A/N: This is one of the few chapters that I had planned for this fic from the very beginning. That's probably why I'm uploading it so soon. I should be studying for Friday's Neuro Exam instead, but eh, details. And procrastination. Lots of procrastination.

I hope it clears up a lot of things and questions that you might have. And I also hope that it takes you by surprise…maybe in more ways than one.

This time, I'll be implementing some creative license on how Hell operates, with some very minor references to Dante's Inferno. So technically Christian themes, but mixed with some of my imagination.

I don't normally ask for reviews directly nowadays, but for this specific chapter I'd like to hear your thoughts. Will this chapter explain Nightmare's motivations in a satisfactory way? Is it a satisfying conclusion to his arc? This is the first time I've ever written a twist/revelation this big, and I would absolutely love to hear your opinions.

A quick answer to a Guest review – if I bring in other Nightmare animatronics, they will have only minor roles at most.

Chapter 24 – Revelations and Revenge

He began to laugh.

"HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH…." The demon's laughter came slowly at first, then escalated into a deafening gale. "HEH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! A HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

Nightmare snapped his fingers and the shadows entrapping Mike vanished, dropping him unceremoniously onto the floor. At the same time, all of the shadows ensnaring the ghostly children vanished as well and they stumbled forward, trying to catch their balance. The shadows surrounding them all lifted, revealing the living room with the hellfire barriers still burning. The terror in the children and the defiance in Mike quickly evaporated into total confusion.

What the hell was going on?

"I HAVE SPENT THOUSANDS OF YEARS TORMENTING THE DAMNED OF THE PIT," Nightmare finally spoke after his laughter had subsided. "THOUSANDS OF YEARS SURROUNDED BY MEWLING, PATHETIC WORMS WHO WERE ALL COWARDS AND FOOLS IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. TO FINALLY COME ACROSS A MORTAL WHO ISN'T A SPINELESS MAGGOT, EVEN IN THE FACE OF HELL ITSELF…YOU HAVE NO IDEA JUST HOW TRULY REFRESHING THIS IS."

The demon grinned, and to everyone's surprise, the malice and cruelty seemed to have faded somewhat from the creature's expression, even though it didn't disappear entirely. "THEY TOLD ME THAT YOU WERE A DIFFERENT KIND OF MORTAL ALTOGETHER, MIKE SCHMIDT," he continued. "A CREDIT TO A WORTHLESS RACE. I DISMISSED IT AS MEANINGLESS RAMBLINGS AT THE TIME, BUT NOW I SEE THAT I HAVE THOROUGHLY UNDERESTIMATED YOU. AND I BELIEVE SOME CONGRATULATIONS ARE IN ORDER, AS YOU HAVE PUT UP A BETTER FIGHT AGAINST ME THAN MOST DEMONS COULD HOPE TO CLAIM. I WAS EXPECTING TO BE DEFIED. I WAS NOT EXPECTING TO BE OUTSMARTED."

"Wait, wait, wait, time the fuck out!" Mike suddenly interrupted. "I stood my ground. I defended these kids against everything you had to throw at them. You completely failed to break us apart, and now you're laughing and congratulating me?"

Nightmare only laughed harder at Mike's confusion. "WHAT'S THE MATTER?" he asked mockingly. "DOES MY BEHAVIOR NOT MATCH YOUR EXPECTATIONS?"

"No, it doesn't!" Mike yelled impatiently. "What the FUCK is going on? Why are you so happy when you clearly lost?!"

"LOST, YOU SAY?" Nightmare sneered. "THE FACT THAT YOU ARE SO CONVINCED I HAVE LOST IS WHAT I FIND SO AMUSING. FOR ALL OF YOUR INTELLECT AND ANALYTICAL SKILL, THERE IS SO MUCH THAT YOU AND YOUR LITTLE BRATS DO NOT UNDERSTAND!"

"Well then, I think we deserve a fucking explanation!" Mike shouted.

Nightmare's grin vanished and he pulled Mike forward to him with the shadows until they were staring at each other eye-to-eye. "UNDERSTAND THIS, MORTAL," he snarled. "UP UNTIL THIS POINT, I HAVE TOLERATED YOUR INSULTS AND YOUR DISRESPECT BECAUSE I WAS AMUSED BY YOUR DEFIANCE AND IMPRESSED BY YOUR LACK OF FEAR. BUT FROM THIS POINT FORWARD, I WOULD SUGGEST THAT YOU SPEAK TO ME WITH SOME PROPER RESPECT. PERHAPS YOU RECALL THE LITTLE GIFT I LEFT YOUR YOUNGEST DAUGHTER?" Cassidy shuddered and tried to shrink herself as Nightmare's gaze flickered to her briefly. "THAT IS ONLY A FRACTION OF WHAT I AM CAPABLE OF. REMOVE YOUR INSOLENCE, OR I ASSURE YOU, I CAN DO PLENTY TO MAKE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY'S LIVES MISERABLE WITHOUT EVER HAVING TO TOUCH ANY OF YOU."

Mike gritted his teeth but forced himself to remain silent. A cheap shot at Nightmare's pride was not worth causing any of his family any suffering, no matter how tempting it might be. "All right then," Mike forced himself to remain calm. "Would you please tell us what the hell is going on?" His voice was dripping with a complete lack of sincerity that he didn't bother to hide, though fortunately Nightmare either didn't notice or didn't care.

"THAT'S BETTER," Nightmare smirked. "YOU SAY THAT I HAVE LOST, MORTAL. QUITE AN EASY ASSUMPTION FOR THE UNENLIGHTENED TO MAKE. AND YET, YOU ARE COMPLETELY WRONG. I DID NOT LOSE. YOU WON."

The ghosts and Mike looked at each other, utterly baffled. "There's a difference?" Fritz asked blankly.

"INDEED," Nightmare continued. "YOU AND YOUR LITTLE FAMILY OF GHOSTS STAYED LOYAL AND TRUE TO EACH OTHER, IN SPITE OF ALL THE DARK TRUTHS I HURLED AT YOU. YOU SECURED ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT VICTORIES YOU WLL EVER ACHIEVE, AND BECAUSE YOU HAVE ACHIEVED THAT VICTORY…I HAVE ACHIEVED VICTORY AS WELL."

"That…still doesn't make any sense…" Gabe muttered.

The demon sneered. "OF COURSE IT DOESN'T. YOU ALL MADE THE ASSUMPTION THAT IT WAS ME AGAINST ALL OF YOU. AND IN A SENSE, THAT IS TRUE. BUT WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WAS EVER PLAYING THE SAME GAME?"

The ghosts still looked completely confused, but realization flickered in Mike's and Mary's eyes. "You had something else in mind from the very beginning," Mary declared. "Something that we couldn't possibly have known about."

Nightmare grinned. "YOU ARE STARTING TO REALIZE IT NOW, PUPPET GIRL. BUT YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND MY MOTIVATIONS WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF HELL. SO ALLOW ME TO ENLIGHTEN YOU, AND YOU WILL FINALLY UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING."

The ghosts and Mike looked at each other, not sure if this was a trap of some kind. "COME, COME," Nightmare coaxed with a poisoned affability. "THIS KNOWLEDGE WILL NOT HARM YOU, NOT IN AND OF ITSELF. I HAVE INDULGED IN DECEPTION WITHOUT DISHONESTY, AS YOU SO ELOQUENTLY DESCRIBED IT, MIKE SCHMIDT, BUT HAVE I OUTRIGHT LIED TO YOU OR YOUR GHOSTS ONCE THIS ENTIRE NIGHT? AND ALL THAT ASIDE, TO REVEAL THE FULL AND UNBLEMISHED TRUTH TO YOU ALL WOULD BE MY PERSONAL PLEASURE."

Mike carefully considered Nightmare's words. While he highly doubted that Nightmare was sharing this out of any goodness of heart, he couldn't find any trace of a lie in the demon's words. For whatever reason, Nightmare seemed genuinely interested in telling them the full truth. "All right," Mike answered. "Let's hear what you have to say."

"EXCELLENT," Nightmare hissed. "HELL IS THE AFTERLIFE OF ETERNAL TORMENT AND DESPAIR. THOSE DAMNED INTO THE ABYSS WILL SUFFER FOR ALL ETERNITY FOR THEIR CRIMES AND THEIR WICKEDNESS AT THE HANDS OF DEMONS SUCH AS MYSELF. THIS, YOU ALREADY KNOW. HOWEVER, CARRYING OUT THE SAME TORMENTS, HEARING THE SAME SCREAMS OF DESPAIR OVER AND OVER AGAIN, IT CAN BE SO INCREDIBLY TEDIOUS!" the demon snarled out the last word in frustration.

Despite everything that had happened tonight, Mike had to resist the urge to let out a small chuckle. The idea that even incredibly powerful and evil demon lords could still succumb to the universal enemy of boredom was just too absurd for him to ignore entirely.

"IN ORDER TO KEEP THE ATMOSPHERE A LITTLE MORE..." Nightmare searched for the right word, "INTERESTING, SHALL WE SAY…WE ALLOW EACH AND EVERY DAMNED SOUL TO MAKE ONE WAGER WITH THEIR DEMONIC TORMENTORS. A SINGLE WAGER THAT THEY ARE ALLOWED TO MAKE ONCE AT ANY POINT THROUGHOUT THEIR ETERNAL REST IN HELL, AND ONLY ONCE."

"And I'm guessing you screw over the poor schmucks who make these wagers, toss them straight back into the tortures even if they win them?" Mike asked in a deadpan tone.

"ONE WOULD THINK THAT WE WOULD RENEGE ON OUR BARGAINS, BUT NO," Nightmare answered, taking all of them by surprise. "WE HONOR THOSE DEALS TO THE LETTER. OTHERWISE, NO DAMNED SOUL WOULD EVER MAKE SUCH A WAGER, KNOWING THAT IT WOULD ONLY BE A LIE. A TRUE MASTER OF DECEPTION UNDERSTANDS THAT LIES ARE MEANINGLESS WITHOUT TRUTH, AFTER ALL. OF COURSE, SUCH VICTORIES ARE MEANINGLESS IN THE TIMELESS SPAN OF ETERNITY, BUT THAT DOESN'T PARTICULARLY MATTER TO THOSE WE TORMENT."

Mike raised an eyebrow. "Okaaaaaaay…I'm following you so far. Are these all specific to each and every damned soul, or is it just some general format that everyone follows?"

"THE FORMER AND THE LATTER BOTH," Nightmare replied. "THE SPECIFIC WAGER IS UP TO THE DAMNED SOUL TO MAKE, BUT THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS ARE ONE AND THE SAME. THOSE WHO MAKE THEIR WAGERS AND WIN ARE ALLOWED ONE THOUSAND YEARS FREE OF TORTURE. IT IS SUCH AN EXCELLENT TOOL FOR SPREADING FALSE HOPE, AS SO MANY OTHERS ATTEMPT TO MAKE WAGERS OF THEIR OWN…AND PAY THE PRICE FOR THEIR FAILURE."

"What…What happens to those who fail?" Mary was almost afraid to know the answer. What could already be worse than eternal damnation?

"THERE ARE CERTAIN PROTECTIONS THAT HEAVEN GRANTS THE DAMNED, TO PREVENT US FROM TORTURING THEM BEYOND THE PUNISHMENT THEY ARE ALLOTTED," Nightmare explained. "A GLUTTON'S PUNISHMENT IS LESS SEVERE THAN A MURDERER'S, A TRAITOR SUFFERS A MORE SEVERE PUNISHMENT THAN ONE CONSUMED BY RAGE, AND SO FORTH. THOSE WHO FAIL THEIR WAGERS FORFEIT THEIR PROTECTIONS FOR A THOUSAND YEARS INSTEAD. CAN YOU IMAGINE IT? A THOUSAND YEARS IN WHICH THE DEMONS OF HELL CAN INFLICT TORMENT UPON YOU HOWEVER THEY PLEASE, WITH NOT EVEN THE MOST BASIC OF PROTECTIONS LEFT TO DEFEND YOU? HEAVEN CAN DO NOTHING TO INTERFERE, AS THE DAMNED MADE THESE BARGAINS OUT OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL, AND FREE WILL CANNOT BE INTERFERED WITH IN ANY WAY."

"Why are you even telling us this?" Jeremy asked. But Mike's, Mary's, even Gabe's eyes…they all began to narrow. The pieces were beginning to fall into place, edging them ever closer to the revelation.

Nightmare noticed the change in their expressions. "YOU ARE BEGINNING TO REALIZE IT, AREN'T YOU?" he asked with a menacing chuckle. "I WOULD NOT HAVE COME TO THIS HOUSE, TO THIS LITTLE FAMILY OF GHOSTS, UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES. I DO NOT DEAL WITH SOULS THAT ARE NOT MARKED OR AT LEAST NOT ON THE PATH TO DAMNATION, FOR TO DO SO WOULD BE A COMPLETE WASTE OF MY TIME AND EFFORT. BUT I WAS APPROACHED BY ONE OF THE DAMNED, ONE WHO HAD COME INTO MY CLUTCHES QUITE RECENTLY, AS A MATTER OF FACT. HE APPROACHED ME SOON AFTER HIS TORMENTS BEGAN, AND WANTED TO MAKE HIS WAGER. AN OFFER THAT, AS YOU WILL SOON SEE, WAS ONE THAT I WOULD HAVE BEEN A FOOL TO REFUSE."

Now the other ghosts were starting to come to the realization, and the tension in the room escalated even higher. Mike's expression was completely stone-faced as he asked his next question. "And what were the terms of the wager?"

"IT'S QUITE SIMPLE," the demon explained. "HE BELIEVED THAT IF YOU AND YOUR GHOST CHILDREN LEARNED THE TRUTHS AND SECRETS THAT HAD BEEN KEPT HIDDEN, INTENTIONALLY OR OTHERWISE, YOU WOULD TURN ON EACH OTHER AND TEAR YOUR LITTLE FAMILY APART FROM WITHIN. I, ON THE OTHER HAND, BELIEVED THAT SUCH A TACTIC WOULD FAIL TO ACCOMPLISH WHAT HE DESIRED, AND THUS OUR BARGAIN WAS STRUCK."

The suspicion was growing ever stronger in the family's minds, but they had to hear it outright. They had to hear the truth. "Who…who was the one who made that wager?" Mary asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Nightmare did the equivalent of raising an eyebrow. "WHO DO YOU THINK, LITTLE PUPPET GIRL? IT WAS NONE OTHER THAN THE ONE WHO HAD INITIATED YOUR TRAGEDY FROM THE VERY BEGINNING!"

And there it was. They had suspected it to be true with every detail, but hearing it out loud was still enough to overwhelm the ghost children regardless. "Of course…" Gabe growled. "Of course HE'D be the one behind this. OF FUCKING COURSE!"

"Why can't he just leave us alone…" Susie murmured, then she shouted the same question with tears in her eyes. "WHY CAN'T HE JUST LEAVE US ALONE?"

"Even in Hell, he still tries to find a way to ruin our afterlives!" Jeremy spat. "A monster in life, in death, and in damnation!"

"There's no way Liz is related to him," Fritz snarled, trying not to notice the way Liz flinched, "there is no way our sister is related to that hateful piece of shit! How could that bastard do this to HIS OWN DAUGHTER?"

"YES…." Nightmare hissed, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "WILLIAM AFTON, SPRINGTRAP, YOUR MURDERER, CALL HIM WHAT YOU WILL. HE HAD HEARD OF THE FAMILY YOU HAD CREATED, AND JUST COULDN'T RESIST JUST ONE MORE ATTEMPT TO INTRODUCE YET MORE SUFFERING AND TRAGEDY INTO YOUR EXISTENCES."

"I truly am the daughter of a monster," Liz thought as she tried to bury herself even deeper into her knees and covered her head with her hand and claw.

"Wait a minute…" Mary interrupted. "If you were his opponent in this wager, then why did you come here to…" her eyes flashed white in shock. "…my God. It all makes sense now."

"What are you talking about, Mary?" Gabe asked.

"I had noticed a fundamental flaw in Nightmare's plan of attack during Mike's counterattack," Mary explained. "His strategy of attacking us by revealing secrets and truths. It could have broken us apart, it is true, but it had a very significant weakness. If Nightmare's revelations failed to separate us, they would only strengthen our bonds and our family instead as we moved to defend each other, which is what actually happened. But now I see that this was never a flaw at all! Nightmare chose to do this entirely on purpose!"

Nightmare grinned. "QUITE THE INSIGHTFUL ONE, AREN'T YOU, LITTLE PUPPET GIRL? YOU ARE CORRECT. WE MAY HAVE BEEN ON THE SAME PLAYING FIELD, BUT FROM THE VERY BEGINNING I WAS PLAYING AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT GAME, ONE WHICH WAS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO LOSE. IF I SUCCEEDED IN TEARING YOU APART, THEN I WOULD ADVANCE THE CAUSE OF EVIL ON EARTH. BUT IF I FAILED…MY "FAILURE" WOULD MEAN THAT I WIN THE WAGER AGAINST WILLIAM AFTON, AND CAN TORTURE HIM TO MY CORRUPT, BLACK HEART'S CONTENT FOR A THOUSAND YEARS. MY VICTORY WAS SECURED FROM THE MOMENT OUR DEAL WAS STRUCK, AND THE ONLY VARIABLE LEFT WOULD BE WHETHER YOUR FAMILY WOULD BREAK OR ENDURE. AND NOW THAT EVENTS HAVE PLAYED OUT AS THEY HAVE…I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THE LOOK ON WILLIAM AFTON'S FACE ONCE HE LEARNS OF THE EVENTS THAT HAVE TRANSPIRED HERE TODAY. HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

As Nightmare let out another hurricane of demonic laughter, the ghosts suddenly noticed that throughout this entire revelation, Mike had been completely silent and unmoving as he took it all in. As the ghosts watched, Mike suddenly got up from his chair and walked a few steps to a corner of the room, where a small wooden side table was perched. He stood there, looking down at the small table, for several seconds, completely still.

"Mike?"

"Dad?"

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

With a roar of rage, Mike raised his fist and swung it down on the table. The ghosts all recoiled in shock as his fist slammed into the table, and their shock and fear only increased when the force of Mike's blow ended up smashing it to pieces. By now, Nightmare had stopped laughing, and had his attention turned to Mike along with the rest of the ghosts. Mike whirled around to face all of them, and as he did so, the ghosts realized they had made a critical misconception about their father.

From the moment they had met him up until this moment, most of the ghosts had believed Mike to be a person fundamentally incapable of genuine hatred. And it was easy to see why. The man had offered 5000 dollars to a man who had tried to break into his house, welcomed several ghost children into his home who had tried to murder him for 20 days straight, and even forgiven a father who had brutally abused him for 6 years and turned his childhood into a personal hell. Only the Marionette had seen a glimpse of his inner darkness at times, and even then it had been the barest traces that Mike had kept chained deep within him.

But now they understood. Now, they realized that Mike's capacity for patience and forgiveness was simply higher than the average person's. Formidable…but not infinite.

And that benevolence had finally reached its end.

There was no kind light in Mike's eyes. The compassion, the good humor, the loving father…the characteristics that the ghosts had come to equate with Mike were nowhere to be seen. If the Purple's Guy's face as he had killed them all had been one of malicious cruelty and sadism, then Mike's face now…was the face of pure hatred. Hatred, a rage as black as death, and the promise of unholy vengeance. Mary seriously started to wonder if Mike did have some supernatural essence after all. The levels of hatred and rage coming from the man right now couldn't possibly be human.

"I've had enough of this!" Mike snarled, and the ghosts flinched at how utterly demonic his voice sounded. Even Nightmare couldn't hide his surprise at the sudden transformation that Mike had undergone in the span of a few seconds. He had dealt with the fiery, more primal parts of his rage through the destruction of his table, exactly as he had planned, and now the cold, controlled part of his wrath were left. Somehow, a Mike in complete control of his fury managed to terrify the ghosts even more than a Mike who had lost control of his fury. "I've had enough of that worthless bastard creating more tragedy and despair with everything he touches! I've had enough of that mongrel trying to ruin these kids, including his own daughter, in life and in death! And I'm going to make him pay for this," he growled. "William Afton wanted to see the monster inside me. I think it's time I give him what he asked for."

Mike turned straight to Nightmare. "Remind me again," he requested in a voice that made it perfectly clear to everyone that he already knew the answer, "what was the penalty for losing the wager to you?"

Nightmare looked at him approvingly. He had already held a higher opinion of Mike Schmidt than he did for most mortals, and seeing the man's darkness in full view was raising that respect even more. "HE CAN NO LONGER ENJOY THE MINIMAL PROTECTIONS THAT HEAVEN GRANTS TO THE DAMNED," he repeated. "HE WILL SUFFER THE FULL EXTENT OF MY CRUELTY FOR THE NEXT THOUSAND YEARS. SOMETHING THAT I LOOK FORWARD TO A GREAT DEAL INDEED."

"As I thought," Mike replied, with all the calm of a grave right before the beginning of a zombie apocalypse. "And I was wondering…since you're going to be torturing Afton however the fuck you want for the next thousand years, would you mind if I throw in some…personal suggestions...to your to-do list?"

Every ghost gasped in horror, but Mike and Nightmare completely ignored them. "I HAVE NEVER ONCE DEIGNED TO HEED THE WORDS OF A MERE MORTAL," Nightmare sneered. Then, a grin began to spread across his face, revealing his razor-sharp fangs. "BUT FOR YOU, MIKE SCHMIDT, FOR YOU, I BELIEVE I WILL MAKE AN EXCEPTION. YOU HAVE PROVED TO ME THAT YOU DESERVE IT."

"Good…" Mike hissed menacingly. It had to be a trick of the light, a glare from the fiery barriers blocking their escape, but to the ghosts, it seemed that Mike's eyes were glowing with the full force of his hatred. "Henry Emily was the one who finally put William Afton down into the grave. Now, I'm going to be one to finish what he started. And this time," he spat with as much venom as possible, "this time, I'm going to make sure that what's left of that worthless fucker's soul stays down. Now…and forever."

Nightmare grinned at his words, and for the first time, the grin wasn't the familiar one of malice and contempt, but of genuine respect and understanding. Somehow, that one expression terrified the ghosts more than the predatory baring of fangs that he had displayed throughout the entirety of their encounter. Mike's own lips stretched into a smile, a twisted mockery with a level of cruelty that the ghosts hadn't even thought possible. A glimpse into the monster that Mike could have become, if he had lived to succumb to his inner darkness instead of defying it with every breath. He looked straight at Nightmare and spoke three words. Three words that the ghosts had never thought they would hear him speak, and prayed that they would never hear him speak again.

"Make him suffer."

/

Whoo boy, this chapter was a doozy, wasn't it? I hope I took all of you completely by surprise, and I think I did judging by how none of the reviews figured out the truth. And boy, do I have a lot to talk about in this post-chapter A/N.

I took two major tropes, one of which is a general trope and one of which is specific to FNAF, and twisted them for all that they were worth in this fic. When was the last time you read a fic in which the Devil winning a Deal with the Devil scenario turned out to be a GOOD thing for the good side? And when was the last time you read a FNAF fic where Mike Schmidt was the source of the horror?

One reader noted a few chapters back how Nightmare was helping Mike and the ghosts bond by removing all of the secrets, whether he knew it or not. Oh, he knew all right. He knew, and now you see why he didn't care. He was pulling a Xanatos Gambit (a plan that yields a victory regardless out of the outcome) the entire time.

There have been hints at Dark!Mike that I have dropped in the past, and now Mike has fully unleashed his inner darkness to get his vengeance on William Afton. Did you think he was joking when he made his threat of revenge to Colm? He was completely serious, and that was to a man who had good intentions at his core, who he had no personal issue with, and who could only potentially cause indirect problems for his ghost children. This was a direct, deliberate, and spiteful attack by William Afton to cause his children harm. Mike already despised William Afton even before he learned that the child murderer had more or less sent Nightmare on them. His revenge is going to be brutal as it is terrifying. I honestly don't know if the ghosts are more terrified of Nightmare or if they are more terrified of Dark!Mike. It's definitely a hard comparison to make, especially when they describe his fury and tone of voice as demonic when they're literally standing right next to a demon.

One potential issue I foresee that people might have is how I might have invoked Karma Houdini or Easily Forgiven for Nightmare, considering how polite Mike was to Nightmare towards the end. And here's what I have to say:

There is literally nothing Mike or his family can do to punish Nightmare. Both the Marionette and Liz/Scrap Baby got curb-stomped by him, and if they couldn't do crap then nobody else will. But Mike CAN get revenge on William Afton for sending Nightmare to them in the first place. He can, and you can bet he will.

Mike doesn't like Nightmare, not at all. The demon spent the night mentally tormenting his kids (particularly Liz). But no matter how much he might disdain Nightmare, his negative feelings towards the demon are nothing, absolutely NOTHING compared to the hatred he has for William Afton in light of this revelation. And if getting his revenge and justice on behalf of his new family means that he has to "play nice" with Nightmare for a few minutes, then that's a price he's willing to pay.

One final thing to note. Mike is NOT selling his soul or making a deal to make his torture suggestions. Nightmare is accepting them entirely for free as a sign of respect.

The immediate threat is finally over, but Mike and the children (especially the children, and ESPECIALLY Liz) still have to recover from the events of the arc. But that's for the future, starting with the next chapter.

I hope this chapter brought a satisfying conclusion to Nightmare's arc. And I hope, as always, that you guys enjoyed!