I promised it'd be soon. And here it is! I've noticed that one of the more popular songs for this fandom is "Come, Little Children". I remember hearing it the first time in Hocus Pocus but I do agree that it fits this one too...so I incorporated it here. This one will go along with Mike as she grows up for the first few chapters, just as we focused on the spirits in the first one. The spirits will make their appearance, no doubt about it (even before Mike takes the job)! But right now, we get to see Mike's side.

Some things that I need to clear up: The murderer is still out there, someone else went away for the crime. Jeremy is alive...but he's really badly hurt and can't work for a while. His girlfriend and parents won't let him return to the place. And finally, the spirits have moved fully into the next phase of their undeath. Meaning that they're "human" during the day and animatronic from midnight until six.

Without further ado, here is Soul: Shades.

I own absolutely nothing except for the few OCs in here (the parents).

"Bold" is the Animatronic's speech

"Normal" is human speech (when the child's spirit is in control)

"Italic" is memory/thought/phone call

Chapter 1

May 3, 1988

She ran around the area, happily squealing as two lean arms wrapped around her, hugging her and 'trapping' her against her brother's chest.

"Got you!" he laughed, "You're not getting away that easy!"

"You're just too fast, Wobby," Mike giggled, blowing a copper colored strand of hair out of her face.

"And don't you forget it!" he chuckled, tapping her nose, "C'mon, let's get back to Mama and the others,"

She took his hand and the two walked…well, she skipped…back towards the party, meeting up with Sam, Amanda and Matt as they walked.

"Come little children, I'll take thee away, Into a land of enchantment,"

The four older children froze, making Mike looked up at her brother in confusion.

"Wobby?" she asked as he and the others turned around, walking towards the back of the room almost mechanically, "Wobby! Wait!"

"Come little children, The time's come to play, Here in my garden of shadows,"

Her eyes widened as a golden bear appeared, reaching his paw out and Amanda mechanically put her hand in it, letting him lead her and the others away.

"Follow sweet children, I'll show thee the way, Through all the pain and the sorrows,"

Mike grabbed Robby's arm and started to pull.

"Don't go!" she cried, dragging him backwards, "Please Wobby! Come with me!"

"Weep not poor children, For life is this way, Murdering beauty and passions,"

But Robby kept walking towards the back, it was like he didn't even hear her. She held onto his arm, trying to weigh him down, slow him so that he didn't go in that room! But in the end, it wasn't enough, she was dragged into the room along with her brother and friends. Robby somehow ghosted out of her grip, walking to come in line with the others while Mike, terrified, stayed behind them.

The bear stopped, turning around, and laughed, pointing at the four children, who all screamed and collapsed to the ground in bursts of scarlet. Mike screamed, crying hysterically as the man turned towards her. He gave a sickening smile and set the four children up, propping them against the wall.

"Hush now dear children, It must be this way, To weary of life and deceptions."

The wide, scared, dead eyes of the four children suddenly turned black with white pinpoints in the center.

Mike started crying even harder as the man turned towards her.

"Rest now my children, For soon we'll away, Into the calm and the quiet."

He lunged at Mike, driving his knife through her heart…

And Mike woke up screaming.

She felt arms around her as someone stroked her hair.

"Easy, baby, easy," her mother crooned as Mike started crying again and buried her head in her mother's nightgown, "Another one?"

The six almost seven year old nodded. The nightmares happened every night, and every night she saw her brother die again. Her family had tried everything, even going so far as taking her to doctors to help…but nothing did. Well, there was one thing.

One doctor they had gone to suggested drawing the nightmare. Mike had done so and had never shown anyone the drawings, not even her own mother. They were just too…much.

"Do you want me to leave you to draw?" her mother asked.

Mike shook her head rapidly, clinging to her mother as if she were afraid that she would disappear too.

Anna Schmidt held her daughter close, stroking her hair and carefully avoiding the thin scar that slashed down the girl's eye. She remembered vividly the day she got it, remembered Mike's little white party dress stained with scarlet blood. They'd done some tests on it…and they proved that it was a mixture of Sam Wyatt, Amanda and Matt Harper, and…Robby Schmidt's blood. The police had tried to find some DNA underneath Robby's fingernails from her son's severed hand, but they could find none. They had arrested a suspect…some random face in the crowd that Anna had never seen before, Mike didn't recognize the man's voice or face, but the police chalked it up to the fact that she was possibly traumatized by what she had seen, added to the fact that she was six.

She had to agree with her daughter, she hadn't doubted her for a second. Her son's murderer was still out there…at that awful place! She felt her throat lock up as the image of her dead son's amber eyes and sweet half-smile came to mind. He had looked so happy that day…

"No, NO Anna!" she berated herself as she held Mike close to her, "You can't think about him…Mikayla needs you now. You have to be strong for her,"

She looked down at her frightened child, whose amber gaze looked up at her mother.

"Mama," Mike started, "I think I'm ok,"

"Are you sure?" Anna asked.

Mike nodded, squirming out of her mother's grasp and sliding off the bed, a small toy fox tightly gripped in her hand as she padded over to her desk, pulling out a sketchpad and a few pencils.

Anna gave a slight smile as Mike climbed up into the chair, picking up her 'tools' and starting to get to work on drawing this new nightmare. She got up off the bed and walked over to her daughter, kissing her on the top of the head.

"I'll be in my room if you need me, okay Mikayla?"

Mike bobbed her head in a nod and returned to her drawing.

"Love you, Mama," she called as Anna started out.

"I love you more, Mikayla," Anna replied, walking out and shutting the door behind her.

Mike continued her drawing, showing the four forms of her friends and her brother laying against the wall, eyes black and white specked while the purple man stood in front of them, laughing. She shuddered as she put down her crayons and looked through the pictures that already littered the book. A single tear splashed down on the paper as she stopped at the picture of Robby telling her to be quiet. She picked up the toy fox beside her and held it in front of her, studying it.

Many miles away in a dark and dim part of town, a pizzeria stood among the buildings where the lamps flickered and guttered, threatening to go out. But this was no ordinary pizzeria. After all, who could possibly know that the four animatronics inside housed the trapped spirits of four children?

Three of the animatronics wandered throughout the main dining hall while the fourth sat behind a star-spangled curtain, cradling a small silver locket in its paw and listening to its sweet melody.

It turned its golden gaze upwards, oily tears streaming down through its fur as it closed its eyes.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you, Mike," Robby whispered, "I'm sorry I had to leave you…"

"You promised me you'd always be there, that you'd never leave me," Mike murmured, stroking the toy fox's ears one last time, "You lied,"

She hugged the stuffed animal to her chest tightly, tears streaming.

"But that's ok, Robby…I forgive you,"

"I miss you, First Mate,"

"I miss you, Capt'n,"

I'm notorious for short first chapters and longer new chapters. Robby's nickname for Mike (other than 'Mike') is First Mate while Mike calls Robby 'Capt'n'. It's their little private nicknames for each other that only they know. Which in later chapters will be very important...you'll see why!

I hope you guys liked it, if you did send in the reviews! (Along with ideas because I will need them eventually!) :)

Qui vállë tóquetë, ván tecë (If no review comes from y'all; no story comes from me)

Máriessë ar mára tecië

Farewell and fair writing

Elhini Prime signing off.