Wednesday, March 10, 1982
A few days had passed since Charlotte's death and William Afton was quite surprised with how little it had affected him. Sure, he felt bad, even regretful, but he wasn't losing any sleep over it. Then again, he was too preoccupied with his plan of getting back at Henry to really think too much about it. And in regards to William's plan, today was a very important day because it was Charlotte's wake—the perfect opportunity to smooth things over with Henry.
William pulled up into the parking lot of the funeral home in his purple 1973 Chrysler New Yorker. Once he had parked, he, Clara, and their three children got out of the car. They all wore formal clothes with dark and subdued colors. Even little three-year-old Evan was wearing a suit. A little too young to understand what was going on and why they were here, the boy hugged his beloved Fredbear plush to his chest.
As the Aftons entered the funeral home, they saw Charlotte's open casket on display. In front of it stood her parents, Henry and Martha, who were accepting condolences from friends and family.
Elizabeth let out a gasp at the sight, then buried her face in her mother's thigh and sobbed to herself. Clara knelt down to comfort the girl. Evan, meanwhile, tightened his hug around his Fredbear plush, unable to look away from the casket. And Michael did his best to maintain a calm, collected, and respectful veneer while fidgeting slightly.
As for William, as soon as he laid his eyes on Charlotte's lifeless body, memories came flooding back of that fateful night. His hands around her tiny neck. Her terrified and pleading eyes staring at him as he choked her to death. Her dead body lying on the ground of the alley next to the trash, with heavy rain pouring down on them.
William shut his eyes and turned away from the casket.
He couldn't help but be a bit startled when Clara placed a hand on his shoulder. She squeezed it affectionately and asked, "William? Are you alright, love?"
William cleared his throat. "Yeah," he replied and then turned to look at her with a forced smile. "It's nothing," he reassured her. However, his eyes were once again drawn to the casket. "It's nothing…"
Clara didn't look entirely convinced, but she returned her attention to Elizabeth, doing her best to calm her down. William, meanwhile, did his best to regain his composure. Before long the Aftons proceeded towards Henry and Martha. As they approached, William took note of Henry's red, puffy eyes. He had recently cried.
As he watched the Aftons come up to them, Henry smiled bitterly and said, "I wasn't sure if you were going to come."
"Of course we are!" Clara replied as if it should've been a given. "You're practically family!"
William nodded in agreement. "Exactly. While our last meeting may not have ended on the best of terms, this… has put things into perspective," he said, doing his utmost to sound genuine. "I never wanted our friendship to end, Henry, I was just so… angry at the time. And you know how I am, I've never been good with apologies. But I want you to know that I'm… sorry, and that I'm here for you. We're here for you. So if there's anything we can do for you, anything at all, don't hesitate to ask."
Tears began to trickle down Henry's cheeks and he embraced William. "Thank you, Will. Thank you," he said, letting out a sigh of relief.
"Don't mention it," William replied, suppressing a smirk.
Henry then hugged Clara and said, "And you, Clara. Thank you."
"No need to thank us, love," Clara replied as she rubbed circles into Henry's back.
Monday, March 29, 1982
Following Charlotte's wake, William made great progress on mending his friendship with Henry. So much so that he was finally able to convince him to give him a job at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. As it so happened, the pizzeria was in need of a new night guard. The position was perfect for William—while the pay wasn't all that great, it was enough, and more importantly it would give him plenty of time to work on his own restaurant undisturbed.
William arrived at Freddy's carrying a suitcase at 10:00 PM for his first shift and was met by a young man who looked like he was in his early twenties.
"Hi, I'm Lloyd Hodson! I'm the manager," he greeted William with a friendly smile and held out his hand. "Pleased to meet you!"
William returned the smile and shook Hodson's hand. "William Afton. I'm the new night guard."
"Oh, I see," Hodson replied and then paused to think. "Um… Okay, let me show you to your office."
Hodson began walking through the main area of the restaurant while William followed close behind.
"Tell me, Lloyd, how long have you been working as a manager?" William asked.
"Oh, um, about three weeks now, I think?" Hodson replied as they continued to walk. "Mister Emily put me in charge after what happened to his daughter. It was only meant to be temporary while he grieved, but… given how withdrawn he is, it wouldn't surprise me if he just leaves me in charge."
"I see," William replied absentmindedly. The two of them then walked down a hallway leading to an office space, at which point William asked, "So how long have you known Henry?"
"Oh, um, since he hired me," Hodson replied, slightly taken off guard by the question. "Why do you ask?"
William shrugged. "Just curious."
Finally, they reached the security office. Hodson gestured to it and said, "Here we are!"
William stepped inside and looked around. "So what exactly are my duties?"
Hodson put his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "It's pretty simple. You just watch the security monitors and occasionally patrol around the restaurant."
"Ah, excellent," William replied with a satisfied smile.
"Okay, so, um, here are the keys," Hodson said as he pulled out a keychain with several keys on it out of his pocket and handed it to William.
"Thank you," William replied as he took the keys.
"Alright, William. Have a—"
"It's Mister Afton, actually," William corrected him.
Hodson knitted his brow. "Um, that doesn't really seem appropriate given that I'm the manager while you're just a security guard."
William regarded him with an amused expression on his face. "Listen, boy, and let me tell you how things actually work. You see, I've been close friends with your boss since college. Hell, I was his daughter's godfather. But you? He barely knows you at all. So you should understand that I can have you fired just like that," he explained, snapping his fingers to emphasize his point.
Hodson was completely taken aback by this and tried to stutter out a response.
William smirked and added, "But don't you worry. As long as you do your job and stay out of my way, and mind your manners, I'll make sure to put in a good word for you. And who knows? Maybe, just maybe he'll actually leave you in charge."
Hodson blinked. "R-right…"
"Now, perhaps you should be on your way?" William suggested.
"R-right…" Hodson swallowed and then uneasily backed away from William. "Um, you have a good night, Mister Afton."
With a smug smile, William replied, "You too, Lloyd."
Once Hodson had taken his leave, William smiled to himself as he considered his situation. It was a lot better than he could've hoped for—with Henry being so withdrawn and his management being so weak, William was essentially a fox that had been given free reign of the henhouse. It was perfect.
Placing his suitcase down next to the desk, he stepped over to a closet in the back of the office where he found a security guard uniform that fit his tall, lanky body. He changed into it, grabbed a flashlight, and began his first patrol.
Well, it was less about patrolling the restaurant and more about exploring and looking for ways to sabotage it.
While the hallway east of the security office only connected to the main area of the restaurant, the western hallway also connected to an employee lounge, a supply closet, as well as Henry's office, which happened to be locked.
Exiting the hallway, William went to the main area—the centerpiece of Freddy's. It had arcade machines, booths to buy plushies and shirts, as well several tables where guests could dine while watching the performances of the three main animatronics—Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie Bunny, and Chica Chicken, all three of which were currently on the main stage, deactivated.
As he regarded the animatronics, William began to reminisce. While Bonnie—well, Spring Bonnie, to be more precise—had been William's creation, both he and Henry had come up with most of their characters together, and they were quite fond of them. Back when William decided to make his own restaurant, he and Henry signed an agreement that allowed them to borrow character ideas and names from each other. And naturally, they both took those characters in different directions. While Henry wanted something more simple and 'memorable', William went for fun and extravagance.
He pressed on and continued exploring. As it turned out, there was another hallway west of the employee lounge, which led to a big play area complete with a large ball pit.
West of the main hall was a smaller dining area named 'Pirate Cove', which was dedicated to Foxy the pirate fox, who had his own stage on the far side of the room. Although the character and the Cove itself had initially been geared towards an older audience, Foxy proved to be very popular among all ages.
Next, William went to Parts and Service, which was just north of Pirate Cove. As he entered the room, he spotted several endoskeleton parts and frowned. They were yet another reminder of what Henry had stolen from him.
As he turned to look away, William's eyes fell on two very familiar suits—the Fredbear and Spring Bonnie springlock suits. He was surprised that they had them here given that they weren't even part of the roster of characters in this restaurant. However, William could tell that they weren't the same suits that he and Henry used to wear at Fredbear's. For one, they looked newer and less worn, and secondly, William knew that the old suits were still used at Fredbear's Diner.
William then smiled as he had a realization—the only reason why Henry would've made copies of those suits for this restaurant was because Fredbear and Spring Bonnie were too popular to drop altogether. It warmed his heart knowing that his beloved original creation continued to endure beyond the confines of Fredbear's.
Something then occurred to William. Sabotaging the restaurant wouldn't be enough, as the popularity of its animatronic characters would similarly endure and would most likely continue to sustain Fazbear Entertainment as a whole. Even if Freddy's was completely shut down, the company could just shift its focus to its toys and cartoon show. In the grand scheme of things, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza would mean little to Fazbear Entertainment. The animatronic characters on the other hand… they were the heart and soul of the company. And so if he was somehow able to ruin those characters—defile them—it would poison Fazbear Entertainment and forever tarnish its reputation.
William tapped his chin as he considered how he could go about ruining the animatronics. Given that he invented their endoskeletons, he could easily tamper with their hardware or software. Of course, the fact that he was one of only a handful of people with the know-how to do that meant that it would be all too easy to figure out that he was the one behind it. No, if he wanted to get away with this, William knew that he had to do something to the animatronics that practically anyone could do, but at the same time it had to be something so severe that it would permanently defile the characters themselves.
Letting out a weary sigh, William decided to ruminate on this as he continued on with his night.
He left Parts and Service and walked across the main area, passing the stage as he headed towards the giant gift box that sat close to the entrance of the restaurant. As he got closer, he noticed that it had several marionette strings coming out of it, which were attached to a rotating rig on a rail on the ceiling. Once he was in front of the box, William opened the lid and peered into it. Inside, attached to the marionette strings, was the unmoving form of the Security Puppet—an animatronic that was designed to monitor guests at the entrance and prevent any children who wore special wristbands from leaving the restaurant. These wristbands would be given to children at the reception desk upon arrival and returned when they wanted to leave. This system effectively made it so that younger kids couldn't enter or leave the restaurant without a guardian of some sort.
Of course, that was how it was supposed to work.
According to Henry, a bunch of kids had placed several heavy birthday presents on top of the lid of the Puppet's box on the night of Charlotte's death, which allowed a couple of older kids to force Charlotte out of the restaurant and lock her out without the Puppet being able to intervene.
Interestingly, after William had left the scene of the crime, the Puppet managed to get out of its box and disconnected from its strings so that it could crawl outside to look for Charlotte, where it got damaged by the heavy rain. However, even in its damaged state it had continued to look for the girl until it found her in the alley. There, the Puppet had finally collapsed, with its last act being to wrap its arms around her before it finally short-circuited.
With the damage the Puppet had suffered that night, it would've been cheaper to just replace it altogether, but Henry couldn't bring himself to do it, and instead opted to repair it. He even painted tears flowing down its cheeks to remind himself as well as his employees of what can happen when it's not allowed to do its job.
William frowned as he regarded the Puppet, and after a while he closed the lid and returned to the security office.
Once there, he took his suitcase, placed it on top of the desk, and opened it. Inside were a bunch of paperwork and a couple of catalogs, as well as pens, notepads, a calculator, and an almanac—everything William needed to continue working on his own restaurant.
His first order of business was to pick out wallpaper and decor, and so William sat down at the desk and began to browse the various catalogs, jotting down anything he found interesting as well as its price, while occasionally glancing at the security monitors.
William was pleased to get a decent amount of work done while barely having to do anything at all as a night guard. However, slightly past 1:00 AM, he glanced at the security monitor for the entrance of the building and froze.
The lid of the Puppet's box was open.
Furrowing his brow, William stood up and leaned closer to the monitor as he tried to see if the Puppet itself was still the box or not. From the looks of it, the box was indeed empty.
Cursing under his breath and more than a little confused, William grabbed his flashlight and left the security office to go look for the missing animatronic. As he began his search, he couldn't help but wonder why the Puppet had left its box, but he figured that some employee had probably forgotten to shut the animatronic down for the night.
William pointed his flashlight at the railing on the ceiling. From the looks of it, the Puppet could use it to go anywhere in the restaurant.
Thankfully, it didn't take him long to find the animatronic. It was in the northwest section of the main area, held aloft by its strings to make it seem like it was floating in the air, though it was too dark to actually see the strings. Much to William's surprise, the Puppet was looking around almost as if it was confused about its whereabouts.
But things then took a very strange turn.
The Puppet looked in William's direction and immediately jerked away as if it was scared of him. It then flew across the room at great speed, heading towards the bathrooms. William pursued it, but he was thoroughly confused as to why it was acting like this.
Following it through the bathroom hallway and into one of the bathrooms, William was finally able to corner it. With no way to escape, the Puppet curled up into a floating ball and trembled. It seemed… terrified.
William kept wondering why it was acting this way. Henry may have been a better programmer than him, but it was inconceivable that he had somehow given this animatronic an AI advanced enough to experience emotions. So then what was going on?
Something else that seemed strange to William was the fact that the railing on the ceiling extended into the bathrooms. Why would the Puppet ever need to go to the bathrooms? It seemed very odd.
William then glanced up at the ceiling, and what he saw made him go as pale as a bedsheet.
There was no railing there!
He looked back at the Puppet and realized that it was actually floating in the air with no strings to hold it up.
Slack-jawed, William slowly backed away from the animatronic as his thoughts raced. How was this even remotely possible? How was the Puppet able to defy physics? And why was it acting like it was afraid of him?
A thought then struck William and he hurriedly made his way out of the bathroom and looked at the sign on its door. It was the women's bathroom. The Puppet had sought shelter in the women's bathroom.
Putting the pieces together, William had a revelation that was frankly insane.
It was Charlotte.
Somehow… she was haunting or possessing the animatronic.
William then recalled what Henry had told him. The Puppet had been holding her body when he found her. So… maybe Charlotte's ghost, soul, or some kind of spiritual remnant of her had somehow fused with the animatronic. But how was that even possible?
As he ran back to the security office, William's mind was going a million miles an hour as he tried to rationalize and understand what he had just witnessed.
Was it really Charlotte? And if so, just how had her spirit come to inhabit the Puppet?
What was the physical process behind it?
And… was this process replicable?
