3
The authorities never really suspected William other than Police Chief Clay Burke. It was only a gut feeling and there was no real evidence, but his suspicion of William never abated. Nevertheless, it didn't make sense that William would risk the reputation of his own franchise, and these incidents had had a rapid effect on its customer turnover rate. An investigation was conducted, which William had assisted with, and camera footage showed a yellow rabbit appearing briefly in the restaurant leading the first two missing boys away. The data collected from the animatronics all showed the same information. A man in a guard uniform had been sighted loitering nearby just before each child was taken. William had altered the footage in the main database in the backroom to remove any images of himself in the building at those times.
The animatronics' behaviour towards the night guards further supported the theory that the suspect was one of the security team that worked at the restaurant. The night guard before Jeremy was taken away for questioning and the disappearance of Cassidy at the previous restaurant was reopened and linked to the recent cases by their similarities and witness reports of a yellow rabbit character appearing shortly before she went missing. A security guard was charged with all five of the murders but walked free due to insufficient evidence. None of the five bodies were recovered.
Charlotte's murder appeared to have no connection to the other disappearances and was deemed a random act of violence by an opportunistic murderer. Henry, who had been distraught, had disappeared shortly after her funeral, leaving William in charge of the company. All of the cases became cold and the franchise never fully recovered, having to move to a smaller location and reinstate the original four animatronics as the mascots. It was seen as a backwards step by the shareholders and many of them withdrew their support. It was just bad business.
William stood now in the main dining room of the empty building as it darkened in the setting sun and smiled down at the broken animatronics, knowing exactly what was sealed inside each torso. He remembered with fondness what others regarded with horror. He felt a connection with each of the families that had lost a child at the restaurant. After all, he had gone through the same thing once, and had publicly mourned with them. The night guard Mike Schmidt had almost worked it out. The instruction manual that was found underneath Freddy Fazbear that morning proved that. But it didn't matter anymore. William had gotten what he wanted.
Something drew his attention and had snapped him out of his memories. A sound. One that sounded familiar and had shot a cold shiver up his spine. But he wasn't sure of what it was until he heard it again.
Click.
William looked around the dark room for the source of the sound, the pitch-black doorways seeming to loom closer and closer. He span slowly in his dull yellow circle of light from the spotlight above. The darkness of the silent, empty building seemed to press against him, and he felt a panic rising in him that he could not explain. That sound. Where had he heard that sound before?
Click.
Closer this time. A quiet shuffling came from the empty Pirate Cove, though there was nothing to see. No living thing remained in this old building apart from him. Not a soul. William scanned the room carefully from left to right, paying special attention on the long, black hallways and the empty arcade room. He thought he could see figures there in the dark. There were things in there, moving.
In his periphery, William thought he saw a small, pale face in one of the dark corridors, but when he looked at it directly, it was gone. As he stared into that patch of darkness, so did another face appear on the edge of his vision in the other doorway. Again, he tried to look at it directly, but it then vanished. A small face appeared just in front of the kitchen door, then another appeared in the arcade. William's heart was racing, and his mouth was dry. He recognised these faces. They were getting closer each time he tried to get a look at them. One was at the front door. Again, that noise. Click. They had found him. He looked down at the mess of animatronic parts at his feet. Had he unknowingly freed them?
A voice in the darkness. A voice in his ear. "It's me! It's us!" The faces were clearer now, appearing on the edge of the beam from the spotlight, flickering in and out of his periphery as he tried to look at each one directly. William trembled. He had never felt this sort of fear before. They were all here. They were angry. An idea. Could he hide? He turned and moved quickly into the backstage area, his hand fumbling along the wall for the light switch. He turned it on and was met with the grinning faces of Henry's old creations, still on the shelves. Heart pounding, William approached the far wall, the one under the camera's view and pulled the bench aside. He pressed on a panel on the wall and it loosened, allowing him to lift it out. He threw it aside and leaned into a small room that was hidden behind it. He found what he was looking for.
William dragged out the old yellow Bonnie suit by its feet, looking as though he was dragging a dead body. He had stored it here many years ago when the restaurant first relocated and didn't expect to be unearthing it again. He turned it over onto its front and opened the back of it, exposing the rear cavity. After all this time, the internal parts were still pulled aside and held back with their locks. William climbed into the suit, sliding his arms and legs between the parts. They had found him, and he was desperate to get away from them. It was his hope that they feared the suit. It was his hope that they feared the appearance that he took on the days that he lured them.
With the suit firmly on, the parts all locked in place, William turned towards the doorway and looked maniacally at the faces that had gathered there. The children backed away, their courage faltering at the sight of him. With renewed confidence, William stepped out into the main dining room again, grinning inside his mask at the retreating children. He stood triumphantly in the circle of yellow light, dust particles floating slowly around him. The whispering had ceased, the clicking had stopped. They still feared him. He was still in charge.
William laughed. He threw his head back and laughed theatrically, fully embracing the role of the masked serial killer. The things in the dark feared him! He still saw the faces flickering in his periphery, cowering away. He took a lurching step towards them, intending to feint them, when something went wrong. He had stepped too heavily with his right leg and had shaken the spring locks out of place. A series of loud snaps echoed throughout the building, drowned out quickly by his screams. The internal parts of the entire right leg had snapped back into place, crushing and destroying his leg between them. He fell hard onto his left knee, causing much the same reaction again in that leg. Again, the spring locks snapped open and again, William screamed into the empty building. He looked up at the faces and saw only wicked smiles. They had fooled him.
Pain seared up his body like hot knives, and his now useless legs splayed out beneath him as he fell back into a sitting position, jolting the suit once again. But it didn't snap. Not just yet. William sat there on the floor, holding himself up with his arms behind him. His useless legs lay in front of him, dark blood pooling out from the joins. His blood. Only a few seconds ago, he was in perfect health. Now, in an instant caused by one simple mistake, he was permanently broken and would never walk again. He would never be able to undo it, the moment slipping further away with each second. His breathing heavy, he looked through the eyeholes out at the pale, small faces in the darkness. One of them looked fierce. It was the last victim, the boy Fritz. The one he has placed inside the old Foxy animatronic. The animatronic that was always twitchy. The animatronic that now lay before him in pieces with the others. Looking at his legs, the resemblance between himself and them was undeniable.
The boy, Fritz, suddenly leaped towards him, launching himself through the air with all of the rage of the others behind him. William could feel it. All of their pain. All of their anger. All of their sorrow for their families that they were stolen away from. And soon, he would feel exactly what they all had felt. But it would not be quick for him.
William raised his arms as the boy leaped at him and fell backwards onto the ground. That was his final mistake. As the torso struck the tiled ground, the jolt that ran through it shook the old, rusty locks. They sprung open, one after the other, and the internal parts of the old animatronic suit that Henry had one designed for him forced their way through his ribs and vital organs, locking themselves into their long-awaited proper positions. One after the other, he heard the dull, squelching snap and felt the hot stabs of the old metal parts as they ran their way up his sides. The nerve endings in his brain were aflame, searing behind his eyes as the air was forced out of his lungs and he could no longer scream. The arms of the suit followed the rest, snapping down from the shoulders to his hands.
Laying there in the dark empty building in the centre of the ceiling light, William waited in agony for the final locks to let go. The parts within the old rabbit head were still held back by their spring locks. As he lay there, his body broken and crushed, somewhere in his mind he was aware that his brain would survive for quite a few more minutes yet. He couldn't speak, he couldn't breathe. There were no lungs left for him to draw air into. All he could do was move his eyes, looking up into the ceiling light that was glaring down onto him. As his vision faded, the darkness of tunnel vision overcoming his perception, he saw the five faces creep over him. They were there for him for his final moment. They were his only witness. It was slow, and they relished in it.
William Afton died alone in the dark, crushed inside an old suit, not knowing if anyone would ever find him. The rage that had filled the children was fading and as they left, they were finally at peace. The franchise had crumbled. The restaurant was empty. The killer was dead. The score was even.