An Uncertain Future

It felt like Mike was in a painting of despair. Time didn't seem to move as he stood there, staring blankly at the water and blood-stained tiled floor. In the back of the room, Bonnie was still sitting there, wailing. Resting her left hand on his shoulder, Chica's eyes were closed. Though Mike couldn't tell exactly what she was thinking, he knew she was struggling to keep herself together.

Stepping around the desks carefully, Foxy kept his sad eye on the propped-up suits. He almost winced when he saw the eyeball hanging out from the one on the ground

All the while, Freddy hadn't moved an inch. Not even a small movement, such as a head turn or a hand gesture. Stone-faced and emotionless, the animatronic bear simply stared at the work he and his family had unknowingly done hours before.

Mike didn't want to look at the suits. Not again. Somehow, he had managed to keep his stomach from churning all the way through, but now that the adrenaline had run its course, the horrific stench of death made him quiver.

However much he did not want to, the night guard forced himself to look at the suit in the repair station. It stood there, dripping. Unlike the one by Mike's feet, the blood near it had mostly dried.

Then, as if a claw had come and shredded that still picture that was the horror they had discovered, Freddy spoke up.

"Open them." He said, almost monotone.

Eyes quickly darting to the bear, Mike froze like a deer caught in the headlights, "What?"

"Open them." The bear repeated, not moving his head to look at Mike.

Hesitation and dread were all that Mike felt. After all that had happened, in spite of Mike's original plan to open them in the first place, now all he wanted was to go home and try to forget what he had seen.

"Freddy," Mike started to say, "I'm not sure I…"

"Michael," Freddy finally turned to look at the guard and Mike was surprised to find trepidation, almost fear in the bear's eyes, "Please."

"It might be best if we just—"

"We need to know," Freddy answered, his eyes going back to the suits that had been used as murder weapons, "We need to know who we killed."

"But that won't make things easier," Mike insisted.

Turning to look at Mike fully, the night guard saw something in Freddy's eyes that he had not seen before. That he had not wanted to see.

Acceptance.

"No," Freddy agreed, "it won't. But we owe it to them. And we deserve to know if this means…"

Understanding what Freddy meant, Mike reluctantly nodded his head. Putting the mask back on and hoping it would repel the smell as much as possible, he crouched over the suit on the floor. Finding the opening to the seam on the chest, he gripped it.

After some struggling, he managed to get it open. Immediately, in spite of the blood that had soaked through, he recognised the jumpsuit. Laying where the heart would be had it not likely been sliced up, a crimson badge was pinned on the clothing.

After wiping it as best as he could, Mike read the name on it.

"Wilson Gustin," Mike read aloud, "I remember him. Saw him a couple of times."

"Tell us about him," Freddy asked kindly,

Although Mike did not know if he was serious or not, the plead in his eyes told him he was.

"I didn't know him too well," Mike admitted, "I saw him maybe three times? I think he was one of the janitors that would…clean up the place after a bad night. He was…in his fifties, maybe? Sixties? I'm not sure."

"Did he have a family?"

Closing his eyes, Mike tried to keep his answer steady, "Freddy, you're going down a dark road, here. It's already bad enough without you causing yourself more pain."

"Did he have a family?" The bear insisted.

"I don't know!" Mike snapped, before closing his eyes again, "I don't know."

Biting his lip, Mike looked at the other suit. Giving a nervous sigh, Mike stood up, dismayed to find his left leg soaked. Stepping over to the second suit, the night guard started going over the possibilities.

It's probably the day guard, Mike thought to himself, there's no way it could be him.

But in his heart, he knew it could only be one person. The signs of breaking and entering. The hat he had found. The glint of metal he had spotted near the hat that he'd dismissed, but looking back on it, it was clearly a gun.

It's gotta be Caine.

But Mike knew what that meant. As bad as it was, a day guard or a janitor dying was mostly the same thing as the many night guards that had met their ends. It would probably take a bit more effort and money to avoid it getting out, but somehow, it seemed that Fazbear Entertainment was filled to the brim with money.

But if it was Caine? A Police Detective, still working a case that was still hot? Mike knew what it meant. If it was, there would be no hiding it. No outrunning it. No escaping the tidal wave of swift retribution that would soon follow.

If Detective Caine was in that suit, they'd be done for within a week.

Gripping the suit's cavity opening, he struggled to pull it open. It was even tougher than the last one. He pulled more and more, but just as it was starting to irritate him, the left leg of the suit popped open.

Staring down at it, Mike blinked. It hadn't even been shut correctly.

Realizing that the other leg was the same, as well as the arms, Mike paused.

Tentatively, he reached not for the cavity's seam opening, but for the entire chest's opening. With a bit of a heave, he pulled it open and looked inside, stunned.

It was empty.

Empty!

Distorted aghast and in horror, Mike spun around the face the animatronics. How could he not have seen it? It was a trap!

But when he saw the looks on the animatronics' faces, he stopped and blinked. It was undeniable that they were just as shocked as he was to discover what lay within. Standing there, all like deer caught in headlights, none of them were able to pry their eyes away from the suit that stood there, blood-soaked but empty.

Looking back at the suit, Mike started to realize all of the little details he'd missed because of his panic and sorrow. Unlike the suit that lay on the ground, the one in the repair station had all the signs of disrepair that shouldn't be there.

There was a reason why the blood on the ground near It was dry. There wasn't a source for it.

Although the inside of the suit was coated in the thick, crimson layer, it was also far less bloody than it would be had the animatronics finished the job that they started.

Hesitant, Mike stepped closer to the suit. Gripping the head of the suit, he heaved it off. Merely making a metallic shriek, it came off without a problem.

"I…" Mike said quietly, "I don't understand. Why would the suit be closed like this?"

Though there was silence at first, Freddy spoke up, "Maybe afterward…when we were still doing…whatever we were doing, we might have put the suit back together."

Biting his lip, Mike turned to look at him, "But you don't remember any of that?"

"No," Freddy responded quickly, "Mike, you have to believe us. None of us can remember anything of today!"

Glancing between the corpse on the ground and the bloody suit in front of him, Mike didn't know what to say. None of this made any sense!

"At what point," Mike asked, "did you wake up?"

Freddy blinked, "What do you mean?"

"Like, at what time? Was it before or after I got here?"

"After," Freddy answered, "We can't remember anything from yesterday. Not even your shift last night."

Biting his lip again, Mike knew what that could mean. Somehow, when Caine had made his escape, something had happened to the animatronics to cause them to go haywire. What if that had something to do with it?

"After you four were shut down by that EMP thing," Mike asked carefully, "Was there anything…out of the ordinary?"

"Tha' be a no from me, lad." Foxy answered, facing away from Mike, "Apart from tonight o' course."

"Are you absolutely sure?" Mike pressed on,

"Yes," Freddy said, resolute.

Nodding, Mike pondered on that. Though it was maybe not what happened those weeks ago that caused all of this, could it have happened again? There must've been something that had set them off!

But what?

Giving an irritable sigh, Mike walked past Freddy and the others, around the tables in the backstage room and out the door. By the heavy, delayed footsteps, he could tell that they were following him.

"There has to be something," Mike gritted his teeth, "Something right in front of us. This shouldn't just happen. Almost two months of you four being yourselves, but then something like this happens out of the blue?"

Stopping, Freddy looked down, "I'm…I don't know what to tell you, Michael. We're just as perplexed as you are."

"It's not just what you guys did," Mike narrowed his eyes, "It's everything about the place. Not even today, with the break-in. The atmosphere, the hallucinations, that damn Golden Freddy—"

"Wait," Freddy cut in urgently, "what was that?"

Waving him off, Mike grew impatient, "I've been having hallucinations ever since I first worked here. It's nothing, you get used to it—"

"What sort of things have you seen?"

Scowling, Mike kept his eyes off the bear, "Posters disappearing and something else being there, news articles about some of the things that happened years ago here, and a yellow, older looking version of you that teleports into my office like a nightmare Christmas caroller."

At first the bear didn't respond, "Chica?"

Confused, Mike turned around to look at them, "What?"

"This 'Golden Freddy'," Chica asked, her eyes wide, "Has it been slumped over? Like it's empty? With no eyes?"

"Yeah," Mike answered, "With its head tilted to the side."

None of the animatronics said anything, leaving Mike to glance between them, bewildered. But then, like a cold knife between the ribs, it dawned on him what it meant and though he would've thought satisfaction would be what he felt, it was only terror.

"You guys have seen it before." He stated,

Though they didn't answer, the look in their eyes did so for them.

"Also," Chica spoke up again, "Bonnie found the Manager's office open earlier."

Instantly looking at the rabbit stunned, Mike found himself struggling to breathe, "You did?"

"Not open," Bonnie nervously spoke up, "Unlocked. Someone's been in there. I didn't think it would be important, so…"

"Garfield's been away for a week," Mike quietly said,

Looking at him, Freddy nodded, "Then I believe we know what our prowler's target was."

Nodding, Mike turned away from them, "Maybe they left something."

"You go investigate," Freddy called to him as he walked away, "we'll search for any clues."

"Will do," Mike called back, not wanting to look them in the eyes any longer,

"Good luck, lad." Foxy mumbled, just out of earshot.

In spite of everything that had happened, Mike's mind remained resolute on his goal. He knew that the last thing that would help him would be to question his actions. Perhaps if he had been honest with the animatronics from the start, this would have been easier.

Unfortunately, as he had learned in the short time since his return, there was no point in regrets. No reason to dwell on what ifs', or how he could have gone around things differently. None of it changed the fact that a man was dead and both his and the animatronics' heads had a platter with their names on it.

None of that mattered because all he could do was do what he thought was best.

Upon arriving at the manager's office, he was stunned to discover that Chica had spoken truly; the classic lock lay clicked on the door but wasn't securing it. Carefully, he pushed it open and found the state of Garfield's office to be askew.

At first, he wondered if Garfield was simply a messy man with a reservation to planning, but he was smart enough to know differently; someone had been ransacking the office.

Steadying his breathing, Mike walked over to the desk in the middle of the room, where a computer sat. The computer was online, the monitor's dim screen riddled with icons representing files and things Mike wasn't sure the meaning of.

Not sure exactly what he was doing, Mike started clicking the various files in hopes of finding something useful.

At one point, he found himself on up-to-date documents of each employee. He nervously clicked on his own file, searching through it and being both relieved but disappointed to find nothing significant on it. Not even a mention of the incident that got him fired back in November.

After some more searching, he found a file of a large size labeled 'Findings – Animatronic Activities'. Although he considered reading it in the hopes of learning something about the four that he didn't already, he decided against it.

Finally, he found a file that sent his nerves on edge. The name of the file was simple, but effective.

'Camera Recordings'

With no small, hesitated action, he clicked on it. Choosing the previous day's recordings, he was startled to find that the whole day was on file.

"How?" He found himself asking aloud. How was this possible? Even worse, just how many recordings were there?

Though he kept that day's recordings on his mind, he couldn't help but explore what else there was. He clicked on several of the files to find his worse fears confirmed. Footage of the animatronics moving. Footage of the quiet days and nights.

Footage clear as day of Mike, talking to the animatronics.

Biting his lip once more, he pondered on the exact meaning of this. Looking down, he saw something sticking out of the computer. A device, small and clearly not intended for the computer.

Though Mike wasn't an expert on technology, he knew what it meant. These files would usually be locked, which meant that whatever that little device was doing was unlocking those files.

That was when a thought occurred to him. If Garfield has video footage of every second of every minute of every hour…

Closing his eyes, he winced. How could he have been such a fool? Relenting on himself for a moment, he brooded on the deniable fact that he should have seen coming, but could never have been prepared for.

Garfield must have footage of Mike shooting the animatronics.

It explained the intrigued tone in the manager's voice when he talked about how the animatronics had become quiet ever since the shooting. He had known who was responsible since the start.

But why? Why hadn't Garfield pinned Mike to the crime? Instead, Garfield had covered for Mike, providing evidence to his story about the attempted robbery.

Why would Garfield protect the person who had tried to destroy his prized possessions, if not to either blackmail him or ruin his life?

Shaking his head, Mike pressed on back to the video footage from that day. Whatever the answer to that chilling question, he had a job to do.

Going through the day's recordings, he didn't find anything of notice. But after those nights of fighting off the animatronics with those very same cameras his weapon, he knew how to spot the things that didn't quite fit. There were footage loops and feed that simply wouldn't happen as commonly as it did.

That explained how they got in. Sneaking by and tampering with the cameras digitally to avoid getting caught.

At one point, a mechanical shriek almost made Mike jump in his seat. He heard yelling about the repair stations and through one of the hallway cameras, spotted the day guard hurrying through.

That was when the animatronics struck.

Through that frightening camera feed, Mike witnessed the animatronics systematically go after the four people in the building. Foxy jumped the day guard as he came out of the backstage room whilst Bonnie ambushed the janitor.

He saw Chica go to the manager's office, where she pulled a furious man out of the room. Mike recognized the voice from Caine's phone and deduced that it was Caine's partner, Carl.

Then he saw the detective himself, getting knocked unconscious by Freddy in the hallway.

Although what happened next horrified Mike, he knew he had to press on. He witnesses the janitor's grisly murder and saw Freddy getting ready to kill the day guard. He witnessed Caine stepping in and getting himself fast tracked to the killing conveyor belt.

Knowing that Caine's screams would stick in his head forever, Mike patiently watched through the footage.

Then, just as Caine started to grow quieter, a flash that visibly stunned the animatronics also fried the vision of the camera. Recognizing that flash from the night Caine escaped, Mike knew it was the same one.

He heard yells, Caine's name being shouted before the camera finally cut off. Knowing that Caine, in his broken state, couldn't have been responsible, Mike settled on the fact that Carl was the reason there wasn't a second body in that suit.

That doesn't mean anything though, Mike thought to himself, because what are the chances that he got Caine to a hospital in time?

Although he knew that the next step was to get up from that desk and tell the animatronics of his findings, he found himself reluctant to do so. This didn't really change anything; even in the unlikely scenario that Caine somehow managed to survive, his fate would mean the animatronics'—and potentially Mike's—would merely be days away from becoming terrible.

Leaning back in that chair, Mike closed his eyes. Whether he liked it or not, he knew that he should've taken Freddy's offer and ran for it. Even if he wasn't going to be a target for retribution, he had an inkling that he was going to get caught in the crossfire either way.

"Why did I come back here?" Mike found himself asking once again. It felt like he was asking himself that question a lot lately. He just never imagined it would be because of something like this.

Struggling to his feet, he knew that he had to be completely honest with the animatronics. It was the least they deserved. Whether or not Caine was laying on a hospital bed, dead or alive, the only thing that mattered was preparing for the worst.

The walk back to the dining hall seemed longer than usual. He found the animatronics huddled around near the stage, looking sorry for themselves. Noticing him entering, Freddy gave him a nod.

"I managed to find tape recordings," Mike said, his voice unusually flat, "including what happened yesterday."

Although Freddy seemed surprised and clearly wanted to inquire further, he stayed on topic, "What did you find?"

Breathing in steadily, Mike struggled to get the words out, "It was Caine. He and another guy snuck in."

If Mike had thought the animatronics couldn't look any glummer, he would've been proven wrong. Both Chica and Bonnie turned away, Foxy closed his one good eye, and Freddy steadied himself on the stage.

"Is he dead?" The bear asked,

Shaking his head, Mike responded, "I don't know. Probably. If it hadn't been for the guy he came in with, that wouldn't be debatable, but even then…"

Although he looked like he wanted nothing more than to remain ignorant, Freddy knew he couldn't afford to. "Tell me everything. From the beginning."

So Mike did. Monotonously, he started from when Caine and his partner had managed to sneak in—through Mike could only assume was the escape door—and were able to reach Garfield's office. How the day guard had gone to investigate the repair stations.

How the animatronics had, without warning, left their stages and attacked.

The atmosphere only grew worse as Mike explained how they systematically went after Caine, his partner, the Day Guard, and Wilson the Janitor. He explained how they dragged them off into the backstage room.

Although Mike had not planned to explain how they killed Wilson, he knew he had to. It seemed that the animatronics had either not truly understood how gruesome their killing method was, or perhaps they simply chose not to. He told them how Caine had forced them to kill him second over the day guard, a choice Mike still did not understand.

"I don't know if Caine survived," Mike recapped, not being able to look the animatronics in the eyes, "I mean, I don't even know if the other two survived. The whole system got rebooted and everything afterward was just…fuzzy."

Looking down, Freddy finally said something, "We have to hope for the best."

Not sure exactly how to say it, Mike chose his words carefully, "I don't think that's an option, Freddy. The thing with the interrogation was one thing, but even if Caine somehow lived through that…"

"Whoever sent him will be out for blood, I know," Freddy admitted, "but we have to hope for the best."

Foxy hadn't spoken a word, which was finally broken when he asked the question that was on all of their minds.

"Why? Why has this 'appened?"

Biting his lip, Mike wished he could do anything else than giving his answer, "I honestly don't know. Why now, when you guys have been fine ever since what happened months ago?"

"Maybe…" Bonnie spoke up, "Maybe it's because we knew someone had broken in? Maybe something was triggered?"

"That doesn't explain why we went after staff, though," Chica said miserably.

"None of it makes sense," Freddy gritted his teeth, "Something must be pulling the strings. Something has been manipulating us, making us out to be fooled."

"Whoever this landlubber be," Foxy snarled, "'e be gettin' what's coming!"

Mike blinked as he remembered what Caine had said in that recording.

Using these stupid things as puppets to play your game?

"He knew," Mike spoke aloud, shocked.

The animatronics looked at him, confused, but Mike kept going.

"He knew from the beginning," Mike continued, "that there was something larger at play here. A puppet master."

Freddy nodded, "Then he may be right. Someone has been playing a game with us. It's time we stopped being pawns and make our own rules."

"And how do we do that?" Chica asked, struggling to keep her voice from becoming snappy,

"Simple," Freddy said, "I say it was all me."

Narrowing his eyes, Mike stared at him, "What do you mean?"

"Our secret's out," Freddy explained, "and there's no avoiding the punishment. But that doesn't mean we all have to go down."

"Freddy," Mike said carefully, "I doubt offering yourself as a martyr will do us any good."

"You'll be doing no such thing," Chica chided, her eyes angry, "We're a family. We'll face this together."

Freddy turned to look at her, his eyes were sad but resolute, "Sorry. Not this time."

"Fazbear, if ya thinkin' yer doing this alone…"

"I am doing this alone."

"Freddy," Bonnie pleaded, "We can't lose you."

"I understand," Freddy responded, "But I will do whatever it takes to save this family."

"They'll kill you," Mike didn't know what else to say.

"Then it'll be a worthy cause," Freddy said mournfully, "Because I would rather it be me than any of you."

They all stared at him, anger and sorrow and worry all directed at him. But he stood there, resolute and vigilant.

"Any more objections?" Freddy asked, knowing the answer.

Well, this is it. Only one more chapter to go. It should be out by Friday.

TU4QU0I53T4IAN6L3: Whether or not he did indeed lose his life, this feels like the final nail in the coffin for Freddy and pals.

TheAmberShadow: Aye, the silver eyes are touching on when their eyes are dark and slightly reflective. It's also a nod to the first book, though I won't be touching on the book series for a long, long while.