Everyone looks like they're in their rooms tonight. Makes my job easier, I guess. Not that I have to babysit them or anything.

It's a little unusual, though. I know Monty loves to walk around at night, simply for the sake of walking around. Roxanne is more likely to be found in her room at the raceway than at the corridor everyone else is kept. If it were just one of these things, I wouldn't care, it's the combination of the two that starts to worry me. No one looks distressed or anything, so I doubt it's actually anything too important, but y'know..

I just started my first walk around the facility. The animatronic's corridor is pretty early on my list of places to walk through, so maybe it wouldn't be the worst idea to poke my head in.

No Trudge tonight. Turns out he stayed way later than I thought last night, and ended up hardly getting any sleep. He had more than enough energy for his shift, but it was pretty visible that he needed to go get some shut-eye before he loiters with the nightguard any more. It's actually for this reason Chica hasn't left her room yet; or that's my theory anyway. It's admittedly a little endearing to watch those two do stuff together. Chica's super friendly with everyone, it doesn't seem like Chica gives Trudge any kind of special attention at first until you watch her for a while and see that she might as well be Trudge's shadow.

The door to the corridor slides open, and I waltz on in. I decide Freddy would be the easiest one of the four to get a clear answer from, so to his room I march.

I've always been a fan of this corridor. It just looks nice. Has a pleasant atmosphere, even with the neon lights strung about from place to place. Somewhere you wouldn't mind doing homework in, y'know?

Man.. When's the last time I had to worry about something like homework? Turns out spending all your time undoing your father's work takes up quite a bit of your life.

I shake my head, trying to shake the thoughts out of my head. There's no reason for me to be thinking about these things anymore. Focus on what's happening now, instead.

The door to Freddy's room slides open as I approach. I simply stand in the doorway for a moment to make sure Freddy knows I'm coming in. He spins in his chair to look at the door, grinning ear to ear when he sees it's me.

"Micheal! What a pleasant surprise!"

"Hello, Freddy."

I take his positive reaction as permission to enter, so enter I do, taking a couple small steps and stopping a comfortable distance from Freddy himself.

"What brings you here with me tonight?" Freddy speaks to me like an old friend. He looks genuinely happy to see me, and genuinely interested in what I have to say. Everyone should have a Freddy in their lives.

"Did something happen today?" I say, trying to disguise my question as equally friendly conversation.

"Did something happen? What do you mean?" Freddy sounds actually confused. Makes me a little hopeful that I was just overthinking things back in the office.

"No one has left their rooms today."

"...Ah! And you thought that was because something bad happened?"

There we go. He's fully caught on now.

"Yeah."

"Thankfully, there were no problems during today's performance."

Freddy relaxes in his chair.

"However, today had just been.. Particularly slow. Now, not a lot of visitors come here during the middle of the week anyway, but today was especially dreary."

I nod, starting to understand where he's going with this, and letting my worry evaporate from my chest.

"We performed energetically, but the energy simply wasn't matched in the crowd. There were even a few cases where a callout from one of us went unanswered by the crowd, which is always a slightly akward moment for everyone." Freddy chuckles a little nervously, recalling the times where an attempt of psyching up the crowd had been met with total silence.

"So no, nothing was wrong today, the crew is simply feeling a little un-energetic after today's performances."

"Dissatisfied too, right?" I chime in, taking an educated guess.

"Well.. Yeah.. There was never a good opportunity to spend all of the energy we had saved up for the performance, it would be reasonable for the others to feel a little underwhelmed."

I nod in understanding, looking down to try and conjure up whatever emotions the animatronics might be feeling. Comforting someone with empathy is much easier than doing so with sympathy.

Freddy seems to catch on pretty quick, perking up in his chair, apparently giving him an idea.

"I know!"

I look back up to match his gaze. Freddy scoots his chair closer to put his hands on my shoulders.

"Micheal, can you do something for me?"

"Within.. reason.."

"Great! Here's what you should do-" Freddy pulls himself next to me and points at the door.

"Drop in the other member's rooms, and simply interact with them for a while. You don't even have to do much! They all know how little you tend to interact with others, so if they see you, of all people, walk into their room just to talk for a bit, it'll make them feel a lot more appreciated!"

I.. Don't really wanna do that..

Unfortunately, that logic makes sense. Surely Freddy is more familiar with the feeling that they're experiencing than I am, so any advice I recieve from him on the subject would likely be pretty accurate.

His logic is that I'm not exactly known for showing affection, so if I do, it'll mean more than it would if it were a regular person.

"Listen, I understand that you don't like talking very much, but I promise it would mean the world to them! Seeing you walk in here alone was enough for me to feel much better about myself. There's no doubt in my mind they would feel the same way."

I look down a little. It feels nice knowing I made Freddy feel better, but now I feel like an asshole since I only really visited to ask him what was going on in the first place.

"Alright."

"Thank you! Seriously, I will not forget this." Freddy returns to putting his hands on my shoulders. "And neither will they, I promise. Let me know how it goes-"

A confident grin appears as he slaps something on my wrist. "Using this!"

As you could probably guess, it was one of the Faz-Watches Freddy was likely working on. It looks just a tad bit bulkier than the rest, but more notably, it's monochromatic. I believe the intention was to go for a professional appearance, and he did a pretty good job making it look that way.

Freddy takes a couple steps back, proudly putting his fists on his hip like a superhero. I fidget with the device a little to make it comfortable, but make sure my body language implies that I'm still listening.

"I've been working on that one for weeks! You aren't gonna find a watch as cool as this one anywhere else." Freddy's chin is slightly liften. He must be wildly proud of this thing.

"What's it do?" I ask, pretty dumbly.

"Whatever you need it to do!" He responds, reasonably supplying a dumb question with an unhelpful answer.

Doesn't stop me from just staring at him in response.

"Well- if you must know, I built this one just for you! I put a lot of work into implanting as many features a nightguard could reasonably think to need."

Freddy leans in closer, and I hold my arm out to let him mess with the watch.

"For instance, you can use this to call anyone in the building who also has a fazwatch! It even tracks which FazWatch is currently being used by which person, so you can always get a hang of someone so long as they have ANY fazwatch on them!"

Freddy messes around in the menu, but doesn't actually call anybody. Thankfully, I think I can work the equivalent of a phone. I could see the contacts in the call list, it's already fully fleshed out with names. Only some of them are lit up, which appears to indicate that they are the only ones currently wearing/holding a fazwatch. At the very top of the list are all of the animatronics, all of which are lit up. Right below them is Trudge and my boss, who's named Arin.

Slight side note: Arin isn't the CEO, but he's very close with them. Arin is mostly business, so I very rarely ever actually need to speak with him unless something is wrong. Despite this, I know plenty well that Arin and the CEO are genuinely good, honest people. They were the first people I was suspicious of back when I first joined, and I tried finding ways they were linked to any of the events of the past, but once again, I simply didn't find anything.

"I was sure to include all the features of the regular fazwatch, of course. I did improve them where I could, though. The map is of much higher quality, and the cameras are accessible from anywhere in the facility."

That was pretty nice, actually. The original maps sucked ass.

"Along with that, however.. Take a closer look at where we are right now."

I look down and do as I'm told. The map is definitely much easier to navigate, which is something I'm gonna be eternally grateful for in the long run. I zoom in on Freddy's room. It sure is a rectangle.

"..You see it?" Freddy asks following my uncertain silence. I look back at him, not entirely sure what I'm supposed to be looking at. He just kinda stares back for a few seconds before he starts waving his arms around. No idea what in the hell was going on, but a barely audible blip coming from the watch alerted me.

There was a dot in the room, right around where Freddy was standing.

I quickly catch on, and start waving one of my arms around as well. Sure enough, a second dot appears. Meesa got a motion detector.

Seeing that I've figured it out, Freddy just chuckles.

"Good!" Freddy plops back down in his chair. "You'll see what else I've added as time goes on. Anyway!"

He gives me a solid pat on the back.

"Thank you for visiting, Micheal. Say hi to the rest of the gang for me!"

"Sure."

"Actually, don't. They might figure out that it was my plan all along. You get the idea."

"Sure."

"Goodbye, Micheal."

"Goodbye."

And with that, the door slides shut behind me.

Honestly, I'm still not the greatest fan of this idea, but I'm willing to admit that it is, objectively, a pretty solid plan.

I've suffered through worse than mild social interaction, though. I don't have a solid excuse not to go through with it either. So here I go.

Let's start with an easy one. Green Gator time.

The door slides open with noticeably more effort than Freddy's. Also making noticeably more noise. I wasn't exactly trying to sneak in, but I sure with my entrance wasn't this dramatic.

Of course, Monty was looking my way before the door was even able to open all the way. As soon as it does, I step in and give a small wave.

"Oh.. Hey Mike!" Monty almost yells. He was laying down on his couch when I entered, must have caught him off guard.

"Hello, Monty."

"Not everyday you need somethin' from the likes of this green guy! Ha! What brings you to my scrapyard?"

At this point, Monty had quickly gotten up from the couch, walked over to his chair which was laying haphazardly in the middle of his room. He stood with one foot on the chair, his arm resting on his raised leg.

"I just wanted to talk."

"You..Really?" That sure knocked the confidence out of him.

"Yeah. I just want to talk."

"Ahaha.. About.. what? Am I in trouble?" The gator scratches the back of his head and laughs slightly.

"No. Just wanted to talk."

"Huh.." He takes his foot down from off of the chair. Standing straight up and looking at me with slight concern. "No offense, but I didn't think you ever wanted to talk with 'anyone'. You sure this ain't something serious? I'm willing to lend ya a hand if you need one."

"Thanks, but I really am just here to talk for a little while."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you ain't the real Mike." He chuckled. "What are ya then, a mimic? Lookalike? Mike-a-like?"

I don't respond. Maybe this will progress the conversation onward.

Monty looks at me funny for a while, before a toothy grin finally escapes his clutches.

"Well then! I sure hope you know what you're getting yourself into, Mikalike!" He uses his foot to kick the chair towards me. I stop it's momentum, drag it closer to the couch where Monty looks like he's gonna sit, and finally sits in t he chair. "'Cause now you might be thinkin' that you wanna talk, but pretty soon all you're gonna wanna do is find a way to make me shut the heck up!"

Monty sits on the couch and faces me as if he's about to tell the worlds greatest pirate story.

And to his credit, over the course of about a half hour, he keeps me invested. He didn't really tell me a tale or anything, but simply talked about the million things he has going through his mind at once.

"How'd you end up convincing her?" I ask, sounding monotone, but I truly am pretty interested. I think Monty can tell, or he would have tried something else by now.

"HA! That's the trademarked Monty charm at work right there! All I had to do was sprinkle in a little sad backstory, and I had Chica believin' the El Chips was haunted for a week!" Monty roars in laughter, and I let myself grin every now and then. People would probably stop messing with Chica if she didn't keep falling for it every single time.

Over the course of 30 full seconds, Monty manages to get himself under control. Once he does, he leans back on his couch and looks at me lightheartedly

"Ready for me to shut up yet?"

"I don't mind talking."

"Ha! You might be the only kid who does-"

Pretty sure I'm older than him.

Monty stands up and takes the worlds most exaggerated stretch and sigh in existence before returning his gaze to me.

"Well. Now that you're in a better mood, ready to tell me what you came here for yet?" Monty playfully jabs at me. Didn't we already have this talk?

"Monty-."

"Heeere it comes."

"I understand that I'm not very social. You were right to assume that I don't typically spend my time having conversations with people."

I flash him a lazy grin.

"But I really did come here just to talk with you for a while. I promise, there's nothing else to it."

Monty's cocky grin fades from his face, replaced by moderate disbelief. Frankly, he's entirely correct to think I wouldn't come here on my own without a reason, but there also truly isn't anything wrong. I did come here with the sole intention of talking to him.

"W-well.. Aha.." Monty looks flustered knowing that I genuinely came to talk to him.

"Am I, uh.. You really came here just for me?"

"Yes."

"Man- you gotta warn me next time you do somethin' like this!"

"Sorry, I will."

"D'aww, c'mere you!" Before I can comprehend what's going on, Monty's wrapped me in a giant bear hug. After managing to get some air back in my lungs, I awkwardly try to hug him back.

"Truth be told- I was havin' a rough day today." Monty finally releases me.

"Wasn't feelin' myself, y'know? Felt like I didn't do a great job, and wasn't feelin' very loved. You coming in to talk with this green gator was the greatest thing to have happen to me all week."

"I'm happy I could help."

"Ha! I'm happy you could, too! Now-"

Monty leans down a little. Cocky grin returning.

"If I had to guess, you haven't finished all 'yer nightly duties for tonight, is that right?"

"That's right."

"Well, you don't need to worry about this guy anymore! Feel free to drop in anytime, Mikalike, and we'll talk s'more. But now, you needa get off your lazy bum and do what you're gettin' paid to do!" I nod, before rapidly being ushered out of the room.

"Now go on. 'git!"

The coercing doesn't stop until I'm fully out the door, I turn my head enough to look at him one last time.

"But seriously! Drop by anytime! My doors always open!"

And then the door slammed shut.

All things considered, I think that went pretty well. Monty and I didn't talk much, but it's nice to know that I think our relationship improved a bit today. Sounded like a bromance there at the end.

I walk to the center of the corridor and take a second to breathe. That was the most I've sat and talked to one person in as long as I can remember. I'd be lying if I wasn't a little fatigued. Hopefully it shouldn't take as long to successfully talk Chica out of her 'depression'.

That thought is kinda weird, actually. They just had a bad day. The thought of having a bad day at work seems so exclusively human, that the animatronics being a little under the weather due to a bad day at work was just.. Too normal for this 'wacky group of characters'.

I'm not an idiot. I've noticed how real the animatronics are. There's simply no way around the fact that they are fully sentient and self aware. I don't know how, I don't know why, but I know that there genuinely aren't any kind of spirits involved. I'd find this a lot weirder if I hadn't seen so many things in my life that were worse, and far less believable.

I prepare myself mentally, and head for Chica's door. Bright pink and hard to miss. Smells unusually.. smell..

The door slides open with almost zero resistance, in contrast to Monty's. In my field of view I can see Chica sitting politely on her bed. She hasn't noticed me, despite facing generally in my direction. She looks very deep in thought, reflective is the closest word I can apply to it. It's hard to determine what she's feeling, since her face looks no different than it does every other time I see her.

I look around for a way to make myself known without scaring her or something, eventually settling with knocking on the wall.

Unsurprisingly, this knocks Chica out of her trance. She shakes herself back awake.

"Come in!" She cheeps quickly before looking up and realizing that I'm already a good few steps in the room.

"Oh! Mike?"

"Hello."

"Hiya! What are you doing here?" She positions herself to stand up from the bed the moment she decides she needs to.

"Just wanted to talk for a little while."

"Mhm! About what?"

"Anything."

"Alright!" Chica subtly flaps her wings "We can talk! Lets see.."

"Did Trudge get himself into any trouble today?" That oughta get her talking.

"Nope!" She beams. "He was working super hard today!"

That probably just means he didn't actively perturb any of the other staff for the duration of the day.

"How so?"

"Oh- Trudge took a lost kid to security and found his parents! He was so cool!" Chica sounds like she's talking about a superhero. Admittedly, that's a pretty good thing for Trudge to do.

"I don't remember hearing the intercom go off today. How'd he find the kids parents?"

"He took the kid on his shoulders!"

"..Where?"

"Everywhere!"

Uh oh.

"So he was like.. Looking for them? With his eyes?"

"Yeah! How else do you look for things, dummy?"

"I thought you said he went to security?"

"Yep! After half an hour of looking I remembered that sometimes the parents go to security, so we went there next! Pretty smart, huh?" Chica flaps her arms around, expecting praise.

"..Y..Yeah. Good thinking."

She just giggles in response.

"OOH!" Chica jumps up and flares out of nowhere, immediately going silent again.

"...What?"

"Igottashowyousomething!" She excitedly brushes past me to get to her desk.

Tired of standing, I walk backwards until I hit the couch and flop down. Never taking my eyes off Chica, not wanting to miss whatever she's frantically looking for in that desk drawer of hers.

"Aha!" She lifts a slightly crumpled piece of paper in the air, before nearly tripping herself to get over to me.

"So I've been making something to uh! I've been.."

Chica's excitement quickly dissolves in place of embarrassment, cheeks slightly reddening.

"I've been making something that I wanna give to Trudge.. I dunno what he likes though, so I thought I should check with you before I give it to him." She holds the paper close to herself, trying not to let me see it until she decides its time.

"Check with me?"

"Yeah! You and Trudge are more than friends! Like super-friends! Right?"

"I..Guess so." Not nearly as much compared to you, Chica-chi.

"So you must know if he'll like it or not, right?"

"I'll answer to the best of my ability."

"Great, thank you.."

Taking a second to get over herself, she flips the paper over and shoves it in front of me. As I was about to guess, it was a drawing. A mildly crude one, but I don't know how much drawing practice these animatronics get. If I had to guess: Zero. It was, of course, a picture of Chica and Tru-

...It was a picture of ME and Trudge. Standing on a hill on a sunny day, flowers all around, a house in the background.

What?

"D..Do you not like it?" Chica mutters, sounding heartbroken at my confusion.

"No- It's great! I'm just.. Is that me?"

"Well, yeah. You and him are super-friends..?"

"What about you?"

"What do you mean?" She lowers the paper a little to maintain eye contact with me.

"You're also.. Super-friends with him, right?"

"W-What!?" Chica visibly jumps.

"..What?"

"N-no! I just like following him around, I don't think he likes me too much. I'm just someone to talk during the day!"

"...What?"

"I mean- I would like to be super-friends, but he wouldn't wanna, y'know?

"Chica."

"W-What?"

"Draw yourself on that paper."

"No!" She hugs the paper again, turning her body away to defend the paper from me. "He wouldn't like it!"

"Why do you think he wouldn't want to be friends with you?"

"We are friends! Just not super ones!"

"Why not?"

"I-I could never." Chica's face is crimson. Why doesn't she think he would want to be good friends with her?

"I-I'm an animatronic! That would be gross!"

"..What?"

I think she's off in a world of her own by now, but that doesn't make me any less determined to get an answer out of her.

"Y-yknow! When super-friends.. K-Kiss and.." She fails to finish the rest of the sentence.

"...What?"

Oh wait.

Oh wait.

Wait.

"W-wait, what do you think super friends are?"

"H-huh?"

The two of us standing by a house together.

Being 'more than friends'

Uh oh.

"W-when two people really like-"

Absolutely, positively not.

"Absolutely, positively not!" This time it's my turn to jump out of my chair.

"Huh?" Chica recedes in response.

"Trudge and I are not in a relationship!"

"What do you mean?"

"You think we're dating?"

"T-that's something super-friends do!"

"No it is not!" I plop back down on the couch, exasperated.

"Neither of us are dating anyone.."

Chica takes a while to respond to this.

"He's not..?"

"..No, he's not."

"Wait- but you and him are always walking around together!"

"That's just how he is. He's walking around with you way more than he is with me."

"..S-so he's not dating anyone?"

"No, he isn't."

It takes a few seconds to register, but I know it does when I see her tail start to waggle.

"So you and Trudge are just friends?"

"Yes, just like you."

"J-just like me?"

"Pretty sure you're a better friend to him than I am, actually."

"I am?"

"Yeah."

"...S-so should I draw myself on this paper?"

I had almost forgotten about that thing, actually.

"Yes."

"Will he like it?"

"He'd love it."

I can see the energy return to her circuits, eyes beaming like they were before. It doesn't take long before she's practically jumping up and down and scrambling to find her crayons.

I sit there and watch her for a while, I can't help but snicker just a little bit. Never in a million years could I have foreseen this situation.

She freezes for a moment as if remembering something, before borderline tackling me in a hug.

"Thank you!"

"Y-you're w-"

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" She babbles, still jumping up and down with me in her arms.

She quickly releases me and gives me one giant smile bright enough to light the block before returning to her desk with a newfound fire in her eyes.

I catch my breath, and take this as my opportunity to leave while she's preoccupied. I don't think she'll be very talkative until she finishes that drawing. Nonetheless, I make sure to be as quiet as possible exiting the door. Thank god her door makes effectively zero noise.

A sigh could never do what came out of my lungs justice.

It was great that we talked. I had fun. We also cleared up a big misconception. But man, its just a lot. I was right thinking that I would have to talk to Chica for considerably less time, but I failed to remember that talking to Chica is a high effort activity.

Thankfully, I think she's in way better spirits, which is what I came there to do anyway, so I guess I can call it a complete success.

I stand around for a few seconds, enjoying the peace. It's peaceful in here. I'd never be able to explain it fully, but it's truly relaxing. I kick the rug around a little bit, admire the neon lights littered around the place, listen to the sound of the soft music emanating from a room somewhere in the distance.

Freddy was right.

This was a good idea, for everyone involved. The animatronics are feeling better, I'm feeling better, tonight was just a good night.

However. I've saved the best for last.

I stand in front of Roxanne's door, which is all littered with various prop-car parts. It's one of the more well-decorated ones, which is a theme for her. She has a vibrant personality, one that you could easily get fascinated with, and one that she takes no shame in. However, she isn't perfect.. No one is, I suppose.

I know I'm not.

The door slides open with a slightly different sound effect, resembling much like a steampunk-pressure release rather than the standard futuristic 'shhh'. I catch a glimpse of Roxanne in her room before she cognitively recognizes the sound the door made. She was sitting in her desk, staring in her mirror, her head resting on her arms. She looked miserable, honestly, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. What people think of her means so much more to her than it might for the other members of the gang. So while a failed call-return attempt at the crowd would be awkward for one of the gang, it could be devastating for Roxanne. I don't think this personality trait is a flaw, however. So when I see her looking like this, I do genuinely feel a little sorry for her. I cannot imagine this sorrow will be received very well in the near future, however.

Roxanne lifts herself up quickly and turns her head in my direction. Scoffing and rising out of her chair quickly when she sees who's already invited themselves in.

"Micheal!"

"Hello, Roxanne."

"What are you doing in my room? Get out!"

"Can we talk for a little while?"

"Ugh! What do you need from me now?"

Now? I don't need anything from you, ever.

"I don't need anything."

"Why else would you be in here, dumbass?" She folds her arms and glares at me with contempt.

"I just want to talk."

"About WHAT?"

"Anything?"

Roxanne takes a second to register this, and she is not happy once she does.

"You're telling me you came in here to talk with me, just to talk?"

"Yeah."

"Bullshit, Micheal! What the fuck do you want?"

I clearly chose a bad time. Not that any other time would have prevented her from getting angry at me, but she is borderline screaming at me already.

"Listen, I heard that you guys had a bad day today-"

"Oh FUCK you!" She slams her hand on her desk. "And what? You're gonna make it all better? Think you're gonna convince me it wasn't all bad, that there's always next time?"

I stop talking, and just look at her. I've begun to realize that the only way I might be able to get any part of Roxanne to calm down is to let her blow off steam.

"Micheal, it's like I wasn't even there! It's like I was a damn ghost! I try, Micheal! You might not be familiar with the feeling, but I have to try to get people to like me! It's the only thing I do!"

She marches up to me, kicking the chair out of the way.

"Yes, today was bad, but what the fuck did you think was gonna happen when you walked in that door? Think you could make my day anything but worse? That I'm so desperate for attention that I would take any kind of pride from being acknowledged by a corpse?"

She stops a few feet short of me.

"What do you want, Micheal?"

"I just want to talk for a couple-"

"MIKE! Fuck!" She tenses up like a rebellious teenage girl.

"Why do you think I would want to talk to you?"

"..."

"Speak up, corpse!"

"..."

"God!"

She throws her arms in the air and starts walking in the other direction, before quickly turning around and walking back towards me with a finger pointed.

"You're a curse, you know that?"

"A curse?"

"Yes!"

She hits her chair. The thing is heavily cushioned and soft, though, so I don't think she got the kind of impact she wanted.

"You're like the ghost of some bastard kid! You're always floating around when no one else is! You always show up at the WORST times, EVER!"

From the sound of it, it's starting to sound like she blames me for how poorly the day went.

"Night is my peaceful time, Micheal! How do you think I feel every time I think I have a moment to myself when nobody but the purple boy walks in? You're the WORST!"

It sounds like she's about to cry.

"Everyone's always talking about you! Talking about how 'cool' and 'mysterious' you are! They don't know how you really are, though, do they? You're a goddamn parasite! You stay for most of the day and throughout the entire night? You sleep here too, freak? I'm sure the staff would LOVE to designate a bedroom for you! FUCK!"

What on gods green earth is she talking about anymore? No one else ever sees me, ever.

"But 'you'! You're the icing on the cake.."

The pokes me in the chest, rather intensely, before turning back around, exasperated.

"You're so damn unresponsive! You know how wildly difficult it is to get an answer out of you sometimes? To make you DO something? Really easy! Except when it's ME!"

"When it's..?"

"ME! Micheal!"

She was screaming, at the top of her lungs.

"What is it about me? How is it you're such a disgusting 'yes' man to everyone EXCEPT me!? Someone tells you to walk, you walk, unless it's me! Someone tells you to leave, you leave! But not for fucking. ME!"

"I..I didn't know-"

"SHUT UP!"

-whap-

Ow.

When Roxanne turned back around to face me, she lashed out and backhanded me to the side of the cheek. It wasn't very hard, though. Not nearly all of her strength, which I'm sure was intentional, but for some reason it hurt somethin' spicy. I don't respond, just continue to look at her.

"Of course you didn't know! You don't care! I'm just some annoying wolf to you, right? That one part of the cast that you try to steer clear of? And then when the day comes, I walk out on that stage and get COMPLETELY ignored! What the hell is wrong with you? Why won't you leave me alone for just ONCE in your tiny.. l-little.."

Blood was running down my cheek, and dripping off my chin.

Claws.

Thats right, Roxanne has claws, authentic too, solid metal.

I rub my cheek, but it doesn't do much. Only ends up coating that part of my hand in a good amount of blood.

"M-Micheal, you n-need.. Y-your face is-"

Roxanne looks absolutely horrified. I quickly cover the wound with my palm.

"It's ok, it's fine. You didn't mean to."

She fidgets, I look around the room, only to decide that nothing in her room is worth dirtying with my blood. Best course of action would be to jog to the nearest bathroom.

"I-I.. Y-you're so..!"

Roxanne's words are getting caught in her throat, flabbergasted that I'm not lashing back out at her. She's caught between wanting to continue being furious with me and wanting to apologize.

"I'll be alright. I'm going to run to the bathroom to clean up, though."

I turn to walk away. I can hear her mumble behind me.

"..W-wait! I'm sorry, ok!?"

I continue to walk.

"I-I said I'm sorry! Say something!."

"It's alright, It was an accident."

I make it to the door, not wasting any time setting my course to the bathroom. Dripping blood everywhere would really suck, for lots of reasons. I hear Roxanne call out to me one last time.

"Don-.. Don't come back here! I want to be alone tonight!" She calls out, trying to summon her anger one last time.

"Got it."

And with that, I hear the door slide to a close behind me.

Well.. Shit. That wasn't how that was supposed to go.

I thought I had a good idea there, to just let her scream at me for a while. Eventually she'd feel better, right? Hell, maybe she would've if it weren't for what just happened.

What.. What was she talking about back there? The day crew talk about me? I was sure none of them thought I even existed. I don't think I've ever been called 'cool' my entire life; especially not after being turned into this repulsive abomination. Maybe she was just making up reasons to be mad at me, to give her an excuse to keep yelling, but I don't know. I don't think I've ever seen her lie about anything before.

Not really sure what I think about that, to be honest.

I make it to the bathroom before a minute passes. I know I did a pretty good job of preventing my blood from getting anywhere, but I know I let a couple drops drip. I've probably gotta clean that.

I take extra caution when it came to cleaning my wound. It wasn't as bad as it looked. Everything located on the head has a tendency to bleed way worse than it needs to.

I don't really know what I'm gonna wrap it with. Maybe I can jog to a first aid station somewhere, slap some bandages on this bad boy. Oughta make a sick scar.

Oh- shit.. Will this scar?

I can't believe I've managed to return to such a normal life that questions like these hold any importance to me.

-ring-

Oh, right. Freddy.

*click*

"Micheal! How's the gang?"

"They're all doing better than they were."

"Yes! I was hoping you would say that!"

I can see Freddy pump a fist in the air. In fact, that's the first thing I saw before I realized that the watch provides video feed of the caller.

"Thank you Micheal, truly. It means a lot to hear you say that."

"I enjoyed it too. Thank you for the suggestion."

"You're welcome. Now! I won't hold you any longer, I know you need to get- Micheal!?"

Dammit, I really tried to hide it in time.

"It's alright-"

"It is not alright! What happened to your face?"

I fail to think of an excuse before Freddy reaches his own conclusion.

"Roxanne.. This is unacceptable. I will-"

"It was an accident, Freddy."

"There is no excuse for what she's done to you. You went there to try and help make her feel better, and she responded by-"

"It's alright Fred-"

"It is not alright! I understand that you and her do not get along, but I will not condone violence within our staff!"

"It was my fault, Freddy."

"How?" He huffed impatiently. I could hear him stomping around his room, getting ready to confront Roxanne. I cannot let him do that. Roxanne asked to be left alone.

"I was too close to her when she turned around. She really did not mean to hurt me. She even apologized."

That was mostly true. She did mean to hit me, though, but it was for effect, rather than actually trying to injure me.

I hear Freddy sit back down with a sigh.

"Are you sure you're alright, Micheal?"

"Yes."

"Then so be it.. If you insist on defending her this fervently, then it must be for a reason."

"Thank you, Freddy."

The rest of the night doesn't hold any other new surprises. I get a bandage on my face, just big enough to cover all of the scars. I'm sure people will ask, but I can just say I had an accident, and that'll be the end of it. I had to cover up the entire wound to the best of my ability, however. If anyone saw the shape of the scar, it would incriminate Roxanne pretty quickly. It's no secret that the two of us had never gotten along, but if they saw my scar they may think it's much more serious than it actually is.

I do my rounds, I see the other animatronics once or twice while I run amok, everything's in order like it always is, and everything is ready to go for tomorrow's performance.

I return to my security room, pull out the trusty laptop, and get to work.