment were.
If Mike ran he would make it. Vanny should still be disoriented and going up flight after flight of stairs with a broken rib would be hard on the best of days. Mike would be winded if he even had the lungs to properly breathe but over the last five years he learned that he would never grow weary. Sure he would be able to sleep when absolutely needed but those moments were few and far between.
Right now he would have at least five minutes or so until she would be back at the top of the stairs and that’s if she could make it.
Mike gave a long sigh.
“Alright, buddy-” Mike crouched down to be at the same height as Gregory. “We’ve got to keep moving. You want to get back home don’t you?”
Gregory seemed to sink further into the sofa. Mike tilted his head. The older scrapes on Gregory's arms and knees seemed to make more sense. The small hideouts that Mike cleaned up seemed to have random fazbear merch and looked somewhat lived-in clicked.
“How about we just get out of the pizzaplex and then we can talk okay buddy?”
Gregory gave a small nod and Mike held out his hand for the kiddo to take. The last thing he was expecting was for Gregory to try and tackle him latching back onto him.
“Do you want me to carry you?” Mike laugh to himself a bit as Gregory furiously nodded. “Alright.” Mike moved one arm to properly hold the kid and the other to give him a small pat on the back. Despite the dying nerves in his chest, Mike could feel how it was now wet with Gregory's tears.
Mike took to rubbing small circles on Gregory's back as he stood back up to his full height. For a brief moment, nostalgia hit him again. Evan was always crying and Mike wasn’t always a monster. A small memory of sitting with Evan on the couch gently shushing the boy and calming him while he fell asleep.
Mike knew he couldn’t cry. Not since he woke up in this tattered body but his chest still wanted to shake and shutter as if getting rid of emotions trapped in organs he knew didn’t exist.
He had to keep pressing forward. He couldn’t cry, couldn’t rest. Until his father was gone for good. His father burned but Vanny still existed, the tendrils of evil still plagued this world and Mike was that “brave volunteer”. It was his job to fix that. Right now he needed to get Gregory to the garage and then… Mike didn’t know.
His legs moved without much effort and he got to the door watching as it slid open. Mike was careful to try and be quiet. He couldn’t hear as much as he used to and was acutely aware that someone could easily sneak up on him. He knew that the animatronics footsteps were loud enough that he could hear them but if chica was trying to be quiet because she was stealing from the trash again then she might be an issue. Luckily Mike knew that Chica could be persuaded as easily as Roxy by just offering some trash.
Monty was the only one Mike had to be careful of. His anger was something that everyone tried to avoid. Freddy was in lockdown so there wasn’t a single issue with the bear.
The hallways were as empty as they were for each shift Mike had. He felt Gregory's little head turn to face ahead of them. Mike couldn’t get over how small Gregory was.
Evan was born tiny. Smaller than he should have been. Mike remembered spending days in the hospital with their mum while Evan was in a big machine. Mike remembered curling up next to mum while she was holding Evan and he was so tiny.
But Mike wasn’t holding Evan. He was holding Gregory. The last time Evan was in his arms was ten years ago. Despite most of his nerves feeling dead, he would never lose the feeling of the still warm blood on his hands.
Mike turned another corner only to spot Roxy at the end of the hall. He turned back around the corner and poked his head back into the hall. He could barely see her but he could hear her metallic footsteps.
They could always go a different way to the garage to avoid this one corridor but that would lead them through gator golf which with Monty’s temper would be what scientists called a bad idea.
Mike readied himself for a moment to be able to lie. He took a few steps forward and kept walking. Making sure to have good posture, and make it look like he belonged there. That was one of the few helpful things his father taught him. The art of getting where you’re not supposed to be.
Mike kept his chin up and brisk pace as he got near Roxy. Her ears perked up and she turned. “Hey, Kid! Come on out, we’re only trying to help.”
“Roxy, I hope you don’t mind but I’m just going to the garage an-”
Mike was interrupted by Roxy trying to pounce at him. Mike narrowly avoided the attack and stumbled to his feet as Roxy geared up to try and pounce again.
“Roxy?”
Then Mike saw it. She couldn’t see him. He knew that she was the only one with infrared vision and well… he didn’t have a circulatory system. She couldn’t see him but she was trying to kill Gregory. They didn’t usually do that. Sure the old animatronics used to try and hurt security guards but those were confused kids who were trying to get closure. As far as Mike knew he couldn’t see any remnant of the Glamrocks. He did spot a small glimmer of purple on Roxy’s neck.
Vanny. It must be her tampering with the animatronics. Did they also act violently toward her? Is that why she tries to avoid them or is it because she tries to avoid being caught?
Mike ducked out of the way of another attack and gripped Gregory just a bit closer. He could feel the strain on the stitches on his side.
He needed to get Gregory out of here and hit that thing on Roxy’s neck. He had some advantage here, he was invisible to her. The only thing she was looking at was Gregory following him in a blind rage. As long as Gregory was protected Mike would be able to get at the thing on her neck.
“Hey Greg, I know this is scary but I need you to be a brave kiddo and I need you to go into that room and close the door.” Mike gave a small pat on the kiddo’s back and made sure to point out the door. Gregory gave a hesitant nod as Mike pushed him along. The moment the door clicked to lock Roxy hit it. Mike jumped away just in time and then as Roxy scrambled to try and get inside Mike grabbed at her neck and pull back the small purple device he saw glitter.
Roxy crumbled the moment the chip disconnected. Mike pulled it up towards his face to inspect it. It was a deeper purple color and shiny. Its metallic glint was the only reason he would’ve spotted it. This must have been what messed with Roxy’s programming. If Vanny messed with Roxy then who’s to say that she didn’t mess with the other animatronics? This made their short journey to the garage suddenly a lot more dangerous.
Mike stepped back on his heels and knocked on the door.
“Okay, buddy. You did such a good job. You’re so brave, now we’ve got to keep moving so can you open the door? I’ll pick you back up if you want.”
The door slowly opened and Gregory opened his arms making small crab hand motions again. Mike picked the kiddo up. Then he jumped as he noticed Roxy start to get up. Mike kept Gregory close feeling his haphazardly done stitches and what little nerves he had to scream at him. It didn’t matter if he was in pain. He didn’t matter. He was a brave volunteer and all that mattered was keeping Gregory safe.
Roxy blinked a few times and Mike could see her eyes adjust.
“Oh, Fritz. Is this your child?” Roxy stood up to her whole height and they were eye to eye only a few inches apart. Mike kept Gregory close. “We all got an alert and we thought he was lost. Vanessa told me to… I don’t remember. Here at FazEnt, our main goal is keeping kids safe. I bet I’m your favorite, right?”
“I- yes this kid is mine. Roxy, can you remember anything?” Mike prodded.
“I don’t see why that’s important.” Roxy huffed out. She flicked her hair and dusted off her knees. Mike was impressed with how realistic these animatronics were compared to whatever his father tried making.
“It is Roxy. I think that something wrong is going on here. No- I know something wrong is going on here. I need to get Gregory to the garage.” Mike made sure to continue rubbing circles into Gregory's back more to calm himself than the kiddo.
“What’s been going wrong?” She almost snarled and Mike could feel Gregory try to bury himself and get away.
Mike realized he was going to have to be honest.
“Vanessa. She’s the reason some kids have been going missing around the pizzaplex. She tampered with you and made you go after Gregory. I have to get him out of here before Vanessa gets back. I locked her in the basement and I think one of her ribs is broken but I don’t know how long that will last. I don’t know if any other animatronics have been tampered with.”
Roxy blinked at him.
“Vanessa is some kind of murderer?” Roxy scoffed.
“I’ll get you some new paint if you just accompany us to the garage. Make sure that Monty, Chica, and Vanessa stay far away.”
“I’ll help. Even if you’re just crazy I’ll take some paint.” Roxy flicked her hair again and Mike noticed the way she fidgeted with it. It reminded him of himself. When he was alive he was always trying to care for his appearance. The last time he styled his hair was before Jeremy… They were supposed to have a date that evening but Jeremy is better off without him.
He couldn’t keep getting lost in nostalgia for a time when he didn’t have this broken body. Right now he needed to get Gregory out of there.
With the new ally, Mike began to trudge on. They were close enough to the garage now that it was just beyond his grasp.
They turned the final corner and mike swiped his badge and stepped inside. He grabbed the keys to the van and slid open the backdoor. He didn’t have a child seat but this was the best he could do.
“Alright, buddy go ahead and buckle up, and then we’ll be alright okay?” Gregory scrambled into the car and hesitantly buckled up and Mike closed the door making sure the child locks were on.
“Roxy. I need you to make sure that Monty and Chica don’t have these chips on them.” He pulled the chip up for her to study. “Then make sure Vanessa isn’t able to get out. I’m going to get the police here as soon as possible and I’ll let you tell them this… okay?” Mike waited for a nod and then he began. “Under the desk in the main security office, there should be a small switch that will open a compartment full of tapes. They are from Vanessa and contain all of the information about her slow descent. She was inspired by William Afton. The man responsible for the 1985 Missing Children’s Incident at a previous Fazbear location. Vanessa should still be in the basement with a broken rib in a rabbit costume.”
Roxy nodded taking everything in. Mike stepped up into the van. Then paused.
“I’ll give you some extra paint if you keep my name out of everything here. As far as you know you stumbled across the tapes yourself and some kids escaped after a fight with her before you could even find Vanessa.”
Roxy nodded and Mike closed the door.
“Alright kiddo where are we headed? Do you have any place to go that you remember?”
“My Aunt’s house. She lives in a brick house near a park with lots of dogs.”
Mike tapped the steering wheel for a moment. Brick houses, near a dog park. There was a street that was only a mile or so away that had brick houses all next to each other with a dog park across the street.
“Is there a big tree in the park with a tire swing?”
“Yes!” Gregory smiled as Mike adjusted the mirrors.
“Alright, then we’ll go to your aunt’s house. Do you remember the number?”
“I think it was 1638? It’s the house with a pretty sunflower on the door.”
Mike couldn’t seem to get out of his head today. Sunflowers were a flower that he associated with one guy in particular. Jeremy had a big sunflower wreath that he and his mom had made together. The world wasn’t that small. Mike had to get past Jeremy and get back to what he was still alive for. What the remnant in his corpse was still aching for. An ending. One where at least one kid survived. That ending didn’t have Mike burdening Jeremy in it.
“I know where we’re headed then. You’ll be there soon enough Gregory.”
The drive was slow. It felt even slower when Mike adjusted the back mirror only to see that Gregory was asleep. Tiny breaths of life that would live for another day. For the first time since he died Mike felt himself take a breath. It felt weird to actually feel the air move through him. He was more aware of the streetlamps and the layer of melancholy that the whole world seemed to have after so much stress.
He was half tempted to turn the radio on. It had been years since he properly enjoyed music.
No. He couldn’t do that. It would wake up Gregory and that’s the only thing that mattered. He wasn’t here to enjoy anything. He was here to get Gregory back home safely.
Mike finally got to the street across from the dog park and he kept his eyes open as he looked at each number. Finally, his eyes landed on 1683. Then he stopped. The sunflower wreath. Jeremy? No this was Gregory's aunt’s house. Jeremy had an apartment. It was probably just something that Jeremy got rid of and someone bought it from him.
Mike continued to breathe. He tried not to call the action selfish as he gained the strength he could again. He needed to park the car and then he would have to take Gregory to the front steps.
He parked the van and got out still trying to steady himself. He opened up the backdoor and carefully picked up Gregory careful not to wake the kid.
Mike could just lay Gregory on the doorstep and ring the bell and leave. No. That was a dick move. Give the kid to the aunt and then he could leave.
He slammed the door and trudged up the three steps in front of the door. He rang the bell and after a moment a light turned on inside the house and Mike could barely keep it all together.
The door opened after a wait that made Mike even more anxious. The sight before him was the real kicker.
Jeremy. He had long blonde hair. The scar from the bite was almost gone Mike could tell that Jeremy was wearing the glass eye. Jeremy’s only real eye was still as beautiful as he remembered. Jeremy was in his pajamas. Mike recognized the shirt he was wearing. It was from a band he and Jeremy used to listen to together.
“Mike? I-” Jeremy opened the screen door and Mike watched as Jeremy took in every aspect of his appearance. “Greg?”
“I-” Mike looked away. He couldn’t look at Jeremy’s working eye start to fill with tears. “I was working at the pizzaplex. I found a lost kid he said a house with a sunflower across from the dog park.”
“Yeah, Greg’s my little co-cousin. I-Is this w-where you’ve be-been?” Jeremy reached out a hand touching Mike’s. “What happened? I-I thought you were dead?”
“I am.” The words felt cold. They always did. It had almost been six years since he died. November 23rd, 1987. Although if he was being real he died the day Jeremy got bit. Or Maybe he was doomed from the day he was born.
“Come in.” Jeremy had to pull his arm to get him to fully realize the command.
-
They put Gregory in the guest room and after a call to leave an anonymous tip to the police Mike was sitting on the couch across from Jeremy. Jeremy slowly inched closed and then finally a hand reached for Mike’s face the facial mask covered his more gruesome scars that he supposed Jeremy was going to see in a moment.
“Wh-What happened?” Jeremy was careful, kind even. Mike felt like a kid caught with something he shouldn’t have. He would have to start from the beginning wouldn’t he? He breathed in and out. The motion felt more and more comfortable, more natural every time he did it. If felt almost like bicycling for the first time in years.
“I got a letter from my father telling me to go to Circus Baby’s and when you got bit I- I left. I went down there and I died. I was injected with remnant. Then the animatronics down there- They…” Mike had to stop. The only person who had ever heard this story was Henry and he wasn’t too keen on being that vulnerable again.
“Mike.” Jeremy hugged him. Mike fucking left Jeremy and Jeremy still hugged him. Why? Why did Jeremy still care? “Mi-Mike I missed you s-so much.”
Jeremy hook a thumb over his mask and Mike looked at the floor. He felt his chest properly stutter this time as he let himself exist in this emotion. Jeremy pulled off the mask and trailed a finger along his scars.
“I lo-love you so much. Does it still hurt?”
“No. Most of my nerves are dead.”
Jeremy placed a small kiss on his forehead.
“Why do you still- after I left? It’s been years.”
“I- I don’t thi-think I ever stopped loving you, Mikey. I’m go-going to be pissed tomorrow but tonight you’re back. If yo-you stay.”
“I…” He couldn’t find the words. The only thing he was able to do was to accept it. “I’ll stay. I have to take care of something tomorrow but I’ll stay.”
Jeremy continued to trail a finger along the scars on his cheek. Finally going to place a kiss on one of them.
“I-I thought you were gone. Y-you were the only person I ever really loved. I really wished that you were there when I woke up. We can’t ch-change the past and you’re here now.”
“I missed you so much Jer.” Mike buried his head in Jeremy’s torso. Letting Jeremy slowly comb through his hair with his hands.
“You won’t ha-have to mi-miss me again. Have you been hunting your father all this time?” Mike nodded, his lungs going to shutter again. “W-we can ta-talk more in the mo-morning.”
Mike allowed himself to be pulled to his feet then up a steep set of stairs and into Jeremy’s room. He shrugged his yellow vest off. Henry had told him to look professional when he was owning a restaurant and part of him couldn’t get rid of that uniform. Jeremy sat down and pulled Mike down with him. Jeremy slowly settled in and Mike let himself be held.
He remembered Uncle Henry holding him one early morning after he had found his father… or what was left of him. “My brave volunteer.” He had said then he had told him about all of the good they were doing. Mike still felt guilty for taking the escape route that day. Henry had told him that the agony of this tragedy should fade away and Mike was a part of that but Mike had always doubted that he would be able to ever rest. He didn’t deserve it. He still felt the warm blood across his hands. Even while Jeremy wrapped himself around him he could feel Evan’s blood.
Slowly though the feeling faded and the warmth he felt coming from Jeremy was enough to lull him into the sleep he didn’t need. Selfish.
-
He awoke slowly. The first thing that Mike noticed was the warmth from Jeremy. Jeremy always felt like the sun to him. Mike could do nothing more than revolve around him when they were close. Mike laughed to himself thinking of a pick-up line Jeremy had come up with and told Mike as a joke years ago. “Are you a star because the gravity between us is making me attracted to you,” Mike told him that it needed some work but it still earned Jeremy a kiss.
Selfish. He wasn’t allowed to smile while Vanny was still out there. While his father’s influence was still out there. Mike took a deep breath. Then he felt Jeremy stir next to him.
The second thing he noticed was a dull pain all across his body.
“Mike?”
“I’m right here, Luv.”
Jeremy pulled him in close and that’s when they heard a snap. Mike flinched as the pain hit him like a truck. His stitches were old and needed to be redone eventually but this wasn’t a great time.
Jeremy immediately sat up and looked at him as Mike grasped at his chest. Only one stitch was out and Mike should have done them properly where they were tied at each stitch but he only knew how to sew from mending clothes and stuffed animals. His whole chest would be open if he didn’t act fast enough.
“What’s w-wrong?” Jeremy’s only eye darted up to his face and then to his chest.
“I- When I died I was left with a hole in my chest and- it just reopened.” Mike took another labored breath. His new habit of breathing was the exact opposite of what he should be doing right now. “I’ll be alright, I just need some thread and a needle.”
Mike tried to sit up but he felt his chest shift more than he liked. The caked blood held the next row in place but it still shifted. He fully sat up and blinked at Jeremy.
“M-Mikey what can I-I do to he-help you?”
“I just need thread and a needle. Something for stitches. I was hoping I could wait to redo them but I-” Mike had to give a sharp inhale as he shifted just enough for another stitch to slide out and the pain hit him again. It wasn’t just the skin over his chest falling apart. He couldn’t feel his chest open but he felt the thread pull through his nerves. It was the caked-on blood dragging the few still living nerves and ripping them out from where the blood had dried and stuck to the thread. “-I just need some time to redo the stitches.”
“Mike. Are y-you sure you should be do-doing this y-yourself?”
“I’ve made it this far. It’ll be alright.” Mike almost said ‘Luv’ at the end of that but he stopped himself. Jeremy said that he’d be pissed today so it was probably a smart idea not to act like they were back to before their injuries.
“I-I don’t th-think you should be d-doing this yourself.”
“I’ll be alright. This is what happened after I first woke up after my death.” Mike took another labored breath and felt the next thread pull through.
“C-can I see?” Jeremy held the bottom hem of his shirt.
Mike nodded and watched as Jeremy unbuttoned his lavender dress shirt. Only he didn’t see what he expected. He didn’t know when the last time he looked in a mirror was but it had been long enough for scar tissues to start to form. The thread was just hanging, leaving small holes that seemed to fill over with more scar tissue as soon as the thread came out.
Mike touched the loose thread and slowly pulled out the next stitch. It covered the whole with scar tissues as soon as he had pulled the thread out. Jeremy rested a hand over the few rows of stitches that were now gone. Was he healing? Was this how remnant worked? He never was able to finish one of his father’s journals but Henry told him that his father was trying to use remnant to become immortal. Did that mean he was now immortal? Mike hoped not. He had been alive long enough. He needed to stay alive to finish what his father had started… then… Jeremy? Mike had never made it that far in his thinking. If his body was healing would that mean he would have a life of his own? The concept felt so foreign.
Mike ripped another stitch out while he winced in pain. Jeremy brushed the hair off of his forehead.
“What's g-going through y-your head?”
“I’m healing. I- I have a chance to live my own life?” Mike knew he must be smiling like a madman still he could help the smile as he ripped at the thread and the pain wrung through him but still, he smiled. He was alive. Mike held his breath until he couldn’t. He remembered sitting at the bottom of a lake for a whole day just to see if he could die. He couldn’t but now he could. He needed to breathe oxygen.
Jeremy grabbed at his hands holding them away from his chest.
“M-Mike, maybe you should wait a m-moment?”
“Jeremy. I’m alive! Do you know what this means? I- it means that I’m not just still on this planet for my father. Look! I know I don’t need the ability to breathe to be able to walk or to go after my father’s evil. Still! I am now required to breathe!”
Jeremy blinked at him.
“I-I don’t want you to be in pain. Should we pull out y-your stitches?”
“Yes!”
Jeremy let go of his hands and with a few quick pulls, Mike felt at his chest. It wasn’t bumpy from the thread anymore. It was just scar tissue. Granted the tissue was a deep purple like the rest of him but damn it he was alive!
Mike felt along his chest again. Then he stumbled up to his feet. Jeremy had a mirror on the back of his closet door and Mike could see the scar tissue. He could see his smile. His hands reached for the scars along his cheek. He woke up with those healed but part of him wondered what they were caused by. That train of thought was shoved to the side by Jeremy standing up to meet him by the mirror.
Before Mike could second guess himself he whipped around and kissed Jeremy.
“I’m alive.” He couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. Mike held Jeremy’s shoulders and then pulled him in for a hug.
“Yes? M-Mike I need to be ca-caught up.”
“I didn’t think I was able to heal,” Mike spoke slowly this time. “I thought I was just like the kid’s souls from the old restaurant. I would move on once I got my unfinished business completed. That was supposed to be making sure my father didn’t leave anything behind. There is this killer running around the pizzaplex and I caught her. She was reading one of my father’s old journals and I thought I was around to do that, but now I need to breathe to survive. I didn’t have to breathe before and it doesn’t make sense for my body to all of a sudden require that but now I have to breathe. That’s not a part of the one purpose I’m supposed to be here for. That means that I have a second chance at life.”
Mike paused as Jeremy slowly took it all in.
“A second chance at life… with you.”
That part seemed to register with Jeremy.
“You’re act-actually staying this t-time!” Jeremy smiled. Mike noticed how his smile was lopsided and he tried not to blame himself for the bite but just exist and be alive for this moment with Jeremy because Jeremy was here.
-
Jeremy eventually pulled him away from the mirror so he could eat breakfast. Mike followed him down the stairs. Jeremy seemed to take an extra minute going down the stairs. Mike was quick to have a hand hovering just above Jeremy’s collar in case he fell. Sure it felt silly to him. Jeremy had survived without him for years but he still felt like it was his job to protect him.
Mike hovered behind Jeremy as they walked through the living room. Then he nearly hid behind him as he saw Jeremy’s mom in the kitchen. She was in her scrubs, Mike vaguely remembered that she worked at the hospital. She was busy most days which left him and Jeremy to hang around Hurricane. Neither of them particularly set on going home to their too-empty homes.
Jeremy’s mom was always kind to Mike when he was around. Despite the rumors going around and how most of Hurricane treated him if he went to the Fitzgerald’s house, he was always given a warm meal. That only seemed to remind him about his barely existing mortality. He wasn’t sure he could properly digest anything. He occasionally ate out of habit when he was living with Henry but he didn’t remember much of that time.
Jeremy’s mother was rummaging through the cabinets. When she must have heard Jeremy, she turned back, her mouth open about to say something when she stopped in her tracks entirely.
Mike was well aware of how terrifying he could be. A purple skeleton was far from what most people expected when they were meeting their new neighbor or their coworker and in the case of Mrs. Fitzgerald, the boy who her son had fallen in love with. Mike didn’t know if that was presumptuous on his part.
She took a moment of thinking time before she finally made a sound out of her still-open and gaping mouth.
“Mike?” Mrs. Fitzgerald took a careful step forward with a hand out towards him. Mike felt a tinge of pain, perhaps empathy, maybe it was the realization that not only one person but two people had looked at him with such a pang of deep sadness and pain that it made every feeling he had tied up deep come out.
If he felt like a fool for sobbing without tears last night he sure felt like a clown now.
“Mike? Is that really you?” Her hand gently held his face. For a moment Mike imagined what it would be like if his mother ever loved him. If he wasn’t just a burden on her. Would it feel like this?
He opened his mouth to try and say anything. Maybe just saying that he was Mike or that he had a condition but his usual lies seemed to fail him as he just nodded when words refused to come.
“We thought you were dead.” Mike let out a shutter and she went to support his weight. Mike knew he must have weighed almost nothing at this point. She pulled him into a tight hug as he continued to shake and shutter with each sob without tears. “Aww, baby it’s alright. What happened?”
Mike opened and closed his mouth. It was futile, he knew. Whenever he cried or sobbed he couldn’t speak. It had been one of the things Henry told him to work on and Mike only got more frustrated when he realized he hadn’t cried since right after the fire. There goes his one-year pin of being sob free.
Mike wondered if other people were as conscious as he was when he cried. If others people thought it was stupid and frustrating that they had to have emotions. More than anything else Mike was just angry. Angry at himself? Angry at the world? Angry at his father? He was sure it was a solid mix of the three.
He noticed that Jeremy came by his warmth honestly.
“I’ve really got to leave for work now but you stay here and I’ll get some warm dinner on my way home and you can tell us about it if you want.”
Mike nodded as he was released.
He watched his eyes half closed as Mrs. Fitzgerald darted out of the house and Jeremy hobbled to close and lock the door behind her.
“I- I really missed you, Mike.” Jeremy turned away from the door and they made eye contact. “I missed you so fucking much.”
Mike just nodded he didn’t know if he would have the strength for words. Jeremy took the steps needed for them to properly hug again.
“You- you have a lot of Immortal and the R-Restlesss to catch up on.” Jeremy laughed into Mike’s shoulder. “I-I taped every new e-episode just in case you came back. Y-you wouldn’t miss an episode.”
Mike rested his chin on top of Jeremy’s head. He didn’t think he would ever be able to express how much he felt loved in that moment.
They eventually separated and Mike was pulled along into the kitchen to eat breakfast with Jeremy. He knew he could eat there just was never a reason to eat anything. He ate a bagel. He felt guilty for taking the Fitzgeralds’ good but he also knew that if he didn’t eat anything Jeremy would tell his mom and if there was anything Mike feared more than his father it was Ms. Fitzgerald’s ‘tough love’.
It felt easy to sit back down on the couch, half laying on top of Jeremy, after Jeremy pulled out the first episode of the Immortal and Restless. It felt like they were back to their routine before everything. Mike could breathe as he let himself watch the show. He was always watching the news when he was at his small apartment. He thought about Immortal and Restless more often than he felt he should but he figured it had been years so if it was still on air it would be too far from where he left off that he would never catch up. Apparently, Jeremy’s love had no bounds, it picked him and his terrible TV-watching habits up.
The show was always a comfort, something that seemed luxurious, even more, due to who he was watching it with. He took another breath and let it out as the show continued to play. Mike was happy and he allowed himself to exist here for the moment.
-
Still, it seemed that no matter what he did his brain would always be screaming at him to keep moving. Despite his best attempts, he couldn’t stop thinking about it all. Vanny had other victims. Mike was sure of it. He didn’t know if anything could become possessed by the puppet, or as he should call her, Charlie. Charlie got her rest but Mike knew her ability to “give gifts” was one of the main reasons any of the kids possessed the animatronics. Jeremy stood up and stretched, gently pushing him aside. Mike lay down on the couch fully. He felt trapped in his own brain.
When Mike saw Jeremy he felt guilty. He was guilty. He never should have left for circus baby’s. No, he needed to free Liz. Not from the laboratory, but she eventually needed to find rest. He couldn’t just ignore how he did that all for Liz. No. He should have stayed alive from the start to be able to care for Jeremy when Jeremy needed him. Still, he was responsible for Liz. If only he had watched her more-
He… he didn’t know what to think. All that mattered to him at the moment was that he was alive and that Jeremy loved him. Was that selfish? Vanny might still be in the basement. He had to go make sure she didn’t escape without the police taking care of her. Mike had to go by the store and get Roxy her paint and he needed to check on Chica and Monty. He needed to make sure they were alright. Gregory was safe now but he needed to make sure there weren’t kids trapped in anything and that Mike didn’t need to go back to his old friend arson.
His last arson was what he had hoped would end it all
“I really love you Jer.” Mike fidgeted with his own hands for a moment before he sat up.
“I-I love y-you too.” Jeremy gave his lopsided smile and that only made Mike feel like he would shrivel more.
“I need to go back to the pizzaplex. I need to make sure it’s all finished. I promise I’ll be back the moment I can.”
That got Jermey’s attention and Mike let Jeremy take his hands into his own.
“Okay…” Jeremy squeezed his hands “Be safe. P-pinky p-promise to come b-back.” Jeremy was hesitant and Mike felt guilty again. He hooked their pinkies together.
“I promise. I’ll be back for you.”
-
The walk out to the van felt lonely. Mike supposed he had gotten used to it all. The sudden reminder that he was alive made him anxious and ready to finish the work he volunteered for so his life with Jeremy could finally begin.
Mike remembered his apartment and how he still needed to go actually furnish it. He had a bed… that was it. His corkboard full of notes and his shelf full of tapes color coded was something Mike was going to at least put away in a box. His closet and medical supplies were alright but it wasn’t exactly the kind of apartment he would bring Jeremy to. Before the bite, they were talking about marriage so it didn’t feel like a stretch to imagine Jeremy might come over for the occasional movie night. This means Mike should finally get a TV again. He had been eyeing one at the local thrift. He had been trying to justify that it was useful in his investigations because of the news. Jeremy loved watching movies, Mike swore that Jeremy had Re-animator memorized at this point. That gore-filled film held Jeremy's attention like nothing else. It would also be nice to maybe borrow those Immortal and Restless tapes so he could watch and rewatch them as much as he pleased.
Maybe he should try and get Jeremy something on his way back? Would that be too foreword? He wasn’t sure. At this point, Mike just wanted to exist in Jeremy’s arms forever. After he finished what he had to do.
Mike was reminded of what he thought of Vanny last night. If Gregory wasn’t there would he have killed her? Mike didn’t know what to think about mortality. The blood on his hands never went away so part of him felt it was justified to end suffering. Still, he was disgusted by himself. He had spent so long listening to Vanessa’s voice and not all of her tapes were always about murder.
Sometimes she would talk about her mother or about school. She was a few years younger than Mike. Just graduated high school two years ago and told her mother she was just taking a gap year and that she was now enrolled in an engineering program. That was partially true. She had taken a few courses at the local college but it would be a long time before she would ever graduate. She was trying to follow in his father’s footsteps.
Vanny was trying to follow in his footsteps. Mike saw the Fredbear head. It wasn’t just his father’s murders that were being repeated. Mike tapped the steering wheel as he thought. He didn’t remember everything from what Henry told him about the journals but he did remember that his father had discovered remnant when Charlie died.
As far as Mike knew Evan’s death wasn’t significant for his father. Sure it was his own son that died but that didn’t seem to bother his father at all. His father really shattered when Liz died. After she died he never pretend to act like a father.
Mike still remembered trying to get his attention, usually, he would get it. His father’s attention was something he never should have wanted. Most of the time that meant a new bruise but still it was attention when he was a kid and that was all he wanted.
His father had been missing for just over seven years. Back in early 1986, he left due to the attention from the missing children incident. Mike relished the few months where it was just him and Jeremy in his house watching movies but then Fazbear Entertainment just had to open a new restaurant. Was that the last time Mike actually lived? Six years ago when he and Jeremy used to dream about their lives together?
Since he died Mike just resigned himself to his work. What he signed up for when he went into the scooping room. Part of him knew he was going to die when he went into Circus Baby’s Rentals that night.
He could recognize that feeling in his chest, the slow building of dread and bile. He recognized it mostly because of how he felt it now.
Tapping on the steering wheel didn’t ease his anxieties. This was his job. Henry had told him that this was his job. He needed to find them all and set them ablaze and he may have done what was needed so far he needed to press on. He needed to be brave.
Micheal slowly came to a stop van parking lot. Taking a deep breath, which still felt foreign to him, he pressed lightly on the gas, and at the garage opening, he clicked the small button on the dash to control the garage door.
He pulled the van in and was careful with each movement. No one was there as he carefully pressed himself out of the van keeping himself as small and as close to the vehicle as possible.
Something must be going on today. He didn’t see the usually busy main parking lot which meant that the pizzaplex was closed. Faz Ent were capitalistic assholes who wouldn’t close unless absolutely necessary which must mean that the police were involved now. Mike didn’t get close enough to the main parking lot earlier to see if there were police or not but that was a good sign.
Mike kept his movements slow as he crept out of the garage. He followed the bleak staff-only corridors until they spilt into the main room. This was where he saw what the outcome of Vanny truly was. A stretcher, maybe, Mike didn’t know the word for the fancy things that they carried bodies on, but nevertheless, the body on it was too small to be that of an adult.
He swallowed hard. The rising bile in his chest left acid up his throat. Which surprised him somewhat. The feeling of acid in his throat or much of anything was a welcome surprise. Just not particularly at this moment as he carefully watched a dozen or so policemen talk. Clearly, they didn’t expect Mike to be here or for anyone to be in the garage as he tried to listen in.
Mike couldn’t grasp much from their discussions but he was able to gather that Vanessa was in custody only there was a gap in the story. Roxy refused to tell them about the kid who escaped and how they escaped. That was a good surprise. Mike hoped that it meant she and the other animatronics were fixed from whatever Vanny did to them. He briefly heard that they were in custody now. Mike hated the fact that Fazbear Entertainment continued for another day but he was surprised by the animatronics. They were more advanced than people often gave them credit for. They reminded him of things he saw in sci-fi comics back when he used to read them with Jeremy.
Jeremy. Right. He needed to finish up here. If Vanny was in custody and Roxanne hadn’t said anything about him then that means he was… done. Vanny was in custody. He knew the tapes were incriminating. It was… over.
Mike half expected himself to just tumble over and die the moment it all ended. He spent a whole month after the fire sitting in his shitty apartment waiting to just die one day. This time he had made a promise.
He felt deep guilt with each careful step he took toward the garage. Could he really just leave this all? Fazbear Entertainment shouldn’t be too bothered by this tragedy. If anything this will just be shoved under the rug and it won’t be connected to the company having a huge cover-up.
Would it be alright for Mike to just move on? He couldn’t do much else? He could go sit with Jeremy. He could go be alive?
Somehow despite the deep unease forming in his stomach, he allowed himself to smile. He was healing! He was alive! He wondered how many experiences he would have with Jeremy. How he would be able to properly live and grow as a person.
He couldn’t stop his dumb smile under his mask as he walked down towards his storage closet. He would use that door to leave but then he could go to his actual car. He would have taken it last night if he didn’t have to deal with both Roxy and Gregory.
His car was a piece of shit. It was the same car he had since he was seventeen. A ford country squire from ‘74. It was his first and only car. Aside from Jeremy, the car was the love of his life. He had lost it for a few months when he first died but he found it in a ditch while he was out with Henry in the woods searching for an animatronic. Apparently, Ennard had tried to drive but after getting Henry’s truck to pull it up and spending a few months fixing it up he had his car.
Mike tapped at his pockets for a moment making sure he still had the keys. He finally arrived at the storage closet and he pulled out a plastic bag throwing his tapes and the journals in there. He’d set fire to the journals in the parking lot. The lighter he always kept on him felt heavy most days but today it was going to end this for once and all.
He closed the door of the closet and made his way to the garage. He opened the garage door just enough for him to slip out.
He pulled the journals out of the bag and held one as he clicked the lighter on. He watched the flame slowly dance as the pages started to blacken.
He set down the burning journal and added the second next to it making sure it caught. The leather only shriveled and burnt it didn’t catch but watching the fire eat through the pages of his father’s insane rambling left Mike with such a profound feeling of relief.
Mike took a deep breath smelling the ash. After the journal was just a pile of ash and burnt leather he stamped it out and shoved his tapes in his pocket so he could dispose of the ashes and make sure the journal covers that survived the fire wouldn’t survive a garbage disposal.
He took his bag of ashes and started the trek to his car.
He took the time to appreciate the day. It was bright and sunny and despite being in the city he loved every aspect of it. Back when he was alive Mike used to go to the city to get outside of tiny Hurricane. Mike loved to watch people and see how they worked. Small families and how they interacted it fascinated him to no end. Even just looking at the various apartments on the walk to his car was always a treat. The small decorations in front of doors or dying plants on the front steps to townhouses made Mike feel connected to every other person who was alive. He loved it.
Mike tugged on the cuffs of his shirt. It was one of his lavender dress shirts. He never really liked purple but Henry was insistent on dressing him up in purple and then the yellow vest and pants. His shirt was wrinkled and it made him fidgety. Before he went back to Jeremy he could go back to his apartment and change his clothes?
He didn’t know the last time he properly took a shower. It was nice knowing that he could heal. He was always very careful to always be kind to his skin. He didn’t know if he would have a bandaged existence until he rested in the flames but with the fact he was healing he couldn’t help but smile.
For the first time in his post-death life, Mike had a home he was going to when he left this awful job.