A/N: Well, you guys wanted it, and I'm finally going to give it to you. The ghost kids reacting to FNAF kids, with a healthy dose of Alex and Meghan thrown in! Cause it's been a while since we've seen those two in person. I'm going to be labeling it as a "Jamming with the Schmidts" chapter even though it's VERY different in nature from the last one, because otherwise the gap between "Jamming with the Schmidts" 1 and 2 will be way, WAY too long.
I've chosen three songs, all of which are from the FNAF1 era. FNAF4-6 definitely won't be a thing in this universe (since Mike isn't going to disclose Liz's…less-than-stellar moral alignment as Baby for obvious reasons), FNAF2's still relatively new in this universe, and FNAF3 hasn't come out yet.
Disclaimer: I do not own ANY of the songs used in this chapter. Full credit goes to the TryHardNinja, Madame Macabre, and TheLivingTombstone, who I highly encourage you to check out if you don't know about them already.
Chapter 92 – Jamming with the Schmidts Part 2
The knock on the front door immediately drew everyone's attention. "They're here!" Jeremy exclaimed as they rushed towards the door.
"Oh my God, we're finally going to see Alex and Meghan again! It's been way too long!" Susie cheerly eagerly.
"At least we managed to clean up the house first," Gabe mumbled. "It would've been hard to explain how the walls and door got trashed cause…you know."
Fritz shrugged. "Meh, we could always just say a wild animal broke into the house or something."
Liz raised an eyebrow. "Up here with a gate and walls blocking Dad's stuff?" she asked skeptically as Charlie reached the front door and opened it. Alex and Meghan were waiting for them, with Ryan standing behind his kids a few steps away.
"Hey!" Meghan waved cheerfully at them. "Great to see you guys again!"
"I know, right?" Alex added. "We were so busy earlier this month, and then you had that emergency you brought up after that." He tilted his head curiously. "What happened, anyway? You didn't really say much."
The ghost kids gave each other uncertain looks. "We've had to deal with some…problems, lately. We'd rather not talk about it," Cassidy finally answered uneasily.
Alex shrugged. "Fair enough, I guess."
They were saved from any further awkwardness by the sound of Mike's footsteps coming down the stairs. "Oh, you already got the door, Charlie!" Mike exclaimed. "Hey there!" he greeted his close friend and his children.
Ryan grinned. "Hey, Mike!" he called back. "The kids have been dying to see yours again. No pun intended."
Mike groaned and rolled his eyes. "Your puns were shit back in college, and they're still shit now," he drawled back as the Marshall kids entered Mike's house. "When are you gonna be back to pick them up?"
Ryan shrugged. "Three hours? Four? Depends on how early I get out from work."
"Hopefully they don't screw you again," Mike replied. "I'll take good care of your kids."
Ryan smiled. "I know you will, Mike." He turned his attention to the children. "See you later, kids!"
"Bye!" Alex, Meghan, and the ghost kids cheerfully waved back as Ryan turned around, Mike shutting the front door behind him.
"Welp, you know the rules by now," Mike told the Marshalls. "Don't go in my bedroom, don't go in my garage, don't fuck up my things, rest is pretty much fair game. I'll be upstairs if you guys need anything."
"Okay!" they acknowledged as Mike started to climb back up the stairs.
"So what do you guys want to do?" Charlie asked once he was gone.
Meghan thought for a moment. "Can we listen to you perform music through those animatronics again?" she asked. "That was really fun the last time you did it!"
The ghost kids cringed. "Eh…about that…" Fritz mumbled.
"You remember those problems Cass mentioned?" Jeremy filled in for him. "The long and short of it is that they got torn to pieces."
The two Marshalls' eyes widened. "Oh my God!" Alex exclaimed. "What?"
"Yeaaaaaahhhh…Dad had to send them out to get repaired," Gabe added. "So…we don't have them around right now."
Meghan winced. "Aww…I liked those animatronics!" she complained. "They were so cool-looking and innocent. Unlike those old animatronics Fazbear Entertainment used to have when they were still around years ago, now those give me the creeps!" she finished with a shudder.
The ghosts instantly tensed. "How…do you know about those?" Charlie asked carefully, making sure not to openly expose her own nervousness.
"We just bought a game on Steam a few days ago," Alex explained. The ghosts relaxed upon hearing this, as it didn't seem that the Marshalls would know anything more than the "generic" story established by the FNAF games. "Actually two. They're called Five Nights at Freddy's. We got that game AND FNAF2."
"How are you doing in the games?" Cassidy asked. "Dad's godly at the first game."
"Well, both of us have managed to get through FNAF1 fairly well," Meghan replied. "Once we saw the strats for how to beat Nights 1-6 it didn't take us too long to beat them. Still working on 4/20 though." She shook her head and sighed. "4/20 mode is still kicking our asses, though."
"What about FNAF2?" Susie wondered.
Both Marshalls scowled. "FUCK Night 6 in FNAF2!" Alex ranted furiously. "It took me FIVE hours to beat that shit! Every SINGLE time something would fuck me, whether it was Foxy, or the Balloon Boy, or that FUCKING Puppet!" He gave Charlie a sheepish look. "No offense."
Charlie shrugged. "None taken, I hated that Puppet too."
Meghan raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you wearing that Puppet, though?" she pointed out. "How'd you even get something like that?"
"Having a physical body made things a lot easier," Charlie explained, not missing a beat. "It also happened to be the only one around besides Lefty, and that would've been a lot bulkier and more awkward to deal with. I've pretty much replaced it with the newer Security Puppet anyway."
Every single word spoken was truth, a truth that deftly avoided the dark secrets of their past. Meghan shrugged, apparently accepting the answer for what it was.
"I have an idea!" Alex suggested. "A couple of people have actually started making songs about the FNAF games! Why don't we listen to a few of those?"
"Wait, REALLY?" Liz asked, eyes wide with shock. "Those actually exist?"
"Yeah!" Alex explained excitedly. "They're actually some really good songs out there! I wish I was that good!"
"I HAVE to see this!" Jeremy exclaimed. "Let's go downstairs! We have a main desktop computer that we use for things we want to do together!"
"I'm down!" Fritz eagerly agreed.
"How do you guys have your own laptops AND a desktop in the bottom?" Meghan asked jealously. A second later, she smacked her forehead. "Oh, right, your dad's rich."
"We're not complaining," Gabe remarked as they made their way downstairs. "We wouldn't have had our sweet vacation to Korea this summer if he wasn't."
While they climbed or floated down, Charlie quickly sent a telepathic message to her siblings. "Guys, as cool as this might sound, there's a pretty good chance that these songs might trigger some…unpleasant feelings or memories," she warned.
Susie's smile faded. "Uh oh…I didn't think about that," she admitted.
"Just try not to react too obviously, as best as you can," Charlie advised. "We won't lie to Alex and Meghan if they discover the truth about us on their own, but I think we can all agree that the less chance they find out about our past, the better."
"I can definitely agree with that," Gabe mentally sent back, with the other ghosts sending their own affirmative thoughts.
Once they were in the basement, Charlie turned on the computer and the children waited for it to boot. "Oh, I forgot to tell you!" Alex suddenly realized. "Dad's actually planning a trip to Disney World for us this Christmas!"
The ghost kids' jaws dropped open. "Wait, WHAT?" Susie exclaimed. "You're kidding!"
"Nope, it's actually happening!" Meghan gushed with delight. "The last time I went there I was like 4 and Alex was 6. We're gonna see MGM Studios and Magic Kingdom for sure, maybe the other two if we have time!"
"I think Dad was gonna bring this up to your dad at some point, but we want to be the ones to break the news to you first. We're inviting you guys to come with us to our winter vacation!" Alex declared.
For a second, the ghosts floated silently in the air, stunned. Alex and Meghan began to wonder if they had somehow offended them with their offer. Then, their eyes started positively glowing with delight and gratitude at the offer.
"YESYESYESYESYESYES!" Cassidy babbled, unable to even form a coherent sentence with how happy she was.
"We'd LOVE to!" Fritz exclaimed.
"Thank you SO MUCH for offering!" Susie tried to hug Meghan, but her spectral hands passed through the young girl's body. "Awww…" the former Chica inhabitant groaned as she stared regretfully at her friend.
"I just hope Dad agrees to this," Gabe was the one to actually address the topic, though he was smiling just as much as the others.
"We can ask him later," Charlie decided. "He didn't mention any plans so I'm sure he'll be okay with it."
"From what we know of your dad, it'd be a lot of fun if he came with us," Alex remarked. "He's not like most of the adults we know."
"Dad kinda does act like a kid sometimes," Liz admitted with a roll of her eyes, but she was still smiling fondly at the thought of him.
The sound of the computer fully turning on interrupted their conversation. "Oh, it's ready!" Charlie declared. She quickly typed in a username and password and logged in to the computer. "How do we get to see those Five Nights at Freddy's songs?"
"It's easy, just go to Youtube," Meghan instructed. Charlie did so, and moved aside for the older Marshall child to quickly type in the name of a song. "These songs are really popular," he commented as he clicked on a video. The ghosts' eyes widened when they saw the number of views.
"Wow, you really aren't kidding," Jeremy whistled.
"This song is called "It's Me" and it's by TryHardNinja," Alex explained as the video loaded up.
[[Song: "It's Me" by TryHardNinja]]
Welcome to your office settle down and take a seat
Please pay no attention to the terrifying screams
You should heed the warnings of the voice that's on the phone
Tonight you might be by yourself but you are not alone
The masks that we wear
Pretend they aren't there
But you can only hide for so long, for so long
"This is kinda creepy," Cassidy commented, her expression torn between nervousness and a guilty enjoyment of the song. "It's catchy and cool, but definitely creepy."
"Really catches the atmosphere of the game, doesn't it?" Charlie asked.
Why don't you
Spend the night then you'll find
there's evil that waits inside
Spend the night then you'll find
there's evil that waits inside
Spend the night then you'll find
there's evil that waits inside
Spend the night then you'll find
there's evil that waits inside
it's me
There's evil that waits inside it's me
The kids started swaying and moving their heads to the song, despite the ghosts feeling uncomfortable and more than a little guilty about the references to their sins. Meghan raised a question. "Why does that phrase always keep popping up?" she wondered. "What does that phrase even mean?"
"I wish we knew," Fritz mumbled. And it was true, for after so many years even the ghost kids themselves didn't remember. Whether it had been to terrify the night guards just a little more or to try and get their story told, the meaning of that one phrase had been lost to the black haze.
Though we tried our best you seem to have beginners luck
We came so close but we just couldn't make you one of us
Congratulations are deserved it's 6 AM you win
We'll see you here tomorrow night and do it all again
The masks that we wear
pretend they aren't there
but you can only hide for so long, for so long
Why don't you
Spend the night then you'll find
there's evil that waits inside
Spend the night then you'll find
there's evil that waits inside
Spend the night then you'll find
there's evil that waits inside
Spend the night then you'll find
there's evil that waits inside
it's me
There's evil that waits inside
it's me
The Marshalls looked expectantly at the kids as the song ended. "Well?" Alex prompted. "What do you guys think?"
"That was a really good song," Susie commented appreciatively. "Like, a REALLY good song! You're telling me some guy on the Internet made something that amazing?"
"Yeah!" Meghan replied eagerly. "I don't know how popular they were before they wrote that, but afterwards they got a LOT of attention. Same goes with a lot of the other songwriters."
"It really captured the tense and scary atmosphere of Freddy's," Jeremy remarked with a thoughtful look on their face. "And that talk about evil inside the animatronics," he shuddered. "Yeesh."
"If the hidden secrets in the games are true, then there were some kids who got murdered by a guard and stuffed in the suits, and their ghosts are possessing the animatronics and killing the night guards cause they want revenge on the guy who murdered them," Alex explained. "I mean, I really do feel bad for the ghosts of the murdered kids, but if they're the ones doing the killings, you can't really call that good by any stretch of the imagination."
"No…" Gabe replied solemnly, shaking his head. His brothers and sisters looked equally serious, trying their best to hide the guilt and shame that was struggling to surface. "Evil is right."
"Fuck the bastard who murdered them, though," Meghan snarled. "I hope he got what was coming to him."
The ghosts smiled faintly at their friend. "I'm sure he did," Liz answered reassuringly. In her mind, she added, "You have no idea."
"So what other FNAF songs are there on Youtube?" Charlie wondered. "It sounds like Youtube is the one big hotspot for all these cool and creative songs."
"There's one that I like that was sung by a female instead," Meghan offered. "It's called Welcome to Freddy's by Madame Macabre. This one's a little different in that it's sung from the perspective of one animatronic specifically instead of all of them."
Which one?" Liz wondered.
"Chica," Meghan answered, causing Susie's eyes to widen slightly in surprise as the song began to play. Unlike the first one, this song started with some dialogue from the animatronics that sounded disturbingly accurate to what they had originally sounded like.
[[Song: Welcome to Freddy's by Madame Macabre]]
[Freddy:] Hey everyone, and welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza! So let's strike up the band
1... 2... (Kill me)...
Is everyone enjoying some delicious (delicious flesh) pizza?
"Well, that's not disturbing at all," Fritz deadpanned.
"God, I…the animatronics never went THAT far, I hope…" Cassidy mumbled. I can see you there, warmth and life why don't you share? Stalking hallways, getting closer Shouldn't have come here to this house of fear
It's been many years stuck here living with our fears
Please do pardon me, I can't help it, can't you see?
In this misery, you can join our family
Why'd you lock the door? Don't you like us anymore?
This game's lots of fun, you look funny when you run
Eyes up on the wall, well that's just no fun at all
Watching us in there, using cameras hardly seems fair
Got you now, it's nearly over
Found your blind spot, lurking within
Sooner or later we'll get in
Careful not to waste your power
You've still got to last an hour
I can hear your heart pound heavy
Here we come I hope you're ready
Pray that those doors hold steady
As the clock ticks on you pray to reach dawn
Can you last five nights at Freddy's?
"Wow…" Susie shuddered, "…this version of Chica seems really creepy and hateful."
"She's toying with the night guard," Charlie murmured grimly. "Playing with them to mess with their mind and try to force them to screw up." They don't let us out, all the people scream and shout Stalking hallways, getting closer Why'd you come back here? You should have fled dear
After they go home, that is when they let us roam
Once we got a taste, but they shut us down in haste
Called us things of hell, blamed it on the rotting smell
Who's that on the phone? You're supposed to be alone
You're not playing fair, we'll just have to break in there
You can join the crew, we have got a suit for you
With you I'll confide, it's no use to run and hide
Got you now, it's nearly over
Found your blind spot, lurking within
Sooner or later we'll get in
Careful not to waste your power
You've still got to last an hour
I can hear your heart pound heavy
Here we come I hope you're ready
Pray that those doors hold steady
You've made it quite far it's rather bizarre
Can you last five nights at Freddy's?
"I think this song scares me more than the last one," Gabe commented, trying not to show his discomfort.
"I know," Meghan agreed. "It's definitely from the ghost kid's perspective this time, and those revenge vibes are NOT pretty."
"No kidding," Susie mumbled. In her head, she nervously questioned herself. "Was this the type of person I really was back then? Someone this hateful and vicious?" [Freddy:] Hey kids! Where do you think you're going? I just want to go home
[Foxy:] Aye! You'll be walking the plank for that
Don't want to be alone
Please don't cry or scream out
You won't ever get out
"No turning back…" Cassidy whispered, her voice just quiet enough that neither Marshall could properly hear what she had said.
Shouldn't have come here to this house of fear Why'd you come back here? You should have fled dear [Foxy:] What have we here?
Pray that those doors hold steady
As the clock ticks on you pray to reach dawn
Can you last five nights at Freddy's?
Pray that those doors hold steady
You've made it quite far it's rather bizarre
Can you last five nights at Freddy's?
[Chica:] Wow! I sure am (kill them) am hungry! Let's eat
[Freddy:] Thanks for coming to Freddy Fazbear's! I'll see you next time.
"These songwriters have some real talent," Jeremy commented, though this time the appreciation wasn't mixed with the same level of enthusiasm as before. The way this song had delved into the psyche of the Chica ghost kid, and the level of malice she had portrayed through the song, that unnerved William's victims in a way that the last song hadn't.
"Wasn't your dad one of the night guards at the old Freddy's restaurant?" Alex asked. When the ghost kids nodded, he shuddered. "I can't imagine just how creepy and terrifying that job must have been for him, being chased down by those animatronics in that tiny office."
The ghost kids grimaced, though this time it wasn't for reasons that had anything to do with their murderous past. Even a year after they had learned about their father's terrible childhood, the fact that Mike nonchalantly dismissed being hunted by murderous animatronics as the least horrific part of his early life was disturbing on a whole different level entirely. "He dealt with it a lot better than we thought he would," Fritz responded, the normally rambunctious child sounding unusually somber.
"I'm glad he survived, at least," Meghan offered with more than a little relief in her voice.
The ghosts smiled back at her. "That makes all of us," Susie answered fervently.
"You guys seem a little nervous about this," Meghan remarked, causing more than one of the ghosts to stiffen. "Are you sure you're all right?"
"We're fine," Charlie assured them, making sure not to speak too quickly.
"Why don't we listen to one more, and then we can do something else?" Gabe suggested.
"I'm cool with that!" Alex agreed. He started typing on the Youtube search bar. "This last one is by Living Tombstone, and it's just called the FNAF1 song."
The atmosphere lightened a bit. "Great name," Cassidy deadpanned.
Alex snickered. "Yeah, it's not exactly the most creative name ever," he admitted as he opened it up. "But it's still a pretty good song."
The kids quieted down as the video loaded, and the song began to play.
[[Song: FNAF 1 Song by Living Tombstone]]
We're waiting every night to finally roam and invite
Newcomers to play with us
For many years we've been all alone
We're forced to be still
And play the same songs we've known since that day
An imposter took our life away
Now we're stuck here to decay
Please let us get in!
Don't lock us away!
We're not like what you're thinking
We are poor little souls
Who have lost all control
And we're forced here to take that role
The mood sobered as the kids listened to the lyrics, especially for the ghost kids. Unlike the other two songs, the lyrics here emphasized the tragic fate of the murdered children and how they had been trapped in the animatronics, doomed to a cursed, repetitive existence that they had never wanted. Even though the memories of the late 1900s had blurred with the passage of time and had been further thrown into obscurity by their new life with Mike, they would never forget the lingering traces of terror and despair that lurked in their minds from those dark days.
We've been all alone
Stuck in our little zone since 1987
Join us, be our friend
Or just be stuck and defend
After all you only got
Five Nights at Freddy's
Is this where you wanna be?
I just don't get it
Why do you want to stay?
Five Nights at Freddy's
Is this where you wanna be?
I just don't get it
Why do you want to stay?
Five Nights at Freddy's
"That IS a good question, though…" Alex muttered as the song continued. "Why WOULD all those Night Guards stay in a job that fucked up? Like, I get maybe one or two days, but an entire week? Just…WHY? And for pay that shitty, too!"
Jeremy shrugged. "Desperation?" he offered.
Meghan snorted. "I'm pretty sure there are other low paying, low skillset jobs that DON'T require you to possibly get brutally killed every single day," she retorted. "I know I shouldn't be talking crap about the dead, but some of those night guards were just stupid."
"Maybe," Gabe thought in his head. "It still doesn't excuse us killing them."
We're really quite surprised
That we get to see you another night
You should have looked for another job
You should have said to this place good-bye
It's like there's so much more
Maybe you've been in this place before
We remember a face like yours
You seem acquainted with those doors
Please let us get in!
Don't lock us away!
We're not like what you're thinking
We are poor little souls
Who have lost all control
And we're forced here to take that role
"I wish we could say this was true," Charlie thought sadly. "That it was the programming of the animatronics that killed them, and that we had no choice but to carry it out. But that's just not true. The only one that could maybe apply to is Liz, and Baby's programming screwed up her soul beyond saving until we were all freed. No…the first songs had it right. We're murderers, and we'll never be able to change that no matter how much we want to."
We've been all alone
Stuck in our little zone since 1987
Join us, be our friend
Or just be stuck and defend
After all you only got
Five Nights at Freddy's
Is this where you wanna be?
I just don't get it
Why do you want to stay?
Five Nights at Freddy's
Is this where you wanna be?
I just don't get it
Why do you want to stay?
Five Nights at Freddy's
This time, there weren't any smiles from any of the kids when the song ended. "That was a lot sadder than I remembered," Meghan mumbled. "I just thought the song was catchy the first time I heard it, I didn't actually think about the lyrics all that much," she admitted.
"Yeah," Liz agreed grimly. "It treated the…the ghost kids as victims who just wanted not to be alone anymore, instead of vicious monsters."
"They didn't seem to hate the Night Guard this time around," Meghan pointed out. "Heck, they seemed more confused by the Night Guard coming back more than anything."
"It's definitely a lot better than the ghost kids hunting down and brutally murdering the night guards, that's for sure," Fritz muttered.
"I hope whoever those ghost kids are, they eventually got freed," Alex murmured. "Even if they did start killing people eventually, nobody deserves to be trapped like that." His face darkened. "Except for the person who killed them. I hope that fucker's rotting in Hell," he growled.
"Amen to that," Gabe agreed.
"All right, I think that's enough FNAF songs for now," Meghan decided. "But before we move on…I'd like to ask you guys something." The way she spoke those words instantly made all the ghost kids tense. "You guys…you're the murdered kids that the FNAF games are talking about…aren't you?"
The only response she got was silence. The ghost kids were gaping at her, staring at her with a mixture of shock, disbelief, and even a bit of horror on their faces. "How…how did you…" Susie spluttered.
"There were a couple of things we noticed," Alex answered. The carefree expression that was normally on his face was completely gone, and he sounded far more mature and serious than the ghost kids had ever known them. "I mean, just the fact that you're a group of ghost kids hanging around somebody who used to be a Freddy's Night Guard was a bit strange. Especially when you told us that you didn't have a peaceful, well…you know…"
"But it wasn't until we actually got the FNAF games that we really started connecting the dots," Meghan continued where her brother left off. "Charlie was wearing the Marionette for more than half a year, the exact same Puppet we saw in the games. And when you performed in those Rockstar Animatronics, you were moving around in those robots WAY too smoothly for it to be your first time doing it. Like you'd been doing it for a long time."
"I swear we didn't bring up these songs just to see how you'd react," Alex promised. "We honestly did like these songs since both they and the game are really popular right now. But, still…we can't help but see the connections even more now."
"Is it true?" Meghan asked quietly. "Did you really…kill those Night Guards?"
Tears were flowing from Cassidy's eyes. "Yes…" she confessed, her voice shaking and barely above a whisper. "We did. The Purple Guy butchered us, tore us to pieces and stuffed our bodies in the suits. We were so, so angry…we wanted revenge on the guy who murdered us. The first two songs were closer to the truth than the third one…the only thing we could think about was killing the guy who killed us."
"But we didn't know that the facial recognition scanners of the animatronics had been tampered with during 1987 and never fixed when they moved and remade the animatronics in 1993," Gabe added solemnly. "We could only see through the eyes of the animatronics, and because every night guard wore a purple uniform, they all looked like the guy who killed us."
"And because of that, every time we attacked someone who we thought was the Purple Guy, it was always someone else instead," Jeremy muttered, sounding thoroughly disgusted with his actions. "We were so angry and hateful, we didn't even question why the Purple Guy kept coming back even if we killed the last one. We just thought he came back, and killed another innocent person again."
Susie looked even paler than she already did as a ghost. "Dad was one of the Night Guards there, and we attacked his office over and over again!" she wailed. "For twenty nights! We could have killed him! The person who adopted us and gave us a new life, and we'd have torn him to pieces if we'd gotten our hands on him!"
Alex and Meghan watched and listened silently, their minds torn with confusion and conflict. On the one hand, the children who they'd been friends with for a year, had essentially admitted to being mass murderers. On the other hand, they had been victims of a tragedy far worse than anything they could have thought of, one that had not just destroyed their lives, but tainted their deaths. There was no way they couldn't sympathize with the murdered children's suffering, no matter how horrified they might have been at their actions.
"I…I don't know what to think…" Meghan finally broke the silence. "You guys…you're not bad people, I know you're not. But…"
"…you still murdered a lot of people," Alex finished his sister's sentence. "I…we can't just ignore that, no matter how much we want to…"
"It's okay…" Charlie murmured as she wrapped her arms around Cassidy and Susie's shoulders. "A good part of us was expecting you to hate us when you learned about what we did. The fact that you don't is more than what we deserve."
"But there's one thing I don't get," Meghan shook her head in confusion. "Five of you were Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Golden Freddy. Charlie was the Puppet." She turned her head towards Liz. "But what about you? Where do you fit in all this?"
"I'd…rather not say…" Liz pleaded, her emotions wrapped up in turmoil.
"She doesn't have anything to do with any of this," Fritz came to her defense. "She wasn't with the rest of us."
"All right," Alex conceded. But both Marshalls could tell that even if Liz's fate hadn't been tied with the rest of the ghost kids, her ghostly life hadn't been any happier.
A few minutes later, when Mike called the Marshall kids up to give them some dessert, he immediately noticed the crestfallen and broken facial expressions on both the living and dead children. And right away, he understood what had happened.
"You guys figured it out," Mike asked quietly, "didn't you?"
The two barely perceptible nods were all that Mike needed to see. The man sighed and sat down on the dining room table. "I think it's time you and I had a little chat, just the three of us." He turned to the ghost kids. "Gonna have to leave, kiddos."
"Are you sure…"
"Out." The single word was spoken with the unquestionable authority of a father, and the ghost kids immediately left the dining area, none of them even considering the option of eavesdropping. The Marshalls looked at each other uncertainly as Mike sighed again. "Your father figured it out too," he let out a humorless chuckle. "I've got to say, you're taking this a lot better than he did."
Neither Alex nor Meghan dared to say a word. "I could give you a long and passionate speech about why you should forgive my kids for what they did in the past, one of the biggest points being that I forgave them and I have more a right to hate them than you ever did," Mike continued. "But I think I can get that point across with just one simple question."
He leaned forward and both children fidgeted under the intense gaze of their father's friend. "Imagine that you were the ones who were murdered instead of them," Mike began. "That some sociopathic asshole masquerading as a security guard, someone you should have been trusted, lured you to a back room and murdered you. Killed you violently and viciously, destroying what should have been a wonderful day filled with joy and laughter. He stuffs your body in a suit, and because of that, your soul is trapped in the body of an animatronic that you used to love. You can't move except to follow programming and when nobody's around, you can't cry out for help, you're stuck forever in the same place, and you'll never be able to see your loved ones ever again. That was the reality my kids were trapped in for decades. If you were in their place instead…
…can you honestly say you would've turned out any better than them?"
The Marshalls sat silently in their seats, stunned not just at the horrific description that Mike had provided about his kids' fate, but also at the question he had asked at the very end. And there was something about the way that he had asked it, something about their father's friend at that very moment that truly terrified them, even though he hadn't shown a hint of anger or even raised his voice. As Alex and Meghan pondered the question, they already knew deep inside what the answer would be.
And even though the Marshalls could find it in themselves to forgive the victims of William Afton's butchery for what they had done, one thing was for certain.
Neither of them would be able to look at their ghostly friends, or their father, in the same way ever again.
/
A/N: Well, that certainly turned out a lot gloomier than I expected it to be. So, Alex and Meghan know the truth about the ghost kids' past now. With them being exposed to FNAF and Freddy's stuff even before the games came out in-universe, it was only a matter of time before they figured it out. They certainly have a lot to think about, especially with Mike's words at the end. Amazing how much of an impact Mike can have, even when his time in the spotlight is quite small in this chapter compared to most of the others. He didn't even go Dark!Mike on the kids like he did with Ryan to really hit the point home.
With that being said, I have two options for you readers. Either I handle UCN next, or the ghost kids and the Marshalls go to Disney World together for their winter vacation. I think I might have Mike take the kids to New York City afterwards, just in time for New Year's Day and the holiday celebrations that take place there. I'll let you guys decide which one you want to see first.
At any rate, I hope you guys enjoyed!