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Michael had shown him pictures. Taken haphazardly with his phone while he was guarding the place. Pictures of his old friend turned half-animatronic half-corpse. They had been something, Henry thought. He didn’t feel bad for the man, he really didn't. It was what he deserved.
So when he saw William, he wasn’t surprised.
Sure, he hadn’t expected the thing to appear behind him out of nowhere and call his name. His heart was beating dangerously fast. His breath quickened.
But when he saw what had become of his old friend, he simply furrowed his brow.
‘Why are you here?,’ William asked. Henry stood up and walked away from the door, looking for any escape routes. He huffed. There weren’t any.
The creature stared at him. It had his eyes. Those weren’t animatronic eyes. They were grey. Springbonnie had green eyes. Henry was taken aback for a second. It was actually quite impressive, how his body and the machine had fused together. Being able to see it in real life instead of on a blurry picture. Where did William end and the suit begin?
Henry knew he was losing his mind. Instead of running, questions popped up. Where were his organs? The eyeballs looked too big to be human, and shouldn’t they have decomposed anyway?
‘Henry.’
Well, there were more important matters that he had to deal with.
‘Who are you?’
He knew, but it couldn’t hurt to ask.
‘After all these years, you’ve forgotten about your old friend? Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. I was always the brightest of us both.’
‘I see you’re as humble as the day I left you.’
The creature loomed over him. He let out a rumbling chuckle.
‘I knew you’d recognise me.’ He looked down at Henry, who refused to take a step back. ‘But you’re wrong. You didn’t leave me. You tried to throw me into jail and I had to get rid of you.’
‘That’s not true. You would never do that. It’s you people always have to get rid of. You’re like a disease that always comes back.’
The creature scoffed but didn’t answer. Henry stared at him. His eyelids had dropped down. He was looking away. The engineer pursed his lips.
‘Tell me: why are you here?,’ the creature was again looking at him with those unnerving grey eyes. ‘Are you here to point and laugh?’
Henry glared at the tall abomination of metal and flesh.
‘I’m here because I have nothing left but a desire for revenge.’ Henry placed a hand on the desk and leaned forward as he said this.
‘You’re not the vengeful type, Hen.’ The engineer flinched at the diminutive. ‘You surprise me. Speaking of which, coming in and announcing your presence is quite an ineffective method, is it not? You could’ve snuck in and attacked me while I was distracted.’
‘A surprise attack was too dangerous. You could’ve accidentally killed me.’
‘And what makes you think I don’t want to deliberately kill you?’
Henry smiled. It reached his eyes, but it looked painful. The creature simply blinked.
‘Do you want me to say it?’
There was no reply. Henry gave a satisfied tilt of his head.
‘Do you want to know how this works?’ The monster said, pointing to himself.
‘Not really,’ Henry deadpanned, raising an eyebrow.
‘Guess. Y’know what, give it a try.’
The man sighed and shrugged.
‘Remnant. Your body has been trapped and is nothing more than a corpse. The animatronic moves because your soul is possessing it.’ He adjusted his glasses. ‘Anything I miss?’
‘Well done, Hen.’
Henry sat on the old black office chair. The creature stared at him for a few seconds. The engineer fought the unnerving urge to grin, remembering that the suit did not have fully functioning articulations on the knees when on animatronic mode. He couldn’t sit.
The creature seemed to notice his amusement, but chose not to say anything.
Henry managed not to smile. Instead, he made a show of adjusting the pedal under the seat and sighing in relief when it came down to the perfect height.
‘There is something you’re forgetting.’ His voice sounded even rougher than usual. Due to annoyance, most likely. Henry nearly forgot about the underlying threatening tone in his voice.
‘Parts of my soul are clinging to what remains of my corpse. This is because it has fused with the suit. Just enough to make my nervous system work. Hundreds of my sensory and relay nerves can function.’
‘Which leads to pain.’
‘Extreme, unbearable pain,’ he said, slowly.
‘Probably not as bad as you deserve, if you ask me. You deserve to burn for eternity.’
The creature tilted his head.
‘Do you think so?,’ he raised his arms and let his hands limp. Henry was reminded of a cartoon. It was a gesture he knew well, but it looked different when the creature did it. ‘I think you should try, to confirm it is as painful as you believe it to be’
Henry’s eyes darted from the creature’s glinting animatronic nose to the bits of flesh here and there.
‘I think I’ll pass, thank you.’
The creature lowered his arms and took a step towards the man.
‘Oh, but I do insist. There is an unused animatronic at the back,’ he said, and he tilted his head to the side, pointing to some room at the back. His ears also rotated minutely, a bit like signposting arrows. ‘It might take 30 or so years, but we could certainly give it a shot.’
‘The owner said you were the first and only real animatronic they’d found. You’re lying,’ Henry snapped.
The bottom part of his jaw lowered slightly, making it look like he was smiling. Henry instinctively took hold of his seat, nails digging into the worn leather. Not even a second later, he stood up and walked away. No second thought. Or a second glance, either.
Soon, he started hearing heavy metallic noises as he walked down the hallway.
‘Oh, so now you’re extremely loud. Couldn’t you have done that before, before nearly sending me into cardiac arrest?’ Henry adopted a sarcastic tone, determined not to let the creature notice his hands were shaking and his heart was beating worryingly fast.
‘That would have been a funny death.’
Henry was about to say that no, that would have been extremely tragic, but he changed his mind right before doing so.
‘After everything that I’ve done? Yes. It would’ve been hilarious, I’m sure.’
Henry picked up the orange toolbox he’d brought with him and started walking towards a nearby vent. He’d studied the plans during the weeks in preparation for this. This vent was important. The creature followed closely, making less noise now.
‘What exactly have you done, Henry?,’ he asked.
The engineer cherished the use of the proper version of his name.
‘I tried so many times,’ he fixed his glasses, which had slid down his nose ever so slightly, ‘to gather evidence so that you could get what you deserve.’
‘What, the death penalty?’
Henry crouched next to a vent and got to loosening the screws. Decades of experience had brought him great dexterity, and so he was halfway done when he answered, barely four seconds later.
‘Exactly.’
‘So you do want to see me dead.’
‘Shouldn’t come off as a surprise, Will, I-’ Henry nearly dropped his screwdriver. He immediately tightened his grip around it, until it hurt. The creature didn’t say anything but he could feel his gaze on him.
‘Interesting,’ he finally said, after a solid ten seconds had passed.
‘Don’t- don’t you even dare mention it.’
‘Alright, I…will…not.’
Before he could stop himself, Henry threw the screwdriver at the creature with all his might. It dug itself on his chest, right where his clavicle would have been, had he not been a rotten corpse in a decaying suit.
‘Oh, look at that. You narrowly missed my heart,’ he said, leaning over so he and Henry could be at eye-level. ‘You can say it. My name is William Afton. Mr. Afton, to most people. But you…you used to call me Will. I used to be your best friend. Now, we don’t throw screwdrivers at our friends, okay?’
The creature pulled the tool out of himself without breaking eye contact, then dropped it on the floor. It landed right next to Henry’s left knee. The engineer looked down at the sad purple screwdriver, and the creature followed his gaze. It used to be William’s. He hadn’t even realised. The dim lighting and his absent mind hadn’t allowed it.
‘I’ll be back.’ the creature half-whispered.
William’s initials were engraved on the base of the tool. The creature stood up to his full height.
‘And I can sit down, so stop laughing at that,’ he said, his voice becoming more staticky on the words he wanted to emphasise. He started walking down the hallway. ‘You fucking idiot’, he muttered as his footsteps became quieter with distance.
Henry only looked up after he was completely sure he was gone. Will had seen him cry five times in his life. He hadn’t been willing to add another instance to the already quite lengthy list. A dull green liquid, almost grey, was sullying Will’s tool. He cursed under his breath and wiped the screwdriver’s tip using the surface of his tough workwear jeans.
He walked from vent to vent, sealing them and sabotaging the refrigerating machines. He didn’t see the creature again, but from time to time he could hear footsteps or a clanging metallic noise. They would always make him freeze for a few seconds and look around with widened eyes.
With a content sigh, he put the purple screwdriver in the toolbox and shut the lid. Henry looked at his watch. An hour and a half had passed. While he’d never had to manipulate that many ventilation system components and so didn’t have a previous record to compare it to, the engineer knew he’d been quick. Whether it was due to fear, nervousness or eagerness was a complete mystery.
‘Are you going back home now?’
Henry clutched the toolbox handle under a bruising grip.
‘Why didn’t you stop me?’
‘It’s intriguing. Seeing you again was something I never thought could happen, but now it has. How could I risk you leaving forever by thwarting your machinations?’
The engineer stood up. He looked into those grey eyes. He must’ve been too sleep deprived, because they looked almost warm.
‘You haven’t aged at all. But then again, you always took good care of yourself. Had I been the recipient, it would’ve been useless,’ he stated.
‘What are you talking about?’ Henry dreaded the answer. He had his suspicions. Unfounded hypotheses. Once, he’d delved too deep in the thought process, and he’d stopped thinking about it altogether. Now, the creature was forcing him to do so again.
‘Oh, nothing.’
A pause. Henry waited. He knew the man wouldn’t be able to keep himself from showing off.
‘But I’ll tell you anyway.’ There it was. Henry pursed his lips and listened to the broken voice. ‘I injected remnant into your bloodstream decades ago, when you were still young—in the conventional sense of the word.’
Henry shrugged, knowing it would annoy the creature.
‘Okay. Thanks for the news.’
‘Pardon?’
‘Hey, the evidence points exactly to that. What did you expect me to do? Break down crying because I have pieces of kids’ souls flowing through my veins?’
That’s exactly what Henry wanted to do because, what the fuck.
‘Well, yes. Is that so strange?’
Henry exhaled and shook his head.
‘I don’t know and I don’t care. I was already aware.’
The creature took a step forward. Henry forced himself to stay still. The distance between them was too small. Henry prepared himself for the smell of rotten flesh to hit him, but it never came. He could only smell rust and wet metal.
‘There are tears in your eyes. Why don’t you stop pretending?’
Henry blinked several times.
‘No, I’m not-I am not pretending. Of course it upsets me. What I’m saying is-‘
Without warning, he was surrounded by metal. The creature hummed and started petting his hair. Henry froze. He was dying. He was going to kill him. William was playing with his hair, the hair of his food. He was playing with his food. Henry blinked rapidly. Turns out, he was going to be crushed by an animatronic. Oh god.
The creature was…hugging him. Henry started raising his hands. Hesitantly, he wrapped the creature’s torso in his arms. Killing him was going to be painful, Henry could tell.
~
Henry grinned at William. The man shook his gigantic yellow rabbit head. He then removed it.
Both their faces fell when they heard a sharp, slicing metallic noise. A springlock around the mouth had come loose. William tried not to flinch as the motion started a chain reaction in the mask. He gently lowered the mask.
Images of glinting steel digging into soft flesh crowded his mind and he struggled to reach for the tiny switches that would let him take off the suit. His fingers landed on one, but he found himself unable to make it work. His hands were trembling too much.
‘They’re all bound by one string,’ whispered Henry, finally snapping out of his stupor. ‘Don’t move.’
‘Noted,’ mouthed William. He should’ve segmented the code instead of being lazy and having everything on one place.
He slid his steady hand under William’s shaking one. He then flicked the switch. With an exhale, he removed the frontal chest piece. The springlocks on it snapped shut, and Henry let out a startled cry as he dropped it. It fell with a loud clang, and William visibly flinched.
‘This-‘ he began, reaching for the emergency switches on the left arm.
The rest of the sentence was never heard because William started screaming.
~
‘I’m sorry, I should’ve been quicker.’
‘It was not your fault. And now that we’ve fixed it, we can be sure that it won’t happen again.’
‘Right.’