Part 4: William Afton
1
Silence filled the old, empty restaurant. The long tables and chairs had been removed, as had the arcade machines, revealing the entirety of the red and purple tiled floor. The crayon drawings that had brightened the place over the years had also been stripped, revealing the cold grey concrete walls that lined the corridors, now leading to a bare empty office which now looked much smaller than it used to. There would be no faint smell of pizza in the air. There would be no more laughter here. The evening sun was setting over the parking lot, casting a purple light into the quiet building. The restaurant had been fighting to stay open for many years and had now finally closed its doors. Tim Anderson was the last night guard to work at this establishment and had done so under heavy scrutiny, due to the actions of the previous guard and his former housemate Mike Schmidt. There was only one thing left to remove. Something that the owner had wanted to see to himself.
Standing in the middle of the empty dining room under a single spotlight perched on a tall stand, gazing down at the broken, disassembled animatronics at his feet, was William Afton. He was a thin man with grey hair and a permanently etched smirk on his face, put there from years of getting his own way. He was the man in charge of the franchise. The CEO. The owner. But he was not the creator. At least, not the creator of these four creatures that lay in pieces before him. That title went to his old partner, Henry. William looked around at the bare remains of the building, that slight smirk never leaving his face. Henry. It all began with Henry, and his rudimentary machines.
They had been partners once. Back at the start. Back when neither of them had anything, and everything hinged on the success of Henry's idea. It was Henry who dreamed of opening a pizzeria made entirely for the entertainment of children. Henry loved children, and nothing made him happier than the awe on their faces as they watched his characters up there on the stage. Nothing except his own daughter, Charlotte. It had been Henry who had made the first two characters, Fredbear and Bonnie, and who designed them to be convertible animatronics worn by them whenever the programming wouldn't meet their needs, or simply failed. Henry made Fredbear to his own measurements, Bonnie to William's. William was more interested in running his own side project, Afton Robotics. But he was struggling to fund his work and decided to run it as a sister company to Fredbear's Family Diner. Him paring up with Henry as co-owner was a gamble but paid off when the crowds of families started coming in.
The place boomed with success and after a few years, when they moved from the small diner to a full-size restaurant, Henry had revealed to William his newest creations. The four new animatronics. The bear, the bunny, the chicken, and the fox. These were fully animatronic and were designed to dance on the stage and to carry trays of pizza to the tables of excited children. These four new animatronics showed off Henry's design and programming abilities as they were fully animatronic and had no need to be worn by any staff. They would not glitch like the older springlock suits. William was impressed by this but became jealous of Henry's technical abilities. William had always seen himself as the technical one as Henry was always the charismatic showman running the face of the business while William maintained the suits and ran the place behind the scenes.
The new diner was very successful and despite his resentment of his partner, William was happy. They both had young families who were finally well off, and the risks of bankruptcy that came within the first few years of opening any new restaurant were no longer looming over their heads. They had made it. Everything changed however, on the day of his son's birthday party in 1983.
The springlock suits were on the stage, fully automated as they had been for some time now. There was hardly any need to wear them anymore as the programming had been improved and had freed up Henry and William's time to run the restaurant. There was a commotion at the main stage. William's son, the birthday boy, was being lifted into the air by his older brother Michael and his friends. They were taking him to the stage. Towards Fredbear. He was crying. He didn't like the characters. They were much too big. "Hey guys, I think the little man said he wants to give Fredbear a big kiss!" There was laughter at first, but it all went silent as the young boy screamed. He had never screamed like that before. What William heard next would play itself in his mind over and over again. It was a crunch. A sound of skull cracking and giving way. It was the sound of a collective gasp of the horrified onlookers. It was the sound of one of Henry's rudimentary machines failing. And still, the music played.
The boy did not survive, and William never stopped blaming Henry for his death. If only Henry had been wearing the Fredbear suit that day. Then it wouldn't have happened. William could never look at his older son, Michael, the same way again. Had it not been a private party, the incident could well have destroyed the restaurant. The media did not get to tell the story, and few people knew much about it, its existence regarded as rumours spread by people trying to make a buck.
The restaurant closed and the old suits were removed, locked away in a back room to be forgotten. It was a tragedy, but the business had to resume. After a brief closure, the company re-opened its doors under the new name of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The four new animatronics, really just robotic wait staff until then, were now the main attraction. They were named and advertised as the new mascots of the franchise. The company carried on.
William began to hate Henry. It was his fault that William's son had died. It was supposed to be his happiest day, but Henry's faulty character was too basic and simple to detect that something was jammed in its mouth. That was Henry's failing. William should have been in charge of the development of the animatronics. For the rest of William's life that sound would haunt him. Then the night came where he could fix things. Make the score even again. William had lost a child. Henry would, too.
Little Charlotte had, through some circumstances orchestrated by William, been locked out of the back of the restaurant one night. She was in the back alley in the rain, shaking the door, trying to get the other children's attention. William had pulled up slowly in his car, parking it behind her. What's wrong, Charlie? He stepped out of his idling car and made his way to the door, standing behind her as she waited for him to let her back in. Instead of a key, William produced a small knife. Quickly so not to lose his nerve, William whipped it around her neck and sliced the blade back along her throat, stepping back immediately as the blood poured out onto the rain-soaked door. It washed away quickly, and William climbed back into his car and drove away, leaving the girl to crawl the short distance that she could manage. She never made a noise. The children inside continued to enjoy the party, and still the music played.
William had thought that that would be enough for him. The score was now even. A life for a life. William had endured his grief, Henry now had to endure his. But something was wrong. William's act had lacked a certain… sound. It had haunted him still, and he believed that the only way to relieve it was to replicate it. Perhaps the score was not yet even.
-xxx-
Months later, another opportunity had presented itself. The restaurant was crowded full of happy families, all watching the animatronics on the stage as they sang their songs. In between the songs, the animatronics would serve the customers by delivering pizza trays to the tables. It was the gimmick that the restaurant was famous for, and it never got old. The children were drawn to them and would follow them around, often running from one to the next as quickly as their excited little legs could take them. One such child was a six year old girl named Cassidy. Cassidy had been running after the animatronics with the other children but couldn't keep up with them. It was apparent to William that she was not particularly favoured by the rest of her group and was in fact quite lonely. He could see that she was becoming upset.
William went into the back room. There they were, slumped next to each other. The old yellow suits. The former mascots of their company. He put on his old Bonnie suit and carefully made his way back out to the main area. Nobody noticed him. Nobody gave him a second look as he entered the kitchen and picked up a small plate of pizza and brought it back out. Nobody paid any extra attention to him as he approached Cassidy with the pizza that was specially made for her and knelt down to present it to her. He told her that he knew she was lonely and wanted to cheer her up. He told her that he was her special friend and that there was another friend waiting to meet her, one who was lonely, too. He walked away and beckoned her to the back room, towards the old Fredbear suit.
She knew something was wrong when she saw the empty suit slouched against the wall. It no longer looked like a cartoon character, full of life. It was broken. William stifled any chance for her to scream as he covered her face with a wet cloth before laying her down quietly and closing the door. He then carefully opened up the Fredbear suit and placed her inside the torso. Curled up in the foetal position, she fit snugly inside it, sleeping like a baby. William closed the suit back up, sat down next to it and slouched like the other one, and waited.
It was almost like a game to him. Both of them were in old suits that were each as dangerous to wear as the other. The game was to wait and see whose would snap first. But he knew what the outcome would be. And he was patient. Instead of a snap, the first thing William heard from the Fredbear suit next to him was a soft weeping. She was awake, but she hadn't yet moved. She knew where she was, could hear the music from the stage dampened through the walls. She knew that her parents were on the other side of those walls. Had they noticed that she was gone, yet?
Time passed, and soon they could hear people calling out her name, looking for her. William sat next to her, excitement brewing in him. Through her quiet sobs he could make out words. She was trying to call out. "It's me!" I'm right here… It's me!" But her calls didn't escape the small room. Soon, William could hear her get more agitated and finally, she began to struggle against the suit. It was what he had been waiting for. His heart was pounding in his chest as he listened until suddenly, the Fredbear suit snapped loudly from the inside and gave a sudden jerk. It was over. He had replicated the sound that haunted him since that day, and now another family would know the pain that he had felt.
Cassidy was never found. There was no trace of her in the restaurant and the best guess was that she had run away and had gotten lost. William had disposed of the Fredbear suit and only he knew where it remained.
And still, the music played.