Oh my gosh it's here. It's finally here. This chapter was a nightmare to finish. Now that I've got it done, though? I'm expecting to finish this story much faster than I anticipated! You have no idea what an accomplishment this is for me ToT

This and the next chapter were supposed to be one chapter, but it's going on for much longer than I thought it would, so the next one should be out relatively soon! I'm sorry to make you all wait. It's been so long~

Anyway, you guys are amazing. Let's finish this.

Swish.

"Hee hee hee!"

Cold trickled down the man's spine. That voice... It shouldn't have been possible... There was no possible way that he could be here. The man whipped his head back and forth, on edge as the giggling continued within the shadows.

Toy Freddy was taking deep, mechanical breaths, shaky and apprehensive, as he waited for what came next. The man growled and, without wasting a second, smacked the blunt of the ax over the robot's head, breaking the plastic head inwards, killing it instantly. Stupid machine... He thought, whirling immediately back to the shadows where the voices continued to whisper. He pointed the ax at the dark.

"Don't come any closer," He hissed. "I'm armed."

"Heh... Heh... Ha ha ha!" The voice's giggles climbed into a laugh. They were coming closer despite the man's warnings. The man stumbled back until he felt the wall bump against him. He was cornered. The laughter came closer... and that's when he saw it.

A robot stood in the hallway, but this one wasn't like the Toys. It was golden, it was limp, and its eyes were dull- one even missing. Wires sprayed out of open holes, and stains littered every patch of him. But it wasn't the robot in particular that stood out. It was the white cloud floating above it.

Wispy and white, but definitely shaped. Glowing and cold, but definitely not of this world. Unearthly and wild, but most definitely the one face the man had hoped never to see again.

"Hiya." The horrifying child grinned beneath his bloody mop of golden hair, and at that moment, baring baby teeth never looked so fearsome. "'Memember me?"

"Hey, shh, don't worry... The police should be here any second," Jeremy attempted to reassure the wailing kids. Some tried to quiet down, but for the rest it was just hopeless. Jeremy bit his lip.

Fritz heard him, and groaned in frustration. "Like they shouldn't've been here an hour ago!"

"The siren was only rung about twenty minutes ago, Fritz! We're way out of town! They're coming as fast as they can but until then we have got to keep calm!"

"I am calm, Jeremy!" Fritz argued loudly, standing up too quickly and making his chair fall backward. The kids jumped in fear and the smaller night guard glared at him.

Mike was sitting at the exit, back pressed to the door. He didn't know what was going on out there but if he could help it, he was going to keep it out until the authorities could arrive.

Authorities...

Suddenly, he remembered something.

"Hey, Jeremy..." Mike called uncertainly. He looked around and became more and more concerned when he realized the room was vacant of a certain clingy animatronic. "Whe-Where's Mary?"

Jeremy looked taken aback, as though he hadn't even noticed the robot's disappearance. Fritz, not fond of Mary to begin with, whirled around, still tense in stature, as though it might be sneaking up behind him. But it wasn't. It wasn't anywhere. The party room they'd all holed up in was quite small, so there weren't any places for it to really hide. Mary was just... gone.

"Oh no." Jeremy stood up, anxious. "Did it come in with us? Did anyone leave the door open for a few minutes? Who saw her last?"

Mike bit his lip and reached for the door handle. Fritz grabbed his shoulder before he could reach it.

"What are you thinking?! You can't go out there! There's a maniac on the loose, not to mention a horde of crazy robots!" He hissed, not raising his voice too loud to keep the kids from hearing.

Mike shook him off and directed a serious stare into Fritz's eyes. "You don't get it." His voice was low. "That robot trusted us. It trusted us to keep it safe; to keep this place safe. I can't just stand around and break that trust. It's not right."

"Why do you care so much?! It's just a machine!"

Images of Freddy and Chica laughing with him at the pizzeria flashed through Mike's mind. He remembered Bonnie tilting the pinball machine with a concentrated look in his face and Foxy building a tower out of food. It's just a machine, Fritz had said. They're just machines.

Mike shook his head. "Not to me."

With that, he opened the door, and nobody stopped him as he slipped out.

The man's breathing was as heavy as the sins festering within him. He knew this boy. He was a pawn in his game of chess- a pawn he'd strategically placed on the front lines to keep the rest of his pieces protected; a pawn he'd sacrificed selfishly for the man's own good. But now it seems the boy had come back not as the pawn he'd been, but a queen with the highest advantage. The man had nowhere to run now.

Checkmate.

He lost.

The white mist in front of him was coming closer and closer, taking its time, giggling. The man clenched his teeth, glancing left and right for a way out. Doors began to screech open and slam close from all over the facility, like the strong winds of hurricanes blasting through the building. The fate he deserved was not going to be quick.

The ghost boy launched straight at him so suddenly, the man nearly didn't have enough time to leap out of the way. The moment he jumped to the side the ghost had slammed against the wall, crashing straight through to the other side. Debris blew out immediately, showering the man in small pieces of white drywall and dust.

The man wasted no time leaping to his feet and dashing down the hall, vaulting the golden robot that had fallen limp to the ground. Maybe there was still time after all. He had to get out of this wretched place. The ghost couldn't leave Freddy's; couldn't follow him. If he could get out of here, he'd win. The ghost would follow him and no doubt the others would be close behind.

Now this fight he'd gotten himself into was no longer of strength. It was wit.

A loud noise to the left grabbed his attention but rather than turning to look he immediately ducked. Rightly so, for once again a ghost has flown straight at him, barreling instead straight into the wall. Another hole opened up and this time a few large pieces rained on him, tearing up his clothes and the skin beneath it. He shook off the pain and stumbled to his feet, peering around for the ghost that apprehended him. This had not been the same one. That one had longer, wispy hair, much darker than the first one. The rest of the gang couldn't be far behind. He had to keep moving.

He turned into another hallway without checking what direction he was going, hoping to strike lucky. Unfortunately the fates were against him and he found himself at the main office; a dead end. He turned around immediately to correct his mistake, but several more white wisps were congregating at the end of the hall he'd just come from. They were cornering him.

The vents, He remembered. The vents are open.

He jumped into the left one, crawling quickly through the open space until he emerged into a party room. He leapt to the doorframe, pressing his back to the wall as he peeked outside. The wisps of white flew past the open doorway without so much as a hesitation, clearly thinking that he was still inside the office. He slipped into the hall and rushed in the opposite direction.

It was so dark in here. Every light was off and the complex was void of windows. He couldn't see anything. He'd just have to go off of the map he remembered. He placed his fingertips on the wall and followed it, making note of where he was and where he was heading.

Get to the front door. Get to the front door.

He shivered, just now noticing that he was drenched in a cold sweat. He grit his teeth against the cold that just now began to sink in. Didn't these airhead night guards know what a heater was? Anyway, none of that would matter anymore as soon as he hightailed it out of here. He'd have to move again and get five kids from someplace else.

He swallowed. The five kids. That's who these wisps were. The five kids that he'd rounded up so many years ago... including one from his own family. Of course, he didn't even consider the consequences back then. All he needed was some fresh organs for a few friends downtown, and the money came flooding in; it was that simple. He'd found a few brats at Freddy's and kept them after dark. After he took what was his, he hid the leftovers in the suits. He got the money and he continued his life like normal. At first, everything continued like normal.

But then the robots started getting twitchy. And then they began to roam.

The man had an idea of what was going on. He quit the job as soon as he finished his shift that morning, and signed up immediately to the second restaurant. Tonight was supposed to be another batch of kids. Clearly this wasn't working out the way he'd expected.

Suddenly, a loud metal clang rang throughout the restaurant, and the man crashed rather ungracefully to the ground. He couldn't see what tripped him. Something big. Something metal. He tried to squint at it but there was just no light.

No doubt the monsters had heard him. He had to find a place to hide - quick.

"Mary? Mary!"

He was whispering loudly rather than actually calling for the puppet as he shone his flashlight up and down the hallway, looking for any signs of life, but nevertheless, there was no way the thing wouldn't be able to hear him was it close by. He grit his teeth, and peeked into the party room closest to the one he'd just left.

There was a ringing in his ears that grew the longer he stayed out here. He figured it was just his paranoia, but he flinched anyway, rubbing his head when a headache came with it. That was weird. Where was that coming from?

He poked his head into the hallway again, about ready to bring the flashlight beam with it, but that's when he spotted them. Glowing wisps at the end of the hall.

His first instinct was to freeze, and rightly so. These hovering clouds weren't the result of some pipe leak. These things were... eerily haunting... as though they were from another world. They glowed and hummed and whistled softly when they moved, like a broken instrument. The wisps glided from the office to the left party room, and then, Mike realized with a jolt, headed straight toward his room.

He quickly fumbled for the button on his flashlight. The button made a loud snap! and the beam clicked off. He ducked close to the floor and pressed his back against the wall by the door. He could barely contain his heavy breathing.

A very, very dim glow was cast from the doorway just next to him. Mike dared not look up, even when a strange, high voice began to mumble incoherently in the doorway less that two feet away from him. He held his breath, tense.

The mumbling continued...

And then it just stopped.

The glowing had disappeared. The room was cast in utter darkness, and utter silence once again. Mike waited a few minutes alone in the party room, holding his breath and trying not to freak out.

What on earth was that?!

I'm hallucinating. I'm hallucinating. I knew it; I knew I was crazy. First Jeremy comes back from the dead and then I'm almost murdered by some crazy dude in purple and now there are frikkin glow-y thingies floating around- I'm dreaming!

Mike let out the breath he held slowly. Whatever it was, it was gone now. Dreaming or not, he had to get that puppet and get back to the party room. He clicked the flashlight on with another snap, and waved the beam left and right through the room he was in. There was nothing here. Perhaps the room across the hall would give him better luck.

He turned to the doorway- and immediately jolted back again when two pale red eyes appeared two centimeters from his own. He fell in terror at the sight he was met with; tangled, matted hair stuck up in odd places, brown, and almost completely clotted with blood. Skin of glowing white; nearly transparent, with just about every vein visable beneath it, colored purple blue and green like bruises. A gaping mouth of small square teeth, so much like that of a child's-even down to where a few were missing- was wet with saliva and stained crimson. And its eyes... completely washed in pale red- almost pink, but not quite, like that of a white rabbit.

The being shrieked at Mike in pitches he never thought existed, hovering closer to him and twisting its face into something horrifying and anguished. Mike's eyes widened and he tried to push away, but all he could accomplish was getting trapped again against the side wall. The ghoul screeched from where it stood in the doorway, lunged at him, and Mike squeezed his eyes shut...!

Silence.

Am I dead?

Mike cracked his eyes open again. He was still in the party room. He still held his flashlight. He was still up against the wall. And that ghoul was still in front of him. But this time, rather than furious and twisted, the kid looked down at him in confusion. Its hooked fingers relaxed and it let its hands drop to its sides.

"Ntt hyim lukenfer..." Came its haunting voice- just a quiet mumble, barely audible. It blinked down at him almost in disappointment, and easily swept its gaze from him. Mike slowly allowed himself to breathe again. When he saw the ghoul turn away, he realized that it was uninterested in him now. As though he wasn't the one it'd been looking for.

Just before it left, Mike did something incredibly stupid.

"H-Hey!"

The ghoul froze rigid in its tracks. Mike swallowed thickly. It was listening. He continued. "Wh-Who are you? What are you here for?"

The ghoul didn't turn. It didn't twitch, it didn't sigh- nothing to indicate it'd heard him. But Mike knew it did. It heard him. Nevertheless, it spoke not a word in reply. It floated off into the hallway with nothing to say.

At first Mike was tempted to hightail it into the party room with Jeremy and Fritz and the kids because screw that whole occurrence right there. But he couldn't. There was something intriguing in the way that ghoul was wandering.

He picked himself up, and turned off his flashlight with a loud snap. He peeked in the hallway, and found the glow of the ghoul.

He followed it.