Finally I have finished my electromagnetic induction presentation. Joy. Enjoy the chapter. Also, I made a short film about this story and posted it on Youtube. The instructions for how to get to it are at the end of the chapter, but you should probably finish the chapter before you watch it.

The game had been fun. Mike had enjoyed the thrilling precursor to the final destruction of his former victims. But now the time for teasing and games was over. It was time to finish the work that he had started years ago. The last remnants of those old days would soon be gone, and then he could finally move on to newer blood. Smiling to himself, he watched the last employee leave. The combatants were alone together, just a murderer and his former victims and the task that each of them would not rest until it was accomplished.

Brian made his way down the hall. He was going to block out whatever Mike said to him. He had to stay at the door. He had to make sure the power ran out. He had to get into that office. Counting to ten for courage, the robotic bear turned the corner.

The door didn't close. Henry was alone in the office, facing away from Brian. He turned when he heard the bear's heavy footsteps plod up. "Brian!" he greeted the newcomer. "Mike… he just walked out. I don't know why, but he just opened the door and walked out."

"That's great!" Brian grinned. "There aren't any lockable doors except here in the office, so we can get him now!"

"I guess," Henry wrung his hands, "but isn't it kind of strange that he would leave the safest place in the building?"

"He's stupid, then. Freddy's much stronger than him; I'm sure of that. I'm going to…" He paused to gather his resolve. "I'm going to stop him," he stated, determined. Henry gave an uncertain nod but did not attempt to deter the boy any further.

The murderer was walking around the building, as calm as if he was merely taking an afternoon stroll in the park. He didn't seem to notice that a certain animatronic bear was stalking him in the shadows, gathering up his courage for what he was about to do. Undisturbed, Mike continued on his merry way, Brian following a short distance behind. They were just a boy and his target, one evading the other. But perhaps the target wasn't the only one being hunted. Perhaps he wasn't aimlessly walking around the pizzeria, but instead leading his stalker somewhere. The longer this cat and mouse follow and lead game went on, the more uneasy Brian became. Just get it over with and run up and attack him, he told himself, but every time he got close all he could think of was how it must feel to snap somebody's neck. Would there be a lot of blood? Screaming? Fighting back? He was wishing more and more that he hadn't decided to do this by himself.

Mike was walking straight towards a wall. He would have to turn around soon, and then the face off couldn't be delayed any more. Calm as ever, Mike reached the wall… and stepped right through it.

Brian stopped in surprise. He was accustomed to his friends flying in and out of walls - why, he himself did that several times a day. But Mike wasn't a ghost. How could he have just walked through a wall as if it was no more of an obstacle than the air around him? Confused, Brian relinquished his control of Freddy to follow the murderer.

There was a hole in the wall. Brian's eyes widened. Somebody had smashed through the flimsy fake wall and created an entryway to the sealed off room where Fredbear and the Marionette had so recently resided. The hole hadn't been there yesterday or even at the beginning of this night; it must have been made very recently. Who had made it and why they had decided to knock down a portion of the wall were mysteries. Taking control of Freddy again, Brian was shocked to see that the hole had disappeared. Where there had been an entryway to the sealed off room moments before, there was now only a solid wall. A solid wall, and Mike running through it with a raised crowbar. Brian didn't even have a chance to defend himself before Freddy was destroyed.

All noise seemed to momentarily cease to exist. There was nothing to disturb the little ghost boy as he crumpled to the ground beside the fallen bear, a friend to all children now reduced to a lump of bolts and wires and sheets of metal dented beyond repair. Brian felt as if he had just been killed a second time, as quickly and suddenly and harshly as the first. Freddy was gone, and now Brian had no way to stop his murderer. Blinking slowly, a stream of ghostly tears wet each of his cheeks as the reality of what had just happened settled in.

Suzy knew that she had to go to the office. Everything depended on stopping the killer once and for all. Suzy didn't want him to hurt more people and she wanted to be able to finally leave the pizzeria and move on, but she also didn't want to have to be the one to kill him. This was something she had to do, however, and she knew that she couldn't shy away from it.

The purple rabbit's ears perked up in surprise when the very person who Suzy was searching for strolled by right in front of her. Here he was, outside the safety of the office and seemingly defenseless. There could be no more perfect time to accomplish the task she needed to complete. Closing her eyes and counting to ten, she readied herself for the kill. By the time she opened them, Mike was rounding the corner to the next room. Suzy followed him.

Just a few more steps and she would catch up to him. Stop. She couldn't kill somebody! But she had to. Follow. Just a few more steps. Stop. She couldn't do this. She needed to, though. Follow. Stop. This was the only thing that would make it certain that nobody else would die at this man's hands, the only thing that would allow her and her friends to move on. Follow. Stop. Follow. Stop. And then Mike Schmidt walked through the wall.

Suzy gasped in surprise. How had he-? Alone in the room and no longer concentrating solely on her thoughts and her target, Suzy became aware of another sound. Crying. Examining the room, her gaze fell upon a horrific sight: Brian weeping over a torn-up Freddy. The little boy raised his head and stared numbly at the wall that Mike had disappeared into. And then the killer was back and the crowbar was coming down and then it was over.

Lucy had expected the door to close in her face the moment she stepped past the sight of the hall corner security camera. But the door remained open. This had to be some sort of trick. Mike had to be waiting in the office with something that could hurt her. She wasn't falling for any traps tonight, though, so Lucy hung back and waited in the hallway.

The minutes ticked by. Still the door didn't close. Maybe he's desperate to save power, she tried to reason. Or maybe he's waiting for me to try to come in so he can slam the door down on top of me.

"Lucy!" The chicken turned to see a slightly uneasy Timothy glide up to eye level with her. "Are you doing alright?" he asked.

"I'm ok. Could you find out what Mike's doing, please?"

Timmy nodded and peeked in. He tilted his head in confusion and entered the office fully. A second later, he came back out. "Mike isn't in there."

"He isn't?"

Timmy shook his head. "I haven't been able to find Suzy or Brian, either. Have you seen them?"

"No, but I can look," she offered.

"Thanks," Timmy smiled gratefully. There was no reason to worry, he was sure. The poor kids were probably hiding in an attempt to avoid being forced to murder the killer guard. There was no reason to be nervous for them. Still, Timothy had been through too much to be so naive as to completely dismiss the thought that nothing was wrong. He wouldn't feel completely ok until his sister's two absent friends were standing in front of him.

Lucy didn't find Brian or Suzy. She found Mike. He's just walking around?! she gasped, confused at why he would leave the safety of the little guard room to wander seemingly aimlessly around the pizzeria. He didn't seem to notice her. That was good. That meant she was safe and had the upper hand in this. She could stop him once and for all right now, and then none of her friends would have to worry about having to kill somebody. She could do it quickly and then it would finally be over. One quick snap and nobody would have to be worried ever again. Why, then, was it so difficult to take that step forward?

Now he had rounded the corner and was out of Lucy's sight. I can do this. I can do this. It'll be over with soon. I can do this, Lucy repeated to herself as she followed her target's footsteps into the next room. Once again, he was so close. Just one step and she could solve all her friends' problems. She could take that step. She would take that step. She would do it in three… two… one… Mike walked through the wall.

How…? she started, taking a few steps backward in surprise. "He's… coming…" a sob close by caused Lucy to turn. There on the floor only a few feet away were Suzy and Brian. And next to them lay the broken bodies of Bonnie and Freddy. Lucy had only a second to scream before Chica joined her bandmates.

"What happened?" Timmy called as he flew into the room where the scream had come from. He didn't make it past the door. "Oh God…" he whispered. Henry, also summoned by the cry for help, arrived a second later. "How did this happen…?"

Nate and Katie were trying to cheer up Joey. It isn't something any of us want to do, but we have to kill him if we ever want to be certain that he won't murder anybody else, was Nathaniel's argument. Katie was telling him that she and Timmy and Nate and Henry wouldn't cop out of being there with him so he wouldn't feel like he was the only one having to do it. "If we're all together, nobody will feel singled out," she was saying when the other ghosts burst into the room. Nate gasped when he saw the state his friends were in. Timmy's face was paler than ever as he came through the wall, Brian gripping his hand in pure terror. Henry was carrying a weeping Suzy and Lucy was clutching his shirt and stumbling along with a bewildered expression on her face as if she had just emerged from a dream and wasn't quite sure whether or not what she was seeing was real.

"It's Mike," Brian managed to get out. "He disappeared into the wall a-a-and th-then h-h-he…" The little boy collapsed into tears.

"They're destroyed," Timmy went on for him. "Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, all three are absolutely destroyed." Nate paled at his words. Their killer had once again been one step ahead of them and now their situation had become much more dire. The animatronics were their only way of interacting with the physical world. If they were destroyed, there was no way that they could do anything to Mike, not even stop him should he choose to murder someone else right in front of them. If Foxy met the same fate as his friends, justice would never be served and their happy, peaceful ending would be destroyed.

"I d-didn't want to kill him a-and now h-he's k-killed everybody e-else a-all over again," Joey sniffled. "If I h-had j-just been out there with everybody else instead of c-crying in here, we w-wouldn't be in this s-situation." He wiped his tears and runny nose on the sleeve of his shirt. "Now I-I'm the o-only one left so I h-have to stop him." Shakily, the little boy got to his feet and stared intently at the pirate fox. "I have to stop him," he repeated, this time sounding more sure of himself. In a blink, the ghostly child disappeared and Foxy opened his eyes.

"You killed my friends and now you're gonna pay!" The static-filled scream for revenge coupled with the terrifying image of the fox animatronic running at him at full speed should have made anyone faint in terror. Mike, however, just calmly waited for his opponent to get close before the man suddenly sidestepped out of the path of danger. Not expecting that and unable to slow down at his current speed, Joey crashed into the wall. The horrified ghosts watched helplessly while their little friend was brutally dismantled. All they could do was try their best to comfort Joey as their last tiny sliver of hope disappeared. They had lost.

Mike brushed his hands together and kicked the broken scraps of Foxy out of his way to clear a path back to the off camera room. Smiling to himself, he praised himself for a job well done. It had taken a lot of planning and a lot of time, but all those days spent hanging around the pizzeria had been worth it. It had been nearly intolerable at times, pretending to care as he listened to the employees talk about their personal problems and families and useless little hobbies, but all those weeks of getting to know them had produced some valuable information. For instance, there was that shocking piece of news that his favorite old spring rabbit costume was still being kept around and that it was in the building, sealed off in some back room so nobody would have to watch it rot away. And of course his plan would have never worked had he not learned about the special chemical on the seal that made that room invisible to the animatronics. It had been risky to get out of the office and knock down the flimsy fake wall, but that risk had paid off. Now the last bothersome reminders of those two times at Freddy's were gone and he could move on to other things. He'd keep the memories, of course, but the ghosts were gone. He'd shown them who was stronger for the second time and sent them off to the afterworld once and for all. He shouldn't have been haunted by the children he had murdered, but at least that bother was over with now. He had ended the little side story that shouldn't have existed in the first place, and now he could move on to new victims.

It was still the dark hours of the early morning. He should be getting out of this place and be on his way as soon as possible; being at Freddy's when the manager saw his restaurant's iconic robots in pieces was a mess he didn't want to have to deal with. Still, he had a fair amount of time before 6:00. All this hanging around Freddy's had given him a strange, warped sort of attachment to the place. Now certain that no murderous robots would bother him, he felt a sort of need to say goodbye to the building, its ruined characters, and of course his old favorite rabbit who was resting in the room only a broken wall away.

"What are we going to do now?" The question was asked innocently, just a child asking for some direction that might lessen her fear. But there was no answer. All the ghosts could do was quietly watch the winner of the game steal all their hope away once again. Grinning proudly, he stepped into the room he had recently created an entrance to. The old springlock rabbit costume was waiting inside. The kids watched Mike give it an affectionate pat on the ear. "Good times we had, eh?" he said to it. "I'll miss you, old friend." He briefly considered taking it it with him, but that idea was dismissed. Carrying it would be a burden he didn't need need when a speedy escape was being called for, and wearing it was out of the question as well. The springlocks on that thing had to be ancient by now, and the rusty old devices would be sure to dangerously snap shut at even the slightest rapid movement. That suit was now a deathtrap. A springlock deathtrap.

Well, his goodbyes were done. There was no need to stick around any longer. Helplessly, Nate and the other ghosts watched him walk towards the hole in the wall. He was leaving, still free and still evading justice. There was nothing they could do to stop him. It wasn't fair, but that was how it was going to be. We tried so hard, waited so long. Why does it have to end this way? A tear made its way down his cheek, leaving a cool, wet trail in its wake. It was only one of many. He doesn't even know we're still here. He thinks he's completely rid of us because he won. He did win, but why does he also get to think that he's made us go away forever? Please, if there's even a little bit of justice in the world, please don't let him have the satisfaction that he's made us go away forever. And somehow, miraculously, Nathaniel's last wish was granted.

Mike stopped. His eyes widened. No, this can't be real. I… I just destroyed them! They can't be still here! But the eight ghostly figures stayed in front of him, blocking off his exit and remaining as a show of proof that he would never be allowed to shake off all of the consequences of his evil acts. "G-Get away from me!" he cried, stepping back.

He can see us? Had his wish actually come true? That… that wasn't possible. But Mike looked terrified of something, and there wasn't anything else in the room besides them. Testing his theory, Nate took a step towards the panicking man.

"Get the hell away from me!" Mike screamed. Frantically, he waved his arms up and down in a desperate attempt to shoo the ghosts away. They did not waver.

Nate and the other dead children could not have hurt Mike. They were still ghosts, still unable to interact with anything physical. But faced down by his past victims with a blocked exit in front of him and a bare room behind, Mike did not know that. Suddenly very calm, he gave them all a big smile. "You may have me, but I'll never give you the satisfaction of getting to kill me," he grinned crazily, walking up to the rusty, moldy old spring rabbit costume. "I'll never give you that satisfaction." Before their eyes, he began to carefully put the suit on. When he was finally done, the killer stood before the confused group and smiled behind his mask. "I'll never give you the satisfaction of getting to kill me," he repeated one last time. Somehow completely calm and yet totally insane at the same time, Mike raised his arms as if to accept an embrace and jumped. There was a snap and then all of the springlocks activated.

Forcing his head to stay up and watch the ghosts, Mike gave a pained but satisfied smile behind his mask as dozens of little shards of metal were driven into his body. Blood began to soak into the costume, staining parts of it red and dripping down into a puddle on the floor, but still he smiled. He hadn't given anyone the satisfaction of getting to kill him. Nobody would ever be able to reciprocate what he had done to them. He hadn't been killed by anybody other than himself, and that was all he could ask for. Closing his eyes and collapsing onto the pool of his own blood, the murderer died.

As for the eight ghosts, they stared at the bloody costume for a few more moments of silence. "I guess that's all done, then," Timmy finally said. Their greatest enemy was dead, their final task complete.

Slowly, a great calm settled over the room. Everything felt so peaceful and warm and fuzzy and good. "I think we're finally moving on," Nate realized. A gentle light appeared over each of them, calling them away. Suzy and Joey and Brian and Lucy closed their eyes and smiled, beginning to fade. Henry took his brother's and his sister's hands and the three of them started to disappear as well. Nate gave one last, sighing breath before he, too, let go and gave into the light. It was gentle and warm and he was ready to go to it. Giving up the world at last, the spirits were finally at peace.

And that's it. The ghosts moved on, the place probably got shut down again, Springtrap…

No. This conclusion is too conclusive. Trying to tack on any more would be ruinous to the ending. This is the end of the story.

However, I did make a short film about it and posted it on Youtube if anybody wants to see it. It has a sort of extended ending that would not fit in well with the tone of this piece. If anybody wants to watch it, you can search "the poetic weirdo" on Youtube and it will be the video titled "Broken Strings the short film." If you cannot get to it that way, then I guess that you could also copy down this link: /watch?v=GB7TJWAIE68 and search for it that way. The ending starts at 1 minute and 53 seconds in.

Anyway, I enjoyed writing it and I hope you liked it. I will probably take a break from this fandom for a little while to write other stories. Have a lovely Mother's Day.

This author's note is not very conclusive. I know. I'm writing this after typing for two hours straight and putting the finishing touches on the video. I am a little bit tired.