It was a bright, summer day. There was a light breeze in the air, enough to cool anyone down. A teenager with ginger-blonde hair was walking down the street on a neighborhood, a backpack swung over one of her shoulders. She was wearing a blue dress, with a pink button up blouse over top of it. She was chatting with another teenage girl, with ginger pigtails, a sunset shade of orange shirt, and the fruit color orange skirt, who walked next to her.
The ginger-blonde girl shrugged her shoulders, as she exclaimed, "I don't know, Penny. Just seems like she doesn't care about the students. So why should I care about my homework?"
Penny shrugged. "I hate her too, but you know my mom would kick my ass if I didn't get it done. Besides, what would Michael do if he found out, Ellie?"
Ellie rolled her eyes. "Ugh, don't get me started. I just hope he doesn't find out about the Bidybab thing. It wasn't my fault anyways…"
Penny laughed, and managed to speak through breaths, "I can't believe you got peanut butter in it!"
Ellie crossed her arms. "Hey, you know it took Michael days to get that out."
The two girls continued to ramble on about high-school drama, until they reached the house on the end of the street. The giant grey house with purple linings on it, as opposed to the rest of the neighborhood's red and white. This house had a reputation, between both kids and adults.
Kids spread rumors about zombies, robots, and many more horrific things that happen behind this ancient house's wooden pine door. A family of witches, or a gathering place for vampires. Where robots go to plan humanity's downfall. Every day, kids see a girl with ginger-blonde hair enter and exit the house, as well as a large, dark figure. Was it their imagination, or was it real? Or was it combination of both?
Adults felt a feeling of content when they told themselves they knew the truth. They knew what was happening. No ghost tales, or anything out of the realm of possibility, just a regular story. A normal man under the name, William Afton, lived in that house. He had three kids, Michael, Elizabeth, and Caleb. The man co-owned a pizzeria, one with advanced robots to entertain kids, put on shows, do everything to satisfy the target demographics. During a horrible night, five kids were found missing and linked to the pizzeria. The case famously became known as "The Purple Guy", as the only shot of the killer was him inside one of the robots. The only part showing was his purple shirt. A few years later, five more kids were found dead. The pizzeria shut down, once again.
Then, tragedy struck the Afton family. The youngest of the family, Caleb, was badly damaged in a failure with a robot at his seventh birthday party. For a few years, people didn't see or hear about him at all, and assumed he had died. Then, he emerged out of nowhere, wearing a relic of the place in a mask of the mascot, Fredbear.
Finally, a few days before its opening, during the testing phase, Michael Afton confronted his father at the new pizzeria location, and had him arrested, supplied with many folders, files, and audio tapes to prove his crime. William Afton was arrested, and Michael was put in charge of his siblings.
And that's when the story ended. To support his family, Michael continued the family business of the pizzerias. Elizabeth went on to go to high school, and the poor boy, Caleb, went to private school half of the year.
Ellie scoffed at this while she searched in her pocket for the door key. "This is how they think it ends," she thought to herself, "Hah, how wrong are they?"
She unlocked the door and looked back at Penny. "You want to come in? We can pop some Jiffy-pop and watch a movie.. one with a happy ending."
Penny snorted and rolled her eyes. "I prefer more ambiguous endings. And it's tempting, but my brother talked me into going with him to see my cousin. See ya, wouldn't want to be ya!" She stuck out her tongue before taking off.
Ellie sighed, and spoke out loud. "This is just perfect!" She pushed open the old door and walked into the house. She looked around, and through the open kitchen saw a taller boy with curly orange hair cooking at the stove top.
This wasn't just anyone. It was Carlton Burke, police chief and the town's most famous lawyer's son. Right now, he lived with the Aftons, because he was Michael's boyfriend.
Carlton turned the stove off and turned around. "Oh, hey Ellie. You're just in time! The pie should be done soon!" It had always been a past time of Michael and Carlton to cook and bake together, and with Michael having to work a lot more recently, Carlton's been doing it a lot by himself recently.
Ellie looked at him and smiled. Just looking at him and his happy demeanor through anything made her happy. She threw her backpack down on the floor. "Nice! Apple, I presume?"
Carlton shook his head. "Sorry, but it's pumpkin!" He smiled and got a can of whip cream out of the fridge, sliding on the tiled floor in his socks. "First time I made it, hopefully it comes out good!"
Ellie frowned. "Aww, but Apple's the best! Michael and I think so!" She faked pouted, before putting a finger up to her face and dragging it down her cheek to her chin.
Carlton shrugged and leaned against the counter. "It's Caleb's favorite. He's… been acting weirdly today. He didn't come out of his room until afternoon, didn't ask me to make lunch, and looked really sad."
Speak of the angel, Caleb came walking down the large stairs. He was a small, pale boy wearing a golden bear mask. It had been cut cleanly in half, with the fur on it nicely brushed. The most noticeable thing about him was the large, robotic eye shoved into the right eye socket, protected by the mask.
His regular human eye was red and bloodshot. He'd clearly been crying, and near his chest he held tightly a golden bear plush with a purple bowtie and hat close to him. The bear had a non-expressive face but he still found it comforting.
Ellie and Carlton both hurried up to Caleb and started to fuss over him, asking him questions, offering him food and water, and just smothering him.
After a while of this, he finally spoke a bit. "I-I just came to get some water.." He walked around the other two and stood on a pink stool to reach the cabinets. He got on his tip-toes and grabbed a cup, and then hopped off the stool, walking over to the sink and filling it up.
He started to lift the cup up to his mouth, his hands shaking all over the place. He quickly set it on the counter and put his hands on his face, starting to cry. He sat down on the floor.
Carlton and Ellie rushed over to him, and sat down. Carlton scooped him up into his lap. "Oh, my little star… what's wrong?" Little Star was Carlton's nickname for Caleb, ever since he made him a painting for of the night sky. They had always gotten along, especially since one stayed home for half of the school year, and the other studies for college at home.
Caleb looked up at Carlton, then over at Ellie, before he looked down and cried even more, though he didn't make a sound except for a few whimpers. After a few minutes of him crying into Carlton's sleeve and Carlton petting his hair, Caleb looked back up.
Caleb had thought of this a lot recently. He had reminded him of this. He knew he didn't want him to feel this way, but he did anyways. He took a deep breath, trying to steady his breathing and shaking body. "T-tell me about… after the bite. W-what happened?"
Carlton and Ellie both looked away. Neither felt qualified enough to tell him. Carlton barely knew him back then, and Ellie hadn't known about his recovery until it was over. The only two people who knew where Michael and… Father. But they didn't talk or think about Father. At least, that's what they told themselves. Even Carlton, who only knew very little about him, still didn't want to even bring him up in passing. Of course, everyone thought about him. They just couldn't tell the others they were.
Carlton scratched the back of his head, snapping back to reality. "I… why don't you ask Michael about this when he gets home from work?" Carlton gave a smile. He knew that he'd forgiven Michael and they'd been closer ever since, but they never talked about the bite.
There were so many secrets and topics nobody dared touch upon in that house. Father, The Bite, The Incident, The Spring. It hurt each and every one of them, but they had made a silent oath not to talk about it. Deep down, each knew they wanted to, but they didn't know how to start and what the others would think. And the shyest boy in the house had just broken that unspoken oath.
Caleb got up and wiped away his tears. "I… c-can't you just tell me what h-happened to me?" He needed to know. He'd pushed it to the back of his mind all these years and he just needed to know. He couldn't ask Michael, he couldn't, he knew how much it hurt him when he mentioned him.
Carlton looked down at the little boy and wrapped his arms around him. He held his head to his chest and sighed. "I can't, but… just know I love you so much, Caleb" It was true. Since he's gotten to know Michael's siblings, he's come to regard them as his own siblings.
Caleb pushed himself out of Carlton's hands and stared at the two people in front of him. He knew they cared so much about him, so why won't they tell him? He just stared, as tears ran down his cheeks. He nearly jumped up into the air when the door swung open.
Through the doorway staggered a robotic fox, with its face slit into different pieces, large hands swinging by its side. On its chest was a bowtie, and a pattern of a suit. As it walked towards the three humans, its tail dragged on the carpet, occasionally flicking to one side, even closing the door with it. Normal people would scream and run away, but these weren't normal people.
The large fox picked Caleb up and walked to the couch. He sat down with him, and held him close, petting his hair with one hand, and his tail. He wouldn't let go of this poor boy for anything. He put his chin on the boy's head and sighed. "What's wrong, Caleb?"
Caleb looked up at Michael. He loved him, more than anything. But seeing him like this after dad did this to him… still made him scared. Was it his fear of animatronics, or fear of his dad? Or was it both? Maybe it was a fear of losing his brother, just like he had lost his mom. She left after he was born. Maybe it was because his dad cheated with someone named Betty.
Caleb frowned and held onto Michael's hand. "T-tell me… what happened after the bite?" He looked up and saw as Michael's eyes shrunk, and he slowly stopped petting him and moving entirely. The only movement was his tail, and Ellie and Carlton slowly walking upstairs.
Michael's mind was racing a mile a minute. He couldn't think about anything for longer than two seconds before another came to his attention. He looked down at the boy's brown eyes. "I knew this would come," he told himself, "just why now?"