A/N: Um, hello. Yeah… I have a few stories I want to write but this one just kind of popped into my head.
Note: I believe completely that Mike is male, however for the purpose of this story I'm making him genderfluid. This means he switches between genders based on how he feels that day. He mostly goes with male, but he was actually born female. There WILL be a reason for this.
Note 2: This disregards FNaF 3, and goes with the sentient animatronics instead of spirit-possessed animatronics.
Warnings: Genderfluid Mike, biologically-female Mike, mentions of transphobia and sexism, hinted past abuse/rape, serial killings.
Disclaimer: I don't own ANY of these characters.
"Why don't you come out and play, Mr. Puppet?"
Deep blue eyes stared up at the slightly opened box, where the top part of a mask was peeking out, looking down at the girl curiously- it had been many years since he has had a child visitor. The puppet didn't say anything, however, and the girl smiled sweetly at him, thinking he was just shy or scared.
"It's okay, Mr. Puppet. I'm only eight, I won't hurt you! Promise!" she giggled, her golden curls bouncing with the movement. "Mr. Freddy says breaking a promise is bad, so I won't break it!"
The puppet lifted itself more from its place, but didn't come out. It stared down at the little girl in a pale blue dress. There was a party hat on her head, so it was clear it was a birthday party outside.
The little girl's eyes lit up seeing the puppet peek out more. She giggled and opened her mouth to speak- but then the door knob began to turn. The little girl's eyes widened, both in surprise at how fast the box's lid shut and the fact that, if she was caught, she'd be in major trouble. So she quickly ran around the large box and ducked down so she was surrounded by the medium and small boxes, effectively blocking her from view. Quickly she located space between two boxes to peek through.
The door opened easily enough and a golden Freddy walked in, four kids trailing behind him. The golden Freddy shut the door behind him and she heard a click she couldn't identify at the moment, and then the man spoke in a soft but deep voice, "Just wait right here, I'll go get it."
"Okay!" the children cheered happily, clearly excited for whatever the bear was about to bring them. The bear walked deeper into the storage room, not noticing the little girl hiding behind the slowly-opening box.
The bear didn't return. Instead it was a man, a tall man with pale skin and almost-black hair, wearing a crazy grin on his face.
In his hand, he held the black hilt of what looked like one of her mother's over-sized knives. One of the ones she wasn't allowed to touch.
The children, apparently realizing something was wrong, quieted down and started fidgeting as the man approached.
"Now listen," the pale man started, casting a glance around (which caused the big box to quickly and soundlessly close again) to assure they were alone. "Don't scream or this will be worse for you."
Of course, the man knew they'd scream, but the storage room was so far from the party room and the walls were too thick for screams to reach even the hallway outside. But the children didn't know that. He grinned maliciously as the children's eyes widened in fear and they gave a shout, running to the doors.
None of them could even reach the doorknob. The little girl realized all of them were shorter- younger- than herself, who could just barely reach the doorknob.
The man grabbed one of the children, yanking him away from the door and plunging his knife into the child's side. The child shrieked in obvious pain and terror, causing the other three children to shriek. The little blonde girl's hands flew to her mouth, muffling her own cry of fear and horror.
She did not want this man realizing she was there.
The man stabbed the child in the stomach and chest, and then finished him off by slitting his throat. He leaned over the child, grinning wilder as he watched the child's eyes become glassy and unseeing.
The children, having given up reaching the knob, cowered in fear, tears streaming down their faces. The man looked back at them with his wicked grin and lifted his bloody blade. "Who's next?" he asked with a sadistic laugh. The children simply cried harder.
"Fine, I'll choose!" he declared, and he grabbed the only girl among them- a sandy-haired, brown eyed girl ho couldn't be more than five. She shrieked and struggled, but the adult easily pinned her to the ground. Without hesitance, he began slicing her skin, causing her to scream louder in pain.
The little blonde girl wondered why no one was coming to investigate the screaming. She wondered why Mr. Puppet wasn't helping the children. She wondered why Mr. Freddy and their friends hadn't noticed them missing.
She covered her ears and ducked down more so she couldn't see the man slicing and stabbing the children, but her hands couldn't block out their horrifying screams.
The little girl didn't know how long she knelt down like that, hiding from the murderer, but eventually the screams faded. She lifted her head to look through the space between the boxes, part of her fearing the man would be standing right in front of her, but instead she saw the man leaving the room, closing and locking the door behind him. The four children all lay very silent and still in a large puddle of shiny red.
With a deep breath, she leapt to her feet and ran over to the children, dropping down to her knees in the puddle of blood. She didn't care about it staining her pretty blue dress, didn't care as it got all over her hands as she tried to shake the children awake.
Tears fell from her wide eyes, unable to comprehend what was wrong. "Wake up, wake up," she begged the glassy-eyed children. After a few moments, she stopped shaking them and looked up at the puppet, whose box was almost completely open. "M-Mr. Puppet, please wake them up," she pleaded, and the puppet just looked at her, somehow looking sad despite its fixed expression.
It couldn't wake the children, it had learned that many, many years before, the first time. All it did was cause more pain. But the little blonde-haired girl didn't know this. How could she? With such innocence, an innocence so brutally taken from her…
The girl only began to cry harder when she finally understood the meaning of that look- he couldn't help the children.
Then, suddenly, the door flew open and the man was standing there with a mop and bucket. The little girl whirled around, looking up at the surprised man.
"What the hell?" the man quickly dropped the bucket and mop, slamming the door shut behind him. "Dammit!" he cursed, grabbing his knife from his pocket.
Terrified, she made to stand but tripped over the little boy's body, falling on her back in the blood. She began crying, scrambling to back away and accidentally flinging blood around- hitting her hair, her face, the corpses, the floor, a few boxes…
"It's too bad, you're such a pretty little thing," the man noted, eying her blonde curls. "Too bad for you you'll never grow up!"
The man lunged at the little girl, his knife arching down. The little girl shrieked and threw her hands up to try and defend herself, but the blow never came. Once she realized there was no pain, the little girl opened her eyes and stared, shocked, as Mr. Puppet seemed to wrestle with the crazy man, claw-like fingers curled around the knife-wielding hand and face seemingly twisted in rage.
Although the puppet hadn't helped the other children, she felt so, so glad that he had helped her. She scrambled to her feet and raced for the door, causing the tall man to snarl and throw the puppet off of himself and hurry after her. Thankfully, the little girl realized the door wasn't locked and yanked it open, running out just before the knife crossed where her neck had been.
Not even thinking about the children celebrating and having a good time, just as she would have been doing if she hadn't snuck away, she ran straight for the party room. She was screaming for her friends, for her parents, for Mr. Fazbear- anyone!- but she couldn't be heard over the band's performance and the children laughing and playing.
However, the moment she ran through the door, screaming for help, she had people's attention. The band abruptly stopped playing, staring in shock at the little girl they had become so fond of covered in red, and children were confused as their parents started crying out in horror.
Quickly, her parents ran over to her along with management, and she fearfully clutched at her mother's skirt, unknowingly leaving small, bloody handprints as she cried. "I'm sorry, mommy," she wailed, the silence in the party room enabling every person and animatronic to hear her fear and grief. "I won't sneak off anymore! I promise!" she cried. "I don't want the bad man to hurt me!"
"Bad man?" The manager, Mr. Fazbear, knelt down so he was level with the little girl. "What bad man? Calm down, we need you to tell us what happened."
It took a few moments to answer, but finally she said, "The bad man in the gold Freddy suit."
She had only been allowed to go back to Freddy's a handful of times after that once they reopened, but each time she ended up scared and crying, and Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy were all unable to help cheer her up or calm her down. Of course, none of them could forget what happened either, could forgive themselves for not noticing another "animatronic" in the room, luring children away… and not even realizing their own beloved child had disappeared.
Her parents finally drew the line when Foxy attacked an employee working the day shift, unaware that the man perfectly matched their daughter's description of the murderer. She hadn't even had the chance to say goodbye to them before she was forbidden from ever returning.
However, that was all in the past. Many things had changed- her relationship with her parents, her economic status, the nightmares, the animatronics, and, most importantly, she herself.
She stared at herself in the mirror, her once-bright blue eyes looking back at her with an emptiness that, once upon a time, would have scared her. However, it seemed to match her limp blonde hair, now cut "like a boy's" as her mother always sneered, and the purple bruise-like bags under her eyes.
When she had returned to her home town, she had been so excited to see Freddy's was still in business using the old animatronics, and she had hoped they'd still be the friends she remembered fondly. However, she was an adult, she wasn't allowed in the restaurant without children…
So she became an employee. She became the night guard.
Biggest mistake ever.
She quickly found out that things had changed big time. All of her hope and excitement vanished as she realized she had simply walked back into another nightmare… but still she couldn't bring herself to quit. Even if they were trying to kill her, she was happy to simply see them again, even if their lack of care and disrepair saddened her. Especially Foxy.
It had been a whopping three months since she started working there, and one and a half months since the animatronics had simply stopped going for her. At first, she'd been hopeful that they recognized her, but the moment she caught one of their eyes she had seen such hatred that she quickly cast aside any thought of talking to them.
After all, if her own parents could hate her, surely her old and only friends could too.
Running a hand through her short hair, she sighed. "Alright then," she muttered to herself, straightening up and looking herself over. The uniform was slightly baggy on her, effectively hiding any feminine curves that would show through the binders.
Giving himself a cocky smirk that didn't come close to reaching his eyes, he told himself, "Looks like you're ready for work, Mike Schmidt."
He headed towards the door, completely unaware of the man outside his window.
Freddy looked around at his band mates and then across the room towards Pirate Cove, where his gaze remained. It wasn't yet midnight- it was barely past eleven- but Freddy didn't really care at the moment. No one was there to see him moving before the so-called "free-roam mode" activated.
Free-roam mode didn't even exist, but it helped the parents feel like their children were safe… so the band played along. No matter how much it hurt them to do so.
Foxy, as if he felt Freddy's gaze, poked his head out of the curtain, looking over at him questioningly. "Somethin' be th' ma'er, mate?" he called over to Freddy. Freddy shook his head slightly.
"No," he assured the concerned red fox. "I was simply lost in thought."
"What about?" Chica asked curiously from next to him, shifting to turn towards him.
"About how boring the last entire month has been?" Bonnie put in snidely, crossing his arms. Freddy rolled his blue robotic eyes, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like here we go again. "Seriously, I still think we should be trying to get at that guard. What if he hurts our children?!"
"Bonnie, he stays in 'is office and neva' comes durin' the day. We can easily keep 'im away from our children," Freddy reminded the bunny, his voice lilting with its slight country accent. "Besides, we threw all we had at 'im and 'e still sticks 'round. We simply have to accept it."
"I still don't like it."
"None o' us do, laddie," Foxy called over. "He be makin' me jumpy, he be! Really, we don' be needin' no guard!"
Freddy's ears twitched suddenly. "Places everyone, someone's comin'."
The animatronics all shared a confused look, but scrambled back into their "default" positions as the object of their conversation entered the room.
Mike looked over towards the animatronics on stage and sighed, completely unaware that they were watching and listening to his every movement and word. He had come in very early- 11:20- and he couldn't really understand why he did. Perhaps it had something to do with what he saw on the news channel earlier that morning when he got home, or maybe he was just feeling… nostalgic, and he just wanted to pretend.
Whatever it was, he simply watched the animatronic band, reminiscing about the good old times he would visit as a child… Before the murders and Bite happened.
"They're saying they caught him, you know," Mike suddenly said, surprising even himself. "Fifteen years and apparently they finally caught him, in California. He'll probably get the death penalty, too." Then, more to himself as he headed down the hallway, completely unaware of the animatronic eyes following him, he added, "Finally the nightmare can end…"