Freedom

My eyes suddenly shot open. I found myself drifting off in an empty space. All I saw was complete darkness. I couldn't feel or hear anything and my mind was blank. I had a faint memory of my back and my left leg hurting, but I felt nothing now. Then I remembered everything. The animatronics, the whispers and, most of all, the fear. I was dead. Stuffed into a Freddy suit, the fate of many people that made the mistake to work at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza as a night guard. Something felt strange though, but I didn't know what it was. I started hearing the phone guy's recordings play over and over in my head. All my hallucinations and the whispers flooded into my head. "It's ME," "Please stay," "Thank you," I thought that they'd make more sense to me in the afterlife, but I guess I was wrong. I just closed my eyes while floating in the empty void. After all, there wasn't much to see.

I started hearing muffled voices, strange. I thought that this stuff happened before you died, not now. I guess it was kind of nice hearing people's voices while floating in this empty void. The voices started getting louder and clearer. I could barely hear the manager of the pizzeria saying "Give him this."

What?

A woman's voice responded with "I will, thank you."

It had to have been words that I heard earlier in my life. This couldn't be real. The voices disappeared, but I started hearing machinery. No, this couldn't be happening, I was dead. Something felt very wrong though. I felt as though I shouldn't have been aware that I was dead. I started a train of thought that was interrupted by my mom's voice.

"Is he alr-"

The same woman that I heard earlier responded with "Yes, but he hasn't –"

What was going on? I started wondering if I was actually dead or not. My eyes were still closed, but I couldn't open them. I realised that I completely lost the little control over myself that I had, and felt my mind going blank. The last thing I remembered was floating in the darkness for what felt like an hour.

My eyes shot open again. I was in a hospital. I was...alive? I looked around and saw that I was the only person in the room. The two beds alongside me were empty. I saw a drip in my arm along with a machine that monitored my heart rate. I tried to move, but my back was in a lot of pain and my left leg was restricted. Then I realised that Freddy only got my left leg into the suit before his battery exploded, not my whole body. I felt quite drowsy, but I didn't want to go back to sleep. I checked my little table next to my bed. There were flowers and a sealed envelope there. I took the envelope, which had Mike Schmidt written on it, and opened it.

It was my pay cheque and a notice of termination. I was fired? The reason was apparently for general unprofessionalism, odour and tampering with the animatronics. It didn't really matter to me. I looked at my pay cheque. $120.50. What crap is this? I didn't remember seeing how much I would actually get paid, but this felt like a lot less than what I deserved for my six nights of torture. My silent complaining was stopped by a splitting headache. I groaned loudly and put the cheque down. It wasn't long before a nurse walked into my room.

"Good evening Mr Schmidt, how are you feeling?"

"Awful.. Wait, did you say evening?"

I looked out the window, it was dark outside.

"Yes. You've been asleep ever since you were rushed in here at 7:30 AM. It's 8 PM now."

"How the hell?"

"I understand that this must be quite confusing for you, Mr Schmidt, but is there anything I can help you with right now?"

I explained that I had a splitting headache and that my back was sore. She told me that the drip was a pretty strong painkiller, so there wasn't much that could be done about my pain except wait. I asked her a few questions and she explained what happened. My leg was broken in four places and my back was in terrible condition. I had to stay in the hospital for a week before I could go home, and after that I'd have to walk around with a cast on my left leg for 3 months before it healed fully. The manager was the one who got me to the hospital. He gave the envelope to the nurse before he left. The last thing that she told me was that my mom came in to see me as soon as she could, which was 6 PM. The nurse told me that my mom looked really sad to see me like that. I thanked her and she walked out, leaving me on my own again.

I was so confused. Asleep for over 12 hours, such a small amount of money for my 6 nights of torture, the fact that I survived. It was quite a lot for me to take in at the time, so I just stared at the ceiling, trying to make sense of my situation. It wasn't long before I fell asleep again. I was just in darkness again, and before I knew it, I woke up to the sound of my mom's voice.

"Wake up sleepy head!"

I was so glad to see my mom's face. She looked just as happy to see me. I hugged her tightly, which really hurt my back, but I didn't care. She wanted to know what happened, but I didn't want her to know about Freddy's. I just said I couldn't remember. We spent about half an hour just talking before my dad walked in. He brought in some food and joined in on the conversation. I really enjoyed talking to my parents properly for the first time in a while. I was just so glad to see them. Unfortunately, visiting times weren't very long, so they had to leave.

I had to wait quite a while until visiting hours came again, but I killed them by sleeping after eating the food that my dad brought in. I woke up at 5:30 PM, an hour before visiting time. I was wondering how I got it right to sleep for so long, then I remembered that I was practically on constant painkillers. I started wondering what I could do for an entire half an hour, then I found myself drifting off in thought. Thinking of my nights at Freddy's, all the emotions that I experienced, the hallucinations, the whispers. A lot happened to me during that week. I was really lucky to be alive.

Before the train of thought travelled any further, the nurse walked in and asked if I needed anything. I asked for something to read and she gave me a list of magazines. I chose one on cars and she quickly got it for me. I was about halfway through reading it when the manager walked into my room.

"Hello, Mike. I uh, just wanted to come in here to apologise to you."

"Apologise for what?"

"F-for not telling you everything about the animatronics right at the start."

"Don't. After the first night, I knew what they did. It was me that decided to go back, not you."

He explained that it was more than that. He felt ashamed to be responsible for the deaths of so many people who made the mistake to work there. I wasn't the only person that was compelled to go back. It happened to everyone. The spirits inside the animatronics wanted to be free, so they messed with everybody's mind. He started getting emotional.

"I'm just...sorry for not telling you, or anyone else, to stay away from that blasted pizzeria."

Then he just thanked me for actually getting it right to shut the animatronics down. I asked why my pay was so bad and he told me that the company barely has any money. He also mentioned that my notice of termination is just for tampering with the animatronics, to keep all of this hidden. I promised him that I wouldn't tell anybody to keep him from going to prison for the rest of his life and he thanked me heavily.

"I'm so, so sorry for doing this to you Mike. I really am."

"Don't worry about it."

We just said our goodbyes and he left. He was in tears. I felt a little bad for him, but he did a really bad thing. Not telling all the other people to stay away. I realised that I still had questions that I wanted him to answer, but I'd have to save them for another day. I checked the time, it was 6:15 PM. I carried on reading that magazine while I waited for my parents to show up. I eventually saw them at 6:40 PM. They said they were late because there were mechanical problems with their car, so they could only stay for twenty minutes. I still enjoyed every second of it. I was up until 10 PM, just thinking, trying to make sense of my past week. I was very drowsy, so it wasn't hard for me to fall asleep.

I had a dream that I was at a birthday party at Freddy's.

I saw all these little kids running around, eating pizza and having a fun time. The animatronics were roaming around too, with a kid walking next to each of them. These children looked sad. They were slouching dragging their feet across the floor. I walked up to the girl that was by Chica. She immediately looked happier and just hugged me. I found this quite strange, but I hugged her back. She didn't want to let go, so I told her to come with me. I noticed that Chica stopped moving completely.

I walked with the girl to Pirate Cove. The curtains were closed, so I opened them and I found a boy who looked a little bit older than the other children sitting beside Foxy and crying. I touched his shoulder and he looked up to me with a bright smile on his face. He hugged me tightly and, just like the girl, refused to let go, so I told him to come with me as well. As we walked away, I heard Foxy crash to the ground.

We then went over the boy that was walking near Bonnie. He looked extremely pale. He turned around and when he saw my face, he looked so happy. He ran over to me and hugged me. I already knew that he wasn't going to let go, so I told him to walk with me. Bonnie stopped moving, just like Chica

I walked with the three children gripping my arms towards one last boy walking by Freddy. I looked into his eyes and he just started crying. I went to him and asked him what was wrong. He just said "I'm sorry" and held me, crying on my shirt. I looked at him and said "It's alright, I forgive you," He just wouldn't stop crying, so I just told him to walk with me. As he got up, Freddy stopped moving.

I walked outside with the four children. When we were outside the door, the children let go of my arms. They all looked at me with bright smiles and whispered:

Thank you

Then they all ran together into an open field, playing with each other, as happy as can be. After all these years, the children were finally free.

(A/N: And there you have it for the Nightwatch! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! If you want more, you can check out my next story like this on FNaF 2 called "The Nights of '87". It's still a WIP at the moment, but there's still some quality content to read. Anyway, I'll see myself out. Later)