Account 1-16 Case # 6392

Subject: Veronica Ruby Haig

Location: Hurricane, Utah, USA

1201 hours, July 3rd, 1985

Veronica sat on the couch, watching a movie her host mom had left for her. Clay was approached by the FBI this morning with a warrant to search the restaurant, but he needed to go on a business trip. It was decided that she would stay home while her host mom, a practicing attorney, would hand off the keys and allow them to conduct their search. Until around 6 that evening, she had the house entirely to herself. Unfortunately, after her encounter with the Puppet and the documents she read, she couldn't enjoy it.

Apparently, the restaurant was haunted or something and Mike was in danger of being killed by someone named Cassidy. Who the hell was Cassidy? The Puppet said it would give her information in exchange for her not telling Clay about that purple ghost goo and leaving Mike alone, but the only thing she had learned from that document about how to imprison human souls in machines. Although the name of the document's author intrigued her, William Afton.

She heard that name on the news after Mike cut contact with her. Apparently, he was a former theoretical physicist and chemist who became the manager of Freddy's and participated in a child kidnapping ring. That explained the advanced concepts in the paper she read, but what intrigued her more was his last name, Afton. Was he related to Mike? The only other family member he talked about when they lived in Hull was his father, and the only thing she knew about him was that he sent Mike over to live with his uncle shortly after he was born. She thought back to when she saw Mike a few days earlier, telling her 'I'm not the same man you saw leave England,' how quickly he cut contact with her after his episode and why he would need a psychological evaluation. Had William abused him?

A surge of anger and sorrow rushed through her. Her friend had been abused, and she had gotten angry with him just for wanting some time for himself! What the fuck kind of friend was she?! She paused the movie, stood up and walked into the front hallway, heart pounding and hands gripping her head. Unable to contain herself any longer, she bent over and began to scream.

"Fuuucccking God damnit! You fucking selfish bitch! How did you not think of this earlier instead of being focused on your own bullshit! Idiot! Idiot!"

She leaned against the wall, holding back tears. She couldn't believe it. The lively guy she had been friends with for years had been broken and reduced to a paranoid outcast. William broke the person she came over to check up on, and if she had any say in the matter, he would pay.

"I know you can't hear me but listen up you Oxford graduate prick! I don't know where you are, but when I find you, I'll knock your teeth out and turn them into a necklace! The fact that my father is better than you really says something! Mikey deserved better than you!"

Her ranting was interrupted by a sharp knock at the door.

"Guh, damn Mormons." She muttered, walking to the door and opening it.

"For the last time! I don't want to join your gold plate hat-trick cult!"

No one was at the door.

"Oh haha, the classic ding-dong ditch. I know how this works you guys aren't…"

She accidentally kicked something forward. She looked down and saw an envelope that had been left on the doorstep. The envelope had the message 'To: Veronica, From: Mike' written on the front in black Sharpie. Her anger dissipated, replaced with confusion. It was nice that Mike had decided to send her a letter, but why did he leave it at her doorstep rather than just leaving it in the mailbox? She walked back inside and opened the envelope, discovering it contained both a note and a pair of keys.

She read the letter.

Dear Ms. Haig,

I regret to inform you that I am not Michael Afton. I apologize for the misdirection, but I had to make sure you were the one to open this letter rather than Mr. or Mrs. Burke. Clay is too tied up in bureaucracy to let you or Mike know what is going on, fortunately I have experience in evading bureaucratic scrutiny, so I will briefly summarize the situation you two currently find yourselves in. In short, a group of dangerous terrorists have been conducting an unethical experiment on US soil, an experiment they wanted your friend Michael for. He was able to escape, and the government was able to acquire some products of their experiment until said terrorists blew a hole in the facility they were keeping them. Now the government is in a blind panic trying to find the terrorists and the results of the experiment who are all still lose and presumably hunting Michael. The reason I'm telling you this is because you are most likely going to end up in the crossfire. You have one of two options now. Keep your distance and save yourself or talk to Michael and try to find some way to stay alive until law enforcement can get their act together. Either way, you should learn more about what you are dealing with. I have fashioned some keys for the door and drawers in Clay's personal office upstairs. He has several papers in his desk that should contain all the information you need. The drawer you want is the one containing the wanted posters. When you are looking through his desk use plastic gloves and make sure you leave the room EXACTLY as you left it. When you are satisfied with the information you have gathered, burn this letter, and bury the keys. I wish you the best of luck.

Sincerely,

A Concerned Associate

Veronica stared forward, her mind trying to process what the fuck she just read. She could hardly believe it! After days of being in the dark she had some lead as to what was going on! She went into the garage and found an open box of surgical gloves to obscure her fingerprints and went upstairs to Clay's office. She pulled the keys out of the envelope and began testing them on the lock, one by one until one of them finally clicked, and she opened the door.

"Holy sweet Uncle Sam!"

The room looked like a crude replication of a Vietnam command post. The walls were decorated with a US Army flag and an Army Corps of Engineers flag. On the back wall were portraits of every US President from JFK to Reagan. Below them were plaques stating their names and terms and above them all was a larger plaque that read 'HAIL TO YOUR CHIEFS! SERVE THEM WELL!' The windows were covered in camo netting and a large, rough wooden desk sat in the middle of the room. It was littered with pens, papers, ashtrays, and other items including some incense sticks, a booked named 'Autobiography of a Yogi', an army helmet with the peace symbol on it, and a brass buddha statue with a rosery over its neck. Also on the desk were several framed photos, some of them were just photos of Clay and his family while some of them seemed to be pictures of Clay during his military service, as well as a framed patch depicting a skull wearing a beret with a ribbon underneath reading 'MACV:SOG'.

"Jesus, I knew the man fought in Vietnam, but he does realize the war ended like a decade ago, right?"

As much as she was admiring the décor, this wasn't the reason why she was here. She walked behind the desk and began unlocking the drawers on the back of the desk, and just as she expected the drawers were filled with papers. She eventually located the drawer mentioned in the note and pulled all the papers out of it. She laid them out on the table and began to read them, keeping alert in case Mr. or Mrs. Burke came back early.