A/N: Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. I read 'Upon Daybreak' and 'Soul', both of which are really good :) I especially liked Soul-kudos to you, Elhini Prime. I look forward to reading the rest of your series. Also, thanks for all the birthday wishes. Now then, I have another request for you guys-two actually, but I'll get to those at the end of the chapter. For now, enjoy this chapter. And, like I said, this one is from Ian's POV, for a change of perspective. Also, we get to meet another character in this one!

Disclaimer: Scott Cawthon owns all things Five Nights at Freddy's, and I am but a lowly insignificant worm that is a fan.

I'll admit it…I've always been afraid of people when I meet them for the first time. Whenever my mom took me and my brother and sister out somewhere, my first reaction when someone, especially a grown-up would say 'Oh, what a cute little boy!' or even just a simple 'Hi!' would be to hide behind my mom. Heck, when I started school I shied away from everyone for the first couple of weeks until Hope invited me to play with her, Travis, and Tricia.

You'd think that it'd get easier when you're dead, but I've learned better. For instance, when I saw Mike for the first time, I thought he looked really creepy. Okay yes, I'm a ghost in a seven-foot-tall animatronic fox but he looked like a zombie. I mean, there's this really skinny, really pale guy with dark circles under dead-looking, half-closed eyes. I wanted to protect him from the others, but I couldn't help but shudder when he came out the first night to check on me.

When he came back the second night though, and I told him my story, I began to see him differently. Yes, he looked creepy, but other than that he just seemed…normal. He even felt sorry for me and wanted to help me and the others. I knew it was impossible, but the fact that he was nice enough to at least stick around and try, at the risk of his own life, made me hopeful. After he left, I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I could keep him alive and safe from Melody and the others, I could have a new friend. Yes it's selfish to want him to keep coming back here when I've tried to get every other night guard in the past to leave and never return…but I'm lonely. I've been stuck in here for years, with my still-brainwashed friends, who can't, or won't, even talk to me anymore. I've tried to stop them, tried to talk to them, but they're…just not there anymore.

But as it comes to find out, I was actually right about Mike the first time. I've been protecting a crazy person.

"My life took a big downward spiral when I was ten." Mike explained. "Something bad happened, and my dad started yelling at me, screaming that I was worthless and would never amount to anything. He'd yell at me almost every day, sometimes over something stupid, or even nothing at all, and every now and then when he got angry enough, he hit me. Then somewhere along the line, I just…broke. Everything looked bleak. I stopped feeling happy…stopped feeling everything, really."

"I'm sorry to hear that!" I tried to reach out to put my good hand on his shoulder again, but stopped myself. I had a pretty good idea what that 'bad thing' he mentioned was.

"I pretty much drifted through every day for the next couple of years after that, feeling empty. Then one day when I was fourteen, I was walking home from school." Mike paused to check the cameras as he talked to me. "I was thinking about something or other, and wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I started to cross the street, and suddenly heard the sound of tires screeching." I gasped in horror.

"And…and what happened then?"

"I was able to get out of the way in time." Mike assured me. "I didn't get hurt. Got real close to it, though." He turned to look at me, the light from the cameras casting a creepy glow on his already-creepy face. "I just…the next thing I knew, I was flat on my butt in the middle of the street. A couple of people were around, asking me if I was alright, stuff like that, but I could barely hear them. My heart was pounding like a drum, the blood rushing through my ears. I breathed heavily for a few moments, then, before I could stop myself…I started laughing. I laughed and laughed until tears were pouring down my cheeks. I must've looked really crazy to those other people, but I didn't care. That experience, almost getting hurt, maybe worse-that was the most alive I'd felt in four years."

"Then?" I asked, slightly worried to hear the answer.

"Nothing." Mike answered simply, turning back to look at the cameras. "I pulled myself up, got my stuff, and got back home without any incident. But that one, brief moment…that moment where I could actually feel again…" I looked down at the ground, suddenly feeling very guilty.

"I did this to you." He turned back around to look at me. "I remember when you came here for your birthday all those years ago-you and your sister. You were different back then. You looked so happy when you were a kid-but then I…I…"

"Hey," Mike cut me off, "My dad's always been a violent, abusive bully. And I was NEVER his favorite. He would've found some excuse to turn me into a punching bag sooner or later."

"But if your dad was so horrible to you, why didn't you leave?" I asked. "Or why didn't your mom stop him, or something?"

"Cause my mom's a gutless coward." Mike said in that usual flat voice of his. "And it runs in the family, apparently. You're the first person I've ever told."

"Really?" If I was still alive, I would've blinked in surprise.

"Yep." Mike answered. "Mom's seen my dad yelling at me a couple times, but she's always told me that he's 'doing it for my own good'." He snorted. "Yeah, constantly telling me what a weak, stupid, pathetic waste of DNA I am is 'for my own good'." I saw Chica outside and was about to tell Mike, but he saw her. He got up and closed the door, locking her out.

"When did I get to this point in my life?" He asked, and I got the feeling that he was talking more to himself than to me. "Such a broken, pathetic wreck that I have to open up to a dead nine-year-old in a fox suit while simultaneously trying to keep from getting killed. Um, no offense." He added this last part quickly, but honestly, I wasn't offended. I felt very sorry for Mike. If what he said was true…if his dad had really been so horrible to him that it left him like this…that was wrong. Parents were supposed to protect their children! Okay yes, I barely remembered my own dad, but still!

I suddenly noticed that Mike was waving his hand in front of my face.

"Hello? Anybody home?"

"Huh?" I came back to reality. "Oh, sorry."

"Forget it." Mike said, looking back out the window to see if Chica was still there. "I should really focus on staying alive, what with all the others out to get me. Forget I said anything."

"No." He blinked at me. "Mike-I'm sorry." I started. "Even if you don't blame me, I'm sorry that your life's been so hard. I'm sorry that your dad was so mean to you. And I'm…I'm just sorry for everything, okay?!" It wasn't much, but I didn't know what else to say. Mike opened the door. Once he was sure Chica was gone, he turned slightly to look at me.

"Thanks Ian. It's just nice to know someone cares." He checked the clock, and his eyes widened a little in surprise. "Five o'clock already? Wow, time flies when you're having one harrowing experience after another."

"Bonnie!" I shouted, pointing at the door. Mike started to go to shut her out, but I was closer, so for the second time that night, I locked her out. "Too bad they don't get any slower as it gets closer to six." I said. Mike just stared at me.

"The others did that to you, didn't you?"

"Huh?" I asked.

"Those scratches." Mike said, pointing to my chest. "Melody made them attack you, because you tried to help other night guards like me."

"Yeah." I nodded. "The first night after well, y'know…I tried to leave Foxy, like I told you. And once that failed, I saw my friends heading out like usual to get the night guard. But this time I didn't join them. I had free will again. I thought that maybe if I tried to talk to them I could get them back to normal too. So I ran and tried to stop them, tried reminding them of who they were. I think I actually got through to them for a second. But then Melody showed up, shouting that I was a traitor. She was so angry that it caused the others to go after me. The good news was that I was able to get away before I ended up like Mangle."

"Mangle?" Mike asked.

"Remember when they tried to redesign Freddy Fazbear's in the 80s?" I asked. "They made more cutesy versions of the original animatronics; including a version of Foxy that I think was supposed to be a girl or something?"

"Oh yeah." Mike glanced off to the side. "They had her in 'Kids' Cove'. Kinda a step down, if you ask me."

"Lots of the other kids thought so too." I said. "They damaged her to the point that she was reduced to nothing but a head and spine. After that, the staff just started calling her 'the Mangle'."

"Ouch."

"Anyway," I continued, opening the door once I saw that Bonnie was gone, "I went back to Pirate's Cove with nothing but these scratches. But when I looked through one of them carefully…I saw my own dead body. And I screamed." Mike looked at me, and I saw the pity in his eyes.

"Kid…" Before he could say anything, however, the clock showed that it was six, and his shift was over.

"Well, this has been an interesting night." Mike started. "See you tomorrow, Ian."

"Hey, Mike?" I called as he started to leave.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"That stuff you said about your dad-I don't think you're pathetic or anything." He turned his head a little, but not to the point that I could see his eyes. "I just think you're crazy. For coming back here again and again."

"Well, I did promise to save you munchkins." Mike said, like he was talking about the weather. "But until I actually find a way to do that-I can at least make sure that the others don't hurt you again. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Fritz is fine. She still gets headaches sometimes, but other than that, she's alright." And with that, he left.

Yeah, the guy was definitely crazy. Risking his life for me and my friends when they kept trying to kill him, being worried about me getting hurt when I can't even feel pain anymore…but at the same time, it was nice to have somebody who cared about me. I'd been alone for so long-and now this guy was the only friend I had. I was walking back to Pirate's Cove and wondering whether there actually WAS a way for me and the others to be saved, when a voice said

"You sure are chummy with that new guy." I gasped and turned around, seeing the figure of a little girl floating above me. Melody. Being a ghost, she was completely silver, except for her eyes, which were black, and had gray tear marks under them, and her cheeks, which had a slightly reddish blush, like the Puppet she used to possess.

"M-Melody!" I didn't mean to sound so scared and got mad at myself as Melody glared down at me.

"You don't really believe him, do you Ian?" She asked. "All that stuff he said?"

"How much of that did you hear?" I asked, trying to keep my voice from shaking.

"Enough." Melody crossed her arms in front of her chest. "How do you know he wasn't lying to get you to feel sorry for him?"

"W-why do you care if he was?" I asked, trying to be brave. "Mike's a little weird, but he's a good guy. He's not like the man who killed us, Melody!" She flew right into my face, looking furious.

"He's a grown-up! All grown-ups are liars! He doesn't care about you, about any of us!"

"St-stop it!" I protested.

"Once he gets enough money, he'll just quit and leave you here to rot!"

That pushed me over the edge. Letting out an angry cry, I slashed at Melody with my hook. Of course, it just went right through her, but at the moment I didn't care.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" I shouted defiantly.

"Fine." Melody said. "But you're making a mistake. I meant what I said." She turned around. "All grown-ups are liars." And with that, she disappeared.

She's wrong. I thought. Mike's going to help us. I have to believe that. And with that, I continued off down the hall, to get back to my place in Pirate's Cove before the restaurant opened.

A/N: And thus, we are formally introduced to Melody! Vengeful little thing-though one can hardly blame her. And that's right-Fritz was the Bite of '87 victim. BTW-no offense to anyone who actually likes Mangle, I like her fine myself. Those were Mike's words, not mine. Now then, a couple things-

a) As you may have noticed, I FINALLY figured out how to change the chapter titles for chapter one! :D I'm feeling pretty proud of myself for that. I changed the first chapter title, as well as for a couple of my past stories, now I feel like less of a noob ^^'

b) For those of you who have Tumblr accounts, I actually made an ask/rp blog for Mike and Ian. If you want to check it out, the link is right here: blog/ask-the-night-guard-and-fox-boy

c) Are there any really talented artists on here? If anyone is feeling generous, I'd like someone to design a new cover image for this story. Not like a commission or anything, since I'm pretty much broke...though I WOULD give you full credit. Well, that's everything. Hope you liked this chapter, and, as always, review!