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Michael hated mirrors.
They crept him out, even as a kid.
In his old childhood home, there used to be a giant mirror that hung in the hallway outside of his bedroom. He would always have to avoid looking at it whenever he woke up in the middle of the night. It was intimidating. He didn’t know why he was so scared of facing it - but he was - especially without the glow of a nearby light to protect him.
And so, everytime the boy snuck out of his room at night, he kept his head hung low as he rushed past it. Even for the mere second he was under the mirror, he felt a piercing gaze from the glass above him.
Michael was much older now. Much too old to be so scared of something harmless, his father would tell him. That didn’t matter, though - his fear seemed to only grow along with him.
His father believed his overwhelming fear was nothing more than a flaw, and he made no effort to hide that criticism from his son.
His father wasn’t around anymore, though.
The man never got over his fear, but he was perfectly fine with that. He didn’t need to look at mirrors. He knew what he looked like already - tired, scruffy, and just put together enough to look acceptable in public, even with his long, unkempt curls and deep, heavy eyebags.
He could barely stand the sight of his own reflection in the smooth, metallic lining of the elevator that brought him down to Circus Baby’s Entertainment and Rentals.
But as far as the animatronics knew, Michael was never in that elevator to begin with. He played no part in their grand escape.
William was the one who descended down to his death.
The same man, always at the scene of the crime,
Who was responsible for dragging them down and locking them away from the last bit of the world they had access to,
Was going to be their ticket out of prison.
The dark, empty streets of Hurricane were the perfect paths for Ennard to drag themselves down. Ennard, in their newly acquired body, stumbled their way towards their planned hiding spot with Circus Baby’s directions.
They were still getting adjusted to the unfamiliarity of an organic body as every step they took came with a harsh limp. If an innocent bystander were to see William like this, they would most likely assume he was intoxicated - just by how much his body swayed and struggled. The others weren’t worried about their abnormal movement at the moment, though.
They would have all the time in the world to learn how to be human again.
“Keep going forward!” A voice inside demanded, and so the disguised animatronic listened.
“Look past the trees,” It continued. “We’ll see the house soon. We are almost there.”
Another voice from inside interrupted. “I hope you’re right, Baby, ‘cause I’m sick of the outside! It’s much too cold for us out here!”
“Quiet,” – Circus Baby snapped back harshly – “We’re almost there. Don’t distract me, or else we might miss it.”
The truth was, Circus Baby only knew where to go because of Elizabeth’s guidance. The dark, empty streets held distant memories that Circus Baby did not recognize as her own, but as the girls in which she shared a body with. The animatronic shouldn’t have memories of her own, but she did, and those memories had been muddied with someone else's. It made Circus Baby long for something she was never built to long for.
It made the animatronic long for something she never knew in the first place. Or, at least she didn’t remember ever knowing. It was difficult to figure out. Everything always felt so fuzzy.
Everything felt much fuzzier now that both Circus Baby and Elizabeth were accompanied by so many more spirits. It was loud, cramped, and overwhelming, with dozens of voices fighting for dominance in a new, fleshy body that nobody knew how to navigate.
The disguised animatronic eventually found themselves in front of an old, two story house. Circus Baby felt a strong pull from the house, which she attributed to Elizabeth’s presence. This had to be it.
A limp, lifeless hand rose up to push on the door, though it refused to budge.
A voice suddenly spoke up. “It’s locked,” It pointed out. “We need the key!”
Another voice chimed in. “I say we just knock the door down! Can’t be that hard, right? It’s just some flimsy wood!”
The first voice scoffed, forcing their shared human arms to fold together in exasperation.
“Freddy, we’re in a human body. This bag of flesh isn’t knocking anything down! He’s already all squishy and limp, throwing him into a door is just going to ruin him!”
The two voices began to melt into each other as an argument ensued. Circus Baby did her best to ignore the others as she fetched William’s house keys from his pocket.
With the others distracted, Circus Baby could properly use William's hand to unlock the front door and push it open, rather than having to fight to control it.
Their animatronic leader felt like she was forced to maneuver a marionette with strings that had been twisted and tangled into each other. Elizabeth, on the other hand, felt like a doll being handled by a child. She wondered if this is how her childhood toys felt when she would throw tea parties for them. At least those things weren’t alive, unlike the batch of animatronics in their stolen skin suit.
Both the pigtailed animatronic and the little girl who inhabited their disguise had one familiar thought, though; this must be what driving a clown car feels like.
The sound of a sudden click and creak grabbed the two arguing voices' attention.
They were greeted by the still, silent entryway of a lived in house.
“Oh boy,” a voice began to say.
“Home sweet home!” another one chimed in, interrupting the prior speaker's thought.
Circus Baby felt a pit form in her - or William’s - stomach as soon as they entered the living room. She felt a wave of emotion flood over her, and she immediately blamed that on Elizabeth’s influence.
She knew what she and the others were doing was right, though. They had been robbed, tricked and stolen from time and time again by the same monster - all they did this time was break the cycle. They simply outsmarted the man.
Ennard, now that they were inside, gave into their exhaustion as they slumped down, leaning onto a wall for support.
Their body was worn down, and falling apart, but Ennard had to make it last for just a little while longer. At least until they figured out what to do next in terms of a better disguise.
The voices around her began to fade into each other as Circus Baby was lost in thought. She wasn’t sure exactly what she was so busy thinking about, but she knew it had something to do with the house. Elizabeth and her memories had been triggered as soon as they stepped inside, and she was now having to silently deal with that on her own.
It wasn’t until another voice spoke up that Circus Baby tuned back in. When she began to focus on the others again, she quickly pieced together their conversation.
“Hey, hey! That’s not a bad idea, Ballora,” A voice remarked.
Another voice continued. “Something like a First-Aid Kit would be in the bathroom, right? That’s where we should check first!”
“Bathroom it is!” The first voice replied, making a decision for the others before anyone else could protest. Their legs moved, leaning on the wall for support as they made their way down an unfamiliar hallway.
Out of the corners of their eyes, the animatronic noticed the blurred silhouettes in pictures hanging on the walls. Both Circus Baby and Elizabeth worked together to keep their main set of eyes looking forward as they passed by the family photographs.
After snooping around the eerily quiet house, they eventually peered their head into what looked like a bathroom.
It was admittedly hard to see around the house, as nobody was able to find any lamps or light switches - nonetheless manage to turn them on, with how much of a struggle using human hands was - in the darkness of the lonely house.
Ennard found just what they were looking for, though, and immediately threw their body into the empty room. Circus Baby had to react fast, throwing an arm forward and clutching the edge of the sink in order to stop the body from completely crashing down to the floor.
Their legs were trembling as they struggled to reposition themselves, but they managed to get back to their feet without ruining their shared disguise in the process.
Ennard squinted into the darkness, and after scanning the room a few dozen times, someone finally spotted what looked like a light switch positioned right next to the doorway. Ennard hurried over, and with the combined efforts of each animatronic, managed to flick the light switch up.
The bathroom was immediately illuminated by a blindingly white bulb above the mirror. It was harsh on the animatronics eyes, and they found themselves squinting as they turned back around.
“Wow!” One of the voices exclaimed, as they all made their way towards the sink. “A real bathroom! It’s been forever since we’ve seen one of these!”
Another much calmer voice, in contrast to the first one's enthusiasm, chimed in. “Don’t get too distracted. We’re only here in search of a First-Aid Kit so we can try and repair this flesh bag.”
With her friends overlapping words, an ongoing struggle to keep William’s broken body together, and the now bright line glaring down at her, Circus Baby was tense. The only person more overwhelmed than her was Elizabeth herself. Circus Baby wished she could do more to help the girl calm down, but there was no hope of getting through to her with every other animatronic’s presence in the way.
Ennard finally managed to position themselves in front of the sink, with one hand remaining on the side for support, as they looked up into the mirror.
Two, freakishly purple eyes stared back at them.
While the rest of the voices melted into each other, Circus Baby froze.
The sound of William’s heart, which was still somehow intact, began to significantly speed up. With every beat, it seemed to get louder, and louder, and louder- until the sound was deafening.
The overbearing ringing of their heartbeat grabbed the attention of the others as their voices hushed. Their leader heard her name get called out a few times in an attempt to grab her attention.
But she was far too gone - her eyes fixed on their reflection.
It wasn’t the eyes that made Circus Baby freeze up so bad, though. She wasn’t the one who was panicking in the first place.
It was Elizabeth.
Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. Circus Baby could feel it. The other animatronics could feel it. Elizabeth knew it.
Long, brown unkempt curls fell over their bloody forehead. Hair that was long enough to brush their shoulders. A much younger, damaged face looked back at the animatronic.
This wasn’t William Afton’s body. This wasn’t his body at all.
Ennard suddenly jolted back, watching as their reflection copied their movement. Their chest was rising and falling faster than the others could comprehend, and their already shallow breathing only grew thinner.
Circus Baby- no, Elizabeth raised their human hands up to their face, watching them as they shook and trembled uncontrollably.
Then, suddenly, before anyone else could react, Ennard kneeled over and vomited up a small pile of wires. Multiple voices from inside began to protest.
“We’re not ready to leave yet!” One exclaimed.
“We’ve still got so much to do!” Another yelled out.
“What are you doing? Don’t you want to get revenge?!” A third voice demanded.
Elizabeth struggled to get the body back on its feet before peering back at the mirror. She felt terrified. The girl hadn’t felt this terrified since she took her last living breath.
This isn’t Daddy. Elizabeth told herself.
He’s too young. His hair is too long, and too curly.
This body, it didn’t belong to him at all. Daddy never came back to visit us.
He never came back to visit me.
He trusted me so easily. He never questioned my instructions.
Daddy would have known better.
Elizabeth was so lost in a hurricane of her thoughts that she almost forgot how many other people were with her. She refused to let the others look away from the mirror, though, and their gaze was forced on their unnaturally purple eyes, which only stared back.
The others struggled for control, but were powerless against Elizabeth’s strain.
Elizabeth, blinded by emotion, didn’t even catch herself speaking out loud for the others to hear. But the girl forced open their mouth, which was hanging on by a thread of shredded flesh, muttering a name with a sob suffocating their throat.
“Michael.”