Work Text:
A ghost can be lots of things. A memory, a daydream, a secret. Grief, anger, guilt. But, most times, they’re just what we want to see.
Most times, a ghost is a wish.
But, what happens when that wish is made with the worst intentions? When the wish is corrupted, and can only live in the shadows? Then, it becomes a nightmare, and what we know as haunted places are just the home of those terrors.
__________
Michel Afton wasn’t someone who would run away and hide in the nearest empty bathroom to smoke, but when his other option was having a panic attack in the middle of a dinner table, disappearing wasn’t such a bad idea.
And well, maybe saying that he was having a panic attack was overreacting. His hands were sweating, the tie was suffocating him and he was re-reading his speech and discovering that it was shit. But a panic attack?
Nope. Michael wasn’t having one of those. He felt he wasn’t able to breathe because the tie was too tight around his neck to be comfortable, that was all.
His problems have a pretty easy solution, actually: 1) He undid the tie and hid that thing into his inner jacket’s pocket so no one would see it, and 2) He just needed to fix his speech.
He had stolen purple crayon from the kids table (not the best, but Michael wasn’t going to make a fuss about it) and rewrote some lines.
In the garden, where the party was located, the waiters were starting to serve the desserts. Michael had at least an hour until it was his turn to make the toast.
“We’re here, on this special day, to celebrate… to commemorate? To honor? No, that sounds stupid,” he told himself.
Like the situation itself wasn’t already stupid enough.
Michael held the cigarette between his lips and let the smoke fill his lungs, like this was going to help him reach his goal. He could hear the music coming from the garden- the laughs mixed with the cheesy songs that his brother had chosen, because of course Evan would choose the cheesiest songs in history to play at his wedding.
Unfortunately for him, his plan of hiding until the speech was perfect (or until he decided to go to the stage completely drunk, which wasn’t the worst idea ever) didn’t work for too long.
There was a knock on the door and, three seconds later, she opened it, having zero respect for his privacy.
“Mickey, I know you’re here!”
Michael should be used to it- Elizabeth never cared about closed doors. She just went where she wanted, and if someone didn’t like it that was their problem.
“Uh, I thought you'd quit,” she said, closing the door behind her and sitting over the sink.
“I did,” Michael said, extinguishing the cigarette against the ledge of the window. Elizabeth was staring at him with her curious green eyes, waiting for some explanation. “I’m just nervous.”
“Why? It’s not like you’ve forgotten to…wait…” Elizabeth glared at Michael. “You didn’t forget, right?”
“Do you really think so little of me?”
“I know how you work around deadlines, Mickey. You’re a ‘last second work’ kind of guy.”
Incredible. How could Elizabeth say something like that, when she was probably ten times worse?
“I did not fucking forget,” Michael assured her. Elizabeth slightly tilted her head, clearly not believing him. “I’m just worried that it's not good enough.”
“That still sounds terrible. You should have had that speech ready at least a week ago.”
Well, that wasn’t exactly Michael’s fault. He had been working a lot these past few weeks, designing new animatronics so they were ready for the opening of the Pizzaplex.
Plus, he wasn’t the best with words. There was a reason for why he always let his siblings do the talking. Even if his aggressive attitude had lowered a lot during the years, he had zero tolerance or patience when someone was being a dick, and he was unable to memorize a full speech even if his life depended on it.
“Mickey, be honest with me, is this going to end like your speech for mom and dad’s wedding anniversary?”
“If you want to avoid those situations, why do you keep choosing me to make the toast!?” Michael complained. Elizabeth was trying hard to not laugh at him. That rascal.
“Because it is funny, obviously.”
She jumped out of the sink and took his brother’s hand.
“Hiding in the bathroom it's not going to solve anything at this point. But you know what can fix it? Cake!”
Michael admitted defeat. Elizabeth grinned, and he pinched her nose to erase that smug look on her face.
“AH! Mickey you jerk!” she complained, and now it was Michael’s turn to laugh.
The moment Michael stepped out of the bathroom, someone who had been hiding behind the door came out and scared him. Michael jumped a bit and turned around to see Gregory pointing at him with what seemed to be a fazer blast and shooted.
Michael immediately fell to the floor in a dramatic way, with a hand over his heart.
“Yey! I did it!” Gregory smiled. He looked so adorable in his tiny suit and bow tie that Michael was unable to be mad at him for scaring him.
Gregory ran towards him.
“Papa, papa! I won!” he repeated, shaking him by the arm. Gregory had been trying to ‘defeat’ him in a flazer blast fight for months, and the little gremlin decided to make a surprise attack.
Michael pretended to be unconscious for a bit, and when Gregory started to grow impatient he attacked back, catching his son between his arms and pulling him close.
"You thought you had killed me, but I unlocked a secret power that saved me from death!"
“That's cheating!”
"Are you going to surrender?"
"Never! Aunt Lizzie, help!”
“Sorry kid, I already did my part. This is your own battle,” Elizabeth washed her hands out of the situation.
Gregory, being the little stubborn gremlin he was, kept trying to break free, instead of surrender. Michael decided to change his strategy: from a bear hug to a torture of tickles.
When Gregory finally gave up, he had the most salty face Michael had ever seen in a five year old.
Elizabeth was laughing her ass off, and a third person, who had joined them without Michael noticing, was smiling kindly at the scene.
“You couldn’t let him win, did you?” Evan asked. He looked so grown up, with his dark blue suit, the white rose on his jacket and his perfectly tied tie.
Michael asked himself when he had gotten that tall. He had the memory of Evan, hiding behind tables and crying every time the lights went out because he was afraid of the dark, and it was difficult to see his baby brother so big and confident.
Michael incorporated and brushed Gregory’s hair- or at least he tried, but his son pulled his hand away.
“Were you also an accomplice of this betrayal?” Michael asked his brother, even if he knew Evan wouldn’t do something like that.
“No! I was looking for you two!” Evan swore.
“Also, betrayal?” Elizabeth repeated. She put her arm over Evan’s shoulder, and Gregory ran towards them and stuck out his tongue to Michael. Traitor. “I think this is divine justice.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Michael lied.
They came back to the garden, where the party was at its best. The band was playing a more vivid version of As long as you love me and the waiters were taking out the cake and the sword to cut it.
“Are you going to be able to manage that?” Elizabeth teased Evan.
His brother seemed kind of worried, but then he saw his wife beside the cake, and he calmed down.
“Yeah, I think we can,” he smiled, and Elizabeth rolled his eyes. “Are you ready for the toast?”
“Yes,” Michael answered, at the same time Elizabeth said: “No.”
Evan pressed his lips, concerned.
“You know I trust you, but please tell me this is not going to end like mom at dad’s wedding anniversary.”
“Ugh, it wasn’t so bad.”
“It was,” Elizabeth and Evan said at the same time. Even Gregory was nodding!
Michael couldn’t believe it.
A flash surprised the three of them. Gregory rubbed his eyes, annoyed.
Charlie had been taking photos all evening, being the official / unofficial photographer for the wedding. Official because there wasn’t someone else around to do the job, unofficial because she wasn’t a professional and they were not going to pay her.
Charlie had offered to do it in exchange for more free days in her job (and also as a favor for some old friends).
“You look funny,” she said, checking the photo. She deleted two images that had bad light, but kept the last one. Elizabeth poked up her head over Charlie’s shoulder to see the photo, which wasn’t difficult, taking into account that she was at least half a head taller than her.
Michael always found it amazing how two people with such different personalities could be best friends.
Elizabeth, with her long orange head, pink dresses with fluffy skirts and face full of freckles, able to gather the attention of a group in a matter of seconds- and Charlie, who would rather take photos in silence, who had black short hair and preferred darker colors and simpler outfits.
Maybe it was because they had been friends since childhood, Michael thought. Or maybe because, although they had nothing in common, they had the same passion in engineering.
“I look horrible. Take another one,” Elizabeth asked for. Then, she grabbed Evan’s arm and pulled Michael closer. “And no funny faces!”
Charlie was preparing to take the photo, when Michael said: “Gregory, come take the photo with us.”
Gregory stayed at Charlie’s side, frowning. He was taking none of his father’s friendly demeanor.
Charlie took the photo, and going against Elizabeth’s wishes, Evan and Michael made a face at the last moment.
“I could expect this from Mickey, but you, Evan! You’re supposed to be the good one of the three!” she complained.
At the end, they got to take a photo where they looked good, which was a miracle. Elizabeth had one arm over his shoulder and another around Evan’s, and his little brother was in the middle of a laugh, with his eyes closed and a bright smile on his lips.
“We need one with you too!” Elizabeth said.
Charlie quickly denied, saying that if she appeared there was no one to take the photo. Not accepting a no for an answer, Elizabeth took her camera and passed it to Michael.
“You deserve to appear in at least one,” she said. Charlie sighed, but suddenly she was trapped between Evan and Elizabeth, and it was impossible for her to deny.
“Just one,” she accepted.
Charlie stayed between the siblings. She was barely smiling, and compared to Elizabeth and Evan, who were posing for the photo, she was only doing the peace sign.
Michael took the photo, but before Charlie could get away, Elizabeth took her friend in her arms.
“Now, now!” she yelled, and Michael took the photo while Charlie was trying to hold a laugh and Evan’s head appeared behind the girls. Even Gregory decided to join!
It was a funny photo: Elizabeth was grinning with malice, Charlie’s face was a mixture between happy and annoyed, Gregory’s head in the corner of the image, and Evan looked like an apparition- the ghost party.
“See? Now that’s a good photo,” Elizabeth said, very happy with herself.
“We’re glad you’re here, Charlie. We just wanted to take a photo with you,” Evan explained.
Elizabeth bumped her arm against Charlie, trying to be reassuring.
Charlie took her camera back, but Michael could see that she was a bit more lively than before. Michael imitated Elizabeth's gesture and bumped against her arm, reminding her that she wasn’t alone.
They had been doing that since Charlie’s sixth birthday, when a group of kids had locked her outside of the pizzeria. Elizabeth and Evan had pleaded Michael to scare the shit out of those kids. It wasn’t difficult- at that time, Michael had had a broken nose and the aesthetic of a punk who got into fights.
After the photo, Gregory started to pull from his jacket.
“I want ice cream,” he said. He pointed at the tables, where the dessert was already served.
So, his son was still mad at him, but not mad enough to not ask for sweets. Michael left his siblings and Charlie talking and accompanied his son to the kids table. Gregory grabbed him by the jacket so he wouldn’t get lost in the sea of people.
Jeremy was sitting in a chair near the table, talking to Vanessa, who seemed somehow distressed.
When Jeremy saw them, his lips curved into a warm and bigg smile. He excused himself and went to them.
Gregory let go of his jacket and ran towards him.
“DAD! Papa is a cheater!” Gregory accused him. Some people stared at them with judgemental looks, and Michael wished that his son hadn’t said it like that.
“No way. Michael, how could you?” Jeremy followed the joke with a scandalized gasp, even if his son hadn’t meant it that way.
“Please, stop, or people are going to believe that I actually cheated on you.”
Jeremy laughed, not trying to hide his amusement, but kissed Michael’s kiss as a compensation.
“No, dad, you can’t be nice to him!” Gregory complained. Jeremy answered by giving Michael another kiss. “Ugh, lame.”
“Don’t use that tone, young man. You disappeared from your table and Vanessa almost had a heart attack,” Jeremy scolded him.
“It wasn’t so bad,” Vanessa assured them. She was sitting next to Cassie, drawing with her.
Vanessa was their neighbors’ kid, and also Gregory’s babysitter. Her mom worked at Fazbear Entertainment and was friends with Evan, and being the only teen in the wedding, she had offered to take care of Gregory and Cassie during the evening.
“Why did we tell you about running away from Vanessa?” Michael asked his son.
Gregory didn’t look guilty at all.
“But it’s not like I was alone! I was with aunt Lizzie. “
“Next time, you should tell Vanessa, even if you’re going with your aunt,” Michael pointed out. “If you disappear like that, you’re going to scare her. And Cassie.”
Gregory crossed his arms. Making Vanessa sad was one thing, but making Cassie sad? Gregory didn’t like that.
“I’m sorry, Cassie. And Vanessa,” he apologized. “Can I now have ice cream?”
“Only if Vanessa and Cassie want ice cream, too,” Jeremy said.
Fortunately for Gregory, both girls said that ice cream would be nice. Cassie jumped off her chair and took Gregory’s hand.
“Don’t get lost again,” she ordered, and Gregory nodded.
They followed Vanessa to the bar, where one of the waiters was serving ice cream of at least ten different flavors.
“Don’t point your fazer blast at people’s eyes,” Michael reminded him. Gregory didn’t answer. He turned to Jeremy. “Do you think he’s going to be mad at me for the rest of the day?”
“I think he’ll forget the moment he eats the ice cream,” Jeremy guessed. Lucky for them, Gregory tended to forget that he was mad at someone the moment he ate or after a good night of sleep. “How is your speech? Did you fix it?”
“No. Elizabeth found me before I could find a way to solve this mess,” Michael complained. The speech seemed perfect to him the day before, but now it sounded cheesy and full of bad jokes that only a brother in law would think are funny.
Jeremy took his hand, and Michael held it like it was his anchor.
“Why are you so worried about, love?”
Michael didn’t know if to laugh or cry.
“Everything,” he answered, because it was faster than boring his husband with some ted talk and insecurities that he was probably tired of hearing at this point. But, instead of looking bored, Jeremy gave him a reassuring smile, kissing his knuckles.
Michael grinned like an idiot. Maybe Gregory was right, and they were too lame.
“Michael, you’re not going to screw it,” Jeremy assured him, drawing circles in the palm of his hand.
“I know. I- well, I theoretically know that. But I don’t understand why Evan chose me for the toast. Like…he’s been friends with Cassie’s father since college, but I’m the best man? Me ?”
“It is really so weird that your little brother wants you to make a speech at his wedding?”
“Yes,” Michael immediately answered. Then he discovered that, if this was a normal situation, it wouldn't be weird at all.
But, obviously, the Afton family couldn’t have something so simple. Michael couldn’t have a good relationship with his brother without feeling guilty and undeserving.
Michael was glad that Jeremy never saw him in his bitter years- the ones where he was mad and angry and paid it with whoever was closer to him, who, unfortunately, it usually was Evan.
Sure, Jeremy knew all about it, Michael had told him himself, but there was a difference between hearing it and living it.
How he would get into a fight and yell at his parents for not being at home, or that one time that he broke some plushies with a bat because he discovered that his father had cameras on them, scaring his siblings.
How he hadn’t had enough and then tried to break the new animatronic his father was working on, only for Elizabeth and Evan to try to stop them while they cried.
How his parents would have to get out of work because he had a fight, again, and he had been expelled for a week.
Yeah, Michael wasn’t proud of those times. Jeremy could look at him like he was the best man in the world, but Michael knew the truth.
What he didn’t understand was why Evan, knowing everything that happened and being one of Michael’s victims, could still be at his side.
Jeremy's tight grip got him back to the present.
“I feel like I don’t deserve it,” Michael told him. He sighed, suddenly tired. “That I don’t deserve any of this.”
“You do,” Jeremy assured him, even if Michael felt like he was saying that to make him feel happy. Before he could answer, Jeremy shushed him. “You do, and it kills me to see you tell yourself that you don’t. You had been trying to make it right for so many years,” the forget-me-not blue sky was slowly turning into the darker colors of the twilight. For a split second, Jeremy’s left side was hidden by shadows, and the lines on his husband’s face hardened, creating a pattern of marks similar to mark bites. Then, Jeremy rested his head against Michael’s shoulder. “Look at where we’re, love. We did it. There’s nothing here but light. Aren’t you tired of carrying the world on your shoulders?”
“I don’t know how to stop.”
Jeremy cuddled his face.
“Why not start by telling them?”
__________
Charlie was taking photos of some of the guests that were dancing. When she saw Michael, she showed him a photo he had taken without them noticing.
He and Jeremy were sitting at the table, and he had Jeremy’s face over his shoulder. They were laughing over something, and her hands were intertwined with one another.
“When you have the photos ready, you have to give me a copy of this one,” Michael asked.
Charlie nodded. She took a photo of Luke, one of Evan’s friends and Cassie’s father, trying to impress his wife in the floor dance. Another one of Evan and Abigail getting ready to cut the take.
And some more of one of the tables in the corner, where his parents were chatting. Michael’s parents were sitting at each other’s side, her mom had tied her white hair in a ponytail, and his father was saying something. Henry was sitting in front of them, his hands playing with an empty glass of champagne.
When Henry noticed them, he waved at them and made signals for them to come to the table.
“Please, kids, could you tell William he shouldn’t be so paranoid about the new Pizzaplex?”
It was funny how Henry still called them kids, when Michael was already in his thirties and had a son.
“Are you really talking about work right now?” Charlie asked, dumbfounded.
“We’re just sharing some ideas,” William answered.
Michael couldn’t believe this.
“Dad, you retired,” he reminded him. Then, he looked at Henry. “And you too.”
“That doesn’t mean that we can’t help,” William pointed out.
Michael wanted to scream.
“Help doesn’t mean coming back to work every morning and being at meetings. Which, by the way, is something that you two keep doing, even if we told you a thousand times that we have everything under control. Right, Charlie?”
“Well,” she started, and oh no, Charlie. They didn’t need to give his dads more reasons to keep coming back. “Elizabeth wants to delay the opening of the Pizzaplex. She said she wanted to create something called mapbots?”
“And you didn’t stop her?”
“You should know that I didn’t,” Charlie said, because honestly, no one could stop Elizabeth when she had an idea. She and Charlie were the ones working on the new animatronics, making Michael’s designs real, and Charlie’s laid back attitude helped to calm down Elizabeth’s temper.
“I saw the new ideas for the animatronics, and I think they’re great,” Henry complimented Michael.
“Thanks.”
“But I think they could…”
“William, stop,” his mother interrupted him. She gave Charlie the camera back and sat at his husband’s side. “You already saw what our kids can do. Isn’t that why you decided to retire? Because you were sure that the company was in good hands?”
“I’m just saying that there are some things that could be better.”
“But this is not the place or the time to talk about it,” his mother pointed out. “It’s our little baby’s wedding.”
Michael thanked god everyday for his mom.
“Also, Michael, you’re going to make the toast, right?” she asked. “I hope this goes better than the one you did for our wedding anniversary.”
Michael was wrong. His mother was a traitor, too.
“You’re never going to let me forget it, right?”
“I don’t think so, no,” his dad answered.
Henry nodded, too. This was not helping Michael’s nerves at all.
______
It was time for the toast. Michael took the microphone and cleared his throat.
“Hi. I’m Michael Afton, I’m the brother of the groom,” he started. His palms were sweaty, and he wasn’t able to focus on the words that he had written at the last minute. Somewhere in the public, Jeremy shouted a WOHO! Michael tried to keep his composure, but hearing his husband’s enthusiastic yell made him grin like an idiot. He took a deep breath before continuing. “If…if I’m being honest, I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say. Usually, the toast is about the best man making jokes about the groom and telling people how perfect the couple is for each other, but I think we all know that Evan and Abigail would beat the shit out of us in a couples contest… No, Jeremy, honey, I love you but I’m so sure they would kick us out of the contest for setting something on fire…By accident I mean!” Michael added, because it wasn’t his fault that he was so unintentionally good at arson. The joke made the public laugh. Evan was looking at him, with a warm smile on his face. Michael would do anything to make sure that Evan was this happy for the rest of his life. “What I wanted to say is that, if I’m being honest, I don’t really know why my brother picked me to be his best man. Evan, let’s be real: I was a shit brother. Maybe things got better with time, but I did…” Michael felt the words getting stuck in his throat. For years, he had tried to forget what almost happened, forget how he put his little brother’s life in danger for a stupid joke. If he hadn’t backed up at the last moment and pulled Evan away from Fredbear’s mouth… he wasn’t sure what could have happened. He didn’t want to think about what could have happened, but sometimes, that idea haunted his dreams, “Evan, I would never understand how you could forgive me, after everything I did to you. Every horrible prank, every mistake, every jumpscare that ended up with you having nightmares- you should be hating my guts. But that’s the thing, right? Mom always said that, when someone you love is going through a rough time, that’s the moment you have to love them the most. And that’s what you did, because of all of us, you’re the one who has the biggest heart. No matter what, you always find a way to love someone, even if they hate themselves or think they don't deserve it. Because you believe in people. I don't know how, but you do. And I'm glad you did, that you never gave up on me, and, even if I'm late, I hope I can give you back some of that trust. That’s why I know that you two have a great future ahead of you, because you’re going to love Abigail a little more every day, and she is probably the only good person on this planet that would love you back with the same intensity."
That wasn’t the speech Michael had planned, but he hoped it was good enough.
He gave back the microphone and went down the stage, only to find Evan waiting for him. He was crying, obviously, but these were good tears.
Michael tried to joke: “Guess that was good enough?”
Evan wiped his tears, his nose scrunching and mouth quivering. A second later, Michael was wrapped in a bearhug, and he finds out that he is about to cry, too.
“Do you want to know why I picked you to be my best man? Because I know that I can count on my big brother when I need it.”
“That’s not true. I was… fuck, I wasn’t good enough. I made so many mistakes.”
“You were there, Michael. You were there for me so many times. And for Elizabeth, too. For your family. Don’t forget that. Don’t forget how hard you tried. Don’t forget all the good you did, just because you also did something bad.”
“But…”
“You’re not responsible for other’s actions,” Evan interrupted him. Michael’s eyes started to water, and
damn it. Get yourself together
. But his brother was not going to let him go so easily. “You don’t deserve to be alone, Michael.”
Michael Afton wasn’t prepared for this- for the comfort and the cozy words of reassurance. He always thought that loneliness was the only path for him, the path he deserved. Even if he found people to love, people who loved him in return, Michael was so sure that they were going to disappear.
“I’m sorry, Evan,” he repeated between sobs, holding his brother in his arms with all the care in the world. “I’m sorry.”
_________
Michael was sitting on a bench behind a tree, drinking a beer and considering what Evan said to him when his father sat by his side.
“Do you really hate my designs?” Michael asked him, playing with the label of the drink to calm his nerves.
William sighed.
“I don’t hate them. I think they’re good, but it's a different style. Nothing like mine.”
“That doesn’t have to be bad.”
He had accepted years ago that no matter what he did, or how good he did it, it was never going to be enough for him.
William and him were too different, but in other aspects, too similar. They both loved his family, but they both made mistakes, and they now felt the regret that came with those decisions.
But the thing was: Michael didn’t need his father's approval anymore, nor his forgiveness. If he needed to say sorry to someone, that was Evan, or his mom, but not his father.
“I guess you’re right,” his father said, and Michael was so surprised that he choked on his drink. William grinned, happy with the reaction and how red his son’s face was at the moment. “I’m too old to keep doing this, right? My time has passed. Maybe I don’t need to come back anymore.”
William’s voice on the last line didn’t sound as genuine and the others- no, Michael corrected himself. For a moment, his father’s voice didn’t sound human, but when he looked at William, there was nothing wrong with him.
“You’re getting softer, old man,” Michael mumbled. “It doesn’t suit you. Stop.”
William groaned, but Michael preferred that at whatever that weird voice was.
Maybe he and his father didn’t look eye to eye, but he liked these little moments with him, when they could just sit at each other’s side without fighting over something.
Around them, people were dancing, and the last lights of the day made it look like a fantasy.
“Old man, do you have any regrets?” he asked. About me. About our family. About the decisions you made.
“My worst decisions had been taken by regret, but I can’t say that I wouldn’t do it all over again, If I had the chance. Old men don’t believe in consequences the same way young people do, because we have lived enough to be afraid of them.”
“You could’ve answered yes or no,” Michael rolled his eyes. Why did his dad have to enter in his philosophical mode? It was weird, and it made him remember the inhuman voice that came from him earlier.
“Everything I did, I did it for you.”
“You don’t have to lie either,” Willian blinked, surprised by this. Michael wasn’t someone who would shut up what he was thinking, but he usually tried to hold himself while talking to his father. But not this time. “Whatever it was, it wasn’t for us.”
William stared at the people dancing, at his family around Evan. Was it possible that he had been lying to himself all these years?
“I think I don’t even remember the motive,” he finally said. “I don’t know me anymore.”
Michael couldn’t do anything for him. Whatever his father had done, he had let the consequences to Michael, only to lose himself in his own mind and lies.
A weird feeling was starting to grow on Michael’s chest- this conversation didn’t make sense. It was wrong. A wrong set of people in the middle of the wrong set, discussing something that never happened.
“I’m going with them,” Michael said, pointing at the dancing floor, where the light of the sun was still shining. “Are you coming?”
“No. I think I’m going for a walk.”
Michael didn’t try to change his opinion. He got up and smoothed his clothes.
“Michael,” his father called him. He turned back, to see William with an expression he had never seen before. “You’re nothing like me. I’m glad.”
The worst meant something else, something that Michael was not prepared for. He went to the dance floor, leaving his father behind, sitting in the shadow of a tree. He guessed it was only a matter of time until Henry joined him.
Maybe Michael should ask something more, maybe he should say something more, but when he got closer enough Jeremy grabbed his hand, and the talk with his father became the last thing on his mind.
He had Gregory on his arms and Jeremy at his side, laughing at something their son said. Elizabeth was dancing with Evan, her red dress flying all around her. Charlie took a photo of them, smiling at them, happy to be there.
Michael was overwhelmed- for everything.
They were his family, and he had seen them grow up, become the adults they were now, full of ideas and mistakes and life .
“What’s wrong, love?” Jeremy asked him.
Michael kissed his cheek.
Nothing was wrong.
_________
The thing about nightmares was that it was so easy to transform them into ghosts.
You get an ugly memory, one that, in another situation, you could forget about, but for some reason you decide to obsess over it. Because of regret, of fear, of agony. It becomes a wish, a hope tainted by shadows and tragedy.
And, before you notice it, you took that innocent scary memory and transformed it into a nightmare, and then that nightmare turns into a ghost.
After all, ghosts are nothing more than memories that are not permitted to die.
Freddy Fazbear Pizzeria was full of ghosts. Haunted, one might say. And they would be right.
That place had been built on the worst memories- specially over one.
One ghost that was there from the beginning, that had his life ripped away from him in the most cruel way possible. A nightmare that trapped others in his gravity. A shadow that hid in the corners.
Watching. Crying. Waiting.
Standing in the middle of the security office, while the fire consumed everything around him. The ghost could hear the electronic screams from the other side of the doors, where everyone he once knew was being consumed by the flames.
But he wasn’t paying attention to them. The ghost was used to seeing others like him, and he knew they couldn’t do anything to help him.
No, the ghost’s attention was in the figure sitting on the floor of that room.
The world had always burnt around Michael Afton, the only difference was that, this time, he was dying with it.
Finally, the end of the nightmare , the ghost thought, and, surprisingly, he felt bad for Michael. For the man lying unconscious, with his lungs full of smoke, the one that had lost everything he loved- that had been tricked, killed, scared and tormented for too many years.
But maybe, the ghost reached to the conclusion, I could give him a good final memory.
A trick. A good dream.
It had been many years since the ghost experienced compassion, but now, watching Michael’s lips raise in the middle of the chaos, he remembered what it felt like.
Michael was having a good dream.
The building crumbled, the glass broke, and the flames grew bigger. Bit by bit, the fire reclaimed every soul that had been taken.
They were not an exception.
He sat besides Michael, his head resting on the rotting corpse.
“Goodnight, brother,” his voice was barely a whisper, an almost nonexistent sound that could easily get lost under the noise of the metal crackling. The ghost grabbed Michael’s arms with his tiny hands. For once, he wasn’t crying, because he wasn’t scared. He was just a kid finding shelter after a night full of nightmares. A kid that could now sleep in peace. “I forgive you.”