Evan gripped his shirt, still shaking. "Mikey?"
Michael looked over at the door. Most of his view was obscured by the table and the chairs. The sun hadn't even begun to set and he was already home.
But he left his keys. He couldn't get in. Michael had to keep him out for as long as he could. However, it couldn't look purposeful. Michael had to think ahead.
"There's a burglar."
Evan looked at him, confused. "Burger?"
"Burglar," Mike repeated. He moved closer to the ground, arms poised and fingers sprawled over some of the kitchen tiles. "A criminal. A bad man. He wants to get inside the house, and we can't let him."
"Why does he want inside?" Evan asked.
"Because he wants to hurt us like he hurt the children," Mike answered.
"Why does he want to hurt us?"
"Because he can," Mike said. "And because no one knows how to stop him."
"Are you going to try?"
He looked down at Evan. At this moment, Michael thought he was back at the hospital. Both of them again being stuck in that void of a room. There was a distant gaze in Evan's look, as if he was seeing something that only he could see. Michael knew he could.
"Yes."
Another knock on the door dragged Michael to where he was. He was, like a damned fool, still under the table. The next knock that followed was hard, demanding and almost frantic. Goosebumps trailed all over his skin as he shimmied his way out of that confining alcove. Evan followed close behind, still slightly dazed but otherwise also back to the present. The two boys silently made their way over to the front door, feet gliding across the floor. There was this odd moment between them where they just looked at each other.
On the outside, the doorbell was pressed. A sweet chime echoed through the quiet.
Neither Michael or Evan said a word or allowed a sound to escape from their lips. One hung over in the corner by the door hinges, and the other by the glass paned window. A moment of feet shuffling was the only sound. Michael heard that chilling accented voice curse.
Afton knocked on the door again. "Michael!" yelled the voice. He knew Mike was home since he was the only one who locked the front door.
Evan inched closer, hands reaching up to look through the looking hole. He was too short, and slowly Evan lowered himself back down flat on his feet. He looked at the knob.
Michael really didn't want him to let Afton inside. At the same time, he didn't want to speak.
Afton pounded at the door. A few seconds later, Evan knocked back. Silence stretched out.
"Michael?"
Evan looked at his brother, but Mike shook his head. He turned back to the door.
The knob rattled, being fiddled with from the outside. Both the boys went stiff. If they had expected the door to open or the locked door to unlock, it didn't. Michael moved closer to the door, loomed over Evan, and with a shaking hand, tugged the deadbolt into its latch. He barely heard the metal softly click into place. Evan looked at him, eyes a pool of worry.
The knob rattled again. "Open the door!"
"Daddy?" Evan whispered, face so close to the door now.
"Evan." Michael didn't care to try and decipher the tone behind Afton's voice. "Evan, is Michael home?"
"No."
Evan looked at Michael again. He looked instantly regretful for lying. Hopefully he knew why it was for a good reason.
This was one of the few opportunities he had. It was time to take it.
"Do you know how to unlock the door Evan?"
"No sir," Evan replied. That was the truth.
Afton sighed. A temporary recall. "Come here child." Evan obeyed much to Michael's disdain. Afton continued, "My key- I left it inside. It's in the bedroom, and I need you to bring it to me. Can you do that?"
Evan turned his head. The sweet and patient way of Afton's words left Mike feeling sick. But he nodded to his younger brother nonetheless.
"Okay," Evan said. "Okay, but I'm not very good at finding things yet."
"Just try."
Evan nodded. "Okay, I'll try."
Mike gently pulled Evan away from the door. They moved into the hallway, which was far enough for them to talk without being overhead. Mike glanced past the wall, sinking back into the shadows. A mental clock ticked in Mike's head, telling him of the undefined amount of time he had.
Evan stood next to him, touching his arm. "Mikey? Mikey, what are we going to do?"
He thought. He questioned if what he was doing was what he should be doing. Michael knew what he had to do, but at the same time he was searching, blinded in the dark. Grasping at straws, they would always say. Empty, random straws.
Sometimes he would get lucky. The straws may be random, but Michael was required to think on his feet.
"I need to get his keys so I can search his office," he said. "If there's something about the children, it's bound to be there." Michael faced Evan. "I'm going to need you to be my eyes and make sure he doesn't find a way inside, okay?"
Evan nodded, suddenly looking so determined. He left Michael in the hall and ran down out of sight. Little footsteps patted around the kitchen as Evan went around, closing the curtains first in that area. Mike didn't stay long enough to watch him secure the place.
Michael didn't know how to feel about reliving the experience of the decorated hallway. The hand drawn family portrait was passed without a second glance. Ignored. He trailed his hands against the bumpy texture of the walls. At the end was a pair of twin doors. The entrance to the forbidden master bedroom.
When he was still a single child, Michael was taught never to end mom and dad's room unless told to. It was a strongly enforced rule. Well, it was. When there were three kids roaming the house, keeping that rule enforced was the least of anyone's concerns. Making sure babies didn't eat anything they weren't supposed to was much more important. But, sometimes when nobody was paying attention. Michael would sneak in there for a moment of peace and quiet.
All these memories liked to taunt him at moments like this. He opened the door, thankfully unlocked, and slid inside the room. The smell of pleasant florals hung in the air, stale and fake. The bed was gently made without a single wrinkle in the sheets. It felt unnaturally cold in the room, boarding more and more to the uncomfortable the more Michael walked about.
He worked around the top of the drawer placed by Afton's side of their parents' bed. There was nothing but the lamp and a bottle full of vitamins. He took a short interest in the bottle before turning back to the task at hand. Next was the first drawer down. Michael opened it perhaps a bit too harshly. The insides clattered together all at once.
More bottles. And empty. And all for something different. Down at the bottom, there was a plastic bag full of something pink and- oh lord- it was moving!
Mike quickly shut that drawer, feeling sick to his stomach. He scrambled to open the next. Anxiety was pouring through his system, elevating his heart rate. The ebating was a consistent drum in his ears. He could practically hear the seconds tick by. His precious time…
The second drawer was a deep old promise. A singular chain of keys resided out in the open. Mike picked it up with a shaky hand. Then he was out of the room. Within seconds he found himself standing in front of that forbidden office door. He plunged the keys one by one into the lock, hungry for the right one. Eventually one of them turned, unlike the others, and allowed Michael entrance.
The office was clean and ordinary looking, but it stunk of awful secrets. Evil secrets. Secrets that all cried out to Michael. Everything was tainted with an invisible veil of evil. The desk caught his eye. And so did that computer.
If Afton was more careful, Michael wouldn't have been able to see everything on that screen. Notes of designs and codes of those robots meant nothing to him. He clicked away the opened tabs that made him feel dumb. Decoding mysterious code wasn't important at that moment. Some designs for the robots made him sick. There was a note in one of the designs to count children? Mike quickly closed that out before his brain could drool all over that stupid little statement.
Suddenly, his closing tabs stopped. He found what he was searching for. And the truth not only answered some questions, but it also opened up more questions.
He could see Evan run past the screen through the eyes of a camera.
A camera is always close to his brother.
The camera was placed inside that damned Fredbear doll. It was to watch Evan. To watch Michael. To watch their entire family.
In a wave of anger, Michael shut down the camera from the source. He deleted all the past recordings, stopped the current recording. Then his attention went back to the notes and designs that previously filled the screen. He deleted all of those too, then went into the settings of the computer. This would all put him into deep shit later, but there was always time to craft a clever story. A lie. And would it be bad to lie and protect himself from a murderer?
With just one click, the computer completely reset.
Michael left before the screen turned completely black. He ran down the hall, feeling absolutely terrified at the same time full of resolve. So many things started to make sense. The strange little glimpses of light that flickered in Fredbear's eyes was a camera. Nothing but a camera. And Afton was watching everyone for some reason. And for quite some time as well.
Mike paused in the hallway, a tempted thought dawning on him. He backtracked a bit, then entered the garage. Near the door was the generator. This plan was simple; turn off the power to cover his tracks. It wasn't unnatural that electronics would completely reset thanks to failed generators, right?
The power in the garage lights flickered off once Mike killed the generator. Powering it back on, he smiled smugly to himself.