Some Things Are Better Left Buried

By: Miss-DNL

Chapter 32: Voices

The room was dark. Shadows shifted and moved around him, taunting him, threatening to close in and consume him whole. He'd woken up some time ago. At least he thought he did. The difference between his nightmares and the reality he'd been roughly yanked back into, by the scuff of his consciousness, was minute at best. The scenery was all that'd really changed and what did that matter really? He was the same, just in a different place of arguable realness. He was still curled up in corner of the room. Head held in a death grip, like he was afraid that it'd fall from his shoulders, should he let go for even just a second. Still the same pathetic, miserable, excuse for a man that was hounded by voices of the dead. He was still the same trembling wreck, because, what they said was right. It was all true and the truth cut him to the core.

Coward, you're a failure. You know that, right? Just a selfish, cowardly, failure!

It was true. He'd only thought of himself, and it'd costed the life of another person.

Did you think you'd be treated like a hero if you came back? What hero can't save one person!

It was true, so painfully true. Kyle died because he was such a failure. Why hadn't he thought that something might've been attacking her? That was more possible than not in Freddy's!

She died because you were too much of a coward.

How couldn't that be true? He'd been cowering in a closet.

You're going to die you know, not that'd anyone would care.

Die all alone, then disposed of like garbage. Just like us.

Too good for you honestly.

Poor sad, pathetic, selfish, failure.

The whispers continued to dig into him, their voices clawing at his mind, crackles of static a hissing undertone to their voices. The shadows of his warped tormentors, his nightmares, were all around him, suffocating him with their presence. Mike could feel them grip at him, at his arms, shoulder, and throat. Everything felt real. The smell of rust and putrid blood. All sounds were muted, like they were submerged himself this wasn't real was a futile endeavor when his mind was swamped with their voices. His own thoughts were muffled by things that didn't exist.

Mike didn't know how long he'd been sitting were he was. Everything was a haze, he didn't even recall waking up. If he had woken up, his certainty of that was questionable. A sharp pain was across his throat added to is dubious belief of being awake. Blood. He could feel the blood that'd seeped out of him. The warm red trailing down the curve of his neck and onto his work shirt's collar. He brought a shaky hand to his neck, it felt cold like the rest of him. A slick sensation of warmth built up and around his fingers. It flowed with each rattled breath he took, trailing down his nape and under his work shirt's collar.

He…was alive right? Or, was he dying? Mike didn't know anymore, but it didn't really matter in the end. He was fighting a battle he didn't even know how he was going to win. He was just tempting death to put an end to his miserable existence. A chocked, simpering, laugh bubbled from Mike as he held the back of his head. He really did have a death wish, not that it surprised him. This wouldn't be the first time.

A muted ring caught Mike's bleary attention. With effort, he managed to pull his head up to look at his home phone that was station on the counter in his small kitchen area. Who would possibly be calling him? He no friends to speak of, not anymore at least. His last one had been killed by his incompetence last night. It had to be someone trying to sell something. It was the only logical answer. With that in mind, Mike lost interest in the occurrence and let the shadows drag him back down into their inky miasma again. It was hard to breath in the dark. Like the shadows were filling his lungs, enough to make breathing difficult, but not enough to suffocate him.

The ringing was quickly drowned out by the shadows speaking truths to him. More on how he deserved his misery and that death should be welcomed by him. Mike didn't resist, he deserved this punishment. He heard their cries and screams of pain and fear. The children he'd left trapped with the monster that'd killed them. His body shuddered as raw fear slithered its way through every vein in his trembling body. This was their fear, he was feeling the children's fear. At least that's what he told himself it was. He didn't know for sure, but Mike felt it to be true.

Tears seeped from his eyes as another shudder of trembling fear coursed through him. The air seemed to have gotten thin, bearing just enough oxygen for him to breath. His own breaths became distant in his ears, sounding shallow as his head became light. Shadowy figures clung to his icy-cold skin, some whole, some only parts, all emerging from the darkness around him. Their whispers became more distant than his breaths. Mike became barely aware of them or anything around him. He was there, but the world around him hardly existed.

Thud, thud, a long gait hit familiar linoleum tiles. Hazily, Mike looked to where it was coming from. Everything look faded, like it was an image left to bake in the sun too long. He could only make out foggy forms. The place looked familiar. It was Freddy's, but not one he'd ever been to. The sound of a carrousel was playing in the background, along with other pizzeria sounds, but Mike was just barely aware of this. His attention was focused on the shadowy purple man that was walking by. He just make out his tall form. It was distorted, by either pixels or static. Mike couldn't tell which, but he got the impression his hands were tucked behind his back. He was whistling a familiar tune, that wasn't quite the Freddy's jingle. It wasn't the toreador song that Freddy played either.

Mike's feet moved on their own and he followed the purple man. He heard the sounds of others milling about, but Mike saw no one else aside from the man in his view. They walked along the linoleum tiled floor for what seemed like a daydream. The destination they arrived at only hardly seemed different from the rest of the haze they'd moved through. The man looked down at something. Mike got the feeling he should follow his gaze and he did.

A cold dread stabbed at Mike's heart when he saw a young girl with golden, curly pigtails. She seemed familiar, he didn't know why, but it filled him with an immense panic.

A toothless black grin cut its way through the man's face.

"Good to see you, Alice."

Mike was thrown off balance by a loud metallic cry that shot into his ears, sending him crashing back into reality. His back made rough contact with the wall of his trailer home. The impact caused the window of his home to rattle violently. Mike elicited a startled gasp like he was sucking air back into his lungs after suffocating. Looking around wildly, Mike desperately tried to figure out what'd happened and where he was.

The sight of his own home wasn't a comfort. A sense of defeat quick rose up within him, the man slumped up against the wall. His body shuddered, part of him trying to gather his nerves while the shadows told him it was useless.

His phone rang again. Unwilling to commit to his train of thought, Mike forced himself to move towards his small kitchenette. His balance was weak. His legs seemed to be made of jelly, it felt that if he took a step they'd cave in on themselves. Mike didn't care and trudged over to the insistent phone, partly stumbling halfway there. He caught himself on the counter and leaned against it. Mike felt completely drained: physically, mentally, and emotionally. He was numb from head to toe, inside and out.

Mike answered the phone, voice drained of emotion, "Hello?"

"Is this Mike Schmidt?" The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but Mike couldn't pin a name in his current state of mind.

"Yes, this is Mike." His body answered the social courtesy cued out of habit.

The voice became suddenly urgent, "Mike! Mike it's me Jessica. I'm Kyle's girlfriend, remember? You stayed over at our place last night? I got your phone number from her." Mike seized up. The events of the last twenty-four hours catching up with him once again. He went silent and his silence only seemed to panic Jessica more, but he couldn't bring himself to respond. "Mike, do you know where Kyle is? She hasn't come home, and she isn't picking up her cell! This isn't like her and I'm getting worried. I-I know it's just rumors…about the pizzeria, but I can't help but worry about her. Please, just tell me she's okay…"

Mike said nothing. He stood in his kitchen area with the phone trembling in his hand. He'd failed to save her. It was all his fault.

"Mike." Jessica urged, desperation beginning to emerge into her voice, "Mike, please, answer me..."

His mouth hung open, but he couldn't manage words. What could he say? That Kyle had been beaten to death by a long since dead murderer? He didn't even have proof of that! And what if he did tell her? Would she believe him, or think he killed her? Mike mentally went over any possible out come in his mind and none of them were good. No matter what he said, Jessica would leave the conversation hating him and grieving. Nothing. He couldn't bring himself to say anything. Jaw welded shut, Mike hung up the phone. The sound of the phone falling into its home was deafening, only to give way to the whispers of the shadows.

Only one word was said, over and over.

Coward.

Soon after his phone began to ring again, compounding his torment. Mike recoiled, as if struck, and gripped his head. His nails dug into his scalp, with any more force he threatened to make himself bleed. Mike shook his head, demanding the phone and the voices be silent. Neither listened, if anything they both only seemed to get louder.

"Shut-up, just leave me alone…shut-up!" Mike hollered as he crumpled slowly onto the floor. His teeth clenched together as he sobbed into the carpet, "Please, just leave me alone…I've had enough…"

There's only one way out.

The world became still. The voice sounded so casual, just pointing out a fact, as it brought forward the thought that'd already been on Mike's mind. Listlessly he brought himself up to his knees, as sat in the middle of his living room space. The shadows looked on expectantly, Mike couldn't see them as he stared down at the carpet, but he could feel their void-filled eyes staring at him. Waiting. The phone was still ringing in the background and continued to go unanswered as Mike got to his feet and went to his small bathroom. By the time the night guard was inside the ringing had ceased to no doubt to start up again later. Mike stood in front of the mirror and a shell of a man stared back.

His face still had tear streaks making it appear clammy, skin pale almost sickly. Eyes reddish and puffy with dark circles, formed from decades of irregular sleep. Greying hair was frazzled from him gripping at it. His uniform was a mess with specks of blood from his run in with the animatronics. To say he looked like utter shit would be stating the obvious.

Mike pulled open the sink cabinet and grabbed a pill bottle from a clear plastic bin he kept under the sink. It was a bottle of over-the-counter sleeping pills. It was pretty full still. Mike barely needed any with how tired he constantly felt, all thanks to his nightmares. He stared at bottle as he sat himself down on the rim of his bathtub. A familiar scene to him. On more than one occasion Mike had contemplated this. Between the vivid, painful, nightmares, his guilt, the loneliness…Putting up with it all day after day, a never-ending cycle that had no end in sight. None that weren't painful or unpleasant anyway.

Why die painfully by animatronics when he could just go to sleep?

Mike eyed the bottle dully as he thought the idea over. He had nothing and no one left. The voices were right to say he wouldn't be missed. It'd take a while to find him, likely when the electric and water company noticed he wasn't paying his bills anymore. He'd never really talked to his neighbors either aside from the occasional brief greeting. Mike reached for the lid but hesitated to grab it, he just…couldn't bring himself to commit, just like the other times. Even with his lowly lot in life, the thought of there being another day after this one was a comfort. Tomorrow bought the slim chance of it things somehow getting better.

Mike gave the white pill bottle a look of distaste and dumped it back into the plastic bin and shut the cabinet. He sat back on the rim of his tub and ran his hands through his hair, a strong exhale coming from his nose. He needed a smoke.

The ragged night guard straightened himself and pulled his cigarette pack from his back pocket and a lighter from the pocket on his shirt. He lit up a stick and took a few puffs, letting the addicting nicotine ease his nerves. Already Mike looked back on his moment of weakness with shame. The voices of the monsters in his head were already mocking him for it. Now, with his mind more lucid, Mike buried them with another puff from his cigarette. He couldn't check out, not just yet, he'd come back to help the kids and that's what he was going to do. Even if he was just going to be a target for their anger until he figured out where their bodies were.

Mike walked out of the bathroom when the phone went off again. With nicotine in him Mike felt he should at least give Jessica some sort of answer, or at least tell her to stay away. He took a breath, readying himself for however this conversation was going to end.

"Mike, thank god you answered…" Mike inwardly winced at the amount of relieved desperation on in Jessica's voice, "Please…please just tell me something."

"Jessica, first, I'm sorry…about hanging up. You-you have a right to get an answer." Mike began, taking another puff quickly to keep his nerves strong. His tone grew grim, "As for Kyle…I'm sorry. She's not coming home."

"So, it's true then…Oh, god…" Jessica said weakly, there was a moment of pause before she continued, "They-the management covered it up like the others thirty years ago…?"

Mike felt shame hit him, he should've fought harder against letting Gregor and the janitor taking Kyle's body away. "I'm going to talk to the janitor in the morning." The least he could do is find out where they hid it. "I promise, I'll get something out of her."

Jessica sounded she was on the verge of breaking down, but she managed to keep herself together to respond, "Al-alright. I'm going to trust you to do this Mike." Her voice hardened with warning, "But, if you don't. I swear, I'll find you and make you do it. Kyle was everything to me, understand?"

"I understand." Mike answered, taking her sternness in stride. He tensed his expression into a concerned frowned, "But, promise me, that you'll stay away." Mike knew he wouldn't be able to handle if he failed to protect the person Kyle had loved. "I don't trust the guy in charge... I can't say he wouldn't get his own hands dirty."

"I'll stay away for tonight. You give me an answer tomorrow, and I'll keep away."

Mike relaxed after he heard that and nodded to himself, "Okay, I'll call you tomorrow then."

The call was concluded after that. Mike took one last long drag from his cigarette before he put it out on the ashtray that was on his entertainment system. It was a waste of a cigarette, but he wanted to clean up before he headed in for his shift tonight. The call had gone better than Mike had thought, further highlighting his previous overreaction. Jessica wasn't happy with him, but she was still willing to give him a chance. To a degree she still trusted him and that was more than he could ask for.

He just needed to last through the night.

Author's Notes:

As much as Mike's one of my favorite characters in my au, he's a bit hard to write for at times. His self-loathing can really make me lose steam. Part of the reason why this chapter too a while, that and college snuck up on me again. I've got things handled, and finished an art project I'd been working so hopefully the next chapter won't be late. We're officially going to be at night seven next chapter!

Yes, Mike has thought of ending it, he's dealt with the nightmares for quiet a long time, but despite his issues he's handled it a lot better than Griffith did.

We also learn one of the kid's names. Think it's obvious which, but I wanna see if anyone can make a guess lol

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, please let me know what you think, and see you all next time!